The Surfer

When we played in India during my time, bowling India out twice was like a dream. When you have batsmen like Gavaskar, (Dilip) Vengsarkar, (Mohammad) Azharuddin, and later on when Sachin (Tendulkar), (Sourav) Ganguly, (Rahul) Dravid and (V. V. S.) Laxman arrived, you never even thought of getting the team out twice. Drawing a series in India and going back home felt like a victory. Now, India struggles to bat for two days.

I think Twenty20 cricket is having a bad effect. The skill levels are declining. India hardly has a proper batsman with technique. It is exactly the same thing back home in Sri Lanka.

McCullum is managed by Stephen Fleming. Tim Southee is managed by ... Stephen Fleming. There was already misguided flak flying around about Fleming being the New Zealand Cricket Players' Association representative on the panel that appointed Mike Hesson as coach; Southee as v-c provides the ammunition for a full-blown, grassy knoll-type conspiracy.

His genius was present and total, that endless backlift counterpointed by the low and level head, his certainty and speed through the hitting area contrasting with the languorous beauty of his follow through; it's timeless. Yet all around him was context. His bat, the classic Scoop, was slim and straight, lacking the great bows and edges of modern warfare. Shirts were baggy, pads buckled, scoreboards pre-electronic. No-one in the crowd had phones or cameras, the fashions and haircuts appeared odd and lost. For the first time, 1994 looked like a period piece, as all things eventually do.

But when Alastair Cook scored a big hundred in a losing cause in Ahmedabad in that second innings things changed. It was the moment the captain said to his team: 'Hang on, there are no demons here. The ball is not spinning both ways. If we show some character, application and belief we can do this.' And since then the transformation has been astonishing. Everything England have done since then has been right. And their business has been conducted in a quite ruthless manner. There has been no dilly-dallying, no worrying about reputations. This has been anything but a closed shop.

Travelling with the Indian cricket team was like travelling with The Beatles. People lined the streets waving and shouting as the team bus drove by and crowds jostled at airports and hotels just to get a glimpse of the members of the band. And, Sachin was the Indian team's John Lennon! Everybody wanted a piece of him; a look, a touch, a photograph or an autograph. Initially I was surprised that Sachin did not acknowledge these crowds. He preferred to sit in the bus with his headphones on, listening to his eclectic music compilation and looking straight ahead as though the crowd did not exist. It took me some time to realise that this was an act of survival. Had he acknowledged even a small percentage of those who demanded something from him, he would have been mentally and physically exhausted by breakfast. He, therefore, chose the only path available.

Second, as you scream for Sachin's retirement or demand Sehwag be sacked, and implore selectors to give Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma a chance, do so knowing that the new team will, inevitably, struggle in the short term. As for the board and the selectors, if they're serious about resurrecting this Test side, they really need to sit down and draw up a long-term plan that involves, most importantly, bridging the gap between international and domestic cricket, and creating an environment that throws up better prepared cricketers.This really isn't something a haircut can fix.

Do we actually need cricketers on the NZC board? To an extent, although I certainly don't think we need former players taking over the show. We still need people with business acumen because the game is very much a business these days. I just think we need a solid mix of both and they need to be elected appointments.

No one needs a PR makeover more than Brendon McCullum and had he turned down the captaincy, it would have put to bed any insinuation he had any hand in the move to remove Ross Taylor. It would have been a gesture that made sense in the volatile environment this saga has produced.

Sri Lanka will play cricket in Australia as a game. They will ask no favours and nor should they receive any. Their skills and abilities will be tested in the toughest and most competitive of cricketing environments against one of the strongest teams in the world. But while we enjoy the fierce competition between Australia and Sri Lanka, we should not underestimate the importance that this team has in its unifying and pride inducing role for a nation that is still grief stricken and healing from a generation of civil war and natural disaster.

Andrew Morris, conductor and former head of music at Bedford School
I appointed Alastair as a music scholar, and it was genuinely his music that I was looking at, even though I am an MCC member and take a close interest in sport. He is an instinctive musician with a natural sense of phrase and an ability to make a piece come to life, particularly on the piano. People might think it's extraordinary that he can concentrate for so long at the crease, but I don't find it surprising when you look at his background. When you're singing under John Scott, there's no room for taking a breath at the wrong moment, let alone a wrong note. You're performing under the Queen Mother in an iconic building like St Paul's, and it's about teamwork and accuracy, just like cricket.

John Childs, Essex Academy director, former second-team coach
Alastair made his 2nd XI debut at the age of 14 -- I think James Foster played in the same team -- and at first it was about making sure they had the right level of exposure. Not that Alastair was easy to faze: one of the things you soon notice about him is how calm he is under pressure. When he started he was so small he could hardly hit the ball off the square, but he had enough skills and technique to move the ball around and use its pace. I remember early on there was a second-team match against Northamptonshire at Dunstable where he made 20 or 30 not out to put us in a winning position.

In a cold, dark villa typical of many in South Dunedin, a young Brendon McCullum picks up his phone. He shuffles into the kitchen to find some privacy and his voice lowers. It's Sir Richard Hadlee and he's not happy. McCullum has just been picked for the New Zealand cricket team as a 20-year-old and Hadlee has discovered his new wicketkeeper-batsman was at training with the Southern rugby side the previous evening. It was not acceptable, Hadlee warned, and was not to happen again or he would be overlooked for a New Zealand cricket contract. "Yeah, he was a bit grumpy," McCullum said at the time, "but I managed to calm him down a bit."

In general, it is said that India's coach has almost no power, influence or authority, all of which resides with Dhoni. But if Fletcher cannot persuade his team that it is their duty to turn up fit (as well as fit for purpose) then he might not be able to persuade them of much else. It may be that he came here with a long-term plan for Indian cricket, recognising that they needed a calm, mature voice of authority as a generation of world-class, iconic players quit.