When another Maharajah, this time of Porbander, came to England as captain of the 1932 tour, he was so inept, that he had no choice but to stand himself down for the Tests.In truth, he has probably suffered in comparison to Hussain this series who has been showered with lavish praise. In fact, they are about level pegging with the next Test, which begins in Bangalore on Wednesday, being the clincher, though Hussain, who has caught the bug that laid low Michael Vaughan (now six kilos lighter as a result), will probably start the game feeling more washed out than his opposite number.Accused of favouring players of the same advertising stable as himself, such as Yuvraj Singh and Zahir Khan, there has been no regional bias to Ganguly’s sides, the usual bone of contention in India. He also appears to be a good judge of players and it was at his insistence that of the two off-spinning Singhs, Harbhajan was persevered with, ahead of Sarandeep.Some point to a consuming jealousy of Sachin Tendulkar, but there is little evidence to support that. Jealousies have always existed in teams with players like Brian Lara, Viv Richards and Sunil Gavaskar. Most captains just count their blessings they are with them rather than against them and get on with it.Jagmohan Dalmiya, the Indian Board president, is an old family friend, and Ganguly also suffers from being seen as Dalmiya’s man. In fact, he was appointed under another Board president when Tendulkar discarded the job 14 months ago.Like Dalmiya, whose cunning has just squeezed a sixth one-day international out of the England and Wales Cricket Board as a trade-off for playing four Tests next summer, Ganguly has his enemies. But, given that he has a team containing one batsmen of sublime gifts and two fine spin bowlers, he is not over-blessed with match-winners, decent fielders or an aggressive attitude His biggest crime, if it is one, is trying to change that..

A seventh-wicket stand of 141 between Neil McKenzie and Mark Boucher changed the course of an intriguing first Test after three days here at the Adelaide Oval yesterday. The Australian openers Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden put on three in their second innings to take the lead to 68 at the close.”I’m very happy with the position we’re in, we’re almost 70 runs ahead with 10 wickets in hand and on a pitch that’s deteriorating,” Warne said. “They’re a very good side and anyone who underestimates South Africa isn’t watching the right cricket, but I’d still rather be in our position.”The pitch is only going to get worse, it’s going to keep lower for the quick bowlers. It’s going to be pretty hard to score on and hopefully the ball will spin a bit more as well.”He added: “It was starting to spin a lot at the end today and that was a pretty encouraging sign for me.”Starting the day on 101 for 2 in response to Australia’s 439, South Africa got off to a confident start as the opening batsman Herschelle Gibbs and nightwatchman Claude Henderson added 54 quick runs without loss. But the pair then contrived to gift Australia the breakthrough they had been seeking.Henderson was on 30 when he failed to react to non-striker Gibbs’ attempt at a quick single, leaving Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee to complete the formalities of the run-out.That was the boost the home side needed and the tourists’ wickets began to fall more easily.

Gibbs was brilliantly stumped by Adam Gilchrist for 78 when a Warne delivery went right round him. Jacques Kallis followed one over later without further advance to the score, trapped lbw by McGrath when he lost the flight of a full toss.Warne’s clean-bowling of Lance Klusener for 22, who hit four typically muscular boundaries, left South Africa on 216 for 6, needing 24 to avoid the follow-on. But McKenzie and Boucher surpassed that as Australia loosened their grip when they needed to put the squeeze on.McKenzie’s wicket may have twice been reprieved by marginal no-balls from Lee and McGrath, but he was still good value on his way to 87 in his first Test innings against Australia. But it was a first Test wicket for Damien Martyn that ended McKenzie’s hopes of a ton as he was trapped lbw by an inswinger.That signalled the beginning of the end of South Africa’s innings as they managed to add just 19 more for the loss of their remaining three wickets, all claimed by Warne.Shaun Pollock nicked the leg-spinner to Gilchrist for a duck, Boucher sliced an attempted hook to Langer for 64 and Makhaya Ntini was caught by Ricky Ponting for nine.For Warne, the first Australian wrist-spinner since Richie Benaud 40 years ago, to take five wickets in an innings in an Adelaide Test, it was yet another day’s work well done.* DARREN LEHMANN, the South Australian captain, became the most prolific scorer in Australian domestic first-class cricket in Saturday’s match against Victoria. The relationship between Manchester United’s manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, and his star player, David Beckham, can be viewed as more Cesare Borgia than Victor Borge – not underwear brands, by the way – depending on which football team you support. If you’re a Red Devil, you probably think, indeed hope, that the apparent spat is nothing more than another comic interlude in the long-running Fergie-Beckham soap.This has been a source of jokes for well over two years now, with most of them predicated on Beckham’s dimness exasperating Fergie’s parental care.

You know the sort, as when Becks makes a late-night phone call to his boss seeking help with a jungle jigsaw in which the pieces don’t match the picture on the lid, and Fergie turns up to tell him to put the Frosties back in the box.They’re dated now though, aren’t they? The relationship has moved on yet again. The early years of Ferguson’s protective cloak around the young Beckham, gave way to a reluctant but necessary decision to let the player stand or fall by his own actions.Beckham succeeded, beyond even his supporters’ dreams – he displayed a more mature attitude, and the emergence of a shy, self-deprecating wit and a relish for his role as a home-loving husband, has confounded all the predicted stereotypes. He is unlikely to be out in nightclubs with Lee Bowyer and Jonathan Woodgate.Most importantly, the past year has seen Beckham gain the England captaincy and more than fulfil the role that the symbolic armband demands. His goals have proved crucial to England’s qualifying for next summer’s World Cup. He has, in the current parlance of the game, “run his socks off”.So Ferguson drops Beckham to the bench to give him a rest, and then leaves him out of the squad altogether, allowing him to go Christmas shopping for exotic lingerie for himself, and quite possibly, his wife.The Borgia view would be that this is not the sympathetic gesture it may seem. Ferguson is the last in the line of managers who remember the game as a vital transaction of money from working-class fans in exchange for entertainment and drama from footballers who knew they had a duty to perform.Throughout his time at United, Alex Ferguson has been a ruthless disposer of those players who have, through self-indulgence or technical inadequacy, broken this bond.