Delayed start: On IPL 2020

The Indian Premier League (IPL) marches to a beat of its own. It may lack the enduring international appeal of the World Cup, the Ashes or tussles featuring India and Pakistan, yet for a domestic cricket league that blends the local with the global, the IPL has commercial heft and guarantees annual thrills. Since its launch on an April night at Bengaluru in 2008, the league gained traction and also suffered controversies. The 2013 spot-fixing crisis forced a cleansing exercise within the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) but the tournament continued unhindered. Even two general elections could not stop the IPL as South Africa conducted the event in 2009 while the United Arab Emirates (UAE) staged the first half during 2014. But the current year, wilting under a raging pandemic, has altered life and routines. The IPL, slotted for the summer, was postponed. For a sporting brand valued at ₹47,500 crore and head-lined by blue chip cricketers, the stakes are high and the BCCI

Beirut battered: On Lebanon blast

The devastating blast in central Beirut on Tuesday that killed 135 people and wounded 4,000 has once again turned the spotlight on a city that had in the past survived civil wars, sectarian violence, foreign interventions and terrorist attacks. While there is no dearth of conspiracy theories, the initial assessment of the government is that the blast was caused by the detonation of more than 2,700 tonnes of ammonium nitrate that had been stored in a warehouse at the Beirut port after it was confiscated from a cargo ship six years ago. Officials say the initial explosion ignited a fire, while the second one was more devastating with a mushroom cloud of smoke and fire enveloping the capital’s skyline and its shock waves battering buildings across the city and wounding thousands. Officials have said they would investigate any potential terror angle, while Prime Minister Hassan Diab has promised to bring “all those responsible for this catastrophe” to justice. U.S. President Donald Trump

Opinion

Lead

The urban migrant and the ‘ritual’ tug of home

Dipankar Gupta
Lead

Secular fundamentalism in a time of bhoomi pujan

Mani Shankar Aiyar
The Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima. The dome was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1996 to call for a non-nuclear world.
Comment

Taking nuclear vulnerabilities seriously

M.V. Ramana Benoît Pelopidas
Cartoon VIEW ALL
 
Muneer Alam, an engineer-turned-math teacher, sprays disinfectant before the start of an early morning outdoor class at Eidgah in Srinagar on July 18, 2020.
Comment Books, not bullets in J&K
 
Comment How to pay for the stimulus

Columns

Between Wickets |

Title sponsor’s ‘withdrawal’: It was a good toss to lose

Suresh Menon
FROM THE READERS’ EDITOR

Cyberbullying must stop

A.S. Panneerselvan
Allegedly

How to be a con man

G . Sampath

Open Page

Representational image.
Open Page

Live well die well

K. Ganapathy
Vector illustration of a young man in swimming trunks lying on a deck chair. He is holding a cool drink in his hand and laughing at the camera. Concept for summer, summer vacations, relaxation, tourism, taking a breack and sunbathing.
Open Page

Coming up short

S.G. Vombatkere
Doctor Flat Icon.
Open Page

Doctors with a healing touch

Sarangapani Bashyam

Letter to the Editor

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Letters to the Editor — July 31, 2020

Letters to the Editor — July 30, 2020

Letters to the Editor — July 29, 2020

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