Preview : South Africa's Tour of Australia

Australia vs South Africa. The last time we saw these 2 teams meet in a criminally short test series, we saw a scoreline of 21-9, we saw one of the finest counter-attacking innings in Test Cricket from Micael Clarke, we saw Hashim Amla at his graceful best and we saw the arrival of Patrick Cummins and Vernon Philander (Cummins working out Jacques Kallis and Philander’s exceptional control of the cricket ball are among the finest endorsements of Test Cricket).

Exactly a year after that series, South Africa will begin their first campaign as No.1 ranked test side in Brisbane. South Africa need to draw or win the series to retain the rankings, whereas Australia needs to win by any margin to reclaim their No.1 rankings, hence making them the 4th team to reach the throne in 2 years. All signs point to this being one helluva contest between two cricketing giants, one that just reached the pinnacle, and the other that fell down a few years back, but has done commendably well to climb its way back up, in spite of the numerous disappointments in between. A treat for the neutrals.

There are lots of key battles one needs to watch out for in this series, which will go a long way in deciding the contests. This should be a good time to have a look at those.

1) The battle of the pace attacks: South Africa has Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Vernon Philander and the uncapped Rory Kleinveldt. Australia has Peter Siddle, Ben Hilfenhaus, Mitchell Starc, James Pattinson and Josh Hazlewood (Injuries to Cummins and Ryan Harris has made their decision easier). On paper, the saffers should run away with this contest. But on current form, the Aussie pace attack are among the best in the world and playing at home could be a plus for them as well. Though It can be argued that the SA pacers will have the easier task against the brittle Aussie batsmen, one It really isn't safe to bet against their Aussie counterparts.

2) Jacques Kallis vs Shane Watson: Both these players will double up as the fourth pacer and No.3/4 batsman for their respective teams. Both these players are in the form of their lives. And both these players need to perform to give their team a better chance of winning. Watson more so. We all know that Watson will never be as good a player as Kallis is, but will be the better player this series? Whoever it is, I dare say their team will sneak the trophy. With Watson out of the first test due to yet another injury, Kallis seems to be having the upper-hand already.

3) Australian Batsmen vs Their Form: The aussies have a brilliant bowling attack but their batsmen are a bit vulnerable.  And when we put these batsmen against the likes of Graeme Smith, Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis and AB DeVilliers, it’s a no contest. If this was a traditional WWE Survivor Series wrestling match between SA and Australia, SA will win the bout without a single of them being eliminated.

We have Warner and Cowan as openers, one who despite a decent record, is suspect to quality bowling, and the other who just can't seem to convert his starts. They are Australia's version of the Sehwag-.Akash Chopra alliance. The middle order consists of Watson (Quiney), Ponting, Clarke, Hussey and Wade. Looks good on paper, but only Watson and Clarke are safe bets. Quiney though in great first class form, will face a huge challenge against Steyn n Co, Ponting is in the twilight of his career, Hussey hasn't looked himself in recent tests and Wade doesn't yet look test match material. I predict a tough series for the Aussie batsmen against the SA bowling attack. The tail would need to wag almost every time to help them to a reasonable score.

4) AB DeVillers the Batsman vs AB DeVillers the Keeper: Following Mark Boucher’s freak injury and forced retirement, AB Devillers donned the gloves in the England Series, though they had Thami Tsolekile as the backup. This was done to maintain the balance and extend an already intimidating batting line-up  He did a reasonable job behind the stumps, but it seemed to have affected his batting. He was not at his fluent best during the English summer. He scored just 161 runs in the 3 tests, with no centuries or half centuries. A big failure for a player of his calibre  So, It will be interesting to see if DeVilliers can get that monkey of his back and get back to his belligerent best. If not, South Africa would need to find a young keeper who can bat, for their test side at the earliest. Quinton de Kock anyone?

Smith and Clarke, in happier days.

5) Graeme Smith vs Michael Clarke: The Captains. One leading his side since 2003, for 93 tests. The Other took over from Ponting in 2011, has lead his side for 15 tests. Smith is known to be a defensive captain, however since the arrival of Philander and Tahir, that seems to have changed. His bold declaration in the first test in England lays testimonial to that. Clarke has always been the aggressor. He makes bold, calculated moves, which in his short stint have clicked more often than not. His decision to declare the innings in the first test against West Indies, in spite of being in deficit comes to mind. Both are also crucial batsmen to their teams. Will be good to see who gets one up at the end of the series.

So, we surely do have a cracker of a series at our hands. I’ll like to put my hand up and predict a 2-0 series win for South Africa. It will be a close contest, but I believe the Aussie batsmen might just spoil the party for their team. Let’s see if there is a surprise or two in store for the viewers.  

The Group of fools - Review

Looking for a light, quick read to bide your time with during a short bus or train journey. You can place your bet on “The Group of Fools”. Authored by a first timer, Yaagneshwaran G, it will keep you entertained for a few hours. That’s all one would need to get done with this book.

The group of fools is based in a Business School and revolves around a group of friends (If you were wondering where “Group of fools” came from). The main protagonists include Shaun, Varun, Diya and Anusha and the narration is from Shaun’s perspective.

The book takes you on a journey through life in a B-School. The style of narration is informal, striking a chord with young readers. The tales of friendship and love within the book is something that everyone can relate with. Anyone who has gone through the rigors of a B-School life will definitely find a piece of themselves within the book.

One might find a semblance to Chetan Bhagat’s style of writing in the Group of fools. So, this definitely is a good light read for his fans. Certain aspects of the book could have been better though. The font looks childish and might actually distract readers. The character building of the key protagonists and the B-School as a whole could have been handled better. For a debut novel though, Yaagneshwaran has done a commendable job. I would give it a rating of 6 out of 10 

Move over T20's, November is Test Match time !

After a T20 overdose over the past t2o months, which saw us sitting through 58 T20’s over 42 days, its finally some serious cricket time. Its Test Match time baby. There are plenty of test matches on the horizon. So many that, there wont be a single day from November 9^th to December 9^th when there will not be a test match played. I for one don’t mind this overdose.

So, we have 4 test series lined up for us this November. It starts off with Australia vs South Africa on November 9^th which will be a tussle for the No.1 spot. Will be interesting to see if the newly crowned Test champions do better than their predecessors against a gritty Aussie unit at home. Will the young Aussie quicks make their mark against the might of Kallis, Amla, Smith and DeVilliers. Can the Aussie batsmen handle the Saffer pace Attack. And, also Will this series be the end for Ponting? 

Next up is Bangladesh vs West Indies, starting from November 13^th. Not necessarily a contest many people will be looking forward to. The T20 champs will be in the house for the first time since their victory. Can they come off their gangnaming and switch to Test Cricket Mode? Whereas Bangladesh, Can they finally convert potential to Victory? Seriously, No more minnow talk please.

And then, is the 2^nd big series. India vs England. A battle of two “Lions at home, Lambs overseas” teams. A battle of two former No. 1 teams. And also, a revenge series. Indians will not be pleased with anything less than 4-0, England will be pleased with even a 1-1. KP “Reintegrated” back into the English team, Yuvi might make a comeback to the Indian team and of course, Could this be Sachin’s retirement series? All these questions might put you into a “spin”, so tune in on 15^th November to find out the answers.

And finally, Its Sri Lanka vs New Zealand, starting from 17^th of November. The losing T20 WC finalists will be looking for some kind of redemption. New Zealand will be looking to win a test series against a team not named Zimbabwe or Bangladesh, for the first time since 2005. This is the only series for which the result looks a foregone conclusion, Sorry New Zealand.

So, November looks all set for some really good cricketing action, with quite possibly two legends hanging their boots (My Prediction). Next up, I’ll be giving my preview on The SA-Aus and Ind-Eng series. Ciao till then J

The Apple Google Conundrum

"The Google Apple war will be the defining battle of the industry", said Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google, in a recent interview. Also, Gartner’s Q2 Mobile sales unit report suggests that in the past quarter, 64.1% of the mobile devices sold were running on Google’s Android compared to a relatively measly 18.8% running on Apple’s iOS. This is a huge disparity and a gap that I don’t expect Apple to close down anywhere in the near future.

This makes me wonder, is Apple vs Google really as big as it is being made out to be? The numbers clearly state otherwise with Android running over Apple, and it isn’t even close. Eric Schmidt also suggested that four android devices are sold for every apple device, and also, Android should be running on around a billion devices within a year. Apple may have won the patent war against Samsung, but I don’t see it running Google close in this war, unless it decides to let other devices use its iOS. India winning the Football World Cup has a better chance than that happening.

A more logical way of looking at this “battle” will be this –

• Apple’s iPhone will win the battle in terms of handset sales against most of the other providers, except for Samsung which might give it some tough competition.
• Apple’s iOS stands no chance of going head to head with Android.

Once Apple learns to live with the fact that there will never be an Apple Monopoly, and concentrates on making better products, minus the regular fiascos (Read antenna issues in iPhone 4 and the infamous iOS Maps in iPhone 5), the world will be a better place. And Google, It can just go on doing its thing, for it really has nothing to fear.

How Not to Waste Time in Meetings?

Meetings. There are two kinds of meetings, as BusinessDictionary.com puts it.

1) Organizational Meeting, i.e. Board Meetings and Annual General Meetings, mostly involving the Senior Management and Shareholders

2) Operational Meeting, i.e. the ad hoc meetings , involving the management and the employees.

Organizational meetings are essential, as they are responsible for giving direction and building strategy for the future growth of a firm. It is the Operational meetings, that I have a problem with.

I am sure there must have been a time for any working person, when he/she is sitting through a meeting, with their mind wandering away and thinking “What am I doing here”. Don’t worry, you are absolutely right to think that way, as you could indeed be sitting either at your own desk, doing some much more productive work or better, sleeping in your house.

Meetings take up an obscene amount of your working hours. Higher your position, more the time one spends in meetings. The issue being, this doesn’t just eat up your working hours, It extends it. Also, with increasing amount of time being wasted, one also ends up lagging behind their actual tasks for the day. This would eventually lead to another “review” meeting, and henceforth. A vicious cycle, which more often than not leads to reduction in productivity.

People often think that having a 2 hour meeting to review employees, delegate work, use business jargons and of course, fix the next meeting is extremely effective and gets the job done. But It doesn’t. I don’t mean to say that meetings are a strict no, but there are certain things that could be done better , giving the meetings an actual meaning.

- Do not invite people who are not expected to make any contribution to the meeting. 2 things that happen due to such invitees are, one, they just sit through the meeting happily biding away time and procrastinating their actual work. Two, they give their “expert” opinions, which more often than not leads to a muddled discussion.

- Set a time limit, Stick to it. Often, meetings do not have a set time schedule. They extend from minutes to hours, and even after that, there is no consensus reached. Isn’t it much better, if the meeting is scheduled for a fixed time limit, giving the attendees a proper chance to put across their points, rather than meandering aimlessly over 2-3 hours.

- Even if the agenda of the meeting is not met over the fixed time limit, end the meeting after the set time.

- Stick to the Agenda, and don’t include a number of topics to be discussed in the same meeting. This will automatically reduce the number of attendees and the time of the meeting.

- Do not review already discussed items for people turning up late. It was their fault and hence, let them regret it (Or do they?).

- Always go prepared to a meeting. This will ensure you don’t ramble , trying to make up points on the fly, and also that you finish your meeting on time.

- Strictly no phones, tablets, PDAs or laptops, except for the one being used for a presentation maybe. People interrupting or diverting their attention are not just disinterested, but they are also devaluing the meeting

- Address the expectation of the meeting right at the beginning, and finish it with a proper set of tasks assigned to the attendees. Make Every Meeting Count.

- Don’t dwell in the past. Do not discuss issues that had arisen in the previous meetings. It will only prolong the meeting without actually moving forward. Have a fresh start. Always.

It’s actually not hard. But, If these simple set of rules are followed, meetings will actually be productive and not just an excuse to while away time in Office. As I said earlier too, you could instead be sleeping in your own cozy bed. Take your pick people.

Happy Birthday Kallis

Jacques Kallis is 37 years and 1 day old today. He is most certainly in the twilight of his career, with perhaps two and a half more years left in his tank. But, as he himself proclaimed, he is probably in the form of his life and opposition must be afraid, very afraid. Being among my favourite players, I thought this would be a good time to have a look back at the value he has added to the South African team over the years, and of course, will continue adding in the coming few years.

Kallis, As a Batsman:

Cricketing experts often talk about how a batsman has to be “In the Zone”. If anyone wants to know what that exactly means, just watch a Jacques Kallis innings. Concentration personified. Among the contemporaries, only Rahul Dravid and Shivnarine Chanderpaul can lay claim to being as good as him in this aspect. His expressionless face while batting, especially in tests, almost gives you the impression that he is bored of blunting down the bowling attacks that are thrown at him. But, that is just him being In the Zone. 24000 runs and 60 centuries at the international level, a testimony to his concentration prowess. For the kind of batsman Kallis is, it is pretty hard to digest that he has scored just two doubles in tests, first of which came only in 2010. I predict a few more in the coming years though.

Kallis, As a Bowler :

Running in at 37 years of age, bowling consistently at around 140 kmph is in itself worth massive respect. Kallis, known for his deceptively quick bouncers has been South Africa’s 3rd/ 4th seamer right from 1996. For a team which has given us bowlers like Allan Donald, Brian McMillan, Shaun Pollock, Makhaya Ntini, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and the current phenomenon, Vernon Philander, it is a tremendous achievement to be able to hang out with them, in addition to shouldering the bulk of batting responsibilities. He has 550 international wickets to his name, which clearly suggests he is good enough to be even the 2nd/3rd seamer for most international sides in cricket. Maybe, even the lead seamer.

Kallis, As an All-Rounder:

Time to give a close look at stats. Kallis has 12500 runs in Test cricket. Pretty close to Sachin, Ponting and Dravid , and more than Lara, Jayawardena, Allan Border and Steve Waugh.

Kallis has 270 test wickets. Hanging out with likes of Steyn, Anderson, Zaheer Khan among contemporaries and Alec Bedser, Derek Underwood, Joel Garner among the legends.

He has 187 catches in test cricket, hanging out with players like Dravid, Ponting, Jayawardena, Mark Waugh etc, among the best slippers.

That would mean, you put a Ponting, Zaheer Khan and Jayawardena together, you get Jacques Kallis. That’s the colossal value a player like Kallis adds to the South African team.

If numbers were the sole measure of greatness in Cricket, Jacques Kallis is untouchable. He is undoubtedly the greatest cricketer to have set foot on planet earth. Though, that might be a bit exaggerated, Kallis is quite easily the best all-rounder of this generation, and also one of the legends of the game.

Yess !! I am the best !!

Best Allrounder ever? There is a raging debate on whether he is as good as Sir Garfield Sobers. Different people have different opinions on this. Personally, by the time Kallis hangs his boots, he might just sneak ahead of Sobers in the race to the title. He is just that damn good.

Strangelets - Dangerously Strange !!

Strangelets. That would sound strange to most of you, but what If I told you it could be one of the less realistic doomsday scenario. Less realistic, but realistic alright. I wasn’t aware of these strange particles till recently, when I came across it in one of my random Internet searches.

So, what are Strangelets? They are fragments of “strange matter”, which is a hypothetical form of quark (i.e. fundamental constituent of matter) matter, that contains an equal number of up, down and strange quarks. It is also supposedly more stable than an ordinary nuclei.

How is it possibly dangerous? Strangelets are created at low energies and are stable only at low temperatures. Though particle accelerators like CERN’s Large Hadron Collider operate at very higher energies than any previous similar attempts, there still might be a possibility of Strangelet creation within the collider. This strangelet or “strange matter” when comes in contact with a nucleus, It gets converted into strange matter as well. Though, the strange matter decays in microseconds, In ideal, suitable conditions, this would give way to a chain reaction where everything the strangelet comes in contact with , turns into strange matter. This will continue till the entire earth turns into one huge lump of strange matter.

Artist's impression of how a Strange Earth could look like

As far-fetched as it may sound, Scientists believe it is theoretically possible. Scientists also believe that a Strangelet Earth will not have conditions hospitable enough for human life to survive. So, In future, If you find something strange about the terrain around you, book your tickets and shoot your way to the Moon.

P.S - Apologies for any scientific inaccuracies.