Newspaper watch -- Cricket

Here's a little bit of news for the cricket types: The record partnership of 664 runs by Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli was broken recently. Bodepalli Manoj Kumar and Mohammed Shaibaz of St. Peters High School in Hyderabad set a world record with an unbroken 721 run partnership in the inter-school under-13 cricket tournament at Parade Ground in Secunderabad. The opposing St. Phillips team was skittled out for just 21 runs. Which takes the shine off a little bit, as the opposing team it would look was not exactly competent.

Dunno how this stuff works, and how under-13 tournaments qualify for records, but apparently this is 'kosher'. It got good coverage in the Hindu including some praise from Kambli. The Hindu also had a nice cartoon with Tendulkar holding aloft a whole heap of prizes and records, and this particular record slipping off the pile.

I haven't dug through, but you may be able to find the photograph in the Hindu online edition.


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Addendum: Too good to be true. If you had a sneaking suspicion based on St. Phillips low score (21), you were right. In a followup report yesterday, the paper says that that team was absolutely clueless and barely knew the rules of the game, leave alone played with any kinds of cricketing strategy. Their bowlers could just about get the ball rolling in the right direction but not much more. Takes the shine off the achievement.