SRI'S Blog

The Events in Egypt , Yemen , Libya and smoke in Bahrain are all great signs of what people power can do . No matter what type of military power you have with you or other support you possess , people power can easily decimate these powers in no time. Egypt was classic . A dictator overthrown after thirty years in power. It was so simple . People wanted him to go and they did it without any great strategy or tact. The common theme of "Oust Mubarak " brought them together. In this context , Anna Hazare has brought in attention in India with various groups in multi cities and for all good reasons . A simple man , who gave notice of his fasting to the government to take forward the Lok Pal bill would not have expected such a support through out India for what he is trying to do . May be the timing of his call was just about right . With the background of Egypt events, and what was happening locally in India,with the 2G scam involving crores , the Adarsh Housing Scam , the Common

There was so much of expectation from the India Pak match . Everyone was involved -- the Politicians , the bureaucrats , the filmi stars , the common man and of course the teams. You had the two leaders of the playing nations watching the match amongst back end work by the Diplomats. It was all exciting stuff at the Mohali stadium . India had to win and there was no other result that one can compromise with. This was the final as far as any Indian or Pakistan was concerned. Winning this match was more important than the final. India has a good record in the World Cup against the Pakis . All the five matches that we played in the previous World Cup against Pakistan were won by us and this record could not be blemished and so extreme hype and pressure was built up on the eve of the match with many a Corporate India facilitating the viewing of the match in one way or the other . The prematch talk was about who will fire in the match . For sure the name of Wahab Riaz did not figure in tha

India won the World cup -- after a long gap of 28 years . They were the favourites to win , but to ride that tag and end up winners is something else . I hear everyone saying after the win " I told you. India will win " -- Does not matter. We have won the title and that is awesome for the Cricket fans of this country. The final was a fantastic match . It had to be and brought out the best team to fight hard to win it. Sanga and his men , lost the plot , I thought at the team selection stage. What else can you say ? Changing a winning combo is never good and to change four players from his winning semi final line up and then play a player who just arrived in to Mumbai was too much for the asking. Also too much was made in pre match reviews about Randiv and what he could do with Murali on the pitch. SL should have had one change - replace the injured Mathews with Thissara Perera. Ajatha Mendis had the best average as a bowler till the Semis -- less than three a over and they dr