Who is the new Cricket captian of India?

BOARD ASKS SACHIN TO STEP UP

Will the selection committee meeting on September 18 turn out to be a mere formality? If a section of the cricket board is to be believed, that is exactly what will happen. According to a BCCI insider, the board has already approached Sachin Tendulkar to fill the void created by Rahul Dravid's sudden resignation from the hot seat. It is now Tendulkar's call. If he answers in the affirmative and is willing to play all ODI series in coming one year, he will lead India in both, Tests and ODIs. In that case, there will be no split captaincy and Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be made Tendulkar's deputy. However, Tendulkar will reply in the coming two days. It is learnt that most of the BCCI prefers one captain for both versions.

BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah, however, denied that board has made any offer to Tendulkar. "It's for the selection committee to decide. How can we make such an offer?" he told this newspaper on Saturday.

"Neither will we directly communicate with any cricketer (on this matter) nor will we issue any directives to the selection committee," he added.

The selectors, on the other hand, are still divided over the issue. Chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar will surely cast his vote in favour of Tendulkar. But some of his colleagues are not so sure.

They feel, if Tendulkar is choosy about playing the ODI series, he should not be landed with the job at all. Instead, Dhoni should be made skipper in both forms of the game.

Apart from choosing the leader, the selectors will also pick the squad for first three matches of the upcoming seven-match ODI series against Aus tralia. The Australians are arriving here on September 25. The series starts with a day-nighter at Dravid's hometown on September 29. If a public vote would have decided the issue, Sourav Ganguly would have been the runaway winner. He towers over the rest in an opinion poll conducted by a television channel. The powers that be, howev er, are unlikely to toe the line. Former Australian captain Ian Chappell backs V.V.S. Laxman as Test captain and Dhoni as ODI captain. But Laxman's elevation to the top seat appears remote.

Tiger Pataudi feels that the team must have an old guard at the helm "for a while" looking at the fact that they have some tough assignments in the next one year. "Our next series is against Australia. Then we have a full series against Pakistan, and then the team will tour Australia for Test and ODI series.

"Looking at this, Sachin or Sourav should be the man for the job. A youngster can be made the vice captain which will help him groom as a future skipper," he said.

Left handers are more creative than Right handers?

LEFT-HANDED STUDENTS WERE ONCE CONSIDERED UNIQUE DUE TO THE WAY THEY HELD THEIR PENS OR SPOONS. TODAY, THEY REGARD THEMSELVES UNIQUE AS THEY ARE ONE IN A MILLION AND SPORT A CREATIVE EDGE OVER RIGHT-HANDERS.

O h! You're a left-hander!" - this is the common reaction to any left-hander and there has always been curiosity over the different styles a left-hander adopts to write. One turns the paper 90 degrees and writes to the side and another writes with her hand over the top of the paper, bending her wrist, seemingly writing upside down, leaving others wondering how it is possible for someone to write that way.

Today, there are more left-handers in a class than there were before ."I've had people staring at my hand ever since I was a kid. First it felt good to get attention from your peers and the fact that they found you different. It's also funny when they try to copy you and write with their left hand, scrawling unrecognizable alphabets. I used to be the only left-hander in my class. Now there are more," says Akshay, a student.

It is a popular notion that left-handers tend to be more creative than their right handed counter parts. This is because they use the right side of their brain. When a person is Right Brain Dominant, they are thought of as dreamers, artists, and musicians of the world. They have their strength in different areas. They do have similar characteristics and they tend to hold similar occupations. It is not commonly known that the last three US Presidents, Ronald Reagan, George Bush and Bill Clinton, were all left-handed. Some of the people in history like Ramses II (Egyptian pharaoh), Alexander the Great, Charlemagne (Roman emperor), Julius Caesar (Roman general), Napoleon Bonaparte (French emperor) were also left handers. Our very own Amitabh Bachchan, Sachin Tendulkar and actress Jyothika are left-handers.

Is it possible that left-handers have a way of carving a niche for themselves in society? Brushing aside the non-availability of left-handed chairs or scissors that make everyday life a little more difficult, maybe life as a left-hander isn't so bad after all. Where else would one be "different" for simply writing with their other hand?

Source: DC