Impact on the basics of the game
The final post on the ‘Impact of the IPL’ series means to look at the impact to the game of cricket itself. Being opposed to the new format of the game just on account of the fact that it is a new format is, to borrow a line from [...]
Impact on future cricketers
Pre-IPL school kid: Wakes up, dons whites, shrugs on his kit bag, warms up, visualizes his hero (one of top 10 list of run-scorers/wicket-takers on test matches over the last 5 - 10 years) , practises hard, dreams of donning the test cap…
Just over three decades ago, life in India was simplicity [...]
This is the first of a 3-part post on the potential impact of the IPL on the game of cricket as we know it. I think of the three key components that will undergo change; current cricketers (international and domestic), future cricketers (little kids donning the whites) and the game of cricket as it might [...]
Strike One against the IPL. Those familiar with the American past-time would have heard of the umpire’s exaggerated signal while signalling the first pitch that goes through ‘the zone’, baseball’s imaginary equivalent of stumps. Media restrictions and other totalitarian measures aside, the IPL can still bulldoze its way to being the biggest thing since the [...]
When Graeme Smith set forth for South Africa, some of the factors he would have considered would be the Indian team, partisan crowds, turning tracks and weather conditions. What they would not have imagined would be how they would be up against not just the Indian cricket team, but the entire machinery of the cricketing [...]
Mark Taylor said it was one of best summers of cricket he has seen in a long time. Others have been claiming that Australia V India is the new Australia V England, which isn’t saying much given those weren’t ever in the vicinity of being contests barring 2005. The long-drawn Commonwealth Bank [...]
India’s first win in over two decades against Australia at the MCG took a superlative bowling effort that bowled out the hosts for their fourth-lowest first innings total at home. While it is being touted as a stirring performance by the Indian attack, it was really the performance of young Ishant Sharma supported by some [...]
The Border-Gavaskar trophy has been handed out and before one could say “skill-be-damned-bring-on-the-mayhem” three games of the pajama variety have concluded, one where the ‘reigning champions’ were given some lessons and two that fell prey to the age old enemy, weather. The hysterical nature of the cricket calendar means that by the end of the [...]
“Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war!” - William Shakespeare
My limited exposure to classical literature as opposed to mainstream fiction means the phrase “Dogs of War” conjures up images of a grizzled bunch of mercenaries sponsored by an American industrialist laying siege to the rudimentary military of an obscure African nation. The intent [...]
At the end of day 2 at the WACA ground in Perth, India lead by 170 and the world is an unrecognizable place. Touted as ‘red-hot’ by journalists and anyone within earshot of a microphone, Australia swapped their lone spinner for another frighteningly fast bowler in Shaun Tait and were expected to blow the Indian [...]
