Overshadowing all other cricket news is the confirmation of the Indian team's tour of Pakistan. At last, some good sense has prevailed. Political relations between the two countries have always been fragile but it has been the cricket fan in both countries who has been punished.
It has made no sense.
But there seems to be no point in harping on the past though there is no guarantee that it will not be repeated, this standard ploy of snapping cricket ties whenever the politicians get frustrated. Let us keep our fingers crossed. The renewal of cricket ties between the two countries is also good news for Asian cricket.
Pakistan lost the first One-day International in New Zealand against the run of play but also because it had got the team selection wrong. Not for the first time has Pakistan gone in with five bowlers and found that it could have done with a sixth.
At Auckland, Pakistan was without Shoaib Akhtar and this had seriously weakened the bowling. Pakistan decided to bolster the batting by playing Saleem Elahi! It defied logic.
Pakistan should have played Umar Gul or Danish Kaneria. As it happened Abdul Razzaq was off the boil and there was no backup plan and the New Zealand lower order batsmen were able to throw their bats and pull off an improbable win. It was untidy cricket by Pakistan, played without a game plan and without intensity.
I don't know whether the Pakistan team does any homework, whether in team meetings there is serious discussion, whether videos are watched and one's own mistakes corrected and the opponents weak points identified.
One gets the impression that Pakistan relies on instinct and which explain why the performance lacks consistency. Pakistan can have one very good day followed by a horrible day, going from inspiration to the doldrums. This is hit and miss cricket.
I don't want to labour the point about the extra-time that was available to Pakistan in the second Test match and wasn't taken. All's well that ends well. But I was a little bewildered by the comments of Javed Miandad. He said that it did not form a part of his responsibility. I don't buy this. If the captain is at the crease and seems to be missing a trick, it is for someone in the dressing-room, the manager or the coach to send him a message.
The ultimate responsibility is that of the captain but cricket is a team game, both on and off the field and Javed Miandad is a pro-active coach and is an integral part of the think-tank. I think it might have been better to have accepted the lapse as simply a cock-up though if the last day had been washed out as the forecast threatened it might be, it might have been a different matter.
I am saving the India-Australia Test series for the last. But I would like to add my tribute to Steve Waugh. What a fantastic reception he got from the Sydney crowd and how much he deserved it. He has served his country with colour and dignity. As a player, he lacked the flair and flamboyance of others and as a captain he lacked charisma.
But both as a player and as captain, there was a single-mindedness about Waugh and it was not often that he had a bad day. He played his cricket with great intensity rather than passion and I don't know whether there were any butterflies in his system when he came into bat for the last time for his country but typically he showed no emotion. It was business as usual. I could not help feeling that our own great players had gone out of the game, not with a bang but with a whimper.
India set Australia a massive 443 to win the Sydney Test match. Most other teams would have considered this to be too stiff a target and would have brought down the shutters and play out the last day. But Australia has taken Test cricket to a different level and both teams seemed anxious, if not nervous. But Australia's body-language was positive and there was a defiance about it.
India was without Harbhajan Singh and the work-load on Anil Kumble was a heavy one. Thus the final day of a fascinating Test series was set-up to be the best day of the series. A lot of drama had gone before including a measured and almost preordained double century by Sachin Tendulkar.
India had made a massive 705 for seven declared and had not enforced the follow on and for all intents and purposes had made sure that it could not lose. But this is a strange game and the impossible is defined differently. A window is always left open for the unexpected to enter.
As I write this column, the Test match is in its final session and Australia is pressing on. It is like seeing a miracle enfolding. A long time ago India and Australia had played a tied Test match in Chennai. Was this one headed to that kind of a pulsating finish? As seemed almost scripted, Steve Waugh was there, batting past his half century and he did not certainly want to talk unto the good night gently. There was no rage but there was defiance. In the end, the match ended, as a draw and this seemed as a fair result.
But Pakistan had better watch out. This will be an India brimming with confidence when it tours Pakistan. And Pakistan will have to raise its game several notches and we must make sure that Shoaib Akhtar is fully fit. He could be the player of the series but he could also be the flop of the series. It will be a supreme test of his mental toughness.
That's a lot of responsibility to put on a single player's shoulders. It might have been Shoaib Akhtar versus Tendulkar but throw in Dravid, Ganguly, Sehwag and Laxman as well. That's how India has progressed. But the last word belongs to Steve Waugh. How close he came to a dream century?
