Domination or Annihilation?

Dublin (Ireland), Apr 20, 2031: The customary rites are over and the Aussies have streamrolled their opposition once again, this being their 9th World Cup in a row and extending their unbeaten winning streak in the competition to 120 matches!
Aah.. that seems to be picture-perfect..
Alright, as for now the above scenario seems to be a not-so-surprising future for the indomitable Aussies. Yeah, Dublin might seem to be a bit of an exaggeration to few, but with the ICC's so-called Global-Spread-of-the-Game Policy, who knows!
Anyways, enough can be written 'bout the morons later. For now, hail the Champions for they showed us once again the way this game should be and needs to be played. For those who crave for soccer, et al on the premise that they beat other sports on the excitement factor - watch the Aussies. They are splendid to say the least. To me, when they march on the cricket field, they give an illusion of an 11 men army who'd give almost anything for the glory of a win! I'm not saying that others don't play to win, but the intensity thats on display when these folks play is intimidating - to say the least..

In my countdown-to-the-cup review, I had given a 9.5 on 10 to them, just because a 10 on 10 would have been unethical. Well, I think a 9.5 would probably be an injustice to them - they definitely deserve a 10 pointer.

"I've been joking around the rooms saying that I'm thinking about coming out of retirement."

-Glenn McGrath

Few players have ended their international campaign on such a brilliant note, the last one probably being the legendary Imran Khan with the shining World Cup crytal in his hands. Glenn McGrath probably just managed to take it a step further. To say that he has been very accurate in his bowling would be inappropriate, I'd rather say that few can make robots matching it! From the 1996 edition to the 2007 one, not much has changed. In fact, it would make for an interesting pitch map analysis indicating the percentage of McGrath deliveries landing on the perfect length spot.. The Athertons, Tendulkars, Laras, Kirstens - all would have created a lot more records for sure had this genius not been around. Too bad, his final adieu has come a trifle too late for them to celebrate. A master craftsman, an asset, a trier - one can keep gesticulating along with the adjectives - to sum it all, its just brilliance personfied!
Well, he also won me a few goodies - one of my friends had a bet with me that the master bowler is gonna go for more than 5 an over in 5 matches in this edition. Needless to say, I did win it. Thanks Glenn.. :)
With Mcgrath retiring, and probably a few others as well from the Aussie team in the coming months, their lineup for the future edition in 2011 would be a matter of deep interest, but rest assured they'd be as confident as we are of their chances of winning the premier compeition for the 4th consecutive time.

Off for the rest of the week..

Another small vacation.. another wedding to attend.. but I'd be back next week!

Google asserts itself as the Top Brand..

Its official now. Google's hit the last nail in the coffin by coming out as the Top Brand in the Millward Brown - Top 100 most Powerful Brands survey for 2007. Google's brand value has shot up by 77% to land itself in the top spot. Last year's supremos Microsoft have slid to the 3rd spot after GE (General Electric). Read the full coverage here..

Well, I just had a glance through the rest of the list and was able to spot atleast 3 Chinese firms making into the top 100 namely China Mobile(5), Bank of China(38) and China Construction Bank(61).

Depleting Dollars..

Figures can get really interesting at times. I'm generally not into stuff like economics, et al, but then genres such as these at times put together some astounding figures, which compelled me to look at them from an intriguing perspective. To be more specific, I was looking at the general perception of the US economy and was presented with a plethora of statistics from various sources, all of them point to the same thing - all's not that well.. The worst part is that this is one economy that tends to play a huge role in the way the world economy goes as well.
The so called Global War on Terror looks to be a never ending saga, atleast till the Bush regime continues. Not delving into the political aspects of this, I'd rather like to consider a few financial aspects. Statutory Warning: I'm definitely not a qualified scholar on this topic, but the 3 w's (www) do provide some interesting numbers.
$8 million - cost of war in Iraq.. Per Hour!! Continuing on this trend, the mega spending comes out to approximately $700 Billion per year. Phew! According to Portfolio.com,

At that rate of burn, General Electric’s value would be wiped out in three and a half years, Bill Gates’ personal fortune would evaporate in just seven months, and the troubled Ford Motor Co. would cease to exist in a matter of weeks.

Staggering as that number is, Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard economist Linda Bilmes calculated that the real cost exceeds $2 trillion. As a sidenote, the cash inflow into the war saga is a big factor in the depletion of the US Capital, which is going down at the rate of $80 million an hour.
The US $ on the other hand continues to fall - the exchange rate today says that $1 US is equivalent to 41.538 of its counterpart INR. According to Professor Peter Morici of the University of Maryland -

"This is not great news, as the February figure was revised up from 0.2%. Over the last year, producer prices, including food and energy, have risen 3.2 percent, and this is troubling high."

Errr.. did I say earlier, that All's not well.. well, guess, I should have rather said - something's seriously wrong.
Enough of background on this, but we all know how the world economy functions, i.e. through circulation of money. Now, even the Big Sam can't generate money in the order of its spendings, so the question arises - How the heck are they continuing the war in Iraq? $700 Billion is a huge sum after all. The answer lies in the fact that the war effort is being ridden on the debt, which is held by the biggest players in the global economy: Japan, Europe, Saudi Arabia, and China. So probably, not a lot of pain is being inflicted on the US economy (now) even after the multi billion dollar adventure, but then someone's gotta pay later..
Among all the big players mentioned above, China is turning a lot of heads towards itself. A trillion dollars in foreign exchange reserves - they are accumulating to their forex at an eye-popping rate of $30 million an hour, and considering the continued growth rate of more than 10% - well, better get your calculators out. What's more, they are all geared up to spend $400 Billion in the next 4 years over infrastructure! Excuse me, did I hear it right?

According to the Economist,

"China's official reserves already far exceed what is required to ensure financial stability. As a rule of thumb, a country needs enough foreign exchange to cover three months' imports or to settle its short-term foreign debt. China's reserves are equivalent to 15 months of imports and are six times bigger than its short-term debt. The explosion in reserves is also a headache for the central bank. It creates excess liquidity, which risks fuelling higher inflation, asset-price bubbles and imprudent bank lending."

Two diverse countries, and radically different foreign policies. I'm not advocating China, they have been a closed door for most part of their existence (though changing radically now), but the fact that they have managed to pile up reserves the way they have did - perhaps even the best brains didn't expect this to happen so soon!

Brilliant, Breathtaking and yet.. Beautiful!

Date: June 22, 1986
The occasion was the World Cup match against England, and Diego Maradona's Goal of the Century was the highlight of this day. Nine minutes into the second half, Héctor Enrique passed the ball to Maradona some ten metres inside his own half. Maradona then began his 60 metre, 10 second dash towards the English goal, leaving behind five English outfield players (Hoddle, Reid, Sansom, Butcher and Fenwick) as well as goalkeeper Peter Shilton to make the score 2-0 to Argentina. This goal is rated sixth at the list of 100 Greatest Sporting Moments.

Date: April 18, 2007
A repeat of the earlier version was utmost difficult, but Lionel Messi, the Argentine wonderboy did come really close at emulating it. According to a football enthusiast,

'Messi beat five players; he covered covering 48 metres in 12 seconds, taking 10 touches with his left foot and three with his right'.

Well, the team at the recieving end was Getafe, and Messi was not representing Argentina, rather was representing Barcelona at the King's Cup. Labelled by the pundits as the next Maradona, Messi has already recieved the Golden Boot in the U-20 version of the World Cup. So, will he really set the world of football alight with his enigmatic displays, time will only tell. For now, watch this brilliance..