India must win the 'trust' after Govt

By the time India's first Test match against Sri Lanka begins in Colombo on Wednesday, the Manmohan Singh government's fate would have been sealed in the Parliament. Whatever the outcome of the floor test, democracy and decency have suffered. Open horse trading, defections, deal brokering and downright vote buying throughout last week reflects the image of Parliamentarians, which was never very good but has plunged to greater depths.

Even the image of the Prime Minister, an honest economist-turned-politician, has been dented after his party's abject surrender to JMM chief Shibu Soren. Singh had ruled out a few days back any bartering of Cabinet berths as a means to bolster his majority. But in the lust to stick to power, the UPA managers have done everything that they should not have done. The NDA is no different. The government may or may not win the numbers game. But most of the political class, for sure, have lost the faith of the people. Rather, people urge politicians to learn a lesson from cricketers who are out to play for the country. The cricketers on their part need to live up to people's expectations and teach the Parliamentarians a thing or two about unity and integrity.

The cricketers, who bear the expectations of one billion people on their shoulders while going into the middle as do the politicians, display better behaviour by and large. The learned members of the Parliament must sit together and watch the India-Sri Lanka Test series to learn how to conduct themselves.

As for the series, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Sourav Ganguly all are in good nick. They have to show patience in the middle and Ajantha Mendis won't be a tough nut to crack. Anil Kumble, bolstered with the return of Harbhajan Singh, may play the most dangerous role. India have got a good bowling attack in pace spearhead Zaheer Khan with young Ishant Sharma and R P Singh. They must exploit the humid conditions well to take it into India's stride.

Harbhajan Singh, in particular, will have to show some restraint in the field as he is likely to face taunts from the crowd on his first cricketing trip after the Indian Premier League. Also, the series will witness one more milestone with Sachin Tendulkar breaking Brian Lara's world record of maximum Test runs.

This team has got all that is required to beat the Sri Lankan side. The Indians must forget the Asia Cup debacle and start afresh to win back the glory they had earned after the CB Series victory. After all, they are not new to sub-continental cricket. And that is the only way to win the 'trust' of people back home.