Tarang Desai, Author at CUTTING EDGE VISIONARIES

CRICKET: A RELIGION, NOT JUST A GAME

January 1, 2019 by Tarang Desaiin sports, cricketLeave a Comment

Reading Time: 8 minutes

INTRODUCTION:

The sport of cricket has a known history beginning in the late 16th century. Having originated in south-east England, it became the country’s national sport in the 18th century and has developed globally in the 19th and 20th centuries. International matches have been played since 1844 and Test cricket began, retrospectively recognized, in 1877. Cricket is the world’s second most popular spectator sport after football.

LAWS OF CRICKET THEN AND NOW:

There has been a lot of variation in the rules of cricket now, since the great game was started way back in 1744, for comparison,

In 1744 the rules were:

there is a reference to the toss of a coin and the pitch dimensions (length = 22 yards)
the stumps must be 22 inches high.
the ball must be 6 inches in circumference and weigh between 5 and 6 ounces
overs last 4 balls
the popping crease is exactly 3 feet 10 inches before the bowling crease
hitting the ball twice and obstructing the field are emphatically out following experiences in the 17th century
the wicket-keeper is required to be still and quiet until the ball is bowled
the umpire cannot give a batsman out if the fielders do not appeal

Rules of cricket nowadays are little different:

there is a reference to the toss of the coin but in some places bats are also being tossed such as the big bash, although it’s not at an International level still it is a big change. whereas the length of the pitch has remained unchanged.
the stumps must be 28 inches high.
the ball must be 9 inches in circumference and weigh between 5.50 and 5.75 ounces
overs last 6 balls
the popping crease is exactly 4 feet before the bowling crease
hitting the ball twice and obstructing the field are not necessarily given out, the particular ball may be declared a dead ball or in severe condemption of the rules of the game, the batsman may be given out.
the wicket-keepers are not at all still and quiet until in the modern game, in fact, they are te most disturbing players on the field.
umpires can give a batsman out when the fielders
do not appeal if he feels the batsman is out

ALL ABOUT THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL MATCH:

The first officially recognized Test match began on 15 March 1877 and ended on 19 March 1877 and was played between England and Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), where Australia won by 45 runs. It was a historic match in which not only 2 teams but 2 rivalries, 2 nations were against each other and had 25,000 people cheering for them in the stadium, with everyone up there feet. Everyone knew that this particular sport is going to be the most popular sport in the future for sure by looking at the response it was getting and now eventually, not first but it’s the second most followed sport in the world behind football.

Here is the summary of that match:

This was all about the first test match, but when did various other nations start their International cricket?

There are currently twelve Test-playing men’s teams. Test status is conferred upon a country or group of countries by the International Cricket Council. The teams are listed below with the date of each team’s Test debut:

England (15 March 1877)
Australia (15 March 1877)
South Africa (12 March 1889)
West Indies (23 June 1928)
New Zealand (10 January 1930)
India (25 June 1932)
Pakistan (16 October 1952)
Sri Lanka (17 February 1982)
Zimbabwe (18 October 1992)
Bangladesh (10 November 2000)
Ireland (11 May 2018)
Afghanistan (14 June 2018)

A BRIEF ABOUT INDIAN NATIONAL CRICKET TEAM:

The India national cricket team, also known as Team India and Men in Blue, is governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), and is a full member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) with Test, One Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 International (T20I) status.

India’s national cricket team played its first Test match on 25th June 1932. becoming the sixth team to be granted Test cricket status. In its first fifty years of international cricket, India was one of the weaker teams, winning only 35 of the first 196 Test matches it played. From 1932 India had to wait until 1952, almost 20 years for its first Test victory. The team, however, gained strength in the 1970s with the emergence of players.

Traditionally much stronger at home than abroad, the Indian team has improved its overseas form, especially in limited-overs cricket, since the start of the 21st century, winning Test matches in Australia, England, and South Africa. India has won the Cricket World Cup twice – in 1983 under the captaincy of Kapil Dev and in 2011 under the captaincy of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. After winning the 2011 World Cup, India became only the third team after West Indies and Australia to have won the World Cup more than once, and the first cricket team to win the World Cup at home. It also won the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 and 2013 ICC Champions Trophy, under the captaincy of MS Dhoni. It was also the joint champions of 2002 ICC Champions Trophy, along with Sri Lanka.

As of October 2018, India is ranked 1st in Tests, 2nd in ODIs and 2nd in T20Is by the ICC. Virat Kohli is the current captain of the team.

Indian team test match status:

India was declared or given the tag of “Test Playing Nation” when they played their first test match on 25th June 1932 against England in England. Although India recorded their first Test victory, in their 24th match i.e. after 20 years of playing test cricket, against England at Madras in 1952. Later in the same year, they won their first Test series, which was against Pakistan

Indian team success under MS Dhoni:

Dhoni has proven to be one of the greatest captains for India and has contributed immensely towards India’s success, India has had many great captains in their past, but Dhoni is one of a kind, just not because of his record as captain, but also because of his respect towards the game, his calmness on the field his temperament and his simplicity, which are the same reasons why he is loved so much around the world.

India at the World Cups

Here are some Individual records which show the contributions of the greatest players India produced:

Test records by nations:

Some astonishing Individual test records

ICC Cricket World Cup

The ICC Cricket World Cup is the international championship of One Day International (ODI) cricket. The event is organized by the sport’s governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), every four years, with preliminary qualification rounds leading up to a finals tournament. The tournament is one of the world’s most viewed sporting events and is considered the “flagship event of the international cricket calendar” by the ICC.

The first World Cup was organized in England in June 1975, with the first ODI cricket match having been played only four years earlier. However, a separate Women’s Cricket World Cup had been held two years before the first men’s tournament, and a tournament involving multiple international teams had been held as early as 1912. The first three World Cups were held in England. From the 1987 tournament onwards, hosting has been shared between countries under an unofficial rotation system, with fourteen ICC members have hosted at least one match in the tournament.

The World Cup is open to all members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), although the highest-ranking teams receive automatic qualification. The remaining teams are determined via the World Cricket League and the ICC World Cup Qualifier. A total of twenty teams have competed in the eleven editions of the tournament, with fourteen competing in the latest edition in 2015; the next edition in 2019 will have only ten teams. Australia has won the tournament five times, with the West Indies, India (twice each), Pakistan and Sri Lanka (once each) also have won the tournament.

Individual records at the World Cup

Examples of Great cricketers showing their magic with bat and ball:

10 Incidences that completely changed and revolutionized cricket forever:

The first day-night test match
Carlos Braithwaite hitting 4 sixes in the world T20 final in 2016
Dhoni’s 6 to win the world cup for India in 2011
The unfortunate death of Phillip Hughes
Muttiah Muralidharan getting 800 wickets in test cricket
Shane Warne’s ball of the century
438 runs chased down successfully in ODI cricket
Lahore attack ’09
The arrival of the DRS system (decision review system)
Yuvraj Singh’s Six 6’s in an over

Great Cricket Grounds

1.Lord’s Cricket ground

Established: 1814 Capacity: 30,000

2. Melbourne Cricket Ground

Established: 1853 Capacity: 100,024

3. Eden Garden’s

Established: 1864 Capacity: 68,000

4. Newland’s Cricket Ground

Established: 1888 Capacity: 28,000

5. Dharamsala Stadium (HPCA)

Established: 2003 Capacity: 23,000

By- Tarang Desai

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GDP: An Insight in Economics

December 9, 2018December 9, 2018 by Tarang Desaiin Economics, GDP1 Comment

Reading Time: 9 minutes

What is GDP? By definition GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is the market value of all finished good and services produced within a country in a year.

Explanation: A finished good is a good which will not be sold as part of some other good. For ex-eggs

Case 1: If a bakery buys eggs it is not considered in GDP as it’s not a finished good as it will be used for making cake and price of cake will be considered in GDP.

Case 2: If same eggs are bought by a consumer to make an omelet then egg will is considered as a finished good as it won’t be sold again as a part of some other good.

Again going through the definition GDP, it is the value of goods produced that year. What does this mean? This means that the good needs to manufactured or produced the same year. For example, if a house was produced 2 years ago and is sold in the current year it does not count in the current years GDP as it was not produced the current year. Only the sale of new houses adds to GDP.

GDP only counts for goods and services produced within a country, this means that if you buy a mobile phone imported from united states that adds to united states’ GDP, not India’s, on the other hand, a cloth manufactured in India and exported to France adds to India’s GDP.

Market value- if a good is not sold in a market it is typically not counted in GDP. For ex- biscuits sold in a country have a fix market price so they count to the country’s GDP as it can be counted because of having a fix market price per packet of biscuit. But on the other hand, if a dog or any other animal is sold it doesn’t count in the country’s GDP as it is not having a fixed market price.

A country’s GDP may increase in 2 ways-

#1 Only the GDP number goes up but the economy is not producing more goods and services, how is possible? Well, in this case, it can be inflation which is the driving force of the higher GDP, this increase looks good on paper but its just a mirage.

#2 Actual increase, in this case, the country is actually producing more number of valuable goods and services.

Now there are multiple ways to measure the GDP of a country. We will look at 3 of them, #1 GDP in nominal terms; #2 GDP in real terms; and #3 GDP in PPP terms (purchasing power parity).

#1 Nominal GDP

The following equation is used to calculate the GDP:

GDP = C + I + G + (X – M)

GDP = private consumption + gross investment + government investment + government spending + (exports – imports).

This does not take into account the inflation rate.

As shown in the graph, the Indian economy has grown from 58 billion us dollars in 1965 to 2110 billion dollars in 2015 ie. it has increased 35.5 times in these 50 years but its a nominal increase.

#2 GDP in real terms – it takes into account inflation.it adds up all goods and services produced in an economy over the same set of prices over the years. It shows that if the prices of goods and services hadn’t changed over the time then what would be the GDP.

Here it shows that India’s economy was at 520 billion us dollars in 1965 and 7600 billion us dollars in 2015 that means that the real growth of the Indian economy was 14.6 times during these 50 years.

#3 GDP in PPP terms: GDP PPP is gross domestic product converted to international dollars using purchasing power parity rates. Purchasing power parity (PPP) is a neoclassical economic theory that states that the exchange rate between two countries is equal to the ratio of the currencies’ respective purchasing power. for example, if a burger cost 2 dollars in the US and the same burger cost 40 rupees in India the PPP ratio is 20. This is the reason why GDP in PPP terms in the case of poorer countries is much higher than the nominal GDP as goods are available at cheaper rates as it takes into account the exchange rates of countries. A fall in either currency’s purchasing power would lead to a proportional decrease in that currency’s valuation on the foreign exchange market.

India’s GDP in nominal terms in 2017 was 2.6 trillion dollars whereas in terms of PPP terms it was 9.46 trillion dollars.

Current nominal GDP rankings are (US billion $):

#1 United States 19,390,600
#2 China 12,014,610
#3 Japan 04,872,135
#4 Germany 03,684,816
#5United Kingdom 02,624,529
#6 India 02,611,012
#7 France 02,583,560
#8 Brazil 02,054,969
#9 Italy 01,937,894
#10Canada 01,652,412

Current nominal GDP per capita rankings are (US $):

#1 Luxembourg 105,863
#2 Switzerland 80,637

#3 Norway 75,389
#4 Iceland 70,248
#5 Ireland 68,710
#6 Qatar 61,024
#7 United States 59,792
#8 Singapore 57,713
#9 Denmark 56,630
#10 Australia 55,692

Current GDP PPP rankings are (US billion $):

#1China 23,159,134
#2 United States 19,390,600
#3 India 09,459,002
#4 Japan 05,428,813
#5 Germany 04,170,790
#6 Russia 04,007,831
#7 Indonesia 03,242,771
#8 Brazil 03,240,319
#9 United Kingdom 02,914,042
#10 France 02,835,746

Current GDP PPP per capita rankings are (in US $):

#1 Qatar 124,927
#2 Luxembourg 109,192
#3 Singapore 90,531
#4 Brunei 76,743
#5 Ireland 72,632
#6 Norway 70,590
#7 Kuwait 69,669
#8 United Arab Emirates 68,245
#9 Switzerland 61,360

#10 San Marino 60,359

Here the major difference to notice is that poorer countries have low nominal GDP but higher GDP PPP this is because of exchange rates.

Predictions for GDP by 2050:

#1 World GDP:

Current world GDP in nominal terms is 78.28 trillion US $ and is predicted to increase by 130% to 180 trillion US $.

#2 World’s top 10 economies by 2050:

China is expected to be at the 1st position in 2050. while India will overtake GDP of United States by 2045 and will eventually overtake China by the year 2080. While the US’s economy will not be able to grow as fast as that of India’s and China’s its share in the world economy will begin to shrink.

#3 World economic share (GDP PPP terms):

#4 United States economy:

The US is currently the world’s largest economy will a GDP of over 19.4 trillion US$.

US economy is predicted to grow at an annual average rate of 1.4% by 2050.

Current GDP of the US is at 19.4 trillion US$ and is predicted to be at 34.1 trillion US$ by 2050 (nominal GDP).

#5 Economy of China:

The Chinese economy is predicted to grow at an annual average rate of 4 to 5% by 2050 which will make it the world’s largest economy by 2032 (by overtaking the United States) and remain at 1st spot till 2060 at least with a GDP of 58.1 billion $.

China is currently the world’s largest economy in PPP terms having an 18% share of the world economy.

#6 The Indian economy:

Currently, India is ranked 6th with a 2.6 trillion $ economy in terms of nominal GDP and 3rd with a 9.46 trillion $ economy in terms of GDP PPP.

India is growing fast at an average rate of 6.5 % to 7 % in the past 10 years, in fact, it is the fastest growing major economy in the world along with China and is expected to grow at this rate of many years to come.

It is expected that India will maintain a steady growth rate of around 5.5% for the next 5 to 6 decades and will overtake the economy of United States by 2045 and will eventually overtake China by 2070 to become world’s largest economy.

India is expected to have a 44 trillion $ economy by 2050 and an 86 trillion $ economy by 2080.

What’s the difficulty India is facing and why is India not growing faster?

The major problem for India is its huge population, India is projected to have a population of 1.66 billion in 2050 which means that though it will become the largest economy, still the people of India will not be as rich as say an American or a Chinese.

For ex- say the population of the US in 2050 is 340 million and its economy is 34 trillion $ then its per capita income will be 100,000 $ whereas in the case of India the population will be 1.66 billion and the GDP will be at about 44 trillion $ which means that India’s GDP is much higher than that of US but still due to its population, the per capita income in India in 2050 will be 26,000 $ which means though having a huge economy, people of India will be 4 times poorer than the people the US and will be at par of the world economy.

And secondly, India is nowhere close to its fullest potential for growth.

India has an excellent geography, a very huge amount of people in the working age group and its current economy not very huge at 2.6 trillion $, considering these factors India’s growth predicted by some of the great economists is 20%. But the factors which are stopping India from growing are lack of infrastructure, its education system, fluctuating electricity supply, political issues and many more. But still, after considering all these factors India is doing very well and is on the right track and hopefully, it will become the world’s largest economy very soon.

Conclusion:

The world economy could more than double in size by 2050, far outstripping population growth, due to continued technology-driven productivity.

Six of the seven largest economies in the world are projected to be emerging economies in 2050 led by China (1st), India (2nd) and Indonesia (4th), the US could be down to third place in the global GDP rankings while the EU(European Union) share of world GDP could fall below 10% by 2050.

But emerging economies need to enhance their institutions and their infrastructure significantly if they are to realize their long-term growth potential.

India needs to realize it’s potential and work on it accordingly and if India does so then who knows India will be the world leader of the economy very soon.

By- Tarang Desai

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