Yuvraj Singh's illness should not be turned into a spectacle, Pradeep Magazine writes in the Hindustan Times. The way details of his ailment have been treated as gossip, he says, reflects on the fact that Indians treat their sports stars as commodities.

His fans have a right to know what his condition is, and by when he could be back on the cricket field. The problem arises when we treat even this personal tragedy as a matter of public discourse in which speculation, gossip, fact and fiction merge so that the story becomes too soppy or even juicy.

A recent insurance commercial featuring Yuvraj Singh, who is currently undergoing treatment for cancer in the United States of America, has come under criticism, with the insurance company being accused of cashing in cynically on the cricketer's condition. But, writes Sandipan Deb in the Mint, what is astonishing in Yuvraj's masterful handling of the situation

The controversy on the ethicality of running the ad is redundant. Yuvraj Singh, faced with the most fearful crisis in his life, has just shown us how to brilliantly manage perception, and come out stronger and bigger. We want to see this man, with his wonderful talent and now-evident titanic willpower, back on the field for India, as soon as he thinks he is ready

In the Mumbai Mirror, Deepak Narayanan likens the IPL to a big family seen in Indian TV soaps, with the powerful patron, successful uncle, bratty teenagers, earnest youngsters, uncared-for step sons, and even an exiled producer. As with those families, irrespective of occasional rifts, he proclaims that the show will go on.

As it often happens with longrunning soaps on TV, the mistake many viewers make is they try and judge this IPL family by the standards that apply to real life. They get angry when one of them gets out-ofturn favours, they are appalled by the high-handedness of some of the elders, they are stunned by the spineless acceptance of arbitrary decisions. In the real world, this would be unacceptable behaviour, the experts fume, forgetting that this isn’t the real world.

In the wake of Sahara's pull-out and the India team's slump, the BCCI has to buckle down and chart a roadmap for the game rather than get entangled in legal battles, writes Sahan Bidappa in Deccan Chronicle.

On a number of occasions in the past, many of the IPL franchises have openly questioned whether the board respects the rights of all the league's stakeholders. At one stage, Royal Challengers Bangalore owner Vijay Mallya, who has served on various committees in the board, had gone to the extent of asking if the franchisees were merely slaves of the BCCI.

In Mid Day, Clayton Murzello talks to former South Africa allrounder Dave Callaghan, who beat cancer in the early 1990s.

"Yuvraj will do well to tell himself, 'by the end of my treatment, I would like to play... for example... next year's IPL (Indian Premier League). A target to work towards is important," said Callaghan. "I told myself (in 1991) that at the end of my treatment which was four to six months, I would like to play one first-class match again."

In Caravan Magazine, Rahul Bhatia looks back on how Mark Mascarenhas - who was in fatal car accident ten years ago to a day - first broke open the business of cricket.

Over the course of the era that he helped define—and then in the decade after him—the sport grew up from a gawky adolescence to an irresponsible adulthood, and the hesitations of yesterday were cast aside for the noisy satisfactions of a protracted financial bender. Looking back now, the sums involved were minute, but they made headlines at the time: when one of Mascarenhas’s clients became the first cricket millionaire in 1995, it was big enough news to make the cover of the weekly news magazine Outlook. A million dollars is what some cricketers now earn in a month. Mascarenhas was derided for the price he paid to acquire the 1996 World Cup; 16 years later, that amount wouldn’t have bought him two days of Indian cricket coverage. The transformation of the game wasn’t accomplished by one man alone, but Mascarenhas made the first move.

Over the past few months, there has been plenty of debate in India over whether Sachin Tendulkar should receive the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour. He wasn't awarded it this year, and Aakar Patel argues in business newspaper Mint that Tendulkar shouldn't get the honour.

In 2010, the Indian Air Force made Tendulkar a group captain, the only sportsman ever to hold this rank. Tendulkar is already Padma Vibhushan, the second highest honour the Republic of India can give. Kumar Gandharva took apart the gharana system, transformed the culture of Hindustani music and was also given the Padma Vibhushan. Tendulkar hit cricket balls. Many cricket balls, and very far. But Bharat Ratna?

As India tumbles from one defeat to another in Australia, Rohit Mahajan looks at what needs to be done to rectify the situation. Here's his story in the weekly magazine Outlook.

Top players in Ranji Trophy: Ranji Trophy would become more competitive if our best players are there. But in 23 years since his first class debut, Tendulkar has played only 33 Ranji matches. Anil Kumble has never ever bowled to him in a domestic match. In 15 seasons of first-class cricket, Harbhajan Singh has played only 29 Ranji Trophy matches. How is the mountain of runs going to be judged if the best cricketers of the land aren’t playing?

In DNA, TA Sekhar, the fast-bowling coach, says that India do not do enough research on how to prepare fast bowlers and keep them away from injuries. There is no such thing as general coaching, he writes, and India need to assess individual fast bowlers' requirements and train them accordingly.

Ian Chappell, writing in the Hindustan Times, says MS Dhoni is no longer India's answer in Test cricket.

He [Dhoni] has failed dismally to rally the troops in two disastrous overseas campaigns and his suspension from the Adelaide Test is almost a blessing in disguise. His own form, not just with the gloves but also with the bat no longer warrants a guaranteed place in the Test side and Wriddhiman Saha has a glorious opportunity to make a big impression in the fourth Test. As for finding a new Test captain, there are no obvious choices from those players who are likely to remain.

India's rapid dip in fortunes since winning the World Cup should not surprise anyone, Mihir Bose says in Outlook. The Indian cricket team has a general lack of willingness to achieve greatness, he says, something which reflects a broader theme in the mentality of all Indians.

Far from being the new-era Indian from a town once famous for its British-era mental home, Dhoni has been shown up to be the clerk he is. I was struck by this thought when, just before the England series, he chose to launch his charitable foundation, Winning Ways—Today for Tomorrow, at a Park Lane London hotel. Why had he not launched it in Ranchi or Mumbai? It showed he was that old Indian type who’s in awe of the capital of the country that once ruled India.

In the same magazine, Rohit Mahajan places the blame for India's dismal performances in Tests squarely on the IPL. Mahajan speaks to former India coach Anshuman Gaekwad and a current Delhi player, and both agree that the IPL has become more important to Indian cricketers than first-class cricket, and it is the BCCI's attitude that has led to that.

From his vantage position beyond mid-on, outside the boundary rope, former Indian batsman and coach Anshuman Gaekwad heard some words that caused some dismay. It was a Deodhar Trophy match, a ball was hit towards him, and the man at midwicket chased it and finally dived. His captain at mid-on could have done this too, but he didn’t. The reason became clear when he admonished his teammate thus: “Are you mad, why are you diving? The IPL is coming, do you want to hurt yourself and miss it?” Gaekwad says, “I said, what the hell man, is this what cricket has come to? I was shocked, all the more so because the two players are in the Indian team now.”

Dilip D'Souza, in Firstpost.com, on the rise of the IPL and the parallel fading away of the Ranji Trophy. He recounts his experience during Mumbai's Ranji quarter-final against Punjab, which pointed decidedly in this direction.

So Bombay wins easily — with an enormous six smashed just in front of where I sit, no less — and the players shake hands and they all retire slowly to the pavilion. What’s the happy audience at the Wankhede chanting? “Jeetega bhai jeetega, Mumbai jeetega (Mumbai will win)“, to push the team on to greater Ranji glory? “Jaffer, Jaffer”, paying tribute to the captain, now the most prolific run-scorer in Ranji Trophy history? No, it’s “Rahul, Rahul”. Which manages to leave me simultaneously encouraged and sad. Somewhere in that conundrum is a story about a once-proud tournament.

In the Hindustan Times, Sanjjeev K Samyal and Amol Karhadkar say that even though India won the World Cup in 2011 with a young side, the players who stand out in Indian cricket are still the experienced trio of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman.

Three years ago, the India selectors pushed the first of the Fab Four, Sourav Ganguly, into retirement. Perhaps, it was a signal to the ageing middle-order troika that their phase out was not far away. But they kept coming back with superlative displays. Natural talent apart, the key to their success is single-minded focus and a disciplined life.

In the Yahoo cricket website, Rahul Bhatia goes behind the scenes to explore why the BCCI pulled the plug on its US$ 350 million broadcasting deal with Nimbus Communications.

According to a mortgage deed filed by Nimbus, it anticipated earnings of Rs 2761 crore from the rights. The source of this confidence is unclear: the deed states that Nimbus expected to earn Rs 1213 crore in advertising revenues from cricket between 2010-14. However, the ad revenue from all its sports for the previous four financial years was only Rs 360.1 crore. In plainspeak: Nimbus expected a 400% rise in ad revenues.

The BCCI firing Nimbus proves the boom is ending in cricket broadcast business, says Kunal Pradhan, writing in the Economic Times.

Neo Cricket, pretty much a one-product entity, was cutting costs at each step, trying to squeeze out every second's worth of advertising revenue. In spite of all its efforts, however, the money being generated was only a fraction of what was anticipated when it first signed the deal, brokered by the BCCI's former financial whizkid, Lalit Modi.

Rohit's journey back to the Indian team included an 'eggcentric' diet, jogging with his driver and shedding eight kgs. Sandeep Dwivedi and Devendra Pandey, writing in the Indian Express, tell us more.

In January, he was an India discard who was desperate to take a grip of a career that seemed to be rapidly slipping through his fingers. On his flight back to India at the end of the ODI series against South Africa in January this year, where he had a highest of 23 from five games, Rohit asked himself an important question: Did he like the way he looked? The answer was easy—all he needed to do was to look at the mirror and play his old tapes. He was to return home and tell his friends that the next time he would be on television, the world would see a different him.

February and March become the months when [Abhishek] Nayar and the Mumbai team fitness trainer Amogh Pandit moved to Rohit’s 10th floor three-bedroom apartment at Bandra. Morning paranthas were replaced with protein seeds, cornflakes, oats and 8 pm became the new dinner deadline.

Among current batsmen, Virender Sehwag is the one most likely to bring on an epidemic of insomnia among opposition captains, says Ian Chappell, writing in the Hindustan Times.

Part of Sehwag's charm is his refusal to conform. It was illuminating when Sehwag told dashing David Warner he had the opportunity to be more effective as a Test player than as a T20 batsman because of the field placings in the longer game. This was when the pair were opening for Delhi in the IPL and it is confirmation that while Sehwag may have a lot of natural talent, his batting isn't totally devoid of thought.

In Sehwag's batting, the vagaries of daily life are reflected better than in any other player in the history of the game, says Aditya Iyer, writing in the Indian Express.

We groan when Tendulkar cannot put away an impending landmark, we scream if Dravid cannot stage a comeback and cry when Laxman is dismissed during a chase. They were expected to do it, and didn’t. With Sehwag, anything he does is expected ... On one end, he averages 35 in one-dayers and has never understood a format created for him, T20. At the other, he is one of only four players to record two triple centuries in Tests and is India’s record holder for individual innings in Tests and one-dayers.

There’s no showiness about Sehwag's batting, no frills, says David Frith, writing in DNA India. But any comparison between his and Richards' batting can be made only on a purely technical basis.

I’m not keen on comparisons, largely because they are unprovable, even with the aid of statistics — though they are often utilised as the framework of a persuasive case. Could Sehwag have smashed this 219 off that formidable 1984 West Indies pace attack, for instance?If he had, that would certainly have proclaimed him as one of the very greatest batsmen in history. It must be conceded that this Caribbean line-up is far from impressive. As it is, with his swag of Test match triple-centuries and double-centuries the chunky Indian opener already occupies a special place in the Hall of Champions.

Saqlain Mushtaq, Chaminda Vaas and Makhaya Ntini talk to Mid-Day's Sai Mohan on the challenge of bowling to Virender Sehwag.

Chaminda Vaas: What can I say about this genius. I bowled a lot to Sachin ( Tendulkar), Azhar ( Mohammed Azharuddin) and other Indians, but I found nobody more difficult to stop. When he [Sehwag] gets going, he’s got the calibre to score big hundreds. He’s never satisfied. He’s a player who can make a lot of runs in whatever format or conditions.

Has any batsman made a bigger impact on Indian cricket than Virender Sehwag, asks Deepak Narayanan in the Times of India.

Sehwag has the highest, secondhighest and third-highest Test scores by an Indian. He also now holds the record for the highest individual oneday score in history. His Test average is over 50, his one-day strike-rate is touching 105 ... When he gets to three figures, he makes it count: the average for his 100+ scores in Tests is 184.71; in one-dayers, the corresponding figure is 147.84. You don’t need stats to prove he’s a match-winner but here’s one anyway: In ODIs, 14 of his 15 tons have won India the match. In Tests, which India has won, Sehwag averages 57.16; when you combine that with a career strikerate of 82, the numbers take [on] a new meaning.

Sehwag reduces the art of batsmanship to the bare minimum, says Ravi Krishnan, writing in Live Mint. In this era of professionalism, he says, Sehwag is an anachronism.

See ball, hit ball. He might be on 150 or zero. Modern day crickets rate athleticism highly and are ever eager to talk about hitting the gym. Our hero waddles around with a pudgy figure which bespeaks a rich diet of milk, butter and paneer, which the Jat wrestlers in the Najafgarh area of Delhi where he grew up swear by. In times where cricketers are forever in the public gaze and depend upon reputation consultants and diction coaches to burnish their image, he hardly cares for political correctness.

Watching Sachin Tendulkar try his best to score his 100th hundred has shown just how difficult it is to score a century, and it's a marvel that he's managed to do that 99 times against the world's best bowlers, writes Tom Alter in Firstpost.

When he got out on 94 in Mumbai, it was all my fault and the fault of about nine crore others just like me. You see, in my hotel room in Indore, I had done everything – ‘do not disturb’ on the door, volume on the tv off, tea in hand, settled and comfortable and I was not going to move. And he started off with such precise power, he raced to 94 – raced, paced, chased; not, not chased.

In The National, Dileep Premachandran writes that Irfan Pathan has done enough to earn a recall to the national team as the selectors pick Praveen Kumar's replacement for the Australia Tests. His success in the previous tour in 2007-08 should spur him on.

The flight from Sydney to Perth takes more than four hours, and most members of the Indian cricket team had their earphones plugged in almost as soon as they took their seats. One of them, though, was reading a copy of Inside Sport, and his own one-page profile. He smiled through the initial paragraphs and then sat up with a start when he came to one that spoke of how senior members of the team had subjected him to "Sir Gary"(Sobers) jibes when on a flight to the Caribbean. A few minutes later, a colleague who was sitting next to him told Irfan Pathan that I had written the profile.

In Mid-Day, Shishir Hattangadi, the former Mumbai captain, responds to Ajit Agarkar's decision to return home from Cuttack after being dropped for the Ranji Trophy match against Orissa, and Zaheer Khan's ensuing criticism of the Mumbai team management.

In the 35 years that I [Hattangadi] have seen Mumbai's cricket (and I must be honest in saying that watching both of you [Agarkar and Zaheer] has given me as much joy), I have met people I have loved, hated and been indifferent to. But I have never been able to doubt their intent of having the good of Mumbai's cricket at heart. Your myopic assessment of individuals is obviously based on an intuitive vision and first-hand experience. I trust you will use this same vision if and when you see something amiss in the corridors of power of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

In Tehelka, Suresh Menon makes the case that India's team of the 2000s represents a golden age for Indian cricket, even more than the 1970s and early 1980s team did. He says what made the team so great is not just the number of away wins or the individual prowess of any of their players, but the fact that there were so many different characters in the team and that they held firm in the face of a match-fixing scandal and other controversies.

India needed a strong captain who would obviously be seen to be above the temptation. In Ganguly, who has not been given sufficient credit for this, they found the man. Even the silver spoon that he was born with was made of gold, so there was no excessive greed or need as in the case of some colleagues. The strong team he built — Harbhajan Singh and Sehwag completed the picture — was seen to be above suspicion. Had the Indian public turned its back on the game after Azharuddin admitted that he had used his supple wrists not just for scoring runs but for counting his ill-gotten wealth too, Indian cricket might not have recovered.

The fact that more people turned out to watch a dead rubber in Mumbai than for the previous two Tests between India and West Indies proves that India is obsessed with Sachin Tendulkar's 100th international century, Deepak Narayanan writes in the Mumbai Mirror. Tendulkar himself, though, Narayanan says, is used to pressure and won't let it prevent him from reaching the landmark.

Tendulkar is no stranger to pressure. On the field, there’s the pressure to score runs, to pick up the odd important wicket, to be a superhuman cricketer who’s allowed very little room for error — for that’s his job. Off the field, the pressure to return every smile he spots, for not doing so would be considered rude; the pressure of measuring every word he speaks in public, because of how much weight they carry; the pressure to be absolutely perfect, because the country would accept no less from a man they believe is god.

Does it mean anything when one of India's Test hopefuls, Rohit Sharma, scores 175 in the Ranji Trophy, when at the same time three others hit double-centuries and an all-rounder not in the reckoning for a Test slot, Ravindra Jadeja, hammers 314, asks Kunal Pradhan, in the Mumbai Mirror.

There are several players [from the past] who never got a chance to play for India, but were respected as much as their international counterparts, first as hopefuls, and then as people who provided perspective to another future star’s performance ... Scoring runs against them meant something, and taking their wicket was the yardstick of a young player’s potential. But now that the Ranji Trophy has been first diluted and then completely dissolved in a haze of meaningless runs on flat tracks, Indian cricket has reached a stage where such pointers have ceased to exist.

On Yahoo Cricket, AR Hemant explains why Vinod Kambli's serious allegation that there may have been dishonesty involved in India's decision to field first in the 1996 World Cup semi-final has not been taken seriously by other cricketers and the BCCI. Kambli, he says, has a reputation for being involved in controversies and will unfortunately be remembered more for that than for being a fine batsman.

It didn't help that Kambli, despite his best intentions, had the tactfulness of a five-year-old. There's a story about him that a Mumbai cricketer once shared. When Kambli, still 17, hit his first ball in Ranji Trophy for a six, he immediately held up his hand to stop the non-striker from taking a run. "Kambli was sure so he had hit the ball for a six, he didn't want to waste his energy running for that shot," the cricketer said. But the non-striker was a heavyweight in Indian cricket and a man not to be trifled with.

Following his exclusion from the third Test against West Indies, has Yuvraj Singh hit a dead end with regard to his Test career? R Kaushik has more in the Deccan Herald.

Is it a lack of technique that has prevented the 29-year-old from nailing down a Test match slot despite eight years and 37 games? Is it a lack of temperament? Of hunger, desire and ambition? Is it the absence of that single-mindedness and unwavering discipline that the five-day game necessarily demands? Or is it just plain bad luck, in the shape of untimely illnesses and injuries?

Venkat Ananth, writing for Yahoo Cricket, puts forward a suggestion on how the BCCI could start something called the 'high performance programme' to benefit Indian cricket in the long run. The National Cricket Academy, he says, has to reinvent itself.

Firstly, the high performance programme will or should ideally consist of three tiers: the Indian national team, the India 'A' squad, and the High Performance/Academy structure, with the country's top fifty-sixty players as a part of this setup. This is much like football clubs across Europe (the first team, reserves and the academy). Each individual unit will have close to 20 players each on full-time contracts with dedicated coaching and support staff. What this ensures is the automatic expansion of available bench strength to a minimum of 30 players, and a maximum of 60. The three primary objectives of the High Performance mechanism will be intake, exposure and evaluation.

In the Times of India, Makarand Waingankar recalls an interesting anecdote from almost three decades ago when Sunil Gavaskar batted left-handed in a Ranji Trophy game against Karnataka.

In walked Gavaskar at No. 8, and when he took leg stump guard with a left-hand batsman's stance, everyone on the ground was shocked. Raghuram Bhatt, remembering the incident, says, "I just couldn't believe my eyes. But he batted superbly. I had six fielders around the bat, but Sunil would play with soft hands and drop the ball dead at his feet or pad up. That was master class of how to play on a turning wicket. Mind you, he batted for a long time."

Only two Indian bowlers, Anil Kumble and Kapil Dev, have taken more Test wickets than Harbhajan Singh. While Kumble and Kapil are guaranteed to be remembered as legends, what about Harbhajan, asks Deepak Narayanan in the Mumbai Mirror.

There’s the brash, young sardar who decimated the Aussies in that 2001 series. There’s the off-spinner who pushed a man as parsimonious as Kumble out of the one-day playing XI for a couple of years. Or will we remember the man who lost his flight and his bite? A man looking increasingly lost with every milked single, his frustration written in large letters on a furrowed forehead.

Pragyan Ojha, who took a career-best 7 for 109 in the Delhi Test against West Indies, speaks to Sai Mohan in Mid-Day about making a successful comeback to Test cricket and his goal of becoming one of the leaders of India's bowling attack.

You've developed a slower version of your arm ball which has been getting you good rewards...
Yes, it is basically one of my biggest weapons now. I have to keep varying my pace, otherwise batsmen will get used to my bowling. I don't have too many major variations from the back-of-the-hand or fingers. I realised that you cannot experiment too much. I am a very simple bowler and person. Most of the great left-arm spinners, my heroes, were all simple left-arm spinners. If you see Bishanpa (Bedi)... he told me one day that the main things for a left-arm spinner are perseverance and accuracy. If you have these two things, only then you can try and bring in variations and do other things. I want to learn more about great left-arm spinners.

Sachin Tendulkar has been searching for his 100th international hundred since the 2011 World Cup. He appeared to be on his way in the fourth innings of the first Test against West Indies in Delhi, as he and VVS Laxman were shepherding India to victory. Then calamity (as far as the fans were concerned) struck. On NDTV.com, Madhusudan Srinivas paints a picture of the anguish caused by Tendulkar's dismissal for 76.

Dupont executive Bharat Sharma and his techie wife clicked pictures on their mobile phone cameras leaning over our third floor balcony, trying to catch the slightly disheartened Sachin, trudging back with bat held usual style, shoulders not slumped but not exactly exuding the familiar confident swagger. 'Saali ..expletive deleted' ball ko abhi neeche rehna thaa, (did that ball have to stay low now), couldn't it have been Laxman,' said a bearded kurta pajama from another corner, loudly, spitting paan.

As India take on West Indies in the first Test, Harbhajan Singh is conspicuous by his absence. Instead, it is R Ashwin who is India’s offspinner of choice. After geting his chance in the one-dayers, Ashwin now has the opportunity to prove he can cut it at Test level too. In the Indian Express, Karthik Krishnaswamy attempts to answer two questions: How Ashwin will bowl and what he will bowl.

With the taller, slower Ashwin, mystery takes a back seat to his more obvious physical gifts. Delivered by long fingers from a top of a high-arm, open-chested action, his off breaks turn a decent distance on surfaces with any amount of assistance, and the overspin he puts on the ball gets him dip and bounce.

Mumbai cricket has more than its fair share of stories of determined cricketers using cricket to escape poverty and the squalor of their surroundings. Sweety Abdul is one such rising star, who stays in a small hut that dots the boundary at Cross Maidan. Devendra Pandey, of Indian Express, speaks to the young girl who has just made it to the Mumbai senior team.

The jersey, which marks Sweety’s entry into the Mumbai senior team this season, will have to hang outside on a tree, along with her pads and her bat. The small hut that the all-rounder shares with her ailing mother and sister — her father died when she was nine — has little space. The nights are long and dark, with no electricity.

India failed in their first big overseas tour of the season, failing to win a game in England. At the end of 2011, they will face their second big tour to Australia. Granted, Australia aren’t the Test force they were a few years ago or even the force England are today, but they will still provide a stern challenge at home. First though, India plays three Tests against West Indies in India. Writing in DNA, Suresh Menon says the series provides India and the BCCI a chance to iron out the kinks ahead of Australia.

Playing at home means it would make no sense to pack the batting – it is the bowling that needs to be experimented with so a proper combination emerges. Zaheer Khan’s fitness and future are uncertain, which means besides Ishant Sharma, there is room for at least two others. Whether both Varun Aaron and Umesh Yadav will play the first Test or not, they will have to be blooded at some point. Likewise with the leggie Rahul Sharma, so that when the selectors sit down to choose the team, they have enough information on all the candidates.

Sachin Tendulkar speaks to BCCI TV about the importance of the Ranji Trophy in the development of cricketers in India

Times of India's Kim Arora reports on the progress of cricket in Kashmir. In August 2011, the Kashmir Premier League, a Twenty20 tournament, was a success and three players who featured in it were subsequently selected to be coached at academies in Chennai and Pune.

The success of the tournament, organised for around Rs 2 crore, has since spurred dozens of younger kids to pursue the game more actively. Now the state's under-14 cricketers have a mini-KPL of their own. Named Sheher-e-Khas, the first edition of the fortnight-long tournament concluded recently. The sight of aspiring cricketers - all with hope in their hearts and a bat or ball in hand - romping about in their blue "India" jerseys is a heartening sight

In the IPL era, few people in India care about the Ranji Trophy, but the flagship event of the Indian domestic calendar plays a crucial role in getting players ready for the highest level. The Indian Express' Nihal Koshie explains.

Mid-Day lists some of India's best cricketing moments from past Diwalis. They include Sunil Gavaskar's 29th Test century and MS Dhoni's belligerent 183 against Sri Lanka in Jaipur.

Last ball heroics: 1993 Hero Cup semi-final vs SA (Nov 24): Sachin Tendulkar conceded only three runs in the final over against South Africa at Eden Gardens as India won by 2 runs and booked a berth in the final. It was skipper Mohammed Azharuddin's 90 that rescued India from a collapse.

Ramachandra Guha is a fan of Suresh Menon's biography of the Bishan Singh Bedi - Bishan: Portrait of a Cricketer - an effort he describes as "rich, detailed, affectionate, yet not uncritical". Writing in the Telegraph, Guha lauds his hero-turned-friend Bedi, one of the most original voices in Indian cricket, and a man who was ready to go anywhere for the good of cricket.

Menon speaks movingly of Bedi’s generosity to young cricketers. The former India captain regularly takes youngsters on educative tours of England, raising funds and arranging matches for them himself. Each time Menon himself visited his subject, he met cricketers from the mofussil staying at Bedi’s home. This nobility of spirit manifested itself early. An old teacher of Bedi’s told Menon that as a schoolboy he was often seen wheeling around a disabled classmate. “Former players have reduced ‘giving back to the game’ to a cliché,” writes Menon, “Bedi has rescued the cliché and restored it to its original import.”

The Independent's Stephen Brenkley meets Rajiv Shukla, the new chief of the IPL. Shukla explains why the BCCI are happy India lost in England.

"As far as the fans were concerned they were not very happy, but in games, defeat and victory go together, you lose and you win, that happens," said Rajeev Shukla. "England have been losing for the last 10 years, most of their teams, and at football also. So therefore we're absolutely happy because we want cricket to grow in England."

In the Hindustan Times, Ayaz Memon writes about Vijay Merchant and Lala Amarnath, both of whose birth centenary's were marked recently. He laments the fact that the occasions went by relatively unnoticed.

Zaheer Khan said in an interview recently that Indian bodies are not designed for fast bowling. Makarand Waingankar, in the Hindu, writes of what he thinks of the statement and its possible implications for fast bowling.

Now that injury management in Indian cricket has gone completely pear shaped, Zaheer Khan's statement should make the decision makers work on a solution. When Frank Tyson saw all under-19 fast bowlers of Mumbai for the first time at the outset of his coaching in a bowling scheme in 1990, he ended up commenting, “tiny shoulders and thin legs don't make fast bowlers”.

Nonetheless he coached them for the next three years and most of them went on to play either for India or for Mumbai. In fact bowlers of that scheme — fast and spin combined — captured more than 5000 first class wickets.

In Mid-Day, Kersi Meher-Homji pays tribute to industrialist, philanthropist, selector, administrator and arguably India's first great batsman, Vijay Merchant, on his birth centenary.

The eminent cricket writer Neville Cardus called Merchant "India's good European." The confrontation between the two mighty run-getters, Bradman and Merchant, was anticipated with excitement during India's pioneering tour of Australia in 1947-48. Merchant was appointed captain, but a groin injury forced him out. Bradman summed up his disappointment by saying, "We were denied the sight of Vijay Merchant, who must surely have claims to be the greatest of all Indian players."

Merchant's forthrightness set him apart, be it giving speeches or while batting. It was impossible not to like him, says KR Guruprasad in DNA.

Also in Mid-Day, is an excerpt from Marcus Couto's book, Vijay Merchant in Memoriam, about Merchant's charity work for the disabled.

Aakash Chopra, writing in the Hindustan Times, says it's ironic that the bowler who claimed match-winning figures in the World Cup semi-final hasn’t played a single international match since.

After dropping off the radar for four years, Nehra returned in 2009, took 65 wickets in 48 games at an impressive strike rate of 33. Believe it or not, he’s been India’s fittest fast bowler in this period, and most effective too. He was an integral part of India’s road to the World Cup victory. As baffling as it is, he has not been considered, even after recovering from an injury. It wasn’t he who declared himself fit, but the physiotherapist at the NCA who issued the certificate. Perhaps, after the English fiasco the selectors aren’t willing to take a chance with any player without testing his match fitness. But then why isn’t he given a chance to prove his fitness? He isn’t picked even for the Challenger Trophy. Is there more to it than meets the eye?

Even just a few years ago it was occasionally possible to watch the likes of Sachin Tendulkar turn out for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy. But Tendulkar has not played a first-class match since 2008-09, and it is common practice for those who play regularly for India not to turn out for their state teams these days. Given the volume of international cricket being played, this is not surprising, but Ayaz Memon, writing in India Today, argues that India needs to have its big guns playing domestic cricket again.

The Australian system was so robust till a few years ago, because playing domestic cricket was mandatory for all players. Likewise, the change in the England team's performances in recent years is not just because of a more hardy mindset and fine coaching, but because of a more diligent talent search that made participation in domestic cricket imperative for every player.

Pradeep Magazine, writing in the Hindustan Times, says it's a case of a serious conflict of interest - and a "depressing" one - that Anil Kumble, who is the president of a state association and chairman of the NCA, is also a player agent.

Apart from seeing no conflict of interest in what he is doing, he had this to say in his defence to the Outlook magazine: "The positions with the KSCA and NCA are honorary jobs, and I have to look after myself. At this stage of my career, I have to do that. Otherwise, you'd have to become like Gandhi and give up everything." What can one say to a man to whom the Indian cricketing fraternity owes so much for his deeds on the field, except that why get into such a position at all.

Anil Kumble’s conflict of interest raises questions about whether getting former players into the BCCI will really change anything, writes Amit Gupta in the Mumbai Mirror.

Tedious rhetorical questions that show Kumble’s double role is just as dubious as that of others in the BCCI, writes Kunal Pradhan in the same newspaper.

There is too much at stake for Kumble to embroil himself in needless controversies, writes Suresh Menon on cricketnext.com. But he has been presented with an opportunity to do the right thing - even if that means a temporary commercial loss, he adds.

There is plenty of work to be done by the BCCI's Pitches and Grounds Committee, writes Makarand Waingankar in the Hindu. Mechanisms need to be put in place and there is also a need for skilled manpower, he says.

After interaction with many State curators over the years, it is observed that from choosing soil to pitch preparation everything is carried out using a thumb rule. There is no mechanism in place to select good quality soil. What the soil contains must be known to the curators but with hardly any choice to know what it contains, the soil is selected in huge quantity by thumb rule.

A couple of years ago, each association was handed over pitch and ground preparation machines worth lakhs of rupees but many associations had no skilled manpower to use those machines.

Venkat Ananth, writing for Yahoo Cricket, tries to make sense of the BCCI's mysterious expenditure on three specialised academies, and concludes it's a difficult task. To view the report, click here.

At first, one had the sense that these were phantom academies since the BCCI have fallen shy of promoting them adequately. I was surprised to learn they actually exist and are functioning. But keeping to the ways of the current BCCI regime, the representatives of the academies refused to field any questions about their programs, the cricketers trained by them, or even the sort of facilities they had - ostensibly because they didn't want any negative publicity for the employment created for them by the Board.

Tiger Pataudi's nephew Saad Bin Jung on his recollections of his uncle, in Deccan Chronicle. Pataudi, he says, had an uncanny knack of solving the most difficult of cricket problems by breaking it down into simple, uncomplicated and implementable solutions.

I was but 15, throwing a hard plastic ball at him [Pataudi] in the veranda in Delhi. He didn’t see the yorker nor the bouncer. He knew that and I knew that, yet he went out and faced Andy Roberts, Bernard Julian and Vanburn Holder and levelled the series 2-2 only to lose the last Test. A few years later, when I played Malcolm Marshall I understood the magnitude of the hurdle he had crossed, I recognised his braveness and his sheer determination and I acknowledged his genius ...

The BCCI has been coddled with many privileges, and no accountability, says Rohit Mahajan in Outlook India, and the RTI Act might change that.

The BCCI, which has resisted accountability for long — and invited ridicule when it said the Indian team was not an Indian team but a BCCI team — could now be made to bow to the reigning spirit of the day and age — the pursuit of transparency and accountability. The Central Information Commission (CIC), which once ruled in the past that the BCCI is not covered by the RTI Act, is again going to adjudicate on the issue on October 4. The verdict could be different this time.

When Vinod Kambli was a teenager, many cricket commentators reckoned he was more talented than Sachin Tendulkar. It was initially easy to see why as he racked up consecutive double-hundreds against England at home, but his Test career was over at 23, despite an average of 54. Kambli, who has not played a first-class game for six years, officially announced his retirement from first-class cricket last month. In the Wall Street Journal, Richard Lord writes that Kambli’s career is a reflection of the thin line between success and failure, and how that line is often to be found in the head.

A batsman of gloriously uninhibited attacking inclinations, with a hint of the great West Indian Brian Lara in his technique, he was a clean hitter of the ball, but even more than that a sweet timer of it, with a full array of seemingly effortless attacking shots. He was particularly effective against spin bowling, his twinkle-toed nimbleness around the crease allowing him to move forward and back with speed and decisiveness, and helping to make him unusually effective at hitting over the top.

The tributes to the late Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi continue, this time in the Economist, which praises Pataudi for being the man who taught Indians "that they could take on any country, on their own turf or not, and win".

Where he really excelled, however, was as a captain. To lead India was no easy job. Only 15 years after Partition, the scars were still raw. As a Muslim, he felt it: uncles, aunts and cousins had migrated across the border, and he always sighed that India and Pakistan would have made a great team together. As for the Indian team itself, when he inherited it, players kept to their own regional languages, cultures, even food. “Look”, he would tell them, “you are not playing for Delhi, Punjab, Madras, Calcutta or Bombay; you are playing for India. You are Indian.” Before long, the players succumbed to his imperious charm.

Aakash Chopra says in the Hindustan Times that Indian cricketers have been fudging their ages since the time he was playing. The problem he says is too much importance is attached to age-level cricket, prompting players to want to spend an extra year or two playing at Under-19 level.

I distinctly remember an under-16 match against Punjab in which one of the bowlers had a fully-grown beard. The player went on to play for India and that's when I got to know that he was four years younger to me, which means that he was only 12 when I played against him in that under-16 match. Is it biologically possible to grow a beard at that age?

Paying tribute to MAK Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar in the Hindustan Times writes that besides Pataudi's cricket skills, his wit and humour stood out. There will never be another one like him, writes Gavaskar.

I don't think there was a single budding teenage cricketer in the country who did not try to walk like him or have a stance like him. The open stance was unique since he had lost one eye and so opened his stance to get a better look at the bowler. We all tried to copy that but kept getting out bowled or leg before playing across the line. We couldn't copy his fielding since in that era he was pretty much a one-off who could slide and save the ball.

Rajdeep Sardesai, writing for Firstpost.com, looks back on the 'republican prince who united Indian cricket'.

In a sense, Pataudi typified a 60s generation of romantic dreams, of chivalrous men and enchanting women who were enamoured with the idea of a Nehruvian India. If actor Shammi Kapoor redefined cinema in this period by wooing his heroines with passionate ardour, Pataudi changed the face of Indian cricket through his charismatic persona. He gave the sport a ‘star’ value, a new-found aggression that typified the spirit of a nation yearning to break free of its colonial baggage.

David Frith, writing in the Guardian, pays tribute to the Nawab.

He was ... an innovative, dignified and much respected leader with a sharp sense of humour, adored by his players, envied for his calmness and intelligence, never one to reveal his emotions and always ready to turn defence into attack.

One of India's most charismatic cricketers, and one of the youngest Test captains, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi died on September 22. Author Jeffrey Archer first met Pataudi almost 50 years ago through some common friends at Oxford, and the first thing that struck him about Pataudi was "the God-given gift he possessed to treat all men as equals". Archer recounts his association with the 'Maharaja' as he called Pataudi in the Indian Express.

I too was a great fan of the cricketer, enough to base ‘The Century’, a short story from A Quiver Full of Arrows, on him. Not many people know that it was about the Nawab, considering the protagonist is a nameless character and appeared in a book with several other stories of fiction. But it was indeed a tribute to the cricketer I adored.

Paying tribute to Pataudi, Pradeep Magazine in the Hindustan Times writes that Pataudi was the architect of India's rise as a modern cricket outfit.

It won't be wrong to say that had there been no Pataudi, Indian cricket would have taken much more time to graduate into a combative, cohesive unit, which played to win and not lose.

Ramchandra Guha in the Telegraph tries to answer the question: what kind of sportsman was Pataudi?

That question can best be answered by setting him alongside his contemporaries. Think then of a player who was as charismatic as Salim Durani, as brave as Mohinder Amarnath, as independent-minded as Bishan Singh Bedi, and as affable in personal demeanour as G.R. Viswanath. That man was Tiger Pataudi.

Writing in Mid-Day, Ian Chappell says Pataudi was "a wonderful mixture of larrikin and worldliness, with a dry wit thrown in".

That same evening I asked him what he did for a job when he wasn't playing cricket; "Ian, I'm a Prince." Not being familiar with the concept I continued to prod him about what he did between the hours of nine and five. Exasperated, he replied: "Ian, I'm a bloody Prince."

Paying tribute to Pataudi, Ayaz Memon in the Mumbai Mirror writes that Pataudi was of regal carriage on and off the field, played with inimitable style and flamboyance, and captained the team as a natural born leader.

Former India cricketer Abbas Ali Baig describes Pataudi as the "cricketing legend with whom he shared some of the best moments of his life, be it socialising with him or playing as his teammate at Oxford University." He relives some of the memories in the Hindustan Times.

What, for me, stands out in the man is not that he led India, something which might have had to do with the socio-academic background he came from, though it obviously was not handed over to him on a platter.

It is what he made of the job given to him. He showed tremendous understanding of the job he was doing and did not follow the hackneyed path which would not have taken Indian cricket anywhere in the cricketing world.

An editorial in the Indian Express says that it cannot be overstated how much Indian cricket benefited from Pataudi's attitude.

Pataudi was the first Indian team captain Ajit Wadekar played under, and also the last. Wadekar says that Pataudi was "one of the greatest batsmen that Indian cricket has seen." More from the Times of India.

An editorial in the Hindu states that were times when Pataudi's batting reached a level of subliminal beauty rarely matched by anyone in that era.

Revealing his lighter side, Pataudi, in an interview to the Times of India in 2002 talks about wooing Sharmila Tagore, the practical jokes he played on his team-mates and more.

Q: You actually got a refrigerator for her from England?

MAK: Yes I thought that's something she would be interested in.

Old Hindi songs always brought a smile to Pataudi’s face and music developed as an indulgent interest alongside his professional cricket. Devendra Pandey has more in the Indian Express.

Former Indian Test opener Kenia Jayantilal also recalls Pataudi’s unique habit for carrying musical instruments during tours. “Beyond cricket, he was very fond of Indian instruments — both playing them and listening to them. He played the tabla and sitar very well, and sometimes even traveled with them,” he says

Mid-Day has carried a chapter from Pataudi's autobiography in which he recalls the day when he lost his right eye in a car mishap.

It took me a long time to realize I had virtually lost the use of one eye, but even then, never for an instant did I consider I might not be able to play cricket again. Possibly, I refused to let myself believe it could be the finish

Vivek Sengupta was a junior at the Ananda Bazar Publishing house when Pataudi was an editor there. He also worked directly with Pataudi when both of them worked for Kapil Dev’s Dev Features in Delhi. On mxmindia.com he pays tribute to Pataudi, the 'editor'.

How was Pataudi as an editor? By all accounts he was an exceptional leader, who preferred to inspire rather than control or micro manage. He was a man who led with a light hand and who, by his sheer gentility and understatement, made himself unforgettable. A man of very few words, he had a terrific sense of humour and an ability to connect with people on the strength of his easygoing manner.

In Mid-Day, Clayton Murzello tells the story of India domestic cricket star Ramesh Saxena and the challenging times which led to his death.

Bishan Singh Bedi, who knew Saxena since his junior cricket days, said he, “never saw anyone in Indian cricket who could jump out to spinners like Saxena. He could create terror for the opposition.

Just like the Hawker Hurricane aircraft was the unsung hero of the Battle of Britain during the second World War, Rahul Dravid will never be given enough credit for what he has done for Indian cricket, Sidin Vadukut writes on the new New York Times India-centric blog India Ink.

Mr. Dravid has been given a frustrating nickname: “The Wall.” Walls are passive. Walls don’t react. Walls just stand there soaking up punishment without retaliating. Walls don’t back down, or step up. But Rahul Dravid always stepped up. He never backed down. Rahul Dravid ran and ran till perspiration flowed from his face. And Rahul Dravid reacted plenty. Usually in one of two ways. Sometimes, when he took a catch or scored a century he reacted with this odd ferocity. You can almost sense his teeth gnashing.

A second shoulder surgery followed by the resultant rehabilitation has left India opener Virender Sehwag "very bored" and "missing cricket". He tells Rakesh Rao in the Hindu about how he is spending his time away from the game.

Though Sehwag the cricketer is a touch restless to return to doing what he enjoys the most, the eternal student in him has found a new teacher, away from cricket. “These days, my four-year-old son (Aaryavir) is teaching me how to count — 1-2-3 besides making me write A-B-C-D — honestly I am enjoying my time with my family.” His second son (Vedant) is one year old and keeps him busy too.

While the 2011 tour of England will be remembered as one of Indian cricket’s lowest trough, the performances of Rahul Dravid — over all three formats — will remain the standout feature of the tour. Talking to Sandeep Dwivedi in the Sunday Express Dravid looks back on the series, how it is likely to impact the future of Indian cricket and more.

I don’t believe that you judge careers, or what people have done for 15-20 years based on one or two matches at the end. It is the body of work over a lifetime that goes into making a success story. It is brilliant to finish nicely, but it may or may not happen and that’s life. To try and finish in a particular way has never been one of my goals. I felt I had some good cricket left in me during the lows and that’s why I continued. It was not a question of proving anything to anybody. It was just nice for me to reinforce the support that I have received from the people. That is what this tour has meant to me.

India's boycott of the ICC awards ceremony more closely resembled a student protest than the conduct of mature sportsmen enriched by the game and obliged to promote its interests, writes Peter Roebuck in the Hindu.

Numerous excuses can be offered, but the fact remains they did not turn up. Presumably it was a protest against the ridiculous demands put on them by their governing body. Certainly the fixture list is absurd, with series and T20 tournaments piled on top of each other. Players have been treated like automatons. But no-one needs to feel any sympathy for them. India's top players only have themselves to blame because they did not band together to put their points across. Instead they have remained as individuals and so ineffective

Andrew Wallace, the doctor who operated on Sachin Tendulkar's elbow and Virender Sehwag's shoulder, tells the Indian Express' Sandeep Dwivedi about the experience.

Things only got worse as the date of the surgery — Tendulkar was operated at the St John’s & Elizabeth Hospital in London — approached. “There were five camera crews, 150 phone calls, 180 emails and the hospital had to appoint a special PR agency just to manage the situation,” says the man who restored an elbow that has been the fulcrum of Indian cricket for two decades.

Vikram Kapur, writing in the Hindu, says while fellow Maratha Anna Hazare straddled the Indian consciousness like a larger-than-life Bollywood hero in August, Sachin Tendulkar went in the opposite direction with an unconvincing performance in England.

His [Tendulkar's] performance in the Test series in England saw him fall from the pedestal of a cricketing god. As the failures multiplied and the hundredth international ton refused to come, he began to look more and more the ageing athlete clinging on after his day had passed for the sake of a record ...

If Tendulkar had retired after the World Cup, the last memory of him in the blue of India would have been of him holding the trophy. And the last memory of him in Test match whites would have been a tremendous century on a brute of a pitch in Cape Town against Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel at their nastiest. An innings that helped India come back undefeated for the first time from South Africa.

Today is Lala Amarnath's birth centenary. Vijay Lokpallay pays tribute to to the man who made a century on debut - which was also India's first century in Tests. More from the Hindu.

Lalaji was known for his temper as much for his discipline. He was sent back, ironically on disciplinary grounds, from the 1936 tour to England but Don Bradman viewed Lalaji thus: “I found Amarnath charming in every respect. He was such a splendid ambassador that it makes it all the more difficult to understand his recent suspension by the Indian Board. He certainly believed in speaking his mind.”

Another tribute in the DNA states that if ever there was a man in Indian cricket who was his own master, it was the majestic Lala — both on and off the field. In the same newspaper, Lala Amarnath's son Mohinder Amarnath says that his father was always independent in his thinking. And among the current cricketers, it was Rahul Dravid whom Lala admired.

Shouldn't the board secretary sacrifice the interests of his IPL team for the larger interest of Indian cricket, asks Pradeep Magazine in the Hindustan Times.

The body is bruised, the mind jaded by playing more cricket than anyone else has in this India team and it is a marvel that he [Dhoni] has still not broken down. Should we allow a player of his ability to become a martyr to greed, be it of the player himself or of the board? It is time to rest Dhoni from the Champions League, so that he re-energises himself for another round of strenuous challenges ahead.

In Mint, Aakash Chopra recounts a harrowing trip to Dharmashala in 2007 for a first-class match against Himachal Pradesh. An uncomfortable journey to reach the hill station in winter was followed by the humiliation of Delhi being bowled out for 75. Head here to see how the match panned out.

The larger debate on accountability in Indian sport has been overshadowed by how the new sports bill will affect cricket writes Kunal Pradhan in the Mumbai Mirror. Taking control of cricket and putting it under the RTI are two mutually exclusive ideas; while the first would be disastrous, the second is necessary.

But there is another aspect to this discussion that is being glossed over by most experts (even those who’re not on the BCCI payroll). Should any body that performs a public service, especially a ‘non-profit organisation’ such as the Indian cricket board, have a problem with the RTI Act? If anything, the BCCI, which projects itself as a beacon of hope at a time when other sports are dying, save for a few gifted athletes here and there, should volunteer to be open to public scrutiny.

MS Dhoni is the most overworked cricketer in the country and the selection committee should seriously think about protecting him, writes Suresh Menon on espnstar.com.

Protect him from the excessive physical and mental demands so that he is at the top of his game for longer than his workload might indicate? To keep wickets is a full-time, nerve-wracking job; to lead a side, ditto; to be one of the main batsmen with responsibilities to control the innings, ditto. And Dhoni does the job of three men in three different formats of the game while maintaining one of the coolest responses to victory and defeat by any captain.

He didn’t burst into tears when India were thrashed in England (at least one international captain in recent memory walked off centre stage in tears), he didn’t suggest it was the end of the world. Such self-control is both awe-inspiring and frankly, a bit worrying. How does this man let off steam?

While sports bodies must be autonomous and free, they also have a responsibility to be accountable and transparent, Venkatesh Nayak writes in DNA. He says for an accountability mechanism for work it must be structured in a decentralised manner and be managed by individuals.

The BCCI makes its millions every season when cricket fever hits the country. Yet, it has zealously guarded its account books as well as its decision-making processes. As a society registered in Tamil Nadu even its annual report is not up on its website despite the law treating it is a document that should be accessible to anybody from the Registrar of Societies on payment of a nominal fee.

Archna Shukla, writing in the Indian Express, traces the rise of the BCCI from a nondescript organisation barely making ends meet to the world’s richest cricket board, as well as its strong points and its drawbacks.

If on the one hand, it was Dalmiya’s foresightedness to unlock cricket’s commercial potential, on the other, it was an evolving media and advertising environment—and the absence of a rival sport—that helped cricket, and hence BCCI establish its dominance in the market. Even today, media and sponsorship rights alone contribute more than 75 per cent to BCCI’s revenues.

The specific purpose of Ajay Maken’s National Sports Development Bill was to gain control of the cash-rich Board of Control for Cricket in India, writes Ashok Malik in the Pioneer. Malik asks that while the BCCI has much to answer for and is scarcely a model of corporate governance, does it deserve to be answerable under RTI provisions? After all it receives no grants from the Government and, instead, contributes to the public exchequer by paying taxes.More from the Pioneer.

Mr Maken argues the BCCI gets “indirect monetary help”.This is puzzling. Some of the properties cited by Mr Maken — such as the Feroze Shah Kotla Stadium managed by the DDCA in New Delhi — were set aside for use as sports venues decades ago. He says many stadiums used by the BCCI and its affiliates, the State cricket associations, have been built on land received “free of cost or at concessional rates from the Government”.

This is no different from social clubs — such as the Delhi Gymkhana Club or the Delhi Golf Club, to give two examples — that have got land at concessional rates from the Government as part of the process of developing civic spaces in a metropolis. Should the Gymkhana Club also come under the RTI Act?

Pradeep Magazine in the Hindustan Times argues that the BCCI, mired as it is in many allegations of financial misdemeanour, especially in the IPL, should have welcomed the Sports Bill, instead of taking refuge behind the argument that being a private body, it is not subject to any government regulation.

In the Times of India, Sanjay Manjrekar, Bobilli Vijay Kumar and Yash Gupta weigh in with their opinions on the proposed bill. Manjrekar says while transparency is desirable it does not guarantee success of the national team; Kumar says the bill will make the BCCI less arrogant while Gupta says it is an opportunity for the board to change its image, which is that of a closed body.

In the Hindustan Times, Sanjay Dixit, the Rajasthan Cricket Academy secretary, writes that the bill proposed by the sports ministry to regulate all national sports bodies including the BCCI will control the cricket board too much. He says the bill prescribes too many specific things and will therefore interfere with the working of the BCCI.

As far as age prescriptions go, I am not clear how limiting it to below-70 would help. A sportsman spends all his youth playing and it’s only around the age of 40 he starts getting into sports administration. If we want experienced sportsmen to retire by 70, there is a huge contradiction here. Non-sportsmen get into administration much earlier. Thus, the avowed purpose of the Bill of making more sportsmen part of the top administration gets defeated by prescribing age limits.

Vidushpat Singhania, however, says in the same paper that the bill does not control the board but simply holds it accountable. He also suggests a means by which the BCCI can come under the Right to Information Act without there being too many unnecessary petitions filed.

A distinction that could be deliberated is to limit the scope of RTI in sports only to a decision or process having an economical impact, whilst leaving sporting decisions and rules outside its ambit. A similar distinction between pure sporting decisions and decisions having an economic impact has been discussed in Europe and a similar principle can be adopted in India.

Madhav Mantri, the former Indian wicketkeeper who is also Sunil Gavaskar's uncle, turns 90 today. DNA's Derek Abraham met him before the big day.

The Mumbaikar played four Tests but it was his decision to introduce his nephew to the game that earned him more accolades. “I gave the little boy a copy of my first book. It was in Marathi and the title of the book translates to ‘How to Play Cricket’,” Mantri recalls.

“A day later, he came back and proclaimed, ‘Nana Mama, I’ve read the entire book, from start to finish’. I was obviously impressed,” he adds. That little boy went on to become a Little Master — Sunil Gavaskar.

A bill that seeks to bring the BCCI and other national sports bodies under federal transparency and accountability laws has sparked controversy in India. Opinion is divided on whether an independent body like the BCCI which does not take financial assistance from the government should be subject to such regulation. Ashish Magotra, on firstpost.com, says that the BCCI is doing a much better job that other sports bodies in the country and should be left alone.

While the move to ensure more transparency and make the players come under the WADA-specified anti-doping rules should be welcomed, the government should learn from its various misadventures with the other sporting organisations around the country to realise that it just isn’t equipped to handle an organisation as big as the BCCI.

Peter Roebuck, writing in the Hindu, says India must examine the evidence provided by their heavy defeat to England and respond accordingly, forgetting about past records and big reputations.

It is over. India's steady rise in the last 15 years or so reached its highest point in 2011 as the team attained top position in the Test rankings and won the World Cup ...

India has an old batting order, an unreliable pace attack, a spinner lacking bite, poor fielding and abject running between wickets. It is hardly a recipe for success. Clearly the time has come to forget about deeds and debts and champions and crowd pleasers and sentiment and to focus on rebuilding.

Rohit Brijnath, writing in Mint, says 'effort is a voice in the athlete's head' that pushes him to go the extra mile, and this is the voice that India did not seem to hear in the England Test series.

... [India lacked] effort in concentration when the ball was doing some swinging dance; in pushing the body Anil Kumble-like into one more hard over bowled, then another, then 40; in keeping the right body language in the 89th over. Yes, it’s bloody hard. It’s supposed to be.

Failure in England wasn’t simply lack of effort, for that diminishes England and reduces sport to the simplistic. India unravelled, like a seam in a faded dress, because its cricket is confused. It’s as if No. 1 in Test cricket — a grand achievement — had been earned and there it ends, instead of resetting the bar ... Wherein you say, screw luck, damn conditions, forget injuries — they’re sporting staples — every series just has to be won, till this greed infects the system, till suddenly one day you’ve won 16 Tests in a row and still ask, what about 17?

Rahul Dravid has made a virtue of adversity, says Pradeep Magazine, writing in the Hindustan Times.

He [Dravid] is there, always there, like a dutiful servant, who has, without complaining served you so well that you take his contribution for granted. It is rare to find him being lauded and feted, like the others, when he scores, but very common to raise doubts when he fails ...

This English attack, that too in their own conditions, is perhaps among the most threatening in the recent history of the game. To have first negated them when they were at their most menacing and then having mastered them, that too when no one around him could put bat to the ball, will remain one of the greatest batting feats of all time, comparable to the best - from the Bradman era to the present, which includes Tendulkar as well.

Sanjjeev K Samyal, writing in the same paper, looks back on Dravid's time with Kent.

He [Simon Willis, Kent's high performance director] recalls: "He [Dravid] was among the easiest guys to handle. I remember he came over early that season, which is very rare for an overseas player. And in England we do a lot of running pre-season and fitness. He really got involved. It was a bit of a culture shock for him. I don't think at that time they [India] had done a lot of running and fitness."

The BCCI may be the richest cricket body in the world but 70% of the money they earn from television rights goes to its member boards, Nikhilesh Bhattacharya reports in the Hindustan Times. The BCCI does not have any control over how the state boards spend that money and, according to HT, a lot of the money is wasted on building stadiums that cannot even be used to host international games.

The TCA has a bank balance of more than Rs 55 crore. The plan is to build a stadium near the Agartala airport and expand the facilities at the MBB Stadium and convert it into an academy for the Northeast. Land in both locations has been leased to the TCA for 20 years. The budget is "Rs125-130 crore for the two projects", says Ganguly. While the academy makes sense, the international stadium does not. Agartala does not even have the kind of hotels required to accommodate international teams.

The recommendations of Don Argus' review were far reaching and will shake up the cricket structure in Australia. Dare Indian cricket appoint similar bodies to examine its procedures? asks Peter Roebuck in the Hindu.

India, too, has suffered a painful setback. Not that every defeat ought to cause a commotion. Someone has to win, someone has to lose. Just that some losses by their very nature tell a tale.

A few years ago another ailing cricket community put itself in the hands of outside forces. By 2007 English cricket was back in the doghouse as the team was trounced 5-0 down under. The Schofield report was instigated and its suggestions were adopted ... Andy Flower and Andrew Strauss were products of that report, or anyhow the desire that provoked it.

Tanya Aldred pays tribute to Rahul Dravid in the Daily Telegraph, highlighting his battle with Shane Warne during a low-profile county match in 2000.

Warne, who had claimed supremacy over Dravid, pulled every one of his multiple tricks; Dravid, who had claimed he could read Warne from the hand, watched, waited and masterfully dispatched; the holiday crowd who had paid just £9 to get in sat in rapt concentration. The winner? Dravid, with 137, 73 not out and a Kent victory to his name. And as he walked off after his 137, every Hampshire player, every spectator and every journalist, stood and applauded.

Gundappa Viswanath, writing in the Indian Express, says that while he isn't sure how logical it is to pick a player who played his last ODI two years ago, Rahul Dravid will adequately adjust his game to the needs of limited-overs cricket in the series in England.

Never for once am I doubting Dravid’s ability to succeed in the one-dayers in England. I always believe that if you have a solid foundation you can do well in any format of the game. A player as technically sound as Dravid can score runs even after a two-year hiatus and in England, you have to play proper cricketing shots to score runs.

An editorial in the same paper says the multifaceted Dravid has once again revealed signs of his greatness and durability.

Greatness has its pronounced markers, its genuine, unalloyed signs. Rahul Dravid revealed a succession of them in England, as he opened, played one down, kept wicket, scored a ton and met the English pace attack in the eye. His exceptional longevity is a truth acknowledged in Tests, but as the selectors recalled the 38-year-old for the forthcoming one-day internationals and T20, the many-sidedness of that durability was in evidence.

Cricket has always aroused strong reactions in the subcontinent. Fans in the Indian subcontinent take the team’s wins and losses personally, soaring to great emotional heights with a six that wins the World Cup, then crashing to earth when the Test team is dismantled in England a few months later. Occasionally, the emotional spills over and cricketers have had their houses stoned and effigies burnt. In Mint, Sahil Tripathi writes that India’s cricketers deserve better and that there are more important things fans can get angry about.

Indeed, Indian cricketers have given the nation many hours of joy. And as Ramachandra Guha pointed out in his sociological history of Indian cricket, A Corner of a Foreign Field, more is demanded of the cricketers because they are the only ones who make Indians feel that their country matters in the pecking order, where it is at the top. They give Indians something to root for. So they have no choice but to win, which places a superhuman burden on 11 men—because the rest of the Indians can’t. And make no mistake, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, V.V.S. Laxman and their teammates, are more upset about the loss than any of the fans are. They can bounce back; it won’t be easy. But if they don’t, it is because they are facing a superior team. There is no shame in losing to the better team.

Why are elite educational institutions in south Mumbai - many of which have been modelled on the British public school - no longer fostering cricketing talent, asks Ayaz Memon, writing in the Hindustan Times.

Increasingly, Mumbai's cricket talent comes from the distant suburbs and while it is wonderful that more players are getting a chance, it makes one wonder whether the elite schools of south Mumbai are becoming too effete to compete with the vigour required? It seems that unless your parents are members of some fancy club, your exposure to sports goes no further than the television.

Writing in the Hindu, Suresh Menon says, despite the tendency to over-coach at the junior levels, India's cricketers still play the Indian way, and that is something their fans must be grateful to Test cricket for.

What is the Indian way? And have we lost sight of it in our obsession with centuries and rankings and Tendulkar? It was a question answered easily at one time. ‘Indian' meant wristy batsmen and cunning spinners, flashy if inconsistent all-rounders and flamboyant wicketkeeper-batsmen.

Dravid, for all his years of worship at the altar of orthodoxy, still plays the cover drive and the square cut in the Indian way, with the wrists doing all the work. Laxman is in the long line of Indian batsmen from Ranji to Vishwanath to Azharuddin who deal in surprises and unexpected gifts. At the top of the order is Virender Sehwag who has rewritten the book on opening batsmanship ... Among bowlers, Anil Kumble was a great original, as is Harbhajan Singh. Ditto Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Suresh Menon, writing for Cricketnext, says MS Dhoni's self-consciousness is not helping India and he needs to go back to being the positive captain he once was.

If you have the world's best batting line-up, and your best bowler is on the comeback trail, why would you shoot yourself in the foot by going in with just four bowlers? ... Much of Dhoni's reputation rests on his occasional illogical and unexpected moves that turn out well. He is a gambler whose moves are put down to 'intuition' and 'feel', and when these succeed he is feted. In fact, he nearly had Kevin Pietersen's wicket when he came on to bowl, and had the batsman fallen who knows what turn the Test would have taken? Pietersen survived, thanks to the DRS, and went on to make a double century. [But] While flamboyant gestures sometimes come off, there is no substitute for straightforward cricket thinking.

Gautam Gambhir is an intense, driven cricketer and someone who is unafraid to speak his mind, as he did when dedicating India’s World Cup win to the victims of the terrorist attack in November, 2008. In the Hindustan Times, Sukhwant Basra gets Gambhir to reveal a little bit more about himself, like how he is too shy to approach women, that he does not own a laptop and he lasered the hair off his legs.

Sitting in its opulent psychedelic drawing room, reminiscent of a futuristic sci-fi flick, one of the richest self-made 29-year-olds in the country says that “money after one point of time is irrelevant”. There are some roads he won’t cross. “Young kid on the road seeing me endorsing a pan masala/tobacco brand will fell there is nothing wrong with it. I won’t do that.”

Niranjan Rajadhyaksha, writing in Live Mint, looks backs on the first ‘Indian’ cricket team to tour abroad in 1911, which brought together different communities as a symbol of nationalism in pre-independent India.

The 1911 team has gone down in history as the first all-India cricket squad, since members of different faiths and regions were represented. Their travels across England were followed by the educated urban elite at a time when Indian nationalism was getting a more radical edge, in the last years of Bal Gangadhar Tilak and just before the emergence of Mohandas K Gandhi.

With Sachin Tendulkar on the brink of a century of centuries, Angus Fraser, writing in the Independent, says while many players are capable of producing the occasional moment of brilliance, very few can sustain a level of performance that is truly outstanding for more than 20 years like India's master batsman.

Around a billion Indians are perfectly sure about his genius. His gifts are obvious and he has lavished them on both forms of the game. Any doubts about his ability to provide under the most strenuous circumstances have long been allayed and the fact that he has amended his style to ensure longevity and yet retained or even increased his effectiveness makes him the leader of the modern triumvirate [that includes Ricky Ponting and Brian Lara].

Martin Chandler, writing for Cricketweb.net, looks back on Tendulakar's early years and the first time he read about the young genius.

... it was the fifteen-year old Bombay schoolboy, Sachin Tendulkar, who cornered most attention ... on his first-class debut , he struck a fluent 100 not out from 129 balls ... and followed it with other fine innings to top the Bombay aggregate with 583 runs at an average of 64.77. Technically sound and alert to the loose ball, Tendulkar showed astounding maturity for one so young and looked to be a Test cricketer in the making ...

The stop-start nature of the performances in the Caribbean - when half the team's leading lights were missing - gave some clues as to the challenges that India face to stay No. 1 in the coming months, says Dileep Premachandran, writing in the National.

While the placid nature of the pitches, which have been made for five days of television, has thwarted them on a couple of occasions, it is fair to say that India have not been knockout specialists in the manner of the young Mike Tyson, the former world heavyweight boxing champion. Instead, they have resembled the lumbering Klitschko brothers - resilient, usually efficient and capable of capitalising on the opposition's frailties.

Great champions set standards that can often seem out of reach. The quest for the perfect game or perfect series is motivation in itself. The best sides do not just win. They keep winning and in the process, they subdue the spirit of those they overcome.

In the Hindu, Bhagwath Chandrasekhar tells KC Vijaya Kumar about how things fell in place for him during his 6 for 38 spell at the Oval in 1971.

“I got wickets at Lord's, the second match was marred by rain and when we got to The Oval, I knew I had to perform really well. In a way it was my last chance. I got two wickets in the first innings and I had to strike in the second innings to help India win. I gave my heart and soul in that stint,” Chandrasekhar said.

Vijay Hazare was one of Indian cricket's early greats, best remembered for his performance on India's first tour of Australia in 1947-48, when he scored a century in each innings of the Adelaide Test. Ramachadra Guha in the Telegraph writes that Hazare’s character, and his status in Indian cricket, are captured in a fascinating, forgotten short story by the Marathi writer, N.S. Phadke. Its main character, named Bihari, clearly modelled on Hazare, was always "inwardly groaning under this strange burden of popularity and responsibility”. Guha, asks - who is the modern Hazare?

Going by Phadke’s account, one might say it was Sachin Tendulkar, who, for much of his career, has had to bear “this strange burden of popularity and responsibility”, to score hundreds upon hundreds to maintain his fame and keep his team afloat. But one can also make a case for Rahul Dravid. For one thing, his style is more akin to Hazare’s, sound and orthodox — coming in at 5 for one, which soon becomes 10 for two — he seeks to patiently rebuild the innings, whereas Tendulkar would seek rather to play some flashing shots and immediately take the initiative away from the opposition.

As India tour the West Indies and England this summer, MS Dhoni will be trying to repeat Ajit Wadekar's feats. Wadekar captained India to series victories in both countries, but he was criticised by some as being a defensive captain. In an interview with Outlook, Wadekar speaks about how the players reacted to him replacing Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi as captain, Pataudi's refusal to come on the tours of England in 1971 and 74, and how he used his spinners.

Perhaps these guys failed to read my mindset then. I had a fairly new combination with me as a surprise captain. As against that, our opposition was as mighty as ever in WI, led by Sir Gary Sobers. I planned to curb their strokes and try their patience, how can anyone call it defensive tactics? Sobers and all others were known for going for their strokes all the time, but they got restless if they couldn’t get going. If I were a defensive captain, would I have enforced the follow-on in the first Test?

Opening the bowling alongside Kapil Dev, in his all-time India XI, would be Zaheer Khan, says Siddhartha Vaidyanathan in his blog. In between the two, he says, stood a bridge that connected them - Javagal Srinath.

When I think of Javagal Srinath, I think of ’97. India v Sri Lanka in Mumbai. Final Test. India pushing for a win, trying to wrap up the Sri Lankan first innings when Srinath ran in and smashed the wicketkeeper Lanka de Silva in the face. The bouncer sneaking through the helmet grille, pummeling his left cheek and sending him to the hospital where he would need ten stitches. That was the first time I saw an Indian bowler do anything remotely violent. I felt bad for Lanka de Silva but I was perversely thrilled. An Indian fast bowler was smelling blood. Srinath probably apologised. I didn’t notice. But there was reason to hope.

The Indian legend's brief spell wearing the White Rose in 1992 ushered in a new era at Headingley, says Rob Bagchi, writing in the Guardian.

His [Tendulkar's] maturity had long since marked him out and he quickly acclimatised to the Yorkshire dressing room. After only a few weeks the coach, Steve Oldham, said: "They are all better players for his presence. His confidence is infectious, they all want to bat with him." ... A decade later, when he was inducted as one of five great Yorkshire players, Tendulkar said: "I will always remember this as one of the greatest four and a half months I've spent in my life."

In 2011, India are holders of the World Cup and No. 1 in Tests, but 40 years ago their fans had dubbed the team world champions for two away Test series victories, in the West Indies and England. In Outlook, Rohit Mahajan and Sugata Srinivasaraju reminisce about one of India's finest summers.

Among the seniors was Dilip Sardesai, who ate like a giant and always demanded room No. 8 in hotels; an abrasive and religious S. Venkataraghavan, who mouthed shlokas on the field and did not think twice before declining a gift of cigars from a personage no less than Gary Sobers; Abid Ali, who could bowl all day, bat with determination and gusto, and then ask the debutant to get the winning runs; four different types of spinners—B.S. Bedi, E.A.S. Prasanna, Venkat and B.S. Chandrashekhar—all unbelievably good, a group an English newspaper called “the most dangerous attack in contemporary cricket”

It has been 15 years since Sourav Ganguly became the first Indian cricketer to score a century at Lord's on debut. In the Times of India Sumit Mukherjee gets Ganguly to look back on that knock.

When did he start thinking about the milestone? “Century was the last thing on my mind when I went in to bat. I was playing for the moment. I knew I had to score runs to keep my place in the next Test. Getting to my century was indeed a great feeling,” recalls Sourav, who cracked another century at Trent Bridge in the final Test.

Rohit Sharma talks to Devendra Pandey, in the Indian Express, about his form in the recently-concluded ODI series in the Caribbean, dealing with success and the disappointment of not making India's World Cup squad.

I still have to learn how to convert my fifties into big ones. My priority as of now is to spend as much time as I can in the middle. That has always been my main area of concern, something I’ve struggled with in age-group cricket, during my India A days, and now with India ... Before leaving for the West Indies, Yuvraj Singh told me that my biggest test will come only after I taste success. Now that I’ve tasted it, I don’t want to let go. I don’t want to waste any more opportunities.

Rahul Dravid completes 15 years in Test cricket today (June 20). Sanjjeev K Samyal in the Hindustan Times tracks Dravid's journey.

"During the 1996-97 tour of South Africa, Rahul got a call that his father had to undergo a bypass surgery. It's tough to imagine what he was going through in that situation. We could make out that he was very disturbed but the way he separated personal turmoil from responsibility was amazing. He came out and played an extraordinary innings, hitting Allan Donald all over the park at the Wanderers, Johannesburg. Good news or bad news, he is able to shut out completely from the world. The ability to channel all that energy and focus on the thing you love is what makes Dravid so special," says Srinath.

Former England captain Tony Greig talks to Vijay Tagore in the DNA on India's performance in West Indies so far, why the BCCI shouldn't resist the DRS and the merits and demerits of the IPL.

The official facts say there is an eight per cent improvement when DRS is used. It’s one decision in every innings. If that is the case, then I don’t understand why it is not adopted. India are standing in the way of it. There have been some suggestions that it is because of Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni. I have seen some quotes from N Srinivasan. No one can tell me if Srinivasan knows more about cricket than the ICC cricket committee, which includes people like Mark Taylor. That’s why I am calling for some sensible leadership from India.

Australia have lost cricketers who have retired early. Adam Gilchrist retired because of the IPL. Andrew Symonds left cricket early because of the IPL. There are a few guys from New Zealand. Definitely from Sri Lanka and the West Indies and it will get worse. We have to come up with a sensible argument to make sure that this tournament doesn’t turn out to be detrimental for world cricket.

At a recent corporate event in Mumbai, former coach of India Gary Kirsten, spoke about what defines MS Dhoni as a captain, why the need to give a sense of affirmation to Gautam Gambhir was crucial and what Sachin Tendulkar demanded of Kirsten. More in the DNA.

“I will never forget the first interaction I had with each player. Sachin said just one line — ‘I want you to be my friend’. It was a very powerful statement and only later did I understand it because you know when I look back, I felt ‘gee that’s easy, I can be a nice guy,’ but that’s not what he meant. He wanted me to be a genuine friend."

“One word that comes to my mind about Dhoni’s leadership is presence. I put the words — inspiration and presence — together, because I believe, I was in a position to inspire people through my work ethic whereas Dhoni was a leader for them through presence.

In his fifteenth year in international cricket, VVS Laxman talks to Lokendra Pratap Sahi about his goals for the upcoming season, how he aims to improve his game and why he is still hungry for runs. Here's more from the Telegraph.

What’s the No.1 challenge in 2011?

To be consistent, to do my bit in the big Test series’... In the West Indies, in England and in Australia... Hopefully, I’ll be able to produce match-winning performances... I haven’t got a hundred in England, so there’s a small personal goal I’d like to achieve during the four-Test series.

Raising the bar entails...

You’ve got to have goals, you’ve got to look forward to something... I’d like to improve the conversion rate of 50s to 100s... Last year, I had seven 50s, but only two 100

Once the powerhouse of Indian domestic cricket, Mumbai seem to have lost their edge, says Taus Rizvi, writing in DNA India.

Once upon a time they (state teams) used to shudder at the thought of having to play against Mumbai. Such was the way the 39-time Ranji Trophy champions dominated the psyche of their opponents. However, the Indian cricketing powerhouse has started losing its grip and fear factor as well.

Former India bowler Balwinder Singh Sandhu, in an interview with Gautam Sheth in the same paper, says Mumbai had a dry last season because the team took things for granted.

Yuvraj Singh's - the player of the tournament in India's recent World Cup triumph - story is about resonance of success even though his mistakes continue to haunt him. Vijay Lokpally in the Hindu catches up with Yuvraj as he is recuperating from a chest infection, hoping to recover in time for the England series.

“When you are young, you are vulnerable. You don't listen to elders. As you grow, you understand life better. Criticism hurt a lot when I was young. Not anymore. I understand it is part and parcel of the game. But I welcome matured criticism.”

It is strange. The more I yearn for Test cricket the more it eludes me. I am hopeful to make it to the Test team for England. I am working to be fit and hopefully I'll get an opportunity. I want to do well in Test cricket.”

The Gautam Gambhir injury controversy is media sensationalism at its worst, writes Ashok Malik in the Hindustan Times.

'Country versus club/county' debates and choices are not new to Indian cricket. These have long preceded the Indian Premier League (IPL). Where Mankad and Gavaskar were lucky was that their decisions were not dissected by that 24/7 khap panchayat called Indian news television.

On this count, the recent fracas involving Gautam Gambhir and the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) has been revealing. It has shown up the media for a fundamental inability to understand a sportsman's ethic. It has emphasised the dangerous sensationalism news -particularly cricket news -is subjected to. Finally, it has been a reminder of the tawdry and crude nationalism that (at least some) news channels have made their calling card.

From BCCI officials hogging the limelight instead of former Indian cricket greats, to a lack of uniformity in the attire of current India players, the BCCI awards ceremony in Mumbai was a poorly organised event. Clayton Murzello and Sai Mohan report in the Mid-Day newspaper.

Kapil Dev and MS Dhoni sharing the stage would have been an apt way to celebrate, but what does the BCCI do? Keep him in the audience while their big wigs give away the biggest honours of the evening - the CK Nayudu lifetime achievement award to Salim Durani and the Polly Umrigar award to Sachin Tendulkar, the outstanding cricketer of 2009- 10. These awards were given away by BCCI chief Shashank Manohar and president elect N Srinivasan even as legends Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Vishwanath, Kapil Dev, Dilip Vengsarkar et al were in the audience. The question on most lips was: “ why was Kapil called in the first place?” “I am sure Kapil is hurt about this, although he won’t talk about it and mar the function,” said a former teammate of the 1983 captain.

Salim Durani will be given the BCCI's Col C K Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award on Tuesday. In Mid Day, Ayaz Memon writes of Durani's enigmatic, incorrigible character that made him such a loved Indian cricketer.

He could be brilliant or ordinary, not so much because of his skills or prevailing conditions, but because of his mercurial temperament. At his best, he was no less than a genius; on several other occasions, he could be maddeningly mediocre, leaving fans, critics ” and one dare say even opponents - wondering at what might have been.

In the Indian Express, Devendra Pandey interviews Durani and finds out that he is planning to write a book.

He roars with laughter when asked to imagine what it would have been like had he been born in this generation of cricketers. "There were no one-dayers then, only Test matches. One-dayers were looked at as entertainment and we batted like today’s batsmen slog in T20. Borde, me, Pataudi and others never knew then that we were such powerful hitters," he recalls. Durrani batted lefthanded, and he sees a bit of himself in Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina now, and jokes that some of his shots were the same, though there were no cheerleaders outside the boundary rope.

Rohit Mahajan and Satarupa Bhattacharjya find out that there's a a growing rumble against the BCCI’s power and the way the body rules the world of cricket. More in the Outlook magazine.

The BCCI uses the bait of money to lure the best players away from their domestic tournaments to the IPL. But it doesn’t allow its own cricketers to forego domestic tournaments and play T20 abroad. There’s resentment that it’s undermining world cricket, just what Packer’s World Series did some 30 years ago.

Gautam Gambhir's shoulder injury, aggravated by playing in the IPL, is evidence of a problem that goes beyond the country versus franchise debate, according to Firstpost.com's Ashish Magotra. His grouse is the amount of cricket being played, which is bound to increase the number of player injuries.

At first sight, it seems like there are gaps in the schedule. A week here, a little more there but then think again. Between tours, there’s the whole thing about keeping sponsors happy, preparing for the next tour and getting some rest if possible. And once on tour, there is simply no downtime. You think about the game 24 x 7.

Partha Bhaduri says in the Times of India that it is the BCCI's conflict of interest in being in charge of managing the national side as well being involved in the IPL that confuses players.

While it is easy to blame big players for opting to play in the IPL in spite of a jam-packed schedule and chastise them for being 'in it' for the big bucks, it should be remembered the IPL is a BCCI enterprise in the first place, with some office-bearers even owning big stakes. This unprofessional attitude of the board does rub off on players, so they too must own up to moral responsibility if an injury problem is a well-kept secret.

Kiran More's solution is for the BCCI to develop a comprehensive policy dealing with all situations related to injuries and when players should report them. Also, he writes in DNA, the national team needs to develop bench strength to deal with the strenuous schedule.

A professional sportsperson is no different in his materialistic aspirations as compared to any other young hardworking professional in other strata of society. Even the great Sachin Tendulkar had to play last year’s IPL final with broken fingers; exemplifying the demands and rigors of professional cricket and its accountability.

Makarand Waingankar, in the Hindu, laments the decline of Hyderabad cricket. There was a time, he writes, back in the 1960s and '70s when the team enjoyed an abundance of talent, including players who were unfortunate not to play for India, and introduces readers to some of them.

In 1979 I saw a teenager Saad Bin Jung, nephew of Pataudi, score a brilliant hundred against the deadly West Indian attack at Hyderabad playing for South Zone. Batting without helmet, he was hooking the bowlers past square-leg. His unbeaten knock of 136 against Tamil Nadu on a rank bad turner of Chepauk in 1979 is considered one of the finest by those who witnessed it. Serious illness cut short his career.

With the World Cup out of the way, India's selectors are likely to shift from a result-oriented approach to longer-term planning for their team's future, says Karthik Krishnaswamy, writing in the Indian Express. And R Ashwin must be featuring prominently in their thoughts, he says, threatening Harbhajan Singh's place in the national XI.

The two [Harbhajan and Ashwin] have similar figures this [IPL] season. Harbhajan has 13 wickets from 13 matches with an economy rate of 6.75, while Ashwin's 14 games have brought him 16 wickets while conceding 6.16 runs an over. Their strike rates are separated by a single decimal point. Dig a little deeper, however, and the differences become apparent. Five of Harbhajan's 13 wickets came in Mumbai's eight-run win over Chennai at Wankhede, and has gone wicketless seven times. Ashwin, on the other hand, hasn't picked up more than two wickets in any of his spells, and has failed to strike only three times.

Bharat Sundaresan, writing in the Indian Express, says that with the batting form Virat Kohli has been in over the last 12 months, he must be in a good frame of mind. He, says Sundaresan, has managed to channelise his earlier belligerence in the right direction, and has found a lot of success by doing just that.

Another pleasing factor in Kohli’s emergence has been his ability to take charge and hold his nerves in every situation he is faced with. On three occasions [in the IPL] already he has walked out to bat in the very first over of Bangalore’s innings. And on two of those, Kohli has started off with boundaries. Rather than let the pressure of the situation bog him down, he has managed to shift it onto the bowler.

The BCCI's chief administrative officer Ratnakar Shetty, in an interview with Firstpost.com, speaks of the rise of the BCCI, its decision to remain an independent entity not reliant on government grants, its current professional set-up and it's standing on the world stage.

“Only after the Hero Cup did BCCI start marketing the telecast rights and that’s when we started making money. Sometimes, when I read the minutes of the board meetings in the early 90s, it is quite interesting. Now, we hold our meetings in five-star hotels but in the early days, powerful industrialists who were then in charge of the board, would often hold meetings in their houses because we couldn’t afford hotels.”

On FirstPost.com Samanth Subramanian questions cricket's status as a metaphor for India, and the parallels drawn between happenings in Indian cricket and India as a nation. A World Cup win does not mean the dawning of a new age, neither does the IPL signify economic progress, he writes.

Cricket-as-India has become the worst kind of metaphor. It is continuously interpreted to arrive at the same glib conclusions about a country that appears fated to be explained only in such shorthand. This endless metaphorizing is a part of what Amit Chaudhuri, writing in Outlook, called a new norm: “to see India not as a place, but as a concept you could experience, an idea making its way in the world.”

Duncan Fletcher has the advantage of his predecessor's tenures to guide him as he takes on the role of India's coach, says David Norton, writing in the Sport Collective. Also, the BCCI, he says, showed new-found efficiency in appointing the new man.

Where Chappell had failed by trying to stamp his personality on an India side under the influential captaincy of Sourav Ganguly, Kirsten succeeded by redefining the role as a supporting one, staying in the background and going about his business in the same determined but unfussy manner with which he had accumulated 7,289 Test runs for South Africa.

So Fletcher comes to the position with the advantage of having had predecessors who are near-textbook examples of how and how not to make it work.

Peter Griffin, writing on the website firstpost.com disagrees with the view to call Sachin Tendulkar 'god'. Every time you ascribe divinity to the man, Griffin argues, you’re doing him a great disservice.

You’re ignoring the hours and hours of practice that made handling a bat second nature to him. You’re ignoring the fact that his coach, Ramakant Achrekar, ferried him from game to game at maidan after madian on his scooter, so that on a given day he got more turns at bat in a competitive environment than anyone else. You’re ignoring the more than 10,000 hours of purposeful practice that he had put in, honing his skills, before he made his India debut; hours that most others managed to do only by their late teens at best, more likely in their early twenties.

While India is cricket's global superpower, there are no Indian umpires on the ICC's elite panel, Kiran More writes in DNA. The solution to that problem, he says, is to encourage more former players to take up umpiring.

If I had to point out one area where we could see a significant improvement, it is the umpiring standards in domestic cricket. Like in the case of our national cricket team, where a good side is built on the basis of strong grassroots and domestic structures, umpires too cut their first teeth at domestic competitions.

Differences in language, culture and religion make India a hard team to manage, says Makarand Waingankar, writing in the Hindu. This, he says, puts the coach's personnel management skills to a stern test.

There might not be a vast improvement technically in the players, but their confidence and comfort zones have been enhanced post-Kirsten. It's those zones which have boosted their performance. It's this aspect that even the Indian coaches in the 90s couldn't handle.

With such motley of people, seeds of discontent could easily be sowed through regional groups that can destroy a team. Kirsten had ... studied the history and the ethos of Indian cricket. The Indian team as seen during the Kirsten era was a curious mix of studious seniors and somewhat over-enthusiastic juniors. To make it work like a well-oiled team, one had to develop a sense of unity within diversity which Kirsten did.

Michael Vaughan, writing in the Daily Telegraph, says Duncan Fletcher is the best analytical cricket coach he ever worked with. His new job with India, says Vaughan, will suit him perfectly.

The Indian team will discover he is an innovative ideas man who is always looking to be one step ahead ... He had a scientific way of presenting ideas to the players. He loved explaining to batsmen why the forward press was important against spinners. He would talk about looking under the ball because it gives you more time to pick up length. The little ideas he taught me as a player were things no other coach mentioned to me.

He will be a terrific foil for Dhoni, who will benefit from Duncan’s philosophy that the captain is always the man in charge. Duncan views his big job being on a Tuesday or Wednesday in the run-up to a Test match to prepare the team and get his points across.

Having worked with Fletcher and watched him operate from a distance, I can say with absolute confidence that India have appointed an amazing coach, writes Nasser Hussain in his Sky Sports column.

Fletcher's persona should fit in perfectly with the Indian set-up because he is a man who achieves his best work behind the scenes. Naturally his knowledge of modern cricket and current players is vast and his understanding of the game's techniques extensive. But he won't try to take on the Indian media or the team's star players in the same way that Greg Chappell did, nor will he interfere unnecessarily in the way Mahendra Singh Dhoni leads the team and as a result I'm sure coach and captain will get on well together.

Duncan Fletcher had to drag England up from the depths; now as coach of India he must handle a team starting at the very top, writes Mike Selvey in the Guardian.

Fletcher may give the impression of being a curmudgeon, and at times an autocrat, but Kirsten and of course MS Dhoni will recognise and appreciate someone whose qualities tend to involve working in the background. He has never craved attention, believing that as it is the players ultimately who win or lose games, then it should be they who have the profile.

He was always keen to set up a business‑style structure – whether it was at England or Western Province, or Glamorgan before that – in which the captain was viewed as the chief executive and himself as managing director. If there were ever any doubts that whoever was appointed it would be Dhoni, along with Sachin Tendulkar, who ran the show, then they have been dispelled by Fletcher's advancement.

Former wards tell Bharat Sundaresan, writing in the Indian Express, that while Fletcher is keen on discipline, he is not an authoritarian and allows players space to think for themselves.

...Fletcher comes across as stern and not easy to please. But those who have worked with him closely say the former Zimbabwe captain doesn’t believe in ruling with an iron-fist, despite coming into a job with bunch of well-entrenched values and philosophies ... “He is not a hard taskmaster like some make him out to be. He does have his own set of rules, but doesn’t believe in imposing them upon the players,” says [Ashley] Giles. And [the expression] is mainly a result of the seriousness with which Fletcher approaches every single assignment. Like former South African fast bowler Craig Matthews says, his former coach in fact is among the best people to hang out with when it comes to relaxing after a tough day at work.

The 'likeability factor' will play a role in determining Fletcher's success in India says Suresh Menon, writing for the BBC website.

History is no guide when it comes to coaching India. You can be a cricketing genius or a coach with an enviable record; you can be highly qualified or a fresher; young or old; you can be an Indian or an outsider. But none of this matters unless your "likeability factor" is high. The players have to like you, the media have to feel involved. Officials want flexibility and regular acknowledgement that they are the bosses. Coaching is the least of the tasks.

While in every other way Fletcher is an admirable coach, he was saved on the media front by two England captains - Nasser Hussain and Michael Vaughan - who liked to talk and knew every journalist in the pack says Ted Corbett, writing in the Hindu.

Derek Pringle, writing in the Daily Telegraph, looks forward to the duel between Andy Flower and Duncan Fletcher when India tours England this summer.

Over 400 runs were blasted at the Feroze Shah Kotla in the IPL game between Delhi Daredevils and Kings XI Punjab on Saturday. Indranil Basu and Devadyuti Das in the Times of India track how the pitch at the Kotla was transformed from a much-criticised one and a frustration for for batsmen to a belter.

But how did the usually low-slow Kotla, so frustrating for batsmen, become a belter? It's because Saturday's game was played on a side track and not one of the three centre wickets. The centre strips are bare without a speck of grass and have been low and sluggish ever since they have been re-laid in 2010. "The grass just refuses to grow on the centre wickets. It could be because of the layer of soil underneath or due to wear and tear. Wickets on either side have a healthy coverage of grass," DDCA's grounds and pitches committee chairman Venkat Sundaram said.

Sushant Sareen, who works with the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses in New Delhi, writes in Tehelka that Indo-Pak cricket will never be the right vehicle for taking bilateral relations to the next level.

That cricket can never be a substitute for quiet, serious diplomacy is borne out by past record. Gen Zia-ul-Haq initiated cricket diplomacy in 1987 by forcing himself on a reluctant Indian government after a near crisis caused by the Operation Brasstacks military exercise had been diffused. Pervez Musharraf’s sojourn in 2005 to watch the match in New Delhi also didn’t lead to any major breakthrough.

India's tennis ace Mahesh Bhupathi, writing in DNA, says despite being fully aware of the fact that athletes cannot perform daily, he selfishly expects Sachin Tendulkar to score every time he bats for India. And time and again, Tendulkar delivers. That, says Bhupathi, is what sporting geniuses do.

We [Indians] are fanatical about our cricket, and I remember after the team came back to outrage from an early exit at the World Cup in the West Indies, I said playing cricket for India is possibly the highest pressure job out there across all industries.

For Sachin, I am thinking it’s triple the pressure. Not only do all of us expect him to score, all his teammates expect him to, and he has his own internal expectations. But time and again, he delivers. That’s what sporting geniuses do. They are big stage players and they thrive on delivering under pressure. Roger will never play a bad Grand Slam final, Tiger will never miss the cut at the PGA Championships, Sachin will always deliver in a big tournament.

Harbhajan Singh is a great, while he's just stepping on to cricket's ladder, R Ashwin tells Sanjjeev K Samyal in an interview in the Hindustan Times. So, the offspinner is willing to wait his turn and is just concentrating on making good use of the opportunity whenever it presents itself.

"I don't go on the field telling myself 'I have to win against this guy'. I play this game only for fun and if there wasn't fun in it, I wouldn't be playing ... Playing together against West Indies and Australia [with Harbhajan in the World Cup] was brilliant. Every time I had something to say, I would go and tell him. It was easy for him to shut out a youngster, but he didn't and we always had a good chat."

S Sreesanth talks to Prasanth Menon in the Times of India on his performance in the World Cup, why he considers India captain MS Dhoni his brother, and his goals for the future.

If Dhoni had any problems with my attitude, he wouldn't have picked me for a game as big as the World Cup final. I have not played under too many captains. But for me, he is the best captain I have played under. He is street smart.

I want to spearhead the Indian bowling attack in years to come. I think Zaheer bhai has still got a few more years left in him. He has done a terrific job leading the Indian pace attack for years. So when he decides to hang his boots, I would like to step into his shoes.

Bihar's Moin-ul-Haq stadium last hosted an international match in 1996 when Zimbabwe played Kenya in the World Cup. Fifteen years on, the stadium is in a shambles, writes Roshan Kumar in the Telegraph. The pathetic condition of the stadium in a sense reflects the cricket scenario in the state.

The same stadium now greets cricket aficionados with a cracked pitch, untrimmed grass and encroachments. Kadamkuan police station operates from a portion of the stadium. It houses Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) battalion 131 too.

Prahlad Kakkar in the Daily News and Analysis looks at how the endorsements market is dominated by cricketers and why the cricketers are at and will remain top of the pie.

They bleed and sweat it out. Brands look for other qualities too. It’s not just enough to get runs, how you get them also counts. Win or lose, those are fickle predictions of faith. However, conduct and courage is the key.

Sunil Gavaskar talks to G Viswanath of the Hindu about what made Gary Kirsten a successful coach, India's World Cup win, MS Dhoni's captaincy and the road ahead for the Indian team.

The team has to maintain the intensity which is what differentiates the champion from the others. Just like Roger Federer or a Rafael Nadal, the Indian team has to maintain the intensity at big events. They have to raise the level of the game when needed. Dhoni did not have a great start, but he raised the level when needed. He set the example and the others will learn how to do that

He [Dhoni] has shaped well. It might not be obvious to everybody, but he's picked up so many things from the others. He's learnt to build an innings without losing his natural aggression. He's picked up the good parts of captaincy from his predecessors and grown as a cricketer and person

India's cricketers and fans have crossed an important psychological barrier, says Suresh Menon, writing in Tehelka. They have gone from anxiety to belief, he says, in three steps spread over several decades.

At 31 for two in the final of the World Cup, and with India’s best batsmen dismissed, only the generation that had followed the Lord’s Test of 1971 had any doubts. We were prepared for the worst ... The younger ones didn’t flinch. My son leaned over and bet the price of a Dream Theater CD that India would not only win, but win easily. He is a fan in the age of Sachin Tendulkar — confident, self-assured and with faith in the cricket team. A completely different animal from his father who is wracked by uncertainty and carries too many memories of promise collapsing at the last hurdle.

Has an era finally ended? The era of Doubting Thomases and the-other-team-will-win certainties? The era when the dominant emotion at an India match was not anticipation but anxiety, and everyone believed that even if India had to score 10 runs in 10 overs with 10 wickets in hand, they would somehow manage to screw it up? When Virender Sehwag says today that he always backs the opposition, he means it as a joke, as a way of proving to himself the sheer absurdity of such thinking. Not so long ago, that was the way to bet.

After the 28-year wait it's only natural that India's World Cup triumph will leave a lasting legacy in the cricket-crazy country says Boria Majumdar, writing in the Times of India. The IPL meanwhile, he says, couldn't have come at a better time for Indian cricket.

While player fatigue is surely a factor, crowd or viewer fatigue is no longer a serious issue in the World Cup aftermath. Rather, the IPL comes as the perfect relaxant. While it will ensure that cricket fanatics will not have withdrawal symptoms in the post-World Cup scenario, it will also ensure that they don’t have to follow the matches with nerves strained and fists clenched. With nationalistic passions no longer of consequence, fans can just continue to savour the World Cup success while enjoying their dose of cricket entertainment on offer in the IPL.

In fact, the IPL could not have come at a better time. Had the World Cup been followed by a tri-series or a bilateral series, the expectations from the Indian team would have been at their peak. From the world champions, the fans would brook no failure ... In such a scenario, the IPL is the best thing to happen to Indian cricket.

Does cricket-crazy India celebrate the sport or the victory of glamour and money, asks Ashoak Upadhyay, writing in Business Line. The IPL, he says, is an amplified form of sport-as-spectacle.

Who, or what, are we celebrating? Our appreciation of Dhoni and his team's victory [in the World Cup] springs from our immersion in a spectacle created for our gratification. We were and are celebrating the idea of victory as filtered through the print [media] but most of all through television. And television trains its spotlight on the individual.

The fourth edition of IPL is a Bollywood fantasy, a carousel of music and lights and glamour moderated by “talking hairdos” in Neil Postman's memorable phrase who shall fill the numbed mind with useless “chatter”. What the IPL audiences will experience is one long commercial meant to reaffirm their self-estimation as Glamorous Indians.

Meanwhile, Richard Lord, writing in the Wall Street Journal asks if the IPL will lose some of the glitz and glamour that has made it so distinctive in an otherwise conservative cricketing world in the absence of the flamboyant Lalit Modi.

More than the star players, more than the quick-fire format, more even than the money, what defined the first three editions of the Indian Premier League was the razzmatazz: the hype, the music, the cheerleaders—all the sound and fury. This year, the lucrative domestic Twenty20 league that revolutionized cricket still has the blasting rock music and incongruous-looking young women dancing on platforms, but behind the scenes, there's a new atmosphere of sobriety.

Indian cricket has rarely had a true leader says Rajdeep Sardesai, writing in CNN-IBN blogs, with royalty dominating the role in the early years. India's captain courageous MS Dhoni, who has drawn on the Sourav Ganguly legacy, fits the bill perfectly though he says.

Dhoni has brought a remarkable Zen-like calmness to a fiercely high-pressure job. In the last three years as Indian captain, one doesn't recall a single instance where Dhoni has really let his guard down or allowed himself to be carried away by the surround sound which is now part of the game ... He's even publicly admitted to his mistakes, an all too rare quality in our leaders.

India could not have won the Cup without Dhoni, writes Ramiz Raja in the Daily News and Analysis. According to him, you can rave about other performers in the team but they are dwarfed by Dhoni’s impact on the tournament.

He may have never crossed his limits with Tendulkar or Sehwag, but that did not make him a soft captain. In fact, he was not shy to throw a challenge at his men after the South Africa collapse, when in a shielded manner, he denounced the penchant of a few to play more for the gallery than the cause of the team.

Captaincy, besides other things, is about straight talk and issuing timely warnings to players. India never looked back in the tournament after that siren was sounded by Dhoni.

Kishore Bhimani, writing in the Telegraph, remembers India’s tour to Pakistan in the autumn of 1978 – the first time India and Pakistan played each other since the 1965 and 1971 wars between the neighbours – and all the diplomacy surrounding it. Subsequent tours, he recounts, had their negatives.

We were invited to the homes of such celebrities as Pakistan’s top TV anchor Anwar Maqsood, Punjab chief justice Shaukat Ghoraya and singer Noor Jehan. When we asked about Mehdi Hasan, the legendary ghazal singer, a concert for the Indian team was promptly organised at the palatial home of Mehmood Ali, described as the Dilip Kumar of Pakistan.

Mehdi Hasan was thrilled to learn how much the Indian visitors knew of Ahmed Faraz, Mir Taki Mir and Mirza Ghalib and played all our requests. If ever there was cultural diplomacy between recently warring nations, it was here.

As Sachin Tendulkar stands on the threshold of a century of international centuries, Rohit Mahajan, writing in Outlook India, presents people’s arguments for and against bestowing the batting maestro with India’s highest civilian award – which, as a sportsman, Tendulkar is not eligible for.

it’s an irony that the man who stands for every desirable value—perseverance, commitment to one’s job, grace under pressure, humility despite being lionised—isn’t eligible for the highest civilian award of the land, the Bharat Ratna … the guidelines state that the Bharat Ratna can be given only “for exceptional service towards advancement of Art, Literature and Science, and in recognition of Public Service of the highest order”. Sport is excluded. And therefore, Tendulkar too.

Social theorist Ashis Nandy cites three reasons why the award should not be bestowed on Tendulkar or his ilk: “First, it will only endorse the capacity of the Indian state, the politicians and the bureaucrats, to judge sportspersons when they have already shown that they cannot judge even public service, arts, humanities and science. Second, it will further politicise Indian sports and turn the sportspersons towards greater sycophancy and kowtowing. And third, it will legitimise state awards in a society that has already used the awards to hierarchise scholars, writers, journalists, artists and performers.”

Manu Joseph introduces Sachin Tendulkar to the USA, writing in the New York Times that the he is an icon who, in his ways and in the country's way of adoring him, defines India in a profound way that economic indicators and the laments of activists cannot.

The 1990s were difficult, but Mr. Tendulkar bloomed in that decade. The beauty of sport is that even though it is in the realm of entertainment, it is also an indisputable reality. And Mr. Tendulkar became a rare Indian reality that did not depress Indians. In an impoverished, chaotic nation, he swiftly became the most reliable agent of mass euphoria.

Ten years after VVS Laxman scored his 281 against Australia at Eden Gardens, he spoke to Mid Day's Clayton Murzello about what the knock meant to Indian cricket

Any particular shot during the 281 you will never forget?
The inside-out shot I hit off Shane Warne through the covers in the post lunch session of Day Four was very special because he was bowling round the wicket into the rough. We all know Warne's quality, so to play that kind of a shot gave me heaps of satisfaction.

With Sachin Tendulkar on the verge of a century of international centuries, Steve James, writing in the Daily Telegraph remembers the first and only time he played against ‘tiny, impossibly young-looking fellow with a curly mop of hair poking out of his helmet.’ Tendulkar, he says, is proof that the game has not changed all that much despite the introduction of 20-over cricket – a batsman with robust technique still enters the battle best prepared.

Bowling for us was a chap called Hamish Anthony, an Antiguan of dubious ability to be a high-class overseas player, but of no little pace. He bowled a decent good-length ball on about middle and off stumps. It should have been defended back down the pitch. Instead the little fellow was up on his toes on the back foot and punching the ball, with an impossibly high elbow and no follow through, back past Anthony for four. Standing in the gully, I gasped audibly.

Ten years ago in Kolkata, India completed perhaps the greatest comeback in Test cricket to beat Australia, after they had been struggling during the follow-on. LP Sahi spoke to the key players for the Telegraph.

Sourav Ganguly: That Test and series remains the highpoint of my innings as captain. Even if I hadn’t been the captain, I’d look back with so much pride ... We’d lost the first Test (in Mumbai) by ten wickets and everybody had written us off. That we’d been behind by 274 at the Eden only made our stock fall even more. But...

Harbhajan Singh on his most memorable wicket: That of Shane Warne, my hat-trick victim. After that, I got calls from the high and mighty. The then Prime Minister (Atal Bihari Vajpayee) sent me a very kind letter of appreciation, which has been framed and given pride of place at my house in Jalandhar. The phone never stopped ringing in the hotel room and my room-mate, (Ashish) Nehra, must have gone crazy.

VVS Laxman: I'd batted well in the first innings and so was promoted to No .3 in the second. I was able to continue the good work, without thinking either of what had happened or what could happen. I was wholly in the present then, looking to play each ball on merit. I’ve always enjoyed batting with Rahul and, as it so happened, we batted through day four. Not many, perhaps, know that he’d been down with a viral attack in the lead-up to the Test.

Rahul Dravid: It gave us players a lot of confidence and gave the public confidence in us. The team got the time and space to become stronger and the public, too, gave us space and time to grow. The foundation (of a formidable team) was laid, but it’s not that we became brilliant overnight. The process, however, started at the Eden.

In the Telegraph, Raju Mukherji traces the history of Calcutta's Eden Gardens, and its evolution from an idyllic emerald green during the days of the British Raj to one of the most passionate, imposing and memorable venues in cricket.

Eden Gardens does not belong to India alone, but to the world of cricket. It was here that the West Indies vice-captain, Conrad Hunte, risked his life to bring down the West Indies Federation flag in the midst of the flames on that fateful day of January 1967. Steve Waugh sportingly waved six and did not appeal for a catch when his right foot had barely touched the boundary rope at this very ground. The same spirit still remains, the spirit that overcomes barriers. Eden Gardens will continue to weave its spell on generations of cricket lovers and cricket players in the days to come.

In the Indian Express, Neil Manthorp speaks to Gary Kirsten on how he willed himself to take up coaching and how he went about shaping a talented Indian side into becoming the No. 1 Test team.

He empowered the players in a way they had not been empowered before and in the way he wished he had been empowered as a player. There’s no point in asking a bowler or a batsman what “works for him” as a pre-match practice routine, if he’s only ever done what his coach has told him to do. So they had to find out what worked for them.

Most of all, however, and this is probably what Kirsten would choose to be remembered for, he presided over a period of Indian cricket in which the national team played more as a Team than ever before.

Akshay Sawai, writing in Open magazine, tells us what it is like to be Sudhir Gautam, the most visible supporter of Team India and Sachin Tendulkar. While Gautam does not have a plan – other than to follow India till there is life left in that body of his – or earn a living, there’s no doubting his passion says Sawai. After all, it’s not often you would come across a fan who has cycled from Bihar to Bangladesh to watch India play the World Cup opener.

He [Sudhir Gautam] says he has told off Sharad Pawar. He has cycled from Bihar to Bangladesh to watch India’s World Cup opener and claimed to have parked the bike at Sourav Ganguly’s house in Kolkata. He has also cycled to Pakistan. He has attended almost every match India have played at home since November 2003, which is when his remarkable story began.

Marriage does not interest him. “How will I travel?” he says. “I have made cricket my life partner.”

Ramachandra Guha picks his Indian all-time one-day XI. One for players who made their debuts after the one-day format had come into being, and the other for those whose careers had ended before India played their first ODI. Have a look at his picks in the Telegraph.

Choosing mythical elevens is always contentious, but let me say no more about this team and instead go about picking an eleven composed of those Indians whose own careers ended before the era of one-day internationals. For earlier generations had also produced attacking batsmen, wicket-taking or restrictive bowlers, and fine fieldsmen. What then might a Dream Team of Golden Oldies look like?

Vijay Lokapally, in the Hindu, writes of the ordeal the Indian spectator is put through across cricket stadiums in the country, starting from the difficulty in procuring a ticket.

The ordeal begins from trying to procure a ticket. Typically, the queue at the counter begins to take shape with the first spectator reporting at 5 in the morning — at some places, people even camp overnight.

While entering the stadium on match-day, one can't carry food, water, medicines, pen, coins and whatnot. Braving the unfriendly police and organisers is now an accepted part of the process.

Swati Bhan, writing for the Deccan Herald, says boys from Munaf Patel’s village in Gujarat, who hail from families which find it near impossible to afford a pair of spikes, are inspired by Patel’s success and a passion for the game to pursue cricket.

His [Munaf Patel] achievements have triggered a trickle-down effect with hundreds of children taking to cricket seriously in southern Gujarat. Children travel several kilometres and sometimes hitch-hike rides to pick up the basics of the game at the academies that have mushroomed in the wake of Munaf becoming a star.

When executing the drive through the off-side, Virat Kohli is second to none. Nihal Koshie writes in the Indian Express why India’s most in-form batsman is ready to pierce packed fields and egos during the World Cup with a stroke that comes naturally to him.

Kohli’s cover drive finishes with a top-spin tennis-like flourish and without an extravagant follow through. The wrists come into play only once the bat meets the ball. The use of these supple, but strong wrists has also helped Kohli pick the gaps with ease ...

The makings of the cover drive, coach Raj Kumar Sharma had first witnessed before the Delhi lad turned 10. Even while an eight-year-old Kohli was picking up the nuances of the game at the West Delhi Cricket Academy — located within the premises of the St Sophia School in Paschim Vihar — his cover drive packed a punch, so to speak.

He may not have the pace that first excited Indian fans when he burst onto the scene, but Munaf Patel's new, controlled style that sees him mainly just put the ball on a back of a length and mix it up with offcutters has been effective in its own right, Karthik Krishnaswamy writes in the Indian Express.

Like McGrath, Munaf approaches the crease at a stately trot, cocks his wrist under his chin as he moves adjacent to the umpire and skips economically into an upright delivery position. Like the Australian, Munaf delivers from extremely close to the stumps, and smiles only if Hawk-Eye tells him that his previous ball was on course to hit the top of off-stump.

The "cricket-industrial complex" banks on the game as "an effective means of conveying goods to the market". And there is no bigger market than insatiable Indian TV viewers. Gideon Haigh, writing in India Today looks at the changes taking place in the game and questions if it's the right way to treat the heroic Indian fan.

Cricket loves its heroes. Tendulkar, Dhoni, Sehwag. Warne, Kallis, Steyn. For the next few months, the game's hero should be the Indian fan. Here come the world's two biggest cricket attractions, right on top of each other. On February 19, commences the 10th cricket World Cup, somehow strung out to 49 games. Then on April 8, less than a week after the World Cup final, begins the first of the 74 games of the fourth Indian Premier League (IPL). In any other country, this would be too much of a good thing. In India, too much is barely enough.

Peter Roebuck, writing in the Hindu, hails the Indian Supreme Court's decision to recognise cricket officials and administrators as public servants, bringing them under the purview of corruption laws that apply to public servants. Roebuck writes that the decision could usher in greater transparency and accountability over the governance of the game in India.

Gambling is rife, rigged matches are not unknown, brown paper bags smooth the path of building contracts. The corruption of the CWG in New Delhi has been exposed. Let the CWC come next. After that the IPL and ICL need to publish their documents.

Officials are servants of the game not its blithe masters. Already there is talk of hidden payments to IPL players whose auction price was low. Cricket has its seamy side.

Virat Kohli has been the most prolific batsman for India last year in one-dayers. On form alone, he deserves to edge out one of his senior colleagues, Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina, even in a full-strength Indian team for the World Cup, writes Akshay Iyer on Yahoo Cricket.

The need for an in-form and consistent batsman at No. 4 becomes all the more necessary as Dhoni himself has been searching for his best batting form of late. And, while Yusuf has come of age batting at No. 7 over the last couple of months, he can't be expected to salvage India's innings in every other match.

It won't be easy to drop either Raina or Yuvraj from the playing XI in the World Cup as they are proven match-winners, but for the sake of ensuring balance in the team and rewarding consistency, one of the two would ideally have to make way for Kohli.

It is no longer a question of whether Virat Kohli finds a place in the starting eleven at the World Cup. It is merely a question of where he will bat, writes Harsha Bhogle in the Indian Express.

Over the last twelve months, India have never played their first choice all-star batting line-up and as the next cab off the rank, Kohli has got a lot of games. He has not wasted any. He is willing to bat anywhere which is an indicator of how he sees change as an opportunity to prove things. Like Rohit Sharma, he too was asked to open the batting and bat at No. 3 and elsewhere. Each time a solid temperament, not always considered his strongest asset then, marched onto the ground and each time he looked a better player.

Harsha Bhogle analyses India's World Cup squad in the Indian Express and says Rohit Sharma should use the disappointment at being left out as a "weapon of ambition".

I don’t know how long this selection committee meeting lasted but in truth, anything more than 15 minutes meant that either the coffee was late or the telephone link to South Africa was poor. Indeed they could have done this on sms; asked Dhoni to text one of four names to make up the 15th player since the other 14 could have been picked by my aunt, the security guard and the mithaiwala. Dhoni had to choose between a fifth seamer in Sreesanth, a third spinner in Chawla, a second wicketkeeper in Parthiv Patel and a ninth batsman in Rohit Sharma. It had to be his call; certainly I hope it was

South India, with its Dravidian roots, has its own culture that seperates it from North India. In Open, Suresh Menon argues that the South’s emphasis on education has typically resulted in a more modest, better educated cricketer, but worries that the IPL’s riches might spell the end of this trend.

The two strains worth exploring in the southern players’ distinctive character are Brahminical inevitability, and a conservatism that comes mixed with insecurity. Even before the days of Prasanna, whose father told him he had to focus on his studies no matter what, the southern parent’s mantra has been: academics before sport. It might have mutated into ‘academics alongside sport’ over a period, but we are still some way before ‘sports above everything else’ takes over. Cricket as a career is beginning to be seen as an option, however, but this might be at the cost of education.

Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore have traditionally been cities of academic excellence. There is a certain inevitability to a child going from school to university to a ‘safe government job’. The government might have been replaced by an MNC as the aspiration, but, in essence, the story has not changed. Add to that the uncertainty of a sporting future, and the insecurity that comes with it, and the cry is for ‘something to fall back on.’ That ‘something’ in the south has always been education, even among the wealthy businessmen and technocrats who keep the chair warm for their offspring.

Sachin Tendulkar’s greatest contribution to the self-image of the diasporic Indian is to enable the construction of a new narrative of self-description, writes Samir Chopra in Outlook.

A sportsman described as the Michael Jordan of his sport sticks an arrow into the Indian quiver that has been missing thus far. True world-dominating sporting power in the new liberalised era is foreign to Indians; to trade in the currency of its attainment, to speak of an Indian at the top of the heap in a game, to speak of the physical skill of an Indian, is a heady experience. Sachin brings instant admission to a world long denied to Indians; he does it by enabling a conception of us that is still exhilaratingly new. The nationalistic pride that he enables is of a qualitatively different nature.

Always understated, always a man of action rather than of words, Anil Kumble has announced his pullout from the IPL in typical fashion, without a trace of fanfare, writes Siddhartha Vaidyanathan on his blog.

In 1990 Kumble had to miss a considerable portion of his semester because of his debut tour to England. On his return, he was asked by the head of the department why he had missed so many days of college.

This was a baffling question in itself – since almost the whole college knew about Kumble’s entry into the Indian team – but nobody was prepared for the answer that was to follow. Kumble’s succinct reply: “I was away for sports.”

Harbhajan Singh's bowling has been in terminal decline for some time now, writes Venkat Ananth on Yahoo Cricket. He delves into Harbhajan's numbers over the past few years and says that not only has the offspinner been unable to take wickets, he has not even managed to restrict the flow of runs.

What puzzles me is why Harbhajan's form or lack thereof is not considered worthy of greater debate; why he continues to be deemed an "automatic selection" despite three years of largely mediocre performances. Not so long ago, we used to question Anil Kumble after one bad series – where did that rigor, that analysis, go in the case of Harbhajan?

Simply put – what makes him the holy cow of Indian cricket? And how much longer will selectors blindly genuflect at that altar?

In the Times of India, Ayaz Memon says that comparing Sachin Tendulkar and Don Bradman would be a disservice to both.

In a couple of ways, both are joined at the hip. One is through mind-numbing statistics. Don Bradman’s batting genius is expressed best by his batting average of 99.94. This one simple numerical value reveals more about his skills and performances than would the countless books that have been written about him in the past 80 years. Tendulkar’s Test average, in the late 50s, is clearly not the yardstick of comparison. But 50 Test centuries is a whopping number. Add 46 more in ODIs - plus some more that are surely there in the future — and you could reach a figure that is likely to boggle the mind of all future generations, much as Bradman’s batting average has.

It is unlikely that an unescorted, cricket-challenged bystander at the Indian team’s training session would be able to spot the man who has scored 50 Test centuries among the group of flannelled men. With body language being the only cue to judge a player’s worth or his past record, Sachin Tendulkar, even with 21 years of international cricket behind him, can be mistaken for an edgy upstart or a jittery debutant, writes Sandeep Dwivedi in the Indian Express.

Every newcomer that walks into the dressing room has a Tendulkar story to narrate. It is usually about their observation while watching the legend preparing for the game. Many have tried to emulate him in all earnestness but given up as the standard set was too high and far too many sacrifices had to be made. Moreover, the ingrained meticulousness that Tendulkar has been born with was tough to cultivate. As a senior journalist once said after having tea in Tendulkar’s hotel room, “He prepares tea like he is cooking biryani.”

Tendulkar's achievements need to be looked at not just in a cricketing context but on par with efforts in any field — science, art, literature, etc — to push the frontiers of human excellence, says Dawn

There is no doubt that scoring a half-century of centuries is a remarkable feat in itself. This achievement speaks volumes for the cricketer`s temperament and his ability to adapt to changing times in the sports world. In fact, 20 years is a long time in the international sporting arena. Surviving for that long takes courage and determination. It is, as such, also about having enough passion for the game over that long a period to keep one`s fitness level at the requisite level.

Soumya Bhattacharya traces the starting point of Tendulkar's recent run of form all the way back to the 175 he scored in an ODI against Australia in 2009 in Hyderabad, when he almost single-handedly won India the match. Tendulkar, he writes in the Hindustan times, is still getting better.

As prodigious as he was murderous, Tendulkar exemplified in that innings a 36-year-old veteran who was celebrating, as it were, the teenager he had been, the one a nation could not but adore. We got it all in that 81-ball hundred: the impudent straight hits that disappeared into the stands; the textbook cover drives that split the field; the canny improvisations that yielded runs behind the wicket; the flicks off his legs to backward of square; and the hoicks in the arc between mid on and mid wicket that were destined to be boundaries no sooner had they left the bat.

The Indian Express dwells on what Tendulkar has meant to Indians over the years.

He was the guy, remember, who’d make up on the cricket field for our everyday inadequacies as a nation, for our singular failure to excel at other sports and for his team’s lack of support — he would, for the length of his innings, offer respite from all-round underachievement. Post-Mandal, post-liberalisation, post-Cold War, India’s doing better, other sports and the cricket team too. But he still stands out.

James Lawton pays tribute to Tendulkar in the Independent.

It has been a difficult year for Yuvraj Singh. Injuries have taken their toll on the now 30-year-old and he was dropped from the Test side as younger payers such as Suresh Raina and Cheteshwar Pujara have moved ahead of him in the pecking order. In an interview with DNA, Yuvraj calls 2010 the worst “in my 10 years of playing career” but says it has made him mentally tougher.

When things aren’t going right, people start talking about you, and you have to face a lot of criticism. All your extra-curricular activities are related to your game and it is very upsetting. But the way we survive in international cricket is to work hard, focus on your game, focus on the process. Getting up doing the same routine, staying around quality people helps. I get a lot of support from my family and my friends from the Indian cricket team. These things have helped me a lot to go through this year

In an interview with Lokendra Pratap Sahi in the Telegraph, former India captain Sourav Ganguly reflects on India's previous tour of South Africa almost four years ago and speaks of India's chances on their current assignment.

Landed with very positive thoughts and I was determined... Come blows, bruises... I was ready to face everything and there was no fear... Even if it meant dying in pursuing the goal I’d set myself, so be it. My mindset was such that I had to be successful, that I would return home with runs against my name.

It’s going to be tough, but if our quicks stay fit, then South Africa’s batsmen will find themselves under pressure ... If there’s a worry, it’s that we haven’t played a warm-up match... The coach (Gary Kirsten) and (captain Mahendra Singh) Dhoni should’ve insisted on one. I’m surprised why that wasn’t done.

Makarand Waingankar in the Hindu says that the irony of Indian cricket is that not many talented cricketers did justice to the talent they exhibited. Such is the ephemeral nature of success in Indian cricket, which depends not just on real talent and performance.

T.E. Srinivasan is perhaps one such unsung hero. The art of batsmanship ran in his veins. To him it was a natural process, yet he played only one Test.

Virat Kohli, who has scored two centuries and two half-centuries in his last six one-day matches says, in an interview with the Times of India, he still gets goosebumps when he thinks about the players he is sharing the Indian dressing room with.

I have played against some of the South African players earlier. Dale Steyn was in the same IPL team for which I was playing. I have faced him a lot in the nets. As for South Africa, I did play the IPL there in 2009, but at this time of the year the pitches will be different. Of course, the IPL experience will help. The good thing is that the confidence of the team is high and the players are in good shape for the series.

Former Hyderabad cricketer V Ramnarayan pays tribute to the late Tamil Nadu batsman TE Srinivasan and tells of his mischievous, quick-witted side. Michael Atherton's claim that Sunil Gavaskar said Srinivasan would have played more Tests had he not been from a lower caste is probably fictitious, Ramnarayan says in his blog Stumped, unless the upper caste Srinivasan managed to fool Gavaskar into believing he was from a lower caste with one of his crazy stories.

Greeting Ghulam [Ahmed, the then chairman of India's national selectors panel] at an airport, TE quickly realised that the veteran off-spinner, not unlike other selectors of the time, had not recognised him. “Good morning Sir,” he said, “I’m V Sivaramakrishnan sir, the opening batsman.” “Ah, Siva, good morning,” was Ghulam’s reply. Incredibly, he then asked TE, “How’s our friend TE Srinivasan?” giving him a glorious opening for one of his pranks.” TE’s reply was not only instantaneous but completely mad. “TE, sir? That rascal is up to no good sir, always drinking and getting into trouble.”

Also read Suresh Menon's tribute to Srinivasan on ESPNcricinfo

Sachin Tendulkar completing the first double-century in one-dayers has made it to TIME magazine's Top 10 sporting moments of the year. Other moments include NBA superstar LeBron James announcing his move to the Miami Heat, Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez's deliberate handball in the football World Cup and the incredible three-day duel between John Isner and Nicholas Mahut at Wimbeldon.

With Zaheer Khan out injured, India’s bowling will struggle in the third Test against New Zealand at Nagpur, R Kaushik predicts in the Deccan Herald. Harbhajan Singh and Pragyan Ojha have been comprehensively outbowled this calendar year by Zaheer in Test cricket, he says, despite the fact that all India’s Tests have been in the subcontinent.

Daniel Vettori is too much of a gentleman to savour somebody else’s misfortune, but the mental sigh of relief as the announcement was made in his presence that Zaheer would miss the Nagpur game with a groin strain wasn’t hard to imagine. More than Harbhajan and Ojha, Zaheer has loomed as the Kiwis’ biggest threat this series; now, the Kiwis will quietly fancy their chances of a remarkable and unlikely coup at the VCA stadium in Jamtha stemming from the knowledge that their principal tormentor won’t be around.

You only need to look at the lucrative options Anil Kumble turned down in order to get into the world of sports administration, to realise what a stunning decision he has made, says Suresh Menon in dreamcricket.com.

Former players are fond of mouthing the cliché about giving something back to the game. Usually that is a euphemism for discovering how much more the game can do for them. By ignoring the path of least resistance and choosing to take one that is fraught with pitfalls, Kumble might just inspire a whole generation of players. Those who want cricket associations to focus on the game rather than on politics.

The Hyderabad Ranji Trophy team has undergone a shake-up with the resignation of two coaches following its humiliating defeat at the hands of Rajasthan in Jaipur, where it was bowled out for just 21. But is the new coach, former captain MV Sridhar, the right choice? More on it in the Deccan Chronicle.

This sudden surfacing of Sridhar has come as a surprise. “He did not have time for the Association while he was joint secretary, vice-president and secretary. Suddenly, how can he be the coach,” questions former HCA secretary Man Singh. Sridhar holds the record for the highest individual score — 366 — for Hyderabad in Ranji Trophy but has no experience as a coach. “If you are looking for qualified coaches, Doc does not fit in,” Man Singh says. “He’d start as an absolute newcomer and novice.” Thus far, the HCA has made no move to look beyond reshuffling the old and tired pack of cards. How about a coach from outside Hyderabad? Or maybe even outside India?

A chance to throw down a few balls at a batsman eager for practice; extended photo-ops with international cricketers; and the opportunity to view a new talent before he is spotted by the rest of the world - the Ranji Trophy is fine the way it is, writes Sandeep Dwivedi in the Indian Express.

The only way they will fill the stands for a non-India cricket game is when there are cheerleaders on field, superstars dancing in the stands and when they are presented with a format that guarantees a “thrill a minute”. They will beg, borrow and steal to get tickets for these games. They will get insulted and assaulted to get into the stadium. They will use dirty urinals and go without water during the game. But throw an invite to sprawl on the lawns and enjoy a Ranji game for free and there will be no takers.Maybe, Ranji’s informality breeds contempt.

With the World Cup and IPL auctions around the corner, and a No. 1 Test status to be maintained, the Ranji Trophy, which kicks off on Monday, has plenty riding on it, writes Bharat Sundaresan in the Indian Express.

A promo for the domestic tournament in Australia till last year used to proudly proclaim the land Down Under as being the breedingground for world-champions. And while, its counterpart in India cannot afford such a hyperbole as yet, Dhoni & Co will be well aware that sustaining the No. 1 status will depend heavily on the bench-strength they are capable of cultivating, adding that much more significance to the 77th edition of the Ranji Trophy.

In an interview with Amit Gupta of Mumbai Mirror, Rohit Sharma agrees only runs by the bushel will help him claw his way back into contention for a permanent India spot.

"Talent is nothing. I can’t stop people from saying that I am talented. That’s their view. In cricket, talent gets you nowhere, it is the runs and the wickets that matter. That’s how it has been for ages and that’s how it is going to be. The fact remains that I need runs and runs and more runs. Only runs will keep me in contention for a regular spot in the Indian team.”

A year after shifting from Mumbai to Assam, veteran domestic batsman Amol Muzumdar is emotional about the prospect of playing against his home team from November 24. Amit Gupta catches up with him.

“Things are totally different in Assam from what they are in Mumbai. When you play for Mumbai you don’t have to worry about the quality of your fellow players and their readiness for the big stage. But at Assam, there is a sense of anxiety that is gripping me. Questions like if the team will do well in the Elite Group and if they are ready for the big challenge are coming to my mind,” said Muzumdar.

Karnataka came very close to winning the Ranji Trophy last year, but were denied by a spirited Mumbai surge. Can they go all the way this time? Ashish Magotra of Mumbai Mirror looks at their prospects.

A trip to Jamnagar gives Dilip D'Souza of caravanmagazine.in an opportunity to relive the magnificence of two of the town's most famous cricketing sons.

It was not far from the Hanuman temple that we found Ranji’s statue and I became unexpectedly awash in cricket nostalgia: so much about this prince among cricketers that I had not thought about in years. But the statue annoyed me. Why remember him in gold-plated middle-age? Why not a statue of the younger and fitter Ranji doing what so bewitched cricketers and audiences and me, alike? Why not sculpt him playing the stroke he invented, a bit of silky legerdemain called the leg glance?

Donald McRae, of the Guardian met with Sachin Tendulkar and listened as the batsman spoke of his past, the future and what drives him. He also said he favoured England to win the Ashes.

Tendulkar expects a more balanced England to edge the Ashes. "I think England have a better chance. I favour them slightly. I would say [Eoin] Morgan could be the key performer in the Ashes. Morgan and [Graeme] Swann." Suggesting that Kevin Pietersen's poor form lies in his head, Tendulkar pinpoints Morgan as England's best batsman. "He's a very solid player who can control the pace of his innings. He can become a really good Test batsman even though he has only played a few Tests so far. After Morgan you've got the experience of [Andrew] Strauss, [Paul] Collingwood and Pietersen. They're a really well-balanced side and this is a great opportunity for England."

Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, David Sygall tries to analyse what makes Sachin Tendulakar's bat look bigger than normal.

''I was having lunch two days ago with the guy who makes his bat,'' said cricket-supply guru, Harry Solomons, who owns Kingsgrove Sports Centre, which once employed the Waugh brothers. ''Sachin's bats look wide, but they are regulation width. It's the thick edges that make it look bigger.

The rotation policy of venues for international cricket in India is impractical, says Anand Vasu in the Hindustan Times. The washed-out ODI in Goa, he writes, is a case in point.

The problem, however, is that such sensible and practical scheduling is impossible because the BCCI allots matches on the basis of its much-pilloried (occasionally deservedly) rotation policy. While this automatically means that the best matches are not necessarily played at the best venues, it also means that a state association could get a match when it was least prepared for it.

Only recently, the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association gave up a Test and an ODI, nominally because one stand at the Green Park in Kanpur was not ready, but also because the municipal authorities, who own the ground, and the UPCA, are constantly at loggerheads. For some time now, the BCCI has stressed the importance of state associations acquiring land and building their own stadia, and set up the necessary funding to make this possible. But this is a time consuming process, and at the moment cricket is still being played at grounds not owned by the state association.

Cricket in the Indian state of Jharkhand, which has produced MS Dhoni and Saurabh Tiwary, has remained mired in the shackles of mediocrity. However, Aditya Iyer writes in the Indian Express that things are slowly changing, with numerous local academies being set up across the state to nurture talent.

While the bleached-blond-long-haired men have brought national interest to the region, the pair still remain unable to inspire their fellow state players to raise the bar on the domestic field.

Setting up nurseries of cricket is the unanimous answer.

Anand Vasu writes in Hindustan Times that Gary Kirsten and Paddy Upton have done a stellar job in piloting the India team, by helping the players "become significantly better at what they love doing".

The first thing this duo did, was to not try and mould players into what they believed cricketers should be. They realised that trying to get VVS Laxman to run like Rhodes would be as futile as coaching Laxman's on-drive into Rhodes' batting repertoire. They understood that the one thing standing in the way of Sachin Tendulkar playing the role of elder statesman was the coach demanding that he do it, and make long-winded speeches to youngsters.

India's batsmen ensured their side emerged victorious in Visakhapatnam, but they could not mask the insipid bowling display that allowed Australia steal 84 off the last five overs. Dileep Premachandran, in his Yahoo column, explains how eight of the nine World Cups have been won on bowling excellence rather than batting muscle. If India are to come on top in the 2011 event with their current bowling attack, they will have to reprise Sri Lanka's 1996 heroics, he says.

Could such an ill-balanced team carry off the big prize? As Sri Lanka showed in '96, it's not impossible. But unless Zaheer, Ishant and the rest improve dramatically over the coming months, the pressure on the batsmen will be huge. One bad game, like South Africa had against West Indies in '96, and the cherished dream will become a grisly nightmare.

After Cheteshwar Pujara scored those 72 runs that helped India beat Australia in Bangalore, his story is no longer the heart-wrenching tale about a marathon run-maker’s struggle to make it past the domestic circuit. Suddenly everyone wants a piece of him, writes Sandeep Dwivedi in the Indian Express.

Unlike old times, it wasn’t just his father Arvind waiting for him at the airport in the family Maruti [in Rajkot]. He couldn’t just drive off home while narrating to his father — his one and only batting coach since he was four — his cricketing exploits from tours in distant lands. A crowd, a roofless jeep and car cavalcade waited for the 22-year-old at the arrival terminal. After waving to the fans on the street, he rushed off to spend time with friends, family and well-wishers — a bunch that has gradually multiplied since Bangalore. Media requests constantly poured in as Pujara’s home on the city’s outskirts wasn’t out of way anymore.

But while in this sudden swirl, Pujara remembers something that Sachin Tendulkar told him when he was promoted to one drop on the final day of the second Test ... “Humko aapni duniya mein rehna hai (We have to stay in our own world),” Tendulkar told Pujara in middle of the din.

India's young batsmen face many questions regarding their dedication, adaptability and ability to play a long innings. Cheteshwar Pujara has answered all those questions in the affirmative with his performance in the Bangalore Test, writes Peter Roebuck, in the Hindu.

At the crease he displayed skill as well as grit. In the first innings he sat with his pads on for hours only to be beaten by a grubber. Significantly he did not let his bad luck prey on his mind. Instead he seized the chance so thoughtfully provided by his captain to give India's tricky chase exactly the start it needed.

Clearly it can be done. Certainly it was only one innings. Pujara might not play even in the next match. Certainly it is not wise to proclaim the arrival of a new champion. But the youngster has shown that modern boys can be as single-minded as previous generations. No more excuses can be made.

"Tendulkar loves the game. Even after all these years, all these grounds, hotels, fielding drills and press conferences, it's not an effort for him to play or practise," writes Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald. "Cricket is his game and his way of life. He does not need anything else. Always it has been the same. The most underestimated thing about him has been his longevity, his constancy."

Has any cricketer of his calibre changed less? Has any sportsman of his duration shown so few signs of mental wear and tear? Garry Sobers comes closest. For him, too, the game never became an ordeal.

Of course, the body grumbles but the Indian's mind has remained attentive. To an extraordinary extent, Tendulkar plays for the same reasons as in his youth. It's not that he has failed to grow; just that from the outset he saw the game in its true light, as an end in itself.

Ten years have passed since the epochal Kolkata Test, but little has changed when India clash with Australia - VVS Laxman is still at it, as have Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble been at various points in India's decade of excellence in Test cricket. In the Indian Express, Mihir Sharma relives Laxman's classic, and says why the next line of Indian cricketers are unlikely to replicate the feats of the golden generation.

This series has just one more Test, which Ponting has said, with glum humour, he hopes Laxman’s back keeps him out of. That’s half the problem. You’re never really tested except in Tests. Dravid, Ganguly, Kumble, Laxman: they were all Test players first. The next generation, not so much; even if some of them, like Sehwag and Gambhir, have talent that bends the format around them. If we want steel of VVS’ calibre, we need to temper it, to test it. And that needs more Tests, on supportive pitches. After Mohali’s single-wicket win, who wouldn’t want more?

Barely a handful of people turned out to watch the classic that unfolded in Mohali, bar the final day when the stands filled. Venkat Ananth, in his Yahoo blog, says the BCCI is probably to blame for the public antipathy to Test cricket.

The problem is, the BCCI really doesn't care whether you go to the ground or not - its ideal world is where everyone watches from home, because TV channels pay the board hefty license fees. Until 2006-07, Cricket Australia had a broadcast policy which said that unless the ground is sold out, there would be no live broadcast on TV in that particular state. It is a good policy, ensuring attendance. A corollary is pricing policies that make watching Test cricket affordable, so that families can go without fracturing their budget; equally important is taking care to ensure that the facilities at the grounds are of high quality - the lack of basic seating, toilets, water, and food makes watching Test cricket in India an exercise in endurance, and no fan these days wants to pay money for substandard facilities when he can watch from the sofa in his living room.

At a time when India's premier domestic competition, the Ranji Trophy, fields as many as 26 regional sides in two leagues, Venkat Ananth makes a strong case for a franchise-based system with fewer teams to foster excellence. In his Yahoo blog, he draws parallels with the South African model where 11 provincial teams were shortened to six franchises in a bid to narrow the gap between international and domestic standards.

From a cricketing point of view, firstly, there is likelier to be a heavy competition for places, a larger responsibility towards your side, a professional dressing-room and franchise atmosphere and since corporate ideology is largely result-oriented, it could assist incentivize performances, which is in stark contrast to the existing system, which almost presents itself as a formula a captain needs to rehearse, rinse and repeat to win the Ranji Trophy.

Sachin Tendulkar is the complete batsman. Neither fast bowlers nor mystery spinners nor hard pitches nor damp decks nor dust bowls nor heat nor cold nor dusk nor dawn nor razzmatazz have found him wanting. Ten thousand questions have been asked and all have been answered, most of them in the affirmative, writes Peter Roebuck, in one of several articles on Tendulkar in the India Today.

Srinath offers a team-mate's viewpoint of Tendulkar the batsman and the captain.

After a run of very successful seasons in international cricket, he was put in charge of the team. It was obvious to us that the crown of captaincy did not fit him perfectly. Under Sachin's leadership for the first time in 1996, many of us found it difficult to match his expectations. His demands and anticipation of his teammates' performances originated from his own talent. Lesser mortals found the going tough even to understand their roles, never mind the whole business of taking on the pressure of international cricket.

Everytime he was in charge, a curious pattern of a slump in form followed. To others it may not have been a slump, but by his standards it was. Sachin took some time to realise that it's not practical to expect others to emulate his feats. Basically, his talent was inborn and those skills cannot be acquired or transferred to anyone. The loss of any game under him his captaincy worked him up so much that it preyed on his batting abilities.

John Wright: "If around 1990, I'd been asked how long this 16-year-old Indian touring New Zealand would survive in international cricket, I wouldn't have come close. No matter how good the kid looked, you didn't think in terms of a 20 years."

In a freewheeling interview with Shekhar Gupta on Indian Express, Harbhajan Singh talks about his growth as an offspinner, his 'special' relationship with the Australian cricketers, the time under Greg Chappell as coach and more.

I have not done many new things in terms of my bowling, I have just done what any normal guy may do. I just bowled a lot of balls in the nets, and I practised very hard. And I made sure I did my work right.

Whatever happened in Sydney was an instance of making a mountain out of a molehill. They do not like it when people say things about their players, but they are probably the worst when it comes to saying things or doing things to other players. But I am not like those who can listen to abuses and keep quiet. I have come to play, not get abused. If they abuse me, I will give it back to them.

India’s top players should play more domestic cricket so that the juniors can learn from them, says Makarand Waingankar in the Hindu. He recalls the era when national team stars used to regularly turn out for their state and club sides and feels the Australian approach of making domestic cricket mandatory is worth emulating.

Teenager Dilip Vengsarkar learned more about batting watching Gavaskar from the other end for Dadar Union than listening to a dozen coaches. Former India opener Madhav Apte, who toured the West Indies in 1953, played ‘A' division tournaments for 55 years until the age of 71, facing Mumbai Ranji Trophy bowlers without a helmet.

The solution is simple. Like Australian cricket, make playing domestic cricket mandatory irrespective of the stature of a player. Sadly the stalwarts seem to have forgotten that when they were teenagers they benefited immensely by playing with cricketing icons.

Santosh Desai, writing in the Times of India, examines some of the reasons that may have contributed to what he says is an "unhappy form of arrogance" on the part of Indian cricketers in recent times.

Some cricketers in particular seem to possess advanced degrees in scowling, and for some reason this is seen as a sign of 'attitude', which by today's yardsticks is a good thing to have. We see a reflection of this unhappy form of arrogance both on the field and off it, in the way they respond to other teams and in their public interaction with the media and their fans.
.......
We put our cricketers on a pedestal as easily and frequently as we lynch them and in a short period of time we make them immune not only to our reactions but to any outside perspective at all. The cricketer learns very quickly that everyone connected with the game has an angle, and in most cases it is financial in nature.

The nobility of sport and its implicit aim to elevate us through its emphasis of purity and perfection has ceded to its need to be entertaining, popular and financially lucrative.

The outcry against Suraj Randiv's deliberate no-ball to deny Virender Sehwag a century is an example of how India has changed as a nation over the last 63 years. The transformation from servility to aggressive self-assertion is a remarkable aspect of the journey of independent India in which cricket has always been a strong metaphor, writes Ayaz Memon in the Times of India.

There was a time when India would get short shrift. Everybody knows Bishen Singh Bedi lost his contract with Northamptonshire because he complained to the MCC about John Lever using vaseline to tamper the ball during England's tour of India in 1976. Indian players were often at the receiving end of sledging, racist taunts and even physical abuse e.g. Sunil Gavaskar given a mighty heave by John Snow in 1971.

Today though, India is the world's richest cricketing nation as also the number 1 ranked Test team. A fast-growing economy and a billion-strong fan-base fuelled a boom that has made this country cricket's El Dorado. The BCCI contributes more than 70 per cent of the game's economy. This signifies enormous clout and should inspire India to play a leadership role in the sport rather than a victim's.

In an interview with Deccan Herald, Zaheer Khan reflects on a decade well spent as part of the Indian team and talks about being the pace spearhead, dealing with injury, winning abroad and India’s journey to becoming the No. 1 Test side.

It has been a wonderful journey. I am very proud of the fact that I have dealt with whatever situations that were thrown at me in a very confident and positive way. I have my share of injuries, some were really bad, but I have dealt with it. It’s not easy for any fast bowler to play this long in sub-continental conditions. That’s precisely why I admire pace bowlers from sub-continent, right from Kapil paaji to Imran Khan, Srinath, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis Chaminda Vaas and so on. They have played for a longer duration in sub-continental conditions and they are all legends. It’s quite satisfactory and a humbling experience to stand on the same line.

Venkat Ananth, in his Yahoo Cricket column, writes that player welfare has become a critical aspect of modern cricket administration. He says that Indian players must be kept fresh for national duty through a combination of rotation, injury management, a revamp of the graded contract system and having a full-time players’ representation body.

In the modern era, given the way cricket is played and administered, player welfare becomes a critical, if not the most important aspect, of cricket administration. Sadly, the BCCI isn't up to it. Or let's just say partly so, given that in this country player welfare is by and large seen through the sole lens of financial security. That view is no doubt is important, but in the big picture it serves more as an illusion than something concrete.

Financial security apart, the most important aspect of a sportsman's career is the accepted cycle of fitness and injury issues, and in today's circumstances that has become more acute than earlier. And this is where there is a need for the players to stand up and be heard on these issues - especially the ones involving scheduling particularly of needless commercially-motivated adventures largely driven by pre-decided obligations.

When it is not injury, it is his attitude; when it is not attitude, it is a lack of form. When everything seems to be falling in place, he falls ill, loses his spot to a youngster and has to endure taunts from the crowd. Finally he contracts dengue, putting his participation in the remainder of the Sri Lanka tri-series in jeopardy. The last year has easily been the worst in Yuvraj Singh's career and it has not always been his fault, writes Partha Badhuri in the Times of India.

India's mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton feels repeated injury can sometimes result from mental stress under pressure to perform, and Yuvraj has certainly struggled to make the seamless transition from good to great we all expected him to.

Some phases of his Test career have been nightmarish. In the tri-series here, he was back to fielding at point against New Zealand but pottered his way through a 25-ball five as India collapsed for under a 100 runs. It proved the ghosts of dodgy footwork and fragile temperament still linger.

First Irfan Pathan, then Yusuf, and now an almost inexplicable faith in Ravindra Jadeja - India have tried several names at no. 7 but, with the World Cup round the corner, are nowhere near finding the right person for the job. Nihal Koshie writes in the Indian Express that if Jadeja does not live up to the billing in the lead-up to the event, India had better consider taking a leaf from their 2003 World Cup blueprint and play seven specialist batsmen.

On Sunday, Jadeja used his leftarm spin to beat the edge of Dhoni’s blade on a few occasions. This was shortly after the India skipper had reposed faith in Jadeja as the player who will do the job for India at No.7. The plan is to use Jadeja as the fifth bowler and hope that he clicks with the bat.

The severity of the problem of finding the elusive all-rounder can be gauged by the reluctance of the India team management to think beyond Jadeja at the moment because they feel there are no viable options. In case Jadeja’s bowling form fades, then India is planning to play a specialist batsman to fill the No.7 slot, a move that could backfire if the part-time bowlers, namely Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh have a bad day.

It was quite a dramatic fall for the Indians, losing by 200 runs to New Zealand after their hard-fought win in the third Test against Sri Lanka. Sunil Gavaskar, in his syndicated column in the Times of India, says the cramped scheduling could be one of the main factors responsible.

That a one-day series then starts two days later is even more tough on the guys for that is even harder on the body than a Test match. Yes India is a team that most countries want to play, since there is so much more sponsorship for their boards when that happens, but that gives India all the chance to at least ensure that its players are given adequate break days between games. India has a busy season coming up culminating in the ICC World Cup and that is going to test the players physically and mentally.

The ongoing Test series in Sri Lanka has brutally exposed India's non-existent bench-strength, especially in the fast-bowling department. GS Vivek writes in the Indian Express that one of the reasons for India's inability to unearth talent is the failure of the National Cricket Academy to live up to the hype it generated when it was launched in 2000 in Bangalore. He lists out the problems ailing the academy, ranging from a complete lack of focus to a disconnect with the requirements of the national team.

Over the years, the biggest possible names in Indian cricket with too many things on their plate, and few foreign experts too, have been at the helm of affairs at the NCA. Invariably, a change on the name plate outside the Chairman's chamber at the NCA has coincided with a shift in focus of the institution. The last decade has seen the academy being projected as a finishing school, a centre of excellence for elite cricketers, a monitoring institute for fringe players, a one-stop rehabilitation clinic and even a college for coaches. This has meant confused priorities, muddled planning, detached leadership and, ultimately, the NCA failing to groom talented cricketers.

A related article in the same paper lists some of the instances where the NCA failed to assist cricketers in need of help, and some of its ventures that were not thought through well enough.

An unassuming basement office in a residential colony in South Delhi gives no indication that they're the establishment which has struck a record deal with India's captain, MS Dhoni. Rhiti Sports Management is run by Arun Pandey, a friend of Dhoni's, and Sangeet Shirodkar, who used to manage Harbhajan Singh. Ratna Bhushan and Avinash Singh of the Economic Times caught up with the pair, who talk about working with their biggest client yet.

It seems to have robbed him of sleep, though. Sporting a two-day stubble and the after-effects of a siesta, Pandey is slumped in a plush leather chair behind a huge mahogany desk. There’s no trace of polish in his ways, not even an effort to project it. Fiddling with his two BlackBerry’s, eyes constantly wavering to detect incoming activity on them, Pandey, 33, smiles a knowing smile. Next to him, Rhiti’s marketing man, Sangeet Shirodkar, a cherubic 25-year-old, does the same.

MS Dhoni, the India captain, is the new king of good times with an endorsement deal that is worth Rs 210 crores. But is he worth that much, asks Ninad D. Sheth in Open, a weekly news magazine. And why are marketers in India so sold on celebrities as a way to boost their sales?

Why do the world’s best-known brands splurge so much cash on endorsements? What are the values they’re trying to turbo charge their own brand recall with? And finally, how enduring are these values?

This blend of an earthy image with the fact that Dhoni has not left his roots too far behind is critical for advertisers. Dhoni wears no cape, he is not invincible, yet he achieves and succeeds. He is someone you know and you like—there is an element of the real.

Once a breeding ground for international cricketers, the Dadar Union Club has been fighting for survival over the last few years, but former Indian batsman Dilip Vengsarkar is determined to revive his former club, writes Devendra Pandey in the Indian Express.

“It will be the right time to repay all my dues to the club which helped me and a number of others to play for India. It is a great institution, which produced many players for the country,” explains Vengsarkar, who spent 25 years with Dadar Union.

There are others who took their initial steps towards cricketing stardom at Dadar Union — among those are a number of international cricketers like Madhav Mantri, Narendra Tamhane, Sunil Gavaskar, Ramnath Parkar and Sanjay Manjrekar — and polished their game. Legend has it that Gavaskar ended up playing a Kanga league match for the club just after landing from his record-breaking maiden international tour to the West Indies.

Arun Pandey, the founder president of RSPL, the company that has inked a record-breaking endorsement deal with MS Dhoni, is a former first-class spinner who used to trouble the India captain in the nets, and his very close friend. G S Vivek of the Indian Express finds out more about the man behind the scenes.

Pandey’s own cricketing skills are well respected in Delhi’s local circuit. A student of Bishan Singh Bedi, he is known to have the knack of getting Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir out cheaply. “Once when Viru met Mahi, he told him how I had got him out once again. Apparently, they laughed their heads off when Mahi said, ‘Now, I will hear this story from Pandeyji again’. Actually, I have dismissed Viru some 8-9 times,” Pandey says.

Lalit Modi was rarely away from television cameras or the front pages when the IPL was on, but now that he's embroiled in a huge controversy, he's hardly seen. 'Where in the world is Lalit Modi?' asks Anand Vasu in the Hindustan Times.

Modi has shouted from the rooftops that those in power in the Board of Control for Cricket in India are out to get him. He has consistently alleged that certain people are maligning him and thrusting false charges on him. Modi has a team of high-profile, and occasionally very voluble, lawyers doing what they can to take his case forward. And Modi is on a yacht a world away? Does this make any sense to you?

MS Dhoni currently has 24 endorsements © AFP

In Back Page Lead, Sharda Ugra analyses the rise of MS Dhoni the cricketer and the brand, which resulted in a US$42m two-year deal last week. She looks at Dhoni's media strategy and notes that the one person who had a similar tightly controlled media image was Tiger Woods.

He [Dhoni] keeps print and TV journalists at arm's length and one-on-one interviews can either be boring email responses through his manager-du-jour or nothing at all. A former Indian captain laughed: “It should have been my template.”

This tack gives Dhoni his space and privacy and also ensures that journalists turn into infatuated stalkers, starving for morsels of information.

It is why his recent, secret wedding led desperate reporters to interview florists.

It is why the $42m is being seen as a gee-whiz deal. It’s a Dhoni story and that’s gold dust.

Rediff.com asks several of India's best known brand gurus what makes Brand Dhoni tick. Most of them say Dhoni's success despite his small-town roots and the lack of a godfather in cricket combined with his equanimity on the field is what makes him so appealing.

The composition of the Indian and Pakistani Test sides are a study in contrasts. One has power-heavy batters and the other has a bowling attack capable of softening Australia. Both teams aren't blessed with the best of both worlds, both have had contrasting fortunes in recent Tests, but they're united by one thing: envy of the other's resources, writes Dileep Premachandran in the Guardian.

A side featuring India's batsmen and Pakistan's bowlers would most likely sweep aside all comers, but the real world has no time for such fantasy cricket. Over the next month, both teams – batsman-heavy India and pace-blessed Pakistan – will have to battle their frailties and maximise their strengths as they seek to overcome opponents who appear that much more balanced.

While it's common in football to have celebrity match-ups and marriages, the WAGs trend is not quite the same as far as India's cricketers are concerned. With such a hectic lifestyle travelling across the globe and managing their own celebrity status, many of India's star players now prefer settling down with women who can take care of their families, as opposed to a trophy wife. Players who come from less-fortunate backgrounds make for an interesting study. There are instances of such cricketers choosing partners who are often better educated and more qualified than themselves. Arpita Basu has more in Outlook.

Cricket’s current first lady Sakshi, for instance—an alumnus of Welham Girls School in Dehradun, a hotel management graduate from Aurangabad, and a resident of Alipore, one of Calcutta’s more affluent pockets—enjoyed, according to Yudhajit, “a kind of exposure during her growing up years that was quite different from Dhoni’s”. Sachin Tendulkar, who did not complete college, went on to marry Dr Anjali Mehta, the daughter of an industrialist, and older than him.

Gautam Gambhir talks to Kadambari Murali-Wade of the Hindustan Times about developing his bowling skills, batting with Virender Sehwag, MS Dhoni's captaincy, being written off after one bad series and more.

I am looking at working on my bowling too. If you're there as a pure batsman, then if you get out cheaply, the game's over for you. But if you can also bowl five-six overs in an ODI, pick up a couple of wickets, help the team, it's good.

The BCCI have done well by appointing a long-term manager for the Indian team, and picked a worthy candidate for the role in Ranjib Biswal, according to sportzpower.com.

What works well for Biswal is that he is a former player, has played domestic cricket, played alongside the likes of Kumble, Ganguly, Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar in age-group cricket. And also is currently the president of a state association.

But probably the most important qualification for Biswal presently is the fact that he is a Congress leader. In various ways the board is mollifying the ruling party by appointing Biswal, a former Youth Congress leader and a close aide of Rahul Gandhi. The appointment of Congress' Union minister of state Jyotiraditya Scindia on the disciplinary panel probing suspended Indian Premier League chief Lalit Modi is also a case in point.

India’s selection committee tends to attract more criticism than praise for its policies, much of it deserved. But in his column for Yahoo, Partab Ramchand writes that the selectors have actually gotten it right in picking the team to tour Sri Lanka.

It is obvious that a good deal of thinking and planning has gone into the selection of the Indian Test squad for the tour of Sri Lanka. If you look closely, Kris Srikkanth and his team has chosen what is expected to be the first eleven and then has added one player for each of five specialist slots – opening batsman, middle order batsman, wicket keeper, pace bowler and spinner.

The end of the civil war in Sri Lanka has heralded a new era for cricket in the Tamil-dominated Jaffna province in the island's North. Facilities and funding are starting to pour in and that has led to more age-group tournaments and mushrooming of talent. GS Vivek of the Indian Express writes on the latest developments in the region.

Among those coaching in Jaffna is Ravindra Pushpakumara, a former fast bowler and member of the Sri Lankan 1996 World Cup winning team, who is the provincial coach. As many as 18 schools play cricket in Jaffna — St John’s and St Patrick being the major ones — and the district is playing the Under-15, Under-16 and Under-19 matches. They will then be grouped along with other provinces in the north and north east to play provincial cricket.

In the Guardian, Dileep Premachandran draws a parallel between England's footballers and India's cricketers and says the troubles that Gerrard and Co are going through could apply to India in the 2011 World Cup.

Ahead of an epoch-defining match against a country with a population less than that of East London, those that follow English football are familiar with all of these. Yet, in eight months time, we could write exactly the same things and they would be equally relevant to Indian cricket. Come February and March 2011, a hundred TV channels and newspapers and blogs in more than a dozen languages will indulge in a navel-gazing frenzy as India's finest attempt to emulate the improbable events of June 1983, when a team rated a 66-1 chance by some bookies beat the overwhelming favourites in a contest that was cricket's answer to Rumble in the Jungle and rope-a-dope.

The great expectations are easy to explain. England may have reached fewer major finals than Greece and the Czech Republic since 1966, but a domestic league awash with money became the destination of choice for some of the world's most talented footballers as the 20th century gave way to the new millennium. At the same time, cricket's financial heart migrated from London to Mumbai, eventually giving rise to the phenomenon that is now the Indian Premier League.

The actions of India’s selectors have typically been inscrutable. Beginning with Saurabh Tiwary, who was called away from India A’s tour of England so he could carry drinks in Sri Lanka, GS Vivek takes a look at India’s “non-playing players” in the Indian Express

The left-handed Tiwary, picked by selectors as the replacement for Yuvraj Singh in the middle order, had been asked to cut short the India A tour in England to be part of the Asia Cup squad. But being on drinks duty during the Sri Lanka tour means he even missed out on the England experience. Equally baffling is the case of Ashwin. The off-spinner was first picked for the two T20 games against Sri Lanka at home last year and after that has been part of four ODI squads.

But the man, who is seen as the replacement for Harbhajan Singh, has played just one ODI and two T20s games -all of them during the recent Zimbabwe series when the seniors were rested.

In his Hindustan times blog, Anand Vasu writes that the BCCI will do the Indian team a great favour by retaining Ranjib Biswal as the manager until the end of the World Cup - a break from the previous trend of appointing new managers for every tour.

It’s unrealistic to expect the BCCI to make a dramatic departure from its ways, and constitution, and appoint someone full-time for the job. What is refreshing, though, is that the cricket-minded in the Board are keen to do what they can within the existing framework, and there’s every indication that Ranjib Biswal, the current manager, will continue through to the end of next year’s World Cup.

While no official announcement is forthcoming, a source close to recent developments confirmed that Biswal, a former cricketer and national selector enjoys the confidence of the powers that be in the Board. The manner in which he handled himself during the failed campaign in the World T20 in the West Indies, and specifically the debriefing he provided in the aftermath, have made him a frontrunner to stay in the job long term.

In the Hindu, K C Vijaya Kumar casts a worried look at India's fast-bowling stocks and says that unless they can find a spitfire attack, they will struggle in the World Cup.

Dhoni has anointed Zaheer and Nehra as the men to guide the Indian attack. But a look at their recent match statistics is instructive. This year so far, Zaheer has had spells of none for 57, none for 43, three for 38, none for 51 and none for 29 while Nehra has had figures of none for 55, one for 44, two for 58, one for 2, one for 67, two for 60 and two for 28. Their support seam-cast has nothing to crow about either as rival teams have found their runs with ease.

In his Hindustan Times blog, Anand Vasu contrasts the administration of the two most widely followed sports in the world - while officials take a backseat, letting on-field football action speak for itself, the BCCI goes the other way, creating a lot of orchestrated noise to sell cricket. With the cricket World Cup round the corner, he hopes the BCCI would learn some of the best practices from South Africa.

The tournament itself seems to be an incredibly special affair, with anyone who has been present at the venues returning touched in one way or another. The logistics and organisation are at a scale matched only by the Olympics and the kind of fan support – and nothing is cheap at a World Cup venue – has to be seen to be believed.

For their part, the BCCI believe the world begins and ends with cricket. Through the year they talk about what they have achieved and how the game is growing almost uncontrollably in India. While this is true in most aspects, there’s certainly a lot the Board can learn about an event, a game, its stakeholders, and the relationships that bind them together.

In the Hindu, Vijay Lokapally profiles local club cricket in Delhi and follows several top cricketers who turn out in the heat of the summer, be it to maintain ties with their origins, or to regain lost form.

“I love playing local cricket because it brings back memories of the days when we would dream of playing big cricket. It provides us with a chance to keep in touch with the basics of the game. Remembering the basics and your humble beginnings help you keep your feet on the ground,” says Sehwag, who would happily travel a good 35km (from his Najafgarh home) just to play a local cricket match. And this a few weeks after he had made a Test triple century!

In the Indian Express Sandeep Dwivedi traces the ups and downs in Yuvraj Singh's career leading to his ouster from the Indian team.

The tales about his tall hits that sailed over the palm trees lining the maidan and landed threateningly close to the crowd of evening commuters heading home, got exaggerated after every successive narration. "Ball ko limbu bana deta hai (He turns cricket balls into lemons)," they said, describing the ball's diminishing dimension when on the tip of the parabola that Yuvraj's towering sixes drew.

Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra will lead India’s attack in the upcoming Asia Cup. In the Hindu, Vijay Lokapally reveals the close friendship the two share both on and off the field.

“I have heard people talk about our friendship and I have always taken pride in it. I know he cares for me and is a genuine well-wisher,” says Zaheer, who first saw Nehra a decade ago in Chennai. “He was in the Indian team and I was a ‘nets' bowler,” he smiles.

“I am his senior,” jokes Nehra. “Seriously, I have always enjoyed playing alongside him. He is such a wonderful bowler. I have always admired his action. The smooth run-up, the final jump and the delivery stride. He is a complete bowler who can deliver in all conditions.”

Given the passion with which Indians follow cricket, it is no surprise that the team comes in for a lot of stick when it doesn’t do well. While some might consider such criticism to be excessive, Clayton Murzello argues in the National that all the tough talk should motivate the players to improve.

The players should not get upset about criticism because hard talk could spur them on to work harder towards proving themselves at international level.

At least the more sensible ones will take a good look at themselves and realise that the plaudits they receive for their Indian Premier League performances will not stop the critics from slamming them when they do not perform for India.

The public can be unreasonable at times with their levels of expectations but that comes with the job. It is the price players must pay for the adoration, adulation and accolades when they do well.

The tough times will pass, like they did after their World Cop disaster in 2007 when crazy fans wanted to break down the homes of players. As the year passed by Indian cricket was not only on the mend but had fully recovered.

In the Hindu, Makarand Waingankar asks for more accountability from the selectors in dealing with youngsters, since selection is no longer a thankless job; it is a paid job.

The national selectors, who during their careers perhaps themselves have been victims of weird selection policies, find it tough to get rid of the bias they get blamed for as they can only pick the best 15 they can think of.

The only difference between all the earlier selection committees and the present one is that these selectors being highly paid are accountable and hence need to exhibit better vision than others.

Reaction to the BCCI’s decision to not send a cricket team to the Asian Games as been one of almost universal condemnation. But in the Guardian Dileep Premachandran defends the board, saying it is right to shun the Games.

Instead of whipping up mass hysteria, the media should be asking the question: does cricket belong on the Olympic or Asian Games stage? Or will it be an imposter, as football and tennis are? An Olympic medal should be the pinnacle of your sport. If it's not, you really don't have any business being there. You can melt all the Golden League ingots in the world, and they still wouldn't mean half as much as the gold medals that Usain Bolt won in such thrilling fashion at the Bird's Nest in Beijing.

Three-time World Amateur Billiards champion Michael Ferreira takes the BCCI to task in the Mid-Day for its decision not to send a team to the Asian Games.

The Asian Games is a huge platform, second only to the Olympic Games, for countries to showcase their sporting talent and to win national honour and glory. The sheer emotion of any champion who hears the national anthem of his country played when he wins the gold is indescribable, and strong men (the expression 'men' being gender neutral) have been reduced to tears as the gold medal is being draped around their necks.

The ebb and flow of camaraderie and fellowship in the Games village between sportsmen of different disciplines have to be experienced to be believed. But, and here's the rub, there are no commercial gains to be made by governing bodies when their boys participate in, or even win, at this magnificent event.

In his blog on the IBN Live website, Gaurav Kalra wants to know who let the BCCI steal India's chance at a medal, and thinks it’s time the board was stripped of the power to decide such things.

The BCCI had a chance to do the right thing for a change and they blew it. Oblivious and perhaps even disdainful of the public view, they arrogantly brush away all dissent. Caught in a ridiculous cross-fire of show cause notices with a former insider, India's cricket administration is now vile and derelict. They can have their squabbles and their tardy side shows but in this case they must not be allowed to succeed. We must find a way to snatch their right away to choose whether we can covet and desire our stake in glory. These games only come once every four years. They have no right to snatch away your chance for a medal. My medal. Our medal.

Suresh Menon writes in dreamcricket.com that the fame, pressures and expectations of playing at the highest level take some getting used to, and it is up to senior players to mentor youngsters as they find their feet in the game.

Traditionally in cricket, the senior players in a team act as mentors for the newcomers. When a 16-year-old Sachin Tendulkar made his debut in Pakistan two decades ago, Sanjay Manjrekar, older by seven years, and seen those days as a potential India captain, mentored his Mumbai colleague. In his autobiography M.C.C., Colin Cowdrey has written about how on his first tour, the England skipper Len Hutton sought out Cowdrey Sr. and assured him, “I’ll look after him.”

When Mohammad Azharuddin made his debut, Sunil Gavaskar quickly realizing the pressure the youngster might be under after making three centuries in a row, advised him on matters ranging from carriage to finance.

The BCCI has succeeded in making its millions but has ignored the welfare of its players. With just eight months to go for the World Cup, Indian cricket seems to be in disarray. And it's a result of the negative effects of the IPL, and its parties, which is affecting the fitness of its key players. By ignoring the human aspect of the game, the BCCI isn't helping the cause of Indian cricket, writes Rohit Mahajan in Outlook.

From his own experience, Bishan Singh Bedi says it’s easy to put on weight during a tour—which is what the IPL is, albeit an internal one. “There are so many opportunities—dinner invitations, parties. While playing also, you’re always eating. If you aren’t careful, you’ll become fat,” says Bedi. Dr Chandran agrees, saying that contrary to perception, the danger is greater in T20 cricket. “There are only 20 overs to play; the batsmen run less because there are more fours and sixes; for the same reason, the fielders also don’t burn so much energy.”

Bouncers, selection blunders, parties etc - all have been blamed for the current state of the Indian team. A rigorous shake-up is needed, writes Sharda Ugra in India Today.

The team's results oscillate between extremes and the media swings between worshipful and deprecating. What should really worry Dhoni is the nature of his decision-making. Insiders believe he must also find out whether he still retains a hold on the team. What used to be the man's strengths-calmness, a relaxed leadership which licenced every man to be himself-have now turned into his weaknesses after three years in the job. During crises, the whip-crackers aren't meant to relax. Optional practice works but not all the time, not in all situations.

Writing in the Hindu, Peter Roebuck says India's youngsters need a mentor to keep them on track, someone to play the role Alex Ferguson performed in grooming Manchester United's young talents.

It's a heady world and without wise mentoring and a strong club culture it's likely to lead to headstrong ways. India needs a Ferguson. Might not Anil Kumble fit the bill? India's rising players might also reflect on the words of a 15-year-old boy attending a soccer academy in Ivory Coast.Talking to the BBC, Charles Silue spoke about his love of the game and his hopes of playing at the highest level.

And then he added something telling. “Many young African players think about money,” he observed, “But here we're taught to think differently, to be respectful and concentrate on our objective. Football is my passion. The money will follow.”

In the Indian Express, Shekhar Gupta says the root cause of the current issues in Indian cricket is the BCCI, which is hurting the next generation of players for the sake of its selfish gain.

It is Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid, Laxman and Kumble who kept Indian cricket together, and nurtured the new talent around them, with firmness, and generosity. They could not have gone on for ever, definitely not in the shorter forms of the game. The expectation that the next crop of seniors, Dhoni, Sehwag, Harbhajan, Zaheer and Yuvraj will fill that gap has been belied; and the cricket administration has not only failed to bridge the gap, it has only further indulged the weaknesses of many for short-term, selfish gain.

In his column for Yahoo India, Amit Varma tees off on the tendency of sports journalists in India to ignore the facts while spinning stories out of whole cloth.

The most crass illustration of this came a few years ago, during an India-Pakistan series, when a news channel started finding the Match ka Mujrim ('Villain of the Match') in a post-match analysis show. Cricketers aren't Mujrims, and on most days, even when matches are lost heavily, there may not be any blame to be assigned. In sport, shit happens. But no, it's more fun, allegedly more engaging, and what's more, far easier for a lazy thinker, to affix blame, paint the events of the day in black and white, and move on.

Last year, when India crashed out of the second T20 Cricket World Cup, there were the usual calls for our captain MS Dhoni's head. When there was no story to be had, the media made it up, such as when, as Anand Vasu reported, "Dhoni's effigy was burnt in his hometown Ranchi, ... apparently it was 'arranged' by two channels." The footage was good -- so what if the burning was staged?

Anil Kumble, in his syndicated column, says the non-cricketing issues affecting young players today have to be addressed, such as management skills, communication and media skills. It's important the BCCI pays equal attention to life infrastructure. Read on in Hindustan Times.

Like the art of player management and making sure whatever available talent India has is harnessed properly and maximised. Far too many times for comfort, I've been where the current lot of Indian players today are vilified by all and sundry, having every single thing they do torn apart and then some. Someone's got to look at handling both them and the things that come with playing for India, responsibly. There's the pressure of performance, the pressure of expectations, pressure from a very intrusive media including former players.

There is more to Irfan Pathan's continued exclusion from the Indian team, than meets the eye according to a report in rediff.com.

If the reasons for his omission are based purely on cricketing logic, then Irfan could have waited in hope. But, it seems, there is more than what meets the eye.

If sources are to be believed, he earned the wrath of the selectors after failing to report for the Irani Cup match between Mumbai and Rest of India last October. He was named in the 15-member squad, but the all-rounder failed to report for duty, citing 'lack of confidence', following which he was replaced by UP pacer Bhuvanesh Kumar.

It was then that the selectors unanimously decided that Irfan would have to pay for the no-show. It seems he is paying for it now!

Sharda Ugra, writing in backpagelead.com.au, struggles to keep track of Sachin Tendulkar's rapidly expanding following in Twitter.

And of course the Following. In the zone where privacy and public space overlap, Twitter is mostly the Facebook of the Famous. It is where the average fan, linked to his favourite, can stalk without being charged. He can read the ‘star’s’ thoughts, check his spelling, hear him speak, see his personal photos without managers or mikes, bodyguards or boundaries.

When Tendulkar decided to come that close through Twitter, the tally of his ‘followers’ turned over as if a digital Greenwich had decided that time could only be measured in seconds. Tendulkar had signed on at midnight and at 11am the next morning, the number of people following was a mere 4000. But the news had just begun to spread and when he hit 24 hours, the number had risen to 68,000. Every time a screen is refreshed the numbers go up, 100 at a time.

In an interview to Mid-Day, Sachin Tendulkar says he decided to get on Twitter because an impostor was misleading people on the social networking website.

To be honest, it is not my nature to share a lot (of views). I am a bit of a reserved, private person, but yes, I wouldn't mind sharing a few things. But also, making sure that my personal life is not affected or out in the public completely. It's just striking that fine balance between both and letting people know what I have been up to. The balance is going to be important.

Those were the only words uttered by Umesh Yadav's father, a coalmine worker in Nagpur, when he found that his son had been asked to join the Indian World Twenty20 team in the West Indies. The Indian Express traces the rise of India's latest fast-bowling sensation.

Four years ago, when Yadav hitched a truck ride to Nagpur from his village to play a game of tennis ball cricket, he wouldn’t have dreamt where the 25-km journey might take him. Packing his bags in a mad rush on Thursday, Yadav was in a daze. But those who know him were saying they always felt his raw, natural pace would fast-track him to international cricket.

“I have just collected my tickets from the Vidarbha cricket office, it still hasn’t sunk in. My parents are very excited but nervous as well. They are village people and have very little idea of the world outside. All my father asked was ‘When will you return home?’,” Yadav told The Indian Express after getting the most important call of his short cricketing career.

On Sachin Tendulkar's 37th birthday, Vijay Lokapally writes in the Hindu that the maestro is still learning and imparting.

Look at Tendulkar in the ongoing IPL. His influence on the team is unmistakable. That Mumbai Indians has preformed consistently points to his leadership. He has guided the young Saurabh Tiwary and the temperamental Harbhajan Singh with some astute handling. He has performed on the field and shepherded the lads well off it. No Mumbai Indians player can be spotted at the late night IPL parties.

Ayaz Memon, writing in Mint, pays tribute to Sachin Tendulkar ahead of the batsman's 37th birthday. He singles out this current season has Tendulkar's best ever, for his sheer consistency in all three formats.

But for sheer quality of batsmanship and consistency in run-getting, there has been no season like the current one. Too much has already been written over the past 45 days about his magnificent form in the Indian Premier League (IPL), but that is only one-third of the story. In seven Tests this season, he made five centuries, and even if two of these came against lowly Bangladesh, three were made against the quality attacks of Sri Lanka and South Africa.

The whip through midwicket has been replaced with a glide past square leg, the monstrous pulls with taps over the slip cordon. Sandeep Dwivedi writes in the Sunday Express on how Sachin Tendulkar, pushing 37, has adjusted his game to cope with injuries.

That cricket has been increasingly unfair to bowlers isn’t a secret, but of late Tendulkar is making this blatantly obvious. By using the pace that bowlers so excruciatingly generate to his advantage, the man who completed 20 years in cricket last year has evolved a fresh, energy-efficient approach to batting that suits his nearly 37-year-old body which has endured countless X-rays and MRI scans.

In one-dayers, in the space of a year, he has scored four marathon knocks (163, 138, 174 and 200) and at the halfway stage of the IPL, he wore the Orange Cap for being the highest run-getter — his first six coming after having faced 142 deliveries in MI’s fifth game. Making the liability of a fragile frame and growing years into an asset, he has not only extended his stay on the field without comprising on his strike rate, but also increased longevity in the shorter versions of the game.

Writing in the Hindustan Times, Pradeep Magazine says the Indian government should bring the BCCI under the Right to Information act.

The BCCI, which for reasons beyond comprehension, is loathe to subject itself to public scrutiny (unless it has something to hide) and shields itself behind the argument that it is a private body and cannot be questioned by the state. BCCI conveniently forgets that not only does it get tax benefits, it also gets other largesse from the state, like stadias at throwaway rates and, most importantly, is allowed to use the name India for the team which represents it. It gets these concessions because it is deemed a charitable organisation which performs a public function.

Dileep Premachandran writes in the Guardian that blocking Indian players from county cricket makes little sense, especially in the case of players like Yusuf Pathan and VVS Laxman who aren't part of the national team in all three formats, which reduces the need for them to be rested.

The most perverse case is that of Laxman. He hasn't been part of India's limited-overs plans for years, and it's doubtful whether he will get an IPL contract next season. To deny him a stint with Lancashire is nothing short of restraint of trade. In a recent interview, Dravid spoke of how difficult it had been to mentally adjust to not playing all the time after he was jettisoned from the one-day squad. For Laxman, who has played only Tests for years, any match practice is valuable. With (yet another) series in Sri Lanka scheduled for July-August, denying him a few hits in the early part of summer makes no sort of sense at all.

In Outlook, among India's most popular news magazines, Anil Kumble speaks to Snigdha Hasan about his book of photographs, Wide Angle.

Why did you choose the medium of pictures?

I have always believed photographs speak a thousand words. I wanted to bring about what the team does in its off time and how players do team-building exercises.

Manu Joseph analyses in Open magazine how the opinion of Indian men on Sachin Tendulkar reveals more about them than about the cricketer.

When they speak of him, usually through pilfered opinions, they reveal fragments of their own fears and private grouses. So when a guy says that Rahul Dravid is a more useful Test player than Sachin, he means to say, ‘I am an ordinary person and I want the ordinary to triumph over the flamboyant, I want hard work to be accorded the same respect as unattainable genius, otherwise what is the whole point of my existence.’ When he says Laxman is more beautiful to watch than Sachin, he is saying, ‘I want you to believe that I am classy, an opera among rock concerts.’ And when he says that Ganguly was a better one-day opener than Sachin, he is saying, ‘I am a Bengali.’

In Wisden Cricketer, Dileep Premachandran looks back at Tendulkar's historic double-century against South Africa in Gwalior last month.

In Open magazine, Akshay Sawai profiles lawyer Rahul Mehra, the man who forced the powerful BCCI to become more transparent and who has now filed a public interest litigation against almost all major sporting bodies in India, demanding that they come clean.

“It is a clear-cut objective,” he says in a voice that resembles Saif Ali Khan’s. “I’m sick and tired of seeing the way every sport is molested and raped by people administering it, and I say this with utmost responsibility.”

In a country where even personal disputes languish for years in court, wouldn’t a case involving several organisations take forever? Mehra’s reply is on the tip of his tongue and out before the question is completed. “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

Ravi Shastri captured the imagination of millions of Indian fans when he turned in a performance befitting a Champion, to steer India to victory in the World Championship of Cricket in 1985. 25 years later, he relived the moment in an interview with Clayton Murzello from Mid Day.

Despite India's fine win in the opener over Pakistan at Melbourne, England had good reason to fancy their chances against the Indians considering their recent success. But for them to say that their spin attack was superior to India's proved too hard to swallow for Shastri, who remembers reading a passage from the match preview which said, "Our spinners better than India and we should put it across."

Shastri decided to wake up his roommate and fellow spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan. "I read that and threw the paper at Siva and woke him up literally to the extent of saying, 'Get up and read it. By 11 that night it was history." He ended up getting an inauspicious 13, but claimed three wickets to send England packing to an 86-run defeat.

There was a time when being picked for India was a life-and-death issue. The IPL has changed that, however, writes Anand Vasu in the Hindustan Times.

In no other profession does being picked for something become so important. Able-bodies, agile-minded men give up so much of their life to cricket that they're often not good for much else if they don't make it. Catching the selector's eye becomes an all-consuming pursuit, and occasionally, a matter of life and death.

India captain MS Dhoni's rise to the top reflects the story of the rise of different layers of society, with cricket often anticipating that change. Suresh Menon traces the emergence of a major allrounder and the most respected captain in the game today in Tehelka magazine.

There is thus a historical inevitability about Dhoni’s elevation. It is the story of small town India grabbing chances denied for a number of reasons from the need for the rulers to maintain exclusivity to a lack of infrastructure to diffidence brought on by years of being outside the charmed circle. The progression from royalty to the middle classes to the also-rans appears ordained when viewed from this side of evolution.

	"You can’t be predetermined" © Associated Press

Sachin Tendulkar feels awkward about being compared with legends such as Don Bradman and Viv Richards. “I respect every individual who graced cricket before I came to play. Can you take away their contributions? You can’t. So why make these comparisons?” he says in a chat with Vijay Lokapally in Sportstar.

You seem to have discovered your vintage form, if experts are to be believed ...

I don’t think I had lost my touch. Since 2000 I have had a fair amount of injuries but the momentum was not lacking. In 2003 I had a finger injury, then tennis elbow, then shoulder, then bicep… All these injuries affected the upper body but the bat swing has not changed. Certain changes happen involuntarily but not to the extent that it would have a big impact on my game. In any case, I can’t bat as I did in the first decade of my international career, but then I have gained so much in terms of experience and I use it to my advantage.

It’s heartening that India is the No. 1 Test team in spite of several areas requiring attention. But it’s time to stop leaving things to chance; conscious action is the need of the hour. S Ram Mahesh has more in the Sportstar.

How India’s system handles Ishant will be watched closely. Bowlers that can defeat great batsmen don’t come around too often. Neither Ishant nor leg-spinner Amit Mishra can be allowed to slip away. A long-term bowling coach will help immeasurably, for at the highest level, skills need constant development and refinement. Consistency augments an attack’s menace, and consistency cannot be had if mind and bowling action aren’t sound. Ishant needs nurturing, but it’s just as important that he isn’t over-coached.

Cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle describes the spectacular arrival of fast-paced Twenty20 cricket as it parallels the rise of modern India. Watch his Tedtalk here.

In an old cover story for Open, Sandipan Deb wrote about how cricket suddenly became boring, due to the overdose of games. But the India-South Africa Test series has made him change his mind about the game. It takes a compelling Test series to draw people back and the main players in the series - Sehwag, Sachin, Steyn, Amla - need to be credited for that.

Has there ever been a series where a team lost by an innings and then came back to win the next match by an innings? And when was the last time that a player from the losing side got a Man of the Match award, and that too without any doubt that he should get it? And what is wrong with the man called Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar? When will he stop? When will he say that he has done enough? Clearly, there has never been a cricketer like him, even perhaps a man like him. Who could have ever imagined the feats that he has achieved, and who can imagine what more he will?

	Fans in Ahmedabad celebrate Sachin Tendulkar's historic achievement © Associated Press

Nasser Hussain gives his verdict on Sachin Tendulkar in the Daily Mail. He places Tendulkar ahead of Brian Lara, Ricky Ponting and even Don Bradman on the list of the greatest batsmen of all time.

That extraordinary drive and enthusiasm are what make Tendulkar so special. He has been playing international cricket for 20 years under the intense scrutiny being an Indian superstar brings, so it is remarkable he still loves holding a bat as much as ever.

Blogging for India Today, Sharda Ugra is relieved that the 200-run barrier was breached by Tendulkar, ahead of the likes of MS Dhoni and Shahid Afridi.

It’s not that they cannot do it or won’t. Several others can, but cricketing summit are like knighthoods, in the times of King Arthur rather than Queen Elizabeth (I or II). Not everyone is bestowed them. Afridi has been caught trying to eat the cricket ball. The Gods are blessing Dhoni and his Tarzan-philosophy but the geometry and physics of his batting would send Euclid and Einstein on strike.

Bobby Ghosh compares Tendulkar's feat with Roger Bannister's breach of the four-minute mile barrier to explain the enormity of the Master's accomplishment, in Time.

In a one-day game, each side gets to bat 50 six-ball overs — that's 300 balls or, in American baseball terms, "pitches." It's rare that a single batsman gets more than 150 pitches, so the batsman would need a hit rate higher than 100% to get to 200 runs. Tendulkar got his 200 runs in 147 pitches, a hitting rate of 136.5.

In a time when sporting heroes around the world constantly reiterate their mortality, Simon Briggs salutes Tendulkar for proving "you can be a sporting icon without turning into a monster", in Telegraph.

But everything about Tendulkar’s public persona backs up his squeaky-clean image. The man is modest in victory and gracious in defeat, while his post-match comments are invariably diplomatic. It is hard to remember him being drawn into a single controversy – at least, not one that stood up to scrutiny. Compare that to Woods, who is notorious for chucking his clubs out of the bag whenever he hits a bum shot, or the foul-mouthed Premier League stars who occupy so much of our airtime. Even Roger Federer, easily the most impressive member of the “Gillette trio”, cannot resist the odd cheap shot.

A double century has only been a theoretical possibility in limited overs so far, so in many ways Tendulkar has achieved something unusual, writes Imran Khan in the Economic Times.

If I had had to pick up a guy as the one to score the first one-day double ton, it would have been Virender Sehwag. He is young, belligerent and in unbelievable touch. However, it was his illustrious senior who pipped him at the post.

While everyone was willing the game on for Tendulkar record, he waited out MS Dhoni's uncontrollable flair and let the record come to him. This editorial piece in the Indian Express believes that for very substantial reasons, this will be a special record for him.

Prem Panicker checked his Twitter account in the midst of Tendulkar's mayhem, and was overwhlemed by the public pulse. Read the latest post on his blog Smoke Signals.

From Anand Mahindra, head of the eponymous business house: On my way to ndtv Indian of the year awards.But wonder if any other indian matters tonight after sachin’s double ton…

From Ashu Mittal, whose creative space is photography and who is a self-confessed cricket atheist: Commit all your crimes when Sachin is batting, they will go unnoticed, because even the Lord is watching!

Patrick Kidd, writing in the Line & Length blog on the Times website, believes that Tendulkar still has a fair bit of cricket to go and 100 hundreds is a realistic goal for him to achieve before retiring.

Alan Tyers, writing on the Wisden Cricketer website, finds a unique and humorous way to pay tribute to the innings and the man, discovering '200* Amazing Facts About Sachin Tendulkar'.

POWER! Despite being only four feet tall, Sachin can bench press 460 pounds. If Sachin was an ant, this would be the equivalent of AntSachin lifting a Cornish PASTY...

After an nail-biting finish to the Kolkata Test, an editorial in the Hindu says that 'the structure of the five-day game has a built-in resilience that helps it triumph over existential challenges.'

If the home team deserved credit for turning things around brilliantly after a pasting in the first Test at Nagpur, the operatic irresistibility of the Eden Gardens climax proved that Test cricket is in robust good health. Seat-edge endings in the abbreviated forms of the game often appear contrived and formulaic. But a result such as the one that saw India level the series against the Proteas with nine balls left has an authenticity that Test cricket alone can aspire to.

In the Times of India's weekly publication Crest, Partha Bhaduri looks into whether cricket - already overwhelmingly the most popular sport in India - will ended up usurping other lower-profile sports if it is included in the Olympics or whether it will present a chance for India to boost its medal tally.

There's a school of thought that cricket will,at best,be a queer sideshow in the gargantuan Olympic circus,more synchronized swimming than 100 metre dash.The ICC has only 10 full members,and that's no place to start.Of course,there are 35 associate members and 59 affiliate members,but it's more a unique brainwave to notch up the numbers,given that even the ICC will be hard-pressed to take their competitive skills seriously.If spreading the game is ICC's mission,how about an IPL game in the US?

Twenty five years since Mohammad Azharuddin made a hundred on Test debut at Eden Gardens, Mudar Patherya looks back at the event, and the two successive tons that followed, in Mid Day.

A hundred in your first Test. A hundred in your second Test. A hundred in your third Test. The English media uncorked the vintage. Not just about the quantum, but the quality. Robin Marlar predicted greatness based on just one Azhar stroke. Pocock to Azhar. A little outside the leg stump. Azhar hit the ball behind the wicket-keeper. Most would have done so with a horizontal or angled bat. Azhar did so with a straight one, bringing his bat down and into his body at the last instant. "I have often been asked to describe perfection in sport. This is it."

Has Harbhajan Singh really lost his bite or has he been sorted out by international batsmen? Is he also a case of burn-out with too much cricket? Has he lost sting after Kumble's retirement because the two often hunted as a pair? Indranil Basu finds out more from experts Anil Kumble, Maninder Singh and Bishen Bedi. Read on in the Times of India.

"I think it's about the mindset. He wants to restrict the other side from scoring. He is waiting for the wickets to come by. He is hesitant to put pressure on the opposition. He has the class but he has to apply pressure on the minds of the batsmen. An attacking field is the best way to make the batsmen think differently, which he is not doing too often," Maninder said.

It is the 'great respect' they have for one another that has ensured the successful partnership between India coach Gary Kirsten and captain MS Dhoni. Boria Majumdar gets to know how Kirsten goes about his business and more during an interview in Open magazine.

Indian cricket is constantly under the glare of the media and your job is perhaps the second most high-profile after the captain. In what ways do you feel the pressure and how do you negotiate it?

My role is to help prepare the players as best I can to give them the best chance of success. I attempt to work as hard as I can to do that. The game is about the players because they are the ones crossing the ropes to make a performance. They must receive the accolades, not me.

Venkatapathy Raju, part of India's spin trio in the early 1990s, reminisces his early days when he shared Irani chai and samosas with friends, caught two buses everyday to get from Ramanthapur to Gymkhana, his school days and watching the Mithun Chakraborty-starrer Disco Dancer 15 times. Neeraja Murthy of the Hindu catches up with the former left-arm spinner, nicknamed Muscles, now the Hyderabad coach.

Raju's teacher Anjaneya Sastry played a key role in shaping the cricketer in him. “Initially, the lure for us to play cricket was the announcements made in school assembly about the students who played well in inter-house matches. It was a high to receive the applause and appreciation. There was no pressure from my parents so it was easy to balance cricket and studies,” he smiles.

The Indian edition of Sports Illustrated has compiled a list of the 50 most influential people in Indian sport. The business paper Mint carried the list which is dominated by suits, with only three sportsperson in the top 20: Sachin Tendulkar (1), MS Dhoni (5) and chess world champion Vishwanathan Anand (18).

Picking up from the recent problems in Indian hockey, Karan Madhok on SLAM Online looks at cricket's shadow over other sports in India. The problem is the fact that all the glorious stories and figures in India belong to cricket, and if Indians do strike lucky and succeed in another sport, the successes are either quickly forgotten, or the newspapers find it tough to squeeze in the news amongst the barrage of daily cricket stories that the Indian audiences are overdosed with.

With all the attention and finances thrown around by the broadcasters, promoters, media and government authorities to make cricket the most lucrative business in India, there is little left room left to share with other sports in the country. It is perhaps no surprise then, that India, a country of a billion and a half people, has won a staggering ONE (1) individual gold in the history of the Olympic Games, and that too went to the shooter Abhinav Bindra at Beijing 2008, who was rich enough to self-finance his training, equipment and success, free from the meddling hands of the government. The Olympics, obviously, doesn’t feature cricket, or India would have raked in the medals and the positive vibes.

Anil Padmanabhan writes in the Indian business paper Mint that Indian cricket has scored two self-goals over the past week that could damage the prospects of using sports to ease tensions in the subcontinent - first, Sehwag's dismissive remarks of Bangladesh cricket, and second, the exclusion of Pakistan's players from the IPL. He writes that India needs to be more aware that it is now positioned on a growth trajectory that will eventually redefine its position in geopolitics.

This came through clearly in both incidents, which smack of immaturity. Popular reaction, both in Pakistan and initially in Bangladesh, was predictable—a round of India trashing. Of course, Bangladesh chose to largely ignore the slight and hence did not escalate the matter; in any case, since the remarks came from a normally reticent Sehwag, one could safely assume it was not a case of the in-your-face display of testosterone that comes naturally to Australian cricketers.

However, the IPL incident illustrated the undesirable manner in which this tournament has evolved. We would never know whether the government sent a signal to IPL or whether the franchisees, in what seems to be statistically improbable, individually came to the same decision to not bid for Pakistani cricketers. In either case, the logic was not probably thought through.

Makarand Waingkankar, writing in the Times of India, explains why Mumbai remain virtually invincible in the domestic circuit. The trials and tribulations of daily life, he says, is a huge factor contributing to their mental toughness and the stubbornness that has characterised their approach to the game for many years.

Everyone who’s ever heard of train travails in Mumbai knows it’s a survival game in itself: you have to board the train in barely a few seconds even as hundreds are trying to get in; you have to jostle for leg room inside, where there is no place even to plant your feet; more importantly, you have to make sure you are not thrown out of the moving train by the rush of humanity. Prithvi, and many such kids, have to undergo this battle everyday, with a huge kit-bag in tow.

It’s this type of travelling that makes a Mumbai cricketer mentally tough. Vijay Merchant may have initiated the monsoon league to prepare the player for all the vagaries of weather and pitch; but even he wouldn’t understand the kind of impact it had on the psyche of the aspiring youngster. There are times when scores of boys start early in the morning, from far-flung Dahanu, Boisar or Kalyan, to play in the Kanga League; they leave in bright sunshine but by afternoon incessant rains bring the city to a halt and disrupt the train services too. The boys have to trek all the way back home... on foot.

Karnataka's Abhimanyu Mithun and Manish Pandey are the two players to watch out for in the years to come, says Satish Viswanathan in the same newspaper. But their rise is a study of contrasts.

Pandey’s career was chalked out more meticulously, as can be expected from an Army officer’s son. With the father always on the move, a permanent base was set up for the batsman in Bangalore, allowing unfettered devotion to the sport. Mithun’s success is more inadvertent, a chance step to train regularly in his father’s gymnasium leading to one thing after another. His father owned the place, was also the chief fitness instructor, and the first signs of a pacer were honed in the unlikeliest of places.

In fact it was barely three years ago, in 2007, that Mithun first got hold of a leather ball. "I used to play tennis-ball cricket and friends told me I was good. I joined a cricket camp and started bowling with the leather ball. I started enjoying the experience and then it all fell in place for me," says the unassuming 20-year-old.

In Outlook, Rohit Mahajan says India's domestic season needs a revamp. The trials of country-wide travel, the existence of some needless tournaments and the limited opportunities players have to prove themselves in the first-class game results in a waste of talent and saps the players.

The emergence and evolution of Virender Sehwag as a batsman is the stuff of dreams. Pradeep Magazine interviews the dasher from Najafgarh in the Hindustan Times, where he recalls his earliest memories, his family's emigration closer to Delhi and other events that shaped his destiny.

The oldest memory Virender Sehwag has of his childhood is a borrowed one. “My mother tells me that when I was one or two years old, I would calm down once a bat or a ball was given to me. I would cry for hours if my wish was not fulfilled,” he says.

In Sehwag’s narration of his mother’s memory, lies a belief that he may have been destiny’s child, born to dominate the cricketing world one day.

The thrilling Ranji Trophy final between Mumbai and Karnataka would perhaps have been spicier with the availability of the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan, Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid. The absence of the best players reduced the opportunity to test upcoming talent against experience, leaving their performances open to scrutiny. Writing in Outlook magazine, Rohit Mahajan feels the tournament cramps players, and that Indian domestic cricket needs a refit.

Travel isn’t a joy ever since the Ranji Trophy was converted into a two-tier event. Earlier, neighbouring teams from a zone would compete with each other to qualify for the national level, logging in fewer travel miles. Now, the Elite and Plate divisions separate the top teams from the whipping boys, but it involves tiring journeys across the country—for instance, Punjab could be playing Tamil Nadu in Chennai and then sprinting back home for the next match.

Rahul Dravid proposes the reduction of one or two domestic tournaments, to help space out the crammed Ranji schedule - just one of the suggestions he mentions, while talking about how things could improve in the premier competition. Read the full interview in the same magazine.

The more close contests one sees spread over five days, the more one gets convinced that cricket was not meant to be a game of limited overs, writes Pradeep Magazine in the Hindustan Times. In the surfeit of cricket which we were witness to this week, what grabbed attention was not India's meaningless and eventually unsuccessful forays in Bangladesh, but a riveting contest at home meant only for domestic audiences.

Delhi's overpriced, badly-designed Feroz Shah Kotla is a showpiece indicative of the wrong direction India is taking, writes Mike Marqusee in the Guardian. As an eyewitness to the whole farce during the abandoned India-Sri Lanka ODI – with the DDCA true to form, despite the hype – he felt it was a metaphor for India today.

Our seats costs Rs 500 each (£7), the cheapest available. That may sound like a steal, but in India it represents a serious investment. To put it in context, it takes a cashier at a Delhi McDonald's 36 hours to earn the price of a ticket to the Kotla. It takes a cashier in a London McDonald's ten hours to earn the price of a ticket to Lord's.

Former India captain and umpire, S Venkataraghavan talks about cricket in Chennai from the yesteryears. He rewinds to the corporate tournaments that drew huge crowds, Test cricket at Chepauk during Pongal, and the magic of local matches in the Hindu.

For the typical cricket lover in Madras, a Test match at Chepauk was imbued with a rare magic; the excitement began days before the first ball was bowled. But he also patronised local cricket. Great expectations were in the air when popular league teams such as Parry's, State Bank and SVOC played one another. Even inter-collegiate cricket had a good following.

Watching Karnataka's Abhimanyu Mithun and Vinay Kumar skittle Mumbai on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy final in Mysore brought back memories of the raw duo of Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad the last time they won the tournament in 1988-89. Vijay Mruthyunjaya of the Gulf Daily News explains why the first day was such an enthralling experience.

Kumar and Mithun are not as tall as Srinath and Prasad, they are rather more proportionately built. Where Srinath and Prasad looked in desperate need of some extra flesh on their bones early in their careers, Kumar and Mithun look well fed and as if they have just stepped out the gym.

Virender Sehwag seems to be the man of the season. Recently named ‘The player of the decade’ by the Daily Telegraph, the Indian opener, during an interview to Boria Majumdar in Open magazine, says he does not know how to think small.

I don’t want to sound pompous. But I can surely tell you that once I get to 60 or 70 there’s no bowler in the world who can get Virender Sehwag out. Only Virender Sehwag can get Sehwag out at moments when I am batting the way I am currently.

India’s journey to the summit of Test cricket was a long one. And one of the architec