South Africa Tour: A Golden Oppurtunity

Sachin will be the best hope for India

      

The opening pair will be India's 1st stable opening par in a decade in SA

              


Tomorrow the Indian cricket team will play the 1st test match of the SA tour. This tour is being touted as world test championship final. Its quiet true. The series between and world's number 1 and number 2 team will invite lot of attention.I have been eagerly waiting for this series. After a pretty mundane New Zeland series, hope that this one will be cracking contest. All the ingredients for a spicy encounters is present with both the teams. SA batting line up is very strong. But can be equally challenged by the Indian pace battery. The famed Indian batting line up will have to face the tough conditions and equally dangerous SA pace attack.

This would be a cracker of a contest. But on the whole I feel that this is the golden opportunity for India to get their 1st ever test series win in SA.The cause for this optimism is also  very valid.We never had such a strong team touring SA. All the players are fit and at the top of their games.Never before we have seen a India that was so much confident and so much feared  on a overseas tour.

Why am I so much sure that this is the golden chance? Well, here I present few reasons below:

Indian Batting

For the 1st time in a decade we are going to SA with a stable opening pair of Shewag and Gambhir. In all the previous tours we used to have make shift openers. This used to always push us on backfoot.This time around we have a solid opening pair from whom we can expect a solid start. A partnership of  100 runs or so in any innings by them can put India in the driver seat. 

Our middle order boasts of world's two most famous and technically correct batsmen. Rahul Dravid is the grammar book of Cricket. His solid defense and technically flawless batting would be most invaluable in the SA conditions. 

At number 4th the Little master is beyond any comparison.This is his last tour and I am sure he would like to make it a memorable one for himself.

Suresh Raina and Dhoni are very solid batsmen who can very dangerous on their day. Most importantly we can rely on them to take the team to safety in case of crisis.

The Very Very Special Laxman is at his elegant best. What can I say more about him. I would just ask all the readers to remember his innings against Australia and New Zeland.

Thus Indian batting is actually very strong and the SA will have their job cut out.Moreover in the recent series we have seen even the tail-enders making invaluable contributions to the score. Harbhajan's back to back century cannot be forgotten so easily.We must also remember Ishant's heroic batting against Australia when he held the fort for so long and made sure we win. Even an extra 50 or so runs form tail-enders  could make lot of difference in this hard fought series.

Indian Bowling

 The Indian pace trio of Zaheer, Ishant and Sreesanth, have bowled well in the unfriendly subcontinent conditons. In SA where the pitch and sometimes even the weather will be seamer friendly, they can become very dangerous.Added with this will be the spin of Harbhajan. One must remember that he could become deadly on a fast bouncy pitch especially if he gets a early wicket.

These four have the ability to knock down all the 20 SA wickets which is necessary for a win.

Along with them we can expect some part time bowling of other Indians if required. Raina and Shewag are very adapt at bowling and picking up crucial wickets at the time of need.

Above all this the most important part is that this time we have a confident Indian team. A team that is no more an underdog in overseas tour. This is a team which is equally favorites like the host team. This I think is India's big plus point.

Another good thing which has happened is that some key players of Indian team has reached SA long ago and has got lot of time to get accustomed to the conditions there. This was  a very good move by Kristen. All kudos to him.

All said and done, this analysis is still on paper. A lot have to be done to convert the words into action.The SA team are no push overs like New Zeland or Australia (yeah !!!!Aussies too). They are hard fighting unit with very good options. Moreover they will be playing in their home condition and they would love to humiliate the world's number 1 team and prove their superiority.

This Indian team has both the opportunity, motive and the will to conquer. Thus only thing now needed is to win the battle and conquer. And at last I would say this:

CHAK DE INDIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Varanasi Blast: Another inteliigence failure?

It had been 10 long months of peace before  on 7 Dec 2010 the Varanasi blast shattered it. The Blast was not a very powerful blast and neither  the bomb had any sharpnels in it.Nonetheless it was an attack on India and its citizens. Varanasi, a prominent Hindu worship place, has been made target before also. The last blast claimed the lives of 2 people and injured 35 others.This blast killed a 2 year old girl and injured 65 others.

While expressing solidarity with the victims, there are also noises made from quarters about intelligence failure.The Center and the State Governments have started quarreling over intelligence provided. Each blaming it on the other.

The question of intelligence failure is something we should look at carefully.Every time there is terrorist attack people start shouting about intelligence failure.How much truth is there in these accusations? We really need to examine that.

For example, the Kargil war was also said to be a big intelligence failure.But latter it was found out that RAW (Research and Analysis Wing ), the external agency of  India, has in fact given such a warning back in 1998.It has warned of Kargil like infiltration int he Northern J&K sector. Surprisingly the Indian Army's Northern Command ignored this warning. According to the generals nobody could survive in such cold. Amusing it is.Did our generals forget about Russian army which stays in Siberia???? OR did our generals forget then that our soldiers are deployed in  Siachen for more than 10 years in similar conditions. I don't think so. Still every body was shouting about intelligence failure. The reason, it got heat off them for the time being.

One must remember that the intelligence agencies in India have no public relations part unlike in America.They live in anonymous world, which is both of advantage and disadvantage.The people responsible knows that nobody from intelligence will refute their claims of intelligence failure and they can blame it on them and get off the hook.In the Kargil war this is what exactly happened.Not a single general was punished for negligence which claimed life of our 463 brave men.

It seems it has become a trend in India to blame intelligence agencies and deflect the blame onto them. The Indian public should start asking question as to why there is every time intelligence failure?Who are the real culprits?Are they the intelligence agencies every time?or are they some officials who comfortably hide behind the veil of intelligence failure?

In the Varanasi blast also it seems the  warning was passed to the UP police but police did not sanitize the area properly. The UP police claims that the intelligence was not specific. My question is how specific can intelligence get?Do UP police thinks that they will be told the exact time, location and names of the person who are going to do it?Don't they want to do a little investigation themselves? It seems our police have been reduced to security guards who just provide security to VVIPs and VIPs.

It's time we ask the government to do proper investigation and find out the real culprits.It's not only the ministers but also the babus and officials which stay insulated from all these.

The Varanasi blast may not have killed many but such incidents are waiting to happen if we do not pull up our socks now.It time to stop blaming intelligence agencies.It's time for introspection.It's time that we do some serious policing.The fight against terrorism can not be fought by the intelligence agencies alone. We need to fight it at all levels.The police and the common people also need to join the fight.We can't  be careless any more.We can't ignore our duty as citizen.Ask yourself , how many times have you reported any abandoned bag to the police?How many times have you asked questions to people who act suspiciously?We just try to get away from such responsibilities thinking it's not our problem.

I don't think a terrorist attack is intelligence failure or police failure alone.It's a collective failure. It's not a failure of a certain department of GOI but it's the nation as whole which have failed.India has failed.We Indians have failed.So it's time we stop blaming and start working towards a better India.

Lastly, my heart goes out to Sanjay kumar's family who lost their only 2 year daughter in his barbaric act.May she rest in peace. I also like to remind all Indians we could be next.Lets start being responsible from today.

Wikileaks: Effects on world diplomacy

Julian Assange( founder of wiki-leaks) courtsey ABC news.

Interpol notice against Julian Assange (courtsey www.wired.com)

The world currently is fascinated with the wiki-leaks. Every day it makes head lines in national newspapers and Julian Assange , the founder of wiki-leaks, has become a short of celebrity. The common people and some small nations are praising him as a hero ( some are doing so privately) whereas the big wigs diplomats of the big nations are crucifying him. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (aka FBI) incidentally has started a  investigation to see if he has broken any espionage laws. Already there is a Interpol notice against him and he is currently in hiding.This has made him sort of a cult figure.


But lets see the wiki-leaks in some perspective light. What is has achieved or rather what it has changed? What is effect on world diplomacy?


The wiki-leaks published some 391832 documents of Iraq war and 91,731 afghan war documents. Now it has threatened to release 250,000 diplomatic cables.


The question one must ask is whether any thing new has come up through this documents or anything has changed in respect to diplomacy.


The Iraq and Afghan war documents has changed nothing or told us anything new. President Obama has went ahead with his troop withdrawal from Iraq. And for any careful watcher it is very obvious that the NATO troops in Afghanistan are not wining the war. It is also clear to anybody with little bit of strategic sense that since their defeat in 2001 in hands of Americans the Taliban has re-consolidated their position in Afghanistan.


The release of diplomatic cables is the new episode in the wiki-leaks saga. Unsurprisingly nothing ground breaking have come up. Moreover, will somebody really believe that a country's intelligence agencies had no prior access to these? These cables are actually intercepted by intelligence agencies on a regular basis. That's how government make foreign policies. The cables are actually nothing but memos, officials write down to show something for their work. Not much different from a software industry lol. The real discussions only take place in closed door meetings.


So what has wiki-leaks achieved? In one word NOTHING . Probably the only thing it has done is to give the common man a glimpse of diplomatic procedures or practices (both good and bad) that happens in the murky world of world politics. The other things which have come out are name given to the world leaders of various countries by diplomat like calling Putin a Alpha Dog. Dog really??



My point here is that wiki-leaks have not changed anything in world politics and in future also it is not going to change anything.

Wiki-Leaks and India


As far as Afghan and Iraq war documents are concerned, India was not mentioned as much. The diplomatic cables saga do have mention of India on few occasions. They are mainly in relation with Pakistan . 

But what I would like to point out here that is the proper and very mature way the GOI has handled the issue. There has been no rehotic or unwanted false bravado sentences from GOI or the opposition parties. This I think is because that the south block has finally understood that India has arrived on world stage that empty rehotic does nothing for one's country. India's interest can not be altered by any cables diplomats send to their governments. India can easily achieve its goals in world stage if they do bargnaing at the negotitations table.


An example of how nothing has been affected in relation to India's world ambitions could be gauged from India's UNSC aspirations . The American secretary of state of Hiliary Clinton jeered India as self appointed front runner for UNSC seat. Months latter the President of the United sates, Barack Obama, stands on Indian soil and endorses India's bid for UNSC seat. Nothing can be a better proof of India's prowess at the world stage.


Personally I think that wiki-leaks is not going to harm India's image or its ambitions on world stage, even if something startling comes out form the rest of the cables.


In case of India also the wiki-leaks again has achieved nothing. 


The whole point of my article is that the wiki-leaks has caused no damages or big scale changes in diplomatic relations. Nothing new has come up and all the things that everybody knew secretly or rather privately has cone out in open. 


The only thing wiki-leaks has caused are few embrassements which I am sure will be forgotten in some time. For me wiki-leaks doesn't deserve the front pages of any national news paper.