AAKASH Chopra has to be commended for deciding to belong to the rare breed of Indian cricketers who not only wrote books, but did so during their playing days.
Yes, Chopra turns out for Delhi and continues to knock on the doors of an international recall. I wondered why the Dilip Vengsarkar-led committee left Chopra out of their Australia plans in 2007-08.
I reckon he would have done a good job by seeing the new ball off just like he did on the 2003-04. But then, selectors are not called wise men for nothing. Chopra showed lot of guts on that tour and I can never forget the first day of the Boxing Day Test in 2003 when both Sehwag and Chopra got their share of the short ball.
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MUMBAI’S 38th Ranji Trophy triumph will be cause for celebrations, not only the players, but the Mumbai Cricket Association officials too. Some of them were fortunate to be present in Hyderabad where Wasim Jaffer’s men did the incredible.
Mumbai has proved that it is still the bedrock of Indian cricket. 
But activities of the MCA shouldn’t stop with celebrations. There’s a lot of work to do on the club cricket front which is not producing the kind of players that it used to in the good old days.
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WHILE the cricket in the Ranji Trophy final is as absorbing as it was in the semi-finals, the television commentary has been appalling save probably Arun Lal and Laxman Sivaramakrishnan.
Cricket-loving Indians don’t deserve such a poor fare. One can understand the odd slip here and there. Or even the odd grammatical mistake in speech, but here the commentators are trying to be funny and only end up putting off the viewer rather than entertaining him.
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QUITE often, cricket associations waste money on functions that can be either avoided or scheduled for a more appropriate time. Mumbai Cricket Association’s grand opening of the clubhouse at the Bandra Kurla Complex the other day was one prime example.
The function was also used to felicitate Sachin Tendulkar for crossing 12,000 Test runs. Firstly, I wonder how Tendulkar will find space for some many prizes and secondly, I don’t think he welcomes all this worship. He is a modest man who likes things to be simple.
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WE all saw how South Africa Graeme Smith braved the pain and walked out to bat with an injured hand and elbow when the ninth wicket fell in the last session of the Sydney Test on Wednesday.
Almost immediately, several memories of brave cricketing acts through the years flashed through one’s mind – Anil Kumble coming out to bowl with a broken jaw in Antigua, 2002; Australian batsman Rick McCosker doing the same with the bat in the Centenary Test of 1977 etc. One also thought about the late Colin Cowdrey, who walked out to bat with his hand in plaster in the 1963 Test against the West Indies at Lord’s.
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