By the end of the 7th inning, it was clear to everyone that Gavin Floyd was pitching a no-hitter. A no-hitter with a run, no less. At the top of the ninth, he took the mound to a standing ovation. And stood there, alone, throwing pitches. See, earlier that day, I had wanted to go [...]
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About the departing Derbyshire batsman Hassan Adnan: “It’s never nice informing players they have to go, especially when it is such a loyal servant and great team man,” Derbyshire chief John Morris said. ‘A loyal Servant’ musta have different connotation in the UK sports arena … but I was kinda jarred on my first read.
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“Athleticism has never been associated with Indian cricket, nor with Indians in general, and that has been a chip on the shoulder of Indian manhood.” Somini Sengupta, If It’s Hip, Fast and Furious, Is It Cricket?, 2007 “Through the same passes from time immemorial warlike races had swept down on the sun-steeped plains of the [...]
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Coach Woolmer not murdered (possibly not even dead but hiking with Elvis in Tashkent?). Now, I feel for poor Inzi. This does confirm that WC 2007 was the biggest cockup in history of World Cups.
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Nothing lifts the spirits more in such desperate times than the memory of a young player gaining simple pleasure from one of his first tastes of cricketing success. India’s cricket commercialism was shaken to the core because last week a carefree 17-year-old Bangladeshi, Tamim Iqbal, smacked the bowlers to all parts. Yesterday, Sri Lanka also [...]
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The World Cup of Cricket is currently underway. Those of you who care, already know this and I am informing the rest now. The concept is beguilingly similar to other ‘World Cup’s – a bunch of teams from across the world gather every 4 years and find out how bad they suck compared to Australia [...]
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Alright! I gotta say that was an nicely intense game made all the more glorious by the constant Joe Kitnafication of Rex Grossman. We missed pdcs’ commentary and recall of stats for all players. But, I am sure he will land in Oakland soon to the good news that his Bears are going to Miami.
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Brett Lee duets with Asha Bhosle in one of the more bizarre things I have seen in a while. I do commend Lee on his rolled R’s.
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A little over an year ago, I wrote about Mohammad Yousuf ne√© Yousuf Youhana’s conversion to Islam. In the post, I was a bit ambivalent about the symbolic force of that personal decision. A few months later, by happenstance, I ended up chatting with Yousuf over IM. He seemed geniunely excited and happy. And said [...]
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My friend Gerry emailed: “Every so often I like to read up on what’s happening in the world of cricket. And, every so often, I’m struck by how impenetrable cricket lingo is to the uninitiated.” He then linked to this news post at BBC: Windies Destroy Tigers to qualify, with a quote: “Marlon Samuels missed [...]
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The word around the cricket ground was that Abdul Qadir did not have bones in his wrists – rather greased metal balls that allowed him 360Àöof motion. And then, the same is said of Shane Warne, whose Ball of the Century inspired Dr. Andy West [winner of the Stoner prize - heh heh] to create [...]
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France was my pick for a while – for all the non-soccer reasons like diversity and for soccer reasons like Zidane. Pdcs penned a wonderful ballad to Zizou, even, to hype the finals. And then. Watch the beginning closely and Materazzi‘s hand in particular. Well, I am staying with Zidane. And, if there is any [...]
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Tony Karon’s excellent post should get you started on your path to world cup madness. Next, bookmark Soccer Blog and NYT’s World Cup ’06 blog or Guardian’s World Cup blog [what? no Weekly Standard World Cup blog?] and, via moacir, World Cup Blog – one for every team! Lastly, youtube has all the highlights you [...]
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That Australia hit 434 in a ODI is amazing in itself. That South Africa successfully chased it, is mind-bongling. I can remember the first time 275 was hit in a ODI, thinking, wow, some team will crack 300! And Jayasuriya happened and ODI totals started to go up and up. Yet, the real high ones, [...]
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Seldom is it that my worlds collide so drastically. But, a simple one-line email frrom desiknitter pointing me towards the photo-essay of the Chosen One in Islamabad’s embassy row playing cricket with a bunch of kids while Inzammam and other looked on, did just that. No, it wasn’t just the sight of the Chosen One [...]
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“Cricket as Art”. An amazing Radio 3 presentation by Darkus Howe on CLR James and Cricket. Must listen. [via CT]. There is a gorgeous paragraph in Beyond the Boundary that I can merely echo: Our house was superbly situated, exactly behind the wicket. I doubt it for some years I knew what I was looking [...]
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Come, little Iqbal, I* will tell you about Pakistani bowlers. As a genetic anomaly, they emerged from the banks of that old river Ravi. Weaned on a diet of buffalo milk and hearty roots, they were found to have great upper body strength. This provided them with a natural advantage over the rest of the [...]
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There was England with six series wins in a row, including the little matter of the Ashes. There was Pakistan, with a new coach, without having won a test series in who knows how long. I certainly don’t. In 12.1 overs after lunch, eight English wickets fell and they lost the match by an innings [...]
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Guardian‘s Richard Williams is in Multan covering the first Eng-Pak test. Multan is a city of saints and sun. It may make a mystic out of anyone but cricket and sufism proved a deadly combo for Williams. He wants to write about the use of instant replay in adjudicating a run-out [caught off-base]. But in [...]
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I won’t say that this trumps the ’92 World Cup win by Pakistan….but it comes close. The Grand Slam and the el Duque in the 9th were the highlights for me. Seeing Bush Sr. cheering the ‘stros was also a moment. Of intense hilarity, of course. My condolences to my peep, Rajeev, who had the [...]
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