Today we commemorate the 40th anniversary of the greatest test match ever in the history of Cricket, which had one of the greatest turnarounds in the history of sport. The 3rd test at Leeds from July 17-22 in 1981, between England and Australia was the equivalent of a Hollywood classic or epic novel. There could be rarely instances in the[Read More...]
Tragically former test cricketer Yashpal Sharma expired on Tuesday morning, suffering from a cardiac arrest. The cricket world mourns the death of this great servant to Indian cricket. He emboldened the spirit of the game at it’s utmost depth, with great reserves of courage and concentration. He may not have been the most talented, but was an epitome of determination,[Read More...]
Earlier this year we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the entry of Greg Chappell into the arena of International cricket which was against England at Perth in February in 1971. Ironically he scored a century in his debut after coming in with his side in a precarious position of 107 for the loss of five wickets. From the very word[Read More...]
Without doubt Dilip Vengsarkar is one of the finest batsmen ever to have graced a cricket field. This week we commemorate the feat of Dilip Vengsarkar becoming the 1st overseas batsman ever to score three consecutive centuries in test matches at Lords. It is a landmark that would inscribe a permanent place in the museum of cricket. We also coincidentally[Read More...]
Today we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Imran stepping his first foot into the arena of test cricket, at Edgbaston cricket ground in Birmingham.It was reminiscent of Amitabh Bacchan flashing on the Hindi film screen for the first time, where he hardly even looked a shadow of his later self. It would have been very hard for anyone to gauge[Read More...]
In June 1971, exactly 50 years ago at Edgbaston cricket ground at Birmingham in England, the bespectacled Zaheer Abbas gave the first flash of his illustrious cricketing career .His monumental 274 was amongst cricket’s classics taking aestheticism to regions of the sublime. For nine hours, ten minutes spectators were virtually put into a trance witnessing the glorious strokes all around[Read More...]
In January earlier this year we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the debut of the legendary Dennis Lillee in 1971, paying against England at home.. In my time no cricketer took determination or never say die spirit to such a crescendo as fast bowler Dennis Lillee.Nor was anyone as much an epitome of perfection in the art of fast bowling[Read More...]
Javed Miandad exuded none of the gentlemanly spirit so much part of the game on the cricket field or gave the game it’s due respect in terms of grace or sportsmanship .He stood amongst cricket’s most controversial and outspoken characters. However few batsmen or cricketers took combative spirit or defiance to such a magnitude, to ressurect a team from the[Read More...]
In my lifetime I saw no Indian middle order batsman who was as much an embodiment of determination, will power or who displayed more grit in the depths of despair and above all selflessness. His name was Mohinder Bharadwaj Amarnath or ‘Jimmy’ Amarnath..No batsman illustrated more about cricket being in the mind. It was not about elegance or statistical records[Read More...]
On May 1st we celebrate the 70th birthday of one of the greatest batsman of all time. It is also thirty years since this cricketing colossus retired from the game with a fitting finale. On his day Gordon Greenidge took batting domination to magnitude rarely surpassed and looked the ultimate epitome of perfection. Possibly no batsman in his day hit[Read More...]
