Monday, January 07, 2008

India tour to Australia: A game of shame?

There is no point for me writing a post to point how dirty did Australia played the second test match as one can see that the entire world is against them on this. But still somehow I am not able to resist myself in writing some of the points I observed.

While doing the aftermath of the match, when someone asked Ricky Ponting about his views on some of the controvertial decisions and catches (including his huge appeal for an incomplete catch), here is what he had to say:

"... In my opinion umpires are also human and are subject to make errors and in Ganguly's decision, the umpire (Mark Benson) was looking for me (captain) to ask if the catch was complete. I asked Clarke about the catch and he was confident that he had taken the catch and so I confirmed the umpire about the catch and said that Ganguly was out and this is the way I think the cricket should be played...".

No Mr. Ponting, the game SHOULDN'T be played this way. As a rule and also quoted by Sunil Gavaskar when talking about these controvertial decisions, it is stated that in case of a doubt the umpire has to consult the leg umpire (and not Ricky Ponting, opposition team's captain) to clarify his doubt and if the leg umpire is also not sure about it then the third umpire is reffered to for the decision. In case of the third umpire also not sure about the issue, the benefit of doubt is given to the batsman which was clearly not the thing in Ganguly's case. Though I wonder, how good would it have been asking the third umpire on this as he himself gave some wrong decision when he got the liberty to use technology and see the replay multiple times.


In all, it was a bad day for the Indian side watching the australian team, the umpires, the third umpire and the match referee all against India and giving the wrong decisions all the times. Some of the controvertial decisions that I remember are:

1) Symonds not given out twice (finally hitting 150+) was a major blow to the Indian side.
2) Ganguly's decision - Clarke grounded the ball.
3) Dravid's caught behind decision - Dravid never touched the ball by his bat.
4) Jaffer's decision - Brett Lee did a no ball but umpires were kind enough to Lee not to see that.
5) Third umpire decision of stumping etc.

On the top of this, the Harbhajan-Symonds controversy where the match referee (Mike Procter) found Harbhajan guilty on the plea of just two Australian player when none of the umpire heard the comment. Sachin, who was in the crease when the incident happened, was also not considered worthy enough to listen to. Harbhajan being banned for 3 matches is a big enough punishment anyone can give to a player (that too when the charges weren't proved) considering the maximum punishment was 4 matches ban. Anyways, history knows how the same person banned 5-6 Indian players for some matches sometime back even when they didn't do anything that should make someone ban them for some matches.

In my opinion, Indians should just boycott the series as the Australian team and their allies have forgotten even the basics of the sportsmanship which says that it doesn't matter who wins or loses the game, what matters is how the game is played.

Related articles:

'Bitter' Australia-India Test leaves sour taste - media
Aussies rally behind Harbhajan
Team India c Benson b Bucknor
Rotten from first day to the last
Indian team stays on in Sydney to push ban appeal
Three former captains slam Ponting on racial issue
Kumble questions Australia's spirit
We will fight the false slur against our player: BCCI


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Sunday, October 28, 2007

Found a banana pile on road? What NOT to do to avoid skidding over it!

For a long time I admired the camouflage effect behind encryption algorithms for they work so well in hiding what they actually carry and misdirect the possible hacking attempt leaving the original content save, secure and in restricted hands only.

Life is going pretty fast and every hour passes as if it had never begun. A milestone is approaching very fast and to some it might seem like a cat approaching a rope tied rat. One suggestion that might do the trick for the rat is that don't panic and be a brat and kick the cat ;). Victory will be yours dear rat ;).

With the best wishes to all those rats I would like to finish this crap (this post :) ).

ArUn TaNgRi


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Saturday, September 08, 2007

India will emerge among top 3 economic powers in 25 years ?

Watching my nation grow at such a fast pace and also being a part of it is really a great feeling. What adds the flavor to this sweet dish is the global recognition that India is getting. Take for an example the words by Mr Craig Barrett, Chairman, Intel Corporation, "If India continues to grow at over eight per cent, once can do the maths and see how long it takes for India to come in the top three economies worldwide. Countries like India and China will have faster rate of growth than the developed nations. Depending on how you do the maths it is inevitable, in 20-25 years".

Quite impressive!!! Undoubtedly, India is heading towards topping the list of the countries with the largest man power but

What bothers me:
  • Is that it also tops the list of the countries with the largest IDLE man power with a very huge percentage of people sitting on the "bench" waiting to realize their potential. As quoted by anonymous, "I work very hard to get some work to do in the busiest company of the world".
  • Is that a country, which is proud to have an ex-prez in the form of a teacher, a learned professor & missile man, Dr. APZ Abdul Kalam, the person who is so much dedicated towards teaching and motivational for entrepreneurial skills, is lacking the basic infrastructure to provide the children of the country with even the basic and elementary education.
  • Is that a country so rich in its knowledge and culture is so poor when it comes to provide the higher education to its citizen.
  • Is that a country which should aim to make the IITs, the institution resembling the excellence in engineering education in the country at graduation level, the institutions providing only the higher education and focusing more on R&D has been indulged in the dirty vote bank game and is taking so much time in establishing new IITs / upgrading the institutes to that level. Are we even clear about our air with respect to these institutions?
  • Is that a person really in need of some help from the government for his / her uplifting in the society kept on waiting till he dies because he is from so-called higher class while a person who has already availed this benefit from the government not just once or twice or thrice but even more than that is still getting those benefits not only for him but all of his wards and relatives as well for he being a member of so-called lower class. What even more bothers me is that the situation is getting better but in the negative side.
  • Is the scarcity of the teachers in the educational institutions and the absence of students in the classrooms.
Anyways, but despite of all these points I am sure that we'll be amongst the top 3 economic powers of the world in the next 25 years. Right Mr. Barrett? :)

Guys, we are doing great!! Really good!! What's your problem anyways? Don't you like the system up and running as we have in here? I have given it enough thoughts, now its your turn.

The comments are author's personal comments and are not subject to any legal issues. The author reserve the right to take them back as and when required :)


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Saturday, March 24, 2007

Last Post on the blog

Hi All,

It's the last post on this blog. I am taking a break for sometime from blogging.

Catch you all guys later on.

Enjoy The Life
Arun


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Monday, February 12, 2007

Chords


Guitar Chords !!! Ahh !!!
Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. ~Berthold Auerbach
IF discovering music has been one of the invaluable accomplishments of mankind, inventing the guitar has certainly made it priceless. Surreal it was - lying there on the soft, moist grass with the clear sky above me and a guitar by my side.
WIth such a simple concept of resonance, a hollow piece of wood and a set of strings can do wonders. It has the power to give a gift of life to a dying person. Historically also the effect & impact of music is so huge that the greatest of the writers of their time liked talking something or the other on music or will use it to describe a situation.
Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness. ~Maya Angelou, Gather Together in My Name
MAy it be a war place, work place or any other place; may you be alone sitting idle under a tree or with your soulmate; may you really want to scream hard or just keep quiet; music has every form of life in it & trust me, you'll find a music of your type in any state of your mind.
A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence. ~Leopold Stokowski
IT happened to be a time when I was in my college's last year that this passion of guitar struck me like anything. I liked it very much but I am not sure about my peers :). I used to play it for the whole night desperately trying hard to learn 'how to play the damn thing?'.
www.IndianGuitarTabs.com proved to be very helpful to me for the initial learning and brushing up the basics. I learned to play many songs from there and I still refer to it. Second site that I happen to visit is www.FreeGuitarVideos.com.
Enjoy The Flamboyance of Music
ArUn TaNgRi


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