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Raina & Rohit: It’s still a fight to the finish

Despite its many idiosyncrasies, cricket has survived the test of time for a very basic reason: it feeds our primitive instinct to watch two beings, two adversaries, indulge in a fight unto ‘death’....

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In board game, there's only one loser: Cricket

Was N Srinivasan really the big loser in the board game that unfolded in New Delhi on Friday? Was he actually outwitted by a band of angry members to at least give lip service to the simmering public...

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Sindhu's mantra: Total focus, immense work

When Saina Nehwal was emerging as Indian sport's latest sweetheart, Pullela Gopichand used to smile indulgently, almost naughtily; it almost seemed like he had another ace hidden up his sleeve. "Just...

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Legend of Bolt bigger than the sport

Some names, begging Mr Focker's pardon, tend to raise all the wrong images in the mind; but some almost seem apocryphal as the person seems to have been born to live up to his nomenclature.   Imagine...

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Khel Ratnas: Is it so difficult to pick the sports gems of the country?

In India, sport and politics have always made for awesome bedfellows; right from the days of the Raj, we have seen everybody, including distinguished administrators and illustrious players, indulging...

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Indian sport can find life in a league of its own

For a long time now, Indian sport has been playing a fanciful game called cry wolf. Its rules are pretty simple: blame cricket for all its woes, including for hijacking all the glory, money and the...

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It's a golden opportunity to change Indian sport for good

Right since their inception, Indian sports associations have employed a slight variation of the laissez-faire philosophy: don't do anything but step up to take all the credit; they remained safe and...

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Will life bans clean up system?

Clearly, it is the season for exemplary punishments: on the day Nirbhaya's rapists were deemed fit for the gallows, the Indian cricket board too brandished its own version of justice, slapping...

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Time for Indian board to find its conscience and do what is right

Even as storm clouds were gathering in the horizon, N Srinivasan got busy like any sensible and intelligent person. The agenda: fortify his home, his own citadel before all hell broke loose. At least...

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No permanent friends in the board

In politics, the golden rule is that there are no permanent enemies or forever friends; you simply use people or dump them as per your convenience, to fulfil your own petty or larger ends. In Indian...

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The long road back into the Indian team

Some people are born lucky. Mahendra Singh Dhoni doesn’t have to do anything extraordinary whenever he wants to rediscover himself: he simply changes his look and emerges as a reinvigorated, new...

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Who will fill the void at No. 4 & our lives?

The Indian team has scaled almost all the heights in the hurly-burly of T20 even though Sachin Tendulkar has never really been part of it; his departure from ODIs hasn't had any impact either on its...

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IPL generation is here, get set for a new era

The Indian team is poised for a new phase with the imminent retirement of Sachin Tendulkar; it will finally mark the end of a golden era which brought together a band of rare match-winners. History...

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The lightning kids: One more time, please!

November 15, 1989 is an unforgettable date for India: as he prepares for a golden sunset, the day Sachin Tendulkar made his debut for the country in the battlefields of Pakistan assumes even more...

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One last time: Sachin's pilgrimage

For Sachin Tendulkar, the walk towards the pitch has always been akin to a pilgrimage: bat tucked under the arm, with nothing but humility in his eye, he often looked more like a devotee eager to pay...

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In the end, the hero is fallible too

Viswanathan Anand may never have faced a ferocious pace bowler; or hit a sublime forehand across the net; or ran across the field chasing a football; or taken on anybody in a one-on-one physical...

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Brave new India realizes its reputation is at stake in South Africa

The Indian cricket board has rarely, if ever, been guilty of evincing farsightedness, or at least sensitivity, when it's come to its prized team; but as MS Dhoni shepherds his boys into the aircraft,...

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Familiar ghosts, pace and bounce, return to haunt India

A painful déjà vu must have assaulted Yuvraj Singh as South Africa plundered 358 runs on Thursday; ten years ago, at the same Bull Ring, he was witness to a similar butchering: it was, of course, the...

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New India are ready for a fight

History and conventional logic suggest that if a team gets blown away in One-dayers, it can only collect the pieces in the tougher grind called Test cricket. By that argument, the Indian outfit doesn’t...

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Birth of the new Invincibles?

It's hazardous to identify the seminal point in the sporting history of any nation; it's that much tougher when it's still unfolding, and we don't know if the future will eventually bask in its own...

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Kallis thrived because he was an antithesis

Look at him through any prism, Jaques Kallis is the antithesis of an all-rounder: he is big and bulky, rather than lithe and fleet-footed; he is neither about flair or flash on the field, nor about...

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By hook or proxy: A system whose time is now up

When a cyclone reaches its logical conclusion, nothing can withstand its fury; Bishan Singh Bedi, perhaps, believed in this philosophy when he took on the deeply-entrenched mandarins in the Delhi and...

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Dhoni plays his trump card: will lead India in WC

Of all his canny moves as a wily captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni can be proud of the card he played in January 2012: as clamour for the crown on his head reached a crescendo, he announced that he might...

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Too much aggression has hastened Team India’s downfall

The transition from a prey to a predator is a slow process, needing the entire cycle of evolution; the Indian cricket team is dying a hundred deaths at the moment as it is not respecting this...

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Time for one-hit wonders to flex muscles

Unlike in real life, in the fantastic world of sport, heart-breaking defeats quickly fade to become a part of distant memory; and so, luckily for the Indian players, their no-win record on two...

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Glorified tourists in a cosy club

Ever since his hard-fought comeback in 2013, Amit Mishra has been a permanent feature … on the Indian bench; so much so, he is jokingly referred to as a glorified tourist or even a brand ambassador for...

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Pak conundrum: Why they keep losing to India

In many ways, Javed Miandad’s last-ball six set the template and tempo for future India-Pakistan contests; after that sensational win, almost every match invariably reached a flashpoint, with both sets...

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Can the opener do well as a night-watchman?

Sunil Gavaskar has played many diverse roles in his long and illustrious career; but he somehow sounded much more thrilled to be offered the BCCI president's hat, even if it's just an interim one. He...

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Untarnished IPL will be perfect balm

Every year, almost without fail, the Indian Premier League devolves into its most crucial edition yet; IPL-7 too looks fragile as it moves to United Arab Emirates, at least for the initial phase of the...

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The mystery behind Sunil Narine's spin magic

Among its many charms and allures, the mystery spinner has always commanded a special place in cricket; batsmen have struggled to cope with them, and very few have managed to unravel members of this...

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