Rainman talks Cricket

Indian cricket took a quantum leap with the advent of the Indian Premier League in 2008 which transformed almost every dimension of an Indian cricket fan’s relationship with the game. Among the many well-documented changes that resulted from its arrival on the scene, one of the most positive was the elevation of fringe cricketers to the mainstream. The likes of Swapnil Asnodkar, Rajat Bhatia, Manoj Tiwary who were toiling away in domestic cricket for years were as visible as a Zaheer Khan or Sourav Ganguly for those two months of the Indian Premier League, and in some cases, as well paid. Although domestic cricket continues to be played across the country in front of empty stands even now, lives of a lot of domestic cricketers did change courtesy the Lalit Modi brainchild.  Another fairly unimportant fallout of the league was to affect me personally. In this piece, I want to talk about that - the change in the relationship I shared with the stars of domestic cricket before the IPL ...

Cricket Impressions by Adrian Murrell came out first in 1987. It makes no sense for me to review it after 32 years. And that’s why I wouldn’t undertake that exercise. What I would do instead is express my feelings about it, just as I did with ‘Feeling’ (here  https://justanoccasionalwriter.blogspot.com/2019/11/feelings-on-christian-ryans-feeling.html ). The only reason I bought this book in the first place was because of my recent dive into the world of cricket pictures thanks to this Facebook page that I handle called Random Cricket Photos That Make Me Happy. The idea isn’t to rip off photos from the books to the page. The idea is to find photos that actually have a story behind it. Strangely, in this journey, I have also become increasingly intrigued by the men behind the lens. And that’s how I reached this book. One doesn’t need to sift through the pages to understand how outdated the book is. In fact, the cover itself telegrams that to you. On the cover page is t...

It wasn't hubris. It was never arrogance. It was just self-belief. Extreme self-belief that eventually proved to be his undoing. Fourteen months ago, I was struck by a thought that really gripped me, so much that I wanted to write a book on it. My lofty ambitions were grounded by events of the following months where writing a book became the last of my priorities. But the thought never left me and in those grim days too, I kept engaging with it. At the heart of it was a simple question - How does an athlete come to know or accept that his time with the sport is over? How do these individuals with immense self-belief and who are massively motivated and driven accept that their best days are behind them? The more I thought the more I felt that it's bound to be a deeply emotional decision for an athlete. In fact, it’s possibly the most emotional that gives them many sleepless nights. After all, these are people who pretty much give their entire growing up years to a ...

After a scintillating ton on debut in the first Test, Prithvi Shaw lived up to his 'prodigy' label with subsequent performances at Hyderabad that duly earned him a ‘Man of the Series’ against a beleaguered Windies side. The following praise had to be effusive. And effusive it was. Never the one to mince words, team India coach Ravi Shastri drew parallels with Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara as well as Virender Sehwag. While the first two comparisons can be discounted as slightly premature, Shastri can be forgiven for seeing Sehwag in those audacious shots that Shaw enthralled the motley crowd with at Rajkot and Hyderabad. Even if anyone didn't watch him play, those strike rates are a definite reminder of a man who holds, among many others, the record of scoring the fastest triple hundred in Tests. In a world far far away from Hyderabad but in a city not so far away, Sehwag's once partner-in-crime Gautam Gambhir was rolling back the years with a 69 ball century ...

Major test of character lies ahead for Kohli and his men in South Africa It was December 2006 and India’s ODI success that had peaked under the Dravid-Chappell combination had started to desert them. Blooding in youngsters by axing seniors had seemed to herald a new era under the stewardship of the new coach and captain and yielded results at home, but once out of their comfort zones, these youngsters were found out in no time . Not only did success desert the team but defeats began to become more and more embarrassing with India failing to even come close to touching the silverware in the ICC Champions Trophy 2006 held at home. The ODI series in South Africa later that year proved to be an eye-opener on how ill-equipped the young boys were at handling pace and bounce outside the subcontinent. The 4-0 loss doesn’t look half as bad on paper as it was on the pitch. Ahead of the Test Series, it became clear that there was a need to get some experience in the batting lineup and in...

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 ...