'He believes in his destiny and says "naseeb accha hai, chalne do".'
Sudhir Kumar Chaudhary, a one-of-a-kind cricket fan, who worships Sachin Tendulkar and follows the Indian team wherever it goes. For the upcoming India-Sri Lanka series, he has bought three litres of saffron, white, green and blue paint and is looking for the cheapest ticket to Colombo!
'I don't see Hardik getting a new ball. He is a certainty in the side as playing four fast bowlers would mean a long tail. He is your ideal No 7 batsman but you can use him for 4-6 overs depending on the situation'
The Supreme Court on Wednesday deferred the Board of Control for Cricket in India elections till the end of January even as the cricket body opposed the constitution of an external high-powered committee to propose punishment on the Mudgal Committee's findings in the betting and spot-fixing scam in the Indian Premier League.
Vijay Patil, has appealed to incumbent MCA and NCP chief Sharad Pawar to withdraw from the contest.
The bi-annual elections of the Mumbai Cricket Association are unlikely to be held before October, its president Ravi Savant said in Mumbai, on Wednesday.
The Mumbai Cricket Association has changed its eligibility rules for contesting its forthcoming elections. The move is widely seen as a bid to prevent senior administrator Prof Ratnakar Shetty from regaining his place in its managing committee.
'India have been in great form in all formats over a long time now. But it is going to be a great opportunity for us to come out, play aggressively and express ourselves. We can take the game on and really try to take it to India'
Apple CEO landed in Kanpur for IPL match as jet to Vizag was late; he also got to see Lucknow
The Supreme Court needs to step in and order an independent inquiry into the whole IPL scandal, conflicts of interest between office-holders of the BCCI, team-owners of the IPL and even members and captain of the Indian team, says KC Singh
Lalit Modi's interview with television news channel explaining how Vasundhara Raje took his wife to Portugal for cancer treatment shows that he is seeking revenge against the Rajasthan chief minister.
International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) cannot be called an Indian league, its founder managing director Mahesh Bhupathi has clarified though the new competition has borrowed heavily from the cricket-based IPL, especially in the franchise business model.
'The BCCI is one of the best administrative bodies in the world.' 'In a democratic set-up there will always be a power struggle, that is part of every society or every association, but it does not mean we have done something bad.' 'We have done everything possible we could for the game.'
Indian batting mainstay Virat Kohli said the Asia Cup starting in Mirpur, on Wednesday, is a perfect platform to assess the team's strengths, weaknesses and its current standing on the global stage ahead of the big-ticket World Twenty20 next month.
Today, with the 'Cauvery row' in full flow, the DMK has managed to wrest the 'pan-Tamil initiative' for the Dravidian polity as a whole. What more, the DMK has also stolen much of the 'Tamil thunder' that had belonged to peripheral pan-Tamil groups over the Jallikattu protests in January 2017, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'There were a lot of offers, but I wanted to be with a party that is working for the people and making them happy, not just by words, but also by action.'
'This is the only country where success seems to be viewed as a bad thing.' 'Other governments and countries go out of their way to protect a successful organisation. Here we find ways of destroying it.'
ICC chief executive David Richardson warned that the growing popularity of the domestic Twenty20 leagues like the Indian Premier League, Big Bash and Caribbean Premier League are threatening the survival of bilateral series.
The Indian Premier League has given players an idea of how to cope with pressure situations, especially in the knockout stages, feels India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
'Mamata's fascination with stars is so deep-rooted that she uses her clout as chief minister to get close to them.'
'The BCCI is -- and always has been, across successive dispensations -- allergic to criticism.' 'It has used the 'control' it enshrines in its name to destroy anyone who has dared to point fingers at its functioning,' says Prem Panicker, the distinguished cricket writer.
'Rather than focussing on the strategy of other teams, we should rather focus on ourselves'
'Lending to Mr Mallya was the bankers' season ticket to corridors of power and glamour. Borrowing from them was like a favour Mallya did to them,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Some stellar performances by seasoned veterans and promising youngsters continued to raise the bar in Olympic sports but there was heartbreak in equal measure when corruption scandals blighted India's favourite obsession, cricket, in a see-saw year for the country's sportspersons.
Walee Bukhatir and Mazhar Khan, the men who drive cricket in the UAE, tell Harish Kotian/Rediff.com what the game is missing by India and Pakistan not playing at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
'This little incident might seem trivial to most people. But when such things happen in the BCCI's own backyard...'
Down in the Indian Ocean, cricket turned out to be the great unifier and Archana Masih, only an intermittent fan, became its ambassador of sorts.
'It's like sometimes you go to a top restaurant and order a dish, the food quantity might be less, but if the quality and taste is good, then it leaves a mark forever.' 'As far as my career is concerned, I think I delivered quality.' 'I last played for India in 2006, but even today when people meet me they remember Kaif as the best fielder who could take some amazing catches, get run outs and save runs on the field.'
'If the Nairs split between Shashi Tharoor and the BJP candidate, O Rajagopal and the Nadars combine with the Leftists and the Christians to vote for the CPI candidate, Bennet Abraham, what would happen to Tharoor. It is presumed that the voters do not cast their votes, they vote their castes,' says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan
Away from the cricket field, it was a year in which Sania Mirza was unarguably the biggest success story with her staggering 10 titles on the Tour -- two of them Grand Slams.
