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...
It’s hardly surprising that eminent ex-cricketer commentators, Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri , are in the payroll of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). There has been a nagging doubt in my mind about the integrity of the cricket commentators in what they say and utter. Hardly anyone you could find among them who speaks or spoke about the policy and wrongdoing of the BCCI. They all sang all the time in praise of the Indian Premier League (IPL), main money spinning spearhead of BCCI, and never even mentioned about it when discussing the phenomenon of ‘too much cricket-no rest’ for Team India. Why only two of them? Most of them are fed and enriched by the richest cricket board of the world. If our beloved legendary cricketer Gavaskar says IPL is healthy wealthy and wise, what can we lesser mortals do but to flock on to the three-hour shows! That’s the crux of business, you see! BCCI’s money-centric policy is further exposed with the selection of Rahul Dravid. In the ov...