Pointers from the Indian selectors and Ranji matches

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Two pointers from news incidents that happened today:

•  The new contracts were given by the BCCI - Yuvraj Singh being the surprise movement in the list of contracts. Suresh Raina replaced him while Virat Kohli, Murali Vijay and Pragyan Ojha have moved up to Grade B. Rohit Sharma has been demoted to C. RP Singh and Munaf Patel, who were previously in Grade B, have not been offered contracts. This definitely shows the thinking of the Management involved in the selection. Raina has made good progress in test cricket while cementing his place as a dependable player in ODIs. Yuvraj has fallen out of contention in test matches and his ODI form has been nothing great to write about.
• Similarly, the Ranji matches has thrown up performances from fringe players like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Yusuf Pathan, Vinay Kumar, Robin Uthappa has increased our hopes that the bench strength remains as a good pipeline for the national teams. Let us hope they continue this performance and reach greater heights.

Yuvraj Singh has the matches till the ODI series against the "Black Caps" starts, where he will play at least 5 matches. This should give him good practice period to get back to his groove.

India, meanwhile, start their 2nd test against NewZealand tomorrow at Hyderabad. Rain could play a major role in this test match, which should see the Indians win if the match is played in full-time. VVS Laxman is playing his first test at home - hope he makes a century in front of his friends and family.

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Karnataka's topsy-turvy campaign ends

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Karnataka's Ranji campaign which was topsy-turvy from the beginning of the season came to an end with a disappointing loss to Mumbai.

The Domestic season started for the Karnataka players by the introduction of KPL - the local Board's offshoot of the now-legendary IPL. The matches were played with zest and sponsored by the local corporates - all in all, a half-successful business model was introduced even though Kumble and Srinath were not happy with the tournament.

There were many players who performed well in the bat and ball but the selectors did not rush to bring them onto the Ranji squad. If you notice, only a handful of players from the Top-10 list have made to the national team. In fact, there was a minor controversy over the selection of players as well.

Once the team was selected, credit needs to be given for the Management (Rahul Dravid, Robin Uthappa, Coach Sanath Kumar) for keeping the focus on the field. This resulted in a wonderful performance by the young team who never lost any matches in the tournament till the final. The top run-getters and wicket-takers were from this team itself.

The team has enough potential to prove themselves in the longer run and have time on their side to take their revenge on Mumbai in the next edition. Some of the younger players in this team have the option to show their wares in the Duleep Trophy also, to impress the selectors. Hopefully, Harsha's thoughts on the A series is read by the selectors and some action planned.

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Interesting news on the cricket front

Quite few interesting bits of news today that merit reading...

• Aakash Chopra writes about how domestic matches in India need to be restructured - he has very good suggestions on how to improve domestic cricket. He has been building his reputation online for his frank and insightful opinions on cricket (domestic, in particular).
  
• Ranji trophy Final - this final seems to be the most followed domestic match of all time, especially in the day and age of T20. The match has tilted towards Mumbai today, thanks to the performances of its bowlers. Salvi, especially, was in the background so far in this season until now. He has lived up to the initial promise of a Glenn Mcgrath-type in this match.
• Ian Chappell does not think that India is a long-term No.1 team. He says that there is no champion bowler in the team. I do not agree that there are no bowlers though they are not consistent. Are players from the current Ranji final potential Indian new-ball bowlers? Possibly.