Why healing others can come at a personal price, and words of comfort can cause more harm than good

If England is a shining example for its approach to Test cricket, their One-Day International approach is a warning.

This is sport. Unexpectedness and upsets are what it thrives on.

Why are we often obsessed with what others are going to think, asks Phuphee

In a country of a billion and a half, you can’t make a statement without millions finding fault with it. Social media trolls are a menace, so players keep out of their way.

A win abroad overcomes a mental barrier. The series following the one where India won in Australia for the first time, they won again. That is why it is important for India to win in South Africa.

Test cricket may be rushing to its end faster than we imagined, and in the next decade younger fans will need to be told what it was and why it no longer existed

From kuzhi paniyarams with Dutch ties to the local cousin of the East African injera, Tamil Nadu’s coastal food shows us that history is preserved not just in our museums but also in our kitchens

You can put down the below-par performances in the Cape Town Test to technical deficiencies in batting, yet you come to the philosophical question: Can we really know anything for certain? Also, does everything have to make sense?

Fifty years on, since Karnataka famously won the Ranji Trophy at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, we should ask ourselves, wouldn’t it be wonderful to sit in the Viswanath stand or cheer from the Prasanna enclosure?

Will Bazball work in India? Theoretically, there is no reason why it shouldn’t, but in practical terms, there are two reasons. One of them is Ravichandran Ashwin and the other Ravindra Jadeja.

If fortune favours the brave, it also tends to desert the timid, which is what India were in the Hyderabad Test

‘The underlying theme was clearly fiscal consolidation with an ability to maintain the infrastructure spends at the existing run rate’

Selection cannot be an exact science; there are too many variables from differing match conditions to untested mental abilities of the players. And luck, of course.

Not all ‘curses’ should be ignored, as Phuphee proves — this time with medical help and a bowl of ice cream

Not so long ago our best players came from the cities and traditional centres: Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai. For a little over a generation now, they have emerged from the old backwaters. This continues.

Kuldeep Yadav made his mark over a decade ago and now, as he says, he has begun to understand his bowling. Wrist spin is a difficult art, one of the toughest in the game.

Ahead of the T20 World Cup, the progress made by India’s two best batters will be followed even more keenly as the IPL unfolds

With the birth of a baby you gain something precious, but you also lose something of yourself. This is when support and a sisterhood become essential

Surely in the thousands of spectators across the country, there is someone with a sense of humour, someone who can raise a heckle without raising a hackle.

Occasionally a line emerges that causes the kind of surprise a maiden over might.

Patrons of fashion and design, tawaifs weren’t mere entertainers. Their stories still inspire, as explored in Netflix’s new series, Heeramandi

Phuphee’s lesson on celebrating the power of individuality

There exists a literary practice where old favourites are given fresh adventures by later writers. These are mostly well written, and respect the backstories the original authors gave their characters

James Anderson played for long and reinvented himself periodically, cutting pace for accuracy and bowling with a grace and seeming lack of effort which is one of the game’s great sights.

Phuphee breaks down why the institution needs “two wheels”, otherwise it is just a crazy bull wandering around aimlessly

Euripides, the Greek playwright, got it right centuries ago: one loyal friend, he said, is worth ten thousand relatives

Engaging with vernacular diversity is a practical way to convey biodiversity concerns and values. It also helps to understand the plural ways in which communities value nature. June 5 is World Environment Day

It is accepted now that porn drove the Internet in its early days. Some 36% of the Net traffic was generated by it. The figure is far less now

It might be politically incorrect to say this, but America isn’t ready to embrace cricket yet

I am excellent at saying ‘I’. Happily, it is also the most important word for the swearing-inner

The Parsi community is the transition zone between the monotheistic and polytheistic mythologies of West and South Asia

By unifying disparate island-countries and building a world-class team, Frank Worell ensured “West Indies” became a single entity in the sport.

From Akbar’s rupiya to the Rupay app that’s going international, tracing the adventurous run of India’s currency