Author: Atreyo Mukhopadhyay

June 27: After a prolonged wait and periods of suspense, the schedule for the tournament is released. July 27: It is announced that the dates of a few matches may change because one key fixture coincides with the first day of a festival. August 2: The change is confirmed. This match is brought forward by a day. As a result, the dates of some other matches are also revised. August 5: Police officials of a city staging a game on November 12 say they may not be able to make security arrangements because it clashes with another festival. No neighbourhood…

Sandwiched between international matches and rarely making news, Deodhar Trophy completed 50 years recently. Not the 50th edition, because it was not held every year. This was an important outing for aspirants and there were a few who grabbed their chance. Not all of them are newcomers, but they made a mark consistently at a national-level event for the first time, which might push them into the India or India ‘A’ set-up. Parag, the crisis-man Riyan Parag (East Zone): Not many make their runs the way this Assam player did and the circumstances he made them in. East Zone were…

Not all careers have to be covered in glory. Some of them can be memorable for the struggles and the player’s zeal to overcome them. Manoj Tiwary was one such cricketer, who kept proving himself despite not getting rewarded and kept going until he decided to walk away with his head held high. I first saw him in a Bengal-Delhi Ranji One-day Trophy match (still to be named Vijay Hazare Trophy) at Eden Gardens in February 2004. It was his senior Bengal debut. Still to turn 19, he made an unbeaten 20-odd at No 7 and dismissed Gautam Gambhir. It…

This series might cause irritation to Indian fans. Five T20s against West Indies is not something that goes with everything else in the countdown to the 50-over World Cup, to be staged in the country in October-November. A futile exercise, with no bearing on the future, is the common refrain, and some of it is justified. However far-fetched it may seem at this moment though, in some ways, these matches mark the beginning of India’s preparations for next year’s T20 World Cup in the West Indies and the USA. There are indications that some ‘cultural’ changes are contemplated. There is…

The more things change, certain things remain the same. In the context of India’s ODI team, No 4 has remained an Achilles’ heel since World Cup 2015. Players, coaches, strategies and philosophies have changed. Not concerns over No 4, with another World Cup inching closer. After World Cup 2019, where India fielded four players in that position in nine matches, it seemed as if the team management was zeroing in on Shreyas Iyer. The Mumbai batter did not disappoint before getting injured. Of the 42 ODIs he played, Iyer came in at No 4 on 22 occasions and made 805…

Victoria’s refusal to host the 2026 edition of the Commonwealth Games due to a steep rise in costs has put a question mark over the immediate future of the event. This has put the Commonwealth Games Federation in a fix. It understands the message sent out by the Australian state that staging the Games is not practical, in terms of return on investment and improvement in sporting standards. Possibly for the first time since the Games were first held in 1930, this event for countries part of the erstwhile British Empire is facing an existential question. In Victoria’s case, estimated…

For practical purposes, India’s World Cup countdown starts with the ODI series against the West Indies. Uncertainty persists over players like Jasprit Bumrah, Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul. Although they are making progress, their participation in the quadrennial event is not confirmed yet. So India have three ODIs in West Indies, another six if they reach the Asia Cup final and three more against Australia at home to find out who they will take to the World Cup. While 12 is not a bad number of ODIs to play with two months to go, it can’t be said…

Rain ruined play on the final day, and washed out possibilities of a result in two corners of the world on successive days. After Manchester, where England were denied a series-levelling win against Australia, the rain clouds travelled about 4709 kms south-west to Port of Spain, to prevent India from going for a series-sweeping win against West Indies. Rain was forecast for the fifth day of the second and final Test. But unlike the previous two days, this was no passing shower. It started pouring from the morning and kept pouring with small intervals in between, leaving India stranded…

Restricted by rain but getting most things right before and after those breaks, India moved to a position of strength in the second and final Test against West Indies. The visiting side, looking for a 2-0 series sweep, set the home team a target of 365 to win and had to wait for success in the second innings. Once Ravichandran Ashwin got Kraigg Brathwaite and Kirk McKenzie in successive overs, India were in control. With West Indies on 76-2 at stumps, India’s biggest worry on the fifth day would be the forecast of rain. Having lost a few hours to…

Two rain delays, coupled with some resilient albeit slow batting by West Indies, kept India from taking a firm grip on the third day of the second and final Test. The home team looked hell-bent on survival even if it meant scoring at a snail’s place. The lifeless surface played its part, offering little assistance to the bowlers, apart from some reverse swing and turn from the rough in the latter part of the day. Proceedings were dull, with the ultra-cautious nature of the home team batters making things painstaking at times. Resuming at 86-1, they added 143 more in…