At one stage, India were off to a great start, thanks to some incisive bowling by Ishant Sharma. The Sri Lankans were down at 66-4. We let Jayasuriya put on more than 130 runs in partnership with Dilshan. Eventually he scored 125 off 114 balls to power Sri Lankans to a reasonably respectable score of 273.

India got off to a very good start with Sehwag scoring 60 in 36 balls but once he got out to Ajantha Mendis, India's fortunes turned dramatically. The 23 year old Mendis playing in only his 8th ODI and his first against India bowled the Lankans to victory by getting dream figures of 6/13 in 8 overs. India lost 9 wickets for 97 runs and were all out for 173 in 39.3 overs.

Why is it that India has almost made it a habit of faltering at the very end? Is it the lack of a killer instinct that we have lost 18 out of the 26 finals we have played since 1999? While many may say that it is creditable that we have reached the finals at all, we shouldn't forget that the world looks towards winners- not losing finalists.

Many times we have had the upper hand but were not able to convert the early advantages to victories. Sunny Gavaskar mentioned years ago that India has the dubious record of -on many occasions- snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

We thought the young team under Dhoni would be different. But their losing the last two finals recently makes me wonder if anything has changed at all in Indian cricket- apart from the sizzling payments that the cricketers earn, quite irrespective of the results.

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This is Post No: 217 of the “A Step A Day” series : To provide perspective and provoke thought to facilitate self-development across a wide spectrum of issues- big and small- crucial for executive success

This made me cast my mind back to the One-day victory in Australia, and in particular, I was thinking of the team composition. There are two big differences. One, quite notably, is the absence of Sachin, a factor that the team should have learnt to cope with by now. But, this post is about the significant other. The presence of a foreign coach. To put it bluntly, do we need Gary Kirsten, or for that matter, any foreign coach, at all?

Look at the bare facts. Without a "head coach", the team performed well in England, won the T20 World Cup and did themselves proud down under. And these feats span all three versions of the game, the feast, the supper and the snack! The think-tank of Prasad, Robin and Lalchand Rajput proved themselves to be more than adequate. Then, BCCI chose to do what they always do. Ignore common sense and reason to throw the board's riches on a totally unworthy aspect. Surely, we should have learnt something from the Greg Chappell disaster? But No! We just did not!

What has Gary Kirsten added to the team? Why, he has not even helped the left-handed batsmen with their technique. Gambhir and Raina seem to come up short in the finals and key games. Otherwise, yes, they are promising. But it's that other perenially promising guy who just leaves you exasperated!

Yuvraj appears more keen on maintaining his brand equity than going beyond his shoddy performances in key games. It's been six months since he played Stuart Broad. But the media and the marketing agencies ensure that the fame has not got out of that bloated head of his. In the midst of all that, there was the IPL tamasha as well, which I also believe is another major factor in this defeat.

All the Indian batsmen were guilty of getting out to poor shots. They were still stuck in the T20 loop. Raina and Gambhir had big knocks, no doubt. But those came on flat pitches against weak bowling attacks. All they had to face was some quality in the bowling and the technique of these Indian 'stars' was exposed. Clearly, this is a problem we are going to see more of in the future. T20 is definitely going to affect the technique of batsmen in the game overall.

But I digress. Has Gary Kirsten done anything that Lalchand Rajput could not have? Or for that matter, we have a bowling coach and a fielding coach. Why a head coach? As a great opening batsman in his country, Kirsten came with good credentials as a cricketer. But again, he had never coached a cricket side and was only the head of a cricket training academy in South Africa. Even then, his previous experience means that he should help the Indian cricketers iron out the flaws in their game. I need not spell this out, but here it is. If anything at all, in the first few days at the helm, Kirsten has not been anything more than ineffective!

This is not meant to be an attack on Kirsten. It really isn't. It is actually an avenue for me to vent my frustrations against BCCI. They have only been concerned with making money and them starting a new league to, well, make some more money. In the bargain, let us hope Indian cricket does not go down the drain, a la English football. Will the BCCI ever change its ways?

Well, a few more defeats and Gary Kirsten will be sacked. We will have a new coach, I mean a foreign one of course, in hs stead, but will we win in 2011?

Dhoni wants the victory. Sachin seems to be conserving himself for the big tournament. He has played enough cricket and won many awards. But what he lacks is that main international victory. And undoubtedly, Sachin knows this very well. Peter Roebuck tipped India as the next world champions as "India is the sleeping tiger that has just begun to wake up".

Well, the tiger called Indian cricket seems to roar loudly once in a while,  but the bigger tiger, or elephant, I should say, the BCCI, seems to be competing with Rip Van Winkle. Only when this changes, will Indian cricket really make huge strides!

India's record in One-Day Internationals after this match reads as follows:

Did you notice anything peculiar in the above table?

If not, then have a look at the win and loss record again. This is the first time in India's One-Day Internationals history that they have won more matches than they have lost.

Never before India's tally of wins exceeded the tally of losses, not even when they looked quite invincible.

The following table gives India's win-loss record after three major tournaments (when the side was supposed to be in its best form).

India did not have an impressive win-loss record even after the grand success in the 1983 World Cup in England or even after the 1984-85 World Championship of Cricket in Australia. However, the gap between losses and victories had narrowed down at the end of the 2002-03 World Cup in South Africa.

In 2006, India managed to have identical figures under won and lost columns, but they never had more wins than losses.

India's ODI record:

Among the regular ODI-playing countries, only Australia, Pakistan, West Indies , South Africa and England have won more games than they lost, while New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and Kenya all have lost more games than

Courtesy :- Rediff

As a true follower of the Gentleman's game and a huge fan of Cricket as a whole, i dedicate this blog to the Men who made Indians a great force in World cricket and stunned everyone. 25 years ago on this day 25th June India suddenly became a huge force to reckon in ODIs. This World cup was a morale boosting one for the nation. The Indian team were the underdogs in the touanament. Not many would have expected them to even 3 out of its 6 league matches cos they had won only one match against the lowly ranked East Africa back in 1975. It din win a single match in the 79 WC. The team consisted of few all rounders(Kapil,Madan lal, Amarnath, Binny) , a technically sound opener in the form of Gavaskar, 2 dashers in the form of Patil and Shrikkanth. None of them were great heroes in ODI arena then. They played according to the mantra " Where there is a will there is a way". Kapil always insisted the team on fighting hard for sucess, which they achieved at last.

it all started with the morale boosting victory over the two time defending champions West Indies on 9th june 1983 at Old trafford(ha ha this place has a special place in heart, Manchester united and OT(Old Trafford) rules). But India were then defeated by West Indies and Australians convincly in the league phase(but India got a sweet revenge over the latter in the other league game). Then came the day that the whole Indian squad witnessed whats called the "BEST INNINGS FROM AN INDIAN". India struggling at some 17/5, an innings which can be termed as the perfect example for CAPTAINS KNOCK was played by Kapil Dev the chief architect of India's victory. He scored a smashing unbeaten 175(Due to BBC camera crew strike this epic knock had no video coverage sadly) and the triggered the confidence in the Indian camp and with the help from the likes of Yashpal Sharma, Sandeep Patil, Jimmy Amarnath and others India went into the finals.

OT June 22: England won the toss and batted first.  the  Indian bowling England to score 213 (all out, 60 overs). Fowler (33 from 59 balls, 3 fours) top scored, and Kapil took 3 for 35 in eleven overs, with Jimmy and Binny taking two wickets each. In reply,  Yashpal (61 from 115 balls, 3 fours, 2 sixes) and Patil (51 from 32 balls, 8 fours) made half-centuries, as India reached their target in 54.4 overs, winning by 6 wickets in an upset victory over the Englishmen. Jimmy (46 from 92 balls, 4 fours, 1 six) picked up the man-of-the-match award for his all round performance, which saw him add 46 runs to his earlier bowling success (2/27 in 12 overs).

Final was played in the mecca of cricket The LORDS on june 25th. Roberts, Marshall, garner and Holding ripped through the Indian batsmen The Indians were bowled out for a low score of 183 and Shrikkanth scoring the highest individual score of 38 for the match. This total is nothing considering the Batting power of the Champions. But the agenda was take the fight to the opponent for the Indians and i can still not forget the ball that got rid of Greendige. Gem of a delievery. He left the ball expecting it to move away like the previous 3 balls but it swung in and took the bails. The great West Indian Viv Richards started to flourish with an array of powerful strikes. It took a stunning catch from the Indian captain to get rid of the great man and the man of the match Jimmy(in both semis and final) polished off the tail and the rest is history. the joy in the camp of Kapil's Devil camp was great.However, the Indian bowling exploited the weather and pitch conditions perfectly to bowl out the best batting lineup of the era for 140 from 52 overs in return, winning by 43 runs and completing one of the most stunning upsets in cricket history, defeating the previously invincible West Indies.

The proud captain lifted te trophy with great joy and pride. In two years time India went on to win the world championship of cricket under sunil gavaskar. Let this inspire India to win more World cups.

I would like to end this blog by asking people to also support ICL, to which the greatest ever all rounder from India is commited. Those who play in ICL are not commiting any mistake. They are playing cricket which is their passion. Hope ICC and BCCI relaxes its stance soon. Kapil and the others associated with the ICL have a lot to offer for Cricket in India. Jai hind.

To me this is just another inconsequential tournament with contest involving what has now become the usual bores – India-Pakistan-Bangladesh. Sri Lanka somehow seems a little less boring – or maybe that’s just me. Fellow bloggers on my blogroll and I have said much about the India-Pakistan overkill, so I won’t go there. The tournament schedule is organized such that two teams get knocked-off (which will most likely be Hong Kong and the UAE). Then the bores will slug it out in round-robin fashion.

What I will be interested in is the UAE team – lot of expatriate folks from the sub-continent in this team. Call me crazy, but cable-operator willing, I would like to watch these matches. For all you know, some of these folk may have their basics right! :)

Somehow I’ve always had a sense of awe about this man. Perhaps it’s his enigmatic nature, maybe it’s his penchant for orthodoxy, I can’t tell. What is so endearing about Dravid, at least for me, is that he is testament to the fact that introverted-ness and success are not mutually exclusive. Understandably, that is only when accompanied with grinding hard work, determination and talent.

There are things he does that seem to momentarily defy logic – his relinquishment of captaincy being a prime example - but make a lot of sense with time. Consider that after the disastrous World Cup 2007 campaign, he had not stepped down from captaincy. India go on a win an inconsequential, mostly relief-inducing series in Bangladesh and follow that up with a history-making Test series victory in England. Then the ODI-series loss in England and then Dhoni & Co. go and win the T20 World Cup. With the loss at the hands of the Aussies in the ODI series at home, shortly after the T20 World Cup, he would have gotten sacked as captain. In retrospect, a wise decision!

In this interview, he is characteristically Dravid, or Dravid as we know him. He speaks of the rather tumultuous year he has had: relinquishment of captaincy; having made his peace with losing a place in ODI side; reaching 10,000 runs in Test cricket,which he downplays while shedding light on his unbroken attendance record in Tests; and his criticism laden stint in the IPL. There is nothing new on the stepping-down-from-captaincy front. “I just felt the time had come to move on, and I just knew it”, synonymous with his earlier “ captaincy has a sell-by-date” reasoning. On the IPL, says Dravid, “..playing T20 cricket was new to me and I wanted to see how I'd go in that form of the game.” When asked about his run in the IPL and mud and slush that Mallya turned out to be, he stays with the safe “..there were other things that could have gone a bit better as well both on and off the field”. He doesn’t say much despite the bitterness that he would have felt. The slightest indication comes only when he talks of his young son and says that he “nothing to live up to” when spending time with him. There are hints of retirement too, but not anything we wouldn’t expect. “I won’t be playing after five years”, is something that is almost obvious. The only unexpected part of the interview is his denial of adhering to “copybook style” cricket, for which he is a poster-boy.

Mostly a very predictable interview, yet worth a read. Check it out here.

Although Yusuf is the older one, Irfan made his Test debut in the Second Test against Australia at the Adelaide Oval in December 2003. He was introduced as a left-arm fast-medium swing bowler, reminding some of the legendary Wasim Akram of Pakistan. Irfan improved his batting skills to become a bowling all-rounder. This was the birth of 'Irfan Pathan' the Indian pride after the renowned all-rounder and former skipper Kapil Dev. How did Irfan Khan become Irfan Pathan? Shamim Bano, his mother, laments "Tum logo ne uska naam badal diya hai" (you media people have changed his name). Does it matter? It suits him, anyway.

Yusuf Pathan, the elder brother (half-brother) is a hard-hitting right handed batsman and a right-arm off-break bowler. He was selected for the Indian Squad for the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship, held in South Africa in September 2007. He made his Twenty20 international debut in final against Pakistan. His performance was hardly noteworthy, but India pulled off the last ball victory and the rest is history. Yusuf Pathan became a part of history-making win for India. Subsequently, because of a good domestic season, he was signed by the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League for $475,000. In the 2008 IPL season, Yusuf scored 435 runs and took 8 wickets. Shane Warne, the captain for Rajasthan Royals, placed great faith in Yusuf Pathan. He was the Man of the Match in the final against Chennai Super Kings. Yusuf Pathan has arrived.

You must be knowing the answer to all these questions. India... Indian cricket is known for it's uncertainty and even a person like Nostradamus would fail predicting the outcome of a match in which India is playing. When is the last time people have witnessed a match in which India scored a 300+ score and bundled out the opposition in less than 200 runs? The other way around happens from time to time.

The Kitply Cup is another fine example. India won its league games against Pakistan and Bangladesh convincingly only to lose in the finals. Thankfully, we weren't bowled out for 200 odd runs.

The Champions trophy is on its way and the by the looks of the current atmosphere, Australia might pull out owing to security reasons in Pakistan. India has an excellent chance of winning the trophy for itself as it had once shared the trophy with Srilanka because of incumbent weather.

Go India Go!!! Win the Champions Trophy!

As for India, I got to see what I wanted to - the consequence of an Indian top order failure. As Pak broke thru the Delhi-Daredevils' opening pair of Gambhir and Sehwag, the Indian batting seemed only a bit better than that of Delhi Daredevils. I mean, you don't expect Yuvraj to hang around and play a long innings - he seems to have become more of a T20 batsman in ODI clothes with the temperment not helping one bit. Dhoni coming down low in the order didn't help, neither did Irfan Pathan's struggling angled-bat shots. Being beaten several times, Irfan seems to have lost it. I remember the days when he used to open the batting with Tendulkar, and then open the bowling. What has happened to that batsmen?

Meanwhile, too much cricket has indeed been played over the past couple of months. That is perhaps to blame for some of the loss of intensity. But then again, it's only just another one of the zillions of cups. Do you also feel this way? Is this just another cup? Does this loss of India mean anything to you? If it doesn't is that because there have been too many ODI tournaments or that India's recent success has made us more tolerant as fans?

As for me, I'm looking forward to the upcoming India-Sri Lanka Test series.

Despite the fact that this series includes an India-Pakistan face-off, there is a sense of boredom about it. Is too much India-Pakistan to blame? Or is it the fact that India has been consistently beating them for some time now? Or is the lack of competitiveness from Pakistan? As for me, I thought Bangladesh in their match against India, for their standing in World cricket, batted better than Pakistan. Where is the spirit, Pakistan?

Let me ask the bigger question. Is it boring to watch India win? Is it even boring to watch 'em batt? I didn't watch much of India's batting after the goose-bump inducing T20 style Sehwag-Gambhir partnership. Other than noticing that Rohit Sharma is losing his patience, Yuvraj is his princely self and Praveen Kumar is getting better by the hour, there isn't much to say. Are you missing the star clashes of old the Tendulkar-Shoaib or Ganguly-Shoaib? Or the lopsided Indian collapses from 100-1 to all out for just under 200?

Q points out here with hard facts, that India has been closing the India-Pakistan gaps. And that India has turned the tables. They have turned the tables indeed, but on a very weak Pakistan team. Pakistan won many games against an Indian team with some of best batsmen in Tendulkar, Azharuddin, Manjrekar, Dravid, Ganguly and the like. In that case, does the turning tables really count?

With this kind of one-sided cricket being played, I'm better off watching the other matches with more interest. The Aussies are 5-down on Day 1 of the Barbados Test. Gotta go catch some of that!

Ciao for now.

We are obviously talking about the recently Indianized version of the game in the form of IPL. If you don't know what that is, well I am not asking you to enroll for Indianized, but simply get a life.

Rajasthan Royals took away the IPL Cup, and the monarchic marwadis celebrated! If you are asking me, what is so Indianized about a team, captained and coached by a foreign player, then dig this nigga!

The team was bought at $67 million, the least for any team, the team owners had spent the least amount on player purchase with the best purchase being a no good Mohd. Kaif, but the team was given the best of facilities, was given no controversies, it made the most money, and probably even broke even for the owners. Well in the business edition of Cricket, that is Indian Business sense.

And as for Cricket, well, in a nation of 70 million crazy cricket watchers , even the ICC changes its form to being the Indian Cricket Colleague.

Image : http://www.daijiworld.com

Tendulkar says that, after 19 years in the business, "there is definitely cricket left in me. And I want to just go out and enjoy my game and not think about other things."

-- Mohan

Now is the time to look back at some of the success stories of the IPL and the future of cricket in India.

No doubt India have a few success stories from the IPL. Yusuf Pathan, Swapnil Asnodkar, Ravindra Jadeja, Manpreet Gony, Wriddhaman Saha, Abhishek Nayyar have all been revelations. But how many of them have shown the ability to take that next step forward, the preparedness take up International responsibility?

India head to Bangladesh to play a tri-series featuring Pakistan as the third team. The team for the tournament has been announced with Suresh Raina making a well-deserved comeback. This kid has all the talent to represent India at the highest level. I personally feel that Raina must get to play all the games ahead of Robin Uthappa who is all scene and no substance. If not for the match-winning fifty in the Oval last summer, i don't find a reason why Robin Uthappa is given an extended run in International cricket despite his poor performances.

While Niranjan Shah said that the domestic players who do well in IPL will be given the international cap, Dilip Vengsarkar, the chairman of selectors, has brushed that aside as nonsense. Vengsarkar has  clearly mentioned that the national team for test and ODI cricket cannot be picked on the basis of T20 exploits. He has also written off Ganguly's LOI comeback which is commendable. At times, the selectors need to take such harsh decisions and not give in to political pressure.

But it baffles me when they pick Yusuf Pathan and Pragyan Ojha for the forthcoming tour to Bangladesh.

Yusuf Pathan's feet never moved once in the whole of the IPL. He stayed put at the crease and was swatting the ball like one would swat flies. He has a poor technique and his Chris Gayle kind of bowling technique may work for T20 cricket, but will not help him in the longer version of the game.

Pragyan Ojha is a good spinner, but his IPL performances were anything but convincing.

So it surprises me when they select someone like a Pragyan Ojha ahead of Manpreet Gony, who has convinced all of us with some spirited bowling performances (despite being on the expensive side). Probably, with the fast bowling riches in the side, the selectors are not looking for pacemen.

There is always a problem when India field a second string team against the minnows to test fresh talent. Such experiments have mostly backfired. India have also gone down to minnows when they tried to do that. Moreover, the performance of the players cannot be tested on how well they play against the minnows. Someone scoring a century against Bangladesh doesn't merit an automatic selection to the national side to play the better teams. However, it helps in elimination. The players who don't do well against the minnows can as well be left out of consideration.

Thanks to the selectors for not fielding a second string team and saving us from the embarassment of going down to Bangladesh one more time.

I strongly feel Rahul Dravid must be playing ODI cricket. His absence still presents a huge hole in the Indian middle order. India still lacks that anchor, around whom the big hitters can rally around. India may overlook Dravid with their recent success down under, but the need for an anchorman will be increasingly felt when they lose a few matches on the trot.

India possesses a very good pace attack. But that needs some fine tuning. RP Singh looked wretched in the whole of the IPL. Sreesanth is completely driven by his mood swings and consistency and Sreesanth are antonyms. Zaheer, the injury feigner, has made his intentions clear that the financially rewarding IPL is more important to him than playing for India. He is not completely bankable. Ishant Sharma has shown signs of brilliance, but he is still an unfinished product. Irfan Pathan has lost his pace and swing. He did well in the IPL, but i am still not convinced with his ODI performances in Australia where he went for plenty.

Gambhir looks all set to open the Indian innings in future. Virender Sehwag is yet to find his feet in ODI's. His record in ODI's have been far from convincing. So India have some problems to sort out in the top order. The return of Sachin will bolster their top order. But it is time India look for a likely replacement for the irreplaceable Sachin as he won't be around for long.

Much has been said of the performances of the icons, specially the senior ones: Dravid, VVS Laxman, Ganguly and Tendulkar. I will not venture into that discussion just yet. Instead, I will ask this. What will an icon-less IPL be like? Considering some of the owners' heavy-handed manner and the way things are going for the icons, I would speculate that not all of these folks will feature in the next installment.

Let us assume, for arguments sake, that neither of the above mentioned icons make it to the second season in any form. What would be the reaction of the masses? Especially the partisan ones - Mumbai and Kolkata. The Mumbai folks (or at least most of them) throng the IPL to watch Tendulkar and Kolkata to see their Maharaj. What happens to the other folk who go to these matches to see a Ganguly or a Dravid bat? Will these foks not turn up? Going by the attendance in the Ranji Trophy, an icon-less IPL will be a only a few grades more interesting to the masses. Yes, there will be Gilchrist fans and the McGrath fans, and they will bring some people to the stands, but these folk are the more educated cricket watchers, not the average Indian guy on the street who goes to watch a cricket match.

Even as I type this, I see the counter argument coming. One being that Indian cricket is in a state of flux where the seniors will slowly make way for deserving youngsters; that we need to be practical and one day or the other get used to an Indian team sans Tendulkar, Ganguly and Dravid; that the fans of the new recruits will take the place of today's masses. True, all valid arguments. However the issue is that all this takes time. You need several match-winning performances to get a fan following. Good looks will help too :). Consider Rohit Sharma, who gave us some very valuable runs in that T20 world cup match against South Africa. On the other hand you have Ishant Sharma - the find of the Aussie tour, the kid who troubled titan-esque Aussie captain Ponting. I would think Ishant has a bigger fan following than Rohit Sharma. On the other hand, Gautham Gambhir, who has figured in more matches than the Sharmas may have a smaller fan base. All this is of course speculation. The point that I'm trying to make is that, for the icon-less IPL season to succeed, it must be timed right. If not, it will shake the very foundation of the IPL. Lack of crowds will affect TV ratings, ad money, sponsorship, etc, and pinch the owner's pocket.

The owners may consider the icons as dead weight, but they bring the crowds at least for now. And they might need the icons more than they think, for this is India; we are mostly a crazy lot and cricket is a religion here. The owners, at least for the time being, better not mess with the Gods.

Here they are: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Capt), Yuvraj Singh (Vice-capt), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, Irfan Pathan, Robin Uthappa, Suresh Raina, S Sreesanth, Yusuf Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, R P Singh, Piyush Chawla and Pragyan Ojha.

My issues? Not including either one of Ganguly or Dravid (honestly, I would have like to see Dravid in). Neither are out of form, definitely not Dravid. He has scored over 300 runs in the IPL- that is mind you, only 16 short of Dhoni's run count - with an average around 30. The young team, preparing for the 2011 World Cup and that is fine, but I think India will do well to use some of the services of the war horses for they still have a year (if not two) of cricket left in them. Sad? Yes. Expected? Perhaps Yes. I still had a glimmer of hope. But I think I see the harsh truth only now. Dravid and Ganguly might have played the last ODIs of their career. Fellow blogger Soulberry, saw this coming much and bade goodbye to them (in ODIs) back in January. I could dwell on this for a while, but I will save that for another post.

Moving on to the rest of the squad. Going by his recent IPL outings and the last couple of ODIs Uthappa doesn't deserve a place. RP has been a bit shaky of late. As for the new inclusions Ohja and Yusuf, I haven't watched much of Ohja, so can't comment on him. I'm not sure Yusuf Pathan is as deserving as some of the Southern folk, esp, Chennai Super Kings' Badrinath (as Ottayan duly supports). Meanwhile couldn't help but feel sorry for Manoj Tiwary: one jet-lagged T20 innings goes poof and so does his India cap eh? Wonder what is the deal with Joginder Sharma? Why hasn't Dhoni be able to get him? He seems to have a lot of trust on the guy.

Anyway, I'm not very excited about this series. Call me old-fashioned, obstinate, or whatever else, but without Tendulkar, Ganguly or Dravid, the India spirt is missing, at least for me. I might take a break from Indian cricket and watch the Aus vs. WI or Eng vs. NZ. Damn my cable operator, I don't get Star cricket. Hope to find one soon that carries it.

From the team that won in Australia when India last played a ODI -- Harbhajan Singh will certainly not feature! He has had a ban slapped on him (pun totally intentional!).

Virender Sehwag feels that it would be fine for the young turks that have done well in the IPL to be considered for Team India ODI selection on the basis of their good IPL-showing. However, Dilip Vengsarkar, the Chairman of selectors is not one for making large-scale changes.

Having said that, it would be impossible to ignore the number of young cricketers that have put their hands up -- some more compellingly than others!

The Indian ODI squad that won in Australia included: MS Dhoni, Piyush Chawla, Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh, Dinesh Karthik, Praveen Kumar, Munaf Patel, Irfan Pathan, Suresh Raina, Virender Sehwag, Ishant Sharma, Rohit Sharma, Sreesanth, Sachin Tendulkar, Manoj Tiwary, Robin Uthappa, Yuvraj Singh, RP Singh

Of these, apart from Dinesh Kartik and Manoj Tiwary, who have not set the IPL on fire, and Harbhajan Singh, who is not available for selection, not many have gone "backwards" in terms of their chances. Although Dinesh Kartik did win a game for Delhi Daredevils, one probably felt that he had blown a few chances to make an impression along the way. Munaf Patel has had an outing that could best be described as Munafesque! Praveen Kumar has also not had a fantastic IPL. However, I do not think he would be dropped.

On the other hand, players like Piyush Chawla, Gautam Gambhir, Irfan Pathan, Suresh Raina, Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, Sreesanth, Robin Uthappa and RP Singh would have appeared to have strengthened their cases.

So, it would seem to me that the following will be retained:
Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, Robin Uthappa, Irfan Pathan, Piyush Chawla, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Suresh Raina, Sreesanth, RP Singh

That gives us a listof 14 players. I am assuming that Zaheer Khan is not considered. It may help India's chances if he --like Rahul Dravid, V. V. S. Laxman and Sourav Ganguly -- is asked to focus his energies on Test cricket!

Assuming that the selectors may select 2 more to add to the above list, the impressive bench could well boast

Yusuf Pathan
Shikar Dhawan
Yo Mahesh
Pragyan Ojha
P. Vijaykumar
Ashok Dinda
Manpreet Gony
Abhishek Nayar

Of these, I have been most impressed with Manpreet Gony and Yusuf Pathan and would possibly get my nod ahead of anyone else.

So, my Team India ODI team would be:
Sachin Tendulkar
Virender Sehwag
Gautam Gambhir / Robin Uthappa / Suresh Raina
Rohit Sharma
Yuvraj Singh
MS Dhoni
Irfan Pathan / Yusuf Pathan
Piyush Chawla
Praveen Kumar / Manpreet Gony
Ishant Sharma
Sreesanth / RP Singh

-- Mohan

Anyway... I know this story should perhaps be covered by someone else on our "staff," but I'm gonna write on it anyways. I've always kinda liked cricket, it's really entertaining when it's not extremely boring. I realize that is a tautology, but stick with me here for a second. Whenever cricket is on TV I always stop for like 5 seconds, watch the bowl, and then change it because I know nothing is gonna happen for a while. This will change all that. I'm hoppin on board this new Indian Premier League of cricket. If it gets enough publicity in the states I will totally pick a team to follow. I'm not gonna go too far out on a limb and guarantee that I become a huge fan (because I am lazy), but ya never know. The ladies love those replica cricket jerseys.

Basically, there is a new cricket league in India. The games are only about three hours long as opposed to whatever it was before. There are only 20 overs. I'm not going to get into the rules of cricket, but twenty overs means fast pace and no games that go on for days. This league definitely has promise; Sony already spent one billion dollars on the rights. The league is attracting all the best players, and people will watch anything when they know they are watching the best (hence why european soccer is way more successful, even in the US, than MLS soccer).

And if you don't think cricket can be exciting check this out, and this too, and this, and this.

Lastly, anything with the name "Premier League" sounds really cool so you have to check it out.

Kings XI Punjab (KXP) beat Mumbai Indians (MI) by one run and match was open till the final ball was bowled. KXP are now pretty much guaranteed a place in semis but chance of MI took some hit.

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) did a huge upset as they beat Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in a low-scoring affair. The match looked under control of CSK till 30^th over (Out of 40) but it slipped out in the final stretch.

These two results have thrown open the race for semifinal berths wide open. Suddenly, chances for Delhi Daredevils (DD) have improved as the other two contenders (CSK, MI) slipped. If DD can win the next two matches by a good margin (one is against MI), they will be guaranteed a place in semis. Being a DD supporter, I am looking forward to that. The remaining two matches of DD are today and on coming Saturday (May 24). It has rained a lot here today and we may not see full match today or even on Saturday. So, it is pretty much a lottery now for DD. Wishing Sehwag and Co all the best for today’s match against KKR.

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) also have an outside chance for semis but it looks pretty difficult for them now. Rajasthan Royals (RR) and KXP look certainty and CSK, MI, DD are fighting out for the remaining two spots.

With charectristic candour, Dhoni admitted that his team was a tad over-confident. With equally disarming honesty, Dravid acknowledged the relief at finally winning a game. Many of their previous 10 games were close, but that they have won only 3 of their 12 games must surely rankle the entire team. Steyn, Boucher, Misbah, Kumble.... everyone had a smile. And why not? Go Challengers! You still have the opportunity to salvage a wee bit of pride.

This result- and the outcome of the other game today (where Mumbai lost to Punjab by a solitary run)-means that it is still not entirely clear which two teams from among Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata will join Jaipur and Mohali in the semi-finals.

The next week or so promises to be even more interesting than the last few weeks have been. Watch this space as the mystery unfolds....

Sure Modi has carried out the business practice of milking the cash cow (Indian cricket) with text book precision. Nothing wrong with it, as in the competitive sporting environment that cricket survives; it was the right move so that the men who play the game could capitalize the support for the game to the fullest.

Personally I support the fact that cricketers should derive the financial benefit from such endeavors, especially the young domestic cricketers, who with their participation in the revolutionary league have achieved financial stability; an important component in the life of a professional cricketer.

But my biggest concern arises from the fact; is IPL big enough to encompass the entire humongous pool of aspiring cricketers from across India?

The million dollar question is will the proclaimed Moses of cricket look beyond commercial considerations and personal ego to help all the domestic players reap the benefit of his revolutionary concept?

City based league is a god given gift for an aspiring young cricketer & its benefit should pass on to one and all. For me the most heartening stories arising out of the IPL is the emergence of an Ashok Dhinda or a M.S. Ghoni. One of the leading dailies profiling the rise of Ghoni caught an interesting observation from Ghoni; he said that if it was not for Love Abhilish joining the ICL, he would have never made the cut into the Punjab Ranji team in turn not being considered for the IPL. So if Abhilish had not joined the ICL, IPL would have never seen the emergence of Ghoni.

This proves the point that either the IPL has to grow in size to accommodate all the players, or the BCCI has to recognize the ICL or more importantly its players. The first is difficult to achieve with the busy international commitment of the BCCI and its national team; it seems next to impossible to accommodate a window above 44 days.

Therefore in the best interest of all the domestic players the best thing the BCCI can do is recognize the ICL and derive benefits of its additional resources in making Indian cricket bigger and better.

After all for a Rayudu absorbed by ICL, a Venu Gopal has emerged for Hyderabad, for an Abu Nechim absorbed by the ICL, has seen the emergence of a Dhinda for Kolkata & the absorbing of an R Sathish by the ICL has seen the emergence of a Vidhyut Shivramakrishnan for Chennai.

SO will Mr. Moses live up to his name and walk the untested path of free economy in the world of cricket.