The motto of the International Cricket Council is “Great Sport Great Spirit”. But the spirit was anything but great after the failed attempt by Australia and New Zealand to install former Australia Prime Minister John Howard as the next ICC President. The reaction from both Australia and New Zealand raises many questions about their perception [...]
India has never played a single match in the history of world cup soccer. Yet about 44.4 million Indians watched the 2006 world cup held in Germany. This number is expected to grow by about 35% this year. The numbers of viewers are very high considering that a vast majority of Indians still do not [...]
One of my pleasures in life is to sit on my deck on a warm summer day and watch my favorite baseball team (Philadelphia Phillies) play on television. This gets even better when you have a cool lager in your hand (in the Philadelphia area a Lager by default means a Yuengling Lager which is [...]
Steve Waugh said today that Sachin Tendulkar is a great batsman but Don Bradman is the greatest. I am a fan of cricket and of baseball. Both these games are related (Baseball is an offshoot of Cricket) and use similar terminologies. Both are summer games and in both cases tradition plays an important factor. In [...]
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (Maharashtra Reformation Army) is now indicating that they will not allow foreigners to work in Bollywood movies as item girls. This was conveyed by the MNS cine-worker’s union president Shalini Thackeray. Talking to news reporters she said that “Why can’t our Indian actors dance with locals? We will insist that only local [...]
Sachin Tendulkar faces a dilemma that most of us do not have to face. As a batsman he has dominated the sport of cricket during the past two decades. Statistically he has set records both in test cricket and the one day version that are unlikely to be broken. You have to play at a [...]
Unless you are from a rich Western nation you probably did not notice that a major sports event was held in Vancouver (Canada) last month. It was called the Winter Olympics and participants from all over the Western world (and a few from other countries) competed in events like Alpine skiing, luge, cross-country skiing, figure [...]
In an yet another blow to the Indian Premier League English cricketer Ravi Bopara said that he had concerns about the security situation in India and indicated that he has postponed his trip to India to play for Kings XI Punjab. In a statement he to the Daily Mail he said that “Cricket is my [...]
The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue is published once a year by Sports Illustrated magazine. Sports Illustrated (SI as it is popularly known) has a circulation of about 3 million and its web site (www.si.com) is one of the most popular websites in the world. The annual swim suite issue is one of the most eagerly [...]
Tiger Woods stood in front of the world and made a 13 minute statement apologizing for his behavior. He said “I thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to. I felt that I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me. I felt I was entitled. [...]
Ask anyone who is not from India to say a few words about Bollywood movies and the first thing they would talk about are the songs and dances. Most Indian mainstream movies still follow the “musical” format that was very popular in the West from 1940 to 1960 (this period is considered the golden age [...]
A few weeks ago I wrote an article on what I thought was discriminatory practices by the Indian Premier League cricket when it came to selecting players from the World T20 Champions Pakistan. The reasons provided by the IPL for not picking players from Pakistan went from availability issues, to lack of visa guarantees by [...]
The Indian winter Olympic team has arrived in Vancouver (Canada) to compete for the 21st Winter Olympic Games. The team comprises of just three individuals including Shiva Keshavan (Luge), Jamyang Namgial (Alpine Skiing) and Tashi Lundup (Cross-Country Skiing). Some Indian radio shows in Vancouver are reporting that the Indian team has arrived without proper equipment [...]
India is a nation that has about 1.1 billion people. It goes without saying that many of them are fanatical cricket fans including me. In the past few years India is also clearly the economic engine that drives the world of cricket. So why is that a test match against South Africa, which is a [...]
If you watch evangelical Christian television channels as I do one of the themes you will notice is their strong support for the state of Israel and their policies. On the surface they also are very supportive of the Jewish people. I find it interesting how a particular religious group can be so supportive of [...]
India’s best ever female tennis player today made a surprising announcement that she has called off her engagement with Mohammed Sohrab Mirza. In a statement she said “We were friends for years but found ourselves incompatible as fiancées. I wish Sohrab the very best in life.” Most men dread hearing the “wish you the best” [...]
The Karnataka government granted a 50% tax exception (entertainment tax) to the Bollywood movie Paa starring Amitabh Bachchan and his son Abhishek Bachchan. Prior to the Karnataka governments decision the Gujarat government granted a total waiver from entertainment tax after Amitabh Bachchan met Narendra Modi who is the Chief Minister of Gujarat. What are the [...]
I live in the United States which is a country that has a long history of racial discrimination. Slavery was abolished in 1865 but legalized segregation lasted for more than a hundred years and ended only in 1968. During segregation minorities (mostly African-American) lived in their own separate communities, went to segregated schools and had [...]
The Indian Premier League (IPL), the nations top cricket league and one of the most important cricket leagues in the world held their player auction Today in Mumbai. The base price varied from $200,000 for players like Kieron Pollard (West Indies) and Wayne Parnell (South Africa) to $50,000 for Adam Voges (Australia) and $20,000 for [...]
