Wednesday, December 26, 2012


What’s next on Modi’s agenda? Clues from the swearing in


When Narendra Damodardas Modi rose to take the oath of office for the fourth time at Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad, with party colleagues and current and potential allies present in strength, he accomplished many feats at one ago. Apart from the rollcall of political leaders, all on one stage, it was biggest moment of personal triumph for Modi. No other leader in the BJP has been at a swearing-in for as many times in a row.


The list of attendees gave all a peep into the potential shape of a future NDA if Modi were to lead it at some point of time – Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa, INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala, Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal, RPI President Ramdas Athavale and, most significantly, the Thackeray cousins Uddhav and Raj. Bihar CM and JD (U) leader Nitish Kumar, as expected, was not there. The message that Modi sent out seemed to be clear: there could be life beyond Nitish Kumar for the NDA.

Monday, December 24, 2012

Looking beyond Tendulkar to the 2015 World Cup


Looking beyond Tendulkar to the 2015 World Cup




India’s victorious 2011 World Cup campaign was the culmination of a three-year plan that was set by then coach Gary Kirsten when he took over the side in 2008. In an editorial for the Hindu after India won the final, he wrote that “We set our goals as a team way back in October 2008. We wanted to become the number one ranked Test team in the world and win the World Cup”. Having concrete goals and a plan to achieve them gave the team both an objective and a means of measuring their performance. There could be no excuses.
It is one thing to groom a side for home conditions, where even players new to international cricket would have had experience playing in domestic cricket. It is quite another altogether to take untested players to Australia and expect them to cope with the pace and bounce under the intense pressure of a World Cup at the first time of asking.

Bina Aaye Modi Chaye