The success of Yuvraj Singh, M S Raina, M S Dhoni and Irfan Pathan with the bat and Rahul Dravid's solidity has masked the debilitating crisis in the India top order.
The travails of Virender Sehwag and Mohammed Kaif have already been documented. Sachin Tendulkar too had been in poor form before his injury. Gautam Gambhir has paid for his inconsistency with his place in the side.
But strangely it has not contributed to a dip in the team's performance. In fact in the one-day game India's recent record is outstanding. We have won an astounding 13 matches out of the last 15 played. Even our Test record, though no great shakes, has not really taken a battering. Sure we lost a Test to Pakistan and England, but it's not the end of the world.
So what's the point of this post you ask. It's this, with four of the top batsmen in the midst of such a poor run in form, India still has a fabulous ODI record. Just imagine what would happen if they get back to their run-scoring ways.
We would have a world beating team then. What do you guys think?

Someone out there is looking out for Robin Uthappa.
The man has an extremely modest first-class record.
But it seems he has got good scores in the Challenger series against good attacks, which have brought him into the reckoning.
He's a young man and obviously he has potential. He is touted as a hard-hitting batsman.
It will be interesting to see how he goes.

Greg Chappell backs Mohammed Kaif and Virender Sehwag.
But his take on Ganguly is interesting:
“Asked whether Sourav Ganguly could return to the Indian team, he replied: “Who knows? You can’t change the team all the time. We are looking for particular type of players to match the players that we already have and we are reasonably comfortable with that. I don’t think there will be wholesale changes.”
Which means what? I think he still does not want the former captain back in the side. The team needs an opener. What’s wrong with giving Ganguly a go?
And even as I write this comes the news that Robin Uthappa will replace Gambhir in the side. So Ganguly is obviously not in the team’s plans.

Sourav Ganguly may be back, reports DNA, Mumbai.
The story, which is short on attribution, speaks of the wheels within wheels within the board working for the return of the former Indian captain.
While I am against Board officials lobbying for cricketers of their liking, I am all for giving Ganguly a final fling.
Give him a few matches. See if he has still got what it takes. If he fails again, let him retire. Failing which, dump him.

$1.5 billion (about Rs 7,000 crore). That is the revenue that the BCCI is eyeing over the next four years, reports DNA, Mumbai.
The Board has come up with some innovative methods to generate revenues.
That’s all fine. What about spending some of that to ensure better facilities for the paying public?
Is it too much to expect that you don't get lathi-charged when you turn up for a cricket match?

The young kid I spoke of in my last post is Vidhi Jain. She lies in the ICU of a Faridabad hospital. Her mother is also in hospital with a broken collar bone.
They were caught in the middle of brutality that the Haryana police unleashed on people who paid huge amounts to watch a cricket match.
I say let's not go to matches any more. Let the cops watch with the officials and the VIPs who manage get into air-conditioned boxes without problems or security checks.
DON’T PAY TO GET CANED! IT’S ON TV ANYWAY

The way the cricket fans were treated at Faridabad for the second ODI was a shame.
Rediff's Harish Kotian has this report on the trouble that valid ticket-holding fans faced at the hands of the cops.
You pay through your nose for a ticket because you want to have a good time. Not to get lathi-charged by trigger-happy policemen, who have nothing better to do.
I was just watching footage of the outrage on TV and it made my blood boil. A young kid was clearly traumatised by the events. She was shattered and frightened even as her parents tried to pacify her. The little girl threw up all over the place before finally curling up in the lap of an elder.
I was witness to such brutality a couple of years ago. New Zealand was here. The match was for some reason being played at the Brabourne Stadium. I don't know, how it happens, but there were more people there than the stadium's capacity. It resulted in chaos and the cops did the only thing that they know. They lathi-charged the crowd ' that had mostly valid ticket holders ' who were just trying to get into the stadium. In that crowd were several young kids. One of them happened to be in the firing line of the cane charge. That look of terror in his eyes, I still remember it.
We got in finally. But there was standing room only. It was like watching a cricket match from a peak-hour Virar local (Mumbai's crowded local trains). We left within an hour. I have never been to a cricket match in Mumbai since. I don't plan to go either
Sorry I am too angry to celebrate India's win or write about the match.

Delhi curator Ram Babu Gupta predicted a 300-wicket at the Kotla and got egg on his face.
Now Vijay Yadav, the pesky former wicket-keeper batsman and curator at Faridabad, has also stuck out his neck and said the pitch he's prepared is also a 280-300 track.
For his sake and ours, I hope he’s right. I’d rather watch a 300-a-side game, than one in which Yuvraj Singh pitches a seemingly innocuous delivery on the good-length spot and it kicks like an angry viper and hits Dhoni on the chest.
That’s ok for the fifth day of a Test match, not the 75th over of a one-day game.
Gimme a 434-an-innings match any day.

A report in the Times of India says that senior Indian cricketers will earn upto 25 crores a year over the next four years.
There are some pretty big numbers in the article. Digest this:
‘The total earning will go up to a whopping Rs 5,967 crore for the four-year period starting with the ongoing England series. BCCI has promised that 26% of its revenues will go to players. The cricketers, therefore, stand to earn a staggering Rs 1551.42 crore over four years.’
The BCCI officials quoted in the artice make all the right noises about developing the game. Now they have to ensure that it’s done on the ground.
The board has made a good start by giving first-class cricketers decent packages. Even former Test players now get a pension. All they need to do now is help the game grow at the school and college level.

The Hindustan Times, Mumbai
‘Bhajji delivers a box offie hit’.
Nice