https://thirdman.pages.dev/ Cricket history, argument and numbers, from an odd angle. en https://thirdman.pages.dev/posts/cbi-match-fixing-report-2000 https://thirdman.pages.dev/posts/cbi-match-fixing-report-2000 Sun, 30 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 The CBI report ended careers and read like a first chapter. The rest of the chapters were never written. https://thirdman.pages.dev/posts/eden-gardens-1996-semi-final https://thirdman.pages.dev/posts/eden-gardens-1996-semi-final Sun, 30 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 A World Cup semi-final abandoned in flames, an allegation made fifteen years later, and no inquiry then or since. https://thirdman.pages.dev/posts/gavaskar-36-not-out-1975 https://thirdman.pages.dev/posts/gavaskar-36-not-out-1975 Sun, 30 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Sixty overs, 174 balls, one boundary, and an explanation that has never satisfied anybody — including the man who played the innings. https://thirdman.pages.dev/posts/kapil-dev-175-tunbridge-wells-1983 https://thirdman.pages.dev/posts/kapil-dev-175-tunbridge-wells-1983 Sun, 30 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Kapil Dev made 175 not out from 17 for 5 and won India a World Cup. There is no moving footage of any of it. https://thirdman.pages.dev/posts/nimbalkar-443-not-out-1948 https://thirdman.pages.dev/posts/nimbalkar-443-not-out-1948 Sun, 30 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Bhausaheb Nimbalkar was nine runs from Bradman’s world record when the opposition captain took his team to the railway station. https://thirdman.pages.dev/posts/tendulkar-kambli-664-harris-shield-1988 https://thirdman.pages.dev/posts/tendulkar-kambli-664-harris-shield-1988 Sun, 30 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 For one afternoon in 1988 they were indistinguishable. One made a hundred international hundreds. The other was finished before thirty. https://thirdman.pages.dev/posts/the-nagpur-pitch-2004 https://thirdman.pages.dev/posts/the-nagpur-pitch-2004 Sun, 30 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 A green track in Nagpur, two missing players, and two irreconcilable accounts of how it happened. https://thirdman.pages.dev/posts/the-sealed-envelope-mudgal-2014 https://thirdman.pages.dev/posts/the-sealed-envelope-mudgal-2014 Sun, 30 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Thirteen names went to the Supreme Court in a sealed envelope. Four came out. The rest are still numbers. https://thirdman.pages.dev/posts/who-leaked-the-chappell-email-2005 https://thirdman.pages.dev/posts/who-leaked-the-chappell-email-2005 Sun, 30 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 A private email from a coach to a board president ended a captaincy and reshaped a decade. Nobody has ever admitted to leaking it. https://thirdman.pages.dev/posts/why-lala-amarnath-was-sent-home-1936 https://thirdman.pages.dev/posts/why-lala-amarnath-was-sent-home-1936 Sun, 30 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 The best all-round cricketer on India’s 1936 tour of England was on a boat home before the first Test. The official reason has never held up. https://thirdman.pages.dev/posts/ten-mysteries-of-indian-cricket https://thirdman.pages.dev/posts/ten-mysteries-of-indian-cricket Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Envelopes nobody opened, footage nobody shot, decisions nobody has ever properly accounted for.