The Umpires/officials for the Pakistan India series have been announced. Darrel Hair in the elite panel. It is rumored that his appointment was due to the sponsorship money received from a top Vision lenses manufacturer, who will be testing their new state of the art PerfectHD-Vision lenses that helps to control myopia and postpone evening blindness.

Spin Guru Bishen Bedi recently trashed Shobib as a professional Chucker. Let us wait and see what Mr. Hair is up to.

Ranjan Madugulle will be the fine collector for the test while Chris Broad will do the needful during the One day matches. ICC hopes to install the state of the art coffee vending machines in their new office building.

The TV telecast, this is another major racket that is to be decided. In USA dish network will bring it live, [as per their website] the pricing is yet to be announced. Hope it is affordable.

Australia Beat South Africa in the first Twenty20 game. Talking of Australia, RajDes [Full name?] had posted a very interesting observation in the comment box.

Ricky has hardly made it in Sri Lankan and Indian pitches. They just happen to play an assured quota of home tests every here - and here also it is predictably Sydney, Melbourne, Perth Adelaide or Brisbane- each having its predictable characteristics. It is no wonder that the likes of Hayden, Langer, Ponting score with regularity in these pitches. Contrast that with India, where in the first place, home test could mean an unknown pitch in Pune or Ahmedabad. And that too, they won’t behave the same way every year. If only we could standardize Madras, Calcutta, Bangalore, Mohali and Bombay as the only centers, and have standard pitches in them a la australia, our test players' home record will be even more monumental - due to sheer amount of familiarity. Also, I have a pet theory. Don Bradman didn’t have to play much in unfamiliar territory like Dhaka or Harare or Motera. It was always the predictable Sydney or at the worst, Lords. The familiarity factor must sure have helped him. When comparing Sachin and Bradman, people hardly take this factor into account

The familiarity factor, a very interesting observation;

Good day.