Mens Hockey team through to the Olympics

Very satisfying to see the team perform well. Michael Nobbs needs mention too for trusting his team and also benching many seniors because of lack of fitness.

Will the BCCI learn from this?

On a side note, looked into the road atlas to see the entire trip into the Himachal hinterland that I had 6 months ago. Well and truly a once in a lifetime experience. Vindication. 

The Financial War Against Iran

James Rickards weighs in with his views on the subject on usnews.com site.

Link here

Banking wasnt meant to be like this

Longish but very pertinent article from the ever sharp Michael Hudson.

"In sum, neither British nor American banking or stock markets planned for the future. Their time frame was short, and they preferred rent-extracting projects to industrial innovation. Most banks favored large real estate borrowers, railroads and public utilities whose income streams easily could be forecast. Only after manufacturing companies grew fairly large did they obtain significant bank and stock market credit.
What is remarkable is that this is the tradition of banking and high finance that has emerged victorious throughout the world. The explanation is primarily the military victory of the United States, Britain and their Allies in the Great War and a generation later, in World War II."


More here

Ian Chappell's take on the top three modern test batsmen

Brilliant. Simple brilliant. Precisely my points too.

Apart from being technically quite correct, a graceful approach to batting, playing when the team needs him the most, playing when the rest of the team was crumbling (which was often enough). Getting in and making it count and scoring big counts too.

Link here

Al the worlds gold

Nice infographic

Link here