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Rohit Sharma — as he would do to a wayward delivery around his pads — deflected a sensitive question related to Virat Kohli being sick while he scored his Test century No 28 at the Narendra Modi Stadium on March 12. Sharma said “It’s funny what people talk about on social media. For us, we don’t really respond or look into what’s happening (in social media). I don’t think he’s sick, he was just coughing a little bit. He’s not that bad health-wise.” He also went on to say that the splendid century Kohli scored (after more than three years) in Test match cricket did not in any way was like getting the monkey off his back. Kohli himself was thrilled to play a big part in India outsmarting Australia in the first inning of the fourth Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Sharma endorsed Kohli’s classy eight and a half dig saying: “He’s just enjoying his cricket at the moment. Obviously, he wants to put up big performances for the team which he has done in the past so many years. He just wants to do that every time he plays for India.” The question raised at the post match media interaction was a reference to Kohli’s wife Anushka Sharma’s social media post that stated: “Playing through sickness with his composure, inspiring me always.” All that can be said about the drawn Test is that Kohli gave a solid masterclass on slow and drab pitch.
Three Test matches have been played in the four-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy and the pitches at all three venues have been damned by the International Cricket Council (ICC) Match Referees. Zimbabwe’s Andy Pycroft gave an “average” rating for the pitch at Nagpur’s Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium and New Delhi’s Feroz Shah Kotla, and England’s Chris Broad did not hesitate to give a “poor” rating to the Holkar Stadium pitch, Indore. The ratings were as good as anyone, from a fan to official, would have imagined after seeing the behaviour of the pitch right in all three Tests put together, but the moot point is which entity should take the blame for the quality of the pitches for international matches played in India. Officials of the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA) were peeved that it had to face the flak, when fingers should have been pointed at the BCCI pitch and ground committee representatives who supervise the pitch preparation. The team management would not admit, but the officials of the BCCI member associations have divulged that the pitches have been prepared at the behest of an influential support staff member in order to suit the team’s spinners. The Indore pitch has been given three demerit points and the MPCA is fuming because they are not at fault. What’s in store in Ahmedabad is anybody’s guess!
Given the option, India chose one of the black soil varieties and got the two ends of pitch (in front of the batter) scoured to the extent it desired, and yet got the taste of its own medicine in the third Test at the Holkar Stadium, Indore. It appears that a pitch of the red soil make-up was the initial preferred choice of the home team, but people privy to what goes on between the team management and the State association said that a black soil that deters consistent bounce was ordered to be prepared four days before the start of the Test. It was on a pitch of like texture that India dictated terms in Nagpur and New Delhi, but the team that was vanquished there hit back and outplayed India in the end by nine wickets. Pitches in India have always been tinkered with to suit its spin-strength with the ultimate aim of winning the home series. The last Test will be played at Motera in Ahmedabad, where the prime ministers of the two countries will be in attendance on March 9. The pattern of the black soil pitch is likely to be pursued for yet another time in the last Test. Two years ago England lost two Test matches in five days at Motera in Ahmedabad, but Australia turned out to be a tough customer in Indore and it will be tough to beat now in the series-ending match in Ahmedabad.
The Chetan Sharma episode is done and dusted with the former India fast bowler turned national selector chucking away a handsome salary of well over Rs 1 crore. Into his second month of his third year as Chairman of the selection committee, Sharma spoke about confidential matters related to the national team and players to a private channel and got punished; he was compelled to quit. After the 2008 BCCI AGM the selectors have been paid and made more accountable. Former players began to covet the selector’s post because there were ample rewards. Sharma’s resignation has reduced the selection panel to four members and the BCCI has not started the process of filling up the fifth post. Three years ago the BCCi had to petition the Supreme Court to restore the composition of the selection committee to five from the three proposed by the Lodha Committee and endorsed by the Court. The selectors are appointed by the BCCI upon receiving recommendation from its Cricket Advisory Committee. The other selectors are Shiv Sundar Das, Sridharan Sharath, Subroto Banerjee and Salil Ankola. There will be a number of aspirants from North Zone to fill the vacancy caused by Sharma’s exit. Recently the BCCI carried on with four selectors after Abey Kuruvilla ceased to be a selector because of the rules and regulations related to the term of office.
Wll KL Rahul get captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahil Dravid’s nod for the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, set to start in Indore on March 1? This is a million dollar question that is weighing in the minds of the cricket faithful with the four Test series going through a lull because of a long break after India closed out the second Test at the Feroz Shah Kotla inside three days. Rahul has opened for India in 75 innings, scored 2551 runs for an average of 34.95, but the numbers had dipped to 17.13 in 2021 and further declined to 12.67 in two Tests against Australia this year. The poor numbers over a span of six Tests had set off strong opinions against his inclusion for the last two Tests. But the team management is looking at his 2021 average which is a high 46.10 with two centuries. Sharma and Dravid believe in giving proven and new players a good run to be judged, and that Rahul has been included for the Tests at Indore and Ahmedabad is an indication of the team management’s faith in the out-of-form opener. Rahul could also be part of the team should India qualify for the ICC Test Championship final to be played in the UK where he scored 149 at The Oval and 129 at Lord’s in the 2021 series.
Jaydev Unadkat led by example for Saurashtra to win the coveted Ranji Trophy for the second time in three seasons. It’s a fitting tribute to his unyielding attitude — in addition to the skillsets he has acquired as a seamer, and leadership qualities too — that saw him play the pivotal role in the final played against Bengal at the Eden Gardens. The BCCI released him from the India squad after the Nagpur Test against Australia and Unadkat responded in a remarkable manner taking nine wickets in the title match; virtually cleaning up the Bengal batting line up on the fourth day with a spectacular 6 for 85. Ignored for long after he made his Test debut against South Africa at the Centurion in December 2010, Unadkat toiled for the next 12 years in the domestic circuit; and he could no longer be overlooked after he bagged 122 wickets in season 2018-19 and 2019-20. And this season he has taken 43 wickets in the Ranji Trophy to take his overall first class tally to 382 wickets. Truly, it has been a Herculean effort by the left arm seamer. Recently he staged a Test comeback after 12 years, against Bangladesh at Mirpur. As expected, 31-year old Unadkat is back in the Indian team for the third and fourth Tests against Australia. Unadkat has shown that commitment and effort will not go unrewarded. Hats off to him!
The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) deserves a pat on its back for conducting a four-team women’s league with seven matches being played under lights at the Wankhede Stadium. Mumbai is the winner of the Ranji Trophy for 41 times, and for long, it has been the powerhouse in Indian cricket; the India captain Rohit Sharma is from Mumbai. That the MCA has taken the lead in putting in place a Women’s League — that can only expand in the future — points to a positive thinking by its Apex Council steered by its President Amol Kale and Secretary Ajinkya Naik. An initiative for a defray of around Rs 5 lakh, plus the prize money, is no big deal for MCA, but the lead it has taken has the potential to cause ripple effects in India. Established and budding talents in and around the Mumbai Metropolitan Region played in the inaugural league; now the MCA must walk the extra mile and become proactive in spreading the game to schools and colleges. It is also not too late to explore the feasibility of founding a multi-day league for the top clubs, to start with, for men. This will sustain the supply line for the Ranji Trophy tournament. An annual contract for its senior men’s team would also be in order. The MCA should not dilly-dally this financial aspect that provides security to the uncapped players.
For over a decade Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have teased and taunted batters and turned out to be stellar performers with the ball. Both finger spinners of the off-break and orthodox left arm variety, have stamped their class against Australia in a home series. Ashwin had 50 Australian scalps before the start of the first Test at Nagpur and Jadeja, 49 for a total of 99 in eight matches of the 2012-13 and 2016-2017 series. On Thursday (Feb 9), Jadeja sporting a ponytail on his return to Test cricket after seven months, plotted the downfall of five Australian batters and Ashwin mopped up three to take their tally past the 100-plus mark against visitors from the antipodes. These two are now 41 wickets away from Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble’s combined collection of 148 wickets against Australia at home. Ashwin and Jadeja will get a chance to bridge the gap in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Ashwin had crossed Kapil Dev’s record of 434 wickets in his 85th Test and on the first day of his 89th Test, he crossed the 450 wicket mark. He and Jadeja have proved to be the most effective pair after Ashwin and left arm spinner Pragyan Ojha took a bucketfull of wickets in home conditions. The success of Ashwin and Jadeja will determine India’s passage to the ICC World Test Championship final.
The team that has immortalised the Baggy Green cap is in India, and no wonder there is so much buzz around it because of the quality of the pitches (speculated though) that will be rolled out for the four Tests at Nagpur, New Delhi, Dharamsala and Ahmedabad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Australia needs to win one Test and India much more to proceed to the final of the ICC World Test Championship in London. Pitches in India in the past have been notoriously described as dubious, snake pits and what not. A few decades ago, Steve Waugh chose the mental disintegration strategy and labelled a Test series in India as the final frontier. He succeeded against most countries, but not in India. He lost 1-2 the famous series of 2001 when Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman turned the Kolkata Test around on its head with a 376 run stand. India went on to win the Chepauk Test too. The present captain, Pat Cummins, who won the home Ashes series against England 4-0 and beat Pakistan in its backyard 1-0, is hoping to outwit India in India for the first time in nearly 19 years. Cummins has not lost a Test series, but he and Australia know that India will be a tough nut to crack at home. In the last four home Test series against Australia, India won 10 Tests as against Australia’s one win.
Shubman Gill has been in good nick this season; he has collected plenty of runs, boosted by a maiden Test century in Bangladesh. He sustained his form in the home white ball series against Sri Lanka and New Zealand piling up 567 runs in six innings with big scores of 116 against Sri Lanka and 208 and 112 against New Zealand. The lean right-handed opener also showed his class with a lovely knock of 126 not out in the last Twenty20 match against New Zealand at Ahmedabad. In such great touch with the willow, executing splendid ground and aerial shots, Gill is virtually coercing the team management to pick him for the four Test series against Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. India has to be on the positive side of the results in order to travel to the UK for the ICC World Test Championship title match in June. Gill is likely to be a walk into the XI because Shreyas Iyer needs time to mend his back ailment, but he will find the Australian bowling combination tough to deal with. He looked the part making 259 runs in three Tests of the 2020-21 series in Australia, but thereafter he did not set the home series against England on fire in early 2021. But with another one year of international cricket under his belt, he must be feeling a bit better before the litmus Test against Pat Cummins and company.
Women’s cricket in India got a shot in the arm when its Under-19 team led by Shafali Verma beat its counterpart from England with clinical efficiency in the final to win the inaugural ICC Women’s Under-19 Twenty20 in South Africa. For long India’s senior women’s teams showed a lot of promise, but flopped in the ICC events. Now the pressure is on the team led by Harmanpreet Kaur to win the ICC Women’s World Twenty20 in South Africa. The BCCI Secretary Jay Shah has announced a cash award of Rs 5 crore to the under-19 team. But there could be bigger rewards for the under-19 players when the auction is held for the inaugural Women’s Premier League that has a media rights worth Rs 951 crore and the five team owners have agreed to shell out Rs 4669.99 crore for the first 10 seasons. So the win by Shafali’s team could not have come at a better time than this. Not long ago there were doubts about the WPL getting quality Indian players, but it appears now that there will be decent numbers in the basket for the five franchise owners to pick from. The likes of opening batter Shweta Sehrawat, fast bowler Titas Sadhu, leg-spinner Parshavi Chopra, all-rounder Trisha Gongadi and left -arm spinner Mannat Kashyap, are likely to be in demand at the WPL auction.
Mumbai’s cricketing fortunes in recent times has been like a curate’s egg; while on the one hand the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) has contributed to the national team, going back to from the heady days of Sunil Gavaskar’s achievements, on the other hand the cricketers representing the famous Lion Crest has not been able to maintain consistency in winning the Ranji Trophy, the symbol of supremacy in the broader context of India’s cricketing canvas. Last year it was outwitted by Madhya Pradesh in the final in Bengaluru, and on Friday (Jan 27), the MCA team marshalled by Ajinkya Rahane could not outsmart Maharashtra in the last group match, and as a consequence has been left by the wayside. Mumbai has won the Ranji Trophy 41 times, and those who have played a part in it have left a legacy to follow. The past teams played for pride. This season Mumbai did not have the class of 2009-10 and 2012-2013 when led by Ajit Agarkar and 2015-2016 when the team had champions and budding talents in Dhawal Kulkarni, Shardul Thakur, Shreyas Iyer, Siddhesh Lad and Suryakumar Yadav. Mumbai has the exalted reputation as a champion side; and so, going seven years on the trot without the title will hurt the true blue Mumbai cricketer. From 2002-03 to 2015-16, Mumbai won the title seven times, it’s been barren thereafter!
Hope and ambition has turned into despair and anguish for the Indian men’s hockey team that was predicted to work wonders at the FIH Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup in Bhubaneswar and Rourkela. Former stalwarts had gone to the extent of saying that the team will finish among the top three. But as it transpired India did not show the gumption to defend a 3-1 score, allowed New Zealand to restore parity and eventually lost in a shoot-out finish. The team that won the bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics last year had looked a world class side, but it could not brush aside the challenge posed by the Kiwis which was beaten 0-4 by Germany and 2-3 by Malaysia in the Group matches. The team came short on penalty corner conversions, but the experts are probably right in saying that India ought not to have frittered away the 3-1 advantage. It was a shock defeat because no Indian side had lost to New Zealand in the previous six clashes starting from July 2018. Odisha which has spent over Rs 1,000 crore to host the World Cup, and the State’s chief minister Naveen Patnaik must be a touch disappointed with India’s defeat in the PQF. Many believed that India would actually win the World Cup after 48 years. But it’s once again a sob story.
Mohinder ‘Jimmy’ Amarnath once called the national selectors a bunch of jokers. A 1983 World Cup hero, Amarnath made the acerbic jibe at the selectors after not being picked in the Indian team in 1989: by that time he had played 69 Tests, scored 4378 runs with 11 x 100s, and played 89 ODIs and scored 1924 runs. Some three decades later, young and built in ample measure, Sarfaraz Khan is not in a position to take pot shots at the selectors that Amarnath did. The Mumbai right hander has been prolific in the last three Ranji Trophy seasons. In all he has amassed 3380 runs in 36 first class matches before the ongoing Ranji match against Delhi. There has been a hue and cry over his non-inclusion in the Test team for the series against Australia, the outcome of which would be so crucial for India’s qualification for the ICC World Test Championship final. Skipper Rohit Sharma would like us all to believe that experience is the best option with himself, K L Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer in the established batting line up and the selection committee may believe that Ishan Kishan, KS Bharat, Suryakumar Yadav, Abhimanyu Easwaran (10000 plus runs across formats) and Rajat Patidar are already in the big picture along with Sarfaraz who will have to wait for the lucky day.
Women’s cricket in India is going places. Not long ago an IPLTwenty20 tournament to shore up India’s distaff cricketers was not on the anvil. But the likes of Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur, Jemima Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Richa Ghosh, Deepti Sharma, Harleen Deol and many more — who were relentless in their pursuit creating an attractive brand for the Twenty20 format – have successfully pressed for a glamourous event that has the possibility of becoming a roaring success. Very recently Jhulan Goswami — while responding to a specific question at the Dileep Sardesai Memorial — reiterated a view held by women cricketers that an IPL for them would be a game changer. Jhulan touched upon the point of the women cricketers benefitting from more money. It has taken time, but the BCCI Secretary Jay Shah, has worked overtime to make his pet project a reality. After women’s cricket came under the BCCI administration some 17 years ago, the BCCI extended the monthly gratis to them, introduced the annual contract, lifetime achievement award, equal fee for Test, ODI and Twenty20 matches, allowances and more. As a first step towards making the WIPL a commercial viability the BCCI has sold the media rights for a cumulative sum of Rs 951 crore to Viacom18 for the first five years (2023-2027). So hopefully no more exhibition matches from this summer; but all intense, competitive and deadly!
Remember Shantanu Sugwekar, the most talented batsman from Maharashtra in the 1980s and 1990s? Known for solidity and style, Sugwekar was one of those unlucky from Maharashtra who could not convince the national selectors that they were good enough to play Test match cricket for India. Milind Gunjal, Surendhra Bhave and a handful more like Shrikant Kalyani, Shrikant Jadhav and Santosh Jedhe gave their heart and soul for Maharashtra but none of them could tick the box that would have enabled them to play for India. They were fine individuals too, but somehow the voters of the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) do not seem to appreciate their contribution to the State’s cricket. At the MCA election, Sugwekar who has played 74 Ranji Trophy for Maharashtra, 10 Duleep Trophy matches and one Irani Cup match for Rest of India and scored in all 6563 runs with 19 centuries and 26 half centuries and played 46 limited over matches and for India under-19 — received just two votes; his own and from another. The 56-year-old was a candidate for the post of a councilor; he did not fit into the internecine politics played by the MCA members. One can only pity, the likes of Sugwekar who are keen to get into administration but end up as also-rans. We care a fig for what you have done, is the message voters seem to be telling him.
The Indian cricket fan is so unique to the world of cricket; in the sense that he/she buys a ticket only with a fond hope of seeing the national team win even if the chips are down. About 25000 turned up at the Wankhede Stadium on January 3 and a narrow home team win — by 2 runs — resulted in a bigger turn out for the second match at the MCA International Stadium, near Pune. Hardly anyone among the 30,000 plus was ready to leave after Sri Lanka had dismissed the top 5 Indian batters for a frugal collection of 57 runs. The reason for not giving up hope; Suryakumar Yadav (SKY) was still in the middle. Such has been the kind of impact SKY has made on the Indian fan in a very short span of time, thanks to the slam bang variety of the sport. And SKY has his own inimitable style to executive strokes that can be found in coaching manuals and also find ways using his hands and wrists to send the ball racing to the fence and also soaring over the line. Though left hander Axar Patel swung that bat for optimum results to make the Sri Lankans anxious, Yadav roared into action to bring India close to the target. The Indian cricket fan was thrilled by the Yadav- Patel onslaught, but a tad disappointed by the 16-run defeat.
The return of Jasprit Bumrah for the three-match one-day series against Sri Lanka was the biggest news on Tuesday (Dec 3). Bumrah has been India’s linchpin for almost seven years, but he missed the Asia Cup Twenty20 in September before making a brief appearance against Australia at Nagpur. He was ruled out of the ICC World Twenty20 in Australia. According to the BCCI the fast bowler who has taken 319 international wickets for India in 1893 overs has been declared fit by the Bengaluru-based National Cricket Academy. Bumrah was laid low by a serious back ailment. He was kept in cotton wool in order to give him a chance to fully rehabilitate himself for the four Test series against Australia set to start in Nagpur on February 9. India beat Bangladesh in the Two-Test series recently and is placed No 2 in the ICC World Test Championship cycle. A fit as a fiddle Bumrah will strengthen India’s attack, although he has taken only 14 of his 128 Test wickets at home. Clearly the spin friendly tracks will bring the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel into the picture against Australia, but Bumrah’s value as a speedster just cannot be discounted. In the last Test match he played against Sri Lanka in India 10 months ago, he took 5 and 3 wickets.
It can be surmised that the non-selection of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, K L Rahul and Bhuvneshwar Kumar for the three-match Twenty20 series against Sri Lanka has to be seen as an upshot of India’s dismal showing in the Asia Cup in the UAE and in the ICC Twenty20 World Cup in Australia. India did not qualify for the semi-finals in the Continental tournament and was beaten hollow by England in the semi-finals of the World Twenty20. India was very lucky to get past Pakistan in the first match at Melbourne and rain-interruption paved the way for its win against Bangladesh and advance to the knock out. Overall, India, as a team, was far from convincing in the entire tournament in Australia. Kohli, though did show some pluck in Dubai and Australia. All are into their 30s and hence definite non-starters for the 2024 Twenty20 World Cup in the Caribbean and USA. Failing to show the way for the team, and errors in team selection, has perhaps hastened Sharma’s exit from the Twenty20 scheme of things. That Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav have been named the captain and vice captain for the series against Sri Lanka is a clear hint that the BCCI wants a change and build a team for the future. A lot can change in the next 22 months, but one thing is certain and that’s the Twenty20 careers of Sharma and his ilk has seen the last days.
After all, the TATA IPL player auction at Kochi turned out to be a far cry from a Mickey Mouse event! The so-called mini auction — the franchises had retained the core players — had all the ingredients to make the bidding of a few celebrity players electrifying. From the time Harry Brook — five innings, 56 runs, average 11.20 at the recent ICC World Twenty20 in Australia — was bought by Kavya Maran’s Sunrisers Hyderabad for Rs 13.25 crore, it was more or less a given that the real world cup winners in Jos Buttler’s England team would win a lottery. The Sunrisers were led by Brook’s numbers against Pakistan in Twenty20 and in the recent Test series in Pakistan (6 innings, 468 runs, 3 x 100s) and went after him. Then Sam Curran’s happy red-carpet home coming to Punjab Kings cost Ness Wadia Rs 18.50 crore. Chennai Super Kings in search of an all-rounder, motivator and leader got Ben Stokes for Rs 16.25 crore. The Ambanis armed Mumbai Indians with Australian Cameroon Green paying Rs 17.50 crore. The England players were bought for Rs 56.4 crore, a big chunk of Rs 167 crore spent. England’s World Twenty20 win in Australia, after thrashing India in the semi-finals, has indeed tickled the fancy of the franchises upon the Currans, Stokes and Brooks. And Joe Root for Rs 1 crore!
There is so much hue and cry around Kuldeep Yadav, all emanating from Bangladesh. Recalled for a multi-day Test match after a gap of 21 months — for the first Test at Chattogram — he took eight wickets, scored 40 runs, was declared the man of the match and then what happens! Dropped for the second Test at Dhaka because of the appearance of a green-top surface. Instead of Yadav, skipper K L Rahul goes for left arm seamer Jaydev Unadkat who had played his previous Test in the winter of 2010! The tour selection committee’s choice of the seamer over the spinner has warranted a thumbs down reaction from former India captain and media personality Sunil Gavaskar. Obviously Yadav must have been hurt when he was informed about the captain’s decision. Not long ago, Kuldeep was one half of the callow, “Kul-Cha” spin-pair; the second half being Yuzvendra Chahal. These two wrist spinners of the unorthodox variety had replaced the then successful finger spinners, Ravichandran Ashwin- Ravindra Jadeja duo. Following their inability to get wickets against Pakistan in the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy, both were given the short shrift. Yadav and Chahal held their own — though Chahal never played for India in whites. Soon Yadav fell by the wayside and after a long time staged a successful comeback before the colour of the surface brought the axe down on him!
The Qatar22 FIFA World Cup began with Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Lionel Messi creating all the noise because each one of them was chasing a dream of laying their hands on the silverware, but by the semi-finals the noise became shriller and around the two icons, Messi and Kylian Mbappe. Now that Messi has crowned himself with glory, the football world is trying to trigger a debate on the individual brilliance of Mbappe and another young kid on the block, 22-year old Norwegian Erling Haaland whose country was absent at Qatar. The Leeds born Haaland is a No 9 centre forward and plays for Manchester City for which he has played 13 matches and scored 18 goals in the EPL. He has played 23 matches for Norway and scored 21 goals. Mbappe has already earned the sobriquet “Bomber in the Box” and his hattrick in the final at Doha against Argentina has vaulted him to the super star category. Both are sprinters and they stun their opponents with explosive runs and reactions, a terrific virtue that is going to be copied by the present generation. Mbappe has already won the World Cup (in Russia 2018) and the silver and Golden Boot at Qatar, whereas Haaland will most probably make his World Cup debut in 2026 when 48 teams qualify for the FIFA World Cup Finals in the USA, Canada and Mexico.
Everything has fallen in place for the grand final of the Qatar22 FIFA World Cup on Sunday (Dec 18). The showpiece event that will bring the curtain down to one of the most unique World Cups is already billed as the clash of the Titans – between a legend in Lionel Messi and superstar Kylian Mbappe, a legend in the making. These two are the only premium class stalwarts who will be seen in action that will deliver the Champion side — Argentina or France. Both the teams lost a match each to Arabic speaking sides — Saudi Arabia and Tunisia in the group stage. But now the time is upon Argentina to win the World Cup for Messi, while Mbappe who has already won it in Russia’18, is anxious to win back to back for himself and for France. The crowd that will be close to 90000 at the Lusail Iconic Stadium — much of it wearing the blue vertical triband top — will root for Argentina. On another aspect, Mbappe and Messi have scored five goals each and so there is another race in the final for the Golden Boot that’s awarded to the highest goal scorer in the tournament. But Argentina’s Julian Alvarez and France’s Olivier Giroud with four goals each could come into the reckoning after the final. The number of assists and less time on the pitch will determine the winner.
There is so much at stake in the two-Test series against Bangladesh that starts at Chattogram on December 14. India is placed fourth in the ICC Test Championship race for the 2021-23 cycle; it should be recalled that India lost to New Zealand in the final of the inaugural Test championship at Southampton last year. India, to be led by K L Rahul — in the absence of the injured Rohit Sharma — cannot afford to lose to Bangladesh. Only wins against Bangladesh will keep India in the fray; Australia is topping the leader board and it needs small points to assure itself of a place in the final. In fact, only positive results against Bangladesh will keep the home series against Australia in February-March alive. India is scheduled to play four Tests against Australia. Apart from Australia, the others in the running for the title match are South Africa and Sri Lanka which are placed second and third on the points table. Pakistan has virtually seen its hopes vanish following the Test series loss to England, which again is not really in the running. India’s problem is that it doesn’t have Sharma, fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammad Shami. It’s going to be a tough for the stand-in skipper Rahul who said: “We know where we stand and what we need to do to qualify for the final.’’
The Qatar22 FIFA World Cup has whittled down to 8 teams from a high number of 32. A great chance for each one of the qualifiers of the quarter-finalists to give their best shot. As the former Australian cricket captain Steve Waugh said once; teams have to make their own luck. Brazil, the five time winner has been having the bragging rights as the king of the sport, but it faces the banana slip situation against the former Yugoslavia country — Croatia — in one of the quarter-finals clashes today, and Argentina faces the stoical Netherlands in another quarter-final brush. The Lionel Messi bandwagon was full throated at the popular hangout at downtown Doha on Thursday night (Dec 8) — Souq Wakif and Msheireb — and so were the Moroccan supporters dancing to the Arabic beat. The outcome of the last 8 will decide whether the champions of the last decade and more — Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Luka Modric — will go home or extend their stay here. The drama will continue on December 10 with the England Manager Gareth Southgate making moves to show the way for skipper Harry Kane to stop France’s Kylian Mbappe and eventually do a Bobby Moore (captain of England’s World Cup winning team in 1966) and Portugal’s new kid on the block Ramos taking the start and the centre stage against the Atlas Lions, Morocco.
Rankings in the FIFA men’s is an indicator of the consistent performance of the teams in international tournaments over a period of time, and the outcome of the group stage matches and six pre-quarter finals confirms the standings of the top notch teams. Brazil, Argentina, France, England, Netherlands and Croatia feature in the top 12 rankings and they have taken their place in the quarter finals at Doha. Portugal takes on Switzerland and Spain will compete against the North African country Morocco in the last two rounds of 16 matches on Tuesday, matches that will bring a near perfect finish before the last eight ! Only Belgium, the No 2 ranked nation and a football powerhouse, Germany, Ranked No 11, do not figure in the race for the title. FIFA could not have been more happier than being in the present position with the popular teams from South America, Brazil and Argentina advancing to sustain the interest and also the European teams like England and France showing their mettle to drive the Qatar22 FIFA World Cup. The entry of Spain and Portugal to the last eight will give a thumbs up to the FIFA Rankings. Not just the teams, the champion performers like Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, Neymar and Harry Kane have played their part to keep their country’s flag flying and so also, FIFA’s.
Roger Binny is on a sticky wicket. A genuine all-rounder who manipulated the red cherry in an expert way, bagged plenty of wickets and played his part in India’s 1983 Prudential World Cup win, has been issued a Conflict of Interest (COI) notice by the BCCI’s Ethics Officer, Vineet Saran. Binny, 67, was elected unopposed as the president of the BCCI in October. He succeeded former India captain Sourav Ganguly. He has been asked to reply to the COI related notice before December 20. The apparent reason for the COI charge is that his daughter-in- law Mayanti Langer has a contract with Star Sports, the COI rule which is part of Justice Lodha’s Reforms in Cricket report, is seen now as a nuisance by the administrators and people in general are appalled that a non-controversial person like Binny has to face the charge at the instance of vested interests. A former senior functionary of the BCCI, Prof. Ratnakar Shetty says: “The COI rules need to be reviewed in the interest of BCCI.’’ He believes many cricketers are deprived the opportunity to be part of the cricket administration at the State and National level. Recently the BCCI got relief for a number of issues related to the governance aspect from the Supreme Court. The time has arrived for the COI rule to be reviewed and the Apex Court appointed Amicus to step in.
Once the Qatar22 FIFA World Cup got rolling on November 20 with the match between Qatar and Ecuador, millions of fans have been engrossed in watching all the action with great relish. There would be disappointment among the locals because Qatar — which got an entry into the draw 32 because it had won the rights to be the host country — has been knocked out even before playing the last group match against the Netherlands. But the fans are having their fill of joy seeing the stars like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi scoring goals in their last World Cup. There have been quite a few thrillers like the match between Cameroon and Serbia, and Ghana and South Korea displaying the African brand of football. The FIFA and Qatar which has delivered an outstanding World Cup so far needs to be contended; there have been minor irritants, but these can happen in a tournament as humongous as the quadrennial event itself. The tournament will soon enter the Group of 16 from whereon elimination of teams will begin. But the happy news for the fans is Brazil, France and Portugal with six points have entered the Round 2 where the matches will turn into a real skirmish. Argentina’s fate will be known on Wednesday — it plays Poland — and England known on Tuesday night after its match against Wales.
Brazil, popularly known as Selecao, proved it is a class apart! For decades the many stalwarts of the South American country – a five-time World Cup Trophy winner (the Jules Rimet Trophy/ FIFA World Cup) — have proved to be the prime crowd pullers of the game and on Thursday (Nov 24) put out a number that validated its undisputed claim. The stunning Lusail Stadium awash with Brazil’s yellow top was packed with 88103 spectators, which was a few thousands shy of the 92000 plus spectators who filled the Melbourne Cricket Ground in the India versus Pakistan match of the ICC Men’s Twenty20 World Cup on October 23. While the opening match between Qatar and Ecuador was seen by 67372 spectators here at Doha that can take pride in having created a fantastic Metro Network to make the transportation of the public easy and comfortable, Thursday was always marked as the `D’ Day for the 22nd edition of the competition here. Lionel Messi’s Argentina had already triggered interest with a spectator count of 88102 in the match it lost to Saudi Arabia at the Lusail, and Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal attracted a crowd of 42662 in its first appearance with a 3-2 triumph against Ghana in the third match on Thursday, Neymar’s Brazil team with a 2-0 win against Serbia made it a perfect day for its fans and for the FIFA too!
Nothing spectacular may have happened in two days — match wise — of the Qatar22 FIFA World Cup at Doha. One of the smallest countries in the world area wise — the Persian Gulf country ranked as the 164th tiny-dot nation in the globe, higher than Jamaica, Gambia and Lebanon, and below Falkland Islands, Vanuatu, Montenegro and Bahamas — is hosting the greatest sporting event, having won the bid long long ago. Qatar and FIFA’s masterstroke was that it rostered the 29-day event in November and December when the weather bureaus would report cooler climes and not in keeping with the trend of scheduling the event between May and July. So far four matches have been played and all have reported excellent numbers with the opening match between Qatar and the fourth qualifier from South America, Ecuador reporting a 60000 plus turnout at the Bedouin-tent shaped Al Bayt Stadium. As the FIFA president Gianni Infantino articulated, attention has riveted on the beautiful game’s spectators who have saved hard-earned money for years to be part of the celebration of football in the Arab World. Qatar has been held in awe and admiration by the football community, but one has to raise a toast to the thousands of volunteers whose polite department has played its part in giving Qatar an exalted place in the football map of the World.
Qatar22 FIFA World Cup is almost upon us with the host nation — hoping to progress to the Group of 16 (second stage) — all set to challenge Ecuador, the fourth smallest nation in South America in the inaugural match on Sunday (Nov 20). Easily one of the greatest sports spectacle in the world ever since it was founded in 1930, the sport of football — that earned the sobriquet” The Beautiful Game” and was popularised by the greatest ever player — Brazilian Pele — has a mass appeal nonpareil. The Arab world’s first World Cup will be FIFA’s 22nd and the title has been won by Brazil five times, Germany and Italy four times each, Argentina, France and Uruguay two times each and England and Spain once each. As usual Brazil is the strong favourite to win the title and give Neymar his first World Cup, followed by Argentina which hopes to win the Cup and decorate Lionel Messi’s illustrious career. Cristiano Ronaldo will take the centre stage once again but his team Portugal is not as fancied as Brazil and Argentina or even Germany, England and France, the winner of the title four years ago in Russia. The Italians will be missed, but 32 qualifiers in eight groups will portray their brand of football to the millions watching the matches at the venues and on the small screen.
Will heads roll following the Men in Blue team’s inept display against England in the semi-finals of the ICC Men’s Twenty20 World Cup in Australia? Not just going down to the Jos Buttler-led team, but beaten hollow defending a competitive total of 168 was most disappointing, which mirrored the inability of the bowling department to rise above the commonplace. The discerning were quite appalled at the team’s think tank for ignoring the claims of leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal right across the tournament. Rishabh Pant and Chahal ought to have been given permanency on the back of Pant’s run-getting ability on Australian pitches and the potential of Chahal in the big grounds. The BCCI whose president now is Roger Binny and the selection committee must look for ways to cause a big churn in the composition of the white ball teams. Hardik Pandya has to be the front-runner to take over as Twenty20 captain. Perhaps also the one day format should his back does not flare up. The team needs to come out of the stereotype. The choices are limited; Pant has been named the vice-captain of the white ball teams and he could be given a run before next year’s World Cup in India. The BCCI is not known for knee jerk reactions… but fresh ideas are the need of the hour.
The ICC Men’s Twenty20 World Cup began on a promising note for India when it scored a thrilling win against Pakistan at the Melbourne Ground on the first Sunday of the tournament ( Oct 23). Pakistan’s batting mentor and former Australian opener, Mathew Hayden said that he has not seen a sporting spectacle like that at the MCG, a famous cricket venue. Around 92000 paying spectators saw the India-Pakistan match The unfortunate aspect though is that India was given a sound thrashing by the England openers Jos Buttler and Alex Hales in the semi-finals whereupon Rohit Sharma’s team was ejected out of the final. India will not forget the drubbing. And as a consequence the vanquisher of the first Super 12 match will not be present in the cup final whereas the vanquished in the first match — Pakistan will play the final against England. Beaten in the final of the Asia Cup in September by Sri Lanka, Pakistan is raring to go in order to win the title here. It was at the same venue in 1992 Pakistan led by Imran Khan won the World Cup defeating England in the final. Head coach Rahul Dravid could not hide his disappointment of losing to England in a manner to embarrass the team. The question is: what will the Indian supporters do with the tickets for the last match?
Surayakumar Yadav has won the highest praise from his coach, Rahul Dravid. A bulwark of the Indian team for over one and half decade, Dravid has waxed eloquent about Suryakumar’s `bindaas’ batting in the Twenty20 format. A few hours after Suryakumar had taken the Zimbabwe bowlers to the cleaners in the ICC Men’s World Twenty20 in Melbourne, playing shots some of which one would not find in coaching manuals, Dravid who earned the sobriquet `The Wall” said: It’s a joy and pleasure to see the way Suryakumar deploys the willow. In the second match after his debut at Motera in March 2021, he thrashed the England bowlers for a 31-ball 57 that floored England and won the match for India. There was a Caribbean streak to his batting; it has not changed much after nearly 21 months. On November 6, Suryakumar — also known as SKY, an acronym derived from his name — went on a leather hunt against the hapless Zimbabwe bowlers and took 21 runs of fast bowler Richard Ngarava and closed out his innings at an unbeaten 61 off 25 balls with 6 x 4s, 4 x 6s; two of which were swept from outside the off stump over backward square leg and over fine leg. Sterner tests await Suryakumar Yadav in the remaining part of the World Twenty20.
Virat Kohli is in the news yet again. Not alone for his run getting ability — he scored a third half century in the ICC Men’s Twenty20 World Cup against Bangladesh at the Adelaide Oval — but also for a prank on the field that some believe was tantamount to faking a throw. Law 41.5.1 says that it is unfair for any fielder wilfully to attempt by word or action, to distract, deceive or obstruct either batter after the striker has received the ball. The Law further says: It is for either one of the umpires to decide whether any distraction, deception or obstruction is wilful or not. The operative part is wilful which the umpires Marais Erasmus and Chris Brown deemed that Kohli’s mock throw was not wilful. Bangladesh’s Nurul Hasan though felt that Kohli’s action was to distract the player Hossain Shanto running towards the non-striker’s end, while the throw from Arshdeep Singh was directed towards the striker’s end. Obviously the on-field umpires did not intervene to summon the India captain Rohit Sharma or Kohli or have reported the incident to the match referee. It has been a matter of opinion among the fans and experts alike, but the umpires just went on with the game that India won by five runs.
Was it a gaffe or a prediction? Close to midnight Adelaide time on Monday (Oct 31), Chetan Sharma was in good form telling a long time journalist Vijay Tagore: “I am watching the team, I am with them. They are playing brilliant cricket. There are no problems. We (India) will win the World Cup. Don’t worry,” said Sharma, the Chairman of the BCCI senior national selection committee who is travelling with the Indian team. Sharma’s soothsayer-like statement came at the end of the answer to a question on Dinesh Karthik being preferred over Rishabh Pant in the first three matches of the ICC Men’s World Twenty20 against Pakistan, Netherlands and South Africa. Sharma has been the Chairman of the selection committee from December 2020 and obviously he is quite optimistic of Rohit Sharma’s team — that lost to South Africa last Sunday (Oct 30) — winning the World Twenty20 for the second time after 2007. Sharma began saying that it would be improper to comment when the World Cup is going on and that it is for the captain and coach to respond to questions on playing XI selections and that he would definitely do that after the World Cup is over. All this happened after he announced the teams for a white ball series in New Zealand and Bangladesh and also a Test series in Bangladesh. At the end of it all Head Coach Rahul Dravid said: We have to play very well in four more games to win the World Cup.
More than 90000 spectators turned up for the India-Pakistan World Twenty20 match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on October 23 and 36000 plus for the India-Netherlands Group 2 league match at the Sydney Cricket Ground on October 27. The rest of the matches are going to be played at the Optus Stadium at Perth on Sunday (Oct 30) and Adelaide Oval before the last league match against Zimbabwe at the MCG again. The ICC has been smart to schedule India’s matches at venues that will draw a big crowd and rake in the moolah. Among the spectators are the faithful of the Indian kind from different parts of the USA, UK and Continental Europe. A Gujarati couple from Chowpatty, Mumbai but settled in Baltimore said they will follow the Indian team till the end and they have not travelled all the way from Baltimore just for one marquee match against Pakistan. Last October in the UAE, India lost the first two matches against Pakistan and New Zealand, but a year later Rohit Sharma’s team has reversed the trend in Australia by winning the first two matches. These two wins have raised the hopes of India winning the title, but as it happened in the third match on Thursday (Oct 27), Zimbabwe beat Pakistan by one run to almost eliminate Babar Azam’s team from the tournament. However with Virat Kohli ever so determined, India should reach the semi-finals from where it can be anybody’s game!
Arshdeep Singh has come a long way in a short span of time and proved his mettle in the big league of international cricket. He was sounded out at the back-end of the IPL Season 15 by the selectors that they are looking at him as a contender for the ICC Men’s Twenty20 World Cup. And that’s because he is a left-hand seamer, and potentially long term prospect — a rare talent among the fast and seam bowling variety in India’s domestic circuit. Last Sunday (Oct 23), the young kid on the block silenced the Pakistan supporters among the 90,000 odd who had come to watch the India-Pakistan skirmish at the Melbourne Cricket Stadium. Making his debut in an ICC event for the first time, Arshdeep manipulated the ball into the right hander bowling from over the wicket and the Pakistan skipper Babar Azam was trapped in front first ball. It was the fifth time that Azam was dispatched for a first ball duck. Azam has scored 3231 runs coming into the match; he had baulked India in the last year’s World Cup opener in the UAE. Arshdeep went on to dismiss Mohammed Rizwan and Asif Ali in his second spell and now has a tally of 22 wickets in 14 matches. The Sardar is turning out to be a real find!
India captain Rohit Sharma was a cool captain, deftly fielding questions on the eve of India’s opening ICC Men’s Twenty 20 World Cup match against Pakistan at the majestic Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday. He readily acknowledged that Pakistan has always been a competitive side ever since he played against them in 2007 for the first time and that the supporters would hope to see a good match. Sharma has been the full time captain of the Indian team across all formats since October 2021. At the outset he pointed out that giving security (of their position in the team) has been the biggest change in the last 12 months. The highest run getter in the Twenty20 format – the second being Virat Kohli — Sharma confessed that the team knows that India has not won an ICC event since 2013, but is not burdened by such thoughts. India and Pakistan have played three matches in the last 12 months, one in the last year’s World Twenty20 and twice in the Asia Cup. Well into his 30s, Sharma will not have the services of Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja and so he will have to depend on the exploits of Mohammad Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Hardik Pandya and Arshdeep Singh to deliver the goods with ball, and also hope the spinners rise to the occasion.
Politicians, who take pot shots at each other in the Legislative Assembly, and at the hustings in the lead up to the elections day, have in the last three decades, virtually taken ownership of the top post in the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA). And, Sharad Pawar has always been the playmaker when not occupying the MCA President’s post. He held the coveted post for 13 years with a resolution passed at a general body to extend his term beyond eight years. But it was the most affable personality in SK Wankhede, the assembly speaker who held the top post for 23 years — from 1963-64 to 1986-87. A former MCA official described Wankhede’s time as the most defining one in the history of the Association when it broke the umbilical cord with the Cricket Club of India and built its headquarters at D Road, Churchgate. Former officials also described Pawar’s contribution as significant because the Wankhede was refurbished for the 2011 World Cup and a new facility worth over many hundred crore now came into existence at the Bandra Kurla Complex. Manohar Joshi was MCA President for eight years and Vilasrao Deshmukh and Ashish Shelar for around one year each. Vijay Patil hails from a family entrenched in politics and now Amol Kale, who is pitted against a cricketing hero Sandeep Patil is said to have good equations with Devendra Fadnavis. Truly, the politicians love the MCA.
Sandeep Patil, Shivaji Park and Mumbai cricket’s“ladke’’, has taken a shot at the president’s post of the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) that’s going to take place on October 20. Patil who became a darling of the Mumbai maidans clouting 6s in the 1970s and 1980s, went on to become the “Adelaide Hero’’ when he slammed a breathtaking 174 against the hostile bowling attack in Dennis Lillee, Rodney Hogg and Len Pascoe unleashed by the Australian captain Greg Chappell. This grand knock came on the heels of his 62 against Pakistan’s Imran Khan & Co, at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata. Raised at the Balmohan Vidya Mandir under the famous coach Anna Vaidya, Patil became a World Cup hero in 1983 hammering a 32-ball unbeaten 51 in the semi-final against England at Old Trafford. One of India’s brightest stars in the 1980s, Patil made a swashbuckling 129 in the Old Trafford Test of 1982, hitting six 4s in a single over from fast bowler Bob Willis. Patil played 46 matches for Mumbai, scoring 3144 runs with 9 x 100s and 18 x 50s. Patil was a great entertainer and brought joy to the spectators. Will the representatives of the 213 maidan clubs, 69 office clubs, 36 school and colleges and 51 former international cricketers throw their weight behind Patil or his opponent Amol Kale, who was the vice-president in the preceding three years?
Who will question the wisdom of those calling the shots in the BCCI, especially in the choice of its president, in the run up to the elections of a sports organisation that showed a red of Rs 95 lakh in the mid-1990s, but in close to three decades has assets worth several thousand crore. The 1983 World Cup fame Roger Michael Binny who was a vital cog in the wheels of Kapil’s Devils, accounting for 18 scalps, has been handpicked to lead the BCCI for the 2022-2025 period. Three years ago the BCCI, after a senior politician’s intervention, sided with Sourav Ganguly, when juxtaposed against Brijesh Patel. Three years later, the same people have wrong footed Babumoshai Ganguly and gone for Binny, who has excellent credentials as a former cricketer and individual; he is also the president of the Karnataka State Cricket Association. Binny hails from Karnataka, sort of a BJP bastion. The Lotus blooming in the BCCI is evident with BJP MLA Ashish Shelar (close confidant of Home Minister Shah, and who will be in the vanguard to deliver the BMC to the party) being chosen for the Treasurer’s post. Jay Shah who strove for the Secretary ‘s powers to be restored in the Supreme Court for three years and who made sure of the IPL money coming into the BCCI coffers during the pandemic will be the Secretary for another three year term.
Jasprit Bumrah’s back flared up and it straightaway pushed India back to the wall in gearing up for the ICC Men’s Twenty20 World Cup in Australia. It would be a big shoe to fill for anyone as an eleventh hour replacement for him, even if it is a seasoned campaigner like Mohammed Shami or Deepak Chahar, who is trying to find his feet into the world of international cricket competitions. Twenty20 format is cut out for those who have the stomach for a fight in each of the 120 balls. That’s why the name of Shami — with many matches under his belt — is being bandied about, though he has not sent down a single ball in a Twenty20 international for a year. Recently Shami was laid low by Covid-19 and the decision makers are monitoring his recovery speed and trying to find out if his body will be able to withstand the strain and pressure the multi-nation competition will demand in Australia. The first challenge will be to deal with Pakistan’s successful opening pair in Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam on October 23 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. India needs someone to start with the Kookaburra ball along with Bhuvneshwar Kumar and the two Sharma’s– Chetan (Chairman, Selection Committee) and Rohit (Captain) – along with team’s Dronacharya, Rahul Dravid will pick Bumrah’s replacement soon.
In recent times India captain Rohit Sharma has been put through the wringer to learn quick lessons on the art of jugglery and find balance to the team in the Twenty20 format. A business-like captain, Sharma has had to mull over a lot with Head Coach Rahul Dravid to consult and pick playing XIs in the absence of fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja during the Asia Cup Twenty20 in Dubai, and also during the home international Twenty20 Series against Australia and South Africa. He has also been compelled to choose playing XIs without Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Hardik Pandya and Arshdeep Singh. And yet he has led India to series wins against Australia and South Africa. But the high scoring match in Guwahati when India made 236 and South Africa replied with 221in a way exposed India’s shortcomings in the bowling department. India’s pace pack found it tough going with Arshdeep and Harshal Patel taken to the cleaners along with left arm spinner Axar Patel. Sharma has voiced concerns about bowling in the back end of the innings. Without Jadeja who is down with a dodgy left knee and Bumrah who is suffering from a back ailment, and as a consequence ruled out of the Twenty20 World Cup, Sharma would have to resort to some jugglery act again to find the balance in Australia. A tough ask on him, indeed!
India’s Twenty20 World Cup plans are going off kilter. First, the competitive all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja was not picked in the squad because of a knee surgery and thereafter Deepak Hooda and Jasprit Bumrah complained of back pain and have been rendered hors de combat in the ongoing series against South Africa. Should Bumrah be declared unfit to travel to Australia for the much awaited showpiece event in Down Under, it will be the biggest setback for Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid’s plan of action to make amends for last year’s dismal showing in the UAE when Virat Kohli’s team was eliminated before the semi-finals. With a peculiar action Bumrah has been the linchpin of India’s bowling department for six years. He has been wrapped in cotton wool though for meaningful deployment in the shortest format of the game; Bumrah has not featured in 65 Twenty20 matches after his debut. He has played in 60 matches for India and achieved a 74.58% success rate. He has taken 70 wickets in the first 6-over powerplay and in the back-end death overs. Bumrah was thrashed for 50 runs in 24 balls by the Australian batsmen in his recent Twenty20 at Hyderabad. An official statement from the BCCI said he has been ruled out by the medical team for the first match against South Africa at Thiruvananthapuram. More news is awaited!
Little Master and legendary opening batsman Sunil Gavaskar and Champion of Champions of the 1985 World Championship of cricket in Australia, Ravi Shastri applauded the role played by the print media during their time. The two stalwarts of Indian cricket and now media personalities were feted by the Sports Journalists’ Federation of India at a function in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala on the eve of the first Twenty20 international between India and South Africa. Gavaskar received an 18-carat gold medal and the Honorary Life Membership and Shastri, the Honorary Life Membership. “In those days, there was considerable interaction between the media and the players. There was a trust factor. You could talk and you could sense that they wanted you to do well, they wished you well and that they wanted you to go forward in your career and that they would help you with their articles. That was such a big thing for a budding cricketer,” said Gavaskar. On his part Shastri said: “You don’t know how thankful we are for that period of time because print media was king. If there is a recall factor of some of the games we played in the decades gone by, it is because of your articles.” Both Gavaskar and Shastri switched to media roles after retiring from all competitive cricket, the former though started writing even when he was playing for India.
Harmanpreer Kaur who cracked a sparkling unconquered 143 against England in the garden city of Canterbury in Kent on Thursday (September 23) has not wasted time to show to the cricket world that captaincy does not affect her batting. Named captain of the Indian team after Mithali Raj bid adieu post India’s failed campaign in the World Cup in New Zealand, Harmanpreet has been in good nick starting from the ODI series against Sri Lanka in July this year. She made 44 and 75 at Pallekele, and has entertained the spectators at Hove and Canterbury. She has been criticised for not delivering consistent scores after a majestic 171 not out in the World Cup semi-final against England at Derby in July 2017. She averaged 21.67 in 2018, 38 in 2019 and 32.67 in 2021, but her average has shot up to 62.50 this calendar. She made a 109 in the World Cup match against the West Indies in Hamilton in March this year, but clearly the leadership role which was denied to her after the 2017 World Cup, has ignited the spark again. Harmanpreet has now scored five centuries in 123 matches/104 innings. She is the second highest run getter this year with 750 runs in women’s cricket in ODIs. No one knows what tormented her in the previous three years; maybe she was not made the captain!
The men in blue team’s build up to the ICC Men’s Twenty20 World Cup in Australia in October-November would have truly begun with the first skirmish against the Aaron Finch-led Australian team at Mohali on Tuesday (Sep 20). The two teams will lock horns three times in all, and this Twenty20 series will be followed by a three match Twenty20 series against South Africa before the Rohit Sharma led team fly to the Southern Hemisphere for the global tournament. The focus will be on Jasprit Bumrah and Harshal Patel, both of whom were absent in India’s pace pack for the recent Asia Cup Twenty 20 in Dubai because of injuries. Bumrah and Patel will feature in both the home series, but the team management will have the option of resting them for a match or two. The selection committee has decided to rest Hardik Pandya and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (for the series against South Africa) and left arm seamer Arshdeep Singh for the series against Australia. These five will form the fulcrum of India’s fast bowling attack for campaigns in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Adelaide. The slow bowlers in the World Cup squad are off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal and left arm spinner Axar Patel. The focus though will be on Bumrah and Harshal; their fitness is of paramount importance.
There is happiness among the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) members with the outcome of its petition to the Supreme Court seeking amendments to six rules of the Justice Lodha Committee rewritten Constitution (Rules & Regulations and Memorandum of Association). It took the BCCI some six years to convince the Apex Court that the structure of the cooling off period was flawed (it did not say so in its petition, but simply proposed a new structure). That Senior Counsel Maninder Singh was named the Amicus Curiae helped matters. The mandatory cooling off period has now been amended twice — in 2018 by the Justice Dr Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud led bench and again on September 14, 2022 by Justices Chandrachud and Hima Kohli. The cooling off period mandated the BCCI and State’s administrators to take a three year break after a first term of three years; it was amended to two consecutive terms of three years at the BCCI and State level or a combined period of three years each at the BCCI and State. Now the cooling off period kicks in after two consecutive terms of three years each at the BCCI and State. The BCCI is okay with the cooling off period, but after six years in a row, at the BCCI and State level, separately! The 70-plus members will have to go though!
If in Dubai the cricketing faithful must visit Shyam Bhatia”s Cricket Museum. Dubai along with the Emirates of Abu Dhabi and Sharjah is becoming a favourite neutral venue for tournaments like the ICC Men’s World Twenty 20 held here last year and the recent DP World Asia Cup Twenty20 tournament. But the Emirate is also famous for the cricket museum that Bhatia, now 80, has put in place in his Villa. Bhatia’s family relocated to Ajmer in Rajasthan after partition, and it did not take much time for the young Bhatia to develop interest in the game. He played for Rajasthan and Saurashtra. He was transferred to Dubai by the New India Assurance Company in 1965, but he set up his own business in 1979 in building materials. He could not be far away from the thick of action in cricket though and he chose to found a magnificent Cricket Museum that many of the top cricketers have appreciated, including the legendary Sunil Gavaskar. Bhatia has an affinity for Test cricket and all his memorabilia collection and own creative ideas reflect this facet in his museum in Jumeirah. He met Gavaskar in 1971 when he was having dinner with Salim Durani and Ajit Wadekar at the Taj, Mumbai and since then they have been thick friends.
The Twenty20 World Cup is upon the strong contenders, challengers and the no-hopers, and all are getting ready for the big bash in Australia. India, was the winner of the inaugural event in South Africa in 2007 under the first time captaincy of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Thereafter India lost to Sri Lanka in the 2014 final and to the West Indies in the 2016 semi-final. In the last year’s competition in the UAE India was given knock out blows by Pakistan and New Zealand. India will always be regarded as a strong contender because of the talent it showcases in major ICC events. But it needs to troubleshoot specific areas of the game in order to get its act going for Australia. The Asia Cup Twenty20 has exposed weaknesses. The issues on the face of it surrounds team selection. If Dinesh Karthik is considered a finisher, he should have been fielded in all matches to get him game time. He did not play against Hong Kong, and Pakistan/ Sri Lanka in the Super 4 stage. Sharma said that the team was able to get some answers from players – on their ability to execute roles — in the last few months. Virat Kohli had a good run, closing out with a first international Twenty20 century. But there are question marks against the team that is considered a strong contender.
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.