For me, this was a first experience of seeing India play at home, and of Sachin Tendulkar playing in front of his own people. I chose a good game with which to start. I can think of few, if any, experiences in sport to match watching Tendulkar succeed in a home game. Roger Federer may occupy a similar status of universally-acknowledged greatness within tennis, but I think it is fair to say that Switzerland is not quite as passionate about tennis as India is about cricket. If Federer were to simultaneously play tennis whilst hoarding gold and providing banking facilities for dubious dictators, perhaps the fervour of his support would match that for Sachin. But the Swiss population is unlikely ever to top the one billion mark.
Don't know a thing about cricket? Wouldn't know a wicket from a googly? Don't worry, you won't have to know a thing to enjoy Andy Zaltzman's
World Cup Blog. He is traveling around Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka attending various games. Zaltzman is best known to the world for the fabulous podcast
The Bugle which he does with John Oliver. Therefore it should come as no surprise that he also does a
cricket podcast. And he
tweets about cricket too.
posted by Kattullus
on Feb 28, 2011 -
19 comments
India, as she is today,
was carved out of
British India, in 1947 when the left and right hand sides of the country became the new nation of Pakistan (
East and
West) respectively. While the history of Islamic influence and
subsequent tolerance and intolerance goes back centuries to the first advent of the
Mughal invasion, it has been said that the
post Independence troubles of the modern nations of India and Pakistan
stem from this sundering. In
1971, war brought
forth Bangladesh from the former East Pakistan on India's eastern border.
The Partition, as this holocaust is known,
embedded in
current day Indian memory,
history, culture,
movies,
books,
TV serials and music, was an
unimaginable horror of
slaughter and bloodshed. This separation was
not in the plans of the Mahatma, and it is said he was assassinated by Hindu
fundamentalists for letting it happen.
What future awaits the Hindus and Muslims who have lived
side by side for hundreds of years?
posted by infini
on Nov 26, 2008 -
37 comments
First, a bit of an
introduction to the game of
Cricket (youtube) for those of us who may not be
familiar with the
sport. Next, a few
clips (1, 2, 3, 4) on how
awesome the
Gentleman's Game can be (and you thought we didn't do anything but roam around in our white pants and cotton shirts...). But, if that wasn't enough for you, then here's a taste of
Twenty20 Cricket (the
fast,
fast paced version of the game), and the new
DLF Indian (pdf) Premier League. (This is in addition to the
One Day Matches, which were instituted to bring in a bit more excitement into the game during the 1970's, prior to which the match only consisted of
Tests. However, some purists still maintain that the game would've been better served had it not been
commercalized to the extent that it has, and still prefer the leisurely pace of the original format to its current incarnation.)
[more inside]
posted by hadjiboy
on Mar 20, 2008 -
56 comments
Plant Cultures - central aim ... is to convey the richness and complexity of links
between Britain and South Asia, through the story of plants and people
posted by Gyan
on Nov 12, 2005 -
2 comments
