The Surfer

Cricket was a way of life for Bhosle. Rarely was the hard-working cricketer seen cracking jokes or indulging in naughty behaviour. To him, the cricket ground was a place of worship. He played with a sincerity that could equal any piety. It's unfathomable why he wasn't picked to play for India. He never stopped worshipping the game even though the Gods of the game didn't hear him. He certainly was one of the greatest devotees cricket can ever find.

Despite such a mountain of runs under his belt at a career average of over 50, the sum total of Rogers' international career was four days in Perth in 2008 when he mustered just 19 deputising for Matthew Hayden. Crucially, he underperformed in seven outings for the A side, further limiting his chances of shaking the 'One-Test Wonder' tag. Rogers masters his craft for a much smaller, more devoted audience. So next time you're considering going to watch the cricket, or you're thumbing through the latest Shield scores, don't forget that there's a living legend still plying his trade - probably Australia's most underrated cricketer.

“I was nurtured as a seamer and bowled a hell of a lot of overs but then, at 15, had back trouble. I’d been playing in Guildford’s first team as a seamer so they said go back to the thirds and concentrate on batting,” Giles said. “In the nets, because it didn’t hurt my back, I bowled a bit of left-arm spin and one day in the thirds a game was going nowhere so the captain told me to bowl a few spinners. I took six wickets. In four weeks, I took three five-fors and a six-for. Then I played in the seconds as a spinner and, when I was fit again, I got back in the firsts and would open the bowling then, after a while, the captain would say ‘bowl spin’.”

Batsmen set games up, but it is the bowlers who must win Tests by taking 20 wickets. Australia is well set to build an attack that will stand it in good stead for a number of years. With a busy international schedule, it will be necessary to have six to seven bowlers on the go at any one time. Injury is an occupational hazard for the heavy-lifters of the game so ‘workload management' is fast becoming the buzzword around fast bowler

Narine's most famous weapon is his knuckle ball, which spits the wrong way off the pitch. He is also harder to read than Ulysses with a hangover, primarily because he often bowls with a scrambled seam. Narine has a lot more in his armoury besides mystery. He complements his wizardry with the accuracy of Merlyn – the bowling machine, that is. He also gets considerable bounce and turn and, according to the KKR bowling coach Wasim Akram, "has the ability to read batsmen's minds and bowl accordingly".

You go back in history and look at the records of the great players. We've seen Viv Richards here as a commentator for this series: a legend of the game and the sort of player you can measure yourself against. Twenty20 just doesn't have the same kind of kudos. One year, someone will hit the ball out of the ground, but the next, there will always be someone who comes along and can hit it further, so it's such a short-term thing.

“At the moment, you have a situation where if the coach is pushing a player and the player is not happy, the coach gets it in the neck and he disappears,” Simons said. “That's crazy. It's ridiculous the power that lies with the players in cricket. People should recognise that a coach should have a greater role in decision-making and then he can live and die by his decisions. At the moment, the coach is targeted and focused on when there's a struggle.”

“The beneficiaries felt nice to be remembered, and nicer still to be rewarded. But most importantly, the occasion provided cricketers of different generations the chance to catch up with each other,” Raman said. “The opportunity to meet others and regale was the highlight of the occasion of the one-time benefit presentation ceremony. The largesse from the BCCI will no doubt come in handy for all the recipients, but the icing on the cake was being honoured by the BCCI.”

The answer is right in front of the England selectors. Prior performs so consistently with both bat and gloves in Test cricket, where he averages 42 with a strike rate of 65. The Sussex man is predominantly a front-foot player who likes to drive through cover, but he can be effective on both sides of the wicket. His game seems ideal for the shorter forms of the game, which is why his modest record from his 68 one-day internationals is strange.

"The concerns for the Pakistan think-tank should revolve around the introduction of a front-line batsman for the forthcoming series against Australia, after the tour of Sri Lanka. I would suggest Asad Shafiq or Nasir Jamshed be reintroduced the T20 starting lineup," Sohail said. "Another front-line seam bowler is also required and the Pakistani selection committee, coach and captain should be considering this going forward. Pakistan must identify these resources in order to become a formidable T20 side and will need to act accordingly if they want to feel confident going into the T20 World Cup."