Cricket, Politics and Life

An Ideal Job, being busy all day but not doing anything

2006-02-28T16:43:00.000+04:00

Every one dreams of having a job where you are being paid well but Don't have to do anyting.... I actually have such a job.
So how do I feel about it? and why on earth has anyone given me such a job?

Well no one has actually given me this job, I kind of made my regular job into this thing. Now the thing is, I work for a media company, my job involves me developing business, in the process of developing business, I guess, I became too clever and though hmmm why not I develop business for my self, as I come up with creative ideas (at least I think I come up with them and hope they are creative) and I sell them and that is beginning and end of any media business. But, one crucial cog was missing, finance, I needed cash to start my business. So just like any gentleman looking to get his business up and running, I approached investors. Some of them scoffed, some became suspicious, some interested and some couold not care less.

Eventually I found one person who was willing to invest, but needed some time to arrange the required money. Since the day I got the concent of that man, my day job became a paid no job.
So, I come to work every day, sit on my desk, start my lap top and pretend to work the whole day, without actually doing anything. I have only one project going on, which requires about couple of hours of my time, the new projects that I wanted to start, I have kept them on hold as I want to start those very projects as part of my business.

In this whole affair I learnt one thing, It is the most difficult job I have ever had, to sit in the office from 9-6 everyday, pretending to be working but actually not doing anything. It is driving me insane (also I have to act to be very busy in deep thoughts working away), so what do I actually do the whole day.
In the last two weeks since I started doing this I have written two pieces for Chowk, One Dayers and All and a 3000 word monster Fast Bowling Resources in India & Pakistan, this is my second I log on Chowk, I have written many blogs on my blog www.balltempering.blogspot.com, read almost every article in Chowk and Cricinfo, read online news papers, check my personal email and respond to them, have gone through my business plan many time over, but still, the time simply refuses to go by. It becomes an excruciatingly slow, my head starts feeling numb and things just linger on and on and on and .....

I don't want a job where I am not doing anything and being paid for it, not out of any guilt or any such matters but to avoid utter boredom that I am engulfed in. Trust me, it is extremely difficult thing to do continously over a period of time.

Well, hopefully in the next couple of days my finances will come through and I will be able to say good bye to this job and start doing things that I really like to do, if not, well I have this job and I will actually start working. what do you think?

Patience

2006-02-26T16:33:00.000+04:00

have you ever been in a situation when knowing the answer is the most important thnig in the world at the momment, the answer can be a "yes" or "no" but it is about kowing. Not knowing can drive you insane, the blood pressure goes up, thinking starts getting clouded, tempre on the verge of boiling over. All you want is for people to not to keep you waiting, and that is exactly what fate dishes out to you, wait for every thing.

Science in Pakistan

2006-02-22T14:56:00.000+04:00

A very good and thought provoking article.

Fast Bowling resources in India & Pakistan

2006-02-20T17:07:00.000+04:00

Fast Bowling Resources in India & Pakistan
It must rank right up there with the mysteries of the world that two countries with same race, similar people, resembling culture and fervor for sport of Cricket, the mystery being, that culminating as two countries from one just around 60 years ago, how come Pakistan has and continues to produce fast bowlers where as India is yet to produce one quality fast bowler. Javagal Srinath was fast in the first half of his career but later on he also became medium pacer, Kapil was a medium paced swing bowler from day one although India has over 1 billion people, about six times more then Pakistan, and equally passionate about their cricket.

It is an interesting and intriguing study to compare these two countries and the reasons that have contributed to such anomaly.
There are no apparent reasons for that; no one has been able to put a finger on one such element that can explain this oddity. Many theories have been mooted by many an expert and respected players, ranging from Geoff Boycott to Dennis Lilly, Imran Khan, Sarfraz Nawaz and Aqib Javed, have all tried to explain this phenomenon in some detail. Some of these theories have some substance but still do not explain the vast difference.

Let us have a look at some of the reasons and theories that have and are doing the rounds so far. Before that let us put certain things in perspective.
India has only produced two pace bowlers of any significance, by that I mean bowlers who bowled quick and could be compared to other international bowlers rather then Indian slow medium pacers who only bowled to get the shine off the ball.

The most successful Indian pacers, by no means fast, has been Kapil Dev with 432 wickets in a 18 year career and Javagal Srinath has 236 wickets in 11 years of international cricket. That is significantly less then Imran 362 test wickets, Waqar Younis 373, Wasim Akram 414 test wickets, all these were genuinely fast and match winners. It is not only about wickets either, it’s about speed, serious speed that Pakistan has been able to produce and India has not. Even before Imran there was Sarfaraz with his 177 test wickets, arguably the founder of reverse swing, Asif Masood in 60’s with only 77 wickets and before them all Fazal Mahmood, not express pace but enough to disturb the best batsman with 139 wickets in his illustrious career.

Also in the over all comparison, especially in the last 25 years Indian cupboard looks bare, where as Pakistan and as such many other countries had to leave out really good fast bowlers, India failed to produce any genuine fast bowler, once again reiterating that Kapil was a medium pacer and Javagal Srinath is the only genuine quick produced by India, general mark of quick bowling being some who bowls in high 80 mile per hour speed category or around 140 kmph range, if not in the 90’s. Let us just have a look at the names that come to mind from the last 25 years, even if some of them did not play for much longer due to lack positions in team or injury. Apart from Srinath and Kapil these are some other names that come to mind from Indian fraternity, Prabhakar (medium pacer) Chetan Sharma (although very skilled but still medium pacer) Sandhu, Venkatesh Prasad, Sunil Ankola, Abbey Kruvilla, Dave Johnson, Bhupinder Singh, Debashesh Mohanty, Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan, Ashish Nehra, Balaji etc. of these only Sunil Ankola, Debashish Mohanty and Agarkar had good pace and would touch 140-145 Kmph range where as Zaheer and Irfan both had the potential to bowl fast but have not developed so far.

From Pakistan point of view if you exclude the obvious five fast one i.e. Imran, Wasim, Waqar, Shoib and Sami, you are still left with genuine fast bowlers like Azeem Hafiz, Tahir Naqqash, Fazle Akbar, Mohammad Akran, Mohammad Zahid, Shahid Nazir, Mohammed Akram and to an extent Aqib Javed (he was quicker then any of the Indian bowlers but was classified as medium due to comparison with two W’s) Mohsin Kamal the list goes on (we have not included Medium pacers like Siknadar Bakht, Wasim Haider, Rashid Khan, Jalaluddin, Azhar Mahmood, Abdulrazzaq etc.)

Well, what are the reasons for such difference, although India also has had MRF pace academy for the last 20-year or so with the sole remit of producing fast bowlers where the legendary Lillie works with youngsters, but, so far the academy has produced nothing of substance.
There are four theories that prevail in Pakistani circles that outline the reasons for Pakistan producing fast men consistently rather then India. Rahul Bhattachariya outlines these in his book, Pundits from Pakistan, in his interview with Aqib Javed, the theories have been put forward by many people in Pakistan cricket at different times, including Imran Khan, but Aqib has put them together in his role as academy coach and under 19’s team coach.
The four theories are based on four elements of fast bowling. To be a fast bowler you need to have, it goes without saying, speed, but in order to generate speed you generally need to have a physique suitable for bowling fast, aggression i.e. the mental make up of a bowler, willingness to bowl fast, once again mental side of things and desire, and culture and a system of grooming fast bowling. So we understand that most of these four factors, if not all of them, make up a fast bowlers. Now let us look at them one by one and see what they mean and the reasons for them being in an individual or not and its impact on the original mystery of Pakistan producing fast bowlers and India not.

Physique: no one can argue that you need a certain kind physical shape to be successful fast bowler; big broad shoulders, long legs and long arms make the art of fast bowling much easier. Lillie, Thomson, Holding, Garner, Roberts even Imran and Wasim had these qualities. Imran for long advocated that if Pakistan cricket authorities can extend the game into NWFP, especially the “agencies like Waziristan” then they will have a never ending assembly line of fast bowlers, as Pathan tribesmen living in those areas are physically very strong and bloody minded (literally that is the area where Osama Bin Ladin is arguably hiding and those tribesmen, or some of them, have been fighting US and Pakistan forces for years, they also fought USSR and eventually resulted in its collapse), so physical strength comes naturally to them, cricket has seen a tamed down version of that in Shahid Afridi, who is a tribesman by origin, as a spinner he bowls his faster delivery at almost 80 mph. ( in one game against South Africa couple of years ago, his quicker delivery was quicker then Shaun Pollock’s average speed, he also bowled a quick bouncer to Brian Lara in 2005 in Wes Indies) Shahid Afridi encompasses the brute force that tribal people can bring to cricket. But, tribal areas have not contributed any fast bowlers to Pakistan cricket so far, although it seems like a good plan for future, and what about bowlers like Waqar, Shoib Akhtar, Sami and Malcolm Marshal none of them very tall or big but quick nonetheless. On the Indian side, the fastest bowler to emerge in India for the last ten years is Agarkar, not a physical specimen of typical fast bowler shape. Although being tall and big helps, but is not necessarily the only reason for being a fast bowler. Lets not forget that Abbey Kuruvilla, Venkatesh Prasad and Debashish Mohanty were all tall and had the build of fast bowlers but could only bowl medium pace.

The next factor is aggression, how do you become aggressive and cut an intimidating picture in the field. Certainly many factors contribute to that and so far there has not been any conclusive research or psycho analysis on fast bowlers’ mentality and origins of their aggressive behavior and nature, but Pakistani fast bowlers have pointed to one factor when speaking about Indian fast bowlers or lack of them. It may have some substance to it as well, It is suggested that the reason why Pakistan produces aggressive, intimidating fast bowlers and India does not, is that Pakistanis consume lot of red meat, where as most Indians don’t. Proteins can be acquired from other sources as well, but it is said that red meat gives you a certain kind of aggressiveness and that is why bowlers like Waqar and Shoib can skittle out wickets on the basis of their presence. Once again a glance around the cricketing world give credence to this theory, most traditionally fast bowler producing countries are all red meat easting countries like Australia, South Africa and West Indies. Two of the recently aggressive Indian bowlers are both Muslims, presuming red meat eating, Irfan Pathan and Zaheer Khan.

Going by this, India has almost 150 million Muslims and many other ethnicities that eat red meat, Sikhs and Christians included, yet they have not produced fast bowlers, the only genuine fast bowler actually came from South India, although he did have the physique, speaking about aggressive behavior and intent, what about Greg Chappel, Saurav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble.

The first two aspects take us to an important question, if we assume both of them to be entirely true, where can India find their next real fast bowler.
Both Imran and Aqib have also suggested many times that the best chance of India finding a genuine fast bowlers lies in there northern areas, mainly Punjab, where Sikhs are generally physically stronger and aggressive in nature, much like there counterparts in Pakistani Punjab, that has almost exclusively produced fast bowlers in last 25 years or so, the only exception being Mohammed Sami. Eat red meat and growing in land of planes and farms makes them used to hard work, a pre requisite for fast bowling, and will allow them to develop into good quality fast bowlers. But, as opposed to Pakistani Punjab, India has produced, aggressive, stylish, good looking and cunning players in the shape of Bishen Singh Bedi, Maninder Singh and Yuvraj Singh. But none of them every bawled fast. This is where the third theory comes into its own. Desire and willingness to bowl fast, it emanates from the basic principle of hard work, fast bowling is the hardest job along with wicket keeping and India has not produced many good wicketkeepers of late either. But, what makes people work hard, there are as many answers to this question as there are reasons for it not happening. But, what really encourages youngsters to work hard and take up something, which is as difficult and tiring as fast bowling. It is the urge to emulate your idols, to be some one you see in action and want to be like them. Images in a youngsters mind pretty much determine which way the kid will go. Although the Indian Punjab has all the elements of Pakistani Punjab, but, what they lacked is the critical aspect, an Idol. When every one in Pakistan wanted to run in like Imran Khan and bowl those lovely in swingers, imagining a lithe body, fair complexion, high jump and the ability to not only bowl over batmen but also women and cricket administrators. Where as youngsters in the Indian Punjab watching Bishen Singh Bedi weaving his web with flight and subtlety of spin bowling. Imran Khan, as much for his ability to bow as for his glamorous looks, proved to be a huge influence how fast bowling was perceived in this region, which only produces batting tracks.

It is not wonder then that since the inception of satellite T.V that has diminished the boundaries and commercialized cricket in the sub continent, it also made fast bowling look “ sexy” in India, especially left arm fast bowling. Where as Pakistanis greatly appreciate and love Wasim Akram’s left arm magic but kids hearts have fallen more for Burewala express i.e. Waqar Younis, resulting in, Shoib, Yasir Arafat, Najaf Shah and Mohammed Irshad, you can clearly see semblance of Waqar’s action in them. But on the other hand in India, Wasim was the real deal, because he made their batsmen suffer for so many year, although hardly any bilateral cricket was played between India and Pakistan through out the 90’s but TV did the job. And results are there for every one to see, Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan, Ashish Nehra, R.P Singh all have burst onto the Indian scene at a young age and admittedly idolizing Wasim, hence Wasim’s popularity in India.

Where the traditional Indian cricketing heroes have been batsmen like Punkaj, Vinoo Mankad, Nawab Patuadi, Nari Contractor, Ajit Wadekar, Gundappa Vishwanath, Sunil Gavaskar, Mohinder Amarnath and the list goes on. Is it any surprise that India has produced Sachin, Rahul, Yuraj, Dhoni and Sehwag but TV is doing the job and they should be able to find an express bowler soon, they already have one in Munaf Patel playing first class cricket.

But still, all of the new brigade is medium pace, Zaheer was quick when he came on, so was Nehra and every one expected Irfan to get quicker but not as quick as the new bowlers bursting onto Pakistani cricket scene, Rana, Asif and Razzq all consistently bowl faster then their Indian counter parts but all are categorized as medium pacers, and at least three current fast bowlers in Pakistani first class cricket bowling over 90 mph regularly still have not been able to get into the side, Najaf Shah, Yasir Arafat and Mohammed Irshad. On the other hand Indian pacers started fast but they are all medium pacer now. What happened and when it happened?

The answer probably lies in the cricketing culture and system, but wait a minute system and Pakistan cricket cannot go together?? But the system and culture has nothing to do with Pakistan cricket administration, it is more to do with the cricketing culture on the streets. Although yet not internationalized, but equally significant to the other two factors that Pakistan cricket produced that changed the way cricket or at least bowling was done, reverse swing and “doosra”. The third element to that is, “tape ball cricket” a country with majority lives in poverty or near poverty, where there are hardly any play grounds available for kids in urban centers, the masses had to come up with an easier and cheaper way of satisfying their cricketing hunger and be entertained. And boom, tape cricket happened. It is simple, take a tennis ball and mask scotch tape around it to give it more weight and similar bounce to real cricket ball. It is heavy enough to be bowled properly and it behaves similarly to normal cricket ball, which a normal tennis ball does not, get a bat and that is it. No pads, gloves, helmet, abdominal guard or in some instances stumps required. Bricks, chairs, empty cartons, impression of stumps on walls, anything will do. What it did was, kids could bowl like their idols in streets without worrying about equipment, which most of them could not afford, and vast spaces and injuries and just bowl like Imran, Wasim, Waqar or who ever they fancied. Tape ball is lighter then the real ball so that requires the bowler to exert extra force on it to send it down quickly in the process helping develop, arm, forearm, back, thigh, stomach and shoulder muscles, essential for bowling fast. It also teaches them how to swing the ball by either leaving a small slit on one side of the ball, the behaves on the principle of reverse swing, or by making a seam by wrapping extra tape in the middle, and you have a apparatus as real as you will get to develop bowlers. Because space is cramped and boundaries smaller and available over less, the batsman are their to hit every thing out of the ground, so that bowler learn to ball quick Yorkers and short balls as that is the only way to escape punishment. But, a side effect of that being that Pakistani batsmen are all trying to hit big shots and have no defensive technique. This does not happen in India, in India cricket is played with a normal tennis ball on the streets and although it encourage stroke making, fast bowling becomes futile. Tape cricket has already been taken up by kids in English schools and it will prove to be a useful tool to producing fast bowlers.

In my opinion it is the two later factors that are major reason for the disparity in fast bowling resources in India and Pakistan. Although having a good build certainly helps and once you have the skill, attitude either comes with it or becomes irrelevant. Steve Harmison is a genial chap, but O boy can he bowl fast. Tino best of West Indies is very aggressive but can he bowl fast?
With bilateral tours between India and Pakistan happening regularly, lot of people have watched and participated in tape ball cricket phenomena in Pakistan and also in over seas places like UAE where Indians and Pakistanis live, work and play cricket along side each other, tape ball cricket is taking roots and with the advent of T.V and information spreading through people quicker then ever before its not long before India produces their first real 95mph fast bowler. But whether they will be able to look after them or not is a different question, Nehra, Agarkar, Balaji and Zaheer were all much quicker when they came into the Indian side then now and Irfan looked like a genuine heir to Wasim Akram’s throne, but have all either gone down or stopped growing, in terms of speed of bowling, in the last couple of years.

And Pakistanis should not worry, the grass is still green in that land, PCB and Pepsi recently conducted fast bowling clinic in a bid to unearth the fastest young fast bowler in land. From eight zones they picked the two fastest bowlers, below the age of 20, 16 bowlers assembled and then were reduced to 8, all eight bowled well over 90 mph. And Wasim Akram and Imran Khan, who both knew a thing or two about fast bowling, say that the peak of a fast bowler is from the age of 24 till 29 when the body has filled up and bones strengthened, meaning this is time when fast bowlers are at their quickest.

One Dayers and All part 2

2006-02-15T10:51:00.000+04:00

One Dayers and All
So what do the one dayers hold for us. After the thumping Pakistani win and their display against India when the toured India last, and India’s recent performances against South Africa and Sri Lanka and more importantly changes in personnel, not only Rahul and Greg being at the helm but also players like Srisaanth, Suraish Raina and RP singh coming through the ranks, makes this one day series a very competetive contest.
Both the sides have lot of flexibility in their batting with versatile players who can but up or down the order, players who are natural nudgers and accumulaters ala Kaif, Salmat Butt, Rahul and Younis combined with players who are stroke makers like Shoib Malik Yousaf & Yuvraj with couple of butchers in each team i.e. Shahid Afridi, Sehwag and Dhoni and a classy, once in a generation national legends in their ranks players like Inzamam and Sachin and good quality allrounders to the tune of Irfan Pathan (his recent performances certainly rank him as an allrounder) and Abdul Razzaq.
Yes India is a good side, and yes, they have world class players, and yes, they experimented in the last season with good results. But, in terms of their maturity and settlement into their roles, be it constant change, they are still very young. This Indian one day team is where Pakistan team was couple of years ago. When they gave a good run for the money to Aussies in three games twice in Holland and once at Lord’s in 2004, beat Sri Lanka three times except in the final in their home series in late 2004. Almost pulled off the highest chase in one day history against India in 2004. By going through those defeats and tinkering here and there, they have gotten an awesome team, in my opinion probably the best one day side in the world going around, considering change in personnel down under since these two teams last met, I am confident this Pakistani team will make life difficult for Oz's.
India needs to go through a similar cycle without losing heart and hopefully by start of world cup they will be in a pretty good shape. But, for that to happen, they need to do certain things.
Keep team changes to a minimum, select individuals that the team management has faith in, and then let them go through natural cycles of up and down without panicking. Pakistan team has hardly changed in the last two years, they almost invariably have fielded the same eleven, injury permitting.
Senior players to take more responsibility and shoulder the burden and be clear about their roles. No batsman has demonstrated this trait more then Inzi, in a young growing team, as result they have a problem of plenty now. Rahul, Sachin and Sehwag have to fire consistently, media and public should not get carried away with one good innings or one abysmal failure. These three have to take things personally and forget the past and move on.
Greg Chappel need to keep a lower profile, he has hardly helped himself and the team with his leaked email, finger waging and more recently accusations of chucking leveled at Shoib. For a team to be united and succeed, the coach, almost always should be in the background. John Wright was not the biggest name in the game but he had plenty of common sense and did not try to be in the limelight.
Considering these, if they happen, I think India has a good chance in the world cup in 2007, I personally rank both India and Pakistan along with Australia as the three favourites of the 2007 world cup. India has also started to create a niche in the game that they feel very comfortable with, they are trying to understand their strengths and weaknesses. Batting being their strength and bowling their weakness, they are extremely good chasers of totals, they have won last 11 consecutive games while chasing against three different sides at home and away.
Things could not have been any better for Subcontinental cricket, the two power houses of Subcontinental crickets are enjoying the good fortunes and are both on their way up in the ICC ranking with new youngsters coming through. There could not have been a better timing and back ground for the last two one dayers starting from tomorrow in Multan, winner of these thow will take all, but I don’t think loosers will loose much, there is every thing to gain from here. The only way is up.

Shoaib vs India and defining moments

2006-02-13T16:33:00.000+04:00

With Shoib not playing this oneday match and the news that he will not take any further part in the ongoing oneday series between India and Pakistan, it takes my mind to magical moments that have gotten imprinted on our collective minds.

There are some moments that get stuck in history and in ones conscious and define things from that moment onward in that respective feild. Some also get stuck in the national consciousness and form or help form the future course of actions.

There are few such moments in our cricketing history that have had a similar impact and have been stuck in our common consciousness and that has changed the national outlook of the country and how we perceive cricket. Shoib Akhtar had couple of such moments that have influenced many decisions and controversies after that, and obviously Shoib has been at the centre of them all.

The first such recognizable moment between India Pakistan games happened in April of 1986 in Sharjah, a game which India had bossed from the start and were the more obvious winners changed in spate of few seconds. Chetan Sharma bowls low full toss, in an effort to bowl a yorker, Javed Miandad makes room and puts it over deep midwicket boundary for a six to win the tournament and setting in motion a superiority that engulfed a full decade of matches between India & Pakistan. Waqar & Wasim created many a victory against the arch rival following that.

That Indian team could not shed that six out of its collective consciousness, or any Indian cricket follower for that matter, for the next 15 years or so.
Before that fateful afternoon, India and Pakistan had played 16 matches and India winning the majority of them, 9 to be precise, with win ratio of 60%, although, in seventies Pakistan One day side was much better, but from 83 world cup onwards, India hardly lost anything. From Australasia cup 1986 in Sharjah, with Miandads last ball win, the game and never say die attitude of Pakistan had such demoralizing effect on Indian team that in next ten year, they won only 10 games and actually just one in Sharjah.

Between 1986 and 2003, India and Pakistan played each other 78 times, all over the world, with Pakistan winning 47 times with four no results, a winning ratio of 60%. That was the impact one hit had on the collective psyche of the Indian team, India started to win more games after 1996 Banglore quarterfinal, turn around also happened after almost all the members of that 86 team were gone, except Azhar, and with Sachin coming up the order and with players like Ganguly and Jadeja India's fortunes in one dayers started to change especially in places like Toronto and Dhaka. But still they were beaten more often then not.

The next two moment came through two individuals involved in one day and a test match. Shoib Akhtar was a young rookie when Pakistan toured Indian in 1999, he played in the third test of the tour, classified as the first match of the Asian test championship. All through the tour he had been bragging that he will get Tendulkar, who at that time was at the peak of his game, 95 till 2000 was the most productive time of Tendulakr's career and he was at his most dominating and punishing self.

The game took became the deciding game of the tour, although classified as Asian test championship game rather then bilateral, but previous two tests had been one by each team, so the third game became a final of sorts. This was Shoib's first test against India and Pakistan had been bowled out for 185 on day one and India looked like taking a big lead, India were 147 for 2 when Shoib started his blistering run from closer to the boundary, packed Eden Garden noisy and full of anticipation, Rahul batting at 24 having spent 108 minutes at the crease and having faced 93 balls. Shoib runs in and balls a fast straight one, the ball crashes uproots Rahul's stumps, a wonderful Yorker. Although India has just lost a wicket but Eden Garden become even noisier, as this brings their genius to the wicket. This is what test cricket is all about, a young cocky pacer who has been bragging to his team mates that he will finish Tendulkar, full of confidence after taking a wicket and the best batsman in world at the top of his game, in his country in front of 100,000 spectators chanting his name.

The powerful, frightening, stamping run of Shoib starts again, Tendulkar looks up, bat lifts upwards in in its customary fashion, feed move just a little across the crease, heart pumping in anticipation the ball is hurled down by Shoib, Tendulkar goes back and across but the ball is too quick and in a flash the stumps are disturbed for the second time in two deliveries, the stadium goes absolutely silent, they can not believe that it has happened, their hero has to go back.

This was the first golden duck of Tendulkar's career, Pakistan went on to win that match by 46 runs, the last 7 wickets of the first innings lost for 76 runs. People rememberr this delivery and Tendulkar's running into Shoib accidentally in the second innings, that started a riot from this game, no one remembers the sublime 188 that Saeed scored with wickets going down around his and being the first Pakistani to carry his bat through in India, also Javagal Srinath taking 13 wickets in the match, 8 of them in the second innings, Shoib took 8 wickets in whole match, but the cast has been set. After that every India Pakistan game became Tendulkar-Shoib billing. This series was also the one where people started questioning Tendulkar's ability to win matches for India rather him taking on the responsibility of taking his team through when really needed, he dismissal in the first match of the series triggered a collapse that resulted in India loosing by 17 runs.

The next defining moment also involved these two, but this time Tendulkar came on top, well at least to the team cause. A broken and divided Pakistani team taking on India in Centurion, the occasion, as big as it gets, world cup. Pakistan needed to win this after their heart breaking loss to Australia & unexpected defeat to England. Team still full of talent albeit aging.

Pakistan has scored a defendable total of 273 with Saeed Anwar scoring his last century of his career. India open with Sehwag and Tendulkar, the original and his clone, Waqar decides to use Wasim and Shoib to open the bowling rather then taking the new ball himself, hoping for the magic again, well magic did happen, but Pakistan were on the receiving end. Second over of the innings, so far its settling the nerves and sizing each other up, no flashes of brilliance or foolishness.
Shoib runs in from the boundary, it take ages for him to reach the bowling crease, you can feel the tension in the air and nervous energy is running through both Tendulkar and Sehwag. Shoib pitches the ball short but little wide, Tendulkar gets under the ball and cuts it fiercely through point for six, and right there and then every one knew that something specials was going to happen. Suddenly India breathed easy, Tendulkar did not look back after that, he got his 50 of 37 balls and 98 of 75 balls, getting out to a fantastic ball from Shoib. The ghost has been buried, Shoib never looked threatening to Indians after that and they steam rolled Pakistan in next years' test and one day series. The aura of invincibility is gone and respect bordering fear, a result of personal inadequacies have been lifted as well, and did I tell you the clone also hit a similar six of Shoib and then took him to the cleaners in the next series, scoring the first triple century by an Indian in the process.

E Mullah الیکٹرونک مُلا: Mohammad Who?#links

2006-02-12T12:51:00.000+04:00

E Mullah الیکٹرونک مُلا: Mohammad Who?#links

Every Day a Thursday

2006-02-09T15:17:00.000+04:00

A typical Thursday in Dubai, well actually from Sharjah to Dubai. I wish everyday was a Thursday, not only because next day is a weekend but because it is such an easy, laid back and relaxed day.
T
raffic is less and that means vehicles are passing by quicket. No hassles on the road and that gives the whole day a certain slowness and relaxed feel, even a crisis seems to go through in slow motion.

Its a sunny day and this is nice time of the year, the time of the season when winter ( or whatever winter comes to Dubai although this year it was relatively colder then previous years) when season is changing from winter to a brief spring and then into long and scorching summer.

It has been slightly frustrating work wise because things are not moving forward as quickly as I would like them to be, the potential business partners, although all seeming interested, are taking longer then usual and the financing is also not coming in quickly enough. For me the timing is of value, If I am unable to start with business by March then I will not be able to do my first event by September and that will mean 6 months of expenses and no Income.

But I am sure you guys have absolutely no interest in my problems. Let me say this to you, I am starting a first of its kind agency in the M.E.
Well, lets hope that things eventually start moving along and I can have less time to spend on the blog and more on my work :)

Freedom of Speech, really??

2006-02-08T12:01:00.000+04:00

Cricket, Politics and Life
Yesterday two things happened that just got stuck in my mind.

One; the Danish prime minister in his speech referred to protestors, in many Islamic countries as extremists and fanatics, who are burning flags.

Two; Abu Hamza, the semi lunatic Egyptian cleric based in London was sentenced for 7 years to prison on the charges of inciting hatred and supporting terrorism.

Both these things put together paint a strange and frightening picture. First, the Danish PM has completely missed the point, it is very easy in post 9/11 world to call people terrorists, extremists and fanatics. Over 150 million people have protested or have been offended by those cartoons in a news paper that has a readership of 150,000. So far the Danish PM has failed to see the whole picture, every Muslim country has had demonstrations, 15 countries have gone on record in boycotting Danish goods, at least 5 countries have either closed their embassies in Copenhagen or have recalled their ambassadors. Almost every Muslim head of state has denounced the cartoon publication. One country has severed all trade ties with Denmark, and chances are more will do so. 10 people have lost their life and many have been injured. Still, the Danish PM thinks these are acts of fundamentalists and Extremists, he has labeled pretty much the whole Islamic world as an extremist and a fundamentalist, just stopping short of calling them all terrorists. Because these actions are not taken by one single party or a group, this involves government heads, foreign offices and unilateral denouncing from every one in those countries. I don't think calling them extremists and fanatics was the wisest thing to do.

Corner stone of any democracy is, to respect the opinion of the majority, an over whelming majority in Muslim countries has reacted strongly to these cartoons and yet the west in general and Denmark in specific thinks its fanatisim and extremism, even if that is the case, that is what the majority has decided for, then every one should respect that and try and live with it rather then looking to change things to fit western sensibilities.

Were those cartoons merely a practice of freedom of speech or did they have more sinister motives? Number of people who have been offended and the row it has created should make people wiser, but, same images are being used again and again by many to increase their viewership and circulation under the guise of information and freedom of speech. What purpose is repeat publishing serving now accept filling cash coffers of some.

Where do you draw the line between freedom of speech and offensive, hate speech. What Abu Hamza did was also to practice his right to freedom of speech. I, not for a moment, agree with Abu Hamza and or his preachings and methods and personally I condemn his acts. But, he has the right to say what he thinks is right and believes in. He has been prisoned for seven years, there was no proof of him either funding any terrorist activity, participating or planning any terrorist activity or providing any information or intelligence to Al Qaeda. The only thing he did was to speak, the content was deemed objectionable for certain people, but, you can find 150,000 supporters and believers of his version of Islam. This is equvivalent to the readership of Danish newspaper, does that justify his acts. If Jyllands-Posten's actions are right then Abu Hamza has been given a harsh trial.

Let us put things in perspective, a news paper commissions people to produce cartoons of prophet Mohammed (p.b.u.h) and publishes those images, well they are free to do and say what they think, regardless of its consequences or reactions. Denmark, EU and the whole west supports them, in principle, because this is well within the constitional rights of people, freedom of speech.

Abu Hamza gave sermons against USA, UK and their actions in Iraq and Afghanistan and gave his verbal, the operative word here is verbal, support to Al Qaida and Osama bin Laden, he gets stigmatized and sentenced for seven years.

Was Abu Hamza's acts not expression of his thoughts and beliefs, does that not count as freedom of speech? Sure, it does, it can not be a case that if western sensibilities get offended then you go to prison and if its Muslim sensibilities getting offended then, well, its freedom of speech, the basic constitutional right of every person. The gravity and seriousness of how much Muslims have been hurt by those cartoons are for every one to see, the reaction in its expression as well as in sheer number of people and across the countries has been much stronger then the reaction to Abu Hamzas sermons.

I am not for a moment suggesting that any one in Denmark should be prisoned, but, western people in general need to define the line and for a change, try to understand Muslims rather then labeling them and branding them. Try to understand for who they are and from their perspective rather seeing them through western glasses. Similar thing applies to Muslims world over, your religion is 1500 years old, there are enough people on the planet who believe and practice it. One persons foolishness is not going to hurt or harm your religion, forgiveness and patience are also Islamic virtues, let us practice those.

Originality, creativity, Dubai and Life

2006-02-07T15:49:00.000+04:00

Cricket, Politics and Life
Dubai, what is this place and where it stand in the regional and international standing. A city that was dreamt by a leader, I am not referring to Sheikh Mo but actually to his father. Sheikh Rashid, who passed away in early 90's. But people closer to him suggest that every thing that is going in Dubai, the blue print was made by him. There is reason to believe that, he initiated Jebel Ali Free Zone and Dubai Airport, Emirates Airline three elements that were the reasons and the basis of the massive growth that the city has seen.

With all this, voices are always heard about Dubai copying Singapore to the T. People also talk about Dubai not being original in anything and copying London and Las Vegas blindfolded, but is that having any impact on the dubious social and human rights record? That is still a big question mark. Some effort is being made to solve labor issues who have not been paid for months, but that is more due to pressure from outside then internal will and that is quite clear in its manifestation. Yet, nothing is being done about maids, minimum wages, equality amongst UAE locals and expatriate and between Blue collar and White collar expats.

Life in Dubai is generally good if you stop worrying abou worsening situation of traffic, plethora of real estate projects, the so called media circus, sky rocketing prices, lack of creativity, absence of originality and every thing superficial. Apart from these, life is as good as it will get for any one here, no seriously, I really mean that.

If you don't worry about any or all of the above issues then life is really good. The city is safe as thieves' hands, multicultural society(although bizarrely enough different cultures hardly ever cross mingle, people tend to stick with their own primary groups, there are four main groups Arabs, Western Expats, Asian expats and Lebanese), booming economy, lot of opportunities, good beaches, growing sports activity scenes, nascent art & culture community etc. etc.

Watch this space for experience and thoughts of expat living in Dubai and stereo types of typical people in Dubai.

Lil Somethin About Politiks

2006-02-06T10:13:00.000+04:00

Well, as my blog outlines that there will be something about politics as well, so I guess, this is something I do want to write about every now and then.
What brings me to this subject is the recent out cry in Islamic world about a caricature in a Danish news paper.

First of all I want to put myself up and say what my orientation is, I am a Muslim, a practicing one on top of that. Regular, I try to as much as I can, in prayers and other fundamentals of Islamic life. I am a true believer of Islam and I have found that the true meaning of Islam is in moderation. So I try to practice moderation in every thing I do in my life, so I denounce Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden the so called Jihad and all that goes with it, but in the same breath I also do no support American and British foreign policy regarding Israil / Palestine Issue, their handling of Afghanistan or lack of it there of and most importantly their invasion of Iraq and the unrest it has caused in the region and the position it has put Iran & Syria in. If Iran is going ahead with its nuclear plans without giving a care in the world to the international community, it is because of the American actions in Iraq. If U.S had listened to U.N three years ago and not gone ahead with unilateral forceful action to discover, non existent, WMD's. They would have been in a position to take positive action against Iran today, and would have gotten much needed support for it. Basically Mr. Bush has suffered from doing the wrong thing at the right time and doing the right thing at the wrong time, yeilding in two huge wrongs.

But anyway, today I wanted to write about the Danish newspaper and torching of Embassies. Let us get some perspective.

A non entity of a news paper, at international or Muslim world level, publishes a caricature made by the so called supporters of free speech in September. Keep in mind, it was published in September.

Some wise cracker takes these to Saudi and other Muslim countries inciting hatred and criticism. What was the real motive of such an action, that surely can not be in love of the religion.

Arab, Muslim and World media picks up the story, the same caricature that was seen by a handful of people gets shown the world over.
Embassies are set ablaze, Danish people in the muslim world are concerned for their life.

The news paper has already apologists many times. The Danish government has apologized, but the rage still burns hot.

Let us look at it from Islamic point of view.
A cartoon depicting Prophet Mohammed (p.b.u.h)as a terrorist should be denounced, not for what it is, but for what it means to people, not the entire Muslim world but for Muslims in Denmark. Anything, and I mean anything coming from any one, in public domain that can hurt some ones' feelings, especially their religious and racial feelings should be given utmost care and respect. No amount of "freedom of speech" mantra can give any one permission to make fun or reflect ones faith in bad and judgmental light. If the caricature wants to say these things in private, fine that is his right and he has the freedom of speech to express his views the way he feels. But, the moment that comes to public domain then I am also involved as a Muslim and my views and feelings are to be considered. So the news paper was extremely irresponsible for doing what they did.

Some one takes the news paper clippings and goes to Saudi and other Muslim countries asking for action. Till that point it had not hurt any one in the Muslim world and Muslims at large were not offended, for me people who spread the word about this cartoon are equal offenders in this whole saga. Ignorance is bliss, I did not need to see an offensive material, but it is being blasted all over the place. God is " Sattar" he does not like people who go around telling people about bad things. One of his qualities is to keep things hidden and confidential. There is a lesson to be learnt here.

Governments lodge official protest, the news paper apologizes, the Prime Minister renders apology going against their own constitution to try and reduce this problem.
Angry mobs in Syria and Beirut sett fire to Danish embassies, who on earth can condone this behavior and then we are surprised we are we being labeled terrorists. Some one make a cartoon and we start killing and setting fires to innocent people and their property. Just look at the relevance and some perspective.

A Cartoon in a non Muslim country with a small Muslim population, be it an offensive cartoon.
Trade boycott across Arab world, Embassies set on fire, Flags burnt.

Is this a fair deal, especially when apology has been rendered. Terrorist or not but we Muslims are very short sighted, emotional with a tendency to become violent. If all of us are not that way then a small minority that does think and act in this fashion is ruining it for all of us. We need to do something about this.

last but not the least, how many demeaning cartoons are published every day about USA, UK, Bush, Blair, Israil, Jews, Christians in Arab and Muslim world. We all seem to read then everyday and enjoy quite a lot of them. Some of them get sent around via internet. Is it only wrong when it is defaming to us or should we also consider others feelings or at least learn to move on with life without setting fires and burning flags. The point has been proven, only if we as an "Emma" ever decides to boycott American and U.K good, trust me if it happens across the Muslim world. Israil/ Palestine problem will be solved within a year.
But, I guess we only want to impose ourselves when we do not have much to loose. If only If.........

One Dayers and All

2006-02-06T10:08:00.000+04:00

So what do the one days hold for us. After the thumping Pakistani win and their display against India when the toured India last, makes this one day series a pretty one sided affair.
Yes India is a good side, and yes, they have world class players, and yes, they experimented in the last season with good results. But, in terms of their maturity and settlement into their roles, be it constant change, they are still very young. This Indian one day team is where Pakistan was couple of years ago. When they gave a good run for the money to Aussies in three games, beat Sri Lanka consistently except in the final. Almost pulled off the highest chase in one day history against India. By going through those defeats and tinkering here and there, they have gotten an awesome team, in my opinion probably the best one day side in the world going around, considering change in personnel down under since these two teams last met, I am confident this Pakistani team will make life difficult for Oz's.
India needs to go through a similar cycle without losing heart and hopefully by start of world cup they will be in a pretty good shape. But, for that to happen, they need to do certain things.
Keep team changes to a minimum, select individuals that the team management has faith in, and then let them go through natural cycles of up and down without panicking. Pakistan team has hardly changed in the last two years, they almost invariably have fielded the same eleven, injury permitting.
Senior players to take more responsibility and shoulder the burden and be clear about their roles. No batsman has demonstrated this trait more then Inzi, in a young growing team, as result they have a problem of plenty. Rahul, Sachin and Sehwag have to fire consistently, media and public should not get carried away with one good innings or one abysmal failure. These three have to take things personally and forget the past and move on.
Greg Chappel need to keep a lower profile, he has hardly helped himself and the team with his leaked email, finger waging and more recently accusations of chucking leveled at Shoib. For a team to be united and succeed, the coach, almost always should be in the background. John Wright was not the biggest name in the game but he had plenty of common sense and did not try to be in the limelight.
Considering these, if they happen, I think India has a good chance in the world cup in 2007, for now, a good old thumping beckons, starting from tomorrow with Shahid Afridi going after Irfan and shoib will once again try to hit Irfan, Dhoni and may be just may be, Tendulkar.

Karachi Test and the Pitch

2006-01-26T16:01:00.000+04:00

Judging by the media interest and column inches dedicated to 2006 India-Pak series, it can be safely proclaimed that more has been written about this series off the pitch (rather about the pitch) then on the pitch. So far the real game takes place after the end of one test and before the start of another in the news papers and talk shows.

Now I am going to add, my to paisas worth to this whole thing. Pakistan has won 19 matches on this ground in the last 25 years, have drawn 18 and lost only one to England in the famous gloom, being a Pakistani and obviously biased for my team, I do want to ask the question of what happened to ICC and bad light rules in that encounter when Moin missed chance after chance in the dark, but I guess its best to leave that for another day.

Here is what we know, Inzi, although in the form of his life along with the two Y's, does not want a green top. He wants fast and bouncy wickets. More like Australian wickets, which is surprising considering Pakistan's abysmal record down under and Oz land being one big blot on Inzi's record book as a batsman, that he still insists on bouncy and fast wickets as opposed to seaming pitches against a bowling line up of Irfan, Agarkar, RP Singh and Zaheer Khan, Surely his batsman will be able to handle that, although fast & bouncy wickets will help Pakistan attack, especially, Shoib and Kaneria.

Can Pakistan produce the kind pitches that Inzi wants, because its not only about giving instructions to the curator as we all know. The soil make of up of Pakistan is much different to Australia and it does not help hard wickets. Also, although Karachi has been relatively less cold as compared to Punjab, but, Karachi has been the coldest this year in recent history. In order to create a bouncy wicket that will have some brown grass on it, as Inzi is averse to anything green near the square, supporting the faster men in the day or so getting relatively easier to bat on, on day two & three and breaking up on day four and five to help spinners. Such pitches need to be prepared from bottom up, bottom being deeper in earth when the pitch is being laid. As the clay content, ph balance and moisture needs to be monitored to prepare pitch that will have some moisture in it at the start that will evaporate to facilitate batting and then spinners. For that to happen you also require hot bright sun to bake the wicket, make it firm hence bouncier, and evaporate enough moisture to widen the crack to help the spinners. The light sprinkling of brown grass on the pitch will help the fast bowlers as the ball will skid of the surface, and the chances are that Pakistan is going to leave out the skiddiest of all the bowlers on his home ground i.e. Sami. This is generally the pitch at National Stadium Karachi with only one difference that it does not offer much bounce on the first day.

What do I think is going to happen? If I can read my crystal ball correct then I only see two scenarios. The wicket will be as placid as the ones we have seen in Lahore and Faisalabad. Because in their hurry to create bouncy track as the "Capitan" has asked for. Curators are going to shave off the grass once again with a view that it has been watered and rolled enough with sun beating down on for the last 10 days that it will bounce more. But, it will not. What it will do is, it will be easy paced wicket, good for batting that will start to take slow turn from fourth day and on fifth day the pitch will start breaking up, unfortunately by then test series would have meandered into another boring draw.

Second scenario is that in order to get a result and avoid further embarrassment from every one, including armchair cricket experts like me, Agha Zahid &Co. Will leave some live grass on wicket. Which means the moisture will take longer to dry, green grass will help lateral movement and MS. Pthan, Singh and Khan will become demons, if they bowl first, and by third day the grass will become brown and moisture will evaporate making batting easiest of all the days and hopefully by fifth day uneven bounce will start helping spinners but it will not break up due to grass. In this case, who so ever wins the toss will have massive advantage. Now couple that scenario with a hypothetical but possible situation. That is, Inzi does not recover from his back problem, with Shoib Malik (the fighter of the team) out and likely hood of Gul, Sami or Rana coming in to replace Razzaq, If Pakistan loses the toss and gets inserted in to bat in the first innings then what will happen
I dare not think any more............ I hope Agha Zahid and Haji Mohd. Bashir have a hiding place outside of Karachi.

All the pressure is now on Pakistan as they desperately want to avenge their 2004 defeat by beating India. They want a result oriented pitch and should be willing to take risks. The whole series has come down to one bad session or one inspired spell of bowling from either team. So what do you think will happen, my money is on a draw, as I don't think Agha and Bashir have any hiding place and I am sure they would rather face embarrassing comments from every one then having their efigies being burnt on Karachi streets.

I wonder in all this hoopla about pitches how come no one has pointed a finger at the timing of the series, I know fingers have been pointed but I would like to see more, or to the real problem, why on earth are we using Kookabura balls. Give the same wickets that were given in Lahore and Faisalabad with Duke or SG ball and you will see results due to more swing and better and reverse swing. I guess some people never get held responsible for their decisions and its easy to blame the people who have most unthankfull job of all.

Pakistan Vs India Cricket Series 06

2006-01-26T13:40:00.000+04:00

So far this series has been unbalanced to say the least. A contest that was supposed to be between bat and ball has turned into a chest puming, fist throwing competetion of which team can post more centuries and can dismantle the other team's "psychy". On the evidence, it seems both teams' bowlers have given up all hope and can file a complaint to Amnesty international for basic human rights violations.
Has Indo-Pak cricket gone back to dull and boring days of 60's, 70's & 80's or is there something else to it? I ask my self this question and the answer is, No it has not.
It is a combination of so called machismo, personal insecurities and not understanding the others plight, others over here refers to bowlers.
How can batsmen, although of the highest calibre in the form of Inzi and Rahul the captains and a great one in shape of Greg Chappel and a mediocre one in the body of Bob Woolmer, can really understand what goes on in a bowlers mind. Here is what I mean;

Shoib; he is bowling probably the best bowling that I have seen him bowl in a long time. His spell on the third afternoon of Faisalabad test after lunch was one of the best bowling spells in the recent past. What did he has to show for his efforts, a dubious wicket that came due to the confusion in Sachin's mind then anything else. If this wicket had any life, Shoib would have had many more wickets to his name.
Harbhajan; a great bowler who will certainly end up with a great record, has been cut down to a journeman in this series. Now I can understand how english spinners feel when they travel to the Subcontinent. Bhaji has bowled over 50 overs in this series without any wicket.
Same goes for Rana, Sami, Asif, Kumble and Pathan. All fantastic pliers of their trade but fed to lions in this series.
Why are such pitches in test matches frowned upon? where as any wicket less friendly then this in a ODI will be called all sorts of names.
The common argument goes, such pitches will reduce interest in test cricket, less people will come to watch test matches, but, surprisingly enough, throngs of people flood to the stadia world over to see batsman murder bowlers world over on very similar tracks. That gets celeberated the world over and provides financial fuel to the well being of cricket as a game.
Has the world cricket gone wrong somewhere by putting so many restrictions on bowlers and making cricket generally a batsman's game? do the current batsman expect to have things their way without thinking about the bowlers? have they lost the ability to think about bowlers perspective?
These are the questions I will opinionate on in the next post.