Should be a cracking contest

Mumbai: Mohammad Kaif will lead a 14-member Rest of India team in the five-day Irani Cup cricket match against Mumbai at Rajkot from October 6 to 10.

The teams: Rest of India: Mohd. Kaif (captain), Parthiv Patel, Akash Chopra, Cheteshwar Pujara, Manoj Tiwari, S. Badrinath, Suresh Raina, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra, V. Yomahesh, Ranadeb Bose, Arjun Yadav.

Mumbai: Amol Muzumdar (captain), Wasim Jaffer, Sahil Kukreja, Ajinkya Rahane, Vinayak Mane, Prashant Naik, Hiken Shah, Ajit Agarkar, Vikrant Yelligatti, Iqbal Abdulla, Rajesh Verma, Dhaval Kulkarni, Avishkar Salvi, Omkar Gurav, Abhishek Nair.

Today...

There was much joy, hype, finger-pointing and attention-seeking, neither of which was unexpected, as India’s cricketers returned to Mumbai. As Kipling had hoped, we treat those two impostors, triumph and disaster, the same; with melodrama! And so people waited in the rain, in stifling humidity, in crowds with not an inch to move and they could not have been too different from the people who abused and heckled the cricketers six months ago. Maybe our much abused movies, with no subtle shades of character, with only black or white, know India better than the others!

Harsha Bhogle
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For a violent batsman, Dhoni appears to own the calm of a wartime surgeon, writes Rohit Brijnath
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Twenty20 attracts to a point because it’s not supposed to be taken too seriously. Losing doesn’t hurt as much and pleasure is found not only in winning. It’s like beach football, writes Rohit Brijnath.
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MUMBAI: Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) was forced on the backfoot a day after felicitating the Indian cricket team.

The NCP on Thursday tried to defend the presence of state ministers at Wankhede stadium, saying they were representing the Maharashtra government and not the party.
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Cricket facing ultimate test: to preserve the five-day game Simon Barnes
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Hunters become the hunted as bowling wolves are sent packing
In the third part of our series on the event that has changed how we view the game, our correspondent applauds today’s gladiators

David Fulton
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‘Dhoni’s calm from outside, very aggressive within’

- Whoever performs is going to play... It’s not a question of being a senior or a junior, says former Team India captain Sourav LOKENDRA PRATAP SAHI
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Shashank Manohar is BCCI President-elect
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Mumbai: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Thursday raised the annual contract fee to top-end players by Rs. 10 lakh, formed a large pool of 33 players, creating an additional group and rewarded almost every member of the Indian team on the tour of England and South Africa.
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Shaun Pollock is about to be dropped from the South African test cricket team - and the veteran seam bowler is not happy about it.
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‘Another game, another Team India’ Sandeep Dwivedi

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The BCCI may have stolen the thunder from the Indian Cricket League (ICL) by announcing its own Twenty20 league but Subhas Chandra, Chief of Essel Group bankrolling ICL, insists he is not intimidated by the BCCI.
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Tummy trouble puts Pietersen in frame for captaincyBy Stephen Brenkley
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Great win, but easy on the chest-thumping

World Twenty20 victors India need to beware of the gathering parasites if they are to prepare properly for the 2011 World Cup.

Dileep Premachandran
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Rohit Sharma, the Indian middle-order batsman, has been named as the replacement for Piyush Chawla, the legspinner, in the 15-man squad for the ODI series against Australia. He will join the team in time for the second ODI in Kochi.
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Lalchand Rajput, who was India's cricket manager during the ICC World Twenty20, was today retained for the post for the upcoming one-day series against Australia. ---
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A good spinner needs a ten-year apprenticeship'

Nagraj Gollapudi

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Nari Contractor, the former India captain, has been chosen for the CK Nayudu lifetime achievement award, the highest honour the Indian board can bestow on a former player. It will be presented to him in November 2007.

and finally

BANGALORE: Australian captain Ricky Ponting realised the downside of being a celebrity yesterday.

At a function organised by ING Vysya Bank, to raise money for charity through an initiative called ‘Run Ricky Run’, Ponting was caught on the wrong foot by a maniac.

It was an event to auction Ponting’s photos and a man wanted to pose with Ponting. The Aussie captain politely obliged. However, he was taken aback when the man tried to forcefully hug Ponting and kiss him on his cheek. Ponting shoved him away courteously.

The Aussies are in town

and quite frankly, I do not think anyone noticed. And this has not gone down well with the Australians.

So peeved are they that Andrew Symonds was sufficiently moved to state

"Something has been sparked inside of me, watching them carry on over the last few days," he said before tomorrow's opening game of the seven-match series in Bangalore.

"We have had a very successful side and I think watching how we celebrate and how they celebrate, I think we have been pretty humble in the way we have gone about it.

"And personally, I think they have got far too carried away with their celebrations. It has definitely sparked passion inside of us. It has certainly spiced it up as well."

Ah Roy! The last time you opened your mouth, you had this to say

"It's a frustrating game because you can be beaten by the lesser sides and they have to be good for a shorter period of time," Symonds said. "That's why he [Gilchrist] is probably finding it frustrating and I'd probably have to agree with him as well.

"We realised early on that the shorter the game is the bigger chance of the lesser sides beating the bigger sides. So I suppose it means you have to play well for your full 20 overs. Over the course of three or four overs the game can turn on its head which is why people are enjoying it so much. It doesn't become such a one-sided affair and the underdog can [come out on top]."

Spot on old chap! Especially true given that you have yet to nail down a permanent place in the Test side. What with having to be good over shorter periods of time and all.

Anyways, I digress.

Ricky Ponting, never short of an opinion on anything ( English captains being a particular favorite) had this to say

"We've got to look at the seven games we have here in India and we know what we have to do to win on the subcontinent. If anything now, a bit of the pressure will come back on the Indians."

and

"Cricket in general is about how much pressure you can apply on the opposition; that's what we try and do all the time, whether batting or bowling," he said. "That won't change in this tournament and it won't change because we've played a couple of Twenty20 games. We'll have lots of individual plans for their players and it's about us being able to execute those over 100 overs. That means they are under pressure and we're in control. That's what any type of cricket is about for the Australian team."

which, coming from an Australian captain, is surprising to say the least.

Surprising because of two counts

1. Playing in India is a high pressure situation at the best of times for the Indian team. By emphasizing on that point and downplaying the success in the World Twenty20 championship, by setting up the debate as "India has more to lose than Australia" Ponting has, intentionally or otherwise, positioned India as the top dog going into Saturday's match.

2. Australia is currently handicapped by the absence of Ponting, Hussey, Watson and Bracken ( 3 hamstrings and a baby). Of their pace attack, only Lee has bowled in India before ( during the Champions Trophy). By talking of pressure and the Australian way and execution and sundry items in between ( including India's team selection), Ponting is,imho, trying to divert the focus from the man to the reputation. Hoping that India bite.

All of which must be music to the ears of an young captain leading his side for the first time in ODIs.

PS: - This gem, from Peter Lalor, in which he uses Ponting and statesman in the same sentence and other such inanities is worth a read!.

Today..

The modifications in ODI rules, as proposed by the ICC in June 2007, could be implemented early if the Indian and Australian captains and boards agree. The rules are supposed to come in force on October 1 but the seven-ODI series between India and Australia starts on the September 29.
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From no-hopers to world champions - all it took was two weeks for India to traverse the journey. A new captain, a young team, and lack of experience in this format were all touted as reasons why India could not win, but these were weaknesses only on paper; out on the field, each of these turned out to be strengths: Mahendra Singh Dhoni was vibrant and positive in the field, backing his hunches at key moments; the young team added oodles of energy to fielding, while the lack of experience in playing this game freed them of excess baggage and allowed them to learn quickly and formulate customised strategies which they believed would work for them: a prime example was the decision to bat first, even as most experts suggested chasing was the way to go.
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After they had dominated vast tracts of the match, darkness suddenly appeared to be setting on India's World Twenty20 dream. Matthew Hayden and Andrew Symonds, two of the hardest hitters of a cricket ball ever to swagger on to a field, were making mincemeat of the bowling, and Australia needed just 60 from six overs with wickets in hand. For Mahendra Singh Dhoni it was time to take a call, one that would decide the outcome of the game either way.
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After the disastrous, 50-over World Cup in the West Indies where the death of a coach, an absurdly stretched-out schedule, exorbitantly priced tickets, and the early exit of India and Pakistan meant that everything that could go wrong, did go wrong, the ICC Twenty20 World Cup has been an administrator's dream.
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Give Dhoni captaincy in all forms: Kapil

- A TELEGRAPH SPECIAL
- India’s World Cup-winning captain on the Twenty20 triumph LOKENDRA PRATAP SAHI
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The morning after they lifted the inaugural ICC World Twenty20, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni told his ecstatic teammates that they should not get carried away by success.
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The game now has something for everyone Nandita Sridhar
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New Delhi: India’s triumph in the final of the Twenty20 World Cup may have created a hysteria but the Cricket Board had almost scuttled it when they voted against this slam-bang format in an ICC meeting.
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Twenty20 triumph has revitalised world game By Simon Briggs
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`I'm converted to Twenty20 Peter Roebuck
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ICC has Twenty20 vision for America David Hopps
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Snobbery, and Pole-Dancing Lawrence Booth
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Youth, in conventional wisdom, is seen to be impetuous. But youth is also the fount of energy; it is the sign of the future. Ignoring youth is to embrace obsolescence. It is a welcome sign, therefore, that the new icon of Indian cricket is the youthful Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who, in his debut as India’s captain, won the first Twenty20 trophy
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Young Indians show the way Luke Alfred
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Nothing succeeds like success. Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led young brigade of Indian cricketers have become the 'darling' of not only cricket crazy fans but also of the institutions they represent.
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It was a road rage of sorts and that too at midnight when Champagnes jizzed out, all in the open, on the busiest of Delhi routes. There were hundreds of the gangs of boys and groups of girls all mounted on their motors parading around the city and marching through the India Gate where people, old and young were all set to welcome and cheer to share that rare moment of achievement which the boys in the blue got for cricked fed India.
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Minutes after Shoaib Malik’s team lost the Twenty20 World Cup final to India in Johannesburg, Pakistan’s angry cricket lovers burnt effigies of Younis Khan and Shahid Afridi to vent their anger.
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A quick fix? How the cricket world was turned upside down

In the first of two major pieces marking the end of the cricket season, Stephen Brenkley argues that the huge success of World Twenty20 is not necessarily good news for the sport in the long term
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The first of a four-part series looking at the World Twenty20 tournament and how it has changed the face of cricket for ever
Richard Hobson, One-Day Cricket Correspondent in Johannesburg
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A cricket final for the ages (COLUMN) Alex Parker

Whose Team?

What are Messers Pawar, Modi, Shah and Shukla doing in the team photo?

How is it that when the team is in strife, it is not the Boards problem but when successes come along, Board dignitaries want their mugs front and center?

And what does one say to the 2 Million Dollars awarded by the Board to the team? And what about Lalit Modi and his impromptu award of a Porsche for Yuvraj Singh? Or the 1 crore announced by the Board for Yuvraj Singh?

Carpetbaggers.

Bottle

A series loss in England, with all of India's problems ( batting. bowling and fielding) coming to the fore was not the best prelude to the World Twenty20 tournament for India.

The washout against Scotland did not help matters either.

For the average Indian supporter, the portends were not good.

And then the match against Pakistan. 1 run to get with 2 balls to go. For all money, India was on its way out of the tournament unless they beat New Zealand and did so handsomely.

And then, magic!

19.5	Sreesanth to Misbah-ul-Haq, no run, short of a length outside off stump, Misbah tries to cut but gets beaten
The field comes in, tension writ on Sreesanth's face.
19.6	Sreesanth to Misbah-ul-Haq, OUT, it's a tie! Misbah can't get it away and hits it towards cover, Yuvraj runs in, picks up the ball and throws it to the non-strikers end, Sreesanth whips off the bails with Misbah well short of his crease, delirious scenes at Kingsmead

Which may have been a flash in the pan or Pakistan being Pakistan. And the bowl-out was frankly ridiculous.

And then the old Indian failings came to the fore in the game against New Zealand. 5-91 was allowed to become 190 all out. And 76-1 became 163 - 9.

Normal order was restored. Or so it seemed.

Against England, Yuvraj Singh turned it on ( or should we thank Freddie Flintoff?). 6 sixes in the 19th over was just sufficient to get India over the line ( India 218 England 200).

Things were looking up but the bowling had yet to come to the party. And India had not shown anything substantial for India's supporters ( me!) that they were the real deal.

The clash against South Africa changed that perception. India batted to a plan, did not panic when the going got tough, Rohit Sharma put his hand up with the bat and India reached a fighting score of 154.

Inspite of helpful conditions, there was always the fear that the Indian bowlers would cock this up. They did not.

And the most heartening thing was that the guys displayed big game temperament. They sensed the ebbs and flows of the game better, they played the big moments better.

The fielding was electric, ditto the bowling.

But there was still Australia.

Its been 3 days since the Australia game and I have watched the match ( and its re runs) about a dozen times now and I still cannot fathom how India stared down Australia.

And now this.

19.3	Joginder Sharma to Misbah-ul-Haq, OUT, India! It's all over here! Full and on the stumps. Misbah goes for the scoop shot over short fine-leg. That is a risky shot to play with only 6 needed from 4 balls. Straight up in the air and Sreesanth takes the catch. India have won by 5 runs in the inaugural ICC World Twenty20
	Misbah-ul-Haq c Sreesanth b Joginder Sharma 43 (51m 38b 0x4 4x6) SR: 113.15
6 needed from 4 balls now
19.2	Joginder Sharma to Misbah-ul-Haq, SIX, full-toss outside the off, that's not the place to bowl at this time. Misbah is cool as ice, lines this up and pounds the ball straight back down the ground. This is a baseball style home run. Such incredible hitting under pressure. You have to give it to Misbah
12 from 5 needed

More thoughts on the game and India's performance later.. For now, its time for the bubbly !

I've paid my dues -
Time after time -
I've done my sentence
But committed no crime -
And bad mistakes
I've made a few
I've had my share of sand kicked in my face -
But I've come through

We are the champions - my friends
And we'll keep on fighting - till the end -
We are the champions -
We are the champions
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions - of the world -

I've taken my bows
And my curtain calls -
You brought me fame and fortuen and everything that goes with it
-
I thank you all -

But it's been no bed of roses
No pleasure cruise -
I consider it a challenge before the whole human race -
And I ain't gonna lose -

We are the champions - my friends
And we'll keep on fighting - till the end -
We are the champions -
We are the champions
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions - of the world -

PS :- At the end of it all, somebody needs to teach the Indians how to dance.. They are horrid :).