Tag Archive for 'Sachin Tendulkar'

Sachin Tendulkar’s blood used to prepare special edition of his memoirs

Published on July 20, 2010 in Books and Sport. 0 Comments Tags: Autobiography, Blood edition, Cricket, Kraken Media, Memoir, Sachin Tendulkar, Tendulkar Opus.

De luxe version of the Tendulkar Opus, costing £49,000 ($75,000), features cricketer’s blood mixed into paper pulp, tinting the signature page. In The Guardian:

Worship of cricket’s “little master”, Sachin Tendulkar, is set to cross a new boundary, as a luxury book publisher brings out a special edition of his autobiography made with the batsman’s blood.

Only for the most dedicated of fans, the “blood edition” of the Tendulkar Opus, which also includes unpublished family pictures and Tendulkar’s thoughts about his career, weighs 37kg, measures half a metre square and stretches to 852 pages edged in gold leaf, costing $75,000 (£49,000). Out next February, only 10 copies are being printed and they have all already been pre-ordered.

“The signature page will be mixed with Sachin’s blood – mixed into the paper pulp so it’s a red resin. It is what it is – you will have Sachin’s blood on the page,” said publisher Kraken Media’s chief executive Karl Fowler. “It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, it’s not to everyone’s taste and some may think it’s a bit weird. But the key thing here is that Sachin Tendulkar to millions of people is a religious icon. And we thought how, in a publishing form, can you get as close to your god as possible?” More:

‘God of Cricket’ now Twittering

Published on May 5, 2010 in Cricket. 0 Comments Tags: Cricket, Sachin Tendulkar, Twitter.

From WSJ:

Sachin Tendulkar has joined Twitter, and even if you aren’t following him yourself, the flurry of welcome tweets — from Indian cricket fans to Bollywood actresses — are hard to miss.

The Mumbai Indians batsman posted his first message Tuesday night: “Finally the original SRT is on twitter n the first thing I’d like to do is wish my colleagues the best in the windies.”

Twelve hours later, he has more than 20,000 followers.

Many fans couldn’t believe it was him, skepticism that could be due to the many fake Sachin accounts already on the microblogging service.

One of his teammates, Zaheer Khan, confirmed the news on his own Twitter account, writing “Yes! Its true sachin tendulkar is on twitter.” More:

Bad, better, greatest

Published on March 3, 2010 in Cricket and Sport. 0 Comments Tags: Don Bradman, India, Sachin Tendulkar.

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:

The 200 Club

Published on February 25, 2010 in India and Sport. 0 Comments Tags: Brian Lara, Charles Coventry, Cricket, Don Bradman, Double century, Gwalior, ODI, Record, Sachin Tendulkar, Saeed Anwar, South Africa.

The Indian Express front page

India superstar Sachin Tendulkar superbly smashed one-day cricket’s first 50-over double century. Below, from The Indian Express (click on the image to read the Express report on how Sachin prepared for the knock):

In the end, there seemed to be only one force of nature that could have stopped Sachin Tendulkar from reaching the first double century in one-day internationals: Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s inability to get the delivery away for anything less than a boundary. That was apt. Tendulkar owns many records, but they have never been just a matter of numbers. So it is that he again affirmed his special place in cricket by not allowing, in those final overs, any anxiety about the record change the drift of play. His partner was straining to give him the strike, but Tendulkar’s batting did not betray a temptation to get the strike by passing up an opportunity for a run. More:

From The Times of India report headlined “Sachin Tendulkar immortal at 200″:

If devout worshippers had any reason to quibble, it was that there was no one record-shattering innings – Brian Lara has the highest Test score of 400 and Saeed Anwar and the little-known Charles Coventry shared the ODI record of 194.

Just 147 balls later, Tendulkar set the record straight in emphatic fashion. A staggering 2,961 matches and almost 39 years after the first ODI was played – and remember, many ODIs in the early years featured innings of 60 overs each, which gave batsmen more scoring opportunities – the Little Legend finally became the first cricketer to score 200 in a one-dayer, propelled by a record 25 fours in one knock. More:

The God Of Fine Things

Published on November 21, 2009 in Cricket and Sport. 0 Comments Tags: Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar.

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

In 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 on November 17, 2009 in Cricket, India, Politics and Sport. 1 Comment Tags: Bal Thackeray, Chauvinism, Hindu fundamentalism, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, MNS, Mumbai, Raj Thackeray, Regionalism, Sachin Tendulkar, Shiv Sena.

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 on November 14, 2009 in Cricket, India and Sport. 0 Comments Tags: Anjali Tendulkar, Sachin Tendulkar.

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 on November 12, 2009 in Cricket and Sport. 0 Comments Tags: Sachin Tendulkar.

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 on November 12, 2009 in Cricket and Sport. 0 Comments Tags: Amitabh Bachchan, Cricketer, India, Sachin Tendulkar.

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:

Batman forever

Published on November 7, 2009 in Cricket and Sport. 0 Comments Tags: All That You Can’t Leave Behind, India vs Australia, ODI, Sachin Tendulkar.

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:

So 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:

World’s top earning cricketers

Published on September 7, 2009 in Cricket, Lists and Sport. 0 Comments Tags: Indian Premier League, IPL, Mahendra Singh Dhon, MS Dhoni, Rickest cricketers, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh.

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.

With 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]

The rough & tumble of a gentleman’s game

Published on March 23, 2009 in Cricket. 0 Comments Tags: BCCI, IPL, IPL 2, Lahore cricket attack, Lalit Modi, Narendra Modi, P. Chidambaram IPL, Sachin Tendulkar, security and cricket, T20 cricket.

The story so far:

On March 3 militants attacked a bus carrying Sri Lankan cricket players just outside the Gadaffi Stadium in Lahore. Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram almost immediately appeared on television voicing his doubts on whether India’s security apparatus was equipped to deal with simultaneous elections and cricket. It wasn’t that India could not provide security for IPL2, he said, it was simply that providing security simultaneously to IPL2 and the general elections would stretch our security forces. A simple solution, he suggested, would be to postpone the IPL dates.

Not possible, said IPL administrators led by Lalit Modi. These dates were set in stone in accordance to the international cricket schedule. Worse, said Modi, failure to host the games in India on schedule would amount to loss of national pride. So, various alternatives were trotted out: IPL would get private security; there was no question of moving the venue overseas and, of course, matches could be rescheduled to be held on dates when there was no polling.

When that failed to materialise, Modi went from state to state asking which ones were prepared to take responsibility for security. Suddenly, IPL2 acquired a political hue: Congress-ruled states (Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi) said they couldn’t provide security due to the general elections. Finally, on March 22 after days of protracted wrangling and speculation, the BCCI announced that the IPL matches would be held outside India — fans could watch them on primetime TV.

The venue hasn’t yet been announced for the matches to be held between April 10 and May 24, though it’s likely to be a toss-up between England and South Africa.

Meanwhile reactions have varied. Sachin Tendulkar has said IPL abroad simply won’t be the same. And Narendra Modi, Gujarat’s chief minister, said the decision to shift the venue outside the country was forced by the government and was a ‘national shame’) to a condemnation of the BCCI and IPL for refusing to understand that security was a priority and that the general elections had to take precedence over cricket.

In BBC, Gulu Ezekiel looks at the pitfalls still ahead for the IPL.

The decision to shift the second season of the Indian Premier League from its home base to either England or South Africa has further clipped the wings of the IPL czar Lalit Kumar Modi, the man with aspirations to rule the cricket world. Mr Modi is credited with conceptualising cricket’s first franchise-based Twenty20 club cricket tournament – though it was preceded a few months earlier by the “rebel” Indian Cricket League, launched in late 2007 by Indian media magnate Subhash Chandra Goyal.

(Image attributed to Hashmil under the Creative Commons license)

Superstar Tendulkar writes the perfect script

Published on December 16, 2008 in Sport. 0 Comments Tags: Cricket, England, Mumbai terror, Sachin Tendulkar, Terrorism, Tunku Varadarajan.

He’s 35 years old and owns practically every batting record in the game, but you couldn’t escape the feeling that this was probably Sachin Tendulkar’s finest hour. Dileep Premachandran in cricinfo:

As Graeme Swann prepared to bowl the second ball of his 29th over, more than 20,000 people in the stands abandoned their plastic chairs. They were on their feet, creating the sort of bedlam and noise I last witnessed at this very venue seven years ago, when Harbhajan Singh’s squirt past point clinched the most famous of India’s series victories. Swann bowled. The batsman came forward and patted the ball back with almost exaggerated flourish. The crowd was momentarily quieted but the primal scream started again as Swann went back to his mark.

Again, there was sharp turn, but the paddle-sweep that greeted the ball was emphatic. As it streaked to fine leg, the batsman ran down the pitch and punched the air in celebration, before being held aloft by his equally delighted partner. He’s 35 years old and owns practically every batting record in the game, but you couldn’t escape the feeling that this was probably Sachin Tendulkar’s finest hour.

To score the winning runs in a record-shattering chase was special enough, but when that last stroke also brought up your 41st century, it became ineffably so. Boyhood dreams are made of this, and it says a lot about Tendulkar that he has never lost that child-like passion for the game.

How I finally passed the Tebbit test

The courage, poise and decency of England’s cricketers are irresistible. Tunku Varadarajan in the Times:

If anyone had any doubts that cricket is a magnificent game – or that England (as Britain is called when kitted out in whites) and India are magnificent, humane, manly, kind, resilient, fraternal nations – these were dispelled over the last five days in Chennai (né Madras).

There have been few Test matches more special than the one that concluded there yesterday, and cricket is only part of the reason for that. I write here as an Indian who moved to England as a 16-year-old, and who, even after becoming a subject of Her Britannic Majesty, cheered always for the Indian cricket team – especially when they played against England. Norman Tebbit, one of Maggie Thatcher’s less enlightened ministers, had contempt for my type; but with apologies to Kipling: what should they know of cricket who only England know?

And yet… as the Test match began I found that I was shouting for England. I had, for the first time in my life, passed the infernal “Tebbit test” – which, in a nutshell, decreed that immigrant Britons must not cheer for the land of their forefathers when teams from said lands were playing teams from Britain.

Long playing record

Published on November 1, 2008 in Sport. 0 Comments Tags: Cricket, India, Indian cricketer, Sachin Tendulkar.

In an age of hype, more perhaps has been asked of Sachin Tendulkar than other greats of the game. In Tehelka, Suresh Menon examines whether the life on the field has kept in step with the myth:

IT IS POSSIBLE that Sachin Tendulkar can walk on water. That wouldn’t surprise a billion Indians, who also probably believe he can catch bullets in his teeth and has X-ray vision. When he was hauled up for ball tampering in South Africa (a technical, rather than a deliberate crime), the whole nation jumped to his defence, and it nearly split the cricketing world. Now Adam Gilchrist has dared to speak the unspeakable – suggesting that Sachin might be human after all, and subject to the pulls and pressures of humankind.

Of course, by the time you read this, order is likely to have been restored. Gilchrist will say Sachin is a great player and a personal friend, and everything he wrote about the player changing his version of what happened during the Symonds-Harbhajan fracas was taken out of context. He will blame it on the media for blowing up the story. And laugh all the way to the bank as his book sells.

What sort of a man is this who can do no wrong? I once read about the footballer Pele being hauled up by a referee – later, the referee was reprimanded for this act. Perhaps, some day an umpire might be officially chastised for giving Tendulkar out leg before. Future biographers might go out of their way to look for stories that show up Tendulkar in poor light, to balance the near-saintly qualities that are in the public domain. They might struggle. The stories they find might merely show that Tendulkar was human after all – and that’s not a bad thing to be.

Beyond legendary

Published on October 18, 2008 in Sport. 0 Comments Tags: Brian Lara, Cricket, India, Sachin Tendulkar.

Sachin Tendulkar has broken Brian Lara’s world record for the most runs scored in Test cricket. He has played for two decades, carrying the hopes of a nation, and done it with grace and class. Tendulkar has transcended every other cricket hero there is. Kumar Sangakkara at cricinfo:

I remember playing in a charity game in 2003 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Thousands of people turned out to watch the match and the familiar chant filled the ground as he walked out to take strike with Virender Sehwag. However, two overs later, Sachin’s dismissal was followed by pin-drop silence. As he left the field, the only sound was the murmur of the dispersing crowd. For me, that kind of pressure every single day, and the lack of a truly private life, would, I believe, prove too much.

But Sachin, somehow, has taken it in his stride for an incredible 20 years almost. To my mind that ranks as a higher achievement than the long lists of statistical records he has claimed. Playing for India is no easy task. The pressure to perform in every single outing, to win every single match, is tremendous. Magnify that a thousand-fold and that is what Sachin has to deal with.

A player of two parts

Also in cricinfo, Suresh Menon on why the man who now holds the record for the most runs in Tests is two batsmen in one:

Tendulkar made his debut in Pakistan. Of his team-mates then, one has become an insufferable television commentator, and two others have become good ones; one was convicted of murder and sent to jail, another banned for life for match-fixing. One eliminated the line between whistle-blower and perpetrator, one ran a banned series of matches, another was chairman of selectors. One has dropped out of the public eye and another has turned television actor. But Tendulkar bats on. Longevity is intrinsic to greatness.

At 19, the Mumbai boy was already the world’s best batsman. Interestingly, Tendulkar seemed to agree with this assessment in a quiet, matter-of-fact way. This lack of arrogance possibly caused him to be less destructive in Test cricket than he might have been, but it was a crucial element in his becoming a national icon. Indians don’t like their sporting heroes to be conceited; they give their hearts to modest players who underplay their emotions while performing consistently.

Another milestone waiting for Tendulkar in Tests

Published on July 17, 2008 in Cricket. 0 Comments Tags: Advertising, brands, Brian Lara, India-Sri Lanka test series, PepsiCo, Sachin Tendulkar, world Test runs record.

Sachin Tendulkar is just 172 runs short of overtakingt Brian Lara’s world Test runs record of 11,953 runs. The three-test series against Sri Lanka begins on July 23. Hindustan Times has the story.

The Indian cricket team, set to embark on a tour of Sri Lanka, is all too aware of a historic landmark that Sachin Tendulkar is poised to achieve, but the upper most thought would be to win the series, according to skipper Anil Kumble.

Tendulkar needs another 172 runs to overhaul the retired Brian Lara’s record of 11,953 runs in Tests. At present, the 35-year old Tendulkar, playing his 20th international season, is on 11,782 and is expected to get past the West Indian’s milestone.

Yet, corporate India remains unimpressed as a growing number of brands, including Pepsi, begin dumping Sachin as their brand endorser. Rina Chandran has that story in Reuters.

PepsiCo has ended a 10-year relationship with Sachin Tendulkar, reportedly because the beverage giant felt the master batsman, at 35 and in indifferent form, is not as big a youth magnet as he used to be.

Also, at 40-50 million rupees a year (about $1 million), he was a tad pricey.

Pepsi, which recently also parted ways with former captains Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly, has signed on such young cricketers as Ishant Sharma and Rohit Sharma for its “youngistan” campaign, targeted at a younger demographic in a country where half the population is below the age of 25 years.

Half the battle

Published on March 20, 2008 in Cricket. 0 Comments Tags: Brett Lee, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Muttiah Muralitharan, Ricky Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar, Shane Warne, Soumya Bhattacharya, Sreesanth.

Soumya Bhattacharya in Cricinfo says cricket is perhaps unique among team sports in that individual face-offs within the larger contests matter almost as much as the main event. Tendulkar v Lee, anyone?

In the buffet that is Cricinfo Magazine, there is, tucked away like a garnish or a bottle of extra virgin Tuscan olive oil, a section called Golden Pairs. Here, a writer imagines which two batsmen he/she would like to see up against which two bowlers. You have the history of the game to choose from. Anything goes. The more improbable the matchings-up, perhaps the better. It’s a fantasist’s delight. It’s a fan’s delight. If you have missed it, you ought to look it up now.

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Inspirational Sachin

Published on March 5, 2008 in Cricket. 0 Comments Tags: Peter Roebuck, Sachin Tendulkar, Shane Warne, Sydney Morning Herald.

Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald says Sachin Tendulkar inspires a new world order with his immaculate innings

A MATCH jam-packed with desperate action has brought a pulsating summer to an appropriately dramatic conclusion.

It was a contest full of thrills and spills, first Sachin Tendulkar seemed to have won the series for his team. Then the Indian lower order faltered. Australia collapsed again but as the crowd roared, so James Hopes restored hope for his overheated side. And then, with two cricketing countries agog, a mighty visiting captain tossed the ball to his most vulnerable bowler and the deed was done. It was enormous. Might have been a changing of the guard.

Apart from the frenzied finish and the curious outbreak of tackles on the field, the abiding memory of the match came from Tendulkar’s bat. The first final, in Sydney, had produced one of the game’s finest chasing innings. Alas, the hullabaloo distracted attention from Tendulkar’s hundred. Accordingly, reporters hoped for a second helping from the maestro. Happily he obliged with a superb effort in the second final.

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The sweet smell of victory

Published on March 4, 2008 in Cricket. 0 Comments Tags: India vs Australia, Sachin Tendulkar, victory.

Sachin inspires India to a historic victory. Cricbuzz has a ball-by-ball account

Clark broke the opening partnership when he had Uthappa caught by James Hopes at mid-off, but Tendulkar continued his imperious form, dispatching the Australian bowlers to all parts of the large ground with ease.

Tendulkar was finally out with the score on 204 after trying to bunt a ball away for a quick single and being caught by Ponting, 84 runs after the Aussie skipper had spilled the earlier chance.

The Indians kept giving their wickets away to innocuous bowling.

India’s hopes of breaking 300 fell away as Gautam Gambhir (15), Rohit Sharma (2) and Irfan Pathan (12) all fell cheaply.

But in the end 258 was just enough to get them home despite Hopes’s heroics.
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India’s most powerful people

Published on March 3, 2008 in Leaders. 0 Comments Tags: Aamir Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Anil Ambani, APJ Abdul Kalm, K V Kamath, Lalit Modi, MS Dhoni, Mukesh Ambani, Power list, Prannoy and Radhika Roy, Raghav Bahl, Rajnikant, Ratan Tata, Ronnie Screwvala, Sachin Tendulkar, Samir Jain, Shah Rukh Khan, Vineet Jain.

In its annual power list, India Today mixes new names with old to come up with a list of those who matter most in the creation of a new India. Some of the names, Ratan Tata (at #1) and Mukesh Ambani (#2) are now standard bearers on the list. Anil Ambani inches his way up to #3.

Media barons continue to matter. Brothers Samir and Vineet Jain (#9) of the Times of India group, Raghav Bahl (#18) of TV18 and Prannoy and Radhika Roy (#22) of NDTV continue to be on The List, while Ronnie Screwvala (#24) of UTV is the new entrant.

Other names debuting on the list include former President APJ Abdul Kalam (#7), K.V. Kamath (#13), managing director of India’s largest private bank ICICI and Lalit Modi (#29), BCCI’s powerful vice president and the creator of the Indian Premier League.

Film stars continue to make the list with Shah Rukh Khan (#6) way ahead of Amitabh Bachchan (#16), Rajnikant (#28) and Aamir Khan (#38). And cricket, the other religion of India along with films, rules with Sachin Tendulkar (#25) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (#35).

For a complete look at who’s on the list, and why, click here.

Let the bidding begin

Published on February 20, 2008 in Cricket. 0 Comments Tags: auction, Dreweatts, Glenn McGrath, Indian Premier League, IPL Auction, Mahendra Dhoni, Muttiah Muralitharan, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Shane Warne, Twenty20.

Seventy nine cricketers to eight franchises in the Indian Premier League go under the hammer today. The Times has the story:

The last time Richard Madley was in the newspapers for a cricket auction, he was handling the sale of a collection of ties and saucy seaside postcards once owned by Brian Johnston. Today’s auction is rather less frivolous. When Madley, a lifelong Glamorgan supporter, starts work in the ballroom of the Oberoi Hilton in Bombay, $40million (about £20million) will be at stake.

Madley, an auctioneer with Dreweatts, the British firm, will handle today’s sale of 79 cricketers to the eight franchises in the Indian Premier League (IPL), the new Twenty20 competition that will start on April 18, and anticipation has become feverish.

“I’ve just been mobbed outside the hotel,” Madley said yesterday. “They say that cricket is a religion here, but it appears to be a bit more than that.”

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And for all the dope on IPL, Hindustan Times has a dummies guide:

What is the IPL ?
The Indian Premier League is a professional twenty20 cricket league created and promoted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and backed by the International Cricket Council.

Franchises
The IPL works on a franchise-system based on the American style of hiring players and transfers. These franchises were put for auction, where the highest bidder won the rights to own the team, representing each city. The auction took place on January 24, 2008 and the total base price for the auction was $400 million. The auction went on to fetch $723.59 million.

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Monkey business: Proctor v Harbhajan Singh

Published on January 23, 2008 in Cricket. 0 Comments Tags: Andrew Symonds, ban, Chetan Chauhan, Harbhajan Singh, Mike Benson, Mike Proctor, monkey, racism, Ricky Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar, Steve Bucknor.

From the blog Law and Other Things, a full statement by ICC Match Referee Mike Procter, following Harbhajan Singh’s Code of Conduct hearing on January 6.

This matter started at around 2000. I have heard evidence and submissions until 2400 (midnight). It is now 0140.

Present at the hearing were: Chetan Chauhan, India team manager, Dr.M.V.Sridhar, India assistant manager, Anil Kumble, India captain; Harbhajan Singh, India player, Sachin Tendulkar, India player, umpires Steve Bucknor and Mark Benson, who laid the charges; Australia players Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, Michael Clarke, Andrew Symonds and Mathew Hayden; Steve Bernard, Australia team manager, Nigel Peters QC, member of London Bar, member of MCC committee, who assisted in legal and procedural matters. Continue reading ‘Monkey business: Proctor v Harbhajan Singh’

Heavy on youth, light on experience

Published on January 21, 2008 in Cricket. 0 Comments Tags: Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman.

The selectors have put their faith in youth and must now see that vision through, regardless of immediate results writes Sambit Bal in Cricinfo

How inconsiderate of the Indian selectors to deflect the attention from a glorious Test win to the triviality of choosing a team for that utter irrelevance known as the CB Series. But the wheel must move on, and the selectors have decided to move on too. There is no place for Sourav Ganguly in the side, no recall for Rahul Dravid and not even a thought for VVS Laxman. Sachin Tendulkar remains the only link with the past but then, after all, he is Sachin Tendulkar. And he has been India’s best batsman in one-day cricket in the last year.

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