cropped-short_post_logo.png
For Authentic Gossip
Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
Virat_rohit_002

Photo : BCCI

White-Ball Captaincy: Will Virat Kohli Make Way For Rohit Sharma?

It is far from polemic in nature, but the palaver about Virat Kohli to be eased out of white-ball captaincy after the Twenty20 World Cup has got the thinking caps to mull over. The BCCI Treasurer Arun Dhumal has denounced the news as rubbish, and the Secretary Jay Shah has been circumspect telling “The Indian Express” that the issue of captaincy doesn’t arise as long as the team is performing. But is India ready for a separate red and white-ball captain? As of now, Kohli is the undisputed leader in World Twenty20 with a phenomenal average of 52.65. His average as captain (45 matches) is an impressive 48.45. And in three Twenty20 World Cups, he has been out of the world, with a stupendous average of 86.33. He has not led India in ICC World Twenty20. Kohli is a white-ball King. He has led India only in nine ICC World Cup matches and won seven. It’s a matter of conjecture if Rohit Sharma will lead India in the white-ball series at home against New Zealand after the show in the UAE. Kohli needs to lead in five matches each to complete a century in ODIs and a half century in Twenty20. Will he make way for Sharma, who proved his mettle in Australia and England and has led India in 19 Twenty20 matches and 10 ODIs?
IPL

Photo : IPL photo

IPL Second Season in USA?

Cricket may make a comeback into the Olympics by 2028 in Los Angeles and not in 2024 in Brisbane which, however, has great infrastructure for the game. But long before cricket gets Olympic recognition again after figuring in the Paris Games in 1900, it may be born in the USA in an international avatar as the Second Season of IPL. Plans are afoot to build infra in the West Coast of USA for cricket not only with an eye on the Olympics but also to get into the lucrative IPL market by offering great venues for the game in Los Angeles and the Bay Area around San Francisco. In fact, these venues may be up and running in a couple of years so that the IPL Second Season can take off in the US summer of 2024. Those planning the IPL Second Season in the USA are perfectly aware that there is no dearth of CEOs of billion-dollar IT companies whose czars are all PIOs and so the game won’t be lacking in sponsors. A Second Season of IPL every year might leave little space for traditional Test cricket but the administration is unlikely to be bothered too much about it as the IPL is the game’s biggest money spinner that leaves BCCI with more money than all other cricket boards put together.
saurav_jay

Photo : Twitter

Is Everything Hunky-Dory Between Jay Shah And Sourav Ganguly?

The cricketing grapevine is rife with whispers of a conflict between the BCCI Secretary Jay Shah and President Sourav Ganguly. The decibel-level has probably increased by a notch, with Shah calling out, at his debut press conference, the name of Mahendra Singh Dhoni as the mentor of the Indian team for the ICC World Twenty20 to be held in the Persian Gulf soon. Jay, the son of the Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, is virtually the Chief Executive of the BCCI, running its daily affairs. Post the Vinod Rai-led Committee of Administrators’ governance, Shah is said to have restructured the administration at the Cricket Centre at ‘D’ Road, Churchgate, and he is largely credited for taking the IPL to the UAE and keeping the revenue flow of Rs 4,000 crore plus intact, and also relocating the Twenty20 World Cup (the BCCI is the host country) to Oman, and the UAE. Clearly Shah (33) is calling the shots during these unprecedented Covid-19 times. Ganguly, who was part of the illustrious middle order phalanx that had Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman, and has the bragging rights for a Lord’s century, was recently seen hobnobbing at the MCC Members’ during the Lord’s Test. Not all it seems is hunky-dory in the BCCI; come the AGM in September 2022, and we all will know if Shah will go along with Ganguly!
ashwin_004

Photo : Twitter

Ashwin And The Curious Case Of Indian Cricket’s Poetic Justice

Selection is a matter of judgement and not about rendering justice. The Team India tour selection committee dominated by skipper Virat Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri took this to extremes with the studied exclusion of Ravichandran Ashwin. The picture of Ashwin sitting alone during India’s victory march was a poignant image from the series. To be in the playing XI regardless of the vicissitudes of form is about chemistry more than competence. In Ashwin’s case, that chemistry was missing during Dhoni’s regime itself when his debut was delayed even as Harbhajan Singh’s career was fading. Despite his rating as the world’s top spinner and a batsman with five Test centuries he was benched for four England Tests after playing in the WTC final and performing well enough, that too in June when English conditions were skewed in favour of seam bowlers. “Horses for courses” is the dictum that Kohli-Shastri enforced and proved their point with even Shardul Thakur, the fourth seamer for the Oval Test, exceeding expectations with ball and bat too. The two men in charge of Team India chose stubbornness over received wisdom and stuck to Ravi Jadeja as batting all-rounder who bowls spin. It was upto the selectors to render justice by picking Ashwin for the T20 World Cup, which perhaps least suits him at this stage of his career.
bumrah_003

Photo : BCCI

Jasprit Bumrah Yorkers Knock Out England As India Scores A Historic Win At The Oval

Two reverse swinging yorkers settled the issue as they crashed into the stumps behind Ollie Pope and Jonny Bairstow. Both yorkers flowed from the bowling arm of India’s smiling assassin who keeps his emotions well in check. As Jasprit Bumrah literally waddles in off a deceptively lazy run-up, the batsmen can be forgiven for mistaking him for a bowler of military medium pace. But a ramrod straight bowling arm can deliver reverse swinging yorkers at 90 mph, scattering stumps and breaking reputations. Reverse swing had been missing for days at The Oval as the sun smiled on late English summer days. But a 70-overs old ball roughed up by Jadeja pithing in the bowlers’ dusty footmarks was weaponised by Bumrah who opened up the England batting for fellow pace bowler Umesh Yadav to mop up. England, after a century opening stand, had been fancying themselves to chase down a fourth innings target. It was a team effort that saw India come from the depths of 127-7 and then a 99-run deficit to win, almost 50 years to the day since a famous victory at The Oval in 1971. Rohit Sharma, at the age of 34, got his first century away from home and Shardul Thakur shone with bat and ball, but it was Bumrah with his thunderbolts who stole the show.
avani lekhara

Avani Lekhara with Coach Suma Shirur

Gold Medalist Avani Lekhara's Achievements Inspires A Whole Generation

Avani Lekhara has mirrored a braveheart, sending good tidings from the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics shooting events. Just 19, the law student won the gold and bronze medals in Tokyo. When 12, she suffered a spinal cord injury following a car accident in the Pink City of Jaipur, and since has been wheelchair-bound. Her indomitable spirit came to the fore when she pursued the sport of shooting, competed with the world’s best in her disability categories and won laurels. All this happened after she joined Suma Shirur’s Lakshya Shooting Club at Panvel (outskirts of Mumbai) in 2018 and trained to become a champion. A medallist in the Asian and Commonwealth meets, an Arjuna Awardee and currently the High-Performance Coach of the Indian Jr. Rifle Shooting Team, a delighted Suma said: “I have been seeing Avani since she was 16, when she started coming to my Lakshya Shooting Club. What sets her apart is her willingness to prepare minutely and give her best every single time. She’s a perfectionist and never satisfied with anything, but the best. Having gone through so much in life, Avani has shown tremendous inner strength in coming out trumps. For me as coach, her unique ability stands out in verbalising every thought, emotion and even technical finer points. Despite the pressure, Avani’s never-say-die approach gives her the edge over the others.”
shardul thakur_BCCI

Photo : BCCI

Shardul Thakur’s Straight Bat Power Play Reaps Rewards In English Conditions

Shardul Thakur’s sparkling knock in the fourth Test at South London’s “The Oval” on Thursday caught England’s fast men bowling with their tails up, off guard. India’s first innings was in disarray, vindicating Joe Root’s decision — weighing up the pros of grey overhead conditions —- to insert the visitor in. The home team’s seamers used the darker Dukes ball with finesse to cause the downfall of India’s top guns who defended with angled and closed bats, as well as followed the ball outside the off stump. Much against the run of play, the Palghar boy, Thakur who likes to swing the ball, scattered it, striking big blows in front of the wicket. After a pyrotechnical display that resulted in a fastest Test half century at The Oval, Thakur, who was told many years ago by Sachin Tendulkar to shed weight in order to be more efficient and effective, stated that there is greater security playing with a straight bat against the ball that in English conditions moves in the air and of the surface and that he has been practising in a similar fashion since arriving in England. It was a tough ask on even the most accomplished Indian batsmen to defeat the England seamers’ ploy; except for Virat Kohli who carved a lovely half century. But Thakur threw his wrists at everything leaving England flummoxed.
Virat_003

Photo : BCCI

Kohli & Co. Needs Better Ideas Against England’s Tall Boys

Virat Kohli has been under greater pressure in his career as captain and batsman than in the ongoing England series. But his tactical errors are coming to haunt him more often. He chose to bat at Headingley where in the last 20 years no Test captain has done so. The high-water table has a way of allowing the new ball to swing like crazy and Team Indian were down and out in the first three overs from the sultan of swing – James Anderson. Kohli may have been blindsided by the Lord’s experience as his team batted first on being inserted. Having picked four seamers, perhaps correctly for Leeds, he may have predetermined the course of batting first. There is time yet for course correction and if Kohli gives up his seamer obsession at least for The Oval, a famous hunting ground for spinners, he might even pick the world’s best contemporary spinner – Ravi Ashwin. In an era of poor technique against the moving or spinning ball, batting collapses are dime a dozen and affect all teams. But England may have tactically put one over Indian batsmen by picking bowlers for their height and hence higher ball release points as they did with Overton in the third Test. India can regroup if the captain and coach can set their thinking straight.
Vasu Paranjpe

Tributes Pour In From Cricket Stars As Legendary Coach Vasudeo Paranjape Bids Goodbye

Vasudeo Paranjape — the suave cricketing soul of the good old Bombay and modern Mumbai — got along wonderfully well to the pleasant greetings of “Kasa hai, eppadi irukkai and khem cho” in Matunga. Vasu (also Vasoo)— who took leave of our world on Janmashtami Day — was the pride and joy of Matunga, the area’s social fabric representing a beautiful blend of Marathi, Tamil and Gujarati-speaking people who mingled well at the inviting Udipi Restaurants with a good fill of upma- idli-dosa washed down with assorted peaberry concoctions at a dozen outlets, at the old Gulshan for the superb Burun-Maska and chai, or at the Rama Nayak on Sundays and holidays for hearty meal. When Vasu was around, cricket had to be the powwow, and much of it in a lighter vein. Of the old school, having raised at the famous King George (now Raja Shivaji), Vasu helped the careers of Sunil Gavaskar and Dilip Vengsarkar to blossom, showing them the way at Dadar Union, Matunga’s all-time favourite sporting club built by a disciplinarian Madhav Mantri. According to Vengsarkar, it was mostly fun and laughter even while playing the game the hard way for Dadar Union with Vasu at the helm. Over time, Vasu became a cult figure. With his passing, the world of cricket has lost a treasure house.
anderson

Photo : Twitter

Nemesis of Touring Teams, England’s Pacer Jimmy Anderson Baying For A Century Of Indian Wickets

Jimmy Anderson has been a magnificent manipulator of the cricket ball and a true-blue shot in the arm for England Test cricket. Not just because he has plied his trade with skill for 18 summers with the home-made Dukes, the Australian Kookaburra and the Indian SG Test, but also for the fact of hoodwinking batsmen without showing a trace of hostility. One of the finest practitioners of the red cherry is poised to reach a unique world record that would be nonpareil in the annals of Test cricket. He is a handful away from accounting for 100 Indian victims at home. In the ongoing Test at the white rose county (Yorkshire) ground at Headingley, Leeds, the red rose county (Lancashire) and England seamer caused the downfall of Rahul, Pujara and Kohli with in-swing and out-swing to take his tally to 96. With the second innings remaining and two more Tests at The Oval, and Old Trafford, the most successful operator of the shining and worn-out ball is all set to complete a terrific record. So far 193 bowlers — 121 fast bowlers and 72 spinners — have found their way into the Elite 100 Test Wickets Club, but Anderson would be an outlier in this crowd. After 15 years, James Michael Anderson, 39 is in pursuit of a century he will be proud of to have founded.
rock climbing

After Introducing India To Sport Climbing World Cup, The Gang Of Four Sets Sights On Olympics 2032

Sport Climbing is a form of rock climbing that relies on permanent anchors fixed to the rock for protection. Meet Franco Linhares – a retired microbiologist, Abhijit Burman – a robotic technician, Aniruddha Biswas – a senior scientist and Anushka Kalbag – an architect, all avid climbers with big dreams to host the Sport Climbing World Cup for the first time in India.  It was a difficult proposition without financial resources. Luckily, the Tata Trusts agreed to chip in. It all began with Burman organising several international climbing events in India. He then frequented Europe to convince the International Federation for the Sports (IFSC) to allow India to host the Sport Climbing World Cup. Then in 2016, India got lucky. The 2016 World Cup held in Mumbai was one of the best ever. Burman was offered the 2017 World Cup as well. Parallely, IFSC, was making a pitch for inclusion of the sports in the Tokyo Games, and one of the key criteria was that sports needed to have a global appeal, and Tokyo saw Sport Climbing making its debut. Now the foursome is looking at an Olympics medal for India in 2032, and have launched the Basalt Project, to train Indian climbers. More power to the Gang of Four.
cheteshwar_pujara

Photo : BCCI

Cheteshwar Pujara: The Fulcrum Around Which Kohli, Rahane Have Flourished

The fault finding chatter about the snail-pace run-scoring of Cheteshwar Pujara has not stopped even after his bulwark-like 206-ball 45 in the second innings of the Lord’s Test that India won following unbelievable team heroics. The thickset looking one-drop in 132 innings so far of his 88 Test matches, has come under flak for his barn door defence at the crease ever since India’s campaign in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy that the Ajinkya Rahane-led team transformed itself from a down-and-out side in Adelaide into a gargantuan at the Gabba. The fact though is that right from the legendary opening batsman Sunil Gavaskar to the captain Kohli, vice-captain Rahane and the batsman in form KL Rahul have backed Pujara to the hilt. For long Pujara has been the fulcrum around whom Kohli has accumulated runs and has given substance to the third wicket stand (2,567 runs in 46 matches/56 innings). Rahane under the cosh has joined forces with Kohli, and amassed 2,933 runs in 38 matches/ 46 innings for the fourth wicket. Pujara and Rahane have made 1135 runs for the fourth wicket for a healthy average of 45.40. The numbers speak a lot, and the negative noise following the 100 run undertaking by the ‘targeted’ Pujara and Rahane at Lord’s, may have temporarily ceased. The Pujara-Kohli-Rahane combine has delivered aplenty for Indian cricket, including some splendid wins.
siraj

Photo : BCCI

Siraj’s Deadly Yorkers Unnerve England’s Batsmen

The son of an auto-rickshaw driver did not get his name on to the honours board at Lord’s but he led his fellow quicks to make that famous victory possible with eight wickets in the Test. Mohammed Siraj’s intensity has undone England’s Test batsmen as much as Jasprit Bumrah’s pace. His steep angles into the right handers, but more importantly away from the left handers have had a consistently unsettling effect as they are not able to pick him. Siraj, a champion bowler in tennis ball street cricket around Hyderabad, started bowling with a hard ball only after he was 20 when in 2015 he joined Charminar Cricket Club. And when the IPL bidding stopped at Rs 2.6 crores from Sunrisers, Siraj’s first instinct was to tell his father to stop driving his 3-wheeler for a living. Siraj will be one of the charged-up skipper Virat Kohli’s main weapons as Team India goes into the Headingley Test convinced that they are the better side and must press on to win the 5-Test series. A fuller length that suits English conditions best, a deadly yorker developed from bowling the tennis ball, stamina and persistence are Siraj’s plus points. As the 5-day format gives him time to work on the batsmen, his only regret is that his dad passed on before his Test debut.
bumrah_002

Photo : BCCI

Spotlight on Bumrah & Gang As India’s Pace Bullies Snatch Impossible Victories

Fast bowlers go after wickets straight away once they get hold of the new ball. There is no better sight and thrill than seeing fast bowlers bounding in of a long run up on a first morning of a match, and as one of England’s greatest express-fast bowlers, Frank “Typhoon” Tyson, believed, challenge the opening batsmen to cut. The ball either races to the point fence, or is nicked to the wicket-keeper or the slip-cordon. The present crop of Indian fast bowlers — Bumrah, Shami, Ishant and Siraj — who have blown away England at Trent Bridge and Lord’s, not only follow the Tyson template, but have also made Joe Root’s batsmen quiver in their boots, peppering them with bouncers and sand shoe crushers (ball pitched at a batsman’s feet). This fearsome foursome, and Shardul Thakur who played the first Test, have caused the downfall of 39 of the 40 England batsmen. Former England opener Michael Carberry, who scored a century for England Lions against Central Zone in a Duleep Trophy match in 2008 summed by an Indian new ball operator’s approach saying he doesn’t believe in “setting-up”, but goes for wickets straight away. At Lord’s, Bumrah & Co, have gone to the extent of, as a handful of tabloids headlined, bullying England. Just for the record, Sharma has taken 51 wickets in England, Shami 32, Bumrah 26 and Siraj 11.
gabba_indian team

Photo : BCCI

A Gabba Replay At Lord’s: India Takes 1-0 Series Lead After Incredible Tailender Batting

Two men with Test batting averages of 11 and 3.6 helped themselves to an unbroken 89-run partnership to first take the Lord’s Test away from England and then conspired with their fellow fast bowlers to carve out a famous victory. Mohamed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah were the unlikeliest batting heroes on the final day even as England failed tactically by bowling bouncers at the tail, hitting them on the body and helmet, but not getting them out. An ill-tempered Test match saw England play like 15-year-olds, as Michael Vaughan said, in bouncing at the tailed batters, all because Bumrah had bounced James Anderson often in a 10-ball over. The same men who showed such great heart at the crease then bowled England out in under two sessions for only India’s third triumph at Lord’s. India’s pace bowlers have taken 39 of 40 England wickets in two Tests even as their captain Joe Root scored more runs than the rest of his batsmen put together. England were trapped in a scrap with Virat Kohli, a captain who revels in cricket as war. There is nothing wrong with emotion and passion on the field even if he tends to overdo it. Kohli joins Kapil Dev and MS Dhoni as the only Indian captains to win a test at Lord’s.
Parth Jindal

JSW Group’s Parth Jindal Showers Rs 2.5-Cr Wishes On Tokyo Olympics Champions

Parth Jindal is pleased as punch after Tokyo 2020 Olympics returned seven medals, including the first Track and Field gold, thanks to the tall and strapping Neeraj Chopra directing the World Athletics approved Javelin made of steel/aluminum or aluminum alloy to a distance of 87.58 metres, that usually the 100m sprinters on track run in probably under a flat nine seconds. Parth is the Founder of Inspire Institute of Sport and JSW Sports, but most importantly a sports lover keen to create a good space for non-cricket sports persons ambitious of wanting to excel in running, throwing, jumping in addition to team sports. He owns the IPL franchise, Delhi Capitals. The medal winners have been hailed as the new stars on the Indian sports horizon and awarded money which they deserve. If money can act as an incentive to motivate and perform, why not? Parth’s JSW Group has announced Rs 25 million (Rs 2.5 crore) to the medal winners and their coaches. Chopra will receive Rs 1 crore, wrestlers Ravi Dahiya and Bajrang Punia, Rs 20 lakh and Rs 15 lakh, Badminton ace PV Sindhu and boxer Lovlina Borgohain Rs 15 lakh each, Weightlifter Mirabai Chanu, Rs 20 lakh, and each member of the men’s hockey team, Rs 2 lakh. The coaches and support staff have been handsomely rewarded. Hopefully many more corporates would follow suit.
KL_Rahul_rohit

Rahul-Rohit’s Run Feast In England Lifts India’s Opening Gloom

India’s unlikely opening pair of Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul, eternally on Test comeback trails, have forged into a fine combination to be the bedrock of India’s campaign. They have added 257 runs so far in five innings in the English summer, including the WTC final. While Rahul put his name on the coveted honours board at hallowed Lord’s, Rohit is yet to make his first century away from home even as he improves his away average that is at least 50 runs worse than his imposing 79.50 at home. Standing a foot outside his crease is Rohit’s adaptation of the Virat Kohli technical template for English conditions while Rahul stays crease-bound and yet masterful in his ability to drive the ball through the offside and in the classical V. Dark skies with hints of moisture to aid swing and seam of a virtually black Test Dukes ball and pitches that are spicier than ever before and offering variable bounce are the challenge India’s openers are facing up to with elan. India’s batting dominance thus far has also been helped along by the presence of Ravindra Jadeja as the batting all-rounder, which comes at the expense of the controversial omission of Ravichandran Ashwin. Crucially, India have been on top of England after the disappointment of the WCT final.
olympics_collage

Photo : SAI

Mission TOPS Sees India Script A Historic 7 Medals Haul At Tokyo Olympics

The pioneering way of fast-tracking the high performance of India’s money-starved sportspersons, through the Target Olympics Podium Scheme (TOPS), has begun to yield dividends. Noticing the sorry plight of India’s talented sportspersons, the Modi government put in place the TOPS in September 2014, and without exception, the project implemented through the Ministry of Sports & Youth Affairs (MSYA), has been acknowledged by the country’s Elite sportspersons. The TOPS in conjunction with the Annual Calendar of Training & Competition brought succour to the National Sports Federations and the Elite sportspersons, and after 125 years of the celebration of Olympic Sports, India won seven medals, with the Panipat-born javelin thrower, Neeraj Chopra winning the first ever track and field gold medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The Sports Authority of India/ MSYA spent nearly Rs 1.9 crore to meet some of Chopra’s post Rio 2016 Olympics related expenditure. The SAI/ MSYA shelled out Rs 2.06 crore for the Sonipat-based Bajrang Punia who won the Bronze medal. The TOPS provided Rs 83 crore for the men and women hockey teams for 55 international tournaments in India and abroad (29 for men and 26 for women), 393 days of foreign exposure, including 106 for men and 287 for women, for seven foreign coaches and for National camps in Bengaluru. The TOPS is a real boon for India’s top-notch sportspersons.
navin_olympics

Inset - Naveen Patnaik

Spotlight On Naveen Patnaik’s Hockey Nurturing As 41-Year Olympic Drought Ends

Every stakeholder in India’s burgeoning hockey community — from the fans, players, the Indian men and women teams, and Hockey India — must doff its hat to the State of Odisha, and its five-time elected Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik. One of the very few tallest politicians in the country, an outlier if it can be said, Patnaik and his government have committed to spend Rs 150 crore on Indian Hockey from 2018 to 2023, which includes the two national teams. All the more, Patnaik is celebrating the men’s team’s bronze medal win at Tokyo, breaking the 41-year jinx, and the women’s team reaching the semi-finals. Odisha had four players in Tokyo, thanks to a plethora of academies in the State. Odisha staged the World Cup Hockey 2018, and it will do so in 2023 at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar and the Birsa Munda International Stadium in Rourkela. With the Covid-19 affecting normal life, Patnaik may not have been able to stir out of his Naveen Niwas residence often, but over the past fortnight he would have seen India in action in Tokyo. Others like the Sahara Group and a handful of Public Sector Units have supported Indian Hockey, but for demonstrating focused commitment for the development of Indian Hockey, Patnaik stands head and shoulders above the rest.
PVSindhu

Photo : Twitter

Sindhu Wins Laurels In Tokyo Amid High Octane Coach Gossips

Not long ago the badminton grapevine was replete with talk of the impending break up between PV Sindhu and her coach Pullela Gopichand, and when it happened a few months before Tokyo 2020, none was surprised. On their part, the celebrated All-England champion and coach, Gopichand, and his illustrious protege-turned-champion, Sindhu, have not thrown the slightest hints of having quarrelled over some sensitive issues or the other. The two have maintained dignity and have not allowed their differences, as professionals, to become grist to the rumour mill. A jewel in India’s badminton scene, Sindhu has become a true champion, winning the Silver Medal at Rio 2016 with Gopichand as coach; the World Championship title at Basel, Switzerland in 2019 with South Korean coach Kim Ji Hyun; and most recently the Bronze Medal at Tokyo with another South Korean court-side coach in Park Tae Sang. Sindhu, at the peak of her career at 26, and daughter of former India volleyball internationals, Ramana and Vijaya, and younger sibling to Divya, who is a practicing doctor, was the 13th highest female athlete in the Forbes World list 2019 with prize money and endorsements earnings of $5.5 million. Already a darling of the badminton world and India’s sports loving public, Sindhu could easily double her big-event medal collection in the next few years, and also see more endorsements chasing her.
Rahul_dravid

Photo : Fotocorp

Rahul ‘The Wall’ Dravid Defends Rookie Batsmen

The most famous “Wall” of world cricket, Rahul Dravid completed his first assignment as head coach of the Men in Blue in the six-match white ball series against Sri Lanka in Colombo on Thursday night (July 29). Someone who gives precedence to the “process” of development for the young and upcoming, and not unduly bothered by outcomes, the 48-year-old put up a stoical demeanour after a weakened Shikhar Dhawan team (Prithvi Shaw and Suryakumar Yadav were on way to England, and a few more were not available because of COVID-19 related isolation) were groping for answers to the cunning Lankan tweaker Hasaranga, and went down 1-2 in the Twenty20 skirmish. A part of the phalanx of the Indian middle order for more than a decade that had Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguky and VVS Laxman, Dravid was on the spot explaining that every generation takes time to find its feet in international cricket, and that he was not disappointed by the tyro Indian batsmen being outsmarted by the Sri Lankan bowling which he described as of the top drawer stuff. The big question that cropped up was: would Indian cricket see him in a similar role in the future. His answer was: “I have enjoyed this experience, but I have not thought of anything far ahead. There are a lot of challenges in doing full-time roles.”
mirabai_manika

Photo : Mirabai Chanu - Twitter, Manika Batra - TTFI

Mirabai Steals The Thunder At Tokyo, And A Petulant Manika Sulks

Tokyo 2020 Olympics  began with a bang for India when Manipur’s Mirabai Chanu, all of 4.11 “ in height, and 49 kg in weight, bagged the silver medal in the snatch and clean and jerk competition.. While the diminutive Mirabai has stolen the thunder from the rest of the athletes, even getting a cash reward of Rs 2 crore from Indian Railways, Manika Batra, a bright spark in the first few days of the Olympics, has ruffled the feathers of the table tennis fraternity by rejecting the national coach, Soumyadeep Roy, to guide her at onsite. The tall 26- year-old from Delhi, Manika who began her first lessons at Sandeep Gupta’s academy in Punjabi Bagh, relocated to Pune two years ago in order to be close to her personal coach Sanmay Paranjape. Manika, who was ranked World No 46 in March 2019, dropped to a low of 79 in September. It has been in the 60s since November 2019. She appeared to be petulant at being denied the opportunity to be coached and mentored from the court-side by Paranjape. He was in the stands though. After winning two matches, Manika was outplayed by Austria’s world no. 17, Sofia Polcanova in the third. The authorities believe that rules have to be adhered to, and nominating a personal coach for any competition, and not the national coach, would open the Pandora’ s Box for them.
manpreet_mary_oly

Photo : Hockey India and BFI

Mary-Manpreet India’s Proud Flag Bearers For ‘Gender-Balanced Olympics’ In Tokyo

The land of the rising sun, sumo wrestling,  sushi food, and prime minister Yoshihide Suga is all set to unveil the Games of the 32nd Olympiad  on July 23, 2021.  The pandemic-caused delay of the Summer Games by a calendar year, has acquired a handful of monikers, notably COVID Games and TV-Screen Games, but the most significant is the one described by the International Olympic Committee, that starts the two-week competitions with the opening ceremony pageant, full of pomp and parade. The IOC has put down “Tokyo 2020” as the most gender-balanced games with more than 200 nations given the option to nominate for the first time, a male and female athlete as flag bearers at the opening ceremony. It’s a norm for countries to nominate its most decorated sports persons taking part in the Olympics for the opening day spectacle that’s much critiqued for a variety of reasons. At the second “Love in Tokyo” games (Tokyo was the host in 1964), India’s flag bearers will be its boxing icon, Manipur’s Mary Kom and the male hockey team captain, Punjab’s Manpreet Singh. Mary is a London Olympics bronze medalist and Manpreet is a two time Olympian (2012 London and 2016, Rio). Mary will be the third woman athlete after Shiny Wilson (1992 Barcelona) and Anju Bobby George (2004 Athens) to be bestowed the honour of leading India’s athletes in the march past.
the 100_shafali

Britain’s Hundred Ball Contest Seen Redefining Cricket, Boosting Diversity

UK’s new cricket competition – The Hundred – kicks off July 21, seeking diversity among its audience. It aims specially at the inclusion of Asian Brits who are not so much into the county game, which is mostly white, in fact 94%. Eight teams based on city lines for tribal loyalties as in the IPL, a draft system and a focus on overseas players as Afghans, Pakistanis, Nepalis and five Indian women cricketers swing into action. England and Wales Cricket Board’s 100-ball competition borrows heavily from IPL thanks to PIO Sanjay Patel who is its MD. English cricket is looking seriously at attracting more South Asians not only as spectators but also players. Take the case of Moeen Ali, who had to move to Worcestershire from Warwickshire to take off on his career. He grew up on tape ball cricket near Edgbaston before becoming a sought after T20 player currently with Chennai Super Kings. The Hundred is hoping to bridge the gap between English cricket and Asian spectators, mostly from the subcontinent. No Indian men are allowed to participate yet by the BCCI but that could change when there is less international cricket during the summer for India. Tactically, it is only a little different from T20 but a bowler can be kept on for ten balls at a time rather than stop with five balls.
china_olympics

The 777 Chinese For Tokyo Olympics

Under fire from the international community for allegedly creating the pandemic, bruising the global economy, bringing the fun-filled and joyful lives of the world to a standstill, China will send a record 431 vaccinated athletes (for an overseas multi-event games comprising 298 women, 133 men) for the Summer Olympics celebrations in Tokyo in its 125th year. In all, the dragon country will send a jumbo delegation of 777 athletes and officials. The quadrennial showpiece event founded by the Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin, known as the father of the modern Olympic Games, has acquired the moniker “COVID Games” because of the contagious nature of the virus that has caused millions of deaths, postponed the games by a year, and forced top-notch sportspersons to drop out. Japan (population: 13 crore) has already spent around $16 billion to keep the Olympics going ahead, in spite of a stout local opposition. A little over three hours flight from Beijing to Tokyo, that cost upwards of $ 1730 (Rs 1.3 lakh), China had the financial muscle to fill the 42 venues with cheering crowds, and look to grab much of the 339 glittering gold medals across 33 events. But Tokyo has made the 18-day event a TV-screen games. China’s youngest participant in Tokyo will be 14, and the oldest, 52.
sindhu_mary

Pusarla Sindhu, Mary Kom Vote For Bridgestone’s Olympic Spirit

The Summer Olympics are around the corner, after a delay of one year caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and all the stakeholders are gearing up and praying for a safe and smooth Olympics from July 23. The sponsors have also got down to business. They are vital to the conduct of games, and to individual athletes. In India, Bridgestone India, which has Pusarla Sindhu and Mary Kom as its Brand Ambassadors — the two world-class achievers in badminton and boxing are part of the company’s “Chase Your Dream” campaign — has extended its best wishes  to them, to golfer Udayan Mane, and to the Indian contingent. The parent company, Bridgestone Corporation founded by Shojiro Ishibashi, nine decades ago, became the Olympic movement’s Worldwide Partner in 2014, the Paralympics Gold Partner in 2018, and its presence will be felt in Tokyo, and till the 2024 Olympic in Paris. “We believe that harbouring a strong culture of sports and investing in our people will contribute towards creation of better individuals leading to a holistically developed society,” said Parag Satpute, MD, Bridgestone India. Former World Champion and a silver medallist at Rio 2016, Sindhu, and many times gold medal winner at the World Championships, and the bronze medal winner at the London Olympics 2012, Mary Kom, have applauded Bridgestone’s support to the Olympic movement.
al khater

Nasser Al Khater, CEO, FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 LLC.

500 Days To FIFA World Cup 2022: Qatar’s Final Countdown Begins

It’s going to be the Arab world’s biggest sporting extravaganza ever, the 22nd FIFA World cup. And Qatar, which won the right to host the 32-team competition, 10 years ago, is in a ready, get set, go mode, almost, to showcase the beautiful game of football from November 21 to December 18, next year. Qatar did not lose sight of the relevance of announcing the 500-day countdown to the event, even as the global football fans were riveted on the Copa America and the Euros. On the milestone event, Nasser Al Khater, CEO of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 LLC, said: “500 days means we’re getting very close. It’s been 10 years in the making, and this will be the biggest event that’s ever happened in the Middle East. The compact nature is probably the most positive aspect of this World Cup. Fans won’t have to follow their team from city to city, which means there will be a significant cost saving, and this means they will have time to take in the ambience and enjoy what Qatar has to offer.” Five stadiums have been completed, three will be ready soon and six venues will play host to the FIFA Arab Cup 2021 in November-December. India’s Larsen & Toubro, and its local associate Al Balagh Trading & Contracting have constructed the 40,000-seat Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium.
gareth southgate_uefa

UEFA EURO 2020: Knighthood For England’s Manager Gareth Southgate?

A deliriously joyful England, if not quite all of the United Kingdom, is preparing for its greatest night out on Sunday after its football team made it to the Euro final. They are talking of a knighthood for manager Gareth Southgate and he could be called “Sir” even if England can’t get past the Italian wall. Harry Kane, who scored the winning goal against Denmark off a penalty kick rebound, and Raheem Sterling, to whose talent Southgate stayed loyal enough to keep him in the starting lineup, are quite the flavour of the season. Even so, it was a questionable penalty award, which stayed despite a second look on VAR after Sterling seemed to go down too readily in the Danish penalty box that made the difference.  England is accustomed to celebrating beyond questionable refereeing decision, including most of all the disputed goal in the 1966 World Cup final when no one is till today sure if the ball actually passed into the net beyond the goal line. The penalty against Denmark was spoiled by one spectator in the stands shining a laser pen at the face of Danish goal keeper Kasper Schmeichel.  As a home final at Wembley nears voices are rising against football jingoism, unleashed at full throttle after months of tight lockdown rules, as booing of the Italian national anthem is feared.
niranjan shah

Niranjan Shah, former Secretary, BCCI and Saurashtra Cricket Association

No Money-Spinning T20 World Cup Matches For BCCI Members!

Relocating the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup to the petro-dollar venues in the UAE and Oman from October 17 to November 14, has come as a blow to the BCCI members who were bullish on hosting money-spinning matches. The host associations receive good money per match; for example the Vidarbha Cricket Association received Rs 14 crore for hosting the ICC World Cup in 2011 and Rs 12 crore for hosting the Women’s World Twenty20 in 2016. The BCCI had shortlisted Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi, Dharamshala, Lucknow, Kolkata Ahmedabad and Mumbai for one of ICC’s signature events in October-November. There were reports that the BCCI would eventually whittle down the venues to three, all in West Zone, but with the threat of the third wave of the COVID-19 looming, the BCCI shifted the event to the offshore venues. The Mumbai Cricket Association which received Rs10 crore for hosting 10 IPL-14 matches, Pune and Ahmedabad would have probably lost considerable money for not getting the opportunity to host the World T20 matches, but the former BCCI Secretary, and long-time Secretary of Saurashra Cricket Association, Niranjan Shah said that the  BCCI has been up to date releasing “on account” money till the 2020 fiscal. “We do not know about the bifurcation (IPL and BCCI media rights share),” said Shah. The BCCI has disbursed Rs 50 crore, for two fiscals, to majority of its members.
eddie sequeira

Bombay Boy Eddie Recounts The Horror Of Munich Olympics Massacre ‘72

Woken up at dawn on September 5 by the unusual clatter around his block at the Olympic Village in Munich in 1972, India’s expert runner in the half-mile, metric mile and over 5000 metres was terrified and scared by the goings-on at the block across, where the Israeli contingent was put up. It was on September 6 though that the famous Eddie Sequeira from Sanata Cruz, Mumbai came to know that the Palestinian ‘Black September’ group had invaded the Olympic Village, killed two Israeli delegates, and held nine more as hostages, all of them later killed around midnight at a nearby airport. The carnage sent shock waves across the world. “I was terrified and scared by what I saw on September 5. They were in red track suit, black bags, mask and hood. Myself and Sriram Singh were occupying a room in a ground floor block. And the Israel team was across our Block, about 100 metres away. At 4.21 am or thereabout, there was a lot of noise, and I saw people running away. I awoke Sriram immediately. It was not very dark, but a light morning. We made sure our door latch was on. Later in the morning we were told that the events for the day have been cancelled. The fright was there in my mind, but I managed to clock my personal best in the 5000 m run.”
dinesh kartik

kkr.in

Dinesh Karthik’s ‘Coveting Neighbour’s Wife’ Remark Leaves TV Viewers Aghast

Cricketers are now no less prima donnas than Hollywood stars, Olympic legends and Wimbledon warriors. Fame comes, often with a price. Dinesh Karthik on his first test commentary outing for Sky Sports at the 3 ODI between Sri Lanka and England was on a high…he even had his own desi cheerleaders, led by brother and company rooting for him. Karthik in an effervescent spell of commentary said, “Often batsmen don’t like their own bats, they like others (bats)…a neighbour’s wife always feels better.”  In a conference hall, this scandalous sexist comment would have met with…pin drop silence. On a cricket ground, especially a test match, such an infamous remark took time to sink in. Women’s Groups condemned Karthik’s motor mouth remark. He apologised later, admitting that he got a lot of stick from his mom and wife. Remember Dean Jones? His contract with 10 Sport was terminated instantly after he made that other dishonourable comment about South African player Hashim Amla and his full bearded appearance. “The terrorist got another wicket”. In these days of super cricket technology, when TV cameras capture every nuance of the game, we really don’t need commentators to interpret the excitement of the game. But they certainly add value by analysing various nuances. And then comes along a Dinesh Karthik, foot in the mouth addict. Representing India also means being a gentleman.
sindhu saina

Medal winners -- Sindhu silver, Saina bronze at Asian Games 2018, Jakarta-Palembang

Sindhu Goes After The Big Prize

Pusarla Sindhu, the long-limbed Indian shuttle-cock champion has been the cynosure of all eyes in the last five years. She sprang a big surprise winning the women’s singles silver at the 2016 Rio Olympics, followed it up with a silver at the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia and the gold at the World Championship in Basel. She is expected to bring home a medal from the Olympics at Tokyo set to start on July 23. Soon to turn 26, Sindhu, has a wholehearted supporter in former nine-time national champion Aparna Popat who is not really bothered with Sindhu not winning other BWF tournaments: “Sindhu does well in the big ones, the World Championships, Super Series Finals, and the multi game events like the Olympics, Asian Games and Commonwealth. No one talks about Djokovic. Nadal, Federer, winning ATP titles now, only the grand slams like the Australian, French, Wimbledon and the US. Why can’t Sindhu be seen that way?  You introduce her as the World Champion and Olympic silver medallist. Who is asking for more? That’s all. It’s not that she needs to make money from other tournaments to make a living. She has got everything sorted. Winning the big ones is like a lottery, you win one big title and you get 20X. This has been her strategy, and it has worked.”
kane_williamson

Kane Williamson, Captain NZC with the WTC Mace -- Photo : ICC

Nice Guy Kane Williamson Does An Edmund Hillary -- Climbs Cricket's Mount Everest!

Kane Williamson has been the nice guy of world cricket, a far cry from an adventurer of the Sir Edmund Hillary type, the death-defying New Zealander who became the first to climb the summit of Mount Everest some 68 years ago. But last week Williamson, the most genteel of cricketers of modern times, won cricket’s Mount Everest — the ICC World Test Championship, outsmarting India at the Hampshire Bowl in Southampton, England. Williamson, 30, marshalled his potent set of speed merchants to win the rain-marred final. It’s Williamson’s team that has largely provided the real import to the ‘gentleman’s game’ that cricket is known for. Williamson has been in the vanguard of New Zealand’s pursuit of a first ICC prize for many years, but after a few heart-breaking losses in two finals in recent times, Williamson eventually got his hands on an ICC prize. After Williamson figured in the ICC Test team of the decade, the late Martin Crowe, a legend, said: “We are seeing the dawn of probably our (New Zealand) greatest ever batsman.” Williamson is the second highest run-getter for New Zealand with 7,230 runs; he topped the New Zealand batting in the WTC cycle with 10 matches, 918 runs, 251 highest, 61.20 average, 3 x 100s and 2 x 50s. For nearly 14 years, the right-hander has been a batsman beyond compare for New Zealand, also known as the All Blacks
kiren rijiju

Kiren Rijiju At 'Home' As Sports Minister

From being a high-profile Minister of State for Home Affairs for five years under Rajnath Singh from 2014, the 49-year-old, Kiren Rijiju was given the pleasant task of steering India’s sports programme, the Tokyo Olympics in particular. He held his own at the hustings of the 2019 Lok Sabha election from West Arunachal constituency, and became a giant killer, defeating two-time Chief Minister, Nabam Tuki by a huge margin of 1,67,132 votes. As a BJP candidate, he had won the 2014 election by 41,738 votes. The shift, as Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports (Independent Charge), by replacing Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, a silver medalist in the Double Trap shooting competition in Athens 2004, saw Rijiju become proactive in almost every aspect of running the ministry with assistance from the Sports Authority of India. Rijiju was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s handpicked man for the job that covers the entire gamut of sports in the country, including selection of sportspersons for the Arjuna, Khel Ratna, Dronacharya, Dhyan Chand, Tenzing Norgay, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad awards and the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar. For a little over two years, Rijiju has been a livewire, and in the vanguard of assisting athletes for the Tokyo Olympics. He has supported the official broadcaster of the Summer Olympics, Sony Pictures Sports Network’s Hum Honge Kamyaab campaign for India’s athletes.
kyle jamieson

Photo: Royalchallengers.com

RCB Player, New Zealand Bowler Jamieson Is The New Sensation

He refused to bowl at Virat Kohli in the Royal Challengers nets though the RCB captain was instrumental in signing up the giant from Auckland for the IPL. Kyle Jamieson did the star turn for New Zealand in the rain-hit WTC Final at Southampton, picking up his Bangalore skipper’s wicket with one that came back. Cricket may have already found the new Joel Garner as the 6 ft 8 in fast bowler claims a unique record of a fifth five-wicket haul in only his eighth Test for a tally of 44 wickets at an average of just 14.13. No bowler since the 1890s has taken more at a lesser average. Bowling to a fuller length, up by 44% after an opening day in which he tried to do too much, did the trick as Jamieson dominated the Test while presiding over the destruction of the reputed Indian batting. Like Garner, the Kiwi gives nothing away, no loose balls as freebies for the batsmen.  During the IPL, Jamieson put two new Dukes balls in his kit bag to practise with them as the England tour was to come up immediately after IPL. What we have now is a gentle giant capable of bowling out Test batsmen with his consistency of line and length.
olympics

Three Cheers For Tipple Time At Olympic Village In Tokyo, No To Condoms Though

Athletes and officials who like to tipple will be allowed to consume their favourite alcohol, but strictly within the confines of their rooms at the Olympic Village spread over 44 hectares in Tokyo. The local organising committee of the Summer Olympics 2020, postponed exactly by a calendar year, because of the  COVID-19 pandemic, had actually mulled over banning consumption of alcohol in the Athletes Village in order to enforce the “No, No” rules generally put in place in Japan. Now the habitual among the 18000 athletes and officials, can look forward to enjoying a drink or two. However condoms will not be available. It’s from the Summer Games in Seoul in 1988, that condoms were distributed at the Olympic Village, but as a forced shift from a 32-year-old custom, the athletes and officials will get the contraceptives when they depart Tokyo. The Olympic Village consists of 3800 condominiums and 21 residential quarters. The “Playbook” which details the rules to be followed by all delegates and athletes during the Games has counselled participants to avoid being close to people. Any violation of the rules will risk getting ejected from the Games. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) believes that the majority of the people involved with the Games would have received both jabs of the vaccine by July 23, 2021, the first day of the Games.
Virat_002

Photo : Fotocorp

A Tiny Flaw In Virat Kohli’s Captaincy Record

There is a tiny flaw in Virat Kohli’s captaincy record. Teams playing under him have not won a single ICC trophy. One of the modern greats with the bat and at captaincy, the cricketer would dearly love to set the record straight. Not only because his record pales in front of his mentor Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s sterling captaincy record. Dhoni won all the ICC trophies on offer — World Cup (50 overs), Champions Trophy and the T20 World Cup besides the IPL three times and the Champion’s League Trophy twice for Chennai Super Kings. Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore is yet to taste success. An Indian captain led India to top of the Test ladder of merit as early as 2008-09 while Kohli kept it up there for 44 months from October 2016 right up to June 2021 when New Zealand moved up to No. 1 after beating England. Firmly in the saddle in all three formats since 2017, Kohli would be hoping that the World Test Championship, being played from June 18 at the Rose Bowl in Southampton in England would become his first ICC and most prized Cup ever. India faces a very professional and committed New Zealand side under Kane Williamson. Still, given the strengths and skills Team India possess, they have a great chance to win the WCT and Kohli knows he must make it happen in England.
shefali_verma

Photo : Twitter

Shafali Verma Cocks A Snook At Selectors With A Fiery 96 On Test Debut

On a balmy Thursday on June 17 in England’s South-West coastal town of Bristol, the brightest star of Indian women’s cricket, Shafali Verma cocked a snook at India’s women selectors for not selecting her for the home limited-over series against South Africa. Shafali uncorked her typical bold and stylish brand of cricket that lit up the second day’s play of the one-off Test against England. Not accustomed to red-ball cricket, Shafali, 17 years and 141 days when she took guard, and one of the fortunate Test debutants sparkled with a knock of 96, hitting 13 fours and two sixes. The young right-hander fell in a moment of unbridled ambition to bring her century with a big shot. The Rohtak-born has been a whiff of fresh air playing electrifying knocks. She has not only breathed life into women’s cricket in India, but now has also campaigned straightaway for resumption of Test cricket across the world. It was a fallacy on the part of the women selectors to brand her as a Twenty20 specialist, when India’s women cricketers were pleading for continuous competitive cricket at domestic and international levels. Shafali took the centre stage at Bristol, raising a record first-wicket stand of 163 for India with left-hander Smriti Mandhana. It was India’s fourth century plus stand for the first wicket, and the world’s joint seventh highest in 889 Tests.
novak_djokovic

Photo : rolandgarros.com

Serbian Novak Djokovic Serves A New French Toast For Parisians

The  fashionable world of Parisians, also accustomed to a ‘Bon Appetit’ of the Rafael Nadal variety of tennis on the red shale at the Roland Garros, recently got to taste caviar on toast of one for the books kind, so imposingly dished out by a Serbian champion. Down and out virtually, Novak Djokovic summoned his physical and mental reserves, picked up the pieces to play havoc on the mind of the far from pretender for the crown, Stefanos Tsitsipas and eventually downed the terrific 22-year-old Greek with a blonde mane and Adidas bandana. The final bout lasted four hours and 11 minutes as the versatile tennis artist, who has won 1,102 singles matches on the ATP tour, proceeded to win his 19th Grand Slam singles title and come within whistling distance of Nadal and Roger Federer’s 20 each. The Serbian, 34, had stopped the successful run of the  southpaw Nadal in the semi-finals, who had proved to be a one-man Spanish Armada, winning the title in Paris, a baker’s dozen times between 2005 and 2020 and lifted the 14kg Musketeers Cup Trophy. Nadal did not win in Paris in 2009, 2015 and 2016, when the Serbian clinched his first clay Grand Slam. Trailing by two sets (6-7, 2-6), Djokovic smothered the Greek 6-3, 6-4, 6-2, firing a mere five aces to his opponent’s 14. The 187cm tall Djokovic who began his professional career in 2003, has won 305 matches on clay, 520 on hard courts, 104 on grass, 140 in indoor courts and 33 Davis Cup singles matches. Leading to the French Open, Djokovic had lost three Clay court matches at Monte Carlo, Belgrade and Rome this year but was unstoppable in Paris. He is in line for a sweep of the calendar year Grand Slam wins and be hailed as the Greatest of All Time (GOAT).
james anderson

James 'Jimmy' Anderson

On The Brink Of Breaking Kumble’s Record, England Great Comes Under Tweet Cloud

In Joe Root’s words, it’s been a week of “ugly truths” for the England cricket team when the raging tweet storm has not spared James ‘Jimmy’ Anderson either. The fast bowler was all set to become the Test cricketer with the most appearance (162) for England beating Alastair Cook’s record when an old tweet he had sent out on fellow fast bowler Stuart Broad which said he “looked like a 15-year-old lesbian” bobbed up. While Anderson’s single contentious tweet is also under the scanner, it is a series of tweets by Oliie Robinson that is the eye of the storm. Over a 12-month period, they made references to Gary Speed’s suicide, the disappearance of young English girl Madeleine McCann in Europe, the N-word, derogatory messages about Muslims, people with disabilities and women. The fast bowling all-rounder seems to have been quite a fiery character when he sent those tweets in 2012 and 2013. The storm might take the sheen off the marathon man Anderson’s achievement in being a fast bowler who is passing all the batsmen and wicket-keeper batsmen who used to be the ones with the most Test caps for England, beginning with Hobbs, Woolley and Hammond through Cowdrey, Gooch and Stewart down to Cook who retired recently. Anderson needs four wickets to pass Anil Kumble on the all-time Test bowlers’ list and six wickets to make it 1,000 first class wickets.
sehwag_001

Sehwag’s AI-Led App CRICURU To Help Budding Cricketers

The Prince of Najafgarh — Virender Sehwag — was a natural and glorious hitter of the cricket ball. He smashed two Test triple centuries at Multan and Chepauk. His legion of followers would have hardly imagined that the high-spirited opening batsman who went leather hunting from the word go would have gone out of the way to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to refine his ways of aggression in the scene of action. But eight summers after he bid adieu to international cricket, the dashing batsman of the new millennium has announced that he would deploy the novel AI to teach how to play the game through the app “CRICURU” that he and former India player and assistant coach, Sanjay Bangar, have founded for the benefit of budding cricketers. He took the centre stage for near about one-and-a-half decades from 1999, clouted 243 x 6s and 2398 x4s and entertained the paying spectators, but all this he did by watching Sachin Tendulkar bat and learning from his personal coach that had the human touch. Now, he believes human coaching simulated into a machine can thrash out glitches in batting and bowling. At the launch of the AI enabled app CRICURU, Sehwag revealed that not many, who pointed out his lack of footwork, had answers, that was eventually told to him by Sunil Gavaskar, ‘Tiger’ Pataudi and Srikkanth. Sehwag’s experimental learning will be imparted by top guns of cricket.
virat_don

It’s Time For Virat Kohli's XI To Display Bradmanesque Spunk In England

“When you play Test cricket, you don’t give the Englishmen an inch. Play it tough, all the way. Grind them into the dust,” declared Sir Don Bradman, the colossal performer against England with 5,028 runs at 89.79 in 37 Tests. No cricketer has surpassed the record for 73 years. The Indian team led by Virat Kohli can only be inspired by cricket’s  all-time Don’s matter-of-fact words in order to put it across Joe Root’s England in the Test series to be played in August-September at Trent Bridge, Lord’s, Headingley, The Oval and Old Trafford. On the previous two tours to England in 2014 and 2018, India was trounced 3-1 and 4-1. The cause of the mismatched results was the lack of wherewithal to lift the batting average well above 23.95 in 2014 and 23.91 in 2018, when Kohli’s average was a fraction lower than 60! India’s bowling unit worked wonders in 2018, taking 82 wickets at 29.82 as against 59 at 43.25 in 2014. Statistics are part and parcel of cricket, more so in the bilateral series played in flannels. And achievements in England get a premium value. Familiar with the fickle weather, England has been a tough nut to crack. It has won 223 Tests and lost 123 of the 528 it has played at home since the one-off first Test against Australia at The Oval in 1880. England’s winning percentage of 54.84 against India at home (played 62, won 34, lost 7, drew 21) is the highest against a traditional opponent for close to six decades. England though has a 100% record at home against Bangladesh and Ireland and 75% win against Zimbabwe. So, India’s task is cut out; just try and put into action the Don’s message to the hilt to upset England apple cart.  
ICC

ICC Means Business With 100% Cricket Future Leaders Programme For Women

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has come a long way from once being described as nothing more than a “post office” by a former England batsman and renowned Match Referee, Raman Subba Row. The England-born with Indian ancestors, Row, who liked to prove he has Andhra blood in him by biting a green chilly at Mumbai’s Samrat Restaurant, was instrumental in recommending to the ICC that the Match Referee has the last word on the outcome at the toss and confirm which of the captains had called it correctly (Heads or Tails). It was during Row’s time in the 1990s that several regulatory measures were put in place, notably the Players’ Code of Conduct. But more significantly, the ICC took women’s cricket under its wing. Three years ago, in 2018, the ICC under the leadership of Nagpur-based lawyer, Shashank Manohar, took a trailblazing call to bring in Indra Nooyi (Ex-Chairperson and CEO of Pepsico and presently on the Board of Amazon) as the first independent female director. Three years later, Greg Barclay, the Auckland-based commercial lawyer who succeeded Manohar, has founded the innovative 100% Cricket Future Leaders programme designed to support emerging female talent in cricket. Sharda Ugra (mentor); and Vijaylaxmi Narasimhan and Harini Rana (mentees) are the Indians involved in the six-month programme meant to empower women. Others driving the programme are former Australian cricket icon Belinda Clark, and the ICC’s Claire Furlong and Ketaki Golatkar. Lauding the ICC initiative, former India captain and ICC Women’s Committee member for 13 years, Shubhangi Kulkarni said: “As of now, we have hardly any women in leadership roles and in decision making positions in cricket. This programme will give them a foundation to develop their skills in administration, officiating, broadcasting, journalism and other aspects of cricket organisations.”  
Sunil gavaskar

I Could Be Approaching A Century There (RT-PCR Tests), But Not Too Sure: Gavaskar

A champion in his own right for over three decades in the cricketing media world, Sunil Gavaskar is all set to travel to England for the ICC World Test Championship final at the Ageas Bowl, Southampton, from June 18. Celebrated as one of the best opening batsmen in the annals of Test cricket, Gavaskar will be the only Indian voice for the official broadcaster at the WTC final. Prior to starting his duties in England, the legendary opener, also known as the Little Master, has to endure the bio-bubble life that has been in place across the world for sports events. From September 2020, though, Gavaskar has beautifully adjusted to the hotel quarantine in the UAE, Australia and in India. Hinting a philosophical note about the unprecedented times of these days, Gavaskar said: “I am in Mumbai and God willing, should travel to the UK by next weekend. There is nothing much to do in quarantine as you are confined to your room. Catch up on sleep, read and watch some series on TV. In the bio-bubble, you can go out, like to the match and even to the hotel gym or restaurant, since these are open only for the others with you in the bio-bubble, and not to outsiders. So, the bubble is a lot easier as there’s interaction with others. As for the number of tests (RT-PCR for detecting Covid infection), yes, I could be approaching a century there, but not too sure. Trust all well. Stay safe and healthy,” signed off, Gavaskar, an NRI UAE resident. For half a century, Gavaskar has been in the vanguard of Indian cricket, as an opening batsman and commentator. His Pune-based friend Raju Metha said: “He must have completed 100 Test matches as a commentator long time ago.”
ashwin_003

Spinner Ravichandran Ashwin Plays Straight Bat On The Net

One of the most intelligent cricketers to ever twirl the ball in the air with a zillion variations, Ravichandran Ashwin is just emerging from the shadows after taking a break from IPL because of illness affecting a number of family members.  The quick-witted spinner is always ready with a handy retort on social media but this time he took up the cause of children in getting into the heart of the issue of sexual harassment of schoolgirls by a teacher in a reputed school. As an alumnus of the school, Ashwin had an extra reason to join the issue after several people had commented on the unseemly goings-on in school, rightly calling for action to put an end to such episodes. In quarantine ahead of the England tour, Ashwin seems to have a bit of time to keep his spinning fingers busy on the mobile keyboard. But, to his credit, he has not taken those who trolled him seriously after they went at him viciously, even finding imaginary reasons why he quit IPL mid-season, saying he did so because he was annoyed with skipper Pant over his refusing a DRS review call the spinner seemed bent upon. Willing to back himself to do his own thing, Ashwin was not scared by the nasty reactions to his “Mankading” Buttler. The spin master knows he cannot always have the last laugh but is always willing to battle to make his point.
BCCI_ECB

BCCI On An Overdrive To Deal With Unfinished IPL-14 Business

Several reasons have been bandied about the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) being loath to rework the five-Test series and enable the BCCI to fit in the interrupted IPL-14, and make good the balance revenue of Rs 2,500 crore. A view that’s going around is that the five Test matches have been sold out and the home broadcaster is in all preparedness as per the itinerary charted in the Future Tour Programme (FTP) agreed by the two cricket boards. According to a BCCI official who in the past has been part of informal conversations on scheduling matters, England’s Professional Cricketers Association (PCA), which is a member of Federation of International Cricketers Association (FICA), would not have liked any force to disrupt the original schedule. The series against India starts at Trent Bridge on August 4, the second Test at Lord’s on August 12, with a gap of three days, and the third Test at Leeds on August 25, with an extended gap of eight days. The fourth and fifth Test matches at The Oval starts on September 2 and 10, with a gap of three days each in between. “The long break during a four or five Test series is done to keep the players fit and fresh. There has been instances in India, of visiting teams being given a holiday in Goa in between a Test series,” the official said. England is set to play two Tests against New Zealand, starting on June 2 and 10. Then India and New Zealand will feature in the World Test Championship final at Southampton from June 18. Then the ECB will flaunt the pioneering ‘The Hundred ball’ bash from July 21 to August 21, leaving the BCCI to look for a window after the Test series in England to complete the IPL-14.
horses_ARC

Mumbai’s Amateur Rider's Club Praying To Gallop Through Uncertainty Imposed By Covid Re-Lockdown

Equestrian sport, patronised by the Royals, Maharajahs and the blue-blooded, has suffered aplenty in the Mumbai megalopolis because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent lockdown. The three main sport for the warm-blooded animals — show jumping and dressage, both medal sport at the Summer Olympics and polo — and run by the nearly eight-decade old Amateur Rider’s Club (ARC) at the Mahalaxmi Race Course — has been missing at the separate riding arenas within the premises of the Royal Western India Turf Club. Moreover, imparting riding lessons to beginners upwards have also come to a standstill, leaving the large membership of the ARC most disappointed and left them forlorn. Founded in 1942, the ARC is one of the oldest and largest private civilian horse-riding clubs in India. As of now, the ARC houses 150 warm blooded animals under the care of 125 odd syces, grooms or stable boys. The ARC made it known on May 18, that because of the cyclone, the 150 horses experienced extreme anxiety due to heavy winds and rains. A spokesperson of the ARC said: “The owners of the thoroughbreds have been unable to see their horses and are worried about their pets. The ARC has ensured that the horses’ routine daily health and hygiene regime is not disturbed. Arrangements for veterinary services on call and a compounder on the premises to tend to the horses’ needs has been made available. Members are video calling their grooms just to see their beloved pets and get some relief seeing the majestic creatures.” The ARC hosted the Polo season in January 2021 with all SOPs in place but had to cancel the Regional and Mumbai Equestrian Leagues due to the COVID second wave.
rob_thomas

Rob Koehler and Thomas Bach -- Photo: IOC

Protestor says No Tokyo, IOC says Yes Tokyo

The postponed Games of the Summer Olympiad in Tokyo 2020 has become a celebration of the 125th year of the Olympic Movement. Under pressure to postpone/ cancel the Olympics from July 23 to August 9, because of the raging COVID-19 pandemic, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) headed by West German Thomas Bach — a gold medal winner in a fencing team event at the 1976 Montreal Olympics — and of which India’s Nita Ambani is one among the 103 powerful members — confirmed on May 13 that it would go ahead with the Summer Games. The IOC reasoned that only one positive case was reported from the 12 test events and also support from WHO for the countermeasures that will be implemented at the Games. The IOC also cited the series of “Playbooks” that outlines the rules to be followed by athletes and others during the Games. Doubts have been raised by athletes who point at the national emergency extended by the Japanese Government. Moreover less than 3% of Japan has been vaccinated so far and nearly 60% of Japan want the Olympics and Paralympics to be cancelled. At the virtual IOC press conference on May 13, an anti-Olympics protestor gate-crashed and raised banners with messages, “No Olympics in Tokyo” and “No Olympics anywhere.” Mailing a response to shortpost.in, Canadian Rob Koehler, the former Deputy Director General of the World Anti-Doping Agency for 17 years plus and Director General of ‘Global Athlete’  — of which  more than one thousand athletes are members — expressed misgivings about the “Playbooks” saying: “Athletes are essential workers for the Games, unpaid workers, and they deserve the most robust Covid-19 protocols possible. Protocols that will protect the athletes and Japanese population. The IOC’s Tokyo 2020 Playbook abundantly falls short.”
maithli

Photo : BCCI

Can Mithali Raj Surpass Sandhya Agarwal's Test Aggregate?

Mithali Raj has been a champion batter in ODI cricket and the face of Indian women’s cricket for over two decades. Well into her 39th year, the diminutive right-hander has been in ODI cricket for 21-plus years, having made her debut on June 26, 1999 and making it memorable with an unbeaten 114 against Ireland at Milton Keynes. Currently she is at top of the heap with a world record 7,098 runs in 214 matches. While the doughty batter’s ODI record will be difficult to go down, Mithali, who has played 10 Tests from 2002 to 2014 and scored 663 runs at 51, would find it tough to surpass Sandhya Agarwal’s high aggregate of 1,110 runs in 13 Tests at 50.45, which is an Indian women’s record. India is scheduled to play a one-off Test against England in the harbour town of Bristol from June 16 and it would be beyond Mithali’s capacity to cover the 447 run gap. With a majority of the ICC full members focussed on white-ball cricket to popularise the game, the multi-day Test cricket is seldom featured except for the one-off Ashes Test between the women teams of England and Australia. The Indian women have played 36 Tests, won five, lost 6 and drew 25. Three of the five wins came in the last three — two against England at Taunton in 2006 and at Wormsley in 2014, and against South Africa at Mysore, also in 2014. Mithali carved out a 214 at Taunton in her first Test appearance in England and has scored 402 runs in four Test matches there. She is 38 runs short of Shubhangi Kulkarni’s 700. “Sandhya was a solid batter whereas Mithali is a solid and stylish batter,” said Shubhangi.
Kishen Narsi

Globe Trotter Kishen Narsi To Miss The Olympic Punch in Tokyo

A boxing globe trotter and a frequent traveler to the quadrennial Summer Olympics, Kishen Narsi has decided to give the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to be held in July-August, a miss. His daughter and son who live abroad have prevailed upon him to stay with his wife Ruby in Mumbai saying it’s best for him to do some homework!  A Mumbai kutchi who trained himself as paper-weight class boxer in the 1960s, Narsi went to Los Angeles 1984, Seoul 1988, Barcelona 1992, Beijing 2008 and London 2012 as a referee-judge/ Jury member; and to Montreal 1976, Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000 as a spectator. The boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics by the Western countries prevented him from accepting the invitation to Russia. Narsi was also a referee-judge at the Asian Games at Bangkok 1978, New Delhi 1982, Seoul 1986, Beijing 1990, Hiroshima 1994 and Bangkok 1998 and Jury member at Guangzhou 2010. He has officiated at various world events in Armenia, Venezuela, Casablanca, Mongolia, Macau, Tashkent, Victoria, Mexico, Chicago, Doha, Canberra, Hamburg and Poland since 1970. There is still a lot of uncertainty about the Olympics in Japan which is considering extending the national emergency to tackle the Covid pandemic, but Narsi who is one of the experienced boxing officials in the world has taken a firm decision not to go. “Look, the Olympics will not be the same. On off days, I see other sports live. This time you will be stuck in the room. You cannot mingle because of restrictions,” said Narsi without a hint of disappointment. He has not responded to the accreditation form sent to him by the Tokyo Olympics Boxing Task Force.
sachin ali

Dr Ali Bacher with Sachin Tendulkar

Ali Bacher Welcomes IPL-14 Being Suspended After Covid Outbreak

Dr Ali Bacher, former Cricket South Africa boss, is concerned with the pandemic situation in India. Seeing visuals at his Johannesburg home on CNN has saddened him. He is happy that the BCCI has suspended the IPL Season 14 after a few more players tested positive to Covid-19. “The BCCI could have held the IPL 2021 in abeyance because of the grim Covid situation across India. Can you imagine the outcry if one of the players, umpires, coaches and administrators had died of the virus? That could have happened and could still happen if the IPL had run its full course. How can you continue playing in New Delhi, one of the venues for the IPL, where people are dying like flies out there. The fact is players have been affected now and the BCCI and IPL have been compelled to suspend it. I watch IPL matches when South African players are involved. On the positive side, I had seen some extraordinary cricket and cricketers in the league,” Dr Bacher said after being informed of the BCCI decision. Dr Bacher — he holds a degree in medicine — is hailed as captain of the South African team that trounced Australia in 1970 and administrator extraordinaire who presided over the Rainbow Nation’s return to mainstream cricket in the early 1990s — after a 20-year ban from international cricket for two decades because of the country’s apartheid policy. He is also widely applauded for managing the ICC Cricket World Cup 2003. “We won all four Tests decisively. Some cricket experts believe that team was probably the strongest team South Africa has ever had. In that team were greats like Graeme and Peter Pollock, Barry Richards and Mike Procter,” said Dr Bacher.

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.