Cricket now

  Boria Majumdar Sourav Ganguly is a friend of mine, and it is always difficult to write about someone close to you. Having said that, I still make the attempt, and this is one such piece. Today is his birthday, and yet I will focus on all the criticism that has come his way in recent times. It has, indirectly, been suggested that he is a failed administrator. His political allegiances have been questioned, and much has been written and said. Frankly, I am not a political person, and for me, Sourav the administrator isn’t really relevant. What remains relevant, and always will, is Sourav the cricketer and the Bengali icon. For a second, take a pause and look around the state. Find me one sporting icon who can claim to have had an impact beyond his or her era. Perhaps the only other name is Jhulan Goswami. She has enriched the women’s game and will forever rank among the global greats. But Sourav is in a very different league. More than Sourav the batter, it is Sourav the leade...

Dhoni (PC: X) As Mahendra Singh Dhoni celebrates his 45th birthday on July 7, fans across the world are also celebrating the career of one of India’s most successful and respected cricketers. From a small town in Jharkhand to becoming one of the biggest names in world cricket, Dhoni’s cricketing journey has been fascinating. The wicketkeeper-batter played 538 international matches where he scored 17,266 runs and completed 829 dismissals behind the stumps, which made him one of the finest wicketkeeper-batters in history. He is also one of the most successful captains India have ever had. Under his leadership, India won the Men’s T20 World Cup in 2007, the ODI World Cup in 2011 and the Champions Trophy in 2013. His success was not limited to international cricket. He also became the face of the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in IPL. He guided CSK to five IPL titles in 2010, 2011, 2018, 2021 and 2023, establishing CSK as one of the most consistent sides in the league. His calm leadership, ...

Netherlands women ( PC- Netherlands cricket) The Netherlands might have failed to win a single game in the recently concluded ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, but it was still a historic campaign for them as it was their first-ever appearance in the tournament. After securing a spot in the mega event through the qualifiers, the Dutch Women were placed in Group A alongside Australia (the eventual champions), South Africa, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. It was quite obvious that a tough path awaited them, but it also gave them the opportunity to face teams like Australia and India for the first time. How the campaign unfolded Heading into the tournament, the Netherlands had registered their first-ever WT20I win over Bangladesh in a tri-series. That victory gave the team and their cheerful, colourful fans the belief that they could compete against relatively stronger teams. Interestingly, their first-ever Women’s T20 World Cup match was also against Bangladesh in Birmingham. Batting f...

  Images :X Trisha Ghosal, London Picking a Team of the Tournament is rarely as straightforward as selecting the biggest names. More often than not, such XIs become collections of the tournament’s highest run-scorers and wicket-takers, regardless of whether they actually fit together as a functioning side. This team has been selected differently. Rather than squeezing every standout performer into the XI, the focus has been on identifying the best player for each role. Opening batters have been judged as openers, middle-order batters as middle-order players, finishers as finishers and bowlers on the impact they created in their specific phases of the innings. That approach inevitably means a few high-profile names and performers miss out despite outstanding tournaments. Players like Orla Prendergast, for example, were exceptional but narrowly missed selection because another cricketer was judged to have performed the No. 4 role even better. The writer in discussion with fell...

The Hyderabad Cricket Association’s Sreenidhi University TG20 continued to reinforce its commitment to grassroots cricket as district players from across Telangana came together for a special media interaction at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium on Sunday. The interaction featured the district cricketers from all the eight franchises in the league. With every franchise mandated to include district players in its squad, the league has provided a professional platform for cricketers to compete alongside established first-class players and showcase their skills on one of Telangana’s biggest stages. Hyderabad E-Champions all-rounder Ganesh Gadugu, who has been one of the standout district performers for the unbeaten table-toppers with 212 runs in six matches, described the league as a platform district cricketers had been waiting for. “We get to prove ourselves as district players and compete alongside some of the best players in the state. We have been wa...

  Image: AI generated A few journalists and former cricketers who suggested after the first T20I in Durham that it was perhaps time for Vaibhav Sooryavanshi to get a look-in have since been relentlessly trolled and abused on social media. From name-calling to outright abuse, things have bordered on the ridiculous. Some have even penned emotional rants suggesting we should now be happy because Sanju Samson’s family is supposedly mourning the injustice meted out to him. This toxicity exposes the ugly side of India’s cricket fandom. First things first, we are entitled to our opinions, fair and square. As far as I know, none of us is on anyone’s payroll except that of our own employers. In my case, RevSportz pays Rohit Juglan, Subhayan Chakraborty and I. No player does or ever will. Labelling us as PR is absolute nonsense. We express our views based on our experience as journalists and on what we genuinely believe. The same applies to former players. Anyone is free to disagree, and...