After years of writing on platforms that have not been my own, I have decided to get one for myself. You can now read me on www.rajreflects.com where I hope to post my thoughts on Indian sport every day. It is still at a nascent stage but I am sure that with some help and guidance, I will be able to make it engaging and interesting for the sports ( Read more... )

The hardcore cricket buffs will spend much time analysing the strategies adopted by the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket franchisees at the auction in Goa on Friday; others will wonder why such monies are not spent on other sports in India. For the moment, though, I will sit back and smile at how the IPL auction stretched beyond merely the ( Read more... )

He got to scale another peak, joining the quintessential left-arm fast bowler Wasim Akram as the world’s most successful wicket-taker in one-day international cricket history with 502 wickets when he claimed Indian ace Yuvraj Singh’s scalp in the third game at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Tuesday.

Yet, I must confess that it's been tough to ( Read more... )

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I have never ever sent a text message that would not be read by the person it is addressed to but Wednesday was different and an exception had to be made because there was no option. I had to send a message to my friend Javed Akhtar Siddiqui’s cell number to condole his death.

Javedbhai was a basketball player par excellence, sports journalist ( Read more... )

There is such a clinical, chilling precision to India’s approach - laced with immense self-belief - to the task of chasing a target in a limited-over international these days that its opposition will begin to wonder what can be actually beyond Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his team. There was more evidence of such methodical pursuit on a sluggish track ( Read more... )

So then, Mohammed Azharuddin is back in the news. Not on Page 3 where he has been spotted in the past few years or on the news pages where occasionally we would read about his long drawn legal battle with Board of Control for Cricket in India. But because it has finally been said the former India captain will begin a new innings as a politician.

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There have been suggestions that global recession will leave its impact on the second edition of IPL. I am prepared to stick my neck out and suggest that it will be bigger - and hopefully, better - than the inaugural edition. There were many skeptics even the last time around but I said months before the first ball was bowled that IPL would be a ( Read more... )

The National selectors have done well to resist the temptation of roping all youngsters who have had an outstanding time in the Ranji Trophy competition. The most consistent of the lot, left-handed allrounder Ravindra Jadeja, has been picked for the five-match ODI series in Sri Lanka while swing bowler Dhaval Kulkarni has been sensibly made to wait ( Read more... )

One of the greatest things about cricket is the fact that it is a team sport. Simply stated, no run is complete unless a batsman’s partner reaches the safety of the crease at the other end; no wicket can ever be credited to a bowler if a catch is not taken by a fielder or the wicket-keeper.

Perhaps, in the wake of the controversy that it sparked ( Read more... )