Playing host, and hostages of umpiring

On Friday night, the Indians liked what Javed Miandad cooked up, according to The News. Miandad had invited Dilip Vengsarkar for dinner, and Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Ashish Nehra and Parthiv Patel went along. The players had heard about Miandad's hospitality, and savoured the occasion.

"We discussed a lot of things. Cricket obviously was the main topic," Miandad said. "But there were a lot of discussions on other things also and they enjoyed themselves. We enjoyed playing hosts and serving them some delicious Pakistani cuisine."

He was impressed by Tendulkar's humour and humility: "He has matured a lot now and his sense of humour has also improved a lot. He is more relaxed and we enjoyed the evening with him."

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Make the umpires accountable for their mistakes, writes Harbhajan Singh in his syndicated column in The Indian Express. "Our bowlers toiled hard but were clearly hard done by the umpiring. To make matter worse," Harbhajan adds, "Parthiv Patel also copped a fine."

"A cricketer is bound to give vent to his frustration if even clear-cut catches are denied to his team," he argues. "... and the next thing that happens is that he is hauled up and punished."

Same newspaper, different column. Ajit Wadekar writes about Steve Bucknor, who "seems to have developed a taste for Indians and has been chasing the team around the world." Wadekar pointed out that the umpire had played a large role in India's recent fortunes "so much so, that Sourav Ganguly reportedly marked him 'zero' in the captain's report in Australia recently."

"He is singularly unrepentant about his mistakes, especially against India. And despite the succession of complaints the Indian management has made against him, the ICC seems to derive vicarious pleasure in slotting him for all India's series."

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Kapil Dev wants a player to run the BCCI, though he clarified he had nothing against Jagmohan Dalmiya, who currently heads India's cricket board. According to The Hindu, Kapil proposed the idea at Ali Bacher's book launch, and cited him as a good example of a player-turned-administrator.

On being questioned whether cricketers would be interested in running administrative affairs, he had a unique reply: "Ask Sunil Gavaskar if he is interested in heading the Board. I would like to know his answer. Well, the point is there have to be opportunities."