How one article can toss your blog hits beyond realistic expectations

So back in mid-Oct 2017, I'd started a blog Maritime Outlook to write about maritime events, marine engineering, navigation and maritime law.

It started off ok, with a decent number of views coming in through Oct and Nov and a slight dip in Dec when I had to take a break for a couple of weeks because of exams. Of course, the higher views in November were helped partly due to one specific article on e-migration for seafarers that was to be implemented in December.

January turned out to be a very interesting month thus far. I'd been posting at fairly regular intervals and towards the end of the first week of January, I posted an article about 7 collisions that took place in the first 7 days of the year. That showed a spurt in the views and I thought it was a decent write-up. But then I wrote in detail about one of those collisions which involved the Sanchi and CF Crystal and followed it up with updates on the rescue efforts and explosions thwarting the same and finally resulting in the Sanchi burning for over a week and sinking with the loss of lives of all seafarers onboard. And just like that, when I shared these updates on facebook maritime groups, the views on my blog shot up. So much so that on that ONE day I had more views on my blog compared to the total views on my blog prior to that day. And now mid-way through January, I've got 3 times the views I've had in the 2.5 months prior to this.

Is it a major jump? I think not. Though it does help to placate one's thinking when it comes to writing articles that people will read. Have I monetized that blog yet? Nope. Will I? Only time will tell. For now, I'd like to build a regular reader base. Hopefully, this will be something that I can continue well into the future. And then proceed with further plans that I had when I started that blog of providing more information with easier accessibility to fellow seafarers.

Basketball making progress in India

The sport of basketball is something very close to my heart. For a boy in school who had very little interaction amongst his schoolmates, this was the game that turned it all around for me. Of course, back in those days, the NBA was the only source of basketball for me and Michael 'Air' Jordan was my ultimate hero growing up. As time went by, other stars turned up like Allen Iverson, Steve Nash, Shaquille O'Neil, Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, LeBron James, Stephen Curry etc.

The Basketball Federation of India (BFI) is the governing organisation for basketball in India. Basketball has languished, like most other sports, behind the commercial dominance of cricket. But with the club league format of the IPL becoming the craze amongst other sports, basketball was not too far behind with its own league; the UBA (United Basketball Alliance).

A not well-known fact is that India was one of the founding members of FIBA Asia in 1936 and has one of Asia's longest basketball traditions. Throughout its history, Team India qualified for the FIBA Asia Championship 24 times and is placed in the top-5 in appearances in this tournament. Further, India's basketball team won three gold medals and one silver medal at the South Asian Games. Team India celebrated its most recent title at the 2014 Lusofonia Games after they finished the tournament with a 4-0 record and beat Angola in the final. Of course, its most famous moment came at the 2014 FIBA Asia Cup with the win against home favourites China men's basketball team by 7 points. This win has been popularly described as the "biggest basketball win in the nation's history".

There used to be many championships for senior, junior and youth levels for boys and girls held in the country. Invitational all-India tournaments like Master Prithvinath Memorial (New Delhi), Don Bosco Invitational Tournament (Mumbai), Ramu Memorial (Mumbai), and many other tournaments in the southern part of India are organized every year. Unlike other countries like America, Russia, China and Japan, basketball in India does not follow seasons. Indian basketball has championships throughout the year for different age groups. Championships for the youth are mainly organized between April to July when children are having summer break from school.

The NBA is partnering with BFI to encourage the growth of basketball in India. They have partnered to form NBA basketball schools and already have more than 12 centres around the country.

The UBA is the first men's professional basketball league and has 8 teams. It had its inaugural match of the first league on 17th July 2015. The UBA has had 4 seasons thus far and has grown exponentially with each season.

The eight teams are divided into 2 divisions with Mumbai Challengers, Delhi Capitals, Punjab Steelers and Haryana Gold comprising the North Division and Chennai Slam, Pune Peshwas, Bengaluru Beast and Hyderabad Sky making up the South Division.

Season 1
UBA Season 1 was held from 17th to 30th July 2015 at Gachibowli Indoor Stadium, Hyderabad. Chennai Slam won the UBA Championship with Ravi Bhardwaj (Punjab Steelers) taking the MVP honours, averaging 20.3 points per game.

Season 2

UBA Season 2 was held in two legs. The first leg was from 18th to 28th February 2016 in Balewadi Stadium, Pune. The second leg was held from 23rd March to 3rd April 2016 at Gachibowli Indoor Stadium, Hyderabad. Delhi Capitals beat Chennai Slam in a 3-game finals series to claim the title. Vinay Kaushik (Delhi Capitals) was awarded MVP honours, averaging 18.7 points per game. 

Season 3

UBA Season 3 was held at Balewadi Stadium, Pune from 15th to 31st July 2016. The Season 3 Championship was won by Chennai Slam after they defeated Punjab Steelers in three games. Narendra Grewal (Pune Peshwas) won MVP honours, averaging 31.8 points per game. 

Season 4 

UBA Season 4 was held in two legs, with the first leg being held at Sathyabama University, Chennai and the second leg (Championship Series) at Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium, Goa. The Season 4 Championship was won by Mumbai CHallengers as they bested Bengaluru Beast in two games in the best of three finals series. Vishesh Bhriguvanshi (Bengaluru Beast) won Indian MVP honours, averaging 28.3 points per game and Dermaine Crockrell (Punjab Steelers) won the International MVP honours, with a league-leading 41.2 points per game. 

The UBA has conducted two UBA U.S. Pro Training Camps thus far. The camps were held in Phoenix, Arizona. The camps are designed to expose the best players in India to world Class training, facilities and competition. They undergo intense training sessions including four hours of basketball training and two hours of strength and conditioning training every day. The goal of the camp was to inculcate habits in the players which they can carry back with them and imbibe in their daily routines to elevate their game higher.

With the developments in the league progressing at a rapid pace, one can only look forward to the benefits percolating through the players into improved performances in the national team. 

1 match into Round 8 of the 2017-18 ISL season and we already have a new table topper with the previously top teams dropping down the list.

FC Goa was the talk of the month with their string of victories coming off the back off a plethora of goals. 14 goals over 3 matches. That, unfortunately, was brought to a stop with a 0-2 loss to FC Pune City.

Kerala Blasters have not been able to regain their dominant form over the last 2 seasons with them falling to Bengaluru FC 3-1 in their last match.

Chennaiyin FC and FC Pune City have managed to string together positive results to now lead the table with Chennaiyin FC holding a slender 1 point lead over both FC Pune City and Bengaluru FC at 15 points.

The new entrants Jamshedpur FC haven't done too badly too with them holding the mid-table position along with FC Goa and Mumbai City FC solidly while the bottom of the table has been comprised of ATK, Kerala Blasters, NorthEast United and Delhi Dynamos.

Of course, everyone knows that all it takes is for a team to string together a couple of draws and victories and the table would shift again. Bengaluru FC looked to be the team to beat with an efficient team management system working for them. How that has changed.

One can only wait and watch and see how this progresses. For now, the current table standings below.

Table as of 03-01-2018

FIFA World Cup 2018 Russia - Group Draw

The live draw for the FIFA World Cup 2018 held at the State Kremlin Palace in Moscow, started at 2100 hrs IST. and was completed in under 20 minutes. Not that it was expected to be a long drawn out process. Former England forward Gary Linekar, the Golden Boot winner at Mexico 1986, conducted the draw along with Maria Komandnaya, a Russian sports journalist. Eight former greats of the game were on-stage to assist with selecting the teams from the 4 pots and then selecting teh positions in each group. They were Laurent Blanc (France), Gordon Banks (England), Cafu (Brazil), Fabio Cannavaro (Italy), Diego Forlan (Uruguay), Diego Maradona (Argentina), Carlos Puyol (Spain) and Nikita Simonyan (Russia).

The teams were seeded into 4 pots with Russia and the top 7 ranked teams forming pot 1 and following the FIFA-CocaCola rankings to fill up the remaining 3 pots.

32 teams slotted into 4 pots of 8 teams each

The rules while slotting the teams into the group were that there would not be more than one team from each zone in each group except for the European zone where there would be a maximum of 2 European teams in each group.

Below are the 8 groups of the FIFA WC 2018 Russia. 

FIFA World Cup 2018 - Draw Results - 8 groups

Group B seems to be most likely to be considered a Group of Death for this edition of the World Cup with Portugal and Spain featuring in the group opener and the presence of Morocco who performed quite strongly during qualifying as well as the Islamic Republic of Iran to round off the group. Though there are already claims of Germany having a tougher draw in Group F with a counter claim of Argentina facing a tricky group in Group D.

Is it possible that maybe, just maybe, the Englishmen would have taken some inspiration from their U-19 boys who lifted the trophy in India?