The Surfer

The political class – and this problem is not limited to the current government – now increasingly sees Rajya Sabha nominations as it does Padma awards: just another patronage device, just another set of perquisites to distribute to grab media headlines or as a diversionary manoeuvre. The likelihood of one of the 12 Rajya Sabha nominees now not being a prime-time television superstar is getting smaller and smaller. The constitutional quest to bring to Parliament in New Delhi intellectual voices from outside the capital and its incestuous circles – and the cricket industry is part of these circles – has been all but defeated.

Uprooting the deeply-embedded ills of West Indies cricket and replanting and nurturing a culture of professionalism, with all the dedication and discipline it entails, takes considerable time. Given that he has already rubbed so many of the star boys who used to be regulars of the side the wrong way, any tide of discontent against him may swell to an irresistible tsunami if the feared seismic events at Lord's, Trent Bridge and Edgbaston come to pass.

What really disappointed me was the apparent lack of knowledge of commentators regarding Afghanistan’s pathway to this newly acquired eminence. They just mentioned Pakistan’s role in a cursory manner regarding Afghanistan’s newly developed love for cricket

He [Gayle] is simply a grand talent and an attractively extreme individual. Where pretty much every other international cricketer – including the pop-kid batting tyros of India's new wave – retains that sense of journeyman familiarity, an air of scotch egg and room service and check-in desk, Gayle always looks as though he's just stepped off the bridge of his own disco-spaceship, staffed by a team of semi-feral Venusian mermaids.

Some things are destined to happen, believes pacer Parvinder Awana. The Delhi boy has become a key man for the Kings XI Punjab, but had his uncle not pushed him into cricket, Awana would have been either catching criminals or farming. “It was my uncle who insisted that I joined the cricket academy at the National Stadium. I never dreamt that I would make it this far,” said the pacer. “I cleared the physical test required to join the police force and was all set to join when I opted for cricket as a career.”

This year’s revenue and profitability plateau could severely impact the value of the sponsorships going into the central revenue pool, which are being renegotiated as the IPL enters its much-anticipated season 6. Given that the big-ticket contract renewals for title sponsorship and official sponsors start after IPL 5, it’s imperative that the league continue to flourish and attract increased viewership. It needs to, in addition, start converting unique viewers into die-hard fans. By season 5, one would have expected the league to have exponentially increased its collateral revenues, especially gate receipts and merchandise. It appears, however, that the IPL is still clubbed with, or compared to, other entertainment properties. If that fear becomes a reality, then the league faces an uphill battle to remain relevant as an asset in the emerging and growing domain of professional sports.

Azharuddin has listed just five questions in the three years since he won the Lok Sabha polls from Moradabad. He is yet to pilot a private member bill or participate in any discussions on a government bill. He has not yet asked any supplementary questions. But he provoked a discussion on the “need for inquiry on the death of an IAS officer” in 2009 — his saving grace. Once, he participated in a debate on general budget ...

On the face of it, of course, there is of course enough in the move to feed the innate cynicism that resonates within all of us. Nominating someone so popular as Sachin for a Bharat Ratna or a Rajya Sabha nomination is a no-brainer, a way to harvest goodwill on the cheap. You can be sure that the Congress will milk this during the next elections, perhaps by enlisting Sachin to campaign on its behalf.

If someone is a good cricketer, he can be good in any format. But again, you have to strike a balance. Schedules are tight. See, India plays a lot of cricket — many teams will love to play so because of the financial benefits they get. Even Sri Lanka plays a lot at home and away. Whatever said and done, Test cricket is the ultimate form of cricket. That's why I believe there should be a minimum of three Tests in a series.

For sporting travellers—like the grown bankers I saw reduced to babbling boys as they prepared for a maiden visit to the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) last winter—the geographies that matter in sport are not cities, but the arenas within them. The Nou Camp, Fenway Park, St Andrew. Nope, never been to any. Nor to Rio’s Maracana, which is why it would be sinful not to pack a bag for the 2014 World Cup and at least stand in an arena which, during the 1950 World Cup, held 199,854 people.