A Little Wit. A Little Wisdom. Lots of India.
Mr Prash also mentioned that Afridi will be replacing Mike Tyson as the Brand Ambassador for Laal Dant Manjan. “We’re disappointed with Mr Tyson. He hasn’t bitten anything in many years. Afridi on the other hand is an role model to kids. If he bites a cricket ball, millions of kids will start gnawing at random things”.
Priyananda Shenoy writes about Dabur’s viral campaign involving Afridi.
Lalit Modi had once argued that the auction system and the spending caps in place are necessary so that a franchise like the Mumbai Indians, flush with Mukesh Ambani’s money, can’t buy out all the good players, thus killing the competition. But such a state would be unsustainable
Amit Varma makes a case for lesser intervention by the BCCI in machinations of the IPL and let the chips fall as they may courtesy the free market.
The US, for all its capitalist-centric economy, has socialist sporting structures. The NFL, during its yearly draft, gives the side that performed the worst in the previous season the best pick in the first round. The NBA and MLB follow their own version of equitable revenue/talent distribution to ensure every franchise has a shot at legitimately rebuilding.
Piker counters his argument by citing the largely socialist yet successful business models of the American sports and compares it to the laissez faire model adopted by football (soccer).
For Tendulkar could have married a Bollywood queen, or a Muslim beauty, for that matter. He could have had one-night stands with Bollywood starlets, he could have smoked pot, he could have run over the homeless and vagrant in Bombay in his Ferrari. He could have hunted Black Buck. Or he could have kept AK-47s hidden at his Bandra flat.
I have nothing to say. John has said everything about God.
India’s Youth Affairs and Sports ministry has now officially ruled that Formula 1 racing or F1 is not sports. The ministry’s ruling came in response to a private promoter’s request for about $36 million remittance for a license fee payment…
Tired of insurgency, terrorism and border intrusions, the Indian Army decided to think out of the box. They went out and procured nearly two dozen “silent reconnaissance vehicles for missions beyond enemy lines” worth Rs. 1 crore (approx $210,000). And…
Looking at the squad as a whole, one gets the feeling that there are better bowling and batting departments in other teams but where Chennai scores is the fact that the franchise comes together as one team, something that Bangalore and Hyderabad failed to do last year. Similar to Rajasthan and Mumbai – there will always be only one captain and he will get to make the decisions on the field.
The Delhi Daredevils look a good squad easily capable of making the semifinals. It’s going to be very interesting to see how Virender Sehwag captains the side – he received a lot of criticism for his lacklustre captaincy during the second test against New Zealand and will be looking to prove a few men wrong. The batting looks brilliant and capable of putting enough runs on the board for the bowling line up to defend.
With the IPL season less than a week away, Critics Corner is previewing the teams. The previews for Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Daredevils is up with rest to follow.
The Times of India’s sports section is a source of hilarity each morning, thanks to the writings of Bobilli Vijay Kumar. Mr. Bobilli’s approach to the English language resembles the batting of some tailenders who, undetered by their lack of eye-hand coordination, keep spectators entertained with extravagant heaves, swipes and slashes.
Girish Shahane gets his daily dose of hilarity from the Times of India’s Sports pages. Indian media is chockablock with such gems and not just in the Sports pages.
The show must go on. Not for “national pride”, or for corporations’ “money-making urge”, but for the Indian government to show its people and countries outside that the fallacious hyphenation of India and Pakistan is absurd, and that it is capable of maintaining law and order it the country after the aberrations of the recent past…if the Home Minister is telling me that he can’t protect private enterprise in the country, our law enforcement agencies, along with the Home Minister can just pack up and move along because they are of no use whatsoever.
Filter Coffee makes a case against canceling the IPL for reasons of security. I understand the sentiment but given the continued lack of ability to prevent terrorist attacks does not help the cause; safety of the citizens against credible threats is paramount.
While India pulled out from what would have been a Pakistan vs India series due to diplomatic pressure from New Delhi, Sri Lanka tried to play the good Samaritan, only to be backstabbed by the ones it tried to help. When I spoke to Arjuna Ranatunga yesterday afternoon, who ironically took the first step by proposing to help out Pakistan, all he told me was, “Well, we were promised and assured of full security by the Pakistani authorities.” In hindsight, both he and Mr. Lokuge would admit that this tour was hastily arranged, without a proper security delegation from Sri Lanka Cricket or the Government visiting the country to examine the arrangements there.
Venkat is shocked at the recent events in Pakistan involving the Sri Lankan cricket team given his close contacts within the team [hat tip: Curdriceautora].
April 10th 2009: Cricket fans all over India wake up in shock to see the Bangalore Royal Challengers on top of the Indian Premier League 2009 league tables. And then everyone laughs sheepishly when they realize that the tournament hasn’t started and the team names have been displayed in alphabetical order.
With the IPL 2009 season upon us, Sidin takes up the ‘difficult’ task of making the forecasts. Of course, reality may beg to differ but I predict a much more popular IPL if his predictions come true.
