No, they are nothing like you. You are totally different. Only in numbers, they buy a lot of books. But they aren't anything like you. I am very conscious of the recent rivalry, dare I say it, because you are the two best teams in the world. And therefore everyone is more interested in a match between India and Australia than anything else. Because frankly you beat them recently. We beat them in the Ashes. And we got to play them next year.

•Well, of Australia's last ten defeats in all forms of the game, seven were against us. So we are doing OK.

You are way ahead. But then you have one of the finest batting line-ups I have ever seen in my lifetime. When you can open with a man who scores 300 . . . in one day, and then you can turn to arguably the greatest batsman of our lifetime, then you can turn to one of the most beautiful, stylish batsmen of our lifetime, who has got a higher test average -- Rahul Dravid has got a higher test average than Tendulkar. And Ganguly ain't bad, and V.V.S. Laxman ain't bad, and that is before you come to Kumble, who decides to score 50 now and then.

•And don't forget Dhoni.

Oh yes! He is a wonderful find. We only saw him for the first time in the World Cup. We saw him then and he looks like a captain to me too. He looks like a leader.

... contd.