ChinmayC Blog

As anticipated, the political masters of Pakistan have finally directed its national cricket team to lift the boycott and play India on 15 February, 2026, as scheduled in Colombo . The Masters must've thought the money at stake is too lucrative to continue indulging in such kind of grumpy politics. Of course, they had imposed some pre-conditions that included making the 'handshake' a mandatory protocol, but the ICC looked the other way. So, the PCB takes it as protecting the 'spirit of cricket'.  The Indian cricket board , the sponsors, the TV channels and millions of fans who do not necessarily mix patriotism with sports, if it's cricket in particular, must be deliriously ecstatic that all the revenues and hype and excitement shall be there for harvest thr oughout the ICC Men's T20 World Cup-2026 , co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka . Most of the Indians fans must also be ecstatic to have their heroes go on vanquishing the enemy neighbor and humiliating t...

The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup-2026 got underway on the 7 th of February, co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka with the first of the day’s three matches played in Colombo , the second in Kolkata and the last in Mumbai which was preceded by a brief inauguration ceremony at the Wankhede Stadium . The twenty participating teams of the 55-match tournament are divided into four groups of five teams each with Bangladesh replaced by Scotland and Pakistan deciding to boycott India in protest against the treatment meted out to Bangladesh by the ICC .  However, Pakistan’s obviously political decision didn’t quite clarify as to what Pakistan cricket team would do if they met India either in the semifinal or the final. Per the latest reports Pakistan is still engaged in parleys with the ICC about their cricket team’s boycott of the Indian cricket team. The big money involved in the match or matches of the archrivals is too big to let it go, with the channels/Boards already losing money as the f...

New Zealand , among other teams visiting India , made the Indian spinners look useless once again on their own home turf . The coach keeps on wearing that ominously ' gambhir ' countenance, but is hardly 'gambhir' about such core issues. Such is his obsession with all-rounders ! Anyway, congratulations to the young NZ team for registering their first ever ODI Series win in India, after the previous consecutive 7 Series losses, and following it up with their first ever Test Series win on Indian soil about a year back! The way Daryl Mitchell played is inspirational for all cricketers; he kept consistently on building partnerships with Will Young one time and with Glenn Philips  the next. Bravo!  Alas! Gone are the good old days when Virat Kohli hit a ton Team India used to win the match hands down! Alas! Team India superstar flamboyant batsmen or most of them continue, however, to fail in crunch matches when a win means a Series point!  High time Head Coach Gauta...

  In the increasingly tense geopolitical situation in the Indian subcontinent , I think it’s time to take some bold Cricket decisions by the BCCI in active consultation with the ICC and the Government of India , and not dillydallying with the issues involved nor allowing the overwhelming commercial angle win every time which in turn leads to absurd hypocritical scenarios as we’d recently witnessed in the games between India and Pakistan  in the Asia Cup-2025 the winner's Trophy of which is still eluding India. In the upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup-2026 we’re set to behold more games in and off the field with Bangladesh being literally taken over by the radicals and the violent upheaval there leading to atrocities on the minorities, mostly Indian Hindus . What followed in the most popular game of cricket in India is obvious: the outrage in the social media crying hoarse over retaining Mustafizur Rahman in Shahrukh Khan’s KKR franchise for the IPL-2026 thus pressuring ...

What I’d consider most remarkable is that it wasn’t an elaborate whole dream of a particular night, but it was a series of quite a few dreams, consistently dealing with the same question whirring in my head, spread over several nights. I can’t explain why or how this is possible, and I don’t need to, for this whole exercise is not about dream analysis , but about something more important! And due to this important something I went to bed searching solutions for my query over the past few nights and perhaps my dreams got naturally shaped as per my requirement, so to say. Anyway, after a lot of beating around the bush my dreams started getting more to the point and relevant, and last night I got my solution. I’ll tell my boss tomorrow and I’m sure he’d jump for it. I don’t really know why there’s been such an urge in everybody’s mind nowadays for things that are distinctly different—normal mundane things that we do every single day, but now we want to do or accomplish those with a reso...

How we enjoyed playing cricket and also watching it in bright sunshine on a chilly winter day from the early seventies till Commerce took over the game, converting it to an all-season affair and making no difference between day and night! Well, there’s nothing we can complain about! It’s the need of the times and the people going through with less and less time for the olden charms of life, sports or nature! We’re here talking about the 4 th T20I match between India and South Africa, and it’s that form of cricket which is, in fact, the result of commerce. Actually we, the kids, in the early seventies also played limited-overs matches having no inkling of the transformation coming in the later decades. Nowadays we get to play or watch only the long-format Tests and domestic matches in pristine conditions of wintry sunshine, with all one-day and T20 matches almost entirely converted to day-n-night affairs. Ruthless experiments are also going on to convert the classical Test Cricket t...