The Surfer

It is over. India's steady rise in the last 15 years or so reached its highest point in 2011 as the team attained top position in the Test rankings and won the World Cup ...

India has an old batting order, an unreliable pace attack, a spinner lacking bite, poor fielding and abject running between wickets. It is hardly a recipe for success. Clearly the time has come to forget about deeds and debts and champions and crowd pleasers and sentiment and to focus on rebuilding.

If successful the WIPA legal action will allow players such as Gayle, Bravo, Kieron Pollard and others to effectively ply their trade as cricketers-for-hire/cricketing mercenaries without any restrictions and without them having any obligation whatsoever to play for the West Indies.

It is very likely that if successful other players from around the world will use this precedent to file similar actions against their national boards and if they too are successful then the international teams will be reduced to second and third string sides for the majority of their matches and the viability of international cricket will be severely compromised.

He [Dravid] is there, always there, like a dutiful servant, who has, without complaining served you so well that you take his contribution for granted. It is rare to find him being lauded and feted, like the others, when he scores, but very common to raise doubts when he fails ...

This English attack, that too in their own conditions, is perhaps among the most threatening in the recent history of the game. To have first negated them when they were at their most menacing and then having mastered them, that too when no one around him could put bat to the ball, will remain one of the greatest batting feats of all time, comparable to the best - from the Bradman era to the present, which includes Tendulkar as well.

The TCA has a bank balance of more than Rs 55 crore. The plan is to build a stadium near the Agartala airport and expand the facilities at the MBB Stadium and convert it into an academy for the Northeast. Land in both locations has been leased to the TCA for 20 years. The budget is "Rs125-130 crore for the two projects", says Ganguly. While the academy makes sense, the international stadium does not. Agartala does not even have the kind of hotels required to accommodate international teams.

There was a security person at Edgbaston during the third Test who was desperate to meet him: "We hail from the same taluka (town) and our village team used to invite him to play important games, mainly in night tournaments. My brother played in that team." Munaf understands the genuine affection and tries his best to oblige as many as he can.

“There is late swing, both away and inwards. The ball wobbles in the air. A 'keeper needs to keep the ball under his eye. And his shoulders have to be flexible and not stiff as he has to change directions with the ball. I felt Dhoni's shoulders were stiff and this was the principal reason for his problems as a 'keeper in the English conditions.”

Sachin Tendulkar is a world class player and going up against him was a challenge. That was the first time we came up against one another. He was having a really hard time picking my doosra. You can study videos as much as you want of a bowler, but going up against a new player on the field is always a different challenge. There's a world of difference between what you see on videos, and what you encounter when facing someone for the first time. As I say, he's a world class performer and I thank the Almighty that on the day I did well against him.

Dravid has always been one of the most admirable men in sport yet, almost impossibly, over the last few weeks he has made us admire him more than ever before. He batted with immense pride and dignity to make three centuries, two of them as a stand-in opener, a role he has never enjoyed. Dravid was both kingpin and handyman. He filled in not just as opener but also as wicketkeeper when MS Dhoni bowled at Lord's; he also defused any lingering controversy over the Ian Bell incident at Trent Bridge with an honest and perfectly judged interview at the close of play. You wouldn't be surprised to hear he also fixed a leak in the dressing-room and drove the team coach back to the hotel one night.

There is a criticism that there's so much money in Indian cricket that a lot of players are become soft and not achieving or actualising their potential. Do you think that's a threat?

I am not going to compare Marsh to his WA teammates Adam Gilchrist, Simon Katich and Mike Hussey but there is one strong thread running through the careers of each one of them. They were all closer to 30 than 20 when they made their Test debuts and soon forged stellar careers built on the solid foundation of many seasons of State cricket. There is every reason to think Marsh could follow that path.

Did you set yourself any targets for this tour? You are on the wrong side of 30, and while sports medicine has improved fitness standards, you would have to say that the best part of your career is behind you...

Definitely. No doubt I know I'm closer to the end than to the beginning. I understand it fully. I didn't set targets in terms of the runs that I want to score, but, obviously, I wanted to have a good tour. But you can say that about every tour, every tour you want to have a good one.