The Surfer

The two adopted sons of Sussex represented best the contrasting models of commentary when the art diversified following the birth of World Series Cricket in 1977 and a defeated "establishment" handed Kerry Packer broadcasting rights to international matches in Australia as his victory spoils two years later.

The batting is where there are big issues. The number 45 roars loudly in the New Zealanders' ears at the moment. The difficulty is that just where they need some alternatives, they have precisely one. Auckland lefthander Colin Munro is the only spare batsman in the tour group of 15.

For a start, he got it wrong at the toss. Dreadfully wrong, as it turned out. His idea was that if New Zealand could see out the first part of the day - when by common consent the Newlands pitch invariably helps the seamers - his batsmen would prosper. Essentially, McCullum backed his batting group to do the business against the world's best fast bowling trio. He wanted, in his words, to front the game. As the day unfolded, he could have been forgiven for feeling slightly sick about it all. That was certainly the feeling of some in the New Zealand dressing room. The pragmatic play would have been to field first, which would have served two purposes.

Everyone agrees that quite apart from mere statistics, he brought to the game a certain charm, a dignity, and to Indian cricket itself a self-belief sorely lacking hitherto. Adding to his mystique was the unfortunate mishap that occurred in the infancy of his prime while he was mercilessly pulverizing opposing bowlers. It would seem that God, in doing a review of his largesse to mankind, felt that he may have been a trifle over-generous in Tiger's case and sensing that this could disrupt a level playing field, decided to deprive him the benefit of one eye. Anyway, back among mortals, Tiger still excelled, proving to the world that any disability is only as daunting as we make it out to be.

From the very dawn of broadcast journalism, much of cricket's celebrated romanticism has had to do with the labours of invisible men in the commentary box, men with the rare gift of describing the great game, draped in all its finery, to listeners who had neither a front row seat at the stadium nor a television set in their drawing room. The advent of TV may have brought about revolutionary changes and helped popularise the game like never before, but no technological miracle can ever match the narrative genius and appeal of a great radio commentator. In the death of Christopher Martin-Jenkins, who passed away this week after a battle with cancer, cricket has lost one of its last great 'voices.'

They were old and young, cussed and carefree, short and tall, bald and hirsute, consumers of orange juice or buffalo milk or vodka, and could greet or abuse you in about eight languages. If you lined them up - two seamers, two spinners, a keeper and seven batsmen - they made a XII more strong and exciting than probably any other in Indian history across formats. Cumulatively they played about 1,200 Tests and 3,000 one-dayers, so the mirage of intimacy felt reasonable for most cricket watchers.

According to writer, broadcaster and biographer Robin Daniels, Cardus believed in the power of great art to change lives from within. "Genius is a miracle to be revered whether in fashion or not," Cardus said, and he did revere genius in cricket as well as music. Daniels also said that Cardus fought the good fight for Gustav Mahler when the composer was largely unknown. He rated him as a great critic "because he combines deep feeling and imagination with an eye that saw symbolically".

In the last 7 years (since Hussey's Test debut), Laxman outperforms quite easily other qualifying No. 5 and No.6 batsmen with an average partnership of almost 40 runs with a tail-end batsman. Surprisingly, (for Australia) it isn't Hussey that has performed well with the tail, but his Skipper Clarke. Chanderpaul though involved in most number of lower order partnerships also averages a lowly 18 runs in them, indicating quite fragile West Indian batting line up in the last few years. Another interesting take away from this table is that Yuvraj Singh and Sourav Ganguly who occupied the No. 6 slot at various times come up poorly with average tail-end partnership of 13.45 and 17.84 runs, respectively. This might indicate that Laxman had figured out ways to establishing lower order partnerships and coax runs out of the tailenders.

Maybe it was because CMJ had a bit of the mad professor about him. His notorious difficulties with technology revealed that and my favourite anecdote came on a tour when, after a commentary stint, he tried repeatedly to phone his newspaper office using the TV remote control he had mistakenly picked up off his hotel bed.

In many ways it is a heavier burden to wear in Pakistan than that of the captain; those guys come and go but a genuine paceman? Fast bowling is too important a thing to be left to mere humans. He is after all the real hero, the one who will win you matches, save that cat, marry your daughter, sort out the economy, eradicate poverty and terrorism and then go to sleep for the night.

As a fellow commentator with Channel Nine and other various networks over 30 years, I found Greig to be big-hearted, enthusiastic to a fault and, in his adopted home in Australia, a generous host.

In Tony Greig's passing, it is easier to think of a great character actor than a conventional sportsman. With actors, we're not surprised by the gap between persona and person. I didn't know Tony even remotely well, but those who did described him as a warm, companionable man and an extremely funny storyteller, with the invariable rider: ''And he's nothing like you'd expect.''