Cricket and IT - They go hand in hand

After our Indian cricket team recent failures in overseas, too many things have been said and written and why not, it is because of people like us ("Fans") that the Indian Cricket players make their living, if we didn’t exist then they wouldn’t. So it makes a lot of sense when the angered Fans call for the heads of some players, have opinion on everything that surrounds Indian cricket.

Of the many theories floating around about our players, these - They don’t practice enough, they have fun during tours, Don’t last all the 5 days, Transition is not happening -, are what being heard loud and frequent enough.

Since I belong to the IT industry, I can co-relate all these things and I find it ridiculous on the part of the "Fans" to accuse our players this way, why? Let me explain

1. They don’t practice enough

Most of us who are in IT do our work, let take the case of a programmer, between the office hours (typically 9 -6, or whatever time suits the individual) and then during non-office hours most of us (almost 100%) either only check emails or watch TV or spend time with the family and not practice programming even when at home/outside office similarly, our cricketers play during the match and when not playing match they have their right to spend time the way want, how can we expect them to keep doing the same thing even during non-playing time

So lets stop bull shitting and don’t expect out players what we cant do

2. They have fun during tours

Lets take the case of a programmer who travels to onsite on business visa (obviously for work), but tell me how many come back without seeing the places around the city that he happens to visit, actually to be frank they plan well in advance and sound to all their friends onsite that they are coming and to make sure that they can have as much fun as they can, does it mean that they didn’t go their for work and just fun, no it is having fund while work is our mantra and so is the mantra of our cricket team, so why blame them when they are doing exactly as we are??

Lets stop being stupid and correct ourselves first

3. They don’t last all the 5 days

I equate the 5 days test match to a project, what is the dream of every manager in IT, to finish project well ahead of time so that it saves both time, money and human resources.. Well our players are also doing the same they are finishing the 5 days match in 2, 2.5 or max 3 days, instead of appreciating/rewarding them we tend to make them look like villains. Imagine what all our players can do in those extra saved days - they can attend dinners to raise fund, sign autographs, endorse more products, visit schools, do charity - all these helps in improving revenue and at the same time improve India's image

So lets give credit to our players instead of admonishing them

4. Transitioning is not happening

Tell me all you IT folks, which project you have handled/worked on has had a smooth transition or a successful transition - well 95% answer would be none. The people from whom knowledge has to be taken will always delay or give ridiculous deadline, we need to understand that by taking their work away we are in turn being responsible for loosing their job. Obviously we start complaining, not understanding how difficult and painful is it for those giving up their work and most of the time when you check the status of a project in transition it is always "In Progress". Well the same is happening with our players, lets give the seniors their due credit and give them time to decide on the transition, because only with their full co-operation would this be successful.

So please stop being naïve and don’t always complain about transition - it will happen when the time is ripe

Now the only problem is when the board of directors (selectors) would have a knee-jerk reaction and take some Hotchpotch decision which would have a permanent effect on the company (Indian cricket team). My only suggestion or request to them is not to kill the golden goose and instead do the following

• Start accepting more projects in countries like Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, West Indies, Canada, Ireland - give them the MFN (most preferred nation) tag

• Always accept projects from Australia, South Africa, England, Sri Lanka for in bound and not on-site, this way we can control the end result

• Keep allotting more shares, more salary to the VP's of the company (seniors in the team), this ways once their revenue are intact they will start involving in better decision making exercises

And for all those people from Non-IT, you have every right to point fingers at the Indian cricket team, ask for the heads of the seniors, request for wholesale change in the team, burn effigies, throw stones at the players house..

Because as they say "The play should go on, even if the actors are dead"

New rules for Indian Cricket team by ICC for 2011 WC

ICC mulling over the possibility of allowing 13 players to play for India as lot of adv revenue is at stake in case India is eliminated before SF.

Other possibilities (at this time rumor) is that

- If a opposition bowler takes 2 wickets, he would be asked to change his bowling arm

- If a batsman scores 30, he would be asked to retire and come back again after 2 dismissals, if there are less than 2 dismissals after he retires, then he looses his chance to bat again
- If an India bowler is bowling well, he can bowl extra 4 overs to compensate for lack in bowling department.

ICC is in talk with all the other teams to take it further...
Speculation is that BCCI has a major hand in twisting ICC to take this further.. BCCI nor ICC spokesperson declined to comment.

After I posted this on my FB profile, below are the comments I received...

"Dhoni already told.. they don't want all these favor from BCCI.. they are going to give their 120 % effort... extra 20% as VAT :P"

"Couple of more rules that i could think of

1. Fielding power play: A ball hit in these overs cannot exceed speed of 50kmph so that our fielders can do a heroic chase and save.
2. Switch substitution: Teams could substitute max of 5 players during a single match

3. Live auctions: Working together with ministry of external affairs, any team could buy any player on auction with immediate nationality."

"I think the rule should be: no Indian batsman can be declared out until he agrees to go and an opposition batsman should have to go if an Indian bowler feels so. An umpire should be fined his match fee and his assets frozen if he ruled an Indian out. Also, replays should be banned for the public. Only Indian players should watch it, and for their entertainment only!"

De-Traumatising the education system

We have done it again, tweaking the education system for the good.. I am not sure why there was not this much of tweaking or debate during my school days, I clearly remember that actually there was more complain that the syllabus was less tough and we are studying less.. so on and so forth....
I wish we had a Kapil Sibal during our time, who knows I could have had got into IIM without much tension and concentrating what is required at higher level rather than struggling at the 10th level.

I know there will be lot of debate whether this is actually good for our future or not, and I will be keenly reading all those, but personally for me this is a really good move to centralize the education system and ensure that a kid doesn't unnecessarily bother that there are students from other state who are having undue advantage because of the syllabus.

There are few issues like, in Karnataka most (95%) schools don't have 11th or 12th and this kind of rule is of no consequence for them, since they anyway have to take the 10th exam since the college wont accept them without exams... so in general it is benefiting only around 5% of the students.... I wish Mr Sibal fixes this also.

Thanks Mr Kapil Sibal, I hope your intentions is noble and you implement Yash Pal report in its entirety.

Some changes do matter.

Elections Over:Clear mandate by people

Finally curtains have been drawn to the biggest election of all time. We can all proudly say that this has been a fairly conducted election and kudos to the Election commission for making this happen without any glitches.

My only worry before the results were due was that what if Congress and BJP both end up having almost same numbers say 150 - 155 and then it would have been difficult for anyone to have had a successful govt for the next 5 year since each would feel they have a chance, but good thing has been that the difference in seats between 1st and the 2nd largest party is 90 seats and the pre-poll alliance of UPA has been given clear mandate by the people to form the govt, this is really a very good development, if the same had happened with NDA also I would have been happy; finally all we need to see is a stable govt to run for 5 years without anyone pulling them to the left or right of them.

This election has put forward so many tough questions to the political parties, all most all candidates with criminal background have bitten the dust (even though they were staging proxy candidates), those who wanted to do good things in the fag end of the 5 year term have been sent home to cool their heels, those who involved in mud slinging at others have also been shown the door; all the parties should have a proper agenda and fight for them rather than trying to pull some other party/person only then shall we see India on the rapid growth path.

I always believe if there needs steady and proper growth, then a strong opposition party is very much needed, I wish that people continue to give a similar mandate they have given this elections ensuring that no single party will get absolute majority and thus needing support from regional and other small parties, so there is a check within the govt and not only the opposition party; Till BJP became a super power, there was no one to question Congress, hence there wasnt much progress for nearly 40 years of our independence, only after BJP making inroads and established itself as a major party that can and eventually displace Congress, which made it to wake up from its slumber and we saw economy revolution, infrastructure growth and moving away from the slogan roti, kapda aur makan to Bijli, Paani aur Sadak, I wonder where India would have been if we hadn't had a major party like BJP which can challenge Congress and take away the vote anytime; for the better of India I wish we continue to vote so that we not only have one party as the clear leader, we also have a second party which can become the leader anytime.

Nandan Nilekani delivered this talk on TED - Ideas for India's Future, a worth watching one which clearly defines the growth path for India and also mentions why India cannot be and should not be ignored.

Let us outsource Security and Political work

A strange thought came to my mind seeing the loopholes and the way our Policy makers behave and act during the state of emergency.
What happened for nearly 3 days from 26th November 2008 (26/11) will always remain etched in all our minds for a long long time and will go down in the history as the day where the entire nation was brought down to its knee and was caught with our pants down by a handful of mercenaries from across the border and our government is still napping to point the fingers towards Pakistan, I think we lack the guts of what US has when it was attacked on 9/11, this is what US would have done if it had happened to them
1) Give an ultimatum (maybe 2 weeks or so) to Pakistan to take out the terror training camps in its soil
2) Ask them to hand over LeT commander and Dawood to India within a week
3) Go inside Pakistan (if they don't comply) and take out the terror training camps on its own
4) Put international sanctions immediately to Pakistan so that its crippled economically unless it complies in eliminating all its terror camps

Since I do not see this being done by our Indian government, it would be best for us to outsource all political and security related aspects to US like how they outsource technology work to our country, there are some things we aren't capable of handling or doing and it is time we realize it and let those are capable of doing it to run it effectively.

Yes I am taken over by emotions and may have written this out of anger, but it definitely makes a lot of sense to do this.

All INDIA Terror help line - 1090 (toll free)

I recieved the below information in my email.
"In case you come across any suspicious activity, any suspicious movement or have any information to tell to the Anti-Terror Squad, please take a note of the new ALL INDIA TOLL-FREE Terror Help-line "1090". Your city's Police or Anti-Terror squad will take action as quickly as possible.
Remember that this single number 1090 is valid all over India.
This is a toll free number and can be dialed from mobile phones also. Moreover,the identity of the caller will be kept a secret.
Store this number in your handset.
Please cascade this information to as many people as possible.
It isn't only the Government's responsibility to check terrorism."

Irony is that, I checked the GOI website (http://india.gov.in/) but could not find this information listed anywhere.

Feel like a 'EUNUCH' in a HAREM

Never have I felt so helpless in my life like I have felt watching the second test at SCG between INDIA and AUSTRALIA.
If certain wrong things that have happened which cost INDIA the match, Yes, we definitely would have won this match comprehensively, if for the those two gentlemen in white coats not used their own brain and instead asked their friend who sits in the cosy AC room and can decide in a more calm way (but many can debate this as the same cool headed 3rd gentleman had lost his cool by not ruling out the man who has the habit to get behind his captain every time someone stares at him or says an 'Hello' and complain to yet another white coated gentlemen)

I feel like a eunuch in a harem, who can only see things happening but cannot do anything, is the Indian team such a toothless tiger that we cannot even make our point, stand up and fight and ask for justice and above all we have our ex-players part of the television crew and cant they suggest what needs to be done, do we have to be the only gentlemen left in this game which has become so competitive that people wouldn't hesitate to play so called mind games by even involving the family members of the opposite team in the pre-match build up.

Its time we should stand up and speak up against the so called racism that is happening to us always by the white coat gentlemen who keep giving us bad decision maybe because they don't like our skin color, thats what I think it is, whom should we complain to - To the ICC, which is nothing but a stuffed toy and not a decision making body, even if it does, its always the sub-continent team which is found to be the guilty one, something I still haven't been able to fathom.

Should we just call the tour off and come back or stay back and fight the battle which anyway we know which way it is going, not because we are not playing good, its something which is beyond our control and it is bound to happen again and all we can do is listen to the commentators that finally 'Test cricket won, even though one team got decisions going against it' what a crap thing to say, why cant that team be Australia?, can someone answer me.

Australia are cry babies when it comes to losing, they don't loose fairly like all other teams, they bring up all issues which are irrelevant to cricket to ensure that they end up on the podium, if we take a look at the number of complaints that has gone from a single team to the match referee, it has to be Australia and most of those times have been when they are about to loose and realize that they do not have a winning edge.

I really do not know when I would stop getting this feeling of being a eunuch in a harem but instead be a hunk in a harem!!!!