Really?

INDIAN cricket is in a state of flux just 15 days before the first Test with the national selectors and captain unsure whether they will retain their roles beyond the weekend.

Test skipper Anil Kumble, 38 next month, is under growing pressure from supporters of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, 27, to step aside and allow the playboy wicketkeeper to lead the team in all three forms of the game.

Dhoni has impressed some officials with his deeds in the Twenty20 and the 50-overs game, but others are wary of over-burdening a man who had to sit out the entire mid- year Test series against Sri Lanka because of fatigue.

The leg-spinning Kumble is an astute, humble and skilful cricketer who will have a major role to play in the battle for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

The same attributes can't always be said of the sometimes moody Dhoni, who is treated more like a Bollywood star than sportsman.

Dhoni can also be a batting hurricane but he failed to flatten Australia last summer, scoring just 141 runs at 17.62 while Kumble, the third-highest wicket-taker in Test history, responded with 20 scalps in an epic series.

Dhoni would be put under enormous pressure if he was made Test skipper and, perhaps wisely, has this week tried to downplay suggestions he take over immediately.

"I've never given too much thought to these things. There's no point," he said yesterday.

"I'm just happy to be playing the game, playing for the country and enjoying every moment.

"The way I look at it is, I never thought I would play for India but I did. I never dreamt of leading the country but I did. So I don't let such things creep into my mind, more so because it's none of my business.

"The important thing is to understand that we have a tough series coming up against the best side in the world, so we need to focus our energies on that."

While this debate rages on, India's five-man selection panel doesn't know if it will be retained by the Board of Cricket Control when a new system is announced in Mumbai this weekend.

Chairman Dilip Vengsarkar, a former Indian skipper, is set to be ousted under the new legislation introduced to professionalise the selection set-up.

Selectors will now be paid, earning $42,000 per year, but they must have retired at least a decade ago and they are now not allowed to have any other role with the BCCI or its affiliated bodies.

It's hoped this last measure will help to take the politics out of selection, which has tainted decisions through the years.

One man who has been mired in politics through most of his career has been Sourav Ganguly, the former skipper now fighting for survival.

Nice try Jon.. But you are no Peter Lalor.

Dear Pricky,

A catch shall be considered to have been fairly made if

(a) throughout the act of making the catch
(i) any fielder in contact with the ball is within the field of play. See 4 below.
(ii) the ball is at no time in contact with any object grounded beyond the boundary.

The act of making the catch shall start from the time when a fielder first handles the ball and shall end when a fielder obtains complete control both over the ball and over his own movement.

(b) the ball is hugged to the body of the catcher or accidentally lodges in his clothing or, in the case of the wicket-keeper, in his pads. However, it is not a fair catch if the ball lodges in a protective helmet worn by a fielder. See Law 23 (Dead ball).

(c) the ball does not touch the ground, even though the hand holding it does so in effecting the catch.

(d) a fielder catches the ball after it has been lawfully struck more than once by the striker, but only if the ball has not touched the ground since first being struck.

(e) a fielder catches the ball after it has touched an umpire, another fielder or the other batsman. However, it is not a fair catch if the ball has touched a protective helmet worn by a fielder, although the ball remains in play.

(f) a fielder catches the ball in the air after it has crossed the boundary provided that
(i) he has no part of his person touching, or grounded beyond, the boundary at any time when he is in contact with the ball.
(ii) the ball has not been grounded beyond the boundary.
See Law 19.3 (Scoring a boundary).

(g) the ball is caught off an obstruction within the boundary, provided it has not previously been decided to regard the obstruction as a boundary.

So, this is not a catch

Neither is this

(starts at 2:36)

And definitely not this

Signed,

Greg Chappell, MBE.

Thank you Jaideep

Lee also says that India is the best place to begin playing Test cricket. It could also be the worst.

So let's forget nice, shall we, and play like we have in the past. Let's have captains claim catches taken on the bounce, by themselves and their cronies, and have big beefy batsmen challenge wiry thin fast bowlers to boxing matches. Let's also have a lot of screaming at the Aussies when they play.

After all, its all part of mental disintegration, and art made notorious by the Aussies themselves. It can't be employed or not as per their convenience.

Make no mistake, in the unlikely event that they are in a position of advantage, all this 'friendship' will go out through the window.

Its our turn.

LOL!!

THE Australian who most recently orchestrated the downfall of India's champion batsmen with mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis, Sri Lanka coach Trevor Bayliss, has revealed the Australians have a similarly obscure but potentially potent weapon in their own touring party — off-spinner Jason Krejza.

Bayliss coached Krejza at NSW before he relocated to Tasmania to make a fresh start to his life and his cricket, and always believed he possessed the ability to trouble top-quality batsmen with his sharp turn and attacking mindset.

Krejza was a controversial selection for India because of his inflated first-class average of 45.46 and the decision to overlook the incumbent, left-arm wrist spinner Beau Casson, but Bayliss yesterday compared the 25-year-old known as "Krazy" with both Harbhajan Singh and Mendis, the man who shot to prominence by completely confusing the Indians in Sri Lanka recently.

Serious clutching at straws by the Aussies !!!

An interesting team...

The composition of the Boards Presidents XI to take on the Australians makes for interesting reading

Board President's squad Yuvraj Singh (capt), S Badrinath, Wasim Jaffer, Aakash Chopra, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli Parthiv Patel (wk), Irfan Pathan, S Sreesanth, Piyush Chawla, Pragyan Ojha, Pankaj Singh, Manpreet Gony, Yogesh Takawale, Rakesh Dhurv.

3 right arm pace bowlers, 2 left arm orthodox spinners. And a captaincy selection that is totally left field.

Now, I am not a mind reader, but I believe the selectors are onto something here.

In normal circumstances, I would have been tempted to play Mohnish Parmar and Amit Mishra as the two spinners with Pragyan Ojha as the left arm orthodox option. Instead, the selectors have gone with Piyush Chawla and two left arm orthodox spinners.

And I wont be too surprised to see the two left arm spinners make the cut, given that the Australians are playing a leggie and an offie in their line up.Nothing like denying the opposition some valuable match practise before the first Test.

The batting more or less picks itself, depending on whether the BP XI want to go in with 4 or 5 bowlers.

4 bowlers and the line up reads

Wasim Jaffer
Akash Chopra
Virat Kohli
S. Badrinath
Yuvraj Singh
Rohit Sharma
Parthiv Patel
Pragyan Ojha
Piyush Chawla/Rakesh Dhruv
Manpreet Gony
Sreesanth

5 bowlers and Virat Kohli makes room for Irfan Pathan.

Either ways, the batting has a solid look to it with the top 6 all capable of playing the long innings ( and keeping the Australians on the field).

The captain's selection, like I said, is completely left field. And I think there is method to this madness.

Yuvraj may not necessarily make it in the BP XI on the basis of form alone - there are atleast 3 other batsmen who are ahead of him in the Test pecking order.

But the BP XI, in its present form, is lacking an enforcer - a guy who will not be afraid to hit the long ball, especially in the middle of the innings when the spinners are on.

And it is important to tonk the spinners ( think Navjot Sidhu against John Emburey in 1993 and Amit Pagnis against Shane Warne in 1998).

And the person best positioned to do that is Yuvraj Singh. If he pulls it off, he is doing his cause a huge favor. If he doesnt, nothing changes.

And the only way to shoe horn him into the side was as skipper - on merit and form, Kaif should have made the side instead.

But overall, I think the selectors have done Team India a hug favor by picking this side - blunt the Aussie attack first up, consolidate in the middle, get the Aussies working on their tans. And in the bowling, variety if that is the way to go, monotony if the thinking is otherwise..

A start...

John Wright, in Indian Summers

The Australians generated enormous publicity, nearly all of it positive.Indians love their own team, but when a major side arrives they know how to make the tourists feel special.There's very little of the media mind games and psychological warfare you get touring some other countries, notably Australia, wherethe welcome usually takes the form of a dismissive spray from a famous ex-player.The media greeted the Australians as if they were cricketing royalty who'd deigned to grace India with their regal presence.

Not this time.

It was a tired-looking bunch that filed in to the hotel, after a flight path that had taken them from Sydney to Jaipur via Dubai and Mumbai.

--

The Ricky Ponting-led Australian cricket team arrived here on Monday afternoon at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport for the eagerly awaited Test series against host India and then proceeded straightaway to Jaipur.

The squad, which advanced its arrival by a week following the cancellation of the ICC Champions Trophy in Pakistan, is to commence the official part of the tour on September 29 once it reaches Hyderabad, according to the Cricket Board.

The squad did not come out of the international terminal on arrival via Dubai and went to the domestic terminal to board the flight to Jaipur.

--

Of all the visits by the Australians in recent memory ( including for the ODIs and the Champions Trophy), this has been by far the most low key entrance.

Its a start.

Now to maintain more of the same.

Food for thought
The tour game
This is not how the script goes

A fitting riposte

Maybe Harbhajan should just say "We don't particularly care about Hayden. We're targetting Mitchell Johnson's batting since he averages 56 against us."

The anatomy of a dispute

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) would not vote blindly with the India-dominated Asian Bloc in the future as the country's cricketing relations with world cricket's powerhouse India reached its lowest ebb in recent times, SLC sources told "Daily Mirror".

This stance was conspicuous at last Sunday's teleconference among all ICC Board Directors to take a decision on the troubled the Champions Trophy when India had insisted successfully that the tournament should not be moved out of Pakistan.

Pakistan cricket authorities have also accused Sri Lanka of conniving with some of the other countries to move the tournament out of Pakistan into Sri Lanka.

Pakistan's fears were justified at the teleconference when Australia and New Zealand were adamant to move the tournament to Sri Lanka.

However India had firmly said that they will stand by Pakistan in the hour of crisis and had insisted that the hosting rights of the tournament belongs to Pakistan and had refused indirectly to re-locate it to any other country despite the agitation by some other countries including the West Indies.

Hierarchy of the Indian cricket board would be in Colombo for the last three ODI's between India and Sri Lanka but will not have any official discussions with SLC, sources added.

The Indo-Lanka cricket relationships gradually turned sour since present SLC interim chief Arjuna Ranatunga assumed office early this year.

Ranatunga criticized the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL), comparing Twenty20 Cricket to Maggi instant noodles, initially angering the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) which organizes the IPL.

When India lost the first match of the recent three-match test series against Sri Lanka, Ranatunga criticized the Indian batsmen, saying they were in too much of a hurry due to the effects of Twenty20 cricket.

An angry Indian cricket chief Sharad Pawar had reportedly called Ranatunga after the comment and had shown his displeasure.

Ranatunga had also made a comment that BCCI had promised to remunerate other cricket boards for releasing their players for the IPL, but SLC had not received a cent yet. IPL chief Lalit Modi immediately denied the report while the BCCI reacted strongly canceling a 2011 World Cup organizing committee meeting that was to be held on August 8 in Colombo.

Earlier Sri Lanka's interests clashed with BCCI when Ranatunga tried to organize an ad-hoc series against Pakistan to step in when Australia cancelled their tour to Pakistan.

It was to clash with the IPL dates, but the tour was later cancelled when Sri Lanka players protested against the tour.

Ranatunga then unilaterally arranged another ad-hoc tour to England without consulting the players or his own interim committee. The tour is to clash with the next IPL tournament and it has not gone down well with the BCCI, as well as with Sri Lanka players who are not on friendly terms with the former Sri Lanka captain over the issue.

The planned series is now on hold after the cricketers complained to the President Mahinda Rajapakse on the matter when they met the him after winning the recent Asia Cup.

Sources said that sports minister Gamini Lokuge would call a special meeting on August 30 to discuss the issue of the series.

Sri Lanka's cancelled ODI series against India in 2006 had been rescheduled to 2009 earlier but the series has been postponed further due to the IPL. BCCI had promised SLC to arrange it on a later date, but it hangs on the balance due to the issue of the England series.

Analysts said that a tour to England would not yield about US $ two million, but said that a home series against India would earn more than US $ 15 million. SLC which was running on a bank overdraft of over Rs. 400 million earlier this year, just managed to come out of their financial quagmire only thanks to the present series against India.

Meanwhile BCCI has also been angered by SLC choosing two cricketers involved with the rival ICL tournament to give away awards during the present series against India.

The fun never ends

A ban ban revoked on Sri Lanka's rebel cricketers for joining the Indian Cricket League (ICL) may again be re-imposed upon them according to Sports Minister Gamini Lokuge.

Minister Lokuge said he was left in the dark when the ban was lifted and had all the right in the world to overturn the ruling by the interim committee running Sri Lanka Cricket that was installed by him in January this year.

"I don't want our board to be against the Indian Cricket Board or the ICC (International Cricket Council). I have invited the board members for a meeting (Tuesday or Wednesday) to convince me about their decision (on revoking ban). The decision by the interim committee was not taken with my consent and I am entitled to re-impose the ban", Minister Lokuge said

The Sri Lanka Cricket interim committee president Arjuna Ranatunga, who is currently in England, refused to answer a telephone call for comment but is likely to attend the meeting called by the Sports Minister after returning to the country on Tuesday, it is learnt.

Meanwhile there is speculation that Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa who is currently in New York had spoken to Minister Lokuge and ordered him to summon cricket officials for an urgent meeting.

According to a source, either the Indian Cricket Board chief and politician Sharad Pawar or Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner Lalit Modi, may have requested President Rajapaksa to call on Minister Lokuge to summon Sri Lankan cricket officials for their explanation on lifting the ban on the five players.

The IPL is a rival tournament to the ICL.

Minister Lokuge also reiterated his concern for an election of officer bearers to Sri Lanka Cricket. "I want to hold the election as the interim committee can't be run like this. But we also have to find a suitable date", the Minister said.

Ranatunga’s younger brother Sanjeewa is married to the sister of Marvan Atapattu who was one of the five players to have their ban lifted.

The other four players are Russel Arnold, Saman Jayantha, Upul Chandana and Avishka Gunawardena.

Arnold had however retired in 2007, a year before the ICL started.

MVP

54/207

6-1-35-1

31*/168

9-0-38-1

148/305

4-0-26-0

It will be a travesty of Yusuf Pathan doesn't front up against England later this year.

The Mumbai cap!

Sairaj Bahutule, the former India legspinner, has been named in this season's Mumbai probables. Bahutule, 35, recently returned to his native team after a three-year stint with Maharashtra.

Isnt this the same Sairaj Bahutule who left Mumbai for Maharastra in 2005

The Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) has finally put an end to the speculation surrounding transfer of players to their state by selecting Sairaj Bahutule, the former Indian legspinner, Nilesh Kulkarni, the former Indian left-arm spinner, and Munaf Patel, the Mumbai fast bowler, for the forthcoming season.

ostensibly because

"friction with the establishment and a greater monetary allure probably prompted his decision to end a 15-year career with Mumbai and move on to neighbouring Maharashtra. "

And isnt this the same Sairaj Bahutule who was Mumbai captain the previous season?

And isnt this the same guy who dumped Maharastra in 2006

Former Mumbai legspinner Sairaj Bahutule's decision to quit Maharashtra and return to the city of his birth has run into criticism from local cricket authorities. Ajay Shirke, the Maharashtra Cricket Association [MCA] chief, has hinted at a potential legal tussle following Bahutule's decision to quit after just one year.

and was sidelined with injury and legal troubles in 2007?

And yet, he now finds himself in the Mumbai probables.

Contrast this with the other spinner Mumbai has, another Mumbaikar with longstanding service for the great city

When they learned that Kulkarni, who is currently playing league cricket in England, had indeed been offered a contract by ICL, and was dilly-dallying over whether to sign or not, and reportedly asked for a few days time before he made up his mind, Mumbai's selectors made theirs up. They dropped Kulkarni for the Nissar Trophy match, replacing him with Mundeep Mungela, the medium-pacer.

and did not pick him till the must win game against Saurashtra last year.

And the previous year

As things panned out on the eve of the game, Kulkarni was in the XI when coach Praveen Amre and chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar finalised the squad. But minutes before the official list was handed over to the officials, Mumbai decided to play one spinner Ramesh Powar and four seamers.

So let me understand this - a long standing servant of Mumbai cricket is treated like dirt by the selectors while a turn coat finds himself in the probables list as soon as he is available?

And if the intent in sidelining Nilesh Kulkarni was to blood Iqbal Abdulla, what sense does it make to bring in a 35 year olf leg spinner battling injuries?

Is the Mumbai cap really that cheap or are the selectors trying their darndest to devalue its worth?

PS:- On the Mumbai Cricket website, it reads

As per the instructions from Mr. Dilip Vengsarkar, Chairman, Selection Committee, the following players are being included in the list of probables for practice nets for Mumbai Team.
1.	Sairaj Bahutule
2.	Nilesh Kulkarni
Hemant Waingankar Jt. Hon. Secretary & Convenor

whatever that means!

Hello Dolly!

Stanford rejects Digicel contract offer

Cricinfo staff

September 20, 2008

The row between the West Indies Cricket Board and its major sponsors, Digicel, rumbles on after demands made by Digicel in relation to the forthcoming Stanford 20/20 for 20 were rejected by the Stanford organisers.

The board has been at loggerheads with Digicel regarding branding for the Stanford tournament for some time, culminating in Digicel taking out injunctions at London's High Court.

Digicel proposed a three-point compromise to the WICB earlier this month, and on Thursday Stanford officials sent back a counter-offer stating that they would not do any deals with Digicel's competitors, would pay all Digicel's costs, and would give the company some branding rights at the 2008 event.

However, the latter point was rejected out of hand, with Digicel maintaining that it wanted the same branding on Stanford Superstars shirts as it has on the full West Indies shirts for the next five years.

The main disagreement comes over the status of the tournament. Digicel maintains it is an official WICB event with a representative national team, and as such, under the terms of its contract with the WICB, that would give it full branding rights. Stanford insists that it is an unofficial team and, as such, is outside any existing WICB-Digicel agreement.

"The Superstars team is selected solely by Stanford 20/20 and Stanford 20/20 is not willing to gift to Digicel valuable rights to which it is simply not entitled and which Stanford 20/20 intends to sell as part of a presenting sponsor package for the Stanford Super Series," a Stanford spokesman said, accusing the telecommunications giant of continuing "to insist on receiving commercial rights to the Stanford Super Series which are way in excess of its contractual entitlements".

This is how we do contrite

Not a damaging loss

It must take something special to be the first Indian team to lose the Md Nissar Trophy (that too, at home) and not offer one word of apology for the people who followed your fortunes.

Kudos Mr Chopra, you have been coached well.

Music to Ranatunga's ears

"It's a message that the game is not ruled by any single body, and nobody should try to rule the game."

The wrong fight

Duleep Mendis, the chief executive of SLC, told Cricinfo the board's interim committee took this decision at a meeting following a request from the cricketers. "The interim committee has allowed these ICL players to play in domestic cricket after they sought permission to do so. This decision refers to a specific application from a specific group of players to take part in domestic cricket," Mendis said. He refused to comment on whether similar waivers would be granted in future to cricketers who take part in subsequent editions of ICL -- the league's second season starts on October 10.

"Players will be allowed to play for their respective clubs and share their expertise, but cannot represent the country," Shane Fernando, the Sri Lanka Cricket media manager, told AFP.

Interesting choice of words by Duleep Mendis... Not a blanket amnesty for ICL affiliated players but just enough to pique the BCCI..

But, if as has been widely reported in the media subsequent to this development, that this is the first step in the SLC standing up to the BCCI, I believe the SLC has picked the wrong fight..

Not because they are taking on the BCCI, but because the cause itself is self defeating.

The SLC, like the BCCI, is a monopoly. And like all monopolies, it will walk the extra mile to preserve status quo.

Granting an one off pardon to a set of players is one thing, making it de jure, quite another. Because, just as easily as the ICL was formed, an alternate cricket structure can take shape in Sri Lanka.

One that will act as a magnet for disgruntled players.

And once that happens, the next time someone says 'Selectors are muppets headed by a joker', the SLC will be able to do exactly nothing.