Our Funarena!

Putting ‘goodbye’ in the headline could have more significance than perhaps you can possibly imagine; of course, the very few who ‘read’ these pages must have understood. Yes, we’re referring to the Goodbye post a few days back. However, that apparently painful post did not contain any kind of commitment or decisive action on the part of the writer which is significant in light of some famed international cricketers saying quits to the game through public announcements and then coming back again as if nothing was the matter. Therefore, that ‘goodbye’ meant nothing to the public, even if it could’ve hurt this writer a lot since he’s been rather harassed four times in the last four months for the purportedly suspicious visitors to the site who never read, but don’t care to go on a sabotaging rampage. Out of a morbid fear I've stopped posting my links on the social media too. What a pity! But still, why should I care who read and not read but try to damage! This site is very dear to m

Right from the beginning of the IPL-2022 Ravindra Jadeja who was handed over the captaincy by Mahendra Singh Dhoni (MSD) had been going through an extremely lean patch. Being one of the greatest all-rounders of the game he had been consistently failing with the ball, with the bat and failing even in his specialty in fielding, dropping catches that is rare in his international career. Under his leadership CSK lost the first five games on the trot, then won the next two and again lost the 8 th ; and Jadeja hardly contributed anything worthwhile in those games. So, it has been on the cards that something is going to happen as a captain cannot possibly be dropped. Finally, on Saturday, the 30 th of April 2022 Jadeja called it a day as captain and requested his leader-mentor MSD to take over again. And Dhoni obliged, and he will be leading CSK again in a crucial game against the tough SRH tonight. However, it’s not clear if Ravindra Jadeja was forced by the team management to step down or

It was a rare moment. It was vintage Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the firebrand yet cool former India captain, in his long-forgotten role as the Finisher. The match between the bottom ranked Champions, the defending Champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and the five-time Champions Mumbai Indians (MI), played at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on 21 st April went down the wire with CSK needing a four in the last ball to win. And MSD was at the crease. In that momentous last over bowled by Jaydev Unadkat and CSK needing 17 runs to win, the first ball gets the blast-away Dwaine Pretorius (22 off 14) out LBW; Dwaine Bravo comes in and takes a single to let Dhoni take over; 16 runs to get now in 4 balls; Dhoni hits the third ball to a towering six; next ball a four; the fifth ball Dhoni hits the ball and scampers desperately back for the second run to be able to face the last ball, a feat that he missed in the historic semi-final against New Zealand in the ICC World Cup-2019; now a 4 needed in

The TATA Indian Premiere League (IPL)-2022 starts in the state of Maharashtra from tomorrow, the 26 th of March, across three stadiums in Mumbai and one in Pune. This 15 th edition of the IPL is set to welcome the fans cum cricket revelers back to the stadiums after the Pandemic cricket-new-normal in 2020 and 2021 editions—the former delayed and had to be held in UAE while the latter started in India, but had to be stopped halfway and later shifted to UAE. As per COVID-19 norms at least 25% of the stadium capacity will be allowed and in light of relaxed restrictions all over India the crowd limit is all set to be increased later on. There will be a total of 74 matches during 26 th March-29 th May out of which 70 league matches will be played in the stadiums mentioned above and the venues of the 4 play-off matches are yet to be decided. Ahmedabad was earlier earmarked for the final matches.   Only for the second time in the IPL history there are 10 teams or franchises in the IPL

The MSD of Indian and world cricket has been a phenomenon in terms of aggression yet simple approach, skillful captaincy in all three formats of the game, unorthodox right-hand batsman with raw yet powerful hitting, one of the best examples in wicket-keeping in world cricket, one of the fastest runners between the wickets and always smiling and composed in the field. MSD simplified means the one and the only—Mahendra Singh Dhoni. On October 15, 2021 in the IPL-2021 final in Dubai which was MSD’s 300 th match Dhoni led his franchise CSK (Chennai Super Kings), since 2008, to its 4 th Champion title defeating KKR (Kolkata Knight Riders) convincingly by 27 runs. The earlier title wins under Dhoni’s captaincy were in 2010, 2011 and 2018.   There have been rumors floating around in the UAE (United Arab Emirates) about the 40-year-old star cricketer’s retirement after IPL-2021 which seems realistic now that he has played the 300 th match and also winning the title, creating a moment of

A brilliant century, his 26 th ODI ton, and an unbeaten knock of 154 by Virat Kohli steered Team India to a 7 wicket victory over New Zealand in Mohali on Sunday and a 2-1 lead in the five-match ODI series. As a much-awaited silver lining Captain Cool under pressure, MS Dhoni joined the vice-captain in the chase of 286 runs promoting himself to no.4 position in the batting order and contributing a solid 80  runs consisting of 3 sixes and 6 fours. The duo came together when India were is some spot of trouble losing both the openers at 41/2 in the 9 th over and added 151 runs taking the team score to 192 in 36 th over when Dhoni fell to Henry. Mohali has been a high scoring ground with the chasing team winning in the last three consecutive matches. Dhoni kept on winning the toss in this Series, and here he naturally chose the fielding option once again. Put into bat the Kiwis started well and were in a position of strength at 153/2 in only the 29 th over looking good for a to

Bangladesh proved it precisely and clinically--that their cricketers are a spirited and hugely improved lot, that they beating Pakistan squarely was not a fluke, that they running India close to elimination from the World Cup-2015 was not an aberration, and that they have now avenged their exit from the World Cup effectively, so-called it might be though. They had excelled in every department of the game in the first One Day International match against India in Dhaka last evening thrashing and humiliating India by 79 runs. Winning the toss and electing to bat first they raced to a big score right away, despite being put into a tight corner at least twice by India. The Indian pacers were made fun of and only some spinning ability prevented them from reaching even 400. There were no big individual scores, it being a total and spirited team effort.  It seemed the Indian cricket superstars did not take them seriously enough. Even after conceding 307 runs Indian batsmen had a rath

When Team India loses half of its batsmen in a particular test match it is always all over. The Indian tail never manages to wag—meaning the tail-enders invariably fail to take the score on leading to a batting collapse and more often than not surrendering the match from a possible winning position. And when Team India manages to grab half of the opposition batsmen in a particular test match it only gives the charge back to the opposition thus more often than not surrendering the match. When these two lethal syndromes combine there is always a largely one-sided verdict against India. These ‘tail’-oriented maladies are responsible for most of the away defeats and six consecutive Test Series losses abroad suffered by India since 2011 including two white washes at the hands of England and Australia. This is responsible for the most successful ever Indian cricket captain to finally step down from Test cricket. A captain who gave India No.1 position in ICC’s Test rankings in 2009 fo

The humiliation at the turning pitch of Mumbai at the hands of England was not enough enough to make the Indian cricket Board (BCCI) wonder ponder and take action. India captain MS Dhoni is still the unquestioned King. He is having his way right royally. Nothing has happened to any of the non-performers. Team India remained unchanged except for reserve pacer Ashok Dinda coming in place of injured Umesh Yadav. Chief selector of BCCI, Sandip Patil, had just one say--team selected only for the third Test in Kolkata and not for the rest of the India-England Series as expected. Interestingly and most significantly Dhoni is still King for his 'pitch' demands too. The aborted and most slammed experiment in Mumbai Test was not enough enough either. The veteran curator at Eden Gardens pitch of Kolkata has been sidelined and BCCI has reportedly asked its East Zone curator to take charge urgently. What the King is up to this time in Kolkata? Well, his larger subjects have a democ

Laurels for Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. For the fifth consecutive year Dhoni has been selected in International Cricket Council (ICC)’S ‘ODI (One Day International) Team of the Year’ and this time he has been named the captain too. Not only this, Team India got its three players along with Dhoni selected—the highest for any team. Australia (Michael Clarke and Shane Watson), Pakistan (Shahid Afridi and Saeed Ajmal) , England (Alastair Cook and Steven Finn) and Sri Lanka (Kumar Sangakkara and Lasith Malinga) have two players each and South Africa has one (Morne Morkel). The other two Indian players are Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir. The ICC Chief Executive David Richardson announced the 'Squad' at a special function ahead of the LG ICC Awards being held tomorrow in Colombo , Sri Lanka . The LG  ICC Awards honor the best performing international players and officials of the last 12 months. A specially appointed five-member expert panel headed by W

Finally in the Grand Finale Team India played truly to its potential and won the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 in great style! The Team scoffed at the idea of depending on one or two stalwarts and blazed away to an astounding victory celebrations for which do not seem to end and justifiably so. After 28 years, first team in world cup history to win it as hosts, first team to win chasing in excess of 250 runs and on! Captain Cool also known as the Great Gambler showed why he is indeed the best Indian Captain of all times. Mahendra Singh Dhoni made a masterstroke by promoting himself ahead of Yuvraj and finally delivered with the bat with such determination to win and such obsession that the World Cup had to come running for his country and of course for the living legend Sachin Tendulkar. Forget his decisions or gambling now, his disarming smile and humbleness make the win more memorable. Superb fielding and terrific bowling by Zaheer Khan in particular never allowed Sri Lanka to run a