The Surfer

He might have been a better player if he hadn't just relied on his talent alone; if, like Langer, he had been prepared to put the hard yards. But he would have been less entertaining too. It was good to know that not every professional sportsman subscribed to such tedious mantras as "getting the best out of yourself" and "being the best you could be". Blackwell was happy as he was.

Above all, perhaps, cricket's greatest mortification is edible. Thirty years ago, three England players went out to dinner in St Johns's Wood the night before they were due to bat in a Lord's Test match against Pakistan. Captain David Gower, Allan Lamb and Robin Jackman dared one another to order breast of canard; none felt able to back down; the next day, each was dismissed for a duck. 'I'm slightly more superstitious now than I was then,' Gower wrote in his autobiography.

The almost mandatory straighter line, forced on him by the rule change, will probably mean that Ashwin's carrom ball becomes a little more useful, calling for its frequent deployment. Straighter line, more carrom balls -- this is precisely what most experts are telling Ashwin to guard against in the longer format. It remains to be seen how he juggles the two challenges, at a critical stage of his career.

"It went from there. I didn't worry too much about accuracy but that's come along as my career's progressed. But I definitely went out initially and wanted to be the quickest bowler in the country."

"At the beginning he was not that talented, he had an odd style of catching the ball - sometimes with a clap, you know? But then when he came to standard eight [about 14], he started hitting the ball. He already had the helicopter shot, that round of the bat, and the paddle sweep - he had learned these things playing tennis ball and tapeball cricket on the rough grounds. I never tried to change him - one thing I believe is in not renovating the natural talent."

Never before or since that moment, 80 years ago to the day, on 16 January 1933, had cricket - and arguably any other sport - seen a contest which fired such anger, which reached so far and echoed for so long, as the Bodyline tour.

As a batsman, Taylor is a rarity in women's cricket in that she has a well-developed offside game: her cover driving last summer was as exquisite as any that came from the bat of Hashim Amla or Ian Bell. When she needs to hit over the top it is significant that she can go over mid-off rather than the default leg-side that women tend to favour as the only means of gaining power in the stroke. But she will have to learn to cope in different ways.

Taylor offers enjoyable company whether talking about herself as "a whisky girl" who enjoys celebrating or when displaying her more reflective side. "Previous to my break I was really bubbly - but I was probably too upbeat and it rubbed some people up the wrong way. I've calmed down. I don't want to be that bubbly person all the time because if I'm having a bad day I'll just say it. But I've got my best mate in the team - Georgia Elwiss - and we're rooming together during the World Cup."

We give too much respect to past form and record. A position in our cricket team is treated like a government job. Once you are in, you're in. Gambhir didn't score a first class century for nearly two years and yet he's retained. Why? Because of his average and strike rate. Sport is always about present form, not past achievements. And given the amount of cricket we play, every player will get enough chances to stage a comeback...

...But we persist and persist, and lose valuable opportunities to blood new players. Before we know it, it's a moment of crisis, and then we say, "Oh, the team is in transition."

Last minute is sometimes how the PCB works best. And in spirit, they have been gauging interest and honing this idea for years. In Salman Sarwar Butt, they have involved not only someone with great corporate credibility and pedigree, but also an undying love for the game (he was also the force behind Pakistan's first domestic Twenty20 tournament). And not to put too much pressure on it, if the PSL does happen and take off, it could be a seminal moment in Pakistan's cricket.

I have not enjoyed a live cricket match as much for some time. And there was much to enjoy in England's performance too. It was not perfect, of course. There remain serious worries about the seam bowling in particular. Steven Finn looks well short of the full gallop, and Jade Dernbach is simply not an opening bowler in international cricket, even if he is a highly skilled operator of variety in the latter stages. Tim Bresnan has yet to convince that his career is not slipping down the other side of the mountain.

But when India bat first, England's seamers will have no such external support. All they will have is the comforting knowledge that India's left-handed opening batsman, Gautam Gambhir, has been giving his wicket away all winter: in 12 matches in various formats against England and Pakistan, he has reached double figures in every innings bar two, and never gone past 65. His counterpart Cook, with his iron self-discipline, never gives his wicket away.