Cricket: Game of Death; Sex and the City

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Something I read on cricket and something I had to write about. It's not really a happy subject, though. But it's interesting. Cricket, is one sport, that has an alarming rate of suicides. Among international players, apparently, it is far above the national average in any other sport. David Firth has collected data on this subject and written a book. It's called , "Silence of the Heart--Cricket Suicides". I also think, I stumbled upon this bit of information a bit too late. The book was published in 2001. Spectator has a good review. Okay, let me also write on how I got to this information. I was reading on suicide of a 38-year-old Japanese venture capitalist Hideaki Naguchi. Go to Google news, you will find it. His body was discovered Wednesday night in a business hotel in Naha, Okinawa, 1,000 miles south of Tokyo. Media reports said....

Dungarpur Uncut, sub sub

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When my friend Shamya Dasgupta called me from Pakistan, he sounded excited. He had an interview that was to expose the cliquish and sectarian mindset of a man managing the Indian team touring Pakistan. Not that he said that. But he knew he had "the" interview. He had no clue of what was to follow. Veteran journalist M J Akbar, in his book, Byline reminds us why he became a journalist. Because this profession allows one to travel like a salesman without becoming one. In 2006, he might just add to it, if one is honest, this profession also ensures that the reporter on the field, is either "off-side" or shown the "red card" in soccer terms or "grounded" forever. That's the direction of global media today. On Friday January 6, 2006, sports journalist Shamya Dasgupta, interviewed manager of the Indian cricket team, Raj Singh Dungarpur. The manager....

Comrades After Television and Imran Khan

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Who would you support, a Tele-marxist or a tele-Yogi? Swami Ramdev has invited Brinda Karat for a pranayam session at his ashram. She should accept the invitation. Just curious, why did she suddenly take on Swami Ramdev. Well, probably because she had a lab report. Was CPI(M) aware of what she was going to do. But again, she is new to politics. Very new. A TV veteran though. Was wondering if she has access to the archives in AKG Bhawan. Then she might want to read about the 1978 Salkia Plenum of the CPI(M. In short it talked about restoring democracy within the party. It also said that the Secretariat not the secretary should talk. It said if power was concentrated in the hands of one or two individuals, CPIM will lose out its cadres. Forget Salkia, more than everything, if CPIM wants to carry on its long march....

Once-a-week-disc jockey

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Flying Trapeze is a name borrowed from A Sunday Statesman, Miscellany column. One and only Late Somdeb Dasgupta was the prolific writer for that space. Hello and welcome. One of the mysteries of Tintin is how good a reporter he is. Add to that how good a TV reporter would Tintin be. As pointed out by Mark Lawson, most of his adventures have happened when he was on vacation. So going by that, Tintin would be a crack TV reporter. He would need a cellphone without Cutts the Butcher picking it up. How many of us actually listen to the Radio?. 9 out of 10 do while driving to work. We choose from the 10 odd channels available on space. For Americans driving to work and listening to radio, theres an option everyone is likely to tune in to. Bod Dylan, as a once-a-week disc jockey, will....