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Lalit Modi, Shashi Tharoor short-listed for IOA presidency (Satire)

Following the arrest of Suresh Kalmadi by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) are frantically looking out for a successor to the high profile minister.

Two names have been short-listed.

The first is former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi who is currently in London.

The other name bandied about is former Minister of External Affairs, Shashi Tharoor.

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Dual sponsorship move in IPL draws criticism

The IPL now allows dual sponsorship.

What this means is that teams can now have different sponsors for their home and away games.

What next?

Home and away captains?

The move is a ploy to help teams earn additional revenue.

Soccer teams wear different coloured jerseys for home and away ties.

But different sponsors?

Is the colour of money different when home or away?

Existing sponsors are displeased.

New sponsors might come in only at the expense of current ones. The rumblings against the ad-hoc running of the Indian Premier League resound higher.

The BCCI sure believes that they have to be first—in everything. From the sublime to the ridiculous.

Quote of the day:
A sympathetic Scot summed it all up very neatly in the remark, "You should make a point of trying every experience once, excepting incest and folk dancing." – Sir Arnold Bax

Ashes 2010 , Third Test:Musings on Australian preparations

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Ricky Ponting feels that the Perth wicket will allow him the luxury of playing four fast bowlers. Horses for courses is the theory in play. It may well be a ploy that could backfire. The last time India played Australia in Australia, it was at Perth that the Indians pulled one back to make it 2-1 under the inspiring leadership of Anil Kumble.  The Englishmen’s cause,however, is not helped by Stuart Broad’s injury and consequent absence.

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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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Disastrous run at World T20!

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With India’s 2 matches of the Super 8 match over and with them effectively India’s hopes of qualifying for the semis,  it is time to make a couple of points about India’s no-show at this tourney.

1> The standard of cricket exhibited at the IPL and the World T20 are reams apart. In the latter, we have the best teams representing their country, whereas the IPL teams are constrained to having just 4 foreign internationals representing them and at the same time they need to ensure that deserving youngsters (read youngsters with potential) are given a chance to ware their talents. So suddenly we have our IPL heroes peppered with short-pitched balls and when you are a team batting second and chasing a  large total, you have to try and hit every ball and the proclivity to succumb to the short-pitched variety is both exposed and exploited. Besides, since when have Indian batsmen known to be masters of the short ball?

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