The day the world was on tenterhooks

Russian President addressing his nation 
on June 24. (BBC)

Saturday, June 24, 2023. Surely a red letter day in world history.

The day when a Russian mercenary group took on the country's powerful army and seemed to have had a free run -- encountering no resistance -- smashing their way to Moscow and coming very close to the seat of power.

Then came another dramatic development. They called off their march to the capital and retreated.

The previous night, I knew there was trouble brewing as the news ticker on the TV screen said Wagner group soldiers were crossing over to Russia from Ukraine. The reports said that these were very unusual movements.

On the morning of Saturday, news was coming in thick and fast -- on social media -- from mostly unverifiable sources that Wagner Group had launched a mutiny and were battling Russian forces.

Yevgeny Prigozhin -- oligarch and close confident of Russian President Vladimir Putin -- was topping headlines.

Why did he launch this? What was his endgame? We knew Prigozhin had problems with the top brass of the army. But would he launch something massive like this for that?
Answers were hard to come by.

Then came the news that the group had taken control of Rostov-on-Don. After that, reports of the mercenaries heading to Moscow.

This was not just sensational. It was worrying because of one single reason -- the chaos and instability that seemed to be looming in the region and all the aftereffects of that in the geopolitical sphere, besides, of course, the possible bloodshed and destruction that all this would entail.

Is Moscow going to fall?

Now more questions -- where is the Russian army? Are they so depleted that a rebellious mercenary group is having a cakewalk all the way to Moscow?

By evening, we were getting reports that Russia was summoning the full might of its military to stop the march and quell the mutiny.

Very soon came the news of Yevgeny Prigozhin telling his men to turn back following an intervention from Belarussian leader Alexander Lukashenko.

What we are hearing is that Prigozhin is in exile in Belarus, and his men are being absorbed into the Russian military.

That itself is a dramatic development.

Has Prigozhin got what he wanted? Has Wagner Group been disbanded? Is Putin now stronger or weaker?

No clear answers. Only time will tell.

Test cricket is real cricket

England's Joe Root in the 1st Ashes Test.
Source: Sky Sports

Anyone who watched the first Ashes Test match between Australia and England last week (from June 16 to 20) would have been thoroughly convinced that the 5-day version of cricket, the original version of the game in play since 1877, is alive and kicking. 

It ended in a dramatic victory for Australia by two wickets.

There was a packed crowd at the Edgbaston Stadium in Birmingham. The Eric Hollies Stand kept up its reputation of being the noisiest.

But the best part was the intense battle between the bat and the ball. That's something we don't get to see in the truncated versions -- the 50-over or the 20-over.

Test cricket matches -- that last five days and around 30 hours of playing time -- test not just the physical abilities of the players but also their mental endurance. Very often, players bat for one whole day or even more than that.

In England's first innings, Joe Root, who struck an unbeaten 118, faced 152 balls (25.3 overs) and stayed in the crease for 269 minutes (close to five hours).

Similarly, in Australia's reply, Usman Khawaja batted for 478 minutes (nearly 8 hours) for his 141 in 321 balls (53.5 overs).

Similarly, for the bowlers, it's not just five or 10 overs. Australia's Nathan Lyon, who scalped 4 English wickets in the 1st innings, bowled 29 overs.

England's Moeen Ali bowled as many as 33 overs in the 1st innings. Similarly, Stuart Broad bowled 23 overs, and Ollie Robinson sent down 22.1.

Unlike the limited-over versions, there is more of a mind game at work with plenty of opportunities for creativity and variety. There is more time to experiment with bowlers and field positions with no fielding restrictions.

Test cricket is also seen as the more serious form of cricket, in which fair play and sportsmanship are much valued.

Currently, a one-off women's Test match is ongoing between England and Australia at Nottingham.

Very glad to see that the following for Test matches hasn't diminished one bit, though when the shorter versions were invented, there was a fear that this longer, real form of cricket will ebb into mere memories.

What happened to my previous post?

My previous post has had surprisingly very few page views. It's less than one-fifth of the usual. 

I suspected this because I didn't get the comments from some of my blog pals who have been so kind enough to not only regularly read my posts but also let me know what they felt about it.

I am just wondering what could have happened. Something seems to have gone wrong affecting the visibility of my post.

Was something wrong with Blogger when I published my post? Or is something wrong with the feed of the post and the post is not showing up? 

I have to see if it was a one-off case.

Rising cost of air travel

Everyone is talking about how costly it is now to fly. Ever since borders opened post-Covid, flight tickets have been expensive. But it looks like it's getting more expensive.

Once upon a time, in India, only the really rich could fly. But over the last 25 years, air travel has become more affordable, and there is now a growing number of people who are choosing to fly rather than go by bus or train.

But buses and trains are far less expensive. For example, Bengaluru - Thiruvananthapuram flight will now cost an average ₹5,000. Bus fare is around Rs 1,800, while the train fare is around ₹1,200 (for A/c coaches) and just around ₹500 (for non-A/c coaches).

Still, many choose to fly because they can save time. Flight to Thiruvananthapuram will take a little over one hour, but a bus or train journey will take over 15 hours. The distance is around 700 km.

International fares, too, have skyrocketed.

When seen globally, still, India is among the countries where airfare is low. But, comparison of airfares in different countries can be tricky. In some countries, airfares might look costlier, but the average income there could also be comparatively higher.

Still, here are some figures I got with a web search. They might not be very accurate.

Of course, we all know the multiple reasons for the spike: the increasing cost of fuel and the financial crunch faced by airline companies.

I wonder if the airfares will come down any time in the near future.