Cricket lookalike is my favorite type of fun post, and I’m always on a lookout for this kind of stuff. I’ve discovered one more lookalike– and he’s rather famous. A Bollywood catch, actually.

Tusshar Kapoor looks like the younger brother of the Indian pacer Zaheer Khan.

Just look at the two pictures below– there are lots of parallels: face cut, complexion, lips, etc., etc. What do you think?

Post from: EveryJoe

Cricket Lookalike: Zaheer Khan

Journalists are quite fond of finding new angles to old, beaten-to-death topics. These so-called slants come in handy when you’ve few important things to report, or to be very, very concise, your team is slipping off the pedestal.

Andrew Stevenson, Sydney Morning Herald correspondent, alleges, based on his research from secondary (as opposed to primary and authorized) sources, that Indian cricket team’s selection is caste-based.

By chance or fate, he chose to visit the baby twice in Dr Purandare hospital noticing, to the horror of all on the second trip, that it wasn’t the same boy.

The tiny hole in the boy’s left ear – still visible today – was gone. A panicked search confirmed his judgement: the boy had been swapped with the son of a fisherwoman.

Gavaskar, from a proud, wealthy Brahmin family, the highest caste in the Hindu social order, had an uncle, Madhav Mantri, who played for India. It’s one of the great imponderables, a classic recasting of the nature-nurture divide to speculate whether Gavaskar, raised by a fisherwoman, could have played the game.

He might have had the eye and the dexterity to star in backstreet games, but would a fisherwoman’s son have played 125 Tests and scored 34 centuries? The chances may not have been great. The Brahmin caste, which forms only a tiny fraction of India’s population, has always dominated the national cricket side.

Don’t get me started on neuroscience. It’s my major. This is nature vs. nurture. Let’s leave it to the experts, Andrew.

“Why do their fielders not chase the ball to the boundary? Why do Indian batsmen rarely run for singles, apparently preferring to hit the ball to the fence or amble through for two runs in no obvious haste?” Anand wrote. “Having too many Brahmans means that you play the game a little too softly, and mostly for yourself.”

That sounds like some sort of conspiracy theory!

Despite his talents, Kambli was always booed and mocked at his home ground, Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Observers believed it was because of the dark colour of his skin. Not so, says Kambli. “I think it’s because of my caste.”

“I think” signifies you are opining. Facts please?

SECOND TEST SIDE

Castes among the Indian team’s Hindus:
Brahmin
Anil Kumble
Rahul Dravid
VVS Laxman
Sachin Tendulkar
Sourav Ganguly
R.P. Singh
Ishant Sharma
Jat
Yuvraj Singh
Rajput
Mahendra Dhoni

Of the team’s non-Hindus, Wasim Jaffer is a Muslim and Harbhajan Singh a Sikh.

Ow. I never knew about players’ castes, really, except for Harbhajan and Zaheer’s, obviously.

This is just very, very disappointing reporting from Sydney Morning Herald. Does anyone here actually believe this baloney?

Photo Credit: SMH

Post from: EveryJoe

Caste Apart: Australian Media’s Soft Journalism

While the media is surely going to go gaga over it, I’ll admit we aren’t faking any joy over or interest in it. That we are actually discussing genetics at school these days should be a clue to how much interested we really are in it. I am glad it’s going to be over soon. Just one (match) more to go. [We are more into the as-of-yet not started Australia tour, actually. Move over Pakistan, Australia is our biggest rival now.]

But then I thought that it’s not fair to dismiss it just because I did not enjoy it as much. There definitely were a few fireflies to be spotted in the dark night.

* Yuvraj’s way looks forward and up. From what he said at the Green Park match ceremony, I can see he’s desperate to prove himself on the Test circuit. Going by his current performance, looks like he’s finally got to key to unlock the door to the revered spot number six. To accommodate him, someone else might get ass-kicking might have to go. We know who. In an ideal world, we could keep both, but this is not, uh, an ideal world.

* Sachin’s here to stay. (a big round of applause) There’s been ho-hum about his missing centuries, but that has in no way overshadowed his splendid knocks. So the pro-senior culling camp will have to wait.

* Sreesanth’s decadence. Looks to me that he is on the verge of becoming another case of the failed prodigy/one-time wonder. He sat through the whole series, and whenever cameras zoomed in on him, he blew kisses in a most ludicrous style, defying all behavior codes. Reminds me of the roadside jerks. You don’t expect international cricketers behaving like that.

*Gambhir and Afridi Anglo-Saxon exchange. Rameez Raja lamented this series is no fun. True, but there were some bright flashes of the kind of fun he was looking for. Watch video here. Although both the players were fined, Afridi piled up and locked the matter with his “sincere” apology. Like I’ve been saying for a long time, never trust Rameez Raja. Oh, and not to downplay Gambhir. He became a tough guy. Great mile, that.

* Pathetic ground and pitch conditions. Is India really ready for the 2011 World Cup? Guwahati, the venue for the first ODI, has such a low-grade infrastructure. Gwalior had a most unpredictable pitch. The Green Park was in luck though, no dog tresspassings this time.

* Sohail Tanveer’s flying kiss. This will go down in the history of cricket as the first of its kind. Watch video here.

* Dravid’s culling. Most sane cricket fans (emotional element alert) accepted this with a grain of salt. But aloof to all this, he was busy spinning his trademark calculated double century, and if the forces that be want, a comeback’s not impossible. When I write this, he’s hit another ton. Whatever happens, Dravid is still going to be our go-to man for critical situations and giving finishing touches in Test cricket.

* The Curse of the Grasshopper. Pakistan, on a good day, can be a dangerous team. Looks like these good days are going to be hard to come by from now on. We can remember this point as the start of the post-Inzy degeneration of Pakistan cricket.

* Yet another chapter in Dhoni’s captaincy. With an exception of some of the fielding decisions he took, especially in the death overs of the 2nd ODI, he mostly did fine. Thanks to his shrewdness, even the volcano called Zaheer Khan is showing signs of eruption again. Add to that, he and Yuvraj have done the good job of filling Dravid’s void. Dhoni, you too are here to stay.

* I’ll leave this one for our readers. What are you going to remember this series for, if at all?

Post from: EveryJoe

A forgettable series (and 10 reasons we’d have to remember it anyway)

Oh, and come to think of it, where’s Munaf, the prodigy, these days?

Ganguly blew it. Totally.

My favorite. Some nerve.

Cute

The famous jellybean aftermath. Have yet to make sense of this one, though.

Post from: EveryJoe

And you thought Asians don’t sledge? Think again

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In the meanwhile, what do you make of this? Look, I have said this before and will say it again: We need some seniors to keep the young guys in check! Er, okay, I am just kidding. We can allow them some fun.

Post from: EveryJoe

…but too many jokes can spoil the broth