Do you know one thing common between Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Virat Kohli, Kapil Dev, Shikhar Dhawan, Narendra Modi and Justin Langer to name a few? Well, these top names in the field of cricket practice yoga daily and it has been a crucial part of their lives since many years.
Yoga is one way of life which is obviously beneficial for the health but it also boosts your performance if you are an athlete. Many successful athletes around the world practice it and their performances are a testimony to how productive Yoga can be.
In cricket, there is a constant need of connecting bat & ball through the sharp mind with a relaxed approach and alertness. Yoga definitely increases concentration power and better focusing for cricketers. At the same time, when you are on the ground playing cricket, it’s essential to have the mind free from all the unnecessary stuff and that is where Yoga comes to the rescue. Yogic discipline allows cricketers to remain calm, alert in present moment & skillful all the time during play.
Hence, on International Yoga Day which falls on 21st of June, 2020, Cricketgraph has come up with an exclusive Yoga Webinar which will be based on Elite Performance Secrets recommended for cricketers. The webinar will be conducted by Vishal Chitrakar (Creator of page Athlete Mantras, ASCA Level 1, Strength & Conditioning Coach with Mumbai U19 Team, Diploma in Yoga Education, Heartfulness meditation practitioner since 2012 & Pursuing YCB – Level 2 certification under AYUSH Mantralaya of Govt. of India)
Key Highlights of the Webinar:
- -True meaning of Yoga
- -Basics of Peak performance-Awareness
- -Introduction to how top athletes plan their elite routines
- -What sets the elite athletes apart in the approach towards the game.
- -Transformation through Ashtana Yoga
To register, click on the link below:
Elite Performance Secrets- Exclusive Yoga Webinar recommended for Cricketers
For a man who has played 20 years of cricket himself representing as many as 5 states in India and has been coaching for past 2 decades, one can expect words of wisdom, anecdotes, interesting stories of triumph, team building and leadership. Sulakshan Kulkarni is one such name who is known for his straightforward, methodical approach where he believes in imparting lessons without mincing his words.
A professional cricketer turned coach, who has played alongside Sunil Gavaskar as well as Sachin Tendulkar, a nifty wicket-keeper, a tactical skipper & a quintessential “khadoos” batsman with some memorable batting records has joined hands with Cricketgraph for an exclusive One Hour Webinar on the “Art of Captaincy”. This webinar is recommended for Ranji Trophy, Top Division, corporate cricketers and aspiring cricketers.
Sulakshan Kulkarni is one of the most prolific cricket coaches in India. Under his tenure, Mumbai has won Ranji Trophy, India Differently abled team won the World Cup’19 in England defeating powerful teams. Sulakshan sir also revived many young and upcoming state teams like Vidarbha and Chattisgarh during his coaching tenure while he has also served as a batting consultant with Nepal Cricket Team.
He has been the chief architect of the rebuilding of the most successful corporate team of India – Indian Oil, wherein he coaches international cricketers like Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Wassim Jaffer and many more. He was captained the known corporate team RCF for 10 years.
It will be an elaborate session where in Sulakshan Kulkarni will discuss on key points like:
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What does it take to be a Great Captain / leader
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Most Important Quality of a Great Captain
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Not necessary to be a great player to become a Great Captain
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How to be 2 steps ahead of the Competitor
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The captain (A great Tactician)
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Great captaincy involves handling your bowlers, batters well!
If you are keen to join the One hour webinar, Contact CG Team Member-
pls register here > https://www.cricketgraph.com/product/webinar-on-the-art-of-captaincy-by-cricket-coach-sulakshan-kulkarni/
Vasant Raiji- The Oldest Living First Class Cricketer of India passes away at the age of 100. Vasant Raiji leaves behind a legacy of cricketing wisdom and memories. Raiji’s son-in-law confirmed that former cricketer died to old-age.
“He (Raiji) passed away at 2.20 am in his sleep at his residence in Walkeshwar in South Mumbai due to old-age,” his son-in-law Sudarshan Nanavati told PTI.
We were fortunate to recieve his blessings & interview him on his 100th birthday which was probably one of his last elaborate interviews. Vasant Raiji in his heydays represented Mumbai as well as Baroda in first class cricket. He also played 2 seasons of County Club Cricket overseas. Apart from being a cricketer, Raiji has also penned down books on many cricketers like Vijay Hazare, Victor Trumper, CK Nayadu amongst others.
The prestigious tournaments which today’s generation play in the name of Mushtaq Ali, Vinoo Mankad, Col CK Nayadu Trophy, Vijay Merchant Trophy, Vijay Hazare Trophy, he has seen as well as played with all those legendary players in whose name we are playing state level tournaments. He shares stories about them and how they were as players.
From sharing 7 letters with Sir DON BRADMAN to giving us rare insights into how Test Cricket was awarded to India to enlightening us with the all time greats of Indian Cricket which we have never seen. Vasant Raiji was truly a gold well of Cricketing knowledge.
If you wish to hear him in probably what was the last interview of his life which he conducted with Cricketgraph, checkout the Youtube interview above.
Coronavirus Pandemic has shaken the entire world including our very own city of Mumbai. However, we have been fortunate to have real life heroes right from the doctors, nurses, medical support staff, policemen, various types of activists, people working in waste management and many other people who are putting their lives at risk to keep us safe & combat this disease.
Cricketgraph team salutes & thanks all those people across the country for their dedication. Amidst this pandemic, it’s also good to see our Mumbai Police Team Cricketers Swapnil Kulaye, Shrikant Limbole, Humayun Hirapure, Sunil Patil, Sameer Patil, Pankaj Pardeshi & Vikram Amre serving the city during Corona. They are proving to be real heroes who have been performing exceptionally well on the cricket field as well as off the field on the bigger ground i.e on our very own city of Mumbai.
Swapnil, Humayun, Shrikant, Sunil, Sameer, Vikram & Pankaj are all A Div Cricketers who represent Mumbai Police team participating in various tournaments like Kale Cup, Thane Vaibhav, Thane Police Shield, Young Comrade, Purshottam Shield, Times Shield and a number of other MCA & Corporate tournaments. These are the same names who come up with impressive performances to help their team win on numerous occasions. Hence, it feels good to see these same players cum policemen serving the city selflessly during this coronavirus pandemic.
Swapnil Kulaye when asked about the challenges he and his colleagues face shared with Cricketgraph: “We work for hours, one day its a night shift, the other day its a day shift, we have to ensure law and order is in place, shops are closed during lockdown, have to ensure that too much crowding does not happen while stay vigilant to ensure all are wearing masks”
Some of the cricket performances related to these players:
Rajesh Tandel (175 off 95) & Humayun (119) set the ground on fire in Thane Vaibhav Tournament’18
Mumbai Police A wins the finals of the A Div Thane Vaibhav Tournament’20
Cricketgraph’s interview with “Mr.Fitness” aka Amogh Pandit was quite informative.
Amogh is hailed as one of the top Strength & Conditioning Coaches in India. He is serving as Strength and Conditioning Coach with Mumbai Ranji Team for the last 17 years.
Amogh has also served as Strength and conditioning coach for Rajasthan Royals (Indian premier league). He has also been a conditioning specialist with India A team. Amogh is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist with top level certifications like CSCS the NSCA, USA.
Sulakshan Kulkarni is one name in the field of Cricket Coaching who needs no introduction. He was known to be one of the quintessential khadoos cricketer with a prolific domestic record. His experience can be gauged by the fact that he has also played Ranji Trophy with the batch of Sunil Gavaskar as well as with the batch of Sachin Tendulkar. Post his cricketing career, he also went on to become one of the prolific coaches of India. Under his tenure, various Ranji Trophy teams have revived themselves, Vidarbha which was known to be a young and upcoming unit back then under his tenure went on to become Ranji finalists, Mumbai Ranji team also emerged champions in 2012/13 season under his tenure while more recently India Differently Abled Team went on to win World Cup’19 in England under his able mentorship.
Due to their busy schedule and commitments, getting a chance to connect & interact with such senior level coaches is certainly not easy for a local cricket team. However with the help of “Cricketgraph Online Mentoring” program, Mumbai based Warriors Cricket Club got an opportunity to have a one on one video mentoring session with Coach Sulakshan Kulkarni.
Warriors Cricket Club which is a Mumbai based Cricket team participates in a number of tournaments and are known to take their cricket very seriously. The team amidst lockdown recently decided to have a one on one video session with Coach Sulakshan Kulkarni. The team received various inputs and insights from the coach which the players found very informative as well as useful which might help them to take their game to next level.
The video mentoring session between Warriors CC and Sulakshan Kulkarni deliberated on various key points like:
– Captaincy Skills
– Mindset while playing
– Psychological aspects of the game
– How to set Goals on team basis as well as on Individual terms
– How to build one’s game with performances to reach the top level
Warriors Cricket Club shared feedback with Cricketgraph wherein they found the session quite knowledgeable and interactive. The team felt it was a great learning curve for their budding cricketers.
_____ from Warriors CC shared- “Thanks a lot sir for arranging the session. It was really knowledgeable and fantastic”, core team member Vivek Gowda
____ from Warriors CC shared- “Hello … thanks for the lovely session. It was indeed very well managed…. & the team got to learn a lot of things” Skipper Shailesh Nakashe
If you or your team wish to interact and get mentored from top level senior coaches like Sulakshan Kulkarni, checkout the link below of Cricketgraph Online Mentoring:
Cricketgraph has decided to delete its presence from TikTok, a decision which was contemplated even before the “nationalism” wave took over.
This dates back to how TikTok started over in India and within weeks the entire nation was glued to it. One of the reasons or the only reason for its rapid growth was at that stage it thrived on sleazy / vulgar / porn content.
This was the first sign that TikTok was determined to dominate the social media space through whatever means with complete disregard to values, ethics, integrity.
There was a nationwide uproar on the quality of content so much so that the Indian judicial system had to intervene to regulate the content.
The second alarming signs was the lack of TikTok process or algorithms.
Instagram has algorithms, process in place to track copyright violations, easier ways to report /flag inappropriate content, verified accounts etc.
However, with TikTok, copyright violations are galore, and nothing is being done about it.
Few months back we were contacted by one of the employees of TikTok, requesting us to activate cricketgraph’s channel on TikTok. He claimed that if we put 2-3 cricket-based videos on our TikTok channel, he would immediately increase our followers. We didn’t believe him, how can an employee with conviction tell us that he would immediately increase our followers? Do they have any processes at all or is it run by a bunch of trigger-happy individuals!
Nevertheless, we decided to give it a shot, to understand how they work.
We uploaded 2 average videos and next morning our followers skyrocketed from some 800 odd to 3000 followers! WHOA! He messaged us the next day and said “Dekha Kar ke dikhaya ne” “See I got it done”.
This demonstrated one thing quite clearly – Do whatever it takes to get accounts activated on TikTok and rule the world by legitimate or illegitimate means.
One would have come across many such celebrities who are going all guns blazing on TikTok,
These celebrities may be doing this innocently with all the right intentions, probably not realizing the other dark side of their actions.
Recently we came across videos from few celebrities warning India of the sinister goals of TikTok and the various covert ways through which the app gets personal information from the user’s cellphones. (Referring to videos by AbhiandNiyu on Insta and the famous Sonam Wangchuk)
These messages had a touch of “Nationalism” to it and its completely fine coz after all we are all love our country!
Today, we are deleting ourselves from TikTok. This wasn’t an easy decision coz after all cricketgraph is in the media space and our revenues are determined by the number of followers, reach etc.
Today we are taking a stand against such evil methods deployed by a global company – Bye Bye TikTok
From playing alongside greats to becoming one of the prolific domestic players himself, our next interview is lined up with none other than Sheldon Jackson.
Smart, stylish, suave and consistent have been some keywords associated with Sheldon Jackson for all these years. He is also one of the very few keepers to have more than 5000+ FC runs with an average of 50 which are simply envious numbers for a wicket-keeper batsman. He has been the backbone of Saurashtra Team where he has been amongst the top scorers for multiple seasons. Also it won’t be an over-statement to say that Sheldon has been a vital cog in Saurashtra’s rise through all these years. .
Such has been his on field presence and consistency that major cricketing pundits & fans have missed him as well as questioned his absence in the IPL Circuit & Indian Cricket team. Sheldon has knocked the doors of Indian Team quite a few times coming close but that cap has eluded him so far. Sheldon has also been part of the KKR and RCB teams in the Indian Premier League.
In a candid conversation with Cricketgraph, Sheldon opens up on a number of things ranging from his fitness to how he deals with pressure to how he copes up with not being able to represent India despite staggering numbers backing him up to answering the community questions powered by Hell Energy.
Someone has rightly said that if there’s somebody after parents, then it has to be your guru. This has certainly proved to be true in the case of Pushkar Sharma, a resident of Delhi who played Club Cricket in Mumbai.
Starting his Cricketing innings with Mumbai’s School Cricket, Pushkar went on to lead the Mumbai U-16 Team. Noticing his talent, Mr. Ajish Abdul Rehman and Mr. Ramana Meesala of Indiafirst Life Insurance Company (that was trying to build a formidable Corporate Cricket Team) provided him the opportunity to work as a Phone Manager at their Organisation.
Around a year later, keeping in mind the talent of Pushkar, his childhood coach Digambar ‘Sir’ shared with him an opportunity to play in one of the famous Cricket leagues of Africa, for which he had to be away from the company for a month. But it was almost impossible to take a month’s leave for Pushkar.
Then he decided to speak with his Head of the Department, Mr. R Shankar (IndiaFirst Life Insurance). The latter was very supportive, and thus presented the case before the Chief People Officer, Mr. Praveen Menon, who in turn was very considerate to allow him to carry on.
Doing justice to his talent and the expectations of his supporters, Pushkar slammed three half centuries in four matches. Impressed by his ability & talent, the Chairman if Ruarka Sports Club and CEO of the Hirani Telecommunication Limited, Mr. Mansukh Hirani offered him to stay in Africa and play for his Company and Club. What’s more, the contract also mentioned about the opportunity to represent Kenya National Team on the basis of merit and performances.
After coming back to India, Pushkar put forward this opportunity in front of his respected seniors at IndiaFirst for their guidance. Looking at the bright prospects for one of its employees, the organization happily released him.
Pushkar Sharma today is working as a Project Manager at Hirani Telecommunication Limited in Nairobi. He stated in an interview with Cricketgraph that if every sportsman got support from their organization like he got from Indiafirst, they would definitely achieve highs in their careers.
Pushkar also added the names of people who had always supported him that included Mr.Digambar sir (Coach) , Mr. Ajish Abdul Rehman (Head of Analytics at IndiaFirst), Mr. Ramana Meesala (Senior Manager), Mr. Llyoyd Monteiro (Head-Corporate HR), Mr. R Sankar (Head-BCU), Mr. Sachin Mahajan (Manager), Mr. Shalesh kumar pandey (Behavioral Trainer) to name a few.
Cricketgraph wishes Pushkar for a successful innings at Nairobi and we wish him all the luck to represent the Kenya National Team.
From being the 1st player of Nepal Gorkha Origin to represent State Team of Mumbai to making his Ranji Trophy Debut at a tender age of 19 alongside the hallowed greats of Indian Cricket to confidently hitting a scoopshot to Ben Stokes vs England XI to taking a stunning catch at the 2nd slips with an helmet on in Ranji Trophy, there is always something unique about Jay Bista which sets him apart.
A player who is known to be one of the clean strikers of the ball has marked his presence with some stunning knocks in different formats of the game at various age group levels. Jay also lead Sobo Supersonics in the finals with a relatively young and emerging troop in T20 Mumbai where in he not only led the team with the bat but also displayed solid leadership skills.
Cricketgraph in a candid chat with Jay spoke on a range of topics right from his debut to getting dropped to again making a comeback for the Mumbai team. Some other topics were also touched upon right from his experience of playing vs England XI in a practice match to his fitness regimes to answering some community questions powered by Hell Energy.