The Surfer

Both men served for three years as deputies, readying themselves for the top job. Neither has enjoyed much of a career as a T20 player, and in that both are free of distractions it brings. Like Cook, Clarke took over a team in a slump. Like Cook, Clarke has a battalion of young pace bowlers to manage. And like Cook, he has had to manage some awkward players. Australia, though, could afford to cut Simon Katich out of their team, England cannot do the same with Pietersen.

Cook is going to be too busy to keep much of an eye on what is happening six thousand or so miles away in Australia, but if he wants a hint or two on how to handle his transition, it wouldn't be the worst place to look.

Basically, attacking with the ball is trying everything you can to take a wicket as you feel the ball is coming out well and the team need a breakthrough, which is why you want to defend with the field because when you are trying different things you do bowl a few more bad deliveries.

Defending with the ball means bowling nothing but your stock delivery and being super patient, so you can attack with the field as there won't be any bad balls.

The second of those tours, led by Mike Smith in 1963-64, had a particularly dire sick list and on the eve of the second Test at Bombay the manager David Clark told young pressman Henry Blofeld (recent Cambridge University bat on his first foreign trip for the Guardian) to be prepared to pad up for England in the morning. "I'm ready," said Henry, "but if I pass 50 I don't expect to be dropped for the next Test." In the event, Micky Stewart staggered from his sickbed to join the side.

What Gideon has given us, in my opinion, is his best book yet. It struck me almost immediately that this is not a cricket book. It is a book about a man who played cricket. What Gideon has on his side is perspective; he is not a cricket journalist, but a man who writes about cricket.

This is not a biography, but an examination of his art, his relationships, and his place in our lives. It is a social snapshot of our time, our culture--cricket and otherwise--and how Shane Warne helped sculpt it. This book gives Shane Warne context. It goes beyond 'when', and asks 'how' and 'why'. That is what makes this book so enjoyable--it does not fill in the gaps on our knowledge of Warne, but creates new layers.

There's nothing on these games, the outcomes are completely loaded in favour of the chasing team and the standard of play isn't hugely high. It's hard enough to stave off sleep when a match is being played in the middle of the night (NZ time) but virtually impossible when the Black Caps make Sri Lanka's bowlers look so unplayable.

Everything will be against England in this series, and India will be desperate to show how good they are on home soil. We have already seen Duncan Fletcher's effect as India's coach in keeping spinners away from England in their warm-up matches. Their players will also want to pay England back after losing 4-0 in 2011. They remember grudges: recall Sourav Ganguly waving his shirt around at Lord's after Freddie Flintoff had done it in Delhi.

Flintoff has been luckier than most. Over the past two years, he's developed a credible career as the Gary Lineker of cricket. A TV presenter and radio personality, he's team captain on James Corden's Sky sports panel show, A League of Their Own, and has fronted a handful of documentaries. Even so, sports writers and TV critics have been scathing about this latest venture.

Isn't that only fair? Should we not strive for victory without help from a doctored pitch? Not really -- home advantage is an accepted norm in many sports, not just cricket. England and Australia did us no favours when we travelled there. Why should a team that occupied the No 1 spot in Test cricket until recently not be tested on a turning track, just like our team was put through the hoops on bouncy and seamy ones? The Ahmedabad curator should, in fact, be instructed to produce a pitch that will make Ashwin smile on Day One.

There is something different about South Africa's great all-rounder Jacques Kallis this tour and here's what it is - he's free. There is no saddle on his back, no ball and chain trailing behind him. No weight of a succession of captains saying, "You know you are our rock and don't get out," which had been the message for 15 years, and he is not facing any statistician pressure from himself or others to drag or keep his average above 50. After all these years of being The Man, he has wriggled out of the strait jacket and is sniffing the breeze. That spells grave danger for Australia.

India are a manifestly stronger side on home turf but they have hardly thrashed England in recent times. Moreover there are signs of creaking. Tendulkar is in his fortieth year. Sehwag and Zaheer Khan are both 34 and, for all their experience, their bodies and reflexes are more prone to rebel. They cannot be as intimidating as they once were.