Shocked but not surprised...

For the last several weeks I have been watching the Test matches in England - first Pakistan versus Australia and then Pakistan versus England. Honestly, I have not had so much fun watching Test Cricket since the days of the great West Indian fast bowlers and Gavaskar and Viswanath.

To me, the essense of a Test match is a battle between bat and ball. Subcontinental wickets that assist spin on the last two days, but are the fast bowler's graveyard do not count! I like watching Test matches played in bowler friendly conditions where the batsmen have to use all their skill and experience to build an innings and stick it to the opposition. A 5 or 10 over scoring burst does not win a Test match. That is why watching these matches in England has been so much fun.

Mohammed Asif and Mohammed Aamer have been an incredible pair, bowling for a team with little else to show for. Their bowling has had audiences mesmerized. They have been devastating with the new ball, and equally effective with the old one. Saeed Ajmal has added good variety with a doosra that no one has been able to pick. All in all it has been a gripping summer of Test cricket. Until last night.

The spot-fixing (or match-fixing or what-the-bloody-hell-you-want-to-call-it) revelations made sure that the final session of the England-Pakistan Test series was like a funeral service. Sombre, understated, and a gathering to mourn the dead. Only the dead in this instance was Pakistan cricket. However it does make me wonder what the other teams are up to. Cricket adminstrators in India are busy counting the cash and blaming each other for the IPL fiasco. However I have a sick feeling in my stomach that cricket administration in India is only marginally better than in Pakistan. People like Sharad Pawar, Shashank Manohar, N. Srinivasan, Jagmohan Dalmiya, and Arun Jetli managing the affairs of the game do not inspire much confidence.

I only hope that international cricketers in India and other countries are much better at handling these temptations and have not succumbed to these enourmous pressures. However if some other teams get caught up in this match fixing mess, my reaction will be the same it was looking at India's recent ODI performance in Sri Lanka - shocked but not surprised...

Keep up the good work Rahul!

We have a lot of "Young Turks" in the Indian Parliament now - Rahul Gandhi, Sachin Pilot, Milind Deora, Akhilesh Yadav, to name a few. Most of them are children of career politicians and have got entries into Parliament without too much work at the grassroots or party level. By and large I have been pretty disappointed with the performance of these young guns so far. With the exception of Rahul Gandhi.

Rahul's father Rajiv was a reluctant politician.  He had the Gandhi family legacy thrust down his throat after the death of his brother Sanjay in an air-crash in 1980. Rajiv was a pilot with a commercial airline at that time, and was "persuaded" by his mother Indira Gandhi to join politics full time. Almost immediately, he became Prime Minister of India when Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984. Rajiv had almost no grassroots political experience or track record when he became PM.

Rahul Gandhi has had a less tumultuous entry into politics. He has had his mother Sonia, and the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to look up to, and has quietly worked his way into a situation where he has built his own credibility as a moderate leader. He has not sought high office, and has instead chosen to work for the party and the "masses".

Rahul's latest initiative, where he took up the battle on behalf of tribal groups in Orissa, has drawn a lot of attention in the press. A group of tribals declared victory yesterday when the mining company Vedanta was refused permission to expand into their territory. One may or may not agree with Rajiv's causes. However there is no doubt that he has demonstrated leadership qualities, and has shown remarkable maturity in dealing with people and issues.

Rajiv Gandhi started his political career with a huge mandate and a lot of promise. However his promise fizzled out quickly as he became another run-of-the-mill politician, and frittered away some huge opportunities to demonstrate his leadership - the Shah Bano case comes to mind immediately. Rahul has started his career with a lot of promise, and he will definitely be the leader of our country one day. I am keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that he will convert the promise into long term performance.

George W Bush's whoppers!

I just started reading Michael Moore's "Dude Where's My Country" again. It is a fascinating book - and absolutely hilarious. I laugh out aloud at least once while reading every page of this book.

Moore became famous for his documentary "Roger and Me" when General Motors shut down their plant in Flint (Michigan) and moved the production overseas to reduce costs. His subsequent work - films and books - has been quite widely read, if not acclaimed, due to its controversial nature.

"Dude Where's My Country" takes off on Moore's favourite target - George W. Bush. Moore questions Bush's motivations, his relationship with the extended Bin Laden family, and his propensity to lie. There is an absolutely hilarious chapter on the Bush administration's lies, called the "Home of the Whopper". He lists 10 whoppers (lies) propagated by the Bush team, and every one of them had me in splits. One of them is about how the Republicans went after the French for their "treachery" in not supporting the Iraq war.

I found this funny video from the American comedian Bill Maher about the same topic - hatred for the French among the American political class.