Sandeep Dwivedi pieces together the diverse stories of 15 young cricketers who have come together to represent India in the under-19 World Cup in New Zealand in January

At the Bandra-Kurla Complex, the Ranji Trophy match between Mumbai and Tamil Nadu had been reduced to another mundane race for the first-innings lead, and the mood around the stadium reflectedthe predictability of the looming draw.

Providing a stark contrast to that, on the sidelines, were a bunch of chatty boys wearing India colours. These 15 had been picked from among several budding talents spread across this one-sport country to represent India and the under-19 World Cup in New Zealand next month. The starry-eyed optimism was evident as well as infectious, and a welcome distraction from the action on the field.

In the past, the junior World Cup has regularly proven to be an elevator capable of taking players right up to the big league, and these child actors were aware of the opportunity that could make them superstars.

Different strokes

That Indian cricket has moved out of the cities and into smaller corners is no secret anymore; even so, the cricketing journeys of some of these players are as remarkable as they are diverse. If it wasn’t for cricket, most of them wouldn’t have crossed each others’ paths, forget being constant companions on what is likely to be an exciting journey.

Skipper Ashok Meenaria, for example, is one of the first people from Udaipur’s community of temple priests to take up sport as a career, while the team’s premier spinner — left-armer Harmeet Singh — is the son of a Mumbai-based property dealer and an exception in his own family for his choice of vocation.

Meenaria’s coach, Manoj Chaudhary, says his ward hasn’t missed a single day of practice since he first came to him as a nine-year-old, and adds that the way in which he turned a docile Read more…

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At the heart of this latest tussle is the footage that television channels air as part of their news bulletins and the streaming of matches by websites

Cricket’s governing bodies are winding up to serve a yorker to television channels and websites, opening the innings in what promises to be another hard-fought contest between news organizations and the sport’s administrators.

At the heart of this latest tussle is the footage that television channels air as part of their news bulletins and the streaming of matches by websites. The organizations that run the sport across the world are consulting each other on how best to crack down on the “unauthorized” use of match footage.

Arun Jaitley, Bharatiya Janata Party leader and one of India’s top lawyers besides being a member of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), chaired a two-day discussion in Hyderabad in October on drawing up a framework for regulating the use of video clips. Representatives of the International Cricket Council (ICC) also attended the preliminary deliberations.

“Cricket bodies lose revenue worth several hundred crore (rupees) owing to unauthorized streaming of cricket footage. It’s also a loss of revenue for the channel with broadcast rights for a particular series. We are looking to curb this practice,” said Jaitley. The illegal streaming of international cricket matches by websites threatens the Indian governing body’s own online channel BCCI.tv, which is in the pipeline.

The cricket boards have authorized a team led by BCCI member Lalit Modi to arrive at a possible regulation or a revenue model, Jaitley told Mint. Broadcasters could be invited to discuss the matter with the cricket boards, he added.

The TV channels said they were surprised at the move. The News Broadcasters Association (NBA), which represents 14 leading English and Hindi news channels, already has guidelines Read more…

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It seemed destined to be a hopeless mismatch. An unknown debutant named Clint McKay was running in to bowl at Sachin Tendulkar. With the game and the series hanging in the balance, the fans of Hyderabad were baying for Australian blood.

Tendulkar already had 175 to his name - a monumental innings to rank with anything he has produced in his long and glorious career. He needed only to clear the ropes twice, and victory would be sealed. Instead he flipped the ball unerringly into the hands of fine-leg. India flopped to a morale-shredding defeat.

Perhaps you weren’t watching Sky Sports at the time (around three o’clock last Thursday). Perhaps you have more productive things to do with your afternoons. But this was the defining moment of what has been a surprisingly compelling series. Above all, it illustrated why, despite Australia’s decline as a Test nation, their 50-over form remains all but invincible.

One-day internationals are all about collective responsibility. Each bowler is limited to 10 overs. Each batsman has to risk his wicket for the team. They embody that old cliché “a chain is only as strong as its weakest link”. And because the Australian state system produces more technically sound, mentally tough cricketers than any other in world cricket, Ricky Ponting can turn to someone like McKay in a clutch moment. Surely no other team in the world could have lost nine first-choice players to injury and still beaten the Indians on their home soil.

Tests are different. They are more like theatrical productions because certain people – usually the most proven performers – tend to dominate the stage for long periods of time. If your Hamlet is top-notch, it doesn’t really matter whether Rosencrantz and Guildenstern stumble over their lines: the show will still be a success.

When the Australians whitewashed England in the 2006-07 Ashes, they had a whole host of splendid old thespians trooping the boards. Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Matthew Hayden – these men dominated opponents not only with their runs and their wickets, but with Read more…

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How many times has Sachin Tendulkar played second fiddle to his emotions on the cricket field? How many times has he allowed his anger to sneak into your sitting room during the course of a match? Probably never.

On Thursday night, in front of a packed stadium in Hyderabad, however, he showed that he was human too: after diving forward to catch Cameron White, off the last ball of Australia's innings, he slammed the ball into the ground and walked away in a huff.

Instantly, you knew that somebody was going to be at the receiving end that night; that something special was cooking in his ageing willow. But then, Australia had already amassed 350 runs; a victory looked beyond reach, so you turned towards Sehwag for redemption.

As expected, the maverick played a cameo and perished even as hope flickered in the stands; Tendulkar shook his head, almost imperceptibly, and continued his vigil; four overs earlier, he had already expressed his state of mind.

He clips Hilfenhaus for three runs to go past 17,000 runs but there is no sign of joy or achievement; as the stadium roars in salutation, he merely takes guard for the next delivery. It was a monk-like Tendulkar, oblivious to the celebration and noise around him: he was on a bigger mission, a higher goal.

Two deliveries later, he makes room and lofts Hilfenhaus for a boundary: he hadn't played this shot in a long time. Maybe, in the deeper recesses of his non-thinking mind, the pressure had lifted, the smoke had cleared up; or maybe, he was just spurred on by a familiar Read more...

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The final ball of the fifth over during India’s chase in Hyderabad may have had little significance to the eventual outcome of the match, but for the capacity crowd at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, what had transpired before it and what was to follow were from two different worlds.

When Sachin Tendulkar flicked Ben Hilfenhaus through mid-wicket for three runs, he became the first batsman in the history of one-day cricket to reach 17,000 runs. It was the moment that the people of Hyderabad had waited for with fingers crossed, and when it arrived, the celebration was absolutely no-holds-barred.

After all, with India chasing an improbable 351 against a fired-up Aussie outfit, it seemed like the only real hurrah up for grabs as far as the 30,000 spectators at Uppal went. Little did they know that Tendulkar had a special surprise up his sleeve to celebrate the milestone.

Australia, batting first after winning the toss on a good pitch that offered consistent bounce, showed that they were up for the challenge here. Shane Watson was the early aggressor, his 89-ball 93 setting the pace for Australia. Ricky Ponting scored a run-a-ball 45 while Michael Hussey and Cameron White came out all guns blazing. All this time, Shaun Marsh held one end up, starting slowly and opening up towards the end, as his 112 and the late charge took Australia to 350. The last time the two teams met on a pitch with even bounce was during the second one-dayer in Nagpur, and led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India went on to post a mammoth 354 for seven. Ponting & Co had returned the favour.

In Nagpur, Australia’s chase had almost crumbled before it began. In Hyderabad, even as wickets fell at one end, Tendulkar seemed determined to do it alone.

The much talked-about seven runs behind him, Tendulkar broke the shackles and began marshalling India towards their gargantuan task. The boundaries seemed to flow that much easier and his 92nd half-century came off 47 deliveries. The well-set Virender Sehwag had once again failed to convert his start, while Gautam Gambhir, Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh soon Read more…

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How is this for a turn-around? New South Wales were cruising to victory against Trinidad & Tobago in the Champions League this afternoon and then suddenly they ran into a force of nature called Kieron Pollard. Rarely can I have enjoyed watching an Australian team disintegrate so much as this one.

All NSW needed to do to win the game and reach the semi-finals with a match in hand was to go through the motions in the closing stages of their game in Hyderabad. Trinidad were 120 for six after 16 overs chasing 171 and needed more than two a ball.

The Aussies were probably already mentally working out what they would spend the $500,000 on that they would be guaranteed for reaching the semi-finals. Brett Lee had a new moisturiser to try. Phillip Hughes wanted to complete his Transformers collection. Moises Henriques was planning a small operation to get rid of that stray letter i that had slipped into his first name.

Henriques came on to bowl the seventeenth over, having earlier conceded six runs from two overs. And then this happened:

Wide/ Four/ Four/ Six/ Six/ Dot/ Six

Suddenly things were interesting. Pollard had cut the asking rate to 24 off three overs. But Brett Lee is Mr Economy and when the eighteenth over went for eight (five of them for Pollard), the game was still up in the air. Enter Henriques again with Pollard on strike and 16 needed.

It took him three balls.

In total, Pollard made 54 in 18 balls. Off Henriques he made 42 in nine balls. It was like watching a live-action Stick Cricket only without the comet trails.

It also kept Somerset in the competition, bizarrely. By my ropy maths, Somerset will reach the semi-finals if Trinidad and Tobago beat the Diamond Eagles on Sunday and if Somerset themselves beat New South Wales by 47 runs or more. It’s a tough ask, but it Read more…

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The Champions League Twenty20 began with defeats for each of the IPL sides in their respective opening fixtures. Champagne corks have been unaffected, but we have to admit that we’re pretty pleased.

It’s not that we’ve got a problem with Delhi, Bangalore or Hyderabad. It’s more that we’ve got a problem with GMR Group, United Breweries Group and Deccan Chargers Sporting Ventures. Yes, cricket clubs are businesses – non-profitable ones if they’re English counties – but the IPL sides are businesses first and sports clubs second.

So many elements of the IPL teams leave us cold because we can’t see them without being aware of the thinking behind them. The kits are fine (it’s Twenty20 cricket – wear a Cher-style fishnet body stocking if you want), but when we see them we can’t help but see some demographic-citing tool asking: “What colour best represents our brand?”

We can’t even look at the individual players without wondering whether they were the subject of lengthy discussions about how their presence in the side would ‘position the franchise for consumers’.

“How does Andrew Symonds represent the Deccan Chargers ideals and values?” they’d have asked. “Do his qualities fit with our image? What’s our official stance on the shoulder-charging of streakers? Do we have one? Why don’t we have one? Let’s say that we’re pro shoulder-charging streakers so that we can sign Roy.”

But to apply a hackneyed cricketing phrase, the marketing men can only control the controllables. They can and will do everything in their power to ensure that their ‘product’ has the best chance of success, but they can’t directly control what happens on the field. Yet you’d hope Read more…

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Maqsood Karim of Turkman Gate, old Delhi, is a strapping, tall man who, as batsman, would proclaim the sixers he was going to smite; he’d then match words with deeds. But he has remembrances far more sombre than the matches he played in his youth. In his mind are etched dates that shaped the Muslim psyche over the last 34 years—the removal of shops of the poor in old Delhi in 1975; the demolition of flats at Turkman Gate in 1976—“with 52 bulldozers in one night”; the violence at Meerut during Ramzan in 1981, and the 1983 Nellie massacre; the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984 and the resultant change in leadership, “causing the opening of the gates of the Babri Masjid in 1986”. The narrative of the 1980s, from the Muslim perspective, was marked by strife and uncertainty, and beginning to be soaked with a feeling of self-pity and victimisation.

And then, Karim fondly remembers, there was Mohammed Azharuddin.

On the last day of Year 1984, a lanky young man from Hyderabad first played cricket for India, in Calcutta against the touring Englishmen. At stumps on the first day, Azharuddin was on 13 runs; rain and smog allowed him to add only eight runs in 20 minutes on new year’s day; January 2 was rest day. On the third day, Azhar made his first Test century—the ninth player do so on debut for India. And then, the next two Tests saw him score two more centuries, an unprecedented feat.

Azharuddin became the darling of the masses. And an icon for Muslims.

Azhar’s emergence, especially his performance against the touring Pakistanis in 1987 (when he scored two Test centuries), inspired Karim to play cricket. This seems to have been the trend in many localities. For instance, Abdul Sattar and Kamal Nigam, who live in the Muslim-dominated old Delhi and also run cricket clubs, say Azharuddin, playing with rare grace, aplomb and a lithe athleticism, drew Muslims to the game. “His approach was positive, his fielding electric,” Nigam remembers. “Football was more popular in old Delhi earlier. But after Azhar, young Read more…

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Twenty20 cricket is the fastest growing new sport in the United States. And Indians, including some from Bangalore, are behind it?

Hold your breath. Cricket could be the next big thing in the United States. The gung-ho T20 format appears to have the caught the imagination of white, black and Hispanic youngsters across campuses and neighbourhoods in the US. And Indians, from places like Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai, apart of course from the influential diaspora, are proving to be the catalysts.

Venu Palaparthi, co-founder of DreamCricket.com, which runs a full-fledged cricket academy in the US, said: “Earlier, there used to be the notion in the US that cricket was played over many days, and produced little or no result. Every American allocates finite time for sports and leisure. These are still early days, but T20 is definitely making an impact in the US. Americans are willing to try new stuff.”

BANGALORE CONNECTION
There are a couple of Bangaloreans who are batting hard for cricket in the US. Venu Myneni is CEO of Radiant Info, the firm which organises and sponsors cricket tournaments in the US in a big way. Then there is Aravindan Pararajasingham, another co-founder of DreamCricket.com. There are a couple of Bangalore players too. Aditya Mishra, who represented Karnataka in a single Ranji season, is part of the New Jersey Daredevils squad, which participates in the American League, while 30-year-old Aditya Thyagarajan, a former Karnataka player, went on to don the Team USA national colours.

GRASSROOT PROGRAMME
The US already has 200 domestic leagues. In the state of New Jersey, there are five leagues, comprising some 200 teams, for hard ball cricket and another league for soft ball cricket. The growing popularity of the game can be gauged from the fact that 200,000 people Read more…

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