ICF Member Interview: Vilander

[Gollum]

ICF: Tell us a little bit about yourself.

 

Vilander: Nothing much to share, eminently ordinary middle-aged Indian origin guy. I have been trying to identify what is unique or core to my existence, haven’t found it yet. I trust science and am spiritual but not religious. I feel grateful for being able to observe the universe around me.

 

 

ICF: What is your educational background?

 

Vilander: I have educational background in Engineering Management and Cognitive Sciences.

 

 

ICF: When did you move overseas? 

 

Vilander: I moved to Canada in 2006 after living and working elsewhere in Europe.

 

 

ICF: How has your experience been like in Canada all these years and how have you assimilated to culture there?

 

Vilander: Canada speaks English which is great, it is truly democratic. People here trust the government, it’s a small country in terms of population, its systems and policies are trusted by the population. There are lots of Indian people here so you never feel away from home. Canada is a post-national state in the sense that its culture is post-national, its politics allows for multiple identities and loyalties, yet bifurcates rule of law from these identities admirably.

 

 

ICF: How aware are you (and Canadians in general) of the Scottish influence in Canada? Such as Nova Scotia (New Scotland), all the Scottish named towns and how much Canada was built by Scottish settlers.

 

Vilander: Nova Scotia (NS) is basically New Scotland, I think Scottish people in Canada are as numerous as in Scotland itself if not more. There is substantial Scottish heritage in eastern Canada: New Brunswick (NB), Nova Scotia (NS), pretty big in Ontario (ON) and British Columbia (BC) as well. Lots of beautiful full Scott origin women from NB, NS . BC I know has Celtic pipes festival, some of our BC friends can delve into details. Early 18th century settlers, builders, railroads, banking, the famous Scotiabank. To this day banking is mainstay for Scottish heritage. Scotland is not generally on par with England or France when it comes to overseas settlement, Canada bucks the trend. Scots are second or third largest group here, then come the Germans and Irish, followed by Chinese and Indians.

 

 

ICF: How often do you visit India? Do you have plans of coming back to India permanently one day?

 

Vilander: I visit India as often as I can, I have interests there.

 

Going back to India is a big decision for anyone who has moved out, it is often unfair on children born outside. India obviously is a great place to live in, the support one receives, services, unorganized sector–household help etc., one can list great many advantages.

 

 

ICF: How has COVID crisis impacted you? What lifestyle changes have you made to cope with current scenario?

 

Vilander: Nothing much, my work situation was always self-driven, client-driven, not work from an office. COVID has made many people work from home, which is great as everyone can focus on what is important now and those for whom it is essential can travel to work in peace. I have definitely started working out much more now, the gains one attains in just a few weeks of regular basic training far outstrips that in frequent fad workout sessions and diets. 'Train' vs 'Workout', that’s my lifestyle change.

 

 

ICF: How did you come across ICF?

 

Vilander: I saw an article by MTC, can’t remember what, started posting here around that time. I was a fan of Steyn at that time, might be around 2008 or later can't remember. I was semi-active lurker in bigfooty prior to that.

 

 

ICF: Is your username inspired by the legendary Swedish tennis champ of the 80s 'Mats Wilander'?

 

Vilander: In part yes, some of my earliest sports viewing memories are Kapil Dev's rear innings heroics and 'Lendl vs Wilander' tennis. The way it was presented to me was that Wilander was a lesser player than Lendl but often fought when it was important, what we call clutch. I did not have the concept then but it stayed with me, ‘Wilander’ as someone with mental fortitude. Besides I had a few very successful Role Playing Game characters of the same name over the years, I play Kingdoms of Amalur, Skyrim etc.

 

 

ICF: What are your earliest or most impactful memories of cricket that made you a fan?

 

Vilander: Earliest was Kapil Dev, can't remember which game but mom would get super excited when he came out to bat. It was her way of getting in on the fun, there would be a huge gang of friends of my brother who would be watching the game I would be sticking to some window and catching the game or whatever I could make out of it. I remember it to be a failed heroic effort. Other than that I vaguely remember Benson & Hedges Cup and the victory lap, Ravi and Srikkanth.

 

I got re-initiated into the game with emergence of Sachin/Sourav/Dravid and others, culminating in 2003 WC which was peak of my ODI fandom. Post that I got my interest back in the game through multiple test series.

 

 

ICF: List some of your favorite international matches from each of the 3 formats.

 

Vilander: T20- 2007 World T20 against Aus, that Hayden dismissal by Sreesanth, aged a few years in that match.

 

ODI-

2003 WC against Pak, look of defeat in Akhtar/Akram's eyes, dominance of Sachin.

Aus vs SA 434 runs Jo'burg game, Gibbs his forearms.

CB series 2008 two finals.

2011 WC Ind vs Aus Ahmedabad, Yuvraj.

 

Test-

2006 Ind vs SA Jo'burg.

2018 Ind vs SA Jo'burg, unplayable conditions.

Ind vs Aus 4th test 2019, when Pujara and Pant ground Aus into the dirt.

 

 

ICF: Name your favorite batsmen of all time.

 

Vilander: Kevin Pietersen - Fav Batsman.

 

Sachin and Ponting during their peaks.

 

 

ICF: Which cricket team(s) (apart from India) and player(s) (non-Indian) do you like/respect a lot?

 

Vilander: Australia. After 2012, England in tests.

 

I like SA players Steyn, AB de Villiers and from England Kevin Pietersen, Cook, Swann.

 

 

ICF: What is your favorite international player (batsman vs bowler) rivalry?

 

Vilander: Kevin Pietersen vs Mitchell Johnson. Unbelievable hype and visuals, never seen box office written over anything this evidently in cricket. Close second was Sachin vs Akhtar in 2003.

 

 

ICF: Are you in favor of more D/N test cricket or does it infringe too much upon tradition?

 

Vilander: Anything that can bring in crowds for test cricket is good, it should be a no-brainer. Hope BCCI leads it instead of being dumb and not adopting at first and then catching up like we always see, it makes BCCI and India look dumb and I am sick of it.

 

 

ICF: Who is your favorite pace bowler of all time? Do you see Bumrah/Shami reaching the heights of the Hadlees and Donalds of yesteryear?

 

Vilander: Dale Steyn, I think he combined pace and swing much superior to his contemporaries, he could do genuine swing and post-lunch come out and bowl 148-152 and soften batsmen up only to follow up with some swing bowling at 135-140, it was ridiculous. And he was a drama queen to boot.

 

I love Bumrah, Shami, Ishant 2.0, Umesh (at home) and now Saini. They will never play second fiddle to anyone now, will intimidate opposition and at times hurt them. This makes test cricket on the whole so much more interesting. No matter what they achieve, the fact that this was the case even for couple of seasons would mean kids will have this to look up to.

 

 

ICF: Do you think Ravi Shastri deserves to continue as our national coach? Was appointing him in the first place a correct decision in your opinion?

 

Vilander: He should be made team manager or team director and coaching should be moved away from him to someone independent in technical game plan matters.

 

Appointing him was a correct decision but maybe they should have had a transparent decision making process, if it was just Kohli veto then so be it. There was no need of the charade with the selection.

 

 

ICF: What must Team India do to break the ICC trophy drought going on since 2014 WT20?

 

Vilander: A cup will come around at some point. India is so freaking huge, frankly it's good that India is not winning all the cups, rest of the countries will lose interest.

 

 

ICF: If there were 3 things in Indian cricket you could change what would they be?

 

Vilander: Two international sides, one that specializes in Asian conditions and one that specializes in fast-bouncy pitches. Marquee overseas test series can have combination teams.

 

India should start test series to Eng, Aus, NZ, SA well prior with 3 or 4 practice games.

 

India should find pacey pitches in cooler weather locations and bring them into IPL, home ODI series etc. Innovate in pitch preparation most importantly.

 

 

ICF: Are you in favor of an extended IPL? Some talk about 6 months long league, a bit excessive don't you think?

 

Vilander: Nope, it is good as it is. If it becomes 6 months long, it should be done for a good reason like making ICC crawl on all fours when India wants it to.

 

 

ICF: Do you follow Toronto Raptors, Blue Jays, Maple Leafs?

 

Vilander: To be very frank not yet, but eventually will. Blue Jays on and off, I find the game boring at times though. But I see getting behind Jays in future, as much as they suck lol. Maple Leafs no don’t like the game, they get hammered against Montreal Canadiens often and my Quebecois colleagues try reminding me, unknown to them I don’t really care. Raptors are a good team recently, lots of bandwagoning since 2019, there was quite a bit of celebration on the streets after the win last year, it was memorable.

 

 

ICF: Could you tell us about your interest in tennis? Who is your favorite tennis player of all time?

 

Vilander: I used to love Andre Agassi, I think he had the best backhand the game has ever seen. I used to play lawn tennis during a phase, grew out of it, literally I became too fat to move around and lost interest.

 

 

ICF: What is your view on democracy? How would you compare Athenian style democracy with modern day western style democracy?

 

Vilander: Democracy is the best option till we find something better. Classical city citizenry based proto-democracy concepts are not applicable in modern context, those cities probably had 10-20k people that could potentially participate with some chosen few participating, this is not possible in current context.

 

But any form of government should not form another form of identity, we have to be careful that arguments on forms of government should not form basis for identity clashes. There are important lessons to be learnt from every philosophy, communism, socialism, political Islam etc.

 

 

ICF: Would you describe yourself as liberal, moderate or conservative?

 

Vilander: Fiscally conservative, socially liberal. I never find political parties or even people who think alike. I am fringe of fringe, and part of no vote bank.

 

 

ICF: What infuriates you most about the state of politics in Tamil Nadu?

 

Vilander: Not infuriating but amusing or mildly concerning and pretty much most of it: caste based politics, socialist doles, celebrity worship culture, lack of accountability most importantly. I offer no solutions. What would amuse me a bit more is folks from other states which are no better, preaching to TN about all this.

 

 

ICF: Do you believe Hinduism is safe in the temple towns of Tamil Nadu?

 

Vilander: Demographically Hindus are clear majority for all future, and Tamil national identity if very strong, is clearly sub to Indian identity. This is overblown, next time someone tries to scare us about this ask for demographic statistics, poll statistics. Besides, India needs a pan-religious national identity.

 

 

ICF: Why has defense indigenization in India failed, especially when you compare that with our achievements in hi-tech space programs?

 

Vilander: Defense indigenization in India has not failed, returns are relative to R&D spending, US has roughly 10 times defense R&D spending when compared to India.

 

This is based on secondary research and few first person accounts. Some of the improvements that are happening or which should happen that we are likely to see are like this:

 

- Defense Public Sector Undertaking (DPSPU) culture is similar to Public Sector Undertaking culture in India. Lacks state of the art appraisal and rewards systems and objective goal setting all of which lead to reduced accountability. One needs to understand the culture to realize its impact, in terms of resistance to change, barriers to innovation etc.

 

- All developed defense industries have public-private partnership with big players. Now we are going to see Adani/Ambani involvement in aerospace with their tendency to dominate their space

 

- Besides India will work around some of the budgetary constraints, for instance unlike the USA or China India will face littoral challenges with shore-based facilities in the peninsula geography or Andaman. India will use its geography to its advantage, so focused R&D prioritization in future will help us get bang for the buck so to say.

 

- We often see China developing its programs in tranches, relaxed ASRs (air staff requirements, basically business requirements for fighter jets) and not having shifting goal posts are common complaints one sees from program side in DPSUs.

 

- Specific to LCA (Light Combat Aircraft) Tejas which is the most talked about program, improvements that we are seeing and will see modular are certain areas like aerodynamics, sensors, stealth factor, weapons integration with series upgrades in Astra (missile), ease of maintenance and logistics etc. Eventually there is talk about drone swarms and such. It is exciting space to follow but at times frustrating due to defense equipment acquisition process in Indian government.

 

 

ICF: What steps must be taken to improve/increase electronics manufacturing sector in India, considering our rival China's dominance in this area and our dependence on them?

 

Vilander: Not an expert to comment but it is a highly automated industry, so installed capacity leads to ability to participate in global supply chain. Yet as it is seen there are labor intensive sections in equipment manufacturing side in electronics that would be fair game for India with some nice incentives.

 

 

ICF: As someone based outside India how do you rate Modi sarkar?

 

Vilander: Definitely more visible to the outside world, needs to focus more on economy rather than theatrics.

 

 

ICF: Future of India - politics/economic power/military, could you share your broad views on where it is headed?

 

Vilander: India must crush internal security risks from Maoists and Islamists, forge strategic land grab around Chicken Neck and Sir Creek. India should wriggle with least amount of damage in its struggle with China, ideal case would be to checkmate Pakistan by forging a truce with China but must be done after inflicting a cost on them for their aggression.

 

Major challenges upcoming for India are water scarcity, land reforms, tribal welfare etc.

 

 

ICF: Which is your favorite foreign film genre?

 

Vilander: I follow big budget Hollywood superhero movies shamelessly.

 

 

ICF: Tell us about your interest in photography.

 

Vilander: I go on photo walks and carry enthusiast level gear. Few of my favorite shots are urban architecture in Rome, large spaces like Colosseum, castles with tree foliage frame, rural pics from Germany, geocache walks etc.

 

 

ICF: Do you enjoy reading PG Wodehouse? Are you an avid reader, if so what do you like to read?

 

Vilander: I do not read fiction  , although would love to know what part of PG Wodehouse's work is related to the name Vilander. I read books in summary, there are apps for that and anthologies, collections, basically most amount of knowledge for least amount of lines read.

 

 

ICF: What are your favorite Hindi songs?

 

Vilander: Maula Mere and Tose Naina  Lage – Anwar

 

Mujhe Raat Din – Sangharsh

 

Tera Mera Pyar – Kumar Sanu

 

 

ICF: What are your favorite North Indian dishes?

 

Vilander: Chole Bhature, Rajma Chawal.

 

 

ICF: What is your honest opinion about Mumbai?

 

Vilander: Economic backbone of India, seems to have sectarian problems against someone or the other: North Indians, Biharis, North East Indians, Tamils, Muslims etc. And government seems to be prone to gundaism, vendetta politics, pretty sad but nothing special, many state governments in India are similar....

 

 

ICF: Why do you hate Bollywood and since when did you start having low opinion about the industry?

 

Vilander: I dislike Bollywood but follow work of some artistes ,used to like Irrfan Khan and Sushant Singh Rajput, earlier Amol Palekar, Utpal Dutt, Farooq Sheikh.... recently that Newton actor Rajkummar Rao.

 

Totally dislike Bollywood 'it' crowd, I knew of their nepotism and cabal. Also disliked the term 'Bollywood', it reduced the country's cine/creative industry into a bunch of dumb apes who don't know better than naming themselves based on another entity in another country lol, so it's like accepting we are lesser than them. All that I see happening now with SSR case I can't help but feel vindicated. I know that most movie industries are progressive but not outright left-leaning or Islamist like in India. My dislike for 'bollyapeshitwood' is because of this.

 

I have often found that different movie industries have cycles where they make good movies. Tamil Nadu used to make good movies in 80s to late 90s. Karnataka had a golden period with Shankar Nag, Anant Nag. Telugu I guess its their time now. But none can match the scale and budget of Bollywood.

 

 

ICF: What has made you keep coming back on ICF despite your fair share of tussles with a few of the members here?

 

Vilander: Penchant to provide a perspective, do my best to be a pain behind Bambani's troll monkeys  and learn from some of the posters here. I also follow the pace threads, it’s a source of happiness.

 

 

ICF: Which section do you enjoy browsing and posting more on this forum, 'chit chat' or cricket discussion?

 

Vilander: Chit chat, and then pace thread.

 

 

ICF: If you could make some changes on ICF, what would they be?

 

Vilander: None, it’s a free forum. Hope it stays that way.

Edited November 17, 2020 by Gollum

[Gollum]

Thank you @Vilander for taking the time to answer these questions, enjoyable read. 

 

 

If interested, posters can ask follow up questions or other questions here. No time constraints, and entirely up to Vilander whether he wants to answer now, later or skip.

[maniac]

Excellent read @Vilander and as always great work @Gollum

[zen]

Nice read!

[coffee_rules]

Great read, thanks to you both. Time for me to run off and look for crazy news of TN.

[Vilander]

Great cleanup @Gollum

[Cricketics]

Great read. Thanks for answering Vilander. 

 

Thank you for organizing and putting it together, Gollum.

 

 

[Vilander]

2 hours ago, Gollum said:

Thank you @Vilander for taking the time to answer these questions, enjoyable read. 

 

 

If interested, posters can ask follow up questions or other questions here. No time constraints, and entirely up to Vilander whether he wants to answer now, later or skip.

Thank you Gollum yes happy to respond. If I missed any from earlier I will pick and try to answer here later. Cheers. 

[Real McCoy]

Nice read @Vilander Stick it to the bambis

[raki05]

some very good questions and very nicely answered. Good job both of you.

[Tattieboy]

Thank you for your time answering and my question in particular .

I now know why we have so many ugly women here in Scotland is because the beautiful ones emigrated to Canada 

[Vilander]

3 hours ago, Tattieboy said:

Thank you for your time answering and my question in particular .

I now know why we have so many ugly women here in Scotland is because the beautiful ones emigrated to Canada 

 

hehe..man i love the ladies here..may be its time for scotts to move here fully.. 

[Tattieboy]

11 minutes ago, Vilander said:

 

hehe..man i love the ladies here..may be its time for scotts to move here fully.. 

I will do a deal !! I will send some Scots girls if you get an Aunty and her daughter for me ...Aunty for housework and daughter to give me heart attack 

[Rightarmfast]

3 hours ago, Tattieboy said:

Thank you for your time answering and my question in particular .

I now know why we have so many ugly women here in Scotland is because the beautiful ones emigrated to Canada 

Is that true? I am hoping to be moving to Canada by mid next year. Damn, thats some incentive to move fast :)

[Rightarmfast]

Good one @Vilander! Impressive in-depth answers. Really deep ****. Love the one on defense!

@Gollum Great work putting this up, Kudos!

[Tattieboy]

3 minutes ago, Rightarmfast said:

Is that true? I am hoping to be moving to Canada by mid next year. Damn, thats some incentive to move fast :)

Have no idea about Canadian women .. never been 

I am moving to Latvia in 2021 , you should see them there !!!!!

If I was you I wouldn't move from India , women there are very very nice , not that I looked 

 

[Vilander]

2 hours ago, Tattieboy said:

I am moving to Latvia in 2021

 

damn.. Estonia and Laativa , i missed visiting them - i was told have very good looking women.

[Tattieboy]

31 minutes ago, Vilander said:

 

damn.. Estonia and Laativa , i missed visiting them - i was told have very good looking women.

Absolutely beautiful !!! Been going to Latvia for 15 years twice a year .

Half  country   are Latvian Latvian and   other half are Latvian Russians 

[Khota]

Good job answering the questions. It is interesting to see people of diverse background and their views.

[Vilander]

20 hours ago, Tattieboy said:

Absolutely beautiful !!! Been going to Latvia for 15 years twice a year .

Half  country   are Latvian Latvian and   other half are Latvian Russians 

i was in Finland at the time, my friends at the time did a weeklong tour around from Estonia to st.petersburg. Regretted missing it after seeing some of the pics. Beautiful place.