Three spinners in Indian World Cup team

The Indian World Cup cricket team has very few surprises. The selection committee, headed by chairman Krishnamachari Srikkanth, took a little over an hour at a hotel on Monday to finalise the 15-member team that comprised an extra spinner than what was expected.

The World Cup will be played from February 19 to April 2 in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, a factor which obviously compelled the selectors to go in for an extra spinner as the pitches in the sub-continent tend to favour the tweakers. So from an expected five (medium-pacers) plus two (spinners) combo, it ultimately came down to four plus three as the selectors put forward the 'Indian conditions'.

"This is the best balanced team that we can find," beamed Srikkanth as he briefed the media. "This team has a very strong batting line-up and good spinners," he added.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be leading a batting line-up that starts with Sehwag and Gambhir and a set of explosive stroke-players such as Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan and himself. Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra and Munaf Patel are the four medium-pacers while both R Ashwin and Piyush Chawla came in as spinners to assist Harbhajan Singh. That effectively sealed pacer Sreesanth's fate.
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Yuvraj Singh in 'top 10 sporting egos' list

Indian batsman Yuvraj Singh finds himself in a rather unflattering list with a British newspaper naming him as one of the 'top 10 sporting egos' of recent times.

Yuvraj, who has failed to find a place in India's Test squad for some time, was described as a talented cricketer whose ego has been inflated by the moolah from the Indian Premier League.

"The Twitter biography says it all, really: 'Cricketer, Celebrity, Entrepreneur, budding Philanthropist aka Yuvi'," 'Daily Telegraph' said.

"Wonderfully talented teenager got lost in the 'tamasha' which accompanied the Indian Premier League. Ego, bank balance and waistline have all swollen in recent years, but his performances have deserted him. Lost his rag completely last summer when, as India's 12th man in Colombo, Sri Lankan fans mocked him as 'waterboy'," the newspaper said.

Yuvraj has a fellow cricketer for company in former England captain Kevin Pietersen who yesterday claimed that his selfless resignation from skipper's job was the reason for England's Ashes victory.

"Switch hits and tattoos, Lamborghinis and Liberty-X -- Kevin Pietersen is a very different type of English cricketer. 'The walking ego' is how Shane Warne described Pietersen earlier this winter.

"There's no doubt that Pietersen's flamboyance and arrogance have contributed to his downfall on a number of occasions, most notably when he reaches 94 and starts looking for the photographers," the newspaper said.

Others in the list include boxing legend Muhammad Ali, current Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho, basketball great Michael Jordan and golf legend Nick Faldo.
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