Cricinfo Select

Ever felt that you arrived at a party too late, just after most of the guests have gone and there's only the supermarket own-brand beer to drink? That's how it feels to arrive in Australia ahead of the third Test.

"You here for the cricket?" asked the Michael Clarke lookalike at the immigration desk. He'd probably dreamed up a thousand wisecrack responses in his head but he didn't even register a smile. In fact, I'm not sure he could even look me in the eye.

No one is talking about comebacks or what ifs. To the Australian players and media, it's a done deal, all over. The Ashes are back. The public, or at least the ones I've spoken to, are hopeful that the series still has some life in it. My impression is that the Aussie public want their own 2005. They saw last year's series on TV and, despite their side's defeat, they were awestruck by the quality of the cricket and the closeness of the finishes. And they wanted their own version in their very own backyard. But what they've had so far has just been like all the rest in recent memory, except worse because England actually had a chance this time.

Straight off the bat, this is not just about the runs he scored. This is about a man who came, saw and conquered - if only for the moment - the demons in his head, the ghosts in his past. This is about a man with so much to prove, recalled to his country's cause not so much because he was in form but because the so called 'marquee' players had all but lost themselves to the Indian management's faith; a former captain let down by his own board, yet who had done little to suggest over the past ten months that he had the cojones to play Test cricket again.

It has been a pretty ordinary 12 months for Nicky Boje - at least as far as international cricket is concerned. On the domestic front, both professionally and personally, things have progressed smoothly which made it all the more difficult to accept the way he was treated when involved in playing for his country.

Almost exactly a year ago he was left out of the first Test against Australia at the WACA ground in Perth as South Africa opted to play an all-pace attack on a pitch which, uncharacteristically, played low and slow. Recalled for the Boxing Day Test at the MCG, he bowled poorly (as did most of the attack) and was promptly jettisoned for the one Test match outside of the subcontinent that every spinner dreams of playing in - New Year at the twirler-friendly SCG.

by Tim de Lisle

A cricketer's life is made up of a million little decisions. Should he play the ball or leave it, attack or defend, hook or duck, run or shout "waiting!", shape it in or away, go over or round the wicket, bust a gut or bowl within himself, sign for Gray Nicolls or Gunn & Moore? Big decisions, on the other hand, are few and far between, unless he becomes a captain. He might get right to the top and never have a real dilemma. But in the end he can expect to face a big one: to retire or not to retire.

by Jayaditya Gupta

There are celebrations, no doubt, in the world of cricket over the auctioning of the ICC's TV rights from 2007 to 2015. It's not known exactly how much ESPN-Star Sports will pay for the rights but it's believed to be double of what the ICC earned the last time, which puts it at around $1.1 billion.

Don't remember Damien Martyn's past two weeks when thinking of his wonderful career. Forget his ugly stepping-away-slice to gully at Adelaide, an act which unfortunately became his last in the Test arena. Disregard the crunching, lofted boundary the ball before, a wildly impressive stroke that wasn't from the Martyn catalogue.

If ever confirmation was needed that the Australian way of playing cricket is superior to the English method, the final day of the second Ashes Test provided the ultimate proof.

Osman Samiuddin

Laugh, cry, pull out hair, or applaud? It's difficult to know exactly what to do with the decision of the appellate committee to completely overturn the bans imposed on Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif by a previous tribunal.

Set aside details for a moment: the first broad message conveyed - possibly the most significant - is that two players who have tested positive for a banned substance have been let off without any punishment at all. Even granting them the benefit of doubt and acknowledging that there was no intent, nothing at all, not even a piddling fine or a slap on the wrists? For ignorance at least? What that says to young cricketers in Pakistan is frightening. The more cynical might extend it and argue that Shoaib Akhtar can have a suspect action, test positive for drugs and tamper with the ball (he's been caught twice and Sky TV caught him doing something suspicious with the ball in an ODI in England this summer) and still have an international career.

On a pitch that rewards accurate and intelligent pace bowling, the Indians should still go on and win this match. But success won't be able to deflect attention from the continued inability of the top-order batsmen to put decent scores on the board. Once again, the Indian batting against the new ball was wretched, with Alfonso Thomas doing what Morne Morkel had on Thursday, and only a stolid effort from VVS Laxman prevented an embarrassing capitulation before stumps.

The first five wickets in both innings added just 124 runs, less than Irfan Pathan's tally from No.7. Wasim Jaffer didn't trouble the scorers, Virender Sehwag aggregated 10, and Sachin Tendulkar 22. Laxman couldn't build on starts in both innings, while Sourav Ganguly's marvellous first-innings effort was sullied somewhat by the nature of his dismissal on Friday. And against a bowling line-up that seldom allowed him to free his arms and crash the ball around, Mahendra Singh Dhoni also offered no solace, picking up just 22 from his two innings.

What a waste. A decent Test series was developing over the first four days but it was ruined by two sessions of England negativity. In the winning corner was Australia, whose only weakness is not knowing when to stop attacking. Then there was England. Sad, sorry, insipid England. They were as lame as Andrew Flintoff will probably be tomorrow.

It wasn't just that England earned a record by scoring 551 in the first innings and losing. Nor that they let Australia escape through Ashley Giles' series-turning spill of Ricky Ponting early on day three. Not even that they were over-run by another Shane Warne concoction. What was so upsetting was the ease at which they turned from a team on the move into a rudderless, thoughtless, defensive outfit. Intent on survival, they virtually killed themselves and the Ashes contest.