Special Reports
A Forgotten Opener Speaks Out: Daniel Manohar’s Take on HCA’s Decline MS Shanker As the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) battles one of its worst-ever phases—with top office-bearers behind bars and public trust crumbling—those who once brought glory to the city are beginning to speak out. In this edition, I reached out to a cricketer who…
Of late, India has witnessed a disturbing surge in violent behaviour by elected representatives, cutting across both ruling and opposition parties. What’s more troubling is the indifference shown by political leadership across the board. Despite the glaring misconduct, no serious disciplinary action is taken against these leaders. Are we to believe that such individuals—and by…
MS Shanker The noose continues to tighten around the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) as the Telangana Cricket Association (TCA) has petitioned the state’s Crime Investigation Department (CID), demanding further arrests in the sprawling corruption scandal that has rocked Hyderabad cricket. Among those named in the latest complaint is former cricketer and administrator Vanka Pratap. The…
When Rules Are Bent and Justice Evaded In the murky corridors of NIPER Mohali, where academic brilliance should have reigned supreme, a quiet scandal is brewing—one that lays bare the systemic abuse of power, the manipulation of institutional processes, and a brazen disregard for merit and ethics. At the heart of this scandal is the…
In the long and storied history of the Olympic Games, few tales capture the essence of friendship and sportsmanship like that of Shuhei Nishida and Suei Oe—two Japanese pole vaulters who transformed a sporting contest into a timeless symbol of human dignity. Their story from the 1936 Berlin Olympics stands not merely as an athletic…
After three riveting Test matches in the much-hyped Tendulkar-Anderson Trophy series, England may have edged ahead 2-1 with a nervy 22-run win at Lord’s, but the larger takeaway is far more heartening—for both sides and for the future of five-day Test cricket. From the outset, this series was expected to test not just skills, but…
MS Shanker The rot in the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) has deepened dramatically, with last week’s crackdown by the Telangana State CID following a damning Vigilance and Enforcement Directorate (VED) report. Five arrests have already been made — including HCA President Jaganmohan Rao, CEO Sunil Kante, Treasurer CJ srinivas, and others linked to the infamous…
There was a time when we had to wait for years just to get a landline connection, merely to speak with someone outside our city, or the country. The communication revolution truly began with the advent of fiber-optic networks in the late 1980s. It transformed the way we stayed in touch with the world and…
On Wednesday, India witnessed a sweeping nationwide strike as lakhs of workers, farmers, and trade union members took to the streets, protesting the central government’s economic and labour policies—policies they denounced as anti-worker and pro-corporate. Exempting essential services such as hospitals, pharmacies, airports, and metro rail, over 25 crore workers across India participated in the…
By any stretch of cricketing imagination, this wasn’t the kind of theatre Test cricket needed. Day Three of the third Test between India and England had all the ingredients of a classic—except, of course, logic. Or perhaps, a team huddle that didn’t resemble a kindergarten picnic. Let’s start with the Washington Sundar saga. Watching the…
