Monday, March 28, 2011

India to concede '92 and '99 wins to Pakistan



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There is no such thing as the 'Law of Averages'. I first heard this term during the 1987 World Cup, when after a streak of Indian wins, Ajit Wadekar in a television interview, suggested that India are due for a loss as indicated by his mastery over the 'Law of Averages'. 

Now, I am no mathematician but there is wikipedia.


The 'Law of Averages' is a layman term for what really is a 'Law of large numbers'. Roughly what it is, is that if you toss a coin (as an example) for a large number of times, the number of times it lands on "heads" will start going towards its probability. Which is 50%. It means that if the number of times Mahendra Singh Dhoni captains India approaches infinity, he will likely have won 50% of the tosses. Every thing 'large' in mathematics is conveniently abstracted as 'infinity'. Many Indian cricket followers don't think that's likely (Dhoni winning 50% of his tosses) and hence don't believe in the 'Law of large numbers'. 

For them, including many influential people in the BCCI, the 'Law of Averages' is easier to comprehend and thus they believe its the truth.

Needless to say, Indians's are very worried about their 4 game winning streak; 6 if you consider T20; against Pakistan in World Cup games. The BCCI has convinced themselves that as per 'the law' they so believe in, India will lose their semi-finals against Pakistan.

So, in an unprecedented move, the BCCI has approached the ICC and MCC with a radical proposal. The proposal is as follows...

India are conceding the 1992 and 1999 world cup games, that they had won against Pakistan. 

The rational is simple, the BCCI explained. Those 2 wins were inconsequential in the whole scheme of things. The 1996 win, allowed India to contest the semi-finals and the 2003 win knocked Pakistan out of the Super Sixes round. So we want to hold on to those wins

We felt that the 'Law of averages' works in our favor going in to Wednesday's semi-finals at 2 games apiece. Also given that we have lost 2 semi-finals as a host nation. we believe the 2 trends will guarantee an Indian win.

Also, the BCCI added, we as a nation, have already rejoiced the 92 and 99 wins. People can't be unhappy over an event they were once ecstatic over.

When you are the BCCI, you can believe what you want and do what you please. We are still waiting to hear from ICC, if the proposal will be accepted

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