Wrist spin is a difficult craft that not only requires hours of honing the skill sets but also a leader who backs its practitioner in difficult moments of the game, feels one of IPL's most successful leg-spinners Amit Mishra.
India Under-19 captain Unmukt Chand's parents -- father Bharat and mother Rajeshwari -- look back on their son's childhood and how his love for the game grew over time.
'There's so much in favour of batsmen these days. Fields are small, two new balls, powerplays, bats have got bigger than they used to be, the list can go on. You bowl a 'no ball' and it's a free hit. But I have never seen a rule change that favours the bowler.'
Ashish Nehra concedes that Steve Smith was wrong in orchestrating ball-tampering but it will be sad if the under-fire Australian captain is barred from participating in the Indian Premier League.
Sarfraz can't continue to captain in all three formats: Zaheer Abbas
His cricketing brain, always sharp, was blessed with exceptional speed of information absorption and processing. He could quickly zero in on what needed to be done and use the element of surprise to overpower the opposition, observes Shreekant Sambrani.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, despite being a cricket star like no other, was never entirely a cricket story. He was, still is and will always remain a social story.
Gary Kirsten has no doubts they will bounce back and be challenging for One-day cricket's most coveted trophy next year.
'Of the 32 captains who have led India in Test cricket, only four have been pure bowlers -- Ghulam Ahmed, Venkatraghavan, Bishan Bedi and myself.' 'The captain must lead with only one idea in mind -- to win the game. The draw mentality is partly because captains lacked confidence and partly because they want to protect their record. If you don't think winning is the point of the game, there is little point in even entering the field.' 'As the Monekygate controversy raged, I received a message from Bishen Bedi, no stranger to controversies himself. "As a captain," he wrote, "take a decision you will be proud of when you look back on history".' Anil Kumble, cricketing legend, on the Art of Captaincy.
Over the 44 years since the first World Cup that has never been more obvious than in the tactical evolutions that have taken place in the white-ball game.
He finished the decade with 20,960 international runs -- 5,775 more than anybody else -- and 69 hundreds -- 22 more than anybody else. This is a player performing at an extraordinarily high all-format level unseen in the history of cricket.
Ricky Ponting was frank in his admission that the Michael Clarke-led Aussie outfit will be a force to reckon with on its home ground.
Brearley rated Kohli as the best batsman in world cricket and his success is largely due to his 'ruthless streak'.
Steven Smith rejected former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh's assertion that the touring Australian squad for the four-Test series against Virat Kohli's men.
Australia's Steve Smith, attributed his success to calmness and the repetitive process of getting ready for on-field battle.
- 'Time Indian cricket looked beyond Fletcher' - 'Their bowling has been pretty inconsistent'
Australia are the unsurprising favourites to clinch a fifth World Cup.
'A man who is sometimes loved and loathed in equal measure, a man we're seemingly tired of seeing yet can't imagine life without.' Dhruv Munjal salutes the incomparable M S Dhoni.
'No one can be as destructive like him. His hundreds are BIG!, 150, 170, double hundreds,' Dinesh Lad, Rohit's childhood coach, tells Rediff.com's Harish Kotian. 'If he stays at the wicket long enough, then anything is possible.'
The semi-final against Australia and if the Indian women are fortunate, Sunday's final will decide her place in history as a captain, though she has long secured her position in the Elysium of women's cricket, says Haresh Pandya.
Off the field the Board of Control for Cricket in India looks set for a complete overhaul with Supreme Court's stinging observations tightening the noose around the mandarins of the richest sports body.
As India gets set to play its 500th Test, Rajneesh Gupta presents India's memorable Test victories at home.
Haresh Pandya picks his all-time best Indian Test team which is packed with some exciting stroke-players, a couple of heavy-scorers known to play monumental innings, some superb spinners, a world-class all-rounder and a top-notch wicketkeeper. Check out his list and then create your own Dream India XI, and share it with family and friends!
