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The third term consecutive BJP government in Haryana proactively introduced seven laws before the state legislature’s winter session, even as Congress’ failed CM aspirant Bhupinder Singh Hooda declined handing over the leader of opposition (LoP) post to another party colleague. Before the session began intensive in-fighting broke out for the LoP post with Hooda deferring the appointment though Congress has legitimate claim with 37 MLAs to hold the post. Holding Haryana’s state legislature to ransom Hooda said the LoP would be decided only after the results of the Maharashtra state assemblies are declared on November 23. His stand of “If it ain’t me, it won’t be anyone else,” has already set the ball rolling with a majority Congress MLAs seeking fresh political pastures with strong indications of en masse defections to the BJP, says senior BJP leader Mahendra Jain. “Not only in Haryana, but also in Maharashtra, mass defections are likely from the Congress party and the Sharad Pawar/Uddhav Thackeray led political formations respectively post November 23, 2024. There will be a big political Khela in the two states,” Jain predicts. Ironically, after the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress party was unable to secure the LoP status for Rahul Gandhi in India’s parliament have elected only 44 MPs back then while Hooda’s obstinacy does not allow the party to legitimately designate Harayana’s LoP despite commanding required numbers for the same. The BJP is exploiting the situation to engineer a Congress breakup in Haryana while ensuring the same in Maharashtra at the expense of the UBT and Sharad Pawar’s NCP in a repeat performance.
In a solemn ceremony, Justice Sanjiv Khanna was sworn in as the 51st Chief Justice of India on November 11, succeeding Justice DY Chandrachud, who retired on November 10, 2024. The oath was administered by President Droupadi Murmu during a ceremony held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The event was attended by key figures including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, and former CJI Chandrachud. Justice Khanna’s appointment follows the recommendation of Justice Chandrachud, who had recommended him as his successor on October 17. Justice Khanna’s tenure as CJI will last until May 13, 2025. Despite his short tenure, Justice Khanna has opted not to move into the official CJI Bungalow at 5, Krishna Menon Marg. Following the swearing-in, Justice Khanna proceeded to the Supreme Court to preside over the day’s proceedings, hearing 47 cases alongside his colleague, Justice Sanjay Kumar. In his parting address Justice Chandrachud expressed a deep sense of satisfaction with his service, stating, “I won’t be able to deliver justice from tomorrow, but I’m content.” Justice Chandrachud, like other former Chief Justices, will enjoy several post-retirement benefits which have recently been enhanced to include round-the-clock security at their residence, along with a personal security guard available 24/7 for five years post-retirement. He will also get six months of rent-free Type-VII accommodation in Delhi, similar to facilities provided to Union Ministers. Lifetime entitlements include domestic help and a chauffeur, ensuring that their household needs are met and they lead a comfortable life.
In a significant political development, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has placed her trust in former cabinet minister and senior Left Front leader Abdus Sattar by appointing him as the chief advisor to her government on minority affairs. Sattar, an influential figure of CPI(M) who served as the Minister of State for Minority Affairs and Madrasah Education under the Left Front government. He has been tasked with addressing ongoing disputes related to Wakf properties and will advise the Department of Minority Affairs and Madrasah Education on initiatives for minority welfare. Interestingly, Sattar quit the Left Front way back in 2011 by joining the Congress before aligning with the TMC. This appointment, sources suggest, highlights TMC’s strategy to strengthen its appeal among the state’s educated minority communities. With the BJP’s growing influence in West Bengal and traditional opposition forces such as the Left and Congress losing traction, Sattar is seen as a critical asset for Banerjee’s administration, given his progressive reputation and deep organizational skills. A TMC leader pointed out that Sattar will complement prominent TMC leaders like Firhad Hakim and Siddiqullah Chowdhury. Interestingly, CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty said that Didi’s appointment of Sattar reflects an acknowledgment of the developmental work undertaken during the Left Front regime and is also a rebuttal to TMC’s earlier narrative that the Left did nothing for minorities.
Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde, deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis and former CM Uddhav Thackeray have started singing the same tune. They keep on telling the media, “I am not hankering for Maharashtra’s chief ministership.” Over the past few days, the three leaders have been interviewed by leading dailies and news channels. Each has been repeatedly asked about his prospects to be the next CM. In response, each has reiterated that a decision about this issue will be taken after the assembly election results on 23 November. The issue had become a hot topic soon after the Lok Sabha election when Uddhav Sena’s spokesman Sanjay Raut publicly suggested to Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) to project his leader as the next CM. The move was immediately scuttled since veteran leader Sharad Pawar of NCP and state Congress president Nana Patole rejected it. Now that the polls are away in just four days, the issue has been resurrected. Shinde has predicted that the ruling Mahayuti will win around 160 seats in the 288-member house. Fadnavis has been consistently saying that the issue will be decided by Shinde, BJP’s Central leaders and another deputy CM, Ajit Pawar. This stance of the three top leaders in Maharashtra is interpreted as a precaution to ensure that the boat is not rocked at the opportune time.
He has been very vocal on sanatan dharma and has been taking potshots at BJP and Hindu religion. But ever since Udhayanidhi Stalin was appointed deputy chief minister of Tamil Nadu he seems to have toned down his anti-sanatan stand. Of course, he has shown his aggressive side by insisting on wearing a T shirt with DMK logo on it at every public appearances, a practice that has irked opposition to the extent of filing legal action. This defiance is yet to be resolved. But there is evidence that he is mellowing down, a visible change from his aggressive defiance. Recently, Udhayanidhi was tasked with completing a full audit and stock taking of the DMK government’s welfare schemes and doles obviously aimed at the 2026 Assembly elections. To get a first hand report Udhayanidhi visited several constituencies, met the local party workers and government officials. But when he visited Thoothukudi with Minister for Fisheries Anita Radhakrishnan and Social Welfare minister Gita Jiwan in tow, the powerful and bespoke Kalaignar family’s Kanimozhi( MP for that constituency ) was missing from the scene. The media was quick to pounce on this glaring absence. Udhayanidhi was quick to reassure the media that this stock taking move and audit had been undertaken at the request of the chief minister and that his foster aunt was travelling abroad. He also took pains to reassure the media that he would revisit Thoothukudi in a few weeks with Kanimozhi. There was a time when Udhayanidhi would have flared up at even an indirect reference to Kanimozhi’s relevance. Times are changing
The absence of Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and other senior NCP leaders from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election rally at Chhatrapati Shivaji Park in Dadar, Mumbai on November 14 strengthened speculation that NCP could possibly be an unreliable link in Mahayuti. This notwithstanding the fact that the deputy CM had attended a Modi rally in Pune barely two days earlier. Ajit Pawar’s party is a crucial partner in the ruling alliance, alongside Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and the BJP. But then NCP candidates Sana Malik, Nawab Malik, and Zeeshan Siddique were also notably absent from the event, which featured leaders from the Shinde Sena and the Republican Party of India (RPI) led by Ramdas Athawale. While the rally was meant to highlight the coalition’s solidarity, reports suggest that NCP leaders are upset over the BJP’s batenge toh katenge campaign. BJP sources said despite Ajit Pawar’s unease with the BJP’s aggressive Hindutva agenda, it is likely that he will stay on the side “which benefits him”. That is he could walk to any side which will make him the CM or as Nawab Malik told Times Now “Ajit Pawar will be king maker”. BJP sources said UP CM Yogi who coined the slogan has been much in demand among party candidates. “We have been forced to cancel meetings of top leaders to accommodate Yogiji”, said a party manager. As for contrary assertions by Ashok Chavan and Pankaja Munde on batenge toh katenge, these are being viewed more as a desire to project themselves than pose any serious ideological counter to the main party discourse.
Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar has raised apprehensions about his future moves, once again. Over the past few days, Ajit has betrayed his ambivalence about the way campaigning is proceeding in Maharashtra. While this is being commented upon, his absence at the final rally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Shivaji Park in Mumbai on November 14 has been noted with concern within the ruling Mahayuti. Neither Ajit nor any of his NCP’s candidates turned up for the PM’s rally organised by chief minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and the BJP. As Ajit failed to appear on the dais, the media attention has focussed on his possible calculations after the assembly poll results are out on 23 November. Already, he has rubbed Shinde and deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis the wrong way by objecting to UP CM Yogi Adityanath’s slogan batenge toh katenge. Ajit had observed that such slogans will not work in Maharashtra, whose culture was different from that of UP. Ajit’s insistence on fielding former minister Nawab Malik from Mankhurd-Shivaji Nagar constituency in Mumbai despite the BJP’s open objections had created some strain within the Mahayuti. Now, Malik has told the saffron formation that Ajit’s NCP will not be a part of the next government if Yuti’s campaign strategy is not changed. Ajit’s another confidant, Dilip Walse Patil had said a few days ago that some fresh combination can occur after the election. Ajit has not refuted neither statement. Hence, he is under close observation by the other two partners of Mahayuti.
The kerfuffle following Ricky Ponting’s straight–from–the–shoulder observation of Virat Kohli’s form was unnecessary. In the course of an International Cricket Council (ICC) conducted interview before the five-Test series between India and Australia in Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the former Australian captain said that Kohli has scored only two Test centuries in the last five years (186 against Australia in Ahmedabad in March 2023 and 121 against the West Indies in Port of Spain in July 2023). In these circumstances, he wondered if any other player would have been picked for the national side. While Kohli — described by Ponting as one of the greats in the same interview — himself did not respond to Ponting’s appraisal of his form, a seemingly annoyed India head coach Gautam Gambhir virtually questioned Ponting saying: “What does Ricky Ponting have to do with Indian cricket? He should be talking about Australia.’’ Gambhir’s retort was churlish. The media seeks the opinions of former greats as a build-up to events and in this case Ponting was interviewed by none other than the ICC because of the importance of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Ponting has gone to the extent of saying that the series between India and Australia — from the backend of his career – has always been a high-stakes affair, not far from the relevance of the Ashes. Ponting has played 560 matches for Australia across formats, scored 27483 runs with 71 x 100s and 146 x 50s and led Australia in 77 Tests. He is also a World Cup-winning captain. To question his credentials is downright absurd.
Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath packed a lot of wit and humour while taking potshots at Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge who had mocked Hindu sadhus straying into politics and occupying high offices “in saffron robes”. Yogi reminded Kharge that he may have forgotten some crucial parts while recollecting his family’s sacrifices “for votes”. Yogi alleged Kharge purposely glossed over the tragic death of “his mother and sister” in an attack by Razakars as he feared losing Muslim votes. Addressing a rally in Achalpur in Vidarbha, the UP leader said, “I am a Yogi, and for me, the nation comes first, while for Mallikarjun Kharge, appeasement politics comes first.” He was responding to Kharge’s comments on the “batenge toh katenge” remark. He recounted Kharge’s childhood tragedy during the political unrest in Hyderabad during India’s independence. Kharge was born in the Bidar region of erstwhile Hyderabad state, ruled by the Nizams. The Razakars were a paramilitary force that operated in the princely state with a primary objective to maintain the rule of the Muslim Nizams of Hyderabad and prevent the accession of Hyderabad to India. Incidentally, at the very rally where Kharge was pouring scorn on Yogi’s saffron attire, the Congress chief was trying to generate some sympathy for himself by talking about how he had narrowly escaped the wrath of razakars. He didn’t name the razakars; he merely said how his father was relieved that his only son had been “saved”. “Even our house was burnt. I don’t want to talk about those who attacked us.”
India’s Test team – thrashed 3-0 by New Zealand – will look upon the five-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy series against Australia with trepidation rather than hope. After the 2-0 win against Bangladesh, the Rohit Sharma-led team seemed to have reached the doorstep of the ICC World Test Championship final. But in a matter of 10 playing days from October 16 to November 3, all the hype around a third consecutive WTC final turned into slough of despond because drawing a blank from the available 36 points from three Tests against New Zealand meant winning four of the five Tests in Australia to qualify for the WTC final. India could be disappointed when the fourth Test begins in Melbourne on Boxing Day (December 26). Of course, putting it across the Pat Cummins-led Australian side will drive the Indian team that competed hard to bring down the home side in the two previous series of 2018-19 and 2020-21. Preparing “designer turners’’ in Pune and Mumbai did not help the home team in any way as New Zealand’s two left-arm spinners, Mitchell Santner and Ajaz Patel, sent the home team packing, capturing 13 wickets in Pune and 11 wickets in Mumbai. The five pitches in Australia will not afford copious turns to the slow men, but Cummins will deploy the smart off-spinner Nathan Lyon – he has taken 60 of his 259 wickets at home in 15 Tests against India — to the full. India has to muster all its wits, hour by hour, session by session, and day by day, deliver with the bat, ball, and field well in each Test match to make the series riveting.
The visuals from the cricket stadium in Uppal, Secunderabad, where the home team Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Lucknow SuperGiants hollow, conveyed anything but warmth between the owner of the Lucknow team, Sanjiv Goenka and the team captain, KL Rahul. The boundary line episode for a few minutes mirrored Goenka’s disappointment at the team going down without a fight – LSG lost the match by 10 wickets to the Sunrisers — and allegedly getting into a stern talk with Rahul who has been going through difficult times, even not considered by the selection committee and team management for the ICC Men’s World Twenty20 in the USA and West Indies. The injury to express fast bowler Mayanak Yadav has largely made the LSG bowling department without firepower, resulting in the team winning only half of the 12 matches it has played. With two more matches to be played against the playoff hopeful, Delhi Capitals, and the down and out Mumbai Indians, the Rahul-led team can still qualify for the knock-out part of the Tata-IPL-17. Rahul has played 197 matches for India across formats. The cricket fan has never seen the courteous cricketer being given a public dressing down by the BCCI officials or the captains and coaches he has played under. Only three people were in the visual – Goenka, Rahul and an LSG support staff – and one could not lip-read what a seemingly worked up Goenka was telling Rahul, but it certainly did not make a pleasant picture!
Rinku Singh has awe-inspiring numbers in 15 Twenty20 internationals for the men in blue. The numbers are: 11 innings, seven times not out, 356 runs, balls faced 202, average of 89, highest score of 69 not out, 2 x 50s, scoring rate of 10.57 an over, 20 x 6s, 31x 4s and seven catches. He has not bowled a single over. He has featured in 11 wins against Ireland, Nepal, Bangladesh, Australia, South Africa and Afghanistan. In comparison, Shivam Dube — almost four years older than the Uttar Pradesh and Kolkata Knight Riders left-hander– has played 21 Twenty20 internationals, 14 innings, seven times not out, 276 runs from 190 balls, scoring rate 8.72, 15 x6s, 19x 4s, 11 catches and he has taken eight wickets bowling 36.3 overs. He has featured in 14 wins against Bangladesh, West Indies, New Zealand, Ireland, Nepal and Afghanistan. It has to be construed that skipper Rohit Sharma would have preferred Dube to Rinku because, as he revealed at a media interaction, he will use him as a bowler when necessary. Sharma and the selectors also preferred a second left-arm spinner, Axar Patel (an injury forced him out of the 50-over World Cup), because he has been India’s leading spinner, playing 37 matches since January 2022. He has taken 36 wickets at an economy rate of 7.54. He also scored 282 runs. It’s just that Sharma chose an additional left-arm finger spinner (in addition to Ravindra Jadeja) apart from two wrist spinners in Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav. Rinku – a travelling reserve now – was plain unlucky not to make the cut for the ICC event in the USA and West Indies.
Ajit Agarkar looks far from stressed when it comes to selecting Indian teams. The 46-year-old who took 349 wickets across formats for India as an attacking seamer, looks lean and mean and fit enough to compete even today with the red and white ball. The chairman of the BCCI’s senior national selection committee since July 2023, the former Mumbai and India all-rounder who fashioned India’s spectacular victory against Australia in the Adelaide Test of 2003 with an incisive spell of 6 for 41 in the second innings and who can brag about of Lord’s century against England in 2002 articulated at a press conference on Thursday (May 2) that his committee, more or less aligned itself with the needs of the captain Rohit Sharma for the ICC Men’s World Twenty20 in the USA and Caribbean Islands. Agarkar made it plain and simple that his committee picked a 15-member Indian team and not an IPL-2024-XV. Even the selection of Sanju Samson when juxtaposed against KL Rahul (for the second stumper’s slot) was based on the six hitting prowess of the Keralite, and the boundary shots he hit in the ongoing IPL only selection in his favour. Similarly, Shivam Dube’s unbeaten knocks of 60 and 63 in the last series against Afghanistan, followed by his long-lever hitting in the Tata-IPL-17 ensured his selection for the first-time bash under the American sky. Without having to say so by either Agarkar or the captain Rohit Sharma, the rest of the team has been picked on the runs and wickets when turning out for the men in blue team.
Once the news broke out that Hardik Pandya was set to return to the Mumbai Indians for the ongoing Tata-IPL Season 17, he has been the hot topic of conversations. The India all rounder has also been the butt of criticism for his dismal show in the league, but numbers — 197 runs at a high scoring rate of 11 an over and six wickets at 42.17 after 10 matches puts him among the top six all rounders in the league. The selectors were satisfied with his fitness after his recovery from an ankle injury of his landing foot, and the fact that he sent down 23 overs also could not be ignored, although they would have liked to see him more proactive with the ball. What the selectors considered it necessary to look at was his display with the bat (359 runs in 19 Twenty20 internationals) and ball (19 wickets at 21.11) after the last Twenty20 World Cup in Australia. Pandya’s overall record in Twenty20 internationals is 1348 runs and 73 wickets with a strike rate of 19.63. Moreover, he is a classy fielder and has led India in 16 matches with a success percentage 62.50. So it was his performance for the Men in Blue that gave weightage to his choice as a player and vice -captain for the Twenty20 World Cup in the USA and West Indies. Had he not gone down with the ankle injury in the World Cup match against Bangladesh last October, Pandya, a game-changer, would have probably been the team’s captain.
Indian cricket, nay the BCCI’s selection committee, will do a Beau Geste (beautiful gesture) to both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli by picking them for the ICC Men’s World Twenty20 in the USA and Caribbean. Perhaps Ravindra Jadeja, too. While the two batters are the top two run-getters in the Twenty20 format in the world, their appearance for India since India’s last World Twenty20 match against England in Adelaide on November 10, 2022, has been a little something; after a gap of 14 months, Sharma played the three-match series against Afghanistan (0,0, 121), and Kohli played two against Afghanistan (29,0). Jadeja has played in two matches since August 2022, missing many because of injury. With Hardik Pandya going down in the home 50-over World Cup last year, the selectors returned to the old war horses Sharma and Kohli. With Hardik being made the India Twenty20 captain in January 2022, Sharma and Kohli did not fit into the Twenty20 scheme of things. But the ankle-related injury to Hardik in the World Cup match against Bangladesh in Pune paved the way for Sharma and Kohli’s recall. After the semi-final exit in 2022, India has played 28 Twenty20 internationals and the leading batters have been Suryakumar Yadav (857 runs), Yashasvi Jaiswal (502), Ruturaj Gaikwad (365), Rinku Singh (356), Shubman Gill (339), Tilak Varma (336), Ishan Kishan (253) and Hardik (231). The leading wicket-takers have been Arshdeep Singh (33 wickets), Ravi Bishnoi (20), Axar Patel (15), Kuldeep Yadav (15), Mukesh Kumar (12), Hardik and Yuzvendra Chahal (11 each). In a few days, the India squad will be announced for the World Twenty20, and we will know whether performance in the IPL counts!
If the BCCI’s national selection committee apply the performance in the Tata-IPL-17 as the yardstick, then Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan should be the top choice opening pair for the ICC Men’s Twenty20 World Cup in the USA and Caribbean starting in June. Sharma and Kishan have made 332 runs in eight matches with one century, and the three 50-plus stands for the first wicket partnership, the best by miles by an Indian opening pair in the ongoing IPL. Mumbai Indians are going through a rough ride in the league this season, but Sharma and Kishan have given roaring starts in the first six over power play. Sharma and KL Rahul are India’s best, with 1412 runs in 34 matches, and Sharma and Kishan have opened in six games. Kohli has scored 3076 of his 4037 at No 3 with 32 x 50 plus knocks, and hence, India should look at him at the one drop position. Kohli, Sharma, Shubman Gill, Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Kishan are some openers who have been in good nick in the IPL. Sharma with Kishan (also a wicketkeeper) and Jaiswal fit nicely as a right-left combination. Moreover, Jaiswal has played 16 Twenty20 internationals and scored 502 runs with one century and four half-centuries. And so it should be either Jaiswal or Kishan with Sharma as the opening pair and not Sharma and Kohli. Numbers do not support Kohli to be picked as an opener.
Sunil Gavaskar is a big draw wherever he goes in India and abroad; thanks to his splendid deeds with bat right from the debut series against the West Indies in 1971, he has a massive fan following across the cricketing world and beyond. In recognition of his yeoman service to cricket and other walks of life for half a century and more, the Bruhan Maharashtra Mandal (BMM) in the USA has chosen him for the Jeevan Puraskar, an award that will be conferred upon him at a four-day function in San Jose, California from June 27 to 30. The BMM represents 54 marathi organisations in North America. Apart from his achievements in the cricket field, he has been the face of Indian cricket via the media expert route. He is quietly doing charity work for a number of NGOs and other organisations especially for the Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Hospital. The BMM’s biennial event in California is likely to be attended by other personalities from India and people from Maharashtra who have settled in the USA. During the four-day social gathering Gavaskar will get a chance to interact with the local milieu, and the champion orator that he is, Gavaskar will regale the audience with his terrific wit in Marathi and English. Of course Gavaskar is likely to be in the USA for cricket’s major show there; for the ICC Men’s Twenty20 World Cup in New York and Florida — the two cities the Indian team will play in the group stage matches.
With a little over seven weeks left for the ICC Men’s World Twenty20 to start in New York for the men in the blue team, the BCCI’s senior selection committee ought to be anxious about the form demonstrated by its leading lights — barring the notable exception of Jasprit Bumrah — in the fast bowling department. Bumrah has been exceptional, imposing himself upon the batters with a high degree of consistency; turning out for the beleaguered Mumbai Indians, he even bagged his second five-for in the home match against Royal Challengers Bengaluru. In six Tata-IPL season 17 matches, Bumrah has bowled 24 overs for returns of 10 wickets at 14.60 apiece. But his partner, Mohammed Siraj, has sent down 22 overs in six matches for RCB and taken four wickets at a high cost of 57.25, numbers similar to the 2022 season when he took nine wickets at 57.11 in 15 matches. But in the IPL-16, he took 19 wickets at 19.74 in 15 matches, numbers reflecting the blow-hot, blow-cold nature of the shortest format. Khaleel Ahmed (Delhi Capitals), Mohit Sharma (Gujarat Titans), Arshdeep Singh (Punjab Kings), Harshal Patel (Punjab Kings), Umesh Yadav (Gujarat Titans), Yash Thakur (Lucknow SuperGiants) and a few more are in the list of wicket-takers (5-6 band). Lucknow Super Giant’s Mayank Yadav was sensational in two matches before a side strain rendered him out of action. Luckily, the selectors have a fortnight to name the initial squad for the big show in the USA and Caribbean. Of much interest will be the news of Yadav’s fitness.
A prize of $ 50000 each to the 48 gold medal winners of the Track and Field events at the Paris Summer Olympics in July –August 2024 may not be seen as a jackpot by the particular fraternity. Still, the sum is not pocket money either! It’s the sentiment that counts, and the World Athletics (WA) decision to disburse $ 2.4 million to the gold medallists in Paris — a portion of the revenue WA receives from the quadrennial Olympics — is a move that could trigger similar initiatives from other international sports federations. WA needs to be applauded, particularly its president, Sebastian Coe, a distinguished middle-distance runner who won gold medals at the Moscow (1980) and Los Angeles (1984) Olympics. India’s own Adille Sumariwalla, a sprinter-achiever, an Olympian and administrator (president of the Athletics Federation of India), was part of the WA decision as its Council member. The medal winners at the Olympics do not receive cash prize money, and hence, the WA decision would compensate the gold medal winners in a big way. The silver and bronze medal winners will likely get a cash prize from the WA but from the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. An Indian track and field athlete will receive Rs 41 lakh plus should they win a gold medal in Paris, and as of now, it looks as though only javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra can win the gold; he won at the Tokyo Olympics 2020.
The last week in the Tata-IPL-17 has been all about the thrills and frills provided by a speed merchant who has made the cricket world sit up and take notice of him, and the fans have shown the appetite to see his explosive deeds, more and more. Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) fast bowler Mayank Yadav has awakened people and more significantly has not given peace of mind to the batters in the Twenty20 league; the speed he has generated consistently at 150 km plus, the lift of the pitch he has extracted and directed the white ball within the stumps, meaning accuracy, has been compelling action to watch. The 21-year-old from Delhi has been trigger-happy like, keen to cause the batters’ downfall in a jiffy. In two matches against Preity Zinta’s Punjab Kings and the United Spirits-owned Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Mayank returned 3/27 and 3/14 and his fans were saying: Aur Bahut Kuch Baaki Hai. The IPL is a long way from the finishing line and the LSG skipper KL Rahul will deploy him in such a way to ensure his team’s entry into the playoffs. The million dollar question though is whether the BCCI’s selection committee with Ajit Agarkar in the chair will, without batting an eyelid, put him in action against Ireland and thereafter Pakistan and USA during the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in the USA and West Indies in June. There is already a clamour for it!
Thanks to Reliance Industries, aka the Ambani family that own the IPL team, Mumbai Indians, and their constant endeavour to make the venue spectator-friendly, the Wankhede Stadium was not only a sea of blue for the first home match of Season 17 between Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals, but the 50-year-old stadium at D Road, Churchgate itself looked classy and grand with its branding team giving emphasis to the team’s luminous blue in elements inside and outside the stadium. MI has always made refreshing changes to its branding during the IPL matches depicting its entire team and bringing in themes like the “Mumbai Meri Jaan” theme song. The team symbol, Sudarshan Chakra is another striking part of the MI branding. The only disappointment for the “Mumbai Paltan” on Monday (April 1) was that their favourite team went down to Rajasthan Royals. The Jaipur franchise is making up a lot for Rajasthan’s dismal displays in the Ranji Trophy against Mumbai. The nearly full house stadium expressed its fondness for Rohit Sharma shouting “Rohit, Rohit, Rohit” and booing the new captain Hardik Pandya. But a big part of the crowd applauded Pandya’s bold, big and brave shots as he began the process of repairing the damage inflicted by left-arm seamer Trent Boult. The spectators had a good fill of the overall atmosphere and would be hoping for winning results in the forthcoming matches.
If the flavour of the Indian summer is the Tata-IPL-17, the fortunes of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) are followed by a frenzy that is matchless! The team bought by India Cements for $ 90 million has been a 10-time finalist and 5-time winner, all under the stewardship of “Thalaiva” Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The 226-time captain of the team in 14 seasons (the team was suspended for two seasons), MSD — he passed on the captaincy mantle to Ruturaj Gaikwad before the start of the ongoing season — is still the league’s biggest draw. CSK in its “Manjal” (yellow in English) is known more for getting its nuts and bolts right when giving shape to the composition of the squad and the playing XI. CSK has made a roaring start to its campaign and looks like the team to beat for the title. The unprecedented 6th title is on the way is the refrain amongst its fans and with a number of breathtaking batters and match winners in its line up, and equally efficient bowlers accustomed to seeing through their side past the finishing line. CSK would like to clinch the trophy for its fans, Dhoni and team promoter N Srinivasan, who must have been disappointed that Tamil Nadu did not win the Ranji Trophy. Two wins on its home turf at the Chepauk against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Gujarat Titans, in a most convincing manner, is just what the doctor ordered for its fans to get into the mood.
While a Mumbai cricket faithful would like to say “Shabash” to the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) for becoming the avant-gardist in Indian cricket by announcing a like-for-like match fee (if the BCCI fee is Re 1 we will top it up with an equivalent sum for each match day) to its Ranji Trophy cricketers from the next season (2024-2025), the 42-time winner of the national championship has not walked the extra mile; it has not put in place an annual retainer programme. The other members of the BCCI should take a leaf out of the MCA book that augments the first-class cricketers’ monetary resources from a single season; they cannot say they don’t have the money. Looking at a broader canvas, an annual retainer programme will be a most welcome development for hundreds of Ranji Trophy players. The borderline lot who warm the bench need more financial security/incentive. Every Ranji Trophy player in the country will doff his hat to the MCA which awarded a team bonus of Rs 5 crore to the Ajinkya Rahane-led team for winning the Ranji Trophy recently. The BCCI has loosened its purse strings and disbursed a substantial percentage to its members — Rs 100 crore or thereabout every fiscal is not small money. The performance (results achieved) of its team in the BCCI tournaments is a true and only reflection of its strength. So Messrs Amol Kale/Ajinkya Naik and the MCA Apex Council, you can take a step further now. The topping up of per day match fee could have been from the just concluded season too.
The $ 10 billion Indian Premier League (IPL) will get off the ground at the good old Chepauk on Friday (Mar 22). And it’s a no-brainer that attention will bolt down on the Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s Virat Kohli who has not faced a ball in a competition after the second innings of the second Test against South Africa in Cape Town, which means he will be facing a Chennai Super Kings bowler in the Tata IPL-17 lung opener after a 77-day break from the game. Virat has played 237 matches (229 innings) and scored 7263 runs — the highest in the League — but he and his fans are yet to see RCB lift the trophy. Now the RCB men can only be second best to its women’s team that cracked the code to win the WPL! Last year, Virat (he doesn’t like being hailed as King Kohli) scored 639 runs with 2x100s. The champion batter has shown loyalty to the franchise bought in 2008 for $ 111.6 million, owned by United Spirits Ltd, a Diageo Group company. The cricketing world, especially India’s selection committee chaired by Ajit Agarkar, captain Rohit Sharma and Head Coach Rahul Dravid will be keen to see how Virat shapes up in the league. Virat is a big brand which will be present at the ICC Men’s Twenty 20 to be exhibited in New York, Florida and Texas, apart from Caribbean venues. The interest will be around how the champion is hitting the ball!
Is the Rohit Sharma-Hardik Pandya (Mumbai Indians) captaincy saga sticking out like a sore thumb? On the face of it, the answer is a definite yes. From what Hardik said at an IPL pre-season interaction with the media it appears that they have not said “Hi buddy” to each other for a long time. MI is a five-time winner of the IPL and the owners — the Ambanis of the RIL — want more silverware in their cupboard. All action happened in November last when the IPL confirmed the trade-off between MI and Gujarat Titans and, subsequently Hardik was named the captain. Rohit was dislodged after a 163-match run (158 in IPL and 5 in the 2013 Champions League) as captain with five IPL titles in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020 and one CL20 title in 2013 and this change of guard made the Rohit bandwagon squeal against Hardik. All said and done Hardik (92 matches for MI) crippled with an ankle injury for a few months, is the MI chieftain and he will be his own man. He said, “he (Rohit) will always be there to help me out if I need his help.” Hardik has led the Gujarat Titans to a title win in 2022 and only CSK’s Ravindra Jadeja stopped him from a repeat in 2023. Hardik has a near 71 % win record for the Titans (22 wins from 31). He has had lower back and ankle injury issues for two years. Can he withstand the 14-match league run from March 24 when MI and GT lock horns at the Narendra Modi Stadium?
Mumbai’s (Mumbai Cricket Association) growth in Indian cricket has been colossal. On Thursday (Mar 14), the players sporting the Lion crest obliterated the 41-time winner tag with the 42nd Ranji Trophy triumph against a valiant Vidarbha at a venue that’s a stone’s throw from the Arabian Sea. Mumbai has been fabulously relevant to the development of Indian cricket across formats. As of now Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan, Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube, Shardul Thakur and Shreyas Iyer are part of the Indian teams in all formats or either Test, ODIs or Twenty20 internationals. Tushar Deshpande and Shams Mulani have been part of India ‘A’ teams and Musheer Khan has emerged as an India under -19 star. Not long ago Ajinkya Rahane was a fixture in the Indian team, its captain too. Then there is Prithvi Shaw, a “wasted talent” who can rise again. Without a doubt, the Mumbai Cricket Association which matched the BCCI’s prize money of Rs 5 crore that came with the Ranji Trophy triumph, has been doing the right things for its teams -juniors, men and women. Now, Mr Amol Kale and Mr Ajinkya Naik, how about founding a multi-day professional league for the top clubs during the season; or pick 4/5/6 from a big-basket talent pool? The league will help groom/develop talent in many ways with the ultimate objective of being the feeder league for the Ranji Trophy team. Mull over, Mumbai Cricket Association! What are you waiting for?
The Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) annual retainer or contract was introduced with the primary intention of providing financial security to the potential India players (Test and white ball) based on their performance in the preceding season (Oct-Sep). While the past (monthly gratis and medical cover) and present players have been receiving monetary assistance from the BCCI’s policy of looking after the welfare of a select group, women included, the reluctance on the part of the member associations to follow suit for its players who take part in the BCCI tournaments is most baffling. Recently the BCCI went a step further offering an incentive (match fee) to prioritise Test cricket /domestic first-class cricket. It’s seen as a most welcome move with a player capped in nine Tests from October to September getting Rs 5.4 crore (9 x Rs 60 lakh). The domestic players not on the BCCI’s retainer list need to be provided financial security by their State just as those who play for India. The BCCI members reportedly receive Rs 100 crore as annual subvention from the BCCI and hence they are in a position to frame a retainer policy and disburse a few crore for its players, mainly those who play the Ranji Trophy. If the BCCI truly believes that domestic cricket is important then it must tell its members to institute a retainer policy for its players. Immediately! Someone has to give it a start.
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Shardul Thakur, not in action in the ongoing Test series against England, is giving his best shot for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy tournament played over multiple days. Thakur took the responsibility of bailing his team out against Tamil Nadu in the semi-final. Thakur’s enterprise with the bat and ball mirrored a Mumbai cricketer who wears the Lion crest with an immense sense of pride and dignity. Mumbai in pursuit of its 42nd Ranji Trophy triumph brushed aside the challenge posed by Baroda in the quarter final, but it was in dire straits against Tamil Nadu before Thakur’s brave heart knock of a century and superb effort with the ball put paid to the Southern India team’s aspirations. Thakur’s game-changing effort came on the heels of a record-breaking century from tail-enders Tanush Kotian and Tushar Deshpande against Baroda. Thus Mumbai demonstrated its wherewithal and ambition to reach the title match against Vidarbha which will be hoping to walk into serendipity and win the title for the third time. This season Mumbai has not once been able to field its full team (for all matches) that in the absence of a home internationals, would have had the following big batters: Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav (injured), Ajinkya Rahane, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer, Prithvi Shah, Sarfaraz Khan and Shivam Dube and all-rounder Thakur. Mumbai lost to Uttar Pradesh in a group match but showed its backup strength to reach the final to start at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday. Vidarbha will fancy its chances after getting past Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh in the quarter-finals and semi-finals.
After breaching the 500-wicket mark in Test cricket, Ravichandran Ashwin is on the verge of another magnificent landmark of turning out in 100 Tests. The 37-year-old is set to play his 100th Test against England in Dharamsala on March 7. The significance of the fantastic feat gets enhanced when one takes into account the fact that only 76 cricketers (from 3174) have been capped in 100 Tests and more. For some reason or the other Ashwin did not feature in 24 Tests after his debut against the West Indies in November 2011. The tall off-break bowler who bowls the stock ball (turning from off to leg) and many variations, is only the eighth spinner who has taken 100 wickets and more to reach the magic marking of 100 Tests. The others are Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan, Nathan Lyon, Harbhajan Singh, Daniel Vettori, Anil Kumble and Carl Hooper. He will be the 14th Indian to compete in Test cricket for such a long time. Ashwin has not only excelled with the ball taking 507 wickets (354 at home and 153 abroad in 40 Tests which is the second highest after Kumble’s 269 wickets in 69 Tests overseas), but he has also scored 3309 runs with five centuries and 14 half-centuries. He has held 33 catches. 100 Test caps is a remarkable feat his family, the cricketing fraternity in his home State of Tamil Nadu and India will be proud of. He has been part of 58 Test wins, the highest by any Indian bowler.
Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan have received the short end of the stick — not offered the annual retainership — for not showing commitment to the Ranji Trophy tournament. Iyer has to face the consequence because he did not play against Baroda and Kishan, not a match this ongoing 2023-2024 season. Iyer played against Andhra a month ago. The tournament began in the first week of January 2024 and the BCCI issued an advisory to its members in mid-February that players with annual retainership must play in the premier tournament when not on duty for India. So it’s the whims and fancies of someone in the system responsible for the “must play Ranji Trophy” idea being introduced mid-way through the tournament that has advanced to the semi-final stage; unfair to the players of the teams taking part in the tournament. India Head Coach Rahul Dravid was the one who went public saying that Kishan could come back (after taking a break from national duty in South Africa) after playing in the Ranji Trophy. The mid-season rule would not have come about without the knowledge of Dravid and the India captain Rohit Sharma. Just because they were seen training allegedly with their IPL teams is a flimsy reason not to consider them for the annual retainership. The BCCI with World Cup star Roger Binny as its president ought to have shown sagacity and dealt with it in a better way, and not by showing its iron fist.
When the national selectors chose Dhruv Jurel in the squad for the first two Tests against England in mid-January, there were plenty who shrugged their shoulders and asked: Jurel who? Such was the surprise element in his selection as a spare stumper to Kona Bharat for the Tests in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam. With KL Rahul not in the scheme of things as the primary ‘keeper — which he was in South Africa — the choice fell upon Bharat who had donned the big gloves in the previous four-Test home series against Australia. The concussion-related like-for-like rule fast-tracked Jurel’s entry into the big league of Test cricket, more so after Ishan Kishan was ‘discarded’ from the selection process. For many talent scouts, Jurel held promise in 2020 when he led India in the under -19 World Cup; then Rajasthan Royals made him its main ‘keeper for IPL 2023. The national selector kept an eye on him and plumped for him for the opening two Tests, After the Visakhapatnam Test, Head Coach Rahul Dravid and Captain Rohit Sharma firmed up to look at Jurel as a serious option from the third Test in Rajkot. Bharat’s poor returns with the bat cost him a lot. Thereafter Jurel — son of a Kargil War soldier — has only excelled in front and behind the stumps; his brilliant 90 and 39 ensured India victory in the Ranchi Test and thereby the series 3-1. He’s been top-class with the big gloves too. So far, so good… Jurel!
India took the field for the fourth Test against England in Ranchi without its best bowler in the series, Jasprit Bumrah. The BCCI explained that Bumrah has been rested taking into account the “duration of the series” and the workload he has taken in recent times. It takes some guts to keep a player, nay a match-winner in many ways in the previous two Tests in Visakhapatnam and Rajkot, out of a winning combination. England would not be disappointed with the decision taken by the Indian team, selectors and the BCCI. With India leading 2-1 in the five-Test series the “rest Bumrah” call has not gone down well with former India left-arm seamer Karsan Ghavri. “When you are getting a chance to play for India, keep playing. The series is in a vital stage and to rest a key player in the middle of a series is not a wise call” said Ghavri who has taken 100 plus Test wickets. Beset with injuries to key players, India has been handicapped to field a full-strength team in the last three years. The national team’s head coach Rahul Dravid pointed out this aspect after winning the second Test in Visakhapatnam. Ghavri added: “Bumrah could have taken a break after the fate of the series is decided, as much as he wants.” India may win the fourth Test in Ranchi and thereby the series, but England thinks it can win the series 3-2. So was it the right call to rest Bumrah for the Ranchi Test?
Skipper Rohit Sharma held back his assessment of Yashasvi Jaiswal’s spectacular display with the bat in the third Test against England at Rajkot. “I won’t say anything on Jaiswal. Everyone is talking about him. Let him play. He is playing well, it’s good for us and he is in good form. I am not going to say much more than that. Itna bas hai abhi ke liye (this should be enough for now). Seven Test matches is only a small sample to pass judgment on a player, but Jaiswal has played seven Test matches without a break and has already won admirers from the cricket world. The Mumbai left-hander Jaiswal began with a century on debut against the West Indies in last July, was put through the wringer in South Africa by its fast bowlers and in the home series, he has taken apart the English bowling. It’s not the question of hitting the World’s greatest swing and seam bowler Jimmy Anderson for three sixes in an over and much more, it’s the manner of his batting that has seen him take the centre stage. A natural striker of the ball, Jaiswal has flayed England’s top pacers Anderson and Mark Wood and the inexperienced spinners. A double century each in the Visakhapatnam Test and another one in Rajkot has earned him kudos, but the skipper who has seen Jaiswal score 171, 209 and 214, chose to be guarded.
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Call it a lovely cameo or what not, Sarfaraz Khan gave a master class to not only respond to the England spinners, but also flay them with a kind of confidence that not a single Indian batter has been able to since the first Test in Hyderabad. The surface may have been amenable to stroke play without fear, but the young debutant’s raw nerves exposed to the highest level of the game for the first time, smashed the England spinners all over the park, with his penchant for the slog sweep evident against off break bowler Joe Root. Sarfaraz has been reminding the selection committee of his gifts for a few years now, and he got the nod once both KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer were not in the squad picked for the third Test. It was an emotional moment for the Khan family, especially for his father Naushad who has chaperoned his son right through his career and with a dream to see the day he would walk out to bat for India. Sarfaraz with 10 years of first class cricket behind him and tons of runs and a good number of centuries showed courage and skill for an hour and twenty minutes and proved that he has the goods to succeed in Test cricket. So another Khan has arrived, not in the tinsel world though. Can India ignore him for the Twenty20 World Cup!
Although off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has taken nine wickets in two of the ongoing Test series against England, it was not great going for the seasoned campaigner in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam. The 37-year old has been taken apart by the sweep and reverse sweep shots employed by the England batters notably Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope and Joe Root. For the first time in the 36 Test series he has played over 12 years and three months, he has conceded in excess of four runs an over. His career average is under three runs an over. All said and done, Ashwin is on the lookout for his 500th wicket, a feat only the legendary leg spinner Anil Kumble (619 wickets) has achieved among Indians. He has 499 so far. He will be only the third finger spinner in the history of Test cricket to accomplish the unique record after Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan (800 wickets) and Australia’s Nathan Lyon (513). The Tamil Nadu bowler has turned out to be a match-winner in 56 Tests, with a majority of 42 at home and to a lesser number, 14 in overseas conditions. He has taken 25 wickets and more at five venues: Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Nagpur. He has taken six wickets at Rajkot in a Test against the West Indies in October 2018. Ashwin will be keen to put this record behind so that he can focus to check the England batters who have been red hot with their flashing blades.
Rahul Dravid hit the nail on its head while saying that “reading the game and game situation” is paramount in cricket, in particular Test cricket. The most famous “Wall” of Indian cricket, whose cautious, mentality was recently acknowledged by the former South African fast bowler Makhaya Ntini, had without pointing fingers at any individual, said that India was short by 70 odd runs in the first innings of the first Test in Hyderabad, and again after the 106 run win in the second Test in Visakhapatnam, he pointed out that India’s first innings score was under par and that the score, instead of 396 should have been 450-475, especially with Yashasvi Jaiswal getting 209. The former England captain Michael Atherton, the Chief Cricket Correspondent of ‘The Times’ wrote that the top and middle order Indian batters were careless in the first innings in Hyderabad. He did not name individuals, but he was referring to the careless shots played by Rohit Sharma, Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul. India’s head coach m said that it’s all about understanding that (reading the situation)and knowing that they are making the right decision to put them (the opponent) under pressure or recognise that this is the moment to soak in the pressure and be a little bit more conservative rather than attack. India lost the first Test partially because it was not able to score 500 plus in the first innings.
The story of the India versus England Test series so far has been the champion Indian batters being foxed by a tyro orthodox left-arm spinner in Tom Hartley in the first Test. Handed over the Test cap by former England captain Michael Atherton — both from Lancashire — the 24-year-old spinner was carted by Yashasvi Jaiswal in the first innings, but without showing any feelings of being embarrassed, Hartley, 6.4 ft in his socks, ran amok taking seven wickets in the second innings and inflicted a shocking defeat on India. The right-hand wrist spinner Rehan Ahmed turned out to be ordinary though. Now in the second Test, England which created a ruckus about Shoaib Bashir not being given the entry permit on time has included the off-spinner in the XI for the second Test. England which has been advertising the aggressive brand of cricket to sustain interest in the multi-day Test cricket has taken outrageous calls while choosing personnel, it has been peculiar for the five-Test series in India. It may have erred in choosing its most experienced left-arm spinner, Jack Leach because of his hamstring and knee-related ailments, but Bashir was not available for selection because he did not have the Indian visa in Abu Dhabi where England ran the preparatory camp for 10 days. But Hartley grabbed the opportunity and stunned the home team that was supposed to outplay the spinners. Bashir will be keen to make the ball obey his whims. The outcome of the second Test will indicate as to which team is likely to win the series.
Call it “Bazball” or whatever that is supposed to convey playing a brand of cricket to take the rival head-on and thereby entertain the paying spectator, England has sent across a message to India in no uncertain terms that its batters from 1 to 11 will go after its bowlers. In two opening stands in the first Test at the Uppal venue in Hyderabad, Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett swung their bats without fear of getting out to rattle up 55 and 45 runs before the first wicket went down. Clearly the camp the team held in Abu Dhabi to prepare for the five-Test series has yielded results. England made only 246 in the first innings and trailed the home team by 190 runs, but not perturbed by a daunting task, it roughed up the bowlers with the brilliant Ollie Pope collaring the spinners to make a near double century, though he was let off at 110 by Axar Patel and 186 by KL Rahul. From a clear first-innings setback England gave it a chance to cause a turnaround in the first Test and in the event of India going down will give plenty of thought for the national selectors to look at options in the bowling department. Moreover, questions will be asked about the attitude of the batters in offering catches when set. The likes of Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul will do well to introspect. All said and done the “Bazball” style has made an impact in India.
Ben Stokes is all set to join the elite group of English cricketers who have played a century of Test matches and more. The ongoing Test match at Uppal here is his 98th which means the third Test at Rajkot will be his 100th. Previously 15 cricketers have played 100 Tests and more for England with the expert manipulator of the seam, Jimmy Anderson turning out in 183 Tests starting from 2003. Without a doubt the New Zealand-born Stokes who bats left-handed and bowls with his right hand has made a phenomenal contribution to England’s fortunes for 11 years, scoring 6117 runs, taking 197 wickets and 102 catches. On Friday, he gave an exhibition of top class batsmanship excelling in defense and attack, one that enabled his team to put up a competitive total on the board. Stokes bats at No 5/6 where he has scored 5449 runs before the start of the Test here. His highest scores in these two positions are 176 and 258. He has led England in 31 Tests and from mid 2022 has formed a successful combination with former New Zealand batter Brendon McCullum winning 13 Tests quickly adapting to aggressive ways of wielding the willow. In the last Ashes series he was close to the spectacular making 405 runs in nine innings and thwarting Australia from winning the series. His knock of 70 on Friday indicated that he could prove to be a long thorn in India’s flesh in the five Test series.
That the IPLTwenty20 is a veritable cash cow was proved once again with the Tata Group not batting an eyelid to retain the title sponsorship of the popular franchise-based league. Two years ago Tatas had replaced the Chinese company Vivo as the title sponsor at a cost of Rs 370 crore. In the latest piece of action though, the Tata Group has chosen to shell out Rs 2500 crore for a five-year season from 2024 to 2028. Just come to think of it, the real estate giant DLF — not able to get a team – got the title sponsorship at Rs 40 crore a season in 2008. In that context, the Rs 500 crore average for one season after 16 years, has to be put down as a mind-boggling sum. No wonder the BCCI Secretary Jay Shah and the IPL Chairman, Arun Singh Dhumal have expressed delight at the final sum of Rs 2500 crore, well in excess of the base price of Rs 1750 crore. The IPL has seen a number of title sponsors including DLF, Pepsi, Dream11, Vivo and then the Tata Group. The Tata Group has a massive connect with cricket, especially in the inter-office tournaments in Mumbai. It had given employment to hundreds of cricketers and the likes of Dilip Vengsarkar, Ravi Shastri and Sourav Ganguly were on its payroll. The Tata Group has been a late entrant into the IPL bandwagon; it bagged the Women’s Premier League last year and for the second year running the Tata Group is all set to make the big splash!
The name of Col. C.K. Nayudu conjures up when cricketers in whites representing India and England gird up their loins for another Test skirmish. According to the famous ‘cricketwallah ‘ of Indian cricket, the late Rajsingh Dungarpur, it was the lanky Nayudu’s ransacking knock of 152 for the Hindus against RC Chichester-Constable Marylebone Cricket Club at the Bombay Gymkhana on December 1, 1926 that set into motion India’s recognition as a Test playing nation at London’s Lord’s Cricket Ground (June 1932). Nayudu was a giant, admired by many and not so by a minuscule, did the palm tree hitting act for 100 mts. He smashed the MCC bowlers for 13 x 6s and 11 x 4. India’s Test story began here with this knock that impressed none other than Arthur Gilligan — he did not play the match against the Hindus — who recommended to the MCC that India is ready for Test cricket. Since India’s first Test, the nation has played 64 Tests at home, won 22, lost 14 and drawn 28. India won the last Test series 3-1 in 2021, but three years later England appeared prepared to repel India’s spin tricks, with the master plan being drawn by Head Coach Brendon McCullum and Captain Ben Stokes who will only bat and not bowl because of a left knee surgery he underwent last November. England has not won a series in India since 2012 when it beat the home team 2-1. So some tussle on the cards from January 25 at the Charminar City with Rohit Sharma at the helm.
Shivam Dube has struck the iron when it’s hot by knocking over the Afghanistan bowlers in the Twenty20 series outings in Mohali and Indore. It’s the time of the year when the locals in the northern plains and central India would devour the hot lip-snacking chole bhature, but those who thronged the stadium at Mohali and at the Holkar Stadium got a taste of the elegant and fluent left-hander’s stroke play and hitting. In the absence of the injury-stricken Hardik Pandya, the selectors in Ajit Agarkar, S Sharath, Shiv Sundar Das, Salil Ankola and Subroto Banerjee looked at Dube and the latter has not let them down. Dube is 30 plus and his style of going after the ball makes him a perfect fit for the 120-ball stuff of cricket. In his first 18 turnouts for the men in blue, he did not bat on seven occasions and was not out five times, but he had the talent which the selectors have recognised. Two unbeaten knocks of 60 and 63 against the fierce competitors from Kabul have almost confirmed his berth in the Indian team for the ICC Men’s World Twenty20 under the Manhattan and Caribbean skyline. His average is 45.83 after 20 matches at five positions in the batting order, but it is at No 4 now that he has staked a strong claim. Once Suryakumar Yadav returns to the fold, India can make the most of the “SuryaShivam” show! Why fret over Hardik Pandya?
Dhruv Jurel has played a dozen Ranji Trophy matches for Uttar Pradesh, two for India ‘A‘ recently in South Africa and one for Central Zone, and the BCCI’s national selection committee has told the cricket fraternity in India — in the circumstances caused by a petulant Ishan Kishan’s non-availability — that the soon to be 24-year old from Agra is the best stumper after KS Bharat. Jurel is selected in the India team for the first two Tests against England to be played in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam. He has scored 790 runs with 249 against Nagaland as his highest. After the ICC Under-19 World Cup in South Africa four years ago, the grapevine has been rife with his exceptional talent and it was not a surprise when Rajasthan Royals chose him for IPL 2023. The selectors are impressed with Jurel’s work as a ‘keeper, but his selection for the longer version of the game in the third season of his first-class career has still puzzled a lot of people. The serious injury to Rishabh Pant opened an opportunity for Bharat who has done duty in five Tests. Then Kishan got two chances against the West Indies last July before KL Rahul donned the big gloves in the two-Test series in South Africa, which may have got Kishan’s goat! He created a vacuum by choosing to break from the ranks in South Africa, citing mental fatigue and at the first opportunity, the selectors, chose to come down hard on the erring cricketer’s attitude from Jharkhand. Has Kishan paid the price for erring?
The five-Test home series against England will begin at Uppal in Hyderabad on January 25. Ever since the former swashbuckling New Zealand batter Brendon McCullum took charge as Head Coach from Chris Silverwood, and Ben Stokes took over from Joe Root, the Three Lions team has been playing the game in an aggressive and entertaining brand that’s come to be known as ‘Bazball’ style. The pitches curated by the associations in Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Rajkot, Ranchi and Dharamshala are most likely to be on the slower allied with variable bounce, but this sluggish nature of the pitch may not deter England from adhering to the ‘Bazball’ that sustained interest in the ‘Ashes’ series in the English Summer of 2023. The full Test series at home is part of the third cycle of the ICC World Test Championship and hence big points will be at stake for each Test match. In the previous four Test home series against Australia, India won 2-1 and qualified for the final. Anticipating slow pitches that will afford a turn from the first session of the first day, England has packed its side with four spinners and has scheduled a training camp in Abu Dhabi before arriving in Hyderabad only three days before the first Test. After outplaying South Africa in the Cape Town Test, India skipper Rohit Sharma hinted at the ball turning from day one of a Test match. What has to be seen is whether England will stick to the ‘Bazball’ style right through the series and mount pressure on the smart spinners like Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel.
The selection of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma for the three-match Twenty20 series against Afghanistan is akin to Kafkaesque because these two much-celebrated batters have been overlooked by the selection committee since the ICC World Men’s Twenty20 semi-final against England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on November 10, 2022. It appears now that the leading lights of this format are certainties for the Twenty20 World Cup to be held this June in the USA and Caribbean. India has played 25 internationals of the shortest version after the last World Cup in Australia, without these two, won 16, lost seven, and tied one match and the match against Afghanistan in the Asian Games final in Hangzhou was called off due to rain. Kohli has played 27 Twenty20 matches across five World Cups and Sharma 39 across eight World Cups. Sharma was part of the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup that India won under the helmsmanship of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Over the last 14 months, the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya have been close to the spectacular. This is apart from Suryakumar Yadav who has led the second brigade well; leading by example he has amassed 857 runs. When the selection for the World Cup arrives, will the above-mentioned get their due or be dumped? India’s Twenty20 team post the last World Cup semi-final when it was thrashed out of sight by England, has to advance and not look back.
Rohit Sharma used the words “shut up”, strong language from the captain of a team which had stunned South Africa by seven wickets in a game of cricket that turned out to be the sensationally shortest in Test match history. Rohit was an angry man, and he blew his top firing salvos at people griping at pitches that often afford copious turn from the first day of a Test match in India. It’s all the same he meant, excessive sideways movement of the surface (abroad) or a big turn from day one in India. He pointed at big cracks on the pitch at Newlands, a pretty venue because of nature’s gift in the form of Table Mountain. Rohit was in the ‘mood’ even to point fingers at the authorities for their prejudice while evaluating pitches. To sum up, Rohit voiced his opinion most directly. The spicy pitch that was exploited by the Bumrahs, Sirajs and the South African speed merchants resulted in the conclusion of the Test in 642 balls. There have been timeless Tests of eight balls an over, but a conventional game at the highest level — allotted 450 overs (90 overs a day) — is supposed to end on the fifth day. But the Newlands pitch for the second Test was full of life and it presented a series-levelling win for India. All in a jiffy! South Africa’s head coach and selector, Shukri Conrad dubbed the Test as a slugfest.
The dream of outsmarting South Africa in the two-Test rubber and winning a series for the first time in 31 years in South Africa — India played its first Test in the Kruggerand country in November 1992 — came down in a thud at the Super Sport Park in Centurion last week. The Rohit Sharma-led visitor came a cropper inside three days going down by an inning and 32 runs. KL Rahul, Virat Kohli and to an extent Shreyas Iyer (in the first inning) offered glimpses of the ability to foil a well-oiled bowling unit spearheaded by Kagiso Rabada; Rahul in fact constructed a classic century that lifted his reputation by a few notches. The short series of two Tests will be over by January 8 and Sharma will return home empty-handed because his team cannot win the series, but can only draw level. Newlands with its imposing Table-Top mountain has not once favoured India in six previous Tests and the odds look against it to cause an upset. This brings the million-dollar question of whether India’s bowling combination will have the strength to bundle out its rival for small totals. They will go after Dean Elgar, who made 185 in the first Test and will lead the home team in his last appearance in International cricket. India’s best chance will be its new ball operators Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj. They have to do most of the damage; of course with substantial help from their batter teammates.
From the high hopes of winning the first-ever Test series in South Africa to finding ways to level the series is a massive change in perception of the team that was beaten hollow in the first Test of the Freedom Series at the lovely Centurion venue. Even after 30 years of coming here Indian batters are groping in the dark, clueless as to what’s coming at them from a champion operator Kagiso Rabada with the new ball and tyros trying to make their mark in their first Test. Rohit Sharma did not find the elevation of a pull shot in the first hour of the first morning when the home team challenged his team to face its pace battery. And in the second innings was hoodwinked off the surface, and became a sort of bunny to the slenderly built practitioner of fast bowling Rabada — drawing comparisons with the likes of Allan Donald and Dale Steyn. Sharma who has carved a niche for himself in white-ball formats doesn’t have anything to show for in Test appearances in these parts. Cape Town in a few days, will give him two more chances, but more importantly, the team has to redeem itself against a team that has the power to do an encore. South Africa is keen and eager to hold on to the undefeated record. Its coach Shukri Conrad said it aloud at the press conference.
The captaincy duty will come calling to Rohit Sharma as the Indian team celebrates Christmas and gets into the Test match mode straight away. India begins its ninth tour of South Africa with the opening Test match scheduled at the Centurion on Boxing Day, December 26. First and foremost, Sharma will have to take a call on the choice of the third seamer. Jasprit Bumrah will return to the Test ranks after a hiatus of 18 months and Mohammed Siraj will be his new ball operator partner. The million-dollar question is who will replace Mohammed Shami, ruled out of the series because of a serious ankle injury. The name that crops up is the tall and gangling Prasidh Krishna who too has come back after a lower back injury. And will Sharma pick both left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja and off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin? The scales could tilt in favour of the speedster Krishna. The other options are Shardul Thakur and rookie Mukesh Kumar. With 90 overs to be bowled in three sessions of two hours each in a day, the captain could be in a fix. Moreover, Sharma will have to deal with Bumrah’s spells judiciously as a flare-up could whittle down India’s pace strength. Bumrah is a wicket-taker and he will start anxiously because he has not played the multi-day Test for a long time. A breakthrough or two from him will go a long way in hurting the South African batting lineup.
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When the groundswell began to drift against Sanju Samson that he was wasting his talent, he chose the wine countryside of Paarl to notch his first significant knock in coloured clothing for India. The big hitter from Kerala shunned reckless shots and emerged with a three-figure knock in the third and final one-day international against the Proteas and won the man of the match award. Endowed with the ability to lift the ball for straight sixes, Samson was given the No 5 spot in the first two matches. He did not get to bat in the first match at the ‘Bullring! In Johannesburg, and scored only 12 off 23 balls in the second ODI that India lost. But on Thursday (Dec 21) skipper KL Rahul sent him at No 3 and this move appears to have played in the trick to make him responsible. Samson flexed his muscles from the fifth over of the match and after debutant Rajat Patidar was dismissed. He faced 114 balls, struck 6 x 4s and 3 x 6s to make 108 and left the scene of action only in the 46th over. Samson was not part of the World Cup squad with the selection committee going with Rahul and Ishan Kishan. Captain of the Jaipur franchise, Rajasthan Royals, Samson was high in Rohit Sharma’s estimation some six months before the ICC Men’s Twenty20 World Cup in Australia last year. But it was Dinesh Karthik who took his place and Samson missed the bus. Samson has proved that he is worthy of a place in the national team.
These are good times for India’s women cricketers. Not just because of the packed international schedule against their counterparts from England and Australia, but also because of the monetary rewards that come with it. A large group of players who will play across formats (one Test each against England and Australia, three one-day internationals against Australia and six Twenty20 internationals together against England and Australia) will earn Rs 66 lakh! Thanks to Jay Shah, the BCCI Secretary who is in the vanguard of giving a fillip to women’s cricket, a pay parity for representing India across all formats was announced two months ago. The women players will receive Rs 15 lakh for a Test match, Rs 6 lakh for an ODI and Rs 3 lakh for a Twenty20 international. Two back-to-back Tests will amount to Rs 30 lakh, the three ODIs Rs 18 lakh and six Twenty20 internationals Rs 18 lakh. The women also get the same daily allowance as men. A few years ago the BCCI introduced the annual retainership cover and recently improved the monthly gratis for past cricketers who had played ODIs. The founding of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) last year turned out to be a big breakthrough that will fast-track the welfare of the distaff — game-wise, money-wise. In all a fantastic space to be in for the present generation and for the youngsters to take up the game as a recreation and thereafter as a career. But there is a lot more to be done at the grassroots and perhaps a revision of the annual retainers too!
Suryakumar Yadav is turning out to be unstoppable in the Twenty20 brand of cricket at the elite level. On Thursday (Dec 14) at the ‘The Wanderers’ in Johannesburg, also known as the ‘Bull Ring’, the flamboyant Mumbaikar and India middle order, and captain, smashed a 56-ball 100 with 7 x 4s and 8 x6s to give thousands of tricolour waving supporters a cheerful time. Yadav scored almost 50% of India’s score of 201 which the Proteas found an uphill task and lost by 105 runs. It was Yadav’s fourth century in a format of the game only two other distinguished batters — India’s Rohit Sharma and Australia’s Glenn Maxwell — have notched as many as four each. A remarkable feat in a format that gives an opportunity of 120 balls to a team to put a total on the board wherein 160 is a norm, but Yadav’s style of conversion rate of his copybook and innovative strokes into maximums (6s) propelled the score over 200 in the third and final match of the short series. The first match was washed out, South Africa won the second match on a revised score, but Yadav’s drive paved the way for a clear-cut Indian win. Yadav scored 117 against England at Trent Bridge and India lost the match, but his subsequent centuries of 111 not out against New Zealand at Mt Maunganui, 112 not out against Sri Lanka at Rajkot and 100 against South Africa at Johannesburg have come for a winning cause.
India’s women in blue team lost the fifth straight Twenty20 international to England on home soil and thereby gave an immediate headache to its new Head Coach Amol Muzumdar. The first three happened in Guwahati four years ago, and the fourth and fifth at the Wankhede Stadium last week. Irrespective of the outcome of the third and final match on December 10 it has to be stated that the Indian batters’ display was very disappointing. A total of 80 was what it could muster in the second match; it was the lowest against England in 29 matches. With the ICC Women’s World Twenty20 scheduled for less than 12 months in Bangladesh, the signs are alarming. The team’s fortunes largely depend on the wherewithal of Shafali Verma, Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur to chip in heavily. All three fell cheaply in the series-on-the-line match and India caved in. The girls are raring to go, said Muzumdar in his first press conference after making a point that he will focus on fitness and fielding. It looks as though he will have to work overtime to set right the batting department too. The three medium pacers Renuka Singh, Pooja Vastrakar and Titas Sadhu will learn a lot from Australian bowling coach Troy Cooley, but somehow Muzumdar has to get the most experienced — Harmanpreet (14 years in international cricket) and Smriti (10 years) to click.
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The debate continues about the future of limited cricket (50-over format). The ICC has advertised the viewership numbers of the recent World Cup in India, surpassing the previous tournaments in England, Australia and New Zealand. There was a strong appetite to see the one-day variety, but one of the modern batsmen — a master of all he purveyed – AB de Villiers feels that the first innings played mostly in daylight and the second innings under the lights are two entirely different games, akin to chalk and cheese. The South African who lit the flame of electrifying batting across all formats and has played a massive role in the success of the IPL believes that the future of ODI cricket could be in the form of two Twenty20 format segments, with the team batting first for 20 overs, batting in the fourth and last set of 20 overs. All this means the ODI being reduced to 40 overs. A crowd puller, de Villiers believes that the toss should not become the game-changing factor. He has expressed his forthright views to the latest WISDEN Cricket monthly for a serious conversation among the cricket fraternity and the powers that be to take note of. The BCCI secretary Jay Shah has gone on record saying that the future of ODI cricket is secured after the response for the greatest show on earth in India.
Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane have not found a place in India’s Test team for the two-Test series in South Africa, the first of the new World Test Championship Cycle to start from Boxing Day (December 26) at the Centurion. Without a doubt, both are past their best and the selection committee with Ajit Agarkar in the chair believe that the time has arrived for Indian cricket to move on with alternative players like Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shreyas Iyer who have proved their mettle. Recalled for the WTC final against Australia that India lost at London’s Oval last June, Rahane made 89 and 46, but only 3 and 8 in two Tests against the West Indies in the West Indies. His Test career appears to have come to a grinding halt at No 85 in which he scored 5077 runs. Pujara, another stalwart of the last 13 years, made 14 and 27 in the WTC final. The steadfast right-hander from Rajkot; Pujara has played 103 Tests and played the four-Test series against Australia at home and the WTC final. He has scored 7195 runs. With KL Rahul and Iyer taking the middle order spots, it appears it is curtains for these two solid batsmen; the five Test home series against England will confirm the inevitable for them. There could be quite a few more like Rajat Patidar and Sarfaraz Khan who could be competing for the middle order slots in the future engagements of the WTC cycle.
With 44 players being picked for the India ‘A’ team and the Senior team’s tour of South Africa, It will be truly an Indian Summer in the Rainbow Nation from December 10. Once South Africa moved away from the apartheid days and returned to the mainstream of international cricket some three decades ago, India has been a popular visiting team there. Dr Ali Bacher, a very influential administrator in the United Cricket South Africa was instrumental in his country’s first tour for an ODI series in the very early 1990s. The sad part after 31 years is that India will play only two Tests as part of the third ICC World Test Championship cycle at the Centurion from December 26 and at the Newlands ground at Cape Town from January 3. The selection committee has chosen 16 players for the Test matches and another 28 for the six white-ball series matches, for two four-day matches featuring the India ‘A’ team against South African sides and for a three-day intra-squad match between the India players. It will be a terrific exposure for the fringe players of the India ‘A’ team to make the most of the opportunity. With the Indian team on the cusp of a transitional phase, a bright performance with the bat or ball would indeed open the doors for successful players to be considered for the national team.
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The street-smart cricketer, as Ravi Shastri put it, finally has received a big boost to showcase his talent in a national-level tennis ball competition. Shastri, a right-hand bat who bowled left-arm spin and a winner of the 1983 Prudential World Cup, was on most occasions stoical and unyielding. He attributed his learnings during his fledgling days of playing tennis ball cricket at Mahim’s Navjivan Society, especially essaying inside-out shots over cover and extra cover (off-side field positions) as one of the reasons for him to tame leg spin wizard Shane Warne in the latter’s debut Test in Sydney in 1992. Shastri made 206. After being in the game for over four decades — as a player, coach and media personality, Shastri believes that a cricketer learns to be street smart in building compounds, leafy streets, and maidans in the Indian subcontinent and also parts of the Middle East. This particular Mumbai and Indian characteristic is the reason for the founding of the Indian Street Premier League (ISPL). The promoters are Ashish Shelar, a BJP bigwig in Mumbai and Maharashtra and BCCI Treasurer and Amol Kale, president, Mumbai Cricket Association. To start with six teams from Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Srinagar will play 19 matches from March 2 to 9 inside a stadium. A lot many things are not known, though; most importantly the player fee and prize money and plenty more!
For small mercies, there is not even a whispering campaign to sack Rohit Sharma as captain of the Indian team following the men in blue’s disappointing show and defeat to Australia in the World Cup. In fact, the “cricket diwane” have been quite sympathetic towards him because of the blistering and engaging ways of his batting, and leadership right through the quadrennial event campaign. But news in the grapevine is rife about the BCCI looking out for captains for white ball cricket. Still in the rehabilitation process after a left leg impairment that happened in the match against Bangladesh, Hardik Pandya has been replaced by Suryakumar Yadav for the five-match Twenty20 series against Australia. The selectors have also named Shreyas Iyer vice-captain for the last two matches at Raipur and.Bengaluru. It is not known if Pandya would be fit for the white ball (3 T20s and as many ODIs) series in South Africa to be played before Christmas: in his absence will the selection committee split the captaincy and give it to Yadav and KL Rahul? The two-Test series will be played from December 26 at the Centurion and Cape Town from January 3, 2024. And Rohit is certain to lead the team in these two matches. He had missed the previous series in South Africa that India lost 1-2 because of a hamstring niggle. India’s new WTC cycle starts with this two-Test series followed by the five-Test home series against England. India has captaincy options for the white ball format, but just Sharma for the Test rubbers.
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The numbers are out and the International Cricket Council (ICC) has shouted from the rooftop saying around 1,250,307 spectators kept the turnstiles busy in the course of the 45 round-robin league matches and three knockout matches (2 semifinals and a final). The numbers have proved that there are takers for the ICC’s signature events, most notably the men’s 50-over format World Cup. The number would be many times more if one took into account the tickets given to stakeholders other than the faithful. The ICC was lucky that the BCCI and thereby India, which was the only host, had the ready numbers willing to scrape the bottom of their pocket to get hold of the tickets made available online. One would be still disappointed by the turnout for the India-Australia final at the 132000 capacity Narendra Modi Stadium. The ICC said that 92000 plus turned up, less than the number announced for the India-Pakistan Twenty20 World Cup match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in October 2022. According to the ICC, 1,016,420 spectators passed through the turnstiles at the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand and 752,000 at the 2019 event in England and Wales. A delighted ICC said: “We would like to thank all the fans who contributed to making the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 such a resounding success, and look forward to sharing more thrilling experiences for everyone in future ICC events.” Truly India has kept the ICC event and the format alive and kicking!
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Should not have Rohit Sharma looked at the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup final as a completely different ball game! Applauded for his brutal hitting to maximise the potential to gather runs in the first 10 over power play up to the semi-finals, Sharma had an opportunity to rise to the occasion and show a ruthless approach that would have taken Australia and its captain Pat Cummins by surprise. Having been invited to bat, Sharma, according to the discerning, should have accepted the challenge by choosing defence as an option to blend it with his aggression and bat deep. Probably close to 40 overs. “Australia and Cummins should have seen his face for many, many overs. This unyielding attitude and approach would have taken his game tactically to the next level,” felt a handful of former first-class cricketers. Sharma’s leather hunting methods brought him 597 runs off 474 balls, but the blind shot he attempted of the off-spinner Glenn Maxwell resulted only in a slice and once the ball was skied, Travis Head pounced on it to give the marching orders to Sharma. A chance to become a World Cup legend was lost: 1575 runs in three World Cups would not make him one. His 47 off 31 and 44 minutes was good, but not as good as Marnus Labuchagne’s 58 not out off 110 balls and 133 minutes which has to be seen as the greatest support cast role played to the grand knock of an unbeaten 137 off 120 balls and in 166 minutes by Head.
Virender Sehwag has been a smashing hit — in the traditional multi-day Test cricket and one-day internationals. Quick to earn the “Prince of Najafgarh” sobriquet because of his fearless and entertaining style of wielding the willow, the Delhi dasher thumped a 70-ball 100 against New Zealand at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground in Colombo in August 2001. It was his maiden ODI century (15th match and 13th innings). In the next 12 years, he blitzed 14 more centuries in the 50-over format, including a double and scored 8273 runs. He was a trailblazer in many ways, changing the grammar of batting, “My philosophy was ” see the ball, hit the ball, not watch the ball and play the ball” the charismatic Sehwag told Ian Bishop at the ICC Hall of Fame, The Class of 2023 celebrity event at the Taj Lands End. Sehwag played 374 matches for India across formats and scored 17253 runs in a glittering career spanning one and a half decades. Having played in 251 ODIs and won a World Cup in the 50-over format, he believes there is no need to tinker with it anymore. “Why” he quipped when prodded to respond to the prevailing refrain that the ODI format needs to be reviewed for bilateral series between ICC member countries. The ICC should be pleased with Sehwag’s perception at its event. He also feels that all Test-playing countries should adopt the ‘Bazball” way of playing the game over five days — with emphasis on entertainment.
TRENDS & VIEWS
Editor’s Note: Big Punch In Small Pack
It is the Third Anniversary of Short Post and as a news media startup launched during the Covid-19 pandemic it certainly feels better than good to find ourselves where we are today. Here, I must cite the unstinted support of our seasoned contributors, all senior editors in the country, who brought a great degree of maturity and sagacity to the Short Post newsroom. But for them, our tagline “Authentic Gossip”, an Oxymoron, would not have matured viably. Our user numbers may be small but our stories have created the desired impact among people who matter — decision makers and influencers. We offer a big punch in a small pack and Short Post with its 225-word stories has been punching above its weight category. Having posted close to 3,000 stories in the last 36 months, Short Post, I feel, is an idea whose time has come.
And this is vindicated by our two marquee advertisers – IDFC FIRST Bank and ICICI Lombard. Both believed in our story and have supported us from Day one. A big thank you to both.
If you look at the media landscape – print, TV and digital — it is a mixed bag. There are job losses as some outfits have closed down while a lucky few were bailed out by large corporate houses. Yes, there is a lot of action in the digital space. However, the entry of corporate houses has raised the question of independence of news media outfits. Sadly, there are just a handful of independent media outfits in the country that are highly respected for their neutrality. At Short Post, our credo is not to take sides, prejudge issues or be biased but, informing readers of behind-the-scenes happenings. In essence, Short Post strives to be a neutral editorial platform — neither anti-establishment nor pro-establishment.
As I said last year, disruptions in the media world are moving at a fast and furious pace. Technology is playing a very big role in how content is generated and consumed. But, we are neither alarmed nor perturbed as it is all a part of the evolution process. What gives us comfort is that AI is unable to create original gossipy content. And that is the news arena where we have achieved a distinction.