The Surfer

This was in the ’80s, when the Kiwi legend was at his peak. He suffered from depression, and the man who was so used to terrorising batsmen, found himself dealing with heart palpitations, dizzy spells and severe headaches. “(There was) total negativity to everything and little things became major...a dead fly on the floor and you have to start picking it up and put it in the rubbish bin,” Hadlee said. “I had no desire or strength to train or run a lap of the park. I was mentally and physically exhausted." It was at this point that Hadlee contemplated suicide. “It was a fleeting thought ... (but) it was something that crossed (my) mind."

Hadlee’s battles against the Black Dog, as Winston Churchill referred to the illness, is evidence that mental health issues have plagued cricketers for a while, though it’s only now, slowly, that the stigma attached to such revelations are starting to dissipate.

In identifying the winning formulae on the field of play, Lambert, who obviously stands apart as the best skipper in the region, is an excellent starting point. As has previously been stated in this space, the burly all-rounder possesses a mature cricketing brain way beyond his years and is a direct throwback to Tucker, who was such an outstanding leader at all levels in the region.

From pizza ingredients, music and fashion to automobile engineering, Indian tastes, ethics, political compulsions and needs have gradually been added to the product mix by multinationals. By all indications, even cheerleading at the IPL is no exception.

Virat Kohli is the Indian face of Royal Challengers Bangalore, and they certainly don't pay him peanuts. But the riches and fame haven't dimmed his desire an iota when it comes to playing for India. In the final analysis, it's all about that one word – desire. If Pandey doesn't make it, it'll be because he just doesn't want it as badly as Kohli does. As for Kohli, he'd be a star regardless of whether he plays Tests, ODIs, T20 or gully cricket. The special players recognise that the basics don't change.

A lot of people make that mistake. Ganguly isn't a regional icon; he is a national hero. No other cricketer, barring Tendulkar, gets such positive reception nationwide. And there are reasons for that. People love him for his leadership skills and for his unfailing self-belief. They love him for being a fighter and for wearing his emotion on his sleeves. No cricketer can create human drama like Ganguly. And it doesn't matter that his cricketing skills - the all-round show at Kotla notwithstanding -- are sharply on the wane.

He remains a Plunket Shield glutton, leading the wicket-taking charts by a mile in the past two seasons. Overall, his numbers are very good, with more than 230 wickets at close to 23.5 runs each.

But if eyewitness reports of reduced pace are true and the tailing off is not by design, then you have to wonder if his left shoulder has lost a bit of pop. If so, he might find the gulf between first-class and test cricket as vast as everyone else does.

In 1980 West Indies was strong, the West Indies team was the best in the world, the regional tournament was good, one of the best in the world in terms of quality, and Barbados were champions of a strong West Indies.

In 2012, although it is looking up, West Indies cricket is below expectations, the regional tournament is weak, one of the weakest in the world, and Jamaica are champions of a disappointing West Indies.

Given his talent, technique, temperament and range of shots, I think the No 3 position suits him best. He is extremely focussed, hard working and also modest -- a quality missing in most players these days.

“I’d have seen it as an issue only in a very black and white point of view,” he says, “As in if a football team loses five on the trot and it’s the manager who gets the boot and the players don’t get anything said against them. I’d have said: ‘Let’s sit down and look at those five Tests and ask at what point was his captaincy a glaring issue?"

"The World Cup was the highest high of my career. And from there to plunge into the lowest phase of life, it was very hard to digest. At first, I didn’t believe it was happening and I was not ready to accept it. It took a while for the feeling of winning the World Cup to sink in. And then to be diagnosed with cancer was very difficult to digest. It took me close to two months to get to terms with the fact and understand what actually was happening to me."