Off-Side
By Shamya Dasgupta
The cue India missed
Jan 17th
Kiran More came up with a rather interesting thought when I was chatting with him about our Blunder Down Under. More brought up the topic of Shane Warne, saying how his reign at the top pretty much “killed” two generations of spin bowlers in Australia. And whether Australia wins regularly at home or not, “they More >
Out of the Blue!
Dec 26th
It’s one of the trickiest things to do – review a friend’s book. Aakash Chopra is a friend. He is also a writer, and of late, has been writing more prolifically than many professional writers I know. Columns. Blogs. Articles. And books. Alongside a full-fledged career as a TV commentator. Not to forget, he is More >
Down with Dow? Maybe not
Dec 7th
Ordinarily, with a name like ‘Dow’, you’d be a caption writer’s delight. But when the ghosts of over 10,000 Bhopal residents you murdered – very, very indirectly, of course – peer from behind your red diamond shaped logo, puns go out the window. And when we know that the Olympic Games, that ancient sporting competition More >
Right time, wrong place?
Nov 17th
I met him for a long interview for my television channel recently, and asked Abhinav Bindra why it is that athletes such as himself, with so much goodwill and so much power, never take the initiative to take on big issues. I wanted to know why, when so many things are in a state of More >
Ashwin, the agent of change
Nov 10th
Nine wickets on debut, India’s best opening salvo since Narendra Hirwani’s 16-for in 1988. We certainly hope that Ravichandran Ashwin has a more successful stint with the Indian team than Hirwani, but more importantly, it’s what Ashwin has done to the balance of power in Indian cricket that will have a bigger effect than just More >
Ban the men, can’t ban the menace
Nov 7th
I’m fairly sure that absolutely nobody, anywhere, actually believed that Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif were innocent. Indeed, despite their ill-advised ‘not guilty’ stances, the two were always up against it once Mohammad Amir and Mazhar Majeed pleaded guilty. It was not the Pakistan Cricket Board hearing their plea after all; it’s the Crown prosecution More >
Why the Indian GP is big, and why it’s not!
Oct 18th
The basic refrain is the same. Whether you speak to Vijay Mallya or Narain Karthikeyan or Armaan Ebrahim, we are told that the Indian Grand Prix will “do great things for the sport in India”. What exactly will these ‘great things’ be? Oh well, “excitement”, “awareness”, “interest”, and “attract more and more youngsters to the More >
Dhoni: Running on empty
Oct 5th
Ever since the Indian Premier Legaue started, Chennai Super Kings has ruled the roost.
Ever since the Champions League T20 kicked off, CSK has been one of the leading lights.
Ever since the 2007 ICC World T20, India has been the standout cricket nation across formats (except, obviously, in T20s).
The common thread, all along, has been one More >
