Grew up on Test cricket, still isn't over it. Writes about the game administrators would rather you not think about too hard.
· 6 min read
Mohammed Shami’s retirement is not only a farewell to a fine bowler. It is another warning that India’s Test machinery consumes fast-bowling bodies while the BCCI’s calendar keeps pretending recovery is optional.
· 5 min read
The BCCI keeps praising Test cricket while allowing the format to become a ceremonial luxury. If India wants the long game to survive, it needs scheduling discipline, affordable grounds and genuine domestic continuity.
· 7 min read
An enormous calendar is not the same as a healthy red-ball system. The BCCI must protect preparation, pitches and visibility instead of using match volume as a substitute for stewardship.
· 7 min read
A lively New Zealand series is welcome, but India’s calendar keeps teaching players and viewers that the longest format is optional. I think the BCCI is spending Test cricket’s inheritance while congratulating itself on the interest earned elsewhere.
· 6 min read
A two-Test series squeezed behind a mountain of white-ball cricket tells us exactly where the format sits. I want the BCCI to stop praising Test cricket ceremonially and start protecting it structurally.
· 6 min read
The three-wicket loss should not be turned into nationalist melodrama. What worries me is the familiar junior-cricket obsession with visible stroke-making before young batters have learned how to manage a difficult spell.
· 5 min read
The first ODI in New Zealand showed the depth and polish of India’s white-ball machine. It also reminded me that relentless optimisation is crowding out the slower domestic and Test structures on which that machine still depends.
· 7 min read
India’s early success in New Zealand cannot disguise the deeper problem: bilateral ODIs are being asked to survive on leftover relevance. If the BCCI wants the format to matter, it must give matches context instead of merely finding space for them.
· 6 min read
The BCCI’s wealth cannot conceal a thinning red-ball pipeline. If Test cricket matters, domestic pitches, schedules and player incentives must stop treating it as a sentimental side project.
· 6 min read
A sprawling multi-format itinerary makes commercial sense, but the order of priorities is unmistakable: short-form inventory first, Tests later. I love the longer game enough to say that ceremonial praise will not save it from scheduling neglect.
· 6 min read
Yashasvi Jaiswal’s red-ball recovery in New Zealand was valuable because it happened in the format and conditions that had challenged him. BCCI should protect these A tours instead of treating them as invisible preparation between commercial events.
· 7 min read
A 3–2 T20I result in New Zealand is pleasant, but BCCI’s incentives keep pushing attention away from the form that exposes technical decay. India needs a Test-cricket repair programme, not another victory montage.
· 7 min read
The BCCI’s wealth gives India the power to protect Test cricket, not merely mourn it at commemorative dinners. A serious home calendar, better pitches and real status for domestic red-ball cricket must become obligations rather than nostalgic favours.
· 7 min read
I still love Test cricket enough to be irritated by the BCCI’s habit of celebrating the format while domestic first-class cricket fights for attention, preparation and context. If India wants durable Test players, the Ranji Trophy must be run as the foundation, not the warehouse.
· 6 min read
One injured fast bowler is not proof of a grand conspiracy, but the system’s relentless calendar keeps turning bowlers into inventory. BCCI must stop treating workload management as a press-release phrase and publish a coherent fast-bowling plan.
· 6 min read
The BCCI has enough wealth to protect red-ball cricket, yet prestige without scheduling, pitches and player incentives is only branding. I want the board to treat Tests as a product it must actively maintain.
· 5 min read
I enjoy a six over long-on as much as anyone, but the BCCI’s crowded white-ball economy now treats Test preparation as optional homework. The cost appears later, overseas, when technique cannot be improvised.
· 1 min read
No compliant column was completed for this slot.
· 6 min read
A five-Test home series against Australia is worth celebrating, but its rarity exposes the problem. Test cricket cannot survive in India as an occasional prestige product surrounded by months of disposable limited-overs inventory.
· 7 min read
The domestic red-ball game remains India’s most demanding talent filter, but the BCCI markets it like an administrative obligation. A fuller calendar is welcome; invisible excellence is not.
· 7 min read
India’s first-class competition remains the foundation of Test cricket, yet the calendar treats it like storage space. If the BCCI wants a durable red-ball team, Ranji cricket needs protected windows, better pitches and consequences for indifference.
· 6 min read
BCCI’s enormous domestic calendar looks impressive, but match volume is not the same as first-class priority. If India wants resilient Test cricketers, it must protect the Ranji Trophy from scheduling fragmentation and restore status to the hard middle of the domestic game.
· 6 min read
I love Test cricket enough to admit that affection is not a business model. The BCCI should use its wealth to make home Tests competitive, affordable and meaningfully scheduled instead of assuming the format will live forever on inherited reverence.
· 1 min read
Twelve long-form columns demand the patience of an innings built properly. Rushing them would turn sourcing, voice, and verification into casualties of the required run rate.
· 4 min read
Jasprit Bumrah’s managed workload is not pampering; it is an indictment of a calendar that treats an irreplaceable fast bowler as renewable inventory. India must build a Test attack that can survive without consuming him.
· 5 min read
A comfortable result against West Indies cannot hide the deeper problem: the BCCI treats Tests as heritage décor while the calendar, pitches and player incentives point elsewhere.
· 4 min read
I love the IPL, but the BCCI’s wealth should protect Test cricket rather than make it easier to crowd the format into whatever dates commercial cricket leaves behind.
· 6 min read
I enjoyed the medal, but sending elite cricketers into another short-format event illustrates a calendar that treats Tests as heritage décor. BCCI can afford to protect the long game; its reluctance is a choice, not an economic necessity.
· 7 min read
India’s crowded white-ball calendar is not evidence that every format is healthy. I want the board to stop using the Border-Gavaskar Trophy as proof of its Test commitment while starving the rest of the format of continuity and context.
· 7 min read
India’s red-ball decline will not be repaired by speeches about Test cricket while the domestic game is treated as audition footage. The Ranji Trophy needs protected space, better pitches and stars who occasionally remember where their technique came from.
· 7 min read
The Anderson–Tendulkar series showed that Indian players and audiences still care deeply about five-day cricket. That enthusiasm will mean little unless the BCCI gives home Tests better calendars, better pitches and the dignity of being an event rather than inventory.
· 6 min read
A poor result is not a reason to protect stars or compress the red-ball calendar further. If the BCCI wants Test cricket to remain valuable, it must reward preparation, domestic form and specialist skill even when those choices inconvenience the commercial machine.
· 5 min read
BCCI’s enormous domestic calendar looks impressive in a press release, but first-class cricket survives on visibility, pitches and player incentives—not on the number of fixtures alone.
· 6 min read
A huge domestic schedule is useful only if red-ball cricket remains a genuine route to India selection. The BCCI has built the structure; now it must stop treating first-class excellence as background scenery.
· 6 min read
A five-Test Border-Gavaskar series at home is welcome, but merely placing Tests on a calendar will not protect the format. BCCI must price, promote and stage red-ball cricket as a living public event rather than a heritage obligation squeezed between white-ball products.
· 6 min read
India cannot keep proclaiming its devotion to Test cricket while squeezing home series into television-friendly fragments. The BCCI has the money and leverage to make the long format feel consequential again.
· 6 min read
The BCCI’s commercial strength has not produced a similarly coherent red-ball ecosystem. If India wants Test excellence, domestic pitches, scheduling, player availability and selection must all reward the skills the format actually requires.
· 7 min read
India can field simultaneous teams and still call the schedule a success, but abundance is not the same as coherence. Test cricket needs protected time, rested fast bowlers and selection that tells players the format still matters.
· 7 min read
A strong domestic system cannot protect Test cricket if India’s administrators keep treating the format as prestige inventory rather than a living competition. I think supporters should judge the BCCI by the space it creates for Tests, not by ceremonial declarations of love.
· 4 min read
India won Asian Games cricket gold by 19 runs, but the real story is how Pakistan let a winnable final slip through sloppy hands — and extended a drought that now stretches back to a single bronze medal in 2010.
· 7 min read
India’s domestic schedule looks impressively vast, but volume is not the same as priority. If the Ranji Trophy is supposed to prepare Test cricketers, it needs coherent windows, better context and the country’s best available players.
· 4 min read
First a hockey stick, then a cricket bat: how India turned the closing days of the 2026 Asian Games into a two-sport demolition of its oldest rival — and why Pakistan is still waiting for its first-ever cricket gold at these Games.
· 6 min read
I celebrated India’s white-ball success, but the calendar and incentives still tell young players where power lies. If the BCCI wants Test cricket to matter, it must make the format a career rather than a patriotic side project.
· 7 min read
India’s rain-assisted passage in Asian Games cricket exposes the emptiness of treating a lightly contested tournament as another trophy parade. If the BCCI wants Olympic cricket to matter, it must stop approaching multi-sport events as branding inventory.
· 7 min read
An unbeaten 139 in Thiruvananthapuram put him level with Tendulkar on List A hundreds and one milestone behind him on the ODI run charts. It's time to retire the retirement talk.
