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 South West Monsoon arrived dot on time in Kerala on 1st June, 2020 and hit Maharashtra on 11th June--late by only a day. In the next two days the Monsoon covered all of Maharashtra including the COVID-tormented city of Mumbai. While there have been heavy rains in all parts of the state Mumbai and its suburbs have not felt the presence of the Monsoon yet--rains so far only scattered and inconsistent, unable to lessen the discomfort of the people as humidity was increasing all the time. Recently cyclone Nisarga headed for Mumbai side-tracked the city at the last minute and roared into interior Maharashtra just before the Alibaug town on the coast. That was perhaps a sort of a divine intervention sparing the city reeling under COVID spread from another disaster. In the last two days thunderstorms as per weather forecast for Mumbai and Thane didn't materialize at all. However, we would rather not expect the same treatment to be meted out to the city in regard to the Monsoon too. T...