Here is a piece of brilliant Cricket Satire on The Outlook.

If these reports prove true, India will have a strong chance of qualifying for entry into the World Cup 2011 in which over 100 nations will participate. It will be a feather in India’s cap if our team succeeds in going through the qualifying round to actually participate in the World Cup. Apart from Afghanistan, India will face teams from Congo and Finland in the qualifying round. Bookies have placed odds of 5-11 on India getting through the qualifying round. Only Afghanistan has been given better odds. But if Mr Pawar succeeds in getting top Afghan players to defect, India will emerge as clear favourite.

"Indian cricket is at crossroads and there would be lot of pressure on the selectors. They should pick only those players who they think are the future of Indian cricket," Madan Lal told PTI Bhasa.

Asserting that form should be the only yardstick, he said, "They should not select any player who is out of form. Even a player like Sachin Tendulkar should not be made part of the squad if he is not in form."

"Will Australia dump all their senior players in such a scenario? Axing all the seniors would be seen as BCCI's attempt to save its skin.

"I strongly feel, we need a balanced side. Such a drastic measure will not serve the purpose. We should think beyond the Bangladesh tour," Sidhu said

"International cricket is altogether a different game. There is lot of pressure on the young players and having senior team-mates helps you learn from them," he argued.

"Selectors should take into account last year's performance and some of the youngsters are good enough to replace a few senior players," he said.

The biggest name in Indian cricket - Tendulkar - is expected to be chosen along with another ex-captain Ganguly after having given a satisfactory explanation to the cricket board for his outburst in the media against Chappell.

But some other experienced campaigners, including Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan and Ajit Agarkar, would be having a sleepless night.

"He has done well in the World Cup. He has scored runs. I cannot see any cricketing logic in keeping him out of the team," CAB president Prasun Mukherjee had said.

"Choosing the squad is the prerogative of the selectors. I'm nobody to comment on selection matters. But definitely all of us in the cab will want him in the team," he said.

Well, because if you keep playing highly competitive cricket day in, day out, before an important tournament like World Cup, the hunger is no longer there. It's like people in a village going to attend a wedding where there is sumptuous dinner. Most of them would prefer to remain a bit hungry in order that they can have a full meal at the wedding.

Well, they should have played more domestic matches among themselves. They should have made plans on what they needed to do in the West Indies to win the World Cup. I mean planning is one of the areas where we may have gone wrong.

While Bangladesh had nothing to lose and everything to gain, India had to win the match by all means, being a stronger and more experienced side. It was this pressure of doing something remarkable that did India in against Bangladesh.

Yes, I think the pressure would not have been so big if India had been playing against Australia, South Africa or any other major team. I am sure we would have done well against any of these teams in that particular context.

“I think what it does is allow people who know what is happening to get a headstart if they are gambling,” Holding was quoted as saying in the Australian media. “I have an account with Betfair and I watch a lot of different markets.

“Before the game started, Australia were 2-1 on. As soon as the toss went to air, when they (Betfair) found out, Australia went to 5-1 on because Muralidharan wasn’t playing, Malinga wasn’t playing, Vaas wasn’t playing,” the former fast bowler told an Australian newspaper.