Rainman talks Cricket

While there remains little doubt that the tournament has gone a long way in making cricket popular in the country again, Big Bash League's impact on the state of Australian cricket's health definitely deserves a discussion. If a tournament is to be judged for its look and feel quotient, the Australian packaging of the slam-bang version of cricket, aptly called the Big Bash, would win hands down over the other franchise-based global T20 leagues in the world. Everything about it looks like the culmination of the dream Kerry Packer saw when he put together the World Series Cricket in the 70’s to revolutionise the face of cricket. Not only does the cricket look fantastic in drop dead gorgeous looking stadiums, the matches are well attended despite them clashing with the Australian cricket season which is often cited as one of the major successes of the league. The quality of cricket on display has gone up a notch higher every year since its inception in 2011 and it has turn...

Irrespective of his age and circumstances, Yuvraj being Yuvraj, will try to make a comeback again  On his comeback, Yuvraj had done everything to try to convince selectors and fans that he is still the Yuvraj of old. But something wasn’t right. Bowler X, bowling from over the wicket, pitches the ball on middle stump. The ball turns away upon pitching and deposits itself into the gloves of the wicketkeeper as Yuvraj Singh plays inside the line of the ball and misses it completely. Bowler X, bowling from round wicket, angles the ball into Yuvraj as he awkwardly manages to keep it out somehow after judging it late. Bowling from the same angle, bowler X now bowls the one that turns ever so slightly, leaving the bat. The result is the same again as a tentative Yuvraj just manages to push forward defensively but makes contact with nothing but thin air. Anyone who has followed the southpaw on his comeback trail would concur that from Sachitra Senanayake to Sunil Nari...

Root's England made an amazing comeback after losing the second Test. Michael Vaughan's comeback was less glorious, though Cricket, despite all the glitz, is in poor health. And so is something that has made cricket what it is for its fans. Here is my piece on the art of writing cricket that seems to be falling apart in the face of the rapid changes that the game is witnessing. Cricket as a sport has been revolutionised in the last few years. The change has flooded the game from all sides. From the length of the game, the colour of the ball, the sizes of the bat to headgear and cricketers’ hairstyles, everything has undergone change with the game's transmogrification. Another much discussed and debated aspect of this change has been the increase in the volume of cricket played. The number of internationals packed in a year now is insane. The workload of cricketers has raised anxious concerns about player burnout. The emergence of multiple leagues has fed into this ...

An average just touching 40 doesn’t augur well for an opener of the number 1 team in Tests who has been around for almost a decade now. But anyone who has followed the game long enough would concur with the statement that Cricket is full of numbers that blatantly lie. And anyone who has followed the career of Tamil Nadu batsman would know that the value of Vijay lies much beyond the numbers. There are two phases in Vijay’s career. The first began with his surprise call up to the Indian team upon Gambhir’s ban in 2008 to play against Australia. From 2008 to 2013 series against Australia, the series that marked his rebirth as a Test opener, Vijay appeared 14 times in India colors and scored runs at an average of nearly 40, which is almost the same as his current average on the brink of his 50 th  appearance. But this was the Vijay who was juggling between formats and trying hard to press his case as an all season opener for the team. Moreover, he was also the lynchpin of Che...

When a discussion arises about trademark shots of cricketers, there is every chance that the name of the usual suspects will be invoked. A few mentions one can bet his/her life on are Sachin's straight drive, KP's switch hit, Dilshan's Dilscoop and, in some circles, even Virat Kohli's cover drives are gaining a cult following of their own. But there is one new name I'll like to throw in the mix, and I'm sure it is going to make a few eyebrows raise. The cricketer in question has made his country's selector's blood pressure rise on more occasions than doing the same to the opposition, the opposition players almost need an urgent admission to the hospital. I'm talking about Kieron Pollard. The big man from Trinidad and Tobago has a penchant for big shots and that has meant that he has more sixes than ODIs (110 of them in 101 matches), and even more astonishingly, more sixes than fours in all T20 cricket (445 6s and 444 4s on this date). While suc...