The Curious case of Pakistan Cricket Team: Part 1

As I sat watching Pakistan choke once again in the 2nd T20 against the South Africans (the original chokers), I thought to myself, how can consistency be made a forte of Pakistan cricket (some might say that they are losing consistently, but lets not go there). The answer came to me fast: You can't.
If we analyze Pakistan's performance in the last 15 years we can fairly say that consistency is alien to Pakistan cricket team.
We start with 1999, a year when Pakistan's team had greats like Wasim Akram, Shoaib Akhter, Waqar Younis, Inzimam, Yousaf, etc. The only difference between the team then and now is that the team won Sharjah cups which at times took place twice a year. Unfortunately, Sharjah Cup doesn't take place anymore. Many people refer to Wasim-Waqar era as the Golden Era of Pakistan. Please! Pakistan people only remember those years fondly because its been too long and because Pakistan beat India alot in those yeas.

Pakistan started the year by defeating India in India but then lost the next match with wickets falling like 9-pins. Series Ended 1-1. Pakistan did come back to beat India in the badly construed Asian Test Championship and won the Championship by beating Sri Lanka in the final. Pakistan also went on to win the Pepsi Tri-series in India. But before we get all patriotic, let me clarify that Sri Lankan and Indian teams in 1999 were skeletons of what they are today. Both had some star players but they lacked coordination and lost many times to Pakistan. In April, Pakistan won the Sharjah Cup but due to differences Coach Javed Miandad was removed. Pakistan went into the World Cup (under Coach Richard Pybus) in England as one of the favorites. Pakistan had a good world cup winning all games in Group stage (except Bangladesh, but we all know what was going on there). In the super-6 stage, we lost to South Africa and India and only qualified for the semifinal by beating Zimbabwe. After comprehensively downing New Zealand in the Semis, Pakistan were drubbed for 132 by Australia in the final of the 1999 World Cup. Richard Pybus was removed. Say hello to inconsistency.
Pakistan rehired Pybus later in the year and Pakistan won another Sharjah Cup but were severely beaten in Australia where they lost 3-0 in the test series and also lost both finals of the Tri-series.
Heads rolled after the defeat. Pybus was shown the door and Wasim Akram was removed from captaincy, placing the reigns in the hand of Saeed Anwar. The Board (which itself was changed 3 times in as many months) wanted to "introduce young blood" and many youngsters were given a chance in the series against Sri Lanka. Result: Pakistan lost ODI series 3-0. Pakistan went on to lose 2 games in the Test series before Saeed Anwar gave up captaincy and Moin Khan was made captain and Javed Miandad was named the Coach. Moin won his first test making it a 2-1 in the Test Series for Pakistan.
Pakistan went on to win the Sharjah Cup (this was a real achievement since they beat SA in the finals), the West Indies ODI tri-series (but were beaten 2 times by the West Indies) but lost the WI test series 1-0 (thanks to Umpire Billy Doctrove). Then Pakistan won the Asia Cup in June. Next was the tour of Sri Lanka where Pakistan won the test series 2-0 but were hammered in the tri series (also including South Africa) and could not even win a single match. 
Pakistan went to Singapore in August to play a short tri-series featuring South Africa and New Zealand. Moin was injured so Waqar captained the side. Pakistan won both league games but were beaten by South Africa in the final. Next was ICC Champions Trophy in Nairobi in which Pakistan lost to New Zealand in the semifinal.  


-- To be continued

Economist School Briefs

Recently, the Economist published a crash course on understanding the Financial Crisis. That made me search for the earlier school briefs the magazine published in 1999. Those were a series of eight articles on Finance. You can find links to them below
1: Finance Trick or Treat  (Published Oct 21, 1999)
2: The business of banking (Published Oct 28, 1999)
3: Moneyed men in institutions (Published Nov 4, 1999)
4: Stocks in trade (Published Nov 11, 1999)
5: Monopoly power over money (Published Nov 18, 1999)
6: Future perfect (Published Nov 25, 1999)
7: Shared Values (Published Dec 2, 1999)
8: The future of finance (Published Dec 9, 1999)

About Cable Networks

With rising inflation and a sinking economy, it is heartening to see that prices of Cable TV, broadband internet and mobile networks are falling or are at least are stable.
I remember paying the first bill for cable TV, which was around Rs. 150 in 2000. Today prices are around 350 (max). Over the 13 years, more channels have been added including some from our neighbouring country India and others from the USA. Moreover, the mushroom growth of Pakistan's own TV channels is astonishing. In 2000, Indus TV was the first private channel to start its operations. But today the number of Pakistani channels has skyrocketed (can't even remember how many or what their names are).
Probably, the Cable Networks are trying to target volume rather than margin. The two top networks in Lahore, Wateen & Worldcall offer similar channels although Wateen's own channels do not feature 60-minute Bahria Town Ads.

PTCL comes to Phase 5

PTCL has finally decided to lay fibre optics cable in DHA Phase 5 after almost a four-year standoff. Exclusive rights for broadband were awarded to Wateen telecom since 2008 which led to PTCL's absence from the area.
After an anti-trust court case in 2010, DHA has finally yielded and allowed PTCL to enter the precinct.

The Quagmire called Zimbabwe Cricket

It seems Zimbabwe Cricket is destined to be continuously involved in scandals. Starting in 2003, we saw Andy Flower and Henry Olongo mourning the death of Democracy. Reports of racism within the team started doing rounds in the media, although the committee set up by the ICC did not find any truth in them.
More recently, Zimbabwe players have gone up in arms over their match fee. Zimbabwe Cricket is in dire straits, which was evident from their preference for shifting the second test to Harare from Bulawayo. Cricketers wanted to boycott the first test but some last minute diplomacy made sure that the team went out to play, sans Sean Williams who didn't want to set foot in the ground without getting paid first.
Despite their financial troubles, Zimbabwe have shown great spirit in both test matches, something that had been missing during their previous outings. It is high time ICC takes some action and either directly pays the players or sets up an independent unit under a respectable individual, say Heath Streak, who would route the payment from the Council to the players. If the practice of putting faith in ZC to pay the players continues, we might keep seeing more instances vis a vis Kyle Jarvis.

Time flies by..

Today, I came across a magazine solely for watches, WATCHTIME. As I perused through the pages, I was mesmerized by the sheer volume of watch brands that exist in the market. I, being a watch collector (although small) myself, I found the magazine truly entertaining. But this is not why I'm writing this post. 
At the end, I came across a watch by Ferrari (see picture attached) which looked more like an engine. Additionally, I for one, found the reading time off the watch extremely hard. But the price tag on the watch read $235,000. I rubbed my eyes into see if it was actually $235.000 and not $235,000 but to my dismay it was the latter. Moreover, another watch I saw took GPS signals from 24 satellites to show you the correct time wherever you go.
I see both these watches as a waste. I mean can't you just change the time when you get off at an airport? Why do these rich people have to complicate even the simplest of things in life. People don't have clean water to drink and these snobs spend $235,000 on a watch that doesn't even show time correctly. Get a $2 disposable watch you stiff-necks.  

End of an Era

So its official. March 15 will mark the end of a revolutionary product in the history of the internet, the MSN Messenger (a.k.a Windows Live Messenger). As a management student, this didn't come as a surprise since all products have to go through the "disposal" phase. But I will admit feeling a tinge of nostalgia. My first encounter with MSN Messenger was during 2001, when I was just 11 years old. The concept amazed me; send messages to people sitting at the other end of the world and get their replies immediately. I still remember, the version than was 4.6. 

As time passed, features were rolled in MSN Messenger. Emoticons, Winks, Display pictures all made their way into the program. A more simpler version was kept as Windows Messenger though we don't know what its purpose was.

Then in 2005, the big news came. MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger announced interoperability, allowing users of both programs to chat with each either cross-platform. It was nothing less than magical in those days. 
In 2008, the MSN Messenger was rebranded Windows Live Messenger in order to bundle it with Windows Live Essentials. The latest version (version 15) was released in 2010. 
During the last two years, I felt that messenger was being underused. Due to the introduction of Facebook chat and Google Chat, right into the websites, meant that the need for a standalone chat client was fast diminishing. Even the Messenger add on website, Mess.be was not updated after June 2010.
Then, in November 2012, the interoperability with Yahoo Messenger was cancelled and in January this year,  Microsoft announced that the plug will be pulled on Messenger on the 15th of March 2013 (with contacts being added to Skype). This date in spring, will mark an end of an era.