Isolation of Vaiko and the AAP phenomenon

I have successfully reached post # 50.

There is a Mullivaikal memorial that has been constructed near Thanjavur and there is a statue of Prabhakaran and his son in it. I am totally surprised that people have the guts to put up statues and posters of global terrorists. People should differentiate between support for Tamils in Sri Lanka and the LTTE. LTTE was and is a banned organization. It was responsible for the killing of many Tamil leaders even in Sri Lanka.

The TN government demolished the compound wall as it had encroached on the National Highways. Vaiko was very harsh on the TN Government. He said people will spit on Jayalalitha for destroying the wall. Was really surprised with the words that were used. With this he has completely ruled out the possibility of any alliance with ADMK. 

Vaiko has been very vocal in his support of the BJP in the last few days as I have mentioned in my earlier post. Knowing JJ it would be interesting to see what kind of pressure that she exerts on BJP to isolate Vaiko further. To BJP JJ is more valuable than a Vaiko, so they might give in and isolate him completely. He is already become a spent force in TN. Only advantage of anyone including Vaiko is the tireless campaign that he will do for the alliance. He is a great orator which will be useful in drawing crowds. However those have not translated to votes in the recent elections. Even if JJ doesn't exert any pressure on BJP or if BJP ignores her pressure, BJP & MDMK will not win any seats unless they form a very large alliance. With this election MDMK and Vaiko will head towards extinction. Same can be said about PMK also. 

Coming to the second item of discussion. Aam Admi Party. To me personally any party to come to power will need at least 4-5 elections. However, all opinion polls are claiming that AAP can even become a single largest party in their first election (It is completely another issue that no psephologist have a scientific method to translate the support to number of seats). Which is highly impossible. Once people start taking you seriously they will throw all kind of muck on you, which is what the Congress and BJP are doing now. Be it the funding issue or the abusive words used in a rally, everything is coming out because people are taking AAP seriously. How AAP will react to all this will reflect on the true character of this party. They abstained from television debates on the funding issue. That doesn't reflect well on them. 

The art of translating crowd in rallies to votes is not easy. You need to ensure every supporter of yours gets to the polling booth and votes. With AAP the support is mostly the higher middle class and middle class. The upper middle class and upper class are the people who generally don't get to the election booth to vote. Even if the opinion polls are really reflecting the true picture, the AAP will find it really difficult to get support translated to votes. That is my view. 

I will be very surprised if AAP wins more than 10 seats in AAP. 

Possible Test Team for the South Africa Series

Let us first start with the team that we have for the West Indies series

MS Dhoni, Dhawan, Vijay, Pujara, Sachin, Kohli, Rohit, Rahane, Ashwin, Ojha, Mishra, Bhuvaneshwar, Shami, Umesh and Ishant

Now that Sachin is retiring we can safely presume that Rahane will take his place in XI. 

The following members should be a shoo in into the team. 

MS Dhoni, Dhawan, Vijay, Pujara, Kohli, Rohit, Rahane, Ashwin, Bhuvaneshwar, Shami, Umesh, Ojha(not sure if he will get a chance to play in the XI)

Mishra - Don't think he will get selected. We don't need more than 1 spinner for the 2 test matches at Durban and Jo'burg.  The second spinner will definitely be Ojha. 

Ishant - He is lucky to be in the team for this series. 

That leaves either 3 members - 1 Fast Bowler, 1 Batsman and 1 backup keeper or backup opener

Fast Bowler - Do we go with Zaheer Khan or blood some youngster like Jaydev Unadkat or Ishwar Pandey? Zak did decently well in the first match of this season but not much in the second. I would personally prefer someone like Ishwar Pandey. He was the top wicket taker of the last ranji season and has started decently with 12 wickets in the first 2 matches this season. 

Batsman - This could be tricky, do we go with someone like Raina (who himself tweets that he has to be in the test team) or blood some youngster. Let us look at some of the top scorers of last season - CM Gautam, Jiwanjot Singh, Parthiv Patel & Abhishek Nayar. Except for Parthiv(who has scored a couple of 50s this season) others have not done much this season in both Duleep Trophy and in the first 2 rounds of Ranji. That leaves us with the option of the guys who are currently doing well. There are 2 youngsters who are doing exceedingly well - Baba Aparajith(2 double centuries and 1 century) and Sanju Samson(1 double century and 1 century). We can also add Vijay Zol to the list.  All three are very young and not sure if the selectors will select any of them. 

Parthiv patel or a Wridhiman Saha could be the back up keeper. In case the selectors chose to pick a back up keeper. In case they go in for a back up opener then it could be Gambhir (they will not select him unless he will be in the XI, which I dont think will happen) or a Jiwanjot Singh. The other option of a Abhinav Mukund has not done much for a while now. I would probably go with Saha. 

The 3 members for me would be Ishwar Pandey, Baba Aparajith and Wridhiman Saha. 

My 15 will be MS Dhoni, Dhawan, Vijay, Pujara, Kohli, Rohit, Rahane, Ashwin, Bhuvaneshwar, Shami, Umesh, Ojha, IC Pandey, Baba Aparajith and Saha

Review of the 1st Test of the Sachin (India vs West Indies) Series

The first test of the series which was scheduled to have Sachin finish his test career in India (OK, we also had another reason of having some additional revenue from the broadcast rights) ended in 3 days. Here is the review of this game. 

West Indies started off with winning the toss and brought in Sheldon Cottrell for Kemar Roach and India giving Rohit Sharma and Shami Mohammed their test caps. I was personally surprised that Shami got the nod ahead of Umesh Yadav (I even mentioned in my post about the 15 that Umesh was a default selection in the playing XI), but it turned out to be a brilliant move. Rohit Sharma ahead of Ajinkya Rahane was also not a surprise with the form Rohit has been this year and scoring a century and double century in the recently concluded ODI series against the Aussies. 

Dhoni before the match was cribbing about missing out Ravindra Jadeja, but didn't mention anything about Ashwin. Ashwin has been performing better with the bat than Jadeja especially in the tests. In the Australia test series Ashwin did fabulously well with the ball also. He is currently ranked # 1 in the ICC all rounder rankings in the world and still our captain doesn't recognize him as an all rounder. 

West Indies started off well scoring at around 3.5 runs an over for the first 10 overs. Bhuvaneshwar got rid of Gayle in the 11th Over with little bit of away movement and Shami picked up his first wicket with a bouncer to Powell. The 3rd wicket partnership between Bravo and Samuels took windies well past the 100 mark. Shami started reversing the ball and got Samuels bowled who had scored 65 runs at a pretty quick pace. What followed was West Indies' gift to India with Bravo being run out, Ramdin being bowled (tempted to say Speak now nah Dinesh) and Sammy hitting it straight to the only person on the boundary (I was so reminded of Srikanth's wicket in the 92 world cup match against New Zealand, early days of field restrictions when he hit Deepak Patel straight down the throat of the long on fielder). Tendulkar brought on for the last over before tea (he picked his last test wicket in 2010) picked up the wicket of Shillingford in his 5th ball. Ashwin and Shami finished the rest. West Indies ended up with 234. Dhoni dropped couple of catches which was a surprise. 

India started off cautiously with Dhawan and Vijay and India finishing day 1 at 37/0. On day 2 Shillingford started spinning the web around the openers. Dhawan was unfortunate with the ball keeping very low which bowled him but he could have been out the previous ball also which almost carried back to Shillingford. Vijay didn't want to keep the Eden crowd waiting for long for the moment they were waiting for and completely missed the ball when he stepped out and got stumped. Sachin came and he stuck two beautiful boundaries (was he trying to do what a normal player who is tensed will do, start hitting out? don't think so as both were beautiful strokes and not slogs). Was surprised to see Pujara trying to play the bouncer over the keeper's head and ended up giving an easy catch to Ramdin and Cottrell picked up his first wicket. Nigel Llong put an end to Sachin's innings with a poor decision but Tendulkar was completely beaten by the doosra from Shillingford. Kohli followed immediately to Shillingford again defending with hard hands. Dhoni started attacking Shillingford immediately and things started changing a bit from then on. India went into lunch at 120/5 and in deep trouble. Dhoni went after a few overs nicking one to Ramdin of Best and India were in deep trouble with India at 156/6. Then came a beautiful partnership between Rohit and Ashwin. Rohit taking his good form into the tests too. Ashwin clearly telling everyone that he is far better a batsman than other so called all rounders. Rohit went onto make a century and Ashwin ended up at 92 at stumps. Sammy could have tried bowling Samuels or Gayle. India ended day 2 at 354/6 a lead of 120 runs. 

Day 3 - India would have wanted to build a pretty huge lead and take the score past 500 runs but that was not to be. India were all out for 453 around lunch. Rohit out at 177 and Ashwin at 124 and Bhuvaneshwar and Shami not troubling the scorers much. Ramdin dropped two catches returning the favor to Dhoni. 

West Indies started cautiously and Gayle was the first to go trying to pull a bouncer and giving an easy catch to Kohli of Bhuvaneshwar. Windies were 33/1 and Powell and extras were zero then. The second wicket partnership added 68 runs and after that only person to show some resilience was as usual Chanderpaul. Samuels was probably a bit unlucky to be given leg before when the ball hit him on the back thigh pad. You can give someone leg before when the ball hits the thigh pad only when the batsman is squatting or they are pretty short like Mushfiqur Rahim or Sachin Tendulkar but definitely not Marlon Samuels who is well over 6 feet :) Shami bowled beautifully reversing and Ashwin also picked away 3 wickets. Shami ended the second innings with a 5-for and the match with a 9 wickets. Windies were all out for 168 and India won by innings and 51 runs. They collapsed from 101/1 to 168 all out. 

Rohit Sharma was the man of the match. I would have personally preferred either Shami or Ashwin. 

Shami and Rohit had dream debuts and Ashwin (5 wickets and 124 runs) had a great match. Other than these 3 not much contributions from others. Read a stat that bulk of Bhuvaneshwar's wicket has come in the first 15 overs, that is a definite cause of worry. Ojha was a bit unlucky in the first innings as Dhoni dropped a couple of catches but didn't have much to do in the second innings.  

What to look forward to Match # 200

India should be a bit worried about the top order's batting against Shillingford. Windies don't have it in them to fight and I don't see much chance for them in the next match either. 

The match # 199 didn't really go the way the fans would have wanted it with Sachin ending up with 10 runs and 1 wicket. Fans would be loving to see Sachin score more at Wankhade. However, as Geoffrey Boycott mentioned in his Bowl at Boycs there is just too much pressure on Sachin and like what happened to Bradman don't think we can expect a big score from Sachin. I would prefer the way Rahul and VVS left through press conferences and not with such hoopla. 

Some records from this match

1)     Shami's bowling figures was the best by an Indian fast bowler in a match on debut and second best by a indian bowler after Narendra Hirwanis 16 wicket 

2)     Rohit's 177 was the second best by an Indian batsman on debut after Dhawan's 187

3)     280 run 7th wicket partnership between Ashwin and Rohit was the best for India for the 7th wicket and 2nd best for all wickets against west indies. 

Some funny things from this match 

·        CAB got its timing completely wrong, they had ordered 199 kgs of rose petals to be air dropped and got permission from air traffic control also but they had planned it for day 4 & 5. Windies messed up the plans. 

·        I was hearing the commentary on radio when heading to work on the 3 days and some real good gems from the commentary

1)     First slip thoda peechae hain, second slip kuch agae hain and third slip kuch our agae hain(First slip is bit back, second slip is a bit forward and third slip is bit more forward)... Anyone who has watched a bit of cricket would know how the slips are positioned. Do they have to talk something to fill time?

2)     Rohit is nearing the score of Dhawan and cricket is a game of great statistics and permutations and combinations.. ok there are statistics in cricket and permutations and combinations are there in statistics but permutations and combinations and cricket? Doesn't make sense. 

3) Tino Best's pace would not trouble the Indian batsman, he is bowling gentle medium - He was bowling well over 140 consistently :)

Who creates the posters that come up on the medians?

I have always wondered who creates the posters that come up on the road medians during the visit of any leader. I have had personal experience when a minister who was invited for a function specifically asked that such posters be put up on the median of the roads. This trend of putting up small posters on the medians is relatively new in Chennai. It has been in prevalence for the last 5-6 years.

The funny part is the wordings that people use on these posters like Vidi velliyae(morning star), nayaganae(hero), suriyanae(sun), bharathamae(india), edhayamae(heart) and what not. Earlier we used to have meaningful ones like the former Dy CM being addressed as Kurunji malar nayaganae (Hero of Kurunji flower) because he acted as the hero of a serial called Kurunji malar.

Now a days the wordings on these median posters don't have any meaning like Nalayae(tomorrow), etc. What does that even mean?

Some are outright false. Like what was put up when Narendra Modi came to Chennai. There were posters which claimed that he was the Eelam's saviour and Katchatheevu retriever. I am not sure when Modi retrieved Katchatheevu or saved eelam? To my knowledge he has not even uttered a single word on these subjects.

The other major issue for me is the safety of the road users, who is in charge of ensuring these posters put up on the medians stay there? Many times they are dangling on the road or fallen on the road. Already the roads are blocked by the barricades and some more is being taken up by the fallen posters. Shouldn't the parties be held responsible for ensuring the safety for these?  

Views about the Indian Test Squad for the West Indies Series

Selected Squad: MS Dhoni (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, M Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, R Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra, Ajinkya Rahane, Umesh Yadav, Shami Ahmed, Rohit Sharma, Ishant Sharma.

Default Selection

1) MS Dhoni

2) Sachin Tendulkar (this series is held for him)

3) Virat Kohli

4) Cheteshwar Pujara

5) Shikhar Dhawan

6) Murali Vijay (I do hear views of lots of people that he shouldn't be selected, but in the last test series that India played he scored two - 150+ score and one 50+ score. He was the top scorer of that series)

7) R Ashwin (he was the leading wicket taker in the last series)

8) Umesh Yadav

The above 8 will definitely make the playing XI. That leaves only 3 slots open 1 Fast bowler, 1 Spinner and batsman/all rounder at 6. 

No 6 Slot

Jadeja is rested because of injury so the # 6 will definitely go to a batsman. The toss up is between Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma. Both are selected in the 15 and it will be MSD's decision to choose who gets into the playing XI. I would personally like to see Jinx get his chance. Anyone as talented as him should get at the minimum the chances that Rohit Sharma got in ODIs (Rohit has still not played a test match)

Fast Bowler

Ishant Sharma, Bhuvaneshwar Sharma and Shami are selected in the 15. Bhuvaneshwar Sharma had a great start to his career but he has plateaued now. Do we persist with him? I would say Yes. Shami - Not sure if he will get a chance but is one of the best options we have had. Ishant Sharma should have been dropped for sure. MSD had to defend his selection for the ODIs itself. I would have loved to have Zak back in the side. He had a decent outing in Mumbai's first ranji match which ended yesterday. 

Spinners

Ojha and Mishra are selected in the 15. That is an easy decision and Bhajji is the other option we have. Ojha and Mishra have not done anything wrong. So the choice was easy. 

Except for Zak for Ishant I would have selected the same team. 

I have a very basic question - Why do we need a 15 member squad for the 2 test home series? There is no way we will play more than 2 fast bowlers then why select 4 fast bowlers? 

CHOGM & Maldives - What India should do

CHOGM

The opposition from the Tamil Nadu political parties has literally forced the PM to take a decision. This is not a great multilateral forum that PM has to attend. However, with the resolution passed by the TN assembly, the PM has to attend the CHOGM meeting. Otherwise it will look like he has let the regional parties decide the foreign policy. What I would suggest is PM to attend the meeting and must also visit Jaffna. That will ensure that the regional parties keep quite. 

When it comes to Sri Lanka, we need to force them to implement the so called 13+ that Mahinda Rajapaksa said he will do. As mentioned in my earlier post about going back on promises he made (http://dailykaruthu.blogspot.in/2013/08/from-13-to-diluted-13-feeling-cheated.html), Rajapaksa has been getting away with whatever he wants to do. Unless we have a relationship with them, we will not be able to force him to act. In case the PM decides not to attend this meeting we will have no clout with Rajapaksa. The sad part is the opposition party in Sri Lanka led by Ranil Wikramasinghe is also in tatters that also gives Rajapaksa the room to do what he wants. 

Every party knows that Indian fisherman has been going deep into Sri Lankan territory to catch fish. When LTTE was active, Sri Lankan fisherman were not allowed to fish which also helped the Indian fisherman to catch fish in Sri Lankan territory. Now that LTTE is finished the Sri Lankan fisherman are also back in the ocean and they don’t want Indian fisherman fishing in their territory. This is what is forcing the Sri Lankan Navy to act. However, all that they should do is take the Indian Fisherman into custody for crossing into Sri Lankan territory and not fire at them. India needs to be engaged with the Sri Lankan government, even to force them not to fire at our fisherman.

The other worry is that China card is played beautifully by Rajapaksa. We are being naive to fall into that trap. We should have never allowed him to use the China card. When India is not even allowed to get near South China Sea how in the hell did India allow China to get well entrenched in Sri Lanka? 

Maldives

I had written about 20 days back about what's happening in Maldives (Maldives' tryst with democracy) and what India should do. Sujatha Singh the Foreign secretary had visited Maldives after that. But things have taken a turn for the worst. Elections were supposed to have been held by 20th of October is now postponed to 9th of November and if there is a second round it will be held on 16th of November. That will leave a 5 day gap of the country not having a President. 

Gayoom is still having a strong say in the country. India which has helped Gayoom many times, is not able to influence him now. This is really surprising and unbelievable as India even helped him thwart an attempt by LTTE to take over Maldives. 

Mohammed Waheed, the current President has decided not to contest the elections, which was the wise thing to do. He received only 5% votes in the annulled elections held on 7^th September.

Election commission has clearly stated that it will not hold elections before the 9th of November. India should ensure that the elections are held without any further delay. India should talk to Gayoom and reign him in. China has a huge consulate in Male and bulk of the tourists coming to Maldives are now from China. India need to ensure that Maldives also doesn’t start playing the China card. 

Response to the Open Page article by Dr Sheila Balakrishnan in The Hindu titled Civic Sense, last on our list

This is in response to the Open Page Article published in today's Hindu titled Civic Sense, last on our list by Dr Sheila Balakrishnan from Trivandrum(http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-openpage/civic-sense-last-on-our-list/article5276987.ece). 

It is always easy to find fault with our country and this is another such article. I would like point out a few things and in no way am I saying that civic sense is not required. 

Coming to dog poop, I have lived in the US and seen everyone pick up the dogs poop and drop it in the bins. I also thought this was great and then realized that its by law that people are required to pick up their dog's poop. I would suggest that the doctor watches the beautiful movie called Milk where Sean Penn plays the first elected gay activist Harvey Milk and how he championed the law to force dog owners to pick up their dog's poop. In UK also its a law. I also feel bad when I see dog poop, cow dung and what not on the road and when I have jump around on the road to avoid stepping on them. I have also felt that we should have a law like in the west to force but when I realize that many human beings today defecate in the open as they don't have toilets at home we are asking for too much (at least for now). 

Road usage is an issue that I agree with the doctor on. However, you should drive in New York city to realize that there is nothing different from what happens in India. 

Public place behavior again I would request the doctor to read this beautiful article in New York Times titled The Good Men of India (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/20/opinion/sunday/the-good-men-of-india.html), we definitely need outsiders to tell how good people are in India. Also how many times have we had strangers take the kids on buses and keep them on their laps? In which other country would you see that? Everyone is so selfish about what they do and what not do. 

Mobile Phones, agreed but this is an issue across the world. Case in point the ex-NSA chiefs telephonic interviews being posted live on twitter. 

In end I would have been happy if the article was note just addressed to us Indians. All things that the doctor has raised happen across the world and not just in India. That being the case why would she point out about India alone? 

Civic sense is required for everyone period. Not just Indians.