The Surfer

They have mixed it up, dragging the England opener across his stumps with outswingers, then nipping the ball back in as they look for leg-before.

Ok, Hawk-Eye suggested the two balls that got him lbw at Lord's and Trent Bridge were both going over the stumps, but the point is that India have worked out a way of bowling to Cook - and he doesn't like it.

Kyle Jarvis was just three-years-old at the time so he was too young to remember watching his father play in Zimbabwe's first Test, but that doesn't mean he hasn't heard all about it. "Mostly he's always telling me about how he would have had Zimbabwe's first Test wicket but for a dropped catch. And then he'll chirp that one day maybe I'll be as quick as he was."

"... I was struggling to bowl and everyone just said, 'Ah you're being soft. Come on, just bowl through it'. But it was in fact a stress fracture." The mental toughness required to come back from the injury has stood him in good stead ... "I spent a lot of time lying down watching TV, which was what I had to do. It was basically seven months with the feet up, it was pretty terrible to just watch your mates play on TV."

Greatness must not lend itself to the whims and fancies of people who fail to understand its true value and adamantly refuse to give it the respect it deserves.

A man less committed to the cause of the nation would have hesitated to answer such a mindless call to arms. But Dravid being what he is, has put up his hand without so much as a murmur.

But enough is enough. Our selectors seem to want him only in the toughest of conditions when the fair-weather ‘greats' are found wanting. That's clearly an insult to an upstanding sportsman who has never given less than 100 per cent, whatever the situation.

For me, it's simple: ZC needs to regain respect as a board. It needs to include players in the decision-making processes. It's the players who will determine the strength of Zimbabwean cricket and if the board expects the team to show commitment, unity and a strong work ethic, it needs to be the first to display those qualities. The administrators need to back the players and give them the respect they deserve.

"There's no point attacking anything in life and thinking I'll be average at this. That's a poor way of thinking. So you have to set yourself targets and strive to be as good as you can be. Freddie was definitely a game-changer and it would be very nice to be thought of in the same bracket as him," he says.

By contrast in 2011, England have Bresnan and Broad at No8 and No9 (with Swann to follow) and they provide a magnificent insurance policy. Recently only the South Africa side at the turn of the century, with so many all-rounders down the order, could rival this depth of batting.

"Let's put it like this - you can do a lot of things with a computer, you can discover new use of it and that is what happens with me. I have met people similar to me and they are still carrying their burden. They have no peace. Within a short span of time, God has given me peace. I don't lie on my bed thinking what I have lost ¦ I never did that. When I wake up, I cannot wait to get out of bed. Some people stay in bed. I want to be able to do things. God has given me the chance to do that."

Never for once am I doubting Dravid’s ability to succeed in the one-dayers in England. I always believe that if you have a solid foundation you can do well in any format of the game. A player as technically sound as Dravid can score runs even after a two-year hiatus and in England, you have to play proper cricketing shots to score runs.

Greatness has its pronounced markers, its genuine, unalloyed signs. Rahul Dravid revealed a succession of them in England, as he opened, played one down, kept wicket, scored a ton and met the English pace attack in the eye. His exceptional longevity is a truth acknowledged in Tests, but as the selectors recalled the 38-year-old for the forthcoming one-day internationals and T20, the many-sidedness of that durability was in evidence.

There is no doubting Bopara’s talent for hitting a cricket ball hard, often, and in ways most batsmen would never attempt. Graham Gooch, England’s batting consultant, has been Bopara’s mentor at Essex for almost a decade and reckons he has not worked with a more talented player.

But talent, while needed to gain a player entry to the big league, is not often enough to keep them there, and it needs to be backed by a focussed mind, something that comes less naturally to the easy-going Bopara.

... money is not the only, not even the primary, reason. More significant is the stability that has underpinned England’s rise as opposed to the perpetual, self-inflicted chaos keeping the West Indies where they have been for so long. England’s consistency that has carried them towards the pinnacle they have not reached since the 1950s is revealed in the composition of the XI blown away for 51 by Jerome Taylor at Sabina Park two years ago and those who humiliated India, the present No.1, in the second Test at Trent Bridge last week.

Eight of those devastated in the debacle of Kingston (Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior and Stuart Broad of the playing XI, James Anderson and Graeme Swann temporarily in the reserves) were among the jubilant victors in Nottingham. On the other side, only two of the triumphant West Indians (the evergreen Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Fidel Edwards) were still around for the recent final Test against India.