Shams n Wags

Meeting Wasim Akram was unforgettable, and now that experience has its own chapter in my book "Tales From the Boundary".
From fan excitement to insightful moments, it’s all captured here. Relive it with me in the book!
Apex Sports Farooq Bhai, a shoutout from you would mean the world to help reach fellow fans!

Book is available on : Amazon - https://tinyurl.com/y574xnpt Flipkart - https://tinyurl.com/2vvkdvmr Google Play - https://tinyurl.com/5nhm6fvz BFC Store - https://tinyurl.com/ythw4xt6

क्रिककथा दिवाळी अंक २०२४ - मराठीमधील क्रिकेटविषयक एकमेव दिवाळी अंक.

ह्या अंकात माझा लेख नक्की वाचा.
(जागतिक क्रिकेट ची आद्य पंढरी म्हणजे यॉर्कशायर. इथल्या संघाने काउंटी क्रिकेट मध्ये आपले आढळ स्थान १५० वर्षे राखले आहे. इथले खेळाडू म्हणजेसुद्धा एकाहून एक नग. यांच्याबद्दल वाचून आपल्याला नक्कीच कुठे हसू फुटेल, तर कुठे डोळ्यांच्या कडा पाणावतील..

अंकाचे प्रकाशन २० ऑक्टोबर रोजी आहे, त्यानंतर अंक सर्वत्र उपलब्ध. तुम्ही वृत्तपत्र विक्रेत्यांकडून अंक घेऊ शकता, महाराष्ट्रभरातील अनेक पुस्तकांच्या दुकानात उपलब्ध आहेच, नाहीतर तुम्हाला अंक मिळावयास काही अडचण आल्यास मी आहेच.



Aditya NaikdesaiMrunalDevadatta WombleSameer PatwaSiddhesh SamantPradeepHardikarAditya WaghmodeHemant SoodHemant PokharankarHemant BeleShailesh PanditAniruddha DeshpandeAnirudha RangnekarSanjaykumar GangurdeNilesh MalvankarRahul ManerikarRahul BhagurkarRahul KulkarniSatheSagar SawarkarVikram KhedkarVikrant B MudliyarSarang SatheSarang BhaleraoShruti JoshiRajiv PansareRaghupati SatheMahesh GokhaleMahesh WavikarPrashant JadhavPrashant KaleJareAbhi TupeAbhijit MokashiAbhijeetSachin KhadilkarAmitabh VelaskarAmit ShaligramAmit TalwalkerNitin BhateNitin PoteNitin GokhaleNitin Malusare

I am thrilled to announce that I’ve received a certificate for publishing my book, Tales From The Boundary – A Cricket Fan’s Odyssey! 🏏📖 A huge thank you to BFC Publications for their invaluable support throughout this journey.
This book is a culmination of my passion for cricket, filled with unforgettable memories and personal anecdotes that celebrate the spirit of the game.A heartfelt thank you to everyone who has supported me along the way—your encouragement has meant the world! 🙌❤️Here’s to new adventures and the stories yet to be told!

I virtually met Pradeep Godbole four years back, and we shortly after met in person. The knowledge, the passion and the fitness he has retained reflects in his innings in this match. It also displayed the prowess of Aasif Karim whom I am very eager to meet. The link for the entire match is posted below. Pradeep Godbole @67 stroked a silky 100, and Aasif Karim amongst wickets with the oldest form of deception in cricket, the left arm orthodox spin...

INDIA vs ROW | Group A| Over 60s World CUP | VCI Chennai INDIA vs ROW | Group A| Over 60s World CUP | VCI Chennai

Remembering India's first great Test All-rounder on his birthday.
Courtesy Jai Galagali

Vinoo Mankad: interviews, clear footage, Golden voices of John Arlott’s and Pratap Sharma Vinoo Mankad- India's 1st all all rounder. Indira Gandhi watches Padma Bhushan awards. Thanks to Shree Vasudeva Rao who reminded me of this video.Disclaimer:...

Green Mumbai, Clean Mumbai Mumbai Indians . Maiden IPL Century!

SuryaNamaskar……First IPL century Suryakumar Yadav Mumbai Indians

SAACHIN ! SAACHIN !!!!

PART ONE- The Boy wonder

I belong to a generation which grew up with Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.
On his fiftieth birthday, it is extremely engaging to gauge his growth about all these years.
This growth can be followed only through our expectations and opinions formed about him over the various stages of his career, and check how he has followed an exemplary path to success and glory, through a journey consisting of many disappointments and frustrations.

I being me, 😊 am only looking at his test match career.

It is a long journey with him, so doing it in a series, one piece every week.

1988:

For the first time in my 17 years lived till 1988, I was following schoolboy cricketers. The Marathi newspapers of the time were kind enough to publish school cricket scores, and the names of Sachin Tendulkar, Vinod Kambli, Amol Mujumdar, Ajit Agarkar and Sairaj Bahutule were widely known in Bombay’s cricket crazy kids. It was also known to us that Dilip Vengsarkar had called him to a net session in Bombay, where this 15 year old kid had confidently faced the likes of Kapil Dev and Maninder Singh. News of cricket travel very fast across Bombay. We were in our endless discussions were contemplating that he might be included in the 1988-89 tour to the West Indies.
Alas, he wasn’t.
Yet, he played his first Ranji and Duleep Trophy games in 1988, and duly scored centuries in them. We all were sure that he won’t be ignored for long now.

1989: (we called him Sachya then)

The Rest of India team loses to the Ranji Champions Delhi. Comprehensive show by Delhi, with the old guns of Delhi, Kirti Azad and Bantoo Singh peeling off centuries. Sachin scored the lone century for the Rest of India on his Irani trophy debut, a fighting 103 off 169 runs scored when he arrived at the crease at 76 for 2. He had done all that he could do to bang on the doors of the Selection Committee, which eventually opened, and within a week, the Boy wonder was facing Imran, Akram, Waqar and Qadir in Karachi in a test match.

November 17, 1989
– The first dig at the crease. 15 runs, 24 balls, 2 fours and out. Is he too greenhorned to be exposed against Imran, Akram and Qadir? Couldn’t he have taken some time to settle? The fellow debutant Waqar Younis did very well picking four wickets in the first innings. Another fellow debutant, Salil Ankola too did pick one wicket in each innings.

We fans: Well, he has had the feel of international cricket now, so isn’t it better for him to be in the dressing room for a few matches and ‘learn the ropes”?

November 23, 1989 – The Selection Committee and the Indian captain decide that Sachin has to “learn the ropes’ on the go! They select him for the second test as well, and an hour after the lunch, young Sachin comes to the crease. Geniuses are not required to learn their ropes. They are born with the knowledge. Sachin immediately sets about, in company of the fellow Bombayite Sanjay Manjrekar to save Indian blushes from the precarious 101 for 4. They add 143, and Sachin plays a perfect second fiddle to the in-form Manjrekar scoring a sedate 59 off 172 deliveries. He hits 4 fours.
WE fans: Oh Boy. Such a mature innings! He certainly is made of some good metal! He could have gone on to make a 100. But he’s so young yet…
December 14, 1989 – India, leading by 74 runs in the first innings start their second innings rather shakily, as was the norm in those years. Within under an hour, they are stuttering at 38 for 4. Pakistan bowlers are pumped up, sensing a possibility of a win. Only Navjyot Sidhu has stood up to the attack. Waqar Younis, on the back of a decent series for a debutant, is breathing fire. As an 18 year old, he only likes to intimidate the batsmen, and if he can’t get them out, he simply hits them with the ball. Sachin, wearing a visor-less helmet, faces the music, and is duly hit on the bridge of the nose. There’s a deep gash, and blood everywhere. Stretcher is called for. Sachin’s brother Ajit, sitting in the stands in the Sialkot stadium, says to friend Avinash Gowarikar, ” He’s been hit, that’s good. He’ll now be more alert! But he should continue the innings.” Sachin on the ground, is being persuaded to come to the pavilion to get some treatment. The ruthless Javed Miandad quips "You will have to go the hospital now". Even the Pakistan team has looks of concern on their faces. Sachin just stands up, tells the team Manager, who is also on the field due to his concern for the juvenile, “Main Khelega”. Immortal moment. The world comes to know what this adolescent is made of. Sachin and Sidhu wither the storm, go on sedately, and score half centuries. Sachin gets 57, which must be one of his top innings of lifetime, and Sidhu misses his century by 3 runs.
We: We’ve no doubts now that Sachin’s selection to the top brass isn’t premature. Or is it too late? He could’ve done well against the Windies too… 😊 He is the find of the year.
The same year, he also played his first ODI (and duly scored a duck) and then in a curtailed match, took Abdul Qadir and Mushtaq Ahmed to the cleaners, hitting a flurry of sixes.

1990
February 13 :
It wasn’t the same old story this time around. Though Sir Richard Hadlee had removed W V Raman with the first ball of the innings, the top order got starts, and Manoj Prabhakar (opening the batting this time) looked on the way to a big one. Sachin walked in at a comfortable 152 for 3 in the green ground of Napier. Prabhakar was looking assured too, and the two cruised to add another 58 runs with keeping their wickets (and heads) intact. But Prabhakar fell five short of what could have been his maiden test century and Kapil Dev who came in next too departed in a hurry. The score board, which looked like a confident man who is sure of his girlfriend accepting his proposal and about to make it at 210 for 4, suddenly started to look like a man whose flame had addressed him “brother” in public at 218 for 6. Sachin, though confident and in forties, found a rare batting partner who was shorter in height than even him. Kiran More and Sachin added 128 runs in just over three hours, and India were a healthy 346 for 7 when More departed for a typically gritty 73. Sachin was in his eighties, with the maiden hundred beckoning. Then, only 10 runs later, Danny Morrison had him spoon a catch to John Wright, who would form a special relationship with Sachin in future.

We Fans: Make a hundred man ! You just squandered a chance to become Test Cricket’s youngest century maker. Remember that record belongs to PAKISTAN’s Mushtaq Mohammed. 3 fifties in 6 tests isn’t bad, but after Gavaskar’s retirement and Kapil sliding rapidly downhill, we need a new Hero. Become that quickly.

August 14:
Again a mere fifty in the first innings, albeit a sparkling one laced with 8 boundaries, is not good enough. England still had an 87 run lead, and went on to add 320 more to it, setting India 408 to win or survive for five sessions. India, so far had been “Gooched” in this series. Only Manjrekar and Vengsarkar have put up a semblance of a fight. India are staring at defeat, at 109 for 4, when Sachin walks in to join his captain at the crease. 18 grim runs are added, and the captain having tried an inexplicably outrageous stroke, falls to the innocuous looking off-spin of Eddie Hemmings. Sachin has been circumspect but still pounces on any opportunity to score, and Kapil dev keeps him company for another three quarters of an hour and 56 runs. But hanging on for a long time was never Kapil Dev’s game, and he spares himself of the agony of blocking around by miscuing a lofted hit off Eddie Hemmings (Oh! That fat man again!) and India further sink to 183 for 6 with 150 minutes remaining in the match. England need four wickets, and their potent attack of Devon Malcolm, Angus Frazer, Derek Pringle and of course Hemmings are again pumped up. But this is a Sachin who has grown up in a couple of days. He is joined by his old ally Prabhakar, who defends doggedly. Tendulkar has also settled in, and is finding boundaries regularly, feeling assured that he wont get out. He has given a couple of chances which were put down by English fielders, and Sachin knows it is his day. Sachin, plays a signature backfoot drive for three between the bowler and Mid-off, and serenely makes it to his first test match hundred. A boy had become a man, and is ready to be counted on for dependability, which was to last for the coming 23 years. Saachin, Saachin !!!

We Fans: The monkey is off the back finally! We have found a new Gavaskar. See, he wears the same Morrant Featherlite pads. (It was later learnt that they were presented by the former great to him.) He is now going to carry the Indian batting on his shoulders. We’re going to watch him for a long, long time to come. (At the stage, anyone who is not a devout fan would have dismissed these comments as extravagant and premature and probably would have been right about it, but we were not going to be deterred by that). For us, we had found a new hero, and we were over the moon!

Throw back!

Cricketing Slang Dictionary| Part 1 Most of the time, many of us don't understand the slang for cricket used by the experts. In order for people to understand, we have made it simpler for our a...

Such a close match that even Harsha Bhogle kept saying Ishan Porel instead of Abhishek Porel. Such is the game!!