ooh boo hoo

Kanishkaa Balachandran

Perhaps it's hard to expect too much out of a young side, with a few pushed into the big league earlier than expected. Raman spoke of the happy dressing-room atmosphere and a few younger players, in turn, spoke about his positive influence. As Raman put it, with a young side, the only way, is up.

If Ms Balachandran could take her blinkers off, she will have noticed that the Mumbai side is not that far older or experienced than the Tamil Nadu side.

And last season, when all and sundry were beating Mumbai ( a far less experienced and as young a side as Tamil Nadu's) nobody shed a tear for us. Au contraire.

If a team combines to total 420 runs in 153.2 overs in two innings spread over 3 days, and this at home, maybe they are not good enough to be playing at this level.

super stuff, this

Abhishek Nayar pounds a 85 ball century as Mumbai take the first innings lead against Tamil Nadu.

W.V Raman on L.Balaji's comeback. The sooner the better. The sight of Balaji in Pakistan making the ball talk was a sight to behold.

And finally, MoYo faces an arbitration hearing a day before the first test. The timing could not be more opportune for Team India.

The BCCI owes the ICL bigtime!

Sepia Tinted memories

It goes with the territory. In fact, it's so predictable it should be listed on the itinerary.Some well known ex-player starts the talk, then one of the current team chips in with his view. Depending on your view, its either psychological warfare (or to give it its portentous name, mental disintegration), cheap points-scoring, or the same old bullshit.

John Wright, Indian Summers

So the Aussies have started the talking the talk.. First it was Andrew Symonds and his not so intelligent comments on India celebrating its wins and such like, and now it is Mr Greg Chappell. The order is different but the import is the same.

Either that or Mr Chappell is in revisionist mode.How else does one explain this comment

"We tried to change it to move away from an old based team, to get some youth and some young legs and some strong arms into the team as well as some good batting and bowling.

"But unfortunately it's been resisted, actively resisted from within the team and without so we're going to finish up with an old team going to the World Cup.

"On paper it looks good but I'm not sure it's going to get the results the people of India want,"

and how does it marry in with the team India actually selected for the World Cup

Rahul Dravid
Sachin Tendulkar
Ajit Agarkar
MS Dhoni
Sourav Ganguly
Harbhajan Singh
Dinesh Karthik
Zaheer Khan
Munaf Patel
Irfan Pathan
Virender Sehwag
Sreesanth
Robin Uthappa
Yuvraj Singh

and the circumstances in which the team was chosen ( a free fall from the time of the West Indies tour, a majority of the team in pre season form, Irfan Pathan injured and without any match play, Yuvraj injured and Suresh Raina in no form to speak of).

And all of that is fine...

Because when you have sepia tinted glasses on, the past looks so much rosier..

Why not?

Cricketers do it all the time - without degrees in mass communications or public speaking, they front up as commentators and columnists.

An MBA graduate with no prior experience in commentating or cricket has gone on to become one of the best in the business.

Politicians become BCCI presidents, Industrialists go onto to head state associations.

So, why not this MBA graduate as coach of the India team?

"Further, he has written that he did not think it was essential to play cricket to coach a team. He said that it required a different kind of skill to manage the team,"

I like him already!

Keeping woes..

Okay, so we did not quite eviscerate them the way we should have ( what business did India have not defending a total of 320 odd against Pakistan at Mohali ? It is on such games that the momentum of an entire series is changed) but, having won at Kanpur, India has a leg up on Pakistan.

And there is more good news

Kamran Akmal's continuing descent behind the stumps has forced the Pakistan team management to call for another wicketkeeper to boost their squad for the remainder of the current tour against India. Though not officially confirmed yet, Sarfraz Ahmed, the promising young wicketkeeper, will be the man going to India.

Now, I do not expect the new keeper to make it for the next ODI at Gwalior.

Which gives India the window of opportunity to let Kamran Akmal know exactly where he stands in the Pakistan pecking order.

And also an opportunity to have a go at the new keeper whenever he dons the gloves ( hopefully the last ODI at Jaipur).

And India should go as hard as possible at both Akmal and whoever the new keeper is during the ODIs themselves.

Because that sets up the Tests. And with a keeper with shaky confidence going into the Tests, Pakistan are already on the back foot.

Now, can India step up to the plate and deliver?