Tuesday 11 October 2011

DRS............. Is it a victory of BCCI

Today while watching News i came to know that now Decision Review System(DRS) is not mandatory. Its upto the boards which are participating in a series to decide whether DRS will be applicable or not. The same ICC has made DRS mandatory for all in July 2011 then what happens in next 5 months that ICC has again has to review his decision. Is it because of BCCI pressure and can this review of review system can be treated as the victory?


Indian are always victims of technology. If you all remember that our own Sachin was the first person given run out by third umpire in 1992. The latest one was Rahul Dravid who was controversially given out using DRS in the first ODI against England when the hot spot doesn't shown any mark and not there was any deflection. BCCI and Team India was never in the favor of DRS. In the ICC meeting at 27 June 2011, the ICC made DRS mandatory for all the series.


I like to put forward a comment made by Michael Vaughan during the India tour to England. It goes like " Has Vaseline on the outside edge saved the day for Laxman? ". This controversial tweet found its way in all the newspaper and news channel the very next day but the topic of debate was not the hot spot, but it was how can someone point out the finger on Laxman's integrity. I have a question over here. How can such a technology can be used where present and former players have doubt about it. And Michael Vaughan is not a member of BCCI or he is not representing BCCI while making this comment. This comment is made by a man who had represent a country who is in favor of DRS. According to statistics released by ICC last year, the 93.6% decision given by umpire before DRS were right whereas after the use of DRS this %age increased to 97.4%. With the use of ball tracking, snickometer and hot spot, these all together form DRS, still this figure just raised by 3.8% .


I still remember India and Australia second test in Sydney in 2008(remembered because of controversy b/w bhaji and Symonds) where some decision goes against India and India lost the match by 122 runs. The very next day the whole media was accusing umpire Steve Bucknor, arguably the best umpire of his time, and Mark Benson. After the match even one of the commentator said that if there were only 11 Australasian then India must have won the match. But there were 13 players who were playing against India. The new debate started that time, when the technology is available then why it is not used in cricket. BCCI since then was against this use of technology. After that match too the BCCI was against DRS. The point put forward by them is that it is not full-proof.


But right now the major question is not is DRS good or bad. The major question is when in july 2011 ICC made mandatory to use DRS in all the series then how come in less than 5 months time it again has to review his decision. Is some of the disaster decision given in India-England series made them think about DRS or is the money power which BCCI enjoys had a role to play in that. Whatever the reason is? 2 persons which are very happy because of this decision are N. Srinivasan, president of worlds richest board and R. Dravid, the latest victim. The most unhappiest person right now will be M. Dhoni as he has to find some other reason when India doesn't played well.

Thursday 25 August 2011

A boy, who downgraded US, is downgraded by US

Deven Sharma, President of S&P(Standard & Poor's) , is not an alien name now. A boy from Jharkhand who rightly (may be some people disagree with me) downgraded the US long term debt rating from AAA to AA+ which is considered the Gold standard in the world of finance. If this was not US then this rating downgrade would have been long back. I don't want to go in the history of subprime crisis and recession which world has faced after that but surely I want to point out the fact that since US is the most strongest and largest economy of the world due to which its rating was still maintained to AAA till yet (before Aug 2011) by all the 3 major rating giant (Moody,Fish and S&P. Moody and Fish still maintaining US rating to AAA).

After the S&Ps announcement of downgrading US long term debt rating, there were lot many allegations on the way it rates the country or the firm. On 5th of August just before this announcement there  were lot many conversation happened between US officials and Sharma number-crunchers teams.After this move Sharma comes into limelight hailed by few but criticized by several in financial world.

Sharma joined S&P as the executive VP in 2006 after working with 4 years with its parent company MgGraw-Hill cos. In 2007, when subprime housing crisis where getting out of hand , Sharma was promoted as the President of S&P. Around this time only the credit rating were picked as the one of the culprits of the subprime crisis and the melt down for the flawed rating model of housing loans. Being the President of one of the foremost rating agency , Deven had a nice grilling from US officials but he negotiated most on those. Even in one of his interview he admitted that the comments made by US law makers have changed drastically from strong criticism to appreciation.

Things have changed for Sharma after his unprecedented decision to downgrade US to one notch down . On 23rd Of this month ,S&P said that Sharma  is stepping down as the President of S&P and his position is taken up by COO of Citibank, Douglas Peterson. The reason given for the decision by the parent company is that since the Jana Partners , an hedge fund, suggested to broken up the rating firm and publishing company as 2 different entities in the market. Taken this restructuring into account the directors decided to replace Sharma. But internally the reason to replace Sharma is because of the pressure the company is getting from US officials and Justice Dept. Since the US justice Department is already investigating the rating agency in action of assigning the higher rating to housing mortgage which led to 2008-09 financial crisis, this move may get some relaxation to the company.

12th September  2011 may be the last day for Deven as the President of S&P but no one can forget the historical decision he has taken in the view for the benefit of the investors. So it is right to say the boy who downgraded US is downgraded by US(US pressure).

Friday 25 February 2011

At least you have started discussion in Parliament

Yesterday night(25 Feb 2011) at 0030 hours while watching TALKING POINT Rajdeep Sardesai (one of the most respected journalist in Media fraternity) sarcastically told "At least you have started discussion in parliament" to the spokespersons of two major parties of India.From Congress Jayanti Natarajan was present in that debate and from BJP it was Chandan Mitra and the topic of the debate was Mohammad Afzal (better know as AFJAL GURU) death sentence.
After the debate i was thinking that how easily Mr Sardesai sarcastically release both the spokespersons that what general public want from the leaders of India.
I have a question from these leaders, if they can debate on all these issues outside parliament on news channels and in interviews then why can't in parliament where crore of rupees are spend per session? And if they don't want to discuss anything in parliament than why are we spending so much money on those sessions?
From last 6 months i don't remember when these leaders have a fruitful discussion in parliament over a issue or i should say that last fruitful discussion which me or general public remember was 'Nuclear Deal'.
Ohhhh in above lines i had made a mistake and that mistake is general public remember because general public now don't even talk or think about the discussions in parliament because most the times they doesn't exists and when they exists than they are of no use.
Here I humbly request so called leaders of Indian Democracy that we want to see them discussing in parliament over the issues of peoples welfare as India still is developing country and 65% of our population still lives below poverty line and i really want that journalist like sardesai, Arnab Goswami, Karan Thaper etc have to realize leader that apart from these news channel they have one more place for debate and discussion and that is parliament of India.

Monday 21 February 2011

The day is good or bad

This time while looking back and analyzing today i came to this question How to decide "The day is Good or Bad" or its should be "Can we decide the day is good or bad" . When you say that the day is started till than i lost my cell which i bought a month before in 12500 bugs and also had a lot of work with me and was little upset bcoz of a fight with one of my dearest mate. But when you feel that this can be your worst day than comes the hope. I meet one of my best friend ever and we had a good discussion on some of the topic. Its after 2 weeks when we are meeting and this help me gather my thought back.
As the day was passing as usual and i was about to leave office my PM came and praise me for the release we had this weekend and told me that we had done a good job and we also had a appreciation from the client.
When i came back home and was thinking that what i call this day "BAD" bcoz i lost my cell which i bought last month or bcoz i had a fight with one of my friend or i call my day "GOOD" bcoz i meet my friend after long time or got the appreciation from my team mates and peers. I don't know what to say or as now a days i say "No Comments".
But yes today i really learnt one think that its not the day which is GOOD or BAD but its the moments in the day which are good and bad all these moments combine and form a day. And at the its those moments which you remember are good than your day is good and the moments you remember are bad than your day is bad. So its up-to u to make your THE DAY GOOD OR BAD.