The Surfer

It must have been tough to suspend Lalit Modi? What convinced you that he has to go?
It was a conscience call. The situation called for a corrective decision. There was no personal issue involved. Once I was convinced about the wrongdoings on part of Modi, it was a fairly simple decision. I sat in the BCCI office for four days (April 20-24, 2010) and examined each document pertaining to IPL contracts. What prompted me to check the documents was the dispute with regard to Kochi franchise and Modi’s refusal to sign the franchisee agreement days after their bid was accepted. Team Kochi owners had also called me to inform that they were being threatened to surrender their franchise rights. After poring over the documents I was convinced that it was time to act.

I don’t believe that you judge careers, or what people have done for 15-20 years based on one or two matches at the end. It is the body of work over a lifetime that goes into making a success story. It is brilliant to finish nicely, but it may or may not happen and that’s life. To try and finish in a particular way has never been one of my goals. I felt I had some good cricket left in me during the lows and that’s why I continued. It was not a question of proving anything to anybody. It was just nice for me to reinforce the support that I have received from the people. That is what this tour has meant to me.

There were people willing to predict that England would win not only the Test series but the 50-over and Twenty20 contests as well. But I know of nobody — probably there simply wasn’t anybody — who was prepared to predict that India would go home this week without a single victory against England in any of the formats. Shades of 1959, when England won all five Test matches here against DK Gaekwad’s team. There was no such thing as international limited-overs cricket then, so we’ll never know whether the 1959 Indians might have descended to even deeper depths of disappointment half-a-century ago.

Upon reflection, changing the order is worth a go. In some quarters it might be regarded as weak, with captains past and present retreating and a newcomer thrown to the wolves. Moreover, the shift does not solve the problem, merely avoids it. Of late Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke have been failing in their previous locations, averaging in the mid twenties ....

To these eyes, anyhow, the order presented in Colombo looked more convincing. While the idea of putting Ponting at six is absurd - if he needs that much protection then he is finished - four is still an important position, a point emphasised yesterday. He has not exactly been withdrawn from the firing line.

The only time the 21-year old Aaron has stepped onto an English ground to play a game of cricket on this tour was during the practice game against Leicestershire. But so ordinary was his launch that, like most others on the ground that day, Dhoni was not impressed by what he saw. In the three overs that he bowled, Aaron was smashed for 34 runs. Although he did seem to have the pace that everyone back home was talking about, lack of movement in the air or off the wicket meant that the county batsmen faced no problems in putting him away. Besides, the youngster’s action was so classical for a tearaway that there wasn’t even an element of surprise before the ball was bowled.

Numerous excuses can be offered, but the fact remains they did not turn up. Presumably it was a protest against the ridiculous demands put on them by their governing body. Certainly the fixture list is absurd, with series and T20 tournaments piled on top of each other. Players have been treated like automatons. But no-one needs to feel any sympathy for them. India's top players only have themselves to blame because they did not band together to put their points across. Instead they have remained as individuals and so ineffective

I thought the way India's Rahul Dravid shook him by the hand suggested even he thought that was pretty special and I'm sure that was what he was saying to Bairstow at the end.

He has to go on the winter tours - I don't think you could have a more impressive shop window that that. To go out and play like that in such a tense situation with such maturity, collness and authority was absolutely brilliant.

He may not give you a quick start, but he will surely make his innings count in terms of time spent at the crease. You need such players in the team, and he was the best man for the job. Others in the team played around him, while Rahul batted as the situation demanded. It wasn’t that he couldn’t bat quickly, he just made sure that he batted according to the situation. His Test innings are of course more famous, but I still fondly remember one ODI innings that he played in 2007 at Bristol where he scored a 90 that came off 60-odd balls. It wasn’t a surprise to any of us, and even in the past, he scored a terrific 50 against NZ.

He is the perfect team man; when he was asked to keep wickets we all knew that he will do well because he was initially a wicketkeeper. It later helped him, and came as a big help to all of us in the Indian team during the 2003 World Cup. He got better by the day during that campaign, and also managed to score quick runs with the bat.

The pennant will now be hung somewhere at Old Trafford for the first time having been introduced in 1951, the year after Lancashire shared the title with Surrey. Since their last outright win, as some in Yorkshire have pointed out, the Old Trafford pavilion has been bombed by the Luftwaffe. Generations of fine Lancastrian cricketers, from Roy Tattersall to David Hughes, Jack Bond to Andrew Flintoff, have played their whole careers without winning a championship. Imports such as Ken Grieves, Farokh Engineer, Clive Lloyd, Wasim Akram and Muttiah Muralitharan helped to secure plenty of Lord's finals and one-day trophies, but never the prize most coveted by all county cricketers.

The entry of superstars like Kapil and Gavaskar was supposed to spark new life into Indian radio. But their debut has been marred by a lack of understanding of the medium, or its consumers.