THANK YOU MR. CHAPPELL

I have been a vocal critic of Guru Greg in my blog during his tenure as India's coach, and I guess I have never minced my words against him and have always been a outspoken critic of him always. He had made a team on verge of greatness into a bunch of losers, but today I thank him. The reason is he has proved all my outbursts against him to be correct. Sometimes history judges your actions, and my assertion that Guru Greg has self destruct mode on when he coaches has proven true.

The moment he was taken on the board of Australian cricket team as additional coach, i saw it as a harbinger of things to come. My money was backed immediately on India. The very man who saw so many weaknesses in Saurav Ganguly and provided the inputs to Aussies were smashed by Dada by the feisty ton he has scored at Mohali. Entire India can see what a captain he decimated with his approach and almost retired a great icon of our nation prematurely.

It was a glee to see Bret Lee and Siddle and even Watson run in and bowl short at him, Dada was carting them on the onside and milking the bowling, the same tactics against Dhoni resulted in mighty sixes and four. Looks like Aussies got the strategy absolutely wrong, in fact that have a wrong advisor in their ranks.

Sehwag who couldn't find form under Guru Greg has been in his elements after he was sacked, and against the Aussies he sparkled at Perth and again at Mohali he blasted the pace battery of Mighty Australians. Gambhir is plundering runs at will, edgy Tendulkar has found form again (Guru Greg had strategies that Tendulkar wouldn't break record against Aussies...laughable now) All batsmen are in free flow and all bowlers are shattering the timber frequently.

Just today, Ricky Ponting was bowled by Ishant Sharma and poor Aussie skipper reacted in dismay, he was flummoxed...I can assure Ponting, nothing wrong except the advices that you have received from Guru Greg, all his wards end up looking like what Ponting looked today. Look at the shot selection of Hussey & Watson, it is evident that Guru Greg is at his best and if he remains in the chair, a huge mauling of Aussies is in store.

I want India to win, but to see Aussies wilt like this, to see Aussies looking like novices, we have to hand it to Guru Greg...My heart felt sincere Thank You.

P.S. After the series verbal volleys from Guru will ruin a few mushrooming Aussie cricketers careers too.

LEGALIZING BETTING IN INDIA

There is carnage on stock exchanges around the world, in Mumbai the Sensex which not so long ago was over 20,000 points has plunged to the depths of 12,000 and predicted to go lower. Common man has lost years of accumulated wealth. Stock exchange in final analysis today is nothing worse than an ordinary gambling den where common man is taken to cleaners by the informed few. It amazes me why people invest into known/ unknown companies, whose decision makers may be having a scotch, priced over rupee thousand a peg in a fifty five thousand luxury Taj suite all on public money and taking a stupid alcoholic decision that will make the investor's rue over their misfortune.

It is therefore not surprising that people are turning to cricket and horse racing betting in a big way. They are safer avenues of making quick money, the people have control of what they are doing, and how much they are risking and are thus not wiped out like they are at stock exchanges. Many shopkeepers have television sets installed and follow, IPL/ICL/ODI'S and Test cricket in any part of the world. People have live access to happenings at the turf clubs all around the nation.

An article in BBC estimated India to be eight highest in volumes of betting in the world. Cricket betting is into billions of Rupees. All a bookmaker needs is a mobile phone and he is in business, the laws are lax enough in India to prove a deterrent to rampant existence of illegal bookmaking in every nook and corner of the nation. We cannot stop them, so the issue is why not legalize betting?

The answer is that this is simply more than a business decision, it a moral decision too. Though we have shaken away most of the socialist tags, this taboo regarding betting remains, in legalizing it a few intelligent 'fear' will drive people to gambling. Quite 'quixotically' they close eyes to millions wagering today. Many Indians advocate legalising the betting system, known as satta, to generate revenue for the government. Volume of money involved in it can make government can earn a lot from cricket betting through entertainment and other taxes if they legalise it like betting on horse-races, this was said by an advisor to the Central Board of Direct Taxes. He however forgot to add the government earnings from horse racing are limited from on course betting, while hundred times over is the turnover in horse racing outside the race course.

BBC article of 2001, link www.news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/england/1723667.stm spells out the amount involved in an India England series to be to the tune of 400 million Pounds, that's equivalent to roughly 3400 crores Indian rupees. Just Imagine the turnover in India Pakistan or India Australia games or even in The IPL.

Today if we add up, cricket betting volume in India is almost 2.2 lac crores a year, almost 45 billion USD, add to this the unnofficial race betting volume, then betting is already a 52 billion dollar Industry in India.

So perhaps to save a few from being driven to gambling the government is losing 5 t0 8 billion in taxes that could be utilized for public good like the UK National lottery does, the amounts are huge, tax collected from gambling during one year can modernize the whole Indian police and arm them with latest tools. Tax collected from betting can develop infrastructure where it is very necessary and can change the face of the nation.

However I don't perceive government to legalize betting soon, the political parties are into vote bank politics and any party that will move to legalize betting will face opposition from other parties and moral forces in the country.

Prudent legalization of betting means a time when all malls will have betting kiosks, and many panwalas will have digital equipment to make collections and payouts , and all this will make the government richer in billions of Dollars, but sadly the stigma attached to the issue makes even the wise resist tapping this wealth which would be for the general good of India.

Legal Betting will make government earn even more as illegal havala system in place for bettors settling will be done away with. There will be reduced money laundering and finally the money will not be channelized through groups that cause the nations security a live threat.

Moral Policing has never ended prostitution, various lawmakers of different nations have been known to have paid for commercial sex. No one stopped drinking during prohibition, even on dry days, people drink. Moral policing is absurd especially since money is a need of all free humans, and speculation is a behavior that is in all humans. All business have speculation embedded in them. Like any other so called social evil, gambling will never go. The Dharamraja Yudhisthar in Mahabharata was keen gambler. The gambling Industry is very ancient.

Legally registered bookmakers can help government fight illegalities that crop up in sports. Match-fixing or making a race, it will become easier to fight these evils with transparency that will arrive with legal status to bookmaking.As long as betting is conducted in legal and transparent manner it will benefit all.

However at no point of time in history, gambling could have enriched a nation so much, in fact from the tax collected the government can set out a fund for pathological gamblers and rehabilitate them. Singapore is coming up with a Casino, where if a wife reports that her husband cannot play, he will be barred. There always will be methods to deal with problems. Today the time is ripe for the government to tap in the revenue that legalization of betting can generate. As an industry it will open new jobs and a ripple effect of wealth will touch all parts of the nation.

DRONA

It's only when you expect a moon out of something or someone you feel very disappointed. However take a flop director like Goldie Behl, whose Bas itna sa khawb hai was 'terrible' to say the least and Abhishek Bacchan whose last couple of films haven't set the box office afire, and you expect nothing great, then why do you come out so disappointed after watching a film like Drona?

Actually disappointment is an understatement...the film is thoroughly a shoddy work...in last four years this is perhaps the only film that's got a bad review on my blog, and I assure, it really deserves it.

Hackneyed, characterization of Abhishek, orphan, neglected by caretakers, presented in a manner no sympathy is derived if that was the intention, supposed to be blue blood royal enthrusted with task of guarding elixir 'amrit' from demons...sounds like a fairy tale stuff? No...it dosen't belong to that genre also.

Most idotic thing that has been done is that Priyanka has a better Introduction and better action scenes, even KK has better introduction, it seems Abhishek and Goldie worked hard on everything else except Abhishek & script. After lot of borrowing from batman movie trying to pass it as quasi mythological stuff, with swishing special effects, the net result is a yawn.

Supposed to be a superhero film, this effort makes Abhishek dosen't even look a hero...and that's speaking a lot when today Abhishek is a leading hero of the Industry, and if he does a few more films like this, he will lose his even his dedicated fan following, which is plenty still.

I have never seen a single film fall so flat in last many years, and i will be surprised if it does well. I am not sure what the target audience of the film is...kids certainly will reject it, they have much more intelligence than this film assumes they possess.

There is a line in the film "Humhe Shristi Ko Bachana hoga" it makes you laugh after few repititions...so watch it if you like special effects...there is nothing else.

I had heard that there are three types of films, one, that make you laugh, second that make you cry, and third type that provoke you to stand up and take action... this film makes you laugh for all the reasons, cry, that you wasted money and you'll take action that you will take care before shelling money on Goldie Behl and Abhishek combine once again.