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When our former President, APJ Abdul Kalam, said India could become a developed country by 2020, I don't think he realized we'd become World Champions by 2020! ;) And what money? The BCCI announced a bonus of $1 million to the team for winning their semifinal against Australia, another bonus of $2 million for winning the final against Pakistan, and $250,000 alone to Yuvraj for his 6-sixes against England! Nine years ago, people thought it was incredible when Coca Cola announced a bonus of $40,000 to SRT for his exploits against Australia in Sharjah. (This was especially interesting because SRT was a brand ambassador for Pepsi, but in joyful times, even the enemy recognizes a hero. Though it would be fair to assume they might've tried to entice him with the bonus!) How the numbers have changed in such a short period!? For decades cricketers earned next to nothing. Now several have become instant millionaires!
Sep. 25th, 2007
Mukul Kesavan on Cricinfo Blog
"First of all I want to say something here. I want to thank you back home Pakistan and where the Muslim lives all over the world. Thank you very much and I'm sorry we didn't win." -Shoaib Malik, Pakistan Cricket Captain during yesterday's post-match presentation
I know some of you don't like some/much of what Kesavan writes about but I think he raises a very interesting and important issue wrt Shoaib Malik's first comments during the post-match ceremony yesterday. As Kesavan points out, this is a word for word transcription of what he actually said and "the problem isn't syntax, it's the sentiment". It's the idea that Pakistan is not just a home for the colonial-era Indian Muslims, but the representative of the (sporting) aspirations of Muslims worldwide. Its purpose is to highlight the idea that Indian Muslims are not true Muslims and that India is purely a representative for Hindus. Ironic then that the man of the match went to Irfan Khan Pathan, an Indian Muslim of Pashtun origin! And as Kesavan points out, there are Muslims playing not just for India and Pakistan, but also England, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Bangladesh and Scotland to name just a few! Moreover, Hindus and Christians have played for Pakistan, and India's longest-serving captain was a Muslim. As Kesavan puts it, "I don't expect Shoaib Malik to be a politically correct intellectual, but it is reasonable to expect him to know the world of cricket that he inhabits." What do you think?
Personally, I think its comments like these that clearly illustrate why cricket, politics and religion are dividing Pakistan to destruction. You would never hear an Indian captain, who happened to be Hindu, thanking the worldwide Hindu community for supporting the team!
Link to Video
"First of all I want to say something here. I want to thank you back home Pakistan and where the Muslim lives all over the world. Thank you very much and I'm sorry we didn't win." -Shoaib Malik, Pakistan Cricket Captain during yesterday's post-match presentation
I know some of you don't like some/much of what Kesavan writes about but I think he raises a very interesting and important issue wrt Shoaib Malik's first comments during the post-match ceremony yesterday. As Kesavan points out, this is a word for word transcription of what he actually said and "the problem isn't syntax, it's the sentiment". It's the idea that Pakistan is not just a home for the colonial-era Indian Muslims, but the representative of the (sporting) aspirations of Muslims worldwide. Its purpose is to highlight the idea that Indian Muslims are not true Muslims and that India is purely a representative for Hindus. Ironic then that the man of the match went to Irfan Khan Pathan, an Indian Muslim of Pashtun origin! And as Kesavan points out, there are Muslims playing not just for India and Pakistan, but also England, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Bangladesh and Scotland to name just a few! Moreover, Hindus and Christians have played for Pakistan, and India's longest-serving captain was a Muslim. As Kesavan puts it, "I don't expect Shoaib Malik to be a politically correct intellectual, but it is reasonable to expect him to know the world of cricket that he inhabits." What do you think?
Personally, I think its comments like these that clearly illustrate why cricket, politics and religion are dividing Pakistan to destruction. You would never hear an Indian captain, who happened to be Hindu, thanking the worldwide Hindu community for supporting the team!
Link to Video
SearchStatus: A Search Extension for Firefox and Mozilla
"SearchStatus allows you to see how every website in the world is performing. For every site you visit, SearchStatus lets you view its Google PageRank, Google Category, Alexa popularity ranking, Compete.com ranking and more. This combined search-related information means you can view not only the link importance of a site (according to Google), but also its traffic importance (according to Alexa), providing a balanced view of site efficacy. The SearchStatus extension appears unobtrusively at the bottom of the browser on the status bar. If you choose to view backward links for a particular page, they open in new tabs in the same browser window."
Get it now! It's really cool and the more people who use it, the more accurate the results. I think?
"SearchStatus allows you to see how every website in the world is performing. For every site you visit, SearchStatus lets you view its Google PageRank, Google Category, Alexa popularity ranking, Compete.com ranking and more. This combined search-related information means you can view not only the link importance of a site (according to Google), but also its traffic importance (according to Alexa), providing a balanced view of site efficacy. The SearchStatus extension appears unobtrusively at the bottom of the browser on the status bar. If you choose to view backward links for a particular page, they open in new tabs in the same browser window."
Get it now! It's really cool and the more people who use it, the more accurate the results. I think?
All in an over's work
Sep. 25th, 2007 07:30 pm"Among other gifts, a Porsche 911 was handed as a personal gift from BCCI vice-president Lalit Modi to Yuvraj." -Bruce Loudon [Link]
PJ of the Day
Sep. 25th, 2007 07:30 pm-Knock Knock!
-Who's there?
-Misbah.
-Misbah who?
-Mis bah five runs.
Copied from a Facebook group.
-Who's there?
-Misbah.
-Misbah who?
-Mis bah five runs.
Copied from a Facebook group.
Rich nations 'ignoring' power shift
Sep. 25th, 2007 11:55 pmThe tectonic shift
"The leadership in the developed world still have not adjusted to the fact that this is not just a modest change in global economic power and influence. If you look at the developed world and how it is addressing this change, the steps that are being taken are relatively trivial. The emerging powers are still treated with a 'colonial' attitude." -James Wolfensohn, World Bank President 1995-2005
Right on mate! The earlier the developed world adjusts, the better for them. If not, the change is going to be uncomfortable. Outsourcing is just the beginning. A mere tremor for the earthquake to come. It's not too late to change.
"The leadership in the developed world still have not adjusted to the fact that this is not just a modest change in global economic power and influence. If you look at the developed world and how it is addressing this change, the steps that are being taken are relatively trivial. The emerging powers are still treated with a 'colonial' attitude." -James Wolfensohn, World Bank President 1995-2005
Right on mate! The earlier the developed world adjusts, the better for them. If not, the change is going to be uncomfortable. Outsourcing is just the beginning. A mere tremor for the earthquake to come. It's not too late to change.