Is Thilina Kandamby

the new Asanka Gurusinha?

Thinking aloud

Consider this - Phil Hughes signs for Middlesex. Middlesex win the English domestic T20 Championship. And thusly qualify for the Champions League. With New South Wales already having qualified for the Champions League, where does that leave the rules that have governed every sport since the beginning of time, that you can only play for one team in a competition at a time.
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Consider this - Phil Hughes signs for Middlesex and has a splendid season in the lead up to the Ashes. Which wins him a Baggy Green.However, in one of the county matches in the lead up to the Ashes, he injures himself. Will County cricket be then held responsible for the injury and will it rake up the same hysteria the IPL has generated?
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And finally, how do you reconcile "Youngsters obsessed with IPL might prove to be shooting stars." with "Further down the track India will produce hundreds of brilliant cricketers of its own." when it is the IPL that is the platform for the hundreds of brilliant cricketers to parade their wares.

And isnt "Far from working their way through the ranks, players may be tempted to seek short cuts. Vivid performances in local one-day matches can catch the eye of IPL scouts scouring the world for match winners." the way to go when "FEARS are growing that Australia's state cricket system is clogging up with ageing players who are preventing the next generation from making their mark in first-class cricket."

A right farce

This

Hopefully, the Chennai wicket wont be the joke Rajkot is. And Subramanian Badrinath will show a little more enterprise ( and a little more confidence in his bowlers).

And, in the meanwhile, can someone point out what mitigating circumstances prevented Rajat Bhatia and Virat Kohli from batting for their side?

Ouch!

"Teams that are outclassed in five-day matches and even 50-over games are much more competitive in Twenty20. India offer a good example of this. The shorter the format of the game the more dangerous they become," Ponting said.

"Some of their batsmen -- Yuvraj Singh and M S Dhoni are classic examples -- can hurt you more in shorter games, because their is less opportunity to find ways of picking apart their techniques," he while adding that "Form in Twenty20 really doesn't count for all that much".

Having said so, Ponting also dismissed India's successful journey to the T20 world title, attributing it to more luck and little skills.

"I am not as cynical about the game as I once was, but some negatives still nag at me. There is so much luck involved in this shortened form of the game; it's not always going to be the best team that wins.

"I guess that's true of all sport but it seems to be accentuated here... Little wonder, then, that the tournament has been unpredictable, with many locals stunned that previously unbeaten South Africa was eliminated so comfortably by India," he said.

With this background in mind, here is achettup