Care for some cricket chit-chat-II

Sri Lanka have appointed Trevor Bayliss as their new national team coach. Australian coaches have done a world of good for them and the board looks to continue with their successful formula. The selection was done purely on the guy's coaching credentials, which are excellent, and the two year term reflects the confidence of the board in their new coach and their long term vision. Why don’t we get these guys to run our board as well?

Post the appointment of Bayliss, the Sri Lankan board secretary said that, “When we knew how good he was, we signed him up immediately because there are a lot of countries head-hunting for coaches at present." Tell you what Mr. Secretary, the other countries (India and Pakistan) are so hopelessly pathetic, that you could have appointed Bayliss three months from now, and sent him to stay with Gavaskar and Powar in the interim period and still not lost him. I think the prospective coaches in our country will have to clear a seventh round interview with the sports minister, then an eighth one with the PM and then qualify for the final round of BBC Mastermind, before their offer letters are printed. Even the hopeless English have a new coach in place.

The High powered selection committee have selected Chandu Borde to manage the Indian Team, after driving away Graham Ford with their offer of a one year contract. It seems they were sure, that they would need a replacement after a year’s time. And where did they find Borde? In a flea market? Or was he researching new coaching techniques in the Himalayas. Also special thanks to committee member, Mr. Gavaskar, who outdid the media, by airing his personal views on the candidates, before the final decision was taken.

Shivanarain Chanderpaul continues to single-handedly defy the English attack. Is he the best batsman in the world on current form? No, the answer is Sachin Tendulkar, who was much better against Bangladesh.

Bhajji and Sehwag have finally been given the boot. Thank God for making men like Dilip Vengsarkar. Expect a few incidents of violence in Najafgarh and Punjab soon. Does anyone have Navjot Singh Sidhu's comments on this?

Dhoni is now a vice-captain. Can the board please take a look at the record of one previous vice-captain - one Mr. Virender Sehwag; another guy who was thrust into the role before he was worthy and then went from hero to zero in a flash.

How many of you watched the Afro-Asia cup? Is this the best side Africa can come up with? Would this side even make the finals of the South African domestic competition? These were international games. What is the point of having this tournament if no one wants to play?

Sphere: Related Content

A nice way to pay homage to your sports idols

Sunny Gavaskar and Bishen Singh Bedi could never see eye to eye, on or off the field. They had the greatest respect for each others talent but couldn’t agree on a single thing. However, they do have one thing in common; the way they paid homage to their cricketing idols by naming their sons after them

That Bedi revered ‘Gavaskar the batsman’ so much that he named his eldest son after him is truly a great paradox. The son was called Gavas Inder Singh. Unfortunately, he couldn’t do much with either bat or ball

Gavaskar’s highest respect, though, was reserved for fellow practitioners of batsmanship. He paid homage to his trio of batting deities; Rohan Kanhai, ML Jaisimha and Gundappa Vishvanath by christening his son, Rohan Jai Vishva (that is Rohan Gavaskar's full name by the way). He could have graciously returned the compliment by adding a part of Bedi's name as well. Rohan’s four word name was already too long for most application forms and ID cards. See if you guys can come up with something imaginative. Don’t blindly add a Singh to it.

So, all you sports fans, you now have the perfect template to name your kids and simultaneously pay obeisance to your favorite sports stars. Personally, I would like to call my daughter Steffi or something that sounds like it.

One more thing. See, if you can find more such cases of star children named after sporting icons.

Sphere: Related Content