Congratulations to the VVinners of the Sri Lanka v India edition and and the top players leading in the England v South Africa edition of the fantasy game. For the moment, the only prize we can offer you is pride of place in this post and the promise that we'll have some cool prizes in our future editions.

Hopefully sooner, rather than later, we'll have rewards for all the top performers that go beyond verbal kudos and virtual 'pats on back'. Until then, please put your hands together for the stellar performers in these two leagues and put your heads together to try and unravel what is it about them that makes them better than the rest of us at fantasy cricket.

Sri Lanka v India (2008) VVinners:
chauhannoida11
tutul101
shravan_s

England v South Africa (2008) - the leading contenders:
VijayDodia
MOConnor
DockersDoesDallas

See the final standings of the SL v India editions.

So I was talking to Mr. Name Withheld (NW) about whether India will get thrashed again and what an ideal fantasy team should be before tomorrow's match. Is it time to bet on Mendis as your Trump? And how many transfers should you waste now? Is it ok to lose all and make a team for the remaining ODIs? And that stopped me in my tracks. Why on earth would you want to be me and use up all your transfers after one ODI? Let's see

NW: how many transfers should u waste now..
NW: is it ok to lose all and make a team for all the reamining ODIs..
avi subu: is it?
NW: I am just tossing ideas...
NW: u see what makes sense..
avi subu: am asking
avi subu: what do you think?
NW: I think its ok....
avi subu: do you have a tream?
avi subu: why is it ok?
NW: ya, but not updated for ages..
avi subu: there are 4 odis to go
avi subu: why is it ok to use up all fuve transfersa?
NW: just to be done with the worry of updating everyday!
avi subu: but that's not good fantasy strategy
NW: who said I am a fantasy guru!
avi subu: but this is fantasy post
avi subu: if you say it, one has to back it up, no
avi subu: we have a serious fantasy audience
NW: hmmmm....
NW: maybe serious , but we can just put the context...let them comment..
avi subu: because i am going to put this conversation on the fantasy blog

And I did. What do you think?

XI Downing Streets

SL LPC Silva
IND SK Raina
SL DPMD Jayawardene
IND G Gambhir
SL ST Jayasuriya
IND MS Dhoni
SL KC Sangakkara Trump Player
SL BAW Mendis
IND PP Ojha
IND Z Khan
IND Harbhajan Singh

Sold Players
SL BSM Warnapura
SL TT Samaraweera
SL TM Dilshan
IND SR Tendulkar
IND V Sehwag
IND I Sharma

what do you think? thank god, tendulkar made himself unavailable. i would have found it impossible to sell him. after all, you never drop tendulkar. ok.

Update: Thanks for the comment. Choosing the Trump player is always a gamble. But yes, Mendis would be a calculated gamble. High time I chose him as my Trump. But what if the Indian batsmen finally do well against him tomorrow? I'll decide tomorrow.

our jo in colombo, jamie alter says india are almost certainly go in for the first match with a 6,5 combination. and if that's the case, it's almost definitely going to be a 3,2 bowling attack. which in all likelihood points to ojha getting a look-in. this is for those of you who weren't sure whether ojha should or not be in their fantasy side. at 80000 _FMs, he might be deliver a pleasant surprise. if you ask me, i'll pass.

Just a quick reminder to all of you who haven't yet put together a ODI fantasy team, or two, for the upcoming ODIs between India and Sri Lanka, the first match starts tomorrow. And your time to get together a fantasy team for the match runs out 30 minutes before the official start time.

As you're probably aware, you get a fresh set of 6 transfers to play around with during the ODIs. Use them well. And now, I'm off to take another look at my team. My gut feeling is it's not going to be such a great series for Ajantha Mendis. In other words, a pretty good one for Yuvraj? We'll see.

It's time to transfer.

Between the end of the Test series and the start of the ODIs, all fantasy players are given the opportunity to rejig their teams. In order to do this to the best of their ability during the duration of the ODIs, players are given 6 transfers to play around with. Until then, 'transfer away' all you want.

Not that it makes much sense to spend too much time thinking about these things. Just make sure you don't run out of options at the end of one or two ODIs. (That would be me.)

Check out the fresh players who have been added to the respective fantasy pools and at what cost they come. The Indian team in particular has a lot of new faces and it'll be interesting to see which of them provide maximum value for money.

the ODIs are a very different cup of tea and it might make sense to put a little more faith in the teams that didn't do so well in the Tests because they aren't the same teams any more. Time then to put on your thinking caps.

One of the most exciting things about every series is being able to identify and keep track of the probable 'Shane Watsons' in it. In this post we're going to take a first look at who the front-runners for the 'Shane Watson of the India v Sri Lanka Award' (SWISLAW) are. Let's meet them.

The SWISLAW leaderboard as at 06 August, 2008:
Ajantha Mendis: 790/90000_FMs(0.0087)/2 Tests
Muralitharan: 856/100000_FMs(0.0085)/2 Tests
Harbhajan Singh: 681/90000_FMs(0.0075)/2 Tests
Sehwag: 484/95000_FMs (0.0051)/2 Tests
Malinda Warnapura: 251/85000_FMs (0.0029)/2 Tests
Gautam Gambhir: 249/90000_FMs (0.0028)/2 Tests
Mahela Jayawardene: 284/95000_FMs (0.0029)/2 Tests

Clearly, it's been a series in which the spinners have done exceedingly well. (Save for the fading Kumble.) And despite Ajantha possessing the advantage of being a complete unknown the batsmen are still coming to terms with, it says a lot for the the 'old fox' Murali's skills that he's just a shade behind Mendis in the race for the most prestigious, and mostly unknown, SWISLAW.

Coming to the batsmen who have managed to make an impression, Sehwag is streets ahead of the rest. (Quite an achievement considering the Sri Lankans are the masters of batting at home.) That the quartet of Sachin, Sourav, Dravid and Laxman haven't done much in this series - apart from raise many a concerned eyebrow - is a sure sign that, given a spinning wicket, even the likes of Dravid, Sachin, Sourav and Laxman (all supposed pros at playing slow bowling) aren't that great at coping.

After bemoaning the lack of openers who can tackle the new ball and set up a foundation for the batsmen to follow, given great starts in this series the four titans of the Indian batting line-up haven't been able to capitalise. Maybe it's time they took a long, hard look at themselves and considered opening the batting in the next Test. It might be the only way they'll get a substantial score against their name before the likes of Mendis and Murali come to bowl.

Not floods and pestilence. Not corruption and inefficiency. Not drought and farmer suicides. Not another day of life in a country that only knows how to go on. Because life must … go on. But it needn't, always, without acknowledging some of the things that matter, just a wee bit more. Like the serial bombings in Bangalore and Ahmedabad.

Never before in the history of independent India have two major cities been hit in such a massive way in such quick succession. There was Hyderabad. There was New Delhi. There was Mumbai. There have been bomb blasts before. But there's something different about this time.

I was travelling by the Brindavan Express from Bangalore to Chennai enjoying a packet of chips and a cup of sweet coffee trying to log on to the net from my Tata Indicomm portable net connection without much success when, in the middle of a rare period of slow connectivity, I was 'pinged' by a friend of mine on chat - who, oddly enough, happened to be in China - with the news that the city I had just left behind had been crippled by fear, panic and more than a handful of explosions. In a moment of inappropriate levity, I felt like a terrorist fleeing from the scene of the crime.

Tasteless jokes apart, the incidents didn't touch me all that much. I had seen worse. I had been in Mumbai in 1992. Besides, this was happening while Murali and Mendis were crippling another 'India' at the SSC, Colombo. Already stunned by the events in Sri Lanka, I found it hard to muster an appropriate reaction to the 'Bangalore blasts'. (Besides, the news channels did say the blasts were of a 'low intensity'.) The only logical thought of some seriousness I managed being Chennai was likely to be next on the radar. How wrong I was.

The Indian second innings is what was next. And Ahmedabad. Now, after two 'Indias' have been laid waste by the twin terrors of Murali and Mendis at the SSC and, allegedly, the 'Islamic Mujahadeen' in Ahmedabad, one is again left wondering how one is supposed to react.

Does it matter that India were not good enough for Sri Lanka? Does it matter that I picked the extremely limited, LOTR-sounding opener, Vandort (not Voldermont) for my fantasy team and he let me down? Does it matter that The XI Downing Streets' performance so far has been less than inspiring? Does it matter that I need to ring in a few transfers before the start of the next match now that I know what some of the 'value picks' from Sri Lanka are capable of? Does it matter that thanks to the Jayawerdene, Dilshan, Murali, Mendis and Vaas also being IPL stars for Indian city teams, the thrashing doesn't hurt all that much? Does it matter that a cricket Test match I had primed myself to watch for over five days left me high and dry with a foregone conclusion in less than two and a half? Does it matter that Harbhajan, Kumble, Sachin, Dravid, Sehwag and the rest of the Indian stars need to start taking Test cricket a little more seriously?

Does it matter that the world's largest democracy has been shaken by a series of explosions so disturbing it leaves even someone as self-absorbed, cynical, insensitive, stone-hearted and desensitized as you awake to the magnitude of the event, even if only momentarily? Perhaps one ought to bring out a black armband or two to express one's condolences.

Right then, this post was written wearing a black armband to protest against the barrage of terrorist bombings in India. And double-digit inflation.

Just so the comments don't get too far ahead of themselves (and 'entries'), this one post to keep things neck and neck.

Entry number 21 (Take that comment number 22!): Thankfully, there's more to this than just one-upmanship. Like what is India going to do today with their tottering first innings and the daunting prospect of a second innings following on against the twin menace of Mendis and Murali and - as one of Captain's readers so incredulously asked - why I have Mendis in my fantasy side instead of Murali?

Even a brass monkey will tell you that at the SSC, Murali has more wickets than is humanly possible for a bowler to take. Only an ignorant fool will choose not to pencil in the old pro in his own backyard, the SSC? No Murali and Mendis? Brave. No Murali? Incredible.

First things first, why not both: Simple rule of mouse for fantasy players and captains in a Sri v Anyone series in what looks like the start of fortress Serendib (old name for Sri Lanka): When in Sri Lanka, pack your fantasy side with the best of Sri Lanka. Then, curse the 'not more than 'X' number of players from one country' rule. Then, pick up the best of India. Then, curse your limited budget. Then, that's why I have Mendis in my side instead of Murali. And not both. I had limited _FMs to play with. I had to make an 'either Mendis or Murali' punt. And I got it wrong in the first innings. But the game is not up. There's still the second half. Mendis might still bag me a hat-full of wickets.

Then, looking at the way Mendis is shaping, it's always going to be the threat of a 'one-two' Sri Lankan knock-out from now on, whenever any side plays them. Especially in Sri Lanka. What with their batsmen never looking like getting out on their home wickets and, now, with two 'magic' bowlers in their side, it's Sri Lanka - not India - which promises to be the next 'final frontier' for overseas sides. Question: Which side in the world looks most likely to beat Sri Lanka at home?

Until yesterday, I thought it was India. If the old pros in the Indian side can help it might still be. Sachin, Sourav, Rahul, Laxman ... even though, India doesn't have a great record when called upon to bat out of their skins to save a Test match, would it be too much to expect four great batsmen who have a combined aggregate of over 30,000 runs to unravel the spin conundrums being posed by the wizardry of Murali and Mendis? In Sri Lanka, at the SSC ... maybe.

No, you cannot change your team just because the start of this Test match has been delayed by rain and a wet outfield. There are better things to do with your time when such natural disasters strike and lay waste to your carefully planned day. Like watching more cricket.

Yes, you have time on your hands. Yes, a day's play lost to rain is a massive hole in what otherwise seemed like a mighty promising day ahead. And yes there are always other games of cricket being shown on at least two or three other channels on the television. After all, in India the cricket never stops.

So please, for the sake of your wellness, happiness quotient and future of your fantasy team, don't make any hasty changes, no matter what you do - from now till the end of this Test match - it'll will not make any difference to the fortunes of your team.

Regular readers of this blog will have by now realised I am dishing out these pearls of wisdom on fantasy team management only after having learnt them the hard way during the ongoing 'Eng v South Africa' fantasy edition of the series; in which I made a horrible mess of a 'settled' and winning combination.

Then it's decided, when in doubt, when you have free time on your hands, when you're having a harebrained thought, don't make any team changes. Just change the channel.

8. 00 am (IST): Sold Rohit Sharma.
8. 01 am (IST): Bought Rohit Sharma.
8. 02 am (IST): Sold Rohit Sharma.
8. 03 am (IST): Bought Rohit Sharma.
8. 04 am (IST): Sold Rohit Sharma.
8. 05 am (IST): Bought Rohit Sharma.
8. 06 am (IST): Sold Rohit Sharma.
8. 07 am (IST): Bought Rohit Sharma.
8. 08 am (IST): Sold Rohit Sharma.
8. 10 am (IST): Took a deep breath and thanked my stars I still have unlimited transfers. (But not for long.)

At 10.15 am (ST) the first Test between South Asia's two biggest teams will commence. And at 10.00 am (IST) a world of unlimited transfers will cease to exist. After 10.00 am (IST) today, you'll have to buy and sell players carefully. Not like I've been bumbling through the last 10 minutes. Which brings us back to the issue of Rohit Sharma. Buy? Sell? Hold?

8.15 am (IST): Sold Rohit Sharma
8.17 am (IST): Bought Vandort.

I think the Sri Lankan opening batsman, Vandort has a better chance of playing all the Test matches than Rohit Sharma. The 'old firm' of Sourav, Sachin and Laxman are too well entrenched for Rohit Sharma to stand much of a chance of breaking into the middle order. (Not just yet.) His time will come. Very soon.

The XI Downing Streets as at (23rd July, 8.17 am, IST):
MG Vandort
LPC Silva
TM Dilshan
DPMD Jayawardene *TP
SR Tendulkar
V Sehwag
KC Sangakkara
BAW Mendis
Z Khan
I Sharma
Harbhajan Singh

The first match of India's tour of Sri Lanka against the Board XI has not gone well for the visitors. And they can't even blame jet lag. Sri Lanka is not that far away from India.

In fact, the lusciously Caribbeanesque South Asian island of Sri Lanka is just a hop, skip and short flight away from one of India's most important cities, Chennai. (Not China.) But when it comes to conditions, it's a world apart. Which perhaps explains why it tends to take Indian batsmen more than one might expect to get used to. Often, a trip to Sri Lanka has a lot of matches being played on wickets and under conditions that feel remarkably different from those in India, which I still, after all these years of cricket watching, find odd. Because Sri Lanka from the other side of the Palk Straits is just next door. And yet, when it comes to pitches, quite far removed from the kind you find in India.

Put differently, when playing in Bangladesh, you encounter surfaces that are a lot similar to those back home in India. But not in Sri Lanka. To think both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are only a handshake away from India.

A small part of me also sees in Sri Lanka a bit of England, Australia and a lot so of the Caribbean. Which might be the reason you find a lot of English and Australian people owning properties in Sri Lanka and using them as long-stay getaways. Conditions in the Caribbean though, especially in the last 5 to 10 years have turned unusually batsmen friendly. Thankfully not so in Sri Lanka.

In Sri Lanka, you will find seaming wickets, you will find flat wickets, you will find square turners, you will find high altitude wickets and you will find mystery bowlers who will bamboozle you on any wicket. That's why every fantasy team you're thinking about will do well to have put money on Sri Lankan batsmen, Sri Lankan 'freak' bowlers, Indian bowlers and Sachin ... for the first Test. At least, on current form.

In the game against the Board XI, the Indian bowlers have looked good, but in patches. The Indian batsmen, on the other hand, have coped quite poorly. In the past, India normally underperformed most in the opening games. If the second game of the tour happened to be a Test, India almost always struggled to survive it. The Sri Lankan players, after a triumphant Asia Cup campaign look eager, energetic and daunting. The Indians, without Dhoni, look uncertain, wary and unsettled. The first Test is only 3 days away. The signs look ominous for Kumble and India.

Depending on how the Indian batsmen perform in the second innings of the Board XI match, I'll decide whether I should start going loco or not over the composition of The XI Downing Streets. I still have unlimited transfers. Albeit, only for two and a half days longer. Something I should keep a hawk's eye on after my shoddy management of them during the 'still running but personally transferless' England v South Africa series.

The XI Downing Streets

LPC Silva
TM Dilshan
RG Sharma
DPMD Jayawardene
SR Tendulkar
V Sehwag (TP)
KC Sangakkara
BAW Mendis
Z Khan
I Sharma
Harbhajan Singh

What do you think of the name of the team, the team and the sad fact that a 3-Test and 5 ODI match series has only 6 transfers?! I think after all that hard work, I need a drink. And a second opinion on team selection from the new, improved, Random Team Picker (RTP).