Rainman talks Cricket

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 ...

There is little doubt that Virat Kohli is special. And comparisons of Virat with Sachin Tendulkar are pointless. But there is something that I want to compare today between the two – their fandom. And in trying to do that, I want to trace the change in the way cricket is consumed and how that has impacted its relationship with its fans, especially in Sachin and Virat’s country. To do that I will step back a bit and talk a bit about something that made Sachin ‘The God’ that he went on to become in the 90s. A cricket fan in the Sachin era (the ’90s) was characterized by an itch. This itch kept him distracted. This itch kept him motivated to get past his day. This itch also got him in trouble. This itch was to watch the game somehow. And if not able to watch, this itch came out in the form of those three beautiful words – score kya hua ? The relief of getting to watch cricket in the Sachin era was unmatchable. It was a festival of sorts to watch India play then, a fes...

The buzz around the VIVO Indian Premier League was slightly subdued this year. Thus, when the 12th edition of the T20 jamboree began on an unusually tepid note without the razzmatazz of a star-studded opening ceremony on 23rd March, it seemed to be foreshadowing a season of cricketing action minus the fireworks the league is synonymous with. The first match, billed as the ultimate showdown between India's current captain and his predecessor, also turned out to be a damp squib.  But that, as we look back at the eventful first week of IPL 12 action, seems to be a distant past. The IPL came back to life, just the way it almost always does. The opening weekend of the 2019 edition of the VIVO Indian Premier League attracted 219 million viewers, which was 31 per cent higher than last year’s opening weekend. Hotstar, the official digital streaming partner of the league, claims to have reached 135 million in the opening three days of the cricketing event which is 2.2 times mor...

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...