Tony and the skip

Tony Cozier has, over the years, become the voice of West Indian cricket. I've known about him for a very long time starting with my reading of his history of West Indian cricket (Fifty Years in Test Cricket - an amazingly good read for a book that is essentially a condensed history of one series after another). As he's become the Grand Old Man of West Indian cricket journalism, he has become more cranky as well, a natural enough reaction to the decline of the West Indies as a cricketing power (I shudder to think what he thought of the 5-0 blankings by the Australians and South Africans). As part of this crankiness, he dislikes all pretenders to the throne, and has maintained a stony silence when other commentators have gone on the usual hyping of the Indian team on this series. But it has also meant that he has started to get under the skin of the Indian captain - in his needling of the Indian captain after the fourth one-day international, and now, in his suggestions that India were failing to put away games (partial truths yes, but slightly out-of-wack with the domination that India have now shown for seven straight days). Dravid has looked noticeably irritated, and his replies have become edgy. Whats needed for the Indian captain is a win - he'll then get a chance to put one over Tony. Till then, Tony has the edge.