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World Cup Blogs: Dark side of the Sachin superfan

March 17, 2015 11:44 IST

A selection of musings from around the cricket World Cup

Sudhir Gautam attends the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup match

Sudhir Gautam attends the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup match. Photograph: Hannah Peters/Getty Imagess

Adelaide. Melbourne. Perth. Hamilton. Auckland. He’s everywhere the Indian team plays.

Yet, he has no source of income.

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He’s a frequent visitor at Sachin Tendulkar’s plush Bandra residence, often sharing a meal with India’s most wanted.

Yet, he can’t remember when last he spoke to his father.

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How to make a ten-team World Cup work

Afghanistan fast bowler Hamid Hassan

Afghanistan fast bowler Hamid Hassan. Photograph: Paul Kane/Getty Images

There are ways of making the Associates an integral part of the tournament while still keeping the event competitive and lucrative.

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World Cup is Australia's to lose in a day

Australia's Michael Clarke

Australia's Michael Clarke waits for play to restart. Photograph: Hamish Blair/Reuters

Five meandering weeks of preliminaries produced only one significant outcome, the elimination of England. Now that we are at the business end, the World Cup even more plainly than before is Australia's to lose. But a sobering reality of the knock-out phase of a one-day tournament is that it would take only one day to lose it. It is a thought both to spook and galvanise the Australians.

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Like a whole nation unsure of its off stump

Wahab Riaz of Pakistan is congratulated

Wahab Riaz of Pakistan is congratulated by teammates during the World Cup match. Photograph: Morne de Klerk/Getty Images

When Pakistan stepped up against Ireland in their winner-takes-all encounter at Adelaide on Sunday, the nation had already been through a swift shift in disposition; the atrocious performance against India and West Indies, the scare against Zimbabwe and the splash of seam and swing against South Africa all within a fortnight.

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