etcetera

Zimbabwe's return to test cricket was very impressive. Match was very competitive with both teams having good chance to win till 4th day. Two were almost evenly matched teams. Agreed that current England- India series is more one sided, but India had their chances and teams were more or less well matched on paper. Such matches are much more fun that one sided matches between top test teams and the cellar-dwellers like Bangladesh or Zimbabwe. With new football season about to begin this weekend, I wonder if similar structure could be applied to cricket as well to have more competitive matches and continued interest in test cricket. Two-tiered test cricket with promotion/ relegation could be the answer.

With 10 test teams, we can have 6 teams in top tier, viz., India, England, Australia, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Pakistan. And the rest, i.e., West Indies, New Zealand, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, in 2nd tier. ICC is already proposing Test Championship. So why not have it among top 6 teams? And another tournament among second tier. (What prompted me to divide teams in these groups? I guess it's quite obvious. Zimbabwe are playing their next test against New Zealand, so this proves pedigree of the teams)

It would be run over 2 year period. During this period each team will play other team in test series (minimum 3 tests), either home or away. If one team plays at home against particular team, it plays away against same team in next tournament. Test series win would fetch 3 points and 1 for drawn series. Or we can have test wise scoring system as well. So at the end of 3 years the team with maximum points wins. No more complex calculations to decide world champion. After each tournament team at the bottom of the group relegates and team topping second tier would be promoted. So teams which are not good enough from top tier would automatically get relegated and teams like say New Zealand would get promoted.

So when would teams like New Zealand play against say India or Australia in that 2 year period? For that there could be knock-out tournament like FA Cup, which could run annually or biennially. 2 winners of knock-out matches in 2nd tier would join 6 teams in quarter finals. This would be based on random draws and so West Indies could be drawn against say England. This would be followed by Semis and Finals. Now this could be 2 or 3 test series. Effectively this gives even Bangladesh to compete and play with top teams in Semis and Finals provided they are good enough.

So in 2 year period, a test team would be playing 5 test series for the Championship and 2-3 test series for the Cup. Overall 7-8 test series in 2 year period, which is in sync with current schedules. But these series would be more competitive and should produce better cricket with everything to play for!

Polish president was going to attend anniversary of Katyn massacre (There is excellent movie on this by Andrej Wajda, renowned Polish director). In this massacre around 20000 Polish troops and intelligentsia were killed by Russian army. Russia confessed about this massacre in 1990 and prior to that it had claimed that it was done by Nazis.

Poland has always been caught in this crossfire of two mighty nations on either side. And so has been Hungary. Mighty Russia on one side and Germany (and more recently USA & allies) on the other (Wajda movie depicts this very well, where by citizens are caught on bridge with Russian & German armies invading from either side). During World Wars, these countries were used as pawns & soft targets and suffered the most. Cities were devastated, people had to migrate (even Able in 'Kane and Able' is Pole). During Cold War, they were part of Soviet block and were important part of Russian strategy against USA. After disintegration of Soviet Union, these countries tried to move away from Russia towards NATO block, resulting in ire from Russia. Thus, over the years Poland and Hungary been caught in the crossfire.

But recent events have helped to improve relations between Poland and Russia. Medvedev addressed Polish people and showed empathy towards them. Even Putin's reaction has been positive. Such improved relations with West & Russia would definitely help Poland. It could benefit from its unique location. Lot of investment from Western Europe, especially Germany, has gone in Poland and further Russian investments would definitely help. So rather than being a nation caught in crossfire, it could serve as a nation which bridges West & Russia!

Afrikaners have always considered themselves as part of South African history, as if they are natives over there. They are mainly descendants of Dutch immigrants who migrated to South Africa in 18th-19th century. Interestingly, they didn't try to colonise, unlike Europeans did in other parts of the world. They were mainly farmers (and hence called 'boers'- farmer in Afrikaan) and formed their small towns & republics in northern part of SA after British colonists pushed them inland. They fought with local African tribes like Zulus & Xhosas for land. Interestingly, Niall Ferguson in his book Empire, mentions Boers as last remaining tribe of Africa, after Zulus were defeated.

And still Afrikaners consider themselves as the rightful owners of SA land and in my opinion, their white supremacy movement, lead by Terreblanche in past, also stems from this. It's like any other separatist movement where people want separate country because they are ethnically/religiously/culturally different. Even they have in the past threatened 'Civil war', war between two groups of same country, if their demands are not met.

Interesting how some European immigrants went to totally different region and became a local 'tribe'!

Last few days most of the newschannels (esp. Hindi) were showing only one news. Shaadi of the year (or should I say decade, century...)!. Coverage on channels like Aaj Tak, Star News was simply ridiculous. They were telecasting as if it is the only news that Indians are interested in. Agreed it was a headline, but not worth the importance it received. Times of India, so called leading paper in Mumbai, alloted more than half of its first page for the news. Newspapers and news channels are giving up their responsibility of being 'The Fourth Pillar of Democracy" and are morphing into yet another medium of entertainment.

But I am amazed by a completely different aspect of Ash-Abhishek wedding. I am amazed by the amount of rituals and pujas performed before engagement and the amount of coverage it receieved. Aishwarya is maangalik and hence they performed a series of pujas at the Kashi Vishwanath temple and Sankat Mochan temple in Varanasi. I find this simply ridiculous. We are leaving in modern age. Education must inculcate scientific attitude in learned and they do away with such ideas. Media and role models in society are supposed to create awareness among people to develope such rational mindset. On the contrary, Amitabh Bachchan, role model for many Indians, is performing such rituals and media is abating by giving it unnecessary coverage. Not a single newspaper or news channel raised this issue. On the contrary, they portaryed it as if it was one of the necessary events before the wedding.

Media has to play more active role in eradicating such irrational traditions and practices. Newspapers have, over the years, been successful in creating awareness among masses against such traditions. They must live upto that tradition.

PS: Just my father pointed out that maangalik issue was portrayed in right perspective in latest blockbuster 'Lage Raho Munnabahi'. And the irony is that Abhishek Bachchan is shown marrying to a maangalik girl against the wishes of his father and ctiticises such traditions. Time to replicate the Reel life into Real life!

Most around the world are concerned with the rising terrorism. And Governments are taking various measures to stop terrorism. However, the latest ad campaign by Mumbai Police to create public awareness about teroorism, fails to fulfil its objective.

In this campaign, various advertises (by Lintas. Since joining JB, I always pay attention to this kind of stuff!) are put up in buses, trains to make commuters aware that the next terrorist can be right next to you. Some of the posters go like this

I am thinking about swithing from Cable Tv to DTH or any other technology. But when I looked at the options, I was really disappointed.

Tata Sky and Dish TV project themselves in their advertisements as if they are panacea for all the cable problems. But in reality they are nothing but other form cable television. No service lets you chose single channels, you have to chose bouques. More so with Tata Sky, where there is single payment of Rs. 300 per month. In Dish, at least, you have a choise between 4-5 packages. And there are some more channels that are not available on normal cable like Goal TV which telecast SPL, Dutch League (Hurrah!). But otherwise its same old cable TV. There are some advantages like better picture quality and interactive services. But are they really worth, as you have to pay for unnecessary channels.

DTH should be more flexible. For example, on one of the Sundays, there were two Cricket matches going on on Star Sports and ESPN. So they didn't show football match. Really frustrating. Now, as ESPN-Star have rights for EPL and Cricket, they must provide user with choice to choose between sports. Even in case of Champions League matches, there must be option of chosing among 8 matches, just like they have on Sky Sports in UK. Otherwise DTH is useless.

From 1st January, Government will be implementing CAS in Metros. So user has to pay Rs.5 for each pay channel. System seems good as there is no bouquet system involved. But implementation is through cable operattor so it will be interesting to see how it turns out. Also setting up artificial limit of Rs.5 is also a contentious issue. Another technology, IPTV, is also in its initial stages and number of channels offered by MTNL is also limited.

The world is moving from normal DTH to DTH with HDTV and here we are still discussing whether to implement CAS or not. Ditto is the case with moble technology, where Japan and Korea are planning to move from 3G to 4G and Indian Governement plans to allot spectrums for 3G to Indian operators from March, 2008. Indian public maybe fast adapting to technology changes, but when there is a policy decision involved, there always seems to be lag because of Governement involvement.

Possible solution? Government officials should make all the technologies available to the public and let them decide the fate of the technology!

"Don't be Evil"- The famous motto of Google, a company widely acknowledged and even revered across the globe. But recently there have been many instances where Google has behaved totally opposite to this motto. The self-imposed censorship in China being the most publicized one. But there are also other examples in which I get the feeling that Google is having the same influence on the Internet, as Microsoft had on OSs and PCs.

I just read in Business Standard that many of the newspaper editors are writing their headlines so that they become Google-friendly, irrespective of what the readers like. Isn't this like many softwares being compatible with Microsoft Windows to get the wider coverage?

Another thing I would like to mention is Google Talk. I mean, it's one of the worst messangers. It has no facility for conference, no Appear Offline, or even emoticons. And integrating GTalk with Gmail is the most irritating part. You are just visiting Gmail to mail and then Google notifies that you are online. No privacy! In spite of this it has become very popular with users( or should I put it - Its usage has increased). Some people (like my friend Gopal) find it better than Yahoo! This increase is mostly due to bundling of GTalk with Orkut, most popular social networking site. Didn't Microsoft do the same thing with Internet Explorer to kill Netscape?

Look at recent acquisitions of Google, Youtube. Now you require Google ID to watch videos on Youtube. You can't do it anonymously. Even blogger has succumbed to Google! Orkut also has Google ads. Google has also showing many technical glitches lately, especially with Orkut and Gmail.

Talking about another aspect of anonymity, Google keeps record of all or searches to "understand the users". So what you have searched, what are your preferences all is there with Google. If Google's shopping spree continues, I wonder if they will have all the record of our online lives. And Google has given this information to authorities in the past. In fact, there was a case, when a person was apprehended for his wife's murder, because he has searched terms related to murder. Some might claim that Google must help in such instances. But there is high chance of using personal information for wrong purposes.

Google has observed amazing succes over last few years because of its simplicity and innovative idea. The fact that Google has been competing with traditional bigwigs like Yahoo and Microsoft has created a sort of Googlemania, becuase people like underdogs. But I fear that Google itself is slowly becoming a next Microsoft. Google has to be beware of this.

PS: Check out this podcast about Google to get a peek at Googleplex.
http://www.thechangingworld.org/archives/wk40.php

PS: Just saw another problem with Google. Now you have to agree terms and conditions even while uploading photo on your own blog!