The Surfer

Remember the great majority of money comes from broadcasting deals, and put this in a New Zealand context. The turnstiles weren't exactly whirring at McLean Park last week. Would more people have turned up if admission was free? Would the loss in paying customers have made such a huge dent in the NZC coffers?

When he left school and Canterbury Cricket pounced, Latham also had to shed some weight. Fletcher estimates he lost 10 to 15kg under the eye of their trainers. A hooker's build no more. His batting, glovework and outfielding stepped up another notch. Fletcher says his wicketkeeping is good enough to be a backup on tour, and if required could even follow BJ Watling's recent example and step up to a fulltime role.

Why should sportsmen care what people say? Why should Dravid, Laxman, Federer go at any time other than of their own choosing?

It is not for them to understand they are past it. This is all they have known. It is what they have sweated towards their entire lives. To expect them to leave voluntarily and suddenly, when others think the time is right is presumptive nonsense.

So the ingredients for a pot boiler were set: A fascinating character, a divorce, a catholic priest, and a nation split in its loyalties. Alice confessed to Coningham about her affair and that the father of their third son was actually O’haran. Coninham saw it as an opportunity to make some money; he tried to blackmail the priest for compensation but when that didn’t work, he went for divorce, naming O’haran as co-respondent and claimed £5000 damages for loss of honour.

The BCCI must appoint a fact finding committee under Ganguly. As he is still playing, he will know the ground realities and can decide better. He should be allowed to choose his committee members and present his report of solutions in two months. Asking seniors to retire is no solution. We need to find replacements and start India ‘A' tours immediately.

Before the series there appeared to be very little between the two teams but, once they walked out onto the MCG, it was obvious that Australia was the team prepared to do the hard work necessary to win.

Right now the disparity between Morgan's performances in limited-overs and Test cricket is so great that it feels as though he is shaping up to be the next Michael Bevan, a brilliant one-day player whose flaws mean he in incapable of mastering Test cricket. With Bevan though, the suspicion was that his problems were technical – he could not find a method to cope with short-pitched bowling. Morgan's troubles seem to be in his head, as he struggles to find a way to adapt his game to the demands of Test cricket.

It was at Adelaide in 1977-78, when India was touring Australia. Sir Don was batting in a suit, no pads, no gloves, just a bat. He must've been around 70 and hadn't batted for almost 30 years and he was still so good. It was a turf wicket, and I bowled within myself, but there were a couple of young blokes who were bowling at full speed and he was carting them all over the place. Along with meeting Georgie Best, bowling to Bradman is the greatest moment of my life.

The value of Jackman’s life is that it would have a book in it even if he wasn’t a public figure. His father, a British army colonel who lost a leg in a shooting accident and wrote sentimental verse, is straight out of Wodehouse. One of his poems was titled Fred’s Erection. No, sport-lovers, it’s not what you think. Patrick Cargill, star of British sitcom Father Dear Father and two Carry On films, was Jackman’s uncle. At 15, Jackman was invited to a lunch to celebrate the completion of the filming of A Countess from Hong Kong, Charlie Chaplin’s last project as a director. It featured Sophia Loren and Marlon Brando.

Whatever the Indian media’s compulsions, the reasons for India’s failure have to do with issues that have been highlighted in this magazine over the past few weeks. The moot questions are, does India consider Test cricket its top priority? Secondly, will the BCCI stop criticising the media for rightly blaming inconsequential tournaments like the Champions League as the real cause behind player fatigue and injury? Finally, will the BCCI ensure Indian players get enough rest?

It is the duty of the media to highlight these issues and to put pressure on the BCCI to take correctives. The BCCI cannot begrudge them that. However, unreasonable stories like the go-karting or winery excursions will not help our cricket. Nor will such stories enhance the anyway dubious reputation of the media. Instead, these stories will divide the team and the touring media who need to feed off each other at times of crisis.

A defeat of this magnitude calls for not only a review, but a revamp of the system. However, history tells us that the BCCI is loath to such an initiative. Its petulance, one understands, has something to do with history. The last such review, following India’s premature exit from the 2007 World Cup, resulted in a sort of indictment of the board’s mandarins. The former captains, who attended the review meeting, found fault with the board than players. Once bitten, the BCCI is forever shy.

Regardless of where the big three go from here – and let's hope it's not down the Kapil-Miandad route – Indian fans would do well to eviscerate these two tours from memory. For more than a decade, these same men made a country proud, taking Indian cricket to heights it had never scaled before. This ignominious end shouldn't obscure that.

In one of the greatest sports pieces ever written, Sports Illustrated's Frank Deford said this of Johnny Unitas, the Baltimore Colts quarterback who was also a boyhood hero. "Ultimately, you see, what he conveyed to his teammates and to Baltimore and to a wider world was the utter faith that he could do it. He could make it work. Somehow, he could win. He would win. It almost didn't matter when he actually couldn't. The point was that with Johnny U, it always seemed possible. You so very seldom get that, even with the best of them. Johnny U's talents were his own. The belief he gave us was his gift."