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Plagued by the 20-20 war...

After a short break from India's tour to Australia, I was looking forward to see some good test cricket action from the current set of series - ie. West Indies v/s Sri Lanka, England v/s New Zealand and India v/s South Africa. Unfortunately except for some good cricketing moments in New Zealand, the other series seem to be already dissapointing.

A tribute to Gilly Da(n)da !

No other Australian cricketer - even the big Don, Allen Border or Shane Warne - has ever been more popular than Adam Gilchrist simply due to the way he played his cricket. While his entertainment on the field attracted fans all around the world, the human being that Gilchrist is, made him even well-liked among cricket lovers, especially in the sub-continent and other developing parts of the world.

The Diesel rush!

One of the common road-scenes during my childhood days has been the black smoke spitting diesel ambassador cars and willys jeeps - usually seen overloaded with the acrobatic driver sitting in an awkward position getting to utilize only one third of his allocated seat space. The plight of the vehicle sometimes gets worse while on uphill travel whereby some passengers have to get down and give a push to add some more horses to the underpowered vehicle.

Does Bangladesh deserve to play test cricket?

I just finished watching the record breaking opening stand of 415 runs between Graem Smith and Neil McKenzie during the second test between Bangladesh and S.Africa. The record definitely was a boon to Graem Smith who didn't have a very good run in the recent past. And for a mediocre test cricketer like Neil McKenzie, a double ton - and only third century in 44 matches - assisted by poor bowling & fielding, pancake flat pitch and fast outfield was more than winning the super lotto!

Under-19 ICC World cup round-up

The ICC Under-19 World Cup pool matches have been just completed. The first round saw the dominance of sub-continent teams with all of them - Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh - leading the group tally, definitely reinstating the fact that kids pick the game early in this part of the world. Also, Bangladesh managed to register an upset win over England in a low scoring encounter.

IPL - An opportunity or threat?

The Indian Premier League (IPL), which was originally devised by the BCCI to counter the Indian Cricket League (ICL), seems to be getting bigger than anybody would have thought. Even before the event is kicked off, it has managed to attract so much of international attention and has really become a headache for cricket bodies across the world.

The new pace brigade!

India's bowling attack, at the moment, seems to be riding smoothly on the newly found vigor of a number of quality pace bowlers. In fact the trend started five to six years back with Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra taking over the baton from the able Srinath-Prasad duo. Since then India always had six or seven quality bowlers to pick the final pace bowling lineup from and the good thing is that the supply doesn't Ishant Sharma seem to stop at all. While this is a very good sign, I strongly believe that the current system in India still do not have the infrastructure to produce and maintain match fit fast bowlers.

Tackling umpiring errors!

The second test match between India and Australia has been a sensational one that was fought hard by both the teams. While adrenaline was flowing high and fortunes oscillated between the teams, it seems, more than the end-result, a few other incidents on the field has marred the beauty of this game. Unfortunately for the cricket fans worldwide, a lot of umpiring mistakes, misbehaviours of some players on either side, bad ethics from Australian senior players and lack of guts from some Indian players have resulted in India loosing this crucial match. Instead of looking into whether Ricky Ponting did right, Steve Buckner should be fired or Harbajan Singh really called Andrew Symonds a 'monkey', let us analyze how the situation can be improved with respect to officiating the game of cricket.

The brainless think-tank!

We are just a couple of weeks into India's latest encounter down under. A cricket series in Australia is always something that the fans look forward to due to a couple of facts. First of all, we get to see it only once in four years - so it is something as important as the Olympic games! Secondly, it is a beauty to watch and feel professional test cricket at its highest levels with lively pitches, fans, cricket governing bodies and media playing their own roles to perfection - and sometimes beyond - to make it a mega event. Personally, watching test matches, in which Australia participates, gives me more satisfaction than watching matches involving any other competitive teams. India's last outing in Australia during 2003-04 has been thrilling for the outcome that we all are proud of but the current series is already turning out to be disappointing due to improper planning.

Investment strategy in a volatile market!

Indian bourses have been setting new and new index highs every other week amidst heavy volatile trading. There are many arguments in favour of the Indian growth story. Some believe that what we are seeing here is a fundamental move where as some others swear that India is a special case compared to other emerging markets and we will keep going up. Some wisemen and analysts even predict targets for the 'Sensitive Index' for not just 2008 but for 2010 and 2020 as well. The weakening dollar combined with the huge market capitalization gains have made Mukesh Ambani the richest person on earth in less than two months time. However, it may be a matter of couple of months before 9 out of 10 retail investors loose out in the market after being exposed to the high-risk game in the volatile market. Having seen and experienced three huge market falls in my investment life, I would like to advise the inexperienced retail investors to be very cautious at this point of time.