Personal opinions from a denizen of a land Down Under.
India has continued its incredible run in the World Cup cricket tournament, bowling another team out as it recorded a 109-run win over Bangladesh to enter the semi-finals.
But this could not have been achieved had one umpiring error not gone India’s way.
At three for 196, India looked like it would go on to make a big total at the MCG, having chosen to bat after winning the toss.
Continue reading “When will India’s luck run out?”
It has been said of the great West Indies cricketer Viv Richards that he should have quit the international game two years before he actually did. Richards, who made his debut in India in 1974, retired in 1991, after having been West Indies captain for about six years.
But after 1989, he was never the dominating batsman he had been over his entire career; his reflexes appeared to have slowed, and his temper sometimes got the better of him.
Something similar could be said about the three Sri Lankans — Mahela Jayawardene, Tillakaratne Dilshan, and Kumar Sangakkara — who played their last game together on Wednesday, a loss to South Africa in a World Cup quarter-final. For Sangakkara it will be his last one-day game; Jayawardene has already quit Test and T20 cricket so this is his last international game.
Continue reading “Sri Lanka’s big three may have stayed on too long”
FOUR policemen were involved in the shooting of a mentally ill girl in Sydney. She had Asperger’s Syndrome. She was holding a knife when one of the coppers shot her in the chest.
And now the policemen are said to be deeply affected by the incident.
The girl, of course, is not affected. She is dead.
Continue reading “We need a royal commission into Victoria Police”
ONCE a year, Australia has a world-class sporting event, one where it is guaranteed that all the best players will turn up. That is the Australian Open, one of four grand slam tennis events around the world.
This year, the tournament has not had as many close matches as usual, with most men’s matches ending in three sets and most women’s games ending in two. The finals pit Novak Djokovic against Andy Murray and Serena Williams against Maria Sharapova. Here’s hoping that Djokovic and Sharapova prevail.
Reasons?
Continue reading “Here’s hoping Djokovic and Sharapova win the Australian Open singles titles”
Over the 20-odd years of its existence, the website Cricinfo has grown into some kind of authority as far as cricket goes.
The site was bought by the American sports broadcaster ESPN in 2007 and is now known as ESPN Cricinfo.
The site has a big archive with statistics, all of which are claimed to be correct.
Continue reading “Is ESPNCricinfo riddled with errors due to incompetent staff?”
AFTER 90 Tests, Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has called it a day as a Test cricketer.
He will continue to lead India in the one-day and T20 formats, with a one-day World Cup around the corner in 2015.
Dhoni was not a great captain but he had limited resources at his disposal. To win a Test, one has to take 20 wickets and having batsmen who can pile up the runs is simply not enough. The West Indies, during their incredible run of 15 years without the loss of a Test series, were often bailed out by their bowlers — and boy, did they have some bowlers! — when the batting failed. Yes, even the powerful batting line-ups of the Windies did fail on occasion.
Continue reading “Dhoni quits Tests: an era ends”
A reforming prime minister. Or a reforming president. That’s what many people think nearly every country in the world needs.
That’s why, when election time comes around, those of us who are interested in the politics of the people who rule us tend to ask what changes this man or this woman will bring. And the people we vote for will ultimately be the ones who say they will bring about the changes that we think are good for our nation. Selfish changes often, but changes nevertheless.
Only, we do not realise that reforming leaders are never going to get going once they are in the seat of power. You don’t have to live in a country that has been around for thousands of years, you could be in the US which is just 238 years old. There are so many vested interests in the system surrounding government at all levels that reform is well-nigh impossible.
Continue reading “We don’t want no reforming leaders”
WHEN the United States talks about coalitions, one should realise that it is all about finance. Not about bringing together countries to fight a war together.
Back in 1990, when Iraq invaded Kuwait, George Bush Senior put his foot in it by threatening never to take it lying down. He was forced to go to war, reluctantly. But his secretary of state James Baker made things worthwhile by bringing together a bunch of nations who were prepared to pick up the bills.
Continue reading “America forms coalitions to make money”
THERE are obvious questions which should have been put to the police in the wake of the shooting of Numan Haider, an 18-year-old Muslim man, in the Melbourne suburb of Endeavour Hills on Tuesday (September 23) night.
But it’s doubtful that any reporter from the mainstream media — which appears to function more as a propaganda arm of the government — will ask these queries.
Why did police ask a person whom they acknowledge was under surveillance to come in for an interview at night, and alone?
Continue reading “Death of a teenager: why were police not asked obvious questions?”
They call them anti-terror raids, though one has to ask seriously whether they are stopping anything at all. An idle conversation where a man who is worked up blurts out, “I would like to shove a bomb up his arse” can always be interpreted by an over-zealous, dumb police officer as a terror threat.
The timing of the raids in Brisbane and Sydney was very neat – it all happened very close to September 11, the day that all people in the West associate with terrorism. It’s a good time to stage such raids and raise the fear factor.
Continue reading “Terror raids reprise one of the oldest games in politics”