The Surfer

“I’m not sure where I’ll be playing soccer next season as the season is really far away and most clubs have not started planning their playing roster,” Perry said. “I would consider an offer from a Sydney team (if it was made). Sydney Football Club is an incredible team, they have been involved in the final since the start of the W-League and have a number of very good players.”

“The political side of it was fascinating. The new South Africa needed an icon that could bridge the gap between the old and the new, and Cronje was perfect for that. He was endorsed publicly by Nelson Mandela. Mandela selected Cronje as the sportsman who would send out the message of rehabilitation,” Agnew said. “He was more than just a cricketer, he was more than just a captain of South Africa. He was more than what David Beckham is to British sport. Cronje was higher than that because of the task and responsibility that he had been given my Nelson Mandela."

City or club loyalty, the basis on which such leagues are structured globally, was still nebulous in the IPL, but that barrier now seems to have been broken. Though IPL franchises are still light years away from major clubs cutting across sports—like Manchester United, Manchester City, New York Yankees, LA Lakers, et al—but it must also be acknowledged that the cricket league is still only five years old compared to the aforementioned ones, some of which are several decades old.

Now Misbah has a coach who shares his professionalism. Dav Whatmore, who masterminded Sri Lanka's 1996 World Cup triumph, says: "I don't think anybody can dispute Misbah brings incredible leadership qualities to the party." This formula has the potential to presage a new era of Pakistani greatness. Given the ignominy visited on the side less than two years ago, that we can even hope for such a thing testifies to the quality of these two leaders, leadership being something Pakistani cricket has had precious little of.

“My priority, and that of every cricketer, is country, club comes second. I asked many seniors and physios about this and they said, 'It will be good for you if you can do it (undergo surgery) now and miss the IPL'. I followed their advice,” Sharma said. “You feel bad when you see the team is missing you. But for me, the country always comes first although we are professionals and shouldn't be thinking this way. People got to know me only as an India player.”

No bowler should send down a no-ball unless deliberately (pacemen occasionally do, by a distance, to soften up a tailender in the knowledge that they still have the full complement of deliveries to dismiss them, while the Essex stalwart John Lever, who was said never to have bowled one in his entire career, did so right at the end, just to annoy their scorer). Essentially, it is unprofessional, the equivalent of batsmen running short runs, although most of us have done so at some time. It is the serial offenders that are really at fault.

In my view, people have been far too quick to cast doubt over Bairstow's credentials as a Test player. He was given a working over by Roach and was eventually caught off a leading edge, but it's far too early too say whether he has a genuine problem with short-pitched bowling or whether it was simply a bad 10 minutes, which everyone has at times in their batting careers.

What the TV cameras, the pundits and the media missed was that it took a hell of a lot of effort to look effortless, and that when someone scores over 8000 Test runs against some of the best bowling of all time, there has to be a lot of steel encased within the silk. And when we consider how the two scored those runs, and the vivid brush with which they painted their masterpieces, we can’t but help feel there was a soul-bond between them. Made of the purest silk!

He could be the model for aspiring cricketers, who have seen established stars Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo, two players of abundant talent, make Twenty20 their priority. Furthermore, Test cricket always needs new heroes, especially those nations whose lack of financial power makes them vulnerable to the franchises. They need players to make clear that they will put the international game ahead of a profitable life as a freelance cricketer. Perhaps Narine, if he fulfils his potential, will be the beacon for a new generation.

Hansie’s brother Frans prefers to remember the Test matches he used to play with his brother in the family garden in Bloemfontein than the man who fell into a deep depression in the 18 months that followed the King Commission. There are tears in his eyes as he talks. "He felt like he'd let everyone down. Madiba [Nelson Mandela] being the first one. The whole new South Africa, the fall of apartheid and Mandela as president makes it a lot easier for people to forgive in South Africa. For a lot of the British media it’s been very difficult for them to accept the forgiveness part," he said.

The games got millions of eyeballs the world over, crowds thronged the stadia and the after-match parties were really the places to be. The cricket too was often of a high order even if it was advisable for the spectators to wear helmets in the stands when the likes of Chris Gayle were at the crease. But things have gone steadily wrong, whether it was teams being taken to court or their licences being cancelled, the original founder going into hiding for alleged misdemeanours or the ugly spectre of match fixing. The advertisers took over the game, whether it was the DLF Maximum or the Karbonn Kamaal Catch expressions that made one wince.