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 [...]
One of the criticisms leveled against a Muslim in India is that they are supporters of Pakistan. Of course this is not true in the vast majority of cases. Some of us accuse Indian Muslims of supporting the Pakistani cricket team when they play in India. This is the very same accusation made by locals [...]
Most of us know by now that Ramkishan Alipur Yadav (known as Swami Ramdev) has started a political party. The party named Bharat Swabhiman will contest all 545 Lok Sabha seats in the next national elections. The Swami himself will not stand for elections (this stance reminds me of Sonia Gandhi and her relationship with [...]
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 [...]
In another blow to the religious right the Supreme Court of India ruled that live-in relationship and pre-marital sex cannot be construed as an offence. The Supreme Court made these observations in a case involving Indian actress Khusboo who few years ago made statements endorsing pre-marital sex and the use of contraceptives in a magazine [...]
In about a year the Indian cricket team will participate in the next world cup. This event will obviously be followed by millions of Indians all over the world. But let us assume that the selection of the Indian team will be based on the following formula: The starters should include at least three women. [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Bangladesh according to Sehwag is an ordinary test side. Sehwag was speaking at a news conference held ahead of the first test match between India and Bangladesh to be played at Chittagong. The “sometimes” swashbuckling batsman and the Vice Captain of the side was asked whether Bangladesh was capable of beating India.
Australian cricket has always fascinated me. Australia always knows how to field a good team and their teams always had a healthy mix of young and veteran players at every position. For the past forty years Australian captains were not only great leaders and proven winners but also some of the best players of their [...]
Shiv Sena Chief Bal Thackeray has made some controversial statements again. The self-appointed leader of the Hindus (specifically the Marathi’s) said that he will not allow Australia to play in Maharashtra. He wrote “Our boys are being stabbed, burnt and shot at in that country and still our cricketers have no qualms in playing with [...]
In the West when we meet somebody we invariably shake hands and say hello. In addition there will also be a brief exchange of pleasantries (How is it going? Nice to see you, you look good today etc.). I always found it very strange why individuals who meet each other every day have to express [...]
The earliest image of Tendulkar that I have was all those sixes that he hit off of Pakistani spinner Abdul Kader. Indian cricket fans those days were waiting for somebody to come on to the scene and save Indian cricket after the retirement of Sunil Gavaskar.
