Well Caught with Giri And Raghu | A Fan"s Eye View of Indian Cricket"s Glory Days

In the Nineties, match fees were fatter and the stakes higher, yet the temptations were darker. The match-fixing scandal exposed an underbelly of bookies, betting and sleaze. At the turn of the century, as heads rolled and reputations were sullied, the game weathered its darkest phase.In the decade of redemption that followed, captains and coaches employed analytics to decide match strategies. In Ganguly, India found an aggressive skipper who walked his talk. No one embodied leadership and team

Athletic and courageous, all-rounder Kapil Dev smelled like team spirit (with a splash of Palmolive) and brought to India’s arsenal the firepower of wily pace, gutsy batting, and a never-say-die attitude. Promoted to captain in 1983, he led an underdog side (nicknamed Kapil’s Devils post facto) to a historic World Cup triumph. To date, he is lionised for his unforgettable 175 not out against Zimbabwe and his spectacular sprinting catch to halt the ferocious onslaught of Vivian Richards in the final

The Seventies, in the annals of Indian cricket, constitute an epoch. Ajit Wadekar proved to be a shrewd and pragmatic captain, leading India to historic away victories in the West Indies and England. Wadekar helmed an all-star side that included Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Viswanath, Farokh Engineer, and Dilip Sardesai. It also included the legendary Indian spin quartet of Bishen Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, and S Venkataraghavan. For a game that favoured white in more ways than

The captains who shaped Indian cricket in the 1950s and 1960s scripted a tale of guts and glory on and off the field. There was the stylish Ghulam Ahmed who chose to stay with India after Partition (while his nephew Asif Iqbal went on to captain Pakistan). There was the swashbuckling Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, who became the youngest Indian skipper at age 21. Despite losing an eye in a car accident, he played with a ferocity that earned him the nickname of Tiger. And there was the unforgettable Vinoo

It’s a beautiful day for cricket. The turf is green. The radio is crackling. The scoreboard is ticking. The crowd is cheering. And the sun is beginning to set on the British Empire. We travel in time to an age when caste and class divide the pavilion. On and off the field, cricket reflects the discrimination that prevails in colonial societies. Players are segregated, teams assigned ethnic names, and coloured players docked their pay for using gates meant for white Englishmen. Yet, it is this golden