Return of the Prince(-worma)

Very interesting take by Dileep Premchandran on cricinfo around Saurav's return to the team today at Chennai. The stress was on the fact that, despite tumultous battles being fought over his status in all corners of the world, his return was anything but.

Dravid was first to have a chat, and then Ganguly spent five minutes behind the nets having a tête-à -tête with Chappell. There was no sign of rancour, just two professionals getting on with the job at hand.

And there are hints of how the world seems to have changed around him which, to me, is the most significant development in the prevailing context.

The coterie that once surrounded him, and contributed in no small measure to the media disenchantment that cost him the top job, stayed at a respectful distance, and Ganguly then set about showing the team management just what he could do if selected in the XI on Friday morning.

And knowing Saurav's determination, Dileep who himself has been a vocal detractor in not so recent past has this word of caution for all

And given how often he has proved his detractors wrong in the course of a career yielding over 15,000 international runs, you'd have to be inordinately brave - or foolish - to write him off. As Simon and Garfunkel put it so poignantly in The Boxer, "He carries the reminders of every glove that laid him down or cut him ... but the fighter still remains".