Ayaz Memon

So the Indian team have reached Perth. So the Waca pitch is expected to have pace and bounce. So what?
Loads of followers on my twitter timeline (with the ed’s permission, the handle is @cricketwallah) thought I had flipped my lid when I posted this line of argument on Monday morning.

Ayaz Memon

Saturday’s pulsating climax at the Wankhede sent me hurtling back a quarter of a century in time to the tied Test at Chennai against Australia. In both matches, it finally boiled down to one ball, one run or one wicket to decide the outcome, leaving players physically and emotionally drained and spectators on the edge of their seats.

Ayaz Memon

India has been on tenterhooks for Sachin Tendulkar’s 100th century for the past five months, but over the past few days the Little Master has been upstaged for newsworthiness, as it were, by his long forgotten school friend.
Vinod Kambli’s disclosure that the 1996 World Cup semi-final could have been fixed has predictably thrown the cat amongst the pigeon. The media has been sent in a tizzy, the cricket establishment looks at a loss for words — never mind the dismissive sounds made by senior functionaries — and sports minister Ajay Maken, not to be left out when it comes to taking on the BCCI, has asked for a probe.

Ayaz Memon

Anil Kumble has explained his position as far as allegations of conflict of interest between his management company and his position as president of the Karnataka State Cricket Association. It was brave and fair of him to face the public because the norm in Indian cricket — and I dare say even in public and corporate life — is to lie low and hope the controversy will blow over rather than work towards resolving it.

Amitabh Bachchan turns 69 today. In between shooting episodes of Kaun Banega Crorepati, he talks to us about how he became a filmstar, why he failed in politics, his passion for new media and what keeps him going despite indifferent health and other setbacks:

Ayaz Memon

Oscar Wilde, Irish writer and poet, was utterly disdainful of cricket. “It requires one to adopt such indecent postures,” he is reported to have said. Remember, Wilde never saw the more frenetic limited overs formats. What would he say of the ‘Dilscoop’?

Ayaz Memon

Lala Amarnath would have hit a century today had he been alive, having been born on 9/11, 1911. Alas, I see very little acknowledgment of this anywhere.
As people, we have a very poor sense of history and preserving our legacy in almost every walk of life. But this really is no excuse for failing to remember a player who, all things considered, is as much of a titan in cricket as Dr W.G. Grace. I can’t imagine the latter’s birth centenary being bypassed without any fanfare.

Ayaz Memon

Lionel Messi’s presence on Indian soil last week understandably created hysteria. It’s not often that you get a player of such eminence and charisma on display in the country. But apart from fleeting glimpses of Messi’s genius, what the Argentina-Venezuela friendly revealed was the wide chasm between the football played in India and most of the world.

Lack of preparation of the Indian team has been touted as the biggest issue for India’s debacle on this tour. You are the exception in this, having enjoyed a hugely successful series with three centuries Lack of preparation of the Indian team has been touted as the biggest issue for India’s debacle on this tour. You are the exception in this, having enjoyed a hugely successful series with three centuries and people want to know how do you prepare for such big tours? Especially since you are in and out of the side, like not playing the World Cup for instance...

The first session of play on Monday took my mind back more than 21 years ago when Sachin Tendulkar scored his first Test hundred at Old Trafford.

It was a sterling effort by a 17-year-old on his fir