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The Harsha Bhogle Chat

The crowd Harsha drew for his debut on Rediff's Live Chat would have been rated good for a one-day international!

Yeah, right - and the result was a vibrant discussion about the game, and the team, everyone loves to love.

Don't take our word for it - here's the transcript, a click of the mouse away...

Enjoy!

Leg Slip (Thu Aug 22 20:52:11 1996 IST):

Hello, is the big man in yet?

Hellooooooo... *appealing* HOWZAAAAAAAT!!!!

Oh, well... they must be consulting the third umpire....

HI HARSHA ARE U THERE

Micky... Nine, they said... what time you got?

HI leg slip what r u doing

Micky... appealing for Harsha... *L*

*BRB*

i got nine too i have to ask him some ques...

Hullo Harsha, welcome to the Rediff Chat. It's great having you with us tonight. As one of our mutual acquaintances once told you and me, this is to a long and happy association.

will he be commentating out here too

SEE YOU GUYS, I'M READY

SEE YOU GUYS, I'M READY

Harsha... Your debut, right? *smile* Here's to a long innings... \_/

hi harsha how are you

Yay!!!! He got here... Harsha, hello... are you going to Lanka for Singer?

PREM; yeah, it's a debut allright. didn't make too many when i was playing cricket, so not bad....

Harsha: *LOL* What took you so long to get here? Watching Pakistan versus England?

leg slip; no. i'm giving that one a miss but i'll be doing the sahara cup in toronto.

Mickey. hi

harsha when did u stop playing cricket

Oh! Pity... we like it when you are on the commentary team... so, what's your reading? Where will the Singer Cup go?

prem panix; yeah, great watching pakistan play england especially after seeing our guys there for more than two months. i think they are showing that this england team isn't as good as we allowed them to be.

Harsha: Right, we have this thing for making our opponents look good... good old Indian hospitality? Lack of killer spirit? Just too cold down there when we went? What do you think went wrong down in England?

harsha what was your job in kricket with a k ? where u commentating there to?

leg slip; i think the best thing about the singer cup, rather than who will actually win is the possibility of seeing two major battles within the tournament. the one i would look forward to the most is australia v sri lanka. the aussies will be hoping to "hit their straps" with a vengeance. i think under sachin, india will be looking to forget calcutta. i'll stick my nect out and say india v australia in the final.

Mmicky; you flatter me. i only played to university level and that was fourteen years ago. guess that gives away a few things.

Hi Harsha, This is Anand From Bahrain. What's the latest on the Sidhu episode. As you are from the Fourth Estate you should be having all the titbits

Harsha: Wow! You don't see Lanka even making the final,with home support and all? Want to elaborate on that reading? Any reason you care to name?

micky; alas, i was on kriket with a k. it looked fabulous when we shot it. apparently kids still like it very much. i was the "live commentator' on the show.

PREM panix; yeah, it was really cold in the first month. i remember the first match, a friendly against the indian gymkhana where it was so cold they picked the team on seniority and allthe seniors sat indoors! i think after the first month we didn't do too badly . i don't think we could have done too much better without an opening pair and with only two bowlers who looked decent.

how long before sachin cracks up under the intense pressure that all captains have to go thro

Harsha What are your comments/observation on Sachin's fielding ?

Harsha, What do you think are India's Chances in the singer cup. Do you feel that Sachin's elevation to the Indian Captiancy has pepped up the Indian morale. How do you think Sachin will handle this new responsibility.Do you think It will affect his batting.

Harsha: Why has the BCCI appointed another committee to look into the Sidhu episode after Raj, Gavaskar and Lele have already probed the matter?..why not resolve things?

Harsha: Only two bowlers who looked decent out there, you mean? They didn't try Ankola and HIrwani, to name two. Bad thinking? Or did it just slip the management's minds?

HARSHA DID AZHAR GET PSCYCHED ON THE INTERVIEW IN INSIDE EDGE AS MY FRIEND WAS SAYING

Harsha , You havbe watched all these guys at close quarters. Where will you place Sachin against the current crop of competition (i.e Lara, Mark Waugh etc) and against the yesteryear crop like (Gavaskar, Richards).

hariharan anand; i was in england when the sidhu affair blew up. no one still knows why he walked out because the story that first broke was wrong. people said that the team laughed at him because he padded up without being aware that he was dropped. that was untrue. i just think that sidhu is an extremely sensitive guy and was a bit hurt at some of the nasty things that captains sometimes have to say in dressing rooms. but the way things are going, it looks like he will be back soon.

LEG SLIP; i think sri lanka will find the pressure too much to bear, their crowds are as fanatical as ours and they haven't played too much cricket lately. but then i remember saying that before most matches in the world cup and we know how those went. they are a wonderful side because they have the balance right; enough guys who can bat and bat quickly and just about everybody bowls. but i think india v australia might be a good one to bet on.

Hi harsha. What do you think India must do better as opposed to what it did in England to win matches in the Singer Cup

Flannelled... Is this by invitation only, or can anyone join the dance? *s* Just wondering - why do we automatically assume Sachin will crack under the pressure?

Harsha, Who according to you would take the prize of the best batsman you have ever seen on action ?

flannelled fool; what a name! youcouldn't be a cricket lover! you just asked me the question all of india is dying to know. i don't think anybody has an answer except sachin himself. but if you go by past experience, he won't crack up too quickly.

MANjunath; i don't think sachin is a natural in the field in the manner that azhar or even jadeja are, but it is amazing how he has worked to become acceptable, i think he is now a very high quality fielder. and don't forget he took probably the best catch by an indian this decade in england in 1990 when he ran about forty yards and caught allan lamb one handed. i don't think he or anyone else will hold a catch like that.

Harsh what do you think of India's pace attack, they looked decidedly superior to their spin attack in England ..what would you say ?

I found some stats the other day, it showed that of the nine one-day tournaments played between the Singer World Series in Lanka in 1994 to the Pepsi Cup in Sharjah this year, India and Lanka have won 2 each, Australia has won three. That's five out of nine - so are we talking of the ultimate match-up of champions to find THE champion team? Not to mention that we have the two finalists and one semifinalist of the Wills World Cup?

HARSHA U MUST BE HAVING AN IDEA OF WHAT IS GOING ON BETWEEN AZHAR AND SANGEETA AND DID SOMETHING HAPPEN IN THE INTERVIEW WITH HIM ON INSIDE EDGE?

Harsha, How do you rate Sandeep patil as a manager. I heard that he is planning to be more strict than Wadekar and ban even ear studs and dark glasses. Don't you think this is going a bit too far from a person whose discipline wasn't anything great during his playing days. We all know how he was dropped?

micky; no, i don't think he got psyched too much, in fact, of all the interviews i have done with him, and that must be around a hundred by now (!), i have rarely seen him more relaxed. he was willing to answer questions about his personal life which i thought was strange given the secrecy all along. i think losing the captaincy might just make him more relaxed.

HARIharan anand; tough to say because if you watched mark waugh during india v australia or australia v new zealadn int he world cup you would believe there couldn't be anyone better than him. i think sachin scores over him on consistency. where he has yet to emulate lara is in making really big hundreds, he doesn't yet have a double century at first class level, let alone in a test match. also he hasn't really singlehandedly won india a match in a run chase often enough. but there are many who feel sachin is the better all-wicket player. i think we'll know by may when he will have played in south africa and the west indies.

Harsha, What would be your all time Dream Inidan Eleven and who would lead the team. Also your all time Dream World eleven

Hi Harsha, I presume you were around during the camp. I have heard people from Bangalore rave about David Johnson. People say he is as fast as Srinath. How true does this sound? What do you think about his pace/bounce?

SO NOW HARSHA DO U THINK IF SACHIN IS (I HOPE NOT) UNSUCCESSFUL AS A CAPTAIN WILL AZHAR BE CALLED BACK OR SHALL SACHIN PERSIST?

Harsha: I am a great fan of Gavaskar, but I think as a commentator he goes thru' his oooh's, aaah's too much and all his anecdotes seem to repeat itself especially after reading his books..what sayeth thou?:-)

Harsha: What do you think of David Johnson? I Have heard that he is fast and mean, and how would you compare him, on paper, to Ankola, who undoubtedly has never been given a fair chance?

Harsha: What do u feel about David Johnson?..Shouldn't Ankola have been persisted with?..given a chance, considering that there weren't too many opportunities for him?

pkosh; our fast bowlers were a revelation in england; especially prasad who was, in some ways better than srinath. the problem with the spinners was that it was too cold early on and they couldn't grip the ball. also, it didn't help that kumble chose to have his first "off" period for india in over three years. i think it also showed that we have spinners who are very good on turning tracks and not too good other wise.

micky; i am being very honest with you. i do not know what is happening between azhar and sangeeta bijlani. to be honest, i am not very sure i want to know since that goes beyond the playing field and i think that is his/their business.

hariharan anand; i have heard too that sandeep patil is going to be very strict. i think he should because we tend to play better when discipline is forced on us than when it is voluntary! but i don't think he can do much about dark glasses given that he wears them most of the time. also, we have now reached a stage where fielders are claiming that dark glasses actually help them sight the ball better, especially for skiers coming out of the sun or the lights in a day/night match. talking about studs, it will be interesting to see how the new captain reacts given that he fancies them a bit. as does his good friend vinod kambli who has quite a collection.

Harsha, You don't seem to have answered my second part of the question on Sachin's batting. How does he compare to yesteryear players like (Gavaskar, Richards)

Harsha : Some of us believe that kapil has (gasp !) never encouraged fast bowling like Imran because he was shaky about his own place ? 2) Why hasn't Abhey Kurruvilla still not got a look in ? he seems to have taken a lot of wickets in the domestics . 3) If u had to pick a set of bowlers for the tour of SA and Aus who would they be ?

nila / sudhir; david johnson is a strong guy; not very big built but he hits the deck really hard and gets the ball to skid. he should make a very good contrast to srinath and prasad. i completely agree about ankola. i still think he will make the tour to south africa and maybe under sachin, he will get a little more to do, if i was ankola, i would be completely perplexed.

HARSHA DID U TRY ANYTHING ELSE OTHER THAN COMMENTATING LIKE BEING A HOST OF A PROGRAM OTHER THAN INSIDE EDGE ? IF SO WHICH ONE

Harsha: We may be no Pakistan, but we came up with Prasad and Srinath to replace Kapil and Manoj Prabhakar... why do you suppose we are managing to produce fast bowlers on these featherbeds we have in domestic cricket?

suri; just continuing about johnson. i guess it shouldn't surprise you if people in bangalore rave about him. the way they are going they can rave about everyone! no he is nowhere near as quick as srinath who onhis day, is as quick as anyone in the game.

i don't know why the selectors are playing around with Salil Ankola. Why dhouldn't he be given a fair chance? This question has been bugging me alot Harsha!

Harsha : Some of us believe that kapil has (gasp !) never encouraged fast bowling like Imran because he was shaky about his own place ? 2) Why hasn't Abhey Kurruvilla still not got a look in ? he seems to have taken a lot of wickets in the domestics . 3) If u had to pick a set of bowlers for the tour of SA and Aus who would they be ?

hi: harsha how do you rate india's chances in the singer cup

leg slip; i think this is just a new season in indian cricket. i believe we are now seeing a generation that was inspired by kapil dev becoming old enough to play for india. i agree with your points about our featherbeds. ironically, that is why we seem to be producing better swing bowlers because if there is nothing in the wicket, a fast bowler has to earn his wickets through movement in the air.

micky; i do a few things off and on. i've done the odd voice over for commercials and have done a few serials. i did a big preview series on the world cup but now my commitments do not allow me to do too much more, when the season starts i will also be doing a weekly series on domestic cricket. and inside edge will now run right round the year. so there isn't time for too much else. also i am trying to do something new and this is the big excitement for me just now.

What guarantee does Johnson have that he will be given a fair chance. He might just be given the same treatment as Ankola. At this rate we will be left with no one to compliment Venky and Srinath. Don't u think??

Harsha : Some of us believe that kapil has (gasp !) never encouraged fast bowling like Imran because he was shaky about his own place ? 2) Why hasn't Abhey Kurruvilla still not got a look in ? he seems to have taken a lot of wickets in the domestics . 3) If u had to pick a set of bowlers for the tour of SA and Aus who would they be ?

one question are there tickets available for one day matches in canda. if so how can i purchase them"?

Harsha: I'm sure you recall how devastating the opening pair of Jadeja/Tendulkar was during the 1994 domestic season, and per Sachin's request they were the opening pair for the start of the World Cup before Jadeja failed a couple of times. Any chance that Sachin might try this again?

Harsha : Some of us believe that kapil has (gasp !) never encouraged fast bowling like Imran because he was shaky about his own place ? 2) Why hasn't Abhey Kurruvilla still not got a look in ? he seems to have taken a lot of wickets in the domestics . 3) If u had to pick a set of bowlers for the tour of SA and Aus who would they be ?

Harsha, Coming back to Johnsonn, I have seenn him perform in a local match in Bangalore and he had the players there, some of whom were playinng for Karnataka then, jumping onto the backfoot the way Azhar plays the windies quicks . I was pretty impressed. I am not sure how he is now. Will you say that this guy has the capacity to stay in the side for long

WERE U ON THE ZEE PROGRAM SWAYAMVAR 2000

Remember reading some column that discussed why we don't have fast bowlers, the writer was saying it was because till Kapil came along, there was no one to emulate... with all these boys around now, do our budding pacers have enough heroes to look up to? And another thing - how come the MRF Pace Foundation produces pace bowlers for Lanka, but not for us?

pkosh; if you looked at abey kuruvilla, you wouldn't want to face him! he's really big and can be very hostile. but i don't think he has produced the consistency needed. and on dead wickets, he hasn't seemed as effective. his best time was a couple of years ago. now he will have to do something really special to come back. it is too early to talk about south africa. the last time we were there we took five seamers and rarely used more than three, i think four will be a good bet and at the moment that looks like being srinath, prasad, johnson and ankola. i am not sure i agree with your assessment about kapil. if you look down the list of other fast bowlers, only one, karsan ghavri has gone past hundred wickets. so that is how far ahead he was of the rest. it is true maybe that he wasn't as inspiring as say, imran was, but i don't think he could have felt threatened.

Harsha : Some of us believe that kapil has (gasp !) never encouraged fast bowling like Imran because he was shaky about his own place ? 2) Why hasn't Abhey Kurruvilla still not got a look in ? he seems to have taken a lot of wickets in the domestics . 3) If u had to pick a set of bowlers for the tour of SA and Aus who would they be ?

Harsha, Coming back to Johnsonn, I have seenn him perform in a local match in Bangalore and he had the players there, some of whom were playinng for Karnataka then, jumping onto the backfoot the way Azhar plays the windies quicks . I was pretty impressed. I am not sure how he is now. Will you say that this guy has the capacity to stay in the side for long

amit22; you could perhaps contact the canada cricket association who are hosting the event. but i guess it is not much use that i do not yet have a number for them. i have one lying somewhere which i can find if i search hard enough. if you leave me a number, i'll try and send it to you.

MICKY; yes, i sadly was on swayamwar 2000. it was, and i do not hesitate to say it, the biggest mistake i ever made. it was horrid really.

LAST QUESTION FROM ME . DO U THINK SACHIN WILL BE STRIPPED OF CAPTAINCY IF WE LOSE THE SAHARA CUP AND ANY CHANCES OF AZHAR BEING BROUGHT BACK?????

Hi Harsha, Any responses to my question?

nila sharma; i don't really know yet because sachin has given himself quite a few options, he might start with rathore but i do know that he prefers opening with jadeja because he runs his singles well. sachin, when he is on song, is very keen to get the strike back so he can stay in the action. jadeja is the best suited for this. unfortunately for jadeja, ever since he hit waqar for 40 runs in two overs in the world cup match, he is being regarded as a bit of a slogger which is a great injustice to him. at number six, he will never have much to do and you can only get away slogging that many times. i think if rathore fails they will revert to jadeja as opener and use srinath to slog.

Harsha: One thing I am confused about it why anyone should poke thier nose into Azhar's affairs. As he himself said once "If I were making runs, I could have gone with anybody and nobody would have noticed". Don't u think people have bugeed Azhar a lot? After all can a man be successful all the time??

micky; no way. i think sachinhas the job for a long time, if he fails, than we are really looking at the bankruptcy option. i don't see azhar getting thejob again given that he needs to do really well to hold his place in the side. with a bit of luck, we should be looking at sachin for another ten years!

thanks harsha i will leave you my email and my address. Please do send that numbe r to me Thanks again

dilip; if azhar saw what you had to say, he would probably die of shock. he has had such little support recently. i agree with him that if he had been scoring runs, nobody would have said anything. also, he has a point when he says that he has never really had a consistent career. he has failed before so if he fails again, it could be for cricketing reasons. i tend to agree with him simply because as a team man he has a very good reputation.

ALL RIGHT THANKS HARSHA AND BYE ! ENJOY YOUR TRIP IN CANADA AND I HOPE INDIA COME BACK HOME WITH THE SAHARA AND THE SINGER CUP BYEEEEEE!

leg slip; it's amazing isn't it. you are right, at the moment the mrf academy is producing more fast bowlers for sri lanka and even for zimbabwe (henry olonga). the only genuine mrf products who have played for india are venkatesh prasad and vivek razdan. srinath did not spend too much time there early on because he was doing engineering in mysore. but he admits he has benefitted a lot by going there whenever he has felt rusty. they have also done a bit for our batsmen because the top guys sometimes go there to play against a bunch of eager fast bowlers.

Harsha: There's talk about this being the 'nucleus of the future'. Is this the periodic hype we keep churing out, or is there something in it, given the youth of this side?

Harsha: Took you long enough to get to my question, I thought you had gone to sleep... *L* But hey, my question was 'why'?

Did I ask a controversial question Harsha?? Why is Salil Ankola treated shabbily like this?? Shouldn't he be given a fair chance?? They drag him out from a county match in England abnd to top it they don't give him a chance to play in a proper match. Then they dump him when they feel like it. I don't know how things are going to be different for Johnson?? U seem to be evading this Harsha?? ( No offense intended )

prem panix; it's amazing how we in the media keep talking of a nucleus of the future. it's a bit like being in traffic. it always seemed distant, when you get there you find it isn't as bad as we thought. similarly, the future we talk about doesn't always seem to become the "present". maybe this time we have a little more reason to be optimistic given that azhar at 33 is the oldest and srinath and prasad are the next in line at 27. it's an incredibly young side but given the turnover in international cricket, it's tough to say if all those who are 25 today will still be around five years from now as seasoned international cricketers.

leg slip; search me, i don't know why. it will be a good one to ask the guys who run the place. but i really don't know.

dilip; salil ankola was asking himself that question all through the tour. you would have thought that if he was called in from the leagues, it was to fill a need gap. instead, he just kept carrying the drinks! it would be completely understandable if he were disheartened but as i said sometime back, he might get a better deal under sachin. at the same time, remember, sachin was part ofthe selection committee that did not include him in england. i just wonder if the people who matter do not have as high an opinion of him as some others do.

Harsha... *smile* Was just checking to see if you believed that hype... *LOL*... That reminds me, the Indian teens did dashed well in the Lombard challenge... see signs of promise there? Ritender Sodhi, for instance? I know it is premature, but heck, at his age Sachin was on the verge of a Test place...

dilip; (cont'd) it is really too early to say what kind of treatment johnson will get, i wouldn't be too optimistic just yet given that india will definitely play srinath, prasad and kumble. at this stage i think joshi will be the fourth bowler since he also bats a bit. the fifth bowler's job will have to be shared between tendulkar, ganguly and jadeja and that is good enough really even giving enough insurance against one ofthe lead bowlers having a bad day. johnson's best chance would seem to be if he can replace joshi. we don't really need joshi's batting very much given that mongia bats at number seven and srinath and kumble can bat too.

prem panix; loved watching retinder sodhi. i think the best thing about him was that he was so cool and seemed to pace the chase so well. remarkable too that as an under 15 player he looked his age. not being cruel, our age-group cricket has been plagued by elderly gents playing amongst kids. this guy really looked his age. i don't know what part of india he comes from but i would put him into a ranji trophy side immediately.

Harsha: This is a response to Amit22 query about Sahara tix, they can be obtained from ticketmaster Canada at 416-870-8000, and run $25 Canadian a game plus tax, or all five games for $100 Canadian, seats are all the same price. I already have mine, I hope to see you there

You know that is what I admire in you. U seem to have an answer ready for whatever people throw at you. My father never misses your opening analysis of the game. Whether he sees the game or not is altogether a different matter. But he never misses what u have to say. BTW Inside Edge is another thing I never miss and the part which included Bishen Singh Bedi and Maninder Singh was very good. Keep up the good work. We do not have many Ted Corbetts over here.

Harsha: One for the road... If you were the entire selection committee rolled into one... no pulls, no pressures, no BCCI directives to ignore or omit anyone... what team would you pick for India now? For Tests? And one-dayers?

Hey guys! I know that this is a male dominated area, and yet I ventured here just for the fun of it! It may be very serious stuff for you but I have no knowledge of it and I haven't been back to the country for a couple of years now! So, O! great men! enlighten me!

amit22; continuing from what nila sharma has said, the tickets are indeed 25 dollars a game but they also apparently have a package for 65 dollars for three games which includes any of the two weekend programmes plus the wednesday game in between.

Hey! what is this?? No hello, No Welcome Abroad! Boring!!!Bye

Hi Harsha!

007; we also have a lot of women playing the game and at a reasonably high level. one of the best matches i saw was in new zealand in february last year when india's women won the triangular against new zealand and australia. excellent skills. some wonderful spinners in purnima rau and neetu david. pretty good batsmen too (or should that be batswomen! or batspeople!) best to stick to batsmen. also don't forget that a very large number of women follow the game in india as can be seen by the number of them in gossip columns; the difference is, and i am not being sexist, that the men tend to follow cricket and the ladies follow the cricketers.

Prem Panix asked a deadly question. Harsha Bhogle as a selection committee. Sounds very interesting. I would love to see an answer to that question. Keep up the good work Prem, that was a shady question, I say.

prem panix; no disciplinary problems here so i can pick sidhu. i would get a bit unorthodox with the opening pair given that we don't have one. my test team therefore would be (in india) manjrekar, sidhu, ganguly, tendulkar, azharuddin, dravid, mongia, kumble, srinath, prasad and raju. the reserves would be kambli to put pressure on the existing batsmen, joshi and johnson or ankola. for the one-day game; sidhu, tendulkar, ganguly, azharuddin, kambli, jadeja, mongia, srinath, kumble, prasad, johnson or ankola with joshi, kapoor and dravid in the reserves.

Well Harsha you are right in a skewed sort of way. Women do follow the cricketers but they follow them for the kind of game they play. All I remember is the era when Ravi Shastri had won an Audi in Australia. We all loved him back then, more so because he bought the victory home!! I do not know how the game has developed now, but I am very interested!

Hasrh : coming back to mens cricket, what do you think of Saurav, and Dravid , young guys got a weak ? attack to cement their place in . Any newcomers , youngsters we might see in the side in the near future ? thanks for talking , please try and visit #cricket on inter relay chat we would love having you there

007; you should have no problem if you are in india where we see more cricket on television than anywhere in the world. lots of close-ups, lots of colourful clothes and, as they say, pretty cool shades. i don't know where you are but if you are around here, you should enjoy watching the aussies and the south africans; really tough cricketers and tough guys!

Hasrh : coming back to mens cricket, what do you think of Saurav, and Dravid , young guys got a weak ? attack to cement their place in . Any newcomers , youngsters we might see in the side in the near future ? thanks for talking , please try and visit #cricket on inter relay chat we would love having you there

Dilip... *s* Check out the answer... interesting, no zonal pressures appear to have gone into the side GRV and co picked this time, judging by how closely Harsha's list mirrors the official one... BCCI edicts, of course, are another thing...

pkos: i plan to be here every friday so we can chat a lot oftener. in fact, i am planning, whenever possible, to bring interesting guests to answer your questions. so why don't you spread the word around so that we can have a cosy cricket club. coming to dravid and ganguly, i don't think they got away against an easy attack because remember, it was the same attack others weren't scoring runs against and as far as they were concerned, the conditions were quite new. but their real test will come against two very tough sides in australia and south africa who play the game much harder than the english do. in south africa they will play what is arguably the best seam attack in the world in the best conditions for seam bowling. and the west indies are always fearsome competitors. i think we can make a really good assessment of where we stand in may this year; if we have too many people standing by then!

Harsha: Your list... one point... you mention that your Test team is for Indian wickets... if it was an away tour? Let's see, we go to S'Africa, right? And the Windies? Later this year? What changes would you make in the lineup, assuming form of today remains constant till then?

*BTW, guys... Harsha's cricket page is up and running on the Rediff site as of today... so besides the Friday live chats with Harsha and his guests of the day, there's articles... e-mail dialogue... and heaps more coming... watch this space, like the ad-types say!

Harsha: Did you read that report, some Bengali daily claims Saurav Ganguly got married to Dona, a 22-year-old 'stage dancer', whatever that means, without his parents' consent?

prem panix; to be honest, there aren't too many other options. i would probably play three seamers and one spinner with six batsmen. we would miss an all rounder in south africa, someone like prabhakar. i fear we could end up having the same problems we did in england; not much of a balance given the absence of all-rounders. i think it would be pretty much the same side but in the official tour party i would insist on having three specialist openers provided i wasn't told to search for them!

Alright, guys... can we wrap in five? Harsha's got ways to go, and frankly so do we. And hey, he'll be back in a week, the Singer Cup will be on, full blast, then... so there should be fireworks... wait for it, huh?

prem panix; interesting that news item about ganguly. i desperately hope we are not getting into another azharuddin kind of situation there; that of a family man (boy?) who suddenly decides he is old enough to make up his own mind. rememeber if anybody still has any misgivings about ganguly it has to do with his mind and i am not sure this is a great happening. but as i said while answering the azhar question, if he can perform in the eighty yards between wicket and boundary line, what the hell!

does anyone agree with me that india's performance against england has been put in real perspective by pakistan's efforts against england

Wonder how much truth there is in it... I called his folks, his dad said "no comment"... Funny, when I met Saurav in Cal for the chat, he was very bitter about the vernacular media there... said they delighted in cooking up tales about him... that famous one about not carrying out drinks, claiming at home he had servants to do it... wonder, in that context, if the thing is true in the first place... any info?

ken wiwa; to some extent yes. but don't forget they have a better cricket team than we do just now; so many bowling options to choose from (saqlain mushtaq should play for any test playing country), they also seem to want to win harder than we do so i am not really surprised, the real difference is in wicket taking bowlers. i still think their batting is a bit suspect though. one final point about that comparison. if pakistan had played the first half and india the second we might have seen a bit of a difference.

okay guys; see you next week. meanwhile if you have something to chat about, feel free to send me some mail.

Harsha: Been great having you here with us... looking forward to next Friday... can't wait, actually... and hey, keep the flag flying! Bye...

HEY buddies lets all go into the Small Smoke Filled Cafe for some Coffee and smokes

Hey Ken are you the son of Ken Sarowiva

Hey Ken are you the son of Ken Sarowiva