Can cricket bring peace to Kashmir?

Cricket makes for great photographs but I have not seen anything more idyllic than that of boys playing cricket against the backdrop of a Kashmir autumn.

The picture looks so serene that it did make me wonder whether cricket could succeed where the bomb and the bullet have failed in bringing peace to Kashmir.

Saqib Majeed, a local photojournalist of eight years' standing, came across the scene on November 10, 2016, while on a visit to Nishat Bagh, the famous Mughal gardens on the edges of Srinagar.

The new Wisden came out in London last week, with the announcement that Majeed's entry, one of 450 from professional and amateur photographers alike from around the world, has won the £2,000 Wisden-MCC Cricket Photograph of the Year 2016.

Majeed's magical photograph will be displayed for the whole year along with two runners-up and eight other shortlisted entries at in the new Warner Stand at Lord's.

They were chosen by a judging panel chaired by former chief sports photographer of The Sunday Times, Chris Smith; and also included world-renowned cricket photographer Patrick Eagar, who has photographed 325 Tests over 40 years; the former art director of The Cricketer magazine, Nigel Davie; and, for the first time, multi-award-winning cricket photographer Adrian Murrell.

"Saqib's picture was absolutely breathtaking, and a very worthy winner," said Smith. "A fellow judge rightly observed that the image looked more like one of the paintings in the Pavilion than a digital."

Picture perfect

As with The Great British Bake Off, the BBC’s The Big Painting Challenge 2017 picked 10 amateur artists, whittled down the numbers over six weeks and had four in the final, which was won by an Indian — Suman Kaur, 29.

Her victory is remarkable considering she has had no training at all in painting — hers was just a natural gift. She was born in Leeds, did a four-year BSc Hons degree in Prosthetics and Orthotics at Salford University, and has been working in the field, splinting or fitting artificial limbs, for the past four years.

The oil painting of her father, Narendra Singh Assi, won her the competition — “my father is from Calcutta; he used to be 
a gymnast coach, he came to the England in the Eighties, my mum Avtar was already here”.

Suman has given up her job to enrol for a year at the Leeds College of Art.

Seeing people cope with personal injuries inspired her — “we only live once so why not follow your talent, follow your passions?” 

Fond farewell

 

Still struggling to cope with the tragic loss of his youngest son, Angad, Lord Swraj Paul, now 86, will be in Calcutta on April 16 and 17.

The Caparo chairman will inaugurate the Mary Ward-Lady Aruna Paul wing in Loreto College.

Swraj's wife, Aruna, had attended both Loreto School and College and taught at the school.

We must all hope there will be a positive outcome on investment when he drops by to see Mamata Banerjee.

When Swraj returns to London, he will be without the services of his ever loyal PA and gatekeeper, Elizabeth Allan.

March 31 was her last day at work. She is leaving for Australia to live in retirement in Perth with her husband.

"I was 24 when I came in 1978," she tells me. "It's the end of an era."

Bengal batting

Incidentally, a picture from Bengal was shortlisted for the Wisden-MCC Cricket Photograph of the Year 2016.

Kuntal Roy won £250 for his photograph of a young girl in a remote Sundarbans village challenged by her friends to keep the ball bouncing on her bat. All wear burqas.

Tittle tattle

Wisden's editor Lawrence Booth has given the cricketing Bible's 2017 edition real bite.

He has picked Pakistan's Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan among his Five Cricketers of the Year; praised the 2016 Pakistani tourists in England as "perfect guests"; and been sharply critical of "the spectator experience at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium during the fourth Test between India and England in December".

Booth's reply when I asked him about Virat Kohli was: "It was impossible to ignore Virat Kohli's claims to our 'Leading Cricketer in the World' title, because there was almost no one to touch him in 2016. He averaged 75 in Tests, 92 in one-day Internationals and a quite absurd 106 in Twenty20 internationals. He underlined his status as the greatest chaser in the history of white-ball cricket, better even than the great Australian Michael Bevan, and his innings of 235 against England in Mumbai was one of the great innings of the year in any format. It also confirmed him as the spiritual heir to Sachin Tendulkar. On top of all that, he led India to the top of the Test rankings."