During a recent conversation, Harsha Bhogle had argued the case for reworking the structure of domestic cricket in India. Shifting to a franchise-driven model would, he argued, bring in more revenues, improve the quality of the game, and enhance competitiveness. The problem with such suggestions is, where do you start? You can clearly see the […]
To my surprise, an earlier post on the pointless symbolism of shifting the IPL out of Maharashtra resulted in emails (and messages) from several friends. The consensus was this: While they agree that shifting cricket out of a drought-hit state does not solve the problem, symbolic gestures are not to be sneered at either — […]
Life happened. And when Life happens, the blog necessarily takes a back seat. Sorry about that; will resume semi-regular updates from Monday on. Meanwhile, collecting together a few pieces I wrote for various publications during my time away from here, and related stories from elsewhere:
I noticed two friends, Anand Ramachandran and Harsha Bhogle, in animated discussion on Twitter this morning. The crux appeared to be that Anand was critical of some of the IPL auction rules as framed, especially the fact that some franchises were gaining advantages on what was supposed to be a level playing field; Harsha’s basic […]
#1. GS Vivek and Debesh Bannerjee, in the Indian Express, on the after-match commitments of the players: A top player speaks about the effect on their body clock. “We return to the hotel from the match around midnight and get ready for the party. Most of these parties go on till the wee hours. When […]
In a recent think piece, Ian Chappell made some pertinent points about IPL fuhrer commissioner Lalit Modi: Modi has had moments of brilliance interspersed with occasional lapses. His outstanding manoeuvres have resulted in IPL franchises, the IPL-Google deal and the BCCI’s finances rising exponentially. On the debit side there have been his indiscretions in the […]
Smoke Signals 