I would put it like this - it was a wrong thing to do if it was done (Chappell has denied it).

But it gives the Ganguly supporters-no-matter among fans and in the media some thing to use against Chappell in as strong a voice as they can manage.

Also an opportunity for flame searching media for some thing to write about.

Did Chappell have to attend to his finger by sticking it out of the team bus soon after boarding it? Or is it an excuse. I dont know as I was not on that team bus. But it was unprofessional of Chappell if he did show his finger - what appears - from a general perspective and showed lack of common sense if he did it from the perspectives I mentioned above.

Ganguly has bowled less than 4 overs per test, average of 114 and economy rate of 3.4 in tests in the last 5 years. He has been captain most of the same period and shown no confidence in his own bowling during this period thus.

Yet he has been chosen as an all rounder. India’s answer to Flintoff, Kallis, A.Symonds…

This is what I wrote in another place wanting Ganguly to be dropped from the test XI one and half years ago.

The batting looks settles with Chopra and Sehwag set to open while Ganguly, Dravid, Tendulkar and Laxman are a very strong middle order.. The question to be asked is where does Yuvraj Singh go? Ganguly had earlier stated that the best bet for Yuvraj would be to open the innings.. now thats silly because I would have specialist openers like Chopra and a proven opener in Sehwag open rather than Yuvraj. If need be, I would want Gautam Gambhir or Ramesh to be the replacements for the openers, not Yuvraj..

I pity guys like Md. Kaif for whom playing for the Indian test side seems a distant dream while its so easy for a keeper to play for India.. There was talk of bringing back Ratra or bringing Dinesh Kartik, the under 19 keeper for Patel. Patel has been below par but has been given another chance.. surely its much better to be a keeper in India than a middle order batsman..

If Ganguly plays the test as a middle order batsman, Yuvraj, Kaif and Laxman will fight for the 4th middle order spot. I cannot fathom Laxman being dropped. So I guess Yuvraj and Kaif will have to remain in the side lines and neither of them will be included.

I was seeing a one hour cricket programme on NDTV called ‘cricket controversies’. Apparently the Indian team has decided not to speak with the media for the time being to avoid controversies. A sort of media ban. Only Chappell, Dravid and the media manager will speak.

Sidhu was vociferous in defending it. That he said the Indian players are not articulate enough as a point to defend his stance was hilarious. But coming back to the point.

If players do not speak with the media how do they defend comments which may slur their reputation. Like Hayden felt during the Ashes and reacted so strongly. Specially in a scenario of former players - some of the team mates of the current lot having a say at almost every thing.

Also, why should some players be denied of monetary benefits of writing columns etc in the media for the talk of specific players in the team.

The English cricket team is at crossroads right now. There is no question that the team is number two in the world. Series win versus the Kiwis, South Africans, the Windies and Australia recently have shown England to be the unquestionable number two.

The thing is a few teams have claimed that spot over the past decade. South Africa was the unquestionable number 2. But they could not match up to Australia and went into decline post 2003.

India was the team to watch a year and a half back. At that point of time they had a home series victory versus the Australians, had drawn the series down under and had just beaten Pakistan in Pakistan. But then the party was over. A home series loss to Australia and again like South Africa failing to raise that level meant they did not reach much higher.

Kiwi fans had the firm belief that they had the rightful place at number 2. A session of havoc caused by Shoaib Akhtar meant they lost a series to Pakistan at home. Then they had the injury prone tour of England where England were the convincing winners. And with that the talk of Kiwis posing a challenge disappeared into thin air.

England is at the same stage right now. When the going gets tough, the champion teams get going. England have lost the first test to Pakistan by a close margin. They are also in a crisis of sorts with not having their full strength team. However when we look back at the current series and the one to be played in India in the future, those aspects will not be looked at.

The team England is challenging right now for the top spot has an superb record in the subcontinent. This is in sharp contrast to Australia the world champions in the late 90s. If England was to challenge for the number 1 spot maybe 5 years earlier, they could have been hailed as world champions just by beating Australia in Australia in a little more than 12 months.

The current situation, however, requires England to at least draw one of the two series and win the other. Can England do it despite having a pace centric attack rather than a spin centric attack? Australia did it in India only when they relied on their strength and opted not to change too many things. South Africa, which was the first team to break the jinx of away teams losing in India did it with a rather weak spin attack. The Windies team won every where with their pace battery. So the key is to focus on the strengths rather than change too many things.

England faces a challenge as would any team eyeing for a top spot. The team has shown that they will not give up without a fight. One thing is for sure, cricket fans and not just the English supporters will be tracking England’s progress.

Its more than 24 hours and I am still devastated and do not know how to react to it. Latino Heat will live on forever.

The laws are quite clear on this. The umpires have the final say on the pitch. Also if the conditions or the pitch, ground etc are not dangerous it is playable.

In a test match in India vs England play was stopped and the match abandoned because the ball was bouncing so awkwardly that it could cause serious damage to the English batsmen. Hussain was right to protest and the umpires were right to stop play.

But if the pitch is not dangerous, and its within the laws So what is the issue why so many English fans are disgruntled with the pitches provided to them.

A great team wins even in the most adverse of conditions.

The team is wanting to try as many players as they can is the official stand of the selectors. I have strong thoughts on the ludicrous idea which has all the material for a strong article I can write on this but I do not have the mood to do it, to be very honest.

The thing is international cricket is not the place to try out new players. You see which players are good or have the makings too add to the strength of the team. Then you back them for some time at least. The more changes which are made, the more it shows the selectors made a mistake in chosing an initial player whom they did.

Also this is different from the rotation policy applied in the Australian domestic season some times, if people will bring that example. Here you are putting a lot of unnecessary pressure.

Of course there has been no complaints as India is winning and every one is happy.

I must specify that I am not against bringing youngsters or people who you feel are talented to the side. Just the unnecessary changes in selection.

Whats comes of Dhoni in the future, only time can tell.

But no one can take this knock away from the jat who drinks 1 litre of milk a day!

Chasing 6 an over, the guy devastated the Lankan attack to make the score look like a 220. Usually when chasing such large scores, teams would scrape through in the very end overs. The fact that India won it comfortably shows exactly how brutal the inning was.

It is not as great as the inning played by Kapil Dev with India struggling versus Zimbabwe in 1983. Srikkanth compared the inning to innings which Viv Richards used to play.

One thing is for sure, the inning will be looked back upon as one of the great one day innings of all time.

Neil Pickup, one of the young cricket writers I like reading wrote this fine piece.

This is highly concerning indeed. Adam Gilchrist replacing Ian Healy will be looked at as a landmark selection move. A move which looked cold hearted as it denied Healy a record but Gilchrist proved his value in no time in the longer version. Players have played that role before too but that move was specially on the face as Healy is one of the finer keepers of the generation.

There was an article in Wisden years back worrying about the dilemna of a specialist keeper or a good keeper who can bat.

Where will the great keepers come?

How did Shane Warne come about when no one expected some one like him to turn up?

In test matches, the keeper can find a place if he can bat a bit. He does not have to be a great batsman. In one day cricket the role of the keeper is becoming more and redundant. This aspect is visible in test cricket as well but to a lower degree.

A keeper to inspire people to take up keeping seriously is tough to come by though if we look at it mechanically. But cricket has shown the greats prop up without much mechanism. Shane Warne as mentioned, Wasim Akram and the ilk.

We can only hope.