Sunday, December 7, 2008
Can India be the new cricket super power?
I shall be posting after a long break, this is going to be an interesting topic , I shall be mimicking the pro critics in this article, so shall be serious stuff. Will be posting soon... bye
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Ramiz Raja.. what a commentator....
I haven't been satisfied ever with much of the commentary or the expert discussions, which focus on only one main point and most of the issues are over looked. For me most of the discussions looked unacceptable , but for this man the thought flow is pretty pleasing, he has been criticizing and appreciating things as they are to be ... I started taken much interest his views and they are cool.
These words of his prove it
Q: What do u think is the role of Shoaib Malik, is he an opening batsman or a middle order batsman? (after the HongKong match in which the Pakistan batsmen failed)
A: "He is Like the Badshah of Jungle , He is pretty confused himself what he wants to do... I felt HK being a weak opposition Shahid could have had a chance to find his lost form, but..... "
These words of his prove it
Q: What do u think is the role of Shoaib Malik, is he an opening batsman or a middle order batsman? (after the HongKong match in which the Pakistan batsmen failed)
A: "He is Like the Badshah of Jungle , He is pretty confused himself what he wants to do... I felt HK being a weak opposition Shahid could have had a chance to find his lost form, but..... "
India's rampant form @ the Asia-Cup
The Indians were in rampant form till now in the Asia-cup and IPL has played its part in its tuning of players to this level, though the IPL had players of other teams too, they did not play much cricket as their Indian counterparts did, those who have been used like Shoail Tanvir have been performing exceptionally. India have been often said by the commentators as the tournament favourites , they are defenitely proving that, but you can't say they are going to win the Cup, we all have seen India reaching the finals most of the time and the outcome is against the expectations......
An unimpressive Asia Cup
Asia-cup has been something less than a disaster to the ODI cricket, whose audiences have been hit hard by the T20 cricket. Putting aside the T20 factor Asia-Cup has been wrongly timed, with Pakistan in a great political crisis and the people looking for some peace and stability in the government have definitely kept away from the matches, It has definitely kept foreign audiences away from the match. There is not even a single Indian flag among the audiences , there has been pin drop silence during India triump and the audiences faded away fast as India closed on to the victory briskly.
Not just that the players are feeling the pinch and have been voicing their views of being over worked(played), They must be really pitied for playing in such sultry conditions and worst being playing back to back matches. It has been cruel from the schedulers to put back to back matches,for India they play Pakisthan and Srilanka back to back. Can it get worse than this? .. never.
The planning of the tournament has been such a bad planning , it is certain that all teams are not given equal weightage to qualify for the final. Group stages disadvantage for India and Pakisthan over srilanka was o.k, since the minnows were odd in number, pakistan or India could be troubled with one upset from a minnow, while srilanka to be knocked needed two to get into trouble. The worst part comes when they have put the points from group stages to carry on to the super-fours, this is gifting srilanka almost a bearth in the final. Srilanka faces Bangladesh twice for their points while pakistan or India got to play against each other twice for their points. Why do they really have to do this, they could have well avoided these double clashes and gave players some breathing, or if they wanted to see to it that there were maximum number of India-Pakistan matches( stadiums have more attendance) then they could have said to keep the things simple and fair the points shall not carry.
This exposes the immaturity of the ACA( Asia Cricket Association) and what was BCCI doing when all this planning was done. Its time for BCCI to step up and deal with other boards with some authority, people are gonna listen... coz u have the money .. u have the fans like nowhere else... and most importantly ur team is performing well.
Indian cricketers are really being over worked, they play 150% more ODI's than many other cricketing nations.
Not just that the players are feeling the pinch and have been voicing their views of being over worked(played), They must be really pitied for playing in such sultry conditions and worst being playing back to back matches. It has been cruel from the schedulers to put back to back matches,for India they play Pakisthan and Srilanka back to back. Can it get worse than this? .. never.
The planning of the tournament has been such a bad planning , it is certain that all teams are not given equal weightage to qualify for the final. Group stages disadvantage for India and Pakisthan over srilanka was o.k, since the minnows were odd in number, pakistan or India could be troubled with one upset from a minnow, while srilanka to be knocked needed two to get into trouble. The worst part comes when they have put the points from group stages to carry on to the super-fours, this is gifting srilanka almost a bearth in the final. Srilanka faces Bangladesh twice for their points while pakistan or India got to play against each other twice for their points. Why do they really have to do this, they could have well avoided these double clashes and gave players some breathing, or if they wanted to see to it that there were maximum number of India-Pakistan matches( stadiums have more attendance) then they could have said to keep the things simple and fair the points shall not carry.
This exposes the immaturity of the ACA( Asia Cricket Association) and what was BCCI doing when all this planning was done. Its time for BCCI to step up and deal with other boards with some authority, people are gonna listen... coz u have the money .. u have the fans like nowhere else... and most importantly ur team is performing well.
Indian cricketers are really being over worked, they play 150% more ODI's than many other cricketing nations.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Hurray!!!
Today I checked for some of the key words on Google search and Cricindya was shown in some of the results. That's great news, right. Key words I used were like "cricindya", "The tall 19yr old Ishant"...... Anyways I do not write this blog to feature it in the front page of a search engine or to attract traffic and generate revenue from adds or something like that.
Whenever I vent my feeling by blogging @ this place I relish a pleasant feeling of discussing issues with a good friend( who agrees with you...) at times I do get the feeling that I gave my piece of mind to the real men playing out there and to the selectors too...
Whenever I vent my feeling by blogging @ this place I relish a pleasant feeling of discussing issues with a good friend( who agrees with you...) at times I do get the feeling that I gave my piece of mind to the real men playing out there and to the selectors too...
Friday, May 23, 2008
Duckworth-Lewis method
Duckwoth-Lewis method is generally accepted a fair method of deciding the revised targets in rain interrupted matches, but at times does gets into controversies. This post covers in layman terms what Duckworth-Lewis(D/L) method is about and also gives you some facts regarding the origin of the method.
I came to know from wikipedia that 'The D/L method was devised by two English statisticians, Frank Duckworth and Tony Lewis, originating from an undergraduate final-year project at the University of the West of England.' Even I'm bound to do my final year project, which would start in a months time, so D/L method originating from a UG student is what fails to impress me, I get the feeling that ICC deserves a higher qualified statisticians to design a method for them. There are certainly some draw backs in the D/L method which would be discussed appropriately later in the post as they would mean more if the method of calculation is understood.
D/L method uses the principle of resources and would calculate the targets. Resources available are determined from the following factors:
* Number of over left.
* Number of wickets in hand.
The principle followed by D/L is simple , more resources you have more is the number of runs you make. for example a team having 25 overs left still has more resources than when it has 20 overs left at the same number of wickets down. A team having 7 wickets in hand has more resources than a team having 5 wickets in hand with the same number of overs left.
D/L method uses the scoring rates and statistics from previous matches and had concluded with a weight of resource to be given for the number of wickets left.
The simple formula for the revised target in a rain interrupted match is:
'T = (S x R2/R1) + 1 (rounded down to a whole number, if necessary)'
Here T is the target, S is the score made by team batted first in the resources R1 and R2 are the resources with team batting second after the interruption by rain.
The method goes on and on and is not easy to be listed on this blog, so the technical details of the method will be stopped here.
Every one remembers the 1992 worldcup semifinal where South Africa needed 22 runs from 13 balls to spare before the rain came down. The tournament used a method called "best-scoring overs" which recalculated the total and made it to 21 runs from 1 ball remaining. Clearly the method was a flaw. D/L method scores in this case it would reduce the total to 5 runs from the last ball for a win and 4 runs for a draw, which is considerably fair. D/L method anyway was born in 1996 only and was used first between Zimbabwe & England in 1996/7 which Zimbabwe won by 7 runs. The ICC adopted this method officially in 2001.With the changing scoring rates and targets the method was split into professional version and standard version. professional version requires the use of a computer and is more complicated and is used for international levels. while standard version is worked out with a sheet of paper and is used in lower levels of the game.
This method now looks convincing , no it still has some drawbacks. This method does not consider the fact that when you chase a target you try to keep wickets in hand and take lesser risks while scoring, but when the match ends prematurely because of an unexpected shower you would tend to loose because of the slow scoring rate. The par-score of the team batted first would go high.
The second fact which I feel D/L over looks the fact that after it rains the outfield is wet, there is some wind and the bowlers get assistance. The scoring becomes very difficult and the bowling side has undisputed advantage. The resources should consider this fact too.
The third disadvantage of the D/L method is that it does not consider the power play overs and other fielding restrictions. The reduced number of overs and the minimum overs to be played to apply D/L method are decided by the rules agreed before the tournament or the rules layed by ICC. D/L method has no say in rescheduling the number of overs. The power play overs are decided by the ration of overs to be played over fifty. If rain interrupts after the power play, the batting side has taken it's advantage.
I came to know from wikipedia that 'The D/L method was devised by two English statisticians, Frank Duckworth and Tony Lewis, originating from an undergraduate final-year project at the University of the West of England.' Even I'm bound to do my final year project, which would start in a months time, so D/L method originating from a UG student is what fails to impress me, I get the feeling that ICC deserves a higher qualified statisticians to design a method for them. There are certainly some draw backs in the D/L method which would be discussed appropriately later in the post as they would mean more if the method of calculation is understood.
D/L method uses the principle of resources and would calculate the targets. Resources available are determined from the following factors:
* Number of over left.
* Number of wickets in hand.
The principle followed by D/L is simple , more resources you have more is the number of runs you make. for example a team having 25 overs left still has more resources than when it has 20 overs left at the same number of wickets down. A team having 7 wickets in hand has more resources than a team having 5 wickets in hand with the same number of overs left.
D/L method uses the scoring rates and statistics from previous matches and had concluded with a weight of resource to be given for the number of wickets left.
The simple formula for the revised target in a rain interrupted match is:
'T = (S x R2/R1) + 1 (rounded down to a whole number, if necessary)'
Here T is the target, S is the score made by team batted first in the resources R1 and R2 are the resources with team batting second after the interruption by rain.
The method goes on and on and is not easy to be listed on this blog, so the technical details of the method will be stopped here.
Every one remembers the 1992 worldcup semifinal where South Africa needed 22 runs from 13 balls to spare before the rain came down. The tournament used a method called "best-scoring overs" which recalculated the total and made it to 21 runs from 1 ball remaining. Clearly the method was a flaw. D/L method scores in this case it would reduce the total to 5 runs from the last ball for a win and 4 runs for a draw, which is considerably fair. D/L method anyway was born in 1996 only and was used first between Zimbabwe & England in 1996/7 which Zimbabwe won by 7 runs. The ICC adopted this method officially in 2001.With the changing scoring rates and targets the method was split into professional version and standard version. professional version requires the use of a computer and is more complicated and is used for international levels. while standard version is worked out with a sheet of paper and is used in lower levels of the game.
This method now looks convincing , no it still has some drawbacks. This method does not consider the fact that when you chase a target you try to keep wickets in hand and take lesser risks while scoring, but when the match ends prematurely because of an unexpected shower you would tend to loose because of the slow scoring rate. The par-score of the team batted first would go high.
The second fact which I feel D/L over looks the fact that after it rains the outfield is wet, there is some wind and the bowlers get assistance. The scoring becomes very difficult and the bowling side has undisputed advantage. The resources should consider this fact too.
The third disadvantage of the D/L method is that it does not consider the power play overs and other fielding restrictions. The reduced number of overs and the minimum overs to be played to apply D/L method are decided by the rules agreed before the tournament or the rules layed by ICC. D/L method has no say in rescheduling the number of overs. The power play overs are decided by the ration of overs to be played over fifty. If rain interrupts after the power play, the batting side has taken it's advantage.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
How did the test greats fare @ IPL
This topic will throw some light on how test greats fared at the T20 format. When said test cricketers, these people form definitely a part of their international test team and not likely play in the ODI squad. The batsmen list for this category will be Dravid, Laxman & Wasim Jaffer . Bowlers are Anil Kumble & Dayle Steyn.
These batsmen in the tournament have an average strike rate of a little more than a run-a-ball.
These batsmen in the initial matches struggled a lot. later Laxman showed good form in his last two matches scoring 40* & 52 with a decent strike rate. But you will not see more of him now as his injury to his right hand has put him out of the tournament. Dravid on the other hand got two half centuries but is still struggling to get the ball to the boundary, his dismissal have been mostly caught at the boundary in the initial matches later on he was bowled while attempting for shots. His strikes with proper timing and proper strike also generally failed to clear the boundary or just clear the boundary, so he needs to add lots of power into his shots. Wasim Jaffer rather can be called as the sacked opener now no more has place in the side. He showed some happening after some four innings but to no avail he was back to his old ways after two good knocks.
when it comes to bowlers both these test greats play for Royal challengers and had batsmen go behind them in many occasions. Dayle steyn except for the day on which he took three wickets he never looked to be in a way to trouble the bowlers. Anil kumble on the other hand was even more feeble, batsmen went after him, he is still looking for a wicket in the tournament. He went for runs on most of the occasions.
So the bottom line is Test players can never play T20 , at least for now. The attributes of a good bowler and good batsmen in T20 are contrary to test cricket. Test cricket your economy is of not much concern, but in T20 it is very important. Bowlers never have many chances and not more than two spells in T20 to take some time to settle down and come back hard. You need to be mentally more strong while going into a T20 game.
The batsmen the strike rate is as important as anything else. It eases in taking pressure away from you & your side. Bowlers never mind when you hit them for a four when you go behind them you should get a six, to become a cause of worry and not to allow the bowler to settle by going after him you need to make at least 18 runs in an over. In test cricket there is nothing much like going after a bowler. When a strike bowler comes into action you try to play him off and make runs in the other over, here you look to get runs in every over. So definitely the attribute are contrary and thus for the test great to make an impact in T20 is not an easy task..........
These batsmen in the tournament have an average strike rate of a little more than a run-a-ball.
These batsmen in the initial matches struggled a lot. later Laxman showed good form in his last two matches scoring 40* & 52 with a decent strike rate. But you will not see more of him now as his injury to his right hand has put him out of the tournament. Dravid on the other hand got two half centuries but is still struggling to get the ball to the boundary, his dismissal have been mostly caught at the boundary in the initial matches later on he was bowled while attempting for shots. His strikes with proper timing and proper strike also generally failed to clear the boundary or just clear the boundary, so he needs to add lots of power into his shots. Wasim Jaffer rather can be called as the sacked opener now no more has place in the side. He showed some happening after some four innings but to no avail he was back to his old ways after two good knocks.
when it comes to bowlers both these test greats play for Royal challengers and had batsmen go behind them in many occasions. Dayle steyn except for the day on which he took three wickets he never looked to be in a way to trouble the bowlers. Anil kumble on the other hand was even more feeble, batsmen went after him, he is still looking for a wicket in the tournament. He went for runs on most of the occasions.
So the bottom line is Test players can never play T20 , at least for now. The attributes of a good bowler and good batsmen in T20 are contrary to test cricket. Test cricket your economy is of not much concern, but in T20 it is very important. Bowlers never have many chances and not more than two spells in T20 to take some time to settle down and come back hard. You need to be mentally more strong while going into a T20 game.
The batsmen the strike rate is as important as anything else. It eases in taking pressure away from you & your side. Bowlers never mind when you hit them for a four when you go behind them you should get a six, to become a cause of worry and not to allow the bowler to settle by going after him you need to make at least 18 runs in an over. In test cricket there is nothing much like going after a bowler. When a strike bowler comes into action you try to play him off and make runs in the other over, here you look to get runs in every over. So definitely the attribute are contrary and thus for the test great to make an impact in T20 is not an easy task..........
Monday, May 12, 2008
I knew this was on the cards...
I certainly was expecting the franchise owners of some of the IPL teams to come down hard on their teams, I was expecting this from the richest Indian and owner of the Mumbai Indians Mr.Ambani to be the first followed by the don of Indian cinema the king khan, but these teams had a good run lately and had certainly delayed the harsh words from their owners, but any way the first blood is already drawn by Mr.Vijay Malaya the liquor baron, made news by firing his team manager Charu sharma and some words for Rahul Dravid. I find the blame reasonable, any sensible head who knows about cricket, unless you are a hardcore dravid fan would say that. The team selection was as horrible as it could be for a T20 side, the team is a very promising test side though... Vijay Malaya claimed dravid said that a test player can play any form of cricket, if is true..
I certainly.. certainly.. have no words to describe his foolishness, this is heights...
Royal Challengers stand no chance even if each of their players perform out of their skin.... their only hope is definitely Misbah-Ul-Haq, I hope he has some luck going on in the tournament.. He can win matches alone for them..
I certainly.. certainly.. have no words to describe his foolishness, this is heights...
Royal Challengers stand no chance even if each of their players perform out of their skin.... their only hope is definitely Misbah-Ul-Haq, I hope he has some luck going on in the tournament.. He can win matches alone for them..
Sunday, May 11, 2008
How was IPL born....
It was 2007 world cup in the Caribbeans. The cricketing world was happy to see the tournament of such a big level in the islands which once produced the finest people of the trade....
Indian team with no injuries and were in great form going into the world cup... many greats predict this time India will win the Cup, unlike last time loosing it to Australia in the finals...
but what happened is something like a nightmare, India was kicked out of the tournament, being grouped with SriLanka ,Bermuda and the underdogs Bangladesh who thumped India out of the tournament, the Indian cricket team was pathetic & the fans back home enraged.. It once looked BCCI is going to loose it's control on Indian cricket....
Thus was the Indian Cricket League(ICL) was born , this new cricket board is backed by Zee television network & has big money invested in it. Many of the big names were contacted to be a part of the new institution.. Kapil Dev the worlds best all rounder was also roped in.. This in particular was coming good for cricketers who never made enough money before.. many people who never got a chance to make it big enough for the people to see them play.. were elated many good cricketers who felt BCCI did injustice to their career were there in the league, the likes of Dinesh mongia who even played for India ... not just that it had many retired international players... ICL soon became popular & BCCI couldn't tolerate the enemy just under it's jaw..
so it decided to suppress it. Some one associated with them can never be associated with BCCI,
for that matter not just BCCI also with ICC for international cricketers.
ICL was termed as the rebel league and the ICC never recognized it....
But for cricket fans these never mattered, people accepted ICL , they went to stadiums and watched the matches, BCCI before it could loose it's ground to this exciting T20 format had to counter it.
Thus the IPL was born.... BCCI had made it unbelievably big the response was a surprise to them too, especially the IPL was born at the right time when Business men in India were looking forward to invest money on sports, they too could never miss the opportunity .. thus was the $600 million IPL was born.... cricketers got so much money , the players performing in the 1-class leagues got opportunity to rub shoulders with the cricket greats , play in front of crowds.. and earn money they deserved.
So to sum this all up.. it's very very funny to realize the fact that.. .. these cricketers got so much money because they let india down at the world-cup.... chalo let's forgive them as this has come lot good for the total breed of unrecognized bunch of local players. The mantra in IPL has been a search for talent and many revelations have also been witnessed..
Now what keeps me amused is how are people going to look at ICL after such a huge success of IPL.. yes IPL was a huge success and mind you this is the first season only...
Indian team with no injuries and were in great form going into the world cup... many greats predict this time India will win the Cup, unlike last time loosing it to Australia in the finals...
but what happened is something like a nightmare, India was kicked out of the tournament, being grouped with SriLanka ,Bermuda and the underdogs Bangladesh who thumped India out of the tournament, the Indian cricket team was pathetic & the fans back home enraged.. It once looked BCCI is going to loose it's control on Indian cricket....
Thus was the Indian Cricket League(ICL) was born , this new cricket board is backed by Zee television network & has big money invested in it. Many of the big names were contacted to be a part of the new institution.. Kapil Dev the worlds best all rounder was also roped in.. This in particular was coming good for cricketers who never made enough money before.. many people who never got a chance to make it big enough for the people to see them play.. were elated many good cricketers who felt BCCI did injustice to their career were there in the league, the likes of Dinesh mongia who even played for India ... not just that it had many retired international players... ICL soon became popular & BCCI couldn't tolerate the enemy just under it's jaw..
so it decided to suppress it. Some one associated with them can never be associated with BCCI,
for that matter not just BCCI also with ICC for international cricketers.
ICL was termed as the rebel league and the ICC never recognized it....
But for cricket fans these never mattered, people accepted ICL , they went to stadiums and watched the matches, BCCI before it could loose it's ground to this exciting T20 format had to counter it.
Thus the IPL was born.... BCCI had made it unbelievably big the response was a surprise to them too, especially the IPL was born at the right time when Business men in India were looking forward to invest money on sports, they too could never miss the opportunity .. thus was the $600 million IPL was born.... cricketers got so much money , the players performing in the 1-class leagues got opportunity to rub shoulders with the cricket greats , play in front of crowds.. and earn money they deserved.
So to sum this all up.. it's very very funny to realize the fact that.. .. these cricketers got so much money because they let india down at the world-cup.... chalo let's forgive them as this has come lot good for the total breed of unrecognized bunch of local players. The mantra in IPL has been a search for talent and many revelations have also been witnessed..
Now what keeps me amused is how are people going to look at ICL after such a huge success of IPL.. yes IPL was a huge success and mind you this is the first season only...
Thursday, May 8, 2008
The T20 season..
The electric IPL T20 season is high on entertainment, Cricket cannot get better than this. Cricindya just can wait to give its comments, predictions, statistics and many more to come up shortly. For now cricindya releases it's IPLT20's XI
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Ishant shows a lot of promise
The tall 19yr old lad from delhi Ishant sharma is showing a lot of promise, the paceman in had a great run in the recent tour against Australia. He got Ricky ponting on almost all ocassions.He was the find of the tournament.he in the squad makes the team look stronger , this is a great achievement for a bowler at such an young age and with so minimal experience. This lad definitely has a brigh future but he needs to be used wisely giving proper breaks and diagonising injuries in time.
The IPL most worthy bowler is all set to become a legend and future of Indian fast bowling.
The IPL most worthy bowler is all set to become a legend and future of Indian fast bowling.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
The victoroius conquest
Indians have bearded the lions in their own den...
The 2-0 defeat for the Australians in the Cb series final will not be forgotten very soon.. The conquest in all was great will be known for ever for the cricket which was played..
But the biggest achievement for the Indian cricket in all is not just the tournament victory against the worlds best team .... it has been the youngsters who have been performed consistently and fought bravely to make India reach home...
The find of the tournament and the boy after whom the whole world is behind is undoubtedly Ishant sharma .. the 19 yr old showed top class performance and is showing a lot of promise..... The performances by Gautham Gambir , mahendra singh Dhoni and praveen kumar especially his four wicket halls in the two finals were praise worthy...
Finally Dhoni showed how good a captain he is and looks like Rahul dravid & saurav Gangully are already forgotten legends, I don't see any chance of them making a come back to the ODI scenario....
The 2-0 defeat for the Australians in the Cb series final will not be forgotten very soon.. The conquest in all was great will be known for ever for the cricket which was played..
But the biggest achievement for the Indian cricket in all is not just the tournament victory against the worlds best team .... it has been the youngsters who have been performed consistently and fought bravely to make India reach home...
The find of the tournament and the boy after whom the whole world is behind is undoubtedly Ishant sharma .. the 19 yr old showed top class performance and is showing a lot of promise..... The performances by Gautham Gambir , mahendra singh Dhoni and praveen kumar especially his four wicket halls in the two finals were praise worthy...
Finally Dhoni showed how good a captain he is and looks like Rahul dravid & saurav Gangully are already forgotten legends, I don't see any chance of them making a come back to the ODI scenario....
Sunday, January 20, 2008
India in Australia.......
wow , the history elegantly repeats .. India once again does the trick..
We stopped aussies getting their 17th straight away win for the second time now...
choking is no new to India .. Even we stopped WestIndies to get their 3rd straight away world cup win...
Indian Captain 'Anil Kumble' showed a great temperament in handling the situation...
he has been great gentle man .. It was tit for tat for Andrew symonds to get a crucial
LBW decision against him in the third test ... Ace commentator harsha Bhogle was quick to remark "life came to a full circle for Andrew Symonds, two wrongs make a right .. It is the balancing act"
this test will be remembered for the excellent cricket that was played....
We stopped aussies getting their 17th straight away win for the second time now...
choking is no new to India .. Even we stopped WestIndies to get their 3rd straight away world cup win...
Indian Captain 'Anil Kumble' showed a great temperament in handling the situation...
he has been great gentle man .. It was tit for tat for Andrew symonds to get a crucial
LBW decision against him in the third test ... Ace commentator harsha Bhogle was quick to remark "life came to a full circle for Andrew Symonds, two wrongs make a right .. It is the balancing act"
this test will be remembered for the excellent cricket that was played....
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