ChinmayC Blog

It is very unfortunate that the enlivening ICC Men’s T20 World Cup-2021 should get affected by a largely unnecessary controversy. Did any team ever in international tournaments object to singing their national anthem or any team object to their rivals singing their national anthems? Definitely not, it’s being a celebrated customs in almost all such tournaments across various fields of sports. Therefore, the ‘personal choice’ syndrome never comes up here. Then, why this syndrome has to come up in ‘taking the knee’ for a most noble cause? In our school days our teachers ordered us to kneel down on innumerable occasions, obviously to correct our faults, which is why we are better human beings today. Did we even think of exercising our democratic choice on those occasions? The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, started in 2013 ‘as a decentralized political and social movement protesting against incidents of police brutality and all racially motivated violence against black people’ the worl...

We, talking about our generation specifically, grew up with the history of Mahatma Gandhi—how he made India independent through complete non-violence a movement based on truth and how the greatest Indian leader of all time was assassinated on the fateful day of 30 th January, 1948. We grew up with Nelson Mandela hearing about his movement against the racist policy of Apartheid in South Africa based on the same Gandhian ideals, later watching him go about his noble ways and hearing his inspirational speeches—in India and everywhere. How he finally won like Mahatma Gandhi ending Apartheid and becoming the first black President of South Africa in 1994. He has been our Gandhi live and heart wrenchingly we lost him on Thursday evening, the 5 th of December, 2013—losing a continuous source of leadership, indomitable spirit and inspiration. Of course, we knew that he had not been keeping well for the last few months being in and out of the ICU, and that he had reached the ripe age of 95. Bu...

South Africa No.1! If you thought star-ego wars were restricted only to Indian teams—be it in cricket or tennis—you were proved wrong by what happened or rather still happening in England. Interestingly, this gives you another chance to strengthen the synthesis that basically we Indians inherit most of our negative mindsets from our past colonial masters—England! Whatever be the legacy of the once ‘masters’ and once ‘slaves’ both of these countries show the ominous tendency to sacrifice national interests or pride in the rampant inability of their respective sports managers to handle their star players judiciously.  South Africa had just become the No.1 Test team in International Cricket Council (ICC) rankings by toppling England with a 2-0 win in the recent Test cricket series played between the two countries in England. The winning margin of greater than 1-0 came for South Africa after long sixty years. Gary Kristen shines as maybe the first ever coach to take two different tea...

South Africa choked again! They must seriously consider this malady. Big occasions, big matches and knockout stages are continuing nightmares for them. Another World Cup gone! Fours years will be long wait before they hope to team up and say.' We are no longer 'chokers'.'  Okay, New Zealand tonight outplayed them, but the scrappy target of 222 set before South Africa was immensely gettable. This is the point they should take it forward from in a determined frame of mind never to choke again. Though hailed as a major upset in ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 this was not unexpected. I had been saying all the way and also yesterday that New Zealand was fully capable of winning on its day. NZ did not set a huge target, but their tremendous fielding combined with some inspired bowling finished a mindless performance by South Africa. Sluggish Dhaka pitch also helped, but that factor helped SA too in restricting NZ. Champions gone yesterday! Clinically proficient favorites gone tod...