Today..

For everything else that is wrong with Shoaib Akhtar, the guy has his heart in the right place when it comes to batsmen

You don’t like batsmen...

I don’t... When I come charging in, the one thought is to **** them... I like being aggressive and don’t like batsmen who keep improving their average by batting against mediocre attacks on flat wickets... It’s a pity that there are so few genuinely quick bowlers... Batting has definitely become easy and ridiculous rules such as a free hit (in ODIs) after a foot-fault no ball are absurd... For God’s sake, don’t discourage fast bowlers.

Suresh Raina is on the mend

“I know it will be a tough fight, but it is good for me. I will be motivated to perform, and if I able to do so I know I will make my way back to the Indian team,” he says. As an afterthought he adds, “I know Kaif bhai and Veeru bhai are also are eager to make a comeback, the competition is getting tougher.”

So too is Manoj Tiwary

“Till this point, all that he has been doing is going through regular, light rounds of shadow practice, without kits and bat,” Tiwary’s coach said, adding: “But by next week, I hope he will have recovered properly enough to get back into full swing at the nets. The final call of course depends on Dr Wallace, with whom Manoj is constantly in touch.”

As is Irfan Pathan

It did cross my mind and I did make an extra effort to maintain a level head, to tell myself that this is reality and this is not, to know that this all looks good but will not last. Still, I did make mistakes… you take things for granted. You go along with the flow, think you're doing right but it might not be.

And here is Yuvraj Singh

The first three wickets had fallen quite early and it was important to hold the innings together… The ball had been seaming… Rahul and I had a good partnership and, then, (Mahendra Singh) Dhoni came to the wicket… His presence makes me comfortable as he can strike the ball hard and runs fast…

It is hard not to get enthused by the maturity shown by these kids. And for that reason alone, I feel good about India's cricketing future ( inspite of the BCCI).