ADELAIDE: Rahul Dravid's glorious international career may have come to an end on Friday, with the veteran batsman likely to announce his retirement shortly.

The 39-year-old Dravid, one of the game's greatest batsmen, is believed to have told some of his teammates after another failure against Australia in the final Test that he had decided to hang his boots.

He could not be reached for his comments. Dravid, like most other Indian batsmen, has had a poor run in the current four-Test series which will conclude on Saturday with India likely to suffer another defeat to give Australia a clean sweep.

He made 194 runs at an average of 24.25 in this series. Dravid has already announced his retirement from one-day cricket and Twenty20.

The elegant right hander, nicknamed 'The Wall' for his dour defence, is the second highest run getter in Test history with 13,288 runs, behind only Sachin Tendulkar who has 15,470 runs. He has 36 Test centuries with a highest score of 270 and an average of 52.31.

Dravid has also taken more catches (210) than anyone else in Test history during his 164 Test matches since he made his debut against England at Lord's in 1996. He captained India from December 2005 to August 2007. There is a question mark over another Indian veteran VVS Laxman who too had a miserable run against Australia in the current series. There was no word yet about his future plans.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/series-tournaments/india-in-australia/top-stories/Rahul-Dravid-likely-to-announce-retirement-shortly/articleshow/11652132.cms

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article2806156.ece

January 17, 2012

BCCI: Billionaires Control Cricket in India

P. SAINATH


The ‘bring-us-their-heads' humiliation in store for the Fab Four only hijacks the debate from what IPL is doing to Indian cricket.


Scoring 30s and 40s (even 20s) at a quick clip is pretty okay in the Indian Premier League. That's what our guys in Australia are still doing. Consider that in the IPL you might earn two million dollars throwing your bat around for 30s and an occasional flaky 50. Or for bowling four overs a few times in a 90-day season. It's hard to strive for your best when there is so much incentive to do your worst. The same body, the BCCI, presides over both private (IPL) and national cricket. It enables huge moneys to be made by one. And strangles the golden goose that is the other. The problem is not that our ‘boys' have been playing too much cricket. It's that they haven't been playing cricket. They've been playing IPL T20, where focus, concentration, technique and staying power count for little. And it's showing.

Too much IPL
Is this a bad bunch of players out there? Wounded pride leads to that easy conclusion. In truth, Indian cricket — crazy as this might seem just now — has ridden for long on its finest batting line-up ever. We may never again see players of the greatness, quality and achievement of a Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman or Sehwag. You might still see late brilliance in the test that remains. But I wouldn't bet on it. There's been too much playing to advertising-driven, media-orchestrated euphoria with the IPL. You belt sixes over shortened boundaries, swank in and out in perhaps 30 balls — get lionised for it, and swagger all the way to the bank. Some players have done IPL seasons but skipped going to the West Indies just before difficult tours. Others when ‘tired' took their ‘break' from playing for the country. They played in the IPL, though, injuries and all. England and Australia were disasters waiting to happen. It's because you have great players that these have taken some time to unfold.

However talented, it's also about who you're playing for. Are you playing for your country, for those countless millions of fans who follow the fortunes of the national team, who make cricket the game it is in India? Or are you playing for Vijay Mallya, Mukesh Ambani et al. This is a far more important question than a media self-servingly in love with the IPL will allow. We served up India's brightest and best to private team owners. Indian cricket paid the price. Most of those who slaughtered us in England and Australia did not play in the IPL. Some took a conscious, and wise, decision to avoid it. Acclimatisation is not just about the weather and pitches. It's also about switching back mentally to the real game. And being clear on the source of your motivation.

'Club over country'
We have every right to be shocked by the Indian team's showing. We have none at all to be surprised. Every step, every road led here. Remember the ‘club over country' debate when players skipped national-side tours but played the IPL? That debate missed the fact that there are no ‘clubs.' Not in plural anyway. The IPL related ‘clubs' do not exist as mass-based physical entities in the way their models elsewhere do. It's not about allegiance to ‘club over country.' Dressing it that way lends the tragedy a veneer of moral dilemma: do we play for those hordes supposedly backing our clubs, or for the countless millions of fans backing the national side?

The only ‘club' here is the Club of state-subsidised billionaires. (See: The Hindu, April 17, 2010 http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article399250.ece). The allegiance of the cricketing establishment, and thereby the players (and most of the media) is to this club. The BCCI today stands for Billionaires Control Cricket in India. Your top cricketing icons are reduced to assets in the balance sheets of corporates. The “bring-us-their-heads” humiliation that is in store for the team will actually hijack the debate from why things went wrong. The rants will be all about the players and their appalling performance. Maybe even a few yowls at the selectors. But little about how IPL has savaged Indian cricket and harmed the game around the world. The Laxman now being torn apart for performance has a stunning average in Australia and is surely one of the greatest batsmen ever. So are a couple of the others. It's not as if they haven't played and done well in Australia before. Is it just age?
Just weeks ago, the pundits said this was our best chance ever to beat Australia in Australia. Our best team possible. Did the best team ever age in weeks? What happened?

IPL happened. And happened long before the disaster tours. A team full of players carrying injuries playing 90 days of sub-standard club-level cricket happened. That prepares you only for more sub-standard stuff, year after year, not cricket at the highest levels. They continue playing there with injuries because the BCCI-IPL has brought big bucks to the privately-owned side of the sport, not to the domestic game.

It is the domestic game that has been the feeder for Indian cricket. All our greats came through the Ranji grind. Some through the under-19. None emerged from the IPL which has in fact had a bad impact on the skills of youngsters who might have made fine test cricketers. Today, the feeder line is to the IPL. The Australians have a robust domestic circuit and a healthy gene pool. We are killing ours with neglect. Think of it: the BCCI could have boosted the domestic game. It has the money to do so, but not the motivation. The cash coming out of IPL goes to private pockets. That's more difficult to achieve with domestic cricket. The hyper-commercialisation of the game means it is today a mess of money, agents, lobbyists, corporates, endorsements, advertisers. Cricket is a by-product. (There are also times when selectors find it hard to drop some players because of their ‘brand value' in this system).

Far-reaching impact
The impact goes beyond India. IPL affected the game everywhere in quality, schedules and priorities. A Malinga, perhaps the greatest Sri Lankan quick ever, quits test cricket to focus on it. For some nations, this worked out better over time. Several Australian and English IPL players are retirees. And in Australia's case, even the still-playing veterans skip the IPL to focus on national duty. In India, our very best are in there, deep. Now, out there in test cricket, it shows.

As one of India's more loved ex-cricketers is said to have told his friends off-record: the IPL-T20 is far from demanding and easy to play. Fielding? The ball might come your way five times in a match. And you have to bowl four overs max. And it's all over in four hours. The ODIs are far more demanding and, of course, five-day tests are the supreme challenge.

A few former greats — no enemies of Indian cricket — have worried about IPL's impact. They include Ian Botham and Arjuna Ranatunga. In India, some of the greatest of our greats, have not just refrained from criticism but vociferously defended IPL on countless television programmes. The co-opting power of the BCCI-IPL money machine is wondrous. Now and then, a little conflict-of-interest blip appears. Like commentators being paid crores by the BCCI — who are then unlikely to criticise its golden child. It is equally unlikely that media fed with crores of ad revenue will speak up either. Any other institution seeing half the scams and conflict of interest that the BCCI-IPL has, would long ago have drawn sharp media scrutiny. But whatever emerges does so when the IT or ED departments get active, not the media. There are also too many journalists co-opted into the IPL network, unable to look at it critically.

And there is no way serving players will criticise it (or anything the BCCI does if they value their careers). Not while it's positioned as the Kamadhenu of Cricket. That status was and is a choice the BCCI has consciously made. It controls the game in the country. With its money power, it lords over it at the global level too, in a manner that earns us the mistrust of other nations. It isn't just that BCCI chooses to privilege one format of the game over another. There could be, as some argue, a place for all three. BCCI chose to privilege the private over the public. We pay the price.

Here's the problem: when the shouting is done and the players heads have rolled, things won't get better. The system and gene pool of Indian cricket have been, are being radically altered for the worse. We need to think about how to revive the domestic game, rescue cricket from the billionaires club and restore it to the public domain.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/content/current/story/550983.html


Yuvraj Singh ruled out of IPL
 

Yuvraj Singh, the India batsman, could be ruled out of cricket for as many as six months due to the ongoing treatment of his non-malignant lung tumour. This means he will at least miss the Asia Cup and the IPL, where he captained the Pune Warriors last year.

The last time Yuvraj played competitive cricket was the Tests against West Indies last November, and he was originally hoping to return as early as next month's ODI tri-series in Australia.

According to PTI, quoting an unnamed source from the IPL, Yuvraj is currently overseas. He has travelled to the United States in order to undergo "advanced treatment" for the tumour following which there will be a period of recuperation expected to take several months as well. This means he would not be available to play in the IPL, which starts on April 4. The unnamed IPL source said it could take up to "six months" for Yuvraj to return to cricket.

It has been a nightmare run for Yuvraj since his Man-of-the-Series performance in India's World Cup victory last year. An injury kept him out of the tour of the West Indies and his contribution to India's tour of England was cut short by a finger injury sustained during the Nottingham Test. He returned for the home Tests against West Indies, and was left out of the side for the third Test, in November.

Yesterday was a sad day in Pune.
A 'mad' bus driver of the State Transport dept took control of a bus and mowed through people, vehicles, fruit-stands, etc for about an hour or so...............leaving in the wake 8 ppl killed, 30 ppl seriously injured and 40 vehicles damaged.
You guys may have already read about it or seen it on TV....
We were just dropping our daughter at school...in the same area, when all these things were happening.
I saw 2 smashed 2-wheelers..at about 200 mtrs apart...and was wondering, what could have happened....not knowing the whole story at that time..

Pune driver hijacks bus, goes on rampage killing 9
PTI | Jan 25, 2012, 10.14AM IST

PUNE: A rogue bus driver went berserk on the crowded streets of the city this morning, smashing all vehicles coming in its way and leaving nine persons dead and 27 others injured.

It was a nightmare in the Swargate area in the heart of the city, as the bus driven by a Maharashtra State Corporation bus driver came from wrong side of the busy Pune--Solapur Road and went past smashing all types of vehicles in the way and injuring pedestrians, who ran for their lives.

The driver 30-year-old Santosh Mane was arrested after an hour-long chase near Neelayam theatre in the city. Though initial reports said the bus driver was mentally disturbed, police said it was too early to comment.

Satpal Singh, ADG (Law and Order), said, "Nine persons are dead and 27 have been injured in the accident".

"He was hitting everything that was coming in his way," he said.

The Swargate bus terminus officials said they were investigating the incident involving the bus, which was scheduled to leave for Satara.

Pune mayor Mohansingh Rajpal, who visited the spot, asked angry citizens to maintain peace.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/Pune-driver-hijacks-bus-goes-on-rampage-killing-9/articleshow/11625417.cms

I am getting tired of all the Gangulians giving Zak a free pass while we decry the other old men of our team.

As inept as our batting has been, can we also look at the bowlers supposedly bowling in helpful conditions? Specifically this was touted as the series when Zak returns to help us lead a full strength bowling attack.

Unfortunately, Umesh Yadav (except for this test) has been the only stand out bowler.

How can a team that has a (supposedly) fully fit Zaheer Khan give the following scores

Test 4  Australia 604/7

Test 3 Aussies 369 (India lose by an innings). Pitch is a nice and bouncy pitch!

Test 2 Australia 659/4 (India again lost by an innings)

You read this right .... we got only 4 wickets

So while the likes of the great Ryan Harris and Siddle and pattinson and what not merrily have taken wickets against the likes of our batting stars our bowlers led by the supposedly great ZK have laid eggs.

If we are willing to chuck the maharathis (and they should be chucked .... starting with lakhan and Dravid) and that Donny should not be allowed anywhere near a test field, why is Zak getting a free pass?

How does a bowler who allows opponents to keep scoring 600+ runs and keeps giving double and triple centuries as if they are going out of fashion, keep his job?

And more importantly why isnt Ganguly saying anything about Zak and his ineptitude?

'Nobody is embarrassed in the dressing room,' Ashwin says after a difficult day for India
AP | Jan 24, 2012, 04.54PM IST

ADELAIDE: After another embarrassing day of Test cricket, India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin said they weren't fazed by Australia amassing 335/3 and were plain unlucky on Tuesday.

Captains past and present, Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke, scored hundreds as Australia laid the foundation for a big first-innings score on the opening day of the fourth Test and increased the chances of a 4-0 series whitewash. Ponting was 137 not out for his 41st Test century, and Michael Clarke 140 not out.

"Nobody is embarrassed in the dressing room," Ashwin said after a difficult day for India in the field.

Ashwin made inroads on the Australia top order with two wickets in the morning before Ponting and Clarke took control with a 251-run undefeated stand over the next four hours, grinding down the tourists.

Ashwin toiled for 26 overs for a return of 2-81, and India was left to rue the missed opportunity of playing two spinners. The tourists left out left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha in favour of swing bowler Ishant Sharma, who has been at his best in this series.

"We are all quite happy to keep coming out and keep trying again and again. And it will turn around some time," Ashwin said. "But nobody is embarrassed, I'm very sure about that.

"We have nothing to lose at this point of time.

"We are 3-0 down and it gives us a bit of a licence to be really very carefree about it and just go out and play our natural game, which can be a real blessing in disguise for us."

India came close to dismissing skipper Clarke on 133 when an edge off the second new ball flew perilously close to second slip, where VVS Laxman managed to get only fingertips on it. At other opportunities the ball edged too wide or didn't carry to the fielders.

"The rub of the green hasn't gone our way," Ashwin said. "But you can't really help not having the rub of the green, the nicks are not going to hand, we're beating the bat so many times.

"It was that kind of day at the office."

Ashwin praised the batting of the Australia pair and conceded his side gave away easy runs instead of applying pressure long enough.

"They just took off," he said.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/series-tournaments/india-in-australia/top-stories/Nobody-is-embarrassed-in-the-dressing-room-Ashwin-says-after-a-difficult-day-for-India/articleshow/11616320.cms

Jose Mourinho has been called "the Special One" by the English press, after his own suggestion. It is said that had he been a football player at any level, he'd have been  like his protege Pepe, the butcher of Madrid. Which kind of reminds you of John Buchanan. But maybe after the post-classico practice-session episode, the fairest cricketing comparison would be with Guru Greg. Or maybe a bit of both—John Buchanan for his lack of experience in the sport he professes to manage, and also for his success with high-profile teams only—and Chappal for his scheming, conspiratorial and divisive ways, strident and megalomaniacal behaviour, and lack of success with the richest team in the world.

Read on, and then vote.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/jan/23/mourinho-real-madrid-sid-lowe


The Portuguese wants to know who plunged the knife into his back after a training ground conversation was leaked to the press


There were just hours to go until Real Madrid's match against Athletic Bilbao and Madrid were about to finish the first half of the season five points clear at the top of the table with 16 wins in 19 games. Favourites to win the title, they were about to score their 67th goal and Cristiano Ronaldo would soon be on 23, one ahead of Leo Messi. But it was not about that all that. Not now and not later. It would not even be about the 4-1 win – a brilliant game, open, exciting and end-to-end, between two sides that can be great to watch. The focus was elsewhere. Even José Mourinho's focus was elsewhere. The team meeting at Madrid's Mirasierra Suites Hotel wasn't so much about formation as about information.

Mourinho wanted to know one thing above all and he wanted the players to know that he would find out. Who had plunged the knife in his back? Who had leaked a conversation from the training ground? Who was the mole? Mourinho claimed to have banned newspapers from the team hotel – "there is internet, you know", one player said with a smile later – and insisted that he had not read Marca on Sunday morning, but of course he had. Few coaches are so aware of the media as Mourinho, a man with his own press officer, a man who is delivered a dossier of cuttings every morning; one for whom the message is part of the match. Mourinho had read it, so had everyone else and it did not make for happy reading.

Marca's cover showed Mourinho and Sergio Ramos face to face. Word for word, they reproduced a conversation between the two men, and Iker Casillas, at Real Madrid's Valdebebas training ground on Friday morning – two days after Madrid, playing ultra-defensively, had again been beaten by Barcelona; two days after Ramos had noted: "We follow the coach's tactics. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't." According to Marca, the conversation started with Mourinho turning towards Ramos and saying: "You [plural] killed me in the mixed zone." To which Ramos replied: "No, mister, you only read what it says in the papers not everything we said."

Mourinho replied: "Sure, because you Spaniards have been world champions and your friends in the media protect you … and because the goalkeeper …" At that point there is a shout from Casillas, training 30 metres away: "Eh, mister, round here you say things to our faces, eh!"

Another part of the conversation starts with Mourinho saying: "Where were you on the first goal [against Barcelona], Sergio?"

"Marking Piqué"

"Well, you should have been marking Puyol."

"Yes, but they were blocking us off [using basketball style screens] with Piqué and we decided to change the marking."

"What? So now you're playing at being coach?"

"No," replies Ramos, "but depending on the situation in the game, sometimes you have to change the marking. Because you've never been a player, you don't know that that sometimes happens."

Suddenly, the lid had been lifted. Just a little, but lifted. The conversation – which was impeccably polite, Ramos even using the formal form of "you" – revealed Mourinho's irritation at the Spaniards and his belief that they are protected by the press; by extension, it hinted at his suspicion that they are the ones responsible for the leaks to the media – this report came in the context of a year in which El País's Diego Torres has written a number of stories about events within the dressing room and in a week in which Marca had correctly reported that Angel Di María would miss the clásico, despite the coach's attempts to keep that quiet.

From a player's point of view, it revealed the one flaw in Mourinho's long career: he was never a player. Somehow, he just doesn't know what they do. That is a feeling exacerbated by a mutual lack of comprehension, a sense of distrust and division, and by poor results against Barcelona. It also revealed something else, one of the greatest obstacles that Mourinho has encountered: Madrid is not Inter or Chelsea or Porto, the Spanish media are not the English or Italian media, and Spanish players are not the same as English ones, or Italians or Portuguese. One of Mourinho's greatest and most often lauded skill – dressing-room relations – has not been as easy to apply here.

It was not just the story itself that was interesting but the fact that it was published, how it was published and when it was published. After all, other stories have been written before. They were more easily (which is not to say honestly) dismissed; this story was not. The detail, the precision in the quotes, the specifics of it; the fearlessness with which it was put out and the silence with which it was met. Context is key, especially when the relationship between certain sections of the media and certain parts of the club is so instrumental. The shift was palpable. Columnists who were among Mourinho's most aggressive defenders had repositioned themselves. In the aftermath of the Barcelona defeat that was always likely. After Pepe's behaviour in the clásico – and the laughable, hostage-style video apology he was obliged to offer up on Thursday – it was more likely yet. But still the move was telling, hinting at a political realignment. And for Mourinho, that could be the most worrying thing of all.

Throughout Sunday, the story was chewed over; fans debated it, the media too. Not just the comments on the cover but the ones inside: the player complaining that Mourinho will not let them talk; the player insisting: "you got annoyed with Iker because he apologised to [Barcelona's] Xavi [after the Super Copa clásico], but what did Pepe do in that video?"; the player complaining that "it's impossible to win a game with eight defenders". The day before, El País had reported on the tensions between Mourinho and some players over the tactics; some players demanding a more expansive approach, Mourinho reproaching them for doing so.

The tension at the hotel grew. So, everywhere else, did the theories. It was hard not to go all conspiratorial. Who could it have been? And was Mourinho barking up the wrong tree? He was not the only one turning detective; everyone else was too. The assumption that it absolutely had to be a player seems flawed. Players have friends and agents. So do managers. And teams have people around them. Lots of people. Clubs do too, at all sorts of levels. Information is delivered in various forms and the form here was telling – this did not smell like whispers but something much more tangible. Marca's presentation of the conversations suggested not just that they had a story but that they had the proof that they had a story. Madrid, a club usually quick to deny, said nothing. After Sunday night's game, Mourinho would refuse to deny it. Three players would come out with the exact same phrase: "We're not here to say whether it's true or not." Anyone would think they are told what to say in the mixed zone.

Madrid versus Athletic Bilbao was presented as a plebiscite. On defeat to Barcelona. On Madrid's image under Mourinho. On the division – on whose side you were on, players or coach? On the signings, now down to Mourinho and of which only the substitute José Callejón has really succeeded. On Mourinho himself. By Sunday night, some at the Santiago Bernabéu decided, quite rightly, that the crime was not so much the leak as the content of the leak: the tension inside the dressing room, the defeats, the image of the club. And who was responsible for that? Mourinho. The question was what would happen next, where would this end?

The game was scoured for clues – was it significant that Ronaldo turned and gave Xabi Alonso a look that could kill? – and so was the starting lineup. Every action was analysed, counter-analysed and, let's face it, probably over-analysed. Mourinho left out five players who had played against Barcelona. Coentrão, Pepe, Carvalho, Lass, Higuaín, and Altintop. He included six who hadn't played against Barcelona: Ozil, Kaká, Marcelo, Arbeloa, Varane. Even Esteban Granero got a game. The lineup could not be any different; the polar opposite of what Mourinho had done in midweek: for virtually every hard-working but limited player taken out, a talented ball-player had been put in. You could see meaning in everything. Three Portuguese players had been taken out, two Spaniards put in. This was the team that some players had apparently demanded.

Had Mourinho given in? Or was he sticking them on the pitch knowing that it was almost a no-lose situation for him: if Madrid won, they won; if they lost, he could say: "see, that's what you get when we play your way." Had he also prevented the players from "making the bed" for him? They couldn't very well effectively down tools and turn him over precisely on the day that he did what they wanted. Or was he simply preparing for Wednesday night when there would now be no option but to attack Barcelona? Mourinho, normally so active, only left his bench once in the entire game – a game that had five goals, two penalties, a red card, and a couple more penalty shouts. Was that a clue too? Was he fearful of how the fans might react to him? Was he hiding? Or trying to keep a low profile? Was he trying to show his disconformities with the side he (?) had chosen, a kind of "this is your team, not mine"?

Or was he, as he insisted afterwards, just so confident that he never felt the need to get up and correct anything? Even though Madrid went 1-0 down and Athletic were the better side for the first half an hour.

There were many questions and few answers – least of all from Mourinho. There were, though, hints. Glimpses of a guerra civil. No more than hints perhaps, but hints nonetheless. When Granero was taken off on 72 minutes, the player who more than anyone else represented a shift in approach – the Madrid that Mourinho had turned his back on and some Spaniards had wanted – got a massive ovation. And then, with 10 minutes to go, it happened. The fans who had chanted Mourinho's name all season – something that has never happened for a coach before – chanted it once more.

Well, some of them did. More of them did not. In fact, they did the opposite. The Ultra Sur began chanting Mourinho's name. And the rest of the stadium – 30%? 50%? 80%? – whistled their disapproval.

It was not so much an attack on Mourinho per se as an attack on the decision to chant his name, to do it now, in this context, and with this backdrop. It was a symbol of disapproval of those that did so too – the Ultras who had chanted "Pepe, kill him!" and "Journalists, terrorists!" Divisions at Real Madrid had been laid bare. This time among the fans. And there was no escaping that there they were: whistles. Win on Wednesday and all will be right with Madrid's world again; Mourinho will be a genius again. Now, he is not. This has been perhaps his most difficult week as Madrid coach. Not that he admitted as much.

"Difficult? Why?" the coach asked. "I lost a game on Wednesday, I prepared one on Friday. Today we won. Tomorrow is Monday. Why is that hard? It is the first time that I have been whistled but it's not a problem. There is a first time for almost everything. If I had been whistled at Chelsea where they don't even whistle the opposition manager, it would be a problem. Here they whistled Zidane and Ronaldo and now Cristiano Ronaldo. This stadium whistles the best in the world – why shouldn't it whistle me?"

http://www.espncricinfo.com/srilanka/content/current/story/550603.html

Sri Lankans have the decency to respect the sentiments of the fans & the public. They removed their coach & now their captain quits on his own.

In contrast look at the Indians…Even after 0-3 in the series they are not looking at any change. If VK had failed in the 3rd Test the hero worshippers in India would have jumped over and pressed for the inclusion of RS in place of VK.  But they expect the seniors to go on their own.

Few IPL millions are riding on the back of these seniors. It’s not easy for them to go on their own in turn they are waiting on their IPL bosses and BCCI to manipulate & turn things around somehow in the interest of IPL.

...even the smaller Spanish clubs are churning out technically adept, world class attackers these days.

I'm really impressed by Iker Muniain and Ander Iturraspe of Athletic Bilbao and Isco (Francisco Román Alarcón Suárez) of Malaga, but product of Valencia's academy. In fact, I'm hoping next year Pep guns for Muniain and Iturraspe as covers for Xavi and Puyol. They should fit into Barca perfectly.

pity he's ruled it out for Adelaide

http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia-v-india-2011/content/current/story/550575.html

Sehwag not ruling out move down the order

Sidharth Monga in Adelaide
January 23, 2012


Virender Sehwag, the India opener, has not ruled out shifting down to the middle order once some of the senior batsmen retire. Sehwag began his career as a middle-order batsman, scored his first Test century there, but had to naturalise to the opener's position because the middle order was packed. He has come to be known as the man who revolutionised how Test innings are opened. However, even at the highest points of his career, Sehwag has maintained he would love to go back to the middle order, where he doesn't always have to negotiate the moving new ball.

Sehwag said such a move would not happen in the Adelaide Test, in which he is captaining India. "No, not in this team because, you know, we have a very good middle order so when they retire then I'll think about it," Sehwag said.

When the fact that there will be vacancies over the next year or so was pointed out to him, Sehwag said: "It depends on the combination, and who's the captain, and who's going to retire."

There has been a lot of criticism of MS Dhoni's captaincy - defensive or pragmatic, depending on how you see it - over the past two away series, and against that backdrop Sehwag was asked if he saw himself as a full-time Test captain. Sehwag played the rare leave outside off. "Right now, no," he said. "Right now I'm just concentrating on this Test match. It's not in my hands; it's just the selectors' job and BCCI's job."

Sehwag's press conference ahead of the Adelaide Test was as much about the past as about the future. He was asked if the century he scored the last time he played in Adelaide gave him confidence. "Tomorrow is a different day, different game, different tour," he said. "Last time when we came here, I didn't play the first two games, and I was out of the team for some time, and I was fighting for my place. But now it's a different story, a different thing, so I think it's good to play in Adelaide because when you score a hundred on the previous tour you look forward to going and playing on the same ground and trying to make another hundred."

Sehwag has had a poor run on the Australia tour, with just 128 runs from six innings. He gave credit to the Australia bowlers, saying it was probably the best Australia attack he had faced. "I think they are bowling good areas. They are not giving easy balls to hit boundaries, and they are playing with your patience, so I think this is the best bowling attack I've ever seen. Against Australia, generally when I played in the past, I'd get a couple of balls in the early overs to hit to the boundary; but from this attack I hardly get a ball to hit, so I think it's one of the best bowling attacks."

In a test of patience, he said, you need patience to win. "I think I have to show some patience against the bowling attack because if I show some patience maybe I'll get some balls to hit for boundaries, but it's a challenge. It's a great bowling attack, which everyone loves to play against so I'm looking forward to playing in this Test match and doing well because whenever you do well against Australia people will appreciate and people will praise your performances."

There has been concern during this tour that India's minds are elsewhere, sparked by on-field comments from the India players, telling the Australia players they will see them when they come to India. Sehwag, though, said that was not the case. "We are focusing on this Test, and looking forward to it. Adelaide is one of the favourite grounds for everyone because the pitch is good to bat on. We have great memories of when we won the game here in 2003-2004. So I think the dressing-room atmosphere is positive, and we are looking forward to this Test match."