The fast track court has finally arrived in India. Bravo India

http://www.hindu.com/2006/04/13/stories/2006041312970100.htm

Afridi retires from test cricket. !!!!!!

http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/pakistan/content/current/story/244180.html

One often wonders why this is so!!!!. Is the cricket schedule so packed that the players are feeling the heat now.

With so many games being played every year. It is certainly taking it toll on the cricketers. With this the careers of the players are short. As we would agree, when quantity comes in , quality goes.

Goodbye Sourav Ganguly.

It hurts me to say this. You still had it in you—I would not have said this a few months ago with such certainty. But you showed heart and fight in the Pakistan series despite all odds. You refused to make inflammatory press statements at a time your opponents were trying their best to rub your nose in the ground—instead choosing to let your performances speak. You, the quintessential arrogant man, even pleaded to be allowed to play.


the people you have supported all thru your career are not with dagger against you. You gave up your opening slot to sewhag and wht did he give u in return. NOthing. Its all becaz of the vermin called chappel.

Yes, that's how much the game meant to you. And your two fighting innings in the last Test amply demonstrated that your cricketing abilities have also not atrophied away.

And while those arrayed against you (a middle-finger-swollen coach who demands absolute authority, tolerates nothing but the presence of only yes-men in his presence and begrudges your wallet and a pathetic ex-wicketkeeper whose shriveling existence on this earth is only justified by how many careers he can destroy and how much of his weight he can throw about as a man of authority), have taken to spreading canards about how much money you made as a captain (not proven) , how you browbeat the last coach into submission (denied by John Wright), and how you faked injury (again disproved)—-you have maintained a dignified silence. Which has raised your stock– a stock that had so spectacularly fallen in the last few years.

Yes we have to accept. It had fallen.

For that however you were to blame. You let your game stagnate. While you were once a more valuable player than Dravid, things slowly turned around. Dravid worked ceaselessly to improve his game (playing with soft hands, rotating the strike, hardening his technique) and in the process scaled new heights of batsmanship.

You however just turned your back on your problems. With the result that bowlers all over were able to consistently "pattern" you out—so much so that it became positively embarrassing for fans like us to justify your presence on the basis of performance.

But then you fought back. Just like the time you first came into international cricket. You were too raw then. You deserved to be dropped. And then when the time came at Lords 1996, you were ready. Just like you are now. However your enemies (and you have a huge number of them) are not going to let you come back—simply because they cannot afford you embarrassing them with a performance; like you did to those naysayers (Ravi Shastri et al) who called you a "regional selection" in 1996.

A word of advice. Be wary of your friends/supporters. When a Bengal minister calls your dropping a slap against the state of Bengal, do not endorse that. Because by doing so, you play right into the hands of people like Pawar, More and Cricinfo whose spin works on showing that Sourav Ganguly is a has-been noone wants except Bengalis.

While I have argued before that anti-Gangulyism is often a surrogate for anti-Bengalism in a mixed company of Indians watching cricket, the current situation has got little to do with that. Chappell only sees an insolent Indian who has got far more money than he deserves —and not the fact that Sourav Ganguly loves rosogolla. Sharad Pawar wants Ganguly's career finished only because he is beholden to certain boards who want their player in a position of power. Simple as that.

Instead of needlessly beating the Bengali angle, it is worth making the point that the way you have been treated is a slap on the face of all cricketers who have contributed significantly to the Indian cricket ethos—and let me add that a few people in the team who may be smiling at the dissolution of a possible power center, should do well to remember: this might very well happen to them, given a different political configuration at the board.

No matter what the future brings, I can say that you have left as the moral victor, keeping intact your legacy –something a hundred Chappells, a hundred disgruntled reporters and their hundreds of unsubstantiated allegations cannot diminish.

You brought in a new age of competitiveness in the team, rescued it from the morass of match-fixing and mined true diamonds from the rough—a Bhajji, a Sehwag, a Dhoni, a Yuvraj.

People remember that. And so at your time of peril, Bhajji comes out in your support (getting a reprimand from the board) and so does Yuvraj— speaking out for you selflessly despite knowing that he works in a team where the coach has a visceral hatred for you and the present captain is glad to see you leave.

You leave behind a team much stronger than what it was when you arrived. Your place as a player will be taken by Yuvraj Singh, whose offside play and swagger makes him temperamentally your ideal successor with the potential to be another legendary leader.

Your place as a captain will be taken by Rahul Dravid, a great batsman and going by his recent record, hard-as-nails and as crafty as they come. Which is heartening because I always mistakenly thought that Dravid was too much of a nice guy to be a captain.

As for us fans, we shall always have fond memories of your sublime off-side glides, your towering sixes, your pedestrian running-between-the-wickets, your embarrassing fielding, your never-say-die attitude, your totally unparochial approach to man-management and your bare torso on the Lords balcony as you waved your shirt over your head like a helicopter showing the world that we Indians, from now on, shall give as good as we receive.

In conclusion, I sincerely wish that you will be back for a last hurray but my mind tells me otherwise. And somehow your departure like this is much more poetic– the most apposite way for a person like you to exit the battle is feet first— solitary in your glory.

As for the others—they can gallop into the sunset when their time comes.
But that is not for you.

Hi this is my first attempt at blogs, infact since the time i logged in, i am just writing and writing and its so cool. THis moring i sa w Sailee Bonde has accepted me as a friend (on Blog) and i think that is cool. Sailee Bonde who ever u are i wish u a happy day.

This news bit i read and was really sad. IN an age when india is already boasting of having a developed economy, strong stock markets and where we can spend 40 cores on a 6 minutes bonaza at the common wealth games, we cannot do anything to help the tillers of a our land. 50 odd yes of independence we own them at least this much. BUT WHO CARES !!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.ndtv.com/topstories/showtopstory.asp?slug=Farmers%27+suicides+due+to+depression%3A+Govt&id=19157&category=National

Mr. Sehwag says that Ganguly is an Forgotten episode.

http://in.rediff.com/cricket/2006/apr/11sehwag.htm

Since when did the most sucessful captain of india become an episode. If it wouldnt have been for gaguly , one wonders if sehwag would have found a place in the playing 11.

May we remind sehwag to look for his form first or very soon he will be a forgotten episode.

Like him or hate him he is here to stay. The one piece of voice who has got not fear in calling a spade a spade.
Hiya prem , you make interesting reading, keep up the good work.

A very interesting Bit of article dating back to the time when Greg had not been yet offered to coach the indian team.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/2005/04/12/stories/2005041203661900.htm

IN this article greg speaks abt the long term plans to develop a nation on cricketing lines. he speaks abt starting from the under 17 level of players and developing them into stars of the future. In other words he speaks abt having a seperate lesson plan in the school level wherein the students are taught the basics of cricket along with physics, chemistry or biology.

Mr Greg we are a developing country. there is more to it than just shooting the shit. We need to change the very thoughts of the parents. You have shown the bull the green grass but have u told the bull to change its own ways, like not to piss on the green.

Mr Powar / Dalmiyah . If this manual of coaching was available and you were so impressed with it why didnt the BCCI just buy the manual and get desi coaches to coach the players, SO much money we are spending on foreigh coaches wht do we get in return, a middle finger.

Some food for thought: Is it possible that this manual be encorporated in our school syllubus. Like 9:30 AM to 10:30 AM. Class - Chappells way.

The truth - as a friend of mine says, the coaching manual is the best bet for chappell. its an eye wash. all along a deal was being worked out to get chappell in the coach list and this meant big time money. Right now Mr. Chappel is exploring the pages of coaching which by far were not in the original manual. Pages like making people suck up to him. he has now redefined the term coach/selector/non playing captain.

But we all wait for the World Cup. i wonder how many heads will roll if india does not win the final. if we dont then many would not like to be in the shoes of either of the two |||| the coach or the chief of selector.

SO now Mr. Chappel is here to earn money and wht better way than to clown the joker of all times (kiran more) and the most stupid cricketing body. and why does chappel for promotion of the game. the answer "the chappells way"

http://www.chappellway.com/

Well done Chappel(puns intented). May you go back to Australia a very rich man.

Another voice in speaks out!!!. After bedi its Kapil turn now to ask for the axe for sehwag and kaif.

http://in.rediff.com/cricket/2006/apr/11kapil.htm

very truly said , if the rule applies for one then the same should be for the rest. BTW why do players take it as a shame to go back and play domestic cricket. On the other hand county cricket is so much in the awe.

I think its high time that the selection committe gives a chance to dada, we need his experience in the W.Indies.