The Surfer

Lalaji was known for his temper as much for his discipline. He was sent back, ironically on disciplinary grounds, from the 1936 tour to England but Don Bradman viewed Lalaji thus: “I found Amarnath charming in every respect. He was such a splendid ambassador that it makes it all the more difficult to understand his recent suspension by the Indian Board. He certainly believed in speaking his mind.”

If this inequality of surfaces seems to bestow unfair advantages, far better that than the bland alternative. It provides an examination. The hegemonyof homogeny must be resisted.

It has the potential to be as horrible for England in the near future as it is for India in the present. Except that England are a truly accomplished team who, if they learn to be patient, will operate with aplomb anywhere.

Test cricket needs to fight for its audience and ought to permit free entry into the public areas. Also, it could provide transport, shelter and other facilities in the ground. Faster over rates can also help, as players spend an inordinate time standing around chatting, drinking and moving sight screens. Obviously, too, it’s no use building vast stadiums far from population centres.

The body is bruised, the mind jaded by playing more cricket than anyone else has in this India team and it is a marvel that he [Dhoni] has still not broken down. Should we allow a player of his ability to become a martyr to greed, be it of the player himself or of the board? It is time to rest Dhoni from the Champions League, so that he re-energises himself for another round of strenuous challenges ahead.

The most impressive observation about Rahane's knocks in England is not quite the strokeplay but some of the finer details in batting, which are usually not taught but learnt as a batsman goes along, for example - strike rotation (which both he and Parthiv Patel have been doing brilliantly) or for that matter, playing the waiting game by giving the bowler his moments before taking him on (Stuart Broad at the Rose Bowl) and making the bowler earn his wicket rather than throwing it away. Of course, these less-glorious yet enormously significant attributes don't get the mention they deserve sadly, overshadowed by a more lyrical appreciation of the batsman's ability to play strokes.

“We’re looking for players not to be looking over their shoulder the whole time so they can instead focus on the team ethic,” says Miller. “We give the players honesty. We give them a fair crack. We give them consistency and continuity. It’s no accident [that we have a settled side]. It’s done by meticulous method. When I was playing, far better players than me didn’t know if they’d be in the side from one game to the next.”

There have been a few comments surrounding Dhoni’s captaincy in this series but this is mediocre bowling and hence the results produced cannot be a reflection on Dhoni’s captaincy. He is captaining the team that is best available to him. Even if Clive Lloyd, Steve Waugh, Ian Chappell, Mark Taylor or Stephen Fleming or any of the other great and successful captains from the past were to captain this side they would have struggled. The fact is India needs to find some good bowlers and quickly at that.

There will be those who condemn this as a grotesque overreaction by the BCB to a lacklustre tour. Such a conclusion, however, is misleading and ignores a pattern of poor behaviour by both the captain and his deputy. Shakib’s fall from grace is in fact the culmination of a series of acts by the Bangladesh skipper which could at best be described as naïve and at worst considered wilfully arrogant.