Saad Bin Jung
Love, boundaries and the Taliban
When I was asked to review The Taliban Cricket Club, I thought it would be another book piggybacking on cricket mania in the subcontinent and Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner — in which case, origina
Cricket and the sporting life
When I was a young angry boy, I fought against what I believed was wrong. I fought against nepotism, fought to retain the spirit of the game both in the dressing room and on the field, fought for the purity of the sport.
Forgotten tribe battles to find its place in developed world
Murli was one of my closest friends. He was from the Kuruba tribe that once inhabited the jungles of Karnataka. He was a hero to his clan for he was part of a forgotten people. He was one of the few links left that this world had with the past, yet all through his life India had no idea that he lived. He died a few years ago and India’s link with her 10,000 year old golden past was severed forever, but nobody cared. Little wonder that he was buried with all tribal dignity, without the least of fuss, sans any pomp or splendour.
Cricket of old is dead, and with it the true fan
Has cricket lost its glory? Has match-fixing sullied the game for the cricket-loving public to such an extent that they boycott going to the stadiums, and like bookies and punters, sit at home and bet through the day, caring a hoot for the purity of sport or its result? Or has something else evolved which is bringing the game down to its knees, keeping traditional fanatics from bothering to go to stadiums?
Understanding the tribal and the elephant
Science tells us that elephants, the beautiful noble gentle giants of our forests, have a much evolved social structure and (my deduction) are more human than we will ever be.
India needs better pay scale, not laws, to prevent graft
Having worked closely with government for the past 30 years I have realised that proper protection and conservation can only begin if and when we start paying our officials their rightful salary and not the pittance we throw their way at the end of each month.
Cricketers-turned-administrators bring baggage to the table
The plight of Hyderabad cricket evokes two emotions. The first is “I told you so” for many moons ago I did say that Indian cricket was heading for disaster if important administrative positions were not filled by seasoned professionals and if the untrained cricketers, believing that they have the experience and knowledge to administer the huge cache of talent (especially in Hyderabad) that has been our hallmark, are allowed to manage affairs.
Humans never lose in man-animal conflict
Elephants rampaging in Mysore and killing people is a wakeup call, if not heeded, will lead to the annihilation of our forests and wilderness for whenever there is a conflict between humans and the wilderness, man never loses. I fear that though the writing is on the wall, no one is reading it.
Has Hyderabad stopped producing players?
The good news is that Hyderabad cricket is at its nadir and it cannot get any worse. Even Hyderabad cannot beat their recent miserable performance. What has gone wrong? How has one of the most feared
Absence of back-foot players cost India dear
The incredible megalomaniac in me normally makes me blossom whenever I have to say ‘I told you so’. But when it comes to India being smashed out of the World T20 championships, then it hurts.
