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India Win Canberra ODI: No International Cricket Series Should Immediately Follow The IPL!

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Even though the Indian Premiere League (IPL) is basically a T20 club-cricket tournament with multinational cricketers, the stakes involved in the tournament are immense. There is the great promise of moolah for every stakeholder: from the richest cricket board of the world BCCI to the national cricket icons or superstars, little-known domestic cricketers and international cricket stars. Every club or franchise is sort of produced by a business group or a rich investor, and all of the investors not only want their money back, but also shares of the net profits. The fantastic popularity that the IPL enjoys brings in the advertisers and commercial sponsors/co-sponsors. So, for obvious reasons nobody would ever like to give up on this annual bonanza, at any cost. No doubt, the BCCI had been desperate to organize IPL-2020 despite the pandemic, and finally grabbed the anticipated slot that was vacated by the ICC as the Cricket T20 World Cup-2020 could not be held. Not to speak of the other b
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COVID-19 Vaccine News: Arrival Before Time?

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  As per the reports available then we had maintained in our earlier post that the leading COVID-19 vaccine of the world Pfizer-BioNTech with a claimed efficacy of 95% was going to apply for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) by mid-December and Moderna vaccine a few days later. However, with the rush for the first usable vaccine and the people of the worst-hit USA desperate for a vaccine, Pfizer-BioNTech had already applied for EUA with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in US, and following it up also applied for the European regulator, European Medicines Agency (EMA). In fact, United Kingdom has already placed orders for 40 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech and it is likely to give approval in a matter of days now in which case UK could be the very first country in the world to officially approve a COVID-19 vaccine. The FDA is likely to examine Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine data by 10 th December.   Moderna, the second leading vaccine being produced in the US, had said that it wou
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Happy Guru Nanak Jayanti (Birth Anniversary)!

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Birth Anniversary of Guru Nanak or Baba or Father Nanak (1469-1539), was the founder of Sikhism and the first of the ten Sikh Gurus, is being celebrated this year today, the 30th of November or whenever the full-moon day called Kartik Purnima occurs during October-November every year all over the world. Guru Nanak is believed to have travelled across Asia teaching people the message of 'one God' who dwells in every creation of His and constitutes the eternal truth. With this concept he created a unique spiritual, social and political platform based on equality, fraternity and virtue. We wish you all a very blessed Nanak Jayanti.  We remember Guru Nanak today and his teachings, his messages and his immortal devotional poems that are composed musically as Bhajans in basic Punjabi, cutting across all religious and linguistic barriers in India. Composers, Vocalists and singers have been presenting his Bhajans or devotional songs to devotees and music lovers since centuries. My fath
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Australia Crush India To Win The 3-Match Dettol ODI Series 2-0!

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  India have not learnt any lesson from the first match in terms of improving body language, intensity on the field and the basic will to win, despite the second one-day international being the decisive one in the 3-match Dettol ODI Series. The team management reposed full faith on them by fielding the same team, not even replacing anyone in the bowling line-up, prominently Chahal and Saini. To make matters worse Virat Kohli lost the toss again, offering the platter one more time to the hosts to make hay. And they did exactly that.   The Warner-Finch opener-duo who posted another 100-plus run partnership and later Steve Smith who notched up his second consecutive century continued to prove to be India’s nemesis. A target of 350+ runs was to be set for India yet again (the average first-innings score being 319 at the SCG for the last five years). The Indian bowlers did nothing better than in the first match: Saini continued to be the most expensive; Bumrah ineffectual as earlier; Sh
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India Fights COVID-19: Vaccine The Only Solution?

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India has been under lockdown since 25 th March 2020, and some vestiges of that still linger in containment zones or in terms of some restrictions still continuing. However, we must ask the question here as to for exactly how long the lockdown had been implemented effectively in the country. Unfortunately, the answer we get says that it’s only for about a month. How? Because, from late April 2020 the problem of the migrant workers burst into the streets, and special trains had to be run for them from May which led to introduction of other trains too for other stranded people within the country. Once the trains were opened up immense pressure led to the reopening domestic flights in the same month.   Therefore, compromises were made within one month of lockdown enforcement. Besides, India has some other crucial realities: political propaganda and political opposition that meant rallies or protests were held regularly throughout; once the political leaders are out the media persons
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Dettol ODI Series: Australia Beat India As The Fans Are Allowed In At The SCG, Sydney!

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  Photo: espncricinfo.com Before coming to the match, we must mention the most heartening thing about cricket new normal: for the first time in 8 months crowds were allowed at the Sydney Cricket Ground, of course, up to 50% of the stadium’s capacity. However, some of stands were seen to be packed to the brim, and in general, masks were not being worn nor social distancing kept. It is not clear how the bio-bubble is going to help in this crowded environment. We hope this does not translate into an indiscretion as far as the pandemic spread is concerned as crowds ranging from 50 to 65 capacities are going to be allowed for all the remaining matches of the India Tour of Australia-2020-21 including the Tests.   Australia have beaten India by 66 runs in the first one-day international match of the three-match Dettol ODI Series in Sydney today, giving the long-missed home crowds much to cheer. The moment the Aussies put up a mammoth target of 375 runs before India many cynics might have
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The COVID-19 Vaccine Countdown!

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  Experts say that while the novel Coronavirus that hit planet earth in December 2019 created an unprecedented crisis for humankind the response to it by researchers, medical scientists and pharmaceutical companies in trying to discover a vaccine is also unprecedented. Under normal circumstances the process of discovering, testing and producing a vaccine takes from 5 years to 10 years thanks to the high failure rate associated with it. Therefore, the probability of having an effective COVID-19 vaccine within a year of the pandemic invasion is incredible news that speaks volumes about the non-stop efforts, dedication, round-the-clock supervision, utilization of special funds and global coordination put into it. As per the World Health Organization, at present there are nearly 200 vaccine candidates out of which 44 are in various stages of human clinical trials, and a few are about to be approved by the regulators. This would indeed be another crowing glory of the human quest should a sa
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A Peoples’ Leader Dies: Tarun Gogoi No More!

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  He has been much more than just a political leader; he has been an excellent human being with an ever-smiling face, friendly and spontaneous manners, a typical pure Assamese flavor in his warm communications, his deep roots in Assamese culture, his interest in fine arts and love for all forms of music, and an endearing lovable personality. Even in his ripe old age he used to mix with his admirers/supporters like one of them, talking to them in a warm personal tone, singing and dancing with them. Throughout his eventful political career, he maintained his clean image, at times against tremendous odds. People of Assam respected him as much as they loved him. We used to refer to him as Tarunda (like an elder brother) in our Assamese friends’ circles, and we were all fond and proud of him: as a leader who could articulate the state’s problems to the central leaders and in Parliament, and as a central Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Food under former Prime Minister PV Narsimha
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India Vs Australia: Cricket New Normal, COVID Stress, Pink Ball And Expectations!

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  Photo: rediff.com India started their tour of Australia in 2018-19 too from November 2018 to January 2019, and created history by becoming first Asian cricket team to beat Australia in a Test Series in Australia. They also became only the second team of the world to beat Australia in Australia in both the formats of ODI and Test. The first test of that series too started in Adelaide in December and in that cracker of a match India won by 31 runs, one of their slenderest of victory margins. Australia won the second test in Perth by 146 runs, and India sealed the series 2-1 by winning the third test in Melbourne by 137 runs with the last match ending in a draw in Sydney. Then they went on to win the ODI Series 2-1 too. Under Australia’s split captaincy regime for different formats Aussie wicket keeper Tim Paine was the captain in the Test series and Aaron Finch captained the Aussies in the ODI and T201 formats, and they met Virat Kohli as the all-format Indian skipper. The rivalry rema
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A Few Concerns As India Cross 9 Million COVID-19 Cases!

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India has crossed the 9 million COVID-19 cases mark today, taking 22 days for the last million increase as against 19 days for the previous millon cases. The recovery rate has almost reached 94% with active cases falling below 4,50,000. A few days back daily new cases fell below the 30,000 mark that was consistent only for two days, and new additions had again picked up. In the last twenty four hours total number of new cases was at 45, 882. Total deaths that started falling below 500 also picked up, and for the last twenty four hours 584 Coronavirus patients had died which is a bit worrying despite the fatality rate consistently at around 1.5%.  The increased numbers of daily new cases and daily deaths are largely due to record spikes in Delhi and high-volume numbers in Kerala, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana and Haryana. In states like Gujarat, Manipur and a few others the renewed spikes have raised a concern. In
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