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For Rajasthan Royals, Riyan Parag finds the right gear in IPL 2024 | Cricket

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In an age where talented young cricketers are monitored at every step, trained to deliver drab cliches in media interactions and instructed to sanitise their social media accounts, Riyan Parag speaks his mind, hits back at online trolls and celebrates as he wishes to. You can perhaps be excused for doing the latter when you have the currency of runs and wickets, but Parag’s innate confidence seemed to border on arrogance and even delusion because he hadn’t backed it up with numbers.

Rajasthan Royals' Riyan Parag celebrates his fifty during the match against Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League 2024, at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Thursday(ANI)
Rajasthan Royals’ Riyan Parag celebrates his fifty during the match against Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League 2024, at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Thursday(ANI)

To be sure, the middle-order batter’s record in the IPL hadn’t merited much leeway. In 54 matches across five seasons till 2023, he had tallied 600 runs at an average of 16.21 and a strike rate of 123.96 with two fifties. And yet, Parag was unabashed in celebrating the odd high, irking his detractors even more in the process.

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Parag’s personality hasn’t changed. As his pinned post on X says, “You do you who cares what they think.”

What has changed though is his output with the bat. Two games into the 2024 edition, there’s already a sense that Parag, leaner and hungrier, means business with his performances on the field. In RR’s opening match against Lucknow Super Giants, he scored 43 and stitched together a crucial 93-run partnership with skipper Sanju Samson. Former India batter Robin Uthappa’s reaction to the knock was revealing of the popular perception about Parag. “It is good to see Riyan doing well. Earlier he used to talk more on X and do less. This time he is finally letting his bat talk,” Uthappa, who played for RR in IPL 2020, said on JioCinema.

Against Delhi Capitals in Jaipur on Thursday, Parag built on it by producing a match-winning 84 not out off 45 balls.

Both these knocks have come at No.4, a promotion in the batting order that’s come on the back of a prolific domestic season for Assam. He was the highest run-getter in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy with 510 runs in 10 innings including seven consecutive fifties as Assam reached the semi-finals. In the Ranji Trophy, he was his team’s best batter with 378 runs in six innings at an average of 75.6.

It suggests that Parag is maturing and gradually realising the enormous talent that saw him play the 2018 U-19 World Cup for India at the age of 16. That Parag is only 22 needs underlining, for the spotlight over the past five years can make us forget that he’s still very much in the infancy of his career. Credit is due to the RR management, which has nurtured Parag despite the torrent of criticism that has come his way. Just like Yashasvi Jaiswal and Dhruv Jurel, Parag has spent many sessions at the RR academy in Talegaon fine-tuning his skills under the watch of director of cricket, Zubin Bharucha.

In a ruthless environment where results are paramount for these IPL franchises, Parag could have been easily discarded. Instead, RR have chosen to give him greater responsibility this year by pushing him up, allowing Parag a bit more time to weigh the situation before going for his shots.

That was the most impressive aspect of Parag’s knock against Delhi. When R Ashwin was clearing the boundary after being sent in as a pinch-hitter at 36/3, Parag may have been previously tempted perhaps to try and match his batting partner. He was mature enough on this occasion to rein himself in at the start and hit the accelerator only when Ashwin departed after a quickfire 29.

And once Parag chooses to change gears, he has all the shots expected of a batter who carries the ambition to play for India across formats. From pulling Kuldeep Yadav over midwicket for a six to belting Anrich Nortje over cover for the same result, there was no pocket of the outfield that he didn’t access.

The revelation by Parag at the post-match presentation that he was unwell in recent days means the innings should be held in even greater regard. “I know what my ability is and I never let that change — irrespective of whether I perform or not. A lot to do with the domestic season, where I scored a lot of runs. Someone in the top four has to take it deep. First match, Sanju bhaiya did it, today I did it. I had to work very hard. I was on bed on the last three days. I could manage it today,” he said.

What Parag has never lacked is absolute conviction in his ability. “I’m going to play for the country sooner or later, that belief is always there. No one can take that away from me. I’m fixated on that,” he had said in an interview in January.

If he keeps playing these knocks, his belief about playing for India may soon become reality.



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Why regulating Big Tech is often pointless

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Mumbai: There are moves afoot to regulate Big Tech in India along the lines of what the EU is doing, and the most recent developments in the US where Apple was sued for ‘abusing’ its dominant position. The un-funny thing about technology regulations is that it has a long history of failure. Despite that, governments persist with it. For all practical purposes, most of it is mere optics.

 (Representative Photo)
(Representative Photo)

That said, the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) released a draft of the Digital Competition Bill to identify anti-competitive practices of tech companies last month. It is open for comments until April 15. Without going into the technicalities, those who fit the framework are Big Tech companies operating from India.

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What makes this interesting is that the US has also ratcheted up antitrust scrutiny and enforcement actions against Apple. This is in line with its actions against Google, Amazon and Meta. The sum and substance of their arguments have been that these companies have gotten too big, are a threat to start-ups in the ecosystem, and must be broken up. Let’s call this the ‘Lina Khan School of Thought’, which now dominates the Joe Biden administration. Khan has a reputation for being a formidable lawyer and is full-time faculty at Columbia Law School, from where she is on leave to serve as an advisor to the US government.

But reputations do not change history. Consider the landmark antitrust case against Microsoft in the late 1990s. At the time, Microsoft was depicted as an unstoppable monopoly. After a lengthy legal saga, the federal government’s touted “solution” was merely subjecting Microsoft to a series of technical restrictions and oversight.

Microsoft continued growing and cemented its dominance in computer operating systems and productivity software. Microsoft’s hegemony finally got disrupted by an upstart, then called Google. It had pioneered a game-changing technology, which was a powerful engine. Since then, it has gone on to challenge Microsoft’s core businesses, such as the Office Suite it sells to retail customers by offering its own solutions, including Gmail, G Docs, Google Sheets and all else that Microsoft has to offer. The point here is that Microsoft did not get disrupted by regulatory oversight but by another upstart.

In much the same way, as Google started to grow large, regulators started to grow wary of what it would do next. But even as debates began about whether it ought to be broken up, ChatGPT emerged and disrupted Google. The company’s response to ChatGPT until now appears shoddy. Ironically, ChatGPT was acquired by Microsoft to keep pace with AI disruptions.

Closer home, when digital wallets were launched, PayTM was the first off the block. In the mad scramble to acquire customers, it appeared pretty clear this entity promoted by Vijay Shekar Sharma would sweep the market. Sharma did not see UPI coming. This is the payment layer of India Stack, which has been in the works for a few years. The identity layer of India Stack is what all of us know of as Aadhaar. With UPI coming in, all wallets were compelled to integrate it into their offerings. This also meant wallets had to be interoperable.

Simply put, in the early days, a PayTM user could transact only with another PayTM user. With UPI coming in, it did not matter which wallet your money was in. All wallets, including GPay, PhonePe and PayTM, got to be on equal footing overnight. The emergence of one technology disrupted the dominance of the market leader.

This takes us back to where we started. It makes little sense for India to follow the EU or Khan’s prescriptions. The current antitrust assault on Apple is unlikely to chip away at its core strengths or pre-eminence in premium hardware and integrated software services. Instead, the future disruption and displacement of Apple as an industry titan is far more likely to come from an innovative entrepreneur who simply out-innovates and renders Apple’s current services obsolete.

The overarching lesson from past antitrust battles against market leaders is this: By the time regulators recognize monopolistic behaviour and aim at reining in a dominant firm, that company is possibly already getting disrupted by nimble start-ups. More often than not, today’s monopoly is tomorrow’s bewildered behemoth struggling to adapt.



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Babar Azam to return as Pakistan captain? PCB eye shocking move before T20 World Cup as musical chairs continue: Report | Cricket

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Pakistan’s tradition of rotating captains has been a long-standing issue. This seemed to come to an end in recent years when Babar Azam, a stalwart of modern cricket, assumed the leadership role. However, following his resignation after Pakistan’s disappointing exit from the ODI World Cup in November 2023, where they failed to reach the semi-finals, the uncertainty surrounding the captaincy has resurfaced. Now, it seems Babar Azam might just make a sensational return to leadership again!

Pakistan's Babar Azam during the 2023 World Cup (AFP)
Pakistan’s Babar Azam during the 2023 World Cup (AFP)

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has reportedly made a decision to reappoint Babar Azam as the captain of the T20 squad, following a recommendation from the newly formed selection committee. According to sources cited by Pakistan’s Geo News on Friday, Babar is set to resume his role as captain during the upcoming five-match T20 series against New Zealand.

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It is worth noting that the T20 World Cup is merely two months away, and Babar’s elevation to captaincy might also mean the batter could potentially lead the side for the third time in the marquee tournament.

This decision marks a notable change from the previous leadership structure implemented by the PCB under Zaka Ashraf, where Shaheen Afridi was appointed as the T20 captain. Meanwhile, Shan Masood was handed the responsibility of leading the red-ball side under the previous management.

The recommendation to reinstate Babar Azam as the T20 captain reportedly came unanimously from the selection committee, who communicated their decision to PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi. As a result, the 29-year-old batter could lead the team in the Kakul training camp, signalling a swift return to leadership responsibilities.

In response to this development, there have been speculations regarding Shaheen Afridi’s position as the T20I captain. The same report also suggests that Shaheen had contemplated stepping down from the captaincy role. 

Babar’s disappointing record

Babar Azam’s reported return to captaincy comes after his voluntary resignation from the leadership role across all formats in November last year. In addition to the ODI World Cup disappointment, the team’s lacklustre displays in tournaments like the Asia Cup further intensified scrutiny of Babar’s leadership abilities.

Babar has faced criticism for Pakistan’s failure to secure any ICC or Asia Cup titles under his leadership tenure. Notably, the side failed to register a single home Test win under Babar’s leadership throughout 2022; in T20Is, the side faced a semi-final defeat in the 2021 T20 World Cup, and reached the final next year, where it faced a disappointing loss to England.



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