History of Cricket in India

History of Cricket in India Cricket is religion in India. How many times have we heard that in the news, read that in newspaper, quoted in conversations? Though the National game of India is Hockey but it is cricket that has the Indian publics heart. People follow this game like a religion. People in India might not be aware of Indian Hockey teams captain but they are aware of cricketers playing for the first time in national colours. Corporate houses, politicians, even the media wants to get associated with cricket in one form or the other. This wasnt always the case with cricket. There was a time when cricket was a game only for the royals and the privileged and the common man had no or very little access to it. Cricket was started in India by the British as early as 1791. It wasnt late in the 19th and early 20th century that it was played with a lot more interest. In 1932 India became one of the few counties to be given the right to play international cricket. A lot of people along with the then king of England followed the game. India, along with other countries became a regular in International cricket, but it was an average cricket playing nation. It was followed by a lot of people now, but there was very little media coverage. This might have been due to the poor performance of Indian cricket team during this time. This might also be attributed to the fact that Indian Hockey was at its best during this time racking in medals after medals at Olympics and other International events. In 1983, a shocking turn of events took place; India won the World Cup. They did so by beating the then cricket powerhouse West Indies in the finals. Indian cricket team received a heros welcome. They were the new talk of the town. Everybody wanted to see them, talk about them and know about them. Around this time, television also started making its way into Indian peoples drawing rooms. This is when the media, though limited in its scope, got a chance to bring these cricketers closer to Indian audiences and fans. This was to open a door of endless possibilities which were beneficial for both the parties. This was the first time Indian cricketers started making money through endorsements and sponsorship deals. This trend was started by Sunil Gavaskar. But Media had a big hand to play in it. The popularity of these cricketers was as much due to the coverage of their feats in the newspapers, television news (mainly Doordarshan) and radio. In the 90s two other new changes came which were about to revolutionize cricket and media both. The advent of cable television was about to change how news was viewed and how Indian audiences looked at entertainment. The rise of Sachin Tendulkar also was a phenomenon which brought unlimited money into cricket and cricketers became richer and richer through sponsorship deals and endorsements. In 1995, worldtel signed Sachin Tendulkar for Rs 30 crore, and after this, there was no looking back for cricketers. The beginning of 24 hours news channels saw the start of entertainment and news merging together. The media got too involved in the lives of cricketers and everything a cricketer did was in the limelight. The audience wanted to know everything about their favourite cricketer and the media delivered. This led to the crazy idolization of cricketers when they performed and their fall was even more dramatic whenever they failed. Media was instrumental in shedding light on the match fixing scandal that shook the cricket world. Before that, the cricket world used to talk about it in hush tones and nobody was sure what was going on. But the whole Hansie Cronje incident also brought down many big names and media had a big role in providing evidence against the culprits. Initially the role of the media in Indian cricket was progressive during the transitional period in the Indian cricket, where we were transitioning from an average cricket playing nation to a force to reckon with. But now, the Indian media, in my opinion (particularly the electronic media) does not serve the interest of the people and cricket in general in fact some of it is positively anti-cricket. The Indian media today is busy making profits or helping some political party fulfil a political agenda. Earning money through selling stories about crickets to the masses and bringing controversies like these are not the only motive that media has with cricket. Media often diverts the attention of the people from real issues to non-issues. The real issues in India are socio-economic. Even in cricket the real issues are development based. In olden times emperors used to say if you cannot feed them bread, then give them circus This is what the Indian media is doing today. Nobody would disagree with the fact that a little entertainment in news would not harm anyone, but today the media is overdoing it. Media distracts people from real issues using entertainment and what better way to distract people than cricket. The best example of this would be India-Pakistan relations. The partition of 1947 and the resultant turmoil triggered off hatred, distrust and prejudice in almost every sphere of activity in the sub-continent. Interestingly, it was cricket that formed the first bilateral exchange in 1952 when Pakistan, led by Abdul Hafeez Kardar, toured India, evoking a spontaneous, albeit tense, response. It was reciprocated two years later when India paid the first official visit under Vinoo Mankad, generating an equally sensitive response. Yet since 1947 a cricket conflict brewed simultaneously between the two countries, based on the nationalist antagonism between the two teams and backed by passionate fans on both sides. And even today whenever there is a talk of the Indian and Pakistani dialogue over politics and peace process, it starts with resuming Indo-Pak cricket ties. And thus starts the agenda of distracting the general public from the real issues. Indian public, (not as a generalisation) is not disappointed with the failure in the peace negotiati on as long as we win the cricket match between the two countries. Today Indo-Pak cricket offers a striking case study to see how a political conflict between two states has trickled down to the mass level and saturated the mass psyche to such an extent, that political hostilities are not only played on the Line of Control but also on the cricket field. This mass psyche of a purported nationalist conflict has been also revved by years of state propaganda against the enemy country, which permeated in all forms of interaction and exchange with the enemy be it sports or war. Media often divides people. Be it about bomb blast, Indias Foreign policy or Indias chances in the next cricket world cup. It is healthy for a country and its people to have debates and opposing views, but the way media works in India, we are being fed opinions about how we should think about policies, personalities and situations. Our views and opinions are polarized by the media and we see through their eyes. There was a time when Indian cricketers did not have money, and except for the cricketers playing at the international level, domestic cricketers had to struggle with their career and money. But Indian cricket board became one of the richest sporting bodies in the world. And then came IPL, the country was divided between whether it was fair for cricketers, especially young cricketers starting their careers, to get ridiculous amount of money. Then there was corruption and this heated up the debate even more. IPL was used by politicians, movie stars, corporate houses and media houses as well to their advantage (not taking into account Deccan chronicles recent decline). IPL became a way for everyone to earn money and easy publicity. Media also became a part of this honey pot. Constant coverage of not just cricket but of the cricketers activities, the parties and the over analysis of performances, all became part of what media circus that was IPL. Media has now become so powerful that based on one failure or success it can create stars and make villains. The Ganguly-Chappell controversy was brought to the general public by the media. Something that was supposed to stay in the dressing room was now at the medias disposal. It led to the downfall of both Ganguly as well as Greg Chappell. Media and the players have started to understand how to use each other for their own benefit. Players have started using media to increase their popularity, joining social networking sites, remaining in the public eye. All this gets them bigger and better pay checks. Today the fee these stars charge for a single endorsement is astronomical. Media has had a big role to play in that. Also a lot of players make up some controversy right before they release their autobiography. They leak some controversial part of the book and then media does the rest. But Media also benefits from these cricketers. Players give them sound bites, come as guests for expert opinions, which raises the TRPs of their programs and gets them advertising spots as well. Indian Public has been fed with large amount of information by the 24 hours news channels but the quality and standard of its content have become extremely narrow. The glitz and the glamour of television have taken the Indian viewer by storm. They surf from channel to channel, mindlessly viewing and getting information that they might not need leaving them confused and perplexed and unable to think for themselves and thats when media feeds them information that they want the viewer to take. The amount of money involved in cricket today and the influence it holds over the general Indian public is huge, and that make a very powerful motivator for the media to use cricket as a tool to further its agendas in India and the world.

Companies and the Customers Who Hate Them Essay

How can customer dissatisfaction lead to higher profits for the company? Companies have found out that ill-informed customers can be beneficial for them in terms of profits. Some companies have abused their customers intentionally, however others unwittingly exploited and took advantage of them. The Slippery slope: There are two major ways in which companies make profits by misleading their customers: * Offering the customers a broad variety of services or products, which can be very confusing, especially when there is lack of transparency. Moreover, if even the information is complete for the customers, the companies can take advantages of consumers’ difficulties in predicting their needs. * Using fees and penalties for offsetting costs and discouraging undesirable customer behavior. These hostile strategies are common from banking and hotel industries to video stores and car rentals. Here particularly 3 industries will be discussed in details: cell phone industry, retail- banking industry and health club industry. Cell phone industry: When a customer signs up for a service plan, he chooses a certain pricing option with different ranges of minutes. These plans can have various restrictions and allowances. However, these varied plans are not a result of customer-centric strategy. They are rather ways to take advantage of customer’s unawareness of which plan to choose, in the result of which customers can be penalized either for using too much time or for not using enough. However, such strategies cannot always guarantee profits for the company. They can increase the dissatisfaction among customers, the proof of which can be thousands of complaints that the U. S. Federal Communications Commission gets annually. These complaints should be worrisome to companies because customers can switch toward a transparent and friendly alternative. Retail-banking industry: Another sphere in which the company-centric strategy is used is retail-banking industry. For signing up in the checking accounts people are offered dozens of alternatives. If the customers cannot precisely predict their needs, they can have losses. Here are some examples of situations when the banks take advantage over the customers’ ignorance * The customers receive less interest when the consumers’ balances are above the minimum of the balance bucket and if the alances fall below the minimum level, they have to pay some penalties. * Banks usually debit the consumers’ checks in the order of size, rather than in a chronological order, for the rest of the checks to bounce and to cause multiple overdrafts, consequently penalties. The company-centric strategy of banks led to the customers’ dissatisfaction and it became so pervasive that New York congresswoman Carolyn Maloney reintroduced the Consumer Overdraft Protection Fair Practices Act to forbid banks charging overdraft protection fees, unless the customers explicitly are informed about the service. Health club industry: Health clubs tempt customers to sign long-term contracts, knowing that they will rarely visit the club. They realize that all their customers will not completely use the facility and therefore sell more memberships than they have the floor space to accommodate. Moreover, an investigation conducted by the New York City Council concluded that 41% of clubs didn’t explain their fees in writing, 81% didn’t give potential members a contract to read at home and 96% didn’t inform customers of all the ways they could legally cancel a contract. In New Jersey a lot of complaints have brought litigation against almost two dozen health clubs that provided fraudulent contracts. Health clubs require to spend more time to attract new customers because their existing ones try to find a way out. Moreover they even encourage ways to retain customers with reward points for members who work out regularly. The warning signs: According to the research most of the executives are acknowledging the negative effects of the functions described above but they mention that those actions do not represent an intentional strategy. The executives know that because of these negative practices the companies slid down the slippery slope and have difficulties for purchasing on the way back up thus becoming vulnerable for the competitors. For avoiding this practice the executives should ask themselves the questions mentioned bellow. * Are our most profitable customers those who have reasons to be dissatisfied with us? * Do we have rules we want customers to break because doing so generates profits? Do we make it difficult for customers to understand or abide by our rules, and do we actually help customers break them? * Do we depend on contracts to prevent customers from defecting? Climbing back into favor: Effective CEOs are able to recognize the opportunities and eliminate the negative effects which make the company vulnerable. The company centric strategies can cause loss of the target market and profitability in a long-term period, thus many companies prefer being economically sustainable.

Mineral and Water Essay

There are over 20 minerals that a person needs to include in their diet to stay healthy. Some of these make up a significant portion of someone body weight, others are found only in minute quantities. The major minerals are sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium, phosphorous, magnesium, and sulfur. Minerals that are; and these include iron, copper, zinc, selenium, iodine, chromium, fluoride, manganese, molybdenum, and more. Neither mineral is more important than the other. A deficiency of a trace element can be damaging to your health as a deficiency of a major mineral. Minerals contribute to body structure and are involved in the regulation of the processes that maintain life. Many minerals have more than one function. Like calcium is needed to keep our bones strong as well as to keep blood pressure normal, allow muscles to contract, and transmit nerve signals from cell to cell. Some other minerals help regulate fluid balance, others regulate energy production, and some affect gene expression. Many act as cofactors needed for enzyme activity. Just like minerals water plays and important part in our body. Water makes up in adults 60% of body weight, and in children and infants 70%. Water is found in varying proportions in all the tissues of the body; muscles are about 75% water and bone is about 25% water. Water bathes the cells and lubricates and cleanses internal and external body surfaces. Watery tears lubricate the eyes and wash away dirt, synovial fluid lubricates the joints, and saliva lubricates the mouth making it easier to chew and swallow food. Blood, which is mostly water, flows through our bodies, delivering oxygen and nutrients to cells and returning waste products to the lungs and kidneys for excretion. Water also functions in chemical reactions and helps regulate body temperature. When the body is releasing more water than it is in taking a person can become dehydrated. Dehydration is a depletion of body water, will cause symptoms more rapidly than a deficiency of any other nutrient. Dehydration can be life threating. When water losses are great enough to reduce blood volume, the ability to deliver oxygen and nutrients to cells and remove waste products is affected. From reading the article â€Å"Coconut Water†, the benefits of drinking coconut water are that it is rich with minerals, vitamins, antioxidants, enzymes and growth factors. Coconut water is also used to relieve or ease dehydration, fatigue, constipation, and other digestive disturbances. Coconut water also is used to reduce the risk of high blood pressure and stroke.

Gun Rights Vs. Gun Control - 856 Words

Gun control is an extremely controversial issue in the United States, and the debates around this topic has started many decades ago. According to the article â€Å"Gun Rights vs. Gun control† by Brianna Gurciullo, these debates are fueled by the people who defend the gun rights and the people who advocate in favor of gun control. It has been difficult to prove that gun ownership is directly related to an increase in violence due to the fact that researches tend to disagree on the impact of gun ownership in the American society. These debates tend to be brought to the spotlight whenever there is a mass shooting in the United States, which according to Abbey Oldham, who is a reporter from the PBS News Hour, happens quite frequently. However, organizations, such as the National Rifle Association (NRA), defend that the laws for gun control violate the Second Amendment of the constitution, which states â€Å"the right of the people to keep and bear arms† stated Gurciullo. D ue to the distinct interpretations of the constitution and the difficulty to agree on the best approach to tackle the issue, this controversy seem to be almost unsolvable. The people who advocate in favor of gun control have several arguments to support their idea. They defend that gun control would help to reduce the number of mass shootings in the United States and the crimes that are related to firearms. Oldham highlighted that the United States had 372 mass shooting, where 475 were killed and 1870 were injured inShow MoreRelatedGun Control Vs. Gun Rights968 Words   |  4 PagesGun Control vs. Gun Rights With conservatives, liberals, and moderates continuously arguing about what is right for this country or what is morally or politically correct, we are forced to find a compromised middle-ground, because it can be the difference between life and death in many unfortunate cases. 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