Not many spectators for SA- AUS warm up match !

You expect people to flock to the ground when there is a warm up match between the World Champions and potential World Champions. That is not true. There are no takers for this match.

This highlights a sad state of affairs - that veiwership goes down when India is absent.

My friend put the TV off when AUS were 90/1 (thinking that India will lose) and only when he heard the news at 1030 PM did he know that India had won ! Many did the same when AUS were strongly placed at 100/1 ! TV viewership also goes down when India is facing defeat !

Boom Boom ( Afridi ) was right when he said that a dream final between Pak and India will attract billions of viewers.

In 1983, a nation of 1 billion was inspired when India won the WC. Indian cricket was never the same again. The WC win came as a big relief to a tottering nation, plagued by corruption and lack of infrastructure !

Cricket is Religion in India. There is a massive build up for the Good Luck India campaign and Industry, Bollywood and all people are supporting this campaign.

Meanwhile, Bayliss, the SL coach says SL will play with seven batsmen and four bowlers. Will India do the same ?

Yesterday Gavaskar was on TV, saying that India will do the same. His logic is that seven batsmen are capable of putting up 350 plus total ! Ajay Jadeja differed from him, saying that bowlers win matches.

The Indian selection appears to be all right, as Chawla and R Ashwin bowled India to victory in the warm up match. Only problem is that these two are devoid of WC experience. There was the problem of Sreeshant being dropped, but now he is in and he proved that he is the best of the seamers in the last match ! So now the 15 are there because of merit.

Dhoni went on to say that he expects more runs from Chawla. Ashwin scored 25 not out. He has scored two first class hundreds and seven fifties. Chawla has scored a century in first class cricket and his highest in List A is 93.