On A Day Like Today

A few days back, Sachin Tendulkar described Australia as the toughest team he had played against, and the India-Australia series to be the showpiece event in the cricket calendar, surpassing the India-Pakistan series also. And Why not? It is indeed true from a cricketing as well as from a fan's point of view. If we consider the results since Australia took over the mantle of world's No.1 cricket team in the mid 90's from the West Indies, it says 10-8 in favor of Australia. Clearly, India is Australia's toughest opponent, even in their own backyard, as since 2003 India is the only team to beat them in Australia, and they've done it twice. The Aussies have ruled the roost against other teams, both home and away; the only exception being a close Ashes defeat in 2005. The last series down under saw some of the finest quality of cricket being played between the two sides. All the matches were hard-fought and in the end, the Aussies might have considered themselves lucky ...

If anything has come out from last week's NSG waiver for India its this: the Congress has finally achieved something in its four-year reign, while its opponents, the Left and BJP have lost much of the ammunition they would've used to ensure its defeat in the forthcoming state and national elections. The BJP still says that we may have indirectly lost the right to test our indigenously built nuclear weapons. The Congress refutes such notions and says that there is no mention of a bar on testing. The entire thing will be clear once the text is made available shortly. I am surprised at the opposition's failure to notice a hidden plot behind this so-called success story. For all I care, this Congress-led government had been at the mercy of the Left for four years. Repeated blackmail by the Left parties ensured the Congress fell in line, each time it tried flexing its muscles. Finally, the government broke up with the Left and braced itself for an acid test on the floor of the h...

Absolutely Stunning! These are the two words which come to my mind for the description of Sunday’s Belgian grand prix at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit. The commentators had kept reminding us the possibility of rain time and again, which was conspicuous by its absence for the entire race save the last two laps. And these last laps were to change the entire complexion of the world championship. Kimi Raikkonen, who had led the race from the second lap, following Lewis Hamilton's error at turn 1; had driven a near-perfect race. The Ferrari pit-stop strategy had worked wonders as it managed to put some traffic between Kimi and Lewis, as Kimi sped away for a five-second advantage over his rival. Kimi's season seemed to be coming together at last. Cometh the hour, cometh the man seemed to be his mantra. Winning this race would have made the championship much more interesting. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be as the rain drops fell slowly, and then heavily. Suddenly, Kimi backed away...