The sight of grown men weeping on TV because they have won or lost a match is very irritating. Cricketers, in particular, seem very prone to it. Vinod Kambli crying in Kolkata, Kapil Dev crying when defending himself about match fixing, Inzamam ul-Haq shedding tears when he got out in his

There was once a finance minister, from non-South Indian State I might add, who used to call me Mr Alphabet because of the length of my name. His own name was a ­poverty-stricken two-word thing. Worse, both words were of two syllables. But I shan’t be churlish because he was right.