Deadly Deba

Dravid would have been handy at five

editor@cricketnext.com — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 09:26:53 +0530

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.

Wrong number

editor@cricketnext.com — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 02:19:29 +0530

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

What if Sachin drops down?

editor@cricketnext.com — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 02:46:59 +0530

When sorrows come, they come not single spies, But in battalions. – Shakespeare, Hamlet, IV, 5 It's a typical story of luck turning tyrant. Call it unfavourable constellations,

Low-hanging fruits

editor@cricketnext.com — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 05:57:35 +0530

Are the wheels coming off Rahul Dravid's wagon or is the elegy premature? Let's be honest, if not for Runako Morton's leaning for thrillers, West Indies should have romped home

Hello, is this Gambhir?

editor@cricketnext.com — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 02:47:41 +0530

Nobody expected a seismic turnaround in India’s fortunes. After the neat drubbing at Durban, the third ODI was all about India's quest for self-esteem. We wondered what we would see

A blind impersonation

editor@cricketnext.com — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 07:35:35 +0530

Remember Croatia’s Goran Ivanisevic, the ace-hurtling machine? How his opponents barely got their racquet strings to his booming serves. So much so that Sweden's Stefan Edberg lamented: "It’s not about

Waiting to happen

editor@cricketnext.com — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 08:18:47 +0530

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

Futile excursions?

editor@cricketnext.com — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 10:30:16 +0530

Isn’t it strange that only Indians are hauled over the coals for being poor travellers? Australia apart, scarcely has any side set the grass aflutter on sub-continent wickets. This

Burying Miandad's ghost

editor@cricketnext.com — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 02:51:42 +0530

S Sreesanth gets spanked for 21 in the second over. My colleague turns his back on the LCD screen that we hired for the finals. "Not worth it,"

Save the tiger

editor@cricketnext.com — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 09:48:46 +0530

"Virendra Sehwag’s net was a sneeze away from me," I told a few younglings. That day I unabashedly switched to full-brag mode as I narrated my experience of watching the

Heat and bust

editor@cricketnext.com — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 05:20:01 +0530

“Cannons here, cannons there, roaring thunder.” That’s what Indians must have felt as Andrew Nel’s short-stuff (and verbal slaps) clapped past their ears. At the time of writing, Bengal,

Tail bite

editor@cricketnext.com — Tue, 22 May 2007 07:11:15 +0530

India couldn’t have penned a better script on the penultimate day of the Chittagong Test. Then followed the ineluctable part of Indian cricket’s tragedy: the old hoodoo of the tail.

Farewell, sleeping giant

editor@cricketnext.com — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 03:33:34 +0530

So much has this World Cup been mired in strife that we could barely prepare ourselves for the swansong of one of the greatest cricketers of this century. We almost

Why is Bedi quiet?

editor@cricketnext.com — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 01:15:07 +0530

As Sourav Ganguly gave the cherry a soothing wood-massage, something was ringing strident in my ears. I was reminded of a recent Talk Show anchored by Rajdeep Sardesai

This boy could be special

editor@cricketnext.com — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 06:20:54 +0530

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.

Botham and drops of nostalgia

editor@cricketnext.com — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 06:08:31 +0530

Just when fans had drawn back, aghast at the futility of loving cricket, came a teasing reminder of what the game has been missing for a while. After the sequel

Moments for bookmarks

editor@cricketnext.com — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 03:25:50 +0530

Fast bowlers have an appreciation for the insane, but Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif seem to have stretched that brief too far. Misfortune comes back like Frankenstein to bite and

From Presidency to Pentangular

editor@cricketnext.com — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 07:40:26 +0530

A cricket romantic would not be oblivious to the game's history. If cricket has swum upstream from a traditionally British sport to a national obsession in India, we owe

Problem with characters

editor@cricketnext.com — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 08:43:24 +0530

It is not easy to decode them. You never know which part of their composition is lopsided. So what is S Sreesanth? A killer whale of a cricketer with a

Burden of memory

editor@cricketnext.com — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 01:23:12 +0530

Nerves are jangling in the hour of anticipation. Team India is almost there but has to slice through early the last brick of resistance. Contrary to what this

When numbers belie

editor@cricketnext.com — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 01:34:01 +0530

This January end, Indian cricketers will have some digits dancing before their eyes. BCCI (The Board of Control for Cricket in India) is set to make an announcement that could

Poised for a close finish

editor@cricketnext.com — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 02:58:23 +0530

The air of gloom that has lurked awhile on Indian cricket seems to be giving way. It seems Team India needs anything but one-day cricket. Call it quirk of fate,

What was Sri Lanka up to?

editor@cricketnext.com — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 10:52:32 +0530

Ricky Ponting, now dance down the wicket and hit Muttiah Muralitharan over the top. Come on Matthew Hayden try to bullyrag Chaminda Vaas. Saliva dripped in our mouths at the

Forget the Ides of March

editor@cricketnext.com — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 01:06:31 +0530

Brutus: A soothsayer bids you beware the Ides of March. Caesar: He is a dreamer, let us leave him. Pass. Day of the full moon, the fifteenth day of

A tale of two incomprehensible omissions

editor@cricketnext.com — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 11:14:34 +0530

In stature, Inzamam and Kiran More do not draw parallels. It would be equivalent to likening a messianic warhorse to a steed. But there is one trait they share in

A tale of two incomprehensible omissions

editor@cricketnext.com — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 12:09:59 +0530

In stature, Inzamam and Kiran More do not draw parallels. It would be equivalent to likening a messianic warhorse to a steed. But there is one trait they share in

More than a show pony

editor@cricketnext.com — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 08:51:52 +0530

Monty Panesar’s prized hunts at WACA once again reiterate the significance of specialists. One who bags five wickets in his first Test against Australia cannot be an ordinary kettle of

Time to dust jackets and move on

editor@cricketnext.com — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 09:54:39 +0530

With power cuts looming large on the city, MERC (Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission) might be the only team, apart from Sri Lanka of course, to be satisfied with the outcome

Crack the whip, Dilip

editor@cricketnext.com — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 01:35:35 +0530

Bowlers on liquid diet and a wicket wheezing for oxygen – it’s a proverbial sketch of India’s domestic cricket scene. Dilip Vengsarkar had once said that on Indian wickets

Captain diffident

editor@cricketnext.com — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 11:10:58 +0530

Apart from his spotless technique, if there is one trait that sets Rahul Dravid apart from the rest, it is indifference. Win or loss, praise or censure, the Indian captain

Yards of discomfort

editor@cricketnext.com — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 02:28:13 +0530

First notes of war cry leavened the air even as curtains closed on the opening ceremony of the World Cup. Mind games, verbal volleys and literary cartwheels have already started

Fading virtue?

editor@cricketnext.com — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 06:59:36 +0530

A Test win at home fades into oblivion, a gesture of even-handedness makes it a fable. The Christchurch Test between New Zealand and Sri Lanka was dispossessed of the latter.

Heavyweights needed a shake-up

editor@cricketnext.com — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 06:36:52 +0530

With the World Cup closing in, it would have been injudicious to whip up knee-jerk changes in the Indian team. But there was no doubt that after the neat drubbing

Rising beyond

editor@cricketnext.com — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 12:09:36 +0530

Cricket captains swear that landmarks are negligible in the face of team goals. India had just pipped over the 600 mark and viewers must have braced for a 15-over assault

On a steep incline

editor@cricketnext.com — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 02:00:18 +0530

Adaptability thy name is Mumbai. Now immune to Aussie-wins, Mumbaikars used the brief hold-up in the Champions Trophy finals to flaunt local humour standards. As Ian Chappell trudged along the

The slurred grip

editor@cricketnext.com — Thu, 10 May 2007 06:18:10 +0530

It’s the lesser players that flout the unwritten rules. With the incredible eyesight that Adam Gilchrist has, he can wield a reed pipe. Yet, the debate on Gilchrist’s use of

Be proud it was our era

editor@cricketnext.com — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 08:12:44 +0530

“Would you believe it, he’s done him between his legs.” Richie Benaud, commentating for Channel Nine, wasn’t the only one startled by the sight. That ball defied the physics of

Refuge in martyrdom

editor@cricketnext.com — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 05:44:15 +0530

India’s work-ethic icon is making the wrong noises. Mohammad Kaif’s statement to the media that he is ‘used to getting dropped’ betrays a mind laden with self-pity. Why does Kaif

How can Prosper prosper?

editor@cricketnext.com — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 08:52:34 +0530

It would be tempting to jog our memories to the 1999 World Cup match between India and Zimbabwe at Leicester, England. Before the match, Zimbabwean captain Alistair Campbell was asked

Why Younis Khan sulks

editor@cricketnext.com — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 07:47:07 +0530

There has to be something terribly exacting about leading Pakistan. Younis Khan dreads it, finds the thought "scary." So much so that he feels the most coveted and honorable job

Lost and not found

editor@cricketnext.com — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 05:00:12 +0530

A great deal has been said about India’s bench strength: that it is not exceptional enough to inspire shudder. Let us rewind the clock; we will find curious case studies

White Coat blues

editor@cricketnext.com — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 07:56:13 +0530

To err is human but if you stumble time and again there has to be a marked deficiency in your judgment. The appalling standards of umpiring in India's domestic

Destiny's child

editor@cricketnext.com — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 08:28:15 +0530

Six years ago the Natwest Trophy win and the coming of age of Mohammad Kaif sent Indian supporters into flights of frenzy. Swap Robin Uthappa with Kaif and a similar

Where now for India?

editor@cricketnext.com — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 10:12:53 +0530

The last two days of the Cape Town Test was always going to be significant in context of India’s fortunes in the World Cup. India had the opposition by the

Pop goes the bubble

editor@cricketnext.com — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 01:36:15 +0530

Champagne froth at 254/3 has oddly vapoured away. After the first day heroics, India could merely post a feel-good number (414) when they could have stewarded themselves into a position

When life hung loose for 44 minutes

editor@cricketnext.com — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 08:45:54 +0530

It was sweet while it lasted; forty four minutes to be precise. On each run hinged his fortune. And of those who live for him. Cricket is not an individual

Jaffer has repaid, will Sehwag?

editor@cricketnext.com — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 09:50:50 +0530

There are times when conventional patterns warrant an overhaul. Rahul Dravid had to tweak the toggles at the top of the order for the Cape Town Test. He

Speedster with no attitude

editor@cricketnext.com — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 05:14:23 +0530

Imran Khan, in a certain context, said, "Pace is a God-given gift. Don't tamper with it." If you are an Indian, you will find it difficult to fathom