Cricket: The U-turn in India's fortune

What does the records say ?

Indian cricket has never been short of superstars. Indian players always excelled at individual records. Half of the Indian cricket team would be in the top-20 of the ICC rankings.

But what of the Indian team ? As a team the records are dismal. Various people have called it a team of paper tigers. A group of chokers who can snatch defeat from the brink of victory.

India has played 387 test matches between 1932 to Nov 2005. And has won only 84 of these, just 21.7% success rate in test matches. On ODI, of the 692 matches India has played between 1974 and Nov 2005, it has only won 292. Look at the last few years , the team was studded with superstars - Tendulkar, Ganguly, Kumble, Dravid ...... Yet the records for the past few years is no better.

In any team sports, as well as in cricket - success comes only when the whole team plays as one. No single superstar can play better then a team of talented cricketers playing as one. Over the years the team had developed a total dependence on single super start in the team. In not so recent past, once and again we have seen the team collapsing like nine-pins at the drop of Tendulkar's wicket.

The overdependence on a single superstar has been a bane for the team. Neither has it helped the individual who has to shoulder the team teams responsibility all alone.

What the team needed was a bunch of match-winners !!!!!!!

Perhaps things are changing, if we are to look at the recent 7 match one day series against Sri Lank during Oct, Nov 2005.

The U-turn in India's Cricket fortune

India won the ODI series against Sri Lanka 6-1. Each victory was sealed with match winning performances by different team members. India won the first match on the shoulders of Pathan and Tendulkar, while Dhoni powered India to win in the second match. Each successive victory brought out a new match winner in the team. This has never happened to the team India.

At the end of the series the Team India was group of match winners. Each team member doing his role and supporting the others.

Is this the U-turn that one day will make Team India a world beater ?

- Manas Kamal Bhattacharya

PDA +Mobile Phone+Touch Screen = A768i

I have been using the Motorola A768i PDA phone for last 10 months. In these months it has not only been a mobile phone. It has become my personal assistant – reminding me of the N number of meeting I attend in a day. It has been my alarm clock. It has been my Internet browser. It has been my voice recorder. And the list goes on and on ... When I purchased the phone my requirement was a PDA cum mobile phone. It should have a small form factor, but should have a large display. I also did not want a Windows PDA. I looked at all the PDA/mobile phones in the market. The A768i suited my requirements most. It had a small form factor, which I can easily carry in my pocket. Though it is relatively small, the display was quite large. This owing to the touch screen controls which eliminated the need of a keyboard. The phone worked on embedded Linux, so no worries of mobile viruses. The phone comes fully loaded. It has blue tooth, Infrared, GPRS and USBconnectivity. The Infrared has been very useful for syncing my Outlook calender and exchanging files to/from my laptop. The preloaded software on the phone is also very handy. It has a wml browser, a very versatile multi document reader called Pixel. I have tried loading PDF, Excel, Html files on the Pixel – it works like a song. It has full calender and task list management software. It even has POP3 email client and even supports VPNs – really amazing. It can play MPEG audio/video. There is also a paintbrush like tool. On the touch screen you will get a full QWERTY keyboard. It also has handwriting recognition and voice control. The Voice control is much sophisticated then contemporary Nokia smart phones. The phone doses not come with Games installed. If you have GPRS connection, then you can download some games for free from the motorol site. The site also has free ring tones, wallpapers etc. It has decent battery life for a PDA/phone. The biggest let down is the camera.

Choosing the next car

Cars in 2005, I have some options to choose from. I already had a Hyundai Santro, so I had plenty of time is choosing the next car. One this was clear, there is no point in upgrading to a C segment car like Accent , Baleno .... I was better of in the Santro. I shortlist the 4 cars - Toyota Corolla, Chevrolet Optra, Honda City and Hyundai Elantra.