The New Investing Playing Field

Traditionally, investment decisions were made only by the human mind, but there is a seismic change afoot. Advanced tech is doing to investment what it did to hockey and tennis

- By DEVINA MEHRA, Chairperson, Managing Director and Founder of First Global

The Wimbledon got over not so long back. Mark the difference between the two pictures on the next page (what the centre court looks like at the end of the tournament, and what it looked like 20 years ago). Now, the wear and tear is only near the baseline, but back then, the grass was worn away near the net as well. If you go back a little more in time, the difference would have been starker.

“Those changes (in the court) are evidence of a change in the game itself: from the dynamic serve-and-volley style of the 1970s and 80s to an increasingly static game dominated by powerful serves and returns from the baseline, a shift that began around the turn of the century,” writes Frank Jacobs in Big Think’s article, “Do these pictures prove that tennis is dead?” Not only have the courts changed, even the racquets have undergone transformation—from wood to metal to titanium.

Something similar happened in hockey, too, our national game, where we have barely won a medal in the past 50 years. India, and later India and Pakistan were kings of the field hockey heap from the 1920s to the 1970s. From 1928 to 1960, the Indian men's hockey team remained unbeaten in the Olympics, winning six golds in a row. They were also the only team ever to win in the Olympics twice without conceding a single goal in the entire tournament. The dominance continued till the mid '70s. The subcontinent teams' fluid passes, superb dribbling and bewitching stick work ran circles around the Western teams, enthralling crowds worldwide.

And then suddenly, India and Pakistan became part of the also-rans for decades. Why?

The developed nations struck back: they changed the field of play. Literally. By introducing astroturf, or artificial grass. This technology innovation changed hockey forever.