Discounting Toss

India won their first bilateral ODI series in Srilanka, it is heartening that this was achieved with an incomplete team - no Sachin and Sehwag. But if we look at the tour - what we actually did was won the toss 4 times in a row. Nothing to take away from excellent performance of Zaheer, Dhoni and company. But the results were rather sealed as soon as the toss happened- this should be agreed atleast for Premadasa.

This reminded me of some of other grounds where you more or less know whats going to happen as soon as the toss is done - atleast the match is not unbiassed anymore. Let us look at results of day-night matches from some of the grounds during various timeframes in the last decade and a half.

Ground	Time Period	Matches Played	Won batting first	Won batting second
Newlands, Capetown	1992-08	24	19	5
Premadasa, Colombo	2000-08	40	26	11
Kingsmead, Durban	2003-08	14	6	3
PCA,Mohali	1996-07	14	9	5
Gaddafi, Lahore	2007-08	8	8	0
Eden Gardens	1993-03	9	7	2

These results are mainly affected by dew that either helps the bowlers get some swing under the lights and trouble the batsmen. When we have the data to support the argument that the toss plays a very important role in deciding the result of the match is it fair to still play under these conditions.

Of course there are some grounds where the results are just reverse as the weather is relatively dry and dew only results in spin bowlers not being able to find the grip of the ball under lights and the batsmen makes the most out of it

Ground	Time Period	Matches Played	Won batting first	Won batting second
Motera,Ahmedabad	2003-08	7	2	5
SMS, Jaipur	2006-08	7	2	5

A couple of options come to my mind at this point which I think would make these games competitive.

Option1: Each team would play 50 0vers in two splits such that each split is at least for 15 overs. Also there is at least one power play of 5 overs in each split. A vs B goes some thing like this -

The team winning the toss would decide what they want to do and the team batting first say A would declare when they want to split, then team B bats and declares when they want to split so that the team A can continue their innings and complete it following which team B would chase the target.

Option 2: This one flows from the huge success of 20 cricket. A couple of innings of 20/25 overs each where the team winning toss would either choose to bat or bowl in the first innings and team losing toss would decide what they want to do in second innings.

The options sounds crazy is it - but let us wait and watch!!!

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This is one of the most familiar numbers these days in Hyderabad ... yes you guessed it rite - Radio Cabs, a concept that was non-existent in the city before the new international airport came up six months ago. The old airport was mainly served by autos, taxis and cabs. But the ultra modern airport has limited itself to radio cabs and call taxis as there was need to generate some revenue out of this business opportunity. GMR, the partner of the country's second PPP airport is now leaving no stone unturned to generate revenues - and the commission from radio cabs seems to be one of the options before the firm.

There are number of players who ventured into this business with a total of close to 2500 radio cabs between them and some of them are still waiting to enter the market. The government regulations exist even in this business ensuring that there is an entry barrier - read minimum of 100 cabs are required to enter the business and at the same time there is no monopoly - the number of cabs for any player is restricted to 1000. The sudden surge is largely helped by three factors - the distance of the airport from the city , lack of convenient commutation options and of course the increase in the disposable income . However, this wave has not been a smooth one - it has its own issues, major one being lack of supply of quality drivers. What it meant was another business opportunity to some of the driving schools and also the training schools to teach some etiquette to the drivers so that they present themselves well before the customers.

The radio cab companies are coming up with an lucrative salary and incentives to attract the limited pool of drivers. Now some of them have taken a step further and this is what has interested me and thats why the post - They have announced a scheme that any driver who drives a cab for a period of 7-10 years can own the car. This gives them various advantages - firstly the drivers can be retained, secondly the drivers will be careful after all it is their car in future and lastly it will become easy for the companies to dispose off the cars in future and may be they can gain some tax advantage utilizing the appropriate accounting mechanisms. Smart way to think - Isn't it?