A nifty Indian dance move
Ruchir Joshi in the Telegraph writes that while it would too much to suggest that India's World Cup win transformed our society for ever, it’s only accurate to say that the win was a building block on which rest several different cross-beams of
Akhila Ranganna
25-Feb-2013
Ruchir Joshi in the Telegraph writes that while it would too much to suggest that India's World Cup win transformed our society for ever, it’s only accurate to say that the win was a building block on which rest several different cross-beams of subsequent Indian behaviour.
Businesses realized the potential of having an audience of millions captive across a whole day, and industries, led by their sniffer-dogs of advertising, expanded exponentially on the back of this discovery. Shortly after that World Cup, in 1985, a new colour was added to the tri-colour — the light blue allotted to the Indian ODI team
Piyashree Gupta in the Indian Express talks to Sanatan Sahoo, the head groundsman at the Eden Gardens, and finds out out what it it is to be in charge of a venue that has seen more than its fair share of controversy in recent times.
By the time the next World Cup arrives, Sahoo would have retired. No wonder, he is sorely disappointed at the India-England match being shifted to Bangalore. “It’s not easy to get over this place. I remember, as we sat inside our quarters under the galleries, how people had started pelting stones, bottles etc during the 1996 World Cup semi final with Sri Lanka. After the police threw the crowd out, we were asked to clean the ground very fast. As we started picking up things, I remember a couple of Indian cricketers picking up stuff and handing them over to us. How sad they were,” says Sahoo
In the same newspaper, Nandini Nair reviews Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka’s debut book Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew and describes it as a "ollicking account of a hack’s obsession, leading to uncommon discoveries."
But this book goes far beyond the euphoria of cricket, exposing the seamier side, be it dubious money deals, lascivious cricketers or diplomats with terrible secrets. Chinaman was written in Colpetty and Havelock Town, neighbourhoods of Colombo. Karunatilaka is certain that this book would not have been written if he had not been in the midst of the country’s sights and sounds. The civil war simmers beneath the text’s surface. It appears in the form of “men with clubs and knives storming buses” and asking passengers to speak Sinhala
Akhila Ranganna is assistant editor (Audio) at ESPNcricinfo