Wah Taj!

(This blog was written with sadness about the Taj Hotel, which was also the place for every cricketer to return to from a hard day at the field. Whether you scored a hundred or got run out for zero, once you entered the hotel, it just made you feel special. It made you feel warm. It welcomed you in, it's wonderful people always making you out to be a hero. I am sure all cricketers will agree with me on that). "In peace, sons bury their fathers; in war,....

Posted by Sanjay Jha at 17 : 06 | 0 comments

Dhoni's act refreshing

I remember reading sometime ago that watching the Australians on a cricket-field was like seeing a pornographic film. It was the same old stuff, terribly predictable, the standard sequences, the same old twists and yet having a familiar end. No surprises. Australia always won. After a point, it was a monotonous watch. MS Dhoni, India's new skipper in all forms of the game, is creating his own blue-film. No one in India ought to complain . Dhoni's impact on Indian cricket is discernible fairly early. In fact, check out....

Posted by Sanjay Jha at 16 : 12 | 5 comments

Hayden, India, Third World

I write this piece, more as an erstwhile post-graduate in economics, than as a cricket journalist. I pen this column as I was mighty amused by the massive outpouring of patriotic sentiments because Aussie opener Matthew Hayden, done with frying fish and making chicken curry, called us poor folks in India a "third world" country. Some BCCI officials were observed shaking their heads violently in stunned disbelief. "It is an insult to us all Indians" kind of disturbing psychological assessments were made in tearing hurry. For a moment,....

Posted by Sanjay Jha at 11 : 59 | 10 comments

Goodbye Ganguly

Because when you announced your retirement, you said "Hopefully we will end up on a winning note". We did. Because you were the only guy referred to as the royal Prince and the high-street bully "Dada" at the same time. Because when you scored that classic debut century at Lord's, some thought you will be a one-knock wonder. At Trent Bridge, you stunned them all again with a double barrel. Because when you played those heavenly cover drives, Rahul Dravid said "There is only God....

Posted by Sanjay Jha at 16 : 02 | 11 comments