Now for some cricket

It wasn8217;t a regular match-eve at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.

It wasn8217;t a regular match-eve at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. The anticipation of the high-intensity series was somehow missing and all the talk centred around India8217;s high-profiles farewells. On Tuesday, Sourav Ganguly had ended his press conference by making his retirement plans public, and on Wednesday Anil Kumble started his media address with an announcement that this was his last Test in his hometown.

Though jaws didn8217;t quite drop as they had 24 hours ago when Ganguly had added 8220;just one last thing, lads8221;, still the 37-year-old Indian captain8217;s comment added more off-the-field intrigue to this series. Speculations about the date and time of Kumble hanging the boots intensified, but he said: 8220;I would not like to announce my retirement plan before. I8217;ll take things as they come.8221; He asked the media to lay off and let players decide when they wanted to quit.

With several others in the Indian Test squad being in the twilight of their careers, the long shadows of the aging stars are undeniably hanging over this series. During the last nets session before the Test, the cameras were focused on Ganguly and other seniors in the Indian squad while, away from the media attention, the Aussies went about their job. When Ganguly was swarmed by cameras after his net session metres away from the dressing room, a couple of Australians watched the chaos from a distance with smiles on their faces.

Ricky rubs it in

As expected, Australian captain Ricky Ponting didn8217;t the miss opportunity to give his take from the sidelines. He was in the Aussie squad during Steve Waugh8217;s famous farewell tour and is aware that it could be a distraction to the team. 8220;I8217;m not sure if it took our whole focus away when Steve announced that he was going to retire. What it certainly does is create distractions,8221; he said.

He went on to add that there was no doubt that India would8217;ve been under pressure over the last two days. 8220;Everyone would8217;ve wanted to talk about Sourav8217;s retirement. They8217;ll be facing that now for the next four weeks. What this will probably do is take some of the pressure off Sourav and back on some of the other guys in the side. That8217;s the way I see it,8221; he said.

Ponting also gave his take on the talk about the 8216;VRS8217; scheme for seniors, which was later rubbished by both Kumble and BCCI secretary N Srinivasan. 8220;Everything in the press over the last few days indicated that some of these guys might be getting a bit of a push in a certain direction. What they won8217;t want to happen is for all of them to go at the same time and leave a huge void in the team. In the next couple of series I8217;m pretty sure you8217;ll see some of these guys moving on,8221; Ponting said, not wasting his chance to indulge in some mindgames.

8216;Old school8217;

Enjoying being the outsider, the Aussie captain also said the Indian style of playing was now old school. 8220;Putting pressure on their fielding is something we8217;re certainly going to try and achieve in this series. We will also put pressure on their batsmen running between the wickets. We8217;ll just try to stop the rotation of strike. We know the way the Indians go about playing their cricket. It8217;s more of an old-school type of Test cricket. We8217;re really going to bring a new-age type of Test match cricket here and see how it goes,8221; he said.

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But when Kumble was questioned about the retirement announcement being a distraction to the team he didn8217;t agree. 8220;I don8217;t think it is a distraction. Ganguly8217;s retirement announcement is his personal choice. He has had a fantastic career and I hope that this series will be good for him, not just for him, but Team India as well. That would be the focus because for us the team comes first and then individuals. Our focus would be to go out there and do the job for the team,8221; he said.