With a Pinch of Salt

Happy Birthday Sachin!! “ It’s his birthday today and he has not let his fans down ”, said Ravi Shastri. On 24 th April 1998. Sharjah. But when did he ever let his fans down. Not many cricketers have the privilege of people remembering their birthdays. Sachin’s birthday too would have been like any other day, had India not been playing against Australia that night. He had just turned 25. An age when a whole lot of people are not able to figure out where they are heading in their lives, Tendulkar was carrying the burden of the nation on his shoulders. The Desert-Storm had come and gone two nights before, 143, against the same opposition. There were murmurs in the Australian dressing room that Tendulkar had played the best innings of the tournament and a repeat of such a knock is of a low possibility. Not knowing that Sachin had other plans for them. One of the most iconic images of the birthday match was Shane Warne swatting away mosquitoes, just after and just like h...

When Oldies Took The Centrestage… Width offered outside the off-stump. The bat comes down like a Magic Wand, slashes the ball over Point region. No foot movement. Simply Stand and Deliver. Third Man doesn't get a chance to move. The ball wins the race, as it always has since 2001. That's Virender Sehwag for you.   A left-arm Off Spinner flights the ball . The bat comes down in an arc. A full-swing. It’s a perfect connection with the white leather. By the time heads turn, the ball is soaring high into the night skies for a maximum. Umpire raises his hands, crowd loves it, opposition admires it. That's Yuvraj Singh for you.  Last night’s match between Delhi and Punjab in the on-going IPL was one which gave us the sheer pleasure of watching two greats of the game coming together and construct match winning innings for their respective teams. Alas, there could be only one winner. But not often these days you find matches when Viru and Yuvi come together to...

Indian Premier League - To See or Not to See…That’s the question . It’s been more than a week now that the World Cup got over, with a finale that promised us the moon but left us high and dry. I won’t say that it was the most exciting end to the grand tournament but certainly was played by the two teams which deserved to be there for that momentous occasion. In the end, Australians showed that while the rest of the cricketing world struggles to find their foot in ICC events, for them it’s far too easy to produce champions generation after generation. If McGrath will win for them in 2007, then Starc will do the honours in 2015. Having said that, we are once again, in that period of the year when the biggest cricket carnival arrives to keep the public engaged for a good measure of two months. In due course, the debates between the purists of the game and the modern administrators will spark up again, whether IPL is good or bad for the game. Some will crib about flat track...