'A Test side that can't even draw games'. The glum look on the face of the teenager who held up the banner at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, at the end of Bangalore's latest defeat, told a story. A forgettable IPL journey so far - Rahul Dravid booed on his homeground, Wasim Jaffer heckled on the boundary line and five defeats in seven matches - became unforgettable for all the wrong reasons on Tuesday with the ouster of Charu Sharma. It's unclear, though, what impact a change of CEO will have because Bangalore's poor form stems from poor cricket-related decisions.

Most didn't give Bangalore much of a chance before the tournament - simply because the side was packed with so many Test specialists - and the prediction has been spot on so far.

"After the first round of auction in Mumbai, a few friends congratulated me on my Test team," Vijay Mallya, the franchise owner, said before the IPL. " I mentioned this to our captain Dravid and he laughed it off and told me that Test cricket is the ultimate test for any cricketer and if a player can do well in that format, then he can do well in all other formats, be it one-day matches or Twenty20."

Speculation over the future of Inzamam-ul-Haq, the former Pakistan captain, is mounting with some reports claiming he is set to retire from Test cricket after playing in the second Test in Lahore against South Africa.

Geo TV and Jang, the Urdu-language daily, both reported that Inzamam had reached an agreement with the Pakistan Cricket Board which would see the batsman play one last Test at home before bowing out - unlike many ex-cricketers in Pakistan - with some grace and dignity.

None of these reports, however, have quoted Inzamam directly. The only newspaper to quote him on the topic, the Daily Express, another Urdu daily, has him denying any such plans. "I have no plans to retire at the moment. I am available for the second Test and have told the selectors of my desire," Inzamam said. However, to add to the confusion, the same newspaper's front page has also carried the retirement story. The Daily Express has also quoted Inzamam claiming he has cancelled his trip to London where he was expected to be present for hearings in the Darrell Hair case.

Inzamam stepped down from the captaincy and retired from ODIs after Pakistan's early exit at the World Cup earlier this year. He was initially keen to play on in Tests, but the board and selectors have, unofficially, been equally keen for him to step away and didn't award him a central contract.

To complicate matters further, Inzamam was also one of four players to sign up for the Indian Cricket League (ICL), a move which meant, according to the PCB's stance, that he would not be considered for Pakistan selection.

Yet Inzamam was, according to the selection committee, considered for the first Test squad against South Africa. He wasn't picked because he made himself unavailable. If he does play one last Test, Inzamam has an opportunity to surpass Javed Miandad as the leading Test run-scorer for Pakistan as he needs 20 runs to go past Miandad's haul of 8832.

To be successful as an international sportsman, a certain degree of arrested development is undoubtedly a useful character trait. After all, any profession that requires you to "play" for a living is best left to those who still giggle at fart jokes and delight in the delinquency of dressing-room humour. But at Trent Bridge this week, England's cricketers were left looking rather childish, after an incident involving jelly beans that has become the talk of the tabloids.

"It's not the reason we've lost a game of cricket, because of some jelly beans," said England's captain, Michael Vaughan, but his protestations were falling on deaf ears. Not since Dean Jones demanded that Curtly Ambrose remove his wristbands during a one-day international in 1992-93 has something so innocuous roused such a vehement response. Fuelled by a sense of righteous indignation, Zaheer Khan swung the second new ball both ways at will to cut England's batting to ribbons, and set his side up for a famous win.

There was more to the story of course. England lost a crucial toss and were ambushed on a damp first-innings track, and to compound that misfortune, India's batsmen responded with the sort of unilateral determination of which few of their followers believed they were capable. And then, when Vaughan himself was threatening to charm the initiative back to his team, he was bowled freakishly off his thigh pad - a moment of misfortune that India's fans might argue was karma, given the controversial dismissals of both Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly.

All in all, it added up to a classic no-holds-barred Test match - a contest from first day to last, and one that bloomed like a lotus flower on that magnificent fourth afternoon. And yet, all that mattered in the aftermath was the saga of the sugar-coated candy, which perhaps says more about the attention span of the average news consumer than the cricketers who've been vilified for their actions.

On Monday at the Lord's Cricket Ground, it was a case of a wizard meeting a wizard when Daniel Radcliffe, who plays the role of Harry Potter in the films, queued for an autograph of Sachin Tendulkar at the end of the first Test between India and England.

Since the final volume of the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows hit the stands, the entire world seems under the grip of a 'Pottermania' but Potter himself seemed to be a great fan of the Indian batting maestro.

Michael Vaughan's men, however, could not gift Daniel, who turned 18 on Monday, an England victory as a birthday gift.

Interestingly, Daniel also had nightmares where he found himself stalked by the English opener Andrew Strauss.

The first Test at Lord's ended in draw when rains intervened after India were on the verge of losing having lost nine wickets for 282 runs chasing the target of 380 runs.

Kapil Dev raised a sensitive issue when he questioned Sachin Tendulkar's match-winning ability after India sneaked a draw in the rain-affected Lord's Test earlier this week. Tendulkar's class and sheer talent have never been in doubt, but increasingly queries are being raised over his ability to turn it on when the team needs him most. Tendulkar's failure in the second innings at Lord's was yet another instance of a low score from him in the fourth innings of a Test, and it has invariably led to more questions and debates.