I am in Singapore

I have been in Singapore for last 3 weeks and here some of my observations about this city:

1. City is very clean and amazing the way it is maintained considering the population density here.

2. The public transport system works like dream. Most of the buses have 15 minutes frequency and there are mobile applications that provide decently accurate status of buses.

3. In spite of so many people around it is still not noisy because people hardly talk to others in trains or buses.

4. There are places to eat everywhere around (less vegetarian options)

5. Government offices rival corporate offices in terms of infrastructure and operations.

6. There is lot of greenery around even though there is huge space crunch in the city.

7. For Singaporeans, any commute more than 30 minutes is far.

8. There are community sports complexes that offer activities like basketball, badminton, table tennis etc and the courts can be booked on hourly basis. Needless to say this system also works effectively. You find people playing even till 11 PM. I have played more badminton and cricket under lights in these 3 weeks than ever.

9. Rents are super expensive and are tough to find with lot of demand.

10. Traffic gets heavier during morning and evening times but rules are followed and hardly anybody honks.

Why football world cup more is more interesting and highly valued than ICC cricket world cup

1. FIFA has not changed tournament format like ICC for a long time now. The traditional nature makes the tournament more respected.
2. they don’t tinker the tournament to make sure that they have more matches between better teams (super 6 concept).
3. They don’t change the match timings to suit certain audience segment (early day matches in recent T20 world cup for Indian audience)
4. There are more competitive matches in group stage in football unlike in cricket.

This Week In Cricket - 30/5 - 6/6

Zimbabwe Tri series

India's consecutive defeats against Zimbabwe clearly shows the lack of bench strength; compare this against Australian A team and we will know which team will be consistently successful in international cricket. Lack of options in pace bowling department is alarming and needs to be addressed immediately; whether BCCI has time and interest in this amidst IPL fiasco is another matter altogether. The way Zimbabweans chased in the second game shows that after a long interval their cricket is moving in the right direction. Srilanka seems to have found another good wicketkeeper batsmen in Chandimal.

SA-WI series

Like winning, loosing is also a habit (bad one) and WI seems to have the knack of loosing even the games when they were in decent positions. Hashim Amla has been a revelation in this series and definitely will be a great asset to SA in the upcoming world cup in sub continent. AB donning wicket keeping gloves seems to be a hasty move as he is equally valuable as fielder too; he is a case of 'really' being blessed with cricketing talent.

England - Bangladesh test series

England's warm up for the Ashes is going according to plan except for their bowling when the Sun is out; Finn has been a good addition to their lineup and has the potential to play Harmison's role. I have always been a big Andy Flower fan and so far he has displayed same calculated and practical approach he used to show in his batting. He has made some bold decisions in the last few months like getting Keiswetter and Lumb into T20 team and Morgan into test team; most of them have come off well. I have also noticed that England coaches seem to have far more power and say in selection matters compared to other countries and this allows them to plan and work towards according to a plan; can you imagine Gary Kirsten getting that kind of backing from BCCI.

Things I have noticed in IPL so far -11/4/2010

1. More players are discovering that hitting sixes is not as much as a fight as it used to be ex: Vijay, Dravid. Specially Dravid's one of sixes stood due to the way he kept his balance and shape while hitting over long off. Staying still and keeping shape is key to connecting more often that not; this is easier said than done. Symonds is a prime example of this; he can just extend a bit at the last moment and send the ball soaring over the boundary instead of driving to to long off.

2. Teams are not going hammer and tongue in first couple of overs like last couple of years; they have realized that 20 over batting is also about analyzing conditions and then build on it.

3. Only perfect yorkers are effective else slow or normal bouncers are better.

4. Teams have realized the importance of giving opportunities to domestic players as it provides lot of flexibility to rotate the foreign players based on requirements If they succeed.

5. Pure (read good in wicket keeping only) wicket keepers are not required anymore; One who comes closest is Saha(KKR) but he just played for India as a specialist batsman.

6. Teams have realized to bench non performing Indian (international players) players irrespective their star value and money spent on them.

7. Competition for last 2 semifinal spots is a treat to follow and every match is starting to have a huge impact; this does not happen often in cricket tournaments frequently due to lack of quality among teams.

8. The excitement and surprise around sixers is going away; now we are excited by real big ones that clear the ground or hit the tier.