Excuse me,

But if Anand Vasu and Nagraj Gollapudi think the Mumbai crowd are out of line for chanting "Aussies suck", they are welcome to join me in watching the Yankees play the Red Sox, preferably at Fenway.

Or is this just another example of bashing Mumbai because it is the fashionable thing to do these days?

And talking of Mumbai, Andrew Symonds has the last word

I'M not too sure who's more frustrated and disappointed about the controversy of the past week, me or the locals here in Mumbai.

Given the incessant calls to my hotel room, it's clear a large contingent of Indian cricket fans have been affected by the recent furore surrounding me and the crowds in India.

For the past three days, the phone in my hotel room hasn't stopped ringing.

I've had doctors, bankers and local businessmen all on the line desperate to apologise.

SHAME

(picture courtesy foxsports.com.au)

Symonds racially abused again

The Rahul Dravid conundrum

Rahul Dravid has not been amongst the runs. And today's effort ( 7 in 13 balls ) definitely did not help his cause. And he is India's most valuable player in the longer format of the game.

So here are my two cents.

Between the end of the Australia series and the start of the Ranji season, there is a gap of 16 days ( not including the Twenty20 thrashfest).

The Ranji Trophy begins November 3. The first two games that Karnataka play are

Sat 3 - Tue 6 Group A - Mumbai v Karnataka

Thu 15 - Sun 18 Group A - Karnataka v Himachal Pradesh

The first Test against Pakistan begins on November 22.

Dravid should skip the Pakistan ODI series and instead, make himself available for Karnataka in the Ranji Trophy.

The break from the game coupled with time spent in the middle in the longer form of the game should do his batting a world of good.

And God knows we will need him to come good in India's next couple of campaigns and more!

India lose

and I, for one, am glad we did.

Against England, a series which would have been ideal to blood some of the players warming the bench, we focussed too much on winning the series.

And since winning the series meant fronting up our best team, which translates to playing those guys with most caps under thier belt, we missed out on an opportunity.

And we would have done the same in the current series against Australia if we had won the game at Nagpur. And in the process, reduced Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthick and Subramanian Badrinath to ferrying drinks and warming the bench.

The last ODI at Mumbai is the first such opportunity available to us to play the bench warmers. And with the general approval of the paying public.

It will be interesting to see the choices the selectors and the team think tank make.