Fellow bloggers and Wisden luminaries Amit Varma and Rahul Bhatia (who calls his blog Green Channel, though he knows not why) were in town over the weekend to cover the Kotla ODI and I caught up with them briefly at Khan Market. Cricket was predictably the main topic of discussion. Of special note: some interesting speculation about whether a new twist in BCCI politics might ensure that Sourav Ganguly’s international career is over - Amit has the whole story here.
(Personally speaking, I’ve become sceptical of conspiracy theories following years of discussions with sports journo friends who do the world-weary routine, roll their eyes and say “Oh, everyone knows this is what’s really going on”. But if Ganguly never plays international cricket again remember where you first heard it. And if he does, forget all about this post pronto.)
On a lighter note, Rahul fears that an innocuous suggestion he made to a (heh heh) balls inspector at an equipment factory might have ended the golden age of batting. So if Adam Gilchrist suffers a decline anytime soon you know who to blame. Read about this dramatic development.
As we parted, Amit gave me a favourite book of his - Steven Pinker’s The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, about the nature-nurture debate. Even with dozens of unread titles vying for space in one’s room, and new publications coming in every day for reviews, there’s still a very special thrill that comes with being given a book. And it doesn’t happen often, come to think of it; the last time was probably Abhilasha giving me Persepolis 2 nearly a year ago. Thanks again Amit, and it’s on my Next 5 reading list (the fixed list, not the shifting one).
Fear? I'm happy! Now I only hope he actually does change the way balls are made.
ReplyDelete'Green Channel', is a channel you pass through when you have nothing to declare at the airport (and other ports?). So I used it as a metaphor for free-flowing thought. It's not always been that way, but that's how it was meant.
Cheers. Hope you are well.