Latest News from Author Avinash Subramaniam

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Avinash Subramaniam

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Avinash Subramaniam

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Avinash Subramaniam is a writer. His interests include advertising, scrabble, body building, chess, making money, reading, internet culture, cricket, photography .

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Dear selectors, what’s wrong with Wasim Jaffer?

Jan 28, 2013

Is he too old to play Test cricket? He will be 35 next month. Is he out of form? He has batted better than Sachin Tendulkar has this year for Mumbai. Is he a slow mover on the field? He’s certainly not slower than Gautam Gambhir or Ravichandran Ashwin - #BCCI #CriticalPoint #Gautam Gambhir #Virender Sehwag #Wasim Jaffer
Reform in Indian cricket has to begin with Tendulkar

Jan 26, 2013

Nowadays Sachin Tendulkar isn't even Mumbai's best batsman. Does he still deserve a place in the Indian side? There, I've said it. I'll also say this: the process of rebuilding the Indian Test side must begin with Sachin. No, make that without Sachin. For so long Sachin has carried Indian #Cricket #Gautam Gambhir #India #InMyOpinion #Mahendra Singh Dhoni #Sachin Tendulkar #Virender Sehwag
Is it time for India to import its bowlers?

Dec 26, 2012

People immigrate all the time. Immigrants are welcome if they bring with them talents that make them employable. Canada, for instance, needs people. So does Australia. And so do many other countries in different parts of the world. Happily for India, most of its requirements can be met using home #fast bowlers #India #India vs Pakistan #OnOurMind
Why the outrage? India was never a great Test side

Dec 13, 2012

It’s been a bad year and then some for Indian cricket. Should Indian fans be outraged? Never mind. From the looks of it, they are. This is totally understandable. It is also totally unfair. Actually, what Indian fans should really be is grateful for the abnormally good decade 2000-10 turned #Cricket #India #InMyOpinion #Kapil Dev #Mahendra Singh Dhoni #Sunil Gavaskar
Nothing wrong with pitch doctor Dhoni’s demands

Dec 4, 2012

“I was feeling insecure you might not love me anymore,” said John Lennon. Maybe that’s one of Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s problems. The last 15 months have not been good to him. He has gone from being the toast of the nation to toast. He must miss all the love the nation #Eden Gardens #India vs England #InMyOpinion #Kolkata #Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Credit India’s swagger to Virender Sehwag

Nov 22, 2012

"Sehwag was included in the Indian team purely as a one-day player. At any cost this century is not going to help him make it to the Test squad." JY Lele, the then convener of the BCCI selection panel, said in 2001 after Virender Sehwag smashed his first international hundred #Cricket #India #Sehwag at 100 #Virender Sehwag
Not T20 alone, Dhoni should hand over Test captaincy to Kohli too

Oct 15, 2012

They say power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. This is true. No matter how good one is, no one is immune to the malaise commonly known as ‘the swollen head.’ Give a man carte blanche, and he will invariably end up misusing it. Speaking of which, Mahendra Singh Dhoni #Cricket #InMyOpinion #MS Dhoni #Sports #Virat Kohli
We need to make Indian selectors earn their big bucks

Oct 4, 2012

It was announced recently that the next batch of selectors of the Indian cricket team will each be paid 60 lakh rupees per annum. Let’s take a moment to consider that princely sum. Does it seem a tad too much? Maybe it is. But that’s only part of the incredible #BCCI #Cricket #India #InMyOpinion #Selectors
Cricket isn’t a religion, Sachinism is

Sep 26, 2012

“Die Religion... ist das Opium des Volkes,” said Karl Marx. He considered it the ‘opium of the people.’ In Marx’s opinion, Religion is a distraction. It is a source of false hope. It is a tool to control the masses. Based on which, Marx rejected religion and urged the janata to take charge of #Cricket #InMyOpinion #Religion #Sachin Tendulkar
Why Australia doesn’t take T20s seriously

Sep 21, 2012

Australia won 11 of its first 18 and 10 of its next 17 Twenty20 matches. After that, came the exits of Adam Gilchrist and Mathew Hayden, and the breakdown in relations between Andrew Symonds and the Australian Cricket Board; the last was sparked off by the 'Harbhajan Singh racial epithet' #Australia #HowThisWorks #World Cup T20 2012 #World T20 #WT20 Bloggers

The best from the blog

Need your self-esteem shredded? Come on a makeover show in India

Sep 6, 2012
We don’t have the stomach to watch Tendulkar fail

Sep 6, 2012
Why Mumbai’s prime office rates are rising in a depressed mkt

Sep 6, 2012
Does a disrupted Parliament mean electoral reforms are in the offing?

Sep 7, 2012
Was Arsenal’s win over Chelsea down to sheer luck?

Oct 31, 2011

New bloggers

Mid-wicket Tales

S. Giridhar is Registrar and also the Head of the University Resource Centre at Azim Premji University. V J Raghunath retired as CEO of Addison Paints and is now a senior training consultant. Both share a great love for test cricket. Both have combined to
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Sugandha Dubey

Sugandha Dubey has over 18 years of work experience in marketing, sales and brand management for iconic brands like Tanishq, Gillette, Group 4 and Getty Images. She turned entrepreneur in 2008 and launched SIBSA Digital Pvt Ltd, a total photography solut
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Editor's picks

Not just niceties, China and India need to focus on thorny issues

India’s discourse with China has traditionally been trapped in the Mao-ist maze that defines how “friends” ought to conduct themselves. But Chinese statecraft has evolved, and India too must up its diplomatic game.
Why the Indian media gives a damn about poverty

In that sense the poverty line of India is cruel. It is merciless and doesn’t allow the majority of Indians any money for shelter or access to education or healthcare or sanitation or anything else that civilised nations would consider as essential as food.
Goa meet: Will the BJP finally find a way out of its troubles?

Can the party resolve internal discord and take a call on Modi’s PM candidature?
Why Dhoni, Tendulkar can't distance themselves from spot fixing

Try following a game on twitter or with friends or at the ground. At every step of the way, the spot-fixing question raises itself.

Movie Review: 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist' leaves you dissatisfied

If you forget the politics and just look at the film, The Reluctant Fundamentalist doesn’t fare much better. It’s a thriller that lacks tension and suspense.
Here's how the Delhi Police stumbled upon spot-fixing in IPL

After monitoring a phone call, the investigation had virtually turned pan-India with some of the bookies based in Gujarat and Mumbai.
Ex-Citi CEO Vikram Pandit, JM Financial join hands for banking foray in India

JM Financial will nominate Pandit as the non-executive chairman of the proposed bank. Pandit and Aiyar will have the right to purchase shares up to the amount prescribed by the RBI in this entity.
Movie Review: The Great Gatsby is the most Bollywood of Baz Luhrmann's films

The great American dream is an integral part of America. It’s ‘great’ in that it symbolises not truth, but hope when the truth is disillusioning; it symbolises not facts, but ideals when facts are unnerving; it symbolises not likelihood, but promise when likelihood is all but bleak.

Google I/O 2013 keynote: New Maps, Search, Plus, and S4 with 'pure' Android

We’re tracking the Google I/O conference 2013 live – what will be unveiled?
Hero worshipped in Kerala, Sreesanth still innocent in his state

The summary of the response in his Sreesanth’s home turf is that of incredulity. They are unwilling to believe that the pacer is guilty.
Why return of Dreamliners won't change Air India's fortunes

The original promise of the Dreamliner has failed to materiallise due to limitations in its flying range. Will Air India continue to pay a price for this?
Did Indira abolish bonded labour or Sonia? NREGA's tall claims

The UPA ads eulogising MGNREGA as a a huge success needs to be taken with bags of salt. The scheme did make a difference, but not as is claimed.

Angelina’s breast surgery possible in India, but there's a catch

So can we test in India and gain from the same treatment privilege that Jolie had? Yes, but there is a catch.
IPL 2013 KKR vs PWI Live: Yusuf kicks KKR out of the IPL

Live detailed updates as KKR take on Pune in a must-win game at Ranchi.
Wrong on Ghaziabad: The Kiran Bedi argument for moral policing

Bedi’s argument that we should focus on the legal wrong committed by the girl slapped by cops is technical, disingenuous and enabling.
Cloak but no dagger: The awfully mundane world of spies

There’s an endearing quality to reports that a CIA spy was arrested in Moscow: he comes across as a bumbling amateur who represents the lost Age of Innocence in the world of espionage.

From here on, Sonia-Manmohan dyarchy is a slow train wreck

The “two heads” power arrangement between Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is coming apart at the seams.
Lessons from Karnataka: Cong must stop backing corrupt leaders in Andhra

The fact that it has allowed individuals named in chargesheets to continue as ministers is evidence that the Congress runs Andhra Pradesh as if it is its fiefdom, without a care for ethics in public life.
IPL 2013: How Isa Guha is changing perceptions about cricket presenters

Isa Guha is not your usual female cricket presenter. Apart from being an ex-player, she’s highly educated and injects a breath of fresh air on Indian screens.
Android and Chrome aren't merging for now, says Google's Sundar Pichai

Pichai has emphasised that Google is embracing both Chrome and Android is investing in both at least for now.

Ashwani to be shifted, Bansal to be booted? PM will decide

The fate of the two ministers is reportedly in the hands of the Prime Minister who has been told to take a final call.
How the Sarabjit-Sanaullah episode diminishes India

The Sarabjit-Sanaullah episode shows that for all of India’s attempts to project itself as an emerging global power, with a footprint larger than just the South Asian peninsula, it is unable to break out of its hyphenated relationship with Pakistan.
Changing dynamics: Is low-cost flying becoming really high cost?

Consumers may have to pay a high price for both the lower price and increased choice.
Star Trek Into Darkness is a perfectly adequate popcorn film

Star Trek Into Darkness is a perfectly adequate summer blockbuster film. It is impeccably tailored to please both the Trekkies and the non-geeks, genre lovers as well as the average moviegoer.