What's Wrong With Team India's Tactics?

West Indies--the land of fast bowling and bouncy pitches. The International Cricket Council T20 World Cup is being played here from April 30.

And, at the Super Eight level Team India seems to have lost all reason and sanity. They put the focus on spinners--that too part time--and opted for just two pacers on such bouncy wickets. They had taken an extra batsman to increase batting strength.

And yet, they had opted to field first winning the toss against Australia and helped them generously to get to a big total. They lost that first Super Eight match.

Faced with a do or die situation today, the 9th of May, they did exactly the same against the West Indies--winning the toss again and deciding to field again. It's common logic that if you have a strong batting side you bat first and build a huge total. In crunch games the chasing side is always under pressure even with low totals like Pakistan failed against New Zealand by one run. Then again, if you want to play spinners you should field second as wickets are supposed to slow down in the second innings. But no, Mahendra Singh Dhoni never cared and managed to lose the match again taking his team virtually out of the World Cup.

You know it's the IPL trick. In those grueling 45 days Team India stars made all the money they wanted, satisfied their bosses and entertained the cricket revelers. Enough was enough. Now they want rest. Why should they bother about so called national pride and loyalties? Their understanding Board did the right thing by resting most stars in the next   tri-series in Zimbabwe.

With Lalit Modi finally out, better scrap IPL too and ban the form of T20 cricket itself. Else, a luxurious bed is likely to be the next best alternative for Team India. When not playing IPL, you see!

The Political Circus of a Strike!

The Mumbai Motormen Strike made national headlines today--stalling even the Parliament.

As usual, the motormen of Mumbai local trains wanted more pay and more facilities. They gave an ultimatum four days ago and that news was also carried by media. And as usual, no serious thoughts were given to it. So they struck work on the afternoon of May 3, 2010 and Mumbai, with its lifelines halted, came to a standstill. 

Thousands got stranded in different local railway stations, eager to go home and agitated at not being able to do so. Extra buses were provided, but that only led to massive traffic snarls. Thousands spent the night either in stations or offices or streets.

The political parties initially supported the motormen, because they cannot afford to hurt potential voters. But when they saw millions suffering, they turned turtle. The opposition parties disrupted the Parliament sessions announcing that till trains start running in Mumbai, Parliament must not run on. Regional parties started withdrawing support to the motormen and started appealing demanding warning or intimidating the motormen to come back to work. The ruling party, caught in the crossfire, suddenly thought of taking resort to a draconian law  which put the supporting or opposing opposition in a dilemma. What to do? Which action would give them better mileage?

Then an assurance was given which could have been given anytime last four days or even before that and the strike was called off, after about 30 excruciating hours. A mere internal matter of better pay to employees became a crippling national problem.

If we doubt the final match of the Modified IPL T20 as a fixed one, then what do we do about this immensely avoidable strike? Prefixed?

Finally, all seem to be happy except millions of voters who have no option but to fill in the always overcrowded local trains of Mumbai--for work and mere living.

Do You Believe In Ghosts? 2

My grandfather, Indreswar Chakravarty, was a very learned man, though he had the opportunity to study only up to matriculation level. He was a scholar in Sanskrit language and always gave time to interpret and analyze ancient Sanskrit scriptures. He wrote articles regularly and published one book too in late years.

He had a perfect sense of reasoning and a logical mind. He used to tell me that he had had numerous paranormal experiences and he tried to explain or justify or negate everyone of them. But, some of them remained as they were. Here is one of them.

One fine morning my grandfather was reading a book in the sitting room. On being called by his name he looked up towards the doorway. A very well dressed strikingly handsome young man was standing there and asking for a glass of water. Failing to recognize him Grandpa requested him to sit and turned to the sideways table to pour a glass of water. In a moment he faced the young man with the glass ready.

The young man had vanished. He was not just there, not anywhere. It was absolutely physically impossible for him to disappear in that short time period. Just to make certain Grandpa checked the frontal lane and the backyard. No, dissolved into thin air!

He never saw the young man again in his life and could never trace him to any event.

More to come...!