It is now a fact of life that when a player has a bad day on the field at the IPL, he will be trolled by his team’s fans, by neutrals, and anybody with a social media account. The latest to receive the full blast of public opprobrium is Rajasthan Royals’ Sandeep Sharma who bowled […]
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One of the finest shots I saw on a cricket field came off the bat of Sunil Gavaskar. The bowler was Imran Khan who was fast and had been troubling Indian batsmen series after series. The venue was Chennai where that India-Pakistan Test was played. Imran’s delivery rose sharply, and so too in a sense […]
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Selectors have been in the news of late, which may not be ideal. Actually, they should neither be seen nor heard; or perhaps just seen at matches so we know they are doing their job. Australia came to India for the current series carrying injured players who were unlikely to play the first couple of […]
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The fearless strategy adopted by England skipper Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum paid dividends against Pakistan in the first Test at Rawalpindi on Monday. | Photo Credit: MATTHEW LEWIS It would have been fitting had Ben Stokes been named Player-of-the-Match. For his captaincy alone. As the sun was setting, England won a Test in […]
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Cricket’s continuing engagement with moral issues took another turn recently when the Australian Matthew Wade, clearly out obstructing the field in the T20I against England, was allowed to bat on because the fielding side chose not to appeal. Was England skipper Jos Buttler being excessively sporting — he said later he was in no mood […]
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Kohli is going through a bad patch as sportsmen do and calls for his head are premature, ungenerous, and makes no cricketing sense Kohli is going through a bad patch as sportsmen do and calls for his head are premature, ungenerous, and makes no cricketing sense Do great batsmen demand — and require — greater understanding, and […]
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At an Asian Games table tennis event long ago, a Korean coach explained to me the importance of the third ball attack. He broke it down thus: You serve, await the return and then attack it. It is commonplace now. Back then that strategy was innovative and coaches joked about the fourth ball and fifth […]
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Skippers are most effective when their place in the side is assured and have the support of both players and officials Skippers are most effective when their place in the side is assured and have the support of both players and officials One of the questions cricket hasn’t been able to answer conclusively concerns the captaincy of […]
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The joys of a five-Test series are many and varied. Yet, increasingly this cricketing institution is in danger of going the way of underarm bowling and the long stop. Only India, England and Australia play it with any regularity now. There has been no five-Test series this century which did not involve one of these […]
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In general, sport values utility above artistry, and efficiency over creativity so we ought not to be asking if the age of the artist has ended in cricket. The IPL raised that question afresh, a question that is its own answer (if you have to ask…). There was a cookie-cutter quality to the batting, a […]
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