The Surfer

I’d like you to be honest... Don’t you regret having quit international cricket as far back as November 2008?
I do regret my decision sometimes, that I should not have acted in anger. But I did and... That bit is done and dusted... Yes, I could have played for another two years.

Why did you get angry?
I didn’t have one good series (in Sri Lanka) and, when the Irani Trophy squad was announced, my name was missing... I’d stopped enjoying my game because I was thinking about things not related to my game, to my cricket. I could have probably just said ‘Let them do what they want’ and wait for my time.

Sure, it's an honour to do the job and (insert the usual platitudes here) but Williamson strikes as one of the best cricketers this country has produced. Why add the responsibility of leading his country as he is still establishing himself in the sport's shorter forms?

No doubt there will be those who roll out "if you're good enough, you're old enough" lines but this decision - understood to have been made by outgoing coach John Wright - seems premature. Worse is the fact it could scar Williamson's development as a batsman as he attempts to cope with the added stress.

Before you got far down page one of the job description, your Spidey Senses would start tingling when you read and pondered whether it was highly misleading for New Zealand Cricket to say it is recognised "as a world-leading sporting organisation".

That's before you discovered that you had more jobs to do than the Greek finance minister to lift the Black Caps' standing in world cricket.

It is above all the sense of unwavering purity of purpose that will be missed. Cricket is a sport of endless yearly renewal, and with Ramprakash there was never any real sense of a diminution of intensity. Right up until his final season he was still the most promising 42-year-old batsman in England, still wreathed in that old Ramprakash buzz that seems to have simply always been there.

The fastest bowler in England is Stuart Meaker of Surrey. He has frequently been timed in the 90s, ahead of all his peers in tests at Loughborough, and has approached 97mph. King and Felton [Shine's associates] have isolated the key areas in a fast bowler's action which are likely to lead to higher speeds, and in turn Shine has begun working on these as a coach.

There are several detractors of the BCCI for its stance on the DRS but one wonders why the ICC has to repeatedly bring up a subject that is not likely to gain unanimous approval. Besides, while the BCCI is made to appear as the villain of the DRS piece, what is not highlighted is the fact that the countries that are in favour of the DRS have asked the ICC to sort out the “grey areas” which include absorption of the cost of DRS technology and the ambit of the technology as well.

In their enthusiasm to get the DRS in place, the ICC has missed out on the fact that it needs to look at ways and means to have umpires who commit the least mistakes in its panel. The evaluation of the umpires’ performance needs to be revamped if one goes by the ordinary standard of umpiring seen in recent times.

New Zealand's fast bowlers were involved in Brisbane for a camp, but the batsmen have been left to their own devices. Williamson and Martin Guptill had been playing county cricket, Kruger van Wyk playing in Scotland and Dean Brownlie in Perth.

It's a recipe for failure, with New Zealand Cricket's seemingly casual approach to the Black Caps' tour preparations having done little to instil a young and comparatively inexperienced side with any degree of confidence.

There are two points to be made here. One: normally, it’s the selectors who pick, drop or rest players. Tendulkar must be the only player in international cricket who decides when he will condescend to play, and when he will not. After the World Cup, he appeared in the IPL for Mumbai Indians, but skipped national duty in the West Indies. The selectors, who clearly need to grow a pair, obliged him and his whims every single time. To them, or to Tendulkar’s countless cheerleaders, he has earned the right to rest when he wants.

Two: let’s nitpick his 'patriotic' comments for a bit. If he’s fit, and when he clearly believes he is on top of his game, why hasn’t Tendulkar now agreed to tour Sri Lanka? Shouldn’t he be serving the country this moment? Is it because no apparent records are at stake? Is it because he knows he has the Board (and his legions of fans) by their family jewels? Or has unprecedented, incomparable success blinded the great man into believing that he can do no wrong? Another aspect that begs discussion is Tendulkar’s unwillingness to compromise on his batting positions.

On paper, they (South Africa) look formidable. Philander's astonishing early impact in Test cricket has turned the already potent new-ball pair of Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel into a three-pronged attack, and Tahir should provide an extra dimension. One memory of that 2008 series is of Geoff Boycott suggesting that various female members of his family could play Paul Harris, South Africa's main spinner, with various rhubarb-like fruits or vegetables (I've discovered in the extensive research required for this piece that rhubarb can be described as either).

Anyone who has seen Tahir bowling in county cricket for either Warwickshire and especially Hampshire over the last few years will be aware that he should command much more respect than that, even from Sir Geoffrey.

I never dreamed of being a Black Cap. I was never that good at cricket. I played rugby, soccer, basketball, netball, hockey. Then at 15 cricket took over. One day I'd like to be known as the best New Zealand batsman. I'd like to break [Martin] Crowe's record of 299. I'd like to stay off the booze and be consistent.