India v Pakistan - Cricket Analytics!

As a very big fan of cricket, I am also deeply interested in the statistics that underpin game. For every aspect of cricket, you can be sure that there is a statistic for it. Balls faced? Check. Balls bowled? Check. Catches taken? Check. Singles taken? Check...and so on. However, today, I wanted to find out a different statistic. And it was all to do with the upcoming game between India and Pakistan. India v Pakistan as a contest has almost no parallels with any other country v country contest in any other sport barring football/soccer games between the Easter Europe nations. The two countries have fought 3 wars, and still remain wary of each other. A mix of history, politics, skill and temperament by both teams means that there is no contest between these two nations that is without drama, excitement action and on top of it all, some amazing cricket. The genesis for this piece of "cricket analytics" started oh-so-innocently, with a colleague of mine telling me "Prasanna, I don't think India will win tomorrow". When I pressed further for the reason why, assuming it might have been on the cricketing skill of India, the answer I got was "Tomorrow's friday, the day of 'jumma'". 'Jumma' according to Wikipedia is the traditional Friday prayer for Muslims. Pakistan's official title is "the Islamic Republic of Pakistan". I fondly remember 'Jumma' from the superhit song "Jumma Chumma De De" from the movie Hum. Nevertheless, I concurred that it would be rather hard for India. I did recall the fact (or so I thought) that India v Pakistan games on a Friday, had always ended in a Pakistan victory. However, we did not rest there. For every 'cricketing fact' there is always a way to determine its veracity. The "bible" for cricketing statistics, is the ESPN Cricinfo StatsGuru. Armed with this website, as well as having time to kill, we proceeded on the following: We first found out the number of ODIs played between India and Pakistan, sorted by the date on which these ODIs played. India and Pakistan, have played 126 ODIs, of which 122 have had a result with India winning just under 41% of matches. How many have occured on each of the days of the week? Well the answer is below:

	Wins	Loss	N/R	% Wins	% Loss	% N/R
Sunday	11	16	1	39%	57%	4%
Monday	5	4	0	56%	44%	0%
Tuesday	6	6	0	50%	50%	0%
Wednesday	7	7	3	41%	41%	18%
Thursday	5	6	0	45%	55%	0%
Friday	5	24	0	17%	83%	0%
Saturday	11	9	0	55%	45%	0%

However, this includes all World Cup games. India and Pakistan have played 4 ODI World Cup games. Note that India has never lost to Pakistan. What days of the week were these games played? Answer:

	WC Games Played
Sunday	1
Monday	1
Tuesday
Wednesday	1
Thursday
Friday
Saturday	2

So the next question is, if these games are taken away from the overall tally, how does this affect India's chances?

Day of Week	Wins	% Wins
Sunday	10	37%
Monday	4	50%
Tuesday	6	50%
Wednesday	6	38%
Thursday	5	45%
Friday	5	17%
Saturday	9	50%

So there you go. India v Pakistan on Fridays means India has a 17% of victory. However, as Disraeli remarked "There are three kinds of liars: liars, damned liars and statisticians"!!! Cricket is a game of glorious uncertainities! May the best team win!!!

Depression....

Just over a week ago, a young actor from the regional Telugu Film Industry known as Tollywood, Uday Kiran, took his own life by hanging himself from the ceiling wall. While the investigation into his tragic death are still going on, it is speculated that being unemployed for a long part of time subsequently led to depression which may have played a role into his untimely death.

As an aficionado of Telugu films, I had been impressed with Uday's early movies. His movies were romantic-action capers, with an element of college/university life thrown in. The TFI performs as a kind of ogliarchy according to news articles, no different to other film industries worldwide, where family members of illustrious actors of the years past, control the "shots" (no pun intended). Thus a young commerce graduate making it big without a "Godfather" was seen by many as a welcome change and his movies were awaited with excitement. Added to this, were three successive hits, and soon he was the second-youngest winner of India's National Film Award for Best Actor, with only Kamal Hassan an acting powerhouse of South India. One of his movies "Nuvvu Nenu", meaning "You and I" still remains a personal favourite of mine, with it's dialogues, screenplay and music (one can listen to a song which rocked the charts that year, titled "Gajuvaka Pilla", "The lass from Gajuvaka [a town in Andhra Pradesh]" here) It soon became apparent that this young actor was heading into the big leagues, when a personal setback and some would say poor choices of movies took a toll. With hindsight being 20/20 with clear skies, one could have argued that had he chosen to, for lack of a better word, "diversify", he would be able to hedge his risks and even if he couldn't regain the stardom at the start of his career, he could have still been around. Howevever, I digress.

My thoughts aren't about what Uday Kiran could/should/would have done. I found it deeply tragic that a young man, with immense potential, who had appeared to put the past behind him, felt so alone, so helpless, that he saw no other way out than to end his life. Not having been diagnosed with depression, I am in no way qualified to even proffer any kind of advice how to deal with it. Indeed, a good friend of mine, a classmate and now colleague at work sent me this picture below, which I found quite apt. It shows scenarios where the advice given to those depressed is given to those suffering from other illnesses:

Although not having suffered depression, I was exposed to it during my formative years when a family member had a bout of depression. She is the most toughest member of the family mentally and while I did not realise it then, time, research and public knowledge has made me wise to the fact depression, like other illnesses knows no age, no gender and no barriers. It affects all without fear or fervour. At the time, the family member sought refuge in family friends, one of whom was a doctor. I believe what got her through was this close circle of friends and her unwavering faith in spirituality. However, this isn't a treatment for everyone and I still believe it is the responsibility of anyone who knows people suffering from depression to approach qualified help. When close family friends confide in the fact that they were "feeling down every day", "not wanting to wake up and go to work", "not wanting to talk to anyone", it suggests something more than just "Monday morning blues"; something that requires professional assistance. I consider myself fortunate to be there for those who wanted to help. Indeed my (finite) knowledge of depression comes only from the fact sheets of not-for-profit organisations aimed at fighting the stigma and misinformation associated with depression.

Another thing which seemed to rile me during this entire episode (notwithstanding the sickening TV coverage of the tragedy), was comments made to the effect that Uday Kiran was a "coward" who "ran away from problems". I consider this not only insulting to the memory of Uday Kiran, but also a reason why diagnosed with depression, suffer in silence. We may never understand what drove a 33 year old young man to suicide, but the least we can do, is to ensure our friends, family and acquaintances always know they have access to qualified support services in the case of mental illness.

NOTE: For further information on depression and other mental illnesses please visit www.beyondblue.com.au

The year that was!

The year that was....and what a year it was.

Beginning Jan 1 of 2013 by partying with some of my closest friends at the Indian School of Business, and then making a 250km dash to Vijaywada to pay respects to our family deity, missing my return train and then catching the bus back to Hyderabad, I did not realise at that time what the year had in store. As I look back, it has been a monumental year, personally and professionally. I have grown, I have regressed. I have matured, I have acted impulsively. I received gifts and awards I will cherish through the rest of my life; I have made monumental errors of judgement. As I climbed peaks, I faltered at the straights. Enough of metaphors. I have shed a tear as one of my heroes retired from a sport that has been his life for 24 years. I paused for a moment's silence, as another hero who fixed the heart and soul of a nation, long broken by hate, breathed his last. I pray and hope that yet another hero, no stranger to risk and danger, fights the battle of his life, comes out victorious This year, has been quite the year, and two dates stand out amongst the rest:

April 7: The day when 550 students of the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad Campus donned their graduation robes and made that "final walk" towards the graduating podium, after which they would not be students of ISB, but alumni of one of the best business schools in India and amongst the finest in the world. For all of us, it was a day of mixed emotions. Thrill, excitement, nostalgia, sadness, all rolled into one. We formed friendships that continue till this day. We crack jokes that only we can understand, and yearn for the time we could all wake up at 8AM for an 8.15AM lecture and rock up to the lecture theatre.

June 3: A dream come true. The start of my professional life in India. I had always dreamt and hoped to work in India, and on this day, I became part of the Indian workforce. Over the past six months, this experience has been exhilirating, frustrating, draining, exciting. But at no time has it been regretful. During the 1996 World Cup, I am told that the Australian Cricket team's slogan was "No Regrets". I have tried to live with using this as my slogan, and have succeed in no small measure. This too, is an experience, I have not regretted. It has been full of learning and has made me into a better person.

So what for the new year? As the bard hath written in Hamlet "We know what we are, but not we may be". With that thought firmly in my mind, I recall, with sadness, at errors of judgement I have made, errors which still continue to haunt me, and teach me a painful lesson. Thus, in 2014, I will be better. I will be a better human being. I will be a better son. I will be a better brother. I will be a better member of the family I will be a better friend. I will be a better colleague. I will be a better student. I will be better. To paraphrase India's first Prime Minister, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru "Whither do I go and what shall be my endeavour?" I do not know, but if 2013 is any clue, then I shall sure learn a lot on my journey

2014, I welcome you....