Indians win quot;tossquot;

India take on Australia at The Oval on June 4 in the first of the Super Six matches. Both sides, naturally, were keen to grab the home team8217;s facilities. For the record, India won the all important toss! Nets facilities will however be available only from the morrow.

Security worries: The Indian team management has been talking to the British Home Office of the need for better security at the matches. Thus far they have received only lip service.

The security men and women posted at the various stadia are useful only to allocate seats to the spectators. They are useless at preventing the spectators from rushing onto the ground.The security personnel themselves take their job lightly stating that cricket is a gentleman8217;s game and only well-mannered people come to watch, unlike soccer where the infamous hooligans are reigned in with metal fences, ditches beyond the fences, security dogs and baton and shield-wielding police.

Crowd segregation, TV monitoring of the stands, body and bag frisking, metal detectors and even preventive arrests are a part of soccer security. In comparison cricket spectators have a picnic!

Fooling them: The security men8217;s problem is compounded by the fact that even spectators wear the teams colours. Since most of the securitymen cannot identify most cricketers, they are unaware who the genuine players are.

At Edgbaston, the security men failed to recognise Venkatesh Prasad who spent 10 harrowing minutes amongst the crowd as he was literally swept off his feet and carried away. It was only later that they recognised him and rescued him.

Stump vision: On the sprint towards bagging thestumps as souvenir, one newspaper writes that the only player who does not take part in the ritual is Inzamam-Ul-Haq. 8220;He would be beaten to the stumps every time by the spectators8221; it predicted.

Amsterdam connection: One rumour doing the rounds is the shifting of the India vs Pakistan match to Amsterdam. Manchester, where the match is scheduled to be played on June 8, is a predominantly Pakistan area. The worst is expected here, particularly in relation to player security.

Among the solutions thrown forward by the media are: Share the points without playing; shift the venue to Amsterdam; ban the spectators; call in the military to police the ground.

Dismissing calls for bringing in the military, a Home Office official said: 8220;The players of both teams and the diplomats are very friendly with each other and get along very well. They do not see it as more than just a cricket match. The trouble, however, is not with the players or the diplomats, but with the spectators.8221;

Tailpiece: Inthe long-honoured tradition of tabloid newspapers, it is guillotine time, when the axe has to fall on those who betrayed a nation8217;s faith in them, writes The Express. If by some quirk of the constitution, the Queen can still order off with their heads, England8217;s cricketers would do well to duck out of tomorrow8217;s visit to Buckingham. The best they can hope for is one of Prince Philip8217;s bad-taste gags!