THE 2009 cricket season has been one replete with learnings for Indian cricket administrators. Well, at least to the discerning, there are are many lessons. I wonder whether the mandarins who run BCCI have realised that something is seriously amiss. Hope they have woken up to the fact that while cricket sells in India, it cannot be oversold. You cannot demand unearthly sums of…
WHEN one thinks of the branding of athletes in India, all roads go through cricket with the superstar cricketers all boasting multi-brand endorsements. The sports industry is growing with regard to branding and leveraging of a person’s on-field success toward building his or her ‘Brand’ so to speak. This is a relatively new development in the Indian sports context, and…
In all this hype and hoopla over Sachin @ 20, spare a thought for Rahul Dravid. One of the greatest servants of Indian cricket, I don't think Dravid gets his due. Under the banyan tree's - Sachin Tendulkar - shadow, Dravid has chosen to play second fiddle. But 11,000 Test runs don't lie. They cannot lie. For the sheer quality of those runs is undeniable and undisputed.
Let…
ALWAYS criticise and attack the BCCI, but never the players. This has long been the mantra of cricket writers in our part of the world. After spending close to a decade in the print media, I have realised most writers want to show that they are very close to the players. You are also considered cool if you receive calls on your cell from players when in a party or a throng. You are…
INDIA against Sri Lanka took a fair chunk of my attention this week, largely via the excellence of Cricinfo's match commentary service as I hopped on and off planes around Asia.
Two great batting line ups, Rahul Dravid proving his excellence again, the Sri Lankan talent factory still unearthing gems. Yet, the game was played Monday to Friday during working hours…
NOT too long ago, Pakistan was leading the world in hockey, squash and cricket. Serious strife at home has meant that no foreign nation wants to tour it anymore. But that is a more recent development. Pakistan hockey is also suffering like Indian hockey. In fact, Pakistan had to recently qualify for the Hero Honda World Cup in Delhi next February.
Squash where the…
SOMEWHERE close to the start of the India-Australia series, while speaking to an Australian newspaper, feisty Harbhajan Singh had predicted a 5-2 win for the Indian team in the recently-concluded one-day series.
Well, the offie from Jalandhar wasn’t way off the mark. Had Cyclone Phyan not hit Mumbai on Wednesday, the scoreline might have been exactly that: 5-2. It’s a…
THE UPROAR over Andre Agassi’s crystal meth-use admissions in ‘Open’ his new book, is yet to die down, but even when it does, the lasting impact on sports in general, and especially tennis could be significant. Agassi is unlikely to be liable for any penalty or punishment due to his confession of sorts, but there is no escaping the possibility of asterisks that are likely…
WHAT makes Indian golfers do well internationally? They have absolutely no support from the government or any of its arms which run sport. And yet, we have a veritable assembly line of golfers coming through. All this despite the government.
Somewhere, I reckon it is best to keep government out of sport. Look at the Commonwealth Games mess where the Indian Olympic…
TWO trips to Abu Dhabi this past week, Formula 1 and international cricket both in the UAE's capital, just an hour drive from our base in Dubai.
I'll be there again this week too, as Abu Dhabi owned Manchester City come to play the UAE national team. I suspect a few more trips in that direction will follow, as there is a huge range of sporting events now lined up…