Today..

But as he bowled just short from over the wicket, India’s most successful batsman on bouncy foreign pitches misread the length. He came forward and then, realising his mistake, seemed to hesitate whether to play the ball or leave it alone. By the time he had decided to move his head away, it was too late.

A blow by blow account of the Blow.

Sharad Pawar, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president, has called a meeting to discuss women's cricket structure in New Delhi on Saturday.

And though the men's player contracts issue is likely to overshadow it, the meeting is likely to have a heated argument over the administrative structure of women's cricket.

About time too.

Thankfully, Team India captain Rahul Dravid’s injury isn’t serious, but there would have been a crisis had it actually been so.

For the want of a vice captain, a series...

“Our treasurer N. Srinivasan and vice-president (Central) Shashank Manohar will form the two-member committee that will look into the contracts issues after the Bangladesh tour,” said Rajeev Shukla, vice-president (East) after the meeting.

Here is a question -just how many committees can our "Honorary" Vice Presidents be part of? Shashank Manohar is on 3 at last count ( including the hunt for India's next coach), ditto N.Srinivasan.

Given that the job profile is "Honorary, how much justice can these worthies do to their responsibilities?

And where does the BCCI draw the line with respect to the number of concurrent committees at any one time?

The Indian team, unfortunately, is an assortment of variegated individuals: most think differently, talk differently, feel differently, and even chase different goals.

Indeed, it is not very often that Team India gets down to chase the same dream. Until that changes, we can only expect sparks of individual brilliance and sporadic victories.

Which does not quite add up.

I cannot quite understand the imperative for everyone to be homogeneous. We, as a nation and as a societ, are a diverse group.

And this is reflected in our cricket.

Our cricketing culture, our approach to cricket, the thought process associated with the game, are all a reflection of Indian society.

India's cricket cannot be divorced from India itself.

And while it is wonderful to think in Utopian terms, reality is a bitch.

We can either sit back and harp on India not playing as a team because of our differences, or we can marshal those differences as a motivating force.

Everybody plays cricket for different reasons. If those reasons can be channeled to drive the individual, and thereby the team, why not rejoice in the fact that we are different but still pulling together?

“Swapnil and Iqbal have the strength to go a long way. Both have variation in their bowling, control in their loops. They just need to be consistent. I will rate Iqbal higher than Swapnil because of his line and length. But Swapnil is not far off the mark. Iqbal has already achieved success for Mumbai, Swapnil may also achieve similar success for Baroda,” said National Cricket Academy coach Padmakar Shivalkar, who was a left-arm spinner himself.

I am impressed and a tad overwhelmed ( tears of joy and all that).

The elder brother also feels that there’s too much media attention on his brother. “It is better for him if he’s not hyped too much in the media. He’s young and you never know but if something unadvisable just pops out of his mouth, he can be in trouble with the Board.”

So young, so talented, so afraid.

For now, we hope that the tall man in Kolkata can work wonders with the Indian team just the way yoga is believed to do in most cases.

I hope not.. An 8 -10 hour Yoga session spread over 4 days is not going to do wonders. What can make the difference is if the players follow their routines regularly and in earnest.

If they do, we may see some changes over the next year. If they don't, its business as usual. Either ways, the onus is on the players.

And can the Indian media please get off the "wonders" bandwagon. ( our approach to cricket anyone?)

Sharath's career spanned 15 years and he was the first Tamil Nadu player — and so far the only one — to have played 100 Ranji matches.

S. Sharath retires.

"It's difficult to say. I'm 35, I can go to 37 and then I may think I'll push it for one more year. I'm not thinking far ahead, just about one or two years then if everything goes right I'll just keep on playing. If everything goes wrong, I'll say `Thank you very much,"'

Murali talks retirement.

After having taken one step forward, under John Wright and Chappell, Indian cricket has just taken two steps backward. But who cares, as long as we play with josh.

Gee.. This is constructive.. Damned if you do, damned if you don't?

Young Ishant Sharma, the tallest man on view, was clearly having a problem in bending down in time to pick up the ball.

On a couple of occasions, he took his eyes off the ball, resulting in misfields and his throwing technique was so poor that the ball mostly eluded the wicketkeeper.

Ishant tends to throw the ball with a high-arm action and as a result fails to get any real power behind it. He needs help to rectify it quickly.

Now, this is constructive.. A problem identified, a solution proposed.

Also, and this is important, I have met Ganguly, Tendulkar, Dravid personally for an astro-numero-dice session. From their physiognomy (a person’s features, expression, facial characteristics), lines on the palms, shape of fingers and Western astrology (I know their birth data), I confirmed that they would do well. I still stand by it. Therefore, at least till 2008, there should be no question of retirement. However, 2009 is a different matter.

Astro-numero-dice session? Please, sir, can I have some more?

One of their overseas players hails from the north-west frontier of Pakistan; that is Younis Khan, who not only scored 308 runs in the match, but yesterday achieved a career best with the ball;

Younis Khan Superstar.
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Finally, an Ideas Exchange with Ramachandra Guha - fascinating read.

All of you have a wonderful Weekend. Tally Ho!