Category: Cricket

Gundappa Viswanath

This article brought back memories. I grew up being a huge fan of Viswanath. I remember those pitched arguments with Gavaskar fans. Unfortunately, in those days ODI were relatively less popular. He was a natural ODI batsman. I still remember the time when he used to play for SBI in the local league. Scores of cricket crazy fans would pack the grounds (RKM ground in Chennai for instance) to see the master in action. He seldom took these matches seriously. He would come in at 4 or 5 down, play a few of his favorite square cuts and then get out! The interesting part is that most of the crowd would disperse after he was out!

ICC Champions Trophy: Lousy Schedule

The BCCI schedule for the Champons trophy is ridiculous to say the least. India has a 10-day gap after its first match! Most teams have long needless gaps between games. The matches are unneccessarily “spaced out” to drag the tournament over so many weeks.

All matches have been divied up between the West (Sharad Pawar), Central (Lalit Modi) and North Zone (IS Bindra), despite the fact that there are so many venues in the country. The BCCI politics has not changed, its only that the power blocks have new players!

RTIA: Finally, A Max Penalty

For the first time in more than a year since the Right to infomation Act was passed by the Infian Parliament, the Chief Information Commission has slapped a maximum fine of Rs 25,000 on Banaras Hindu University registrar, N Sundaram, because he did not make available to an applicant an inquiry report on incidents leading to the death of Yogesh Roy, a student, in January. A great step for forward for the Right to Information movement.

Azhar: BCCI making peace?

Its great to see the BCCI making peace with Azhar and most importantly standing up to Speed with regard to the whole issue. Personally, I think Azhar has been unfairly treated. Despite the fact that it seems pretty obvious that many more stars were involved in the scandal, Azhar in particular has been made a scape goat. Its time to bury the hatchet and let Azhar get on with his life.

Pak Cricket: The “smoking gun”

Pak cricket is on a free fall. Shoaib and Asif were sent back for taking performance enhancing drugs. To make matters worse there are reports of them smoking pot during the England series. These guys are a “party” bunch. Their beards and prayers are just a facade. What next, a sex scandal perhaps?

The best part is that they continue to win despite missing their top two bowlers!

Cricket: UP vs Rest of India

The impressive performance of Indian bowlers — VRV, Balaji and Zaheer – just shows the huge gap between domestic and International standards. The same bowlers were badly whacked around in the Challenger series by Sachin, Dravid, Viru and others. Its time the top guns took more time to play domestic cricket. The Aussies are such a strong team with tremendous bench strength mostly due to the high standards in their domestic circuit. Its time for the cash rich BCCI to try and plan the cricket season so the superstars can play “some” domestic cricket.