There are perks of living in a motel next to the Waikato Stadium, but not when the Chiefs v Blues rugby game is scheduled one-and-a-half hours after India win their first Test in New Zealand in more than 33 years

As Suresh Raina, Praveen Kumar, Rohit Sharma, and other ODI specialists left for the airport, to fly back to India, VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid posed for photographs with fans, in the foyer

Dion Nash was not the man for too much water in his playing days

Brad Thorn, an All Black and Canterbury Crusaders rugby player, follows cricket enough to enjoy a drawn Test match more than the one-dayers

  It was an ideal winter morning

Some random thoughts while on the way to New Zealand - seven different airports, various hotel transfers and immigration checks, and far too many flights

Rashid Khan actually bowled off the wrong foot, as opposed to Sohail Tanvir, who gives an optical illusion to that effect

A meeting with Iqbal Qasim, a former Pakistan left-arm spinner, during which he recalled his role in winning the Bangalore Test in 1987

For years he has answered to the question: who is the first man to have taken a hat-trick in ODIs

Suresh Saraiya is what your typical commentator would be: not short of an analogy, or a story to go with it

Sidharth Monga finds out what it's like to travel from India to Pakistan

Balu Nayar, the man who helped shape IPL, will not be there to see it through its opening season

The IPL is creating ripples in areas many would least expect it to