Cricinfo Select

by Ravi Shastri

India's decision to go in with four medium pacers in the match against West Indies was a strange one. Playing four medium pacers in Indian conditions is a luxury even a Maharaja in his pomp would turn a blind eye to. Excessive use of medium-pacers on Indian turfs, an obese, overflowing middle order and the serial quarrel over Irfan Pathan at No.3 which the team picks up with the nation every time it takes the field - the Indians are only refining their finesse to shoot themselves in the foot.

On the eve of this game, one of India's many TV channels broke a story about Greg Chappell having harsh words for his wards before a practice session. In a country where analysis of sport on TV remains laughably slapstick, such things make news - a coach actually having a go at his players? Perish the thought! But after this shambles of a performance, some of those players should be profoundly grateful that they don't play for an Alex Ferguson or a Vince Lombardi. If that had been the case, cups and saucers or boots would surely have been thrown around the dressing room, with one or two repeat offenders banished into the frozen tundra forever.

Peter Moores, England's academy director and one of the favourites to succeed Duncan Fletcher, believes a coach has two choices: change the team or change himself.

It ended with a flick off the pads, the stroke that had captivated millions of fans for close to two decades. This time, under the floodlights at the Bangabandhu Stadium, instead of racing away to the square-leg fence, it looped to the fielder positioned for the shot. We weren't to know it then but that would be the last stroke Mohammad Azharuddin would play in a 16-year-career that spanned 99 Tests and 334 one-day internationals.

His Test swansong had been a cavalier century in a hopelessly lost cause and, by the time he arrived in Dhaka for his one-day farewell, the air was thick with stories of his involvement in the match-fixing scandal that had seen Hansie Cronje's fall from grace. When the contents of the CBI report and the BCCI-instituted Madhavan inquiry were made public, Azharuddin's transformation from authentic hero to arch villain was complete.

The tensions that currently exist between the Indian board and other members of the cricket-playing world have been laid bare by IS Bindra, the former President of the BCCI, who has issued a scathing response to an article by the veteran Australian journalist and Indophile, Mike Coward.

by Bob Woolmer

There are not many days that go by in the subcontinent where innuendo and speculation end up making a newspaper piece or invite TV comment. For Pakistan there is a sign hanging over us: "Normal service will be resumed soon".

Geoff Boycott has called on Duncan Fletcher to be sacked as England coach less than a month before the start of the Ashes.

Boycott's comments came in the aftermath of England's defeat by Australia in the Champions Trophy. He said that Fletcher, who has been in the job for seven years, had reached the end of his shelf-life.

"If you talk to people like John Wright and Bob Woolmer, successful coaches with a lot of international experience, they will tell you the job comes with a shelf-life," Boycott wrote in his column for The Daily Telegraph. "And Fletcher has just reached the end of his.

The table tennis ball bounced past, blissfully uncontested, as I was still rejoicing in the magnificence of following through on a fearsome smash, utterly convinced that the point was already mine.

It was like the first lunar landing all over again. Everyone in the house wanted to stay up on Wednesday night to catch the highlights of West Indies' 10-run Champions Trophy victory over Australia.

Even those struggling with the symptoms of the latest flu virus sweeping the country (what's the nickname by the way-Duck-and-Run? Manningitis?) delayed applying more of the old Vicks VapoRub so that they could be alert enough to see the regional side upset the most consistent and efficient unit in contemporary international cricket.

Life's come a full circle for Runako Morton and put him down in a good place. It was with the Champions Trophy, in Sri Lanka, that his name became known internationally, and now the same tournament has given a platform to close some chapters and open fresh ones. His unbeaten innings of 90 inspired West Indies to a famous victory against the Australians, who fell short of 235 by only 11 runs in a thriller. But what Morton did, was give a large following of fans something to remember him by, besides the events far and near, neither of which are particularly flattering. It's said that the incomparable Lawrence Rowe had so much time to play the ball that he whistled to himself as he cover-drove; if Morton had a song on his lips on the day, it would have been that Bob Marley anthem, Redemption Song.