from Photographers Blog:
Clash of two cricketing titans
The second quarter-final of the cricket world cup was a clash between two huge teams. India, the world's no. 1 team with its power batting lineup. Australia, three-time world champions who have reigned supreme over the game for 12 years. Whoever won, it would be a huge story. Whoever lost, it would be a huge story.
We headed to the stadium at around 10am, well before the 2.30pm start. Traffic was backed up a long way. There was only one road leading to it and we weren't sure if it was fans waving flags and blowing horns, buses and four wheel drives, scooters or the cops that were in charge. Fellow photographer Andrew Caballero-Reynolds got nervous because on his last 3 trips to stadiums, the vehicle he's been in has blown a tire. Lucky we made it in one piece. There were thousands of fans queuing in the searing heat to get into the ground, watched over by the usual stick-wielding police in khaki suits.
I installed a remote camera high on a TV tower above the stands, hooked up by usb cable to a laptop, both powered by a 25m extension cord we rented for 150 rupees (about 4 dollars) from a local shop that usually rents them out for weddings. The remote would capture the action from a different angle and would fire whenever I wanted it to from my field side position. I had the laptop running on a data card so the pictures would automatically be downloaded and transmitted to our editing system live, so that we didn't have to wait for the break inbetween innings to get the disk and edit pictures. It was going to provide some great pictures from the match.
As it got closer to the start of the match, fans packed the stadium and the familiar chants began - "Jeeta bhai jeetega!! Indiaaaaa jeetega!!!" (We'll win brother, we'll win, India will win!!!) I was torn, as someone who was born in India but has an Australian passport, I wasn't sure who to support. I decided to support New Zealand, my other nationality, to evade having to choose.
Australia had a fairly tame start to the match. Captain Ricky Ponting scored a century as Australia posted a total of 260. Amit Dave, Andrew and myself were burnt to a crisp in the unforgiving Gujarat heat as we covered the innings. At least I had water on my side; they forgot to bring any for the photographers at Andrew and Amit's positions.
from Left field:
The Sachin Tendulkar jinx
In getting out to debutant Peter George of Australia in the second cricket test at Bangalore, India's Sachin Tendulkar has established another test record.
Of the 251 times he has gotten out in a test match, the little master has been the debut wicket of at least ten bowlers - Hansie Cronje, Mark Ealham, Neil Johnson, Ruwan Kalpage, Jacob Oram, Monty Panesar, Ujesh Ranchod, Peter Siddle, Cameron White and Peter George.
While getting Tendulkar’s scalp might seem like a dream start to a young cricketer’s career, which of these players have gone on to become greats of the game?
Barring former South African captain Hansie Cronje, so far, none. And even Cronje’s career was dogged by controversy.
Sri Lankan Ruwan Kalpage sank without a trace, having played the last of his 11 tests in 1999.
Tendulkar was the first -- and last -- wicket of Zimbabwe’s Ranchod, who played his only test against India in 1993. Johnson, another Zimbabwe player, was talented, but did not get on with former coach Dave Houghton. He played the last of his 13 tests in 2000 and then returned to South Africa.
from Left field:
Records not enough for little master Tendulkar
By Adveith Nair and Krishna N. Das
Having dominated international cricket for over 21 years, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar sets a world record practically every time he steps out on a cricket pitch.
The second India-Australia test that begins on Saturday will be no different. Fans will be counting down the 27 runs the little master needs to become the first ever player to chalk up 14,000 test runs. Given his recent prolific form, it is more than likely the little master will reach that milestone in the southern Indian city of Bangalore with ease.
But in a cricket-mad nation of over a billion people, the expectations don’t end there.
Fans will hope their hero will take them to victory with an innings along the lines of VVS Laxman’s match-winning knock in the first test in Mohali.
Despite his batting prowess, detractors say he has often disappointed when it comes to pressure situations - whether in the World Cup final India lost to Australia in 2003 or the second innings of the previous test, when an upper cut attempt led to his downfall.
Of course, stellar performances through the World Cup league games and a masterful 98 in the first innings of the Mohali test were not enough. It almost seems like the law of averages does not, or rather, should not, apply to the batting maestro.
Cricket – India vs Australia
Highlights from India’s test cricket and one-day international matches against Australia
(Click the ‘Make a Comment’ link below to post your LIVE Blog comment)
Everybody saying india played very well against Australia. Verat Kohli is better to replace the big guns sachin,ganguley sahwag gambir rahul etc.
Is it that much great?
Australia is playing without Ponding,Hussy(He will not play 3D ONE-DAY).Dregley Bollinger,Shane Watson,Michal Johnson, BW Hilfenhaus, SM Katich ,Brett Lee , BJ Haddin etc.
Certainly Ponding has a great captaincy record. In the last year(2009) Australia missed lot of players but Ponding captaincy made them to victorious(4-2 win) .(Pondings colleagues shane wane,Gilcrist etc have great captaincy ability but they never become captain).
Looking the current players you can see that you can’t compare old win against Australia with this win.
It is not Australian team it is just a South Australia or Victoria or Australian under 19, Australian (A or b) team or Australian prime minister XI.
Main problem that is faced by this tournament is First match is washed off ,India also playing with second quality players or (IPL Indian XI), also the popularity of 50 over match is decreased due to t20 and bcci`s policy .
Policy is mainly sreekanth`s selection policy that is he mainly select tamil nadu players,channai super king players and sresanth . His selection of team mainly based on IPL. Only good selection is selection of Poojara. After the South African Onday (after sachin`s 200) india not played full strength one day team. Because Ipl and champions trophy one day match playing in india is decresed .India is playing too much of one-day against sreelanka .Asia cup arranged during football world cup time so nobody interested also just after that in the same place and against almost same country a 3 nation tournament is this the way to schedule match. If selectors want to experiment then why don’t they experiment during test match against Bangladesh? .Selection of test team against South Africa is the one of the badest selection, because of the un availability of batsman India have played with 2 wicket keeper and lost the test match. If the player is injured don’t select them or make back up arrangement. in the south African test series and Australian test seers the laxman was the villain. In the mohali more than the Laxman the umpire (Billy Bawden) is the hero of the match. Main reason for 1st innings collapse in mohali is due to unavailability of laxmanan in correct batting line up. If he scored half of the run that is scored in second innings to 1st innings india have been taken the lead and India can easily win that test without that tremendous, herculean effort for a win (Narrow win).
Because of IPL India is not gone to West Indies for full tournament. If they played in West Indies then there lot of fanatical problem can be solved, new players can be come, and playing against India can unite the West Indies team. Also same thing with Pakistan.
Unavailability of Sachin Tendulker for one day tournament for last 8 months is main problem that decrease the viewer ship of one day cricket. Even though he playing lot of T20 with Mumbai Indians. Is the national duty is 2nt even to sachin tendulker ?.Why rest for sachin in every announcement of one day tournament? Why he is not rested even partially in IPL and Champions trophy?.
Indians attacked: time for action vs need for calm
Days after accounting graduate Nitin Garg was stabbed to death in Melbourne, the incident has not just triggered anger but also speculation of strained diplomatic ties between India and Australia.
Australian authorities have repeatedly maintained the attacks were not racially motivated, an argument spurned by the Indian press that cited past incidents of a similar nature, targeting mainly Indians on a student visa.
From the point of view of Australian authorities, terming the attacks as racial will have larger ramifications for a country whose economy depends on the international student sector to a great extent.
It is Australia’s third largest export earner, worth A$13 billion ($11.86 billion) in 2007-08.
Once it is branded as a destination where students of ethnic origin are unsafe, the education sector can expect a large loss of revenue which may also spill over on its tourism industry.
Australian newspapers were cautious in their condemnation of the incident.
“Australia must be able to present as a secure environment for visitors who come here. And while our concern ought not be motivated by economic gain, the reality is the dollars involved in higher education and trade training mean it is essential that Indian worries are adequately dealt with.
Indians have taken over public transport/IT/medicine/etc… which I agree is the fault of the companies in question. They are only interested in profit not things like the fact that Indians are unaware of common courtesies that are enjoyed among Australians who have built this country together. Countless times I have been sneered at while a taxi driver fails to understand that tips are not the go in Australia unless you earn it somehow. The examples of Indian boorishness which fuels Australian discontent are numerous. Dreadful bedside manner of Indian medical professionals in particular.
Kevin Rudd: Re-reassuring Indians?
The Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, currently in India, is expected to address concerns in India over attacks on Indian students.The issue blew up in May this year after a spate of attacks on Indian students amid allegations of racism.The Australian leaders have been defending the safeguards and measures taken since then, but every time there is a fresh attack the media goes to town with the issue.With over 80,000 students enrolling in Australian every year the attacks, whatever their nature, have hardly dampened the outflow of students.Rudd won’t be the first to offer a reassurance and given the regularity with which incidents are reported it doesn’t look like he would be the last.Indian students continue to be interested in Australian education.Is this because they can sense that the issue is has been blown out of proportion?Or are they voting with their feet on the state of Indian education system?Are we still sold out over the lure of a ‘foreign degree’ and willing to run the risks for it?
An Indian national man has been charged with sexually molesting two girls 11 and 12 in my home town in Australia
So is this going to get headlines in India. I think not
Attacks on Indians in Australia: racist or recessionist?
A spate of attacks on Indian students in Melbourne and Sydney has seen the Indian media accuse Australia of being a racist nation.
Newspaper articles warning of a culture of “curry bashings” in Australia have sparked off debate and people around the world have spoken out against the attacks in online forums.
Some insist the majority of attacks may have been purely criminal.
As an Indian studying in the U.S. for the past three years, I am yet to come across any instance of Indians being targeted on the basis of their race.
I have never heard my American friends say anything against Indians or students of any other nationality.
Does that mean Indians are safer in New York than in Melbourne?
The attacks on Indians did take place in Australia, but then they could have happened anywhere.
1. Australia is one from the less racist countries in the world, from the most opened and tolerant countries in the world.
2. The terrorist attacks in New York increased the xenophobia and they racist attacks not only against Muslims but against Jews, Sighs and other foreigners.
3. The rapid change of the synthesis of Australian population, only 35% of Australians said that they come from English ancestors ( 2006 census) and less than 18% of Australians are Anglicans created worries to extreme nationalists.
4. The international financial crisis increased the unemployment and local labors saw that they lost their job not only of cause the financial crisis but because migrants work harder for less money and worst conditions and they took the jobs.
5. last years the number of foreign students increased rapidly , hundred of thousands of foreign students, while the government has allowed them to work many hours per semester. Foreign students work with very low wages in very bad conditions and of cause the financial crisis they have created huge problems to local unskilled, low income labors. It is the unskilled, non educated people who become racists and attack the students or migrants.
6. For these reasons and much more has created a dangerous combination of conditions which expressed not only with racist attacks but with many other ways, including the increase of criminal attacks.
7. There are many studies mainly from Western Sydney University and from Australian National University about the race discrimination in Australia and especially in NSW, Victoria and Queensland. We know from these studies that the race discrimination exist and for some ethnic groups as Lebanese in Sydney or Muslims or Asians is very high, higher than the race discrimination against blacks in USA .
8. Unfortunately, Australian governments, Federal or states, Liberal or ALP instead to try to support the victims of race discrimination, instead to try to minimize the race discrimination they try to limit migrant’s role in Australia. The attacks against multiculturalism from federal governments, Liberal and ALP, the citizenship test are sound proves.
9. There is a study from the Western Sydney University about the attacks against Muslims, you can find it in a report of the Australian Human Rights Commission, from this study we learned that more than 90% of attacks against Muslims comes from Anglos, although they are less than 35% of the population, according to 2006 census.
10. Without doubt most racist attacks comes from extrem nationalists, white supremacists etc.
11. Unfortunately many migrants or foreign students do not trust the police and they do not report the attacks at all or on time, this is not helpful at all, we can not expect from the police to stop the attacks when we do not inform them for the attacks.
Antonios Symeonakis
Adelaide
“Crikey!” Steve and the Kerala crocodiles
Think Steve Irwin and it’s difficult to take the crocodile off the frame.
That must be the logic behind the Kerala government renaming its crocodile park on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram after the khaki-clad naturalist.
But the government is in a tight spot after it received a notice from Terri, wife of the Australian “Crocodile Hunter”, questioning the commercial use of her husband’s name.
Irwin died in 2006 after a stingray barb pierced his heart while filming off Australia’s coast.
Kerala, known for its wildlife and backwaters, attracts a lot of foreign and domestic travellers.
The park in question was set up in 1977 for breeding of reptiles and was renamed as the Steve Irwin Crocodile Rehabilitation and Research Centre in 2007.
The facility, run by the forest department, also has a lion safari, deer park and a boating facility.
The park mentioned has been in existence for 32 years. I am very sure that the move to name the park in Steve Irwin’s name was meant as a tribute only. There was no commercial angle to that. The park charges nominal fee for entry(unlike the australia zoo which charges 53 AUD for an adult and 31 AUD for a child!!!!). To say it had a commercial angle would be a bit harsh. The state has an enthusiastic minister who is handling the wildlife dept who is proactive unlike many of his predecessors.If permission was not asked for using Steve’s name, i think its a mistake. In India generally everyone considers it an honour to name something after someone’s name. It is considered as an honour which does not involve any commercial angle. So its a lesson for the kerala government over there who thought that people associated with Irwin would find this as an honour, a mark of respect.More than a commercial angle i think its just difference culture. The problem is that even though he is famous, Steve Irwin has not achieved the greatness of Gandhi, Nehru or others , there are thousands of institutions named after them with no one bothering. They are not commercial icons like Steve. This is what the kerala government needs to understand, Steve Irwin(rather his name) is part of a commercial venture(Australia Zoo) similar to Disney. Disney is popular enough for the Kerala governmemnt not to name anything as Disney!!!I hope Terri understands enough, and not embarass a government who renamed the park with the right intentions.
