mere funde

The past week has been super hectic, even by ISB standards. I attended an equivalent of at least 18 classes (2 hours each). Read so many cases and papers that my head hurt. And was showered by as much information as can be humanly digested, and then some more.

ISB and Wharton hosted, perhaps a first, joint course on Healthcare Innovation in India. Attended by 30 participants each from ISB and Wharton the course was compressed over two and a half days and talked about all aspects of the healthcare sector in India, from lifesciences to delivery, and from insurance to social investment funds. It was like a crash course, just a little faster.

Though the course was a lot of fun, it was very demanding too, and I spent the entire day today going through motions and somehow dragging myself through it. Almost know how zombies move around.

And have a dunking to attend to at midnight – so no sleep before that. With the placement season coming up, blogging will be sparse, unless of course I get one quickly

PS: Cricket is a wonderful sport. I connected so much with a South African exchange student, talking almost only about cricket. And he was as avid a follower as anyone else, and ’twas a nice long chat with him

… once again!!

A long long time ago, test cricket became boring. Not because of the run rates or the draws. But because one team beat everyone else, every God damn time. And then as it happens with everything else, the winds of change started blowing.

McGrath, Warne, Langer and Gilchrist retired. About a year ago Ponting and Hayden decided they could not bat anymore. Symonds found things more important than playing. Hussey and Clarke were ok, but they couldn’t carry nine other. Lee lost his mojo. Krezja is a pathetic excuse of a spinner (tonnes in first four innings!!), even Symonds and Clarke bowl before him. Only Mitchell Johnson looks like he can do some damage. But then one bowler doesn’t a test match win.

India started the downturn, and Australia lost at WACA. Can you believe that?? They lost at the WACA. It was the Australian fortress, and they had not lost there in more than a decade. They cheered for a victory that was more a farce than anything else.

In fact, the entire Australian team lost is so much that they lost again at WACA. That is a first in history. Back to back losses at the WACA for Australia. Who woulda thought?? 

But here is the thing. The test world has become interesting again. India, SA, England and Australia are now equal contenders for Test supremacy, and possibly Sri Lanka.

India has a good batting line up, and a promising bowling department. Australia still have Ponting and Hayden, and along with Clarke, Symonds and Hussey can bat anyone out of a test. England with KP and Flintoff would have a realistic chance at the Ashes, but methinks they need another good bowler. SA seems to have buried the ghosts of the past, and seem to have a good batting line up, and perhaps the best bowling with Ntini, Steyn, and Morkel.

So here it is. To exciting times ahead.

If you think the iPhone was expensive, think again!!

Its a complete rip-off here in India. Both Vodafone and Airtel have priced the iPhone so high that I guess you won’t see it going mainstream in India anytime soon. Also, with India not having a 3G network yet, the new iPhone is not of much use anyways.

The 8GB model is priced at ~USD 710 while the 16GB is priced at ~USD 830, without the data that is. The only option left now is to get an unlocked device from US (for ~USD 550) – sigh!

… and Indian’s have finally dropped Agarkar. In tests, his economy is good enough for one dayers and in ODIs for a T20 game. For a T20 the lesser said, the better.

I think they have chosen a good squad this time around, though I think they should have given Sehwag another chance. Here is my squad.

Sachin
Sourav
Dravid
Yuvraj/Gambhir
Uthappa
Dhoni
Harbhajan
Powar/Chawla
Sreesanth
RP Singh
Zaheer Khan

[Depending on the pitch 4-5 bowlers]

Can someone please explain as to why Agarkar and Yuvraj were bowled today, instead of Irfan Pathan?

[tags] Cricket, T20 WorldCup, India, New Zealand[/tags]

The Good: India in tests. Tendulkar, in sublime touch and his responses to the decisions against him, from the disbelief to the smile, priceless. Kevin Pietersen in the first test. Vaughn in the second. Kumble in the third, with the bat. Mascarenhas in the sixth ODI. Utthappa in the sixth ODI, even though many shots were pure luck. Monty’s fielding efforts. Ganguly giving Broad a piece of his mind.

The Bad: India in ODIs. Selection of Ajit Agarkar, some one give me one good reason. The on-field behaviour of both India and England. Indian batting in the final ODI.

The Ugly: Indians on the field. The umpiring. The series has to be the best case for increasing the use of technology in cricket. These umpires could are no Dickie Birds. Dravid’s captaincy – only thing that came close to the umpiring. Matt Prior behind the wickets. Powar, all times except when he bowled, and if I may ask, what’s with the hairband? Paul Collingwood, after his runout, in the sixth ODI. Yuvraj, with the ball, in the sixth ODI.

For a better article on use of tech, go here. And if you are generally fed up of India’s dismal performance in cricket maybe this will cheer you up.

[tags]Cricket, Hockey, Sports, India, England[/tags]

The Indian team is already on a roll in the third test at the Brit Oval.

Imagine India winning test series outside the subcontinent without any century, without any significant contribution from Rahul “the Wall” Dravid (this is the one off thing in a long long time). This is so interesting. Everyone has done his bit and Dhoni has played magically to take the English bowlers to the cleaners.

Even Kumble has come up with a half century. Keep rocking guys!

Update: Hats off to Kumble for his first Test century, the most faithful soldier to Indian cricket.

I have been terribly busy over the past few weeks and the next couple are not going to be any different. Meanwhile, here are some tidbits from the recent past.

• Came across an interesting mail from Anu Vaidyanathan, the interesting bit being her mail signature. Her designation at PatNMarks is “CEO and Chief Herder of Cats“. Very nice.
• India has kicked some serious British ass in the Trent Bridge test. I now hope that India go on to win the series and Zaheer Khan sends the English team some jelly beans.
• The reaction of Ganguly at being give out, caught behind, was priceless. Also, judging by his looks in dressing room, I am guessing that Simon Taufel and he are not going out for dinner sometime soon.