What’s with the BCCI?
Virender Sehwag says he misses Ganguly, says the Indian team plays too much cricket, he is gagged. The BCCI warns him not to speak on such issues.
Sachin Tendulkar has his first net in months. The media is not invited. When they land up they are asked to shoot for afar.
So TV has a sideways angle of Sachin playing a few shots. So do most photographers. And not even a few words from ST after the session.
On one side, you have the board tomtomming that they will be transperent and mordern in its thinking. And then you have this.
What’s so controversial about Sehwag saying he misses Ganguly (who he thinks is his mentor)? Or what’s so secretive about Tendulkar knocking a few balls back that the media cannot take whatever shots they want?
The board says it wants to take the game forward. But this stuff reeks of the dark ages of Indian cricket.
Meanwhile M S Dhoni has signed an ‘exclusive’ deal with the TV channel NDTV. So what will he speak about there? His hairstyle?

The BCCI has handed contracts to Sreesanth and Raina. That's good. These guys are great prospects and deserve the contracts.
But look at the list. There are only 17 guys there. Why not more people? Like Munaf Patel, Ramesh Powar. Maybe Robin Uthappa. Even Shikar Dhawan. That kid is good.
May be they should have a grade 4 and give Rs 10 lakh contracts to youngsters they feel could make the grade. Have 8-10 young uns there.
The list has a certain Sourav Ganguly in Grade A. That's 50 lakhs a year for playing for West Bengal. Will be interesting to see what they do when his contract comes up for renewal.

Ajit Agarkar in an interview to DNA, Mumbai, says that he is disappointed that he has never got a regular place in the Indian team.
Quite frankly, I DON’T think the man has done enough to be on the team in the first place.
But I agree with him on this:
“Look at Anil Kumble who has 500 Test wickets,” Agarkar says. “Personally, I think he is India’s greatest match-winner. But he never got the credit he deserved,” he says.

An unusual column in Cricinfo.
The writer was obviously a bowler in his playing days. He has some refreshing views on the LBW laws. But I cannot fathom his argument for bowlers with suspect actions.
What is the man trying to say? That we make chucking legal?

The Maestro turns 33 today.
One of his great rivals Wasim Akram launches a passionate defence of Sachin Tendulkar.
Calling him one of the ‘unbowlable’ batsmen of his era with Viv Richards and Sunil Gavaskar, Akram goes on to shame those who booed him in Mumbai.
Way to go Wasimbhai, some people just don’t know how to treat a genius and a national icon.

Sourav Ganguly is refusing to give up on his cricketing career.
The former captain says he will continue to play domestic cricket. He also expressed his disappointment at not being picked in the team for the West Indies.
Another story in the Indian Express says that Ganguly and V V S Laxman do not feature in India’s World Cup plans. But it says there is still hope for Anil Kumble.
I hope Laxman still features in India’s Test plans. But I really cannot figure why Kumble is not in India’s one-day team. We are playing two off spinners. And if the India Express is to be believed we are looking for a left arm spinner. We have a proven leg spinner in the ranks ' but he is sat out. I think we should rotate Ramesh Powar and Harbhajan Singh, but Kumble needs to be in the team.

Can someone please tell me what the point was of the two-match series with Pakistan?
A series played for charity, that pays the hosting association $1 million (about Rs 4.5 crore) and has a 45 kg precious stone-encrusted trophy makes my eyebrows go up.
I don’t know about you, but this overdose of Indo-Pakistan matches is making interest levels go down. It was clearly visible during this meaningless series.
I got a lot of flak and some support for my last posts against Ajit Agarkar. I agree that he bowled brilliantly in the two matches against Pakistan — especially in the first match. If he keeps bowling like that, I have no problems with him continuing in the side. But he goes off boil too often for my liking. That’s the problem.
I also like the look of Ramesh Powar. The man is a gutsy cricketer. His bowling is competent. He is not afraid of batsmen attacking him — in fact he seems to relish that. Also his batting is a bonus. In fact in the Mumbai team, when there is a batting crisis, they say, ’send Ramesh Powar’. A team man who needs to be around in Team India’s World Cup plans.
I also like the fact that they have stuck with Kaif for the West Indies tour. The man is a proven performer but undergoing a bad streak. He deserves another chance. And the energy he brings to the fielding is always a bonus.
I hope the debate about Sehwag’s place in the side is over for now.

Back from a well deserved break, which saw me in Banglore when madness engulfed it after Dr Rajkumar’s death. Regular service should hopefully resume, in a manner of speaking.

In my previous post on Agarkar, I was surprised at the number of supportive comments that the fast bowler got.
So I did a bit of digging. The last time Agarkar took 5 wickets was against Sri Lanka when they were here last time. (BTW the man has taken 5 wickets in an innings only twice in a career of 157 matches, proves my point that he is not a match-winning bowler).
Since then here are his stats (overs in brackets): 2/59 (9.4), 2/47 (10), 2/55 (9.4), 1/25 (7), 0/41 (5), 0/33 (7), 2/58 (9), 2/52 (10), 0/21 (6), 1/38 (7), 1/60 (10), 2/34 (7.5) and 0/28 (5).
That’s 15/551 @ 36.73 in 13 matches at a economy rate of 5.4 runs per over.
In 13 matches he has bowled his full quota only 3 times and bowled 9 overs 3 times. He is used mostly as a part-time bowler.
Then why is he in the team. For his fielding??

I can’t figure the curious case of Ajit Agarkar.
The man has an extremely modest ODI record in recent times. I really cannot remember the last time he won us a match. He’s pushing 30 and so isn’t really a prospect for the future. His batting too hasn’t really helped the team. Yet brilliant prospects like Munaf Patel are sat on the bench, while our man is played. And is asked to bowl four overs.
Bowlers like Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and L Balaji ' who showed much more potential ' have fallen out of the radar. But AA goes on.
Can you tell me why?