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In the epic Mahābhārata, Jayadratha (Sanskrit: जयद्रथ) was the king of Sindhu Kingdom (so he is also called as Saindhava). He was married to Dushala, the only sister of the 100 Kaurava brothers. He was the son of the sinful king Vridhakshtra.

Abduction of Draupadi[link]

When the Pandavas were in exile, one day Jayadratha saw Draupadi. He proposed to marry her. But, Draupadi refused to marry him. Then, Jayadratha abducted Draupadi and was moving towards his kingdom. The Pandavas who returned to their hut did not find Draupadi in the Ashram. So, Yudhishtra asked Bheema and Arjuna to find out the whereabouts of Draupadi. Arjuna and Bheema came to know about the abduction by Jayadratha. Both of them defeated Jayadrath and brought him before Yudhishtra. Draupadi suggested that Jayadrath should not be killed, in order to prevent Dushala from becoming a widow. She suggested he be treated like a slave. So, Yudhishtra ordered him to be treated like a slave. Bheema shaved the head of Jayadratha leaving five spots of hair on his head and set him free.

The first boon from Shiva[link]

Jayadratha desired to avenge his humiliation from Pandavas by defeating them in the battle field. So, Jayadratha performed a rigorous tapasya in order to please lord Shiva. Lord Shiva appeared before Jayadratha. Jayadratha asked the lord to give him enough strength so that, he can defeat all the Pandava brothers in a war single-handedly. But, the Lord was unable to give such a boon to Jayadratha. But, instead gave him a garland by using which, he could hold all the Pandavas at bay for one day when Arjuna and Lord Krishna were not around. Although Lord Shiva loved his devotees equally and generally did not ignore the tapasya of rakshasas, asuras, yet he always found ways to protect dharma and never allowed the evil to triumph over good.

The second boon from his father[link]

One day Jayadratha met his father Vridhakshtra who was a sage. He asked his father to grant him a boon by which he could choose the time of his death just like Shantanu who gave a similar boon to Devavrata (i.e. Bhishma). His father expressed his inability to grant such a boon. But, instead he said that who ever caused the head of Jayadrath to fall on the ground, will be killed immediately by having his own head burst into 100 pieces.

In the Kurukshetra war[link]

Jayadratha fought on the side of Duryodhana in the Kurukshetra War. On the 13th day of the Mahabharata war, when the Chakravyuha was launched by Dronacharya, then Jayadrath made use of the first boon granted to him by Lord Shiva. He was able to hold all the Pandava brothers at bay except Arjuna and Krishna who were busy battling elsewhere with Susharma and his brothers. Jayadratha allowed Arjuna's son Abhimanyu to enter the battle, but effectively closed the opening created by Abhimanyu. Abhimanyu who did not know how to exit from the Chakravyooha got trapped and gets killed in a brutal way by the Kauravas treacherously. After the end of the battle, Jayadratha kicked the dead body of Abhimanyu and rejoiced around it.

The Pandavas were startled and enraged after finding that Jayadratha (whose life was once spared during the Draupadi's abduction episode in the past) was able to hold the world's most powerful warriors at bay. Arjuna blamed Jayadratha to be the cause for Abhimanyu's death. He vowed to kill him the very next day before sunset, failing which Arjuna would kill himself by jumping in a pyre of fire.

Arjuna's revenge[link]

Arjuna Kills Jaydhratha

Dronacharya arranged a combination of 3 vyoohas in order to protect Jayadratha from Arjuna. Bheema, Satyaki and Arjuna all put together destroyed 5 Akshauhini of Kaurava army. At a climactic moment, the sun had nearly set and thousands of warriors were still between Arjuna and Jayadratha. Krishna soon realised that Arjuna was unable to reach Jayadratha before sunset. So, he sent his Sudarshana Chakra to in order to mask the sun and thereby causing a solar eclipse in order to create an illusion of sunset. The Kaurava warriors rejoiced over Arjuna's defeat and were looking forward for his imminent suicide. Jayadratha came before Arjuna and laughed at Arjuna's defeat. In the meantime, the Sun appeared suddenly. Then, Krishna suggested Arjuna that the sun has not yet set. He pointed his hand towards Jayadratha and asked Arjuna to kill him without wasting further time. Arjuna then invoked the most powerful of his weapons, the Pashupatastra which was given to him by Lord Shiva, which decapitated Jayadratha's head. In order to avoid Jayadrath's head from falling on the ground, Krishna advised Arjuna to instruct Pasthuatastra in such a way that the head gets carried and fall on the lap of Vridhakshtra. Vridhakshtra was meditating in a place very close to the battlefield. The head of Jayadratha gets carried and fell into his father's lap. His father got up in shock as he did not know what fell on his lap. The head of his son falls on the ground and his head bursts into 100 pieces and gets killed. Thus, Vridhakshtra becomes the victim of his own boon granted to his son. Thus, Lord Krishna saved Arjuna and saw to it that both Jayadratha and Vridhakshtra are killed in the same stroke.

Lord Krishna's ingenuity[link]

In the entire Mahabharath battle, Lord Krishna is the cause of all the causes. He is the kingpin (or sutradaari) for all the happenings in the world. However intelligent a person may be in seeking or possessing any boon that should effectively make him immortal, Lord Krishna always found the loopholes in such boons to destroy that person. Consequently, Lord Krishna suggested a way out by which the second boon of Jayadrath backfires in order to protect Arjuna. Lord Krishna knew various secrets of every person encountered in Mahabharath. He knew the boons and curses possessed by various individuals. He knew the art of cracking every formation. He had the knowledge of all the astras, including how to neutralise a given divine weapon. He knew the strengths and weaknesses of every person. He exploited the weaknesses to cause their downfall from time to time.

Krishna was the cause for everything[link]

Most of the pauranic movies based on Mahabharath flatters and projects lord Krishna to be the cause for every event (or incident) encountered in Mahabharath. But, it has to be understood that the original Mahabharath composed by Vedavyasa never states such a thing about Krishna. Krishna was a person who never intervened in anyone's matter unnecessarily on his own. For example, Krishna participated in the Kurukshethra battle only after Arjuna and Duryodana themselves voluntarily came to seek his help in Dwaraka. He gave his Narayani sena to Duryodana and became a charioteer to Arjuna.

Lord Krishna considered the war to be a last resort. He made every effort to establish peace between Pandavas and Kauravas. But, once the peace negotiations failed and embarked into war, then he became a ruthless strategist. Further, it was Gandhari who first pointed out that Krishna was the cause for the destruction of the Kuru race and cursed him.^[1] Later, Barbareek attributed the cause behind Pandavas victory to the policies and strategies adapted by lord Krishna. The great sage Utanka also believed just like Gandhari that Krishna had a power to stop the bloodshed of Kurukshetra war. When the great sage was about to curse lord Krishna, then lord Krishna revealed his Vishwaroopa (Universal form) to him. The sage immediately recognized that Krishna was an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. The destruction of Kauravas and protection of the Pandavas was the need of the hour in order to establish Dharma on earth. So, he withhold his curse on Lord Krishna. Thus, many people including Bhishma who were contemporary to lord Krishna themselves believed that Krishna was the cause for everything in the world. Consequently during the end of Dwaparayuga, any problem (or dispute) either used to emerge from Krishna or would get solved through him.

Aftermath[link]

After the war, Arjuna fought with the Sindhu army when it refused to honour Yudhisthira as the Emperor of Bharatvarsha. When Dushala (his cousin) came and begged to spare life of her son SURATH . So, Arjuna spared his life and negotiated with them.

Notes and references[link]

1. Mahabharata by C Rajagopalachari. 2008 (52nd) Edition by Bhavan's Book University. ISBN 81-7276-368-9

The reference from the:

• Mahabharata book is prefixed by ''Mahabharata''

1. ^ Mahabharata

See also[link]

• Mahabharata (1999) by Krishna Dharma
• Hindu mythology, Wars of Hindu mythology

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Ravi Shastri

Personal information
Full name	Ravishankar Jayadritha Shastri
Born	(1962-05-27) 27 May 1962 (age 50) Bombay (now Mumbai), Maharashtra, India
Nickname	Ravi
Batting style	Right-hand batsman
Bowling style	Slow left-arm orthodox
Role	All-rounder, Commentator
International information
National side	India
Test debut (cap 151)	21 February 1981 v New Zealand
Last Test	26 December 1992 v South Africa
ODI debut (cap 36)	25 November 1981 v England
Last ODI	17 December 1992 v South Africa
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1979–1993	Bombay
1987–1991	Glamorgan
1987	MCC
Career statistics
Competition	Test	ODI	FC	List A
Matches	80	150	245	278
Runs scored	3830	3108	13202	6383
Batting average	35.79	29.04	44.00	31.13
100s/50s	11/12	4/18	34/66	6/38
Top score	206	109	217	138*
Balls bowled	15751	6613	42425	11966
Wickets	151	129	509	254
Bowling average	40.96	36.04	44.00	32.18
5 wickets in innings	2	1	18	5
10 wickets in match	0	n/a	3	n/a
Best bowling	5/75	5/15	9/101	5/13
Catches/stumpings	36/–	40/–	141/–	84/–
Source: CricketArchive, 6 September 2008

Ravishankar Jayadritha Shastri (Hindi: रवि शास्त्री) (born 27 May 1962) is a former Indian cricketer and captain. He was an all–rounder who batted right-handed and bowled left arm spin. His international career started when he was 18 years old and lasted for 12 years. He started his career purely as a bowler but gradually became more of a batsman who could bowl.Shastri's family originally came from Mangalore in Karnataka but he was born and brought up in Mumbai.

As a batsman, he was essentially defensive with "chapati shot"^[1][2] (a flick off the pads) being his trademark shot, but could raise his strike rate when required. Due to his above-average height (he stood 6' 3" tall) and an upright stance, he had a limited number of shots against fast bowling, but was able to put the lofted shot to good use against spin bowling. Shastri played either as an opening batsman or in the middle order.

The highlight of his career was when he was elected the Champion of Champions in the World Championship of Cricket in Australia in 1985. In the same season, he equalled West Indian Garry Sobers's record of hitting six sixes in an over in first class cricket. He was regarded as a potential captain, but his image outside cricket,^[3] injuries and tendency to lose form at crucial times meant that he captained India in only one Test match.

In domestic cricket, he played for Bombay and led them to the Ranji Trophy title in his final year of playing. He also played four seasons of county cricket for Glamorgan. He was forced to retire aged 31 due to a recurring knee injury. He now does commentary on behalf of BCCI in the matches that India plays.^[4]

Early Days[link]

Ravi Shastri's career performance graph.

Shastri's family originally came from Mangalore in Karnataka but he was born and brought up in Bombay,^[5] now called Mumbai. His father, M. Jayadratha Shastri, was a doctor^[6] and the family had a strong academic tradition.^[5] It was only as a teenager that he took cricket up seriously. Shastri reached the final of the 1974 inter–school Giles Shield with the Don Bosco school in Matunga, losing to St Mary's, whose lineup included two future Ranji players, Shishir Hattangadi and Jignesh Sanghani. The next year, under Shastri's captaincy, Don Bosco won the Giles Shield. Shastri set a record for the highest score in the final, which stood for 27 years.^[7]

At school, his coach was BD Desai, once a Tatas and Dadar Union player. While Don Bosco was not traditionally a major force in schools cricket, the R.A. Podar College, where Shastri later studied commerce, produced many good cricketers. Vasant Amladi and, in particular, VS "Marshall" Patil, were integral figures in Shastri's development as a cricketer. In his last year at the junior college, he was selected to represent Bombay in the Ranji trophy.^[8] At 17 years and 292 days, he was then the youngest cricketer to play for Bombay.

An Indian under–19 team was scheduled to tour Pakistan in 1980–81. Shastri was included in the coaching camp at the last minute by the National Coach Hemu Adhikari. Shastri captained one of the two teams in a trial game and was then asked to lead the Indian Under-19 team. The tour, however, was cancelled. The team later went to Sri Lanka, but the games were frequently interrupted by rain.^[9]

His only notable achievement in his first two Ranji seasons were bowling figures of 6-61, which he took against Delhi in the 1979–80 Ranji final that Bombay lost. While he was playing against Uttar Pradesh at Kanpur in the next season, he was called up to the squad touring New Zealand to stand in for the injured left arm spinner Dilip Doshi. Shastri arrived in Wellington the night before the first Test. His first over in Test cricket was a maiden to the New Zealand captain Geoff Howarth. In the second innings, he took 3 wickets in four balls, all to catches by Dilip Vengsarkar, to bring a quick close to the New Zealand innings. In the third Test, his seven wickets won him the man of the match award, while his 15 wickets in the series were the highest for either side.

International cricket[link]

Within eighteen months of his Test debut, Shastri had moved up from tenth position in the batting order to being an opening batsman. "His calm, sensible batting lower in the order", wrote Wisden, commenting on his first series,^[10] "raised promise of his developing into a useful all–rounder, and his fielding too was an asset". By the end of his career, he had batted in every position from one to ten. By his own admission,^[8] he ignored his bowling in favour of his batting. This was reflected in his performances. However, his figures of 9-101 in the season–opening 1981 Irani Trophy stood as a tournament record for nearly twenty years.

It was the failure of the regular openers Pranab Roy and Ghulam Parkar that led to Shastri being made to open at the Oval against England in 1982. He distinguished himself by scoring 66 runs in that match. An injury in the webbing of his hand ruled him out of four of the Tests to be played in Pakistan. Forced again to open in the final Test at Karachi, against the fast bowling of Imran Khan (then at the peak of his career), he scored his first Test hundred. He later made another hundred against the West Indies in Antigua. Indian Cricket was impressed enough to suggest that, given time, he could become one of the best batsmen in the Indian team.^[11]

Shastri was not selected to play in most of the important matches in the 1983 World Cup. In the series against the West Indies later that year, he again distinguished himself with his bold effort in batting against the domineering West Indian pace bowlers.

The glorious winter[link]

In October 1984, India toured Pakistan for the third time in six years. The Lahore Test saw India collapse to 156 against Pakistan's 428, and follow on. India went into the last day trailing by 92 with six wickets in hand but were saved by a fifth wicket partnership of 126 between Shastri and Mohinder Amarnath. Shastri scored 71, while Amarnath made 101*. Shastri was even more successful in the next Test at Faisalabad, where he scored 139 and shared a stand of 200 with Sandip Patil. The last Test and the remainder of the tour were cancelled because of the assassination of Indira Gandhi.

There were already signals that Shastri was being groomed as a future captain. Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar was coming to the end of his career and Kapil Dev, who had led India in the previous season, was expected to succeed him. Shastri appeared to be the next in line. He led the Young India side to Zimbabwe in early 1984. Against the touring English side in November, he led the India Under–25 to an innings win - the first defeat of England in a tour match in India for fifty years.

Around this time, Shastri also began to open the innings regularly in one day games. He scored 102 against Australia in October – India's second hundred in ODIs – and made the same score against England at Cuttack in December. Shastri had stood in for Gavaskar and opened with Srikkanth in two matches of the 1983 World Cup. The third time that they opened was at Cuttack and they set a world record of 188 for the first wicket. Later in the season, this partnership was to form the foundation for the Indian triumph in the WCC in Australia.

Shastri's success continued in Test matches against England. In the Bombay Test his 235 run stand with wicket-keeper Syed Kirmani led to victory for India (it is still the national record for the seventh wicket). His 142 improved upon the 139 at Faisalabad as his highest score.

In the third Test at Calcutta, Shastri made 111 in 357 balls and 455 minutes, though his innings was heavily interrupted by rain. With Mohammad Azharuddin he added 214 for the fifth wicket, another Indian record. When India started the second innings late in the final day, he was sent in to open, thus becoming one of the few batsmen to bat on all five days of a Test.

Shastri set another record for Bombay against Baroda in a West Zone Ranji match. His first hundred came up in 72 minutes and 80 balls and included nine fours and four sixes. The second took just 41 minutes and 43 balls. His 123 ball, 113 minute 200* became the fastest double hundred in first class history, beating the previous record by 7 minutes, and included 13 fours and 13 sixes. Six of the sixes came off a single over of the left arm spinner Tilak Raj. In terms of the number of sixes, it bettered the 58 year old Indian record of CK Nayudu who had struck 11 sixes against a touring MCC team at Bombay Gymkhana in 1926–7. Shastri's unfinished sixth wicket stand of 204* with Ghulam Parkar, who contributed only 33 to the partnership, took only 83 minutes. In Baroda's second innings, Shastri took two wickets in four overs.^[12]

The 'Champions of Champions'[link]

Except for a few series in Pakistan and the 1983 World Cup final, the World Championship of Cricket in Australia was the first time overseas cricket matches were shown live in India. The WCC saw India win every match convincingly. The WCC was conceived as a celebration of the 150th year of the formation of Victoria, but the finalists turned out to be India and Pakistan.^[12][13]

Shastri had a slow start to the tournament but finished with fifties in the last three matches. Srikkanth too scored three fifties and India posted century opening stands against Australia and in the final. India went in with two spinners for every match. It helped that all the matches were played at Melbourne and Sydney which have turning tracks and long boundaries. Sivaramakrishnan and Shastri claimed 18 wickets between them in five matches.

For his 182 runs and 8 wickets, Shastri was chosen as the man of the series which in this tournament was called 'The Champion of Champions'. He won an Audi 100 car for his efforts. By the special order of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Indian customs waived the heavy duty its import would have normally entailed.^[14]

Two weeks later India won the Rothman's cup in Sharjah beating Pakistan and Australia. The victory against Pakistan was particularly memorable because India defended a total of only 125. Shastri and Siva continued their successful partnership with the ball. It was for this tournament that Shastri served as the Indian vice captain for the first time. Gavaskar had announced his decision to resign his captaincy at the end of the WCC before the tournament began.^[15] Before the final, former Australian captain Ian Chappell suggested that for the good of Indian cricket, Gavaskar should continue as the captain till Shastri could take over from him.^[16]

The final of the Ranji trophy between Bombay and Delhi began two days after the end of the Sharjah tournament. Gavaskar and Shastri returned via Bahrain, only reaching India the morning of the match. Dilip Vengsarkar, another Indian player who was a member of the Mumbai team, who had arrived a day earlier withdrew from the match with a groin injury, which made it imperative that both should play.

The Ranji final[link]

The Ranji final of 1984/85 turned out to be one of the finest matches in Indian domestic cricket history. A sleepy Gavaskar won the toss and batted. He could hardly close his eyes before Bombay was 3 down for 42. Batting at No.5, he scored his 20th and last hundred in Ranji trophy and took Bombay to 333. Shastri made 29 before he was bowled attempting to cut an arm–ball. Delhi was in early trouble before they were rescued by Chetan Chauhan, batting with a fractured finger in his last first class match. Ajay Sharma, in his first season, scored a hundred and took Delhi into the lead with nine wickets down.

The rules of the competition specified that in the event of a draw, the team with the first innings lead would be declared the winners. With two days and 100 minutes left, Bombay went for quick runs. A crowd of about 46,000 turned up for match on the fourth day and the organizers ran out of tickets. Shastri top scored with 76 as Bombay set Delhi 300 to win in a day and ninety minutes.

Except for the odd delivery, the ball spun slowly and afforded enough time for the batsmen to play their strokes. Early on the final day, Delhi reached 95 for no loss and then collapsed. His first wicket was Chauhan who was declared out caught behind with the ball having spun across the face of the bat without apparently touching it. The match changed dramatically and the batsmen lost their head. Gursharan Singh was lbw playing no stroke, Kirti Azad played on, Surinder Khanna was stumped after a few slogs. Shastri took 8 for 91; Bombay won by 90 runs. In the 50th year of Ranji trophy, it was their 30th title.^[17]

The slow descent[link]

Shastri continued as vice captain to Kapil Dev in the 1985–86 season. This season and the England tour of 1986 were ordinary ones for him. After the tour of Australia in 1985–86, he also began to decline as a bowler. Bombay lost to Haryana in the semifinal of the Ranji trophy but West Zone won the Duleep Trophy. His major contribution was as a bowler in the semifinal against North Zone on a flat wicket at Trivandrum. Like in the Ranji final, North looked the likely winner going into the last day, before he took 8 for 145.

Australia, Sri Lanka and Pakistan toured India in 1986–87. Shastri played a crucial role in the Tied Test at Madras against Australia, scoring 62 and 48*. His second innings runs came in 36 balls. When Indian middle order collapsed and India fell behind the run rate, his two sixes in quick succession off off–spinner Greg Matthews came in handy. In the final Test at Bombay he scored 121*. As was becoming increasingly common, it was played in first and fourth gear. He hung around for around 30 minutes for the last run for his fifty and twice as long in the nineties. Yet he hit six sixes, three of which came after he completed his hundred. The huge six off left arm fast bowler Bruce Reid – a cross batted heave that went over longon – was particularly memorable. Six sixes in an innings was an Indian record at the time. But he was outshone by Dilip Vengsarkar who scored 164* in the same innings. They added a record 298* for the sixth wicket.

He scored hundreds in the quarter final and semifinal of the Duleep trophy, but West Zone lost to South on first innings lead in the latter match. Shastri's only other score over fifty in the season was a particularly dull 125 against Pakistan in the Jaipur Test. He did well enough to be the man of the one day series. In the first one day match against Pakistan he captained India for the first time, scoring 50 and taking three wickets. He took four wickets at Calcutta and 69* at Hyderabad in two thrilling finishes. Later at Nagpur with India facing a big target, he scored 52 in 40 balls.

In early 1987, he presented a 15 minute coaching series which went by the name 'That's Cricket'. This was aired on the national channel Doordarshan on Sunday mornings. There were even rumours of an involvement with actress Amrita Singh.^[18]

County cricket[link]

In 1987, Glamorgan contracted Shastri to play for them. He stayed with them until 1991, with a break in 1990 due to India's tour of England. Shastri's presence did little for the fortunes of the county which finished at the bottom of the first class table in two of those seasons. Shastri topped 1000 runs in 1989 and scored hundreds in both innings against Middlesex. His best bowling performance of 7 for 49 (11 for 90) in the match came against Lancashire in 1988, where he got bounce and turn and was 'unplayable' according to Wisden. The almanack noticed that Shastri was already becoming reluctant to bowl.

1988 was by far the best of the seasons for Glamorgan in one day matches. They finished 5th in the Sunday League – up from 14 in 1987 – and reached the semifinal of the Benson & Hedges Cup. Shastri won the leading six hitter award for the Sunday league matches of 1988 with 14 sixes. He was part of the MCC team that played a Rest of the World team in the MCC bicentennial match at Lord's in 1987.

Always the bridesmaid[link]

India lost the final Test at Bangalore to lose the 1986–87 series against Pakistan. Kapil Dev was widely cricticised in the media for his captaincy. The selectors retained him as captain in the Reliance World Cup at the beginning of the 1987–88 season. Shastri failed with the bat in the Reliance Cup but formed a successful bowling partnership with Maninder Singh, another left arm spinner. India topped its group but went down to England in the semifinal. Kapil Dev received more cricticisms for skying a catch to deep midwicket when a win was still a possibility.

About this time, Vengsarkar emerged as the strongest candidate to take over from Kapil. He had had a dream run with the bat, starting from the series in England in 1986. In 1987, the newly established Deloitte ratings (the forerunner of the current LG ratings) ranked him the best batsman in the world. The Indian selectors have conventionally leaned towards making the best player of the team the captain. So before the home series against West Indies, Kapil was sacked and Vengsarkar was made the Indian captain.

Vengsarkar had his left arm fractured in the third Test and Shastri captained India for the only time in his Test career. On an underprepared turning track in Madras, India won the toss and elected to bat first. Debutant Narendra Hirwani took 16 for 136 as India won by 255 runs to draw the series 1–1. Apart from this, Shastri did little with bat or ball. West Indies won 7 of the eight one day matches, he was the captain in six of them. Vengsarkar meanwhile picked up a six month ban from BCCI for writing newspaper columns. So Shastri continued as the captain for a three nations tournament in Sharjah in April. Sri Lanka and New Zealand were the other teams and India won easily.

India travelled to West Indies in early 1989. Though a failure overall, Shastri played the best innings by either side in the series. It came at Bridgetown in the second Test. India trailed by 56 in the first innings and lost the six second innings wickets for 63. Batting at No.3, Shastri was last out for a courageous 107 out of 251 allout. Looking back at the end of the his career, he was to consider this his finest innings.^[19] The bowlers were Malcolm Marshall, Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh and Ian Bishop and the pitch, difficult.

On the way back many of the Indian players took part in an exhibition match in USA. BCCI suspended the players. Though the suspension was later revoked, Vengsarkar was sacked. Srikkanth became the new captain and Shastri, yet again, the deputy. After an indifferent series in Pakistan, both were excluded from the tour of New Zealand in 1990. Azharuddin led an experimental team which a selector called the 'team of the nineties'. Within a few weeks, the phrase got the status of a joke. Shastri was recalled for the tour to England that summer as the vice-captain.

The Indian Summer[link]

Since 1985, Shastri's career had been in steady decline but he was able to turn it around in 1990. The pitches in England were good for batting and he scored two hundreds in the three Tests. He was now back as an opener. While India faced a huge England score at Lord's, he scored an exact hundred. It wasn't a faultless innings – too often he played and missed and most of the runs came with his usual flicks and nudges. He went to his hundred hitting the English spinner Eddie Hemmings for two fours and a six in an over, and departed immediately attempting another big hit.

He topped this with 187 at the Oval. Journalist and commentator Harsha Bhogle's description of this innings holds true for many of Shastri's major efforts ^[20]:

Watching Shastri bat is like admiring the Qutub Minar; tall, timeless, solid. You admire it for the virtues, not for its style. For nine hours and 21 minutes, he chiselled away the England attack and the sculpture that he left behind represented perseverance and craft. There was the usual stoic, expressionless face under the helmet, but you could see the determination in his eyes as he planted himself at the wicket, struck root and bore fruit.

Only occasionally, the bat wavered in its resolve but the mind put it on the right path again, almost in admonishment, and the bat grew broader and straighter ... He may never be a Gavaskar, but he at least represents the great man's virtues, even if by proxy. It would be a relief too, to know that he will never throw away his wicket for nobody guards his crease more fiercely.

Following the innings at Oval, Shastri scored his career best score of 217 in the Irani trophy in the opening match of the Indian season and a top score of 88 on a very bad wicket in the Chandigarh Test against Sri Lanka. He carried his bat for 101* against the same opponents in a one day match a week later, reaching the hundred with a two off the last ball. Next year in South Africa's first–ever ODI series on their return to international cricket, he scored 109 at Delhi, his fourth and last one day hundred. A series of abandoned tours meant India played few matches at home at this time.

At the end of 1991, India travelled to Australia for a five Test series, to be followed by the World Cup. Channel 9 dubbed it the Indian Summer. The series was a disaster for India – they lost four of the Tests – and was rife with umpiring controversies. But it also saw the final flourishes in the careers of Shastri and Kapil Dev.

Shastri took 5 wickets for 15 runs against Australia in an early match in the World Series Cup. It was then the best bowling figures by an Indian in ODIs. Most of the wickets were gratuitously earned, though – three batsmen were caught on the legside boundary and another stumped. In the third Test at Sydney, he scored his only double hundred in Test cricket, the first by an Indian against Australia. He was dropped in the sixties by the Australian leg–spinner Shane Warne, who was making his debut, off his own bowling. Amidst frequent interruptions by rain, he completed his hundred early on the fourth day and a six off Warne brought up the 150. He finally fell to a tired shot at Warne after nine and a half hours, scoring 206 with 17 fours and the two sixes, thus becoming Warne's first Test wicket.

It was also during this innings that the knee injury that would soon end his career appeared for the first time. India had gone into the match with four pace bowlers and no regular spinners. Shastri was little more than a part–time bowler by this time. By the final day, pitch started taking spin. Shastri took four wickets in the second innings and Australia just about beat the clock to draw the match. India could well have won the match with another spinner.^[21][22]

Last days in cricket[link]

The remaining WSC matches followed the Sydney Test. In the second final against Australia Shastri worsened the knee injury. At the later stages of the innings he was forced to stand and slog. After a few quick runs, it ended in an inevitable mishit to cover. He missed the remaining two Test matches, both of which India lost. For a while it seemed doubtful that he would be able to play the World Cup which was being hosted by Australia and New Zealand, but was included at the last moment.

In their second match, India chased 238 to win in 50 overs against Australia. A rain interruption meant that the target was revised to 236 in 47 overs. Shastri took 67 balls for his 25; India went on to lose by one run. He was blamed for the defeat and dropped from the remaining matches of the tournament.

In the next season, South Africa hosted India for their first ever tour. Shastri opened in all four Tests and struggled to score runs. The only bright spot was a 16 ball 27 not out, in India's one day win at Centurion park. He had batted down the order in the one day matches of this series. In reference to the World Cup innings against Australia, he commented later that for once he knew what his exact role was.

India hosted England immediately after the South Africa series. The knee injury returned before the series and put Shastri out of cricket for eight months. He never again represented India in international cricket.

Bombay breezed through the West Zone league of the 1993–94 Ranji trophy winning all four matches – a very rare feat ^[23] – by big margins. With the Test players away, Shastri captained the young team in the knockout matches. Bombay defeated Haryana by an innings and 202 runs in the pre quarter final but ran into trouble against Karnataka in the next round. Against 406, Bombay lost their first six for 174, before Shastri and Sairaj Bahutule added 259 in six hours. Shastri's individual score was 151. Bombay survived the best part of the last day to win on first innings lead. Shastri scored 612 runs in the season and took 17 wickets at 15. Bombay went on to beat Bengal in a low scoring final to lift the Ranji trophy. It was their first championship since the famous win against Delhi nine years ago.

In September 1994, while in Sri Lanka covering the Singer World Series, Shastri announced his retirement from first class cricket.

In late 1990, Shastri married Ritu Singh. He made his debut as a TV commentator with the World Masters Tournament in Mumbai in March 1995.^[3] In 2003, he collaborated in starting up Showdiff Worldwide, a celebrity management company. He has since served ICC and BCCI in temporary official capacities and as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. Some of his temporary shows, such as Super Spells, still run Star Sports and related channels. He and fellow commentator Sunil Gavaskar ended their long-term associations with ESPN-STAR Sports in April 2008 as they were contracted by the BCCI as commentators for the lucrative Indian Premier League which is being broadcast by rival network Sony Max.[1] 2008 also held great significance for Shastri as he became the father of Aleka at the age of 46.^[24] He temporarily coached the Indian cricket team for their 2007 Bangladesh tour. He was named the Celebrity Torchbearer for the Oman Leg of the 2008 Summer Olympics torch relay.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ravi Shastri

• Player profile: Ravi Shastri from ESPNcricinfo
• Player profile: Ravi Shastri from CricketArchive

v t e India squad – 1983 Cricket World Cup (1st title) 1 Kapil Dev (c) 2 Gavaskar 3 Srikkanth 4 Vengsarkar 5 Patil 6 Amarnath 7 Yashpal 8 Binny 9 Madan Lal 10 Kirmani (wk) 11 Azad 12 Sandhu 13 Shastri 14 Valson

v t e India squad – 1987 Cricket World Cup Semi-Finalists 1 Kapil Dev (c) 2 Gavaskar 3 Srikkanth 4 Vengsarkar 5 Azharuddin 6 Shastri 7 Sidhu 8 Binny 9 Prabhakar 10 More (wk) 11 Maninder Singh 12 Sivaramakrishnan 13 Sharma 14 Pandit

v t e India squad – 1992 Cricket World Cup 1 Azharuddin (c) 2 Kapil Dev 3 Srikkanth 4 Shastri 5 Manjrekar 6 Tendulkar 7 Jadeja 8 Kambli 9 Amre 10 Prabhakar 11 Srinath 12 More (wk) 13 Raju 14 Banerjee

Grant Morrison
Grant Morrison at the 2006 San Diego Comic-Con International.
Born	(1960-01-31) 31 January 1960 (age 52) Glasgow, Scotland
Nationality	British
Area(s)	Writer
Notable works	All-Star Superman Animal Man Batman and Robin Batman R.I.P. The Filth Final Crisis The Invisibles Seven Soldiers New X-Men Zenith
Influences William S. Burroughs, Robert Anton Wilson, Terence McKenna, Jorge Louis Borges, Alan Moore, Thomas Pynchon
Influenced Mark Millar, Joe Casey, Matt Fraction, Gerard Way
Official website

Grant Morrison (born 31 January 1960) is a Scottish comic book writer, playwright and occultist. He is known for his nonlinear narratives and counter-cultural leanings, as well as his successful runs on titles like Animal Man, Doom Patrol, JLA, The Invisibles, New X-Men, Fantastic Four, Action Comics, All-Star Superman, and Batman.

Early life[link]

Grant Morrison was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1960. His first published works were Gideon Stargrave strips for Near Myths in 1978 (when he was about 17^[1]), one of the first British alternative comics. His work appeared in four of the five issues of Near Myths and he was suitably encouraged to find more comic work. This included a weekly comic strip Captain Clyde, an unemployed superhero based in Glasgow, for The Govan Press, a local newspaper, plus various issues of DC Thomson's Starblazer, a science fiction version of that company's Commando title.

Career[link]

1980s[link]

Morrison spent much of the early 1980s touring and recording with his band The Mixers, writing the occasional Starblazer for D. C. Thompson and contributing to various UK indie titles. In 1982 he submitted a proposal involving the Justice League of America and Jack Kirby's New Gods entitled Second Coming to DC Comics, but it was not commissioned. After writing The Liberators for Dez Skinn's Warrior in 1985, he started work for Marvel UK the following year. There he wrote a number of comic strips for Doctor Who Magazine, his final one a collaboration with a then-teenage Bryan Hitch, as well as a run on the Zoids strip in Spider-Man and Zoids. 1986 also saw publication of Morrison's first of several two- or three-page Future Shocks for 2000AD.

Morrison's first continuing serial began in 2000AD in 1987, when he and Steve Yeowell created Zenith, an early example of deconstructing the superhero genre.

Morrison's work on Zenith brought him to the attention of DC Comics, who asked him to pitch for them. They accepted his proposals for Animal Man, a little-known character from DC's past whose most notable recent appearance was a cameo in the Crisis on Infinite Earths limited series, and for a 48-page Batman one-shot that would eventually become Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth.

Animal Man placed Morrison at the head of the so-called "Brit Wave" invasion of American comics, along with such writers as Neil Gaiman, Peter Milligan, Jamie Delano and Alan Moore (who had launched the 'invasion' with his work on Swamp Thing).^[2]

After impressing with Animal Man, Morrison was asked to take over Doom Patrol, starting his uniquely surreal take on the superhero genre with issue No. 19 in 1989. Previously, a formulaic superhero title, Morrison's Doom Patrol introduced more surreal elements, introducing concepts such as dadaism and the writings of Jorge Luis Borges into his first several issues.

DC published Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth in 1989 as a 128 page graphic novel. Painted by Dave McKean, Arkham Asylum featured uses of symbolic writing not common in comics at the time. (The story was to have included a transvestite Joker, an element toned down by DC.) The book went on to become one of the best selling graphic novels of all time. During the late 80s, Morrison also wrote various other titles for DC, most notably Gothic in issues 6–10 of the Batman title Legends of the Dark Knight.

Whilst working for DC in America, Morrison kept contributing to British indie titles, most notably writing St. Swithin's Day for Trident Comics. St. Swithin's Day's anti-Margaret Thatcher themes proved controversial, provoking a small tabloid press fury and a complaint from Conservative MP Teddy Taylor.

The controversy continued with the publication of The New Adventures of Hitler in Scottish music and lifestyle magazine Cut in 1989, due to its use of Adolf Hitler as its lead character. The strip was unfinished when Cut folded, and was later reprinted and completed in Fleetway's 2000AD spin-off title Crisis.

1990s[link]

The early 1990s saw Morrison revamping Kid Eternity for DC with artist Duncan Fegredo, and Dan Dare, with artist Rian Hughes. Morrison coloured Dare's bright future with Thatcherism in Fleetway's Revolver.

In 1991 Morrison wrote Bible John-A Forensic Meditation for Fleetway's Crisis, drawn by fellow member of 'The Mixers' Daniel Vallely, and based on an analysis of possible motivations for the crimes of the serial killer Bible John. Covering similar themes to Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's From Hell, the story was highly experimental in terms of story and art, with Vallely and Morrison claiming to have used a Ouija board to write the script and Vallely using a series of collages rather than conventional panels to tell the story. Morrison used the term "Forensic Meditation" to refer his mixture of scientific and magical techniques to tell the story. Vallely allegedly destroyed his art work upon the story's completion and left the comic industry. Bible John has not been reprinted.

In 1993 Morrison, fellow Glaswegian comic writer Mark Millar and John Smith were asked to reinvigorate 2000 AD for an eight-week run called "The Summer Offensive". Morrison wrote Judge Dredd and Really and Truly, and co-wrote the highly controversial Big Dave with Millar.

DC Comics launched its Vertigo imprint in 1993, publishing several of Morrison's creator-owned projects, such as the steampunk mini-series Sebastian O and the graphic novel The Mystery Play. 1995 saw the release of Kill Your Boyfriend, with artist Philip Bond, originally published as a Vertigo Voices one-shot. In 1996 Morrison wrote Flex Mentallo, a Doom Patrol spin-off with art by Frank Quitely,^[3] and also returned briefly to DC Universe superheroics with the critically acclaimed but short-lived Aztek, co-written with Mark Millar.

In 1996, Morrison was given the Justice League of America to revamp as JLA,^[4] a comic book that gathered the 'Big Seven' superheroes of the DC universe into one team. This run was hugely popular and returned the title back to best-selling status.^[5] It was also influential in creating the type of "widescreen" superhero action later seen in titles such as Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch's The Authority.^{[citation needed]} Morrison wrote several issues of The Flash with Mark Millar, as well as DC's crossover event of 1998, the four-issue mini-series DC One Million, in addition to plotting many of the multiple crossovers.

With the three volumes of the creator-owned The Invisibles, Morrison would start his largest and possibly most important^[6] work. The Invisibles combined political, pop- and sub-cultural references. Tapping into pre-millennial tension, the work was influenced by the writings of Robert Anton Wilson, Aleister Crowley and William Burroughs and Morrison's practice of chaos magic.^[7] In 1998 Morrison published a rare prose piece, "I'm A Policeman" in Sarah Champion's millennial short story collection Disco 2000; though no explicit connection to The Invisibles is made, there are strong thematic links between the two works.^[8] At DisinfoCon in 1999, Morrison said that much of the content in The Invisibles was information given to him by aliens that abducted him in Kathmandu, who told him to spread this information to the world via a comic book. He later clarified that the experience he labelled as the "Alien Abduction Experience in Kathmandu" had nothing to do with aliens or abduction, but that there was an experience that he had in Kathmandu that The Invisibles is an attempt to explain.^[9] The title was not a huge commercial hit to start with. (Morrison actually asked his readers to participate in a "wankathon" while concentrating on a magical symbol, or sigil, in an effort to boost sales).^[10] When the title was relaunched with volume two, the characters relocated to America and the style became intentionally more "American", featuring more action while still maintaining Morrison's ideas and themes. Volume three appeared with issue numbers counting down, signalling an intention to conclude the series with the turn of the new millennium in 2000. However, due to the title shipping late, its final issue did not ship until April 2000. The entire series has been collected by Vertigo as a series of seven trade paperbacks.

2000s[link]

In 2000, Morrison's graphic novel JLA: Earth 2 was released with art by Frank Quitely.^[11] It was Morrison's last mainstream work for DC for a while, as he moved to Marvel Comics to take over the writing of the main X-Men title, renamed New X-Men for his run, with Quitely providing much of the art.^[12] Again, Morrison's revamping of a major superhero team proved to be a critical and commercial success, with the title jumping to the No. 1 sales^[13] and established Morrison as the kind of creator whose name on a title would guarantee sales.^[14] His penultimate arc "Planet X" depicted the villain Magneto infiltrating and defeating the X-Men in the guise of new character Xorn and developing an addiction to the power-enhancing drug "Kick".^[15][16] This has since been retconned by other writers to portray Morrison's Xorn as a separate character distinct from Magneto.^[17]

Morrison at the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con International.

In 2002, Morrison launched his next creator-owned project at Vertigo: The Filth, drawn by Chris Weston and Gary Erskine, a 13-part mini-series,^[18] said by Warren Ellis to be heavily influenced by Chris Morris's Blue Jam radio series.

While at Marvel, Morrison also wrote the six-part Marvel Boy series,^[19] and Fantastic Four: 1234, his take on another major superhero team. After finishing his New X-Men, he returned to DC Comics to work on several titles and help revamp the DC Universe.

In 2004, Vertigo published three Morrison mini-series. Seaguy, We3 and Vimanarama involving, respectively, a picaresque hero in a post-utopian world that does not need him; cyber-enhanced pets running from their captors in what Morrison calls his "western manga"; and ancient Hindu/Pakistani myths translated into Jack Kirby-style adventures. We3 came in for particular praise for its bold storytelling techniques and artwork by Frank Quitely. Morrison also returned to the JLA with the first story in a new anthology series, JLA Classified, tales set within the JLA mythos by various creative teams.

In 2005, DC Comics started publishing what was dubbed the first ever "megaseries". The Grant Morrison-scripted Seven Soldiers features both new characters and reimagined obscure DC characters: The Manhattan Guardian, Mister Miracle, Klarion the Witch Boy, Bulleteer, Frankenstein, Zatanna and Shining Knight. The maxi-series consists of seven interlinked four-issue mini-series with two "bookend" volumes – 30 issues in all.

Dan DiDio (current editorial vice president of DC Comics) was impressed with Morrison's ideas for revitalising many of DC's redundant characters. Giving him the unofficial title of "revamp guy", DiDio asked him to assist in sorting out the DC Universe in the wake of the Infinite Crisis.^[20] Morrison was also one of the writers on 52,^[21] a year long weekly comic book series that started in May 2006 and concluded in May 2007.^[22]

Starting in November 2005, DC published All-Star Superman, a twelve-issue story arc by Morrison and Frank Quitely. Not so much a revamp or reboot of Superman, the series presents an out-of-continuity "iconic" Superman for new readers. All-Star Superman won the Eisner Award for Best New Series in 2006, the Best Continuing Series Eisner Award in 2007 and several Eagle Awards in the UK. It also won 3 Harvey Awards in 2008 and the Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series in 2009.

In the same year, Morrison and Quitely worked on pop star Robbie Williams' album Intensive Care, providing intricate Tarot card designs for the packaging and cover of the CD.

In 2006 Morrison was voted as the No. 2 favourite comic book writer of all time by Comic Book Resources, beating Neil Gaiman at No. 3 (Alan Moore was #1).^[23] That same year, Morrison began writing Batman for DC with issue #655. He also masterminded the relaunch of The Authority and Wildcats, with the art of Gene Ha and Jim Lee respectively, for DC's Wildstorm imprint. WildC.A.T.S. went on hiatus after one issue, The Authority was discontinued after two. The scheduling of The Authority conflicted with 52 and Morrison was unhappy with the reviews: "And then I saw the reviews on issue one and I just thought 'fuck this'.".^[24] It eventually concluded without Morrison's involvement in Keith Giffen's The Authority: The Lost Year.

At the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con, DC Comics announced that Morrison would write Final Crisis, a seven issue mini-series slated to appear in 2008 with J. G. Jones handling the art. Morrison also announced that 2008 would see publication of the follow-up to 2004's Seaguy called Seaguy 2: The Slaves of Mickey Eye, the second part of a planned three part series.^[25][26]

At the 2008 New York Comic Con, Morrison announced he would be working with Virgin Comics to produce "webisodes" (short animated stories) based on the Mahābhārata; it would not be a direct translation but, "Like the Beatles took Indian music and tried to make psychedelic sounds... I'm trying to convert Indian storytelling to a western style for people raised on movies, comics, and video games."^[27]

2010s[link]

Morrison signing copies of his 2011 superhero analysis, Supergods, at Midtown Comics in Manhattan, 19 July 2011.

At San Diego Comic Con 2010 it was announced that Grant Morrison would be leaving Batman and Robin with No. 16 and launching a new series entitled Batman Incorporated with artist Yanick Paquette; a more team-oriented Batman book inspired by the Batman: The Brave and the Bold animated series.^[28][29][30]

Morrison's latest creator-owned work, an eight issue Vertigo series titled Joe the Barbarian, launched in January 2010 with artist Sean Murphy.^[31] Originally a six issue series, Morrison felt that the story would benefit from an extra two issues. The titular Joe is a diabetic young boy who begins to hallucinate a fantasy world populated with his toys and other fantasy characters when he stops taking his medication.^[32]

Following the closure of Virgin Comics, Dynamite Entertainment and Liquid Comics announced a partnership to publish a hardcover of illustrated scripts of Grant Morrison's Mahābhārata-based, animated project 18 Days with illustrations by artist Mukesh Singh, that was released in August 2010.^[33][34]

He is the subject of a feature-length documentary titled Grant Morrison: Talking with Gods. The documentary features extensive interviews with Morrison as well as a number of comic artists, editors and professionals he has worked closely with.^[35] Talking with Gods was co-produced by Respect Films and Sequart Research & Literacy Organization, and was released in 2010 at the San Diego Comic Con.^[36]

Morrison was featured in My Chemical Romance's music video "Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)" from their 2010 album Danger Days: True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys as the concept's villain Korse.^[37] He reprised the role of his character in the "SING" music video.

Morrison will be completing the first 'season' of Batman Inc with issue #10, before returning in 2012 to complete the story with an additional 12 issues. He will be teaming with artist Chris Burnham for the relaunch.^[38]

In June 2011, as part of DC Comics' massive revamp of their entire superhero line, Morrison was announced as the writer on the new Action Comics #1, teaming with artist Rags Morales, marking Morrison's return to the Superman character after the All Star Superman.^[39]

Morrison's next^{[citation needed]} major comic book project will be Multiversity, a metaseries of eight one-shots set in some of the 52 worlds in the DC Multiverse.^[40][41]

In July 2011, Morrison's analysis of superheroes, Supergods: Our World in the Age of the Superhero, was published by Random House Spiegel & Grau in the United States and Jonathan Cape in the UK.^[42]

Screenwriting and playwriting[link]

Morrison has become more involved in screenwriting and has written numerous scripts and treatments.

His screenplays include Sleepless Knights for DreamWorks and WE3 for New Line (both in development with Don Murphy producing, John Stevenson is attached as Director for WE3). Most recently he wrote the adaptation of the video game Area 51 home console game^[43] for Paramount (in development with CFP Productions producing). Morrison has written a film to be directed by Adam Egypt Mortimer called Sinatoro, to be released in 2012.^[44][45] He is working on another screenplay called Dinosaurs vs Aliens for Sam Worthington's production company Full Clip Production and when that is done he has said he will be working with them again on a screenplay based on the 2000 AD story Rogue Trooper.^[46]

He has pitched a science fiction television series entitled Bonnyroad to the BBC with director Paul McGuigan and Stephen Fry, which is currently in development.^[47]

Morrison provided outline story and script work for two video games (Predator: Concrete Jungle and Battlestar Galactica) both by Vivendi Universal, though the finished products often did not contain all his contributions.

He has also been a successful playwright, with two plays written for and performed by Oxygen House at the Edinburgh Fringe. The first was Red King Rising in 1989, about the (partly fictional) relationship between Lewis Carroll and Alice Liddell and the second in 1990, Depravity about Aleister Crowley. Both plays were critically acclaimed and won between them a Fringe First Award, the Independent Theatre Award for 1989 and the Evening Standard Award for New Drama. A film adaptation of Red King Rising is in discussion. Both plays were included in his collection of prose, Lovely Biscuits released in 1999.^[48]

Appearances as a comics character[link]

Grant Morrison first appeared as a comics character with a cameo in Animal Man #14. He made a full appearance at the end of issue #25, and spent most of issue #26 in a lengthy conversation with the comic's title character on the impact of realism on comic books. He is killed off in Suicide Squad #58.^[49]

Morrison would later be counted among the Seven Unknown Men of Slaughter Swamp, the body of "reality engineers" seen throughout the Seven Soldiers miniseries event, all of whom look exactly like him. During the series, one of these – referred to as the "Eighth of Seven" – went rogue, consolidating magical power for himself, releasing the Sheeda warrior-race on their Twenty-First Century ancestors, and becoming the silver-age character Zor, "The Terrible Time Tailor", a figure who looks exactly like Morrison but also wears a magician's outfit and sporting dark hair and a self-described 'magnificent beard'. This Zor was introduced in the original Spectre adventures in More Fun Comics No. 55 before he was re-invented in "Seven Soldiers." Zor is defeated by Zatanna and captured by his fellow Time Tailors who 'judge' him. Morrison himself, bearing a DC Comics-logo tie clip then becomes the narrator of the final chapter, treating the readers as if they were Zor themselves. Zor is eventually dressed to resemble a paedophiliac miser named Cyrus Gold, killed by an angry mob^[50] (in DC history, after being killed by the mob Cyrus Gold's body falls into the swamp, and he is reborn as the Golden Age villain Solomon Grundy.

He has also appeared in an issue of Simpsons Comics, where he is seen fighting with Mark Millar over the title of "Writer of X-Men".^[51]

In the notes to the Absolute Edition of DC: The New Frontier, writer Darwyn Cooke mentioned that this version of Captain Cold was visually based upon Morrison.

It has also been suggested by Comics Bulletin's Thom Young that the near-future Batman depicted in Batman No. 666 is based on Morrison: "Oddly, the shaved-headed Batman in the trench coat looks a bit like Grant Morrison and he has a cat named Alfred. In other words, it looks like Morrison (who is known to love cats) made himself Batman in this story. Of course, in Animal Man, Morrison appeared as himself as the teller of tales of Animal Man's life; in Seven Soldiers, the tailors who tell the tales of the universe looked like Morrison; and now he seems to be the Batman of the not-too-distant future."^[52] However, Morrison has stated that the decision to base the appearance of the future Batman on him was that of artist Andy Kubert: "I had written him as having a buzz cut, I think, but Andy drew him bald. I think a lot of people just assumed that I stuck myself into a comic again, but that was never intended."^[53]

Personal life[link]

Morrison lives and works between Los Angeles and his homes in Scotland.^[54]

Bibliography[link]

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Callahan, Timothy (2007) Grant Morrison: The Early Years. Masters of the Medium. Sequart Research & Literacy Organization. ISBN 978-0-615-21215-9
• Meaney, Patrick (2010) Grant Morrison: Talking with Gods. Documentary film.
• Morrison, Grant (2003) "Pop magic!" in Book of Lies, pp. 16–25 ISBN 0-9713942-7-X
• Disinformation: The Complete Series Disc 2: DisinfoCon. (1999) Speech by Grant Morrison. Distr. Ryko Distribution.
• Meaney, Patrick (2009) Our Sentence is Up: Seeing the Invisibles. Sequart.com. ISBN 978-0-578-03233-7
• Grant Morrison at the Grand Comics Database
• Grant Morrison at Barney
• Blazing Through the Secrecy, about uncredited authors on Starblazer

External links[link]

This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (June 2011)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Grant Morrison

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Grant Morrison

• Official website
• Grant Morrison at the Comic Book DB
• Grant Morrison at the Open Directory Project
• Grant Morrison at the Internet Movie Database

Interviews[link]

• The Grant Morrison Interview Archive
• Archive of interviews from 1976 to 1997
• PopImage interview, February 2001
• Punching Holes Through Time, Sequential Tart, August 2002
• Barbelith interview, 2 September 2002
• Catching up with Professor M: Talking with Grant Morrison, Comic Book Resources, 2 August 2003
• PopImage interview, 2004
• Comixfan interview, 18 May 2004
• Grant Morrison's big-time return to the DCU, Newsarama, 7 August 2004
• Suicide Girls interview, 4 March 2005
• Three-part interview on: Final Crisis, Batman and All-Star Superman, Newsarama, February–March 2008
• All Star Grant Morrison I: Final Crisis, and II: Batman. Comic Book Resources, 15–17 April 2008
• Grant Morrison Talks Comics, Magic, Life, and Death, Publishers Weekly, 12 August 2008
• Killing Batman And The DC Universe, IGN, 26 August 2008
• Klaehn, Jeffery. Grant Morrison, Batman and the Superhero Genre, Publisher Weekly, 13 January 2009
• Alex Ness Interviews Grant Morrison, ComicNews.info,Moviemotion, Ghaneli, 20 January 2009
• Klaehn, Jeffery. Grant Morrison, Final Crisis and the Superhero Genre, Publishers Weekly, 20 January 2009
• Interview with Grant Morrison at comicbookgrrrl.com, 18 July 2011