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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

The Monkey and Your Mother

Justice John Hansen's judgment following Harbhajan Singh's appeal hearing in Adelaide runs to 22 pages and 8040 words. As is the case with most legal documents, it's not easy to read, but the salient points are there for anyone to come across.

First, Hansen tries to establish what led to the incident between Harbhajan and Andrew Symonds. "It is clear that Mr Lee bowled an excellent yorker to Mr Singh who was fortunate to play the ball to fine leg," he writes.

The U-turn is complete

Read the post then cast your vote below to the poll: who is the real power in international cricket?

And so, after the threat of a three-match ban for Harbhajan Singh and the Indian team pulling out of the one-day series, the circus moves on to Melbourne with the charges of racist abuse dropped and Mike Proctor's credibility torn to shreds. It also reopens an old can of worms about the pressure that individual boards exert when one of their own is fined or banned under the ICC Code of Conduct.

It happened at The Oval with Pakistan and Darrell Hair, and before that with India and Mike Denness at Port Elizabeth in 2001. The BCCI were within their rights to complain about the abysmal standard of umpiring in Sydney, but the resultant threats to pull out were puerile and unedifying, and only reinforced the neutral's view of the Indian board being cricket's answer to Chelsea Football Club, nouveau riche and lacking class.

Sehwag and Lee hint at bright future

Two seats down from me in the press box, Damien Fleming kept shaking his head in amazement. "What were they thinking?" he asked. "How could they leave him out of the first two Tests?" The man he referred to had got to three figures in exhilatrating fashion, not having played any part at Melbourne and Sydney. Four years ago, Virender Sehwag clattered an astonishing 195 in five hours at the MCG, in the middle of a purple patch when he was perhaps the most feared opening batsman in the game.

Ineffectual Harbhajan needs to prove his worth

Only two bowlers in this series have a strike-rate above 100. One is Ishant Sharma, whose figures of 6 for 358 (strike-rate of 101) are ample evidence that numbers taken in isolation mean absolutely nothing. Both at the WACA in Perth and here at the Adelaide Oval, Ishant was magnificent in spells, beating the bat with pace and late swing and the steep bounce that he gets as a result of being NBA-tall.

Spin twins have a batting day out

For India to have any chance of squaring the series at Adelaide, Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble were going to have to do something special. But even the most optimistic fan couldn't have expected that they'd do Australian hopes so much harm with the bat. When they came together with the score 359 for 7, Ricky Ponting must have harboured hopes of batting before lunch.

Adelaide musings

Of the 22 men that fought out an enthralling Test match four years ago, only 10 will be make their way on to the Adelaide Oval tomorrow. Some like Steve Waugh have retired, while others like Ajit Agarkar discovered that one swallow doesn't a summer make. Brad Williams went off to paint houses, while Ashish Nehra never reached the heights he scaled on a Durban night when he swung out six English batsmen and threw up a banana.

End of one-day road for legends?

The selectors will never come out and say it, but it's becoming more and more apparent that Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly may have joined VVS Laxman by the wayside in one-day cricket. Emboldened by the manner in which a young side outplayed all-comers in the T20 World Cup, they've decided to gamble on youth for the CB Series. So while the likes of Dravid, Ganguly, Laxman and Anil Kumble go home, youngsters like Piyush Chawla, Praveen Kumar and Rohit Sharma fly in. There's also place for Suresh Raina, whose international career stalled in 2006 after such a promising start

India's greatest win ever?

Having been fortunate enough to have been at all of India's greatest wins in the new millennium (Headingley 2002 was the lone exception), it's perhaps natural that the mind tries to place the victory in context. Given what happened in the build-up to the game, it's inevitable that it will always have a special place in Indian cricket lore. But is it the greatest victory ever? Vote in the poll below.

Cricket's bad boys

Sydney's Daily Telegraph probably didn't realise that they were playing into Indian hands with this hatchet-job on India's disciplinary record. If anything, the "cricket sinners" list that they have drawn up based on offences under the ICC's code of conduct only reinforces the subcontinent view that players from the region are treated far more harshly than those from other countries.

Time to gamble on Sehwag

Few that watched it will ever forget Virender Sehwag's Boxing Day special in 2003. After having his helmet used for target practice in the early stages, he opened out after lunch to play one of the most destructive innings you'll ever see, careering to 195 in just five hours before a leg-side heave fell short of the six that would have taken him past 200.

Ganguly, and the Australian way

It was his dismissal, to a low catch or bump ball - depending on where your prejudices lie - that sparked the huge debate about Australia and the spirit of cricket. But less than a week after that controversial final day at the SCG, Sourav Ganguly was in conciliatory mood. The man who put some steel into Indian cricket during his days as captain admits that he's a fan of the way Australia plays its cricket.

A gentlemen's agreement?

The days go by, and the statements keep coming. And after looking like it was powerless in the face of the Indian board's financial might, it's the ICC's turn to make a stand today. Malcolm Speed, the CEO, is adamant that India will have to abide by the decision reached by John Hansen, the New Zealand High Court judge who will hear Harbhajan Singh's appeal.

"India have signed off on the appeals process," said Speed. "They were there when all the discussions took place. We can't have one set of rules for the India team and another set for everyone else. We will follow the process and and I hope, whatever the outcome all parties will be able to say they have had a fair hearing."

Which way should India go?

In less than 48 hours, India's gladiators will walk into a wall of noise at cricket's Circus Maximus, bidding to stop a team that has been well nigh unstoppable in its last 14 Tests. With back-to-back series wins against England and Pakistan, India are in search of a unique treble, but realists will tell you that even a stalemate over the four Tests will see them acclaimed as the greatest Indian side of all.

India tune up for Boxing Day

As practice matches go, they don't come much tougher than Victoria, even if it's at the Junction Oval in St Kilda rather than the MCG. The Bushrangers are having a wonderful season, having won four of six Pura Cup games, and India will feel slightly cheated that they can't take on the full-strength side. Shane Harwood, the fast bowler on the fringes of Australian selection, is out injured, as is Gerard Denton, the bowling star for the side with 28 wickets at just 16.10 this season.

Experience is India's trump card

Over the past couple of years, the Indian batting's Fab Four have attracted as many brickbats as they have bouquets. And despite consistent performances from three of them this year - Rahul Dravid, usually Mr Dependable, has been the one who's struggled - there are still many that still doubt their ability to cope against an Australian attack that shows no sign of letting up despite the exit of Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath.

Christmas comes early for Sehwag

No Indian team selection is ever uneventful, and that was certainly the case today when Niranjan Shah, the board secretary, announced the squad of 16 to play four Tests against an Australian team that have now won 14 on the bounce. Journalists quietly scribbled down the names till Shah got to the 14th one on the list. "Virender Sehwag," he said, and there were audible gasps all around the room. Sehwag hasn't played a Test since Cape Town last January, and wasn't even among the 24 probables that the board had announced before the Bangalore Test.

The comeback kid

Yuvraj Singh's fabulous strokeplay and Sourav Ganguly's magnificent mocking of Father Time may well comprise the highlights when this Test is viewed years from now, but the story of Irfan Pathan shouldn't be allowed to become a sideshow. Apart from Vinoo Mankad and Kapil Dev, India had never produced a world-class allrounder, and it certainly doesn't have any in the pipeline who are remotely in Pathan's class.

Skeletons in the Kirsten closet

One of India's most experienced journalists has run a story that could have serious ramifications as India look to conclude the seven-month-long hunt for a new coach. Barring the ironing out of some details, Gary Kirsten was thought to have the job, but an article in Kolkata's Telegraph asks some serious questions about his suitability for the role.

Lokendra Pratap Sahi, the associate editor who also looks after sports, did the story, and he has perhaps the most meticulous filing system of any journalist anywhere. It should surprise no one then that he unearthed excerpts from an article first run almost 11 years ago.

Can Gary Kirsten do what Greg Chappell couldn't?

By all accounts, Gary Kirsten is set to be India's next coach. Once the fine print is sorted out, the appointment should be announced, though it remains to be seen whether he'll be on board for the tour of Australia. If he can sort out personal commitments in time to make the trip in mid-December, it'll be the sort of baptism by towering inferno that neither John Wright nor Chappell had to face.

Delhi Test ratings - India

India’s seventh successive win at what is now Fortress Feroz Shah Kotla was the complete team performance, with each of the XI making telling contributions over the four days. The doosra look at each man and the role he played in an ultimately comfortable victory.

Money can't buy you love

The Indian board may be second to none when it comes to the business of generating money, but they still have a whole lot to learn about organising international events. Right from a farcical accreditation process that panders to local associations - every other country has a centralised system in place - to shambolic arrangements in the press box, the first day of the Delhi game highlighted everything that's wrong with an organisation  that loves the bottom line without caring less about attention to detail.

The nearly men