Relive The 2005 Ashes
I saw this documentary on television once and then spent years on the Internet trying to find a copy (mostly for the Stephen Fry commentary). There are great cameos from Mike Atherton (who explains why Shane Warne was so difficult to face), as well as Simon Hughes, whom I adore. There’s also a great dissection [...]
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How I Have Changed As A Cricket Fan
In my post on repetition in cricket, Samir Chopra challenged my thesis: You mean to tell me all cover-drives for four are the same? All wins by one run are the ‘same’? Every wicket that falls off the first ball of an over in an England v. Australia game, whether played at Lord’s or the [...]
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Tendulkar’s Politics
I don’t really care all that much that Sachin Tendulkar is now a Rajya Sabha M.P. India’s upper house is, like most, fairly inconsequential, and one member is likely to be even more so. And given India’s tradition of including “persons of interest” — like actress Rekha — it’s hard to get too worked up. [...]
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Linear Thinking Watch
This is an old hobby-horse of mine: You can’t assume that a match result would have been different if a particular incident during the match didn’t occur. For example: Rajasthan Royals lost by one run against the Deccan Chargers. In the last over, the umpire didn’t call a wide. Ergo, the Royals owner tweets, if [...]
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Is Cricket Caught In A Vicious Inflation Spiral?
The other day, Harsha Bhogle tweeted that the incredible run chases of IPL 5 — wherein batsmen have successfully stared down required run rates above 15 in the last 5 overs — shows that the asking rate doesn’t mean much anymore. This put me in mind of a recent Economist article decrying “pan-flation“: Take the grossly [...]
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