Sussex Sharks

The big boost for Sussex Sharks came a few months back when West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Smith announced that he would play for them instead of IPL champions Deccan Chargers.

Smith was instrumental in helping the English county win their first Twenty20 Cup as he blasted 59 off 26 balls in the final to guide them to a 68-run victory over fancied Somerset.

Captain Michael Yardy has led from the front with the bat, while young Indian leg-spinner Piyush Chawla will be useful given his knowledge of conditions at home. All-rounder Luke Wright is also expected to shine considering his success with England in the last few months in ODIs and Twenty20 cricket.

Squad: Michael Yardy (captain), Luke Wright, Dwayne Smith, Piyush Chawla, William Beer, Yasir Arafat, Christopher Nash, R Martin-Jenkins, James Kirtley, Chad Keegan, Ben Brown, Joe Gatting, R Hamilton-Brown, Andrew Hodd, Ed Joyce.

Wayamba Elevens:

Wayamba qualified for the Champions League following their Inter-Provincial Twenty20 tournament victory over Basnahira South in what could be a big boost for Sri Lankan domestic cricket.

Former Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene will be Wayamba’s main hope with the bat. Mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis may have not enjoyed success in the two editions of the IPL so far, but he definitely poses a threat as was witnessed in the ICC Champions Trophy.

Squad: Jehan Mubarak (captain), Mahela Jayawardene, Ajantha Mendis, Farveez Maharoof, Sameera de Zoysa, Ishara Amerasinghe, Chanaka Welegedara, Mahela Udawatte, Isuru Udana, Thissara Perera, Michael Vandort, Rangana Herath, S Karunanayake, J Kulatunga, K Lokuarachchi.

Trinidad & Tobago:

The team that the great Brian Lara once played for will be the Caribbean’s sole representation in the Champions League.

The Bravo brothers — Dwayne and Darren — the best talents to come out of the West Indies for a while will no doubt be the star attractions. Lendl Simmons, Ravi Rampaul and Denesh Ramdin are a few young talents that can make headlines in the tournament.

Squad: Daren Ganga (captain), Dwayne Bravo, Darren Bravo, Lendl Simmons, Ravi Rampaul, Denesh Ramdin, Samuel Badree, Navin Stewart, Kieron Pollard, William Perkins, Sunil Narine, Dave Mohammed, Adrian Barath, Rayad Emrit, Sherwin Ganga

Victoria:

Australia’s most promising players Cameron White and Peter Siddle headline the 15-member Victoria squad.

Limited-overs cricket specialist David Hussey also looms as a big threat while Brad Hodge’s vast experience in domestic cricket in a few different countries will also come handy.

Victoria are regarded as one of the best Twenty20 teams in Australia won the first three editions of the Twenty20 Big Bash in 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08.

Squad: Cameron White (captain), Peter Siddle, David Hussey, Aiden Blizzard, Matthew Wade, Robert Quiney, Clinton McKay, Bryce McGain, Andrew McDonald, Aaron Finch, Shane Harwood, John Hastings, Brad Hodge, Jon Holland, James Pattinson

Royal Challengers:

Veteran Anil Kumble showed the fire in him was still burning as he rallied Royal Challengers from a disastrous start to a runners-up finish in the second season of the IPL.

The ace leg spinner was instrumental in the team’s revival while veterans Rahul Dravid and Jacques Kallis also made notable contributions as it finished behind Deccan Chargers.

Squad: Anil Kumble (captain), Mark Boucher, Rahul Dravid, Jacques Kallis, Roelof van der Merwe, Robin Uthappa, Ross Taylor, Dale Steyn, Virat Kohli, Rajesh Bishnoi, Vinay Kumar, Manish Pandey, Praveen Kumar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Balachandra Akhil.

Somerset:

A lot will be expected from former England opener Marcus Trescothick, who is embarking on his first overseas tour in three years after quitting cricket due to stress-related illness.

Trescothick and Justin Langer have proved a lethal opening combo in the English domestic circuit and will be hoping to carry their form over to India.

Squad: Justin Langer (captain), Marcus Trescothick, Omari Banks, Charl Willoughby, Max Waller, Peter Trego, Alfonso Thomas, Arul Suppiah, Ben Phillips, Philip Jones, Zander de Bruyn, Jos Buttler, Wes Durston, James Hildreth, Craig Kieswetter.

Otago Volts:

New Zealand’s Twenty20 champions Otago Volts enter the tournament as a strong contender for the title.

Brendon McCullum is a proven match-winner, while all-rounder Dmitri Mascarenhas is capable of making a difference with both bat and ball. Nathan McCullum, Ian Butler and Neil Broom are the other players with some international players and would be expected to play stellar roles for Otago.

Squad: Craig Cumming (captain), Brendon McCullum, Nick Beard, Neil Wagner, Greg Todd, Hamish Rutherford, Aaron Redmond, Dmitri Mascarenhas, Warren McSkimming, James McMillan, Nathan McCullum, Neil Broom, Ian Butler, Derek de Boorder, Mathew Harvie.

New South Wales:

New South Wales is Australia’s most successful domestic team and one to watch out for in the upcoming T20 tournament.

The 15-man squad includes as many as eight current international players, led by pace ace Brett Lee, who played a major role in Australia’s ICC Champions Trophy triumph.

The other star attractions in the team are captain Simon Katich, Twenty20 specialist David Warner, in-form off-spinner Nathan Hauritz, Test opener Phillip Hughes and pace bowler Stuart Clark among others.

Squad: Simon Katich (C), Aaron Bird, David Warner, Dominic Thornely, Steven Smith, Daniel Smith, Ben Rohrer, Steve O’Keefe, Brett Lee, Doug Bollinger, Simon Keen, Stuart Clark, Nathan Hauritz, Moises Henriques, Phillip Hughes

Diamond Eagles:

Despite the absence of current international players in their ranks, Diamond Eagles is one of the most successful cricket teams in South Africa since the inception of the franchise system for all domestic competitions.

The Eagles have won three of the five South African domestic tournaments in the past four seasons.

Former South Africa batsman Boeta Dippenaar will lead a 15-member squad, which, unlike the other teams, comprises only home grown players.

Squad: Boeta Dippenaar (captain), Ryan Bailey, Morne van Wyk, S van Schalkwyk, Thandi Tshabalala, Rilee Rossouw, Victor Mpitsang, Ryan McLaren, Adrian McLaren, Alan Kruger, Jandre Coetzee, C de Villiers, Dillon du Preez, Dean Elgar, Reeza Hendricks.

Delhi Daredevils:

Gautam Gambhir leads one of the star-studded line-ups in the Champions League Twenty20.

The Delhi Daredevils’ line-up boasts of the two most dangerous batsmen in world cricket — Tillakaratne Dilshan and Virender Sehwag.

Daniel Vettori, Ashish Nehra and Amit Mishra make up a formidable bowling attack that is capable of running through any batting line-up on its day.

Squad: Gautam Gambhir (captain), Virender Sehwag, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Rajat Bhatia, Dinesh Karthik, Mithun Manhas, Dirk Nannes, Amit Mishra, Ashish Nehra, Avishkar Salvi, Pradeep Sangwan, Owais Shah, Manoj Tiwary, Daniel Vettori.

Deccan Chargers:

Indian Premier League champions Deccan Chargers start as one of the favourites in the 12-team tournament.

Led by Adam Gilchrist, they proved the form book wrong by storming to the IPL title in South Africa. Now their fans are hoping they can complete the double in the Champions League Twenty20 tournament.

The presence of top international stars like Andrew Symonds, Scott Styris, Rohit Sharma, Pragyan Ojha and Chaminda Vaas definitely makes them one of the teams to watch out for.

Squad: Adam Gilchrist (captain), Andrew Symonds, RP Singh, Venugopal Rao, Azhar Bilakhia, Fidel Edwards, Harmeet Singh, Ryan Harris, VVS Laxman, Pragyan Ojha, Rohit Sharma, Shoaib Ahmed, Scott Styris, Tirumalasetti Suman, Chaminda Vaas

Cape Cobras:

South Africa’s Pro20 champions Cape Cobras were dealt a solid blow before the start of the Champions League Twenty20 as captain Graeme Smith was ruled out because of an injury.

Despite his absence, the Cobras boast of a strong squad that includes South Africa’s star batsmen Jean Paul Duminy and Herschelle Gibbs.

Andrew Puttick, who was left out of the original 15-man squad, was drafted in as the replacement for Smith and also named captain.

Squad: Andrew Puttick (captain), Herschelle Gibbs, Jean Paul Duminy, Derek Brand, Ryan Canning, S Engelbrecht, Henry Davids, Claude Henderson, Rory Kleinveldt, Charl Langeveldt, Richard Levi, Justin Ontong, Veron Philander, Francois Plaatjies, Monde Zondeki.

GROUP STAGE:

LEAGUE STAGE:

SEMI-FINALS:

FINAL:

One millionth of a millimetre or 10-9 m, is a nanometre, and study of matter at that level is nanotechnology. Initiated as an idea by Nobel Prize winning physicist, Richard Feynman in early 1950s, nanotechnology caught up as a separate discipline only during the early 90s. The nanotechnology initiative set up in 2000, by the US federal government played a crucial role in providing seed funding for long-term research in the area. It has also caught up well in Europe.

India was one of the early entrants in the domain, thanks to the pioneering work of Professor CNR Rao, Linus Pauling Research Professor at JNCASR. Says Prof Rao in an interview, “India, still has not realised the full import of a general purpose technology like nanoscience. It has the potential to usher in a new industrial revolution.”

The recently announced National Nano Mission is a step in the right direction, says Prof Rao.

Material versus molecular
Nanoscientists operate from either of these major vantage points. Some are excited about the behaviour of materials, when brought down to nano levels. In other words here scientists deal with reducing materials to nanosizes and observing the changes in their properties and behavior. Prof Lubik, a leading scientist contends that, “material such as gold, which is chemically inert at normal scales, can serve as a potent chemical catalyst at nanoscales. Much of the fascination with nanotechnology stems from these different phenomena that matter exhibits at the nanoscale.”

On the other hand, another group of scientists are interested in using nanoscience to assemble individual atoms into a desired molecule so as to evolve molecular-level machines. But research in this domain is very much in infancy world over, and India has negligible presence in the area. But India does operate in the domain of using the conventional technologies used to manufacture nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes and nanoparticles.

Are you eligible?

A majority of the institutions in the country offer MTech in nanosceince, and you have to be either a BTech or BE or hold a first class Master’s degree in basic or applied sciences. Different institutions, depending on the research specialisations prefer either science or engineering graduates. So examine the nature of research in the institution and type of faculty they have before short-listing the college.

Mostly private universities offer Master’s level courses in nanoscience, and generally MSc in nanoscience is through research as Amity offers. Here the basic eligibility is either a BTech or basic degree in Physics, Chemistry or allied sciences. If you are a science graduate, it does make sense for you to do a Master’s in applied sciences before you go for an MTech degree says Prof A Choudhry, professor at Centre for Nanoscience at Guru Jambeswar University of Science and Technology.

According to Prof Bipin Nair, Dean, Amrita Centre for Biotechnology, it is always advisable to go for an MTech in nanoscience rather than an MSc, since an MTech invariably would come with a fellowship/stipend support.

The best place to pursue a nanotechnology Master’s is USA, since the nano initiative of 2000 has resulted in five world-class centers being set up at Harvard, Cornell, Northwestern, Columbia and Renesseller. Each centre focuses on one special area. Germany too offers some good institutions like the centre at Dresden to work on nanoscience. But the best place in UK would be either the Imperial College, which offers a Master’s degree by research, or the University College of London, which offers an MSc in nanotechnology.

Nanoscience is still evolving in India. Just over 15 colleges offer programmes in the discipline. So your choices are in fact limited. The best place to study nanoscience is the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore. It has one of the largest concentrations of researchers working on different aspects. And the best part about this institution is entry is possible at all levels. Exceptionally bright graduates can enrol for an integrated MS/PhD programme. And the best part is almost all students get a stipend of Rs 8,000 per month at least in the initial years which go up as you progress.

Some of the NITs offer MTech programmes which are also a good bet, especially if you are GATE/ CSIR/ JRF qualified candidates. Naresh Yadav, an alumnus of NIT, Bhopal says that in terms of facilities, one can never beat the IITs or IIScs, but still his institute did have a very good faculty.

The IITs that have amazing facilities do not yet offer a formal degree, but you can always enrol for a PhD programme there. The few private universities like Amrita, Amity and SASTRA offer good facilities, but are relatively expensive, unless you manage to get to work as a project/research associate. But these positions are only available for PhD programmes.

Nanoscience is truly interdisciplinary in nature. The nature and structure of the course depends upon the area of specialisation that the course focuses on.

Normally the three chief divisions of nanotech are nanomaterials, nanoelectronics and nanobiotechnology. And the concentration of courses would be a function of your specialisation. For example, for its MS programme by research, Amity offers courses in biosciences, instrumentation, quantum concepts and nanostructures, synthesis of nanomaterials etc in the first two semesters, and students then select an optional paper depending on the domain they want to specialise in.

As Dr Shanti Nair, Dean, Amrita Centre for Nanosciences says, “An MTech is a ‘hands on’ programme where students learn to apply concepts and become skilled in the technology and learn to apply it to a variety of biomedical areas.”

Next

One millionth of a millimetre or 10-9 m, is a nanometre, and study of matter at that level is nanotechnology. Initiated as an idea by Nobel Prize winning physicist, Richard Feynman in early 1950s, nanotechnology caught up as a separate discipline only during the early 90s. The nanotechnology initiative set up in 2000, by the US federal government played a crucial role in providing seed funding for long-term research in the area. It has also caught up well in Europe.

India was one of the early entrants in the domain, thanks to the pioneering work of Professor CNR Rao, Linus Pauling Research Professor at JNCASR. Says Prof Rao in an interview, “India, still has not realised the full import of a general purpose technology like nanoscience. It has the potential to usher in a new industrial revolution.”

The recently announced National Nano Mission is a step in the right direction, says Prof Rao.

Material versus molecular
Nanoscientists operate from either of these major vantage points. Some are excited about the behaviour of materials, when brought down to nano levels. In other words here scientists deal with reducing materials to nanosizes and observing the changes in their properties and behavior. Prof Lubik, a leading scientist contends that, “material such as gold, which is chemically inert at normal scales, can serve as a potent chemical catalyst at nanoscales. Much of the fascination with nanotechnology stems from these different phenomena that matter exhibits at the nanoscale.”

On the other hand, another group of scientists are interested in using nanoscience to assemble individual atoms into a desired molecule so as to evolve molecular-level machines. But research in this domain is very much in infancy world over, and India has negligible presence in the area. But India does operate in the domain of using the conventional technologies used to manufacture nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes and nanoparticles.

Careers360 is a complete careers magazine.

Next

Prev Next

A majority of the institutions in the country offer MTech in nanosceince, and you have to be either a BTech or BE or hold a first class Master’s degree in basic or applied sciences. Different institutions, depending on the research specialisations prefer either science or engineering graduates. So examine the nature of research in the institution and type of faculty they have before short-listing the college.

Mostly private universities offer Master’s level courses in nanoscience, and generally MSc in nanoscience is through research as Amity offers. Here the basic eligibility is either a BTech or basic degree in Physics, Chemistry or allied sciences. If you are a science graduate, it does make sense for you to do a Master’s in applied sciences before you go for an MTech degree says Prof A Choudhry, professor at Centre for Nanoscience at Guru Jambeswar University of Science and Technology.

According to Prof Bipin Nair, Dean, Amrita Centre for Biotechnology, it is always advisable to go for an MTech in nanoscience rather than an MSc, since an MTech invariably would come with a fellowship/stipend support.

The best place to pursue a nanotechnology Master’s is USA, since the nano initiative of 2000 has resulted in five world-class centers being set up at Harvard, Cornell, Northwestern, Columbia and Renesseller. Each centre focuses on one special area. Germany too offers some good institutions like the centre at Dresden to work on nanoscience. But the best place in UK would be either the Imperial College, which offers a Master’s degree by research, or the University College of London, which offers an MSc in nanotechnology.

Prev Next

Prev Next

Nanoscience is still evolving in India. Just over 15 colleges offer programmes in the discipline. So your choices are in fact limited. The best place to study nanoscience is the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore. It has one of the largest concentrations of researchers working on different aspects. And the best part about this institution is entry is possible at all levels. Exceptionally bright graduates can enrol for an integrated MS/PhD programme. And the best part is almost all students get a stipend of Rs 8,000 per month at least in the initial years which go up as you progress.

Some of the NITs offer MTech programmes which are also a good bet, especially if you are GATE/ CSIR/ JRF qualified candidates. Naresh Yadav, an alumnus of NIT, Bhopal says that in terms of facilities, one can never beat the IITs or IIScs, but still his institute did have a very good faculty.

The IITs that have amazing facilities do not yet offer a formal degree, but you can always enrol for a PhD programme there. The few private universities like Amrita, Amity and SASTRA offer good facilities, but are relatively expensive, unless you manage to get to work as a project/research associate. But these positions are only available for PhD programmes.

Prev Next

Prev Next

Nanoscience is truly interdisciplinary in nature. The nature and structure of the course depends upon the area of specialisation that the course focuses on.

Normally the three chief divisions of nanotech are nanomaterials, nanoelectronics and nanobiotechnology. And the concentration of courses would be a function of your specialisation. For example, for its MS programme by research, Amity offers courses in biosciences, instrumentation, quantum concepts and nanostructures, synthesis of nanomaterials etc in the first two semesters, and students then select an optional paper depending on the domain they want to specialise in.

As Dr Shanti Nair, Dean, Amrita Centre for Nanosciences says, “An MTech is a ‘hands on’ programme where students learn to apply concepts and become skilled in the technology and learn to apply it to a variety of biomedical areas.”

Prev Next

There are two major areas where qualified professionals are in great demand, nanomaterials and nanoelectronics, and nanobiotechnology. Nanomaterials and nanoelectronics are the biggest employer with over USD 100 billion worth coatings and composites manufactured for applications in diverse sectors like automobiles, textiles, aerospace, and consumer durables amongst others. Candidates with an MTech/ PhD in material sciences stand a good chance of a vibrant career in all these sectors. Job opportunities could either be in firms that develop nanomaterials or in the user sectors, as a specialist involved in application development.

Nanobiotechnology is a vibrant area, though its economic impact pales when compared to nanomaterials. Some of the areas wherein research is currently happening are nanomedicines, non-invasive surgery, sutureless surgical applications, targeted surface medical applications, nanoprobes…the application possibilities are endless.

Concludes Dr Jeyaprakash, assistant professor, Karunya University, “From converting sunlight into power, to targeting a drug to a single malignant cell, from creating sensors in the form of biochip to the ability to produce garments which can act as a chemical shield, possibilities are immense in this domain.”