Laxman's ouster badly timed

The second season of the Indian Premier League is to start in April 2009, a good seven months away, so it is hard to understand the need for the Deccan Chargers to announce that VVS Laxman was stripped of the captaincy and it was going to be Adam Gilchrist who will now lead the Chargers. India is due to play the world champions Australia in a Test series in a few days' time and this kind of demoralising news was certainly not what was wanted, writes Sunil Gavaskar in Mid-Day.