Winners Lose Out In Gulf News BlockBuster!

In the 2009 edition of Gulf News Blockbuster, last year champions will not be allowed to compete.

What a shame!

This brings us to the question about any competetion - why do we have them?

Imagine Roger Federer not being allowed to play in Wimbledon because "you have already won so many times, you should give others also a chance"!

This kind of thinking is the breeding ground of mediocrity.

It is also taking away shine from the winners - the win will always be mentioned with a "however so and so did not compete because they were not allowed to, otherwise they would definitely have won".

It is asking this year's players who enjoy playing the game more than being tagged as champions to lose in the finals - so that next year they are not barred from playing!

It is making this year's winners uncomfortable with the win. In fact it is making a mockery of words like "Champion", "Winner", "Number 1", "The Best".

It brings down sporting spirit a few notches down.

More than for last year winners, I feel sorry for this years players who will be unable to challenge last year's winners and rightfully claim to be the best in 2009.

But the maximum pity I have is for the organizers of Gulf News Blockbuster for bringing a game to Dubai and yet not understanding what a sport is all about. For them it is perhaps just about distributing those sponsored gift boxes after each game. As I said earler, what a shame!

Virender Sehwag | MS Dhoni | Sachin Tendulkar | Shahid Afridi | Gautam Gambhir

Virender Sehwag, MS Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, Shahid Afridi and Gautam Gambhir are the most searched items on cricinfo website. It made interesting statistics. Made me wonder why Afridi and not his captain Khan? Afridi has been out of news for quite some time.

For Afridi to be among top 5 researched players of the day on cricinfo, a lot of searching must be going on in Pakistan! I think it shows that Pakistan is expecting a lot from Afridi in the up coming ODIs in UAE against Australia. Of late Afridi has been a bit of disappointment for his fans. I hope he comes good this time and gives some joy to Pakistanis, who need it desperately, considering all those blasts going on there.

All the best Afridi !

Skand Bhargava

Life Changing Links

Sanjay Dutt needs someone to write his dialogues

Sanjay Dutt & Amar Singh's interview with Barkha Dutt on NDTV24X7 aired on 1st April 2009:

Sanjay Dutt says:
Congress Party killed my father
I don't believe in congress policies


And later in the interview when Barkha Dutt poses a hypothetical question, supposing Congress party offered him a ticket, would he stand for election on congress ticket? He says that if Amar Singh advised him to, he would!

This is called being "Be Peindi Ka Lota" (a person who has no stand of his own). Imagine, such people want to be OUR leaders !

Skand Bhargava

Life Changing Links

Was Mumbai 26/11 A Practice Target?

The recent attacks, 3/3/2009 on Sri Lankan cricketers and 30/3/2009 on police training school, both in Lahore, Pakistan, make you wonder.

Were 26/11/2008 attacks on Mumbai practice targets for the strategists who plan these attacks in these terror organizations (they appear to be actually one entity by different names). I mean if you attack Mumbai, starting your journey from Karachi plus plant some of the terrorists in advance as employees in business houses, then you do get lots of data to analyse for next attacks. If the next few attacks are going to be within Pakistan, then based on data collected during Mumbai attack, the strategists in these terror organisation will have much easier task at hand. And I do believe that the immediate target of these extremists cum terrorists is Pakistan. Once Pakistan is in their hands, they will seriously turn towards India.

As I mentioned in my previous blog, India's bigger concern should be Taliban and not Pakistan army. As mentioned in that blog, India should start an initiative to contain/exterminate these extremists by asking Pakistan, US, China, US, Afghanistan and maybe Russia to join hands.

If left unchecked. with time this problem will become only bigger and the price to be paid to solve it enormous. Even now the price is not going to be small. But it will be nothing compared to what it is going to become in 2-3 years if nothing is done about it. The politicians and decision makers must wake up to these realities and face this challenge up front.

 

Skand Bhargava

Life Changing Links

 

Is Policeman's Life Less Important Than A Cricketer's?

I do understand that policemen will be needed for crowd control. I also understand that a well organised posse of policemen will go after a gang of dacoits and may even lose some brave men. I do not deny that some policemen will be seriously injured in line of duty while controlling riots.

But why should an unsuspecting policeman be used as a sacrificial pawn to protect another person who has knowingly ventured out to play or watch a game of bat and ball, despite all the warnings?

Are we saying that playing cricket is so important that it is okay to let some policemen die while trying to save the life of some cricketers or watchers?

My point is: if we already know that there is grave danger to life from a faceless enemy who can appear from nowhere and at will, then the police force should be used to weed out the source of that danger in an organised and planned manner; not as fodder to terrorists who can attack as and when they like. Why should we assume that it is the duty of policemen to save the life of reckless people involved in playing and watching the game when the right thing for them was to stay at home?

Seriously, why should you be held responsible to save my life, if inspite of all the warnings, I am foolish enough to go out to play or watch a game where a bat hits a ball? Just because you are a policeman? Frankly, I am not convinced.

Taliban's Threat To India

In my opinion at the moment Taliban is a bigger threat to India than Pakistan army. It is a matter of just few years (3 to 5 in my estimation) that Taliban would be all over Pakistan, if things remain same.

And then it will be on Indian border.

I am sure Indian army realises this. Despite all the differences with Pakistan, I feel the need of the hour for India, Pakistan, US, China, Afghanistan and if possible, Russia, is to join forces and win the war against Taliban in a conclusive manner - just as the Allied forces won against the Axis in second world war.

The other problem with Talibanisation of Pakistan is that it generates a reactive mindset in other religions because they feel threatened. This gives rise to undesirable activists who start attcking their own people in the name of 'protecting our religion and culture'. All this ultimately leads to a very uncivilised civilisation.

Obama's Inauguration

1. Speech:
Bottom Line: Not inspiring enough to meet the high expectations set by his acceptance speech. The “Yes We CAN” flavour was missing.

2. Oath Taking:
Unimpressive because of the fumble - for which the oath giver is to be blamed. He spoke long string of words which were not easy to repeat.

3. Overall Ceremony:
WOW! Americans do have a sense of drama. Good entertainment. Kept us glued to the TV. I wonder if even Pakistanis & Sri Lankans would have watched their 1st daynight ODI of this series!!!

Indian Woman Taken To US Without Mumbai Police Knowledge?

PTI has reported that Uddaiya, the woman who saw the 26/11 Mumbai terrorists arrive in city was whisked away to US without apparent knowledge of Mumbai police! I say apparent because the news item of Gulf News (January 16 2009, page 29) implies the same - when Uddaiya is reported to have said that she lied to Mumbai police after she returned from US about her whereabouts for last few days.

This news item begs a few questions. Can a key witness to India's biggest terror attack ever, be taken away by some people (US agents or not) and Indian police (Mumbai police in this case) is unaware of it?

Common sense says that it is much much difficult to whisk away a well known person without the knowledge of security people than for an unknown face to merge into mainstream of Mumbai's teaming population.

So if Mumbai police could really let it's key witness be whisked away to a foreign land without it's knowledge, then how prepared is it to catch the next terrorist in the city?

Somehow it is difficult to digest that Uddaiya was taken to US without full knowledge of Mumbai police. For one thing, when was her passport made?

When things don't make sense, my first instinct is to go back and question the premises themselves.

I feel this whole story is a made up one, it is made of some truths, some half truths and some falsehoods.

I refuse to believe that Mumbai police could be this incompetent. I have more respect for it.