There must be something that almost compels us to not look beyond the God of Cricket. Ironically, one gets so taken up by his sheer act of brilliance, that even the thought of ‘how he does it?’ doesn’t cross the mind. Perhaps, magnificence is best admired, not deciphered and understood. It goes without saying that [...]
What describes ‘Indian Cricket’ the best? – Its honors, its medals, its records, its eleven illustrious men who don the Tri Color and win the country its accolades? Or its grit that has endured all to make it rise from the shadows of subjugation, stand up, challenge the odds and fight the existing hegemony and [...]
How intriguing it was to watch Pakistan’s Saeed Ajmal and Abdur Rehman spin a web around the English batsmen—the resilient English willow reduced to a mere prop during the proceedings. While one marveled at their knack of rolling the arm so proficiently, the technical deficiency of the World’s best Test team was indeed bewildering. Most [...]
How good is the Duleep Trophy? Logically, a tournament played between five zones comprising of the best players from each of them ought to be good—right? Then why are the voices calling for the scrapping of this coveted tournament getting louder by the day? Well, since most of these appeals are coming straight from the [...]
The talk of Test Cricket on its last legs, on its way out—could be a real possibility. What else does one make of empty stadia which till a few years ago boasted of huge turnouts, even it be a lackluster series. But wait—is it only the longer format of the game which is failing to [...]
A few years ago, while still playing the age-group tournaments for Tamil Nadu, R Ashwin the batsman may have certainly fantasized bagging the prestigious Man-of-the-Match trophy on his Test debut – as we all do. But to claim that for bowling and that too by scalping nine wickets would’ve been way to unbelievable even for [...]
Rahul Sharma’s incredible ascent to the Indian dressing room within a span of a few odd months, in spite of being debatable, hasn’t been a complete shocker – after all, this tall leg spinner from Punjab has an uncanny knack of wheedling out extra bounce from not-so-juicy pitches. More, he has dismissed no less than [...]
Every time Umesh Yadav stepped out to bowl in the ongoing India-England series, the only question that did the rounds was if one had really seen the ball clocking an incredible 145kmph. The outcome of a ‘Yadav delivery’-whether it fetched a wicket or was dispatched to the fence, didn’t matter much. As long as he [...]
What’s the sole purpose of having the Challenger Trophy? I’m assuming that it’s to test the skill set as well as the temperament of the best 36 cricketers in the country in trying/challenging conditions. But, since this tournament is held in India, isn’t it rather ambitious to expect the conditions to challenge the participants? After [...]
Battered and bruised—that’s how I’m feeling after getting a serious pounding over five days in the season opener- the Irani trophy. Yes, the match was in Jaipur—our home ground and yes, the Rest of India team wasn’t as strong a team as it could’ve possibly been, yet it did little to change the outcome of [...]
