manedge

 When the sporting world was looking to return as close to the normal as possible in mid-2020, England, West Indies and Pakistan resorted to playing Test cricket in England. The Indian cricket authorities were going back to the drawing board again and again to re-schedule the T20 tamasha that is central to their scheme of things. After two months of T20 cricket they landed in Australia for first limited-overs and then Test cricket. But when your top players face each other in T20 cricket alone, how can you expect the Test team to do well? As if the Indian Premier League (IPL) was not enough, the 2020-21 domestic season has only one contest - the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament. There is no word on Ranji Trophy. So when England arrive in India for a four-Test series in February 2021, India's Test specialists would have only played T20 cricket at home because auction of more players for new teams in IPL 2021 is the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI)'s sole goal.  ...

There is universal respect and even admiration for those who are humble and simple by nature, and who have absolute confidence in all human beings irrespective of their social status...It is such good men and women who are the hope of the world.   These are words of Nelson Mandela in 'Conversations with Myself'.  The moot point is - does being humble and simple work in the real-world?  When we look around us, our leaders, be it in the corporate or political or even the social world are all self-advertising braggers. If they don't go over the top, we refuse to see them. That is largely because of the huge congestion in the social media space. Every one is out on some digital platform telling the world what they had for brunch or what they have created. Visibility is so easily available.  But are these leaders being humble and simple? Let us for once assume they are simple, but definitely not humble. Or is it the new normal? In the corporate world, leaders who are aut...