2014
And we played cricket too
Leagues have given sports like kabaddi, football and tennis a leg up but that may not be enough to transform Indian sport. Japan was a nobody in global football when it started its professional J-League in 1993. It was packaged as much as a family entertainment event as the new Indian Super League (ISL), its […..]
Pension promise in peril?
Military veterans claim babus are thwarting PM Modi’s poll pledge of one-rank-one-pension by inflating its cost estimates Roman emperor Augustus started the tradition of military pensions in 13 BC, when every legionary who had fought 20 years for Rome was guaranteed a pension for-life. It set the bar for modern armies, and independent India continued […..]
Language of the gods needs revival but not by compulsory teaching of Sanskrit
Anxiety over Sanskrit’s slow death as a living language, which lies at the heart of the current language dispute over German, predates the cultural nationalism of BJP and RSS. As far back as 1857 Gujarati poet Dalpatram announced that the language of the gods had died. Bajirao II, the last Peshwa, had “performed its after-death […..]
China doesn’t belong to south Asia
China has been a Saarc observer since 2005. But it has recently lobbied to be upgraded to full Saarc membership and thus push its way to a dominant position in all of Asia. Pakistan, China`s “all-weather friend”, has backed the Chinese. But it is not in India`s interest to facilitate this. Blocking China`s entry is […..]
Stick Shift
After years of disappointments, Indian hockey is looking up again. So what’s the story behind the comeback? Sunday Times finds out struggling to raise funds to send Dhyan Chand’s team to the Amsterdam Olympics in 1928, when one of Indian hockey’s colonial administrators decided to approach Gandhi for help in fund-raising, the Mahatma famously responded […..]
I wanted to play till 2014: Sachin Tendulkar
But the West Indies series made Sachin Tendulkar rethink his retirement plans, as Nalin Mehta found out in this exclusive interview. When did you first entertain thoughts of retirement? I was looking forward to the tours to South Africa in Dec 2013 and New Zealand in early 2014. But when the BCCI announced a two-Test […..]
Sachin Tendulkar made ‘international’ debut for Pakistan!
Everyone knows that Sachin Tendulkar made his debut for India against Pakistan in 1989, but did you know that he actually got his first taste of international cricket two years earlier, not playing for India but for a Pakistan team – against India! During Pakistan’s tour of India in 1987, Sachin was sent in as […..]
