Only Bhajji (Harbhajan Singh) can fry the Kiwi! To say that one was always aware of the unpredictable, irrational ways of Harbhajan Singh, India's brash, irreverent super-brat would be an understatement. Yet his pugnacious daredevilry, and tempered brilliance at Ahmedabad was pure class. Sure the placid wicket at Hyderabad may be used tomorrow for our infrastructure projects, but there is no denying the invaluable contribution from the chronic hot-head as he devoured the surprised New Zealand team on successive occasions. With nonchalant ease. Even more remarkable than....

Like a frightened soul apprehending a swift end looking for a desperate escape route for sheer survival, he just disappeared. He was officially declared "missing". Just one day earlier, he had been an international hero. Playing outstanding cricket for his country. Winning a match for Pakistan with one ball to spare. Now he was the nowhere man. Nothing can be scarier and sadder than what transpired over the last 48 hours in the life of one Pakistani cricket player---wicket-keeper Zulqarnain Haider. Just a day earlier, he had starred....

"To be honest, I still don't know how we , the Deccan Chargers won the damn thing in 2009". -Herschelle Gibbs in his autobiography To The Point Herschelle Gibbs langorously usurped the thunder and lightning from the usually tumultuous, tempestuous world of cricket earlier this week. No mean feat, that! Gibbs, the bald-headed , fairly queer, unpredictable problem-child of South Africa dumfounded everyone by his initial installments of his forthcoming book, To The Point. . But first, a brief diversion to some serious domestic cricket and its....

(FACT: The author's first real favorite cricketer was Sunil Manohar Gavaskar). They say a week is a long time in politics. In cricket, it is like eternity. Just about anything unimaginable can happen. Lalit Modi , ex-IPL Commissioner facing a blue-colored international alert for alleged egregious embezzlement could become a consul-general of corruption-free Iceland ! That indeed would be Modi's ultimate comeuppance! Or N Srinivasan , BCCI bigwig could just usurp another dethroned IPL team by ensuring a constitutional amendment. Or as has genuinely transpired Sunil Gavaskar would....

During the razzmatazz of the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony I could not help tweeting that when the tax-haven ( usually misused for ill-gotten wealth) Cayman Islands team did their march-past , I would not have been surprised if former IPL big- daddy Lalit Modi would be their chief flag-bearer. It is hardly astonishing either that on a day when Indian hockey players made a phenomenal comeback to beat England in the CWG semi-finals , four gutsy Indian women dared to fly against the wind and towards the finish line to....

India is inspiring anger. Lots of inflammatory rage. And worse , of a rather pathological morbid variety. The controversial Commonwealth Games in New Delhi have already had several heads rolling, ironically enough, beginning with some western media correspondents. The attempt of the New Zealand TV anchor to make some trite barbs liberally dressed with racial contempt on our good old Aunty Sheila Dikshit, Chief Minister of Delhi honestly did not surprise me. While some may casually dismiss that as a lame-dame joke that boomeranged , it is germane to see....

Laxman is more than just special. But he has never got his dues At the CCI the tall lanky Hyderabadi sat watching a veterans tennis match featuring the ultimate legend, the Swedish Bjorn Borg. Every time Borg played a classic shot he gave his famous wide grin and clapped vigorously like an excited kid watching his sports idol. He sat all alone, signed the occasional autograph book and politely chatted with those who introduced themselves to him. Not long ago, he himself had had the world mesmerized....

Last Saturday, one awoke to another round of spot-fixing allegations, now appearing religiously in regular fortnightly installments. If they promise to sustain the revelations at these intervals, we have the biggest Super Saturday in the making. Sponsors better book your spots fast ( pun intended). What made the entire episode an astounding, even amusing , audacious spectacle was that this supposed twist was being played out even as the world was still recovering from Veena Malik's soliloquy about match-fixing and the involvement of just about anybody who possesses a mobile....

We fight with impeccable ferocity over Kashmir. Our Foreign Ministers squabble amidst international spotlight. We often impertinently reject Pak-born visas, while Islamabad repeatedly snuggles into the cosy arms of our perpetual adversary China. Our Independence Day is celebrated within 24 hours of each other. Once we lived in a large undivided mass of land , in fact, the river from where our 63 year old country gets its name is in our neighbor's heartland. In the cacophonous streets of Manhattan it is difficult to know if the yellow cab-driver is....

If Test cricket at all needs to be amended, here is a unique proposal for change that is certain to revive public interest. (An extract from my book Eleven - Triumphs, Trials & Turbulence; Indian Cricket 2003-10, which becomes relevant in the wake of the monotonous and uninspiring drawn 2nd Test match between India and Sri Lanka at Colombo which compelled both the captains Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Kumar Sangakkara to state that Test cricket needs to be completely revamped.) The ICC has belatedly but thankfully bitten....

The BCCI sent an SOS SMS to its key functionaries only asking for an urgent reconnaissance at a secret hide-out but sent in strict confidence to just one favored media contact who had several friends. This author happens to be, providentially enough, the surreptitious mole's friend's friend 's friend in the Fourth Estate. I am part of a leaky chain. This one is, I assume you have guessed by now, EXCLUSIVE. This is where you read it first. The sacked or suspended or strung-high erstwhile IPL big chief....

Lalit Modi marched with his trademark panache, surrounded by glares- adorned muscular bodyguards from The Matrix-kind, his pretentious aristocracy dripping from his Savvile Row suit, gold rimmed glasses hoisted imperiously on his nose, as he surveyed whether the grand opulence of the royal banquet hall in the sea-side resort befitted the momentous occasion; his disciplinary hearing for alleged misdemeanors conducted by BCCI's Chirayu Amin, Arun Jaitley and Jyoti Scindia. Amin (coughing): Lalitji , you are such an artful dodger. But appreciate your dropping in by curtailing your holiday....

Thanks to divine coincidence, three famous personalities of Indian cricket , captains all , celebrate their euphoric entry into our world in the same week; Mahendra Singh Dhoni ( 7th July), Sourav Ganguly ( 8th July) and Sunil Gavaskar (10th July). When Gavaskar finally departed from international cricket bowled by Phil Defreitas in the World Cup semi final match at the Wankhede stadium against England in 1987 , Dhoni was perhaps receiving a spanking from his father for running muddy feet on new laid carpets and Ganguly may have been....

I am happy that I am not John Howard. It must be hugely embarrassing to be a former Prime Minister of Australia and then be defeated in a stunning unexpected reversal for a comparatively junior position of a Vice-President in the International Cricket Council. Understandably, all hell has broken loose in the slippery terrain of cricket's powerful albeit dubious corridors. It is hardly an epochal coincidence that Mr Sharad Pawar, India's Agriculture Minister presiding over 70% of our 1.2 billion population and 700,000 villages and also former BCCI President,....

A few months ago at the incendiary peak of the IPL scam and following the T20 World Cup debacle, I was literally in "a big fight" with certain highly effusive adversaries albeit providentially with no acrimonious overtones (I must admit), and made the following point: England had not won the Football World Cup since 1966 and although they run the most visible, high-profile and star-studded glamorous private football tournament called the English Premier League, they are unlikley to see the return of world champion status being bestowed upon them in....

A secret rendezvous for damage-control was recently held amongst Shashank Manohar (BCCI President), N Srinivasan (Secretary ), K Srikanth (Chief Selector ) and the former IPL Commissioner Just Suspended (Lalit Modi) at a luxury resort in exotic sun-kissed beaches of Goa. Here is the transcript of their discreet exchange in our exclusive sting operation . Srinivasan: I don't like this venue for our clandestine meetings, it is a straight give-away .Which idiot chose it? Modi ( with a sadistic smile): I did. The venue....

The moment you land back in India, even before you have crossed the immigration counters, you will inevitably hear some intense animated chatter about Indian cricket from fellow passengers. Occasionally, I even apprehend a fist-fight emerging out of those passionate acrimonious exchanges. Last night, one young man was exceedingly agitated about India being knocked out of the tri-series in the Zimbabwe tour. He looked like an inflammatory can of petrol. I prudently enough allowed him free access to the place ahead of me in the queue. Royalty demands reverence, you....

I joined Grindlays Bank (which in Delhi our hard-core Punjabi security guard would pronounce as Grand-Lay Baank with patriotic fervor on the telephone ) as a Management Trainee in the mid-1980s. We were put up at The President hotel, Mumbai for a comprehensive course in banking operations (a three-week paid holiday). Some of my studious looking colleagues pretended as if they were born there, below those glittering chandeliers and noiseless elevators. Frankly, I had no such silly notions. This was the first time that I had ever stayed....

It was a sultry hot summer evening of April when we landed in Dhaka, the entire contingent of the new-born cricket portal CricketNext.com. As the Indian Airlines flight descended in awkward jerks from a cloudless sky, I reminisced with a peculiar sense of disbelief that fateful afternoon at the Oberoi hotel in Mumbai just a few weeks ago. Pallavi (my wife) and I had gone all prepared, with a heavily worked out business plan capturing projected eyeballs, competitor analysis, on-line ad revenues, off line events, web-casting potential, the break-even levels....

It is interesting, entertaining and vastly amusing to see how cricket experts from the IPL legion have suddenly begun to sing a different tune the moment the Men in Blue were ultimately bundled out of the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean islands, which has become a near-tortuous treacherous terrain for India since the monumental debacle in the 2007 ODI World Cup. Their principal premise is that the Indian team under MS Dhoni was "just not good enough" and secondly, that IPL's bowling quality was hugely suspect. The....

Year: 2004 Place: Nagpur Occasion: Third Test match between Australia and India Series Status (4 Test series): India trailing 0-1 It was a hugely controversial Test match that several believe was to change erstwhile skipper Sourav Ganguly's professional career forever. Give him a tag of a whimpering loser, a spoilt brat looking for first among equals status because of his prestigious position, who finally dropped out of the playing 11 because of a massive confrontation with the local association honcho over the lively green grass on the....

The new IPL Commissioner Chirayu Amin has so far at least been a pleasant surprise to me. For two reasons. First, because I had never heard of him before and better still because he does not seem to try hard to get heard. It's what we perhaps needed after the I Me Myself Me-Only traits of his more illustrious contrasting predecessor. Secondly, I discovered that he makes that delicious cough syrup Glycodin that as a perpetually cold-prone kid I drank with greater relish than my daily Ovaltine malt. The Benadryl....

Dad, I know who is going to win the finals today, said my daughter, her countenance betraying some apparent hidden knowledge far beyond what her thirteen years could potentially possess. No you don't, I said, dismissing her with the same casual flourish with which the IPL Commissioner promised to swat the erstwhile Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor. She was as adamant as newly-crowned teenagers usually are; I know who is going to win. Everyone is saying it. Yes, really? Who and how did you figure that one....

It may be hugely difficult but we must take a momentary pause from the interminable madness of the repugnant IPL-Lalit Modi mess and its vicious ugly confrontation with Congressman Shashi Tharoor to briefly reflect on an event simultaneously playing out, which we may be cursorily overlooking; just why is the franchise owners of Kings XI Punjab selling out now? It seems prodigiously peculiar. Let us see why. 1) IPL Commissioner and his so-called " Governing Council" sold new franchises for up to USD 333 million (Kochi) and USD....

It was bound to happen, the inevitable repercussion of mounting superciliousness and power-obsession combined in a toxic tonic. The IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi has, as is his customary practise, indulged in another provocative transgression this time dragging down the equally controversial and high profile Congressman MOS for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor. The murky money-making machinery of IPL has just received some more greased lightning. The apparently treacherous terrain befuddling Mr Modi's slippery feet and causing him anguished nightmares is, WHO are the mysterious owners of the new IPL franchise in....

In a laissez-faire economy of free demand and supply there is no such thing as a price cap or artificial man-made or mandated ceilings. It defies pure capitalism, which is exactly what IPL actually personifies. Thus, it comes as a peculiar paradox that the "recession-proof IPL" ( as vocally pronounced by their astute masters of tautology) which is based on pure market driven forces should practice double standards when it comes to franchise auctions and player pricing. Let me explain the dubious dichotomy; why did the IPL management have a....

Mayawati , UP chief minister, took majestic strides supervising the bricks and boulders near her half-constructed towering statue. She looked furious as her concrete nose was incorrectly positioned at a vertical angle of 82 degrees north-west. A disconsolate crow sat there pensively staring at parched agricultural land. Cancel that stupid police commissioner's investigation into the nasty bee attack on me with immediate effect , she roared aloud, as nervous birds rapidly disappeared into their nests in fright and a deathly silence echoed back. Her Brahmin confidante....

I saw the characteristic pugilistic propensities (or is it ingrained hubris?) of Mr Lalit Modi, IPL Commissioner yesterday when he said. "The IPL has nothing to do with recession". Frankly, he had reason for that casual condescension. We had two large deep-pocketed spendthrifts ready to let loose their thick wallets; the unfathomable mystery called Sahara Group (US$ 370 mln) and a newly concocted consortium born with the "blessings of Shashi Tharoor" called Rendezvous World Sport (US$ 333 mln). Together they accounted for a bizarre bid, a....

1) It is difficult to understand the vociferous arguments put forth by supposed veterans ( read retired cricketers) on the growing list of injured players in the IPL. Obviously since most are in the hefty payrolls of TV channels everyone is collectively singing hosannas about IPL's greatness and how the broken limbs are " part and parcel" of the game , player burn-out be damned ! MS Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir, Graeme Smith, D Mascarenhas etc are in the illustrious list of early casualties. I am sure there are several others....

In IPL money does not just speak, it shouts. If today's report in a leading national newspaper is to be believed then Mr Sunil Gavaskar and Mr Ravi Shastri have risen in a collective remonstrance against the supposed "reprimand" given to their beloved reincarnate of Moses Lalit Modi, IPL Commissioner by the BCCI President Shashank Manohar and other assorted members of the governing council. Gavaskar's staunch defense of Modi even overshadows his classic postures at the crease at protecting his coveted wickets. Wow, but Sunny honestly never ceases to surprise....

I was in nearby Dubai watching Janko Tipsaveric upset constant British-hope of renewal Andy Murray in the ATP Masters 500 tennis tournament when I received a text message from both a passionate cricket aficionado and the publisher of my forthcoming book. It was as concise and compact as the man it described, the little Master of epic dimensions, Sachin Tendulkar. At first, I ignored it, accustomed as one is to Tendulkar's incredible flourishes (particularly in the light of his recent centuries scored with effortless ease) and continued watching an exhilarating....

MS Dhoni it seems perpetrated the most horrendous, barbaric and grizzly crime since August 15 1947 against his own beloved country when India mercilessly thumped South Africa in Eden Gardens, Kolkata to joyfully avenge it's equally mortifying defeat in Nagpur in the first Test just a few days earlier. At the time of writing though, the Shiv Sena had not yet resorted to asking Dhoni for a public apology for the anti-national act of winning a Test match at home. But a quick synopsis of the emphatic victory first. ....

As I write this piece, unless a miracle happens, (with the great Sachin Tendulkar still out there looking not quite satisfied with those 13000 odd Test runs it will be rather foolish to write off surrealistic possibilities) India seem headed for some serious damage in the first Test against South Africa at Nagpur. Keeping Tendulkar in good company is the assiduous, plucky and indefatigable MS Dhoni who seems to revel in circumstances looking hopelessly out of control. The captain and crisis man with a cool head and the....

Enough has already been written and will be done on the furore over the outright rejection of Pakistan players in the IPL auction, so I will keep this piece somewhat short and come straight to some key points. 1) Either the Pakistan players were studiously ignored for the IPL auction (as is now being passionately speculated all over) in an orchestrated ploy hatched between the IPL management and the franchise owners or else the latter sent a pack of astute dunderheads to buy-out the players. Let me put....

I was planning a rare afternoon siesta when my phone bell rang. It was a Mid-Day reporter I was told. Perhaps some trivial cricket quote, I thought. Or maybe some new cricket development, either turbulent, controversial or scam worthy as per expected norms. I yawned, a sense of déjà vu enveloping me like a thick fog embracing India's northern airports in winter. "Mr Jha?" A woman's voice with impressive energy erupted from the other end. "Yes", I said, confirming my credentials. "Are you the....

When he removes his blue helmet revealing often a checked handkerchief covering his balding plate he resembles a tough stud of a railway driver navigating a steam engine through the mustard fields of Punjab and Haryana. But over the years, he has been christened more grandiloquently as the Nawab of Najafgarh, the title bestowed on him following the royal insouciance with which he usually surmounted insuperable foes, usually earning their reluctant acknowledgement as well. On December 3rd 2009 the tradition continued with much pomp, style and grandeur. I vaguely....

That an otherwise brilliant Indian run should be interrupted by an embarrassing pitch fiasco at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium in the concluding fifth ODI match between India and Sri Lanka on December 27, 2009 at Delhi was truly a travesty of justice deserved. Forget the usual cynics and skeptical doubters who will keep harping interminably on the home advantage factor, but the Indians were truly playing outstanding cricket during the bilateral confrontation with their Colombo neighbors. What one saw was uncharacteristic consistency, high tenacity in perilous positions and amazing....

I was in New Delhi on Wednesday addressing a sizeable group of India's young entrepreneurs on the importance of team-building to give their fledgling start-ups a cohesive and enduring management team. Most of us business school graduates have the natural propensity to delve into corporate case-studies and sure enough there are several outstanding instances of germane value. But as I looked deep within and up on the LCD screen where Virendra Sehwag was once again looking inexorable, the answers tumbled down with remarkable ease. It helped that India beat Sri....

That we should rejoice at India's phenomenal ascension to the pinnacle of Test rankings is indeed understandable. Is it deserving, absolutely. That we should believe that it signals the revival of Test cricket, however, will be foolhardy. But first the celebrations. It was wonderful lounging at the Cricket Club of India (CCI) last week watching Virender Sehwag massacre the Sri Lankan bowling with the most unsparing ruthlessness that I have ever seen. The statistical feats are mind-numbing, so let me express this with the soul of a lingerie-brevity;....

I asked a few people in a small group who Ajmal Amir Kasab was. They looked at me in wonderment and surprise, even perceivable amusement as if saying: "Are you a crazy lunatic guy, or what?" I prodded them, deliberately provocative, feigning the status of an ignoramus. Sighing with egregious exasperation, one of them said: "The captured terrorist who brutally massacred innocent commuters at CST railway terminus and slaughtered our valiant cops on the horrendous night of 26/11 in Mumbai". I clapped in genuine appreciation-seriously. They thought I....

1999. It was a decade since his debut in international cricket. He had already become a global phenomenon. India had begun worshipping their national idol with spectacular unanimity -- a rare feat by itself. The World Cup tournament was underway, the biggest cricket show on earth. There was mounting euphoria and breathless anticipation all around as India had returned to their ground of renowned conquest of 1983 - England. India was considered a dangerous threat to reigning champions Sri Lanka and looked a redoubtable claimant to the prestigious throne. But....

The cyclone yesterday ensured that Indian cricket would be left in slippery conditions as Australia against conventional forecast won the ODI series 4-2. When we went up 2-1, there were sanguine expectations that it would we an Oz whitewash; after all, even the first match was tantalizing close. On paper, the Indians looked like a warrior-outfit, resolute leadership, experienced hands, aggressive youngsters and playing in familiar neighbourhood as well. By the way, I forgot to add, but the once invincible opponents appeared clearly vulnerable with key players visiting their respective....

Cricket is a world that lives 24X7 on a deadly edge; endless controversies, shady scams, untold conspiracies hatched in dark alleys, and of course, a cupboard full of skeletons ready to do a break-dance. That's why I am both mighty foxed and prodigiously amused at how no one, particularly the normally insatiable-for-any-sensational-gossip media and the formidable figure of BCCI has not asked Professor Ratnakar Shetty (CAO of BCCI) to disclose the name of the mysterious cricketer who spilled the beans on the half-baked commitment and insouciant attitude of India's young....

Whoever does the sub-editor's job in a leading daily newspaper was evidently a leg-spinner in his heydays, and above all, a master at bowling googlies. While it does not require any serious investigation to decipher that the T20 Champions League has been a monumental disaster already, the copy editor has instead turned it around to state that the dismal ratings of the just-concluded ODI Champions Trophy in South Africa was better than the current sham of meaningless T20 extravaganza on display in India. Hence, the brilliant summation; ODI cricket....

Before we hang the Men in Blue by their cropped locks (long curls and pony-tails seem passé for India's young brigade) first, the fundamental flaw. And second, how TV ratings and the Big Boss attitude of BCCI and it's incestuous sponsors ensured India's abbreviated presence in the ICC Champions Trophy 2009. The ICC Champions Trophy format for entering the semi-finals was inherently skewed. They tried the FIFA combination of making it into a mini-league tournament without even the basic comprehension that FIFA matches are all fully completed ones....

One of the most astute moves made by a cricketer recently went largely unnoticed, as perhaps several felt that was a sulky over-reaction to a devastating emotional loss of the Ashes. And that too a catastrophic second time on the enemy's well-laid battle-field. I am referring to Ricky Ponting's (34) determined decision to quit T20 cricket to further lengthen principally his Test career, now in it's testing last quarter. On the face of it, it looks professionally imprudent and commercially unwise, and evidently swimming against mounting tides. After all, we....

He was the ultimate quintessential romantic. A nomadic fanatic. A perpetual dreamer. A passionate man redefining obsession. Even when his memory had begun it's unrelenting downward wane, it was cricket's magical past that still raised hopes of a miraculous resuscitation. It made him come alive from the impending despair of hopelessness, an emerging blur enveloping his 73 years, his once princely 6ft plus size. His never-before-heard inexhaustible supply of endearing stories of yesteryear heroes narrated with mischievous delight at Legend's Club, Cricket Club of India ( CCI) are....

Last week-end I got a SMS message from my brother while I was out for a nice relaxed Mediterranean meal; it read "Sachin Tendulkar has hijacked your idea of 25x4. Check Times Now". I did not know momentarily whether to feel prodigiously flattered or egregiously enraged. There is something magnificently magical about "creative copyright", it is like your own hard-earned effort bearing fruition. You feel good. You feel even better when you realise that you thought of a revolutionary change to an ODI game (not threatened by IPL/T20 then as....

The ongoing brouhaha over the sudden sacking of IMG by IPL-BCCI should not surprise clairvoyant followers of the game (a diminishing minority, no doubt). But what is truly preposterous is the fact that everyone looks so grievously stunned every time BCCI does the singular somersault. Frankly, I am more amused at our horrified and horizontal gaping expressions, our mouths supposedly so wide open in total surprise that the curious onlooker can see what we had for breakfast this morning. Let us keep some things a private health secret. ....

When Alastair Cook finally saw the defiance of Mike Hussey scoop up in his hands off a turning delivery from Graeme Swann , he knew he had become part of British folklore. It always feels heady to be part of a camera moment that will be indelible, repeated ad nauseam in slow motions at prime time. The Australians were totally outclassed in what was the clincher match at Oval, London of a tantalizing thriller of an Ashes. Even more so than last clash in England, because no matter what, the....

"Breaking News: The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh attends office in North Block." "Shah Rukh Khan goes for a shoot." If you read such pieces of atrociousness on TV, you would probably have a nonplussed expression. How is an individual's prime responsibility of such great importance that his mere visit to his professional headquarters or vocational location should generate so much unnecessary hullabaloo? Well, it happens in our world of Indian cricket. Ravi Shastri who now officially heads the National Cricket Academy, supposedly the tallest infrastructure of cricketer grooming....

The real reason that the BCCI is taking on the entire universe on the 'Whereabouts' issue of WADA ( World Anti-Doping Agency) is because they are dopes of the first order. Sure, the demands by WADA are indeed exacting but if cricket needs a global endorsement it will, must and should adhere to quality standards. Some of the world's leading athletic superstars including Olympic champions have come under it's hawk-eye and have been found guilty of deliberate and willful violation. Performance-enhancement drugs are a modern-day, big money,....

The ICC has belatedly but thankfully bitten the bullet and accepted ground realities staring at it with a troubled expression; yes, Test cricket is under threat from a severe onslaught of T20/ODI cricket and faces a growing prospect of imperceptible but certain extinction. Strangely enough, the ICC is solely responsible for cannibalising the erstwhile classic Tests, with its highly hurried, extremely exaggerated and unplanned promotion of T20, which has ended up creating a Frankenstein in the form of the monstrous IPL. It has become a self-destructive instrument of unparalleled proportions....

I am glad that much belatedly but at last, there is growing recognition that Test cricket is living dangerously, hovering precariously by the precipice as the rolling boulder of T20 cricket threatens to topple it over into a deep abyss. I had written a detailed proposal for World Test Championships to the ICC in July last year, and albeit they acknowledged both my proposals for a two-innings per team ODI matches and the Test championships, they have so far done nothing about it. Since the debate on rescuing....

After months of incongruous inanities, serenity returns. Just think about it; we had a mad scramble to transfer an entire tournament of IPL to South Africa, where matches were held day in and day out, packed like sardine sandwiches with barely any breathing room. Once Akon finished his dance, everyone trooped to the land of the once mighty British empire. Before one returned with the popcorn, the " World Cup" masala matches had commenced once again. Following a mortifying loss, the Men in Blue traveled to West Indies for....

They played no IPL. And courtesy, political turbulence and intermittent incendiary bombings, suicide attacks, constant threat and internal social turmoil , no one played them. In fact, after the Lahore terrorist attack on Sri Lankan cricketers, they became cricket's pariah---social outcasts, ostracized, quarantined from the rest of the cricketing community. In fact, even the prospect of playing them in neutral territories became intimidating; what if Pakistan would carry or export trouble wherever they went? The ICC black-listed them from being co-hosts of the next World Cup in 2011....

I was wondering why no one from the Indian media has yet had a confabulation with the self-appointed emperor of cricket riches, Mr Lalit Modi and taken his expert views on India's disastrous T20 WC campaign. Who are we inviting to welcome the Indian team home? A-Kon? Or Abhijeet? Mr Modi's IPL which was an opportunistic cash-in on India's triumph in the inaugural South African experiment has now met its logical Waterloo. What will happen to future valuations of IPL-3, Mr Modi? Because this time the Indian players participating in....

I read the morning papers with bemusement and a sense of deja vu. The headlines yelled at you at their screeching best; MS Dhoni and Virendra Sehwag, India's famous captain and his equally well-known deputy were apparently at serious loggerheads, ready to get into a bloody bull-fight just before the unanimously-rated favorite team for retaining it's champion status in T20 World Cup would run onto the field. That is the kind of delectable delicacy that even the former chic Chutney Mary would have been proud to serve as....

The commercial exploitation reached a mind-numbing high a few nights ago. After a tepid, insipid, uninspiring ready-to-cook " thriller" (the IPL final between the old Nizami fiefdom and the Silicon Valley of the East), there was a long pregnant interval, interspersed with some peculiar light-effects and asinine entertainment that seemed to have neither a comma nor a temporary pause. Katrina Kaif tried hard to celebrate her opponent team's victory (she is a brand ambassador of the perennially-fishing King's squad), trying to match steps with rapper - or - whatever....

Hasn't something struck you as slightly odd in the IPL, considering this supposedly billion-dollar valuation sports franchise is expected to have great marketing whiz-kids, astute brand managers, creative insight of ad professionals etc ? Logically, shouldn't all franchise owners be looking at competitive differentiation? But yet, surprisingly enough, there seems to be a collective herd mentality when it comes to the most visible, visual element that attracts viewer-ship and eyeballs, and registers indestructibly in the mind ----color. Check the apparel colors in IPL and you will find that....

"How are you, Ajay?". That's how he usually addressed me. Initially, I would correct him with slight impatience and rising exasperation, "I am Sanjay, Sir. Not Ajay". He would nod seriously as if he had taken note of the amendment. But I knew he had not because every time we met, I was enthusiastically greeted by him with the same thumping sound of my mirror image. After a while, I accepted Ajay as my alter-ego in the vision of the man who called me so. People accompanying me were more....

It's truly amazing stuff, but Ravi Shastri, the much over-blown TV commentator, termed Lalit Modi, IPL Commissioner as 'Moses', almost deifying him with heavenly associations. Whew! Everyone has since joined that chorus. If you have to see how money makes people sell their souls on 'm-Bay' (Modi Bay replaces the hitherto popular auction site eBay in my lexicon), go no farther than IPL. It is a blatantly bizarre sell-out, and scruples are damned without even a cursory consideration. You don't believe me? Then let me enlighten you for free this....

I know it is blasphemous to say so , so early in the day, but the undeniable truth is out of the dark closet; IPL-II has bombed. And I am not just referring to the disappointing TRP ratings over the first week-end; it's the general lackluster cricket, indifferent crowds, forced bravado of stake-holders, that "distant feel", and the over-hyped coverage by an irresponsible media , which in fact, has back-fired like a hard-hitting boomerang. " It's thanda" and lacks the fizzy bubbly of a rollicking entertainer. The IPL organizers are....

The Badshah of Bollywood is taking his role as the Czar of modern-day cricket with the same seriousness he reserves for giving an emotional tearjerker of a shot for a Karan Johar film. Shah Rukh Khan, co-owner of the black and gold ribbon Kolkatta Knight Riders (KKR) has lambasted erstwhile skipper and the great opening batsman Sunil Gavaskar by bowling him a judicious yorker, akin to a in-swinging dipper from Imran Khan, no less. The latest sardonic exchange between the two super celebrities is the perfect curtain-raiser for....

Kolkata and it's famous denizens are angry. You would think that John Buchanan, former Oz coach with the Midas touch, is the lost first cousin from Down Under of erstwhile US Prez George you-know-who. Effigies are being burnt with wild abandon, global warming be damned, as smoke rises into the summer sky from the embers of Buchanan's not-so-smiling expression hoisted on a long wooden stick. The tall lanky fellow with a wow track record as a coach, has invited massive public ire for his novel experimentation; a four-captain theory. That....

IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi was at his trademark best, self-righteous, with a cocky countenance to boot when he announced yesterday that IPL-2 was being shifted to foreign shores. Just review his sanctimonious over-dose; " Integrity of the game", " toughest decision of my life", " it's not about money and profits", " it's about the people and the game of cricket" blah-blah. Now the problem with the man is that he has become such a motor-mouth on high trajectory on a steep incline, that even a momentary lapse....

It has been a week of spectacular cricket, and more extraordinarily so, as it was emerging from an inane, inimical attack on Sri Lankan players in Lahore. As general panic set in, and even in distant tranquil New Zealand a specter of looming gloomy fear psychosis happened, one was concerned about the immediate repercussions on the field. Within 168 hours, however, there has been a riveting transformation. India thoroughly trounced New Zealand in a merciless massacre in the ODI series, and Australia demonstrated with calibrated authority that their dominance of....

They keep saying that terror is faceless. For those who saw the madness outside Gaddafi cricket stadium last morning in Lahore, they knew that above it all, terrorism is heartless. Just pause for a moment and think; just what in heavens does a Mahela Jayawardene, Thilan Samaraweera or a Ajantha Mendis have to do with geopolitical issues and some ill-defined political aspirations and ideological obsessions of sectarian groups in Pakistan? Nothing! What is Kumar Sangakkara's perspective on Taliban's rising militancy and occupancy of the Swat valley, and does Chaminda Vaas....

Over the last few days everyone has joined this Cricket Club of India (CCI)-IPL circus in town. There are earnest pleas from respected scribes and sundry columnists, even former cricketers, alluding that the age-old classic body CCI, the traditional vanguard of Indian cricket, should allow the self-proclaimed Donald Trump of IPL cricket, Lalit Modi's tournament finals to be staged on its famous greens. Besides being a cricket enthusiast, part of the hack-brigade, and also a member of this prestigious club, let me at least try to put the ongoing war....

In the 1970s cinema that I grew up watching, every time the daffodils and roses moved horizontally in a salsa meets break-dance, it meant that the hero and his lady-love were up to no good. Invariably, the woman got pregnant, what with pollution rates being low and stress levels below par, the men had both virility and fertility at that time. There was no need for snuff and Viagra , unlike our modern-day Dev Ds to boost libido . However, since the man usually expressed terrible shock with a confounding....

Cricket is recession-proof, says Lalit Modi, VP of BCCI in a sea-side resort in salubrious Goa. Elsewhere, pink slips have become the dreaded color, ad budgets are being slashed like the knife of Jack the Ripper and a gloom overhangs like the Damocles sword over fragile necks. But this bikini-sized game of T20 played under the IPL kingdom is beyond conventional economic theory, espouses Modi with his not so unusual hubris. Even the supposedly invulnerable Bollywood is facing some strange developments, with some Singh is King types taking....

Forget the punching panache of MSD and his boys in Sri Lanka. There is a more exciting duel going on in the sand dunes of Jaipur between the fashion model of IPL , BCCI VP Lalit Modi and an assortment of bitter rivals in the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA). From what I last read and heard, the gathering storm threatens to become a raging tornado. Frankly, one should hardly be surprised, given the fact that everything associated with cricket administration in India is usually permeated with seedy political complexion....

Finally, the cookie crumbled. At last, the fakeness got exposed beyond it's base layers , one more time. This time hopelessly beyond redemption. His love for television ( the former Indian cricket coach Greg Chappell must be a couch potato, I assume) and media spotlight became his proverbial noose. This time it was Virendra Sehwag, the down-to-earth unassuming bloke with a simpleton air about him, who called a dirty spade a dirty spade with trademark simplicity. Viru reiterated what we all now know about Mr Underhand Captain, that Chappell flouted....

Amidst the nation-wide brouhaha over the seemingly incongruous ranking of all-time greats by ICC, which apparently had the " cheeky audacity" to exclude India's national hero Sachin Tendulkar from that haloed congregation, a greater cricketing event perhaps went relatively unnoticed. Mumbai, once again, went on to win the Ranji Trophy. But more than that towering domination of the domestic league, which earned the crumbling cosmopolitan city its 38th title, was the fact that Tendulkar played the final two matches for the Ranji stalwarts. The presence of....

To, Mr.Ratnakar Shetty Chief Administrative Officer BCCI Mumbai Sub: 10 Prescriptions for Indian Cricket Dear Mr.Shetty, As 2009 dawns amidst pervasive fog and a winter chill, newspaper columns are flooded with innumerable articles on keeping away the nasty flu and the cough-cold symptoms. In keeping with that theme, I have given below my homemade prescriptions to ensure constant good health of Indian cricket in 2009 away from viral infections, muscle-pulls and stomach upsets. By now, all year-end 2008 commentary and synopsis have unanimously hailed last....

2008 marked a remarkable run for Indian cricket, barring a few run-outs. As Australia and South Africa get into a pugilistic battle of the Boxing Day second Test , an extraordinary year of world-cricket comes to a dramatic finish. Australia, after successive years of towering domination has given early signs of it's sudden disappearing hold on its champion status. The Proteas and Indians have just sniffed an opportunity to snuff the Oz out -- after all you have to strike when the iron is hot. But can the Indians do....

MS Dhoni will not forget 2008 in a hurry. He should not. As dark clouds and an early winter evening enveloped Mohali, India went on to register another series win and an impressive second Test ranking in the ICC tables. Until a few afternoons ago, till V Sehwag plundered James Andersen and Co. remorselessly at Chennai, that was not really a perceived outcome. But one hurricane knock and several gigantic efforts that followed , makes for a potent combination. The Chennai victory was an epic capping of a year....

As Sachin Tendulkar scored his 41st hundred at Chepauk, Chennai and India scored a spectacular win against England in the first Test, I am sure all Mumbaikars felt an enormous sense of pride, joy and thrill rolled in a triple-decker Chowpatty sandwich. The local boy, from a city torn and ravaged just a few weeks ago, led India to an outstanding win chasing a mammoth score. Above all, it was an incredible team effort all over again. Virendra Sehwag, doubtlessly, is THE MOST dangerous devilish diabolical player in....

(This blog was written with sadness about the Taj Hotel, which was also the place for every cricketer to return to from a hard day at the field. Whether you scored a hundred or got run out for zero, once you entered the hotel, it just made you feel special. It made you feel warm. It welcomed you in, it's wonderful people always making you out to be a hero. I am sure all cricketers will agree with me on that). "In peace, sons bury their fathers; in war,....

I remember reading sometime ago that watching the Australians on a cricket-field was like seeing a pornographic film. It was the same old stuff, terribly predictable, the standard sequences, the same old twists and yet having a familiar end. No surprises. Australia always won. After a point, it was a monotonous watch. MS Dhoni, India's new skipper in all forms of the game, is creating his own blue-film. No one in India ought to complain . Dhoni's impact on Indian cricket is discernible fairly early. In fact, check out....

I write this piece, more as an erstwhile post-graduate in economics, than as a cricket journalist. I pen this column as I was mighty amused by the massive outpouring of patriotic sentiments because Aussie opener Matthew Hayden, done with frying fish and making chicken curry, called us poor folks in India a "third world" country. Some BCCI officials were observed shaking their heads violently in stunned disbelief. "It is an insult to us all Indians" kind of disturbing psychological assessments were made in tearing hurry. For a moment,....

Because when you announced your retirement, you said "Hopefully we will end up on a winning note". We did. Because you were the only guy referred to as the royal Prince and the high-street bully "Dada" at the same time. Because when you scored that classic debut century at Lord's, some thought you will be a one-knock wonder. At Trent Bridge, you stunned them all again with a double barrel. Because when you played those heavenly cover drives, Rahul Dravid said "There is only God....

His decision to announce his retirement was typical Anil Kumble. No beating about the bush. No pussyfooting around looking for excuses. No ceremony, flash-bulbs, or a scene to be enacted. It was pure, well considered, honestly debated within, a heartfelt decision, shorn of melodrama or a rehearsed script. As soon as he realized that if he would not be able to give 100% to ensure that India would recapture the fallen frontiers in Nagpur, he knew he would have to skip the decisive encounter. Of course,....

The world of cricket is in complete disarray, it's former pristine image disintegrating, as billionaire businessmen redefine and self-indulgent officials endorse its contours and road-map. The ICC, the supposed governing body is like a toothless pug, in a state of perennial impotence, watches the farce with a bland expression and blank cartridges. A brief recap of the bizarre developments that makes the billion dollar game resemble a B grade silly soap, run like a banana republic by two-tailed monkeys. 1) Mr Allen Stanford, not a close....

Poor Adam Gilchrist! The moment his epochal quote "Sachin Tendulkar is a liar" flashed across TV screens as breaking "Sachin" news, I suspected the eminently respectable former Aussie keeper will find it difficult to sustain the mighty allegation. Hours later, he was prodigiously apologizing to Sachin, the media, the world, the springy kangaroos, and perhaps even his puppy. Whether Sachin in fact controversially dumped principles for patriotic duty in Harbhajan Singh's celebrated Monkeygate affair will remain a dark buried secret till someone with sufficient salvo and with adequate courage....

The magic of Mohali will be permanently inscribed in the memory cells of all Indian cricket fans. The once unassailable Oz were packed off so disdainfully, it seemed like the script-writer had a rude sadistic tinge. The Indian victory of a huge 320 runs looked miniscule if that statistic was compared with the immeasurable , inexorable throttle with which India quashed any Aussie hope of a miraculous resurrection. It was a solid exhibition of brutal dominance, the kind of Mike Tyson knock-out punch we have got so conditioned to watching....

It was so ironic. And maybe a sign of the times. With ill-portends for the future. Sachin Tendulkar, the modern-age Bradman, India's most lionized sportsman and revered citizen, a global role-model for a million young hopefuls was on the verge of making cricketing history. Not some mundane local ground record, or joining a select league of regional or national heroes . Tendulkar was just a few runs shy of overtaking the great Brian Lara in accumulating the highest aggregate runs ever in Test cricket record. Frankly, this is the ultimate....

Behind every successful man stands a surprised mother-in-law, goes an old saying. Obviously, some Aussie scribe from National Nine News who has indulged in some rather eloquent stanza after the drawn Bengaluru Test match , is not aware of the basics of dynamic family politics. " If Test cricket continues to produce farcical finishes like this one in Bangalore, this great game's Bradmans, Gavaskars, Tendulkars, and Pontings will also be soon forgotten. Even by their mothers-in-law" writes the erudite critic. My dear friend, if that was an attempt at sounding....

I still feel it is too early for me to write a brief farewell piece on Sourav Ganguly. The truth is that he is still out there on my TV screen, looking as engrossed with the proceedings as he usually was pre-his retirement announcement, fielding in the deep square leg, even as Ricky Ponting has scored a resolute hundred, signifying his archetypal Aussie impregnable character. We have a match on our hands and legs. There is a Test match going on out there in Bangalore, with a half-full....

Amidst wild speculation and general chaos which usually precede every selection meeting for picking up an Indian cricket squad, Sourav Ganguly maintained his supposedly precarious rank and slipping position for the potentially tough encounter against the Australians beginning a week from now. Despite all the media hype, I would not call it a comeback fable this time for the Prince of Kolkota, because the truth is that he was not officially dropped from the team that last played that disastrous series against Sri Lanka. Of course, the fact that he....

In a cosmic coincidence, the ICL-IPL war, which is turning out to be cricket's Waterloo, is led by two gentlemen with similar-sounding surnames, Lalit Modi ( BCCI) and Himanshu Mody (Zee), despite a single alphabetical twist. Together, they are currently playing Russian roulette , the winner takes it all. Cricket, the game per se, is become hugely incidental. I have never ever seen the world of cricket, look so thoroughly devoid of imaginative leadership, pregnant with glaring inconsistencies, totally disorganized, egregiously rudderless and politically vitiated. It is a sad....

Over the last few days I have donned a black overcoat and dark shades, snooped around BCCI HQ in the guise of Niranjan Shah, smuggled myself into the Press Club of India in a whisky-crate, and courtesy a quick conversation with JK Rowling, even managed to sneak for a few hours (till my magical potion lasted) into Dilip Vengsarkar's bushy moustache in the form of a baby bee, sorry Abhishek Bachcha.) That's called the ultimate in a "sting" operation (apologies, Dilip, for that tomato bump). So here, at....

Priyanka Chopra, Bollywood's diva, paced up and down, fidgeting rather nervously at the Cricket Club of India , Mumbai as sports journalists trooped in, wearing bored expressions. Sports scribes had scathing contempt for the entertainment industry in those pre-IPL T20 days of Y2000 , unlike the intimate schmoozing of the current crop. We were about to announce our CricketNext.Com's sponsorship of the second Asia XI versus Rest of the World XI match in aid of the Oval stadium in London, England. Former Prime Minister John Major was the....

By a strange co-incidence, I was at Tendulkar's on Wednesday for a quick afternoon bite. Earlier in the day, over my morning cuppa of Green label, I had read about the mental vulnerabilities of one Andrew Symonds. Pleated hair, big mouth , beefy and brawny , intense eyes, towering frame; Symonds has a brutal, formidable physical presence. But it was his mind that everyone was talking about. Including vice-captain Michael Clarke. Rumors abounded that Symonds was prodigiously peeved with the blonde-boy for having questioned his team commitment, adherence to....

First, the encouraging news -- MSD's boys truly mastered the Sri Lankans in their own treacherous den, with a finely combined performance, bringing in the wake India's first bilateral series victory in that emerald nation. For those who wrote off the young brigade early on after their dismal debut in the first ODI, there was a lot of humble pie on the dessert table. The tables had turned 360 degrees before long, and it was quite satisfying to see the wily Muttiah Muralitharan chew his nails other than the Indian....

Aspi, my mercurial man Friday chauffer, whose penchant for breaking lanes in Mumbai's chaotic traffic by taking adroit deadly turns with nonchalant ease would impress both M Murlitharan and Ajantha Mendis, looks a trifle disappointed man these days. I ask him, with genuine solicitous concern. "I hope you are well, Asp. Is it the inflation? Or is it realizing that you were born too soon for Katrina Kaif?". Aspi shakes his head violently from left to right to center and then center-right again, before I lose track....

The world of cricket continues it's topsy-turvy roller-coaster ride, with bizarre twists and turns happening at rapid pace, just like grey blurred CDs with white-clad men doing dark deeds with green-bucks surfacing daily from our esteemed Members of Parliament. The festivities are so frenetic and high -pitched I wonder if it is a sequel to the Monsoon Wedding. The latest piece of an entertainment snippet from the BCCI is that they are very miffed with portly Arjuna Ranatunga, the powerful big-wig of the Sri Lankan cricket board and of....

BCCI has slammed an English news channel for having twisted facts of the cash episode in Indian Parliament. In fact, sources say it was meant for the Left parties to buy their support for preventing a certain Dalmiya's election from the state of Bengal. BCCI slams the ICC for insinuating that match-fixing is possible in IPL because it is already " implied and inherent" in the system, and is therefore superfluous . BCCI has slammed opticians for using the term 20:20 as BCCI has claimed copyright for the....

The world of cricket clearly needs a trust vote. Let me explain. With just a few weeks left, people are as clueless as punters on the stock market or media prophets on the fate of the government about where the next Champions Trophy ODI cricket tournament will be held. Incidentally, this bi-annual extravaganza is supposed to be a mini-World Cup, no less. So you can very well fathom the extreme confusion reigning in cricket circles, like the self-styled ravaging feudalistic monopoly of Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh. There is literally....

A Blueprint for creating a World Cup Test Championships By Sanjay Jha 14th July 2008 Mr Dave Richardson General Manager International Cricket Council Al Thuraya Tower 1, 11th Floor Dubai Media City Dubai United Arab Emirates Dear Mr Richardson, Further to my recommendation for having a Two Innings per side ODI cricket, I am enclosing a blue-print for creating a World Cup Test Championships, for the perusal of ICC. I believe it addresses all the critical challenges....

Will that rare declining species of honest journalism please surface from their deep slumber , deliberate pretensions of ignorance or paroxysms of amnesia and kindly troop to the most famous Indian face of this year ( sorry Aamir Khan , SRK, Salman Khan, Big B, Sachin Tendulkar, PM Manmohan Singh) so far; Lalit Modi, BCCI Vice-President. He has even overshadowed the silver-haired Prakash Karat of CPM who gets phenomenal media space for pouring the same threats over the last 18 months. Let's ask India's self-labeled creative cricket wunderkid , by....

India virtually cat-walked into the final of the Asia Cup on Thursday with apposite casual swagger befitting a fashion-show, thumping a strangely lackluster and unusually phlegmatic Sri Lankan team, that belied the latter's celebrated "tigers" status. In fact, at the end Dilhara Fernando sported such a horizontal smile, it could have accommodated the whole of the Great Wall of China! I have never seen our southern neighbors look so spiritually calm in defeat earlier. In what should ideally have been deep anguish bordering on migraine after failing to defend....

The by-now famous Nawab of Najafgarh showed no commiseration for Pakistani bowlers, who were made to look as innocuous as pink-eyed rabbits frolicking on green grass. Virender Sehwag has an almost kinky penchant for his neighbours from the other side of the fence. Two triple hundreds are a sufficient manifestation of his cocky contempt for Umar Gul & co, besides several brutal assaults. But what made Sehwag's trademark punchy century at Karachi against Pakistan in the Asia Cup truly epic was the fact that he was chasing a known target.....

Sohail Tanvir, the phlegmatic-looking Pakistani medium-pacer with the inscrutable face, which gave the Rajasthan Royals team a bowling wonder said it all. At the end of the farcical tri-series between Pakistan, Bangladesh and India, Tanvir, who was part of the winning squad, said that Pakistan's national side victory over India was definitely more satisfying than the IPL triumph. In the end, that's all that truly matters. Funnily, the generally exuberant media that ran a daily TRP barometer during the summer holidays with liberal clichéd quotes from BCCI bigwigs, was conspicuously....

I write this column because everyone's toast, tea and truffle these days, Mr Lalit Modi of the BCCI said so loudly himself, that the T20 IPL was essentially a smart copy-cat of the famous English Premier League football. Modi, if he can at all look beyond ballooning short-term cash inflows into BCCI, may well be advised to pay serious heed to a certain Michael Platini. Platini, the star football player of France of olden times, has called a spade a spade and belittled the club culture in England,....

I write this piece on a sultry Sunday afternoon, before a single ball of the much-hyped reality show grand spectacle, the IPL final has been bowled. In a well-respected and revered national newspaper, a perceptibly flustered senior editor has joined yours truly in openly condemning the double standards of India's now increasingly dubious media and it's blatant double standards. Welcome, Pradeep Magazine, even if some us will only be part of a " minority report". Elsewhere, an afternoon tabloid has written a pathetically pedestrian piece on 20 Reasons why people....

Nothing typified the reality show character of juvenile excess of the IPL T20 marketing machine better than Yusuf Pathan's cave-man gesture after he thumped the winning runs against the Kolkota Knight Riders at Eden Gardens this week. He jumped up like a WWF wrestler, a big burly muscle man, holding his bat aloft ( which resembled a hammered victim lying limp after relentless chess pounding) between his arms, awaiting a royal crowning, like a jubilant gladiator amidst blood-thirsty spectators. It manifested brute force. A wrestling spectacle, where the victor was....

There is growing consensus emerging within India that IPL has with adroit finesse redefined the future of world cricket. Allaying the apprehensions of pessimists, the TRP ratings of even doomed teams have remained unexpectedly high, and the crowd attendance fairly steady even on week-days, despite declining fortunes of some of the home squads. While Lalit Modi, the BCCI big wig, may feel he has scored a deadly hat-trick (in IPL the batsman's suicide mission usually makes that a high probability event, and thus you have seen a spate of them....

The cricket commercial lottery called IPL roulette has ended up creating two camps; fence sitters can keep sitting uncomfortably perched on those long logs with thick sharp nails penetrating the soft skin of their ample posteriors. Strictly not recommended. The first lot is called the Modi-Moolah-Mania group which currently hogs the limelight, seemingly running on the high adrenalin of having survived the crucial first half of the sweltering calendar, with reasonable reasons to believe that they have pulled off a terrific coup. The dubious TRP ratings, to be....

The IPL farce assumes global proportions by the day. At JFK, New York en route to India earlier this week, I read about the supposedly explosive confrontation between the retired celebrated sex machine, Aussie Shane Warne (I am a huge fan of his classic bowling) and our own local favorite whipping-boy Sourav Ganguly. And the fact that IPL was busy rewriting cricketing history by the comical decision to suspend the poor umpire himself. Frankly, I don't know about you but how can you keep a straight-face in the middle of....

Have you seen the Sanjay Dutt comical farce called Dhamaal? In that movie, almost every few seconds someone slaps the other chap for no apparent reason. And the audience roars in the aisles , their stomachs doing a muscular juggle. Since Mr Lalit Modi, IPL Commissioner or Commander or Constable or whatever has officially declared the IPL as a " TV reality show" , he should be ideally thrilled by Harbhajan Singh's right-handed stinging slap across S Sreesanth's left cheek. Because it makes the classic marriage between cricket and Bollywood....

S Sreesanth failed miserably as he dived to save a run hit by Aussie Shane Watson of the Rajasthan Royals. The normally placid crowd of Jaipur booed the Kerala boy with sadistic delight, even as a visibly distraught Sreesanth tried to quickly recapture composure. Elsewhere, Rahul Dravid felt in alien land inhabited by unreceptive hosts as his straight drive for a classy boundary was met with a deafening silence by the supporters of Mumbai Indians at Wankhede. At the end of the match, Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar had a quick....

S Sreesanth failed miserably as he dived to save a run hit by Aussie Shane Watson of the Rajasthan Royals. The normally placid crowd of Jaipur booed the Kerala boy with sadistic delight, even as a visibly distraught Sreesanth tried to quickly recapture composure. Elsewhere, Rahul Dravid felt in alien land inhabited by unreceptive hosts as his straight drive for a classy boundary was met with a deafening silence by the supporters of Mumbai Indians at Wankhede. At the end of the match, Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar had a quick....

Sourav Ganguly rode like a true Knight Rider, the name of his Kolkota IPL franchise, with distinguished élan and resolute intent. If that drowning man clutching at a straw knock of 87 at Ahmedabad was not enough, his defiant , deliberate and determined innings of the same score at Kanpur, pulled India out of a murky situation, giving it crucial stability just when a dramatic capsize looked imminent. It was outstanding batting by a man who has come to typify gallantry, grit and guts of Indian cricket. Ganguly....

At the time of writing, superstar Hrithik Roshan was putting his rumoredly broken knee to some glitzy movements; he would be doing the video promo of the Mukesh Ambani team, unimaginatively branded as Mumbai Indians. The Bollywood infringement of cricket is now legally endorsed by the flip-flop BCCI, who were just the other day screaming bloody murder every time Shah Rukh Khan took a deep puff and said, Om Shanti Om, watching the proceedings from their VIP box. Now BCCI has cut out the synthetic pretensions,....

There were two people, amongst several other trophy-hunters, who achieved amazing milestones in the dreary, drawn , debilitating heat of the Chennai Test between India and South Africa. . Virendra Sehwag, playing as if he was casually practicing for a T 20 game, plundered the Proteas like a true daredevil without an iota of commiseration for the desperate visitors. It was ruthless decimation on a track so flat, even anorexic Kate Moss would have felt suitably threatened. But Sehwag truly left you spell-bound. Rahul Dravid , in trademark....

Sunil Gavaskar , our perennial headlines grabbing discovery, finds it difficult to keep his mouth shut. It has been a chronic problem, usually self-inflicted with an orchestrated objective. Sunny bhai is a smart cookie who can anticipate wind pattern changes by even the subtle shift of his handkerchief in the summer breeze. Having seen frenzied nationalism from Kolkota to Kerala and Chandigarh to Cochin provoked by the Harbhajan Singh Monkeygate affair , when we Indians reminded ourselves of history lessons about the Quit India movement, Sunny bhai has quickly doubled....

BCCI big wig care-a-fig attitude man Lalit Modi has called the IPL , a "cricket reality show", with the perfected cockiness of Nero himself, even as he smiles condescendingly at frantic camera-men hailing him as cricket's new "money-minting Messiah". Modi announces with rehearsed confidence that IPL will be competing for advertising bucks and audience viewer-ship from the saas-bahu Ekta Kapoor serials for week-end entertainment masala. Ahem! Frankly, to give the characteristically unrestrained Modi due credit, at least he is now cut out that sanctimonious silly pretense of "developing....

Friday March 12th 1993, this month exactly 15 years ago, seemed like just another pre summer day, clear blue skies, odd shaped clouds drifting away in a cluster as if in animated conversation, with crisp sunshine flooding the skyscrapers of Nariman Point. Bombay (as it was still called that then, and to which I still) seemed to exhibit it's usual brisk pace, a breezy bustling like environment, unrelenting speed, chaotic frenzy, and a no-nonsense business-like exterior. In a few hours, it was all to change. A corpulent colleague....

"Saar, can I have the car keys, please"? I looked at the peculiar-looking object in front of me with more than mild astonishment . He looked like a cross between a Harry Potter creature and a sea-animal from the Pirates of the Caribbean. "Gosh, it's you Aspi? What have you done to yourself? Aspi's regular grey hair was gelled black with a Brylcream like finish, a few strands poking with contemptuous disdain skywards in a spike-cone shape, which would have given even MS Dhoni....

There is a special thrill in bearding the lion in his own den. Especially if no one has had the audacity to even creep surreptitiously close, and get some cheap thrills. But walking in like a valiant sacrificial goat and then surprisingly engaging the royal animal in a fierce combat , that is not a particularly exciting proposition either. It is like a suicide carnival. But emerging victorious after a fiery battle while the mighty Lord of the jungle retreats into a dark corner, licking his bitter wounds and a....

" An obnoxious little weed". Matthew's Hayden's disparaging remark, seemingly uttered in caustic humour with a radio chat show host towards Indian off spinner Harbhajan Singh caused a national furore yesterday. As practically everyone got into the act to salvage "India's national pride" if nothing else, it expanded the English vocabulary repository of a large chunk of us. Suddenly, there were vociferous demands for Hayden's head, and a war cry for avenging this ignominious insult. Hayden's comments, unwarranted as they might have been given the recent bitterness between....

One statement said it all. No further surgery was required. " I have never seen something like this in my life, not even on the cricket field", boasted the BCCI office-bearer IS Bindra, with the customary cockiness that has becoming synonymous with BCCI mandarins. Mark the words; "not even on the cricket field". Wow! Really, Mr Bindra? Not for him the famous 1983 World Cup triumph of Kapil's Devils? Sachin Tendulkar's impeccable mastery ? Anil Kumble's ten-wicket haul against Pakistan? Rahul Dravid's majestic innings and that exciting victory....

Amidst the rising crescendo of irrepressible hype over India's singular victory over ODI world champions Australia at MCG, Melbourne a few days ago, two dramatic incidents of great cricketing relevance were somewhat brutally ignored. Adam Gilchrist, that masterful destroyer of any bowling attack , now in his farewell series, was incongruously declared LBW by a dour-looking Rudi Koertzen from South Africa. A visibly flabbergasted Gilly, a personification of ultimate sportsmanship, walked back, his last days on the green field, summarily abbreviated. Not long later, the modern....

"Dad, what does Teri Maa Ki mean?", queried my daughter three months shy of turning 11, her face betraying prodigious curiosity , a natural corollary of what she had been obviously fleetingly noticing with monotonous constancy while switching channels. And also on well illuminated billboards propagating a well-known butter brand, which said "Teri maa ki-------daal". Everyone, from a stiff suited-booted CEO type to the local grocery guy, the Bollywood brigade to the political class had joined the "mother" of all parties. I summarily dismissed it as just another....

In lighter vein, it was the fault of the backside of Brett Lee. Amidst the growing crescendo of the Monkey-Gate affair, getting unduly incendiary with volatile positions being adopted by recalcitrant boards, we may have missed the woods for the trees. Of what was really intended. And what actually transpired. I think we have all ignored the basic, simple ground rule of any investigation: What started it all? What triggered the immediate provocation? Was Harbhajan Singh deliberately insulting towards Aussie Andrew Symonds, barraging him with supposed racial slur....

Dilip Vengsarkar , Chief Selector of Indian cricket , sat on a massive jeweled throne in the shape of a cricket ball, twirling his dark moustache with a sadistic grin spreading gingerly over his face, like strawberry jam slithering on a hot whole-wheat toast. On either side of him, sat his four co-cronies, chests puffed up, their stomachs equally swollen, indicating a high level of LDL. "Call that pesky fellow, So-Rub Gang Lee", ordered Vengsarkar in his characteristic military command ( they don't call him "Colonel" for nothing)....

RP Singh castled the grumpy Shaun Tait, who had perpetually argued with himself while making futile efforts to bowl at his promised 170 kmph , and the rest was easily gauged by jubiliant celebrations mid-field. The formidable Aussies had catapulted finally, after transitorily causing extreme anguish when a defiant Stuart Clarke and a refulgent Mitchell Johnson raised memories of the famous Ashes Test, when Shane Warne and Brett Lee had almost pulled off a miraculous win. Fortunately, the comparison did not result in any such heroic bravado. No cricket....

In today's times humility is not just a conspicuous human trait. It is almost unknown, unheard of personality streak. Ergo, the extreme surprise by several sports correspondents at Indian captain Anil Kumble's imperturbable demeanor, his collected response, the casual acceptance of a heroic milestone of 600 Test wickets. The third highest wicket-taker in the history of the game, interesting eclipsed as of now by two mighty spinners of his own generation, was his innate unassuming self. More than the incredible accumulation of several victims, he was delighted that....

"Teri maa ki..." (Your mother's...), which sounds dangerously close, phonically speaking, to pronouncing "monkey" is what apparently Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh told Australian Andrew Symonds, which has caused such a global media tsunami. According to Australian newspapers this disparaging remark will, in fact, ironically enough be the "solid defence" for Bhajji against the accused racial blemish of calling him a "monkey" instead. Sounds atrocious but is stark truth actually. Thus Bhajji's lawyers will argue that since heaping abuse on Symond's mother is not deemed "racial" the....

It was Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly's impeccable conduct and impregnable character as they trooped disconsolately back to the dressing room that really defined cricket's Black Sunday in the second Test between Australia and India at the Sydney Cricket Ground. It was a ridiculous week-end of enthralling cricket and a nail-chewing finale , made extremely entertaining with Australian skipper Ricky Ponting declaring an exuberant, extraordinary run-a-ball Sourav Ganguly out by momentarily assuming umpire Mark Benson's apparition. Benson looked as clueless as Ponting does when facing Harbhajan Singh's deceptive off spinners......

The Chappell Brothers have a pathological obsession with the human anatomy. I guess it's a psychological condition that afflicts retired Aussie players desperate for modern-day cricketing relevance, give breaking news sound-bytes and perhaps justify their per column earning fees. Former coach Greg Chappell's acerbic verbal assault on the "mental fragility" of young Irfan Pathan during the Calypso Test series sometime back, almost destroyed the rising career of the modest left-arm swing bowler from Vadodra. He became (naturally enough) so thoroughly demoralised and acutely despondent, I am sure Pathan....

CricketNext stands vindicated once again. John Buchanan, the erstwhile mega successful coach of the famous Australian team has openly advocated that to make ODI cricket more spectator-friendly and give it a dramatic new format, it should be made 25 x 4 overs, as opposed to the current 50 x 2 overs. About three years ago, I had suggested exactly the same to the International Cricket Council (ICC), which was acknowledged by the General Manager Dave Richardson as an interesting suggestion that ICC would consider in its future meetings. I....

In the early fall of last year, India's just rudely discarded captain, dumped uncharitably by a palpably evil-minded coach, a noncommittal docile skipper, a prejudiced selection panel and wishy-washy BCCI officials, was perhaps wondering at the vicissitudes of life as he strolled disconsolately into the field for a Ranji trophy match for Bengal at CCI, Mumbai. There were less than a 100 casual spectators who had sauntered in on account of free entry, the members gallery was virtually empty, the camera crew was conspicuous by it's absence, and....

The BCCI soap opera is like a perpetually bloating bubble, it keeps expanding at an exponential rate, providing us with comic relief at intermittent intervals. Thankfully, Vice President Lalit Modi of the joker body of administrators has not requested the Information and Broadcasting Ministry of India to levy a special fee for providing undiluted entertainment to millions of amused viewers of their spectacle on their idiot boxes every night. He should try. The government might actually relent. And we will probably pay. Poor Dilip....

I have always believed that BCCI is so thick-skinned that an African rhinoceros will blush scarlet in it's presence. But one can underestimate it's impenetrable texture at one's own risk. Just as we were happily celebrating India's convincing defeat of Pakistan in the first Test at Feroze Shah Kotla, comes the sudden news that in a surreptitious midnight operation, former South African opener Gary Kirsten has almost secured that elusive post of India's national cricket coach. Considering Mr Kirsten was deftly smuggled in with planned subterfuge by the BCCI....

Reportedly, Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan's celebrated ponytail snaked furtively, in creepy locomotion on the clean shaven cheeks of Professor Ratnakar Shetty, BCCI CEO, CAO , COO or whatever. The black tied-up hairy bundle crept gingerly but with menacing intent, splitting suddenly half-way like a giant anaconda letting out a sonorous yawn, revealing a pair of diabolical fangs which headed straight for the shocked, bulging eyeballs of the congenial Professor. Shetty woke up in a cold sweat, his heart palpitating at such rapid rate it would have given Madhuri Dixit's....

566 Test wickets, 334 ODI scalps, an incredible historic century at the Oval at 36 years of age, 10 wickets in an innings against Pakistan , innumerable victory spells leading to 15 Man of Match awards. If ever Indian cricket had a true-blue unsung hero, it is actually Anil Kumble. 17 years after the Bangalore-based engineering student made his debut for India, literally in the November of his career now, the understated, unassuming and uniformly low-profile "silent assassin" has at last got his fair dues. Interestingly, he makes his....

The hullabaloo created yesterday by star Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar's decision to quietly refuse the tricky if not altogether treacherous assignment of being Indian skipper for Test matches was fairly understandable, given our natural propensity to react to everything from MS Dhoni's chopped curls to Rahul Dravid attentively reading a book on a long flight to Dilip "Colonel" Vengsarkar's inborn trait of somersaulting with effortless ease into new controversies every time he opens his famous trap-door. Yesterday, if there had been a military coup in India or if Mayawati had....

First Dilip Vengsarkar , Chief Selector, says we will have a "rotation policy" Then he does a 360* rotation himself and says , what rotation policy? All that matters is form and fitness. His syndicated columns earn him a commercial fee against BCCI regulations, but the others are strictly prohibited. Flip flop, and double standards all around. But we are like that only. A political figure in Gujarat is found sadistically savoring his gruesome exploits on Tehelka cameras, about killing a pregnant woman and gingerly extracting her....

Andrew Symond's biggest consolation is that fans don't boo nobodies. Symonds has a knack of usually hitting headlines for contemptuously hoisting innocuous bowlers into the stands with professional ease. But over the last few weeks, he has become the central focus of an unlikely controversial debate -- racism. And that too in the most unexpected quarters -- India. Courtesy some rather despicable behaviour by certain knowledgeable sections of our cricket loving fraternity from the Mecca of Indian cricket -- Mumbai. And Vadodra, the land of Mahatma Gandhi. It seemed....

In what they call the Mecca of cricket, the pristine, regal and magnificent stadium of Lord's, three Indian batsmen will step on it's hallowed green turf for the last time today. For Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid ( SRS), it will be a nostalgic moment. And one where several feelings will rule their sensibilities. Like the realisation that the next time they come here they will be seated in the stands like any other visitor, in a suit and tie perhaps, commenting at best from an ivory glass....

That phone call was more than just a customary buzz. When chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar received a tinkle from Indian skipper Rahul Dravid, I am sure he was more than just astonished. Rahul Dravid told him that the three elderly gentlemen (3 G, anyone?)of Indian cricket, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and himself had jointly decided that they would like to skip the September 20:20 World Cup tournament in South Africa. Reason? Clearly, it was time to give the youngsters a chance. Fair enough. What was perhaps....

“Saar?” said Aspi, maneuvering gingerly between two cyclists, a honking cab at the back and two teenagers riding a mobike in swirling left-right swings that would have made Shakira remarkably jealous. “Yup, Asp” I uttered, feigning interest. “Saar, is it true that they are planning to change, the name of the game? ” “Which game, Asp?” I asked impressed with his knowing the title of the famous Abba song. “Cricket, Saar. Aur kya baaki hai zindagi me, saab. (What else is there in....

"Saar?" said Aspi, maneuvering gingerly between two cyclists, a honking cab at the back and two teenagers riding a mobike in swirling left-right swings that would have made Shakira remarkably jealous. "Yup, Asp," I uttered, feigning interest. "Saar, is it true that they are planning to change the name of the game?" "Which game, Asp?" I asked impressed with his knowing the title of the famous Abba song. "Cricket, Saar. Aur kya baaki hai zindagi me, saab! (What else is there in life....

My mercurial driver of 12 years, 7 months and 13 days, Aspi, drives me with undue circumspection as he navigates some wild traffic on Mumbai’s chaotic streets. "Saar?" he asks, his voice carrying that dangerous tinge of emerging crisis. I wake up from my semi-slumber and the stuffy seat-belt expecting an engine smoking away. Thankfully, the bonnet is still not a bonfire. "Why is India losing all the time, Saar? Very sad, no?" "Aspi "---I said, agitated at his lack of sporting....

Rahul Dravid was apparently sporting an electric blanket even as Chacha Chandu walked gingerly behind the Indian skipper, his face barely visible in a monkey cap. Sourav Ganguly mistook Chacha for Ranadeb Bose and gave him a tight bear hug, and Chacha, overwhelmed by the passionate clinch, said” Oh, Gourav, you are too much.” The other celebrated members of the Indian squad were in the meantime involved in an unseemly wrangle, each one desperately attempting to seize the other’s warm blazer. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, it is rumoured restored order, by....

There was something strangely awkward, somewhat unfamiliar, and strikingly conspicuous about the Indian team’s departure for some cricketing action in picturesque Ireland. Dravid’s Dadas actually looked happy. It was so perceptible; calm faces, serene smiles and a bunch that looked like they were a bunch. Rahul Dravid was a personification of his usual serious but remarkably collected self, Sachin Tendulkar was grinning as wide as his bat slashes on the off-side, and Sourav Ganguly seemed in a jovial spirit, sporting a countenance he usually does when dancing down the wicket....

It is rumoured that when former cricketer Chandu Borde received a phone call telling him about his appointment as Manager of the Indian team for the next 100 days, he apparently thought it was the omnipresent Cyrus Broacha pulling a MTV Bakra prank on him. On being assuaged by his family that his appointment was Breaking News on TV channels even before he had received an official verbal intimation himself, Borde was hugely relieved. He was BCCIs Bakra, he thought with a cocksure grin, not that inane absurdity of the....

It is rumoured that when former cricketer Chandu Borde received a phone call telling him about his appointment as Manager of the Indian team for the next 100 days, he apparently thought it was the omnipresent Cyrus Broacha pulling a MTV Bakra prank on him. On being assuaged by his family that his appointment was Breaking News on TV channels even before he had received an official verbal intimation himself, Borde was hugely relieved. He was BCCIs Bakra, he thought with a cocksure grin, not that inane absurdity of the....

It’s only in India that the selection between two essentially low profile cricket coaches of fairly questionable credentials can create the kind of brouhaha it has. The week-end assumed staggering proportions as the BCCI comic event in Chennai completely drowned the other convoluted debate on who should be the President of the great Indian republic. Shivraj Patil must have developed a serious inferiority complex over the week-end, as besides George Clooney, he had Graham Ford to contend with for media space. The Kent coach, under the influence of some smart....

At the time of writing, the dilemma over The Man Who Would Be King seems to be reaching the complex state of a jigsaw puzzle. If ever Indian cricket was to reach the ultimate nadir, the pits as it were, this is it. The current BCCI regime, which is probably run in the same cavalier, cowboy style as Robert Mugabe’s banana republic, has reduced Indian cricket into such a laughing stock, that if it was listed on the BSE, it would send the investing community into massive paroxysms of laughter....

As India celebrated their most gigantic Test triumph against a struggling Bangladesh, there was additional incremental reason for jubilation other than the convincing whitewash. Sachin Tendulkar announced that he was pulling out of the farcical sequel of the Afro-Asian ODI duel in June. Tendulkar’s decision to give the striped pajama version of the inter-continental conflict a contemptuous miss is symptomatic of the prevalent malaise in international cricket. Even as a short-sighted if not altogether blind BCCI rubbished Rahul Dravid’s humble request to scissor excess cricket, the BCCI is....

There was something surreal, serene and substantial about Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar at Chittagong in the Ist Test between Bangladesh and India. It had nothing to do with the fact that they are both erstwhile captains. That until Sanath Jayasuria and Uthpal Tharanga devastated the Englishmen, they had held the world record of highest opening partnership in ODI cricket. That they had been silently evicted from their prima donna positions in the limited version of the game. That they are not getting younger anymore. That over a tumultuous decade....

I have been accused with both endearing reminders and impertinent nudges bordering on unconcealed rudeness by my readers that I should keep my columns abbreviated, and should desist from using abstruse language , best left in archeological ruins. With due apologies, I confess to being a willing victim of incorrigible bad habits, and albeit I will put up an enthusiastic endeavour to make amendments, I hope you will endure my insufferable pieces with your usual panache. God bless you ! I hate to say this, but I had warned....

I have been accused with both endearing reminders and impertinent nudges bordering on unconcealed rudeness by my readers that I should keep my columns abbreviated, and should desist from using abstruse language, best left in archeological ruins. With due apologies, I confess to being a willing victim of incorrigible bad habits, and albeit I will put up an enthusiastic endeavour to make amendments, I hope you will endure my insufferable pieces with your usual panache. God bless you! I hate to say this, but I had warned the billion....

Watching the two tallest twin building in the world, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur from my 19th floor room in Mandarin Oriental at the midnight hour was quite a breathtaking experience. For one, there were no concrete slabs in between, no exasperating skyscraper attempting a clumsy intrusion, just the nightly air of KL in sleep mode and the Malaysian tourist marvel gleaming majestically in front. . The pyramid-structured top was shimmering in magnificent refulgence , like a diamond-studded rocket nosing into the cloudless, starlit sky. Yet quite remarkably, Petronas....

Watching the two tallest twin building in the world, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur from my 19th floor room in Mandarin Oriental at the midnight hour was quite a breathtaking experience. For one, there were no concrete slabs in between, no exasperating skyscraper attempting a clumsy intrusion, just the nightly air of KL in sleep mode and the Malaysian tourist marvel gleaming majestically in front. The pyramid-structured top was shimmering in magnificent refulgence, like a diamond-studded rocket nosing into the cloudless, starlit sky. Yet quite....

Two weeks ago when I boarded a Cathay Pacific airline at the godforsaken hour of 4.30 in the morning ( or was it night?), I prayed fervently for some much-needed R&R. Which included an early morning jog. Some fine dining. Maybe catching up with old buddies who are genuinely excited to pay for your meals. And of course, shopping for some crazy fetishes like discounted coloured glares, oversized wrist-watches and jeans torn in an incongruous pattern. And yes, I silently pleaded, maybe , just for two weeks maybe,....

I read a recent opinion poll in a newspaper with a tinge of sadness, and a flood of nostalgia. The question posed was on expected lines; Do you support the selectors decision to drop Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly from the ODI team for Bangladesh? A cascading, avalanche response indicated that 80% of readers thoroughly endorsed the views of Dilip Vengsarkar and his enlightened panel. Perhaps Sourav being included in the question may have skewed the result, I thought briefly, considering how the Kolkotta southpaw is the easy pawn for....

Even as every myopic , self-serving BCCI office bearer soundly thrashed the battered Men in Blue since their low-profile return from the West Indies, the erstwhile national heroes kept a strange, mummified silence. Looking a picture of grown-up men who retreated hastily behind closed doors . Who allowed every Tom, Dick , Harry and Niranjan Shah to run them down their screeching tyres, mauling them ruthlessly under their radial weight. No fight-back, no resistance; just a meek surrender. Media gags, reduced endorsements, no player contracts, lesser match fees, the BCCI....

Even as every myopic, self-serving BCCI office bearer soundly thrashed the battered Men in Blue since their low-profile return from the West Indies, the erstwhile national heroes kept a strange, mummified silence. Looking a picture of grown-up men who retreated hastily behind closed doors. Who allowed every Tom, Dick, Harry and Niranjan Shah to run them down their screeching tyres, mauling them ruthlessly under their radial weight. No fight-back, no resistance; just a meek surrender. Media gags, reduced endorsements, no player contracts, lesser match fees, the BCCI made them perceptibly....

The resplendent green astro-turf destroyed Indian hockey. On regular grass, the stylish finesse and dribbling skills of Pakistan and Indian players with long sticks was legendary. The two countries met with monotonous regularity in all international championship finals, with score-lines reading a close fought 1-0, 0-2, 2-1 at best. Three goals seemed like a Herculean achievement and signified an exemplary rout of one team by another. Now India gets beaten regularly by South Korea, Britain and Argentina. And Pakistan is a pale shadow of its outstanding regimen of the past,....

The BCCI, even as it was conducting it’s philharmonic orchestra show on a sweltering afternoon in Bombay on April 7 last afternoon, got a fitting, stinging slap on it’s face. By a sheer coincidence, once again by Bangladesh. At Guyana, the young Bangla boys inflicted a crushing defeat to the in-form, self-assured Proteas by a double whopper; a convincing margin of 67 runs. If the billion plus people in India had got shell-shocked by the 5 wicket rout India got against the neighboring nation a few weeks ago, imagine the....

I strongly recommend to all the passionate lovers of Indian cricket and to those looking for an inspirational story to see the outstanding Hollywood film, Coach Carter. I also urge Mr Greg Chappell to do the same, to introspect on his doomed career stint as Indian coach. Chappell singularly damaged the inter-personal fabric that bonded the whole unit together. He got them knocked out in their first-round endeavor in the prestigious World Cup , accused everyone other than Dalai Lama for the abject losses, and reduced the Men in Blue....

As Sachin Tendulkar, India’s iconic cricket player and a national hero makes an unprecedented attack on Greg Chappell, we at CricketNext will take you down through memory lane. We had forewarned the massive tsunami to hit Indian cricket, but several readers, players, selectors, media and the BCCI chose to ignore our forecasted warnings. As Indian cricket struggles to recover from one of it’s most abysmal lows, we will reproduce for you on a daily basis on this blog, the symptoms we diagnosed, the apprehensions we perceived, and the likely consequences....

So Anil Kumble has finally called it a day in the ODIs. While everyone went expectedly sentimental over Jumbo’s decision, few really absorbed the innate inner character of this man and his awesome contribution to Indian cricket. Anil is perhaps India’s most under-rated, under-worshipped, and usually under-recognised cricket hero even as he walked away from blue clothing for the last time. Kumble’s success lies in his ability to pull off with remarkable persistence the wickets when India really needed them. He was always our trump card, our fall-back....

A couple of days ago, and all hell broke loose. The reason was as preposterous as a donkey’s tail recreating a Picasso. A cricket journalist from the once serene paradise called Bengalooru (erstwhile Bangalore) had conveniently insinuated to an SMS received from India’s cricket coach, Greg Chappell, who has become by now the Master of Leaky Ceremonies, wherein the latter had bitterly opposed the senior players in the Indian team and the chief selector, Dilip Vengsarkar for their selection prejudices. It was not just the content that was disconcerting. What....

If you saw the Australia versus the South Africa contest the day following India’s abject surrender to Sri Lanka in a survival match, you would not shed tears for India, burn effigies, hurl stones, abuse players, crack nasty SMS jokes, carry a grumpy face and live in a fool’s paradise. India, at least as of now, are nowhere compared to the brilliant genius of their erstwhile rivals (currently our exasperating adversary is at best Bangladesh). Just check the staggering difference! Compare this; India made 1 run....

If you saw the Australia versus the South Africa contest the day following India’s abject surrender to Sri Lanka in a survival match, you would not shed tears for India, burn effigies, hurl stones, abuse players, crack nasty SMS jokes , carry a grumpy face and live in a fool’s paradise. India , at least as of now, are nowhere compared to the brilliant genius of their erstwhile rivals ( currently our exasperating adversary is at best Bangladesh ). Just check the staggering difference! Compare this; India made 1 run....

It was a moment of classical supreme irony and historical co-incidence, as a speeding in-swinger from Sri Lankan speedster Dilhara Fernando castled Indian batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar. To use that famous cricketing cliché, Tendulkar was " comprehensively bowled"(forget that slight inside edge). Sachin stayed momentarily glued on the wicket, perhaps realizing that these were his last few seconds on a batting strip in the World Cup arena ever. Like the great Sir Don Bradman in his farewell Test knock, India’s former great had got out for a duck, just when....

At the time of writing, people in offices are moving around with restrained enthusiasm, their natural spontaneity tempered with growing nervousness as the clock ticks unrelentingly ahead to India’s pre-appointed tryst with cricketing destiny tonight. Last evening, while pulling my vehicle out of a myriad mess of a car-park, all I could hear was an animated conversation between four drivers of varying proportions and different accents who were busily occupied discussing India’s league match against Sri Lanka at such high decibel levels, the loudspeaker would have been a superfluous....

It was close to midnight when Breaking News flashed ominously on TV screens. There is something eerily dark about the media obsession of flashing Breaking News intermittently. It usually carries with itself some dreary, dismal, despondent news,a giant tsunami, an attempted assassination, a terrible carnage, a boat mishap, and occasionally a boy fallen in a black hole, an over-the-hill-actor boring us with his baritone balderdash and even a wardrobe malfunction. But this was different. This was about a former cricketer. A soft-spoken gentleman. An articulate Englishman living in picturesque Cape....

In one simple word - India were stunned at Trinidad. The Boys in Green thrashed with determined ruthlessness the Men in Blue. Not too far away in Kingston, Jamaica, Pakistan was being humbled into abysmal submission against a country known more for beer-guzzling, rugby and football, with several of their prime players, playing cricket in between other professional appointments in quaint bars even as they read about a billion dollar valuation of Indian cricket and the bullion express. By the time you read this article, I....

I think former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar was being deliberately provocative when he for the umpteenth time raised the hackneyed issue of Australian sledging on-field, and unnecessarily created a hullabaloo even as the World Cup 2007 has just begun to simmer. I strongly feel this was a ham-handed effort at boosting TRP ratings for a TV channel that he religiously represents. Sunny Bhai is fully aware of the international brouhaha he had created the last time ( about 3 years ago) he had uttered exactly similar sentiments against the men....

In a few days from now, India’s long awaited campaign for the prestigious World Cup will commence against Bangladesh at Trinidad. Come 7.30 pm in the evening, and people will huddle in front of their television screens, mostly shifting the dinner congregation to their living rooms. At 9 pm there will be a minor family tussle over catching up briefly with the latest witticisms of Shah Rukh Khan on KBC while the doting grandmother will be resigned to seeing Kyun Ki in it’s repeat episode the following afternoon.....

I had no intention to write this hurried piece, but am compelled to do so, courtesy some extremely asinine comments made by typical fuddy-duddy bureaucrats who administer Indian cricket, and certain senile ex-cricketers who corroborate their rapid mental deterioration from time to time in media spotlight. I refer to the unusual brouhaha over Chief National Selector Dilip Vengsarkar’s comment on a TV channel that Virendra Sehwag was strongly backed by his skipper Rahul Dravid, albeit the selectors were not necessarily unanimous on selecting the Nawab of Najafgarh for the World....

The big news going into the World Cup is the incredible knock-out punches delivered to the mighty Australians in two successive bouts against lowly ranked opponents, England and New Zealand. It was like the crafty ant taking on the arrogant tiger and reducing the roaring beast to a bucket of tears by attacking the vulnerable spot near the sensitive heel. Seriously, the double whammy the Aussies got was rather as unexpected as warm sunshine in Iceland. It was sheer brutal devastation. But the Australians are like Rocky Balboa, and like....

She stood there amidst the prevailing cacophony of blaring horns, serpentine traffic and haphazardly walking harried pedestrians, selling a symbolic gift of romantic inclinations. In her hand were a few large red-coloured heart-shaped balloons which proudly proclaimed, I Love You. After all, it was February 14th, Valentine’s Day. At 5.45 pm the traffic island at Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan chowk at Chowpatty in Bombay resembles a veritable mess, where bare feet usually overtakes radial tyres. And Bombay’s quintessential mayhem can be captured in all its raw madness. ....

She stood there amidst the prevailing cacophony of blaring horns, serpentine traffic and haphazardly walking harried pedestrians, selling a symbolic gift of romantic inclinations. In her hand were a few large red-coloured heart-shaped balloons, which proudly proclaimed, I Love You. After all, it was February 14th, Valentine’s Day. At 5.45 pm the traffic island at Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan chowk at Chowpatty in Bombay resembles a veritable mess, where bare feet usually overtakes radial tyres. And Bombay’s quintessential mayhem can be captured in all its raw madness. As I....

Indian cricket fans went to lunch on Sunday afternoon with a keen sense of anticipation , expecting some drum-beats, accompanying cacophony and satisfied burps post a hearty meal. After struggling at 58 for 4, Kumar Sangakarra and his stubborn Sri Lankan partners had held fort amidst a half-hearted siege by the Indian bowlers, and ended up with a creditable if not an awe-inspiring total of 258 runs. Still, given the friendly disposition of the placid wicket and the formidable line-up of Indian batsmen that total seemed more like a teaser....

Currently, cricket’s most infamous celebrity is a Marlon Samuels, a bellicose cracker of a West Indian batsman, a handy off-spinner and an athletic fielder justifying 24 raw years of youthful energy. Like several predecessors of his past, he has foolishly allowed himself to get ensnared in the vice-like grip of Indian bookies with seemingly nefarious, even underworld links. While it is still early days yet to demand Samuel’s final crucifixion, with the apprehension of more luminous tall names mushrooming in the weeks ahead, an uneasy question once again raises it’s....

"It’s difficult to be honest in India," says the over-garrulous, and usually inflammatory coach of the Indian cricket team, Greg Chappell in a rare moment of philosophical lapse. A few impenetrable breaths later, Chappell, proudly thumping his chest in exuberant joy , a–la Tarzan the caveman cracks this year’s biggest blockbuster to date; he claims full and undiluted credit for the extraordinary comeback of the former captain Sourav Ganguly. Thankfully, he has not asked the comeback Prince for the lion’s share of his match fee. You know....

He played a knock which was calibrated, chiseled and classily peppered with his characteristic traditional penchant of immaculate shot selection. Sachin Tendulkar made an emphatic statement to his swelling rank of new-found detractors with a much-needed century at Vadodra, in the last match of the India-West Indies ODI series. The whole country heaved a collective sigh of relief as the Little Master walked up to receive the Man of the Match and Man of the Series Award, a dual distinction well deserved, and hard earned under difficult personal moments of....

The man who is credited with the historic byline of calling the Indian cricket selectors (very rightfully, in my opinion) a "bunch of jokers" yesterday accredited himself with another famous distinction. Mohinder Amarnath, former Indian batting hero, became the first intrepid ex-cricketer to publicly demand the Little Master Sachin Tendulkar’s curly-haired head if the faltering icon failed to deliver. Besides questioning Tendulkar’s credentials to be in the team itself, Amarnath made a scathing, sardonic dig at Tendulkar’s new found propensity to perpetually pretend that some extraneous extraordinary factor....

As Nagpur steamrolled itself into frenzied merry-making and India went into jubilant celebrations yesterday after a sensational 14 runs victory against the West Indies , I was reminded of a post-lunch session of a cricket match being played at the CCI, Bombay just over a year ago. The initial hullabaloo over his dramatic sacking had died down, and Sourav Ganguly was completely aware that his acid test for survival was just beginning. India under it’s new dispensation could do no wrong, as they remorselessly thrashed all opposition into....

“I offered him the vice-captaincy,” Chairman of Selectors, Dilip Vengsarkar has been quoted as saying. So was it a unilateral decision taken by the Big Boss to offer the coveted deputy’s position to India’s ageing veteran, who is currently confronting both dwindling form and declining physical health, or were the other noble-men consulted or even informed about the far-reaching, weighty decision? Given the usually bizarre, frequently confounded and rarely transparent way the BCCI works, your guess is as good as mine. Frankly, Sachin Tendulkar’s sudden turnaround decision to....

One thing is apparent (I am sure by now all avid regular followers of cricket have guessed as well) that just by being an ex-cricketer, or possessing rapid-speaking skills coupled with bland humor and writing pretentious columns, or traveling 24x7x365 days with the cricket team and being branded as the wise men in the TV commentators’ box does not make them any more blessed with either cricketing intelligence , insightful analysis or dispassionate , neutral observers of the game, above petty politics and puerile dressing room intrigue. Sad indeed! ....

Just why did India open the batting with V Sehwag all over again in the second innings of the third and final test of the India-South Africa series at Newlands, Cape Town, especially when Dinesh Karthik and Wasim Jaffer, had defied all expectations and cynics, to play an extraordinary 150 odd runs opening partnership in the first, still confounds and confuses me ? It was Day 4, and a 41 run lead was not sufficiently unassailable, for sure. And all that India needed was to play their natural....

Evenly poised, open contest, 50:50. At the end of an engrossing second day of the final third Test of the India-South Africa series, it was evident that this was going to be a pulsating encounter, not a quarter inch given or taken , an exercise in shrewd tactics, match strategy , sheer will power and above all, a tough- mind game. It is easy to castigate the Indians for having once again blown a chance to accumulate over 450 runs, but on the flip side, barring the tail-order....

S Sreesanth, India’s new belligerent bully, kept looking up with sanguine hopes at the dark clouds hanging precariously above, creating imminent prospects of blurred vision or a sprightly shower, but the weather gods were rudely stubborn. They refused to succumb to his heavenly pleas on Day 5 of the second test between India-South Africa at Durban. Makhaya Ntini , after all, had a job to do! India typically gave away a vital and hard-earned, almost sublime victory at Johannesburg with a brittle and somewhat cowardly collapse on the last....

The popular poster-boy of Indian cricket not long ago, was in an unprecedented move, sent packing back home from South Africa , ostensibly to “ regain form” by playing two Ranji Trophy matches commencing shortly in India. Rather peculiar , I thought, as he would have in any case been home to play the final game after the end of the tour. Essentially, the Indian think-tank comprising of captain Rahul Dravid, coach Greg Chappell, and chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar have made such a big hullabaloo, hype and hoopla all about....

I think the Indian selectors will do well to select the team for the World Cup next year at the end of the South Africa tour, which will give the team adequate time to get mentally prepared for the daunting task ahead, plan strategies, get accustomed to the team composition and play to their collective strengths. The forthcoming ODI series against Sri Lanka and the West Indies in India can give the final selected bunch the perfect platform to get into the groove of competitive match mind-set. ....

Historic indeed! There is nothing better than returning to your country and seeing the tri-colours flying high, swirling in the breeze. In 3 ¼ days, for the first time on South African soil, India staged an extraordinary win by 123 runs. At Wanderer’s, Johannesburg, India scripted the unthinkable on the now red-letter day of December 18th 2006, comprehensively dumping the over-confident Proteas to a crushing defeat. Much more than the exaggerated focus on the first team to stage this remarkable feat, what is really more creditable is that this stupendous....

I write this piece from a broadband connection in a hotel room in downtown Orlando, USA at an unearthly hour , as final tail VRV Singh and former skipper Sourav Ganguly put up an unexpected resistance, battling odds and a repeated onslaught from a fiery South African pace attack and took India to a modest yet reasonably acceptable fighting score of 249. When was the last time we saw India display such inflexible resolution, such a pugnacious determination and survival strength? Frankly, it seemed like old times. And then the....

It was a fitting end to India’s miserable efforts; a no-ball from Sreesanth, which meant that AB de Villiers did not have to even attempt to hit the ball as India meekly surrendered. If the Johannesburg match had not been rained out, perhaps a 5-0 whitewash was inevitable. India went into the match with what seemed like a defensive strategy from the word go, to bat out the 50 overs. Now that is a ridiculous game-plan even by secondary school standards; just because India had not lasted till the....

The expected debacle at Port Elizabeth confirmed the fact that the over-rated, over-hyped and over-done "process of experimentation" and favoured selection of "young boys" by the incompetent BCCI, a bunch of yes-men called national selectors, a bull-headed coach and a subservient, subdued captain has clearly boomeranged into a titanic embarrassment. For the first time in several years when we did a straw poll with our office colleagues, we found a unanimous opinion that India's defeat at St George's was seen not just as a distinct possibility but an underwritten....

The national disgruntlement and collective dismay over India's miserable surrender at Durban, South Africa is understandable. Rahul Dravid and his Men in Blue have been justifiably criticised for a lackadaisical show, lacking in either game plan, smart skills, or a gutsy survivor attitude. Now with India's disastrous performance echoing in Parliament, out comes another BCCI Vice-President, Mr Shashank Manohar, who tells the billion people of India that BCCI has "absolutely no responsibility" whatsoever with India's cricketing performance. In that case, why Manohar and one Lalit Modi are....

As India were once again, in familiar fashion, collapsing like a brittle pack of cards, their celebrated coach Greg Chappell was busily immersed reading a book. Perhaps after giving himself an A+ rating in his self-appraisal to TV channels and media pals who love his "process(ing) skills", he was cockily chilling in self-congratulations. Clearly, the pitiable display on the pitch by the Men in Blue at Durban against South Africa did not disturb him. Sachin Tendulkar, after a brief entertaining stay at the wicket, had just....

The world’s richest cricket board ensured that it’s 15 member-golden geese went on the crucial foreign tour of South Africa without their clothes on (pun intended)! To accentuate matters, two key members of the touring party were conspicuous by their absence, but apparently no one had witnessed their disappearing act. Maybe it was an optical illusion witnessed by just a miraculous few! Honestly, such bizarre happenings can only occur on India’s own native soil. The BCCI must rank as a classic unbeatable joke, run as it is like a Baramati....

The sapping October heat is behind us, as is the hullabaloo about the Champions Trophy. The latter manifested two startling factors; One-Day cricket is becoming boringly predictable, and experimentation such as PowerPlay has been as effective as teaching George Bush the principles of international diplomacy. The exorbitant ticket prices notwithstanding, we witnessed empty stadiums with small crowds interspersed in tiny clusters all through the tournament, compelling organisers to do the unprecedented charitable act of distributing free tickets for the finals, no less. In a country where cricket dominates the....

I had planned to watch a silly comedy on DVD, when thanks to some good fortune I happened to be switching TV channels. There was a heated discussion going on between animated retired cricket stars on the "nudging" of BCCI President Sharad Pawar by the brusque Australians celebrating champion-hood in practically all news stations, when suddenly popped another breaking news story; apparently the Rawalpindi Express had let off severe steam and then promptly rolled into the Pakistan team coach Bob Woolmer , giving his pink cheeks a resounding slap that....

Finally, after the unexpected rain clouds cleared, it was the colour yellow all over. "Stage fright" had perceptibly consumed the West Indies, and Lara’s theme song was sounding off-key. Shoulders collapsing, the crowd favourites caved in, walking without smiles into the pavilion. The Australian domination of world cricket added another unending long chapter at the Brabourne Stadium yesterday, making for voluminous and excruciatingly predictable reading. Understandably, the Aussies are excessively cocky. Even the BCCI President Mr Sharad Pawar was rudely ushered away by the victorious Aussies eager to....

In an EXCLUSIVE, CricketNext was fortunate to have got the two principal representatives - Mr Malcolm Speed, CEO of ICC and Mr Lalit Modi - Vice President of BCCI for an interview called Take A Walk at Marine Drive, Bombay on a clear morning sky in November. The full transcript is reproduced below: CNEXT: Good morning, Mr Speed and Mr Modi. Delighted to have you on Take A Walk. SPEED: Hi, mate! (as he reads Indian Finance Minister’s take on the population problem in India relative to the....

Dear Sirs, Please condescend to respond to the under-mentioned questions when time permits from your hectic schedule and pressing engagements. 1) If there is no real talent available in Indian cricket, what have you been doing as the head of the BCCIs ambitious initiative for discovering nascent wizards, as the Talent Research Development Officer for the last couple of years? Have you documented your findings and reported the same to BCCI as it is an alarming statement on ground realities of Indian cricket? Will the BCCI kindly share with....

Team India got a serene, solid and spectacular burial at Mohali on Sunday evening. By the time the ceremonial formalities concluded' the exuberant stands were empty, and millions of wild cricket lovers had switched off their TV sets much before the post-match comments and commercials could be aired. The Monday morning blues were hurriedly pre-poned courtesy some awful antics of India’s bowling brigade. Earlier, the strong batting line-up had once again squandered a fine opportunity to hustle the Australians. Frankly, given our undistinguished track-record against the Australians of late'....

Brian Lara was clearly suffering from a stiff back. But he was certainly not stiff-upper lip when doing a post-match post-mortem. As the West Indies, after an inexplicably exasperating crawl which almost resulted in a silly sensational collapse, finally carved out yet another rout of India at Motera, Ahmedabad, the Men in Blue looked like they had been shell-shocked, and not by Diwali firecrackers for sure. Without any pretension of reservation, Lara smacked and socked Indian coach Greg Chappell straight where it would cause acute pain and wobbly feet.....

What you instantly like about the Black Cap skipper besides his deep baritone voice is his spontaneous, pugnacious demeanour. On being questioned on the differing capabilities of India’s current captain and his immediate predecessor, Stephen Fleming did not flinch in any perceptible discomfort. Unlike many others astutely groomed in answering in diplomatic non-committal jargon, Fleming called a shovel a shovel. In simple terms, he called Sourav Ganguly, emotional, confrontational, passionate. Rahul Dravid by sheer contrast was measured, calculating and methodical according to the most-capped captain in ODI history. The contradictions....

In every social conversation these days, the one constant question we are asked is ---- Who will win the Champions Trophy? Since we are not in the business of forecasting models, and neither do we believe that we should be indulging in wild guesstimating, we essentially state with a poker face , the standard cliché----“ The team that acclimatizes to the conditions well, bowls, bats and fields with superlative efficiency, wins the toss, does not drop silly catches, shows that insatiable, macabre hunger to win, runs like a being-chased....

Less than 10 days into the so-called mini-World Cup, and believe me you, it feels already that the cup runneth over. This Champions Trophy has clearly become a controversial conundrum, pregnant with internecine, dramatic conflicts, queer happenings and behind-the-curtain conspiracy theories. Here’s a brief synopsis : 1) Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif face a two-year suspension for failing a dope test, that too initiated by the Pakistan authorities themselves (this is a landmark event), supposedly engineered by coach Bob Woolmer who had a sniffling suspicion that something serious was....

The murky, mysterious days of furtive speculation on match-fixing in cricket, like the perennial Phantom on a white horse, is back. It took two totally unrelated events as segregated as PM Manmohan Singh’s blue turban and George Fernandes’s moment in the October sun as the Messiah of the Missile, to bring back some not so chewing-gum memories of cricket’s somber days of awful corruption. Bald-plated mercurial opener Herschelle Gibbs, after several botched tours of India, at last summoned courage to face up to Delhi police inquisition on the Hansie....

The murky, mysterious days of furtive speculation on match-fixing in cricket, like the perennial Phantom on a white horse, is back. It took two totally unrelated events as segregated as PM Manmohan Singh’s blue turban and George Fernandes’s moment in the October sun as the Messiah of the Missile, to bring back some not so chewing-gum memories of cricket’s somber days of awful corruption. Bald-pated mercurial opener Herschelle Gibbs, after several botched tours of India, at last summoned courage to face up to Delhi police inquisition on the....

There is no substitute for experience. None other than good ole' Geoffrey Boycott, the veteran opener with a soft spot for both the slender Shilpa Shetty and the aristocratic Prince of Kolkotta, could have re-asserted that point better. Commenting on the early qualifiers of the Champions Trophy matches underway, Boycs made a telling statement, re-emphasising what we at CricketNext have gone hoarse screaming from the pointed peaks of skyscrapers that "teams are as good as the administrators who run the game". Nothing manifests the truism in that statement....

The International Cricket Council ( ICC) had earlier stated it’s intent on making cricket (being officially played by just 10 countries) into a global sport like football. In its hurried attempt to ape the game, they have borrowed the FIFA penalty shoot-out formula in case of drawn games. Let me clarify, they are not going to have cricketers get into knee-length shorts, change shoes, and kick the small hard leather cherry even as the wicket-keeper performs aerodynamic feats in front of a goal-post. In fact, what the august body wants....

Greg Chappell, now as much an Indian household name as Rakhi Sawant, was fervently signing autograph on books last evening appropriately titled The Making of Champions. The fact that his book was launched on the eve of the quasi-World Cup tournament commencing at Mohali on Saturday afternoon was perhaps just an uncanny co-incidence. Whether Chappell makes Rahul Dravid hold a glittering trophy on April 28, 2007 or not will remain a convoluted mystery till that moment arrives, but on thing is for sure that he has certainly acquired....

After exhaustive deliberations, the BCCI has come to the sublime conclusion that a CEO for the BCCI is a totally redundant position, like an unwanted third shoe. On hearing this, it is rumoured that several large corporate houses are planning to give marching orders to their fat pay-check earning, black-sedan driving, week-end golfing, self-obsessed management disasters called CEOs. Some job site portals crashed in a mountainous heap this morning as CEOs hurriedly cancelled breakfast meetings, skipped the power yoga, and began posting their exaggerated achievements online. It is....

Not long ago, the Indian cricket team believed that they had scaled dizzying heights, their altitude higher than Petronas Towers. Their quixotic coach Greg Chappell, pronounced daily breaking news, making complex pontifications on the malaise dogging Indian cricket, usually recommending surgery when perhaps a sprain reliever would have been more apposite. But that's another story altogether, isn't it? Yesterday, as Munaf Patel tried a desperate Virender Sehwag scorcher through the covers, and rock-star hair-do Andrew Symonds lunged forward to gleefully scoop up the catch, life had come a full....

I know that Sachin Tendulkar would not have liked it at all. As the country took drum-beats and hit the crowded streets, celebrations taking on their contagious frenzy, and the entire country and beyond heaved a collective sigh of awesome relief at the amazing comeback of the Little Master, everyone had conveniently forgotten that India had on some atrocious regulation called Duckworth-Lewis been technically fouled, and had lost the match against West Indies in the DLF Cup at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on the convoluted run-rate calculation. But hey, who cared....

Ever since Sourav Ganguly's leaked e-mail about Jagmohan Dalmiya has found wide circulation thanks to the classical crack in the sewage linings, all hell has broken loose. And the multimillion-dollar question that has naturally emerged out like a sea dragon with Davy Jones tentacles is; why and how has Dada suddenly discovered that his erstwhile mentor, ex-BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya may have actually callously toyed with him like the proverbial pawn in his embittered battle for winning BCCI elections. I think the answer lies in Sourav's "tennis elbow" injury....

Until Louis Figo, the dapper Portugese captain beguiled the Netherland's football team by getting them a red card from an over-enthusiastic match referee, the Orange men looked fairly threatening in Deutsche land. To rub salt in their fresh hurting wounds, the ICC (International Cricket Circus, oops, Council) had prepared a week-end carnival in the form of a One-Day match against Sri Lanka, who by sheer coincidence had hammered the phlegmatic Poms mercilessly just a few days before, scoring 322 runs in 38 overs, thereby thrashing the Ashes aspirants by a....

Philip Kotler, the great marketing guru, was in town recently lecturing Indian marketing professionals and brand managers on concepts, positioning and strategy. I have a sneaking suspicion that the former Indian cricket coach, the Kiwi John Wright, was hurriedly taking notes, surreptitiously and incognito. Everything about John Wright's book has a methodical marketing mind behind it; the title (Indian Summers), the launch (pre-Champions Trophy in October later this year in India), the pre-release publicity being done by the publishers (juicy excerpts are floating around with insouciant ease). But pray,....

So erstwhile coach John Wright got so exasperated with Virender Sehwag's natural instincts, he almost thrashed the stout, brawny, beefy Nawab of Najafgarh in the dressing room in England in 2002. Now how in heavens has this so-far-concealed-act-of-classic-Kiwi aggression been suddenly let out of the Pandora's box? Obviously, in Wright's just published memoirs when handling a band of highly talented and equally unpredictable Indian cricketers during sweltering moments appropriately titled Indian Summers (albeit it reminds of high-priced Indian restaurants in downtown Manhattan). Now surely if the deceptively genial....

Just a few days ago I bumped against the affable, ever-smiling and ubiquitous Sanjay Manjrekar, who looked as if he could have been auditioning for a role in a TV serial. Looking like a cool dude in faded jeans and uncharacteristically long curls, the former cricketer was bursting with his trademark kinetic enthusiasm. As I read his column on Sachin Tendulkar the very next day, I had a sense of déjà vu. Here goes another eulogistic piece on the ageing maestro welcoming him back with the usual exaggerated lionizing....

At least currently the most famous Darrell in the universe can boast of hair, but the game's so-called highest governing body , the ICC, has at best revealed it's shining bald plate, bereft of simple common-sense, lacking an iota of basic intelligence, and perhaps most horribly, being egregiously unethical. I personally feel that in the interest of the game at large, on account of abdicating responsibility, delaying prompt justice and encouraging back-door political manouevering , the current ICC management must take full ownership and collectively hang their head in silent....