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’....
View ArticleIn 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...
View ArticleSindhu'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...
View ArticleLegend 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...
View ArticleKhel 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...
View ArticleIndian 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...
View ArticleIt'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...
View ArticleWill 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...
View ArticleTime 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...
View ArticleNo 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...
View ArticleThe 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...
View ArticleWho 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...
View ArticleIPL 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...
View ArticleThe 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...
View ArticleOne 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...
View ArticleIn 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...
View ArticleBrave 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,...
View ArticleFamiliar 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...
View ArticleNew 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...
View ArticleBirth 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...
View ArticleKallis 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...
View ArticleBy 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...
View ArticleDhoni 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...
View ArticleToo 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...
View ArticleTime 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...
View ArticleGlorified 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...
View ArticlePak 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...
View ArticleCan 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...
View ArticleUntarnished 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...
View ArticleThe 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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