Duncan Fletcher appointed coach

CHENNAI: The former England coach, Duncan Fletcher, has been appointed coach of the Indian cricket team for a period of two years. He takes over from the highly successful Gary Kirsten.

The 62-year-old Fletcher was a path-breaking coach for England from 1999 to 2007. During his tenure, England registered its first Ashes triumph in 18 years and recorded significant away Test series victories in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, the West Indies and South Africa.

As a player, he excelled as an all-rounder — he was an aggressive left-handed batsman and bowled tight right-arm medium pace for Zimbabwe. The highlight of his career was when he skippered Zimbabwe to a stunning win over Australia in a group match of the 1983 World Cup in England. He led from the front too, scoring 69 not out and claiming four wickets for 42.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decided on Fletcher for the top job at its working committee meeting in Mumbai on Wednesday. Eric Simons' role as the bowling coach was extended.

BCCI secretary N. Srinivasan said Fletcher might not join the side during India's tour of the West Indies beginning early June. The new coach would, however, be part of the side for the full tour of England from mid-July.

The taciturn Fletcher, much like Kirsten, shuns the limelight. He has earned respect for strategic brilliance and out-of-the-box thinking.

As England coach, he forged impressive partnerships with captains Nasser Hussain and Michael Vaughan. Fletcher has also played a key role in the development of Marcus Trescothick, Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen. He has the reputation for backing ability, and not numbers.

Duncan Fletcher.

CHENNAI: The former England coach, Duncan Fletcher, has been appointed coach of the Indian cricket team for a period of two years. He takes over from the highly successful Gary Kirsten.

The 62-year-old Fletcher was a path-breaking coach for England from 1999 to 2007. During his tenure, England registered its first Ashes triumph in 18 years and recorded significant away Test series victories in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, the West Indies and South Africa.

As a player, he excelled as an all-rounder — he was an aggressive left-handed batsman and bowled tight right-arm medium pace for Zimbabwe. The highlight of his career was when he skippered Zimbabwe to a stunning win over Australia in a group match of the 1983 World Cup in England. He led from the front too, scoring 69 not out and claiming four wickets for 42.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decided on Fletcher for the top job at its working committee meeting in Mumbai on Wednesday. Eric Simons' role as the bowling coach was extended.

BCCI secretary N. Srinivasan said Fletcher might not join the side during India's tour of the West Indies beginning early June. The new coach would, however, be part of the side for the full tour of England from mid-July.

The taciturn Fletcher, much like Kirsten, shuns the limelight. He has earned respect for strategic brilliance and out-of-the-box thinking.

As England coach, he forged impressive partnerships with captains Nasser Hussain and Michael Vaughan. Fletcher has also played a key role in the development of Marcus Trescothick, Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen. He has the reputation for backing ability, and not numbers.

WASHINGTON: The diplomatic form book shows that every time Pakistan is hauled up by its longtime patron United States, its leaders hare off to Beijing or Riyadh for solace and stash, comfort and cash. Small change in the script this time. Shortly before the top American military official Mike Mullen virtually called Pakistan a terrorist state last week, a charge compounded by Wikileaks cables showing Washington's profound distrust of Islamabad, Pakistan's prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani hotfooted it to Kabul. There, flanked by his military supremo Ashfaq Kiyani and chief spook Shuja Pasha, he is said to have made an audacious pitch to the beleaguered Afghan President Hamid Karzai: Let's both ditch US and hitch our stars to China. The development, first reported in the Wall Street Journal, has stunned Washington at a time US appears confused and vulnerable on the geo-political and domestic front, with big personnel changes in the Obama administration, a President seeking re-election, a struggling economy, and rising tensions across the world. There are cries of betrayal and disbelief at perceived Pakistani perfidy in some circles, with calls for re-ordering the relationship. According to the WSJ account of the April 16 meeting, Gilani bluntly told Karzai that the Americans had failed them both, the US policy of trying to open peace talks while at the same time fighting the Taliban made no sense, and he should forget about allowing a long-term US. military presence in his country. Gilani also reportedly said America's economic problems meant it couldn't be expected to support long-term regional development and argued that a better partner would be China, Pakistan's "all-weather" friend. There is no word on whether Karzai, who has also been having problems with the Obama administration, took the bait. The Journal said Karzai was wavering on the overtures with pro and anti-American factions around him trying to sway him to their side. But there is growing anger in Washington at Pakistan's gambit, which comes at a time Islamabad is living on US dole even as Americans tax payers are starting to question US munificence. Pakistan's finance minister Hafeez Shaikh was in Washington seeking to speed up US aid and another Washington-supported bail-out from IMF even as Gilani, shepherded by Kayani and Pasha, was trying to outflank America in Kabul. Pakistan has expectedly denied the exchanges. "Reports claiming Gilani-Karzai discussion abt Pakistan advising alignment away fm US are inaccurate," the country's ambassador to the US., Hussain Haqqani tweeted on Wednesday. The Pakistani foreign office spokeswoman Tehmina Janjua termed it "the most ridiculous report we have come across." But US experts are taking it seriously and there has been a flurry of analyses on what the Pakistani gambit could lead to. "Whether the article quotes Gilani accurately is not the central issue. There have been enough indications over the last year that Pakistan is not on board with the US. strategy in Afghanistan," said Heritage Foundation's Lisa Curtis, a former CIA analyst. "It is plausible that Pakistan has decided to start playing its cards with Afghan and Chinese leaders to try to achieve its own objectives in Afghanistan." Some analysts feel the contours of the new great game in the region point to a confluence of interest between China, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia on one side and India, US, Iran and Russia on the other side. But "China consolidates the former while the US splits the latter," says Nitin Pai, fellow at the Takshashila Foundation. A more benign explanation offered by Americans for the Pak-Afghan tango and the deliberate leaking of its details by Kabul is that the players are trying to get the best bargain from Washington as US seeks to withdraw troops from the region. Yet, in a reflection of US. concerns about Pakistan's overtures, the commander of the US.-led coalition, Gen. David Petraeus, is said to have met Karzai three times since April 16 to reassure the Afghan leader that he has America's support and to nudge forward progress on the strategic partnership deal which will define their future relationship, including American bases and support. Pakistan, for obvious reasons, resents and fears a pro-American, pro-Indian regime in Kabul that will keep out the Taliban yahoos that Islamabad and its axis backs.

Pak tries to outflank US and India in Kabul with China card

WASHINGTON: The diplomatic form book shows that every time Pakistan is hauled up by its longtime patron United States, its leaders hare off to Beijing or Riyadh for solace and stash, comfort and cash. Small change in the script this time. Shortly before the top American military official Mike Mullen virtually called Pakistan a terrorist state last week, a charge compounded by Wikileaks cables showing Washington's profound distrust of Islamabad, Pakistan's prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani hotfooted it to Kabul. There, flanked by his military supremo Ashfaq Kiyani and chief spook Shuja Pasha, he is said to have made an audacious pitch to the beleaguered Afghan President Hamid Karzai: Let's both ditch US and hitch our stars to China. The development, first reported in the Wall Street Journal, has stunned Washington at a time US appears confused and vulnerable on the geo-political and domestic front, with big personnel changes in the Obama administration, a President seeking re-election, a struggling economy, and rising tensions across the world. There are cries of betrayal and disbelief at perceived Pakistani perfidy in some circles, with calls for re-ordering the relationship. According to the WSJ account of the April 16 meeting, Gilani bluntly told Karzai that the Americans had failed them both, the US policy of trying to open peace talks while at the same time fighting the Taliban made no sense, and he should forget about allowing a long-term US. military presence in his country. Gilani also reportedly said America's economic problems meant it couldn't be expected to support long-term regional development and argued that a better partner would be China, Pakistan's "all-weather" friend. There is no word on whether Karzai, who has also been having problems with the Obama administration, took the bait. The Journal said Karzai was wavering on the overtures with pro and anti-American factions around him trying to sway him to their side. But there is growing anger in Washington at Pakistan's gambit, which comes at a time Islamabad is living on US dole even as Americans tax payers are starting to question US munificence. Pakistan's finance minister Hafeez Shaikh was in Washington seeking to speed up US aid and another Washington-supported bail-out from IMF even as Gilani, shepherded by Kayani and Pasha, was trying to outflank America in Kabul. Pakistan has expectedly denied the exchanges. "Reports claiming Gilani-Karzai discussion abt Pakistan advising alignment away fm US are inaccurate," the country's ambassador to the US., Hussain Haqqani tweeted on Wednesday. The Pakistani foreign office spokeswoman Tehmina Janjua termed it "the most ridiculous report we have come across." But US experts are taking it seriously and there has been a flurry of analyses on what the Pakistani gambit could lead to. "Whether the article quotes Gilani accurately is not the central issue. There have been enough indications over the last year that Pakistan is not on board with the US. strategy in Afghanistan," said Heritage Foundation's Lisa Curtis, a former CIA analyst. "It is plausible that Pakistan has decided to start playing its cards with Afghan and Chinese leaders to try to achieve its own objectives in Afghanistan." Some analysts feel the contours of the new great game in the region point to a confluence of interest between China, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia on one side and India, US, Iran and Russia on the other side. But "China consolidates the former while the US splits the latter," says Nitin Pai, fellow at the Takshashila Foundation. A more benign explanation offered by Americans for the Pak-Afghan tango and the deliberate leaking of its details by Kabul is that the players are trying to get the best bargain from Washington as US seeks to withdraw troops from the region. Yet, in a reflection of US. concerns about Pakistan's overtures, the commander of the US.-led coalition, Gen. David Petraeus, is said to have met Karzai three times since April 16 to reassure the Afghan leader that he has America's support and to nudge forward progress on the strategic partnership deal which will define their future relationship, including American bases and support. Pakistan, for obvious reasons, resents and fears a pro-American, pro-Indian regime in Kabul that will keep out the Taliban yahoos that Islamabad and its axis backs.

Pilots' strike: 60 Air India flights cancelled, several others delayed

NEW DELHI: Around 60 Air India flights were cancelled while several others delayed on the second day of the pilots' strike which continued despite the Delhi High Court directing them to return to work. In Delhi, 33 domestic and five international flights to Kathmandu, Kabul and Dubai were cancelled as the airline management decided to operate only those flights for which cabin crew as well as adequate pilots were available. Similarly, unavailability of cockpit crew forced the national carrier to cancel around 19 flights, including two international ones, out of Mumbai. "These cancellation have been done as per our contingency plan under which we had decided to operate only those flights for which pilots and cabin crew were available," an Air India official said. To tide over the crisis, the national carrier has decided to rope in 150 management or executive pilots to operate the flights, the official said. Yesterday, at least 40 Air India flights were cancelled on the first day of the strike by its pilots causing enormous hardship to thousands of travellers. Demanding removal of Air India CMD and a CBI probe into the alleged mismanagement, 800-odd pilots belonging to the erstwhile Indian Airlines and owing allegiance to the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) had gone on an indefinite strike from Tuesday midnight. Taking a stern view of the stroke, Air India management sacked six ICPA leaders including President Capt A S Bhinder and General Secretary Capt Rishabh Kapur, derecognised the union and sealed their offices across the country. Also, the Delhi High Court asked the agitating pilots to call off their strike in "larger public interest". The ICPA leaders said they may move Supreme Court today after completing the legal consultations.

China determined to end the reign of the US currency

Earlier this month the BRICS cEarlier this month the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) agreed at their summit meeting in Sanya, China, to establish mutual lines of credit in local currencies. On the face of it, this is an innocuous effort by the world's fastest growing countries to strengthen their mutual relationship . However, in the context of the emerging global power relations , this is yet another important step in the Chinese initiative to end the reign of the dollar as the world's single reserve currency. Two years ago i wrote in these columns about the Chinese campaign to dethrone the dollar. Shortly before the G20 London summit , China's central bank governor announced that the dollar should be replaced by SDRs. This was a shrewd approach. About half of China's foreign exchange reserves of $2 trillion are reportedly held as dollar denominated assets, as indeed are large chunks of the reserves of many central banks. This large exposure implies that any major depreciation of the dollar would severely erode the value of these assets. At the same time, large diversification of these reserves away from the dollar is not an option. Such a move itself would trigger a sharp depreciation of the dollar. But the exchange rate of SDR is a weighted average of a basket of convertible currencies, and a swap of dollars for SDRs at a predetermined exchange rate would allow China, and other countries , to significantly reduce their dollar exposure without any erosion of the value of their reserves. Of course, it would also end the reign of the dollar. At the time, most analysts dismissed the Chinese initiative as impractical and unworkable. However, China has taken several strategic steps to carry forward its agenda through alternative routes. It has established currency swap arrangements with several developing countries , which protects their trade with China against the risk of their currencies depreciating. The initial value of these arrangements was quite modest, less than $100 billion. However, during the past two years, the volume of these arrangements would have grown significantly and could eventually cover the entire trade of these countries with China. Reportedly, Russia has also adopted the same approach. China is also leading the initiative for an Asian Monetary Fund. The IMF vehemently opposed the idea when it was originally mooted by Japan during the Asian financial crisis. However, the idea was revived a year later as the Chiang Mai initiative of the ASEAN + 3 (China, Japan, Korea), and finally became a reality when the fund was launched in 2009, this time with IMF support. The initial capital of the fund was quite modest. However, this fund could eventually be scaled up to cover the entire foreign exchange risk of total intra-ASEAN + 3 trade. On top of these earlier moves, China has now led the latest initiative to establish mutual lines of credit in local currencies to protect intra-BRICS trade from foreign exchange risk. The volume of this trade is only around $230 billion at present, but as a measure of potential, it is noted that the BRICS countries together account for over 15% of world trade, worth over $4.5 trillion.

Consumers slapped with ‘paid bills’ of last 6 months

April 27: Thousands of consumers in surrounding municipalities are regularly receiving astronomical water bills along with arrears of six months to one year despite the fact that they have been paying their water bills regularly. In spite of consumers producing water bill receipts paid by them every month, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board is continuing to serve demand notices to them to either pay the bill amount along with arrears, ranging from `10,000 to `50,000, or their water lines would be disconnected.
Mr K. N. Srihari of Malkajgiri municipal area is one such consumer who has proof of his bill payments. “I have been served with a demand notice to pay `9,258. I went to the general manager of the Water Board in the area and showed him paid bills. There are 10,000 such cases,” he said. Enquiries by this correspondent revealed that the Water Board does not have details of all connections existing in the surrounding municipalities. Moreover, the Board does not have accurate bill payment information of consumers in peripheral areas. This is due to lack of coordination between HMWS&SB officials and the GHMC.

Outsourced varsity jobs open to graft

OuOutsourcing jobs at examination branches in state universities is becoming a major problem with it coming to light that outsourced employees have been instrumental in leaking question papers and tampering answer sheets for money. In Osmania University itself, out of 1,100 sanctioned posts, only 600 are regular employees and the rest have been appointed on contract basis through outsourcing.
Even the Board of Intermediate Education and the SSC Board have over 100 employees working on contract basis. The situation is so bad that by paying anything between `5,000 and `20,000, one can get any type of work done with the help of outsourced employees in the examination branches, from leaking question papers to tampering answer sheets and manipulation of marks.
Outsourced employees, who get meagre salaries of `5,000, are often lured with bribes as high as Rs 20,000, depending on the risk. Despite several incidents of outsourced employees being involved in irregularities, the state government still prefers to continue with the contract recruitment system citing “financial constraints”. The recent incident of the B.Com paper leak at OU and the tampering of M.Tech answer sheets in JNTU-Hyderabad are only the tip of the iceberg. Sources say that many such incidents go unreported in universities and the government and university officials remain mute spectators.
Repeated requests of Vice-Chancellors to allot “regular posts” in universities, at least in departments involved in confidential works such as exam duties, are falling on deaf ears. “We have sent proposals for recruiting regular staff in exam branches several times. However, there has been no response from the finance department,” said Prof. D.N. Reddy, V-C, JNTU-Hyderabad. In some cases, the state finance department has been advising the V-Cs to look for “outsourcing employees” even for appointing the controller of examinations, the key official in exam duties, when they approach them with proposals requesting allotment of regular posts.tsourced varsity jobs open to graft