I can understand Symonds acting precious. I dont know whether Bhajji said it or Symonds heard it wrong, the guy thought he was being racially baited. And to be let down by the board and his mates like Micheal "Unreliable witness" Clarke, it definitely would have taken the wind out of his sails, since he makes a big deal about covering for his mates and is obviously a team man.

Nicely said saman, I couldnt have put it better.

"but still do not think that the sub continent do not want Test cricket". Right said Pom, we were so lacking in Test match cricket we had to go and invent a 20/20 version of the game to keep the crowds coming. And since England is so steeped in traditional forms of the game, it almost did not participate in the World cup 20/20. Pull the other one, its got bells on it. England would invent a 5 over game or let a guy land his helicopter in the Tower if it could get some money out of cricket.

"Bajji, Sree, Symonds (and Hayden to an extent) are all pretty much the same" Only two real men in that list Emerlander... Ah, you didn't give a clue, did you Penny? Ok, the list is down to three because Hayden is not. While the other three enact their stupidities in front of the opponents, Hayden had to just run and bawl his eyes out in a radio station.

Penny, look what you have done to Symonds. It takes one bad apple...

I am sure that BCCI folks are reading C365 forums regularly, so a heads up for you guys: We have mastered the technology of concrete a while ago and we can stop building monuments to it in the form of cricket stadiums. The saving grace in MAC stadium in Chennai is that there is a sea pretty close, so the spectators dont melt in the heat. But the new stadium is built away from the sea and a enclosed concrete structure of 1,00,000 in Chennai heat is how the first circle of hell is going to look like. There is no accounting for taste but for heaven's sake make it a bit spectator friendly and aesthetic. A grass bank wouldn't be a bad idea to start with.

Zaheer is doing a fantastic second act since the tour of England. He is toying with a ODI batsman of such caliber of Jayasuriya. Pity Warnapura was given out when the ball was going high, he was eating up the overs!

Who would have thought Legolas the Elf could bowl SA out of the game? Whether he is the reason behind these wins or not,the presence of KP does hang like a shroud around these games and maybe SA is too rankled to concentrate.

I was reading a rival site's newsletter (Ed, please ignore the transgression) which described the incident involving Langer, Ramps and his hundred. Langer seemed a hard nut to crack, which is ok by me and I always rated him above Hayden. But my admiration for him went up after reading about his gesture. Stuff like these makes cricket such a wonderful game.

Why limit ourselves to Ultimate Cricket¿, Olympics should have Brockian Ultra-Cricket!

Arrogant, it makes sense to have T20 in Olympics because that is the way to bait and switch the other countries into cricket. A Olympic sport releases the purse strings. If and that is a big if, they are lured by T20, it can act as a nursery of sorts and they can move up the ladder to test cricket. Test status cannot be conferred on all countries and that would stop the rest of the countries in competing in the Olympics. A Olympic sport need not be elite but the performance must be.

The probability of winning an Olympic medal is not a function of the population. The population factor breaks down when you are talking of 10 million plus populations. Sports is more like a cream on top of the cake. In India lot of people didn't take up sport because they are worried more about financial stability than pursuing their talent because it becomes an either or situation. But things are getting better, we had good chances in shooting, boxing , badminton and tennis. In shooting though we had just one gold, we have a few world champs in the roster, it just didn't click at the Olympics and our stupid bureaucracy didn't provide them with enough bullets to shoot while training. It was not a question of money, but silly petty politics. Tennis we have had grand slam winners in doubles. And in boxing, badminton and weightlifting we have done well outside the Olympics. Right now there are a few companies are investing a lot of money on these sportsmen. It is not all gloom and I guess the waves are slowly getting higher and higher. I am keeping my fingers crossed for boxing where have three guys in the fray. T20 for 2020! BTW, did the Smith/Key lookalike submitted by Tuesday?

Dazzler, it was funny but laughing at people's physical short comings is i-gnome-inious. Now Aussies, dont jump on my rear,many Indian cricketers are smurfs too!

Yup Enigma, I am tired and sick of this "injury" excuse too. Maybe that is an agreed euphemism for dropping. Am just happy that he did not reach his *personal* milestone of his in this tour. But I don't think Yuvraj has it in him to be included in Test team. Rohit or Raina would do better than Yuvraj.

The spell of Mendis that ended with getting Laxman's wicket was amazing! Why is that India is trying to emulate SA in the first innings in this test series?! Proph, for me its all getting into the rhythm and zone while watching test cricket. There are matches the ball after ball puts you in some sort of natural frequency when the time just flies while watching. It depends on the nature of the match.

Nice take, Jonhenry. It will be very interesting to watch Mendis in a Test match. He cant bowl six different deliveries in an over, over a long period of time. Does he have a stock delivery at all?!

LOL @ Calm of the week!

Thanks May. This has been long in coming. Do make it a regular feature.

Alan, differences aside, nice of you to come and comment back. I am going to stick my neck out and predict a grass topper in Ahmedabad where Steyn and Sharma are going to clean up the batsmen, but it depends on whether the cricket club in Ahmedabad is opposed to the current ruling faction in BCCI. Complicated, isnt it?!

Rubbish. You have a lot of dots, but do the dots connect? The first pitch in three test series was a batting track. So? Is there any concerted movement by the Indian fans that made BCCI produce such wickets? As if there is a poll done before a series where Indian fans vote for a particular wicket. What a load of bull. Apart from Australia and to an extent England, India is the only place where you get packed houses on a non-weekend playday. and ODI and 20/20. All of them. And Whats wrong with liking 20/20? Its not that India has started this format. BCCI was reluctant to even hold any 20/20 matches before the 20/20world cup. India didnt even play a single 20/20 before that. Now that BCCI is giving shape to a professional tournament, its all capitalist greed. What nonsense. Its not as if the entire world dislikes it. the only matches they get stadium audience worldwide is a 20/20 match. Why is that everything happens to Indian cricket is viewed with some kind of conspiracy angle. Where does even the question of Indian cricket being right and wrong arise? Somehow a dead wicket lead to a baying Indian fans wanting a featherbad to bat on which leads to India holding cards etc etc. This is not some convoluted April fool's joke, right?