Sandip G
Articles By Sandip G
Andy Roberts: Godfather, minus the cigar
Unsmiling, mean and measured, Andy Roberts is gruff as he always has been. Except when he talks of pure fast bowlers and sees them crank up hostile pace — men like Bumrah and Archer, the latest entrants to the hallowed brethren.
Missing podium, breaking barrier: 200 kg monkey off her back as Mirabai finishes 4th at Worlds
Even in warm-up lifts, she was heaving 200-plus bells without much effort, her movements fluent and graceful.
Last Chance Saloon: Rohit Sharma picked as India’s Test opener
Selectors pick Rohit as Test opener for the SA series in the hope that he finally realises his considerable talent in red-ball cricket too.
Reds Perreira: Commentator who overcame stammering to become voice of Windies cricket
Like Sheila, Sri Lanka, Shillingford, shipshape, shadow…” He mumbles those words again and asks: “Now you tell me, do I stammer? No, I don’t. It wasn’t the case. Once upon a time, just to pronounce Sheila I would have taken 10 minutes.”
Spot India’s biggest match-winner (it isn’t Virat Kohli)
In Tests, no matter how many runs batsmen accumulate, it boils down to bowlers’ ability to take 20 wickets. India have that attack now, with Bumrah in their arsenal
Fourth horseman of apo-calypso: Relentless Ravindra Jadeja acquires a halo
While the three Indian pacers won all the plaudits during the Test series, Jadeja was the fourth — and the most unassuming — horseman of Windies’s apocalypse.
Virat Kohli gets his crown
Virat goes past Dhoni to become India’s most successful Test skipper; Team bags 120 points for 2-0 series sweep over West Indies.
Salute that! Sheldon Cottrell a hit among mates
Cottrell is the man who salutes after taking wickets and the man who blew England in the ODIs earlier this year.
Debate on concussion rule after Darren Bravo’s substitution
While most of the cricketing firmament agrees that concussion is a serious condition, they differ on the substitution rule. Some feel that it’s harsh on bowlers, who are more prone to injuries in the middle of the match.
Connoisseur’s delight: Everyone in the Caribbean is smitten by the Bumrah phenomenon
“Yeah man, they makin’ us drink more. You cant’ watch them without some rum. They givin’ us headache. This man Bumrah, he’s like rum, hits you fast,” says Ralph, a 65-year-old.
Looking for Choksi in Antigua: At jewellery shop, cafe where he drank mint and ginger tea
Local residents say Ama Jewels is owned by Suraj Patel, who migrated to Antigua in the 1980s. But they also say that it has another, more popular, name — Choksi’s shop.
Jasprit Bumrah: Chronicle of dismissals foretold
Bumrah hat-trick victims, like several other batsmen, were aware of the impending danger, but seemed powerless to prevent it.
George Headley: A forgotten hero
George Headley, was arguably the greatest Jamaican batsman and the first Caribbean batsman who entered the collective consciousness of the cricketing fraternity.
Hanuma Vihari: A chip off Laxman-Dravid block
When teens of his age were happy scoring 50s in U-14 matches, he was churning out 250s, when teens of his age were content facing 100 balls in the nets, he would be satisfied only if he had faced a minimum of 1,000.
Curator on the 1998 abandoned Test: ‘Sabina Park got a bad name because of me, I wept like my daughter had died’
It’s been three years since he retired as the chief groundsman after tending Sabina Park for 49 years. But he unfailingly turns up the day before — sometimes even a week before — a Test match. And leaves only after the last ball has been bowled.
India run into a high hurdle
Holder, Cornwall use their tall frames to extract bounce and trouble the visitors on Day 1 morning
‘Wimbledon’ at Sabina Park
With the series on the line, Windies are likely to gamble on a green carpet for the second Test against India beginning today
Richie Richardson: Fastest blade in the Caribbean
Last captain to lead a formidable WI team, Richardson retraces his journey from a shy lad to a batsman of destructive repute.
Collapso series
West Indies' batting line-up prompts as much investigation as revision in the ongoing Test series against India.
Viv Richards’ classmate DJ’ing in the stands, rodents running riot in press boxes
Chickie — his original name is Nigel, but barely anyone knows it, had once famously stopped the Antiguan traffic — apparently the first the city island had ever witnessed—to watch good friend score the then fastest hundred, off 56 balls, against England in 1986.
