bouncers

Cricket: Aakash Chopra and Shashi Tharoor voice their opinions

Browsing cricketing articles can be a source of joy, especially when the writer knows what he’s talking about.

Aakash Chopra is one among few ex-cricketers who dons his thinking cap before typing words into his posts.

In his recent article “Reinventing The ODI,” the ex-India opener tackles the future of the 50-over format.

Sunil Gavaskar: A Contradiction In Terms, From Calypso King To IPL Flop

Gavaskar , The Original Little Master

I have always been a huge fan of Sunil “Sunny” Gavaskar, the cricketer — the original Little Master.

When the rest of the world cowered under the barrage of bouncers and intimidating pace bowling unleashed by the marauding, rampaging Windies side of the late 70’s , 80’s and early 90’s, one man stood firm amidst the ruins.

That man was Sunil Manohar Gavaskar; thirteen of his 34 hundreds were against the mighty West Indians.

Another eight were belted against the Australians.

Whenever India played a series against the West Indians, we knew that as long as Gavaskar occupied the crease we were safe.

When the ace batter succumbed, the Indian team surrendered weakly as well.

At a time when India were making the transition from being mostly a spin bowling side to a pace bowling attack (thanks to another all-time great, Kapil Dev), we depended on the batsmen to save Test matches.

Bowlers win matches, batsmen save them.

This was a time in Indian cricket when a draw was always a noteworthy achievement; Indian sides rarely had the bowling strength to bowl out a team twice.

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