Oprah named most influential celebrity for second year

Oprah Winfrey was crowned America’s most influential celebrity for a second straight year on Friday, despite having dropped off daily television in 2011.

Forbes magazine ranked Winfrey, 59, ahead of Hollywood titans Steven Spielberg and Clint Eastwood and towering over other TV figures such as journalist Barbara Walters and financial guru Suze Orman. Forbes said that 48% of people surveyed rated Winfrey as influential, down just one point from last year.

The list was drawn from polls of Americans conducted by E-Poll Market Research, which ranks more than 7,500 celebrities based on 46 different personality attributes. Winfrey ended her daily The Oprah Winfrey Show in May 2011 after 25 years to launch the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), which features lifestyle programming aimed at women.

After struggling in the ratings since its launch, OWN has seen audiences rise recently, thanks to Winfrey’s January world exclusive with cyclist Lance Armstrong admitting to years of doping, and her wide-ranging interview with R&B singer Beyonce.

Forbes noted that Winfrey’s magic had rubbed off as well, with one of her protégées, TV physician Dr. Mehmet Oz, ranking sixth on the list. Film directing, however, seems to be the profession most associated with influence, as four directors, including Ron Howard and Martin Scorsese, crowded into the Top 10.

E-Poll Chief Executive Gerry Philpott said that while influence could mean different things to different people, most often it reflects someone’s impact on the culture. Reflecting on Spielberg’s runner-up ranking, Philpott said “To this day, ask anyone what they think about before going in the ocean,” referring to the filmmaker’s 1975 blockbuster Jaws.

Dropping out of the Top 10 entirely was last year’s No 2 finisher, actor Michael J. Fox, who has been out of the public eye of late. Eastwood, who made headlines by addressing an empty chair at the 2012 Republican National Convention, rounded out the Top 10.

The Top 10 Most Influential Celebrities of 2013, according to Forbes are; 1. Oprah Winfrey 2. Steven Spielberg 3. Martin Scorsese 4. Ron Howard 5. George Lucas 6. Dr. Mehmet Oz 7. Barbara Walters 8. U2 frontman Bono 9. Suze Orman 10. Clint Eastwood The full list can be seen at http://www.forbes.com/sites/dorothypomerantz/2013/03/14/oprah-winfrey-tops-our-list-of-the-most-influential-celebrities/

Liverpool Edge Tottenham in Thriller as Luis Suarez, Gareth Bale Prove Worth

Stop Gareth Bale, and Liverpool will stop Spurs, or so the headlines from the tabloids proclaimed. As pre-match pep talk, it settled neatly on a problem that has befuddled many a defense in recent months. But it also overlooked a couple vital points, both of which proved pivotal Sunday afternoon at Anfield.

First, does it qualify as stopping Bale when the Welshman doesn’t score but “only” sets up two goals? And second, who said Bale was the only important player in the match?

With all the attention focused lately on Bale’s rise to stardom, it was almost possible to forget about Luis Suarez of Liverpool. But the Premier League’s leading scorer scored another Sunday, his 22nd of the season and seventh in four outings in all competitions. Thanks in large part to his contributions, Liverpool won the match.

Suarez also won the penalty that decided the result in a thrilling if sloppy match that saw the Reds succeed where so many have failed in recent weeks. Liverpool led, then trailed, then came from behind to hand Tottenham a 3-2 loss, ending Spurs’ run of just one defeat in all competitions since Dec. 9.

In victory, Liverpool moved onto 45 points, level with Everton but ahead of their Merseyside rivals on goal difference. A top-four place and Champions League football remain seven points distant, but Brendan Rodgers now has his first three-match winning streak in his first season at Anfield.

Considering Spurs’ recent form, much from Sunday’s result might surprise. Most unexpected of all, however, is this: While Tottenham lost, they did so with Bale playing well. In other words, Liverpool stopped Spurs but not because they could stop Bale.

Michael Regan/Getty Images

The 23-year-old midfielder had been in astonishing goal-scoring form of late, with 10 goals in his last eight appearances in all competitions. He didn’t score Sunday, and he’ll be credited with only one assist, but Bale was heavily involved in both of Tottenham’s goals.

The first, which canceled out Suarez’s stylish opener, came from Bale’s cross from the right flank. His curling, left-footed pass found Jan Vertonghen, who headed Spurs level on the stroke of halftime.

Bale then helped put Spurs ahead early in the second half. This time a free kick, again from the right, troubled Liverpool’s defense along with Michael Dawson’s harrying presence. The ball landed for Vertonghen, who paused with a striker’s instinct and waited for the right moment to slam home a left-footed drive.

Gareth Bale’s performance levels against Liverpool. Notice the upswing on either side of halftime, when Spurs overturned a 1-0 deficit. Image and stats via Squawka.com.

So while Bale went scoreless in the match, one could wonder whether Bale now needs to score in order to hurt his opponents. In his new advanced, free role in the Tottenham attack, his influence reaches throughout this Spurs side and alters the entire team’s performance. Near the end of the first half, when his team trailed by a goal, Bale wielded his powers more effectively than any other player on the pitch.

But for all of Bale’s influence, Suarez was at times perhaps just as important for Liverpool.

Luis Suarez’s performance data against Tottenham. Notice the sharp rise near his goal (21′) and the slight uptick around the penalty decision (82′). Stats and image via Squawka.com.

The mercurial Uruguayan put the Reds ahead with a typically expert near-post finish in the 21st minute and nearly set up another six minutes later. After falling behind to Vertonghen’s second, Liverpool equalized through Stewart Downing after a fortuitously poor back-pass and then grabbed the winner through captain Steven Gerrard’s powerful penalty.

Almost inevitably, Suarez was the man responsible for the latter. Seizing on another defensive miscue—this time a poor clearance by Jermain Defoe—Suarez took control of the ball in the box and put himself in position to win a penalty with Benoit Assou-Ekotto‘s clumsy challenge.

As both the stats (see the graphs above) and the storylines will show, both Suarez and Bale raised their level of play when their teams had their separate moments of ascendancy. Such a coincidence is hardly accidental, but rather the hallmarks of influential and important players.

Bale hit perhaps greater heights, but if anything, Suarez saved the most crucial contributions for the most important times.

When the end-of-season individual awards go out at the end of the season, both Suarez and Bale will rank among the favorites for hardware. Sunday’s match might not have settled any scores in the race for personal accolades, but it should serve as a powerful reminder that Suarez and Bale are among the best the Premier League has to offer at the moment.

By

Michael Cummings(World Football Lead Writer)

Manchester United vs. Chelsea: Score, Grades and Post-Match Reaction

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times at Old Trafford on Sunday. For both Manchester United and Chelsea, that’s how they’ll feel about their FA Cup clash.

The Red Devils completely dominated in the first half and took a 2-0 lead early on. Chelsea played like a team possessed in the second half, however, and roared back to tie the game (and nearly won it).

In the end, the game ended 2-2 in an exhilarating match that lived up to the hype generated by these two superpowers.

Manchester United struck first in this game, as Javier Hernandez headed home the game’s first goal in the fifth minute. It came off a brilliant pass from Michael Carrick, whose lob into the box was perfectly played over keeper Petr Cech by El Chicharito.

The Red Devils wouldn’t wait long to double their lead.

After Victor Moses fouled Nani on the United counter-attack, Wayne Rooney stepped up to take a free kick from just outside and to the left of the Chelsea box. His curling effort to the far post didn’t find the head of a teammate, but it continued into the net, as Cech anticipated a header.

Just 12 minutes into the game, United had a 2-0 lead.

United continued to push in the first half. Nani’s brilliant cross into the box would be chipped just over the bar by Hernandez, and Rooney later sent another cross directly at Cech, who then made a second brilliant save after defender David Luiz inexplicably headed the ball back toward goal.

United had Chelsea on the ropes, and only 25 minutes had passed in the contest. Chelsea created a few opportunities throughout the half but lacked the final touch needed to score. 

The second half continued in the same vein as the end of the first half, with Chelsea ratcheting up the pressure but unable to find that last pass or shot to beat United—at least until Eden Hazard entered the game.

The star winger cut the lead in half on an absolutely brilliant shot from outside the box that curled and dipped above keeper David de Gea, who never had a chance. Suddenly, Chelsea had hope.

And Chelsea wasn’t done.

In the 68th minute, Demba Ba held up the ball on the counter and found Oscar streaking down the middle of the field. The young Brazilian then found Ramires tearing down the right side, and Ramires slotted home the game-tying shot after taking a deft touch to put the ball on his left foot.

Just like that, a game completely dominated by Manchester United early on was all tied up.

Both teams pressured the opposing goal down the stretch, and de Gea saved the game for Manchester United in the 90th minute. Juan Mata deftly controlled a long pass at the edge of the box, turned in past the defense and ripped a shot at goal, which de Gea just deflected wide. 

The game justifiably ended in a 2-2 tie, with both teams feeling as though they should have won but likely relieved that they didn’t lose. The replay will now head back to Stamford Bridge. 

 

Grades

Nani, Manchester United: A-

Alex Livesey/Getty Images

Nani was excellent in this game, regularly pressuring the Chelsea defense down the wing and peppering the box with solid crosses. His run at Moses set up the Rooney goal, and he was active throughout. The man thought to be a goner after the year played very well in this one.

 

Eden Hazard, Chelsea: A

Julian Finney/Getty Images

Hazard’s brilliant goal saved this game for a Chelsea side that looked overmatched for much of the first half. You could make the argument that Hazard should have started the game over Oscar, but his substitution in the second half was timely, and his impact was almost immediately felt.

 

Rio Ferdinand, Manchester United: A

Demba Ba will have nightmares about Ferdinand after this game. The wily defender totally won his battle with the Chelsea striker, winning back contested balls and keeping Ba from scoring chances throughout this match. United wasn’t nearly as solid in the second half, but Ferdinand played a very solid match.

 

Frank Lampard, Chelsea: C

Julian Finney/Getty Images

Lampard just wasn’t the right man for the job today. He left the Blues defense vulnerable, he wasn’t able to facilitate scoring opportunities and Chelsea simply looked a far better side after he was subbed out in the second half. Chelsea remains a team without a top starting 11—and Lampard has played very well this year—but on Sunday he was more hindrance than help for the Blues.

 

Javier Hernandez, Manchester United: A-

Alex Livesey/Getty Images

He didn’t last the whole game, but there wasn’t a more dangerous player in the first half than El Chicharito. His runs were piercing, his finish on the goal was pure brilliance and the Chelsea back line didn’t have an answer for him in the first half.    By Timothy Rapp

Russian Cricket Team Starts Spring Preparations

The United Cricket League Russia is preparing for the 2013 games. The popularity of this sport, which has a great following worldwide, until recently was relatively unknown in Russia, points out Tanvir Khan,a member of the team management. He says that it is not surprising that the vast majority of players in the Russian League are Indians, Pakistanis, natives of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka having Russian residence permits. They are all in the majority of cases, like me, either graduates of Russian universities, businessmen or students.

Tanvir Khan: “The United Russian Cricket League unites eight teams of 11 players each. Some of them are very good and great players. Last year, the League of United Russia was recognized and registered with the International Cricket Council (ICC) in London.

We also have 200 additional players. And among them are a few Russians. Our matches are held at the Moscow State University’s (MSU) baseball stadium which has an artificial turf cover. We play every Saturday and Sunday during the four months of favorable weather conditions. These games invariably attract quite a few Russians, some of whom want to try their hand at the game and have shown impressive results.”

Having crossed from Europe, from its homeland in Britain, to the colonies in South Asia and Africa, cricket has become extremely popular there. And now in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka it is revered as a national sport. The young students, who had come to Russia from these countries to study during the past decade or so, just could not give up their passion for cricket. We are organizing matches in Russia for the 13th year and are also participating in international matches, says Tanvir Khan. And very successfully too for we have won Silver in the European championship.

This year we have scheduled 64 games – says board member of the League of United Russia, Tanvir Khan. We expect the arrival in Moscow of teams from Latvia and Estonia. And then we shall visit them in Riga. Our colleagues in Belgium have invited our team for a friendly match. And this is not at all the complete list of our travel plans for which preparations are on going.

On May 1, this year, the Russian team will hold its first home match at the cricket stadium in MSU. It is possible that some Russian players will also take part in the match. This sport is gaining more and more recognition among the Russians.

Related articles

• Pakistan’s Twenty20 cricket league postponed (ktrmurali.wordpress.com)

Four Young Indians Create a True ‘Smartwatch’ Before Apple

Off late, wrist watches have changed their image from a necessary time tracking device to an accessory, which doubles as a phone. It not only tells time but notifies you on incoming calls, previews the text messages, reads mails and a lot more.

However, none of these “Smartwatches” are not exact replica of a phone. They sync with the phone through Bluetooth and works accordingly. But many tech titans including Apple and Samsung are reportedly on final stages of developing Smartwatch, which is said to be the new ‘hot gadget,’ and a ‘killer of Smartphones.’

But before all of them, here is a watch developed by four Indian youngsters, which according to the developers, is a true wearable phone with size and design of a wristwatch, or a “Smartwatch”, reports TOI.

The four lads behind the innovative gadget are three 24-year olds and a school boy- software developer Ankit Pradhan, communications professional Pavneet Singh Puri, lawyer Apurva Sukant and Siddhant Vats, a 17-year old schoolboy the youngest member in the team. Four of them have formed their company, Androidly Systems Private Limited

“There are other such products in the market, but they mostly sync with Smartphones and are not phones in themselves. We have ported Android on to a much smaller board and built a wearable phone,” says Sukant, a Beethoven fan who is the resident designer of the group.

The watch with 2-inch screen has a 2-mega pixel camera and runs on an older version of android operating system. The device is built with a speaker and mic. Besides, the end of the wrist-strap can be plugged into a USB socket to charge the phone as well as to be used as a storage device. According to the developers, the device will be available in Indian markets from March 15 as well as abroad and each set will cost 12000.

The smart watches have been around more than a decade but it has failed to grab the attention as the lucrative touch phones ruled with their innovative designs, finish and software. Apart from the Indian quartet, other multinational companies like Apple and Samsung are also working on the similar, wearable devices with some of them like pebble, already available in the market.

For instance, wearable devices like Sony SmartWatch, LG Watch Phone, Samsung Cell-Phone Wristwatch and Nike+Fuelband were some of the popular ones. But none of them turned out to create a new space in the market.

The story of the device named to be ‘Androidly’ is quite interesting. “We have all been friends for years now and would hang out at Rajinder da Dhaba a lot. I was a member of my college student council then and was getting a lot of calls regarding the college fest. That day, my phone rang at a time when my hands were dripping with chicken curry. And I just couldn’t retrieve it from my pocket,” says Puri, who had been working two jobs in Melbourne during the development stage of the Smartwatch.

Hailing from middle-class backgrounds, the youngsters started their own company will little help from home. Currently, they are on the process of finding investors to have a close contact with Chinese manufacturers.

 

Twenty Biggest Websites In The World

From online candy sales to a website to search other website, everyone has got a website under their name these days. The popularity of a website is the measure of visitors it has garnered, and it is what draws the defining lines between being big and being meager. If you were thinking Google is the biggest website in the world, you are wrong! It is another one from USA. comScore, the digital analytics company came up with the list of most popular Website in the world. If you are curious to know which ones found their way up in the ladder, then here are the 20 biggest websites in the world, compiled by Business Insider.

#20 Amazon.com 163 Million Unique Visitors

The company: Amazon.com is the world’s largest online retailer. Started as an online bookstore, it soon diversified, selling DVDs, CDs, MP3 downloads, software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, toys and jewelry. The company was founded in 1994, spurred by what Bezos called his “regret minimization framework”, which described his efforts to fend off any regrets for not participating sooner in the internet business boom during that time. Amazon was originally founded in Bezos’ garage in Bellevue, Washington.

The company also produces consumer electronics—notably the Amazon Kindle e-book reader and the Kindle Fire Tablet—and is a major provider of cloud computing services.

#19 Sina.com.cn 169 Million Visitors

Sina.com is the largest Chinese-language infotainment web portal. It is run by Sina Corporation, which was founded in 1999. Sina was recognized by Southern Weekend as the “Chinese Language Media of the Year” for 2003 and in the early 2000s, it was known as the “Yahoo of China.” Sina launched a microblogging service Weibo in 2009, and has grown to more than 400 million users. Sina has said it has more than 60,000 verified accounts, consisting of celebrities, sports stars and other VIPs. The top 100 users now have over 180 million followers combined.

#18 WordPress.com 170.9 Million Visitors

WordPress.com is a blog web hosting service provider owned by Automattic, and powered by the open source WordPress software. WordPress has been able to attract users by offering dead-simple tools for blogging and web publishing. Given that it’s open source, WordPress has the upper hand on other platforms that require licensing fees.

There are nearly 60 million WordPress.com sites, which receive more than 100 million pageviews per day. Everyday over one million new articles and over one million comments are published. Some notable clients include CNN, CBS, BBC, Reuters, Sony and Volkswagen. In September 2010, it was announced that Windows Live Spaces, Microsoft’s blogging service, would be closing, and that Microsoft would instead be partnering with WordPress.com for blogging services.

#17 Apple.com – 171.7 Million Unique Visitors

Apple.com is online destination for Apple products and software. It is the domain for the Apple Store as well as customer support pages for all Apple products. It’s bookmarked as the default homepage on Safari browser that is the default browser in all Apple Internet-connected products which are owned by countless number of people already.

#16 Sohu.com – 175.8 Million Unique Visitors

Started in 1997 as the country’s first online search company, Sohu.com is a Chinese portal and search engine. It offers advertising, online multiplayer gaming and other services. Sohu was ranked as the world’s 3rd and 12th fastest-growing company by Fortune in 2009 and 2010 respectively.

#15 Bing.com – 184 Million Unique Visitors

Bing is a web search engine from Microsoft. The Redmond Company has aggressively advertised Bing, and made huge efforts to make the search engine much easier to use, with the addition of things like the social sidebar and improved algorithms. Microsoft also pays other Websites to link to Bing.
On July 29, 2009, Microsoft and Yahoo! announced a deal in which Bing would power Yahoo! Search.[6 hat it is: Web search engine.

#14 Twitter.com – 189.8 Million Unique Visitors

Twitter is an online social networking service and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based messages of up to 140 characters, known as “tweets”. Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and by July, the social networking site was launched. The service rapidly gained worldwide popularity, with over 500 million registered users as of 2012, generating over 340 million tweets daily and handling over 1.6 billion search queries per day. Since its launch, Twitter has become one of the ten most visited websites on the Internet, and has been described as “the SMS of the Internet.”

The presence of news organizations, politicians, and other industry-specific experts have turned Twitter into the ultimate source of information.

#13 Taobao.com – 207 Million Unique Visitors

Taobao.com is Chinese marketplace for clothing, accessories, jewelry, food, electronics, and more, similar to eBay and Amazon, operated by Alibaba Group. Founded by Alibaba Group in May 10, 2003, it facilitates consumer-to-consumer (C2C) retail by providing a platform for small businesses and individual entrepreneurs to open online retail stores that mainly cater to consumers in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

#12 Ask.com – 218.4 Million Unique Visitors

Ask is a question answering focused web search engine powered by Google. It founded in 1996 by Garrett Gruener and David Warthen in Berkeley, California.

#11 Blogger.com – 229.9 Million Unique Visitors

Blogger.com is one of the earliest dedicated blog-publishing tools; it is credited for helping popularize the format. It allows private or multi-user blogs with time-stamped entries. It was created by Pyra Labs, which was bought by Google in 2003. Generally, the blogs are hosted by Google at a sub domain of blogspot.com.

#10 MSN.com – 254.1 Million Unique Visitors

MSN is a collection of Internet sites and services provided by Microsoft. The Microsoft Network debuted as an online service and Internet service provider on August 24, 1995, to coincide with the release of the Windows 95 operating system.

MSN was once a simple online service for Windows 95, an early experiment at interactive multimedia content on the Internet, and one of the most popular dial-up Internet service providers. Today, MSN is primarily a popular Internet portal.

#9 Baidu – 268.7 Million Unique Visitors

Baidu is a Chinese web Services Company headquartered in the Baidu Campus in Haidian District, Beijing. It offers many services, including a Chinese language search engine for websites, audio files, and images. Baidu also offers 57 search and community services including Baidu Baike, an online collaboratively built encyclopedia, and a searchable keyword-based discussion forum. Baidu was established in 2000 by Robin Li and Eric Xu.

Baidu is one of China’s most popular search engines. It employs thousands of China’s best engineers to continually update the quality and speed of its search engine.

#8 Microsoft.com – 271.7 Million Unique Visitors

Microsoft.com is destination for purchasing Microsoft products, and downloading MS software and updates. There are a lot of Microsoft Windows-powered computers out there, and most of them come with Microsoft.com bookmarked for customer support and lots of other functions, no wonder it’s on this list.

#7 QQ.com – 284.1 Million Unique Visitors

QQ.com is China-based search engine and portal. QQ is an abbreviation of Tencent QQ, which provides customers with a popular instant messaging software service. Due to popularity of the instant messaging software service, by 10 September 2012, there were 784 million active user accounts with approximately 100 million online at a time.

#6 Live.com – 389.5 Million Unique Visitors

Live.com is Microsoft’s new email service. It was a customizable portal launched by Microsoft in early November 2005 and it was one of the first Windows Live services to launch. Live.com lets users add RSS feeds in order to view news at a glance. Building off Microsoft’s Start.com experimental page, Live.com could be customized with Gadgets, mini-applications that could serve almost any purpose.

Some gadgets integrated with other Windows Live services, including Hotmail, Live Search, and Favorites.

#5 Wikipedia.org – 469.6 Million Unique Visitors

Wikipedia.org is simply the easy and best source of knowledge. It is a collaboratively edited, multilingual, free Internet encyclopedia supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 24 million articles, over 4.1 million in the English Wikipedia, are written collaboratively by volunteers around the world.

As of February 2013, there are editions of Wikipedia in 285 languages. It has become the largest and most popular general reference work on the Internet, having an estimated 365 million readers worldwide.

#4 Yahoo.com – 469.9 Million Unique Visitors

Yahoo.com is a search engine and platform that connects to users to other Yahoo properties, such as Yahoo Finance and Flickr. Yahoo is one of the original Web portals from the 1990s; it offers news, sports, finance, and email.

#3 YouTube.com – 721.9 Million Unique Visitors

YouTube.com is the platform for uploading, sharing, and watching user-created videos. It was created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005. In November 2006, YouTube was bought by Google for US$1.65 billion, and now operates as a subsidiary of Google, and the site got more popular.

#2 Google.com – 782.8 Million Unique Visitors

Google.com is web search engine, popularly known as ‘search giant’. Google entered a crowded search engine market in the late 1990s, but won because it was the fastest and had a clean design. It was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while both attended Stanford University.

#1 Facebook.com – 836.7 Million Unique Visitors

Facebook.com is the largest social networking site with over a billion registered users. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates and fellow Harvard University students Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes.

Sissa’s request and Chess

Among the fascinating legends told about the origin of chess is the story of Sissa, a scientist and the inventor of the game. In western India, Raja Balhait had asked his advisers to create a game that demonstrated the values of prudence, diligence, foresight, and knowledge. Sissa brought a chessboard to the raja and explained that he had chosen war as a model for the game because war was the most effective school in which to learn the values of decision, vigor, endurance, circumspection, and courage. The raja was delighted with the game and ordered its preservation in temples. He considered its principles the foundation of all justice and held it to be the best training in the art of war.

The raja said to his subject Sissa, “Ask any reward. It will be yours.” Being a scientist, Sissa felt rewarded by the pleasure his invention was giving others; but the kind insisted, and finally Sissa said, “Give me a reward in grains of corn on the chessboard (ashtapada). On the first square one grain, on the second two, on the third four, on the fourth double of that, and so on until the 64th and last square.”

The raja would not hear of it. He insisted that Sissa ask for something of more worth than grains of corn. But Sissa insisted he had no need of much and that the grains of corn would suffice. Thereupon the raja ordered the corn to be brought; but before they had reached the 30th square, all the corn of India was exhausted. Perturbed, he looked at Sissa, who laughed and told his raja that he knew perfectly well he could never receive the reward he had asked because the amount of corn involved would cover the whole surface of the earth to a depth of nine inches.

The raja did not know which to admire more: the invention of chess or the ingenuity of Sissa’s request. The number involved is 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 grains. This number had been previously calculated by the early Indian mathematicians, who incidentally, had invented the decimal system long before it reached the Arabs and Europe.

CHESS CORNER

The masked battery

From the publishers of THE HINDU

Tendulkar’s Aussie moment of reckoning

Sachin Tendulkar’s desire to play and the hunger to compete have not diminished, but it is the other intangibles — of sinews grappling with age, of rival bowlers sensing a tentativeness and a dressing room that is increasingly featuring an entirely new generation — that he has to shrug off, writes K.C. Vijaya Kumar. 

 

The legend of Sachin Tendulkar had its finest first exposition on a Perth pitch, always known to be the strongest ally of pace and bounce. During that February in 1992, Tendulkar’s 114 in a losing cause, proved that he had the skill to conquer all odds at an individual level though the rest of the team, hamstrung by its own drawbacks at that juncture, may not have rallied around his genius.

Most importantly, Tendulkar had truly arrived at that moment though a few cricket historians may look at his famous assault on Abdul Qadir in Pakistan in 1989, as the first steps to his becoming the ‘forever dispenser of hopes’ to the Indian Diaspora. It is an image that has lasted nearly 24 years and it looks as though the maestro’s cricketing life has come a full circle with Australia setting foot in Chennai as a prelude to a four-match Test series.

This surely would be the Lord of Batting Numbers’ final tilt against Australia, often his rousing opponent in a chequered career. He would turn 40 this April and there is only so much his body can endure. If the 1991-92 tour was all about Tendulkar proving that he was indeed the numero-uno of Indian batting then despite the presence of Dilip Vengsarkar, Mohammad Azharuddin and Sanjay Manjrekar, the current joust against Michael Clarke’s men is all about proving that his skill-sets have not dimmed.

Sachin Tendulkar with a gen-next player, Ajinkya Rahane. As one gets on in years one should guard from going out of ear-shot.

 The first flowering was relatively easy as he had age on his side while this final act would draw every physical and mental resource in his body. A familiar foe might well provide him the needed impetus, a trait that he has amply revealed over two decades. Be it countering Shane Warne’s leg-breaks with a blistering attack in India, be it the ‘Desert Storm’ knocks in Sharjah, be it eschewing the cover-drive while compiling a double-century in Sydney in 2004 or be it the ungainly sight of him sledging Glenn McGrath in an ODI, Tendulkar has revealed his multiple layers while squaring up against Australia.

Past masters like Sunil Gavaskar, G. R. Viswanath and Vengsarkar were largely judged by their runs against the West Indies but when Tendulkar reigned, it was runs against Australia that defined a batsman’s pedigree though he did script knocks of pathos (Chennai 1999) and panache (Centurion, 2003 World Cup) against Pakistan.

Yet, for a man often spoken of in the same breath as Sir Don Bradman — the latter having also referred to the Mumbaikar as the closest to his batting style — it is often Australia that has provided a peg for Tendulkar to hang his coat of greatness. More than ever, in the aftermath of Rahul Dravid and V. V. S. Laxman’s retirements, India needs Tendulkar to wear that coat again and do battle against his old rival.

 

The extreme dependence on him to provide stability to a weak middle-order despite the promise of Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara and his own travails against diminishing reflexes will test Tendulkar.

In the lead-up to this series, Tendulkar has scored a 108 in the Ranji Trophy and an unbeaten 140 in the Irani Cup. It is a good augury and yet his back-story in Tests has revealed a despondent streak broken by a few incandescent outings.

Tendulkar’s last Test hundred (146) came against South Africa in Cape Town in January 2011. After that brilliant knock, he has played in 30 innings without reaching the three-figure mark. The runs have not matched up to the stratospheric standards that he himself has set. His last 10 innings read: 13, 19, 17, 27, 13, 8, 8, 76, 5 and 2. It is not that only Tendulkar struggled and the rest have prospered because with the exception of Dravid in England and the few outings of Kohli and Pujara, the others too are equally guilty of a run-drought.

It is imperative for India that Tendulkar gets back into the groove soon, for, his insight will be invaluable on the tour of South Africa later this year.

 The master’s desire to play and the hunger to compete have not diminished, but it is the other intangibles — of sinews grappling with age, of rival bowlers sensing a tentativeness and a dressing room that is increasingly featuring an entirely new generation — that he has to shrug off. A man can feel weary when most of his mates have walked into the sunset. However, playing for India is his biggest high and that coupled with the itch to make up for the losses against Australia during the last tour, will drive Tendulkar.

“As long as I believe that I can contribute to the team, I will play,” he had said last year. In the same breath, he added: “I take it series by series.” Ideally India needs Tendulkar’s guidance when the team sets foot in South Africa in November, later this year but it remains to be seen if he would will himself for another joust against Dale Steyn.

The series against Australia will throw pointers to the Tendulkar story. As ever, India needs him. Now.

PTI

Michael Vaughn lauds MS Dhoni on double-century

Former England captain Michael Vaughn lauded Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Sunday for his performance against Australia on the third day of the first cricket Test match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.

Dhoni scored an unbeaten 206 to take India to 515/8, to give the hosts a lead of 135 runs with two days left in the match. During his innings, which included 22 boundaries and five massive sixes, he scored at a strike rate of 84.77.

“The coolest man in world cricket MS Dhoni delivers when it most matters… Incredible innings against the Aussies… #Dhoni,” tweeted Vaughan.

In the process, Dhoni also crossed the 4,000-run mark in Test cricket. He also has the highest individual score by an Indian wicketkeeper-batsman when he surpassed Budhi Kunderan‘s 192.

Legendary spinner Shane Warne was also impressed by Dhoni’s knock.

“WOW, MS Dhoni is going off here in Chennai, amazing batting,” tweeted Warne.