Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif claimed the PCB will be unable to implement the bans because the players will go to court and will also win.

‘These bans will not stay for long and the players will win cases in court,’ Latif told Geo Super.

‘I don’t understand why the board didn’t take action earlier when there were so many problems in the team.’

‘I feel the board is trying to save itself by taking these decisions,’ he said adding that the life bans on Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan are unjustified.

Inzamam-ul-Haq, another former Pakistan captain, also threw his weight behind the national cricketers and advised them to go to court and challenge the decision.

‘Players should go to court against the ban,’ said Inzamam. ‘Only players are not responsible for the performance, PCB is also responsible.’

Ramiz Raja, also a former Test captain, also criticised the PCB action.

‘Life-time bans on players are harsh,’ said Ramiz.

The South African, by his own admission, has got little time with the local players. “I haven’t seen the local players yet. I think, after 3-4 nets, I should get an idea.”

For a team that has many international stars, it could be tough to leave out two overseas players from the six available, considering that all would be first-choice in their own national teams. “That is where the balancing act needs to be done. It is important to manage international players,” said Simons, before adding that the new skipper, Gautam Gambhir, should have no problems on this. “He’s a mature and clear-thinking individual. He has got no ego and is the perfect man to lead.”

Pitch gets thumbs up A few members of the Railways team, which practised with Delhi, too seemed satisfied with the track, although there were slight concerns about it being on the slow side.

His body was later shifted to his house. Villagers and his relatives gathered to mourn his death.

A grave was prepared for his burial, villagers said. People taking him to the graveyard were shocked to see Karim moving.

He later started talking. Karim was again brought to the hospital, they said, adding his family members have demanded action against the doctor who pronounced him dead.

Many Sunnis in flashpoint neighborhoods say they are lying low or temporarily moving to safer areas as they wait in fear that the elections will spark a new sectarian backlash against them.

Omar al-Jubouri, a 26-year-old Sunni university worker, saw some of the same Shiite militiamen who forced him to flee his home five years ago back in his south Baghdad neighborhood.

“I sensed the threat, so we locked the house and left,” said al-Jubouri, who took his wife and two children out of Abu Dshir, a Shiite enclave in the mainly Sunni Dora district, to stay with relatives elsewhere in the capital.

“I fled because I don’t want to be terrified again like in 2005,” he said. “We escaped so my children can continue to have a father and not become orphans.”

Ex-Mahdi Army members appear to have been emboldened by the prospect of an Iraq free of the U.S. military and by al-Sadr’s decision to join a Shiite-led alliance that may become the single largest bloc in the next legislature. The alliance could earn the right to nominate the next prime minister.

The radical cleric’s movement fought bloody battles with Sunni militants and the Americans and was blamed for some of the worst retaliatory sectarian violence. The elections could give it more leverage than it has had since it burst on the scene after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.

Their knowledge of the past greats is very limited. This is borne out through my inter action with several hardcore cricket enthusiasts as also by a number of polls conducted by various publications. The questions pertaining to the greatest Indian team, greatest batsmen, greatest bowlers, greatest all-rounders and so on invariably have only cricketers stretching back at most to the seventies.

Today’s generation of cricket lovers have been brought up on television and videos and because there is so little footage of cricket played from the thirties to the sixties, the younger followers of the game are quite ignorant of the feats performed by CK Nayudu and Lala Amarnath, Mohammed Nissar and Amar Singh, Vijay Merchant and Mushtaq Ali, Vinoo Mankad and Subash Gupte, Vijay Hazare and Vijay Manjrekar, Polly Umrigar and the Nawab of Pataudi.

Reading unfortunately is a vanishing habit. In my youth, in the fifties and sixties, we were brought up on books from where we got to know about the exploits of great cricketers of previous eras. I remember reading avidly about Trumper and Hobbs, Hammond and Hutton, O’Reilly and Grimmett, Nayudu and Merchant and going through books written by Neville Cardus, Ray Robinson, RC Robertson Glasgow, AA Thomson and Berry Sarbhadhikari. With reading a lost art, there is this tendency by today’s generation of cricket lovers to belittle or dismiss the facts, figures and statistics associated with cricketers of a bygone period.

Just the other day, I was going through a website opinion poll asking readers to list the greatest Indian spin bowler of all time, even as some ten names (options) were listed. Anil Kumble alone got about two thirds of the vote, Harbhajan was way behind in second place while the members of the famous spin quartet all got single digit votes. Subash Gupte arguably the greatest of Indian spin bowlers (a view shared by Gary Sobers and Erapalli Prasanna among others) was second last in the voting.

The film stars Dr. Vishnuvardhan, Vimala Raman, Lakshmi Gopalaswamy, Bhavana, Sandhya, Komal Kumar, Srinivasamurthy, Avinash and others. The producer is Krishna Prajwal. Meanwhile, the director has started to work on his next project titled Puli Vesham with R.K. in the lead role. The film is expected to narrate the journey of an innocent youth from village to city.

There are two leading ladies in the film and Srikanth Deva will create the music. There are widespread reports that a Tamil remake is planned by Superstar Rajinikanth and he will play the role played by late Kannada superstar Vishnuvardhan in Aptha Rakshaka.

These rumours started after Superstar Rajinikanth along with producer Ramkumar and Prabhu watched the preview of Aptha Rakshaka in Chennai. Director P. Vasu has already confirmed that he is planning to remake Aptha Rakshaka in Tamil and the Superstar will be his first choice for the lead role. So now the big question is: Will Rajni appear in the remake of Aptha Rakshaka?

Buzz is that the actor was shooting for a fire scene which resulted in Salman inhaling the fumes. Because of that he suffered from chest congestion and was immediately rushed to the nearest hospital in Wai, where the entire shoot was scheduled.

However, his fans can heave a sigh of relief as Salman is out of danger now and discharged from the hospital, after receiving proper medical care.

“Go to your party chief and ask him to come out with the balance amount from party funds,” said a division bench of Justice Ranjana Desai and Justice Mridula Bhatkar. “Prima facie it has been found that Shiv Sena was responsible for the damages and not this person [Dalvi].” Dalvi has been given a day to get back to the court with a response.

Political parties have been getting away with vandalism. The state government had recently told the court that it did not wish to take action against senior party leaders, such as Thackeray, for political vandalism. Citizen activists hope if the Sena is made to pay to the hotel, it will send a strong message to other parties.

Dalvi moved the HC after the suburban collector issued him a notice in October 2009 to pay Rs. 7.8 lakh as compensation. Dalvi argued that though the police booked 42 persons in the offence, he was singled out when proceedings for recovery of damages were initiated.

His lawyer, Shriram Kulkarni, said that other party leaders like senior leader, Sanjay Raut, legislators, Suryakant Mahadik and Anil Parab, and some office bearers of the party’s labour, Bharatiya Kamgar Sena, had also participated in the march. But, they were not asked to pay.

Dalvi had, on Wednesday, said that Raut and Sena chief, Bal Thackeray, should also be made to pay for damages. Public Prosecutor, Usha Kejriwal, however maintained that Dalvi was responsible for the damages because he had organised the protest. But the judges were not convinced. They said political vandalism was taking place “too often”. “We don’t want these incidents being repeated. We are more concerned with the people,” said Justice Desai.