Author: Shamik Chakrabarty

Shamik Chakrabarty at Eden Gardens Belatedly, he came out of the dressing room and joined the practise session of the Punjab Kings. Some Bengal junior women’s team cricketers had assembled at the club house upper tier at Eden Gardens, and one of them shouted, “Shreyas bhaiya”. Shreyas Iyer turned and raised his bat. He gave a wave to the Kolkata Knight Riders media manager before moving into the team huddle. At the other end, KKR were practising. On paper, the home team has a bigger star cast than their rivals on Saturday. KKR are an IPL elite with three titles…

Shamik Chakrabarty at Eden Gardens Barun Guha left Calcutta for England in 1965. Isa, his daughter, who would go on to represent the England women’s cricket team, was born in High Wycombe in 1985. Now 81 years old, Barun is back to his roots after a long time. On Thursday, as Kolkata Knight Riders and Punjab Kings trained at Eden Gardens, he was in attendance, along with his daughter. Isa is not commentating in this year’s IPL. The father and daughter are vacationing. “I’m having a lot of Bengali food – ghoogni, luchi and mangsho,” said Isa. “I’m a proud…

The irony in Kolkata Knight Riders’ 39-run defeat in their IPL match against Gujarat Titans (GT) on Monday was that the home team got a pitch that complemented their strengths. The Eden Gardens surface for the game was a bit dry and the ball wasn’t quite coming on to the bat. The strip set the perfect stage for a battle of the spinners. GT won that hands down. KKR picked an extra tweaker in Moeen Ali, who gave away 27 runs in his three overs without a wicket. The team’s famed spin duo of Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy conceded…

Shamik Chakrabarty at Eden Gardens Moeen Ali floated one outside off and Shubman Gill charged down the track, played across the line and sent the delivery 10 rows back over the deep mid-wicket fence. Power was followed by the lightness of touch; a late cut for a four. Then, the Gujarat Titans captain used his wrists like a ball bearing. A sweep from outside off sent another Moeen delivery to the long-on boundary. It was sublime batting from a class act. At the other end, there was Sai Sudharsan, not quite as elegant as his skipper and still a level…

In an interesting development which has been confirmed to RevSportz by the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) sources, the state association has written a strong letter to the BCCI, urging them not to allow Harsha Bhogle and/or Simon Doull to commentate on any of the matches at Eden Gardens. This comes after the outburst from the two against Eden curator Sujan Mukherjee. The CAB is clear that Mukherjee has done nothing wrong and is only following the BCCI rule book which states that no franchise can have a say on the nature of the pitch. He has also followed the…

Sandy Gordon’s one-liner had worked wonders for India at the 2003 World Cup. Sourav Ganguly’s side were decimated by Australia in their first game, when the Australian sports psychologist sat the players down and came up with a simple message: “Now or never.” A team replete with excellent cricketers and more importantly, strong characters, bounced back to reach the final. Kolkata Knight Riders would like to borrow the phrase to initiate a turnaround, as they face Gujarat Titans, arguably the tournament’s most versatile side, at Eden Gardens on Monday. The hard numbers say KKR have lost four of their first…

Shamik Chakrabarty at Eden Gardens On Sunday, that is match-day minus one, the Eden Gardens pitch had a decent cover of grass. It is expected to be trimmed and Kolkata Knight Riders’ spin-bowling coach Carl Crowe hoped that the surface would be similar to the Sunrisers Hyderabad game. KKR won that match by 80 runs. KKR have a good pace attack. Harshit Rana and Vaibhav Arora, their two frontline Indian seamers, have been bowling well. But their opponents on Monday, the high-flying Gujarat Titans, have been thriving on the resurgence of two fast bowlers who are probably a wee bit…

On Friday, Kolkata Knight Riders had a team dinner. It was a private event, but according to sources, it also doubled up as a team bonding session. The defeat to Punjab Kings, where KKR suffered a spectacular batting collapse – losing five wickets for seven runs during a period of the game – was painful. But negative vibes haven’t crept into the dressing room. KKR would like to believe that their batting implosion against PBKS was a one-off. But there has to be a bigger concern. During their title-winning campaign last year, the team had lost only three…

‘Homecoming’ of Abhishek Nayar was the highlight of Kolkata Knight Riders’ training session on Saturday. As the team bus pulled up in front of Eden Gardens around 4.30 pm and the players and support staff deboarded, Nayar’s presence offered a pleasant surprise. Official confirmation came some time later, via a post on the franchise’s X (erstwhile Twitter) handle. It was a one-liner: “Welcome back home, @abhisheknayar1.” The post didn’t mention Nayar’s role, but he will be part of the support staff, teaming up with assistant coach Ottis Gibson. Only a few days ago, it came to light that Nayar had…

Welcome to 18. On April 18, 2008, cricket changed forever. The IPL, when it was launched, was taken with a pinch of salt by the purists. It had to be. Back then, the T20 format was still “pyjama cricket” despite India winning the T20 World Cup a year previously. As the IPL enters adulthood, it has become one of the biggest sporting brands in the world. And it has remained the breeding ground for young Indian talents. Shane Warne’s Rajasthan Royals were the story of the first season. Not only did they go on to win the title, the team…