By the time India's first Test match against Sri Lanka begins in Colombo on Wednesday, the Manmohan Singh government's fate would have been sealed in the Parliament. Whatever the outcome of the floor test, democracy and decency have suffered. Open horse trading, defections, deal brokering and downright vote buying throughout last week reflects the image of Parliamentarians, which was never very good but has plunged to greater depths. Even the image of the Prime Minister, an honest economist-turned-politician, has been dented after his party's abject surrender to JMM chief Shibu Soren. Singh had ruled out a few days back any bartering of Cabinet berths as a means to bolster his majority. But in the lust to stick to power, the UPA managers have done everything that they should not have done. The NDA is no different. The government may or may not win the numbers game. But most of the political class, for sure, have lost the faith of the people. Rather, people...

It was the evening of October 29, 2004. A bunch of Oz cricketers were punching the air, embracing each other at the Vidharba Cricket Association stadium in Nagpur. Brett Lee was screaming for an Australian flag while Matthew Hayden was lying on the grass with beer in hand. They did what Steve Waugh's world conquerors failed to do in 2001. The Final Frontier was conquered. Australia won a Test series in India. Adam Gilchrist, who was leading Australia in the absence of an injured Ricky Ponting, said: "It [the series victory] is very pleasing. The Australian team had started preparing for the India series from Chennai 2001. John Buchanan's mind had started ticking from then." It speaks about why the Australians are world champions. They started preparing for the series form the day they failed to win it. And finally, won the feather that was missing from their baggy green cap. Will the Indian cricket Board learn from this? India...

After a controversy-ridden sojourn of Australia, Indian cricket lovers were happy to watch the three-Test series against South Africa. A triple-century by Virender Sehwag, South Africa's victory in Ahmedabad and India's comeback in Kanpur... the series was so lively except the last two days of the first Test in Chennai. There was much talk about the wickets, mind games played by coaches and the seniors of both teams. But never was the spirit of the game at stake. Rather, it brought glory back to the game. The onset of the Indian summer has been pleasant. There is promise of more excitement with the one-and-half-month long Indian Premier League, Asia Cup, ICC Champions Trophy and so on. With a packed Future Tours Programme, it is time for cricket lovers to rejoice. But suddenly, the organisers of the cash-rich IPL are out to play spoilsport with certain restrictions on coverage of the tournament by media organisations. To the dismay of all, a boycott of the event...

After producing 627 runs in Chennai in an innings a week ago, all eyes were on the second Test in Ahmedabad. The hosts entered into the match with high in confidence. Skipper Anil Kumble chose to bat first after winning the toss. But to utter disappointment, India were dismissed for a paltry 76 in 20 overs, couldn't stand even for one session! There was a little bit of grass on top of the wicket. But so what? We have just defeated the world champions in their own den. And nowhere than Perth, one of the fastest wickets in the world. After the day's play Harbhajan came in to the media conference to take the flaks. "Everything went wrong for us. It was not the bit of grass to blame but the absence of red clay. Our strength lies in spin. We have a bunch of upcoming seamers who are world class. Nevertheless we win Test matches due to spinners. That is our traditional...