For the fans, it would mean more expenses in the form of flight ticket and multiple hotel bookings. Already the ticket rates are so expensive, and only the elite can watch the matches on ground. Imagine a fan travelling from Vancouver in Canada to Miami in the United States just to watch the matches involving his favorite team. The flight ticket alone is going to cost around $450 per head. And the few direct flights that are available will take a minimum of 6 hours (now add in time for security check and boarding). The same is applicable for fans who need to travel from Boston or New Jersey in the United States to Guadalajara in Mexico.

Well... we discussed about this before. Right now, BCCI is completely dominating the ICC and they can do whatever they want. Pakistan is essentially isolated among the full members. The only viable option for Pakistan is to move Asia Cup to a neutral venue, and it maybe some of the cities in the United Arab Emirates. But doing so means that the PCB will lose a large share of revenue. PCB should try for a deal with ACC, which will force the BCCI to pay a monetary compensation. Afterall, the last minute decision to pull out was taken by the BCCI.

Poms can always give the justification of hostile ground conditions. But then, they were not up against world-class spinners. And this is exactly the same track where Litton Das made 73, to guide Bangladesh to a total of 158. Even Rony Talukdar playing his first international series after almost a decade made a decent score. And none among the English spin triad (Adil Rashid, Rehan Ahmed and Moeen Ali) could make an impact. They bowled a total of 8 overs, and picked up just one wicket (that of Rony Talukdar, picked up by Adil Rashid).

Well.. Shashi Tharoor has reasons to support him. Elections are due in 12 months from now, and Sanju Samson is a resident of the parliamentary constituency that he represents. Despite being given so many chances, neither Samson nor his fans are happy. They keep asking for even more chances, despite not performing up to the mark. Fans in Kerala, be it the cricket fans or the football fans, behave in a boorish way when things don't go in their favor. Booing the Indian captain during an international match is a strict no.

I am also in favor of giving more chances to Bharat. Obviously Sanju Samson fans are not going to be happy, as they believe that their player is the sole heir to the throne of Indian keeper. During one of the matches held in Kerala, his fans booed Kohli since Samson was not included in the playing XI. I am actually surprised. He was given far more chances than any of the younger players, and still wasted all of those chances. I would prefer Bharat over Samson at any day of the year. If Bharat is unable to perform, then the other younger players like Anuj Rawat should be considered for selection.

England already lost the series by 0-2 and now the result of the third match is not going to change anything. Although this series is played in T20 format, for England, it is a worrying signal ahead of the ODI World Cup later this year, which will be hosted by India in similar pitches. Their batsmen are simply unable to adjust themselves in spin-friendly conditions. If they fail against bowlers like Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Najmul Hossain Shanto, then how can we expect them to perform against Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindrasinh Jadeja?

Disney-Star still believes that they will make a profit out of the deal. The same can't be said about SKY sports in the United Kingdom. UK is a stagnant market, while India is a rapidly growing one. The deal runs from 2024 to 2027. And by 2027, I expect the OTT market in India to grow manifold. In the end, they can't complain much. ICC set the terms and they have to abide with it now. Previously there were times when Star was favored by the ICC over other providers for media rights. They won bid at times, despite quoting lower prices.

If they win the match against United Arab Emirates, then they will qualify for the 2023 Cricket World Cup Qualifier. In order to qualify for the ODI World Cup, they still need to finish as one of the top 2 teams in this tournament. And it is going to be tough, as teams like West Indies and Sri Lanka are likely to be a part of the tournament. Also, there will be strong competition from various associate sides such as Scotland, Netherlands and Oman. I am not saying that it will be impossible, but Nepal really need to work hard if they want to qualify for the world cup.

Agreed on Bumrah and Pant. Bumrah is the best Indian pacer by a distance and he can be lethal in overseas conditions. Somehow he hasn't managed to resolve his recurring injury issue and it may be impossible for him to play on a regular basis. A few days back he underwent back surgery in New Zealand. According to his manager, he should be ready to bowl in nets by August this year and may take part in the ODI World Cup (timeline looks a bit optimistic, if you ask me). His last match was on 25th September last year, against Australia.

Regarding Pant, it may take even longer time for him to be back on action when compared to Bumrah. As per the doctors, he has suffered significant damage in his knee ligaments and won't be back in action before beginning of 2024. And his replacement (Srikar Bharat) has so far done a poor job, both with the bat with the gloves.

BTW, I wouldn't call Austria and Slovenia as weak teams. But I get the point. Both these teams can't be compared to sides such as France. BTW, I am surprised that you have grouped together France and Danmark. The latter are a shadow of their former self and are on a downward slide since the last one decade or so. I won't be surprised if they fail to qualify for the Euro 2024 and FIFA 2026. It looks like Croatia performs the best when they are the underdogs. When they are the favorites, the performance go down.

I am not comfortable with one of the factors within the current Croatian team. There are very few young players and most of the star players are over 30. Dejan Lovren, Domagoj Vida, Luka Modrić, Ivan Perišić and Andrej Kramarić are all in their mid-30s or late-30s. This is like a double edged sword. It gives them an advantage in terms of overall experience. But at the same time, absence of younger players may prove costly while playing against more athletic sides.

Here in India, everyone is quite excited about the song winning Oscar. One fact that maybe unknown to the vast majority here is regarding the location where the song was shot. The location is Mariinskyi Palace in Kyiv, which is the official residence of the president of Ukraine. It was shot in August 2021, just a few months before the Russo-Ukrainian war broke out. In total some 400-500 actors took part, with the vast majority of them being Ukrainian extras. It took 15 days to shot this 5-minute song. Those who want to watch it, can go to this YouTube link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsU0CGZoV8E

I wouldn't call the valuation for Indian market made by Disney-Star as "overvalued". Looking at the revenue numbers provided by Hotsar, they are justified in spending $1.5 billion for 4 year period (the other $1.5 billion was spent by Zee for the TV rights). OTT is a rapidly growing section of the market in India and even with cable TV/DTH the growth is very healthy. In the end, it depends on the economy as well. Indian economy is growing at a good pace (unlike the case of it's neighbors), and cricket still commands 80% to 90% share of the sports market in India.

Today the Mumbai Indians Women are up against Gujarat Giants Women. MI is the only team which is unbeaten till now. On the other hand, their opponents have only won one out of the four matches they have played so far. Mumbai looks set to lift the trophy this time, and IMO a huge gap exists between them and the other franchises. They got the perfect team balance, with the best bunch of overseas players (Issy Wong, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Hayley Matthews and Amelia Kerr), the best capped Indian players (Yastika Bhatia/Harmanpreet Kaur) and the top emerging players (Saika Ishaque & Jintimani Kalita). All credit to their management. They selected the best players.

From where did you got this 60% figure? Because most of the opinion polls I have seen give 40% to 45% support for Donald Trump, with DeSantis trailing him with support from 25% to 35%. DeSantis is still unknown to many of the GOP voters outside Florida. And in due course of time, I would expect him to attract most of the anti-Trump support within the GOP. In case Trump is polling below the 50% mark, it is a red flag for him. Because he is a known figure and it means that a majority of the GOP voters don't want him to be the Republican nominee.

The match on 16th (Thursday) is extremely crucial for Nepal. It is probably the most important match that Sandeep Lamichhane and his team-mates will every play in their career. They need a win against the United Arab Emirates to overtake Namibia and finish at the 3rd place within ICC Men's Cricket World Cup League 2 2019-2023. If they are able to do that, then they will qualify directly to the 2023 Cricket World Cup Qualifier, and more importantly keep their ODI status. They will keep the current funding levels from ICC as well.

In case they lose the match, they will be forced to play the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier Play-off. Along with that, their funding from ICC will be reduced and they will forfeit their ODI status (the ODI status is just nominal, as none of the full members play against Nepal). Nepal is showing a lot of promise, but all of that will be wasted in case they lose the match on Thursday.

Feels bad about Smriti Mandhana. Somehow she ended up in this shitty team (Royal Challengers Bangalore) and now they have 5 losses in 5 matches played so far. I won't be surprised if RCB ends up this season without a win. BTW, Smriti was out of touch yesterday. She wasted a lot of balls before getting out to a single digit score. In the end, it was left to Ellyse Perry and Richa Ghosh to step up scoring. BTW, it was good to see Tara Norris making an impact in the WPL, since she is the sole representative of the associate nations. For RCB, Renuka Singh failed once again yesterday. This is a horrible season for her. 

I don't think that Australia will be having an advantage during final of the 2021–2023 ICC World Test Championship. The match will be played at Kia Oval in    Kennington, London and may offer equal support for both the bowlers and the batsmen. Even if the track offers extra support for the pacers, Australia doesn't have quality pacers in their squad now. Starc, Hazlewood, Boland and Cummins are no match for the legendary pacers such as McGrath, Lee and Gillespie who represented Australia two decades back. On the other hand, the Indian pace attack looks extremely good, with Shami, Umesh and Bumrah consistently performing well on pitches abroad.

One advantage for Australia is that their batsmen are doing well, including Khawaja, Smith and Labuschagne. For Indians, the lack of form from regular players such as Pujara is a big concern. None of the Indian batsmen showed any fighting spirit during the first 3 matches. They only managed to score while playing in the dead track during the 4th test.

I am against the idea of granting hosting rights to 3-4 countries. Look at the 2022 world cup. All the matches were hosted by Qatar and the fans were also happy about the travel arrangements. During the 2026 world cup, the fans need to travel many thousands of miles to watch the matches. The venues are spread all across the North American continent, from Canada in the north to Mexico in the South. The hosts will obviously benefit, from increased tourist revenues and exposure. But for the fans, it is an exhausting task to reach the destinations on time.

The only way India can qualify for the FIFA World Cup is if the sub-regional qualifiers come to effect. If FIFA decides to have one slot from the South Asia region, then there is a chance that they may qualify. Out of the 7 member associations, India is currently ranked 106, while all the other teams are ranked below them. In fact none of the other teams are even in the top-150. Maldives is at 156, while the two populous nations (Bangladesh and Pakistan) are ranked 192 and 195 respectively. Previously, Afghanistan used to be a part of South Asia, but now they have moved to Central Asia.

In case of China, it is even more difficult. There are quality teams such as Japan and South Korea from the same region, and it will be extremely difficult for them to qualify from the same grouping. China is a part of the East Asian Football Federation, and as per ranking they are much below Japan (20) and South Korea (25). Currently China is ranked 80th.

There should be a balance somewhere in between. I have seen test matches ending within two days, in bowler friendly pitches. Also, in the recent past we have seen several matches ending up as draw, despite play being possible for all the 5 days. Both of these instances do no good for the future of test cricket. Cricket fans will lose interest if they watch the matches continuously for 5 days and still not end up with a result. Now two days remain in this match, and in all probability it will end up as a draw. You need 6-7 days to get result with such tracks.

The attitude from the Indian management was disappointing. Since they are already up by 2-1, they decided to go for a flat track so that Australia couldn't level the series. That means that they don't have any confidence in the performance of their own players (especially on their spinners). And this means that despite losing the first two matches in the Border–Gavaskar Trophy by a big margin, the Australians can hold their head high.