The Surfer

Rex Alston, who reputedly brought a grain of sanity into the box housing eccentrics like Arlott and Johnston, had his own exquisite style of delivery, which Peter Baxter termed, “Youthful and slightly schoolmasterly". Schoolmasterly or not, there has hardly been anyone in the history of cricket commentary who has escaped Brian Johnston’s famous leg-pulling. For all his pranks, Johnston maintained that Alston was “precise, meticulous, fair and unbiased.”

One thing that is ever present in life in Pakistan be it south or north or on the frontier is cricket. This was to be my saviour from what seemed like eternal lassitide. The game is played on every piece of scrub in every available nook or cranny that can substitute for 22 yards (or thereabouts). I’ve seen it being played in a graveyard whilst attending a funeral. Cricket doesn’t stop for anything.

Many of these people are from poverty-stricken backgrounds, but the richness in their heart and soul was immeasurable, not to say that their love of cricket was any the less. This was something I will not forget very easily. A few weeks later I’m sitting here at the Lords media centre, and my mind is cast back to that warm couple of weeks, where I experienced the game in all its wonderful and simplest glory.

I know it won’t work. Fewer counties might be desirable and so might fewer teams be just for Twenty20, but this is not the answer. Crowds will not flock. In British sport we don’t easily understand mergers and amalgamations. We are too feudal and parochial. Our allegiances are long determined, and therefore not easily transferable. We want our teams to remain linked to the closely-knit communities that their names represent, even if it has long been accepted that the players may come from elsewhere.

The genes to play a robust innings of flair were passed down for he was able to hit sixes with ease and scored at a lick, characterised by a 57 ball century against Northamptonshire in 2009, Glamorgan's fastest and one of two one-day hundreds he made for the county.

‘Tom was a prodigiously talented young batsman who was clearly destined for greater things. The impact Tom made in such a short space of time for Surrey speaks for itself. To lose anybody at such a young age is an utterly senseless tragedy.’

There was a legacy a long time before I came in and it was my job to take the baton and make sure I held it tight and ran like hell. Clive Lloyd did a magnificent job. You hear people say it was easy for Clive as captain because he had great players, but that’s bulls**t. We never started out as a great team. There were a lot of individuals who hadn’t quite done it and we had to have a leader. Clive was it. I looked up to him. We got beat 5-1 in Australia and Clive said to me over a drink ‘the only way we’re going to compete with these guys, Viv, is having four guys who can bowl just as fast as them or even faster’. We never looked back once we had established that.

I would say that we need to enjoy the IPL for what it is. It not only has cricket, but a dose of entertainment. The IPL is a very difficult format in the sense that you have two-and-half months to work with what you have. International cricket is much tougher in terms of quality but the IPL poses an enormous challenge to teams and players. Every now and then, when India have a poor series, you'll get another one that allows both individuals and the team to recover form. In the IPL, if form dips and you don't recover quickly to redeem confidence, you may have to look down the barrel.

“I took calculated risks. I was always clinical and analytical in my approach with every ball I bowled, the angles and the variations. This is how I used my engineering skills, especially with the turns and trajectories of the deliveries. It isn’t easy to make choices but be happy with the choice you make. Believing in your abilities is the key, rather than pleasing anybody, and is more important than the result.”

A popular theory that has circulated for years suggests that in damp conditions, the primary seam swells by absorbing moisture, thus making it a more efficient boundary layer trip. We investigated this possibility in detail by first measuring profiles of the primary seam using a precision stylus device on a new ball before and after a few minutes soaking in water. A similar test was also performed on a used ball, where the varnish on the seam had worn-off. In both cases, no swelling of the seam was observed. These two balls were then tested in a wind tunnel to measure the side force. These tests showed conclusively that there was no increase in side force for the wet balls. Other investigators have also failed to find any positive effects of humid conditions on cricket ball swing in laboratory tests. Is it possible that changes in the atmospheric properties can cause the ball to swing more?

It should be of little surprise. Bell was the obvious choice. There was much talk of plunging any number of tyros into the squad in Pietersen’s stead, but this was just misty-eyed romanticism. The best man was waiting outside the office door. Bell is still only 30. His batting currently counts as some of the best in Test cricket. The advent of two new balls was always going to help the more conventional players like him. He simply had to have another chance.

The most berated of all ICC competitions is the Champions Trophy, the next version of which is to be played in England in 2013, yet over the years it has also been the biggest money earner. It is a shorter competition than the World Cup and tends to feature the top teams with correspondingly closer matches.

Next year's tournament is being played instead of the inaugural World Test Championship which was originally scheduled. The ICC's broadcast partners were unwilling to sacrifice either advertising revenue or audiences. Who can blame them? Certainly not the players who have become accustomed to big money, which will continue to be guaranteed only by broadcasting rights being sold for significant amounts.