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India-Australia still the biggest draw

I read with great interest Christopher Martin-Jenkins' views on last week's IPL auction, and its aftermath. But while I share some of his concerns, I'm not quite as pessimistic about the game's immediate future.

If India's ongoing tour of Australia has shown anything, it's that nothing get this country of a billion people as worked up as a series against the best side in the game. Every incident, whether it be the Sydney controversy, the win at the WACA or Ishant Sharma's send-off to Andrew Symonds on Sunday, has seen phrases like 'national honour' being invoked.

All too easy for India

This was a match between two teams journeying in different directions. After a disastrous World Cup, India have revamped their one-day line-up to such an extent that they've pushed Australia to the wire in three games in the CB Series, winning one. Sri Lanka, runners-up in the Caribbean less than a year ago, have been shockingly poor, lasting the full 50 overs only in one game.

Should Bangladesh play more Tests?

It took South Africa just 10.5 overs on the fourth morning to wrap up victory, but how they had to work for it. Bangladesh may have scored less than 200 in both innings, but some inspired bowling from Shahadat Hossain - who finished with match figures of 9 for 97 - ensured that there were some distinctly uncomfortable moments on the road to victory.

Million-dollar babies go down swinging

After the IPL auction last Wednesday, Ricky Ponting expressed his surprise at how little ($400,00) he had gone for, before saying that a recent poor run with the bat may have contributed. In that context, it was almost inevitable that he would prove a point before the CB Series was over. That it came against an Indian team that commanded top dollar should surprise no one.

For the love of the game

Just three days after the IPL auction in Mumbai, and the poaching has already started, with teams using methods fair and foul to lure young players into the fold. Already, Bangalore and Delhi have fought over Praveen Kumar, who has played just two one-day internationals and one Twenty20 for India. Bangalore finally got him for $300,000, more than was paid for a proven allround performer like Scott Styris.

Cricket is the new football

That was the glib phrase repeated ad nauseam after England won the Ashes in 2005, and the nation's cricketers briefly supplanted an overhyped and underachieving football team in the public domain. Within a few weeks though, with Michael Vaughan's side slipping up in Pakistan, normalcy was restored and Jose Mourinho, Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and friends regained their customary position on the front and back pages.

Yuvraj and the imaginary slump

Cricketing fame is a fickle beast. Two months ago, after a dazzling one-day century against Australia and a captivating Test hundred against Pakistan - not to mention those Twenty20 high jinks in South Africa - Yuvraj Singh was poised to take over the mantle from India's old guard. The tour of Australia was seen as the ideal place for the coronation, the crucible in which Yuvraj could prove that his time had truly come. Reality though bit very differently.

Clarke and Johnson jump off gravy train

He may have been the subject of much criticism in the wake of the events in Sydney, but Michael Clarke's decision to pull out of the Indian Premier League will hopefully be an example to dozens of talented young cricketers around the world. The other to opt out of the mad dash for cash is Mitchell Johnson, and he too needs to be lauded for not trying to cash in on some fine performances during the Australian summer.

Should Australia tour Pakistan?

Barring a spectacular about-turn, Australia will not tour Pakistan next month. Enough noises have already been made to suggest that the security inspection after the elections in Pakistan will be a mere formality, with Cricket Australia bowing to the players' wishes.

Test cricket in Pakistan has been dying for more than a decade now - even matches against India don't get anything like a full house - and this could well prove the final nail in the coffin. And while Cricket Australia can talk about exploring the idea of a neutral venue, there's no conceivable benefit for Pakistan from such a move.

Last exit for an adopted hero

In all the great westerns, the hero rides off into the sunset, mission accomplished, and it was altogether fitting that Adam Gilchrist left Australian's western-most cricketing outpost a winner. That he scored a century was an additional bonus for a WACA crowd that was slow to take him to their hearts when he made the switch from New South Wales well over a decade ago.

Old master and old tricks

In South Africa last September, India proved themselves to be adept practitioners of T20 cricket, but in a rain-reduced game at the Manuka Oval in Canberra, it was one of the old pioneers of slash-and-burn batsmanship that put paid to their chances. Even as India endeavour to fashion a young side ahead of the next World Cup, Sanath Jayasuriya proved that there's still place for experience at the highest level.

Doing it the hard way

Had India knocked off the 160 needed in around 30 overs, this match would have been dismissed as an aberration, as Australia having a poor day. Instead, it took them 45.5 overs to inch past the target and the manner in which they were made to struggle could well be the making of a young side. You learn nothing from strolls in the park, like Australia's demolition of Sri Lanka on Friday, but defeats and close finishes contain lessons that sportsmen, no matter how experienced, can afford to skip.

For a few dollars more - Part Deux

Move over Clint Eastwood, the cricketers are here. And come mid-April, the Indian Premier League will ensure a fistful of dollars for everyone, including as much as $400,000 for Shane Warne. In a week where we observed the 50th anniversary of the Munich air crash that decimated one of the greatest teams in the history of sport, the IPL is the ultimate proof of a game that has sold its soul to the highest bidders [$723 million for the eight teams].

Will India's youth policy work?

You can never read too much into one match, especially when it's the first that several members of the team have played on Australian soil. The opening game of the CB Series may have been abandoned, but it gave most Indians a glimpse at the future, of a day when a team devoid of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly - more than 60,000 international runs between them - takes on the world. At the Gabba, the middle order spoke of the new beginning - Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwary and Robin Uthappa. 

World champions knocked out

Not since George Foreman reduced Joe Frazier to a punchdrunk stupor, knocking him down six times inside two rounds, has a world champion been treated with such withering contempt. In front of a crowd of 84,041 at the MCG, the Indian innings began to sink from the moment Michael Clarke sent Virender Sehwag packing with an unerringly accurate throw to the bowler's end.

A time for cool heads

Mahendra Singh Dhoni offers a very different brand of leadership from Anil Kumble. The Test captain is one of the game’s legends and one of its finest ambassadors, a soft-spoken thoughtful soul who has won many admirers for the manner in which he steered the Indian ship through decidedly choppy waters after the incidents in Sydney. But with the tour now moving to the hit-and-giggle Twenty20 and an interminable one-day series also involving Sri Lanka, Kumble heads home to get his breath back before the South Africans arrive in March.