Week Thirtyfour - WAC, business pitch and test cricket

The week started with a WAC, this time for MSI. Then we had the ENT business pitch presentation - presenting our business plan to a panel of real life investors. That went well, we (Amit Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Jina Goswami, Sunil Ankalgi and yours truly as the Lead Entreprenuer) had prepared and rehearsed it. We did not win the prize, but informed sources say we were a close second.

Yesterday we played Milton Keynes, and it was as close to a test match as I have played. Batting second, our top order did not survive some good bowling. I went in with a mandate of not getting out. Fantastic rear guard action, even if I say so myself. I batted out 14 overs, sometimes with 9 close-in fielders, scored a measly 6 runs before the umpire gave me LBW on an inside edge. I know, all umpires are mad, but hey, the effort served the purpose, the match was a draw.

Week Thirtythree - Meet the press v1

After AMS, MSI, LIC, OBPPD and ENT prep lectures, the famed press conference was the academic highlight of this week. I dont want to give away too much, but essentially, I was the MD of a tourism company, my team was the management team of the tour company, and one of our tours was involved in a very serious situation. There was a press conference, and we were grilled by two journalists. It was everything I expected, we braved it out, stuck to our guns as it were, and personally speaking, my journalism background saved me the blushes. By the by, we also submitted our business plan this week, for starting assessment centres in India, requiring £150,000. Not bad, considering an average 30% return over 5 years.

The other highlight of this week was my first county league wicket - batsman dismissed clean bowled. We played an away game with Harlington, batting first, and I scored a duck. Ball going down leg, wanted to play fine, closed the face of the bat a bit early, edged, the ball flew high and was safely caught. It was the bowling bit I said was the highlight, remember? Right arm off spin, the righthand batsman went frontfoot to backfoot, swung crossbat, missed, and the ball took the bails off. Neat.

Week Thirtytwo - Road repairs

The only thing one can safely say about English weather is that it might rain. Cricket was washed out this week. Instead, for our MSI project, we (Folake Kolade, Tokunbo Onitilo and yours truly) went and interviewed a company ASI Solutions Plc, which has invented a new and better system of road repairs. They use infrared heating and special coatings to carry out longer lasting and cost efficient reparis to potholes. It was interesting, we are looking at what technology diffusion issues the company faces. Apart from that, a few lectures and some nets.

Week Thirtyone - More cricket

Two BUSA home matches, and one County away match. We played Nottingham (2nd May) and Nottingham Trent (6th May) in the BUSA matches, and Stoke Hammond (5th May) in the County. I got injured (left hand thumb has a soft tissue injury) in the first match, but took one wicket. Then played in the county game, where I could not get a wicket, but remained not out. We had good players for the BUSA match, and I wasn't feeling right, so I stood umpire in today's BUSA match.

If this gives you the impression that this week was only about cricket - it was not. We had a full schedule of lectures too, AMS, LIC, OBPPD and MSI. We also had ENT prep lectures for the business plan.