Dravid would have been handy at five
Even after the heroics in Johannesburg, we knew that on Durban’s sheet of bounce India would turn coy. After all, the side has the most dismal record in this venue. Two wickets down on day four, India needed to summon a miracle broker to stave off defeat. Durban 2006 is another dark bead in India’s string of losses after securing a 1-0 advantage. It follows Harare 2001, Barbados 2002, Melbourne 2003, Lahore 2004, Bangalore 2005 and Mumbai 2006. In history, India have storied up psychological toxins of the....
Posted by Deba Prasad Dhar at | 9 comments
Wrong number
It’s been ages since BCCI and sanity parted ways. Reconciliation is a long way off. At least that is what the travesty surrounding Ishant Sharma suggests. After all the oddball games, it emerges that Ishant is not going to South Africa. A call that was not to be, but what a cruel joke on an aspiring cricketer. It was Team India’s media manager Rajan Nair who tipped the mitt of Ishant’s selection. And he was the one who retracted from the statement as if to suggest there is....
Posted by Deba Prasad Dhar at | 5 comments
Waiting to happen
Golly! In an unprecedented move, probably the first time in Indian cricket, a player has been asked to de-camp for want of form. Interesting to see if this is a shape-up-or-ship-out message to those who have been holding on to past laurels and every straw of sympathy that come their way. For now, Irfan Pathan is the first who has been shown the way to the drawing board. In view of the inestimable options he brings into the side, India’s think tank waited long enough for full flowering of....
Posted by Deba Prasad Dhar at | 3 comments
This boy could be special
Amid the babble surrounding India’s win in Johannesburg and the sudden jolt of Shane Warne's and Glenn McGrath's farewell, one news did not draw the kind of attention it deserved. Delhi’s Virat Kohli’s has written an enduring story of a sportsman’s piety towards his team's cause. The eighteen-year old, who lost his father during the Delhi-Karnataka Ranji Trophy Super League Group A match at Feroz Shah Kotla, chose duty in the hour of ordeal. Delhi, trying to overhaul 446 posted by Karnataka, were down in the dumps at....
Posted by Deba Prasad Dhar at | 6 comments
