Mihir Bose's Blog, page 38

2nd Test Preview: England v India

Here’s my preview of the Second Test between England and India for thecricketcrowd.com

Michael Holding questions Alastair Cook’s position as captain

Michael Holding has never been afraid to express his views. So it is no surprise he has stuck to his opinion of Alastair Cook despite England’s crushing victory over India in the Third Test.

One of the game’s greatest fast bowlers tells me: “I did not think Alastair Cook was a very good leader. I still don’t think he’s the best leader in the world. But he got a break, he made some runs. That’s the luck of the draw.”

‘Wounded Tiger: A History of Cricket in Pakistan’, by Peter Oborne

Pakistan’s love affair with cricket is one of the most remarkable stories of our times. Few could have predicted that the game would become so dominant when the country was created as a homeland for Muslims of the subcontinent in 1947, one of two confessional states to emerge in quick succession (Israel was born a year later). Then it was a middle-class activity largely confined to the two big cities of Lahore and Karachi and, as the journalist Peter Oborne writes in Wounded Tiger, “unknown throughout much of Pakistan’s rural hinterland”.

Yet today, even in the remote, conflict-torn Swat Valley, cricket is well established. Pakistan has also produced some of the world’s great players and, in Imran Khan, one who has become a major force in politics. Adapting the game to Pakistani conditions, the nation’s ever-resourceful cricketers have also done something that few countries, England apart, can lay claim to: invent a whole new technique, called reverse swing, which revolutionised the art of fast bowling. Now, such is the game’s status that Oborne concludes: “It is played by the army and the Taliban. It is enjoyed by all of Pakistan’s sects and religions. It is part of Pakistan’s history and also its future.”

The child and the debt it owes its mother

One of my mother’s favourite stories was of the man who stands outside his house and looking up at the sky declares, “Ma, I have now repaid all that I owed you”. As he does so the house collapses. My mother’s moral was: a child will always be indebted to its mother.

My mother died four years ago at the age of 94 and I have never forgotten that story. And as I grow older I begin to realise how much my mother shaped my life. True, she did not take any interest in my education, my father decided all that. In the immediate years after Indian independence when many shunned English he made sure I went to an English school. He helped me develop my love for sport, encouraged me to read and got me to copy from copper plated writing to improve my handwriting. And before my exams he made sure I had everything ready down to pen and ink.

The search for an Indian narrative

The day after Narendra Modi swept into power there was a seminar at London’s Harrow Town Hall. It was not about the elections but the legacy of Subhas Bose. The setting was, unintentionally, ironical. Down the road is Harrow School where Jawaharlal Nehru had been educated and Nehru, of course, was Bose’s great rival during India’s freedom struggle.

However, what made the evening revealing was that instead of discussing what Bose stood for, there was heated discussion about whether Bose, following an air crash, had died in August 1945, just days after Japan’s surrender, in a Japanese military hospital in Taiwan.

Why 2014 World Cup was different

One feature of the modern world is when nations want to advertise themselves their first thought is not to hold exhibitions of the sort Prince Albert, the consort of Queen Victoria, patented in the 19th century but to organise global sporting events. This has given Olympics and football World Cups a much higher profile than the Expos. But what makes the football World Cup special is that it is the one major event, and not just in sport, where the US is a minor player.

The US team failed to qualify for the World Cup for 40 years between 1950 and 1990 and, while its German coach Jurgen Klinsmann coaxed a good performance, it still came as a surprise that the country which calls football soccer even plays it , let alone at the highest level and with some distinction.

James McCarthy reveals he almost joined Tottenham and is pleased with Manchester United interest

There has been speculation that James McCarthy is wanted by both Manchester United and Tottenham, just a year after leaving Wigan for £13million.

So, I ask Everton’s highly rated central midfielder how he would feel playing under Tottenham’s new manager Mauricio Pochettino. That is when the Republic of Ireland international reveals he could have moved to White Hart Lane last season if Spurs chairman Daniel Levy had not haggled over the price.

Lord’s defeat showed me that Alastair Cook’s mind is scrambled….he must go

Ian Botham has been one of beleaguered England captain Alastair Cook’s most fervent supporters.Speaking to me before the Second Test against India he cautioned against a struggling England ditching their skipper, despite the increasing calls for him to go.

Now, though, after England’s 95-run defeat meant their run of Test matches without a win stretched to 10, Botham has changed his thoughts.

Commonwealth Games still showcase the best

It is easy to dismiss the Commonwealth Games as an example of the British delusion that they managed to shed their imperial status better than any other colonial power. But such a dismissive view of the second biggest sporting event after the Olympics ignores the role the Commonwealth Games have played in innovating and shaping sporting and even social attitudes.

This is all the more remarkable given that the original impetus for the Empire Games, as they were called until well into the Fifties, was to use sport to emphasise the supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon race. Despite this, from the very beginning there was a willingness to defy the prevailing political ethos. So in 1934 the second Empire Games were moved from Johannesburg to London because South African racism did not allow black athletes to compete.

We’re not scared of Tiger Woods anymore, says Adam Scott

Adam Scott is that sporting rarity: the quiet Australian.

In a country whose stars need no encouragement to broadcast their achievements, the world’s best golfer has always followed his father’s advice: “Let your clubs do the talking.” And Scott particularly likes to be under the radar before Majors.

But now, as I meet the world No1 at Hoylake, where The Open starts on Thursday, he is not shy to talk about his aims.