Indian team has this problem of an autocratic unreasonable board of cricket(called the greedy BCCI). With IPL, champions trophy(now to be held inSL), they just want to keep their coffers ringing riding on the popularity for the game and treating its players as robots.

For eg. India is supposed to tour NZ and there is not even a practise match before the ODI and test series. Instead they arrange for a pointless ODI series against sri-lanka and all these days India has been playing on slow and low pitches completely opposite to what they will face in NZ.

I will watch out for Dumminy, Steyn, Gambhir and Ishant Sharma this year.

things tend to turn around for everybody
it is Australia’s time to rebuild – im looking forward to that – it is part of the game

in the meantime, im looking forward to watching in 2009 the two most impressive teams ive seen recently – South Africa, then India (in that order)

Debits:
- Sledging became the norm as the Oz criceters wanted to intimidate and win at any cost(slater went scott free for sledging gentleman dravid)
- Ponting and Co. took it to the heights in the Sydney ’08 game
- Match refrees, Oz media and umpires turned blind eye to Oz cricketers misbehaviour as playing it hard
- Not accepting that every team has to go thru evolution like WI of the 80s and Glenn, Shane, Gilly, Steve(Punter is not even half as good as steve) and Haydo(at best) do not happen everyday

Indian bowling is now among the best because of the way Zaheer and Ishant can swing, bounce and reverse swing the ball. Indian batting and SA bowling has always been good.
SA batting is among the best bcos of the promise of Smith(leading from Front), classy Amla, soon to be legend Duminy and world class De-villers.
Sorry to say, but reality is Oz will have to wait(watching ponting’s reaction after losing each match)for a while before then can even be a shadow of their former self.

Gentlemen!

If you think the last 18 months is the only window for Ponting’s judgement then go for your life.

I dont need to point out what Australia has lost in recent times and what they cant even put on the park at present.

It is enjoyable to read, listen and watch the Aussie bashing because we know there is:

1. Joy in seeing them finally suffer after 15 years
2. an orchestrated effort to destabilise Australian cricket by those who need this to happen

So enjoy the dimming light of your extraordinary batting lineup and new found bowling fervour, enjoy SA’s rise (AND HOPE THEY’VE GOT THE BALLS TO MANAGE IT) and enjoy NZ’s ever present little brother petulance.

Only time will tell if any of you are up to it.

And good god gentleman, be prepared to defend what your countryman do without being so blind.

Forget the “time will tell” nonsense…

Point is: “Ponting is a horrible captain”

Time has told!

Live in the present dude!

I know you said Haddin. I reversed the statement and inserted Harbhajan instead just to prove why that would not be acceptable to “you guys”.

Surely Harbhajan is as believable as Haddin is especially when the guy that accused him is today languishing near a psychiatrists’ couch somewhere with an alcohol abuse problem and many other problems!

And you goose, when I talked of Dhoni moulding a team as captain I was talking of the T20 and ODI teams he has captained in a stellar manner. Under his watch, the India team has moved from #7 to #1 (almost). He picked up the Test reigns 5 Tests back. Settle down.

Either get with the program or get out of it.

Forget your semantical gobbledeegook and get with this issue.

If you want to refer back to Harbhajan go for your life.

Hate! Dont use the word champ. People like you do.

Ordinary team captained by Dhoni! Sehwag, Dravid, Tendulkar, Ganguly (another of your great captains whose records doesnt speak for itself) and thats the batsman. Dhoni hasnt moulded anything yet and time hasnt judged him yet.

Play the racist card at will. Us arrogant white church going (funny analogy) blokes just see it like water of a ducks back.

Time will tell friend.

Graeme Smith and Dhoni great captains. Yep! Time will tell.

Your statement back at you: “Harbhajan either knew better or didnt! No one will ever know.”

Why does the whole of Australia not accept that and yet want us to accept what Haddin did?

I’ll tell you why?

The whole of Aus thinks, “Haddin is a good, honest, Church-going, white bloke. He can’t have cheated. He won;t have cheated, whereas that brown guy must have cheated because that’s the way they are!”

The real problem is that Australia has to learn to get off its pedestal both literally and figuratively.

The literal part is happening right in front of our eyes, accompanied with misplaced hope from her fans which leads them to say “It wont last long and people like me will be able to remind you of how things are done to reach the top and stay there for 15 years.”

The figurative part, which started in Sydney 2008, will take a few more years after several excruciating rounds of extreme arrogance and denial from its captain. The rot stems from the top.

Dhoni and Smith are the best captains going around today in world cricket! Dhoni, in particular, has moulded an ordinary team into a winning one.

Time to accept that chris.

If not, just as you realised that the Australian “back up isn’t up to it” AFTER it was shown up, you’ll realise Dhoni’s captaincy greatness only AFTER it is proven.

Get rid of your inherent hate and smell the roses.