India eye revenge against Lanka

Dambulla: India would look to avenge the league stage humiliation and clinch their second successive ODI trophy on Sri Lankan soil when they take on the hosts in what promises to be a high-voltage summit clash of the cricket tri-series here on Saturday.
Both the teams find themselves face to face in a final clash for the second time in just over a month after Kumar Sangakkara's men finished on the losing side in the Asia Cup finals in June.
The ongoing tri-series, however, has been a lot more dramatic then the Asia Cup both on and off the field. The third team in fray, New Zealand, is out of the equation after India handed it a 105-run thrashing in the last league match of the series.
Fitting the drama that has unfolded in the past two weeks, including the now infamous no ball that Suraj Randiv bowled to deny Virender Sehwag a hundred, India and Sri Lanka have made the finals and it is hard to pick a winner in conditions where the toss of the coin has been of decisive significance.
The 105-run triumph over New Zealand may make it seem that India are in destructive form but the fact remains that had it not been Sehwag's individual brilliance, the Indians could well have found it hard to put it past the depleted but spirited Kiwis.
Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has admitted that barring Sehwag all the batsmen are struggling on the tricky pitches here and mastering the conditions would be the biggest challenge for both the teams in the match which might also have some tense moments given the build-up so far.
Randiv's deliberate no ball incident has added some zing to the rivalry between the two sides, whose way-too-often face offs were becoming dull.
Words have been exchanged in the pre and post-match press conferences but in the end, it will boil down to the cricket played on the pitch and that's where the Lankans came out trumps in the league encounter.
Thisara Perera decimated the Indian batting with five wickets and left Dhoni's men to deal with the humiliation of their worst-ever defeat in terms of number of balls left.
To their credit, the Indians bounced back well in the do-or-die match against the Kiwis but that could not hide their batting frailties, most significantly the lack of application by the youngsters.
In the absence of senior batsmen such as Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir, it has been left to the Virat Kohlis and Suresh Rainas to deliver for the team but they have let Dhoni down so far.
Sehwag's individual performance cannot be counted upon to bail India out in every situation and it is important that the rest of the batsmen, including the attacking Yuvraj Singh find their feet.
But that would not be an easy task against the disciplined Lankan bowling which has discovered a deadly weapon in Perera.
Add to this the ever-reliable Lasith Malinga and Angelo Mathews and the Indian batsmen may once again find the going tough.
Unlike the Indians, the Lankan batting line-up has a settled look with veterans Mahela Jayawardene, Sangakkara and the explosive Tillakaratne Dilshan in reasonably good form.
It remains to be seen how the Indian pace troika of Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra and Ishant Sharma contain the islanders this time after being given just 103 runs to defend in the demoralising league-stage defeat.
Team India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain and wicketkeeper), Virender Sehwag, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Dinesh Karthik, R Ashwin, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Abhimanyu Mithun, Ashish Nehra, Pragyan Ojha, Saurabh Tiwary, Munaf Patel.
Team Sri Lanka: Kumar Sangakkara (captain), Mahela Jayawardene (vice-captain), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Dilhara Fernando, Rangana Herath, Suraj Randiv, Chamara Kapugedera, Nuwan Kulasekara, Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews, Ajantha Mendis, Thisara Perera, Thilan Samaraweera, Chamara Silva, Upul Tharanga.

Waqar, Afridi disagree on Malik's omission

Karachi: Trouble is brewing in the Pakistan cricket team as coach Waqar Younis is reportedly at loggerheads with ODI and Twenty20 captain Shahid Afridi and chief selector Mohsin Khan over the omission of Shoaib Malik and Umar Amin from the squad for the one-day series in England.
Reliable sources told PTI that Waqar wanted Malik and Amin to be retained in the one-day squad and had disagreed with Mohsin and Afridi when they consulted him on phone while finalising the squad on Wednesday.
"Waqar felt that Pakistan needed Malik's experience for the one-day series and he would get back into form soon. While he also believes that Umar Amin is a great talent for the future and must be given confidence," one source said.
Malik played in three Tests in England and failed in them while Amin too came a cropper. Both were dropped from the one-day squad by the selectors owing to poor form.
Afridi also said it was time for Pakistan to start preparing a nucleus of players for the 2011 World Cup.
The source said the chief selector had also questioned the need to have rookie left-arm spinner Reza Hasan for the Test matches when Pakistan had been playing the experienced spinner Abdul Rehman.
Incidentally, Pakistan's former coach Mudassar Nazar has also come out in favor of having Malik in the team despite the all-rounder's recent poor form.
Mudassar told a cricket website that Malik's omission came as a surprise to him.
"Shoaib Malik's omission has been rather surprising and is not justified. He has been a good one day player and should have been in the squad," he said.

Cricket cannot afford meaningless games

A topsy-turvy, irrelevant and largely unnecessary tournament lurches towards a final. It has been characterised not by outstanding cricket but by wildly fluctuating performances. If a team vanquishes its opponent by 200 runs one day and loses by 105 a week later, which is the better team? One-sided games are not good contests and there hasn't been a good contest so far in Sri Lanka.

It makes you wonder if teams would have played differently if this were a World Cup, where every match counted towards something, where a defeat strengthened resolve for it meant a greater peak had been installed in the way. I have long argued that increasingly, audiences are only concerned with whether or not the home team is playing. It now seems that we are progressing towards audiences asking us whether or not a game is relevant. Sri Lanka could not produce crowds for a home game against India. It is an alarming, and peculiarly welcome sign.

Cricket cannot afford to throw up meaningless games before its benefactors, which is what spectators and television audiences are. If you want their money you must offer them a spectacle and while sometimes the promise may not be fulfilled, even the football world cup threw up many duds including the final, the intent has to come shining through. In any case, spotting cricket on a telecast these days grows increasingly difficult.

Players, however, cannot afford to treat a contest as just another game. They are fulfilling a dream that few can see realised. And the opposition is quick to spot laziness and arrogance anyway. Like an author, a cricketer signs his name on every innings he bats or bowls in; indeed for every cricket ball that challenges him on the field. It is a mandate he must feel privileged to uphold. Over the last couple of weeks I am not sure I got that impression every time.

India must also be concerned by the inconsistency of the younger players. Across professions, consistency is a direct product of work ethic. The greats were defined by their consistency because they were wedded to work ethic. No oddball gambler ever achieved greatness. Some, like Shane Warne, suggest occasionally that they might be mavericks but when his leg break didn't obey the bowler's command, he worked harder than anybody else on it. Sometimes I feel the lessons from the legends are misplaced in satiated youthfulness.

And so, in the four games played at Dambulla, India's batting seemed to revert to the old movie formula; one hero, one supporting actor and no one else of any consequence really. This was the opportunity for challengers to Tendulkar, Gambhir, Harbhajan and Zaheer to make a statement. They haven't yet. If anything has been gained it is that Sehwag is doing his one-day career some justice. With every innings he seems to rise above his generation and earn for himself a more exalted place.

Meanwhile the IPL, and the BCCI, lurches from one controversy to another. Clearly no organisation is run by monks, and who knows there might be political undercurrents in monasteries as well, but the quality of governance must remain non-negotiable. With disciplinary issues smothering cricketing ones, the IPL must wake up to the blow its image is taking. Whether or not media allegations are true, the damage in the eyes of the public has to be addressed. An outstanding brand cannot lapse into somnolence; cannot be defined by committees and a bureaucracy.

IPL needs refurbishing

Outside of India's private sector, which has many islands of excellence amidst other less agreeable ones, brand India has rarely been characterised by outstanding governance. For every success story in software, telecom and manufacturing, we have the Commonwealth Games to portray us as pathetic, bumbling organisers. The IPL promised to be different, to be a genuine global sports brand born and nurtured in India. It can still be but its mind seems to be elsewhere, caught up in committees and personal conflict. Like India's young middle order, it needs some refurbishing.