A Classic Rendezvous

The Swiss Master meets the Little Master of Cricket, Sachin Tendulkar. Sachin was impressed with the humility of Fedex. Federer's Facebook status read " Today was a special day, played a good match and had a chance to catch up with the great indian cricket star Sachin Tendulkar".  We know that Sachin Tendulkar is fan of Rf, but Roger being so knowledgeable about cricket and Sachin is quite outstanding.

We know that both are exceptional athletes with unscalable achievements in their respective fields, but their mutual respect shows how great they are.

Let us hope that the " Young Turks" of Indian Cricket learn from these humble superstars rather than dwelling in their premature stardom.

My World Cup moments.

Kapil Dev’s incredible catch

The final of 1983 can be likened to a confrontation between David and Goliath. Indians were worthy underdogs. Odds were stacked up against the Indians. India’s paltry first innings score further amplified the odds. Under the circumstances, Kapil’s incredible catch to dismiss Sir Vivian Richards, who could have single handedly put the Indian attack to the sword.

Steven Waugh being dropped by Gibbs.

Gibbs was so eager to celebrate the catch that he dropped it. Gibbs premature celebration doomed the Proteas. Waugh said to Gibbs, Mate, you just dropped the World Cup. Steve was right. Gibbs has been bestowed with the ignominy of dropping the 1999 world cup.

 Aamir Sohail given marching orders by Venkatesh Prasad.

Prasad is a perennially underrated bowler. Aamir sohail, after scoring a boundary point his bat towards the boundary indicating  his superiority over the bowler. The next ball the bowler came back with vengeance and rattled the timber work with a slower one.

Proteas exit from 1992 World Cup

The Proteas made their debut at the 1992 World Cup, having been recently reinstated to the international cricket after more than two decades isolation.

It was the first time the cricketing world has been able to witness the talents of Allan Donald, Andrew Hudson, Brian McMillan and Dave Richardson.

But, with England standing between them and a place in the final, they were denied by a bizarre ruling that saw Sotuh Africa set an impossible revised target, given their allocated overs.

Ajay Jadeja’s cameo

My history teacher promised us that we all would get chocolates if India wins its quarterfinal match against Pakistan. Thanks to Ajay.

Sachin upper cutting Shoaib Akhtar for a Six

Sachin Tendulkar, well, I can’t say anything which is unsaid about him. Sachin is arguably the best batsman of the modern era. Sachin’s batting is based on the purest principles perfect balance, economy of movement.

India may win the World Cup or not, but it should win its match against their arch rivals and they still maintain an unbeaten record against them. Thanks to Sachin for playing a blitzkrieg and deflate the Pakistanis the record stayed for the day. During the innings, he upper cut Shoiab for a Six over point. That shot is indeed legendary as the man who played it himself.

Mobile Number Portability leading to Moral Hazard?

                                                                        


The long awaited Mobile number portability has been launched on Jan 20. The purpose of this facility is very apparent. It is for the users to change providers change providers without changing the number. It is for customers with genuine problems. What is the deal for those loyal customers with no complaints with their existing service providers? They use their negotiating skills to earn freebies, I guess this culminates into  a Moral hazard on the part of users.

One of my friends has been using Reliance for 2 years. He had one genuine complaint with regards to the connectivity and with that he managed to negotiate a 6 month rental free plan. In fact I negotiated a 10% discount on the bill amount for the next 6 months. So, loyal users send PORT (your mobile number) to 1900 to carve out any deals.

It was thought that MNP would lead to a lot of churn. In order to avoid that the mobile service providers would strive to improve their deficiencies. On the contrary, surveys show that the churn as a result of MNP has been negligible. The biggest gainer in terms of net additions so far has been Idea. Idea Cellular has managed to woo around 12,000 customers. But these numbers are so meagre to warrant any drastic actions. So quality of services rendered by the service providers would remain the same for now.

Proteas' Test for Team India!

Indians looked to be invincibles in the placid, docile sub continental featherbeds. Our batsmen weren't really tested. As a result of these we were able to consolidate our No 1 position in the Test Rankings.

Apparently, Proteas would be itching to produce a green top to intimidate the Indians to submission. But that ploy could be counterproductive because we too have a potent pace attack that can make their batsmen run for their money. In Fact, this has been our weak link for us in the previous decade. We can say that we have sorted out this problem to some extent.

So we look like a balanced side with the ageless war horses leading the way. Our Opening slot is over reliant on the rampaging Phenomenon called Sehwag. Sehwag's partner Gambhir was very rusty in the previous series. Nevertheless, in the ODI series he showed signs of recovery. Rahul scored back to back centuries against the Kiwis but he is a far cry from what we know. Sachin is solid but he is a bit shaky about the prospects of Scoring his 50th Test Century. Laxman delivers when the batteries are down and when team sends an SOS call. It is very premature to pass any comments on Raina and Pujara. In fact, that is one of the problems which need to be addressed. Our bench strength has not been tested yet on lively pitches. On the forth coming tour of South Africa some of them will be truly tested. They would be peppered with Perfume Balls. Let us see how they fare in the ensuing confrontation.

Critics have rightly pointed that India is No 1 Test team without winning a series at South Africa and the Down Under. Even at the Down Under, we nearly won the in the 2003-04, but Proteas have overpowered, overplayed and out thought us in all our previous encounters in their soil. This time around we should reverse the trend in order to justify our position as the No 1 team. It is Now or Never kind of a situation for us. Our team is reasonably well balanced with the oldies looking very solid. I'm afraid whether we can get a team as solid as this one.


So guys gear up for challenge and justify that your position as the number one team is well deserved!

The Gmail Killer

New battle lines are being drawn between Google and Facebook. Facebook is all set launch an e-mail service. The reported service is called 'Project Titan', unofficially referred internally as it Gmail Killer. Of course, Gmail won't be the only one to be affected. Others who would be affected AOL, Yahoo with 303 million users and Microsoft with 384 million users. Facebook, would in all likelihood, leapfrog all these players with its 500 million users.

Facebook can leverage upon the massive user base to its advantage. Moreover, it can study the activities, buying patterns,gaming patterns of its users which can be monetized through advertising.

I have been a fan of Google and its products, let us see how good the mailing service from Facebook turns out to be. Whatever might be the case, the humble user stands to gain in the bargain. Competition generally brings about the best from the competing players. The end-user has a better range of products. The improved competitive atmosphere is likely to compensate on the privacy of the users.

If both the players can do away with possibility of intruding into the privacy, then the humble end user can expect a nice deal.

Futility of All-time world-XI's!

ESPN has recently published an All time world XI. For starters, you guys can take a look.

http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/current/story/482936.html

Needless to say, this has evoked a spontaneous and endless debate about the presence or absence certain players in the XI. Indians would be elated to find the person occupying No 4 position, Sachin Tendulkar.In fact, he is the only player from the current lot.

Gavaskar's fans would be furious about his absence, so the would be the fans of Lara, Kapil Dev, Murali and Ponting. The endless debate would culminate into a vicious circle. So it would keep on repeating itself.

My argument is that the whole idea of framing All Time World XI is flawed. You can't compare people of different era. This statement may sound like a Cliché, but it does hold true. Gavaskar played against the fierce-some pace quartet without WEARING A HELMET or Protective gear.

Old-timer played in uncovered pitches, Nowadays the pitches are covered, rolled. There was also a even contest between bat and ball. Now, the runs are scored flat feather beds as a result the batting averages of the current lot is inflated.

So let us enjoy the game in its corresponding context..

Endhiran Goof!

The costliest Indian movie has lived up to its expectations. So far it has been a thundering success throughout country. Needless, to say it is having a dream run in south India. All the technical parameters have been carefully dealt with. Apart from the commercial success, the movie has received rave reviews from critics too.

The superstar has stormed the bastions of the khan territory, this would be surprising even for a hardcore superstar fan. In this deluge of applause, people tend to forget the acting skills of the superstar. The performance is powerful, subtle and jaw dropping at times.


Ok, have you guys noticed that the above pictures. Even a technically supreme picture seems to have certain goofs. During the song sequence Kadhal Anukal song, the light reflectors and the crew are visible through the reflections that come from Rajini's sun glasses. But seriously, that doesn't really matter. Does it?