19 February 2011. The decision to sack the Associates from the 2015 tournament counts amongst the worst taken by any sport. Forty years ago George Harrison organised a concert for Bangladesh. Bob Dylan and Ravi Shankar played, and the Indian maestro teased his American audience by saying that since they liked his tuning up so […]
29 October 2008. Memories of Australia’s last Test match at Kotla are hazier than the smog that holds the capital city in its grip. Certain things linger in the mind: the result, a catch, an opening batsman’s fate, two trenchant innings, and a wonderfully innovative and sustained piece of cricket writing, but all else has […]
22 October 2008. Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Ricky Ponting might as well come from the same street, the same school, the same suburb. They emerged from the backwaters and arrived on the cricket scene with sharp minds and hardened games. As time passed, both learnt to use the right words and sometimes to think the […]
12 February 2011. Mahendra Singh Dhoni has an immense task on his hands. Of course it is only a sporting task and not to be compared to clearing up Brazil after floods or Queensland after a cyclone. However, the challenge is not to be underestimated. Emotions are going to be pitched high. On paper India’s […]
16 October 2008. At stumps on the opening day of the Bangalore Test match the Australians were confident of winning. Already two significant advantages had been secured. Ricky Ponting had won the toss on a pitch expected to fall apart as rapidly as an American bank that has given mortgages to anyone with a dollar […]
8 October 2008. Let the games begin! After an eternity of speculation about pitches and selection and injuries and retirements, and with unsuspected newcomers eagerly sandpapering bats, and veterans anxiously oiling their joints, the Indian and Australian sides can finally get down to business. Everyone remembers the recent exchanges, the hot and the heroic, and […]
1 October 2008. Although he bounds around like an especially cheerful buck and retains in his eyes the brightness of youth, Michael Clarke has undertaken and almost completed his maturing. Insofar as any male ever does, he has put aside daring and given productivity its due. For a time his spirit rebelled against the cramping […]
29th January 2011. Eden Gardens is one of the game’s best loved grounds. In terms of fame and atmosphere Lord’s and the MCG stand as its only rivals. Every cricket player in every touring team yearns for the opportunity to play in that teaming amphitheatre with 100,000 Indians intently following every ball. To walk along […]
17 September 2008. Over the next few weeks Andrew Symonds will realise that he needs the game more than the money, the commitment more than the independence, the fuss more than the peace, the attention more than the solitude, and the dressing rooms more than the boat. He will understand that the time for fishing […]
21 January 2011. Dhoni’s side has acquired the ability to will itself to victory, writes Peter Roebuck India’s fighting spirit bodes well for its prospects in the coming World Cup. Twice Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s team has managed to scrape across the line in South Africa and on each occasion the players have celebrated exuberantly. Both […]
3 September 2008. Kevin Pietersen has not lost his Midas touch. Of course it is sheer folly to assess a captain’s worth after a few matches played on home terrain against a waning opponent whose most accurate leather-flinger is sitting in a nearby commentary box. Still, Pietersen has grabbed the reins in the same way […]
15 January 2011. India’s hopes of winning the forthcoming World Cup have been badly damaged by the latest IPL auction. Of course the two are connected. Morale is critical in any team. Moreover a community with a compromised culture cannot expect to conquer. The sight of respected men huddled alongside fripperies and jewels whilst bidding […]
20 Aug 2008. Sorry Sourav, but the sands of time have run out. It’s been an extraordinary career that deserves to be saluted and celebrated, but all good things come to an end. How many captains have led their team to a series victory over Australia, and also to a World Cup final? How many […]
6 Aug 2008. Michael Vaughan produced a rousing England side that for several years played some spirited cricket, culminating in one exhilarating and exhausting campaign. Then he suffered as his team omitted to build upon its breakthrough. Frustrated by injury and weakened by the loss of important players, Vaughan ran out of runs and inspiration. […]
23 July 2008. Since he took over the captaincy of his country, Mahela Jayawardene has so surpassed expectations that it has become necessary not merely to take a closer look at him but also at our own complacencies. Cast as a man of moments, appearances and dalliances, as a rootless stylist, a member of the […]
08 January 2011. India’s feat in securing a drawn series in South Africa counts amongst the most outstanding in its history. It is an indication of the team’s maturity and high expectations that the response was slightly muted. Admittedly a draw is not to be mistaken for a victory but all things considered it was […]
1st January 2011. Decades ago it was said of Neville Cardus that he “changed the course of the writing of cricket. He showed what could be done. He dignified and illuminated the task.” Cardus’s ability to combine music and cricket, his insights into character, his images and asides, the sheer quality of his prose, altered […]
9th July 2008. Graeme Smith embarks upon his second series in England as a more rounded character blessed with a more established game. Not that he did so badly last time. To the contrary his visit five years ago surpassed all expectations. Smith managed to turn a suspicious and fraught team containing a variety of […]
18 December 2010. India’s preparations for the match underway at Centurion were threadbare. No sooner had a one-day and Test series against New Zealand been completed than the players were packed onto a plane and sent to a distant continent full of hostile creatures, some of them able to aim cricket balls at their bodies […]
28 June 2008. At no point in the last 50 years has the country that invented the game stood at the top of the rankings. They have only themselves to blame. Kevin Pietersen’s nomination as captain of the England side confirms that the game in the land of its origin has come to a pretty […]
10 December 2010. Ponting’s dreams of recapturing the Ashes sit on the brink of ruin. India and South Africa will be playing for first place in the rankings when their series begins, but they need to listen for footsteps because England is on its way! Andrew Strauss and pals have the ability and ambition to […]
11 June 2008. Shivnarine Chanderpaul is a self-made man and player, shaped by circumstances and will, his technique not so much odd as original. Shivnarine Chanderpaul provides a notable counterpoint to the contemporary game. At once he is inimitable and timeless – no more a product of his period than a kitchen clock, and yet […]