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• WORLD CUP TAKEAWAY: GREAT TEAM, BAD LOSERS

  Broadcast On November 26, 2023

  ... desire and seemed poised to win slips out of your grasp, leaving you a shattered loser, reveals the quality of your character.   That was the test our cricket team faced last sunday and stumbled. This ...

• WIMBLEDON IS ON, IT’S TIME TO WATCH TENNIS

  Broadcast On July 6, 2025

  I’ve tried hard to like cricket but I haven’t succeeded. Quite frankly, it goes on for too long. A lot of the time nothing or very little seems to happen. And other than former British colonies - America ...

• Why Twitter isn't quite my character at all

  Broadcast On October 1, 2017

  ... of the matter as I am. So why should I feel a need to broadcast these uninformed, even impetuous, views? Nor do I wish to greet film stars or ministers or cricket players on their birthdays. They mean ...

• Who’s to blame?

  Broadcast On June 9, 2013

  If you’re a lover of cricket don’t read this article. It will infuriate you. It might even bring on a conniption. On the other hand, if you’re brave and reckless, good luck! First, however, an admission. ...

• When the elderly are, in fact, the young ones

  Broadcast On April 3, 2000

  ... that he was giving up cricket for acting set me thinking. An April fool’s joke is when you make someone believe the essentially unbelievable. In other words you have fooled them into accepting as ...

• WHEN CRICKET BECOMES WAR MINUS THE SHOOTING

  Broadcast On February 22, 2026

  This column is not about cricket. It’s about the behaviour of the Indian cricket team. More specifically, it’s about grace on the games field, etiquette and the decent and proper behaviour expected of ...

• WHEN A SIMPLE CALL LED TO AN UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTH

  Broadcast On November 6, 2022

  It was 7.00 in the evening and the end of a tiring day when she rang. “What do you think of cricket?”.  From her voice I could guess she was one of those pretty young things who masquerade as journalists. ...

• What an idea, Sirjee!

  Broadcast On July 30, 2008

  ... and ‘Dadji’ I would laugh. It seemed such a strange combination of Brit affection and desi respect. Little did I realize Satish was way ahead of his time. Today, young cricketers call Tendulkar ...

• We need cricketers like Sachin but definitely not MPs!

  Broadcast On August 17, 2014

  ... had heart surgery and he needed to be close by. That would be perfectly understandable but for the fact the Times of India (9/8) says Sachin found time to visit England, watch cricket and holiday with ...

• TRACING THE LONG ARC OF TENNIS BROADCASTS

  Broadcast On June 18, 2023

  I’m not a sportsman and, frankly, other than squash I’ve never played any game. I find cricket tedious and needlessly long drawn-out. Football is better but only because it’s shorter. Except out of politeness, ...

• To our politicians – please stop!

  Broadcast On April 26, 2008

  ... right. Until they were imported they were not known of by the vast majority of our countrymen. But that’s also true of cricket. (Incidentally, I hope you don’t think the game was handed down ...

• THREE LESSONS FROM AN UNFORGETTABLE TEACHER

  Broadcast On June 25, 2023

  ...    In the 1960s, Doon valued its sportsmen far more than scholars. This meant that a child who had never swung a cricket bat nor kicked a football was at a significant disadvantage. My talents lay in ...

• THOSE WERE THE DAYS, WE THOUGHT THEY’D NEVER END

  Broadcast On November 30, 2025

  ... with rulers.   Even though cricket may have been popular – I can’t say for sure because I’ve never been fond of the game – what I do recall is hopscotch and even gulli danda. Does anyone still play ...

• They won too and convincingly

  Broadcast On March 26, 2004

  India won the cricket series but Pakistan, I think, has won our hearts. You only have to skim the reports from Karachi, Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Lahore to realise I’m not exaggerating. No doubt we ...

• THE UGLY INDIAN AND OTHER STORIES OF RACISM

  Broadcast On October 19, 2025

  ... Fair and Lovely? Bollywood stars had no compunction personally advertising such products.   In 2008, when he was President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, I interviewed Sharad Pawar about ...

• The price of justice

  Broadcast On June 2, 2013

  ... have made millions weep was ignored by TV because they were obsessed with cricket. I caught the story on the BBC. My colleague, Arvind Kumar, found The Times (London) had also reported it. Astonished ...

• The Ladies of Lahore

  Broadcast On February 22, 1999

  ...  Both of us were watching cricket when I phoned to say hello. “Welcome back to civilization”, I teased. She laughed good naturedly but just then, as if God was determined to show me up, the spectators ...

• The King and I

  Broadcast On November 17, 2003

  ... fine figure in cricket whites, blazer and breeches or a shervani and pugree. Whilst Bhupinder Singh of Patiala looks quite the stud he was supposed to be. He has the martial bearing of a smart ADC – ...

• THE HOME AND THE WORLD, IN A TIME OF NATIONALISM

  Broadcast On September 28, 2025

  ... behaviour of the Indian cricket team recently in Dubai. Their refusal to shake hands with the defeated Pakistani team simply wasn’t cricket. If that very British phrase means anything then, surely, it ...

• The Dalai Lama and the cricket captain

  Broadcast On March 13, 2000

  ... athletic. The elder is wise and noble, the younger enthusiastic and striving. Well, after those broad hints, I guess you can tell which was the Dalai Lama and which the cricket captain. Yet in one very ...