Tale of two useless captains : Bhajji and Laxman

IPL T20 is under way but the most useless captain award is already shared by Harbhajan Singh and VVS Laxman without a contest.

Laxman does not know what to do with the price catches in his team, and he tries to put a "solid foundation" to the innings with Venugopal Rao at the other end when Symonds and Afridi are yet to come. May be he was too keen to prove that he is as good a twenty-twenty blaster as Symonds (or better). Let us wish him luck.

Bhajji is one step ahead. He tried eight bowlers in a match without luck, but insists he won't give the ball to Jayasurya. He cracks down under pressure, loses his cool often.. one wonders how the captain's cap went to him ahead of Jayasurya and Pollock.

It isn't surprising to see petty personal interests ruling IPL. And it is refreshing to see that teams that have less of personal rivalries to deal with (like Rajasthan and Delhi) are doing good despite having teams that are not so strong on paper.

The only other captain to give some comnpetition to these two was Rahul Dravid. (I was pleasantly surprised to see Ganguly not trying too hard too tie down other batsmen in his team.)