The Surfer

Fitness wise I have completely recovered and there are no issues with the knee. I had the ACL injury for which I had a surgery. It was disappointing because I was out when I was in form. It took me five months to recover but now I am very confident. The foremost thing for a cricketer is being fit on the field. You shouldn’t have any niggles or pain when you play and should be able to focus on the game. I have gotten there now.

It is time for the team management to show their hand as far as what they believe the best one-day combination for South Africa is at the moment. Against Sri Lanka the Proteas experimented so much that the series ended in a disorganised fashion. The last two matches resulted in two losses and what should have been a five-nil series victory ended in a rather untidy three-two win. Unfortunately during this experimental period not a great deal was revealed as to exactly what the best combination is for South Africa in the one-day format.

It is tempting to conclude that this minor confusion is a consequence of emphatic success in the 50-over series sploshing over into the Twenty20. Given his status and his superlative form, it seems fair to conclude that England want Cook in the Twenty20 team. Injuries, as yet unspecified, have given an opportunity. But the lack of clarity gives a perception of baggage attached to the selection that still presents a minor distraction.

Cricket has often shown us how a man's destiny may or may not be in his own hands. For every Imran Khan who bids farewell on the day he wins a World Cup, there's a Javed Miandad, crawling out in ignominy. For every Sunil Gavaskar who produces a master-class in his final skirmish with an arch rival, there is a Kapil Dev who zealously drags an inadequate body towards a personal milestone. Cricketers are a self-serving breed but unlike us average Joes this is not a character flaw. They draw sustenance for the daily grind from the streak.

Retirement is a complex and painful process in any walk of life, but even more so for an elite sportsperson. Research shows most athletes are poorly prepared for retiring. They miss the competition, the money and the adulation. They are also scared of adjustments to a new identity and a new way of life.

Mankad, a left-armer, twice ran out Australian opener Bill Brown while backing up on India's tour of Australia in 1947. The first time was in a tour match at the SCG, and followed a clear warning from Mankad to Brown. The match is better remembered for Bradman's 100th first-class century ...

But Bradman, the Australian captain, was mystified by the fuss. ''There was absolutely no feeling in the matter as far as we were concerned, for we considered it quite a legitimate part of the game,'' he subsequently wrote. ''For the life of me, I can't understand why [the press] questioned his sportsmanship. The laws of cricket make it quite clear that the nonstriker must keep within his ground until the ball has been delivered. If not, why is the provision there which enables the bowler to run him out? By backing up too far or too early, the nonstriker is very obviously gaining an unfair advantage.''

There has been plenty said about the way Ponting's one-day career has ended so seemingly abruptly. If I was one of the selectors I would have gone to Ponting the day before he was dropped and suggested that he take the opportunity to announce his retirement, in exchange for a final farewell game at Bellerive Oval in front of his adoring home crowd.

Knowing Ponting he would have looked me squarely in the eye and told me that he wanted to continue playing. If the selectors wanted to end his career, then the blood would have to be on their hands. For all I know that very scenario may have occurred. The point is he was never going to retire while he still had the passion to train and play at the highest level.

Bevan was a miracle of imperturbable efficiency; Christian Ryan wrote he had a "calculator for a brain and a tweezer for a bat". In one sense Dhoni is Finisher 2.0, because he has added huge hitting to Bevan's repertoire of deft boundaries and furious running between the wickets. Bevan hit 21 sixes in 232 ODIs; Dhoni has struck 136 in 201. Then again, Bevan rarely needed to resort to big shots, so well did he manage his innings. It's almost impossible to split them. If you were picking an all-time one-day XI, he and Dhoni would be two of the first names on the teamsheet.

The modest coach tried his best to dissuade the young cricketers from aping Vengsarkar’s non-existent pre-batting workout but it was futile. The impressionable boys had cracked the secret of “effortless” batting by watching their hero in action. Endless laps of cricket field, frog jumps or sprint sessions that their coach advocated were a waste of time, they concluded. Rolling wrists followed by a draining net session was the recipe for success at the top level. Actually that was the template Indian batsmen have followed for years.

Yet there is an undeniable romance to his finishing on 99, if that's what he does. It's the number he'll be remembered by, purely because it's the number that best represents the epic grandeur of his enduring brilliance. If the number shows both his greatness and his humanity, if it tells his story the way 99.94 tells Bradman's, then it will be perfect whether it's 100 or not.

Only on two occasions - both involving hometown franchise, Chittagong Kings, playing at the Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium - did the crowd really look like a decent one. Otherwise, despite the cut down of the ticket prices, it has been quite an embarrassment for the organisers who have only looked at each other for answers for such low interest.