Getting on a (superblog)roll

Give It Some Air has just been listed over on Cricket Superblogroll, the Blogroll for Cricket Blogs. I'm grateful to the folks over there for acknowledging my presence in the blogosphere!

At this point, I ought to add a proper "About Me" page for the benefit of new visitors to these parts. I plan do so shortly but in the meantime here's roughly what it will say...

I’m a Sri Lankan-born Brit who has been a cricket lover ever since – as a three-month-old baby – I met my namesake Imran Khan. My cricketing heroes include Murali and CLR James, while my own heroic cricket often involves my off-breaks landing beyond a boundary. I have room in my heart for both the Ashes and the IPL, but am just as interested in Chris Martin’s batting exploits and Afghan T20 campaigns. My writing has appeared in student newspapers and also on Cricinfo’s Inbox Blog.

When I first came on to bowl for my school's Under-11 cricket team, the master in charge told me I needed to "give it some air." A number of years later, I find I am still reluctant to flight my off-breaks but am keen to air my thoughts on the game.

Winter Wildlife II: A lion not so rampant, but with his pride still intact

The Lion of Lahore is the subject of an interesting new biography and has an invitation to Lord's next summer

This autumn saw the publication of a new biography of Imran Khan, penned by Christopher Sandford. The Lion of Lahore has sadly had less success in politics than he had on the cricket field, but remains a popular figure in Pakistan, admired as much for his fundraising for his cancer hospital and other charities as for his cricketing exploits. The portraits of Imran painted by the Western media over the years range from the simplistic to the wildly inaccurate. Sandford has set out to do a better job, and to bring the story up to date. I look forward to finding out whether he has been successful.

Incidentally, Imran has been invited to Lord’s next summer to deliver the 2010 MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture. I believe the last time he visited Lord’s in an official capacity was in 1993, when he helped to present the Indian subcontinent’s successful bid to host the 1996 World Cup. At an acrimonious and in many ways historic meeting, England eventually had to withdraw their own bid for the tournament and come to terms with the fact that they could no longer bully ICC members into doing their bidding. Imran recalled, “I was appalled… Most of the Englishmen still treated us as though we represented some junior colony.”