Mumbai's Captain speaks

"Bombay cricket ... isey ek baar chakh liya toh chakh liya (If you have tasted it once, you are addicted for life)"

Now for the real thing

India goes into the first test with injuries to Sreesanth and RP Singh. And so Munaf finds a place in the XIV. Thing is, Munaf does not inspire confidence in either his bowling coach or the audience, given his propensity to break down mid match.

Given that we cannot go into a game with just 3 bowlers ( what with the workload involved in Test cricket), why not go into the game with just the single pacer and three spinners?

If required, Sachin and Saurav can be called upon to take the shine off the new ball before the spinners come in. Heck, even Anil Kumble can open with the new ball if he so wishes.

And the spinners pick themselves. The Kotla is Kumble's happy hunting ground. And given Pakistan's troubles with Paul Harris' left arm spin in the recently concluded series, Murali Karthik picks himself. And given Harbhajan Singh's propensity to bowl containing lines in both the Twenty20 and fifty over games, he can be called on to be the stock bowler.

And we will also be playing our best XI. Think about it - a batting lineup that bats all the way to number XI and one in which every batsman puts a premium on his wicket. And a bowling lineup that , on current form, is the best we can field for this game.
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I take umbrage to this statement by Anil Kumble - "Moving forward, he'll have to probably wait a little bit more to become a regular member in the Test squad. It's unfortunate with the circumstances that we have for this game. That's the way it is."

Well, its not.

VVS Laxman has scores of 0,38, 18 and 26 in 4 completed innings in the Ranji Trophy for Hyderabad. Throw in a stiff back into the mix and that begs the question - how is VVS an automatic selection over Yuvraj, who is in the form of his life?

And the "class is permanent" argument does not wash, unless there is a suggestion that VVS has more class than Yuvraj and that, somehow, this translates into better Test performance, form be damned.

And I have not yet mentioned their fielding :)
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And finally,this gem from Shoaib Malik

"I think India would be at a disadvantage, having a new captain who has to start afresh while I have been leading the side for quite a while. Though he [Kumble] is a great bowler I think we would start with an advantage."

If ever proof was required that Mr Malik's IQ is no greater than 2, there it is.

Second "slip"

99.4 Clark to Sangakkara, OUT, OMG! he is gone and he looks unhappy with the decision. It was banged in short, on the off stump line, Sangakkara misses to connect with his pull, the ball hit his left shoulder, then on to the helmet and it popped up for Ponting to 'catch' it at second slip. Rudi Koertzen has terminated a fabulous knock. Pity.

Now you know why batsmen dont take the fielder's word when a catch is taken Mr"Murali's just admitted he nicked that one but it would've been nice if he'd walked".

Go Figure!

After 75 years, the Indian cricket board has finally decided to dump the system of having national selectors working on an “honorary” basis - starting this year-end. From October 1, the present team of five selectors, led by former India captain Dilip Vengsarkar, will get Rs 50,000 per Test and Rs 25,000 per one-day international they attend. However, this is a temporary arrangement, till Vengsarkar’s team completes its tenure by September 2008 - one of the five selectors, Sanjay Jagdale, finishes his term this year. After that the BCCI hopes to have in place an annual retainership package for selectors who would no longer be elected, but appointed by an experts’ panel. Currently, the selectors get a blanket “fee” of Rs 5,000 per day - for every match, if it’s a one-day game - and an overall compensation of Rs 7,000 towards “incidental expenses” for every assignment, Test or one-day. For domestic matches, the “TA/DA” system will continue, for now.

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The BCCI and the media need better interaction

The BCCI's decision not to allow the Chairman of Selectors to interact with the media after a Selection Committee meeting was inevitable after what happened recently. When the Chairman is asked whether it was personal enmity that led to a certain omission, then the BCCI would naturally say "Enough is enough," and see that the Chairman or, for that matter, any selector, is not subjected to such an ordeal.

BCCI’s guidelines to the selectors

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has asked the five national selectors to strictly adhere to a seven-point guideline

Indian board seeks to squeeze the selectors

The shadow-boxing between the Board of Control for Cricket in India and the national selectors has escalated with the Indian board issuing a seven-point diktat that seeks to curtail the jurisdiction of the selectors. While the move is widely seen to be aimed at reining in Dilip Vengsarkar, the chairman of the selectors, there are provisions, particularly the one banning selectors from accompanying the team on foreign tours, that have caused dismay among his colleagues.

BCCI, selectors on collision course

The Indian cricket board's attempt to gag the national selectors has reached a flashpoint. An immediate solution may not emerge soon enough, but the board and the five wise men are clearly on collision course.

Gag Sunny, Ravi too: selectors

The war of words over the BCCI gag order on selectors continues. Within days of the Indian Board putting a full stop to chairman Dilip Vengsarkar’s newspaper columns, comes a counter. It is learnt that the selectors have contended that the gag should be applied to all the former cricketers who are in the BCCI fold.

Mutiny?

In an unprecedented revolt against the cricket board’s policy to ban national selectors from writing columns, three selectors yesterday threatened to quit their posts if the BCCI persisted with the gag order

Gaekwad, More flay BCCI

Former BCCI selection committee chairman Kiran More and Aunshuman Gaekwad have come down heavily on the BCCI for issuing guidelines for selectors.

Selectors upset, but not quitting

The national selectors are upset with some of the decisions recently taken by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), but none has threatened to resign as was the talk late on Monday.

Rajput ruled out for Australia tour

Even as the BCCI debates over who the next full-time head coach would be, atleast one candidate could soon be out of the reckoning. Interim cricket manager Lalchand Rajput has been handed a letter 're-appointing' him as the coach of the Indian U-19 team by the BCCI. Rajput's term will be effective from December 20 till the end of the U-19 World Cup in March, 2008.

Selectors fume at BCCI gag order

Confirming the guidelines, board secretary Niranjan Shah told HT: “It is only to have a system... And make sure they follow domestic cricket also properly.” He said if the selectors did not heed the advice, it would be reported to the board president. He did not specify what action would be taken.

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Two pieces of prose

Take a bow, Sfx and Osman!

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?

Positives

from the just concluded Mumbai - Karnataka Ranji game

1. Mumbai 3 pts Karnataka 1
2. Anil Kumble is DEFINITELY not India captain material irrespective of what Sanjay Manjrekar says.
3. Rahul Dravid worked himself into some semblance of form.Here's hoping that he can pile on the runs against Himachal. There will be nothing better going into the first test against Pakistan than the knowledge that Rahul Dravid is stroking the ball as well as he ever did.

And finally, what a man!

Anil Kumble's captaincy

and why he wont be getting my vote for India captain.

First reason

	R Vinay Kumar	15	5	37	0	2.46
	NSC Aiyappa	13	2	43	2	3.30	(6nb)
	B Akhil	12	1	45	0	3.75
	A Kumble	22	2	85	1	3.86	(2nb)
	SB Joshi	20	1	67	3	3.35
	C Raghu	3	0	20	0	6.66

Despite being not the best bowler on view, Anil Kumble bowled more overs than others on the second day.
Add to this the fact that he brought himself on as early as the 13th over and the warnings signs are already there that he is going to over bowl himself in the game.

Reason 2

Fall of wickets1-118 (Jaffer, 33.5 ov), 2-121 (Rahane, 34.5 ov), 3-125 (Kukreja, 35.2 ov), 4-173 (Muzumdar, 52.6 ov), 5-217 (Nayar, 59.3 ov), 6-231 (Powar, 61.4 ov), 7-274 (Naik, 79.4 ov)

When defending 195, how does a team allow the opposition to get onto a 100 plus run opening partnership?

And when you have the opposition down at 4/173 and then 6/231 with only the tail to follow, what on God's green earth are the opposition doing still batting at the end of the day's play?

The one thing that particularly upset me about Rahul Dravid's captaincy was his innate ability to let the game drift.

The inability to force the issue and to hold on to the initiative is a particular failing of Indian captains and from what has been on display so far, Anil Kumble is neither better nor worse than his predecessors.

Great bowler he is, but captain he is not.

And finally, can someone this explain to me

Vijay Bharadwaj, Karnataka's coach, wore a rueful expression at the end of the day but refused to criticise the bowlers, saying that the pitch had eased up considerably. "It has gone flatter. I won't blame my bowlers."

How does a wicket go from a first day rank turner with all signs of not lasting the distance to becoming a "flatter" wicket the very next day?

Sudhir Naik believes that the Karnataka bowlers did not give the ball enough revolutions to purchase turn and that is the difference between the two teams. And that makes more cricketing sense than "It has gone flatter. I won't blame my bowlers."

I mean, seriously, is this the best explanation Vijay Bharadwaj has for his team squandering away the advantage?

T minus 1

MUMBAI, November 2: Rahul Dravid gets a great chance to rediscover his golden touch with the bat when he turns out for Karnataka in their opening Elite Division Group A Ranji Trophy cricket tie against holders Mumbai starting here from Saturday.
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It's time for spin at the Wankhede

The Preview by Sriram Veera at the Wankhede Stadium

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Two coaches, different routes, same destination

Sriram Veera at the Wankhede Stadium

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Rahul Dravid gets a chance to rediscover his golden touch with the bat when he turns out for Karnataka in their opening Elite Division group A Ranji Trophy tie against holders Mumbai starting here Saturday.

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Mumbai’s campaign began on the wrong foot in 2006-07, Bengal gaining the initiative and first innings lead at the Eden Gardens in the season opener, then bounced back to take the title. The Ranji Trophy champion faces another test of character, confronted by Karnataka a season later at the Wankhede stadium.
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Defending champions Mumbai are starting the season on a better note than they did last year. They now have a regular coach and captain at helm, a couple of senior internationals in their ranks and four home games on the trot. But still, their opponents - Karnataka - may just have the edge in the Ranji season opener tomorrow, with two super stars of Indian cricket, Anil Kumble and Rahul Dravid, in their ranks
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Mumbai all-rounder Abhishek Nayar recounts his dream season last year and talks about his plans for the coming one
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Play & learn
For the young Mumbai side that’ll be the mantra as they face Dravid, Kumble

What is he happy about?

His team just got blown away by the Pakistanis but that has not stopped Vijay Dahiya from "being happy with his side's start to the season".

Well, good for you Mr Dahiya, but do you realize that you and your team have handed the depleted Pakistanis the initiative on a gold platter? Instead of setting the tone for the rest of the series, you and your "boys" have managed to do the exact opposite.

And if you keep up this attitude going for the rest of the Ranji season, the Plate League beckons.

Let battle commence

Mumbai

Mumbai will look to avoid Railways' and UP's fate © Cricinfo Ltd

Railways, the 2004-05 champions, are currently languishing in the Plate League; UP, their successors, just about avoided relegation last season. Mumbai, defending champions this year, would look to undo the dubious trend prevalent over the last two years: of champions losing their form completely. Mumbai have already played two matches this season, beating Karachi Urban in the Mohammad Nissar Trophy, but losing outright to Rest of India in the Irani Trophy. On display were flashes of exciting new talent but also some phases of ordinary play.

They are one of the few teams who haven't lost any significant players to ICL. To add to the already existing pool, they have, among others, Ajinkya Rahane, the aggressive opener who scored century on debut and also played the Challengers and Iqbal Abdula, the 17-year-old left-arm spinner who can add up as a handy lower-order batsman. Ajit Agarkar and Ramesh Powar may play more of a role this season, given they both find themselves out of the Indian team currently.

A glaring omission is left-arm spinner Nilesh Kulkarni, who was the leading wicket-taker for Mumbai last season, with 24 wickets at 20.79. There were rumours that he might join ICL, but that did not eventually happen.

They go into the Ranji Trophy a solid team, playing four out of their seven games at home - including the last one, against Saurashtra

Karnataka

Anil Kumble, who will lead Karnataka in the first two matches, should make a big difference © Getty Images

One of the strongest contenders for this season's title, Karnataka have been boosted by the return of Anil Kumble, who will lead the team, and Rahul Dravid. Apart from the duo who will be available for two games, they will bank on the experience of Sunil Joshi and Yere Goud - who joined Karnataka last season after 11 years with Railways. Although they have lost Robin Uthappa to the Indian team, they have a formidable batting line-up in C Raghu, B Akhil, Thilak Naidu and Barrington Rowland, the men who took Karnataka to the final four in the last season.

Joshi, as always, will lead the bowling attack, but he can turn to a capable few to share the burden. There is KP Appanna, the talented left-arm spinner making rapid strides, and R Vinay Kumar, the medium-pace bowler who took 27 wickets last season. They will be bolstered by the presence of NC Aiyappa, the medium-pacer who has recovered from an injury that restricted him to just two games in the previous season. In addition they have Akhil, who blossomed into a fine medium-pace bowler last season and Raghu, who picked 10 wickets with his offspin.

Karnataka have a new coach in Vijay Bharadwaj after Venkatesh Prasad became the national bowling coach and his successor Rajesh Kamat was pouched by the ICL. Bharadwaj headed a 13-day camp - where batting and fielding sessions combined with drills and exercise formed the daily routine - at the Infosys campus in Mysore as part of the build-up to the upcoming season.

Champions versus Contenders... New Kids On The Block versus Old Dogs.... Us versus Them.

The scene is set for the last game at the Wankhede before it closes down for renovation.Stock up on the beer/coffee/chips/salsa or whatever else you might fancy - The big daddies of Indian cricket are about to play ball!

November 3rd cant come soon enough.

PS:-

Mumbai: Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) organised a ‘Gatorade Gurus’ seminar, an interactive session for the benefit of players, coaches and trainers at the C.K. Nayudu Hall, Cricket Club of India here on Wednesday.

Ramji Srinivasan spoke about fitness, Nisha Verma about hydration science and Praveen Amre about personal coaching. The Mumbai Ranji Trophy probables attended the seminar.
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It has been eight long summers since Karnataka last carried the prefix of 'Ranji Trophy champions.' Not since their extraordinary triumph at the Chinnaswamy stadium in 1999 against Madhya Pradesh has a Karnataka captain held aloft the symbol of domestic first-class supremacy in the country.
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Just two days before their opening Ranji Trophy game but well advance for the long hectic season ahead, Mumbai players got a few words wisdom from cricket’s fitness guru Ramji Srinivasan at the Wankhede Stadium. At a special interactive session; the players had their queries about niggles, gym schedule, on-field training and ways to dealing with chronic aliments answered.