South Asia Investor Review

Pakistan cricket team has won all four of the group matches it has played so far in the T20 World Cup being played in the United Arab Emirates. Pakistan currently sits on top of the points table with 8 points in Group 2.  Pakistan's only remaining match is with the team from Scotland which has lost all 3 matches it has played so far.  There is no doubt about the top talent in the Pakistani team but their performance at the T20 World Cup is extraordinary. So what accounts for it? What has changed recently within the team? Do Pakistanis have a chip on their shoulder and they are out to prove themselves? Are the new world-class coaches helping them?   Pakistan's Coches Mathew Hayden (L), Vernon Philander  One possible explanation is that Pakistanis have a chip on their soldier. They are out to prove themselves after having been shunned by teams like England, New Zealand and  India . Another more likely explanation that I find more appealing is the change of le...

While India leads the world in total number of murders, South Africa is number one by per capita murder rate. The top five countries by total number of homicides are India, Russia, Colombia, South Africa and United States, according to Nationmaster.com. Based on murders per 1000 people, India ranks at 26 along with Yemen while Saudi Arabia and Qatar have the lowest murder rates ranking them at 61 and 62 respectively on a list of 62 countries. Though Pakistan is not included in this list, its per capita rate of 0.0602 per 1000 would put it at number 20 along with Poland and just slightly above the US which is at number 24. Pakistan's murder rate is also well below the weighted average of 0.1 per 1000 reported for the world by NationMaster.com. There were 32,719 incidents (Nationmaster puts it at 37,170) of murder recorded in India, whereas there were 28,904 in Russia, 26,539 in Colombia, 21,995 in South Africa, 16,692 in the US, 13,829 in Mexico and 9,631 in Pakistan, the report com...