The January Man
The Chappell Brothers have a pathological obsession with the human anatomy. I guess it's a psychological condition that afflicts retired Aussie players desperate for modern-day cricketing relevance, give breaking news sound-bytes and perhaps justify their per column earning fees. Former coach Greg Chappell's acerbic verbal assault on the "mental fragility" of young Irfan Pathan during the Calypso Test series sometime back, almost destroyed the rising career of the modest left-arm swing bowler from Vadodra. He became (naturally enough) so thoroughly demoralised and acutely despondent, I am sure Pathan....
Posted by Sanjay Jha at | 46 comments
Thank you, John Buchanan!
CricketNext stands vindicated once again. John Buchanan, the erstwhile mega successful coach of the famous Australian team has openly advocated that to make ODI cricket more spectator-friendly and give it a dramatic new format, it should be made 25 x 4 overs, as opposed to the current 50 x 2 overs. About three years ago, I had suggested exactly the same to the International Cricket Council (ICC), which was acknowledged by the General Manager Dave Richardson as an interesting suggestion that ICC would consider in its future meetings. I....
Posted by Sanjay Jha at | 27 comments
Ganguly's indomitable spirit
In the early fall of last year, India's just rudely discarded captain, dumped uncharitably by a palpably evil-minded coach, a noncommittal docile skipper, a prejudiced selection panel and wishy-washy BCCI officials, was perhaps wondering at the vicissitudes of life as he strolled disconsolately into the field for a Ranji trophy match for Bengal at CCI, Mumbai. There were less than a 100 casual spectators who had sauntered in on account of free entry, the members gallery was virtually empty, the camera crew was conspicuous by it's absence, and....
Posted by Sanjay Jha at | 124 comments
The saga of V-sarkar
The BCCI soap opera is like a perpetually bloating bubble, it keeps expanding at an exponential rate, providing us with comic relief at intermittent intervals. Thankfully, Vice President Lalit Modi of the joker body of administrators has not requested the Information and Broadcasting Ministry of India to levy a special fee for providing undiluted entertainment to millions of amused viewers of their spectacle on their idiot boxes every night. He should try. The government might actually relent. And we will probably pay. Poor Dilip....
Posted by Sanjay Jha at | 15 comments
