Archive for the 'Cricket' Category

Bad, better, greatest

Published
by
asianwindow
on March 3, 2010
in Cricket and Sport
. 0 Comments

Pradeep Magazine in the Hindustan Times:

A nation led more by frenzy than reason had anointed Sachin Tendulkar as the greatest cricketer ever a long time ago. No matter that Donald Bradman’s batting average, at 99.94 runs per innings, is almost double that of Tendulkar. So how do we decide who was the ‘greatest’?

Tendulkar is the front-runner if volume of runs scored, the number of hundreds notched up, the sheer amount of matches played across all formats of the game, and the years spent on the field all go into the making of a yardstick. His double century against South Africa last month, the first ever in the one-day game, has once again triggered that old debate of ‘Who’s better, who’s best?’ This time round, even the conservative international media are willing to acknowledge that the Mumbaikar could well be on par — if not better than — the man who till now was considered ‘untouchable’ as a cricketing icon, Sir Don. More:

Back to square one

Published
by
asianwindow
on January 29, 2010
in Cricket, India and Pakistan
. 0 Comments

There is outrage in Pakistan over the exclusion of Pakistani cricket players from the latest IPL auction. But where was this sense of ‘outrage’ in the aftermath of 26/11, writes Rajdeep Sardesai in the Hindustan Times. Competitive rage is easy to manufacture in the context of Indo-Pak relations.

Indo-Pak cricket, like diplomatic relations between the two countries, suffers from schizophrenia. Rewind to January 1999 when a Chennai crowd gave a standing ovation to Wasim Akram’s men after they had just beaten India. Six months later, the two countries met again in a world cup match against the backdrop of the Kargil war and fans of both sides abused each other. In 2004, we were treated to a Pakistani crowd singing, “Balaji, zara dheere chalo” every time he ran in to bowl. Eight years earlier, I had watched a Karachi crowd hurl bottles on the field when their team lost to India in a dramatic last over. Two years ago, Sohail Tanvir was the toast of the inaugural Indian Premier League (IPL). Today, Tanvir and his other Pakistani teammates find themselves unwanted by their IPL owners. more

The man who played day and night

Published
by
asianwindow
on December 5, 2009
in Books, Cricket, Pakistan and Sport
. 0 Comments

In Mint-Lounge, Salil Tripathi reviews Imran Khan: The Cricketer, The Celebrity, The Politician (HarperCollins):

Imran-Khan-bookKhan’s is a fascinating saga: A world class sportsman who propelled his country to the top of the cricketing world, albeit briefly; lover of many women whose hearts he broke easily; a quixotic politician who failed to translate his personal popularity into political appeal in a country crying out for heroes; a man deeply affected by the death of his mother, which prompted him to make a herculean effort to raise nearly $60 million (around Rs281 crore now) to build a world-class cancer hospital in Pakistan.

In fact, his mother had a deep impact on his life. Early on in Imran Khan: The Cricketer, The Celebrity, The Politician, his new biography of Khan, author Christopher Sandford writes, quoting him: “‘Once, when I was 13,’ Imran recalls, ‘I was stopped by the police while I was driving my father’s motor car. Of course, I didn’t have a licence. So I did the only thing possible under the circumstances. I bribed the policeman. He took the money and I drove away again scot-free. But later that day the chauffeur, who’d been sitting next to me in the car, reported the incident to my mother. She was livid.’” More:


The God Of Fine Things

Published
by
asianwindow
on November 21, 2009
in Cricket and Sport
. 0 Comments

Suresh Menon on why Rahul Dravid is the intelligent man’s guide to what a sportsman ought to be. In Tehelka:

rahulIn his first Test, as indeed in his latest, Rahul Dravid invited both congratulations and commiserations. In fact, the one often came with the other in his career. He made 95 on debut at Lord’s, and it was impossible to congratulate him without commiserating with him; likewise after his brilliant 177 against Sri Lanka in Ahmedabad – great innings mate, but tough luck, you missed a sixth double century.

To be defined by what he has missed has sometimes been Dravid’s fate. When he made 180 in a Test match, he was upstaged by a man who made 281; that innings by VVS Laxman is rated as the best by an Indian batsman. When Dravid made his then highest one-day score of 145, Sourav Ganguly made 183 in the same innings; when he topped that by making 153 against New Zealand, Sachin Tendulkar made an unbeaten 186. Is Rahul Dravid the best supporting act in the history of the game or a great player born in the wrong decade?

He is the best supporting act in the history of the game (a world record 78 century partnerships in Tests) and a great player (over 10,000 runs in both forms of the game). It is tempting to conclude that he was born in the wrong decade, forcing him to play in the shadow of Sachin Tendulkar, but that hardly matters to the man who is in competition with no one but himself, and who was secure enough to say at one time, “Most people want me to get out quickly so they can watch Sachin bat.” More:

Bal Thackeray vs Sachin Tendulkar

Published
by
asianwindow
on November 17, 2009
in Cricket, India, Politics and Sport
. 1 Comment
Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray

Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray

Bal Thackeray, the leader of the Hindu nationalist Shiv Sena, has criticised cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar over his remarks that Mumbai belonged to all Indians. The right wing party champions the rights of local people, the Maharashtrians, often with violence and intimidation. Sena offshoot the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), run by Thackeray’s nephew Raj Thackeray, has also taken up the “Maharashtra for Maharashtrians” cause.

Sachin Tendulkar had said, “I am a Maharashtrian and I am extremely proud of that. But I am an Indian first. And Mumbai belongs to all Indians.”

Now, in an open letter addressed to the cricketer in the Sena mouthpiece Saamna, Thackeray has slammed Tendulkar for “hurting Marathi sentiments.”

The Indian Express has the full text of Thackeray’s ‘open letter’ translated from Marathi:

Dear Sachin,

You have played like a king on the playground. You have got international fame, lots of money. You have not only become a lakhpati or crorepati but also an abjopati (billionaire). But nobody is complaining about it. Instead, we are proud (of you)! On the playground you are shining with a new glow. But before the Marathi mind could come to terms with your straight drive, you made a statement — “Though I am proud of being a Marathi and a Maharashtrian, I am a Hindustani first” — at a press conference, leaving cricket and venturing into politics. You have said something more: “Mumbai is not the monopoly of anyone. All people of Hindustan have an equal right over Mumbai.”

Sachin, the Marathi mind was shattered after hearing this. Was it necessary to say this when everyone is poised to grab Mumbai? Why did you take this ‘cheeky-single’ while talking about your Marathi pride? Here you are ‘run out’ on the pitch of Marathi Manoos. We don’t understand why only the Marathi Manoos get such epileptic fits? (You don’t know) how Marathi Manoos secured Mumbai, as you were not even born then. Maneater Murderji Morarji Desai had gone on a rampage. This rampage resulted in Marathi Manoos bleeding on the streets. Hundred-and-five Marathi people sacrificed their lives for Mumbai. This Mumbai can’t belong to the father of any parprantiya (people belonging to another region). More:

I don’t even move when Sachin is batting: Anjali Tendulkar

Published
by
asianwindow
on November 14, 2009
in Cricket, India and Sport
. 0 Comments

Vinay Nayudu in the Times of India:

TOI: Please go back in time to when you met Sachin for the first time…

ANJALI: (Laughs) We’ve not really told many people this. I first met him at the Mumbai airport when he returned from his first tour of England in 1990, after scoring his maiden Test ton. In fact, when I first saw him at the airport, I didn’t even know who he was. It was purely by accident! I was there to pick up my mother and Sachin was arriving with the Indian team. That’s where we saw each other for the first time… we had a courtship of five years and got married in 1995. We had got engaged a year before that in 1994 and that was in New Zealand.

TOI: Do you believe in destiny?

ANJALI: Yes, it is destiny and I believe in that.

TOI: Sachin has been known to go out in disguise sometimes. Did he ever use a disguise to meet you?

ANJALI: Yes he did, just once. We had gone to see the movie Roja. I was studying medicine then and a couple of my friends planned it. Sachin did try telling me that that it would be difficult, but I insisted that he come along. To make sure nobody recognised him, we even got him a beard. He wore specs as well and we went in late. We watched the first half of the film, but during the interval Sachin dropped his specs and people immediately recognised him! It was a bit of a disaster and we were forced to leave halfway. More:

20 years of Sachin

Published
by
asianwindow
on November 12, 2009
in Cricket and Sport
. 0 Comments

Pradeep Magazine interviews Sachin Tendulkar in the Hindustan Times:

The early years

What was the atmosphere like at home? Did they not mind your playing the whole day?

They gave me a lot of freedom, especially my father. My brother was instrumental in making everything possible. Father was very understanding, he would give the green signal, but the ideas were definitely my brother’s.

Did your father believe you were good enough to play for India?

He encouraged me. The first year of school cricket was not that big for me. In the second year, I managed to score a hundred and I believed I was good enough…

A legend is born

How did it feel to be talked about as the boy who would become the greatest?

It felt wonderful. I took confidence from all the positive statements made about me and with the help of that confidence I looked to climb the ladder. I would only look at the positives and not worry about negatives. Every individual will have faults, I would rather… I used my strengths, my energy in the right direction. I would think of factors that would help me contribute. I took that confidence along whenever I went out to bat. I did not read any newspaper — I sort of avoided reading them!

Cricket changes & me

You still play with child-like passion. What motivates you now?

Honestly, it is within me. I don’t think any external factor is needed to motivate me. Playing for India is in itself a huge motivation and I take a lot of pride in playing for India. I care about cricket. This is all I ever wanted to do.

Have you ever thought that someday, you will have to give up cricket? Does that thought frighten you?

Not at this stage, I am enjoying my game and there is cricket left in me.

Tendulkar at 20

Published
by
asianwindow
on November 12, 2009
in Cricket and Sport
. 0 Comments

They are the two biggest icons of the country; they are also unabashed admirers of each other. Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan speaks about the genius of Sachin Tendulkar, who completes 20 momentous years in international cricket. From the Times of India:

You are a legend yourself and have been in the limelight for so many years now. Do you appreciate the way Tendulkar has handled pressure, both on and off the field?

AB: I am no legend, but Sachin is a consummate artist and all such artists are gifted in handling pressure under all circumstances. Indeed, I believe if there were to be no pressure in an artist’s life, his best would never emerge.

Have you ever delayed a shoot, or postponed an appointment, just because Tendulkar was going great guns during a match?

AB: Yes, innumerable times! More:


What a real hero should look like

Published
by
asianwindow
on November 8, 2009
in Cricket and Movies
. 0 Comments

Aakar Patel in the News, Pakistan:

The real hero of the Iliad isn’t Achilles, who sulks and refuses to fight for two-thirds of the book (though when he does strap up to fight, he is peerless). The hero is Hector, prince of Troy, with whose death Homer closes the book, and the reader does not need to be told that Troy will now fall.

Hector is a fine general, a son beloved of his father, a father himself, a lover and a leader: a good man. Achilles is a child in most ways, but perfect as a warrior and that’s why he is heroic.

A hero is the man we think best represents what we should be. What does it say of us if we were to consider Bollywood’s heroes? The three biggest are the Khans: Shah Rukh, Salman and Aamir. Shah Rukh is called the King of Bollywood, but the star with most appeal is Salman Khan, an utterly unhinged human being. Salman killed a man and crippled others just outside my house, crashing his Landcruiser into a shop after a night of too much drinking. He then ran away, though he was arrested later. The policeman who was Salman’s bodyguard was blamed by the Khan family for doing the driving. He was fired from his job and died of tuberculosis. A photograph of him shrivelled to bone and living in a bare room was published days before his death. I wonder if it moved the Khans.

Salman treats women dreadfully. When he was courting her, Aishwarya Rai’s terrified father came to a newspaper I worked at one day to reveal that Salman had broken the door to his house the night before after being locked out. But apparently many women like their men rough, and Salman gets more fan mail than Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan, and more perhaps even than the both of them put together.  More:

Batman forever

Published
by
asianwindow
on November 7, 2009
in Cricket and Sport
. 0 Comments

Sachin Tendulkar on Thursday produced one of the best innings in the history of one-day cricket. Soumya Bhattacharya, whose new book on how cricket defines India, All That You Can’t Leave Behind, will be out in bookstores next month, in the Hindustan Times:

sachiin_tendulkarSo he made us eat our words. And didn’t we love the taste.

There we were, as India came out to bat against Australia on Thursday evening, the chaps who have spent more hours of our lives than we can bear to count watching him bat and atomising his each innings, there we were, shaking our heads and looking at the TV screens and mumbling into our coffees and saying: “No, he shouldn’t have opened the innings.”

No, Sachin Tendulkar should have left it to Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, we’d thought. He should have come in at No. 4. What were they all up to? Did they not remember the number of balls from which he had not scored in just the previous innings? Chasing a score we had never chased down, did we not want to make best use of the first ten overs?

Fans will be fans. They will always ask questions. They will tend to be unforgiving. They will ask more from their heroes than their heroes can give them. So we’ll still say that had there not been so many dot balls in Tendulkar’s innings in the game before this one, we would not have been behind in the current one-day series. Oh, well. It’s in the nature of fandom. Not much you can do about it. More:

Masturgate: India’s cricket sex caper

Published
by
asianwindow
on October 2, 2009
in Cricket and Sport
. 0 Comments

A new training manual that extols the benefits of sex before matches has India hot and bothered. Jason Overdorf at GlobalPost:

Gary Kirsten, the coach of India’s cricket team, has some advice for his players:

Have sex before matches, boys. And if no partner is available, then “go solo.” It says so, right in the team’s training manual leaked to Indian media.

“From a psychological perspective, having sex increased testosterone levels, which causes an increase in strength, energy, aggression and competitiveness,” the manual reads in pseudoscientific jargonese.

Breaking from decades of tradition, the story has sparked a national debate that threatens to erupt into a full-fledged “masturgate.” India, of course, is a traditionally conservative society that – while known throughout the world for the encyclopedic contortions of the Kama Sutra – has banned sex education in schools. A U.S.-based Hindu religious leader has already called for the South African Kirsten to resign, and Kirsten himself has blamed trainer Paddy Upton for the naughty bits in the manual. Meanwhile, a growing number of Indian commentators seek to explain why the boys needed “the talk.” More:

The making of Imran

Published
by
asianwindow
on October 2, 2009
in Books, Cricket and Sport
. 0 Comments

Saad Shafqat reviews “Imran Khan: The Cricketer, The Celebrity, The Politician” by Christopher Sandford (Harpercollins) at cricinfo:

imran_bookDon’t be fooled by what you read in the press and hear in the media. In Pakistan it was decided long ago that he can do no wrong. He took those 12 wickets in Sydney, bowled that immortal afternoon spell of reverse swing in Karachi, stared the West Indies down on their home turf, led the cornered tigers in 1992. In short, he ushered Pakistan cricket into its golden era. And then there is the man. As any number of women would say, just look at him.

You would think this makes Imran Khan an irresistible biography subject – and you’d be right. There are very few autobiographies of Pakistani cricketers, and fewer biographies. Imran has become the focus now of a second worthy book (after Ivo Tenant’s Imran Khan, which appeared in 1994). The latest effort is by Christopher Sandford, a seasoned biographer who has previously tackled Godfrey Evans and Tom Graveney in addition to an august list from the world of music and film.

It is not strictly a cricket book, because Imran is not just a cricketer. There is naturally a great deal of cricket in it, but it is so seamlessly interwoven with general experiences of the human condition that this book can be read with equal enjoyment by die-hard fans and casual followers alike. Indeed, Imran transcended cricket in that many people with little interest in the game found themselves absorbed by his public image and personality. This book will appeal to them too. More:

World’s top earning cricketers

Published
by
asianwindow
on September 7, 2009
in Cricket, Lists and Sport
. 0 Comments

The Forbes magazine has named Indian cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni as the top earning cricketer in the world last year. Forbes said that Dhoni earns $8 million in endorsements, from the brands like Reebok, General Electric and Pepsi, and the rest from his cricket salary and fees.

rich_cricketersWith its deep-pocketed owners and global appeal, the Indian Premier League (IPL) has shaken up professional cricket, luring top players from five continents with paychecks as big as $111,000 per three-hour match. That’s a stunning sum in a sport where domestic leagues have traditionally been an afterthought to the international version of the game.

While cricket is one of the most popular sports in the world (it’s played competitively in more than 100 countries), before the IPL launched last year, no domestic league was truly run as a business. But with IPL teams now paying top players as much as $1.55 million for just a five week season, versus $500,000 to $1 million, depending on the country, for an almost year-long slate of national team games, cricket is in the midst of a dramatic shift. More:

[Graphic: HT]

Imran Khan and Benazir Bhutto had an affair: Book

Published
by
asianwindow
on August 20, 2009
in Books and Cricket
. 4 Comments

Benazir Bhutto and Imran Khan

Benazir Bhutto and Imran Khan

A new biography of Imran Khan by Christopher Sandford has claimed the former international cricketer and Benazir Bhutto, the assassinated former Prime Minister of Pakistan, were romantically involved while they were both students at Oxford University. From the Telegraph:

The respected author, Christopher Sandford, has claimed that Bhutto became infatuated with Khan and the pair enjoyed a “close” and possibly “sexual” relationship.

He also alleges that Khan’s mother tried, unsuccessfully, to organise an arranged marriage between the pair.

Until now, it had always been believed that Khan and Bhutto had always been at loggerheads both politically and personally. Khan openly criticised the former prime minister just days before her death.

However, Sandford, who interviewed both Khan and his ex-wife Jemima for the book, claims a source told him that Bhutto was 21 and in her second year of reading politics at Lady Margaret Hall when she became close to Khan in 1975. More:

And in Daily Mail:

The ‘elegantly shod’ Bhutto, a fellow politics student, hooked up with Imran in 1975 when she was 21 and in her second year at Lady Margaret Hall. A mutual acquaintance told Sandford that Bhutto had been ‘visibly impressed’ by Imran, and that she might have been among the first to dub him ‘the Lion of Lahore’.

Says Sandford: ‘In any event, it seems fairly clear that, for at least a month or two, the couple were close. There was a lot of giggling and blushing whenever they appeared together in public.’

He adds: ‘It also seems fair to say that the relationship was “sexual”, in the sense that it could only have existed between a man and a woman. The reason some supposed it went further was because, to quote one Oxford friend: “Imran slept with everyone.” ‘

Cultural boundaries

Published
by
asianwindow
on August 15, 2009
in Cricket and Sport
. 0 Comments

The Good Men of Manila Cricket Club was founded in 1992 by a group of single expatriate men in the Philippines. It has since turned into a global affair, hosted its own version of the World Cup and even made an appearance in cricketing journal, Wisden. Jo Wadham reports in the National:

There is something quintessentially English about the scene at the Bank of England Sports Club in London on this July day: 22 men dressed in their whites, an immaculate green grass pitch, under a blue sky dotted with white clouds, accompanied by the sound of leather on willow. But this is far from a traditional English cricket team. The team have not played together for 12 months; the members have travelled from places as disparate as Almaty, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Delhi, Singapore and the UAE, just to play here today. These are the Good Men of Manila.

It may sound like the title of a Graham Greene novel, but the story of the Good Men of Manila is one of cricket, friendship and the ties that bind, particularly among expatriates. It is about cricket as a leveller, crossing class and cultural boundaries.

Watching the players are their ever-supportive and tolerant families, the varied nationalities of the wives reflecting the nomadic lifestyles the men have led and some continue to lead. Children run about as their mothers, from the Philippines, Russia, the UK, France, Australia and India, catch up on family news. Players waiting to bat watch anxiously wearing the team’s green and white striped jackets and caps. More:

As American as…cricket

Published
by
asianwindow
on July 12, 2009
in Cricket
. 0 Comments

cricket

Baseball and cricket are twin brothers, separated at birth, writes Roger Bate in The American

I cannot remember the first time I heard an American say “cricket is so boring: it lasts for days and still ends in a draw.” Let’s just say it was not this decade or the one before that. I am not going to try and explain cricket—the rules are too complex for a short article. Or to persuade you that cricket is a great game—hundreds of millions of Indians, Pakistanis, South Africans, Zimbabweans, Sri Lankans, Australians, New Zealanders, Bangladeshis, West Indians, Kenyans, Dutch, Welsh, Scots, and English, like me, know it is.

It is fair to say if you do not like baseball, then you will not like cricket. But if you do, read on a little longer.

There are many similarities between baseball and cricket. They are duels of batter (batsman) and pitcher (bowler). They showcase highly individualized, skillful players striving for a collective goal. They are slow, staccato games with plenty of pauses for the audience (and indeed players) to consider what could happen next. Both can move from the seemingly pedestrian to vibrant excitement in less than a second.

more

Diversity before wicket

Published
by
asianwindow
on July 12, 2009
in Cricket, Politics and Sport
. 0 Comments

When Pakistani journalist Abid Shah visited Sri Lanka, everyone wanted to talk to him about the attack on their national cricket team in Lahore, and Shah began to see South Asia’s differences through the prism of the sport. From the National:

Something was wrong. The heat was there, the sun strong; the streets were hustle-bustle, the bazaars too; and clogging the roads were freewheeling three-wheeler taxis which in Pakistan I called rickshaws, but here are called tuc-tucs. Everything told me this was still South Asia, that Colombo was not very different from Lahore, that somehow our regional bond held. Yet, something was very different, and I was struggling to pinpoint it.

On the train, its carriages rattling as it hugged Sri Lanka’s western coast and chugged south, I fell into conversation with the man next to me. Arriva deSilva was a retired medical technician with spectacles, a short-sleeved shirt and wispy hair. He was a man of firm opinions, and he started grilling me about Pakistan with growing indignation.

Why, he asked, were so many Pakistanis illiterate, when Sri Lankans were so educated, when Sri Lanka boasted a literacy rate above 90 per cent? How could a democracy work with so many illiterate people?

It was not, I assured him, because Sri Lankans ate so much fish, but because of Pakistan’s feudal history, because of its unstable dictatorships and its ingrained class system. This was unacceptable to deSilva; no wonder Pakistan was such a mess. More:

NY police plays cricket to build relationships

Published
by
asianwindow
on June 29, 2009
in Cricket, Society and Sport
. 0 Comments

From the New York Times:

The Gateway Cricket Ground in Brooklyn is a spartan place – a grass oval tucked in by the Belt Parkway, in the shadows of the towers of Starrett City and beneath the flight path of Kennedy International Airport.

But on Tuesday morning it was crowded with players, some toting paddlelike bats, and filled with the sound of leather balls struck by wood.

The sport they were playing is as ancient as it is baffling to most Americans, yet the New York Police Department has chosen cricket as a way to foster relationships with newer immigrant communities.

The Police Department established a cricket competition for young men in the city last summer; the project was a success, and on Tuesday, play began for another season. Interest has expanded, with 10 teams and 170 players involved this year, compared with 6 teams last year. More:

Click here to watch the NYT video.

Cricket vs the Taliban

Published
by
asianwindow
on June 23, 2009
in Conflict, Cricket, Pakistan and Terrorism
. 0 Comments

Will a glorious sport rescue Pakistan from the Islamists? Tunku Varadarajan in Forbes:

As Pakistan fights for its survival against the barbarian Taliban–who would turn that fragile quasi-democracy into an Islamist state so extreme as to obliterate all girls’ schools from the face of the land–its people find themselves possessed of a weapon with which to vanquish the forces of darkness. I speak here not of drones or tanks or helicopter gunships, but of the glorious game of cricket.

Pakistan’s national cricket team has just won the World Cup in a version of cricket called Twenty20, a dynamic, novel form of the game that might be compared–for the benefit of American readers–to a three-inning baseball game, short, eventful and innovative.

The cricket victory is the best news that Pakistanis have had since the departure from power of their military dictator, Pervez Musharraf; and unlike the latter event, which only ushered in a long period of uncertainty and violence, the former offers clarity, light and a shot at redemption from evil. More:

Science vs art in a clash of cultures

Published
by
asianwindow
on June 23, 2009
in Cricket and Sport
. 0 Comments

From cricinfo:

It’s first a clash of ethos, of philosophies and even of time, more than a semi-final. Here is truly man against machine, the art of cricket against the science of it, cricket’s future and cricket’s past. South Africa’s progress to this point has been smooth, well-planned, calculated and inevitable, as if their players were born to do this. Pakistan have got here in shambles – losing games, winning some, treating it all as a bit of fun – and the players not so much born to do this are struggling to discover why they are doing it at all.

South Africa lack nowhere and nothing. If Jacques Kallis and Graeme Smith are the efficient drones at the top, there is heart in the middle, with the ever-frail skills of Herschelle Gibbs and the creativity of AB de Villiers. Even Albie Morkel, in whom there are glimpses of Zulu, thankfully smiles more. They’ve always had pace, but now they even have spinners, who are not batsmen forced to bowl. Sure, they are a little one-dimensional (watching videos of Umar Gul’s yorkers?), but they are spinners – South African and successful; how often have we said that in the past? More:

Indian cricket fans: Please read this

Published
by
asianwindow
on June 18, 2009
in Cricket and Sport
. 0 Comments

Mike Atherton, Chief Cricket Correspondent, in the Times:

Memo to Indian cricket supporters: it is time to grow up. Sport is not about winning, it is about losing. Twelve teams have been taking part in this tournament and only one of them will return winners. The rest will be losers.

They will lose in various ways – some thrillingly, some abjectly – but lose they will. It is what makes the moments of triumph all the more special.

After all, if winning was all that there was, what would there be to celebrate? Indian supporters, the most immature in cricket, cannot seem to grasp this simple fact.

So where once temples were erected in Ranchi to deify its most famous son, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, now effigies are burnt. Once the Army had to be called out because the mob had laid homage to a hair salon where Dhoni was having his luxuriant locks lopped off, but veneration has now turned to vituperation. More:

Who is a cricket expert?

Published
by
asianwindow
on May 9, 2009
in Cricket, India and Sport
. 0 Comments

In India, a billion people lay claim to this role. Ashis Nandy in the Times of India:

India has one billion experts on cricket. Most of them have not played the game or played it casually as a child or teenager. That has never deterred them from pronouncing their judgments on cricketers and cricket matches or from advising India’s national cricket team. I had a friend, an accomplished doctor, who had never played cricket. He would dismiss summarily most things well-known cricketers
said, often adding disdainfully, “He knows nothing about cricket; he has not read a single book on it.” Another, though an excellent player of chess and bridge, had his private theories only about cricket.

Cricket is that kind of a game and it invites such eccentricities. That has been one of its main attractions, particularly in South Asia. Globally too, no other game has produced the kind of literature cricket has done. And some of the greatest of them have been produced by persons with no experience in first- or second-class cricket. One of these greats, Neville Cardus, played little serious cricket but remains, till today, the model of all talented cricket writers. The play of imagination and the cadence of his writing came reportedly from his acquaintance with music. More:

Night of the screamers

Published
by
asianwindow
on May 2, 2009
in Cricket and Sport
. 0 Comments

Why the commentators’ desperate hawking of the IPL may have started to work against the tournament. Gideon Haigh at cricinfo:

It’s working. Two weeks of the second season of the Indian Premier League and it’s finally been drummed into me who the damn sponsors are. Thanks. Thanks a lot. Now GO AWAY!

Actually, had I money to invest, I’d be wondering why DLF, presently being squeezed by slumping property values and a share price a quarter of its peak, and Citigroup, insolvent but for Barack Obama’s indulgence, were wasting shareholders’ funds on staking sixes and endowing so-called “success”. As I don’t, I’ll simply vary that old Bob Hope gag concerning the night he went to a boxing title fight and a game of ice hockey broke out: the IPL is fast degenerating into a series of three-hour advertisements through which are sometimes discernible glimmers of cricket.

Cricket, of course, has much to thank television for. How much richer is our appreciation of a Shane Warne legbreak or a Kevin Pietersen cover-drive for the luxury of studying it, frozen in time; when we can hover over each detail of the harmonious human mechanism. But either Lalit Modi is pumping nitrous oxide into the commentary box, or the IPL is bearing out JK Galbraith’s observation that television allows for persuasion with no minimum standard of literacy or intelligence. More:

The ZooZoos

Published
by
asianwindow
on May 1, 2009
in Art, Cricket, Design and Innovation
. 0 Comments

It’s a series of TV commercials — the best we’ve seen in a long time. O&M created these ads for Vodafone to coincide with the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) Twenty20 cricket matches. These cute little creatures even have a fan following.

From Mint: “There’s also the curiosity factor piquing viewers who wonder, who are the Zoozoos really? Are they alien?” says Prasanth Mohanachandran, executive director (digital) at OgilvyOne Worldwide. On the Zoozoos Facebook page, people can view new commercials, download images and wallpapers, and participate in a “What kind of Zoozoo are you?” contest. In the pipeline are a spot, titled “A day in the life of Zoozoo” on Twitter, and merchandise such as key-chains, mugs, T-shirts, and mobile phone stands. More:

ps: “whoa! words fail. pure *&%#ing brilliance,” read a comment with one of the stories on the ad campaign. And by the way, they are real people in costume. You can see the ads on YouTube.

Clash of the titans

Published
by
asianwindow
on April 25, 2009
in Cricket
. 0 Comments

In Tehelka, Shantanu Guha Ray looks at the deteriorating relationship between Shah Rukh Khan and Sourav Ganguly and says this is the reason why Shah Rukh dropped the word Kolkata from his Knight Riders’ team.

souravA FORTNIGHT AGO, as he stepped onto the tarmac of Mumbai airport after his meeting with Shah Rukh Khan, Sourav Ganguly picked up his Blackberry and whispered “I do not trust anyone, really, I do not trust anyone!” The former Indian skipper, on a high barely a month before because of his involvement in the selection of the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) team and the cheer leaders, had a premonition of what would happen once the team landed in Cape Town for the trial matches before the start of the second edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). A week before the crucial meeting at Mannat, home of KKR owner and Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, Ganguly had skirmished with coach John Buchanan over the latter’s multiple captaincy theory and had set Kolkata afire by first disagreeing with, and then agreeing to the format.

more

The President meets the Prince

Published
by
asianwindow
on April 23, 2009
in Cricket and Sport
. 0 Comments

West Indies batting legend Brian Lara with US President Barack Obama in Trinidad. Photo: White House

West Indies batting legend Brian Lara with US President Obama in Trinidad. Photo: White House

From cricinfo:

George Bush tried – and failed – to swat a tennis ball with a cricket bat on a trip to Pakistan in the dog days of his presidency, but the meeting between Brian Lara and President Barack Obama in Trinidad was an altogether more successful affair.

Obama took time out from attending the Fifth Summit of the Americas to meet with Trinidad’s most famous cricketer. While his sport of choice is basketball, Obama was given a brief batting lesson by Lara, although attempts to teach him to drive were slightly less successful that his lesson in playing the forward defensive. More:

In an editorial, “Obama’s six,” the Indian Express says:

So what does that photograph tell us? Does that determined jaw betray impatience with the paces of a game that unfolds over five days? Or does it convey parallel thoughts about how to harness America’s soft power with its own sports? Perhaps it’s just as simple as Obama concentrating as hard as a person must in the presence of a master.

‘Insider’ spills beans on SRK’s Knight Riders

Published
by
asianwindow
on April 23, 2009
in Cricket and Sport
. 0 Comments

From the Times of India:

knight-ridersShah Rukh Khan has spent a lot of money building up PR for Kolkata Knight Riders. He’s hired the right firms, been out there in the public just about all the time; there’ve been parties, press conferences, cheerleaders, music and almost all the right kind of bytes given by the superstar himself.

Yet, he’s a troubled man. That’s not just because KKR got off to bad start or that relations between ex-captain Sourav Ganguly and coach John Buchanan continue to be strained. It’s mainly got to do with an unknown blogger – who claims to be a KKR team member – bent on letting the cat out of the bag all the time.

The blogger – calling himself Fake IPL Player – is sure he’ll never be a part of the playing XI. “But, there’s one thing I do very well. Serve drinks. And that’s what I am expecting do in South Africa,” he writes. Read the rest of the story:

And here’s the ink to the blog fakeiplplayer.blogspot.com

The other Plum

Published
by
asianwindow
on April 21, 2009
in Cricket and Sport
. 0 Comments

Suresh Menon at cricinfo on PG Wodehouse’s cricket connection:

wodehousePG Wodehouse was paid half a guinea for the first piece he ever wrote: “Some Aspects of Game Captaincy”, published in the Public School Magazine. He was 19 then. His next two pieces were also on cricket, for each of which he earned half a guinea. His first Jeeves story was 15 years away, but already the connections with cricket were strong.

Wodehouse, a medium-fast bowler for Dulwich College, who might have gone on to Oxford and won a Blue if his father’s business hadn’t collapsed and he himself been forced to seek employment with the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, once wrote that he dreamed of a residence near Lord’s cricket ground. “I’ve always thought that’s where I should like to live, with a garden gate opening on the ground.”

More:

Old and beautiful

Published
by
asianwindow
on April 21, 2009
in Cricket and Sport
. 0 Comments

Men written off, men supposedly past their primes, have proved that the IPL, and the world, belong not to youth or any other category. Peter Roebuck at cricinfo:

aksimpleOnly in golf and marathons, individual and easily measured activities, is age not regarded as a handicap. Elsewhere the bright young things are to the fore, with their daredevilry. As much can be told from observing tennis tournaments and leading soccer matches.

Inevitably cricket fell into line. It’s not so much that teams have become younger – Australia haven’t, and India are not exactly overburdened with striplings. Just that there are fewer players staying into their late 30s. Partly it has been desire: the hectic modern touring schedules stretch the sanity of the older brigade. Partly it has been the public’s irresistible urge to find new faces. Perhaps, too, the vintages found Test cricket too hard and 50-over capers too plentiful to be enjoyable.

Recognising the signs, Anil Kumble, Shane Warne, Sourav Ganguly, Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden and others declared their innings closed. Only Rahul Dravid clung to the wreckage, and his end seemed to be at hand.

No one blamed them for taking the easy money to play in the IPL or ICL. After all those years of distinguished service, they were entitled to a last waltz. Moreover, they would bring glamour to the competition and give pleasure to crowds. Of course they might play badly, but a million dollars covers an awful lot of dented pride, and anyhow their records were written in stone.

More:

Cricketer Azharuddin bats for Congress

Published
by
asianwindow
on April 2, 2009
in Cricket, India, Indian elections 2009 and Politics
. 0 Comments

From The Indian Express:

azharuddinThe morning after his first public rally, a tired Mohammad Azharuddin was fast asleep in Rampur. An hour and a half away, hidden between two shops in a busy, local market, the Moradabad District Congress Committee office was still recovering from the hangover of the previous afternoon.

In this modest establishment, the walls are adorned with posters of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her son Rahul, and in one corner – gleaming in all its newness – is a picture of Azharuddin in a sharp, pin-striped suit. “We would have preferred kurta pyjama but we couldn’t get any other suitable picture from the Internet. Even Bhabhi ji (Azhar’s wife Sangeeta Bijlani) was in that photo but we had to erase her on the computer,” says a smiling party worker handing out sugary tea. “This time we will win by 1 lakh votes,” he adds, with a flourish. More: