The Surfer

There is a melancholic majesty to Watson's play, he often manages to look as if there is not one aspect of cricket that he enjoys. Sullenly clanking in to bowl like a suit of armour breathed into life by a particularly sadistic cricket-loving sorcerer, the whole process appears a waste of his time and energy, a burden on his creaky hamstrings. Fielding is an activity that seems to rank even lower on Watson's list of hobbies, all that unseemly running and diving around just a chance to pick up another injury, the likes of which have plagued his career.

Sir Alex Ferguson used to say about the Italian centre forward Filippo Inzaghi "that lad must have been born offside." Ferguson likes his cricket. He is probably now muttering about Shane Watson "that lad must have been born lbw." Watson's dismissal here was the 28th lbw of his Test career. No batsman who has played more than 100 Test innings has a higher percentage of LBW dismissals than Watson's 26.6. Those pads are a magnet for England bowlers in swinging conditions and on pitches of low bounce in this country. Nine times they have had him leg before in England and this was the fourth time Stuart Broad has done so. The question is whether after the second innings of this match England will have another opportunity to add to that tally.

As Lyon buttressed his Test position Agar slipped from recall contention in 2013-14 due to his record of 21 wickets at an average of 56.52. When his first half of 2014-15 started in a similar fashion - before Christmas he had seven wickets at 45.14 - he seemed someone well away from his next crack at international cricket. Nevertheless, when it came time for selectors to plump for a second spinner for the squad for the SCG Test against India they plumped for Agar. He conceded it was "a bit of a shock" but said it also stoked his self-confidence.

One of the least well known of the many accomplishments of Mark Nicholas is the fact that he is the man who made Mambo No5 a hit in Britain. In 1999 the production team at Sunset + Vine were struggling to find a piece of music for their new gig producing Channel 4's cricket coverage. "We were all sitting around thinking, 'What the hell are we going to do for opening titles?'" says the executive producer Franses. "Until one day Mark came in and stuck this track on. And after a second we all thought, 'Thank you!" First time around that year, Mambo No5 stalled at No31 in the UK chart. Re-released in August, it shot to No1 and stayed there for a fortnight.

Athar Ali Khan, former cricketer and now commentator, says his fellow experts in the commentary box would often roll their eyes and pass a cheeky remark about Bangladesh. "It's not been an easy ride. It's not been an easy sailing," Khan says. He narrates an incident from Multan in 2003, when Bangladesh came closest to ending the streak, before going down by one wicket in a Test now best remembered for Inzamam-ul -Haq's heroics.

Nothing in life without curves can be truly beautiful and Sangakkara bats in straight lines, the elbows stiff like the upper lips of British royalty. His wrists might as well not exist. I will grant that Twenty20 opened a new vista on to his game, but in his recent, greatest years, a kind of bloodlessness defined his play. But, as a last resort, try placing Sangakkara through the prism of The Beatles, in particular, their leadership engine of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Lennon was quite obviously the edgier, more radical operator of the two, an unpredictable spectrum capable of producing great, stinking duds, but also unmatched hits. McCartney, always trying to please too many, was safe.

Ten years since that Ashes summer. An entire decade. And England haven't lost at home to Australia since. J Alfred Prufrock measured out his life with coffee spoons; England cricket fans do it with Ashes series. They are the invisible punctuation in our life stories. When did Granddad die? Was it under Denness or Greig? Of course it's our 14th anniversary - it was the year Mark Butcher scored that century! Our own narratives are held steady by anchors the shape of replica urns.

This time, the topics have included: the misappropriation of Test-match tickets; sledging; rumours that the Australian tour party is so venerable that they are soon to be sponsored by the makers of mobility scooters; England's decision to have a jolly in Spain ("at least we'll beat 'em at golf"); sledging; five-nil predictions from Glenn McGrath and Ian Botham; Shane Watson's fear of ghosts; the welcome ostracism/malicious expulsion of KP; charismatic ex-spinners casting aspersions on the opposition's best batsmen (Graeme Swann has queried Steve Smith's credentials to bat at three - "It doesn't bother me, pre-Ashes banter, mate; he can say whatever he likes," responds Smith. Presumably, Shane Warne will suggest something similar about Alastair Cook and hopefully, this time, the England captain will react rather like Smith); and sledging.

Cricket as an enterprise and BCCI as a business entity have far outgrown the era when a Wankhede or a Salve could moonlight as a sports official. Since the mid 1990s, when telecast rights began to be sold, BCCI's bank balance has been rising appreciably. In 2008 revenues saw a sudden and massive surge, with the advent of the Indian Premier League. The capacity mismatch is now simply untenable. The BCCI will earn substantially by diluting its stake in IPL. It will also get annual dividends. It can deploy this money for the promotion of cricket in India and for subsidising test matches. Its politicians will still be up to mischief, but at least their cake will be smaller.

He lived in Pakistan Steel Mills colony with his father and brother who worked at the Steel Mills. Younis would practise there at the night under street lights and some time in the tennis court too. Though we included him in the squad, Younis at times missed the matches because he either didn't have money to travel or there was curfew in his part of the city.

People love Misbah. People hate Misbah. People love Afridi. People hate Afridi. They are called Misbahtards and Afridiots. It's Catholic versus Protestant, Sunni versus Shia, and East Coast Rap versus West Coast Rap. It is beyond logic. It is beyond cricket. It is a choice of ideologies.

Yet, for all this passion, all this nonsense, Khan just plays cricket. He has ridden above the nonsense. Turn on your television and there is a 50 per cent chance that he is calmly dealing with Test bowlers somewhere in the world. He's so good that no one calls themselves Younisites, because it's assumed we're all Younisites.

Eynsham have been saddled with a £35,344.47 VAT bill from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs. They can't pay it. And unless they win their appeal, they will be shut down. Eynsham CC are fighting for survival, and losing.

I say Eynsham is a club much like hundreds of others, but there is one little difference. The club is in the Witney constituency of David Cameron. His house is a short drive up Cuckoo Lane. Cameron has never been shy of using the game for his own ends, whether he's batting out an over against Muttiah Muralitharan at Sri Lanka's National Academy, or playing a pick-up game with kids on a maidan in Mumbai. The case of Eynsham CC, his neighbouring club in Chipping Norton, raises a lot of awkward questions, about the priorities of HMRC, for one, but also about the value his government places on community sport