A load of crap from an idle brain

The mailtoday newspaper has gone further with another cartoon lampooning the Victorian police and the state of Indian students studying in Australia.

Read more in the paper about how the Australian police have systematically ignored the racist attacks on Indian students.  1447 people of Indian origin were either robbed or assaulted in the previous one year in Australia.  Yet the Aussie police refuse to acknowledge the targetted violence.

Its high time the parents in India realise that its not worth sending your kids to Australia to study some god forsaken courses for which there is no future anyway, but also that there is no future in contributing to increasing the Aussie education market.  Lest your kids come back in body bags.

Similar articles on Australia on this blog previously

More ramblings

Now Murali ends up with an egg on the face

Racism in Cricket? Read the damning Aussie report

Sreesanth’s Agression

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With India playing only 2 test matches in the next 11 months, the ranking might not hold if South Africa manage to beat England and take the crown.  Still, its a golden letter day in the history of cricket in India.  For the first time ever, the Indian cricket team takes the crown of being the Number 1 test team in the world.  Its a long day coming from the earlier decades when India was regularly beaten by rivals.  Today they travel well and have won tests in Australia, South Africa, won series in New Zealand, West ?Indies, Pakistan, England.

Few things unite India like cricket, and on December 6, 2009, millions of Indians were united in celebration as their team ascended to the top of the ICC Test rankings.

Fittingly, the victory that made it possible was marked by standout performances from the men who have played a crucial role in India’s ascent. Virender Sehwag has scored more runs than any other Indian batsman over the last 25 Tests – played over a two-year period beginning November 2007. His innings of 293 – played at a pace that left the bowlers ample time to finish the demolition job – proved pivotal as India fulfilled its destined tryst with the top slot.

Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan have been India’s highest wicket-takers during this period. Both picked up six wickets apiece for the match, with Zaheer coming up with a five-wicket haul to polish off the tail on Sunday morning and take India to a comfortable win by an innings and 24 runs.

Full news here

Pictures source: Cricinfo

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Wipro, India’s No. 3 software services exporter, said on Thursday it had agreed to buy some personal care businesses of Yardley for about $45.5 million, adding to its consumer goods business.

Wipro said it had signed an agreement with UK-based Lornamead group, which owns the Yardley brand, for the businesses in Asia, the Middle East, Australasia and some African markets. The transaction is expected to be completed by mid-December, it said in a statement.

Lornamead’s global turnover is estimated to be close to $650 million. Its portfolio straddles various categories of personal care products including hair-care (Brisk, Aqua Net and Vosene), cosmetics and skin-care (Amplex and Handsan), oral care (Brilliant and Goldspot) and home care brand Stergene.

Tura is a significant player in soaps and skin care in Nigeria, with an annual turnover of close to $50 million.

This is Wipro’s second big buy-out in the FMCG space in two years. In July 2007, Wipro had acquired Singapore-based personal care products manufacturer Unza Holdings Ltd for $246 million (Rs 1,010.2 crore) in an all-cash deal. That deal with Unza’s portfolio of shampoos, creams, lotions and detergents had marked Wipro’s big plunge into the global FMCG space.

Full article here

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The Twenty20 Champions League cricket tournament starts off at Bangalore today with a clash between the Royal Challengers Bangalore (India) and Cape Cobras (South Africa) at 2000 IST.

I dont think i need to mention where my loyalties lie.  Go Deccan Chargers Go.

The trophy that the below mentioned teams are playing for; along with the prize money of US$ 2.5 million.

The teams are:

India -  Deccan Chargers, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Delhi Daredevils
Australia – New South Wales Blues, VB Victorian Bushrangers
South Africa – Cape Cobras, Diamond Eagles
New Zealand – Otago Volts
Sri Lanka – Wayamba
west Indies – Trinidad & Tobago
England – Sussex, Somerset County Cricket Club.

For comprehensive information about the tournament, go to their official website at clt20.com

All above pictures source: clt20

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Time changes, people change, economies change and the powers wielded by countries change.  There was a time when Britain ruled half the world, today its nowhere.  There was a time when the US was the undisputed economic champion, today that aura is on the wane.

Its in these changing times we wonder if a group that consists of countries like Italy, Canada etc wield any power when the world is going throught the worst recession (courtesy the developed countries).  Of course the US, Japan and Germany are also a part of the G-7 group of countries, but do they really have any clout?  The G-7 as usual came out with a statement asking China to re-value it currency and hardly anyone cared a hoot.

After decades in charge, the club of rich, industrialised nations is fast losing sway as a share of global economic power shifts towards big developing countries. That was a lesson of the Group of Seven’s meeting in Istanbul at the weekend, when the absence of China showed the G7 could no longer tackle the world’s economic problems on its own.

Finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the G7 implored China in a diplomatically worded statement to let the Chinese currency rise, as they have done for several years. But China showed no sign of complying, and the G7 spent much of its time to discussing whether it should meet less often, with less pomp and perhaps with fewer public statements.

G7 statements have all too often “interested nobody because there’s no follow-up most of the time”, said Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund.

Read the full article here

The G-7 or the group of Industrialized countries comprise

Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, United States

The G-20 comprises of

Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa,  South Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, European Union

A G-7 official hit the nail on the head when he mentioned

“The moment you have to tell people you are still relevant, it’s because you are not relevant,”

Above picture source: Astrocrush

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2 years ago, Twenty-20 was a novelty. No one had a clue about India’s strengths and weakness in the game.  The young team led by MS Dhoni won the inaugural twenty-20 world cup at South Africa.

Two editions of IPL later, all the players in the Indian team are under the radar of the opposition’s think tanks.  They are sure to have made their own plans on how to counter Yuvraj, Yusuf Pathan, Rohit Sharma, Gambhir, Sehwag, Dhoni, Raina etc…

Its precisely why, this Twenty-20 World Cup at England will be the acid test for Dhoni and his men.  For Dhoni, its time to prove that his previous victory was not a fluke and that luck always plays a big factor in his victories.

India opens its schedule with a game against Bangladesh on Saturday (6 June).   There is just 7 victories between any team and the World Cup.

So, kya yeh cup kahin nahin jaayega?  Well, time will tell.  Meanwhile, am sure i dont need to specify which team Iam cheering for

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After all the hullabaloo by the self appointed moral police (including Bal Thuggeray) last year, the auction of the players for 2nd season of Indian Premier League (IPL) concluded successfully a while ago.

The best thing about the second season of IPL is that the Pakistani players have withdrawn or had their contracts cancelled by their respective teams.  Thank God, there wouldn’t have been anything more pukeworthy than seeing a Pakistani playing in the IPL after what happened in Bombay.  Good riddance of the rubbish.

This is how the teams bid

Rajasthan Royals
Shaun Tait (Australia) – $375,000
Tyron Henderson (South Africa) – $650,000

Mumbai Indians
JP Duminy (South Africa) – $950,000
Kyle Mills (New Zealand) – $150,000
Mohammad Ashraful (Bangladesh) – $75,000

Chennai Super Kings
Andrew Flintoff (England) – $1.55 million
Thilan Thushara (Sri Lanka) – $140,000
George Bailey (Australia) – $50,000 (50,000)

Bangalore Royal Challengers
Kevin Pietersen (England) – $1.55 million
Jesse Ryder (New Zealand) – $160,000

Deccan Chargers
Fidel Edwards (West Indies) – $150,000
Dwayne Smith (West Indies) -  $100,000

Delhi Daredevils
Owais Shah (England) – $275,000
Paul Collingwood (England) $275,000

Kings XI Punjab
Ravi Bopara (England) – $450,000
Jerome Taylor (West Indies) – $150,000

Kolkata Knight Riders
Mashrafe Mortaza (Bangladesh) – $600,000

All above mentioned prices are in US dollars

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Some great news all round. India has taken a series winning 3-0 lead against the Sri Lankans in the 5 match one day series.  Meanwhile, South Africa  humiliated Australia by winning both the one day and test series.  To rub  salt into the wounds, New Zealand forced a win in the first one dayer against Australia on the last ball of the match.

Brad Haddin lived upto his captain’s reputation as a cheater by dislodging the bails with his gloves instead of the ball and had the gall to question Daniel Vettori when his actions were questioned.  Pricky Ricky Ponting followed suit in defending his co-cheatmate.  I was waiting to hear a classic in the lines of

If you are questioning my integrity, then probably you shouldn’t be sitting here.

but, unfortunately no such pearls of wisdom sprouted from Ricky’s mouth this time.  In other news, Ricky Ponting has been asked to rest. Heh.  Great news.  If Australia are really serious about mounting any challenge to South Africa or India, they seriously need to get rid of Ricky as captain.  He’s still a good batsman and commands a place in the team purely on his batting and fielding.  But when it comes to captaincy, he often looks lost when the chips are down.

Roger Federer lost in the finals of the Australian Open and that’s something iam unable to come to terms with.  Rafael Nadal seems to be his achilles heel. Nadal has quickly moved from being a good player on clay to grasscourts too.  So, Federer has lost his monopoly in Wimbledon now having lost to Nadal last year.  Am sure Federer will make a comeback and break Sampras’ record of 14 grand slams, but the delay is the killer.

Watched Vicky Cristina Barcelona last weekend.  Scarlett Johansson is yummy and so is Penelope Cruz.  I still cant get over the evil role of Javier Bardem in No country for old men and had a tough time thinking about him as a casanova in this movie.

Meanwhile, i will have some great 2 weeks starting this sunday.  Biwi ji will join me here in Singapore

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