Balaji ...

Laxmipathy Balaji made a successful comeback to the Indian cricket team with a 5-wicket haul against Pakistan in the first test. And yet, I am convinced that Balaji is a chucker - and I am not sure why the ICC is being so lenient about chuckers. It certainly has to do with big money in the game ....

I had a chance to see Balaji live at the Wankhede stadium during the Challenger tournament last month, and i have no doubt atleast 50% of the audience that day who agreed with me ... but then after today's performance, its not that bad after all. If Mutthaih can go past 500 on the basis of a congenital defect (absolutely bull IMHO!), and Akhtar and Lee and bounce out even frontline batsmen by straighening their arm, why should India lag behind. Thats why we have Harbhajan Singh and Laxmipathy Balaji ....

here is a column that appeared on Rediff by Shekhar Gupta. Read the last suggestion:

"The section on chucking, currently covered under Law 24.2, should be moved to bring it within the purview of Law 42 (Fair and unfair play), and punish every such unfair (chucked) delivery by awarding the same 5 penalty runs to the batting side as is done in case of other unfair actions under the Law. There is no reason to punish chucking less harshly."


Now if this aint chucking, dunno what is....