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Tough call
With the World Cup in the Caribbean just seven-odd months away, the Chappell-Dravid duo has to sort out a few things to get that near-perfect balance in the team. The fringe players will have no choice but to perform or perish, while the seniors with a history of injuries will have to shape up or ship out, reports
M.S. Unnikrishnan
Greg Chappell and Rahul Dravid have forged such a fine rapport and enduring partnership over the past 12 months that they eye the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies as the ultimate trophy to be won before Team India can rest on their laurels. They have seen the highs and lows in the past year, and they hope to draw from those experiences to mould the best available talent in the country into a winning combination.
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With the debate raging around his level of fitness, hopes are being pinned on Sachin’s return to the team
(Right) After experimenting with many opening batsmen, India should zero in on a solid winning combination. Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag in action
— Photos by Reuters
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Mission POSSIBLE
The teams taking part in the tri-series beginning tomorrow — India, Sri Lanka and South Africa — are vastly different in technique, temperament and tenacity, writes
K.R. Wadhwaney
Sri Lankans have a West Indian streak in them. As much beer guzzlers as the Calypso charmers, they play cricket with a devil-may-care attitude. Flamboyant and carefree, they indulge in audacious stroke-making and deceptive bowling. Statistics show that, like the West Indians under Frank Worrell, Vivian Richards and Clive Lloyd, they win their matches by a mile and also lose them by a mile.
S. Sreesanth climbs a wall at the Parachute Training Centre in Bangalore. The Lankan outing would prove how valuable was the commando-type training
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Monsoon
masti at Bundi
Moushumi Sen
Monsoon
has always been bountiful for the people of Bundi in the relatively
water-scanty state of Rajasthan. After a short span of scorching
summer, rain brings hope and joy.
| During the rains, the Bardha dam reservoir turns into a picnic spot. |
A
bird’s-eye view of Bundi Photos by the writer. |
Enigma of pyramids
We may never know what inspired the ancient Egyptians to position the pyramids as they did
| Even modern
technology it seems has been unable to solve one of ancient history’s
oldest mysteries, whether the pyramids in Egypt had anything to do
with planetary positions. Robert Webb, a lecturer in surveying in the
school of urban development in Queensland’s University of
Technology, Australia, reviewed major surveying projects of the
pyramids at Cheops, Chephren and Mycerinus, built around 2600 BC south
of present day Cairo for his study. |
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| Computer
visualisation of the insides of the pyramids may bring some new
findings |
All the web’s a stage
Meg Carter on Wannabes, an interactive TV drama for the Internet, being filmed by the BBC
Wannabes
is a new play filmed for the Internet in which characters turn to the
audience for advice on what to do next — and then they’ll act it
out.
Filming has just begun for a new BBC drama with a difference.
Bollywood’s affair with the mob
Gangland entertainment has attracted the Indian audiences as one can admire the anti-hero gangster because he’s an unbound character. Mobsters also make compelling stories, says
Shakuntala Rao
Suketu
Mehta, in his book Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found, blows
the lid on Bollywood. Mehta creatively peels at layers of Bollywood’s
stormy marriage with the underworld. The author writes about sitting
next to Sanjay Dutt at one of his TADA-related court appearances. He
narrates the scene in his book. "The judge enters and the roll
call is read, 124 names in all.
Golden Bond
In a recent poll, film buffs voted the Sean Connery-starrer Goldfinger
as the best Bond movie. It’s the only film in its genre that figures in the book
1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, writes Vikramdeep Johal
Sean
Connery is widely regarded as the best James Bond of them all. Even
his worthy successor Roger Moore once admitted, "Everyone knows
Sean is the real Bond. Kids think I’m his stand-in." The big
question is: Which is the best Bond movie? Film buffs provided the
answer in a recent poll conducted by Empire magazine and Sony
Pictures. Their all-time favourite — the Connery-starrer Goldfinger.
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