IPL and bottom teams

I have been travelling travelling and travelling during the past seven days and because of that missed out IPL semifinals as well as finals :( . Drove roughly 1600 Kms, thanks to great highway network in US, covered four cities. It was tiring but was fun. Spent couple of days in Chicago with one friend and then travelled to Wisconsin dells to see the water park capital of the world, came back and again drove to Wausau for some official work and came back today morning.

But in between all the fun, I missed out the final and second semifinal of IPL. I read about the blistering hundred from Manish Pandey and the nail biting finish in the finals. Till now a lot has been written about two bottom placed teams of IPL 1.0 playing in the finals of IPL 2.0, but we might want to go back to IPL 1.0 and remember that RR were supposed to be bottom placed team then and they came up with a surprise team studded with stones (little known players) instead of gems (the big stars) and took every one by surprise. Deccan chargers, if had done this good last time around it would not have been a surprise but coming back from bottom to top is a real good one. For Bangalore also it was quite positive after a disastrous last session and further bad start with KP at the helm of affairs.

Delhi and Chennai were good but were not that good in the knock out stage but if i have to pick one factor which really worked in favor of RR last year and for RCB and DC this year and that is fact that at the end of the day you have to rely and home talent. Gilchrist definitely was at his best in taking away the semifinals but in other matches he was well supported by his Indian colleagues. Be it Pragyan Ojha, RP or Suman, no one really was ready to call it quits. Whatever we may say about disastrous first half Bangalore had with KP leading the deck, but the fact is that their domestic talent was not working then. It might have to do with KP himself, as it needs a Captain like Warne or Kumble to get the talent out of shyness by giving them additional responsibilities. Warne did not shed tears for his limited resources like Buchanan (who wanted more foreign players in the playing XI). Kumble did the same by sending the newcomer Pandey to open the innings in a semifinal. Gilchrist did not shy away from benching Laxman to give Suman a chance.

If anything the other teams have to learn from two IPLs is that, they need the home grown talent and for that they can not just rely on state ranji teams. Like Warne they may want to test a few folks who didn't even play a single first class match as every one know what it takes in India to get a place in State team.

I will soon updating my visit to Home of Harley Davidson (yes Milwaukee is the town where they are built and I visited their factory)

No Photo finish in Elections

I am dejected with the loss of BJP and NDA but still I am happy to see the people like Mayawati and Left being marginalized. Even SP and RJD have been reduced to an extant that they can not negotiate for their terms, and most probably will dance on Sonia's tunes, as they will be desperate to be part of central government. Simply because they can not afford to be out of power at both center and state simultaneously, such a thing will create too much of negative impact on their cader.

Mulayam's SP is already under immense pressure in UP because of the Mayawati's constant vigil on Gunda elements of SP (may be 80-100% of total SP cader). However now mulayam can not dictate the terms, like using 356 against UP Government. But still UPA falling short by 10-14 will enable SP to talk for some ministerial berths, however I am not sure if congress people will really like that idea.

If it was only for the corruption, it would have still been fine to give them some ATM ministries (unfortunate but truth, corruption is part and parcel of our lives), but the most unfortunate part is their interference with foreign policies of central government. DMK is already troubling central government to save LTTE, which was responsible for killing of Rajiv Gandhi, but politics has its own compulsions. India has already messed it up Nepal under pressure from the left block, and we have already seen some consequences of that.

Whatever it may be, India still remains a predominantly Hindu nation and having that Hindu link with Nepal was always in favor of India, as at least they had one good neighbor (except Bhutan). Indian policy towards china was again compromised because of Communists, and now if people like mulayam have a say in central government I fear the worst on India's western borders. During the times of trouble in Pakistan, India needs to deal with it with strong hands, and any compromise on that, just because they are all Muslims out there will seriously damage Internal Security as you never know when India develops it own cader of Taliban.

I am still not able to understand the happiness of Indian Voters with UPA, I know they dont bother about economics, infrastructure and corruption but st least they should have seen the price rise and governments attitude towards terrorists. May be Afzal Guru Will have to wait for another 5 years (at least) for his punishment or people like Kasab will keep their smile on, while government will put all its efforts behind friends of Pragya and Purohit.

Elections and IPL well poised for a photo finish

Two third of IPL is over and four fifth of Indian elections is also done. Elections will be completed tomorrow and then we have to keep our fingers crossed for couple of days before we get to know about our next government. If I can make out anything from the elections analysis (no exit pols until 13th May), the changing tunes of media houses and of parties, it is almost sure that congress is going to be at loss this time around while BJP will be gaining (I might be biased in my analysis, anyways every one will come out probably with exit poll results by today evening and 16th is not far off either). But still one thing is for sure that no one is going to get anywhere close to the magic 273 mark, even with their current allies i.e. NDA and UPA formations.

With that the future of India will be left with the regional satraps and it will all come down to the kind of deal a one formation can offer over another. The worst scenario definitely will be every one rallying behind a third or fourth front PM as that PM won't survive for more then a year and thus creating instability during already bad times financially. I see a big dip in stock markets if something like that happens. I can just hope that BJP is able to pull it off with the help of people lie Chandrababu naidu (TRS has already come aboard) and may be Jayalalitha if required but certainly not the Bahenji. I know both Jayalalitha and Mayawati are bad but sometimes you have to choose best amongst the worst. If not BJP then i will hope even for congress but still everything as of today is pretty open and I don't think anyone has even slightest Idea of what it going to look like on 16th May.

IPL also started at almost the same time and rather had to move out of the country because of elections only (theoretically we should have been able to have IPL in India after 16th May). And there too I don't think any team except Delhi can be more then 90% sure about a place in semis, and even Delhi if looses 4 matches and mumbai and RR win their remaining three, the top four will be entirely different group. In this IPL their have been cases when a team with one win came straight to no. 2 from 7 and when we have just a margin of 4 points (that couple of matches) between the top seven teams, no one can be sure of anything other then the return schedule of Sharukhs Champs.

Mumbai started with a bang and lost in between and now catching up again. Deccan also started great, got dinged completely in between and again coming back. Chennai did not start that well but dhoni definitely made sure not to repeat his mistakes and with the help of old bull they are just an inch away from no.1 position.

Panjab started badly, picked up fast and with the return of their two of best seamers into the team, they are on their loosing streak again. I don't know what bret lee and Appam have to do with this but sure Yusuf abdulla has, who undoubtedly was an important factor in Yuvi's team. RR again has been pretty shaky and came back strongly after loosing badly at start only to go back to find their place at the bottom half of the table. Now without Shane Warne I am not sure how Smith will guide the champions (I assume he will be natural choice for the skipper's role). Bangalore has again been shaky but is doing quite well after the departure of Malya's favorite KP and today in the battle of two kiwi's their bird stole the game for them to keep their hopes on.

In between all these swinging performance by six teams in this IPL ony two teams have been quite consistent and lesser amongst the two finds a place at the top of table with just a couple of losses. Delhi is struggling with their opening combination and they have to thanks their middle order for their rank in the table. I hope when Viru comes back he will start firing again and will take Delhi forward.

The most consistent team definitely has been a well picked and lead team of Knight riders (I assume they have to move out of Kolkata next year with all they have done this year, final nail to their coffin can be dropping of dada from the team which Buchnan wants as per info provided by fake ipl player). They have been pretty consistent with loosing and came close to win only a couple of times only to let it go. The only role they can play now is of a spoiler to others chances if somehow they manage to pull a game off.

I obviously want BJP at the top of poll charts and Delhi at the top of IPL charts, but have to keep my fingers crossed.

CBI-The Congress' Bureau of Investigation

If I can make out anything from the recent actions of the CBI, it is very clear that congress is finding it impossible to come back to power and before loosing hold of CBI they just want to clear the names of the people like Tytler, Sajjan Kumar and Quatrocchi. To my astonishment the attorney general and now the prime minister calls the Red corner notice against Quatrochchi (now taken off) as the embarrassment to the government. I am not sure what embarrassment are they referring too, probably they feel embarrassed after Interpol asks them why are you helping Quatrachchi in packing his money (Hansraj Bhardwaj helped during an official visit), when you are asking us to crack him down. Other then that I can not understand any kind of embarrassment a government has to face for the fugitives.



Why Mr. Manmohan Singh and company are so embarrassed by the fact the Mr Q is required by Interpol, is he some relative of Ms. Super PM. Or if he feels after failing to -plead successfully to bring Mr Q back from Argentina, then why is he not feeling embarrassed with the fact that his government is sitting on the capital punishment order for Afzal by the supreme Court of India, or for that matter thousands of Indians who are in jails waiting for their trails to begin. Why Mr. Manmohan Singh is not embarrassed by the fact that partners in his government are openly praising and accepting friendship to the killers of India's former PM (that too from his own Party and a friend of Mr. Q). Why is Mr. Manmohan singh is not feeling embarrassed with that fact the Interpol website carries numerous Indian wanted with confirmed addresses in places like Canada, UK, Middle East and Pakistan. And Why Mr. Manmohan Singh is not embarrassed about the fact that Interpol website does not point to CBI website properly (http://www.interpol.int/Public/Wanted/Fugitives/Links.asp#10).



This case of embarrassment is like a person a person, first opens his car and screws it up and instead of taking to proper mechanic calls it an embarrassment to keep such a thing and sells it. Here first the central Minister asked London bank to de freeze Mr. Q's accounts as they supposedly did not carry bofors money (why such an affection for an accused that Mr. Bhardwaj himself travelled to make the request). Then CBI faults big time with a new arrest warrant instead of the original one. Now Mr. PM says since we have faulted in the past its better to leave Mr. Q alone. I am not sure why is the congress party so adamant about not bringing Mr. Q back to India. Probably Mr. Q in India can provide some info against SPM. But at least they should use better arguments or methods to hide such things, calling it embarrassment because of your past failures is not a thing that can be digested. The Interpol website itself says that accused until proven guilty in the court of law can not be assumed guilty, then whats wrong with keeping a person as wanted until he appears before the court and court decides.

Here we must keep in mind that with the revocation of red corner notice Mr. Q is a free bird and can be assumed not guilty, even thought Indian courts did not get even hold of him, thanks to CBI.