This Ain't Cricket

Andrew Symonds in no Adam Gilchrist. He doesn't walk when his nick is caught. But his confession at the end of the first day of the second Test in Sydney - that he was lucky not to be given out by umpire Steve Bucknor - is a reflection of today's cricket.

Let's put his remark in perspective. Bucknor gave him the reprieve when Symonds had scored only 30 runs. His wicket could have helped Indians to wrap up Australia for less than 250 runs. Instead, Symonds rampaged to an unbeaten 162 and in the process helped his team finish at 463. That's a competitive score on a fast-paced Sydney track and the umpire's error may well have turned the tide in Australia's favour. And you thought batsmen and bowlers won or lost matches!

Today, Symonds is not an exception in world cricket. His captain, Ricky Ponting, has always maintained that the umpire ought to tell him to go if he has to. He, too, did not walk when he knew he was out to Sourav Ganguly on Wednesday.

Many others among today's cricketers play the game hard and in a manner similar to that of Ponting. Similarly, Bucknor is not an exception among umpires. He, and other umpires, have erred before and, in all probability, will in future.

When cricket was a gentleman's game, umpiring was a simpler task. The bowler and fielders appealed when they genuinely thought the batsman was out, and the batsman didn't wait for the umpire's decision when he knew he was out. Trust was built into the conduct of the game. The umpire could trust players' reactions and take a decision accordingly.

The pressure on umpires was far less than now. But cricket is a highly competitive sport today, almost a war between nations. Teams play to win at all costs. In that perspective, the Symonds' incident is a watershed.

New situations call for new methods of judgment and umpiring has to change with the times to ensure high standards of fairness. Technology can raise the quality of umpiring significantly by reducing the human error factor. The concept of a third umpire, who watches the game in the pavilion armed with technology that facilitates replays and slow-motion views from various angles, was introduced in the 1990s to minimise umpiring errors.

However, the third umpire currently has a limited role as an aide to umpires on the field. It is left to the discretion of umpires on the ground whether to seek the third umpire's opinion. That has to change. Give players the right to appeal - maybe with a limited number allowed per innings - to the third umpire.

Such checks and balances would ensure that players get a fair deal in an age when gentlemanly understanding and trust are less respected than the precision of technology.

Google Paper -- Hows that sound

AFTER colonising cyberspace, Google is going into the newspaper business.

The search engine giant is in talks with several newspaper publishers to sell space in their pages to its online clients.

This expansion will worry bosses of rival media companies who have already called for greater regulation of the fast-growing Google.

Google Print Ads is an extension of Google AdWords, the auction system that lets companies bid for a slot that appears alongside specific online word searches.

Instead of an auction, advertisers pick a newspaper online through Google and enter a bid for available advertising space on a given page and day.

But rather than offering to pay the list price, customers say what they are prepared to pay. Publishers can choose to accept or decline the offer.

Google takes a slice of the advertising revenue from every deal struck. It even offers to design the ad if the advertiser does not have the capability to do it alone. "We believe that online and offline are part of the same melting pot," Google said. "It is not an 'either or'."

Google's British advertising revenues rose roughly 40 per cent to about pound stg. 1.25 billion ($2.8 billion) this year, overtaking the publisher Trinity Mirror's income, which includes newspaper sales on top of advertising.

Print Ads, which started in the US mid-year, already supplies 600 titles, ranging from the 3000-sales-a-day Shelbyville Daily Union in Illinois to the Charlotte Observer in North Carolina, which sells 215,000.

A British newspaper boss said: "It is an interesting development with the prospect of bringing new advertisers into our newspapers. If advertisers find it to be an effective channel, then there is the prospect to form direct relationships on a more normal basis."

Be Indian. Be Proud

An Indian American has created a new social networking and community website specifically designed for the large Indian population in the US.

Palani Velusamy, creator of myindianplace.com, realised that the Indian community in the US, which is mostly highly educated and affluent, did not really have a central meeting place totally devoted to their culture.

"Despite the fact that there is a large Indian community in the US, there are not a lot of sites that are dedicated to the Indian community. After visiting MySpace.com, it occurred to me that a site specialising in various ethnic groups might be really beneficial," he said.

Visitors can create profiles, share pictures, socialise, and keep abreast of news that is important to the Indian community, a press release said.

"It is so great that someone has created this kind of site for Indians," said Rakesh Ahuja, a member. "I mean, just knowing that the majority of people that you are going to be meeting on the myindianplace.com site are going to be familiar with my culture mean a lot to me. It is really cool and I really like it. It is my hope that word spreads quickly about this site and that Indians here in this country all use it," he said.

The motto on the website is: Be Indian. Be Proud.

"As a culture, Indians who have grown up in the states are a unique people," said Palani. "We love America, and most of us really enjoy the way of life here. However, most of us also want to keep our ties with some of the old ways and certainly want to meet other Indians in order to socialise. In some areas of the country, that can be very difficult if the Indian community is not all that large," he said.