Pran Kurup

Team India: Last Hope at Kanpur

Whatever happened to the idea of a home ground advantage? The Motera curators served South Africa a dream wicket. Team India completed the gift with a disgraceful performance in the first innings . The match was all but over by lunch on day one. The lone highlight of the match for India was Saurav Ganguly’s fighting knock of 87 in the second innings. Ganguly was outstanding. His sweep shots, late cut and straight drives were a terrific addition to his sweetly timed cover drives. But it was too little too late. What India needed was a huge second inning score to make SA bat again. That never materialized and the game was over on day three as expected by many. The curators at Kanpur will do well to prepare an all out spin wicket that gives the home team an advantage. Its about time!

The Openers: Time to Try Pathan Again?

Virender Sehawag is a hit or miss kind of batsman. The last Test was a “hit”, so its not surprising that this Test was a miss. But given the dramatic game-changing nature of his hits he is still worth retaining in the team. His partner Wasim Jaffer has been around for a while but seems to struggle with consistency. His position seems to be in doubt almost every third Test. It won’t be a huge surprise if the Indian captain picked Irfan Pathan again to open in place of Jaffer.

The Number 3 Spot: VVS over Dravid

This a tough call but probably due. Rahul Dravid has been India’s mainstay for many years. But of late he has struggled. Despite the odd good score he is a picture of hard work and determination rather than confidence and control. Unfortunately, the number 3 spot is a pivotal position and needs a free stroking batsman who can take the pressure off even in the event of an early wicket. Unfortunately, Dravid has struggled. In the Chennai Test he walked in with a huge score on board on a dead wicket and struggled instead of keeping up the scoring tempo. In the Ahmedabad Test he walked in early and did pretty much the same. This pattern was on display in Australia as well. The Wall clearly seems to be past its prime. VVS has waited in his shadows for too long. VVS is a very free stroking player and when he is at the crease the score board is always ticking. This is very similar to Ricky Ponting and Sangakkara both of whom do a terrific job for their teams in Test cricket. India could do well to drop Dravid down the order and number four (when Sachin is not around) or number 5 when Sachin gets back on board and move VVS to number three.

India’s Bowling: RP Deserved to Be Sent Packing

RP Singh was a huge disappointment and his dropping for the third Test comes as no surprise. The return of Ishant would be a welcome change. In the spin department, the return of Romesh Powar is a good move. Despite the wickets that Harbhajan has taken in this series and Kumble’s preference to bowl with him in tandem, Powar is a far more aggressive bowler who could serve as a better bet for Test cricket than Harbhajan. Over the years (thanks to ODI) Harbhajan has become a far more defensive bowler with the result that his wicket taking ability in Tests has dropped significantly.

Kumble’s Absence in the Third Test?

If Kumble were to miss the third Test because of fitness trouble it will be very interesting to see MS Dhoni lead the side. In all probability Piyush Chawla, Harbhajan and Romesh Powar will play in the eleven along with Ishant Sharma were Kumble to miss out. Would he include Pathan over Jaffer? The team composition will give us some insight into the future Test captain’s style and preferences. On the other hand there is talk of Dhoni missing out as well due to fitness problems. If that happens Dinesh Karthik’s return might make room for Irfan Pathan in the team ahead of Jaffer.

Dems in Dilemma: More like a Bollywood Climax (from the 80s) than an Epic!

Howard Dean is clearly uncomfortable to openly call for Hillary to withdraw. Shortly after he announced publicly that the candidates’ battle must be settled by July 1, Hillary Clinton swore to fight to the very end. Nancy Pelosi issued statements about the need for super delegates to not go against the popular vote and promptly earned the wrath of Hillary supporters. Other party elders have been calling for Hillary to withdraw. In short, the Democratic party can’t get its act together though it appears as though many in the party want to stand up to the Clintons and bring an early end to this protracted race for the nomination. The immediate side effect being a battle between the two candidates that is getting increasingly nasty. On the one hand, its unfair to ask Hillary to quit simply because at this stage it looks like no candidate will win the required delegates and the super delegates will have the final say. The super-delegate system was setup to precisely decide this kind of eventuality. Besides, she could argue that she could be the better candidate against John McCain just as much as Barack Obama can argue the same. Then why quit the race?

Some like Mario Cuomo prefer a dream ticket. He calls for leadership on the part of the two candidates and for an agreement between the two that the loser will settle for the VP post. This would surely be a “fairy tale” especially because it looks like Hillary Clinton will have to settle for VP. Cuomo’s wish is highly unlikely (and most likely very acceptable to many or I dare say most Democrats) but sounds attractive on paper.

Ultimately, the current situation is a sad reflection of complete lack of leadership in the Democratic party. While some like Bill Richardson and Chris Dodd have announced their candidate affiliations others like John Edwards are playing an endless (self-serving?) waiting game. It appears as though many among the party bigwigs want to see Obama as the candidate (and/or an end of the Clinton hold on the party) but simply don’t have what it takes to achieve this. Instead of working together, isolated statements that expose a fractured party are emerging from all corners of the party further undermining its chances in November.

Senator Obama compared this campaign to a long movie while Senator Clinton responded that she likes long movies. The press refers to it as an “epic” battle. At this stage the campaign appears more like a Bollywood flick that ends with a dreadfully long fight sequence. Unfortunately, this is the time when most movie watchers leave the theater except for the die-hard fans and front-benchers. Maybe Howard Dean can join in the climax with his trademark scream! He surely can’t seem to offer more than that at the moment.

The biggest nightmare that Democrats could have now is that the final scene in the long movie might feature John McCain (in an anti-climax) in the White-house come November.

CPI(M)’s Third Alternative: The Right Idea, But the Wrong People?

The CPI(M) has mooted the idea of third alternative outside of the Congress and the BJP. At first it sounded like yet another pre-election gimmick. However, Sitaram Yechuri of the CPI(M) Politburo has clarified with some interesting points.

“Our stand is non-Congress and anti-BJP. Elaborating on third alternative, he said this would be formed based on three policies — opposing communalism, opposing “anti-people content of economic reforms” and opposing all efforts to make India a subordinate ally of US imperialism.

“This is not merely an electoral front. Differences between a front and alternative is that the former is a cut and paste job for elections. We are working on an alternative, which is for the long term and is built on a policy framework,” he said.

On the one hand it is admirable that a much needed third-force is being considered based on ideology rather a politics of opportunism. But the reality that such a credible force can be put together with the CPI(M) (of all parties) at the helm seems unlikely for many reasons.

Barring Kerala and West Bengal, the CPI(M) hardly has a strong presence in the rest of the country to lead such a force. The electorate in Kerala has consistently favored the opposition in every election. Going by this the CPI(M) in Kerala will probably be on its way out in the time for the next polls.
The ideology behind the third front is primarily a communist agenda. Its hard to see how the other non-BJP, non-Congress forces would primarily subscribe to a communist agenda (apart from the anti-communalism stand).
Sooner or later the CPI(M) will have to resort to a”cut and paste” operation of political opportunists merely to make the numbers in time for the polls. A delicate balance between cut and paste and an ideology based third force is hard to accomplish without a stronger country-wide presence (aprt from the two states).
With the BJP to the far right (despite Mr. Advani’s best efforts to draw it to the center), and the Congress on the left of center (or wherever Rahul Gandhi plans to take it!), a far Left alternative appears unlikely to gain momentum no matter how well intentioned unless the CPI(M) intends to move more to the center of the political spectrum.

Lastly, it begs the question as to why the CPI(M) has chosen to embark on this third front after being part of the UPA for the last four years.

Chennai Test: SA vs India

After four days and over 1000 runs being scored, and a bunch of records being broken, the Chennai Test seems destined to end in a draw. A century in both innings by Amla, another score in the 90s by McKenzie and a few more wickets for Kumble, and a boring draw is all that remains (I am trying my hand at the prediction game to add some excitement to this Test!:-).

A Disgraceful Pitch

The South African team is composed four excellent fast bowlers and one mediocre spinner. The Indian team on the other hand has three very capable spinners. In this circumstances, playing on a home ground it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the most sensible thing to do at least for the first Test was to prepare a turning track. Instead, the Chennai pitch was a perfect example of a Test cricket-killer. The stadium was far from full and if more pitches of this nature are served up, Test cricket in India is in for some serious setbacks from a spectator interest point of view. Someone has to take responsibility for this disgraceful pitch.

Viru Strikes, Again

Virendar Sehwag is the perfect “hit or miss, all or nothing” player. When he hits, he hits big. When he misses he can be quite a disappointment. But two triple hundreds is no mean task. The man was at the top of his game and completely overshadowed every other batsman in the Test match. Not to take away any credit from the man for his outstanding performance, but clearly Test cricket suits his aggressive style. The speed at which he scores the runs at the top of the order can change the complexion of the game. In fact, after he was out India struggled and lost the initiative and hence the ability to gain the upper hand. India would do well to retain him in the Test team for the foreseeable future. At the same time, his form in Tests must not be misconstrued as a sign of ODI form. He has been given way too many chances in ODIs and his selection in the ODI team based on track record remains highly questionable.

Dravid, Solid and Reliable As Always

Rahul Dravid continues to be the best bet when it comes to consistency, solidity and reliability. On a dead pitch like this on, there was no way Dravid was going to pass up on an opportunity to work his way back to form. He ground his way to a century meanwhile crossing the 10,000 Test run mark. Hats off to him for his continued consistency. Critics would argue that he slowed the run rate. But as a counter point one could easily argue that had he not scored as much as he did, India might not have taken the lead. In fact, if the intent was to up the ante, the Indian captain could have very well sent in Dhoni at number three. The very fact that there was no change in the batting order is an indication that the Indian captain preferred a “safety first” approach.

VVS and Ganguly Should Swap Positions

It is sad to see VVS having to play with the tail. He is such a free stroking batsman that big blows don’t come come naturally to him. He seems to lack the savvy required when it comes to scoring with the tail at the other end, something Saurav Ganguly might be far more adept at doing. VVS must be sent higher up the order, ahead of Ganguly at a minimum.

Is RP Singh Still Injured?

RP Singh’s performance in this Test match has been very disappointing. After a good tour of Australia, it is hard to imagine how poorly he has performed here. It sure seems like a bowler returning before he was fully fit. India would be more than happy to have Ishant Sharma back for the second Test. Hopefully, his recovery is for real and not another sham.

Ten Tips To Be Better Prepared For Life-threatening Emergencies

10. Make sure you and your spouse share phone numbers of close family members and friends in your cell phone contact list.

09. It is a good idea to enable both your cell phones to make international calls especially if you have immediate relatives overseas. This service is turned off by default on most phones in the US.

08. When you go to the emergency room there is no needs to take clothes along because if you are admitted they’ll ask you to change to hospital attire.

07. If you are admitted to the ICU in all probability it is very serious. The doctors never tell the patients how serious they are to avoid setting off a panic/anxiety attack. Also, they don’t call the family until it gets very critical.

06. Use email to communicate with friends and family about the progress of the sick person. Phone calls can be hard to handle during such crisis. Besides, hospitals insist on limiting the use of cell phones.

05. Too many friends showing up at the hospital (no matter how well-intentioned) is not of much help especially if they are not good at handling crisis situations themselves. It is a delicate balance between providing much needed moral support and becoming an overhead yourself! Besides, only immediate family are allowed to see the patient.

04. If you are self-employed it is a good idea to get some decent insurance (don’t cut corners on the premiums) especially if you are over the age of 35. You might think that you are healthy and barely visit the Dr. but when a big emergency strikes, medical costs in the US are so outrageous you could be completely wiped out.

03. Always have a family friend (or have alternate arrangements in place) who can pick up and drop off the kids at school (or other classes). You might need to do some paper work at school (depending on the school) to make this possible. Also, kids are not allowed in the hospital. So if you take them there they will have to remain in the lobby!

02. When you are feeling really sick, don’t hesitate to go to the emergency room. Most of us think of it as a “big pain” to go there. But its better to be safe than sorry.

01. “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams off” — Don’t hesitate to reach out and seek the prayers of friends and family.

Note: All of the above are relevant in the US and based on unfortunate personal experiences of mine. Depending on where you live you might need to tweak these appropriately to your environment. The reality is that emergencies strike everywhere and at anytime and it doesn’t hurt to be at least aware if not prepared.

The Sad Case of Dinesh Karthik

Dinesh Karthik broke into the national cricket scene (after his heroics at the under-19 level) when he engineered a win for India in a T20 game against South Africa. Suddenly he was an all purpose cricketer. Before even he realized he was India’s opening batsmen in Tests despite the fact that he was never a regular opener even for his home state of Tamil Nadu! However, he had a good tour as opener in both against Bangladesh and England. But a poor series against Pakistan in India. Unfortunately for him, Rahul Dravid (who showed more faith in him than any other captain) suddenly stepped aside from both Test and ODIs.

Test Cricket

A change in leadership in both forms of the game brought new challenges for the young man. In Tests Kumble did not have the same level of confidence in him as his predecessor. Kumble preferred a regular opener like Wasim Jaffer as first choice. Next, he preferred a wild card in Virender Sehwag. And as a third resort he preferred Irfan Pathan! Going by this, it is more than likely that if Sehwag or Jaffer were to fail, in all probability Kumble would prefer a regular opener such as Aakash Chopra or Gautam Gambhir. In short, Dinesh Karthik’s days as an opener are pretty much over. His only hope of playing Test cricket is if Dhoni were injured. Given the amount of cricket that Dhoni plays these days the likelihood of this possibility is pretty high.

The biggest piece of bad news is that India promoted someone to the Test opener level when they didn’t really belong there in the first place. Karthik is a classic utility cricketer (an amazing talent capable of adapting very well to pretty much any situation) suited to the ODI and T20 formats and to a lesser extent in Tests. He makes a good keeper and valuable lower order batsman in Tests at best.

The ODIs and T20s

Dinesh Karthik’s prospects in these forms of the game dimmed significantly with the rise of MS Dhoni. With Dhoni as captain a second wicket keeper getting a break in the playing eleven is next to impossible. Karthik got a chance in the T20 match in Australia in which he failed. With that his hopes of getting a break in the ODIs in Australia further vanished. When Yuvraj was injured Dhoni chose to experiment with a “fresh off the plane” Manoj Tiwari despite the fact that Karthik had been in Australia for over a month and had a lot more exposure to the conditions. Besides an in form Suresh Raina was still cooling his heals looking for a return to the ODI team.

In short, the only way Karthik can make it to the playing eleven in T20s or ODIs is if Dhoni were not playing. With Dhoni as captain, this scenario is highly unlikely unless he were injured. In this scenario, Karthik could soon find himself out of the T20 and/or ODI teams despite the fact that his skills are best suited to these forms of the game.

For the moment, Karthik’s best bet is to continue to perform at every stage both as a keeper and as a batsmen. His performance in the IPL for instance will be key for his future prospects despite the fact that it is of T20 format. The other possibility is that Dhoni himself and the Board might mutually decide to use Dhoni selectively in order to prolong his career and keep him injury free. In which case, Karthik should get the odd chance from time to time until another young keeper stakes his claim to the spot.

Barack Obama on Race

http://youtube.com/v/u2i1bk7SamQ

Another brilliant speech by Barack Obama. Once again, Obama showed that he could use his oratorical skills to communicate and reach out to people across ethnic and racial lines.

It is impressive how he addressed the raging Rev White controversy by condemning his words, yet explaining his closeness to the man. A sure sign of honesty and self-confidence in a politician.

He has proven his ability to respond and indulge in “damage control” in a more than conventional way. This will be put to test more than ever where he to become the Democratic candidate. However, he first he has to translate this oratorical skill to primary victories in non-caucus states and gain the nomination.

Overall his speech was nicely blended with his pet themes of unity and change. An impressive piece of speech writing and as always, superbly delivered.

Click here for a full text of the speech.

Top 10 Signs you suffered food poisoning at a Chinese Restaurant

10. You are panting for breath in the ICU but going “Hoo Naan, Hoo Naan”

09. You remember being Client #9 (oops, table #9) but are wondering how you became victim #1.

08. While in the ICU you recall seeing your grandma who died 25 years back pacing up and down your ancestral home but instead of the customary chant of “Rama, Rama” you hear her saying “Mapo Tofu”.

07. You are bewildered to read a front page report in the NY Times where the Bush Govt. accuses the Al-Qaida for food poisoning cases in the Chinese restaurants in the US.

06. Your 55-year old sweet Filipino nurse in the hospital keeps telling you “Sir, your Mapo Tofu breakfast is ready. You can have Mongolian chicken for lunch!”

05. The dreaded 3 am phone call comes not to the white house but to your house and your spouse has to answer, there is no right or wrong answer and Dr. at the other end simply says “We are not sure we can!”.

04. You see these strange visions of John McCain dancing around a fire with Ronald Reagan gesturing to you and saying “My friend, come join the Reagan Revolution we can kick some Chinese ass but you ain’t getting universal healthcare”

03. You are watching the Obama girl but she is singing in Chinese!

02. You see Shahrukh Khan dancing around on a cricket pitch filled with rupee notes and signs for the IPL but strangely enough he suddenly stops and says in his characteristic style, “Chi–Chi-Chi-neeeese food ka-ka-kaaa jawaab nahin!”

01. You are convinced that Tom Friedman’s flat world actually means you could go to any part of the world eat Chinese food and find yourself flat on your back in the Emergency Room (ER) fighting for your life.

Sachin Should Plan His ODI Exit

Both Dravid and Ganguly have been phased out of the ODI team in favor of youth. Sachin is the last of the veterans so to speak remaining in the side. It is unfortunate that both Dravid and Ganguly were not given a more formal send off from the ODI team. The Indian selectors and Sachin himself should ensure that the same fate does not befall Sachin. The timing is perfect for him to announce a formal withdrawal from the ODI side.

There is no question that MS Dhoni is a captain who appears to know exactly what he wants. Of late he has shown that he can have his way as well. The upcoming finals against Australia would a be perfect time for him to score a heavily and then make an announcement of his plans. Instead, if Sachin chooses to wait too long, Dhoni won’t hesitate to act. There is plenty of opening talent waiting in the wings to take on the opening slot in ODIs. This is not a reflection of Sachin’s form. He still has it in him to be successful in ODIs but the reality is that the man at helm believes in having younger players (and rightfully so!) and so far his strategy has paid off.

Final Debate: Same Old, Same Old

Last night’s debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama was the third and final one on one debate and her last chance to state her case. After watching this race closely it boggles my mind that despite having Bill Clinton and an army of high paid consultants on her side Senator Clinton has been unable to come up with a winning strategy.

Firstly, there was no substantial difference in her approach last night. Secondly, Senator Clinton seems to take a stay the course strategy, quite surprisingly. Senator Obama on the other hand seems to be growing in strength and stature with each debate.

Why Bicker over Health Care

Most voters are not aware of the details and in most cases aren’t even interested in them. So to bicker over whose plan covers what is a meaningless argument. It is completely ridiculous for Senator Clinton to continue to focus on this when there are plenty of experts to beat the details to death and argue over them. At last night’s debate she continued making a huge deal about the differences in the health care plans.

Why Claim to be the Candidate of “Change”

The concept of “change” has been completely co-opted by Obama and co. There is absolutely no point in fighting over the fact that she can bring about better change without a convincing rational. Thankfully, she mentioned it only in passing.

35+ Years of Experience

The focus here appears to have been more on her experience and less on Senator Obama’s lack thereof, with the result that the 35 years has become an issue of debate in itself! Unfortunately, this is probably Senator Obama’s only weakness at this stage of the race. However, he does a fine job of covering for it by legitimately claiming to have good judgment (war in Iraq being an example).

Attacking Senator Obama’s lack of experience does create a tricky situation. She could be jeopardizing her parties’ candidate by driving home this point, where he to become the ultimate nominee. At last night’s debate she chose not to attack him openly for lack of experience instead highlighted hers. She deserves credit for taking the high road here, but the truth is that she can’t hope to win the nomination without taking this issue head-on.

Cribbing Doesn’t Help

Senator Clinton raised the issue last night that the press was giving Senator Obama a free ride (a fairly valid claim. Putin’s hand-picked successor question being an example). “Cribbing” of this nature is best left to surrogates and smacks of desperation when coming from the candidate herself. Again, a a failure of her strategy team.

Please, No More Debates!

Lastly, these debates should stop. Hopefully there are no more. Senator Clinton has no new strategy in place, making these debates dull and boring to say the least. It gives the voters no new insights and is a complete waste of air time.