A good toss to lose and Rocky's knock out

It's 17 years since Graham Gooch tortured India with the 333 at Lord's. It's also 17 years since Mohammad Azharuddin stuck England in at Lord's in what went down as a shocker. Gooch, though, is more sympathetic: "The toss is always difficult. You had a situation today in Trent Bridge where either captain might have thought that I am happy to lose the toss and let the other guy make the decision. It was difficult to know what to do. Normally, you bat first at Lord’s because the wicket is at its slowest on the first day.

"The ball will swing around in the first session of any Test match. It was a brave decision by Azharuddin to bowl first – not one which was met with absolute popularity from coach Bishan Bedi. He told me that he agreed with Azharuddin at the nets that he was going to bat first. But obviously, he changed his mind on the walk across the ground to the pavilion.

The captain has to make his own decision. The thing about being captain is that you get to call the show; get to do things you want to. At the end of the day, you have to go with your gut. It is about instinct. Sometimes there are a lot of good cases for doing things. You have to do what you’re happy with."

Luckily for Dravid history chose not to repeat itself. He won the toss, fielded first and, unlike Azhar, ended up smiling at the end of the day.

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India’s media manager, Rocky Rufus, isn’t going to win any popularity contest in the near future. Today he was in the eye of the storm during VVS Laxman’s press conference, by the end of which he was at the receiving end of a severe hollering. The facts were this: the entire media contingent were quite bemused at the sight of Laxman at the press conference, they asked six or seven questions before one Indian journalist asked a question in Hindi.

At that point a number of English scribes walked up, picked up their dictaphones and left the room. Rufus didn’t seem to have any problems with that and even went to the extent of cutting short the press conference at that point. All hell broke loose then but who’s fault is all this? English journalists’, for walking off? Rufus’s for not knowing his job? Or the Indian board’s, for not appointing the right man?

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