The Surfer

But what even Flower would admit is this: none of this, the team ethic, the captaincy, the application of sports science, would have brought England to where they are without the raw material to work with. Above all, Flower has been blessed by happenstance delivering him a generation of talent unavailable to his predecessors, albeit some of it hailing from parts beyond these shores. Obdurate batsmen, swashbuckling all-rounders, a clever spinner, a battery of fast bowlers: he might have made them better, he might have forged them into a formidable unit, but these were some players to start with.

Hutton’s England might just be superior to all – they were unbeaten in 14 series between 1951 and 1958. But it will take a quite exceptional group of men to knock Strauss’s team off their perch when they are anointed sometime in the next three weeks.

In hindsight, Trent Bridge would have been the ideal venue to give Harbhajan Singh a break. It would have given the troubled offie a rare fortnight-long rest to sort out his bowling. The seaming conditions at the ground, not far from river Trent, would have also provided the captain an excuse for making the bold decision. (While dropping seniors, the decision-makers need to have at least one politically correct reason to sound convincing at press meets.)

But with the next two Tests to be played on surfaces at Edgbaston and the Oval where spinners do have a say, Dhoni will now have to take a tough call. Harbhajan’s strained stomach might make things easier for the team as they sit to pick the playing eleven for the third Test.

When England were thumped 5-0 in Australia in 2007, they set a goal to become the world's premier Test nation. Australia talk a lot about regaining the top ranking but the chatter is shallow and unconvincing - Twenty20 cricket is now Australia's shiny new toy and logic says you can't be Beethoven by day and the Wiggles by night.

At 8-124 on the opening day of the second Test at Trent Bridge, and with the ball swinging like a wind chime in a hurricane, England were under siege. The subsequent half-century by Stuart Broad was the sort of match-turning performance once expected of Adam Gilchrist or, given Broad then took 6-46 - including a hat-trick - Shane Warne. Like Old Australia, England's batting has more depth than Curtly Ambrose's bath tub, meaning a quiet start to the series by Alastair Cook has been inconvenient, not fatal.

With Sehwag and Khan injured, and the great triumvirate of Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman contemplating the end of magnificent careers, what have the Indians shown us? They have produced skeletal performances. Their captain, MS Dhoni, a giant of the World Cup, has been lost at the batting crease and at times his wicketkeeping has been embarrassingly rank.

The seam bowlers have been dogged but rarely inspired, and if the conditions have not helped spin, Harbhajan Singh has scarcely been recognisable. Yesterday the slow bowling of Suresh Raina was pitiful enough to make you avert your eyes, especially when Stuart Broad heaved successive deliveries into the crowd.

He [Bell] left his ground when play was still alive. He was run out, not sneakily, iniquitously or any other way that would have justified the bear-pit booing which greeted the umpires and Indian team when they returned to the field while the Trent Bridge crowd still believed that Bell's innings was over.

What really was the basis of the appeal to Dhoni by Strauss and Flower? Was it that there had been a miscarriage of justice? No, that couldn't be so because the Indians and the umpires had all behaved impeccably. They had followed the laws of the game, quite simply ... The truth is that when cricket was asked a basic question yesterday it blinked in an entirely unsatisfactory way.

The incident should have been avoided. Bell made a careless and stupid mistake. Don’t blame the umpires for carrying out the laws of the game.

Since 2008, England wickets seven to 10 have accumulated more than 5,700 runs at an average of 27.57. And, during that time, there have been 11 century partnerships and 25 of 50 or more. Impressive statistics? Definitely – and unmatched by any other team.

He was drafted into this Test match only because Chris Tremlett was injured. Now, after taking seven wickets and scoring 101 runs at Trent Bridge, how can he possibly be left out of the XI at Edgbaston next week?

England arrived yesterday thinking the pitch was doing a bit. But they came out with a very aggressive mindset and were looking to score rather than survive. When they discovered the pitch had flattened they were already in the right frame of mind and in the groove. They hit India off their lines and lengths as the likes of Hayden and Langer would have done in the past.

... Bell was dozy and he knew it. He saw Praveen Kumar’s reaction on the boundary and thought it had gone for four. He even appeared to give the indication that it had gone for four to Eoin Morgan. But crucially the umpire had said nothing. He did not call four and he did not call tea. When the bails were taken off and Bell turned round to see what was happening he knew he had made a mistake. It was then that he actually played the situation very well. He knew he had messed up but outwardly gave a very cool impression of not really knowing what all the fuss was about.

That this panel has been allowed to appoint the next captain, end careers, hand out contracts and pick the next team is beyond negligent. It's reckless. It's a failure of every principle of accountability. Cricket Australia will say it has a review underway into the Ashes failure. It's August people. Simon Katich has done your work for you. Selection policy and practice has been incoherent. It actively undermined confidence and morale. If those entrusted with the responsibility won't act then we the people simply must.

Cricket Australia has said from the outset it cannot and will not aim to emulate the Indian Premier League, but it must wish it had a Bollywood to lend its new baby, the Big Bash League, some cachet, if not some cash. Cricket Australia will send Credit Suisse representatives on a roadshow to India this week to cultivate potential investors. But in the meantime, Big Bash teams in Melbourne are leaning heavily on the town's only answer to Bollywood - the AFL.

By the time he ended a Test career that spanned 20 years, from 1954, when he was 17, to 1974 when 37, he had compiled more runs than any one else (8,032, average 57.78), held the highest score (365 not out), played more consecutive matches (85 out of 93 overall) and compiled more hundreds than anyone but the phenomenal Bradman (26 to 29). He had also captained more times (39) and held more catches (109) than any other West Indian. Only Lance Gibbs had taken more wickets than his 235, except that Sobers had done so in three different styles.