I recently noticed my AdSense revenue drop by several notches, without having altered either my blog’s layout or its content, neither was Googlebot prevented by robots.txt from surfing my pages. It would be worth mentioning that even on its best days, the AdSense money I earn is peanuts by usual standards. In fact, the Chitika ad that I run also along with AdSense gives me a much better CTR and eCPM with fewer clicks form its US market.

So, what could have been the reason for this steep decline in my ad money? Well, it sounds a hoard of Indian festivals and the subsequent Chmpion’s League T20 cricket were to be blamed here. The keywords I use are no big earners anyway…kishore kumar songs, rafi songs, rafi vs kishore, lata kishore songs, gujarati songs, praful dave, maniraj barot, sanedo, mihir bose and several variants of osho rajneesh are some of the major keywords used for hitting my pages. I’ve also tried writing about finance and travel, but without much headway, since I do not have the necessary expertise and material to manage it right now.

This sudden fall in ad revenue showed me the significance of right keywords and the trends going on in AdWords. Obviously, advertisers have decided to bet on sports blogs, sports websites and portals with cricket news for a while, and the fall in my CTR justifies their decision as well, since the surfing focus has obviously shifted towards the Champions League for the moment.

Having agreed to head the GCA, Gujarat CM Narendra Modi will now be expected to produce results. Here is a list of dos that we expect Shree Narendrabhai to live up to and help cricket and other sport disciplines grow in Gujarat.

1. There is a need of pumping in finance and advanced coaching methods to help the cricket improve its standard at the club and state levels in Gujarat. State level coaching should be of the highest order to help local players win  more IPL, ICL and Team India berths.

2. Local cricket tourneys should be organized keeping in mind the national schedule, so that teams have enough time to take part at the national level. I’ve been told this doesn’t take place often.

3. Notwithstanding the recent success of Dhoni’s boys, the over all competence in cricket may not improve until all sports in India improved. For this purpose, cricket infrastructure and money needs being utilized for other sport disciplines as well, and there is a need of developing newer sports complexes keeping this aspect in mind.

4. Another way to collectively develop sports in Gujarat would be to combine the Saurashtra and Vadodara cricket associations with the GCA and let them develop advanced sports facilities with private money.

5. Sports bodies need to usher in era of efficiency, transparency and democratic functioning. Why have Suresh Kalmadis at the helm for years on when none of the Indian athletes win medals at most international meets? The need of hour is to eradicate the influence of bureaucracy and politics from cricket and other sports. Narendrabhai should guide the nation by ensuring that GCA selected its next league of office bearers from apolitical backgrounds. There should be an amendment in the constitution of the GCA to make this possible.

6. The GCA should ensure only past cricketers, officials and cricket fans with a minimum period of club membership joined its top body. The GCA should further make the presidency a full-time job and ask those joining, including bureaucrats and politician, to quit all other responsibilities, including party positions and governmental jobs before doing so.

7. Apart from the GCA, Narendrabhai should also work to make sports a rewarding profession in general. Making sports a lesser governmental matter and calling in management gurus and corporate sector can be a way for path-breaking changes in various sport fields.

We sports lovers of Gujarat will hope for a defining improvement in sports during Shree Narendrabhai’s tenure at the GCA and Gandhinagar.

Image courtesy of IndianExpress.

Before Narhari Amin, the ex-president of the GCA (Gujarat Cricket Association) was ousted from office through a legal ruling and the subsequent free and fair ballot for the CBCA (Central Board of Cricket, Ahmedabad), which forms the bulk of the GCA voting rights, I had spoken with several ex-cricketers and officials from Gujarat about the environment that cricket and sports in general were being run in my state. The consensus I had been able to form at that point agreed about the necessity of freeing Indian sports (not just the GCA or Gujarat counterpart) from the clutches of bureaucrats and politicians. That, Indian sports should be led by ex-sportsmen, women and experts who know the intricacies of sports-management, was a unanimous decision.

At the same time none of them believed in any such changes taking place any sooner either. Most of them were reluctant to be quoted publicly as well out of fear of the clout (of various kinds) Narhari Amin enjoys. However, most of them did opine if there was anybody who could grab the GCA from Amin’s clutches, then it had to be Narendra Modi, the Gujarat CM. Sportsmen, including cricketers thought, Modi had the acumen, charisma and desire to make changes in the way sports was being manged in the state of Gujarat. In this context, Amin’s ouster from the GCA by Modi’ followers (read Amit Shah et all) was a long awaited and foregone conclusion. However, Modi himself occupying the GCA presidency was a tad shocking even for this author.

This is the second time, I’ve found myself disagreeing from Modi’s decisions in the last few weeks, the first one being Gujarat Government’s ban on Jaswant Singh’s Jinnah book. It had no basic reasoning or justification, apart from showing perhaps Modi’s political insecurity post the 2009-polls debacle. However, having scored a landslide win in the recently held state assembly by-polls, Modi seems to awoken to the lure of public life with a new-found zest. Power savvy politicians and bureaucrats have always loved Indian cricket for reasons other than sports and there is no better a way for Modi’s team to take on some of their political adversaries who incidentally do also have presence in the BCCI.

Modi’s thanksgiving speech did promise sports lovers of some imminent changes in the way the GCA and Gujarat sports were being run. Modi’s admirers, including this author, would only hope those changes do take place in reality. However, a larger question “what after Modi” needs being unanswered for the sake of sports lovers here. Will there be another politico,  ex-bureaucrat or aristocrat trying to grab up the coveted position once Modi makes way, or will  there be a transfer of power to true sportsmen, women and sports fans finally, after him?

Debate the issue here: NAMO Taking Up The GCA Job – What Does It Say?

I write this in the backdrop of the latest slump by Indian cricket, and the controversies involving two Indian athletes – Monica Devi and Sania Mirza – at the Beijing Olympics 2008.

Indian sports – not only cricket – has been like this only since we gained independence. I recently had a chat with some sportsmen in my hometown Ahmedabad, cutting across various disciplines, and the things they spoke about their internal functioning were crazy. There is a gentleman (who is not so gentle in reality) called Narhari Amin, former Deputy CM of Gujarat, a typical Congress leader, and a well know bully and muscleman from his student days. He allegedly captured Gujarat Cricket Association by force (as ex deputy CM). He got clubs not supportive of his panel out, and only those who may vote for him were allowed the voting rights. This became a permanent arrangement after his taking over the GCA. His detractors have stopped hoping against hope now.

I spoke with the secretary of the GCA, a seasoned official, and he had to say, “so what! we have been run like this since the days of RAJA and MAHARAJA!” Local tourneys under the GCA are held only when the first class season nears about its end, thus making club teams and players have no future whatsoever. The reason? A sheer lack of interest from those running the organization. One gentleman, who is also a relative of an international umpire from Gujarat and himself an ex Ranji player, showed me an antique like heavy roller at the Gujarat College Ground, a premier sports facility. It’s manufacturing firm ceased to exist several decades ago, and the date of assembly read 1905!

There was an ex-hockey player who told me why he became a tennis coach. He saw Indian hockey taking him nowhere. He got trained under the programme of a world tennis body instead, and began offering his own coaching sessions. His mentor and a very senior hockey coach himself, Kishan Karve, who recently passed away at the age of 84, would go angry on being asked about the present morass. He had startling stories to share from the days of Pt. Nehru and Indira Gandhi. He was trained by the legendary duo of Dhyan Chand and Manna Singh. His hands would start trembling in frustration, and he would mumble, “my brain may explode. I have seen the downfall of Indian hockey. I have seen India’s dishonesty at its worst. Please, do not ask me to relive all that memory yet again. Nothing will come out from what you are trying to research now. Go and make moolah by doing something else. Indian sports is a burial ground, which carries no positive hope!”

As Beijing thrives by organizing the Olympics 2008, it’s time for the Indian sports to go picnicking and show its true nature. Monica Devi’s dope charge, its withdrawal and the resulting cancellation of her participation, and Sania’s mum traveling as part of the official Indian contingent are only a few of its stark reminders.

Image Courtesy Sydney Morning Herald

I came across the following story in Sydney Morning Herald, (also check…and this) and ended up writing down the following letter to its editor:

I have been logging on to your website each night, in fact very late by the Indian Standard Time, hoping to get the mainstream Australian viewpoint about the ongoing India-Australia cricket series. It became more of fun, speaking precisely, since the days of infamous SCG test match, as the two sides, cricketing and non-cricketing both, begun taking digs at each other. And it was worth going through the whole drama, your view points included. However, the last two days brought a completely different notion to this author’s mind. Not due to any of your journalistic errors, in fact you were well on target in describing about the 17-year old ‘Lila’ Salter of Vrindavan, which left this author numb and saddened like many others.

I have personally been through it, and know how it feels like awaiting one of your kin’s imminent demise. But it sounds more hurtful, when you look at how the events unfolded and how far dignified the bereaved family had proved out to be, despite being harmed in such a sinister way. They came from a remote world, and yet made India, its religion, language and culture part of their lives, more than what many of my fellow Indians might do, I know it. The fatal attack on Lila was tragic, one wouldn’t disagree about it, but it leaves me saddened more in India, because I value her compassion and the respect she had for my way of life. The realization, we failed to protect her and pay back for the warmth she came smiling with all the way from Australia, will keep us haunting for long now. May god bless Lila with eternal peace! May god bless her family with resilience!

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According to the latest report, she is now dead.