Picking up the Pieces

Fighter, Foreman, Painter, Priest

2012-01-09T10:28:00.001+05:30

One of the shortest articles I've ever written - wrote it before the India-Australia series started. Seems a lifetime ago now... Virender Sehwag walks into a gladiatorial arena. There's a yearning need to establish who is the greater destroyer in his battle. And when Sehwag walks in, the arena is the Colosseum and he is General Maximus. The fiercest gladiator in the arena, the most feared

The Old vs the New

2011-07-20T11:08:00.000+05:30

It's the favourite pastime of cricket nuts all over the globe, it's probably been done since the 1800s - even when only two countries played the game - and it will continue to delight, divide and opinionate fans in equal measure. But for sheer fun, nothing beats selecting an all-time eleven in cricket (except perhaps if you're Sachin Tendulkar and are on the doorstep of a 100th international

Sourav Ganguly and the IPL saga

2011-05-10T09:13:00.008+05:30

The Pune Warriors have played 10 matches already in the IPL and with just 3 victories from those 10 matches, even if they win their remaining four matches, it would take them to just 14 points overall. Given their negative run-rate and the fact that Mumbai have 16 points with four games in hand and Chennai and Kolkata have 14 points with 3 games in hand - not to speak of the Royal Challengers

Dreams are made of these....

2011-04-03T11:37:00.007+05:30

"Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane." - Red to Andy Dufresne in the classic 'The Shawshank Redemption', 1994.India started the day with hope. Zaheer Khan was un-hittable by the Lankans, and the fielding made one suspect that coach Kirsten had injected some South African genes into the Indian team. What had been injected though was much

A trip down memory lane - Lord's on the eve of a different World Cup final

2011-04-01T13:43:00.008+05:30

On the eve of the finals of the World Twenty20 2010 between Australia and England, I visited what must constitute a pilgrimage for any cricket fan. An early alarm, followed by a bus journey and a little way on foot and I arrived at St. John’s Wood Road and stood facing the entrance to Lord’s. The mecca of cricket. The home of cricket. Also, the place where eleven men forever changed the destiny

VVS Laxman - Grace Under Pressure

2010-12-29T23:21:00.003+05:30

History is generally not given to precise inflection points - where one can point at a particular incident and say with conviction, "This day marks the start of historical passage X,Y or Z."For the present Indian team's climb to the top spot of the world rankings though, it is universally agreed that one particular day in one particular match forever changed the way the side thought about

As Tears Go By

2010-09-01T20:10:00.009+05:30

- a lot of fine cricket played seemed irrelevant - a lot of ugliness was shown on and off the field by everyone who thought they either had a point to prove, a purse-string to pull or a high