Indian Rugby – the code’s developing tiger
Scott Pierce is waiting for a call. Last October, he surveyed the stands at Delhi University’s newly constructed 10,000 capacity stadium and saw nothing but empty seats. ”Does anyone know what’s happening with the ticketing,” the former New Zealand sevens star asked reporters who had turned out to see some of the biggest teams in the world play. Earlier in the day a crowd did emerge, loudly cheering on the Indian team which, up until a few months before the start of last October’s Commonwealth Games, had never even competed in the seven-man form of the sport. Unsurprisingly, they lost every match. But they did have a goal coming into the games. ”Not to get smashed,” recalls 24-year-old Hrishikesh Pendse, a tall, quick-talking loose forward who is brightest prospect in the team. So bright that Pierce has brought him to New Zealand to play for his club – North Shore. Pendse is the first Indian player to have such an arrangement. He arrived this week. (read more)
CRICKET WORLD CUP in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh
Black Caps’ security man knows about danger
Regan Walters had only just sat down to dinner on the 22nd floor of Mumbai’s Taj Hotel when he felt the first blast. Walters has protected movie stars, royalty and Bill Gates. Now, during the Cricket World Cup, he is protecting the Black Caps. He had been involved in fire fights in his native South Africa and fought competitively in mixed martial arts. He knows about danger. But Walters realised instantly, when the glass walls of the Taj’s Souk restaurant started shaking, that this was something different. What he didn’t know, looking out the window toward’s Mumbai’s India Gate, watching the muzzle flashes of unseen automatic weapons, was that this was the beginning of a three-day terrorist siege on India’s commercial hub. When it was over 164 people would be dead. Three hundred more would be injured. Walters had only been in India for two hours. (read more)
When cricket is more than a game in India
Black Caps briefed over terror fears
Calm before the storm of the Cricket World Cup
Captaincy on backburner for McCullum
Ease of Black Caps’ win unexpected – Vettori
Black Caps to mark Christchurch earthquake
