The Surfer

Has technical perfection been your strength right from the beginning?

Well, at the start of my career, the one thing I really needed to work on was shot selection. The shift from first-class cricket to playing the best in the world is huge. I played my first series against the likes of Imran, Wasim, Qadir, Waqar and Aaqib and the next against Hadlee and Morrison. They were all top-class bowlers and against them shot selection becomes really important, which as a 16-year-old I lacked. I spoke to a lot of guys and they said it comes with maturity, it is not going to happen overnight as you are used to reacting to a particular bowler in a certain manner. But that will change as the standard of bowling is going to get higher, and you have got to start playing differently. I felt, as time went by, my shot selection became better.

So who is the most successful captain in Test history? According to Mr Mukherjee, it is Steve Waugh, captain of Australia between 1999-2004. It is difficult to disagree with his finding. Mr Waugh holds the record for the most consecutive Test wins at 15 (the team itself was unbeaten for 16).

The peak loomed some 750m above us. Mike hopped on his bike and headed straight up, shouting, ‘follow me’. Joke over. The next 90 minutes saw players using every swearword in the book, until they were too exhausted to swear… and there was still more to climb. For 7km, we climbed, never once did the path level out. Not once. Honestly! I have never been so physically exhausted in my life. But I was in Mike Horn territory, so I refused to get off my bike, refused to rest, refused to walk. I found reserves that I never knew I had. AB de Villiers said that he had never been that exhausted in his life, and that he pushed harder than he had ever had before. He now knew he could do more than he believed.

Sportsmen and women are seldom good arbiters of when they've reached the end of the line. Kapil Dev carried on two seasons too many in pursuit of a record, and stalled at least a couple of promising careers in the process. Javed Miandad went on till he was a parody of his old street-fighting self. They clearly believed that they had something left to give, even if the evidence from the field suggested otherwise.

It is in such situations that selectors must earn their money. It is often suggested in India that Tendulkar is too big a name to be dropped or asked to retire. That is nonsense. No one, no matter what their achievements, is bigger than a team and its future prospects.

When he arrived here in 2003 as a 22 year-old with the burden of captaincy suddenly thrown upon him, his opposite number Nasser Hussain forgot his name. “Whatshisname” Hussain said. Five hundred and forty one minutes and 277 runs later Hussain knew all about the left-hander from Johannesburg. Hussain promptly resigned after that first Test in Birmingham

Five years later ... in the third Test at Birmingham South Africa were required to chase 281 to win on a wearing pitch. He made an utterly magisterial 154 not out to win the match and the series. The following morning Hussain’s successor, Michael Vaughan, tearfully announced his resignation.

Rankin says the motivations for putting an oval on the Tank Farm mirrored the Victoria Park project, but it had two significant advantages: it would cause no disruption to club cricket and there were already plans to turn the Tank Farm into a park ... "Apart from 10 days of test cricket a year, the public would have full access to the park. In reality, it would immediately be one of the great cricket grounds of the world. It would be surrounded by water on three sides, with the cityscape as a background. It would offer a terrific advertisement for the city and country to viewers in the likes of the UK, Australia, South Africa and India."

Wright had few options once Taylor injured his shoulder. The cupboard is bare. And while the results may not have been positive till now, Williamson has shown his leadership qualities ...

Graeme Smith was 22 and had played only eight Test matches and 22 ODIs when he was appointed South Africa captain after a disappointing 2003 World Cup, and his success is there for all to see. Pataudi did the same for India. New Zealand have their own experience with Stephen Fleming. He was a week shy of his 24th birthday when he got the job in 1997. Today, he is considered the best captain they had.

Much research is being directed into what enables a pace man to propel the ball at 100mph and Steve Finn, sustaining speeds of 94-plus through the last six months, is the first in the line. His four for 37 was the match-winning performance yesterday.

Fast bowling comes down to the synchronised contraction and expansion of a thousand tiny muscles. Rhythm and timing are crucial. Finn works relentlessly on his run-up before play, ensuring he is reaching the crease at the optimum speed to release the ball over a braced front knee, maximising his 6ft 7in height. Having done extensive strength and conditioning work in the last 12 months, he has become impressively consistent both in speed and accuracy.

Chappell is entitled to his opinion as a fundamental right; the flip side of the foremost is that he need not necessarily be correct. Just to play devil’s advocate, his perception of a divided team could have been enhanced because of the excruciating circumstances he himself was embroiled in.

To get back to Chappell and his turbulent years in Indian cricket, while it is true he was an ‘ insider’ because he was the coach, it is also true that he rapidly became an outsider as several players – not just Sourav Ganguly — fell foul of him.

The cricketing connection of the great writer, who passed away on this day 82 years ago, was not limited just to names of characters. Sir Arthur was a First-Class cricketer of some ability. Wisden observes in his obituary: “While never a famous cricketer, he could hit hard and bowl slows with puzzling flight. For MCC v Cambridgeshire at Lord's, in 1899, he took seven wickets for 61 runs, and on the same ground two years later carried out his bat for 32 against Leicestershire, who had Woodcock, Geeson and King to bowl for them.”

Cricket did feature in some of Conan Doyle’s other writings – even if they did not attain the stratospheric levels of fame as his Holmes tales. In one of his Brigadier Gerard stories, Conan Doyle describes a French officer’s rather calamitous efforts at the game as a prisoner of war.