The Surfer

All the 17 endorsement contracts in Tendulkar’s kitty run until then, according to his managers, World Sport Group (India) Pvt Ltd. Tendulkar remains among the highest-earning sportsmen in the country, second only to India captain MS Dhoni. But at least for now, there is no prospect of brands prolonging his career beyond 2014. No company has signed him up since his last milestone, belying the widely held expectation in the advertising fraternity.

His overall Test average remains around 48 but in the Subcontinent it is 33 and if two Tests he played in Bangladesh are removed it is 28. Maybe it is the booming front foot and hard hands on slow turners. Ricky Ponting, the great Australian, suffered similarly. An average of 54 overall comes down to below 40 and it took him until his fourth tour of India to make a century.

While teams like Services and Railways don't receive the funds from the BCCI, it cannot be taken as an excuse for sub-standard facilities. Sadly, this malaise isn't limited to these two associations, for still there are many associations (who are receiving crores every year from the BCCI) guilty of not upgrading the facilities. Not too long ago, a ground in Agartala had huge potholes on the outfield, another one had hundreds of dead mosquitoes in the washroom, a ground in UP didn't have a pitch to practice before the start of a Ranji trophy game and the list goes on.

It cannot and it should not go on like this. Of course, continuity is a significant factor in honing a winning team but the idea that it is acceptable to say that a losing team are still the best team has a distinct lack of currency. If England fail to win next week and thus lose the series they will lose their No 1 status. The men who took them there have taken them away from there much more quickly.

He [Herath] is not a prodigious spinner of the ball; nor does he extract extravagant bounce. But he is accurate, wily and experienced – his first Test was in Galle against Australia thirteen years ago. It almost goes without saying now that he is easily underestimated – no mystery, no pace so no place in the modern game, where the bully-boy big bats take charge. Well, that was not the case in Galle.

It serves as an illustration that Cricket SA has not always understood that cricket is its product. Its job is to provide the best product available, nothing less. From a monetary perspective and as a party for the fans, the T20 match will be a great success. To the critical eye, it will be another event in which Cricket SA has failed to gain ground in the good publicity stakes, something it steps further away from too often.

Williamson is good enough to make the Twenty20, one-day and test teams, no questions asked, but I ask: is lining Williamson up in every game giving New Zealand the best chance to be a strong test nation – the format that every cricketing country is judged on. During the early part of the test series against South Africa, Williamson was out of sorts and my belief is that it was a hangover from playing so much limited-overs cricket in the leadup to such an important series against the world's No2 test playing nation. Williamson's key problem was he was pushing at too many balls outside off stump. He was defending balls he had no need to play at.

What about the poor lonely fan, slumped on the sofa, head lolling as he drifts in and out of sleep, snapping his neck back as he jolts awake to see Ian Bell castled yet again by the magical mystery carromsra, the one that pitches middle and goes straight on? The strain on the upper vertebrae, not to say the blood pressure, must be a serious health worry long term.

It makes no commercial sense to have your star constantly in the eye of the retirement storm. If Tendulkar were a country, any credit-rating outfit would downgrade him amidst such talk. Remove the perception and watch the investments flow in. If the Tendulkar index drops, it is necessary to affect a correction. The player may not even be aware of the subtleties involved, but he plays along.

Is it really Sachin Tendulkar himself who will decide when to hang up his boots? I don't think so. This is the flip side of the millions. High earning sportsmen make a Faustian deal with the money devil; they are paid sums beyond the dreams of avarice for a decade or two. Then, when they seek peace and serenity and a period away from the game if not retirement from it, the devil demands his part of the bargain. Keep playing. Keep bringing in the money. You are an industry, you have to feed and clothe those who have invested in you.

The positive effect of winning the toss is most marked for India, who are 1.13 times more likely to win a match in which they have won the toss, followed by England, for whom the corresponding advantage factor is 1.10. This effect is least noticeable for Pakistan, who are almost equally likely to win a match regardless of the outcome of the toss. For Australia and New Zealand, the advantage comes from losing the toss – by a factor of 1.06 for Australia, and 1.11 for New Zealand.

One simple gesture during that Test in Abu Dhabi, nothing more than a waving of his hand to move a fielder a little squarer, showed that things may be different now: no one could remember seeing him do such a thing before. "I think before, I tried to please a lot of people," he says. "All sorts of people would come up with ideas and I tried to please everyone. I'm a more rounded individual now even if I'm still finding my international feet again.”