Sathya's Views..

The 2007-08 test series between Aus and Ind drew to a close today amidst some anti-climax and high emotions. The Indian baating proved itself to be as inconsistent as ever and had it not been for Sehwag's aggressive 151, it is quite possible that we would have witnessed another collapse and a sub-200 score which would have enabled Aus to have a go at a 3-1 victory. As it was, a draw it was and Australia retained the Border-Gavaskar trophy. It is worth wondering what this series holds out for the future of Indian cricket. Definitely, the bowling was a revelation. The return to form of Irfan Pathan and the raw aggression of R.P.Singh and Ishant Sharma were the biggest gains for India. They bowled their hearts out and had their moments even in Adelaide where the Aussie batting decided to bat out the test. The spin department is not as happy. Kumble remained India's best spinner with Sehwag coming a second. Harbhajan Singh was pathetic. I have said it often – the man is not wor...

That lil hero of mine, Sunny Gavaskar, has got embroiled himself in another controversy with the ICC taking an exception to criticizing one of its officials when he himself is part of the group. Now, I have always remained true to my childhood hero and refuse to believe that the likes of Viv Richards and Sachin Tendulkar were better batsmen than him. However, his actions in a few instances in the recent past have left me feeling uncomfortable. First, there was his scathing criticism of Greg Chappel as a coach and he went so far as to question Chappel's credentials as a coach. This would have been ok if Sunny had been an independent viewer to the whole coach selection process. But he wasn't. Sunny was part of the hi-profile committee which selected Chappell as the Indian coach in 2005. It is no big secret however that Gavaskar pushed his weight behind his old time mate, Mohinder Amarnath. However, it was Chappell who finally won the day. Gavaskar whatever his own persona...

A great deal of hullaboo has been created in the recent days over the Australian victory over India in the second cricket test at Sydney. The dark shadows of bad umpiring, racism and unsportsmanlike behaviour have overshadowed an otherwise excellent test match filled with great and gritty batting. Umpiring was definitely one of the reasons why India lost. I think a draw would have been the correct result for the game, India did not deserve to lose. But such righteousness does not happen often in the game. The whole uproar has glossed over one important fact - a much-hyped batting line up does not have the spine or the ability to bat through two sessions of a day. Yes, two well-settled stalwarts who were leading the survival were thwarted by poor umpiring but pray what were the rest of the heroes up to ? There were as many as five other quality batsmen in the team - Wasim Jaffer, Laxman, Sachin, Yuvraj and Dhoni. And these fellows could not survive through two sessions ?? Then what the ...