India tour of England, 2021

The current India-England series (we still don't know if it is complete or not) is proving to be quite extraordinary in more ways than one. It has been quite a seesaw affair. Apart from the Headingley Test, the other 3 could have been won by either team. 

The last Test at the Oval has brought so many new truths home. India has always been a team of great individuals who played fantastic cricket but couldn't gel with each other as a team to win matches. They were capable of walking into any world eleven on their own accord. Players like Merchant, Mushtaq, Hazare, Mankad, Manjrekar, Gupte, Ghulam Ahmed, Nawab of Pataudi, Farokh Engineer- the list is endless. Mankad's performance at Lord's in 1952 was of such a class that the MCC decided to label it as Mankad's Test. Freddie Trueman when asked about the players he didn't like bowling to mentioned Vijay Hazare. 

Kohli, the Mortal and Immortal Words of Sahir Ludhianvi

2011 April 2: Somewhere around the delayed dinner time of millions of Indians, Mahendra Singh Dhoni launched that famous six to win the second Cricket World Cup for India. Coming 28 years after the first win, Indian fans were over the Moon.

We had Sehwag, Gambhir, Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Kohli, Dhoni, Raina and our test team boasted of Dravid and Laxman too. But over the next 3 years, Dravid and Laxman retired after back to back 4-0 drubbing in test series in England and Australia. Sehwag and Gambhir fell into bad times. Yuvraj Singh could never be the same force after he came back from cancer and Raina slipped into mediocrity. SRT was given a staged farewell at Mumbai. With only Virat Kohli going from strength to strength, MSD too retired midway through a test series Down Under.

Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane had formed a new top order that fought the loss of an entire generation of greats who dominated the decade between 2000 and 2010. Rohit Sharma's emergence as a superlative top order batsman in limited overs Cricket practically coincided with the decline of Sehwag. Indian Cricket marched into newer heights in spite of lack of big titles.

"I can go on with the same intensity for another two-three years. If you ask me when I am 34 - 35, my priorities and answers might be different..." said India Captain Virat Kohli when asked about the hectic schedule and his unflagging intensity. That pretty much sums up life as well as Cricket. Even Sachin Tendulkar has left and it's almost 6 years and India have only got better.

Yuvi: The Rajnikanth Of Cricket

Rajnikanth is that eternal hero who beats the villains and defies death to emerge victorious in the end, in movie after movie after movie. Rajni cannot die, Rajni won't die. He might get battered, bruised, tortured and killed but he won't die. Bleading, soiled and tottering, he will stand up one more time, toss his hair off his forehead and declare, "Kanna Panninka Thaan Koottama Varum. Singam Singallaa Thaan Varum." Kid, the pigs come in a herd, the Lion comes alone !

Yuvraj Singh fondly known as Yuvi was the Rajnikanth of Cricket. He won the Under 15 World Cup, Under 19 World Cup, the T20 World Cup and the 2011 CWC. He carried a tumour in his chest and batted in pain to see India home to glory in 2011, rightfully named the Man of the Tournament.

Yuvi was the epitome of style. He was the Style Icon. When he drove through the covers, it was like Rajni's cigarette flick. It set the stadiums ablaze. When he pulled over midwicket, it contained the punch. When he played those gigantic lofted shots, they were statements like those famous Rajni one-liners.

Yuvi dived and plucked catches from thin air, pretty much like Rajni snatched guns from the hands of villains. Yuvi was dismissed as pie-chucker when he bowled but he would catch the big fish with the same stealth and felicity as shown Rajni when he misleads villains with his wits.

World Cup Cricket : India vs Australia

Matches against the Aussies are never easy specially when there is a burden of history to be overcome. India vs Australia has been one of the most celebrated cricket rivalries in recent times. In pure cricketing terms, it has surpassed the India vs Pakistan matches.

Australians have won 8 of the 11 World Cup matches between the two nations. There have been some very close encounters - Chennai (1987) and Brisbane (1992). Australia won both by one solitary run.

Who can forget the match in 1996 when the Indians snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Indian batting collapsed after Sachin Tendulkar was stumped off a wide ball and left the Indian fans in

Farewell Gambhir, Sehwag, Yuvraj & Friends

And so while India are being thumped by Australia (4-0 coming your way folks), they also announced their 30 man squad of World Cup 'probables'

Hang on a minute, thirty probables!? There are eleven members in a cricket team plus a water carrier, add four or five reserves and we have a touring party. What is the point in naming a probables list double the size of the group that will actually show up?

Here's why, its confirmation of who will not show up.

India's list of omissions is a strange one.  Sure I can understand the concept of 'out with the old and in with the new', but in Indian cricket? Not exactly spoiled with young riches are they?

Lets examine the miss list:

Zaheer Khan - Is very unlucky. This is the best fast bowler India has had since Kapil Dev, with the exception of maybe Srinath. He was a huge reason as to why they won the last world cup (more than Dhoni) and the other options are average other than maybe Bhuvaneshwar Kumar.  What was Zaheer's mistake? Not playing for the Chennai Super Kings?
Selection Credibility - 9/10

No love guys?

Yuvraj Singh - Another unlucky original from the famous 2003 campaign (and the famous2003 world cup final flop). He is still a class batsman and experience counts especially in alien conditions. They could have easily brought him back for one last hurrah a la Craig McMillan, but alas this is probably the end.
Selection Credibility - 8/10

Tete-a-Tete with the Bharat Army

When and how did Bharat Army come into being? What was the thought behind forming the Bharat Army?

The Bharat Army was founded in 1999 during the World Cup in England where 4 passionate followers of Indian Cricket met for the first time while following the Team during the World Cup. Since then we have been supporting and following Team India around the world for the past 15 years!

We felt with the passion Indians around the world have for the game we needed a common voice in support of Indian Cricket so the First Official Team India Supporters Group was Born.

How much planning goes into preparing for a match/tour? What are your preparations for tours ? And how do you guys manage work and finances ? What has been the largest contingent of Bharat Army at a venue/tour till date?

The Bharat Army is now a non-profit making organisation, in the past we worked with a Travel Company that was recommend to us by the Barmy Army to sell Tours to the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies. We ended up taking 900 Supporters to the World Cup but unfortunately it turned out to be a disaster as we got knocked out early!

As we are now recognized around the world for being Team India's No.1 Supporters Group we manage to get block bookings for tickets in the stadiums around the world, you would have seen a strong presence this summer in England but also during the World Cup in 2011 in India going back to South Africa in 2007.

We raise funds to run the Bharat army by selling Merchandise and use the profits for the running of our Website and Social Media activities but also contribute to Indian Charities.  This year during the summer in England we supported Yuvraj Singh's YouWeCan Foundation and also a Charity in India called The Aware Foundation which supports the Education of Underprivileged children on India.

The ICC Champions Trophy History (and Preview)

So here we are in England for the last edition of the ICC Knockout / Mini World Cup / ICC Champions Trophy / Thing.

This is a strange little tournament purposely offset in between the 'real' fifty over world cups, designed to be a quick-smart affair all over in a couple of weeks (take note IPL). However fifty over cricket must die according to the powers that be, and the idea has now been thrown out and we won't see it again.

I'm going to disagree with the majority and say that I like the tournament. This would be the only other time that all the leading teams of world cricket will be assembled.  That was until the rise of T20 cricket came along and demanded its own little World Cup, and the other problem is that a couple of the tournaments did suck and slipped in and out of memory without much of a second thought.  Here's hoping for a memorable showing in the next fortnight to resurrect interest.

Let's have a quick look at its history:

1998 - South Africa Finally Wins Something
... and it's the only cricketing tournament they have ever won. There was a Tendulkar pummelling that eliminated Australia, but apart from that it was a pretty ho-hum affair.

2000 - The Cairns Show
India were on a nice roll courtesy of a pair of Ganguly tons and young renegades on debut namely Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan, both of who were responsible for again dismantling Australia in the quarter final. The script was set for India, but they hit a roadblock in the form of a "how did they get this far anyway" New Zealand team.  Chris Cairns fired one of his few shots as a gun batsman, and stomped all over a lazy Indian performance in the final.

I remember that day because it was one of those rare occasions the patented Fleming Frown disappeared, at least for a while.

"Why couldn't I be Australian". © Getty