Rainman talks Cricket

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...

1 .     When Australia toured India in 1969, Calcutta went up in arms protesting a player’s inclusion in the Australian squad who they wrongly believed had served in the Vietnam War and killed Viet Cong members. Which cricketer? 2.     In the 2000’s, Jagmohan Dalmiya was seeking the role of the BCCI’s patron in chief and to install Ranbir Mahendra as President. On the other hand, Sharad Pawar had forged a cricket alliance with IS Bindra and was looking forward to become the BCCI supremo.  It was in this background that Pawar’s loyalists declined a certain request by someone considered close to Dalmiya for a match that he eventually didn’t play but would go on to change his career. Which match and what was the request? 3.   Greg Mathews picked up 10 wickets in the 1986 Madras Test to ensure a tie. What crazy thing did he during India’s second innings as a psychological ploy, that Ricky Ponting also did during his 1999 Barbados century? 4...

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...