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Pragada: Batter up

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The Oxford Blues women’s cricket team meets in a small gym with green rubber floors, not much larger than a basketball court. The coach is speaking to the team, running through some throwing drills, and two hard, leather bound cricket balls are flying haphazardly around the room as the team warms up. Suddenly cricket bats and tennis balls are broken out and small groups of hitting drills commence, projectiles now soaring through the air in every direction; the sharp cracks of the bat piercing the light conversation taking place amongst team members. The head coach catches sight of me sitting idly on the sidelines, drafting this column, and with two emphatic gestures (one at me, one at the tennis balls laying in the corner), I’m now involved in this practice somehow, ducking and dodging as I pick up balls for the team and try to avoid being hit. How on earth did this happen?

Every leaderboard has a story

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May 5, 2016: “Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri takes early lead with 66 at the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow.” It seemed almost unprecedented to read something of this sort. For a country where a single sport – cricket – is not just a norm but almost as preached as religion, this headline seems quite…

Fugel: Elegy for a batsman

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Watching this Sunday’s Super Bowl, I was shocked by the vehemence of the insults that flew through the room as the game unfolded. “Kill him,” yelled one admittedly hammered Patriots fan as Russell Wilson dropped back to pass. “Break his leg,” he yelled as Marshawn Lynch broke off another five yard rush.

Taylor: Cricket match epitomizes fair play

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The idea of sportsmanship, as opposed to gamesmanship, often seems like a nostalgic dream from the early days of amateur sports — not really relevant to today’s win-at-all-costs professional mentality. Most players in most sports would want to win fairly if they could, but the winning part is far more important to them than the ethical bit. If you have to resort to dirty tactics — and I’m not specifically talking about cheating, but about playing tricks on the opposition and bending the rules — to secure victory, then so be it.

Taylor: Ties allow for more intrigue

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After a scoreless game against Duke in 1953, Navy football coach Eddie Erdelatz said, “A tie is like kissing your sister.” Now, if Jerry Springer has taught me anything, it is that Americans are the experts in the latter, but the former, the noble draw (British for “tie”), is notable in its absence from any of America’s favorite pastimes…