Even Stevens

So Ganguly blames the tail for not making runs as well as the third umpire for not making the correctdecisions; the coach blames the poor shot selection from his batsmen; and Sunil Gavaskar talks about Sachinhaving a technical flaw in his batting technique?

But I think the loss by India was down to some plain good bowling by the West Indies, coupled with CarlHooper captaining the side very professionally. Also, any team bowled out for about 100 on the first day canonly play to save the match. India knew that could not win this test when they went for tea on day one.

One should always give credit when and where credit is due and the Windies deserve that. To come back froma Test defeat is never easy and the Indian hierarchy will do well to remember that.

The West Indies made life very difficult for the Indian top order and kept taking wickets at the right timeby maintaining pressure. To put the strength of this WI in perspective, consider the walloping they got fromSri Lanka and Pakistan in the recent past. In a way India is lucky that politics does not allow them to playPakistan. Can you imagine what the Rawalpindi express would have done to this Indian batting line up?

I just cannot help thinking that the selection, or non-selection of Anil Kumble had a bearing on the Test insome way. Here we have Harbajan Singh apologizing to Kumble and saying he is sorry that he is basicallyplaying in his place. The team dynamics are at stake here and that is not something that is healed overnight.When a senior player is left out, it can affect the others who start looking over their shoulder to see ifthey aren't next!

The difference between the batting of both sides is the fact that the Indian middle order is not coming to theparty in the same innings. The West Indian middle order of Sarwan, Lara, Hooper and Chanderpaul are allcontributing and this makes life difficult if you need to bowl the opposition out cheaply because your ownteam isn't posting huge scores.

It is at this point that we need to assess the role of Singh against Kumble. The Windies top order is asbad as the Indian top order, but the middle order stabilizes the show. Harbhajan needs to effect break-throughsmore regularly if India is to take wickets consistently. At the moment he either gets the tail out which, withall due respects, cannot bat for peanuts, or he has to make way for someone who can.

The Indian fast men are doing the job upfront and when the middle order gets in and the ball is older, itthen becomes the spinners' role. He doesn't have to take five wickets every time -- he just needs to createthe odd break-through to maintain the momentum. The Windies are doing that well at the moment and more oftenthan not it is due to using the correct bowlers at the correct time as well as defining their roles for eachfacet of play. This seems to be lacking right now.

With a series in the balance and still two Tests to go, the next few weeks will stretch the patience ofmany Indian cricket supporters. From my experience of touring internationally, it always becomes harder to winas the tour nears the end. This is for very good reasons. The little niggles that aren't even reported andtalked about seem to get worse and fatigue starts to play a major part. Living out of a suitcase even thoughit's in a swanky hotel starts to torment the mind and even best friends tend to drift apart. Sometimes thishappens when a loss occurs and players realize that places are up for grabs.

Senior players can play a major role in supporting management in this regard and also influence issues likepractice times and the role of the coach. It needs a very disciplined unit to stick together at this point ofthe tour and Carl Hooper and his sidekicks will know this well. The media will also play a part with lots ofspeculation as to the team and the strategy.

Already I hear that a journalist has questioned Tendulkar's ability against pace! How wrong is that neednot be spelt out, but nevertheless it eventually leads to a build-up of lots of frustration.

Looking at the next Test, I would definitely say that changes need to be made to the top order and thatKumble must be brought back. Ganguly has at last found some form against medium fast bowling, but his anticsneed to be curtailed. His body language is enough to drive any half decent, self-respecting cricketer to dothings he might regret.The next few weeks will decide the future of certain players on both sides, let's watchand see who survives.

As for the third umpiring, well nothing surprises me anymore. We commentators have the added advantage of thebroadcasting producer talking in our ears with technical interpretation of what every one sees on the screenwhich the third TV Umpire does not. On top of which he is not allowed to listen to what the commentator says!The sooner they start training them in the field of watching a television screen the better. I am beginning towonder if some of them even have a television at home or this is the first time they've seen one with apicture on.

Surely the ICC will have to do some research and get to the bottom of the entire issue. We just cannotafford to have amateurs continually messing up a good game.

Pat Symcox also runs a coaching website, Super Sport Schools