Neutral venues are stupid

Tuesday, 30 December 2008 07:30 by Rajan Bala

The decision of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) – based on the recommendation of its technical committee – to hold the knockout phase matches in the Ranji Trophy at neutral venues is stupid. The intention behind this move is to prevent ‘doctored’ pitches by home teams that would have normally staged these matches. In the inaugural season of the implementation of this move, the grounds – normally never able to attract crowds for such matches – have been almost deserted as there is no local interest at all. [More]

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How to manage our money now

Monday, 29 December 2008 10:36 by Bala Murali Krishna

Around this time last year, the greatest fear was of being left out of a rising market; now, it is about being trapped in a falling market. The experts – from the fabled investor Warren Buffet down to his Indian counterpart Rakesh Jhunjhunwala – are not sure if the worst is behind us. Pray, what are we small investors to do? [More]

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Tags:		evalueserve, sensex, warren buffett, rakesh jhunjhunwala
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Satyam’s Raju must go

Monday, 29 December 2008 09:09 by Bala Murali Krishna

Satyam was managed as a fiefdom of the Raju family. How else could a company use hundreds of crores of its (and its stockholders’) cash, and stock, to bail out failing companies of relatives? How else could it do so without even a verifiable audit and valuation of the Maytas companies? How else could a computer services firm wander into dangerous real estate business without any meaningful study of the potential or indeed the risks? [More]

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Ponting’s woes continue

Saturday, 27 December 2008 08:12 by Rajan Bala

After the defeats in India, one thought that Ricky Ponting’s days as Australia’s captain were numbered, but Cricket Australia (CA) sort of gave him the benefit of the doubt. It would have done wisely had it made Michael Clarke the captain and allowed Ponting to play under him. [More]

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Some Bad Cheer for the Season

Wednesday, 24 December 2008 18:56 by Sreejay S

Okay – it’s time to take off the velvet gloves. I have, in previous posts, always advocated moderation, taking a deep breath and a bit of balance in or response to our western neighbour. Unfortunately, Pakistan is as burdened with bad leadership as India is. They are more scared of fa... [More]

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All over a 'pie-chucker'

Wednesday, 24 December 2008 07:32 by Rajan Bala

Whoever said one must guard against success going to one’s head, certainly did not mean Yuvraj Singh in particular, but the Yuvraj type. The world unfortunately has to tolerate more than its share of this type. [More]

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What Chennai movie halls can do

Tuesday, 23 December 2008 10:55 by Bala Murali Krishna

I can’t remember a time when going to movies was more challenging. Lend me your ears, for I speak from experience. Last Friday night, we let our impulse get the better of us and took off for a movie. It obviously was a mistake. In Chennai, especially, it is such a wrong thing to do. I suspect it might be bad in several other cities too, but it was nasty out here. [More]

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Pietersen’s captaincy failed

Saturday, 20 December 2008 06:20 by Rajan Bala

South African-born Kevin Pietersen has a long way to go before he is accepted as captaincy material. He is not the first with this background to lead his adopted country. There was Tony Greig, who proved to be a cagey captain with excellent tactical acumen and the sort of attitude which was provocative and challenging. Maybe it would help Pietersen to have a long chat with the former England all-rounder now settled in Australia. [More]

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Sehwag was true architect

Wednesday, 17 December 2008 08:38 by Rajan Bala

Thank heavens the adjudicators had the good sense to make Virender Sehwag the man of the match. Had they got carried away with the excitement of Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh taking India to an excellent victory, poor Sehwag would have been forgotten after what was an extraordinary onslaught by him. Because of it, the final day’s target was whittled down to 256. [More]

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Letting real estate dogs lie

Tuesday, 16 December 2008 10:34 by Bala Murali Krishna

A few days ago, several weeks after the Indian government had taken a number of steps to ease liquidity and announced cuts in lending rates, I received a letter from LIC Housing Finance Limited, a public sector financial institution, saying it was constrained to raise the interest rate on my home loan to 11.75%. When I took out that loan, it was at a 8.25% rate – a rate that public sector banks are not offering even in this crisis. The floor rate they fixed yesterday is 8.5%. [More]

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