Prem Panicker, one of the finest cricket writers, on the ICC's Code of Conduct.
'It was a good performance,' M S Dhoni said after the match. It was a little bit more than that, in that it came just when the team needed to reverse trends, to find self-belief, to be able to look ahead rather than behind.'
'Judging by the formbook, both sides are an equal chance to win. Pakistan has the better-balanced attack, offset by a batting line-up that oscillates between the brilliant and the bwahahaha, sometimes in the space of the same over.' 'As for India, 'bowling attack' is an oxymoron and the batting line-up is still struggling to memorise its lines.'
In the days since September 14, have you heard of one 'common man' or common woman even, getting his or her truss in a knot over Tharoor's remark? No, because the common man/woman/person has much larger issues to worry about -- unlike some of our elected representatives, says Prem Panicker.
Just when, at what point, did India lose the game against England and with it, the berth in the semis?
Following the attack on the Pakistan cricket team in Karachi, Pakistan's chances of co-hosting the next World Cup are effectively dead in the water. And, says Prem Panicker, it is a safe bet that this will spell the end of the cash-strapped Pakistan Cricket Board.
'Three days of terror, beamed live around the world. There's a lot of money in it.'
They said of Thomas Moore that nothing became his life as much as his manner of leaving it. Replace 'life' with 'cricket', and that is equally poignantly true of Anil Kumble, writes Prem Panicker.
'The liberalisation of the Indian economy has triggered a growing belief in education, because they believe they can be a part of the economic bandwagon and benefit from it.'
His films are loved and hated in equal measure -- but since he broke out with the 1999 blockbuster The Sixth Sense, Hollywood has been unable to ignore M Night Shyamalan's unique cinematic vision. On the eve of the release -- on a Friday the 13th, naturally enough -- of The Happening, Night speaks about scaring people while finding a voice.
His films are loved and hated in equal measure -- but since he broke out with the 1999 blockbuster The Sixth Sense, Hollywood has been unable to ignore M Night Shyamalan's unique cinematic vision. On the eve of the release -- on a Friday the 13th, naturally enough -- of The Happening, Night speaks about scaring people while finding a voice.
His films are loved and hated in equal measure -- but since he broke out withthe 1999 blockbuster The Sixth Sense, Hollywood has been unable to ignore M Night Shyamalan's unique cinematic vision. On the eve of the release -- on a Friday the 13th, naturally enough -- of The Happening, Night speaks about scaring people while finding a voice.
His films are loved and hated in equal measure -- but since he broke out with the 1999 blockbuster The Sixth Sense, Hollywood has been unable to ignore M Night Shyamalan's unique cinematic vision. On the eve of the release -- on a Friday the 13th, naturally enough -- of The Happening, Night speaks about scaring people while finding a voice.
So again -- must argument remain confined to the diametrically opposite viewpoints: either you like Test cricket, in which case you hope T20 dies an unnatural death, preferably under the wheels of Lalit Modi's speeding car, or you like T20, in which case Test cricket can go do the other thing?
VVS Laxman won a bagful of brownie points when he opted out of icon status, and the consequent million-plus paycheck, in order that his franchise could employ that money to buy big players. The codicil was, he wanted to lead the side.
A league of this nature will be nothing more than a money-spinning machine, unless it has the added plus of throwing up domestic talent.
Unlike other franchises, which have roped in big hitting foreign players, Delhi have staked its title hopes on home-grown talent.
So now that we have a league based entirely on parochialism, we are reduced to complaining that those tribal loyalties have shown no sign of kicking in?
This Indian Premier League (IPL) thing seems to be doing considerable good for family interaction, writes Prem Panicker.
Instead of insisting that it will personally supervise everything from the nature of the pitch to the length of grass on the outfield -- not highly recommended, for a body that is not known to be good at paying attention to detail --the BCCI needs to hand over one stadium to each franchisee as its home ground, writes Prem Panicker.
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