Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Latest Updates

Baught a (used) Maruti 800 this Saturday. Medison Blue in colour, 1999 model, 76K Km running. Will post the snaps soon.

Also travelled to my city of origin Nagpur to attend a friend's marriage. Travelled to Amravati on the way to attend a family function.

Back to cricket! Missed a lot of cricket due to these trips :-) The Aus-SA series is generating good interest. SA put up a good fighting show in the first match but are looking down the barrel (As Expected) in the second match. The Australians are consistently scoring many more runs in their second innings as compared to the first - A sign of true champions. In Brad Hodge and Mike Hussey, they have found the next generation middle order. They along with Michael Clarke, I think, will tore the bowling attacks of the world apart in the decade to come. Talking about their current matches, the SA is putting up a real good fight but I am sure the Australians are going to edge them over. SA have a major problem in the sense that they do not have a match winning spinner while Aus have two. This will make a huge impact on the second innings.

In the meanwhile, India as expected, comfortably won the third test match with Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka also missed the killer instinct when they allowed scores of 97/5 and 102/5 to go past 300 every innings. That spoke a lot about the strength of the Indian lower and lower-middle order and is a major reaosn why I think India will remain a force to reckon with in the coming months. With away series to go against Pakistan West Indies, South Africa & New Zealand and a home series against England, this seems to be a fascinating season for Indian cricket fans.

It has not doubt begun on a wrong note with the whole Ganguly affair. The latest move to select him for the Pak series might have two justifications. One - give him a nice farewell (I would be glad if this is the one). Second - Politics. West Bengal assembly elections are coming up in the next 3-4 months and Left is a supporter of the central government in which Pawar is a minister. No doubt the Left who are desparately looking for a continuation of (mis)governance in Bengal, want to score a few brownie points and win a crazy crowd support. Sucks, ain't it?

The Pakistan series is gonna be one heck of a tour. I think on current form both teams are equal. I would say the test series will be a 1-1 draw and one day series is too close for me to predict. Lets see what happens.

The BJP in the meanwhile is at its lowest with charges of corruption, sex abuse etc etc hitting them hard at their 25 year celebrations. With Advani making way for another leader, there is no consensus on the man to follow him. I would blame the current situation on lack of vision and inability to keep Sangh in control. I would love to see either Pramod Mahajan or Arun Jaitley named as the President as soon as possible.

Till next,
Good Bye.

Monday, December 19, 2005

Politics, Corruption, Media & Stocks

A few days ago, 11 Indian parliamentarians were caught red handed on camera while taking bribes to ask specific questions in Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha. Shocking, as the news came, there were many reactions and responses to the "Breaking" news. Most of them cried foul about the way all the politicians and parliamentarians work and earn. Many to the ridiculous extent like the one below : I heard this from one friend: "Yaar, I wish the bomb hoax would have been a real bomb. It would have killed all the corrupts". Quite a shameless comment, I think. While thinking about the whole catch-bribery-on-the-cam operation, I came across a really nice article in the Sakal newspaper. It talked about the 11 corrupt parliamentarians and how the media was using them to create a wrong impression of the entire political establishment. The argument was that it is not correct to generalise such things. Agreed that those 11 people were corrupt and their acts must be denounced. However, the parliament has 8-900 members. And just because a few were caught on camera, it does not mean that all of them are equally corrupt and the whole system is rotten. It will be very unfair to many of them.

In the meanwhile, we really need to understand the role of media in a society. Such sting operations are used to increase the channel ratings. Of course they expose a corrupt angle of India's political system. But then, do those same channels spend some time showing the positive side of the coin? The Indian governance system is one of the best democratic and respected establishment in the world. Should not these things too be imprinted on the minds of the youth? What pride is the young generation going to have in the country, if the only thing they see on TV is such targeted yellow journalism? I think this is quite a serious allegation and the TV media must take steps to ensure that they behave in a responsible manner in the society and not just increase their own viewership. As compared, the print media, in my opinion is really good and I have begun to prefer newspapers like Indian Express and Sakal, a lot more than any news channel.

Talking about corruption, I think it starts at the base, with every citizen. Let's take a common example. You don't carry a driving licenense one day. A cop catches you. Fine is 400/-. He offers you a short cut: A bribe of 100 and you are let off. How many people would take the pains of paying 400, going home, producing the license, and so on? Is the person giving the bribe not as guilty as the one accepting it? This will be seen in so many places like passport verification, customs check after foreign visits, & so on. Unless the corruption is driven out of the mind of the common citizen, it cannot be driven out of the whole system.

In the meanwhile, I got 50 shares allocated from the ICICI bank FPO. Its the first time I got shares in an IPO and so I am hapy. However, the immediate returns are not as high as the other issues, so it will be interesting to see if it makes sense to sell these shares right now. In general, the stock market is on a huge roll. It has set aside all speculations for the last few months and set newer records every month. Let's see how it behaves from now on up until the Year End. That will be a big test for the emerging Indian Markets. Happy Trading :-)

Cheers,
- Tosh

Friday, December 16, 2005

C r i c k e t

Its that time of the year, you know. December. The season of cricket. So many international teams are busy at this time of the year.

Let's start with the India Sri Lanka series at home. With the 1st test drawn and second easily in India's pocket, it will be interesting to see the approach of Indian batsmen in the third. Will they attack or defend? Will they try to squueze in 2-0 or try to defend 1-0. Looking at the current form, it seems unlikely that SL will be able to beat India. Now about the second test.

It all started with the century by Tendulkar. There is no doubt that this country has been hit with the Tendulkar mania since that day on. Every TV channel and newspapers carried big stories on him on the day he became the first person to score 35 test centuries. In my opinion, focussing too much on such individual records is not correct. And especially when it is done with a bias, it sucks. Take for example, the time when we won the test series in Zimbabwe a month or two ago. It was India's first win outside the subcontinent in about 15 years. Did the media glorify this fact as much? Or, the time when Kumble took his 30th 5-wicket haul in the 2nd test - The only Indian to have done it so many times (By far & Long). Did the media sensationalise this personal achievement? No. Why? Because Sachin sells more than Kumble or sometimes even more than Team India. These facts certainly gives a sad impression of the India media.

Media apart, it was a good overall show by the Indian team. Sachin, Kumble, Pathan, Bhajji, Gnguly, Yuvraj, Dravid and in the end Dhoni all played well sometime or the other. Kumble was no doubt the star performer. It is just impossible to imagine an India test win without him contributing. He will leave a big hole when he stops playing. Other Indian bowlers need to pick up wickets more frequently before that happens.

Gambhir and Agarkar were disappointing to say the least. I will put my money on these two playing very well in the third match as that will be a very important match for their careers. Gambhir is just not getting decent starts and Agarkar not getting the consistency that he found so well in the one dayers. Agarkar is my favourite fast bowlers nowadays. His confidence after returning to the one day team was amazing. His ability to bowl the yorker and to reverse the old ball is spectacular. However his consistency in tests remains a big question mark. He will have to do much more if he wants to retain his place in the team where he will soon face fierce competition from guys like Zaheer, RPSingh etc.

On the dropping of Ganguly. Let's say that he played very well in this match before saying that he does not deserve a place in this team right now. The time is ripe for him to hang up his boots with pride. His career had finished the moment he took the press conference after the century in Zimbabwe. However, I do feel that it was wrong to drop him for the 3rd test. He should have been told that this series would be his last. Or else, he should not have been picked in the squad for the series. India have a tradition of looking down at their past captains starting with Azharuddin and now at Ganguly. Even Steve Waugh was dropped from the Aussie team, but that was with pride. He was not cornered the way Azhar and Ganguly were. It will be interesting to see how well Saurav plays in domestic cricket to plan a comeback now, which seems near to impossible.

Another gripping series is on in Aus with SA. SA looked a handsome ODI team but tests are different. And very difficult in Aus. I predict that Aus will crush SA without much trouble. But SA have some new and exciting players to watch out for and their fight will be interesting to follow.

In another series, Pakistan defeated England very easily in ODIs as well as tests. It shows that the game is a great leveller. Now so long ago, England was branded as next best only to Aus, only to be mauled in Pakistan. Yousuf Youhana (I will always call him by this name) and Inzamam Ul Haq, in the meanwhile, continue to impress with their every knock. Inzy by far is my most favourite cricketer on the planet right now. The command, ease & elegance with which he plays is quite beautiful and at the same time his consistency is amazing. He is on a huge high right now and I hope he stays there for long. When he came on to the international scene, he was branded by Pak as the answer to India's Sachin. I think with his recent consistency and captaincy, he has definitely outclassed both Lara and Sachin.

That's all for now. More after the 3rd test.
Cheers,
- Tosh