India Bangladesh Series

Rahul Dravid sits in the centre, surrounded by his team-mates and flanked by Ravi Shastri, the cricket manager, and Surendra Bhave, the administrative manager. About 50 cameramen click and shoot away, as the team gathers for an official shoot hours before departing for Bangladesh.

Dravid's smile hides any pain there might be from the blow he had received from an RP Singh bouncer at the nets yesterday. He has scored 10,125 ODI runs and 12 centuries. The 14-member Bangladesh squad have a total of 10,794 runs and six centuries. There must be countless other such numbers that will suggest that this tour should be an easy one for India. Yet, a series in Bangladesh has probably never been more anticipated anywhere, anytime - not even in Zimbabwe or Kenya for whom a Bangladesh tour might mean taking on someone their own size.

Not only will India India have to deal with a resurgent Bangladesh team, they will also have to negotiate the hot and humid Bangladesh weather. The Australians will testify that a packed schedule in the hottest months of the year is the best recipe for a disaster in Bangladesh - they came close to one last year. The only difference this time around is a more assured Bangladesh team pitted against an Indian team that is certainly not as tough to keep down as Australia. To make matters worse, India will not play a single practice game throughout the tour; 13 days of international cricket will be played over a tour of 23 days. Obviously, the home team stands to gain more out of such a schedule. Add to this the slow and low wickets and throw in the left-arm spin triplet, and there is every chance of a struggle for India.

India's Tests-only players have flown back home, while the one-day team flies to Dhaka on Monday to play what is expected to be the most evenly contested series between Bangladesh and a Test-playing nation other than Zimbabwe.

To be like Australia, you can't work like Zimbabwe

Greg Chappell, the former India coach, has said that India needs to plan long-term to progress to the next level. Chappell resigned as coach after India's first-round elimination from the 2007 World Cup.

"The Indians must adopt a 10-year plan, spelling out the aims and objectives and go about attaining those goals in a professional manner," Chappell told The Times of India. "Any half measures or cosmetic changes at this stage would be like putting Band-Aid on cancer. If you want to be like Australia, you can't run your cricket like Zimbabwe."

When asked whether India would have fared better if he had the players of his choice for the World Cup, Chappell said that India should have at least made the semi-finals with the players they took to the Caribbean. "I think we should have done much better in the West Indies with the squad we had. We batted poorly against Bangladesh, but we should have still squeezed out a win. History says India's record in defending low totals has been quite poor. We could have done with a few young legs, but I believe that we still had the ammunition to at least reach the semis."

Chappell said he had enjoyed coaching India despite a controversial two-year term in which he reportedly annoyed senior players by his insistence on blooding young cricketers.

"As a coach, it was easily one of the most challenging assignments one could ever hope to have," said Chappell. "I have loved every moment of it, planning, strategising, analysing... before every tour or series.

"I don't want to get into [the] senior-junior issue again. Look, as a player, you have to keep challenging yourself. When that stops, it's time to do a quick reality check and take a few hard decisions. I came here to do a job that I have done to the best of my ability. I do not have any vested interests in Indian cricket. I have briefed the Indian board about the issues facing Indian cricket. One of them is youth development. It's up to the officials to act in the best interests of the game in the country."

Chappell also praised senior cricketers, including Sourav Ganguly, who was ousted as captain and later dropped after a public spat with Chappell in 2005. Ganguly made a comeback during the Test series in South Africa in December.

"He [Ganguly] has practised most of what I had preached during the time he was out of the side. Sourav has shown plenty of determination in winning his place back. I hope he continues to work hard on his fitness and score heavily for the team."

Chappell defended the move to bat Sachin Tendulkar at No. 4 despite most of his one-day success coming while opening the innings. "Opening is an easier option in one-day cricket. I felt that the team would benefit immensely if Sachin came in at number four, for he has the experience, technique and the talent to milk the bowling in the middle overs."

On the whole, in spite of all the controversy, Chappell said that he had no regrets about his term as coach and that he "wouldn't have missed it for anything".

Business mogul announces new cricket league in India

Subhash Chandra, who heads the Essel Group, owners of the Zee brand, has announced a breakaway cricket series called the Indian Cricket League (ICL). The Essel Group will invest Rs 100 crore (US$ 23 million approx) in the project, which will run parallel to the leagues and tournaments of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
- 6 teams or clubs to play in the opening year
- Talks on with BCCI for gaining access to stadiums
- Executive Board of the league under installation
- Pool of referees and umpires to be created
- Rules committee to form regulations for ICL
- Ombudsman to look into grievances of players
- League to begin with Twenty20 format and move to ODI format
- League to be a joint venture between Essel Group and ILFS Group
- Each team to have a mentor, media manager, psychologist, physio
- Prize money for the winner- US$ 1 million
- League teams to compete with teams internationally
- Number of teams to be increased from 6 to 16 in three years

Team india will come back

hey friends...it is sad that we lost our first round match. i am damn sure that the team india will come back strongly . i simply beleive that they are the best. they rocks the game of cricket.
Now its seen that in orkut and many forums ......a large number of people are unjoining from the team india community. all because of that stupid two losses.
But one thing for sure is....those people are not team india fans...they are the ones who loves indian team only when they keeps winning. True Men in Blue fans are the ones who are still with the team....at their difficult time.
Thank GOD....am proud to be one such fan ...who is still with team india. HOOOOOOOO HAAAAAA INDIAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAA INDIAAAAAAAAAA

India v/s srilanka score card

Played at Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain, Trinidad (neutral venue), on 23 March 2007 (50-over match)

Result Sri Lanka won by 69 runs

Sri Lanka innings (50 overs maximum)			R	M	B	4s	6s	SR
	WU Tharanga	lbw b Tendulkar	64	154	90	6	0	71.11
	ST Jayasuriya	c Agarkar b Khan	6	33	23	0	0	26.08
	DPMD Jayawardene	c Dhoni b Agarkar	7	27	20	1	0	35.00
	KC Sangakkara	c Patel b Ganguly	15	50	35	2	0	42.85
	LPC Silva	c Dhoni b Khan	59	99	68	5	0	86.76
	TM Dilshan	c Dhoni b Patel	38	53	41	3	0	92.68
	RP Arnold	not out	19	21	13	3	0	146.15
	WPUJC Vaas	not out	19	17	12	2	1	158.33
	Extras	(lb 11, w 14, nb 2)	27
	Total	(6 wickets; 50 overs; 230 mins)	254

Did not bat M Muralitharan, SL Malinga, CRD Fernando

Fall of wickets1-33 (Jayasuriya, 6.6 ov), 2-53 (Jayawardene, 12.4 ov), 3-92 (Sangakkara, 23.3 ov), 4-133 (Tharanga, 32.2 ov), 5-216 (Dilshan, 45.4 ov), 6-216 (Silva, 46.1 ov)

	Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ
	Z Khan	10	0	49	2	4.90	(1nb, 5w)
	AB Agarkar	8	1	33	1	4.12	(3w)
	MM Patel	10	1	46	1	4.60
	Harbhajan Singh	10	0	53	0	5.30	(3w)
	SC Ganguly	4	0	22	1	5.50	(1w)
	SR Tendulkar	8	0	40	1	5.00	(1nb, 2w)

India innings (target: 255 runs from 50 overs)			R	M	B	4s	6s	SR
	AR Uthappa	c & b Vaas	18	30	27	3	0	66.66
	SC Ganguly	c Muralitharan b Vaas	7	51	23	0	0	30.43
	V Sehwag	c Jayawardene b Muralitharan	48	79	46	5	1	104.34
	SR Tendulkar	b Fernando	0	5	3	0	0	0.00
	R Dravid	c Muralitharan b Jayasuriya	60	111	82	6	0	73.17
	Yuvraj Singh	run out (Arnold/Jayasuriya)	6	15	12	0	0	50.00
	MS Dhoni	lbw b Muralitharan	0	3	1	0	0	0.00
	AB Agarkar	c Arnold b Malinga	10	25	25	0	0	40.00
	Harbhajan Singh	not out	17	38	20	1	1	85.00
	Z Khan	c Malinga b Muralitharan	1	6	5	0	0	20.00
	MM Patel	c Vaas b Dilshan	10	18	17	1	0	58.82
	Extras	(lb 1, w 7)	8
	Total	(all out; 43.3 overs; 195 mins)	185

Fall of wickets1-25 (Uthappa, 6.5 ov), 2-43 (Ganguly, 10.5 ov), 3-44 (Tendulkar, 11.3 ov), 4-98 (Sehwag, 22.5 ov), 5-112 (Yuvraj Singh, 27.4 ov), 6-112 (Dhoni, 28.1 ov), 7-136 (Agarkar, 34.4 ov), 8-159 (Dravid, 37.3 ov), 9-161 (Khan, 38.6 ov), 10-185 (Patel, 43.3 ov)

	Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ
	WPUJC Vaas	8	1	39	2	4.87
	SL Malinga	8	0	39	1	4.87	(1w)
	CRD Fernando	6.2	0	32	1	5.05	(2w)
	M Muralitharan	10	0	41	3	4.10	(4w)
	ST Jayasuriya	9	0	31	1	3.44
	TM Dilshan	2.1	1	2	1	0.92

Toss India, who chose to field first
Points Sri Lanka 2, India 0

Player of the match M Muralitharan (Sri Lanka)

Umpires Aleem Dar (Pakistan) and DJ Harper (Australia)
TV umpire SJ Davis (Australia)
Match referee JJ Crowe (New Zealand)
Reserve umpire IL Howell (South Africa)