Gentlemen of the game

BY RITAM MITRA

In October, the Sydney Cricket Ground played host to the seventh annual Bradman Gala Dinner, a truly memorable event that recognises not just two of the greatest cricketers of all time, but two gentlemen who exemplified the values of integrity, respect, and determination – traits that Sir Donald Bradman brought to the game more successfully than most. This year, the recipients of the honour were Australia’s Glenn McGrath and India’s Rahul Dravid.

Each year since 2006, The Bradman Foundation has honoured a successful past cricket player who brought to the game every ounce of passion and courage expected of a Test cricketer, but left pride in the wake of humility both on and off the field.

The list of past Honourees is few and exclusive - the list reads:

Norm O’ Neil, Neil Harvey and Arthur Morris (who were both in attendance on the night, and are also the only two surviving members of Bradman’s 1948 ‘Invincibles’ team), Sam Loxton, Bill Brown, Alan Davidson, Dennis Lillee, Sunil Gavaskar, Adam Gilchrist, Richard Hadlee and Bob Simpson.

If it wasn’t already tough enough to find more illustrious company, the 2012 Bradman Honourees managed to raise the bar. Although Dravid was unable to attend the function because of an illness in the family, he gave his acceptance speech through a familiar voice – former Prime Minister John Howard delivered Dravid’s words to an audience packed with past cricketing icons, after they had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have drinks on the field and take a photo with a very realistic cutout of the Don himself.

“I remember the excitement that went through Indian cricket when we heard the news that Bradman had seen Sachin Tendulkar bat on TV and thought he batted like him. It was more than mere approval; it was as if the great Don had finally passed on his torch. Not to an Aussie or an Englishman or a West Indian. But to one of our own,” said Dravid through Howard.

Richie Benaud OBE, the former

Australian captain and now Patron of the Bradman Foundation, paid tribute to both, McGrath and Dravid on their achievements.

Benaud is synonymous with the Australian summer of cricket, and as one of the most respected cricket personalities in history, the praise he reserved for these two players will certainly rank among their proudest honours.

Benaud aptly summed up the esteem in which Dravid is held worldwide saying, “He represents everything that is decent about this great game.” Benaud also looked back on calling Dravid’s debut match at Lord’s – a debut he shared with Sourav Ganguly –with genuine fondness.

Joint Honouree Glenn McGrath was no less generous in his praise of Dravid himself. “I’m proud to accept this alongside Rahul; to me he’s a guy the Australian team respected more than any other in the world. He’s a class player and a top bloke. There are a lot of memories with him – good and bad, of course one time in Kolkata he and VVS (Laxman) batted all day,” he said.

In Dravid’s absence, however, McGrath was the focus of the night, with tributes being paid not only to his wonderful career – he took 563 wickets in Test matches and 381 in ODIs, retiring as the leading Test match fast bowler of all time – but also to his work in establishing the Jane McGrath Foundation, whose 78 McGrath Breast Care Nurses now support over 16,000 Australian families.

McGrath has also recently taken over from Dennis Lillee’s role as the director of MRF’s Pace Foundation fast bowling academy in Chennai, under which bowlers like Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan, Brett Lee and Chaminda Vaas have all prospered. Indeed, even Tendulkar spent some time at the academy in his younger years, training to become a fast bowler. McGrath’s stature in the game as one of the most respected greats will certainly have a significant impact in his nurturing of the next generation of fast bowlers.

“To stand here (at the SCG) it’s amazing to see where the time goes. I feel privileged and lucky to represent Australia for fourteen years. I still get goosebumps when I walk out onto the SCG – it’s my favourite ground in the world. To think about where I grew up…to think I was lucky enough to play for Australia for fourteen years alongside guys like Steve Waugh, Matthew Hayden and Gilly,” reminisced McGrath in what was a humble and heartfelt speech.

Plenty of other fast bowling greats were present on the night – 2009 Bradman Joint Honouree, Dennis Lillee, as well as his partner-in-crime Jeff Thomson formed part of a World Series

Quizzed by Stuart Clark (who was still fresh off the plane from the Sydney Sixers’ Champions League triumph in South Africa) and Tim Gilbert, the quartet gave some fascinating insights into the rise of World Series Cricket and the challenges it overcame to change the face of cricket forever.

The players looked back with perhaps bittersweet nostalgia about the tough time they had as players in the face of a regime under which players received little pay and relied on employers being accommodating with leave requests, making it impossible for players to support their families. Benaud continued to charm with his quips – saying Cricket Australia, formerly known as the ‘Australian Board of Control’, was named so “for good reason”.

Thomson in particular was the crowd favourite, and perhaps with good reason – he bowled some quick-fire bouncers at the late Kerry Packer (all in good humour of course) to prove that he was still as sharp as a tack. Incredulous at the amount of money Packer had thrown at the game in order to bring entertainment value to cricket and professionalise the players, Thomson’s selfdeprecating humour and

Benaud aptly summed up the esteem in which Dravid is held worldwide saying, “He represents everything that is decent about this great game.”

McGrath’s stature in the game as one of the most respected greats will certainly have a significant impact in his nurturing of the next generation of fast bowlers.

McCosker’s raw admiration for the West Indian quicks at the time –Holding, Garner, Croft, Roberts –typified the relaxed yet interesting conversation.

Lillee summed up Packer’s influence on the game with this: “Every single professional cricketer should find Kerry Packer’s grave and worship him.” And indeed they might – Lillee recalls being paid in the vicinity of $400 a Test match at the time.

The night was still however, mostly about the two Honourees – and McGrath and Dravid are two of those gentlemen in the game’s history who are, quite simply, in a class of their own.

Trade will be balanced gradually, China assures India

China recently assured India that it is aware of the need to balance trade between the two countries, which is heavily loaded in favour of Beijing, and “it will be done gradually”.

This was conveyed to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during bilateral talks with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at Peace Palace in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh.

During the 45-minute talks between the two leaders, perhaps their last such official meeting with the Chinese premier set to step down from office following the leadership change in that country, Prime Minister Singh raised the issue of increasing India’s market access to China, especially for IT, services and pharmaceuticals.

The Indian prime minister emphasised on the need for “accelerating exports to China”, said Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai, briefing Indian journalists on the talks.

Premier Wen said “he was looking at gradual balancing of trade with India, and that they were cognizant of India’s interests”, said Mathai.

Wen said China “did recognise the need for balance in trade and said it would be done gradually”.

India-China bilateral trade hit a record $73.9 billion last year, but the ballooning trade deficit in Beijing’s favour rose to over $27 billion.

The bilateral trade registered a $12.2 billion increase in 2011, taking the total to $73.9 billion as against $61.7 billion in 2010, according to official trade figures for 2011.

Prime Minister Singh said India was “committed to working to achieving the full potential” on trade and emphasised on the need for greater market access, especially to IT, services and pharma sectors”.

He also welcomed Chinese investments in infrastructure in India, which he said would help create employment and help to bridge the trade gap, said Mathai.

As part of boosting their trade, the two countries are holding a strategic economic dialogue at the end of November in New Delhi. The Indian side would be led by Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

Wen said a large Chinese economic delegation, with economic experts, would visit India to participate in the strategic economic dialogue.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement did not figure in their talks, said Mathai. The RCEP, a trade agreement between the East Asia countries which is still being worked out, aims to create a trading highway among the countries of the Asia and Pacific.

The prime minister visited Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital between Nov 18-20 to attend the 10th ASEAN-India Summit and the 7th East Asia Summit.

India joins talks to create world’s biggest free trade market

India has entered negotiations to further liberalise trade in goods, services and investment in Asia in the Cambodian capital

Phnom Penh, that are expected to bring in significant economic benefits to the country.

Two competing visions of regional economic integration animated conversation at the ASEAN and East Asia summits which too place amid a faltering world economy, regional tension and great power manoeuvrings.

ASEAN leaders have pledged to create the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) comprising their 10 member-nations and six partner countries: China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

It aims to lower trade barriers across the region to create the biggest free-trade market on the globe and a production base that would ensure the free movement of goods, services, investments and skilled labour in the region by 2015.

China, which has just emerged from once-in-a-decade leadership transition, is a strong votary of the RCEP to offset the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that excludes Beijing.

President Barack Obama is advocating the TPP as part of his administration’s “rebalancing strategy” towards Asia. The TPP also aims to bring down trade barriers between the US and a group of Asian countries and venture into new areas of cooperation.

“We’re organising trade relations with countries other than China, so that China starts feeling more pressure about meeting basic international standards,” Obama, who won a second term in office earlier in November, said during one of the presidential debates with Mitt Romney. The Trade and Economic Relations Committee (TERC) headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh decided earlier this month to join the ASEAN plus Six talks keeping in view its 20-year-old “Look East” policy and the deadlocked Doha Round.

Sources said the government has some concern about the possible impact of the RCEP on certain products but decided to go in to reinforce India’s determination to be a “constructive” partner in the negotiations that are expected to remove the kinks in the architecture of economic partnership.

India and ASEAN have a free trade agreement in goods and are negotiating to include services and investment, widening the agreement to a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA).

India-ASEAN trade currently stands at $79 billion, surpassing the $70 billion target set for 2012.

ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan told the Asia-Europe Business Forum in the Laotian capital Vientiane earlier this month that the grouping needed support from its dialogue partners.

“I talked about the five FTAs that we have with the six (dialogue partner) countries. We are now putting the five together into one agreement,” said Surin.

The prime minister led the Indian delegation to the 10th ASEAN-India summit and 7th East Asia Summit.

RCEP has grown out of a plan to launch trilateral trade talks among China, Japan and South Korea and billed to be worth $17 trillion.

There is however, still a fair degree of scepticism about the success of the talks as protection for sensitive goods and geopolitical sensitivities could disrupt the negotiations.

Experts say countries might ask for special treatment for their agricultural produce. For example, talks between Seoul and Tokyo have been on hold since 2004 over Japan’s reluctance to lower tariffs on agricultural goods.

And South Korea is said to be separately negotiating a free trade agreement with China, which would enable some 25,000 South Korean firms operating in China to supply to the domestic market rather than exporting their Chinese-produced goods as they are obliged to do now.

Also, ASEAN Deputy Secretary General Lim Hong Hin told a business forum in Makati city in the Philippines that 28 percent of ASEAN Economic Community measures due to be implemented for 2008-2011 are still pending as of end-August 2012.

Experts point to poor infrastructure, lack of human resources, good governance and low participation from the private sector as the possible main hurdles in achieving the establishment of a single market.

There are also concerns that the South China Sea territorial disputes between China and Vietnam and the Philippines over the Spratly and Parcel islands may muddy the negotiations and delay the launch of the pact.

Bal Thackeray: The tiger roars

no more

You loved him, you hated him, but you never could ignore him. That was Bal Keshav Thackeray, a fierce proponent of Hindu supremacism in a secular India who built his chauvinistic politics around the emotive cause of regional pride of 112 million people of Maharashtra, the country’s most industrialised state and home to its world renowned film and entertainment industry. He was 86.

Views on Bal Thackeray, known as Balasaheb, were as polarised as the politics he practiced. Known for his caustic tongue, he was idolised by his followers in the Shiv Sena and scorned in equal measure by liberal and secular Indians for his communal, divisive politics that didn’t stop with radical expression of views against Muslims and violent action against those opposed to his extreme rightwing ideas - including being firmly opposed to the visit of the Pakistani cricket team to India.

The cartoonist turned politician was often portrayed as a roaring tiger, the much cherished logo of his party Shiv Sena, which he formed to accord dignity to Maharashtrians, but which became known as a party of restless youngsters out for trouble. He was a demagogue whose strong views polarised the polity at the state and the national level, but he never flinched from expressing himself with conviction despite opposition.

The posterboy of rightwing Hindu and Marathi chauvinism, he never plunged into electoral politics and never contested any polls. He never made it to the national stage either but remained an active, acidic voice, commenting on any and every issue through the party mouthpiece Saamna

The party is virtually orphaned but the canny Thackeray had anointed son Uddhav as the next boss well in advance. In 2011, he even placed grandson Aditya as the next in line for the family legacy.

Born on Jan 23, 1926, in Pune, in then Bombay Presidency, Thackeray started his career as a political cartoonist with The Free Press Journal (FPJ) group in the early 1950s, a contemporary of the legendary R.K. Laxman, who too was with the FPJ at the time.

He used his cartoons to promote the Samyukta Maharashtra (United Maharashtra) movement, launched in the mid-1950s to crusade for the formation of Maharashtra. His father Prabodhankar Keshav Sitaram Thackeray was one of the five leaders who spearheaded the movement.

In 1960, he quit his FPJ job and began taking interest in politics. As a tool to cash in on the strong anti-migrant sentiments among the locals, he launched a Marathi humour weekly Marmik in August 1960, ironically released by then Congress chief minister Y.B. Chavan.

Two months later, in October of 1960, he addressed the first Dussehra Rally at Mumbai’s Shivaji Park, a ritual that continued virtually uninterrupted for 46 years.

Shaping his political agenda through Marmik, Thackeray initially targeted the communists and their influential trade unions, followed by south Indians who he said got preferential treatment over locals in jobs in Mumbai and other big cities.

Guided by his father, Thackeray finally plunged into politics by launching the Shiv Sena on June 19, 1966.

As the Sainiks vigorously espoused the cause of Marathi Asmita (pride) and targeted south Indian migrants - Thackeray sarcastically called them “Yandu-Gundu lungiwallahs” - the party’s support swelled amongst the poor, lower middle class and middle class Marathis.

Spurred by this, Thackeray harped on emotive issues like “Mumbai for Marathis” and “jobs for sons of soil” through the dreaded Sthanik Lokadhikar Samitis - but nobody knows how many jobs it finally translated into.

The situation was volatile. There were regular riots that led to Thackeray’s arrest in February 1969 - the one and only time he ever saw the inside of a jail.

Political power came when Sena candidates won in the 1967 Thane and 1968 Bombay municipal elections - the latter being the state’s cash cow and the country’s financial powerhouse.

In 1973, it controlled the BMC in alliance with other parties, including the Muslim League (!), and also bagged the mayor’s post. It captured the BMC in 1985 - and continues to rule it till date.

After south Indians, the volatile Sena took up movements against Gujaratis, north Indians and Muslims.

Its anti-Muslim agitation, a perpetual one on one of its burners - either the front or the back - was among its shrillest. Thackeray’s famous comment to Time magazine after the demolition of the Babri Masjid was a vituperative “Kick’em out!”

The anti-Muslim stance fuelled by the demolition led to Mumbai’s worst-ever riots in December 1992-January 1993. It continued for another two months in some small pockets, followed by the retaliatory March 12, 1993, serial bomb blasts in the city.

These incidents were largely responsible for catapulting the Shiv Sena to power in

Maharashtra in the 1995 assembly elections. Thackeray, who came to be known as Sena Tiger, could have been chief minister. But he chose to be kingmaker instead, appointing schoolmaster Manohar Joshi as the state’s first Brahmin chief minister.

In 1989, Thackeray and the late Pramod Mahajan of the BJP designed the winning saffron combination. For nearly a quarter century, despite hiccups, the saffron alliance has survived, rare in India’s quicksand politics.

Surprisingly, all this he achieved practically sitting at his Bandra home. During his entire political career spanning over five decades, Thackeray travelled out of Maharashtra only twice -- to Lucknow to attend cases related to the Babri Mosque demolition.

Thackeray never travelled abroad either, though old timers hazily recall that he had made one or two brief foreign trips in the pre-1966 era. But, the shaper of Maharashtra politics hosted and received dignitaries and people from all over the world at Matoshri.

In Thackeray’s later years, the acidic language was reserved mostly for the edit pages of Saamna, which, despite its nearcharacter assassination of most leaders, escaped any major defamation proceedings.

During his political years, Thackeray was let down by some of his closest aides -- those like Chhagan Bhujbal, Narayan Rane and Sanjay Nirupam. But the worst blow was dealt to him by his nephew Raj Thackeray in 2005, who formed the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) in 2006.

He attempted a reconciliation between his feuding son and nephew - but it didn’t happen in his lifetime. Just like he couldn’t fulfil his dream of a saffron state and dying under the flutter of a saffron flag.

I feel myself partly a citizen of India, says Suu Kyi

“I feel myself partly a citizen of India,” Myanmar’s iconic pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said recently, during an emotional visit to Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi, where she studied as an undergraduate in the 1960s.

Suu Kyi, moved by the warm welcome she received by her alma mater, said she never felt far removed from India.

“Coming back to LSR is not just coming back home, it is coming back to a place where I know my aspirations have not been wrong. I have learnt that my faith in the oneness of human aspirations is justified. I’m coming to a place where I can feel that my hopes have not been in vain,” she said, addressing dignitaries, students, faculty and media at the Ramakrishna Dalmia auditorium of the college.

“I always knew I would come back to this hall where I had learned to sing one of Gandhi’s favourite songs - ‘Raghupati Raghava Raja Ram’. I feel myself partly a citizen of India,” she said.

Illustrious ex-students were in attendance at the ceremony. A dance recital by bharatnatyam exponent Geetha Chandran and a puppet show by noted puppeteer Anurupa Roy were also part of the programme.

Suu Kyi returned the outpouring of love by planting a sapling in the sprawling lawns of the college to keep the memory of her visit alive.

The college wore a festive look, decked up in buntings of Myanmarese Buddhist motifs,

Oriental art works and an exhibition panel with photographs and excerpts from Suu Kyi’s speech on receiving the Nobel Prize.

The Nobel Laureate, who spent her childhood and early adolescence in New Delhi while her mother served as Burma’s envoy to India, returned here on a six-day visit, during which she has met India’s leaders as well as friends from her school and college days.

The charismatic leader, who spent decades under house arrest and is known for her heroic struggle against the all-powerful military junta in Myanmar, spoke about principles in politics.

“Principles must always exist in politics. Unprincipled politics is the most dangerous thing in the world. If you compromise on your principles, I think you’d better stop engaging in politics,” she said.

For the students of the college, her visit was an inspiration.

“She is coming home after so many years. It is a dream come true for us. She referred to us as ‘her girls’. The connection was immediate. I liked the bit in her speech about principled politics... Politics is in our everyday life,” said Jumi Gogoi, president of the LSR Students’ Union.

“Governments may change, but people remain the same...,” echoed Abhismrita B., cultural secretary of the LSR Students’ Union. Ms Suu Kyi also visited Bangalore and two villages in Andhra Pradesh to study women’s empowerment and development models.

Aamir Khan asks health activists to fight malnutrition

Pitching to rid the country of malnutrition, actor-producer Aamir Khan recently appealed to grass root level health activists and the local administration across the country to make the mission successful.

“I appeal to the ASHAs, Anganwadi workers, sarpanchs, you are the foot soldiers. I appeal to all of them to take this very seriously and make this movement successful,” Khan said at the launch of a media campaign against malnutrition.

ASHAs, the Accredited Social Health Activists, are community health workers instituted by the government to assist in the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). Anganwadi workers work under government’s Integrated Child Development Service programme as a neighbourhood centre for health-care activities like contraceptive counselling and supply, nutrition education and supplementation, and child care.

Talking about the effects of malnutrition, Khan said: “The damage in first two years does the damage that stays through out the life.”

“If you love your country join the movement. How will India become a super power if we are affected by malnutrition?” he added.

The actor has been attached with social causes, and had recently done a television series featuring social issues. He has been associated with the information, education and communication programme of Women and Child Development Ministry, which was launched by President Pranab Mukherjee recently.

The programme will spread the message across the country in 18 languages, through television, radio, print and other media against malnutrition.