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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.