This is the best of times. That was the worst of times.
Indian cricket had let the nerves get the better of them. Pragmatically, winning the World Cup had been a fanciful dream - but a shock first round exit was an unjust blow. As those seniors sat looking into the distance, disconsolate and depressed, tied [...]
The day one had spent weeks and months waiting for finally arrived this morning.
Boxing Day at the MCG. You can click on the link to study its rich history but the more obvious parts are that the first ever Test match was held here in 1877 when Australia beat England by 45 runs. And then [...]
The good news is that we have some cricket again ! And by that I mean international cricket - the kind that seems to keep our hyperactive minds occupied. Because no matter how much domestic cricket we play (and there has been and continues to be a fair share), it does not seem to stop conspiracy [...]
When in 1991 Vishy Anand played his first Linares event he met a Spanish couple Maurice and Nieves. They were the reason Anand moved to Collado Mediano. They travelled with Vishy to many events over the years. Still when Vishy wins, Maurice is the first person he thinks of. He is by far Anand’s biggest [...]
Lets get this off to the realistic start it deserves. 4 matches into this series, we’re 1-2 behind and although we’ve won 1, it was our first win since 2004. Of the last 25 matches that we’ve played Australia, we’ve lost 17 (3 were No Results). Yesterday’s loss was Australia’s first in 15 games.
Now for [...]
A few weeks ago, Shane Warne writing a column for The Times in the UK, started unleashing a list of 50 greatest cricketers he had played with or against. As with all things Warne, it was not without its share of the controversial.
The list opened and in its first ten i.e. 50-41 itself there were [...]
Knock Knock
Who’s There ?
Misba
Misba Who ?
Misba 5 runs .
Just for a brief while yesterday, surely, an old nightmare came back to haunt a few people. A young man named Sharma ran in to bowl to a determined, possessed Pakistan batsman . Thats when the comparisons ended. That was 21 years ago. I was older [...]
Today Rahul Dravid resigned as captain of Team India. Or offered to.
Typically I’d wait till the dust settled and things got clarified about what that means before I wrote a post on something like this but I feel strongly about Rahul Dravid. I even thought he was deserving of the highest compliment at the recent [...]
9.30 pm to 5 am.
Those are the timings of the day night games in Singapore. So yes - with a 5 am start to work everyday, I was dozing off just as Matt Prior was walking back to the pavilion. I woke up to India 8 for- and that was pretty much that. The markets [...]
Well done India. For all the BCCI baiters and slow-on-the-coach-bandwagon red rag wavers, this was a truly independent Indian performance. It does not matter that it was 1-0 and could have been 2-0 and it does not matter either that we got out of jail at Lords. All that matters is that we won. Fair [...]
Even though I’ll say that I could see the Dhoni appointment coming a while ago, and I’ll even give the selectors a bit of credit for it, I’ll admit that the rest of the selections are beyond me.
For the record, this is our squad. MS Dhoni leads and Yuvraj Singh is his deputy. The rest [...]
Luck with the toss and day one conditions notwithstanding (England had the same advantage at Lords), India were comprehensively the better side at Trent Bridge.
Whats worrisome for England is that the weak links from Lords - Bell, Prior and the lower batting order - have stayed weak and a few others have been exposed. The [...]
Everyone knows what this photograph is about. Whats less commonly known, perhaps, is that coming into the “final frontier” series, Michael Slater was grappling with a bipolar disorder. That bit is true. Its also true that he was also going through trouble (and ultimate breakup) in his marriage. There was also a bunch of tripe [...]
Am not sure why one reads of this little tour being a waste of time. And that too by some pretty astute thinkers of the game whose thought process one imagines reflects that of the team. Or is it the BCCI ? Aren’t they supposed to be the same ? I digress …
I thought the whole [...]
Its not that we won easily.
To me, the importance of yesterday, was Sachin and Dada as India’s one-two. Its immaterial that it failed.
Sachin Tendulkar back at the top of the order - a desire he’s expressed a few times - is important. In the past, when he said that, it was explained to him that [...]
Graham Ford’s Runaway Bride act (for thats the politest one can be) has done this. Its turned the focus solely on Rahul Dravid. This is going to be his summer. It will have to be. It had to be that way the day he reconciled it all by saying “Coming to a place like India, [...]
This is another episode in the Steve Waugh series of this blog. Its also about captaincy and its associated calculated gambles.
“When you’ve got to drop a player as a captain you become emotional. You don’t cry, but you feel like crying. It’s hard to hold back. You’re very … different in your emotions. It’s hard [...]
Bodyline remains and will remain amongst cricket’s bigger controversies.
Douglas Jardine, central to that - drew extreme reactions from the two sides involved.
To the present day, Jardine is remembered throughout much of the cricket world as the architect of what some, particularly in Australia, consider the most vicious premeditated behaviour seen on a cricket field; but [...]
In the big picture, history will judge every captain by what his team achieved. Thats all it comes down to. Results . Wins. Losses. Stats. And how the players under him progressed.
In terms of pure results, Steve Waugh’s numbers are pretty straightforward.
Captained Australia in 57 Tests. Won 41. Lost 10. Drew 6. Thats a 71.92 [...]
In a move which oozes confidence and sneers at short sighted doubters like this one here, Rahul Dravid has announced the 12 for the game starting tomorrow morning at Mirpur.
And no, there is no sign of any pressure of having missed chances or the risk of going home 0-0. What there is , is a [...]
Sun Tzu said ………………..that if you see ground or position to be gained but do not act, you are weak.
I’m a huge Dravid fan. But no matter how I cut it, Day 4 and 5 of the Chittagong Test were not the perfect antidote to a skipper doubtless on the low end of [...]
This may surprise a few of my friends. (Its possible to have opinions and friends).But Steve Waugh is amongst my favourite cricketers. To the point of being amongst my favourite men.
It doesn’t matter that his brother was by far the more graceful bat. To the point that there were jokes about Afghanistan. (yeah, “the forgotten [...]
I know I shouldn’t go there again. But its a perspective I want to share.
For those that haven’t read Steve Waugh’s 800 odd page opus “Out of My Comfort Zone”, please do. Its an amazing study into the mind of a cricketer and human being that stretches his boundaries to optimise his potential and live [...]
