Breaking the Jinx

Image : Dale Steyn & me chatting with the fans during the RCB vs Cape Cobra Match

Friends, Royal Challengers must win in tomorrow's match to go the League stage.
It would be an exciting match to watch.

I am blogging about the stay with the team here. You can also get a sneak-peak into their routine during the tournament on the chief photographer's page. You may also log into the RCB site during the match to chat with one of the RCB players.

All the Indian T20 teams have been loosing till now. Wish for the RCB victory to break the jinx :).

The Chief Blogger of Royal Challengers Bangalore

Yes Guys. Click here for the announcement.

Met Anil Kumble. Got the "Letter of Appointment" in a press conference with cameras clicking all around. Those were my fifteen minutes of fame. Photos and name are published in some newspapers. I saw them in Deccan Chronicls, DNA & Deccan Herald. A friend tells me that he has seen it on TV9 & Times Now too.

I would be travelling with the RCB team from 8th October and keep the RCB fan-blog rolling till the Champions League ends on23 October.

This now dislodges my last boastful achievement of getting calls from the IIMs and not going for the interviews :). Yes, the humility has gone into hiding for a while :).

Below are some of the posts I wrote for the contests in last two days. The first one, which played a major role in winning it for me, was written on day one. The other 6 were written on the same day. It wasn't easy churning them out.

I would like to know your feedbacks on whether you would like to read such posts on cricket. It would be great to hear from not-so-die-hard fans of cricket whether they enjoyed reading it. I kept them in mind a lot while composing them. Come on guys, give the first post a shot and then see whether you can read through the others :).

1. The Agony and a parrot
2. The effects a shoe-sale can have over T20.
3. If I were a Ball ( Another way of describing the playing styles of RCB squad)
4. The Flying Fans
5. A Gem of a Game
6. Nature over nurture
7. A possible path for RCB to win the Champions League

Many thanks to my blog friends for voting and references which were pivotal to get me through to this level. Apologies for not responding as I have been too busy with the contest.

This is also my 50th post. Would elaborate further on it soon :).

In Top 9 For Chief Blogger RCB

Just saw the results here. and I am shortlisted in top 9 for the post of chief bloggers.

Extremely relieved and happy right now.

I must thank you all for the support, votes and references.

Have to rush to work. Would come back and update with details. The highlight is that I am gonna meet Anil Kumble this Saturday.

Thank you again friends :).

Please Vote For Me

I need your votes for the 'Chief Blogger' Contest for Royal Challengers Bangalore. The 'Chief Blogger' gets to travel with the team and blog about the team during the forthcoming Champions League. Based on the quality of application, number of votes and references, 9 Bloggers would be shortlisted out of which one would be selected after interviews and other tasks.

You may help me by voting (Click here) . Feel free to add a refernece too which should highlight my writing and strategizing/analyzing skills. Come on people, lie a bit for a fellow human being.

I don't really have words to thank Preeti, who is helping me get more votes here.
Below is copied the 'About me' section of my application :

I have done B.Tech from IIT Kharagpur and am currently employed as a Team Leader in a software firm.

Cricket has molded my way of thinking. You would find me giving analogies with cricketing situations to explain almost any problem, even at workplace. I am the kind of person who is always playing shots with whatever he has in his hands, be it a pen, broom or a snake.
Until the 1991 world cup, my parents used to be concerned whether I would ever be able to wake up and see the Sun rise. Their fears were laid to rest when their sleeps were disturbed regularly at 3AM with cheers of fours and sixes.

The only worthwhile thing my left hand can do is to bowl leg-spin with Tennis-ball. It’s been observed that my happiness-index is ten percent higher whenever there is a cricket series in progress. Besides gorging on the display of skills, I enjoy munching on the statistics, graphs and analysis that follow a cricket match.

My blog http://brownphantom.blogspot.com has more than 70 registered users. The content is comprised of short stories, observations and analysis.

Rest of the applcation can be read here at the same place where you can (should) vote for me.

Valid Excuses For A Pseudo-Break

I would be relatively inactive in blogosphere for the next fifty days. Various reasons are listed down later in the post. Have been fairly disciplined with the rule "at least one post per ten days" , exceptions being a couple of vacations when I was not in Bangalore. The reason for the rule was the observation that most of the blogs that are now dormant were marred with irregularity. Increasing gaps between the posts presaged the imminent death.

Many bloggers face a trade-off between quality and quantity, especially when pressed for time. So do I for the next 7 weeks. "Quality or Quantity?" is the question. I am going to use the management mantra of "Power of And" ; would screw both of them. There would be infrequent filler-posts that which would take less than half an hour to compile as opposed to the usual 2-3 hours and I would tag the posts as Fillers. I am totally non-committal about that though as of now. The bigger loss, however, would be the reduction in communication with fellow bloggers, which is even more critical for blogs that are as young as this. But then, there are reasons for going slow, which are :

1. LSE Exams: I've confessed my love for mathematics in quite a few posts. Economics is another very interesting subject and I would strongly recommend to have at least basic understanding of economics if you are interested to develop a better understanding of the world around you. Economics is not all about money, we have "Finance" for the purpose. Economics (moreover microeconomics) is about choices, how and why we make them. The principle of "diminishing marginal returns" made me trade the ninth hour of my sleep for Yoga everyday. We all know that Yoga/exercise is good for health. However, after reading economics, it sounds foolish not to do so, considering the marginal returns vs marginal costs analysis for one hour of Yoga vs ninth hour of sleep.

I am studying this very interesting course since last three years and have my exams in late May and early June. Blogging has ensured that this year my subjects at LSE haven't received the desired devotion until now and now is the time to compensate for that.

2. IPL: Being a logical Indian male in late twenties, I am supposed to be crazy about cricket and I am predictable here.

The plan is to use the laptop as little as possible for the next few weeks and I know that if at all I log-on to the net on pretext of blogging, all I would do is follow live matches on net. Can't stop myself from predicting a few outcomes though. Last year's winners Rajasthan Royals would not make it to semis this year; neither will Kolkata Knight Riders. I see two new entrants to semis this year: Mumbai & Bangalore. Chennai should make it too. I rank Delhi, Chandigarh & Hyderabad in that very order as probables for the fourth berth in semis.

3. Work Load: Two of my projects are expected to be launched in coming months. That should explain, I reckon. Besides, I've also committed two posts per month to my other blog here and posts there need more time due to the professional nature of the blog.

4. Expected rise in frequency of social gatherings: Almost all of my current friend circle was born between March to May. That includes all the males in our family too: Dad, Bro & me. Usually, none of the males being discussed here have any specail feelings about their B'days and a typical "Happy B'day" phone call goes like this:

The phone rings. B'day boy picks up the phone," Haan bhai. Bol do tum bhi "
Friend : "Kya kar sakte hain yaar. Angrejo ki dee hui bimari hain. Le lo happy b'day"
B'day boy, "Saalon ne mobile bhi banaa diya hain. Dhung se neend bhi nahi ho paayi hain aaj." Friend, "Sahi baat. Kitne thuk jayenge aaj ?"
B'day boy," Dekhte hain yaar, chocolate me tarka sake office ke logo ko to sasta rahega mamla. Tum log bhi thoosne ke mood me ho kya? "
Friend, "Yaar khilaoge to kha lenge, but aaj nahi; weekend pe set karo." B'day boy, "Haan, aaj wise bhi emotionaly drain ho jaate hain free me smile kar kar ke."
Friend, "Chalo thik hain fir. Bataa dena jo bhi ho."
B'day boy, "hmmm."
The call is disconnected.

Life, in this part of the universe, has mostly been simple.

Demographics and Sports : Part 1

1. Why Indian Cricket team is likely to remain amongst the top three for decades?

2. Why England has won relatively low number of championships in most of the sports despite being probably the most sport loving nation?

3. Why most of the trophies/medals for India are going to come from individual games and sports? We might never see the golden days of Hockey again and we have little chance of success in sports like Football/Basketball.

This article is divided into two. The first part looks at the relation between demography and sports with cricket as an example. Second part explains the curious case of England, other sports in India, Olympic medals tally & Football rankings.

Here are some arguments which aim to partially explain some of the facts and speculations mentioned above. A nation’s success in a sport is a function of various parameters:

Success(sport) = f( Population, Per Capita Income, Level of interest in the sport, Average health, Culture, Random factors)

With the above formula most of the sports’ rankings in past and present can be justified. These are the fundamental factors. Some claim that Football in India isn’t a success because not enough money is spent on the game and cricket hogs most of the limelight. This is a naïve answer. It’s like saying that rain occurs because of the clouds; an unsatisfactory explanation with no attempt at understanding the dynamics of nature and weather cycles.

Let’s talk cricket first.
New Zealand : They just lost the One-day series 3-1 to India. That country’s population (4.2 million) is nearly half of that of Bangalore. For each New-Zealander, India has 200 heads. If one goes by population alone, then chances of prodigies like Sachin being born here are huge compared to NZ. Each player in Indian team is a 99.99999 percentile while in NZ team, he is 99.9995 percentile. India should have been mauling them in most of the games if one goes by population alone.

So what brings NZ at a competing distance to India ? I think the most important factors are active outdoor life and naturally better health (look at their average height). Their per capita income ($26,610) is more than 10 times that of India, which means a lot better infrastructure and financial support for the game and players. Yes, nowadays any Indian cricket players earn much more than a NZ player; however that happens only at the topmost level. There are a comparatively higher percentage of drop-outs at the club level in India due to financial insecurity.

Australia: There are five Australians for each New-Zealander and each Australian earns twice as much. The level of interest in cricket is higher in Australia as compared to New-Zealand where Rugby is the primary sport. Nearly 23.5 % Australians over the age of 15 regularly participate in organized sporting activities. One in four. How many of your acquaintances over 15 are regular with sports ?

Australia has probably the most efficient and competitive cricket system right from the school level; if a person is good, chances are very high that he won't miss the chance to play at the right level. However, India is now catching up due to growing economy and money being poured into the system. On the other hand, population is something that Australia would never catch up on. So, Indian team is expected to progress at a faster rate.

West Indies: WI cricket was a roaring success once upon a time. Tall, dark and ferocious players. Since last couple of decades, money has been drying out of WI cricket and at the same time Basketball is getting more and more popular due to American influence. Tall, well built players choose that game at school levels and we don’t get to see those intimidating players in cricket any more.

Pakistan: Back in 80’s and early 90’s , it was a common sight to see Pakistan team defeating India. They were just one fifth in population and per-capita-income was nearly the same. One can attribute some of it to “Random Factors” in the equation above. However, we must also not ignore that Pakistanis are ahead of Indians in terms of health and physique due to natural conditions surrounding their habitats. Who’s your favorite Bollywood actor? Chances are that he would be a Khan or someone with Punjabi blood in his family ( Hrithik Roshan, Akshay Kumar, Abhishek Bachchan, Ranbir kapur). Living in mountainous and cold region has its advantages.

Besides, it is only now that Indians have become aggressive; we didn’t have it in our culture back then. When Sachin as a teenager was hitting sixes in Peshawar, Abdul Qadir walked up to him and said “ Bachchon ko kyon maar rahe ho, humein maar ke dikhao”. Imagine Venkatpathy Raju doing the same to Shahid Afridi. One more controvertial factor, many claim, for India’s poor record against Pakistan in those days, was biased umpiring in Sharjah-Cup which we never won for years. Sachin, later in that match, hit Qadir in an over for 6,0,4,6,6,6. India still lost.

Sri Lanka: This team has risen only after the mid-nineties. However, they are seldom in top three in the rankings, which is expected given their corresponding values in the equation. I attribute the 1996 world cup win to ‘Random Factors”. “Random Factors” must not be taken as sheer luck, but more as short-lived reasons. The rise of Kaluwitharana and Jayasuriya at the top of the order was something world was not prepared for. Greats like Muralitharan are born and they can skew the expectations. However, if he or someone of Jayasuriya’s caliber was to be born in Bermuda, that team wouldn’t have won the world-cup because other parameters of the equation (mainly level and history of interest) are still very weak there.

Rest of the analysis follows in part 2. One important reason for splitting the post into two is to be able to justify any anomalies or questions that some of the readers might point out in this part.

Meanwhile, would you be kind enough to check out my other blog which is a live-story in progress of the start-up Easysquarefeet.

The year that wasn't

This has been a dull year for me. Not a great way to start a post but I do find myself questioning “Did I simply sidestep and let the driver of the bus (rather train) pass by without noticing me?”. I didn’t even yell back at the driver; just sat there chewing paan.

That this has been the most uneventful year of my life is an uneasy fact which can’t be denied. I look for answers. Mathematics provides some of them, rest I explain with the help of cricket.

In general (not always), we characterize situations in personal life to be significant when they happen for the first time or have an high intensity of experience. So first day at the college is a day we all remember but at the same time no parent would not cherish the birth of the second child.

Life is such that the probability of anything happening for the first time reduces with age. When exactly do you expect the first shower of monsoon to drench you: June or September? The first word is uttered in months, first step taken in a year, first crush happens before you’ve seen a decade and so on and, as the usage goes, so forth. I don’t expect to have my first pimple or the first job on the wrong side of twenties. Yes, there are things like the first white hair which will take its own sweet time, but that’s what the point is: number of such events reduces with the age. At the cost of sounding sissy, I must admit that the only first thing I see happening to me in near future isss …welllll..."samajh me nahi aata kaise kahun"…MARRIAGE (which, for information's sake, and for the delight of lovely ladies reading this blog, I must mention, is not yet fixed).

What happens, sir, to the intensity, you might ask. It reduces logarithmically. Your tenth year is 10% of your entire lifetime you have lived till then while your 30th is 3.33%. dY/dX=1/X implies Y=log(X). So a bonus or a promotion now doesn’t thrill me as much as it used to about three years ago. I am pretty calm now whenever my Vinnie nudges a fellow passenger. She’s got bruises all over her anyway. Of course there are certain things like wine and wisdom that get better with age, but that’s an ongoing process and not accountable. Saying that I grew wiser this year is like taking comfort in “You are unique”. Nothing different from others here and hence the intensity is lost.

The above two observations do provide a logical justification for the current state of affairs; some introspection is still in order. I wasn’t a lazy bum for the entire year and did lead a cheerfully optimistic and active life; didn’t stop trying either. To say that this was a year of consolidation and strengthening wouldn’t be miles away from the truth. Talking cricket here, I must say that the batsman didn’t score a duck or a century, but did manage a whole lot of runs and improved his technique. So if the “events” are scoring 0 or a 100, the statistics wouldn’t show any ticks in those columns but the averages and strike rates are a pleasing spectacle.

Let’s take some of my team’s batsmen one by one in this 2008 innings. Mr. Health was the man in form and scored a flourishing 88; he had never looked in such fine touch. Regular practice and disciplined approach, he claims, is the key to his success. There was a promising debut by Mr. Blog with his 45. Some of his shots showed solid technique and promise of a stable future; we’ll have to wait and watch how far he goes.

After scoring back to back centuries in last two innings, Mr. Finance returned with a measly 14. The bodyline bouncers from Lehman Brothers got him retired hurt and specialist say that it might take more than a year for him to recover.

Mr. Relationships worked pretty hard to get back in form and scored a gritty 40. There were some poor shot selections, but overall you got to admire the skill, courage and patience he was showing on the bouncy tracks which he is not very accustomed to bat on. Unfortunately he feels that he was a victim of a bad run-out decision by the umpire; in the hindsight he shouldn’t have attempted the risky single. Ususally , the batsman gets the benefit of doubt, but such has seldom been the case with Mr. Relationships.

However, Mr. TripToGoa was the unluckiest of them all; he didn’t even get the strike due to bad light. However he is destined to play up the order (read January) in the next innings (read 2009).Mr. Job did well with a handy 76. He makes batting look so easy and comfortable. Not the one to shy away from playing the risky reverse sweeps, he has been a soothing delight to watch. Mr. Rubbishknowledge steadily accumulated 69.

Similar contributions have ensured that the innings total is around 424 (even though there isn’t a single century) which is not bad by any standard when you look at the pitch. The batsmen have learnt their lessons and are improving further. I take solace in the fact that the team never looked getting out below 200 and steady progress was the theme of the day. Gaining the advantage of this innings, they can play an attacking game further; I anticipate firecrackers in 2009. Someone told me long ago, there’s calm before the storm.

PS: My friend Pravu has suggested an engaging topic after reading this post. Why don't you guys submit the runs scored by your batsmen in 2008: Mr. Health, Job, Relationships and you may add further. Check out the comments to get an idea :).