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Last weekend, the Indian Super League (ISL), the highest league in Indian football, kicked off after months of uncertainty. The disruption, which compelled some clubs to halt their operations and consigned the players and coaches to a state of desperation, emanated from the absence of a commercial partner for the league once the Master Rights…
With the passing of Inderjit Singh Bindra, a link with a revolution in cricket that shifted the power base from England to India has been severed. For so long has India’s influence lasted and so profound has its impact been that it’s easy to forget their ascendancy is less than four decades old. In the mid-1980s, N.K.P. Salve, Bindra and Jagmohan Dalmiya proposed that…
Read More “Bindra was the persuader Indian cricket misses today” »
For so long has the Board of Control for Cricket in India been the bully of international cricket, it shouldn’t be a surprise that it is equally the bully of domestic cricket too. By asking the Kolkata Knight Riders to sack Bangladesh’s Mustafizur Rahman after he had been picked for the IPL, the BCCI showed it was more concerned with…
Read More “Cricket is collateral damage in a game of political expediency” »
File picture of Bangladesh’s Mustafizur Rahman celebrating a wicket during a T20I against India | Photo Credit: Emmanual Yogini For so long has the Board of Control for Cricket in India been the bully of international cricket, it shouldn’t be a surprise that it is equally the bully of domestic cricket too. By asking the…
Read More “BCCI vs BCB: Cricket is collateral damage in a game of political expediency” »
Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Information, Ata Tarar. File. Photo: XTararAttaullah Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Information, Ata Tarar, has dismissed the International Cricket Council (ICC)’s statement on the deaths of three cricketers in Afghanistan for its “selective”, “biased” nature. The ICC and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had on Saturday (October 19,…
Read More “Pakistan lashes out at ICC for “biased” statement in solidarity with Afghanistan” »
In his much-quoted essay The Sporting Spirit, George Orwell wrote, “Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard for rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words, it is war minus the shooting.” Over the years, an India-Pakistan cricket match has been characterised…
Read More “It’s ugly, but mock battles on field preferable to real ones off it” »
Since I began my career as a reporter, India have won four World Cup in two formats, become No. 1 team across formats, attracted more money, and power, and become the sole leader in a unipolar cricket world. But one thing hasn’t changed: the callous disregard for the paying spectator. State cricket associations, like the…
Read More “Fantasy time: players refuse to play, officials sit in the stands!” »
At the turn of the century, England cricketer Darren Gough said that international cricket had become a single man’s game. Since then tours may have got shorter, but tournaments have increased, and careers have expanded. The work-life balance remains skewed. To rephrase something an Indian CEO said recently, how long can you stare at a…
Read More “Wives are easy targets, they distract from the real failings” »
India’s coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Rohit Sharma. File | Photo Credit: AFP The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) met with key members of India’s men’s cricket team’s management to take a stock after a disastrous season of Test cricket and planning the way forward. The meeting was attended by Test and…
File photo of ICC president Jay Shah. | Photo Credit: PTI The ICC in collaboration with cricket boards of India, Australia and England is exploring the possibility of a two-tier Test system to facilitate more series between big three nations. The Age reported that Jay Shah, the new ICC chairman, is set to meet Cricket…
Read More “ICC, BCCI, CA, ECB explore possibility of two-tier Test system” »