IND-BD Test Series Review

India won the Test Series against BD 2-0. India was dominant to an extent but not to the level that they should have been against a weak BD side when compared to their respective standings in ICC Test Rankings. Sehwag's statements made before the start of the series made him sound arrogant and disrespectful but people forgot his non-nonchalant nature on and off the pitch facing a Brett Lee delivery or media's questions; Sehwag still doesn't care about what others think about him.
Sachin came back for the test series got the two centuries he needed to continue marching forward in tests against the cricketer of the decade Ricky Ponting. Gambhir continued his rich vein of form in tests but missed out on a great record to equal Don Bradman. Dravid, Laxman scored runs but I still think Yuvraj's place is up for grabs(Rohit Sharma or Badrinath, Murali Vijay should be considered). The bowling department is still weak and Zaheer was the pick of the series supported by Ishant Sharma.
Harbhajan, Ojha and Amit Sharma were mediocre, I guess they need helpful tracks to get wickets.

India is ahead in ICC Rankings but the series is against SA is very crucial not just because India is 1 and SA is 2 but also because India doesn't play too many tests after they play against SA to maintain the Numero UNO status. India already had a big blow in terms of the team selection to play against SA because Dravid got injured. SA always played well against India in India and I hope atleast India dominate SA this time in the test series.

Have fun
Cheers

Super Bowl XLIV Preview

Weekend's NFL Game between Vikings and Saints was interesting. If Brett Favre made one sane decision of throwing the ball out or gaining a few yeards and holding on to the ball instead of getting intercepted, Vikings would have made it to the Super Bowl. They have done everything wrong but were far better than Saints and then the crazy OT rule led them down.

Over Time rule in NFL sucks, there are no two opinions on that. I have expressed the same when Packers lost to Cardinals in the Play-Offs. The team that wins the toss most probably will take minimum risks and score a field goal to win the game. Packers lost the same way and so did Vikings. The rule sucks because it doesn't give a fair opportunity for both the teams to compete. If I were to compare it with cricket, the team that wins the toss would select batting and play for 5 overs and scores 50 runs but the opposition is never given a chance to chase 50 or bat for 5 overs and see how much they score which doesn't make any sense.

The NFL OT rule should be changed just to give both the teams a fair chance. I would suggest either giving one drive chance to each team or one more quarter(with two 7.5 min sessions). Imagine this scenario during the super bowl game, how painful would that be for both the teams not getting a fair chance to score and win.

Coming to the Super Bowl game, I have placed my bet on Colts because they have shown better performance under pressure compared to Saints. Unless Saints pull out something extra ordinary or improve their game drastically from their previous games, We have Colts as the Champions.

Cheers

Vishal

Tennis : Australian Open 2010

Australian Open - The year's first grand slam tournament started and is at the quarter final stage. Men's Single : Andy Murray defeated Rafael Nadal and the Croatian player Marlin Cilic defeated Andy Roddick to reach Semis. The other Quarters are to be played between Federer and Davydenko, Dokovic and Tsonga.  Interesting matches to watch, lets see if it would be a Federer V Murray clash in the finals.

Women's Singles: Henin is back and reached the semis defeating the Russian Petrova  and she will face the chinese Zheng. The other quarter final match ups are between Serena and Victoria Azarenka , Venus against the chinese Na Li.

Semis might be yet an other Serena V Venus affair and final may be between Henin and Serena. That's my guess.

IPL-III Auction

Indian Premier League Edition 3 is starting March 2010 and there were a few vacant player positions in the franchises for which there was an auction. There were around 66 players and 16 positions to be filled, out of which 11 were Pakistani. After multiple attacks and reported evidences, there was no peace between the two countries and there was never a consensus on any statement that either country's Chief made. No one would deny that there are issues between the two countries and that might definitely be one of the main concerns for not been selected by any franchise. Probably Umar Gul, Abdul Razzaq and Shahid Afridi would have been selected if there were no tensions between the two countries. IPL owner Lalit Modi was not very keen before the start of the auction and they declared that there will be no pakistani players months before the actual auction date and he gave a lame excuse saying it's because of the paper work, Visas etc. PCB and Pakistani players were very interested and they came back with Visa's, NOC's  but ultimately found humiliating and snubbed because there were no takers for them.
Different people reacted differently to this situation, former Pakistani players like Miandad, Zaheer Abbas became strictly against IPL after this incident and they are taking it to the next level. Ramiz Raza and Wasim Akram are commentators and they also might feel the same way but they are trying their best to be politically correct in this situation.
Shah Rukh Khan gave his very own politically correct and honest version.
IPL Second Edition had no players from Pakistan and everybody was okay with that because the attack was fresh in everybody's memories and no one raised eye-brows that time.
IPL Third Edition things haven't changed much and no action was taken by either sides to improve the relations between them and it doesn't mean that things have smoothened between the countries. If there were issues and if everybody knew that Pakistani cricketers will not be selected in the auction, then they shouldn't have been included for the auction itself.
People who think Sports and Politics shouldn't be interlinked together, this is a twist to the story for them. It doesn't make sense to enjoy cricketing ties when there are terror attacks and political tension between two countries.
Other links related:
IPL Auction 2010
PCB to lodge complaint with ICC
Ain't nobody rock a party like Pakistan can
Pakistan's reaction to IPL 2010
Franchise Perspective

NFL Championships - AFC & NFC

NFL Championship games namely the AFC and NFC championships are to be played today. I have selected Colts and Vikings as my picks for today's games.

So much at stake for Favre, Vikings in Sunday's NFC title game

Matchups

Jets Vs Colts and Saints Vs Vikings

From the last week's games, only Jets and Chargers game was interesting and the other three were pretty much one-sided. I was able to correctly guess the winners of all the last week's games by virtue of which I am at the top of our fantasy league. I have two more games to win and pray other players in our fantasy select wrong teams to stay at the top. So it's not straight forward, lots of permutations and combinations.

Have fun watching the games.

Cheers

Vishal

Telangana - Regional Terrorism ??

I am a Hyderabadi Telugu and I was a frog in the well because I have spent 21 years of life in Hyderabad strictly restricted to 'to and fro' travels from my dwelling place to School, Junior College and Engineering College and a few trips to religious places like Tirupathi, Shiridi, Vijayawada and Srisailam. Hyderabad is a metro city, people in most cases do not worry about asking your caste, religion, region etc. So my knowledge about this topic was very minimal.
I never had a chance to look at the things like Caste System, Regionalism, Religionalism(Regional Terrorism) etc until I reached the land of opportunities U.S.A. Telugu people get divided between themselves because we always have different reasons that avoid us from being united.
M.S in US - As soon as I started interacting with students from other parts of Andhra Pradesh, I started to realize the part that people tend to defend their own caste people, own state/region people and are biased with their opinions which was very difficult for me to digest initially but I got used to it later.
First Scenario: Chiru fans vs Balayya fans
First such scenario that I encountered was the famous Chiranjeevi-Bala Krishna fans supporting their respective hero's in every day-day activity that they get involved. We went to watch 'Tagore' and my friend got this poster of Chiranjeevi for free and he sticked the poster in our living room. A few days later we had a Birthday party at our place and everybody arrived(telugus, northies, tamilians, etc). After the cake party, everybody left but Bala Krishna fans were hurt to see Chiranjeevi's poster in our living room and they wanted us to remove the poster, if not either they will do it or they will not visit our apartment again.
I used to watch movies which were hits. Initially when I was young because I liked dance, I wanted to watch Chiranjeevi movie songs at the minimum and watched couple of Bala Krishna movies because they were hits and also he was next to Chiranjeevi in his dances.
Second scenario is related to idol worship(Chiranjeevi fans). One of our consultancy room mates got a job and he threw a party; the party started off well and during the party, there are so many different topics that people discuss and once such discussion thread started between two persons.
A:  Did you guys read Great Andhra news,Ravi Teja is 47 yrs old and he still looks so young.
B: Who cares how Ravi Teja looks.
A: He is 47, Chiru is 53 but man there is no comparison in fitness.
B: Why are you comparing Chiru with Ravi Teja?  Ravi Teja has one or two hits and people give a damn about his films and he doesn't care about other people.
A: Chiru should stop films,he is so fat.
B: What do you know about Chiru?
Arguments get heated up and B attacks A. Other people stopped them from fighting and then B calms down and both tell sorry to each other.B explains if you do not know about something, please just don't comment and I like Chiru because he is a social worker. End of scenario 2.
Third Scenario: Kamal fans Vs Rajni fans.
Similar to second scenario but this time it was strictly restricted to discussions and arguments which started around 10 pm and lasted till 4 am in the morning. The conversation basically started from Actor vs Star but ended up with arguments/counter arguments 'Who is the bigger Icon in Tamil film Industry?'
Fourth Scenario: Cricket Sachin fans vs Ganguly fans.
People tend to forget the contributions made by the players to the team and country's popularity in the sport and they are more inclined in their favorite player's stats and comparison with other players.
Fifth Scenario: Cricket India vs Pakistan 2003 World Cup Match
During my MS days, we subscribed for the world cup and everybody used to come by our place to watch the matches. India Vs Pakistan Match and we had few Pakistani students watch the match with us and it was a communal riot @ our place. The match was like a see-saw and people couldn't control emotions and it was a war or words.
There are many such scenarios namely Northies Vs Southies, Brahmins Vs Non-Brahmins and the list goes on. The spice of the season is Telangana Vs Andhra. The topic has gained center stage for quite some days now and yet there is no solution. Being a frog in the well, I never had an opportunity to look at a map like shown below until the Telangana Revolution started.

Not sure how much it affects the country overall, not sure how much it affects both the regions, not sure whether Telangana has a leader in case if a separate state is formed.
Our PM termed demanding a state in the way it is being done as 'Regional Terrorism'. There are more questions to get answers for me than to think of a supporting separate state at this moment. I wish there was some one who already put together a detailed analysis of pros and cons, otherwise I would have to find this info myself and discuss in a separate blog based on my collection of information form various websites.


Have fun
Cheers

NFL Play Offs and Divisional Rounds

Did you guys get to watch weekend NFL Play off games?
We have invited my school friend for lunch and he visited us on Saturday. I have been playing NFL fantasy of the Play off draws with in our community. I got two right and two wrong. I took suggestions from two of my friends who are avid NFL followers. One said NYJ and the other said CIN, so I went with CIN and they lost the game comfortably and packers lost. The best play off game during the weekend was Cardinals vs Packers. The game was even steven till the last quarter 45-45  and Cardinals went on to win during the OT.
I don't quite like the OT rule that NFL has in place for now. NFL is no soccer game to decide the winners by golden goal rule, when questioned about this some avid NFL followers have a counter argument saying that NFL is not just about Offense or Quarterback but also about defense. They have a point but if one team gets one good run and score a field goal, then there is no chance for the other team to fight back and score a touch down. I don't think it's fair to decide the winners without giving a chance to the other team and see if they can score.
My Fave Team Pats lost at home for the first time this season and had their first defeat in Play Offs @ home in 30 years. Fans may have witnessed the end of dynasty of the decade.
The games are decided for the AFC and NFC divisional rounds. Saints will play Cardinals, Vikings play Cowboys, Ravens play Colts and Jets play Chargers.

Tri Series Cricket

There are a few players who always play well against India, Dilshan joined that list and they have most of their top scores against India and most teams can select an alltogether different team when they play against India. Few names that come to my mind are Salman Butt(8 ODI Centuries total , 5 Vs Ind), Dion Nash (64 ODI wickets 20 vs Ind), Chanderpaul, Younis Khan(16 centuries total ,17 Test Innings vs Ind 5), Jayasurya, Saeed Anwar(top test scores and ODI innings reserved for India) and there a few more if I get into Stats.

From the last time I have posted about Tri Series Cricket until today, India played better in the league matches but lost the final. Indian team lacks all round consistency and they have been able to display consistently inconsistent performances.
India's batting fails when it really matters

Finals and the top order collapsed, except for Sehwag, Raina and Jadeja. Two ducks and one single digit score in the top 4 batting order doesn't give a great chance to setup a huge total but Raina's century gave a respectable total to atleast put forth a trial to defend. Like I said in my earlier post with the kind of bowling attack and fielders, India can never win a match without any extra ordinary individual performances. Since there were none, India lost the match. Team composition was allright except for Sreesanth, I thought Sudeep Tyagi was bowling better than him and also provided early strikes in each of the innings he bowled.
Well done SL, thank god the series ended. I hope to see India play other SL and Bangladesh for sometime now, there is only so much an avid cricket fan can take and I guess the limit has already been crossed over.

OBIEE Dashboard Max Before Menu

We had a requirement where we wanted to group the dashboards that were built based out of the same business area and show a dashboard menu like structure. I have seen that in the OOTB(Out of the Box Analytics applications) version but I tried to replicate that in my stand alone local OBIEE server and I couldn't do it and then I was told there needs to be a configuration change in the Presentation Services Configuration file(instanceconfig.xml). The default dashboards required to max out before they turn to a menu is 15, so we can't  see a menu even though the dashboards are built off of the same shared folder/same business area until we create 16 dashboards. So we need to change the instanceconfig.xml available in InstallDir\OracleBIData\web\config and add the following line in the server instance part.

Once we add the line shown above in instanceconfig.xml, we have to follow the regular dashboard creation process from the same shared folder.

As shown above in the last dashboard display the dashboards ABCD, ABDE and BCDE are grouped as part of the Business Area ABC folder and the names of these dashboards are arranged alphabetically in a menu(folder like structure). So if we need to show ABDE ahead of ABCD,we have to rename them using 01 ABDE, 02 ABCD and 03 BCDE based on your requirement and shown in the example below.

I tried to search dashboard menu on various OBIEE blogs and I couldn't find related stuff, that's the only reason I wanted to post this.

Dew Factor? Tri-Nation Cricket IND-SL-BD

'Dew became a huge factor' - Dhoni . Shakib made a similar comment when they lost to SL the other day and what did Team India learn from it? Nothing :).  I was never a big fan of MS Dhoni's captaincy because like most Indian captains, he always has a defensive mindset. In his earlier days, he used to have an aggressive mindset with a cool head which helped us win more matches when he batted in the middle order chasing good targets. Once he injured his back, he stopped all the big bottom hand strokes which are his signature shots and now he is an accumulator and he needs hitters Yuvi or Raina to bat with him otherwise there would be no chance for the tema to win with his scoring rate, the latest example would be his 70 ball 37 run knock against an ordinary SL bowling on a good batting pitch. India never produced quality fast/spin/medium bowlers who can rip through the batting order or give consistent break throughs at the start of the innings over a consistent period of time. Indian bowlers always run through a good patch for a very small period and after that good period they don't even find place in the squad of fifteen. Of course there are always exceptions, a Kapil Dev, Kumble and some times Srinath and Zaheer(who finds himself more in the injury list than in the squad) but other than the mentioned names we have bowlers like Ishant, Irfan, Praveen Kumar, Sreesanth, Nehra etc who are not consistent. I didn't mention Bhajji because he has never been a wicket taking bowler in ODI format, he throws in fast and tries his best and mostly succeeds in stemming the run glut. For Indian cricket fans, it's a punishment to make them sit through and watch India bowl their quota of 50 overs. The Indian Captain's thinking would always be how to get through the 50 overs rather than restricting the batting team by consistently taking wickets or making plans to get the in the opposition team batsmen out and in case if there is an occassional good delivery then forget about it Indian fielding is so reliable that they can spill any catch and Mr Sunny's comment about Team India's catching was humorous.
"The way they are going about it, despite the cold weather I doubt if they will be able to catch a cold."
My point is that India did not score enough against SL and Indian bowling & fielding can't win matches if the score is less than 300 ; Even MS Dhoni knows the fact but I am not sure who is he trying to fool. Dew can be a factor but not the major factor which can decide a team's win or a loss.

Ready for NFL Play Offs Yet??

The stage is finally set for the NFL Play offs and the matchups are ready. Steelers couldn't make it this time thanks to their inconsistent run in the regular season due to injuries to the key players and not sure how Pats and Bengals will play they have their own player injury concerns for their respective games. Vikings are still dominant, Saints lost their last few games and Colts have Dependable P Manning under crunch situations but they generally choke in play offs. Let's see what we have this time around.