Sania Mirza: Mixed doubles

“In mixed doubles, the woman is constantly targeted and under severe attack. The one who holds up better against that fierce onslaught normally ends up on the winning side. So, in that sense, it is the woman who is the key to success in mixed doubles.”

—Sania Mirza.

Hardik Pandya: Bravery and pressure

“Twenty20 is quite an interesting format. In the end, you have to be brave. Pressure does not give you anything, it only gives you blood pressure.”
—Hardik Pandya.


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Martin Crowe—an obituary

I never watched Martin Crowe bat.

At least, I don’t think I did. If I did, I can’t recall much anymore. Perhaps, clips of his batting are available on YouTube to refresh my memory.

Remember these were the days before satellite television and the matches telecast were mostly India games or the World Cup.

Russell and Martin Crowe (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Martin Crowe, however, will go down as New Zealand’s greatest batsman accompanied by Sir Richard Hadlee as their greatest all-rounder.

It was an era that saw a small cricketing nation punch much above its weight.

Besides his stellar batsmanship, Crowe is also remembered for his innovative ODI captaincy during the 1992 World Cup.

This was the Cup that saw a prodigal South Africa return to the fold. Jonty Rhodes’ fielding exploits and a heart-breaking exit in the semi-finals against England defined their World Cup campaign.

The Cup was Pakistan’s though; from almost being eliminated to clinching five games in a row to secure Imran Khan’s dream of a cancer hospital named for his mother.

New Zealand were co-hosts—much like last year’s World Cup where they went one better and made the final under Brendon McCullum’s stewardship.

Crowe made some dynamic changes to the game—opening the batting with a pinch-hitter, Mark Greatbatch. This set the stage for Sanath Jayasuriya and Kaluwitharna’s pairing in the 1996 World Cup co-hosted by India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

But it was his utilization of off-spinner Dipak Patel at the top of the bowling that paid rich dividends and had their opponents in a tizzy.

Martin Crowe continued to love his cricket, writing for CricInfo while battling his terminal disease. He also returned to the first-class game temporarily but his cancer relapsed.

The Kiwi great is no more. His funeral was held yesterday.

May his soul rest in peace.

God bless.

Eoin Morgan: Little bit of naivete

“Having a little bit of naivete with a huge amount of talent isn’t a bad thing.”
—Eoin Morgan.

Steven Sylvester: Egos out of the way

“When we think about ‘me, me, me’, we tend to get nervous and to worry about what could go wrong. But when we play for others, when the focus is outwards rather than inwards, we become more creative and ultimately more effective. We have to get our egos out of the way.”
—Steven Sylvester, cricketer turned psychologist.

Sanjay Manjrekar: Popularity and talent

“To produce extraordinary talent, the most important requirement is for that sport to be popular in the country. For popularity breeds competition; and where there is competition, only exceptional talent will come to the fore.”
—Sanjay Manjrekar.


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Mike Tyson: Fighting

“Fighting is spiritual, but you just can’t see the spiritual in it because it’s mostly dominated by the physical aspect. We want to be Achilles in our own mind. The king of all fighters.”
—Mike Tyson.

Mike Tyson at SXSW 2011 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Federica Pellegrini: What she said, really meant and definitely didn’t

The Italian swimmer Federica Pellegrini (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Federica Pellegrini changes her telephone number.

What she said:

“Good. I have done it..thank-you for your messages of encouragement and congratulations. But obviously I have now changed my number.”

Italian swimmer and former Olympic champion Federica Pellegrini was forced to change her telephone number when she inadvertently revealed her contact details while publishing the results of a random doping test on social networking site Twitter.

Pellegrini was immediately deluged with tweets requesting her to hide her number while others wished to add her to their WhatsApp list of contacts.

After a few hours, Pellegrini responded as above.

What she really meant:

“Changing phone numbers was really easy, folks. The phone company is obviously first on my list of new contacts.”

What she definitely didn’t:

“What’s up with WhatsApp? What’s that, really?”

Ian Chappell: Good bowling

“The secret to good bowling is to keep believing you can dismiss a batsman. Once that thought turns to purely containment, the batsman is winning the battle.”
—Ian Chappell.

Yuvraj Singh’s exploits vindicate Hazel Keech’s ‘naivete’

Hazel Keech stands vindicated.

Yuvraj Singh batting at Adelaide Oval (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The British-Mauritian model and actress was ruthlessly trolled by ‘knowledgeable’ cricket fans for questioning Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s decision to keep fiance Yuvraj Singh out of the firing line in the first two T20s.

The tweet was later deleted but the fusillade of retorts from rude fans kept pouring in.

Let Ms. Keech’s timeline tell the story:

Yuvi seemed well on the way to proving his detractors right in the third T20 barely getting bat to ball with just five runs to his name off nine deliveries.

That changed in the final over of the run chase; it was vintage Singh dispatching the first ball to the ropes and depositing the second in the stands.

It was all over bar the shouting. The required runs had reduced from a screaming 17 off 6 to a manageable 7 off 4. A desperate bye off the third ball and it was left to Raina to collect the winning runs with cool aplomb.

This is the latest on Keech’s timeline:

Trust her man to come good and silence her haters with his exploits.