IPL T20 fever has started again with just another couple of days before the second edition of the most sought after cricket tournament gets under way. It’s funny that it is still addressed as Indian Premier League even though the tournament is moved to South Africa. As a Bangalorean, I will be supporting Bangalore Royal Challengers even though the team performed badly in the first edition. There are changes in the team this time with the maverick Kevin Pietersen being roped in as Captain. Rahul Dravid has lost captaincy following the team’s dismal performance during the last chapter. Ray Jennings has been appointed as Coach.
Enter Pietersen, a man who takes hard options and knows he's good. It makes him gloriously un-English. The task he is about to undertake with the Bangalore Royal Challengers just about sums him up.
Think about it for a moment. Pietersen is returning to a country where voluble sections of the crowd regard him as a traitor. He will be captaining two men - Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher - who probably have their own views on his decision to leave South Africa. He will be playing for Ray Jennings, a coach who revels in his straight-talking toughness and for an owner - the whisky, airline and F1 magnate Vijay Mallya - whose expectations of success are such that last year he sacked his chief executive mid-tournament. He sure is going the football way.
There's more. Pietersen’s first game will be up against Shane Warne, who used to regard him as a close friend but now thinks him "weird" and will do everything he possibly can to make him look a dummy. His second game is against Andrew Flintoff, the man who denies having anything to do with his downfall as England captain. There is no doubt that cricket followers in South Africa would want Pietersen to fail miserably.
With so much against him much before the start, Pietersen certainly has a tough road ahead. He is a tough bloke and quite capable of turning the tide to his favour and all we can hope is that he does that quickly and ensures he not only proves to Vijay Mallya but to ECB Selectors also. The success will do a world of good to him when he locks his horns against Aussies for The Ashes.
Good luck Kev.
Thursday, 16 April 2009
Sunday, 12 April 2009
Friday, 10 April 2009
The Corridor of Uncertainty
Sometimes life is like a game of cricket. Imagine you are batting and facing a bowler who is constantly pitching the ball in the corridor of uncertainty. You get caught between two minds whether to play at it or leave it. Can you keep letting it go? If you do, when will you score? The point is, if you are playing a test match, time is of no essence, but if you are playing an ODI or a T20 match, you have to start scoring from the word GO. Right?
That is the question on everyone’s mind who is thinking of investing in real estate now as they are caught between whether to invest or not to invest in property sector which has fallen drastically owing to global economic downturn. Is this the right time to buy your dream home or wait for some more time for the further fall? Will it fall further? If it falls, by how much will it fall? These are the questions that are troubling people and there seems no one is in a position to answer these questions convincingly.
This is like waiting for a bowler to bowl you a lolly pop or a fuller delivery on the slot for you to drive handsomely for that much needed boundary. Can you anticipate when you get that ball while batting? The answer is a simple NO.
So rather than waiting for the bowler to bowl you a loosener, the trick lies in taking some calculated chances by going for an aerial shot to clear the mid fielders so your opposite captain moves one of his mid fielders back to that scoring spot to open your area of your strength in the mid field or vice versa. Not all the times the trick works but then in real life too, not all the time your speculation comes true.
The market has fallen by a good 20 - 25% everywhere and I think rather than waiting further, people should go ahead with their investment plans by taking some chances. Because it’s a weak bowler who is bowling at you currently and it’s always good to score runs off a weak bowler before your opposite captain sends in his spearhead. If there is another weak bowler coming in next then it gives you some lead time to read the wicket before you take off.
So If I am an investor now, I will take some time to read the wicket and go with my chances. I say this because I see another ordinary bowler coming at me soon. May be this helps me in scoring as many runs as I want at the end of the game. Because the more runs I get on scoreboard, better is my chances of winning.
I might be wrong. How about you? Will you be taking similar chances?
That is the question on everyone’s mind who is thinking of investing in real estate now as they are caught between whether to invest or not to invest in property sector which has fallen drastically owing to global economic downturn. Is this the right time to buy your dream home or wait for some more time for the further fall? Will it fall further? If it falls, by how much will it fall? These are the questions that are troubling people and there seems no one is in a position to answer these questions convincingly.
This is like waiting for a bowler to bowl you a lolly pop or a fuller delivery on the slot for you to drive handsomely for that much needed boundary. Can you anticipate when you get that ball while batting? The answer is a simple NO.
So rather than waiting for the bowler to bowl you a loosener, the trick lies in taking some calculated chances by going for an aerial shot to clear the mid fielders so your opposite captain moves one of his mid fielders back to that scoring spot to open your area of your strength in the mid field or vice versa. Not all the times the trick works but then in real life too, not all the time your speculation comes true.
The market has fallen by a good 20 - 25% everywhere and I think rather than waiting further, people should go ahead with their investment plans by taking some chances. Because it’s a weak bowler who is bowling at you currently and it’s always good to score runs off a weak bowler before your opposite captain sends in his spearhead. If there is another weak bowler coming in next then it gives you some lead time to read the wicket before you take off.
So If I am an investor now, I will take some time to read the wicket and go with my chances. I say this because I see another ordinary bowler coming at me soon. May be this helps me in scoring as many runs as I want at the end of the game. Because the more runs I get on scoreboard, better is my chances of winning.
I might be wrong. How about you? Will you be taking similar chances?
Thursday, 9 April 2009
Hung Over? Try These Techniques
The ancient Scottish cure for a whisky hangover is the Highland Fling. If you’re not feeling too sick, heat a pint of buttermilk and stir in a tablespoon of cornflower. Then season with salt and pepper.
Scuba divers claim crawling out of bed and taking a blast from an oxygen tank does a wonderful job of blowing away cobwebs. The idea is that increased oxygen speeds up the metabolism, which in turn increases the speed of breaking down poisons.
A more holistic approach to curing headaches is pinching your hand between your thumb and forefinger. That part of the hand is a nerve junction and an acupressure point which is supposed to release tension in the head neck. The advice is to pinch quite hard for thirty seconds every five minutes until the headache subsides.
Some Puerto Ricans rub a slice of lemon or lime in the armpit of their drinking arm before they start drinking to stop a hangover before it starts. Apparently, lemon prevents dehydration and therefore headaches because it helps retain fluid.
In Outer Mongolia, a pair of pickled sheeps eyes in tomato juice is thought to be the answer to a thumping head and cattle ropers in the Old West drank tea brewed from rabbit droppings.
In Ancient Rome, party-goers breakfasted on sheep lungs and two owl eggs and in ancient Greece the cure was deep-fried canaries.
In Haiti, those hit with a hangover make a voodoo doll from the bottle of alcohol which caused the hangover in the first place. They recommend sticking 13 black pins in the wine bottle's cork.
A popular remedy not recommended for pregnant women or the elderly is the Prairie Oyster. It includes a whole raw egg and Worcestershire sauce, seasoned with salt and pepper. The aim is to swallow the concoction in one gulp without breaking the yolk.
The Japanese recommend umeboshi pickled plums to relieve hangovers. The advice is to bite of a quarter of the plum and allow it to dissolve in your mouth. But for a stronger hangover, one whole plum is recommended, which takes about half an hour to dissolve. Umeboshi contains pyric acid, which is supposed to restore the stomach to good health.
Scuba divers claim crawling out of bed and taking a blast from an oxygen tank does a wonderful job of blowing away cobwebs. The idea is that increased oxygen speeds up the metabolism, which in turn increases the speed of breaking down poisons.
A more holistic approach to curing headaches is pinching your hand between your thumb and forefinger. That part of the hand is a nerve junction and an acupressure point which is supposed to release tension in the head neck. The advice is to pinch quite hard for thirty seconds every five minutes until the headache subsides.
Some Puerto Ricans rub a slice of lemon or lime in the armpit of their drinking arm before they start drinking to stop a hangover before it starts. Apparently, lemon prevents dehydration and therefore headaches because it helps retain fluid.
In Outer Mongolia, a pair of pickled sheeps eyes in tomato juice is thought to be the answer to a thumping head and cattle ropers in the Old West drank tea brewed from rabbit droppings.
In Ancient Rome, party-goers breakfasted on sheep lungs and two owl eggs and in ancient Greece the cure was deep-fried canaries.
In Haiti, those hit with a hangover make a voodoo doll from the bottle of alcohol which caused the hangover in the first place. They recommend sticking 13 black pins in the wine bottle's cork.
A popular remedy not recommended for pregnant women or the elderly is the Prairie Oyster. It includes a whole raw egg and Worcestershire sauce, seasoned with salt and pepper. The aim is to swallow the concoction in one gulp without breaking the yolk.
The Japanese recommend umeboshi pickled plums to relieve hangovers. The advice is to bite of a quarter of the plum and allow it to dissolve in your mouth. But for a stronger hangover, one whole plum is recommended, which takes about half an hour to dissolve. Umeboshi contains pyric acid, which is supposed to restore the stomach to good health.
Tuesday, 7 April 2009
Shah Rukh Khan in a spot of bother
What do Sunil Gavaskar, Saurav Ganguly, Shane Warne, Stephen Fleming and Glen McGrath have in common?
Answer: Common Sense. They all dislike John Buchanan’s ideas and their disliking makes complete sense to me.
Perhaps the only man who has failed to understand what John Buchanan, Kolkata Knight Rider’s coach is upto is their owner Shah Rukh Khan. He publicly reacted to Sunil Gavaskar’s comments on John Buchanan and his idea of having multiple captains. Shah Rukh Khan failed to note that there was nothing wrong in what Sunil Gavaskar wrote. Each word in that article made complete sense to anyone who has followed John Buchanan. By reacting, Shah Rukh Khan has jumped the gun and has landed in a soft spot.
Sooner Shah Rukh Khan realizes that this is a team breaking theory from John Buchanan; the better it is for his team, his hard earned money as well as his own acting career. He should simply go ahead and appoint Saurav Ganguly as Captain of KKR for the entire season without toying with the idea of having multiple captains as suggested by John Buchanan. I say this helps Shah Rukh Khan’s acting career because if he goes with the idea, ignores Saurav Ganguly and in the event KKR loses badly, Shah Rukh Khan can rest assured that his movie releases would be affected in entire West Bengal state.
For Shah Rukh Khan, KKR is a passionate investment as he loves Cricket. He should realize that his passion or hobby should not come in way of his core competencies which are his acting and producing movies. If his day job gets affected, he will allow his friends in the industry to laugh at his expense. You all know who I am talking about. Mr. Gavaskar will never hesitate in coming back hard at Shah Rukh if KKR loses because of John’s rubbish ideas. Does he want all these?
Shane Warne, legendary spin doctor late last year said Buchanan was a "goose" and his "verbal diarrhoea" epitomized a worrying big-headed culture. He was spot on as it was the arrogance which brought once mighty Australian team tumbling down to ground. There is a lesson here for Shah Rukh Khan to learn.
“I have played under Buchanan and I know he has a lot of theories, may be this is another one. I don’t know why he (Buchanan) has come up with this idea. I like a single captain idea” said the legendary Glen McGrath yesterday and he certainly knows what he is talking.
Mr. Khan, are you listening?
Answer: Common Sense. They all dislike John Buchanan’s ideas and their disliking makes complete sense to me.
Perhaps the only man who has failed to understand what John Buchanan, Kolkata Knight Rider’s coach is upto is their owner Shah Rukh Khan. He publicly reacted to Sunil Gavaskar’s comments on John Buchanan and his idea of having multiple captains. Shah Rukh Khan failed to note that there was nothing wrong in what Sunil Gavaskar wrote. Each word in that article made complete sense to anyone who has followed John Buchanan. By reacting, Shah Rukh Khan has jumped the gun and has landed in a soft spot.
Sooner Shah Rukh Khan realizes that this is a team breaking theory from John Buchanan; the better it is for his team, his hard earned money as well as his own acting career. He should simply go ahead and appoint Saurav Ganguly as Captain of KKR for the entire season without toying with the idea of having multiple captains as suggested by John Buchanan. I say this helps Shah Rukh Khan’s acting career because if he goes with the idea, ignores Saurav Ganguly and in the event KKR loses badly, Shah Rukh Khan can rest assured that his movie releases would be affected in entire West Bengal state.
For Shah Rukh Khan, KKR is a passionate investment as he loves Cricket. He should realize that his passion or hobby should not come in way of his core competencies which are his acting and producing movies. If his day job gets affected, he will allow his friends in the industry to laugh at his expense. You all know who I am talking about. Mr. Gavaskar will never hesitate in coming back hard at Shah Rukh if KKR loses because of John’s rubbish ideas. Does he want all these?
Shane Warne, legendary spin doctor late last year said Buchanan was a "goose" and his "verbal diarrhoea" epitomized a worrying big-headed culture. He was spot on as it was the arrogance which brought once mighty Australian team tumbling down to ground. There is a lesson here for Shah Rukh Khan to learn.
“I have played under Buchanan and I know he has a lot of theories, may be this is another one. I don’t know why he (Buchanan) has come up with this idea. I like a single captain idea” said the legendary Glen McGrath yesterday and he certainly knows what he is talking.
Mr. Khan, are you listening?
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