ಕ್ಷಣಪ್ರಭಾ - Kshanaprabhaa

P - Priceless Price Scales New Heights Price is a famous surname in Zimbabwe, what with legendary golfer Nick Price scaling enviable heights in his preferred sport. But nobody would have expected his nephew, a certain Raymond William Price, who was lucky to survive meningitis caught as a baby that resulted in partial deafness and severe coordination problems that took years to return to normalcy, to reach anywhere near his uncle's reputation. But Ray Price himself had other ideas - by the time he walked out of the Zimbabwean Cricket team with other rebels in 2004, he had already established himself as one of the leading spinners in the world, a wicket taking marvel in tests and run containing bowling machine in ODIs. Ever since his comeback in late 2007 to Zimbabwe fold, Price has played the role of "cheif mentor" for the young and developing Zimbabwe national squad to perfection, and in 2009, he not only continued his stingy run containing habits in ODIs, but took wicket...

M - Maruma Stakes Claim There are just too many quality spinners in Zimbabwe at the moment, and the national team fields a three-pronged spin attack of skipper Utseya, Ray Price and Graeme Cremer very often in ODIs these days. Lack of quality seam bowling options could be one reason for this strategy, but inability to leave out one of these three, since none of them deserve to sit out, could well be another. But add to this mix another set of spinning options in Timycen Maruma, John Nyumbu and up and coming Dylon Higgins, and you have luxury. Maruma has sensed the need to step up a gear and be at his best every time he takes the field in domestic competitions, and as a result has done exceedingly well with both bat and ball, thus pushing the selectors to sit up and take notice. Maruma has played for Zimbabwe before, but due to the spin luxury of the national team, has found it difficult to make the cut for now. He has scored big and quick runs with the bat in the 2009/10 domestic seaso...

J - Jarvis Junior Jumps in from Nowhere! Kyle Jarvis, son of former Zimbabwe player Malcolm Jarvis, was picked out of nowhere to represent Zimbabwe in their home series against Kenya. In what is believed to be a masterstroke by the newly appointed bowling coach, the legendary all-rounder Heath Streak, Jarvis was first made to play the 4-day intercontinental cup match for Zimbabwe XI agianst the Kenyans, and was straightaway pushed into the playing eleven for the first ODI. He neither had First Class experience before playing in the Intercontinental Cup match, nor the List A experience before playing in the ODI against Kenya, but did admirably well in his first outing, getting 3/36 in his 7 overs. Jarvis has since played a total of 9 ODIs including those against the mighty South Africans, and has taken 10 wickets so far. He is seen as the future of the Zimbabwe pace battery, and probably that drove the board to fast track him on to the national scene, to avoid losing him to South Africa...

G - Graeme Cremer creams Kenya This was the breakthrough year for the affable leg spinner Alexander Graeme Cremer. He made his much awaited ODI debut in January 2009, four years after making his Test debut against Bangladesh, and created history straightaway. Cremer, who had taken a wicket with his first ball on his T20 International debut against Canada in 2008, took a wicket on the sixth ball of his first over on his ODI debut against Kenya, thus becoming the only bowler in the history of the game to pick up a wicket in his first over in two out of three international forms of the game. Cremer's year continued to be a bright one, and the icing on the cake came in the second home ODI against the Kenyans at Harare , where he weaved magic to pick 6/46 in his quota of 10 overs, eclipsing the performances of the legendary Ray Price and a more established Prosper Utseya on that day. His all round abilities were on display earlier in the match, as he had scored a breezy 31 of 19 balls t...

D - Dylon's Dream Domestic Debut Dylon Higgins, younger brother of former Zimbabwe leg spinner Ryan, is an up and coming leggie and a middle order batsman himself, hailing from the prestigious St. Georges. He will be leading the Zimbabwean Under 19 team in the U-19 world cup early next year in New Zealand, and he probably sealed the captaincy when he made his first class debut for his franchise Midwest Rhinos at the end of October. He had been one of the most consistent performers with the ball with admirable control for a leggie in his U-19 outings this year, which would have convinced the Rhinos to sign him up for their squad. What he achieved on his first class debut, though, was something even the Rhinos management would not have dreamt of. With most of the Rhinos squad away with national duty or sidelined due to injury, their bowling looked horribly weak without Cremer and Rainsford. Higgins took the field as the lead spinner for the match, and by the end of it, his overall bo...

This series aims to provide a review of the year that was for Zimbabwe Cricket in 2009. Here is the first part... A - Alistair and Co. Back in Business Alistair Campbell, David Houghton, Heath Streak, David Mutendera, Dirk Viljoen, John Rennie: All yesteryear stars, came back to the ZC fold by taking up high profile roles, with one intention - to bring back Zimbabwean Cricket to its glory days. In line with the recommendations made by the ICC and quite possibly to position themselves better in view of the new unity government in Zimbabwe, the ZC officials took many steps in right direction this year, and the legends of the past responded by burying the past and came together to rebuild the game in the country. While Campbell joined in as the chairman of selectors, Viljoen, Mutendera and Rennie joined him in the panel. Houghton agreed to be the technical advisor and director of national coaching, with Andrew Waller assisting him. Heath Streak too returned as the national bowling coach a...

This is a story I have heard from my uncle about a Sanskrit poet (one version refers to the poet in the story as Bhasa and another as Bana Bhatta, so I'm not sure who the poet really was). I was discussing this story with a few of my colleagues recently and thought it is worthy to be blogged about. So, this poet was writing a mahakavya, which was going to take a long time, and he was getting old with failing health. He was half way through his work and felt that he might not be able to finish it in his lifetime. He wanted someone to finish the epic after his death, but he wanted that person to be worthy enough to do so. He knew both his sons were equally good at writing, so he thought of choosing one of them for the task. So, he called them both, and gave them a small test. He asked them to come up with a poetic sentence that could explain the following statement: "There is a dead tree in front of me". The first son came forward and said, " शुष्कोवृक्षस्तिष्ठत्...