This is my 34th year as a cricket/sports journalist, writing mostly on cricket. I am now working independently, with my stories having appeared in the Wisden Nightwatchman quarterly (London), Al-Jazeera, ThePrint.in, ​TheQuint.com, TheFederal.com, News9Live.com, NewsClick.in, TheSouthFirst.com, Patriot newspaper, National Herald, Earlier, I have had stints with Outlook magazine, Mail Today (a newspaper from the India Today Group), The Statesman, The Asian Age, The Sakaal Times, wire agency Indo-Asian News Service (IANS), and Delhi Mid-Day etc. I have written many EXCLUSIVE/SPECIAL stories for these publications, including the one that was chosen for the prestigious Ramnath Goenka Award in 2016. It was published in Outlook weekly magazine in November 2016 (Link: https://bit.ly/3Wm6JFx). I have also written two books on cricket, in 2003 and 2007 (both published by Penguin India).AWARDS: In 2016, I won the prestigious Ramnath Goenka Award for 'Excellence in Journalism' in the sports (print) category for my number-based story on the acute shortage of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) coaches in multiple sports disciplines across the country. My story comprised hard numbers that told the real story (Link: https://bit.ly/3Wm6JFx).The story that fetched me the Sports Journalists Federation of India (SJFI) national award ('Best of News Agencies' 2006) was about the unbelievable craze for billiards and snooker seen among the residents of Multan, including simple masons and daily labourers whom I saw playing and potting balls fluently while covering the Indian cricket team's historic tour of Pakistan in 2006 (Link: https://bit.ly/3rJHpMK). As a journalist, I am fortunate enough to have been a ringside witness to several historic cricket events, feats, and records being established. Amongst the events that I have reported on include Sehwag's first -- and India's first ever -- triple century (309 in Multan, Pakistan, in 2004), Sachin Tendulkar's epochal 100th international century (2012 Asia Cup in Dhaka), ODI history's (then) highest individual score (Sehwag's 219 in Indore in 2011), ace leg-spinner Anil Kumble's 10-wkts-in-an-innings feat in Delhi in 1999; and, Mumbai batting prodigy Amol Muzumdar's world-record 260 not out (highest ever score on first-class debut) against Haryana in a Ranji Trophy pre-quarter-final match in February 1994 in Faridabad, near Delhi. Muzumdar's record has since been broken; at the moment Bihar's Sakibul Gani holds it with his 341 on debut vs Mizoram in Ranji Trophy, Feb 2022.Alhamduillah (All praise is due to Allah)