On the field
A reasonable amount of cricket still going on, but not very much available for me to actually watch – except, of course, the Indian Premier League! That’s right, the IPL is back to its normal time of year, and I’ve really enjoyed watching as much as possible this month. After getting well & truly stuck into the BBL over the winter, I’ve found a big benefit of the franchise tournaments is that they’re effectively a crash course in who’s big in world cricket (both international players & those who haven’t quite made the leap yet); given how far behind the times I’ve managed to get myself, I need all the help I can get. And the best way is to watch the games and see how these people play – reading names will only get you so far.
I do intend to keep up with the County Championship and the other domestic tournaments this year, but I haven’t got into watching the livestreams just yet. Give me time.
On the page
Sachin Tendulkar – Playing It My Way ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
The Little Master has always been a quiet presence on the world stage, preferring to do his talking with the bat, so it was nice to hear his story – so nearly from the horse’s mouth, as I decided to get the audiobook version (unsurprisingly global sports stars leave this work to others!). It was really interesting to hear how his love of cricket began, and how he took on the burden of such a large nation’s hopes from a young age; it’s a pretty comprehensive work, related in a straightforward manner.
On the box
Inside Edge season 1 (Amazon Prime) ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
An interesting premise, and really shows you how big cricket is in India – if you didn’t understand that already. I guess you’d probably class it as the Footballers’ Wives or Dream Team of cricket, though the match- & spot-fixing storyline does take it to dark places. I found it tough to keep up with who’s who for a long while, as there are so many characters who don’t get decent introductions; you have the Mumbai Mavericks squad, coaching staff, executives, other teams & players, media, partners, etc. – it’s lucky Prime Video lets you see who is in a particular scene, and the character they’re playing! Some of the acting is a bit wooden, and the dubbing doesn’t really help matters, but it definitely pulls you in.
Sundries
My main additional news is that I’ve finally caved and booked a ticket to the very first game of The Hundred! Who knows what it will actually be like, but it’s exciting that the women’s game will be kicking everything off – and that the BBC is going to be covering it on TV.
Featured image credit: Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com/REX/Shutterstock
Buzzers & Beamers 