ChinmayC Blog

The much-delayed ICC (International Cricket Council) Men’s T20 World Cup-2021, originally scheduled in Australia from 18 th October to 15 th November 2020 was cancelled due to the COVID-19 situation worldwide and shifted to India replacing the to-be-held Champions Trophy in 2021 and was again shifted to Oman and United Arab Emirates (UAE) in view of the worsening pandemic situation in India, finally began on 17 th October 2021. This is only the official beginning, because for the first five days till 22 nd October the fixtures only figure teams to qualify for the Super-12 that begins from 23 rd October. The ICC has also earlier decided to merge the Champions Trophy (last played in 2018) with the T20 World Cup and this means that there will be a back-to-back T20 World Cups this year and in 2022 also. India play their first match of the tournament against the archrivals Pakistan on 24 th October, 2021, amid some dissenting voices concerning Pakistan’s continuing terror attacks in Ind...

The MSD of Indian and world cricket has been a phenomenon in terms of aggression yet simple approach, skillful captaincy in all three formats of the game, unorthodox right-hand batsman with raw yet powerful hitting, one of the best examples in wicket-keeping in world cricket, one of the fastest runners between the wickets and always smiling and composed in the field. MSD simplified means the one and the only—Mahendra Singh Dhoni. On October 15, 2021 in the IPL-2021 final in Dubai which was MSD’s 300 th match Dhoni led his franchise CSK (Chennai Super Kings), since 2008, to its 4 th Champion title defeating KKR (Kolkata Knight Riders) convincingly by 27 runs. The earlier title wins under Dhoni’s captaincy were in 2010, 2011 and 2018.   There have been rumors floating around in the UAE (United Arab Emirates) about the 40-year-old star cricketer’s retirement after IPL-2021 which seems realistic now that he has played the 300 th match and also winning the title, creating a moment of ...

While reading the latest book by the Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen , Home in the World—A Memoir , I found one incident or rather an experience of this great economist-researcher-scholar-writer-Nobel Prize winner in 1998- Bharat Ratna winner in 1999, concerning a book-stall owner that he frequented in the fifties in the famed college street area of Kolkata , then Calcutta . I was enthralled to find that experience having a strong similarity with my experience of a book-stall owner in the seventies. Well, two mandatory clarifications here: first, I’ve titled my piece not after Sen’s great book which means that this is not going to be a review, but just a story, and I’m still going through the book which, in my view, is of epic proportions, particularly in relation to the history, culture, economics and heritage of Bengal from the pre-partition days; and second, there can absolutely be no imaginable comparison between the living legend and this nonentity, as I said this is just a story of a...

Finally, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) made it to the 4 th spot in the play-offs of the Indian Premiere League (IPL-2021) on the basis of net run-rate, staging an intensely spirited fight against Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the first of the double-headers played in Sharjah on 7 th October. Thanks to a brilliant start led by the openers Shubman Gill (56) and Venkatesh Iyer (38) KKR put up a total of 171 runs for RR. Although the total was not unassailable the KKR bowlers responded equally intensely and bowled out RR for just 85, even lower than what they achieved in their previous low of 90 runs against Mumbai Indians (MI). For KKR the player-of-the-match pacer Shivam Mavi capturing 4 scalps for 21 runs in 3.1 overs, pacer Lockie Ferguson getting 3 for 18 runs in 4 overs and spinners Shakib and Chakravarthy capturing one wicket each. The huge victory margin further improved Kolkata’s net run-rate to over +0.5 which meant that Mumbai had to defeat the Sun Risers Hyderabad (SRH) by a margin ...

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has given its approval for officially using the word ‘ batter ’ to describe a ‘ batsman ’ or ‘ batswoman ’ in all forms of cricket and commentaries or writings with effect from the ICC Men’s Cricket T20 World Cup-2021 . The ICC has said that the word ‘batter’ has in fact been used since the last about four years, mostly in commentaries and also by some cricketers themselves, and this shift of usage is noted by the supreme cricket body. The Council further said that the word is ‘ gender neutral ’ and it makes cricket a more inclusive game. A large majority of the people concerned with the most popular game of the world have welcomed this change with some describing it as a ‘common-sense change’. They further argue that nobody describes a ‘ bowler ’ as ‘bowlsman’ or ‘bowlswoman’ or a ‘fielder’ as ‘ fieldsman ’ or ‘ fieldswoman ’. However, the word ‘fieldsman’ has been in usage since the old times and even sometimes now. This writer is not aware if...

The low-scoring matches during the second leg of the Indian Premiere League-2021 (IPL-2021) held in the United Arab Emirates are mostly lacking in terms of cricketing charms—meaning exciting and memorable knocks by celebrated international players—barring the lone century of the tournament scored by Chennai Super Kings (CSK) opener Rituraj Gaikwad that turned out to be for a losing cause and an exciting hat-trick by Harshal Patel of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). We are missing the usual great cricket by players like AB de-Villiers who is playing lower down the order for unknown reasons, David Warner, Chris Gayle who came and went out of fatigue without causing any harm to any opponent, Steve Smith, Andre Russell as usual, Kieron Pollard, Quinton de Kock, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and others. There are of course good knocks by Kohli, Sharma, KL Rahul, Glen Maxwell, Faf du Plessis, Shikhar Dhawan, Paddikal, Sanju Samson, Ravindra Jadeja and few others, but failing alwa...

( A Personal Post in Assamese language.) ' পিতৃপক্ষ ' বা ' শ্ৰাদ্ধ পক্ষ '... গণেশ চতুৰ্দশীৰ পিছত কৃষ্ণপক্ষৰ ১৫ দিন ' পিতৃ পক্ষ ' বা ' শ্ৰাদ্ধ পক্ষ ' নামেৰে প্ৰচলিত এই সময় খিনিত আন কোনো শুভ কাম নকৰা দেখিবলৈ পাইছিলোঁ মুম্বাইত ..... প্ৰতিপদৰ পৰা অমাৱস্যালৈকে প্ৰত্যেক ব্যক্তিয়ে নিজৰ প্ৰয়াত মাতা - পিতা , আৰু পূৰ্বজসকলৰ উপৰিও সমন্ধীয় লোক , গুৰু , বন্ধু - বান্ধৱৰো - তিথি বিশেষে সকলোৱে কৰা শ্ৰাদ্ধ কৃত্য দেখি অভিভূত হৈছিলোঁ । বছৰৰ যিকোনো মাহৰ যিকোনো তিথিত স্বৰ্গবাসী হোৱা সকলৰ বাবে কৃষ্ণ পক্ষৰ সেই তিথিত শ্ৰাদ্ধ কৰা নিয়ম আছে । পিতৃ পক্ষৰ দ্বিতীয়া তিথিত মোৰ পিতৃ স্বৰ্গবাসী হোৱাৰ পৰা তিথি মিলাই আমিও মুম্বাইত পিণ্ড দান কৰিবলৈ ললো। আৰু সেইখিনি কৰি পৰম শান্তি পোৱা যায় ।মন প্ৰসন্ন হয় । ...   পিতৃ পক্ষৰ চতুৰ্দশীত ( ৬ অক্টোবৰ , ১৯৯১চনত ) শহুৰ দেউতা অমূল্য কুমাৰ চক্ৰৱৰ্তী স্বৰ্গবাসী হয় । পিণ্ড দান কৰি কিছু অনুভৱ মই প্ৰথমৰ পৰাই কৰিছিলোঁ । তেখেত ঢুকুৱাৰ পিছৰ...