The Gentlemen's Game - Cricket!

The Indian squad for the cricket tri-series in Srilanka was announced a couple of days back and there were a few surprises. J.P.Yadhav, at 30, was picked and Y.Venugopala Rao was also picked after his impressive performances in the Ranji Trophy matches. As expected, Dravid was appointed captain in place of the suspended Ganguly.

It is difficult to imagine Ganguly being picked up for World Cup 2007 if his lack of form continues. Sachin, I believe, would be a liability, at the World Cup since he's often injured these days and has lost his ability to evoke fear into the minds of the bowlers. But knowing the Indian selectors and the BCCI, these two will be in the Indian squad for the World Cup.

Meanwhile, the mind games have already started ahead of the Ashes, which I think starts in a couple of days. Hayden has started to claim an Aussie an victory in the world-famous cricket test series which originated way back in the 19th century. Warne believes he is the key-player for the Aussies and judging by the performance of England against Warne over the last decade, I must say he is.

England has stunned everyone by choosing Pieterson over the experienced Thorpe, who by the way, has a 100 test matches behind him. Though Pieterson played superbly in the one-day matches, I don't have much faith in him in the longer version of the game. But if Engalnd do manage to pull off an upset series victory, this would definitely signal the end of Aussie dominance in cricket for the last 10 years.

Meanwhile, West Indies cricket is further into its worst ever phase...they have been playing with a weak team against the Srilankans because most of their top players including Lara had a row over personal sponsorships. I can't imagine the plight of West Indies cricket which until the late eighties were the most dominant team in cricket. Btw, the other teams that have qualified for the World cup 2007 are Scotland, Holland, Canada, Bermuda and Ireland. The groups...

Group A

Australia

South Africa

Scotland

Holland

Group B

Sri Lanka

India

Bangladesh

Bermuda

Group C

New Zealand

England

Kenya

Canada

Group D

Pakistan

West Indies

Zimbabwe

Ireland