Muttiah Muralitharan has surpassed Shane Warne as the highest test wickettaker of all-time. Not unexpectedly, criticisms, ridicule, outrage and sheer hatred have flooded in from all corners of Australia, railing against Murali's great achievement. Many (not all) Australians are absolutely disgusted that the world record has passed into the keeping of Murali, not only because it is a record that was held by Austrlian spinner Shane Warne, but also because it is unlikely that this record will be overhauled anytime soon in the near future.
But most of all, Australia is unable to "hack it" because Australian umpires Darrell Hair and Ross Emerson attempted to remove Murali from the game by no-balling him for a bent-arm bowling action, and failed.
Furthermore, there is a general consensus in Australia that the ICC bowed to pressure from subcontinental cricket boards and amended the laws to legalize Murali's action. This is absolutely preposterous. The laws were amended to legalize all bowlers. McGrath and Lee were bending their elbows as much Murali and basically every other bowler. But in Australia, this fact is conveniently forgotten or ignored, and the lie that the law was changed specifically for Murali is considered gospel.
It is unfortunate that Australia as a whole will never accept Murali, and give him the credit that is due to him, for he is a truly great bowler, the likes of whom we may never see again in our lifetimes.
But no matter, regardless of how highly Australians think of themselves, they are only a small part of the cricketing world. The majority of international cricket fans recognize Murali for the champion he is, and grant him the according accolades. So congratulations Murali!!! Well done, and I hope you keep playing and keep taking an amazing amount of wickets. I personally dont think that 1000 wickets is beyond your ability.
Tuesday, 4 December 2007
Tuesday, 13 November 2007
money first.....i mean....fitness...first
fitness first is so dodgy....
do not join if ur thinking about it and if ur already a member, well good luck getting out.
i used to be a member 4 years ago and i thought i had a frustrating time getting out. i just came to a stage where i had no time to go to the gym and so decided to cancel my membership. but informing the company several times, i realized that nothing was happening. i was told that they needed something in writing and a legitimate reason. what the hell??? anyway, i gave them what they wanted and then they insisted on a questionnaire which asked me why i wanted to quit 15 times in different ways. after all this farce, i found that i had ended up paying for an extra month that i didnt use. but i was just happy to be rid of fitness first so i didnt mind too much about the extra $60...
now, fitness first are apparently demanding either a medical certificate saying that ur not fit to exercise or proof of overseas travel before they "allow" u to cancel ur membership. otherwise they go on charging u. it must be illegal i'm sure, but some people i know have been caught up with fitness first and ended up wasting a lot of money (and still losing money). so be very careful when dealing with this fraudulent company- look around, make sure uv had a look at all ur options before go to fitness first...
do not join if ur thinking about it and if ur already a member, well good luck getting out.
i used to be a member 4 years ago and i thought i had a frustrating time getting out. i just came to a stage where i had no time to go to the gym and so decided to cancel my membership. but informing the company several times, i realized that nothing was happening. i was told that they needed something in writing and a legitimate reason. what the hell??? anyway, i gave them what they wanted and then they insisted on a questionnaire which asked me why i wanted to quit 15 times in different ways. after all this farce, i found that i had ended up paying for an extra month that i didnt use. but i was just happy to be rid of fitness first so i didnt mind too much about the extra $60...
now, fitness first are apparently demanding either a medical certificate saying that ur not fit to exercise or proof of overseas travel before they "allow" u to cancel ur membership. otherwise they go on charging u. it must be illegal i'm sure, but some people i know have been caught up with fitness first and ended up wasting a lot of money (and still losing money). so be very careful when dealing with this fraudulent company- look around, make sure uv had a look at all ur options before go to fitness first...
Thursday, 18 October 2007
maternal mortality in the indian subcontinent
this bbc feature looks at the appalling state of obstetric services in the subcontinent. it is quite shocking that india continues to lag behind many poor african, central and south american nations in maternal and neonatal mortality despite its much vaunted 10% per annum economic growth and aspirations of super-power status. afghanistan and nepal are desperately poor countries which have been ravaged by armed conflicts and power struggles recently and as is usual in these situations, women and children suffer first and longest. also note that sri lanka is missing from these statistics- despite civil war and other hindrances, sri lanka has always had better health and social outcomes than its neighbours.
of course, some of the blame can be attributed to silly superstitions, a topic i wrote about last year. but most of the preventable maternal mortality can be squarely attributed to the fact that basic pre- and peri-natal care is financially and physically out of reach of the vast majority of rural indian women. it is a deplorable situation, especially if you go to a city like bangalore; to cater for the burgeoning, newly successful IT class, the city is increasingly being cluttered with western style malls stocking the most exclusive fashion labels, trendy bars, nightclubs and premium car dealerships. drive 100km out of the city in any direction and you find yourself in rural india, where mothers and babies dying because of lack of simple obstetric services is just day-to-day life....
of course, some of the blame can be attributed to silly superstitions, a topic i wrote about last year. but most of the preventable maternal mortality can be squarely attributed to the fact that basic pre- and peri-natal care is financially and physically out of reach of the vast majority of rural indian women. it is a deplorable situation, especially if you go to a city like bangalore; to cater for the burgeoning, newly successful IT class, the city is increasingly being cluttered with western style malls stocking the most exclusive fashion labels, trendy bars, nightclubs and premium car dealerships. drive 100km out of the city in any direction and you find yourself in rural india, where mothers and babies dying because of lack of simple obstetric services is just day-to-day life....
cricket, cricket, cricket...
the india-australia odi series (future cup) finished yesterday; once more, it was a non-cricketing issue that made the headlines. the monkey chants directed at andrew symonds have become the main talking point of the cricketing world.
it initially began in vadodara, a match that symonds single-handedly dominated. the australians, after raising the allegations of racist crowd behaviour bizarrely decided not to pursue the issue and instead stated that they were confident that the indians would "deal with it". the bcci and vadodara cricket officials, basically washed their hands clean of the whole affair by saying that either it didnt really happen, it was a misunderstanding on the part of symonds or in fact, monkey chants in india are not derogotary. whilst i do feel that the icc's stance that all cricket boards must appoint anti-racism officers is misconceived, the bcci's reaction was appallingly inappropriate. it vindicated those people who were involved in the chanting and all but provided official encouragement for that sort of behaviour in future matches. and sure enough, the mumbai crowd obliged.
the bcci has its hands tied now- they have to act. i hope that rather than rhetoric and token gestures, some serious action is taken. now that photo evidence is available, life bans for those involved are a must. also, i believe that the culprit cities (mumbai and vadodara) should be given lengthy international bans of at least 3-4 years. the bcci will no doubt point fingers at australian cities where black south african cricketers were subjected to similar racial abuse in 2005/06 and escaped any real punishment. but that is a pockmark on the australian authorities, who have almost always supported their own regardless of right or wrong. india should not try and emulate australia in this particular regard, especially when australian cricket has so much to offer as they demonstrated in this series.
in any case, focussing on the cricket, the 4-2 scoreline really flatterred india, i felt. in fact, a 6-0 scoreline not only would've been more in accordance with the quality of cricket played, but it also would've given india a much needed reality check. as such, the indians are probably thinking that a little bit of luck in nagpur or hyderabad and the series would've been a draw. in reality, the contest was nowhere near that close. india came into the tournament thinking that they were playing against a team who were their equals, in light of their recent T20 success. but clearly there was nothing equal about the teams. there are some serious concerns for this indian team, especially with the imminent retirements of sachin tendulkar, rahul dravid and anil kumble. the batsman, buoyed by their T20 exploits, crashed down to earth spectacularly. major technical flaws were exposed in yuvraj singh, robin uthappa and ms dhoni. they only have a short time to rectify these faults before the australia tour, where any weakness will be ruthlessly exploited on fast pitches. the bowling was atrocious, especially the spinners. all the pitches used in the future cup (maybe except the bangalore pitch) were spinner-friendly yet only in mumbai did an indian spinner dominate- compare this to the performances of brad hogg and andrew symonds with the ball. the pace bowlers were equally poor. sreesanth and rp singh were profligate with wides and loose deliveries, more than erasing any credits they earnt with some superb wickettaking deliveries. zaheer khan was a lone ranger with his accuracy, but more will be needed from him in australia. pathan made a strong comeback, but has lost his wickettaking edge in a quest for control (this is understandable but one wonders how much of that is reversible). and the worst aspect of the indian performance was fielding. easy catches were dropped in every game; there were frequent misfields and poor throws; and runout opportunities were fumbled at crucial stages. much of the good work in the leadup to the T20 world cup has apparently been undone. how often can it be said that sourav ganguly was one of the most mistake-free fielders in the indian team???
so there is a tremendous amount of work to be done if india are to repeat their 2003/04 performance where they matched australia in all aspects of the game and denied steve waugh a farewell victory with that famous 705 in the first innings of the sydney test match.
it initially began in vadodara, a match that symonds single-handedly dominated. the australians, after raising the allegations of racist crowd behaviour bizarrely decided not to pursue the issue and instead stated that they were confident that the indians would "deal with it". the bcci and vadodara cricket officials, basically washed their hands clean of the whole affair by saying that either it didnt really happen, it was a misunderstanding on the part of symonds or in fact, monkey chants in india are not derogotary. whilst i do feel that the icc's stance that all cricket boards must appoint anti-racism officers is misconceived, the bcci's reaction was appallingly inappropriate. it vindicated those people who were involved in the chanting and all but provided official encouragement for that sort of behaviour in future matches. and sure enough, the mumbai crowd obliged.
the bcci has its hands tied now- they have to act. i hope that rather than rhetoric and token gestures, some serious action is taken. now that photo evidence is available, life bans for those involved are a must. also, i believe that the culprit cities (mumbai and vadodara) should be given lengthy international bans of at least 3-4 years. the bcci will no doubt point fingers at australian cities where black south african cricketers were subjected to similar racial abuse in 2005/06 and escaped any real punishment. but that is a pockmark on the australian authorities, who have almost always supported their own regardless of right or wrong. india should not try and emulate australia in this particular regard, especially when australian cricket has so much to offer as they demonstrated in this series.
in any case, focussing on the cricket, the 4-2 scoreline really flatterred india, i felt. in fact, a 6-0 scoreline not only would've been more in accordance with the quality of cricket played, but it also would've given india a much needed reality check. as such, the indians are probably thinking that a little bit of luck in nagpur or hyderabad and the series would've been a draw. in reality, the contest was nowhere near that close. india came into the tournament thinking that they were playing against a team who were their equals, in light of their recent T20 success. but clearly there was nothing equal about the teams. there are some serious concerns for this indian team, especially with the imminent retirements of sachin tendulkar, rahul dravid and anil kumble. the batsman, buoyed by their T20 exploits, crashed down to earth spectacularly. major technical flaws were exposed in yuvraj singh, robin uthappa and ms dhoni. they only have a short time to rectify these faults before the australia tour, where any weakness will be ruthlessly exploited on fast pitches. the bowling was atrocious, especially the spinners. all the pitches used in the future cup (maybe except the bangalore pitch) were spinner-friendly yet only in mumbai did an indian spinner dominate- compare this to the performances of brad hogg and andrew symonds with the ball. the pace bowlers were equally poor. sreesanth and rp singh were profligate with wides and loose deliveries, more than erasing any credits they earnt with some superb wickettaking deliveries. zaheer khan was a lone ranger with his accuracy, but more will be needed from him in australia. pathan made a strong comeback, but has lost his wickettaking edge in a quest for control (this is understandable but one wonders how much of that is reversible). and the worst aspect of the indian performance was fielding. easy catches were dropped in every game; there were frequent misfields and poor throws; and runout opportunities were fumbled at crucial stages. much of the good work in the leadup to the T20 world cup has apparently been undone. how often can it be said that sourav ganguly was one of the most mistake-free fielders in the indian team???
so there is a tremendous amount of work to be done if india are to repeat their 2003/04 performance where they matched australia in all aspects of the game and denied steve waugh a farewell victory with that famous 705 in the first innings of the sydney test match.
Sunday, 14 October 2007
an inconvenient truth
i was very disappointed with the nobel foundation for awarding the 2007 peace prize to al gore. i think it really cheapens the whole concept of the nobel peace prize and lessens the achievements of some of the more deserving winners in previous years.
whilst gore has raised some very important issues and brought much needed widescale publicity to the global warming debate, he has done so in a manner that is manipulative, sensationalist and at times, dishonest.
so i think in light of all this, to have awarded the nobel peace prize to al gore was a hasty, ill-conceived decision on part of the nobel prize committee. there are so many doubts and holes in al gore's position that he has just ignored and covered up with hyperbole, savviness and deception....
whilst gore has raised some very important issues and brought much needed widescale publicity to the global warming debate, he has done so in a manner that is manipulative, sensationalist and at times, dishonest.
so i think in light of all this, to have awarded the nobel peace prize to al gore was a hasty, ill-conceived decision on part of the nobel prize committee. there are so many doubts and holes in al gore's position that he has just ignored and covered up with hyperbole, savviness and deception....
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