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Who's a lucky boy then?

After all the talk of discipline and exemplary punishment, the Board of Control for Cricket in India have slapped Harbhajan Singh on the wrist...with a marshmallow. A five-match ban from one-day international cricket, when India play over 40 of them a year, is about as much of a punishment as a flea-bite. Financially, it will set him back just over 12,000 pounds, a drop in the IPL ocean, and with a meaningless tri-series [in Bangladesh] and the Asia Cup scheduled in June, he won't even miss the Champions Trophy.

The Express returns on a dark day

Those of you that missed it can watch Shoaib Akhtar's return to action here. Pakistan cricket may have washed its hands of him, but as he showed in front of a delirious crowd at the Eden Gardens, the man still has a lot to offer. It's also debatable whether a Pakistan team mired in mediocrity can afford to ignore him.

The return of the Balaji smile

For nearly three years now, Lakshmipathy Balaji has been Indian cricket's answer to the aircraft that disappeared over the Bermuda Triangle. There would be occasional stories of sightings, but a succession of injuries to match Andrew Flintoff's woes had reduced a once-promising career to a what-might-have-been story.

Chennai win super last-ball game

I missed 10 overs of Chennai's reply while walking down to the Eden Gardens, but was just in time to watch the finish on television. It wasn't surprising either that two of the best teams in the competition contested a last-ball thriller. For the Super Kings, who had lost three in a row after a perfect-four start, it was a huge result, while the formidable Delhi Daredevils are now due a bout of navel-gazing after two successive defeats.

The IPL sack race begins

Having nearly matched Mukesh Ambani and the Mumbai franchise in the top-dollar stakes, it wouldn't have taken a genius to figure out that Vijay Mallya was far from thrilled by the start made by his Royal Challengers. The Bangalore outfit have been the worst team on view in the Indian Premier League so far, and their two narrow wins [from seven games] were in tune with scrappy and unconvincingly performances.

The right to appeal

Soon after his team had slumped to a fourth successive defeat, Sourav Ganguly was asked whether he would be in favour of the IPL adopting an appeal system for poor umpiring decisions. Already in trouble after the war of words with Shane Warne in Jaipur, he opted to let the question pass, saying it was for the IPL to decide. You couldn't help but think though how much such a system might have helped his Knight Riders on a Punjabi night when pretty much everything went wrong.

Ol Man River

Got my first glimpse of Glenn McGrath in IPL action last night, as the Delhi Daredevils held their nerve for a third win in four outings. How many could bowl at 125 km/hr and still be so potent? His figures of 4 for 29 were the best in the competition so far, and he won each little battle. Batsmen who struck him for fours would have an illusion of dominance, only for reality to bite with a delivery that bounced a little more than expected, or was just wide enough to induce the mistake. Cricinfo has more on the man whose mastery of the basics is beyond compare.

No more excuses

After Sydney, Teri Maa ki or Y Tu Mama to call it by another name, came to Harbhajan Singh's rescue. After his latest misdemeanour, where he crossed the line that separates verbal abuse from its physical counterpart, that famous and trite Bollywood cliché about brothers was briefly trotted out. No one bought into it, and an 11-game ban could go a long way towards cleansing Indian cricket of bad behaviour that has become almost endemic.

The slapper and the pest

As I was getting information together on the IPL's first scandal of sorts, I kept thinking to myself how drearily predictable it was. If the bookies had been offering odds on the first players to become embroiled in some sort of controversy, you can be sure the names Harbhajan Singh and Sreesanth would have been near the top of the list.

Cricket's Maradona does it again

This was supposed to be my day off, time away from the IPL after four matches in six days. But with Shane Warne on the bill in Hyderabad, I knew that I'd be in front of a TV, sooner rather than later. To not watch Warne would be a bit like expecting a teenager to look away when the Washington Redskins cheerleaders were gyrating right in front of him.

Postcard from London

With Dimitri Masceranhas still to play a game for the Rajasthan Royals, England are the only major nation whose players have yet to experience cricket's newest adventure. So, just how has the whole thing been received by the average fan back in the UK? Since research suggests that women are an important part of the new Twenty20 constituency, I thought I'd ask Sarah Boulton, a dear friend who's passionate about Arsenal (sorry about Anfield!), English rugby (nobody's perfect) and cricket.

The home boys come out to play

After the foreign contingent stole the limelight on the opening weekend of games, it's been the turn of the homegrown players to make an impact on the Indian Premier League. Virender Sehwag, whose Delhi Daredevils have looked a class apart so far, was in awesome form against the Deccan Chargers, creaming 94 from just 41 balls, though you wonder how different the result might have been had Chaminda Vaas's leg-before appeal been upheld in the first over.

Hollywood [Shane] beats Bollywood

Two day ago, people would have laughed at you for taking an early am flight to go and watch the Rajasthan Royals play. After just one bad game, the Jaipur-based franchise were being touted as wooden-spoon certainties. But is there any such thing as a certainty when Shane Warne's around? Mike Gatting and many others would tell you otherwise.

Pitch perfect

They may not have won the match, but Mumbai have certainly set the standard when it comes to pitch preparation for the IPL. No one who really loves the game can possibly enjoy seeing games where teams make 240 in 20 overs, with the bowlers utterly redundant. Some of the strokeplay looks PlayStation easy, and you wonder about the curators who produce such surfaces that make a mockery of the balance between bat and ball.

The wicket maiden and Mr Cricket

He may have retired from the international arena a year ago after playing an instrumental role in a third successive World Cup triumph, but Glenn McGrath's mastery of the bowling arts shows no sign of diminishing with age. Did it really surprise anyone when he bowled the first wicket maiden of the competition, handing out a harsh lesson to Taruwar Kohli in the process?

Starting with a big bang

Every sporting event has its seminal moment, that occasion when it goes from being just another competition to being an institution. For the European Cup, it was the night Alfredo Di Stefano and Ferenc Puskas inspired Real Madrid to a 7-3 triumph over Eintracht Frankfurt at Hampden Park. For the Superbowl, it was Joe Namath conjuring up victory for the unheralded New York Jets over the might of the Baltimore Colts. Whisper it quietly, but the Indian Premier League's defining moment may well have come in its very first game. If the first five hours in Bangalore were any indicator, the venture into club culture will be a resounding success.

You don't know what you're doing

On the eve of the inaugural IPL season, the organisers have scored an astonishing own-goal by refusing Cricinfo, the world's premier cricket website, accreditation for the event. The reason given by Lalit Modi, the IPL commissioner, is that the portal rights for the six-week-long tournament have already been sold to "an American company" which has exclusive rights to reports and pictures. There's just one problem. Not a soul has heard of this company, and the whole situation is akin to debarring the BBC from the London Olympics in favour of a crew operating out of a flat in the Isle of Dogs.

Cricket poised for its Columbus crossing

In just over a day's time, the face of cricket will change forever. Whether it's for better or worse is a matter that will be open to debate long after the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League ends on June 1. What is certain is that cricket's economy has undergone a seismic shift, and unless the game's administrators, not always known for their competence, respond, international cricket could soon become an irrelevance. Already, a Sydney Morning Herald report based on a survey done by the Australian Players' Association has revealed that 47 percent of national players and 49 percent of state players would give up the chance of baggy-green glory in return for a slice of the Twenty20 pie.

Turn turn turn

You have to go back almost four decades, to the Christmas Test at Chepauk in 1969, to find a game in which two Indian offspinners made such a dramatic impact. Erapalli Prasanna took 10 and Srinivas Venkataraghavan six in a game that lasted less than four days. Unfortunately for India, Australia had a handy offspinner of their own in Ashley Mallett and his 10 for 144, superbly supported by the tireless Graham McKenzie, inspired a famous 77-run victory that clinched the series.

Monstrous egos tilt it India's way

On the eve of this Test, an article in South Africa's version of The Times stated that "the Indian team is famous for being a collection of monstrous egos sloshing about in great vats of self-importance". It was a strange assertion to make, especially for a journalist that I've never met on a cricket tour. In fact, I'd be very surprised if he had ever come across Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman or Kumble, men whose humility and dedication to the game has kept them near the top for so very long.

South Africa shade opening exchanges

For the second Test match in succession, the team batting first was bowled out on the opening day, but the fact that South Africa lasted 67.3 overs longer than India managed in Ahmedabad meant that they ended the day in control of what could be another abbreviated Test. A total of 265 might seem below-par for Indian conditions, but this is no standard-issue flatbed, and India's batsmen will be relentlessly tested by a pace attack that will be even more menacing on a wearing surface.

India could slip through the cracks

Desperate to square a series that they thought they would win comfortably enough, India have taken an almighty gamble with the Green Park pitch. It's dehydratingly hot in Kanpur and the surface already looks like something from a documentary on drought-hit regions. Large cracks criss-cross the surface, and with very little watering, it remains to be seen how long it will hold together. The chances of another three-day finish a la Ahmedabad certainly can't be ruled out.

Where did the pride go?

There have been some wretched Indian performances on my watch - the 54 all out in a Sharjah final against Sri Lanka [2000] quickly comes to mind - but this was possibly the most inept, and that too in a series that has far more at stake than just a random ODI bauble. Normally, a result inside three days suggests either a minefield of a pitch or a mismatch of Australia-Zimbabwe proportions. As AB de Villiers and Jacques Kallis proved in emphatic fashion on Friday, there was nothing diabolical about the pitch, but the huge gulf in class should both shame and worry an Indian team that had begun to think above its station.

India should forget blame game

At the end of the opening day's play at the Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad, Roshan Mahanama, the match referee, pulled up Jacques Kallis for violating the spirit of cricket. The mean-spirited Kallis had brought the game into disrepute by having the temerity to bat for 124 balls on a 'green top' where he was supposed to run up the white flag of surrender, as thrillingly demonstrated by India in 109 minutes of pure entertainment in the morning. Instead of following that shining example, Kallis and co-accused, AB de Villiers, eked out 106 runs in 34.1 overs in the final session, with utter disregard for Twenty20 principles and techniques.

Indian spin against Protea pace

After the designer turners that underpinned India's home success in the 1990s, three spinners in the playing XI has been a rarity. There has been the odd occasion, like Mumbai [2004] and Mohali [2006], but by and large India have opted for more balanced attacks in this decade.

The current injury crisis though has left them with little option but to go the spin-trident route. Zaheer Khan is out for the full series, while Ishant Sharma is unlikely to play a part even in Kanpurl. RP Singh was a disaster in terms of both fitness and form at Chennai, and Munaf Patel keeps dropping off the radar.

The ban on Shoaib is an outrage

The Pakistan Cricket Board's decision to ban Shoaib Akhtar for five years is yet another step on what has been a long and winding road to oblivion. Once one of the top drawcards in the game - no other team stretched the West Indies at much as they did when the men from the Caribbean were at their peak - the Pakistanis are now in danger of becoming a sideshow, with hardly any proper cricket on the itinerary for the next two years. On top of that, they've just decided to dispense with one of the few potent pace bowlers they have, a man who also happens to be a maverick and entertainer from the old Pakistani school.

Crime and punishment

Unseasonal rains may have provided the Chepauk curator with an excuse, but any more pitches like this and we may as well bring out the coffin for Test cricket in India. If crowds are anything to go by, it perished in Pakistan years ago, and rigor mortis will soon set in elsewhere in the subcontinent as well.

Despite the fact that India's best results these days come on sporting pitches, the tradition of lifeless flatbeds continues to plague Test matches in India. Chennai once used to be an honourable exception, producing fantastic Test matches in 1999 [Pakistan], 2001 [Australia] and 2004 [when the final day against Australia was washed out].

The cavalier's second coming

With the exception of a couple that were watched on television, I've been fortunate to watch all of Virender Sehwag's 14 centuries inside the stadiums that his strokeplay set alight. And despite all the hyperbole tonight, I can safely say that this wasn't his best.

The bat-a-thon continues

At times on a second day when 318 runs were scored, you could almost imagine that the game was being played out on the East Coast Road up just up the coast, such was the nature of the pitch. The six wickets that India picked up, four of them in a rush after tea as South Africa went for quick runs, should fool no one.

At no stage was there a genuine contest between bat and ball, with even stalwarts like Anil Kumble and the exciting Dale Steyn being treated with scant respect by batsmen who could afford to plonk the front foot forward and drive through the line. When some of the best bowlers in the game are made to look like second-rate trundlers, it's probably time for those that sanction these type of pitches to do a bit of soul-searching.

The English itinerary is a disgrace

Two Tests and seven one-day internationals. Seven one-day games against England? What a waste of time. The Indian board has conveniently blamed the FTP for there being only two Tests, but it begs the question: Why on Earth do we need seven ODIs?

Game on as McKenzie steals the show

If the opening day at Chepauk proved anything, it was that this series is going to be a long, hard slog in intense summer heat. South Africa may not be as formidable as Australia, but they have a doggedness and steel about them that suggests these three Tests will be every bit as evenly contested as the ones played out in the southern Cape 15 months ago.

The two bridesmaids go head to head

For me, Chennai has always been the premier Test venue in India. Eden Gardens is bigger and more imposing, but over the past few decades, the failure of the fans to keep a lid on their emotions - firestarting, booing national icons and the whole team on one occasion - has seen it slip down the pecking order. Chepauk has the history [Douglas Jardine last captained England here], and also a crowd steeped in the traditions of the five-day game.

Paddy's Day memories

A year ago, I was at Sabina Park, watching one of the greatest sporting upsets. To the tune of Cotton-Eye Joe, Molly Malone and many others, Ireland's finest, some of them originally from Australia, held their nerve to shock Pakistan. A South African, Andre Botha, did a fair imitation of Glenn McGrath on a seam-friendly pitch, before Boyd Rankin and others sent Pakistan plummeting to a dismal total.

The politics of race

They arrive in India ranked as the world's leading one-day side, though an Australian team with three successive World Cups and a Champions Trophy in the cabinet might justifiably pooh-pooh that status. In the Test arena, South Africa aren't as formidable a force, though victories over India, Pakistan and New Zealand at home, and Pakistan and Bangladesh away have set them up nicely for a tilt at India, currently ranked second to Australia.

No Australia. Champions Trophy next?

What most of us suspected has now been confirmed, and though the official line from the two boards says that the series has only been postponed, it's hard to see Australia touring Pakistan before 2010. The itinerary is packed for the rest of this year, and 2009 has an Ashes series as its centrepiece. With the Pakistan Cricket Board not amenable to hosting the series at a neutral venue, it's hard to see where the matches will be fitted in if they're not played now.

Playing for free

Luke Pomersbach, who enjoyed 15 minutes of fame in the Twenty20 game against New Zealand last December, will be among those up for auction during the IPL's second round of bids on Tuesday. The left-hander, who can boast of centuries against England and South Africa in tour games, appears to be pretty desperate to be part of the inaugural edition.

As we look back

Now that the dust has settled and Indian TV channels [Australian papers too will need to find some news to write about, instead of the Harbhajan Singh show] have stopped talking of the CB Series win as though it was the equivalent of a moon landing or a World Cup triumph, we can look back at three months of enthralling cricket. It's just a shame that so many fantastic memories are soured by collective behaviour that would embarrass my five-year-old nephew. Australia won the Test series despite being ambushed at Perth, and India rode on the elixir of youth to clinch the last-ever tri-series in two straight games. Here, we look back at some of the memorable moments and performers.

Was Tendulkar's Sydney special his best?

I got a very interesting email from Anandkumar in Bangalore this morning. With his permission, it's shown below...

Notwithstanding the sheer delight of watching his matchwinning 117 not out on Sunday against Australia, statistically too ,  I thought this ought to rate as the best [one-day] innings in  his illustrious career. Here are some statistics  thanks to Statsguru on Cricinfo.

Kumar and Tendulkar shine as Gilchrist fades away

Two of one-day cricket's biggest legends, automatic picks for any all-time XI, and yet the manner in which they exited the Australian stage couldn't have been more contrasting. Sachin Tendulkar's marvellous 91 set up the game for India, while Adam Gilchrist's first-over dismissal meant that Australia's chase was ill-fated from the start. With India's win, the tri-series also went into the pages of history, without the home win that a near-capacity crowd at the Gabba would have hoped for.

Tendulkar buries Australian jinx

This is the 29th and final tri-series to be played in Australia, and the finals will almost certainly be Sachin Tendulkar's last games on Australian soil. In 38 previous one-day matches, he had never managed a century in Australia, with a 93 against Pakistan at Hobart being the closest that he had come. In recent times, his second-innings record had also come in for scrutiny, with Sanjay Manjrekar calling him the "elephant in the room" that no one dared talk about.