And Sidhu for his part seems determined to waste them all.

The latest on this front is that Sidhu has furnished a medical report declaring himself 'unfit', and thereby opted out of leading the Board President's XI against South Africa at Baroda from November 15 to 17.

Interestingly, Sidhu had earlier furnished a medical report stating that he was fit, and it was on this basis that he was picked to captain the BP XI in the warm up game for the first Test between India and South Africa to begin on November 20.

The national selectors meanwhile have picked India discard Vikram Rathore to replace Sidhu in the batting lineup for the game, while wicket keeper Syed Saba Karim will replace Sidhu as captain.

One thing is for sure, Sidhu has probably ruled himself out of a place in the Indian side for the first Test. And, in the process, added another chapter to a mystery that began in England, continued through the recent Titan Cup, and seems far from a denouement even today.

For those who came in late, Sidhu was dropped from the Indian side for the third Texaco Trophy ODI in England. Miffed, Sidhu walked out of the side and returned to India - while members of his family, and friends, kept the media busy with reports of ill-treatment at the hands of then captain Aharuddin and manager Sandeep Patil.

Sidhu himself, after a series of combative press briefings, sang a softer tune during the BCCI inquiry into the events in England, admitted that he had not been ill-treated, and accepted what was then seen as a 'soft' punishment - a 50 day suspension from international cricket that saw him miss the Singer Cup in Sri Lanka, the Sahara Cup in Toronto and the one-off Test against Australia at New Delhi.

The Board, meanwhile, made it clear that the ban would not extend to domestic tournaments - and privately indicated that the reason for this was to allow the senior batsman to take part in domestic tournaments, and thus keep his eye in so that he could be picked for the prestigious Titan Cup.

Sidhu, for his part, threw it away. One indifferent outing in the Irani Cup was his sole cricketing effort during the six months when his erstwhile team-mates were busy in Colombo and Toronto, besides the Test.

Then came the Challenger Trophy. And Sidhu alone, among 33 of India's leading players picked to take part in what was billed as a selection tournament, opted out. The reason? A bruised thumb.

One would have thought a player hungry to regain his place in the national side would have shrugged such an injury off as minor, and let his bat do the talking. But no.

Predictably, Sidhu was not picked for the first three games of the Titan Cup. The Punjab star, meanwhile, donned his whites again and managed a century against Jammu and Kashmir, admittedly the weakest bowling side in the country, in the Ranji Trophy. And found himself picked again for the national side.

This was yet another opportunity, an unlooked for one. But Sidhu, again, let this one get away from him with two eminently forgettable displays at the top of the order, playing with no sign of confidence and, under pressure, running himself out in schoolboyish fashion twice in two outings.

What was even more startling than his evident struggle for form was the way in which Sidhu sat out the entire second session of play of the last league game, a virtual semifinal against Australia for a place in the final - interestingly, on his home ground of Mohali.

Aashish Kapoor fielded for him throughout the Australian innings, while the Board officials claimed that Sidhu had a badly bruised forearm - an injury obtained, they said, while batting. However, none of the commentators who watched the game live, nor indeed the spectators both at the ground or on television, could figure out when Sidhu suffered that injury. In course of his 23 ball knock, neither was he hit on the hand, nor did he fall.

Even more intriguing is that Sidhu's injury was reportedly on the right forearm. Given that Sidhu is a right handed batsman, that makes matters even more inexplicable - how on earth does a right-hander get injured on his right hand while batting?

That performance - non-performance would be more accurate - meant that Sidhu had to fight for his place in the side all over again. It was for this that he was made captain of the Board President's XI. And it is this chance that Sidhu has now thrown away, using his favourite ploy of being declared 'unfit'.

``I get the feeling,'' commentator and columnist Harsha Bhogle, who knows Sherry perhaps better than most, says, ``that Sidhu's confidence is at its lowest. He wants to be picked for the national side without playing - and risking failure - in domestic fixtures. And at Mohali, having batted badly, he didn't want to be shown up as a less than adequate fielder in front of his home ground.''

Sidhu himself hasn't been heard from. The Board, for its part, maintains a studied silence, as do the national selectors.

But one thing is clear - it will now take a miracle for Sidhu to find a place in the Indian side for the three Tests against South Africa, the first of which will begin on November 20.

And that, in turn, throws up another interesting question - one, incidentally, that has become the bugbear of the national side in recent weeks.

It is this - who will open for India?

We'll try for answers to this conundrum tomorrow. Meanwhile, it would be interesting to see what answers you, the reader, comes up with...