Author: Shamik Chakrabarty

During an IPL several moons ago, a franchise, in conjunction with the ground staff of the respective centre, was trying to ascertain the ‘home advantage’. Sanjay Jagdale, who was the BCCI secretary then, would take the story forward. “I don’t want to name the venue, but I was told by Daljit Singh (then BCCI’s chief curator) that our (BCCI) curators weren’t given control of the wicket,” Jagdale said, speaking to RevSportz. “But I spoke to the owner of that franchise and told him ‘this can’t happen’. I called Daljit paaji and spoke to the owner in front of him. And…

Rohit Sharma will decide on going to England for a five-Test series by the second week of May, RevSportz understands. In case he opts out, which appears unlikely at the moment, Shubman Gill is next in line to be handed the Test captaincy. The Indian squad for the England tour – the five-Test series commencing at Leeds on 20 June – is likely to be picked in the final weeks of the IPL. “As things stand, Rohit is going,” a source in the know told RevSportz. “But you never know. It will depend on his fitness as well. There’s no…

To be fair, Stephen Fleming’s unusual post-match meltdown in the aftermath of Chennai Super Kings’ defeat to Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Chepauk on Friday is not indefensible. There was a lot for the CSK head coach to be upset about. Also, picking the ‘home advantage’ thing didn’t offer an oddity. Fleming is the last person to throw his players under the bus in public. Allowing RCB to hand CSK their biggest-ever home defeat was never fun. And maybe, Fleming is apprehensive about the fact that after a fallow 2024 season, this year, too, is not going to be the annus…

“There’s no fight with the KKR management,” clarified Eden Gardens curator Sujan Mukherjee. The whole pitch issue with points and counterpoints seems to have thawed and RevSportz understands that Kolkata Knight Riders are likely to get a surface to their liking for their next home match against Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 3. After RevSportz exclusively reported that Mukherjee has refused to budge as regards the nature of the pitches at Eden, on the heels of Ajinkya Rahane’s comment at the press conference, asking for more spin-friendly decks, ‘surface tension’ rose and KKR’s ‘home advantage’ became a subject of national debate.…

First up, Sunil Gavaskar’s column – titled ‘Will the current Team India coach follow the Rahul Dravid model?’ – on The Hindu/SPORTSTAR was a nice read. Gavaskar is one of the few former cricketers whose columns are not ghosted. He writes his own articles and they are never boring. In this column, the legendary former India captain took the readers back to the Lord’s dressing room after India’s World Cup triumph in 1983. Borrowing a crate of champagne from the West Indies changing room, where their captain Clive Lloyd “morosely but generously” agreed to the request from Kapil Dev…

Shreyas Iyer couldn’t complete his hundred. He was left stranded on 97 off 42 balls, as Shashank Singh took the mickey out of Mohammed Siraj in the final over. Twenty-three runs were scored in that over, 22 of them coming off Shashank’s bat, while the other one was a wide. At the end of Punjab Kings’ innings, the skipper gave a pat on his partner’s back. Missing out on his maiden IPL century didn’t upset him. It was about his team posting an imposing total against Gujarat Titans. Indian cricket has moved on from personal-milestone obsession. Shreyas is a part…

Ajinkya Rahane to reporters: “We would love to see some spin on this wicket but again, no complaints.” Sujan Mukherjee to RevSportz: “As long as I’m here, Eden Gardens pitch will not change.” Early days at the 2025 IPL, but the murmurs from the Kolkata Knight Riders camp over the Eden surface seemingly has the potential to snowball into an outcry, if results don’t go their way. Mukherjee, the Eden curator, is not going to budge. KKR were beaten, rather hammered, by Royal Challengers Bengaluru, in the IPL opener on their home patch on Saturday. Among their bowlers, only Sunil…

This is that time of the year when flowers bloom at Semmozhi Poonga (a botanical garden) in Chennai. Colours tempt your eyes, marigolds touch your senses, while roses live at your knee, oozing resplendence. This is also that time of the year when MS Dhoni dusts off his cricket kit and hits the Chepauk nets. It’s an everlasting love affair – Chennai Super Kings and their former captain. It has never been like an employer-employee relationship. To judge it from the fans’ perspective, you are allowed to paraphrase The Police song that topped the Billboard charts in 1983 – every…

Purple rain. The heavens opening up at the onset of summer should be good news. But Kolkata loves its cricket, Virat Kohli is in town and there’s the small matter of the 2025 IPL opener at Eden Gardens, with Kolkata Knight Riders starting as the defending champions. How do you describe the frenzy? Bonkers is probably the right word, although an apology is due for using cockney slang. Eden witnesses a full house almost for every IPL game. Craze goes through the roof when Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians pay a visit. No prizes for guessing,…

How much do the bowlers gain in a T20 game if they are allowed to salivate? Opinion appears to be divided on this, with Mohammed Shami strongly in favour of the usage of saliva on the ball and his India teammate Varun Chakravarthy not reading too much into it. When the IPL captains met at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai on Thursday, they were asked about their suggestions as regards lifting the saliva ban, a Covid era imposition in cricket, made permanent by the International Cricket Council in 2022. The skippers unanimously agreed and accordingly, the IPL decided to lift…