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HARBAJAN SINGH

Famous Indian off spin bowler Harbhajan Singh is the highest placed Indian bowler in the latest ICC ranking list. He is in sixth position and he is the only Indian bowler in top 10 positions. Indian bowlers Zaheer Khan is in 11th position and Ishant Sharma is in 20th position of this list. Harbhajan had played a number of cricket series and had won a lot of awards for his outstanding contribution to the Cricket. Definitely, he is a finest team player and is a powerful minded bowler.

BIOGRAPHY

The great cricket player Harbajan Singh was born on 3rd July 1980 in Jalandhar, Punjab in India. His father Sardar Sardev singh, a business man and he has five sisters. He completed his school education from Parvati Jain High School. Hurbajan singh has came a long way in his cricketing career. He is nicknamed as “Bhajji” and “The Turbanator” in the cricket world. He made his first cricket appearance in the First-class match in the 1997-98 season. He had played 133 matches at this level. He had scored 2617 runs and has take 568 wickets. He had played his first ‘List-A’ match in the 1997-98 season and in his career of 222 matches at this level. He has made 1201 runs and bagged 225 wickets. He made his test cricket appearance in the third test on March 25, 1998 against Australia, in Bangalore. In 2000-2001 season, he has a regular player in the test and one day cricket match. In this season, he had played test series against Australia and took 4 wickets at an average of 59.25, which has been awarded the ‘Man of the Match’ and ‘Man of the Series’ title. He became the first Indian to take a hat-trick in Test cricket in the same series. He has also rated as one of the greatest spinners in Indian cricket. During the 2001-02 international season in India, he had played test series against England team and take 7 wickets for 110 runs, including 5 wickets for 51 runs in the first innings,to help India win the Test by ten wickets against the touring English team. During the 2002-03 season, he was awarded the ‘Man of the series’ in a match against West Indies. He was also awarded the ‘Man of the Match title’ in a match against South Africa in 2004-05 and also against Sri Lanka in the 2005-06 season. As of 2009, in his 76 tests, he has scored 9938 runs and has scalped 323 wickets at an average of 30.76. Currently, he is a second highest wicket-taker in the Test history. In 1998 April , Harbhajan Singh made his debut in One Day International cricket against New Zealand at Sharjah.In the 2001-02 season, he was awarded the ‘Man of the Match’ title in a match against England and also   won the ‘Man of the Match’ in 2005-07 seasons.As of 2009, in his 185 ODIs, he has scored 6808 runs and has bagged 207 wickets at an average of 332.88. On December 1 2006, he made his debut in Twenty 20 international against South africa at New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg .Since then, he has played 12 Twenty 20’s and he has bagged 11 wickets. Harbhajan Singh enjoys spending time with his friends and loves driving. Also he enjoys watching tennis and he is a fan of Roger Federer.

CONTROVERSY

In the 2007-08 season, On the third day of second test, Harbajan singh was suspended for three matches after being found guilty of racially abusing Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds. Harbajan singh had called Simons Monkey. Harbhajan and his batting partner at the time of the incident is Sachin Tendulkar were denied this comments. In this case, Harbajan singh was fined 50 per cent of his match fee - about $3000 . Harbhajan was involved in further controversy after an 2008 Indian Premier League (IPL) match between Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab at Mohali in April 2008. The incident happened when the teams were shaking hands at the end of the match. He was slapped Punjab paceman and Indian team-mate Sreesanth.

CAREER STATISTICS

Competition                Test         ODIs         FC         List A

Matches                      76            185         140         232

Runs scored                1,436         912       2,844       1,210

Batting average         16.69         12.84     18.96      13.15

100s/50s                    0/6           0/0           0/10        0/0

Top score                    66           46              84         46

Balls bowled                21,135       9,672    35,074     12,010

Wickets                      323               207       600        267

Bowling average             30.76         32.88    27.43      31.52

5 wickets in innings         23            2             37          2

10 wickets in match          5            n/a       7            n/a

Best bowling                   8/84          5/31      8/84        5/31

Catches/stumpings           38/–         50/–      71/–       69/–

UNION BUDGET 2009-2010

Finance Minister of India Pranab Mukherjee presented the Budget for 2009-10 in the Parliament on today. In this budget, Finance minister mainly focused on rural India. This budget increased income tax exemption limit and improved allocations for welfare schemes and infrastructure. The income tax exemption limit for senior citizens was increased by Rs 15,000, while that for women and others was increased by Rs 10,000. The 10 per cent surcharge on personal income tax also be removed. Also introduced new incentives to the farmers. This budget also includes Drugs for heart diseases to become cheaper, Customs duty on gold and silver import increased, Mobile phone accessories to become cheaper, No change in corporate tax rate , Branded jewellery for women to become cheaper, customs duty on bio-diesel reduced, tax holiday extended for textile units, Service tax to be imposed on law firms, small businesses exempt from advance tax, custom duty on LCD panels halved, set-top boxes to cost more, anonymous funds to charitable bodies to get some tax relief, MAT hiked to 15% of book profit, general Sales Tax model will have a Central GST and State GST, share of direct taxes has increased to 56 per cent in 2008-09, corporate tax unchanged, new tax code to be set up in 45 days, goods and services Tax to be introduced from April 1, 2010, Higher public investment in infrastructure, Defense outlay has gone up, Rs 1,000 cr for Aila rehabilitation to West Bengal, Rs 25 cr each for AMU campuses in Murshidabad and Mallapuram, Rs 2,113 cr for IITs and NITs, funds for GSI to enhance exploration of minerals, New pension benefits for 12 lakh jawans and JCOs, Pension of non-commissioned officers to be increased, Allocation for rehab of Lankan Tamils, One rank, one pension for ex-servicemen from July 1, Modernisation of national employment exchanges, 50% cent of rural women in self-help groups, rural mega clusters in Bengal and Rajasthan, interest subsidy for home loans up to Rs 1 lakh, interest subsidy on education loans, Rs 2,000 cr for rural housing fund under National Housing Bank, National Mission for female literacy, Indira Awaas Yojna hiked by 63% to Rs 8,883 cr, Allocation for PM Gram Sadak Yojna up by 59 per cent, Rajiv Awas Yojana, will be introduced with the aim to make the country slum free in the next five years, Aam Aadmi is the focus of all UPA’s schemes,Banking network to be expanded, One banking center in every bloc, Banks, insurance to stay with Govt, Raise threshold for non-promoter public listed companies, Blueprint for national gas grid, Additional budget allocation to farmers, Allocation of Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna stepped up by 30%, Allocation for Bharat Nirman scheme increased by 45%, etc.

REVIEWS

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee is receiving mixed reactions from the people for his budget of this year.  Investors in Indian equity markets were disappointed with this budget. As a result sensex down by 950 points today. Investors had expected the fiscal deficit to increase to up to 6.5 per cent, and were disappointed by an absence of sweeping reforms or pro-market measures. Some economists commented that this budget has not given confidence as to how the Government will go about the financial consolidation process, after increasing the financial deficiency target. Others commented that it is seen as a road map for how the new government will govern for the next five years. India Inc welcomed the focus on reviving economic growth to 9 per cent as also the indications for bold tax reforms. But they expressed regret that the Minimum Alternate Tax was raised and Security Transaction Tax was let to continue. Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh was commented about this budget that Finanace Minister had done a commendable job providing a strategy to attract investment in the infrastructure sector, both in public and private and these budget proposals would lead to fulfillment of his Government’s promise for inclusive growth. But the opposition party BJP commented that it is fearful, mild and unimpressive. Senior BJP leader and former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha was commented that he did not see any great message in the budget. Congress spokesman Manish Tewari commented that the Finance Minister has done an excellent job in times of global economic recession as no taxes have been imposed on the people.  Janata Dal MPs walked out from the Lok Sabha after the presentation of the budget by saying that this budget not give any relief and rehabilitation for those affected by Kosi floods in the state of Bihar. Bihar Chief Minister and JD (U) leader Nitish Kumar was also criticized this budget calling it a betrayal with the people of Bihar.