An MSc in Cricket

In the Caribbean cricket is losing its pitch but a new pavilion (classroom) is buzzing with activity around the game. In that, students are taught the management of cricket. At the end of the one-year postgraduate programme, they get a degree from the University of West Indies: an MSc in Cricket Studies.

Introduced four years ago, the PG programme has eight courses, a research project and a practical. According to faculty members, it is designed for people with a minimum required experience of three years in a managerial position in a cricketing environment, or two years in another sport.

Several West Indian players, both past and present, are being contacted to deliver guest lectures. The unique programme, offering the only postgraduate degree in cricket, is taught at the CLR James Centre for Cricket Research at the University of West Indies’ Cave Hill, Barbados, campus. Indian cricket is a key focus area for this academic session: the prestigious Frank Worrell Memorial Lecture will be delivered on the “rise and fall” of the IPL — the “most revolutionary and lucrative tournament in cricket”.

The curriculum

It includes the political and social history of West Indies cricket, contemporary management and financial issues in the West Indies, sports psychology, leadership and human resource management, cricketers’ text and testimonies, cricket and West Indies nationalism. Among the objectives listed is the need to develop managerial talent and contribute to the regional requirement for highly qualified persons in the field of cricket management, besides fostering an appreciation of the role of cricket in West Indian society. The courses have references to Sunil Gavaskar, GR Vishwanath, Ajit Wadekar and his team (that beat the Windies in 1971), Sachin Tendulkar and Kapil Dev’s Devils of 1983.

Macroeconomic Theory and Its Failings

This innovative book focuses on the current global financial crisis and the inadequacies of the economic theories being used to guide policy. In so doing, it tackles the economic theories that have been used firstly to understand its causes and thereafter to contain the damage it has brought.

The contributors bring together different perspectives from across the entire spectrum of economic opinion to examine what is likely to be the single most important economic problem of our time. The unifying feature is that all of the authors disagree with the standard mainstream neo-classical models being applied in attempting to comprehend what has gone on and then, more importantly, to devise policies to bring this recession to an end. The problems that modern macroeconomics may have caused in being the basis for economic policy are addressed, and it is concluded that the deepening problems found in economies across the developed world are not due to governments having refused to take the advice of their economic adviser but are in many respects due to their actually having taken this advice.

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Harrods

London department store Harrods has been sold by its owner Mohammed Al Fayed to the Qatari royal family for £1.5bn. Recognized for its celebrity-endorsed sales, food hall and signature green bags, Harrods is one of the world's largest and most famous department stores. With more than a million square feet (90,000 sq m) of space, Harrods sells luxury and everyday items across seven floors and 330 departments.

Its motto is Omnia Omnibus Ubique - All Things for All People, Everywhere

The Knightsbridge store was established in 1849 by Charles Henry Harrod. Beginning in a single room and employing two assistants and a messenger boy, it mainly sold tea and groceries. Harrods steadily expanded, and by 1880 was a thriving department store, offering everything from medicines and perfumes to clothing and food. Its expansion suffered a knock in 1883 when a fire destroyed the store. This did not halt the owners, however, who duly rebuilt the store, with the help of architect Charles William Stephens, into what it is today. Harrods became a public company in 1889 and by the 1890s it had established a bank and estate agency and a department selling exotic pets that lasted until the 1970s. It featured one of the world's first escalators in 1898.

During World War II, the store transformed itself from selling luxury goods to making uniforms, parachutes and parts for Lancaster bombers. In 1959, High Street department store group House of Fraser bought Harrods.

In 1985 the store returned to private ownership when Egypt-born Mr Al Fayed and his brother Ali bought House of Fraser for £615m, snatching it from mining conglomerate Lonrho. The takeover bid was bitterly fought as Mr Al Fayed had previously served on Lonrho's board but left nine months later after a disagreement. Lonrho's director, the late Tiny Rowland, took his campaign against the takeover to the Department of Trade who duly held an inquiry.

Dress code

The store controversially introduced a dress code in 1989 which included a ban on wearing high-cut, Bermuda or beach shorts; swimwear; cycling shorts and flip flops or thong sandals.

The Economist's maiden TV campaign for India

A reality show for Virginity auction

A Sydney waitress plans to sell her virginity to the highest bidder in a live auction in the US state of Nevada. The show is the brainchild of Justin Sisely, a Melbourne filmmaker, who is planning to turn the event into a documentary. A for a face-to-face auction in Nevada with bidders will be placed in the same room as those auctioning off their virginity.

Sisely will pay each virgin $20,000. The contestants will receive 90% of the sale price, with the remaining 10% going to the Nevada brothel where the auction will be held. Bids are to be placed online before the final auction. The auditions were held with posters calling for "Virgins Wanted" over an image of the Virgin Mary. The auction will take place in a brothel in Nevada, 'sin-city' Las Vegas.