May 16, 2013 · 7:59 AM

Five quick thoughts on IPL 6 spot fixing allegations

sreesanth1

Five initial and quick thoughts on the IPL 6 spot fixing scandal that just broke a few hours ago -

1. Innocent until proven guilty - This needs to be repeated time and again. Three cricketers have been detained and arrested but we do not yet know if any or all of them are guilty. This may be the tip of the iceberg or this may be about 1 wide that each of them delivered at inopportune but well-planned times. We don’t know what yet and so we have to revert back to one of the first tenets of a democracy and consider those arrested as being innocent rather than guilty.

2. The noise:signal ratio on this story will be very high for a few days - Media personalities have a clear stake in this story being alive for as many days as possible. Lecturing about the evils of big money is something the really well-paid media excels in. There will be accusations aplenty, insinuations aplenty and blame for everyone from N Srinivasan to Sachin Tendulkar to the entire country of Pakistan. It will be very important to focus entirely on the news portions of reports from reputed outlets like Cricinfo to avoid the cacophony of a controversial story from overwhelming the truth.

cronje

3. The format and money are not to blame – The easiest thing to do here is to blame the IPL’s riches for this. But that is incorrect in so many ways. If anything, the IPL is safer from match fixing than the median ODI that takes place. One of the countless India vs. Sri Lanka matches that fill days in the monsoon months is a much bigger candidate for match fixing purely because of the much smaller audience and attention involved. At the end of the day, the IPL is a rich guy/girl trying to get talented laborers to help him/her win on the field. I am not saying the IPL is not a candidate for fixing. All I am saying is that with the attention, egos and money involved the IPL is a harder place to fix situations and matches than most ICC approved tests and ODIs.

4. Spot fixing is different from match fixing – All news reports out indicate that the three players detained have been detained so for possible spot fixing. It is important to remember that this is different from fixing a match. While any amount of unethical player behavior is worse than none, spot fixing is still significantly milder than match fixing. Nuance and scales of behavior matter and if the outcome of all this is that a few wides were pre-planned, the IPL is still in better shape than leagues like the NBA and MLB were in 2007 (Tim Donaghy) and 1919 (Black Sox) respectively. I did some research and Ankit Chavan and Ajit Chandilia did not bowl a single no-ball all season. Sreesanth bowled just three in all. While spot fixing could mean that the accusations are about a poorly bowled delivery down the leg or a wide and every ball affects the outcome, the scale of crime would still be milder than most other sports fixing scandals.

5. The sport and league will survive – Many a blogger, journalist and ex-cricketer will call this the day that broke cricket’s back and that the sport cannot survive. They will be wrong. Cricket has withstood wars, apartheid, monopolies, match fixing scandals and Chetan Sharma. It will surely survive whatever this and suck us in again very soon. A week after the Hansie Cronje scandal of 2000, fans were out watching South Africa beat Australia 2-1 in an ODI series on the back of some tense and shaky run chases. Ajay Jadeja and Mohammed Azharuddin came out of the worst crimes possible to the sport with lucrative careers that any of us would kill for.

donaghy1

Corruption will happen for as long as humans exist and money exists. While the erosion of trust is hard to overcome instantly, the IPL is only a Tendulkar 50 or Gayle 100 away from becoming most of what it can be for the viewing public. Authorities, leagues and players should all be held accountable and we should be skeptical and cynical of all of them at all times. That is the nature of the fourth estate. But none of that equates with catastrophizing and no amount of scandal can discourage the beautiful game or participants in the beautiful game of cricket forever. Cricket will survive. The league too will survive…..

Leave a Comment

Filed under cricket

May 12, 2013 · 7:06 AM

L Sivaramakrishnan – Mediocre, devoid of insight and powerful

Image courtesy ESPN CRICINFO

Image courtesy ESPN CRICINFO

Several posts and articles have expressed several different concerns about the elevation of BCCI-employed commentator and India Cements employee L Sivaramakrishnan (Siva) to the ICC cricket committee as one of two player representatives. For a primer on what the cricket committee does, do check this out. Like most things that happen behind-the-scenes in the sport where one administration has a virtual monopoly, the details behind L Siva’s election are mysterious and fishy. Certain news reports have called out how Tim May was originally elected but a few captains were nudged by the BCCI to switch their votes while other reports like this tweet suggest this did not happen. A lot of the shenanigans surrounding this including the links above are captured in detail by The Cricket Couch in his expansive piece here.

While everything associated with this episode is unsavory and representative of the frustration (with the BCCI’s monopoly on world cricket and the rest of the ICC’s impotence) that a cricket fan constantly endures, I want to focus solely on Siva and his qualifications for this role. Even assuming everything with the process was fair and Siva is the representative chosen by a majority of active players to represent them on a world cricket committee, why Siva? The reasons behind his selection and their implications on future Indian cricket voices in the media are depressing.

Siva has been an employee of India Cements for over fifteen years and has thus established a close relationship with current BCCI president and owner of the Chennai Super Kings of the IPL – N Srinivasan. In most job and career situations you are only as good as your connections and for Siva, Mr. Srinivasan has proven to be a stellar connection. Being close to N Srinivasan and doing his bidding is one thing and is different from being close to N Srinivasan and doing what is good for Indian cricket.

Image courtesy BCCI web site.

Image courtesy BCCI web site.

Even if it is inevitable that an Indian cricketer will always be one of two player representatives, I imagine there are at least a 100 cricketers (active and retired) who would gladly play the role. What has Siva done or shown in his nearly three decades of being around the game that makes anyone think he will do a good job of representing cricketers? A lot of fans and journalists including Mr. Harsha Bhogle have said or tweeted that this is the way the free market works and those that are powerful like the BCCI is today trample upon the little ones. This is a theory that a lot of people find comfort in and are okay with. But what these people are missing is whether what is good for N Srinivasan is automatically good for Indian cricket?

I have watched and unfortunately listened to L Siva in his role as a commentator for the last 10 years. Siva was lucky to be thrust into commentating for the 2001 Challenger trophy in Chennai as one of the few English-speaking ex-cricketers available and has since survived and advanced into commentating for all forms of the game for over a decade. He has done this just like many Indian ex-cricketers who turned in to commentary do – By saying nothing remotely intelligent, critical or even predictive about Indian cricket or cricketers. Cricket commentary on television is an easy job to survive in once you are hired by/for the BCCI. Graphics, visuals and statistics keep the viewer engaged and educated. As long as you have 8′th grade education and can string together words that describe what the viewer just saw (grammar itself is not a criterion as Rameez Raja’s survival indicates), surviving as a commentator is easy. And that is exactly what Siva has done.

I think this point is key because a large part of Siva’s candidacy is based on the fact that he has been associated with the game for over 3 decades. But for the last decade his association is superficial and loose and not one of a friend or fan of the sport as much as one of obeisance to the corporate body that pays him to not say anything mildly critical. His allegiance to players supposedly comes from him having been one many years ago. His true allegiance since has been to the BCCI to say nothing while occupying one of the 5-6 unique bully pulpits available (as a broadcaster for when India plays matches). In my over 20 years of watching cricket, Siva has not said a single statement or made an observation that was profound, predictive, thoughtful or nuanced. Every piece of analysis from his driven by the outcome. A good ball becomes a bad ball if it goes for four and a bad ball becomes a good ball if it gets a wicket. His analysis is vanilla, devoid of even the minimum amount of insight you would expect from a journalist, ex-player or commentator (whichever hat you think he wears). He has also shown a lack of knowledge on the lbw rule which borders on the comical.

So while most people agree that world cricket is worse off with even more BCCI influence and recommendations than before this election, those who think the BCCI and Indian cricket are not necessarily better off because of this move. Siva is N Srinivasan’s paid hand at the ICC’s table now and is likely to do his master’s bidding devoid of thought or reason into whether it is good for the players he supposedly represents or the country he is from. If tomorrow, N Srinivasan has a recommendation on pitches, Siva will be doing his bidding for him. Even if that recommendation is deleterious to cricket, players and India in the long run, that is what he will likely do.

This and the silence of powerful Indian media voices on this are depressing. Many a cricketer will aspire to be a non-controversial media personality so as to have a chance for an escalation into various BCCI and ICC committees in the future. A game devoid of critical analysis by Indian voices on air will continue to stay so.

icc

I hope to be completely wrong here and that Laxman Sivaramakrishnan will have the 4 deities in him wake up to the responsibilities he currently holds. Maybe, just maybe this elevation will incite the latent perspective and nuance in him that will make him a ferocious defender of all that is sacred to a majority of active international cricketers. Just maybe he will be the voice that finally brings balance and reason to the influence of Mr. N Srinivasan. I hope, for the sake of cricket.

But nothing in his last decade of association with the sport suggests any of this is likely. Laxman Sivaramakrishnan has been mediocre, devoid of insight and has risen thru the ranks to become very powerful. He is likely to stay and do so.

2 Comments

Filed under cricket, Media

May 4, 2013 · 11:04 PM

What should a Chipotle for South Indian food look like?

chipotle

I love Chipotle. It is my single favorite fast food chain. I eat there at least once a week. I always come back impressed with their quality, consistency in preparation and taste and speed of service. They provide plenty of value for the dollar and while a tad more salty than I’d like, their food is good nutrition and taste for the time spent waiting and the money spent on the food.

They are growing fast and are up to 1400 locations in North America now. They have survived the tough economic times of the last five years and have forced cheaper, less-healthy alternatives like Taco Bell to rethink their menus (Cantina menu anyone?). They have also challenged corporations and restauranteurs dabbling in other cuisines to come up with similar niche chains that combine speed of service, $5-$8 price per entrée and relatively healthy menus. CHOP’t is the only chain that seems to have scaled in a manner remotely close to Chipotle. Matthew Yglesias has written some great posts about the success of Chipotle and its implication for food over the next ten years in posts like this and this.

dbpix-chipotle2-tmagArticle

Based on all this and the growing Indian population and the popularity of Indian food in the big American cities (a Yelp search of Indian food within 5 miles of San Francisco reveals 120 restaurants), it is not surprising that there are several efforts underway to creat a Chipotle-like model for Indian food. This piece on two entrepreneurs planning to create a Dosa-based Chipotle in the US this year caught my eye.

22_MP_DOSA_1435220g

While I wish them nothing but the very best and hope for successful scaling of the restaurant they have in mind, I have serious doubts that the dosa is the right vehicle for a South Indian Chipotle. Here below are four thoughts on what I think a successful south Indian Chipotle would look like -

a) Tortillas used in Chipotle burritos do not translate to Dosas. The tortillas get warmed in 5-7 seconds allowing for the lines at the restaurant to move quickly. A pre-prepared Dosa cannot be warmed into action in a similar way. It doesn’t taste or look the same. It does not resonate with how Dosas are meant to be consumed. A dosa can also not be prepared in 5-7 seconds. There is risk of tearing, uncooked batter and lastly inconsistency in quality and taste. Hence I am not sure Dosas are the ideal vehicles to drive this effort with. Can a place where there is a line of 10-20 people (like I see in Chipotle at all times) really get by with 30 second Dosa preparations with risks that one in five or one in ten would tear and have to be redone? Also, the Dosa is the one Indian food item that needs to be eaten right away. Unlike the curries from up North or the Sambar and Rasam from Tamil Nadu, the Dosa cannot get better with time:). This makes the to-go option moot.

b) South Indian food is rich with rice, lentils and vegetables. People like their distinctive flavor and preparation. If this fact can be translated to 1) dishes that can be prepared easily and consistently 2) served fresh thru the day and 3) can carry well for a few hours in a cardboard/paper to-go container the majority of the battle is won. That would be my starting point. Dosas, Idlies, wet curries, Avial, Sambar, Curd and Rasam all fail to check one or all of these boxes. So I would eliminate all of them as vehicles for scaling a fast food South Indian restaurant.

Tomato rice recipe_thumb[2]

c) One of the great things about Chipotle is that the food is never too dry or too wet. With the choices of Salsas the food is also never too mild or too hot. The customer controls the moisture level of the food with the amount of Guacamole, Tofu and beans he or she is comfortable with. The customer controls the spice level with one of three different salsas. This is very hard tp translate to most cuisines but possible with South Indian food. South Indian cuisine especially Tamil Nadu cuisine is full of chutneys and thogayals that can be add-ins to control the spice levels of most entrees. Kootu is a popular dish in most South Indian homes which has the unique semi-liquid property that lends itself perfectly to being the add-on that controls the moisture level of the customer’s food.
The ingredients to make the right Kootu, Thogayal in the US and maintain profit margins while scaling make it a hard problem. But not one that is unsolvable.

d) So my dream South Indian Chipotle would have 2-3 mixed rice dishes which can be prepared in large quantities thru the day, 2 Kootus or kootu-like preparations(both with lentils for proteins but one vegetarian and one meaty), a dry curry (Okra or Potato), 2-3 thogayals of varying spice level and a very Indian beverage like Chai or tender coconut water. Coconut rice, Lemon rice and Tomato rice are hugely popular among Indians and will scale very easily. Having been a vegetarian all my life, I am not sure what the meat based rice dish could be but again it doesn’t strike me as being an impossible problem to solve.

ashgourd kootu 040

Will a restaurant like this scale like a Chipotle did? Very likely, not. But I think it can do very well in big coastal cities with large Indian diasporas. A portable entree with flavor that is made fresh and available in a 30 second walk thru a line at the restaurant will be very popular. The food will be non-messy unlike most Indian foods and consistency will be very achievable. It will also offer a very distinct taste to anything out there for the American and international crowds. I am positive taste and flavors can be adjusted as the restaurant evolves.

Here’s hoping the Dosa venture of former bankers Jawahar Chirimar and Sam Subramaniam is successful and I get to eat their food soon. Also, here’s hoping someone else with the time, money and passion to create a South Indian Chipotle for the U.S finds these tips helpful and gives me the opportunity to eat Lemon rice with pudina thogayal, kootu and okra curry some time soon.

What would your South Indian Chipotle look like?

8 Comments

Filed under Indian abroad

· 9:36 PM

2013 Chennai Super Kings – Exhilarating and logic defying

During the second “strategic” timeout of the chasing team’s innings in the games at the M.A.Chidambaram stadium the song below is blared for the entirety of the 150 seconds. The lines at the 1:00 minute mark of the song say “Aadama Jeyichom ada” and roughly translate to We win without even showing up. For the Chennai Super Kings of 2013, nothing could be further from the truth. They win because they show up and show up big at the crunch moments of a tense T-20 game.

Regression to the mean is a concept as old as statistics itself. It is the reason why so many intelligent sports fans believe a valley in their team’s success follows peaks as though one implies the other. We are conditioned to believe that no team (especially in salary-capped leagues) can be dominant for too long and that a winning streak especially one that is built on close wins should come to an end.

I will introduce you now to the 2013 Chennai Super Kings (CSK).

For a month now they have entertained and won way more than their fair share of close games. While their record may even out in the last three weeks of the tournament with the gods of averages finally playing catch-up, already they have surpassed any rational expectation or explanationfor wins in the tournament.

At 9-2 after 11 games they are clearly the favorites to make the final of IPL 6. They currently hold a seven game winning streak built on incredulous chases atop unreal defenses of totals. Their winning is a testament of course to their talent, belief and a ban of Sri Lankan players in home games. But it is also a statistical oddity that makes their fans question the whole regression to the mean thing. Every run chase gets into whatever comes after the “death” overs. Every time they bat first and make a large score they bowl just badly enough to let the opposition within sniffing distance with an over left.

Picture is BCCI copyrighted and from www.iplt20.com site.

Picture is BCCI copyrighted and from http://www.iplt20.com site.

Their last 3 run chases were successful chases with a grand total of 8 balls to spare! In their most recent chase, they conceded a 16′th over maiden and scored 15 in the final over. In the chase 3 days prior, they turned 32 needed off 24 into a penultimate ball finish. In the chase at the Eden Gardens they opened with Ravichandran Ashwin, fell way behind the required rate only to score 53 off the last 20 balls they faced. Each of these games had a fork-in-the-road moment when it seemed to all fans that CSK left too much for too late. Three weekends ago, they seemed to have lost the game only to be declared winners as the opposition bowler had overstepped. Each of these games looked lost and fairly so. Each of these games felt like games the opposition just deserved to win.

Last Thursday they were defending a healthy 186 versus the Kings XI Punjab. Punjab looked out of it needing 114 from 54 but somehow did not lose a wicket for the next 48 balls and entered the last over looking like deserved winners. Only for current West Indies captain Mr. Bravo to pick up two wickets in two balls:).

Image courtesy www.iplt20.com

Image courtesy http://www.iplt20.com

If all of these situations and numbers are a blur, you are just another CSK fan. More than the euphoria of victory or the relief following yet another close win, there has been a sense of deja vu. And the surreal feeling that screams “Oh, my God! No way they defy statistics once again.”

Somehow and some way like the proverbial rope trick, the Chennai Super Kings of 2013 have found a way to win these games. With five league games left, I for one find myself weirdly rooting for a few losses so that the team doesn’t wait until the playoffs to revert to the mean. This sort of thinking is stupid, sacrilegious and also a shade untrue. Am I really going to wake up at 4 AM to root for a loss? Probably not. But that’s what rooting for Chennai in the 2013 IPL is like. It is exhilarating, gratifying, tense, surreal and weird. It is also stats-defying and here’s hoping against logic, odds and math for more of the same.

1 Comment

Filed under cricket, Indian abroad

April 22, 2013 · 6:34 AM

The Sachin desert storm – 15 years later

Fifteen years ago on this date, Sachin Tendulkar played the most memorable limited overs knock of all time. I am not saying it was the best innings or the greatest knock ever. It wasn’t even a match-winning knock. But it was a surreal batting performance interrupted by a freak dust and sand storm. It was a superlative individual effort while everyone around him was flailing. A large portion of it was described to an audience of 200 million plus by the understated & incomparable Richie Benaud who knew a masterpiece when he saw one. The setting, the situation (India needing to reach a certain score to qualify for the final game two days later) and the enormous delta in class and competence to anyone else on the field that day make it the most memorable individual performance in limited overs cricket.

I watched the knock live in its entirety (and a few hundred times after that) and a few things stay embellished in my memory to this day. Here they are in ascending order of memorable-ness -

It is easy and typical to wax nostalgic about the past for most sports fans. It is easy to look back at the Indian team in 1998 and imagine a batting juggernaut full of hall-of-famers when we peruse the scorecard. But it could not be further from the truth. The Indian ODI team in 1998 in Sharjah was an one-man army. VVS Laxman ended up having a great test career but on this day he could not have been a lesser sideshow if he had streaked thru the ground. Nayan Mongia was for some reason sent in at #3 and unlike his cardinal generation-changing sin nine months later played an insignificant if non-intrusive 46 deliveries for 35 runs as a pinch hitter. Ajay Jadeja was a pale imitation of the ODI player he had been two years earlier and Hrishikesh Kanitkar would not even make an India ‘B’ side today. If the current ODI side got on a time machine and played the ODI side from 1998, the current side would win with overs to spare (no thoughts on which side Harbhajan Singh would play for:)). The overall mediocrity of the side made Sachin’s knock that much more memorable.

122813

The Australian team on the other hand was full of legends close to or at their prime. This was the fifth ODI meeting between the two sides in a year in which they’d go 4-4 head-to-head (Sachin was Man of the Match in 6 of the 8 games). And it’s fairly remarkable India managed to win four games against a lineup of Gilchirst, the Waughs, Bevan Moody and Warne. The core of this Aussie team would go on to win the World Cup just a year later and would win 22 of 26 games at one point. The nature of the opposition made Sachin Tendulkar’s knock that much more memorable.

The cricket ground at Sharjah is an unremarkable venue. The Indian team visited the stadium annually and sometimes twice a year from 1994-2000. There were too many ODIs played in front of too many sparse crowds for too many questionable results in this period. This match was different though. A packed evening crowd, a rare dust storm and a batsman at the top of his unlimited powers made for a unique cocktail that would never be created again. Titles like desert storm don’t get handed spontaneously and very easily. That’s why this knock was and is so memorable.

Sachin’s placement on the day was incredible. He drove, cut, flicked, pulled and swept into the gaps all night. He has timed the ball better and hit the ball harder before and after that day. But the ease with which he found the gaps in the field made the knock that much more memorable. There is an iconic moment in the game when the fielder at long-off and the fielder at long-on run to within handshaking distance of each other only to see the ball beat both of them to the fence. This is not common. This is beyond the realm of what a batsman should be doing in limited overs’ cricket. That’s why this knock is so memorable.

benaud1-1600x1200

Sometimes events need a narration and perspective. Someone with an eye for whatever special or unique event was happening is needed for the event to make the jump from special to memorable. In an era of cookie-cutter TV commentary, 68-year-old Richie Benaud lent his extraordinary story telling skills to the masterpiece that Sachin Tendulkar was creating on the pitch. His comments of the searing strokes on display that day in a tone that was neither hyperbolic nor automated, will stay imprinted in my memory as the role model for all cricket commentary ever. Genius needs to be narrated with perspective that sometimes only another genius can offer. And on that April night, Richie Benaud’s narration made it that much more memorable.

India did not win that night but scored enough runs to make it to the finals two days later when they would win in a chase that was very similar. There was no dust storm that night and the stroke play of India’s greatest ever while incandescent was just a little less memorable. A generation of fans when asked to take just one ODI innings to their death beds would pick out the Sachin desert storm from 15 years ago. ‘Cos that was memorable…..

Leave a Comment

Filed under cricket

April 21, 2013 · 7:19 AM

The Senate immigration bill & its impact on H-1B and F-1 visa holders

immigration-nologo-2

Sweeping immigration reform is a huge priority of American politicians currently in power. I have traced the process of this reform thru its
different stages in the last three months here, here and here. This post is an update for April 2013 and is a deep dive into the Senate’s proposal which is expected to form a sizeable portion of any final law that is passed.

On any other week, the parameters and boundaries of sweeping immigration reform that were announced last week would have taken center-stage. Instead, the events in Boston and Texas overshadowed fairly momentous announcements from U.S Senate. The entire 844 page immigration proposal is up here “136436529-Gang-of-Eight-Immigration-Proposal” for your perusal. While the primary focus of the proposal is to resolve the status of nearly 11 billion undocumented immigrants, it contains clear specifics on the future of the H-1B visa program. The portions regarding H-1B visa holders and F-1 visa holders start on page 658 of the attached document.

Here below are five key takeaways from the proposal -

a) This is not the final bill – While this proposal will be widely discussed as though it is the final immigration bill of 2013, it is not that. This is a proposal made by eight senators (four from each party) who have taken on the responsibility to influence enough members of both parties, public opinion, corporate America and labor workforces towards radical changes in the current immigration system. The Senate is the more powerful legislative body in the U.S Congress and typically a harder place to get a working majority in for most issues. So a bipartisan proposal such as this will tend to be at the very core of a final bill and then law. But it is important to remember that it is not the final bill and ensuing law. So any numbers seen here can change before they are put to vote and other frameworks in place may very well change by the time there is an immigration law in 2013 or 2014. So everything listed in this proposal is not FINAL.

H-1B cap dates graph

b) An increase in H-1B quota – What we know definitively is that the senators want a significant increase to the existing quotas of H-1B visas available. The proposal calls for an immediate increase from 65,000 to 1,10,000 for fiscal year 2015 and a future increase to 1,80,000 visas. But that’s not all :) . There are 25,000 other H-1B visas available to immigrants who have earned a master’s degree or above in science, technology, engineering or math (STEM). So unlike the last decade when an F-1 visa holder’s career in the U.S lay in doubt because of the shortage of H-1B visas, the next decade promises an easier and more deterministic path to working for a science or technology entity in the US.

Need to say, all of this is great news for immigrants and Indian families thinking of sending children over to the U.S for the pursuit of a Master’s degree.

c) No information yet on if any changes to the Green card process - Mitt Romney wanted to staple a green card to Master’s graduates in science and Math. Barack Obama wanted to make it easier for these immigrants to stay in the US forever. But very surprisingly the proposal glosses over the extremely convoluted H-1B to permanent residency transition. There are no details on this topic and it is shocking that there may not be any changes to the messy and non-deterministic process currently in play.

On the surface this makes sense. Technology corporations and politicians want to ensure that smart people can immigrate to the U.S and work in science, technology, engineering and Math. They are not particularly cognizant of or do not care about the status of these people once they can work legally. As in, it does not matter to the technology companies if you were working for them on an H-1B visa for seven years or on a green card for three of those.

Hence it is very possible that minimal lobbying has been done on this issue thus allowing the senators to skip over this completely.

399CA270E3001A1F23E6C0FF4CDDDF29

d) It is more expensive for employers to hire H-1B now I had mentioned in all of my earlier pieces on this topic that everything will be more expensive for immigrants and employers of immigrants. This has certainly come true in the proposal made by the senators. Like it or not, an immigrant employee is the most exciting source of revenue for any politician because how non-controversial this is.

An H-1B hire could cost a company between $5000 and $20,000 depending on the company’s size, percentage of existing H-1B employees and fiscal year. So if you are applying for a job with a Silicon valley startup, it is likely that they will pay you less than what you may have made prior to the law because of how much more the company will have to pay to the government to get your visa done.

There are also strict caps and wage controls to ensure a company does not have more than 50% of its employees as H-1B holders by 2016 and that non-immigrant wages are not affected by an influx of foreign talent.

e) Visas for startups and investors Finally, there is a new and interesting category of visas (still unnamed) that is available to those who have money to start-up companies in the US and create jobs. The text about this visa looks maddeningly vague and ripe for being taken advantage of by fly-by-night consulting companies. It is basically a way to get more money into the U.S economy but I am not so sure this will end up producing the desired outcomes. I can see a scenario where this visa is abused to hire and staff a fleet of part-time Information Technology (IT) workers.

This proposal will now be discussed and debated in both the public sphere and the House of representatives. The House will likely bring up a similar proposal in the next 60 days after which the proposals will be merged and mashed in to something that can pass both chambers of a divided Congress and be signed into law by President Obama in late 2013. It is possible that there will be hiccups, challenges and opposition to the final passage of this reform but odds are much higher for this proposal to be the gateway to immigration law than they are for similar reforms in gun control or the fiscal crisis. And that is still very good news for all.

Please follow me on twitter at @shyamuw or subscribe to this blog (subscribe button on the right side of this page below my tweets) for timely posts on the impact of immigration reform 2013 on those who hold H-1B and F-1 visas in the US today.

2 Comments

Filed under Indian abroad

April 16, 2013 · 6:29 AM

A full-throated cheer for the IPL

GOLF-US-MASTERS-GUAN

They call it a tradition unlike any other. It is one of the most revered events in sports and brings a twinkle to the eyes of connoisseurs worldwide. It is a four-day event held at the same time in the same place every year. It lasts longer than most test matches. It is held at a venue that banned people of color until about 20 years ago and women until 8 months ago. Spectators cannot bring cellphones or cameras in to the event and the television coverage is heavily packaged and canned. The actual outcomes themselves are very random and the event is self-scored which means unlike any other sport, it is based on everyone doing the right thing for everyone else.

Antiquated idiosyncracies associated with the sport came to the forefront this weekend when a 14-year-old prodigy was penalized for taking more time than some old men thought he needed to take to play his stroke. Also, the sport’s sole icon and on the backs of who, the whole cottage industry runs, was penalized two strokes nearly 12 hours after his score was recorded. He was penalized because some anonymous fan got thru the event’s hotline to the deciders-in-chief and ratted out an apparent 2 yard drift in the ball. If similar events had transpired in a non-American sport, they would have been mocked mercilessly. But instead – A TRADITION UNLIKE ANY OTHER!

Football in England is advertised, marketed and watched worldwide. The Premiership markets itself as the world’s most watched league with 4.7 billion viewers. Here is something that happened in the Premier league this weekend -

Twenty nine people were arrested, horses were punched and drunken hooliganism ended up reminding people even more of the times of Margaret Thatcher’s prime ministership. The country’s premier knockout competition saw some violence of its own -

A lot of people brush these incidents of violence off. They’re considered part and parcel of the British soccer football experience. The violence is quietly mourned but forgotten as it continues to support the stereotyping of the crazy English fan. Not much ink is wasted over whether or not this is a sports league that warrants the popularity and respect it has among the world’s public. The same teams win year after year, the rich always kick the poor’ butt and the national team’s performance or thereof is but a predictable offshoot of the draining and exhausting league calendar.

The EPL and British soccer have more problems to contend with and more black marks than its public reputation suggests. And yet it is the greatest and most popular sports league in the world!

The only sporting event I watched this weekend was a cricket match between the Chennai Super Kings and the Royal Challengers Bangalore. It was an event that provided coffee-spilling, sweat-inducing tension, excitement and entertainment at the crack of a California dawn. It was compelling theater. It was a local derby between teams that represent two cities that mutually respect and hate each other. On Twitter and Facebook it was a rivalry that sucked you in no matter who you rooted for.

A lot of Chennai wishes it were Bangalore. Bangalore has always been Chennai’s much more attractive, cooler cuter friend. A friend who even had all the water (Search #kaveriderby on Twitter for the related tweets and laughs).

A lot of Bangalore cannot get what the fuss is about Chennai. That the uniquely uncosmoplitan city stays relevant rankles and rattles many a Bangalorean. Apparently soul and sambar have not hit them yet. And yes, they also hate the fact that Chennai has dominated them when it matters in the IPL. Last year Bangalore conceded 42 runs off 12 deliveries and a last ball boundary to Sir Ravindra Jadeja. Surely they will not lose in such a painful manner this year!

14-ravindrajadejacelebrates-600

But of course they did. In a contest that see-sawed amid excellent performances by AB De Villiers, Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni, the Chennai Super Kings stole one on the backs of some late fearless hitting. The last 45 minutes of the game were thrilling beyond words. Batsmen played outrageous strokes to many a fullish delivery. A sporting full house played its part in escalating the Saturday night atmosphere and the contest climaxed to an outrageous yet memorable crescendo of a no-ball. Here are the highlights of the match -

http://www.iplt20.com/videos/media/id/7948f4fd3bb54250a18ed47ff2706bd5/m16-csk-vs-rcb-match-highlights

The IPL will never be associated with tradition. It will never be fully embraced by the British, Australians or Americans. It will always have corporate overreach, overdone elements of entertainment and differences from the highest form of the game. But it will embrace not discriminate, stay non-violent and provide you with more thrills and excitement than most leagues you consider following. So until you find evidence that the results are compromised do watch…

5 Comments

Filed under cricket