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...
Former Australian captain Steve Waugh once made famous his strategy of the ‘mental disintegration’ of the opponents and since then this tactic of mind games have been regularly resorted to by Australian cricket teams, particularly with a challenging Test Series like the present one in India coming up.
True to the ‘spirit’ Australian captain Michael Clarke today expressed his ‘surprise’ over the omission of Gautam Gambhir from Team India and said it was indeed good news for his bowlers. He also said that India would definitely miss the services of a ‘wonderful’ player like Gambhir. Clarke was speaking to reporters in Chennai on the eve of their second warm-up match against India -A led by none other than Gambhir himself. While opener Gambhir had indeed been the backbone of the Indian batting for several years Michael Clarke is also worried about his relatively new team facing up to the challenge of Team India in India .
However, Clarke was quick to clear up his ‘mind’ by saying that it is not about what you say, but it is about what you do. Performances on the field matter more than what you play on the mind, he seemed to defer from his predecessor Steve. By the way ‘Gambhir’ in most Indian languages including Hindi prominently means ‘serious’. You see, this could be not just mind games, but serious ones!
The first Test between the two tough rivals starts from 22nd February in Chennai. Mind games, real or imaginary, may just add up to the real game.
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