Off Stump

India's U-19 win: Someone did the right thinking... - Sport - DNA The above is a somewhat funnily written article (as seems to be typical of a lot of mainstream Indian journalism) but the basic point it makes is a sound one. The BCCI much like any part of the "system" in India is subject to an all-brickbat-no-bouquet attitude and any cricketing success is always associated with the team and its individuals rather than the board. Now if only they can continue the good work and prevent the IPL gangs from preying on some of these young lads....

Lots been happening that merits longer posts but given that I haven't gotten around to those some tweet style thoughts for now - 1) Kevin Pietersen is a bigger idiot than I had reckoned. And while the ECB haven't shown great sagacity in how they're handling the issue, if I were an England player, I would find it hard to welcome him back to the fold anytime soon. 2) I am probably the one soul on earth who never found VVS Laxman to be as attractive to watch as Tendulkar and Dravid but between 2001-2010 his steeliness in adversity was second to none in the Indian team. India will be hit harder than they realize. Also, the side note to his retirement has to be how the incredible Tendulkar story rolls on. Its mind boggling to think that the little man made his debut before the other big five players (Kumble, Srinath, Dravid, Ganguly, and Laxman) and he's the last man standing. 3) South Africa are deserving of the number 1 tag if only by dint of their brilliant all-conditi

Sometime ago I wrote about how ESPN Cricinfo , despite still being the best single sport website in my opinion is showing the tendency to slip into mainstream media tendencies of sensationalism. Now they seem to be taking on another facet of it, namely flogging the same issue to death as evidenced by the repeated focus on the Rohit Sharma/Manoj Tiwary debate. First, after the second ODI, Aakash Chopra (who seems to have let the positive response from readers to his initial writings go to his head and churns out relative drivel these days) writes about Rohit Sharma's temperament and how it lets him down. Then, in the build-up to the third ODI, Abhishek Purohit writes a feature about the two and who should be picked. He then follows it up with a re-emphasizing of the issue in his write-up on the pre-match press conference from Gautam Gambhir, indicating relatively clearly Cricinfo's stance that Sharma should be dropped and Tiwary picked. Fair enough, editors should have an