India hope to secure first Test win at Barbados As expected, the Busta XI’s fine performance against the touring Indians has seen some players being recalled to the national squad. Ridley Jacobs will replace the woefully out of form Junior Murray, while left-arm seamer Pedro Collins will take Marlon Black’s slot. Mahendra Nagamootoo, who was expected to return for the third Test, was involved in a car crash on Friday. So leg-spinner Dinanath Ramnarine has also been inducted into the squad. For India, opening-slot woes still continue, although it is fairly certain that either Wasim Jaffer or Deep Dasgupta will walk out with Shiv Sunder Das. It is important that India get a good start to their innings, for they do not have the most enviable of records at Bridgetown. Having lost six of the seven Test matches they have played at the Kensington Oval, the visitors will want to notch up their first win here, a win that will also go a long way in taking the series.

Ganguly wants to be remembered as a player’s captain It has been a happy tenure at the helm for Sourav Ganguly. Twenty Tests as Indian captain have seen him notch up 10 wins and five draws as opposed to five losses. He has also become India’s ‘winningest’ captain abroad with four away Test wins. In a recent interview to the Hindustan Times, Ganguly talked about the pressures accompanying his office. “One is that everyone is too involved, there is too much debate, scrutiny, discussion about each and every aspect of cricket. And in this, strangely, everyone seems to know much more than the Indian skipper! He is criticised for the wrong reasons by the wrong people. Even sensible persons are unwilling to concede that cricket is different in the middle, things are happening quickly, there is a lot of pressure, there are a hundred things on the mind of the captain, often decisions are taken in an instant in the heat of the moment,” the Indian skipper observed. He said that these criticisms, however, did not worry him unduly. It was the team’s perception of him that mattered, he said, adding that he would like to be remembered “as someone whom the players can trust completely”. He also defended his policy of going out of his way to back players whom he considered to be talented. “I think every captain must do that. If I feel somebody is good and has the ability, then he should be backed and given enough chances to come good. Cricket is a confidence game, much more than technique or pure skill, that is my way of looking at it,” Ganguly explained.

Nagamootoo needs a month’s rest The West Indians thought they would miss Mahendra Nagamootoo’s services only for the second Test, but an unfortunate road accident will keep him out of active cricket for almost a month. Nagamootoo was a passenger in a minivan that crashed in his hometown of Berbice last Friday. He was taken to hospital immediately, where he received stitches before being taken to Trinidad for more treatment. But sports medicine specialist Terry Ali stressed that the situation was not as serious as it sounded. “He has improved tremendously over the last couple of days after suffering multiple head and body bruises,” said Ali. “I am recommending that he take a complete rest from all physical activity for the next three weeks to a month before attempting to come back and play."

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