The Shilpa Shetty effect
" An obnoxious little weed". Matthew's Hayden's disparaging remark, seemingly uttered in caustic humour with a radio chat show host towards Indian off spinner Harbhajan Singh caused a national furore yesterday. As practically everyone got into the act to salvage "India's national pride" if nothing else, it expanded the English vocabulary repository of a large chunk of us. Suddenly, there were vociferous demands for Hayden's head, and a war cry for avenging this ignominious insult. Hayden's comments, unwarranted as they might have been given the recent bitterness between....
Posted by Sanjay Jha at | 112 comments
Money hai to honey hai!
One statement said it all. No further surgery was required. " I have never seen something like this in my life, not even on the cricket field", boasted the BCCI office-bearer IS Bindra, with the customary cockiness that has becoming synonymous with BCCI mandarins. Mark the words; "not even on the cricket field". Wow! Really, Mr Bindra? Not for him the famous 1983 World Cup triumph of Kapil's Devils? Sachin Tendulkar's impeccable mastery ? Anil Kumble's ten-wicket haul against Pakistan? Rahul Dravid's majestic innings and that exciting victory....
Posted by Sanjay Jha at | 36 comments
A sorry Sachin!
Amidst the rising crescendo of irrepressible hype over India's singular victory over ODI world champions Australia at MCG, Melbourne a few days ago, two dramatic incidents of great cricketing relevance were somewhat brutally ignored. Adam Gilchrist, that masterful destroyer of any bowling attack , now in his farewell series, was incongruously declared LBW by a dour-looking Rudi Koertzen from South Africa. A visibly flabbergasted Gilly, a personification of ultimate sportsmanship, walked back, his last days on the green field, summarily abbreviated. Not long later, the modern....
Posted by Sanjay Jha at | 154 comments
Harbhajan Singh's shame
"Dad, what does Teri Maa Ki mean?", queried my daughter three months shy of turning 11, her face betraying prodigious curiosity , a natural corollary of what she had been obviously fleetingly noticing with monotonous constancy while switching channels. And also on well illuminated billboards propagating a well-known butter brand, which said "Teri maa ki-------daal". Everyone, from a stiff suited-booted CEO type to the local grocery guy, the Bollywood brigade to the political class had joined the "mother" of all parties. I summarily dismissed it as just another....
Posted by Sanjay Jha at | 57 comments
