The Surfer

Previously typecasting him as a stolid batsman, we should have known what team director Andy Flower and batting coach Graham Gooch had already realised, that the best players can adapt their game to suit any format and that the resourceful and totally focused Cook would find a way.

And he has. Despite not getting much of the strike initially on Tuesday, he kept up with Craig Kieswetter’s scoring rate.

When Abdulrahman Bukhatir was studying in Karachi and falling in love with the game, his hero was Hanif [Mohammad]. So when he subsequently returned to the Emirates, Bukhatir naturally patronised the game among the growing population of subcontinent expatriates in numerous, smaller ways until, in 1981, came the big moment ...

Bukhatir took [Asif] Iqbal to a vast plot of land, empty of life but full of sand. It was October. "Bring me two teams," Bukhatir told Iqbal, "and everything will be up and running for March ..." On that land near the Sharjah Club ... grass was grown and an all-weather synthetic surface fixed on top of the usual cement turf. Scaffolding was set up for spectators. They were not expecting many. Iqbal used his network to pull in, essentially, the entire first teams of India and Pakistan: the Sunil Gavaskar XI and the Javed Miandad XI. On April 3, 1981 everything was ready. Nearly 8,000 came ...

Perhaps the first unusual thing about the Lunge is that it should be seen as unusual at all. It is a mark of how carefully styled batting techniques have become in the age of top-down micro-analysis that this bending of the knees should seem so striking. In the pre-modern era the range of different "set-ups" was far more varied. Notable stand-outs included: the swaying, wafting bat waggle of David Gower; the hunched, fidgeting broad-shouldered ballerina elegance of Mohammed Azharuddin; the extraordinary Kim Barnett, who used to come Riverdancing in from short leg; Derek Randall who appeared to have been caught sneaking off towards point; and Peter Willey who simply stood there, front on, like a caveman playing French cricket.

Protect him from the excessive physical and mental demands so that he is at the top of his game for longer than his workload might indicate? To keep wickets is a full-time, nerve-wracking job; to lead a side, ditto; to be one of the main batsmen with responsibilities to control the innings, ditto. And Dhoni does the job of three men in three different formats of the game while maintaining one of the coolest responses to victory and defeat by any captain.

He didn’t burst into tears when India were thrashed in England (at least one international captain in recent memory walked off centre stage in tears), he didn’t suggest it was the end of the world. Such self-control is both awe-inspiring and frankly, a bit worrying. How does this man let off steam?

But there is another aspect to this discussion that is being glossed over by most experts (even those who’re not on the BCCI payroll). Should any body that performs a public service, especially a ‘non-profit organisation’ such as the Indian cricket board, have a problem with the RTI Act? If anything, the BCCI, which projects itself as a beacon of hope at a time when other sports are dying, save for a few gifted athletes here and there, should volunteer to be open to public scrutiny.

"I know enough about cricket to understand it is a cruel sport. I would never judge anyone who plays it. The mind games in that sport are cruel ... as a batsman you get one chance. In rugby if you make a hash of something you get a chance at redemption."

David Warner deserves his chance. His career has been held back partly because NSW has mishandled him and partly because he has suffered from hotness in the head. Nevertheless he is only 24 and averages 53 in state cricket. Of all the younger batsmen he had the tightest technique, just that his career threw him into another world and gradually looseness crept in.

In many respects Warner is the first product of the new cricketing age. It has been his fate to be denied the traditional batting education and instead to be encouraged to hit hard and often. Fame and fortune smiled on every six.

The Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy are the premier tournaments for selection and have always been so, but how many of the games are watched by selectors who are now paid to do so? The selectors are seen at Test and international matches in India and that too even when the Ranji or Duleep games are going on and it would be far more productive if the selectors were out for those and look for new talent than go to a Test and see players whom they have seen so many times before. Mind you, with most if not all Ranji games being played without the international players it doesn’t always give a correct picture of the ability and temperament of the player. Still to ignore that is not a smart thing to do.

With the international summer of cricket, where a strange pattern was soon established: England turn up and overwhelm their opponents. Which has been admirable but seldom gripping.

But domestically we are constantly surprised. The devotees can cast an eye at the next round of fixtures, which start on Wednesday and in Division One there is not a "dead" game to be found. There will be no late-season blooding of youngsters just for the sake of it. Instead there will be late fitness tests in the hope that some old stalwart can drag his body out one more time in the last-ditch pursuit of glory or survival. There are no end-of-season parties in July in Division One.