It's absolutely fabulous time to be a test cricket fan right now. Four top teams competing in four different corners of the world with four pretty competitive ones. Ind and WI; Aus and SL; Pak and Eng; and NZ v Zim......test cricket is well and truly on a glorious course. Bulawayo gets a test match to host after 5 years and that's a welcome change for Zimbabwe Cricket. Zimbabwe being one of the 10 full members of ICC does need the supreme form of Cricket to survive and function and I'm glad New Zealand were willing to play them in their home conditions. But the most heartening cricket stories of this week come from the 'Pearl of Indian Ocean, i.e. Sri Lanka'. They always unearth truly extraordinary and super special cricketers when the chips are down and this time, they have managed to find two such gems: Lakshan Sandakan, a wiry, young left arm wrist spinner and Kushal Mendis, said to be a hybrid of Mahela and Arvinda De Silva. Sandakan represents the tiniest subset of player category in world cricket being a 'Chinaman' bowler (how many are there in the top flight cricket presently?) and no Australian batsman managed to pick him up in first innings of ongoing Pallakelle Test. On the other hand, Kushal Mendis didn't let me sleep yesterday afternoon for he was playing breathless cricket against the fiery Australian bowling line up. Every shot was off the text book and he has really got a batting technique that Cricketers of Sri Lanka consider a residual affair. Kumar Sangakkara found an ideal technical set up only when he was 7 years old in international cricket and Aravinda De Silva had to spend a summer at Kent to get everything right 'technically'. The whole of Sri Lanka was waiting for this beacon of hope and in a truly grand fashion, he obliged. I cannot possibly tell you when I was this happy narrating the story of an upcoming cricket superstar. Kusal and Sandakan are absolutely magnificent and I shall ask everyone of my fellow cricket lovers to take note of their presence and inevitable bright future.......#FascinatingStuff
Three things that have occupied my mind for last three days in descending order of importance are: Justin Trudeau, Heinrich Klassen and The Leftovers. I am going to write here about the least important entity for I am likely to forget about it most urgently. The Leftovers is an HBO production and like the most HBO productions, it makes for a great television experience. I chose to watch it for two reasons: First, it was only three season long with 28 episodes in total and secondly, for two years running, it was the best TV show in American Landscape. There was a third reason as well and it was in the name of its creator's promise. Damon Lindelof is one of the brightest American minds and he gave us 'Lost' all those years back. I have been a huge fan of 'Lost' and till this time, gush about its fantastical and mythical elements. People still find it very hard to crack the mysteries of Lost and when a show leaves you with more questions than the answers after its 8
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