Let's talk Cricket

                                                                         Picture credits: Wikipedia Test cricket is the original form of cricket. It's exactly what the name suggests, A Test. It's a test of patience, concentration, fitness - both mental and physical and a lot of other things. Sounds interesting right? Well, not so. One Test match goes on for 5 days, and that's where it suffers because people seem this sort of cricket "boring". There are many reasons behind it. One is T20 cricket. The shortest form of International cricket. A 3-4 hour match has a lot of crowd compared to the traditional Test cricket. The demand for Test cricket is lowering year on year and this isn't a good sign for cricket. The reason is there are still a lot of cricket purists who enjoy watching Test cricket. To t...

                                                                    Picture credits: www.scroll.in Hi Virat, I heard your name for the first time when you lead the team to win the U19 Cricket World Cup for India. You made your way into the senior Indian side and your career thus far has been amazing. You are deemed as the best batsman of modern era and often being compared to the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Don Bradman. Everything is great and you love and respect from people all around the world. I admire you as a batsman. You're breaking each and every record as if that's just a school boy stuff for you. I've seen you improve to be a fit player from your days of U19 cricket and that change and commitment is what rewards you today. As much as I admire you and follow you in your professional career, I do not li...

Picture Credits: U.S. Wall Street Journal Before the start of the English tour, Team India had many questions to answer. It felt like India will answer all those questions and authorize their dominance in England. However, after the recently concluded ODI series, India instead of answering the questions have got more problems to solve. This English series, especially the ODI’s was going to be very crucial because this is the last time India were playing in England before the World Cup. After a comprehensive win in the 1 st ODI, it felt like Team India is the best team at the moment and nothing can stop them. Kuldeep Yadav ran through the English batting line up. However, it’s often said that a team is no.1 for a reason. England, the no.1 team in ODI’s currently came back stronger and easily won the next 2 matches. Joe Root with two classy centuries didn’t allow India to find even a chance to get back in either of the matches. After being castled out by Kuldeep in the firs...

I enjoy watching cricket. I have followed and loved the sport since I was a kid. But, these days, watching Cricket bores me.! It’s not the same. The game has evolved and it’s good for the game and the revenue makers. However, the game is getting more and more batsman friendly day by day. I fear there will be a time, where a team will score 600 in an ODI and 350 in a T20. There will be a time where scoring 450 will be normal. These scores sound exciting and we praise the batsmen. Even I don’t want to take anything from the batsmen, but the question here is, is cricket just a batsman’s game? Is it moving towards being just a batsman vs. batsman game? There have been long talks in the past whether cricket is a batsman’s game, that past is now a reality, especially the Limited Overs Cricket. As far as I know, cricket is supposed to be a batsman vs. bowler, one ball at a time, how you face it? It’s about the skills of the batsman to survive a good ball and punish the bad ba...

Picture Credits: www.sportsmaza.com Over the last few days, browsing over social media, I saw a lot of posts regarding IPL vs. PSL, the prize money, the spectators, etc. etc. It wasn’t a good sight to see people fight in the comment section regarding their club cricket and suddenly wave off to India vs. Pakistan political battle. And, it wasn’t like those funny banters we have in common, it was brutal and abusive. The argument just grew hatred amongst Indians and Pakistanis. The rage was clearly evident from citizens of both countries. So, for this purpose I thought of settling the deal once it for all with IPL and PSL. IPL, the Indian Premier League started in the year 2008, and is 10 years older. It has everything- talent, money, crowd, sponsorships, glamour etc. It is the closest, not similar but the closest to any football (soccer) league. The objective of IPL was clear enough, and that was to make money. That’s what it did, that’s what it is doing, and that’s what...

Picture credits: www.espncricinfo.com 2 nd April 2011, 48.2- MS Dhoni sent the ball out of the boundary line, as whole of India erupted in joy, happiness and goose bumps. Yes, I’m talking about the World Cup final. India finally were crowned champions after 28 long years. Let’s talk about India’s journey towards the World Cup triumph. As a kid, watching the sport since late 1990’s and the early 2000’s, I used to hear a lot of adults talking about how great Kapil Dev was, how India did the unimaginable by winning the 1983 World Cup. My dad used to tell me stories about Kapil Dev’s 175 against Zimbabwe and his amazing catch in the World Cup final to dismiss Sir Viv Richards. I too wanted to experience India winning the World Cup once in life. I was too young to understand the 1999 World Cup, or let’s just say I didn’t know much about cricket back then. Picture credits: www.scoopwhoop.com Then came the 2003 World Cup. I remember India’s dismal performance against...