Year: 2019

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan on the bowler of the tournament so far Ten games into the second edition of the GT20 league and it’s hard to say who has been the most effective batsman. It has rained fours and sixes at the CAA Centre – and at no time was the onslaught as fierce as when Chris Gayle made an unbeaten 122 for Vancouver Knights – but the riches have been spread around. There is little doubt about the most effective bowler, though. And it’s a legspinner who has been running rings around…

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan on two meetings – 12 years apart It was nearly 12 years ago, as Kyle Phillip remembers it. He was nine years old – “maybe 10” – and watching cricket at a club in Trinidad. Shedding his inhibitions, he walked up to a fast bowler whom he looked up to – an exciting allrounder who had moved from Guyana to Trinidad to play club cricket – and said to him: “Hey Dillon, teach me how to bowl fast, man.” The Dillon whom he approached is Dillon Heyliger, then…

By Siddhartha Vaidyanathan Of the 12 sixes Chris Gayle hit at the CAA Centre on Monday, during the course of his 54-ball 122, only two stayed within the arena. The ten others soared over the stands and disappeared from sight – threatening parked cars, bystanders, security personnel, and the food in the stalls outside. Balls vanished into trees and bushes, and the umpires needed to call for replacements. It will come for no surprise if, during Gayle’s next innings, ball boys are stationed outside the arena. If not, Gayle may…

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan on a cricketer like none other Among the several unknowables in the world of Shahid Afridi is one rock-solid certainty. Everyone knows when he played his first match. And everyone in Pakistan who is over 30 probably knows where they were, and what they were doing, when Afridi played his second match. October 2, 1996 may be a generation away but Cecil Pervez, who was in high school back in Pakistan then, remembers the gravity of the occasion.  “I don’t know if that game was televised in Pakistan…

TORONTO, July 26th 2019 – Global T20 Canada and Bombay Sports Company Ltd. are pleased to announce SickKids Foundation as the Official Charity of the League. Established in 1972, SickKids Foundation raises funds on behalf of The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and is the largest charitable funder of child health research, learning and care in Canada. Philanthropy is a critical source of funding for SickKids – one of the worlds foremost paediatric health care institutions. Thanks to donors, in the fiscal year that ended March 31, 2018, Sick Kids…

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan on a Canadian cricketer who came to the party at Brampton A day before this year’s GT20 tournament, Geoff Lawson set Salman Nazar 14 to get in one over. This was in the indoor nets at Brampton Sports Centre. Lawson, the former Australian fast bowler, who is now the coach of the Toronto Nationals, was taking a short run-up and hurling the ball towards 28-year-old Salman, a left-arm spinner who works assiduously on his batting. Lawson seemed to be increasing the pace of his throws with every ball.…