The Surfer

In the summer of 1981, with the nation racked by industrial unrest and inner-city riots, it seemed entirely if dispiritingly consistent that the England cricket team should also be mired in haplessness. After leading the team to defeat at Trent Bridge, and then bagging a highly publicised pair in a draw at Lord's, Ian Botham resigned the captaincy of which he was about to be relieved anyway. Mike Brearley was then persuaded out of Test cricket retirement to skipper the team at Headingley, but at the end of that third day, with England already a wicket down following on, Willis can hardly have expected, to put it mildly, to be dining out three decades later on the story of the match and the rest of the series.

Broad is both the player in possession and something of a golden boy of the selectors. The observations of all the men who matter – embracing the coach, Andy Flower, the chairman of selectors, Geoff Miller, and the captain, Andrew Strauss – indicate that they are prepared to back him to regain an ability to take wickets. Bresnan, one of the heroes of the Ashes, has impressed in England's one-day team since his return from injury, though he was erratic for Yorkshire last week. To pick him now would be to give him the first two, probably three, matches in the series.

While the placid nature of the pitches, which have been made for five days of television, has thwarted them on a couple of occasions, it is fair to say that India have not been knockout specialists in the manner of the young Mike Tyson, the former world heavyweight boxing champion. Instead, they have resembled the lumbering Klitschko brothers - resilient, usually efficient and capable of capitalising on the opposition's frailties.

Great champions set standards that can often seem out of reach. The quest for the perfect game or perfect series is motivation in itself. The best sides do not just win. They keep winning and in the process, they subdue the spirit of those they overcome.

I understand fully the need for county clubs to make money from Twenty20, and county finances are currently under a lot of strain, but the domestic fixture list is so confused and damaging to our players at the moment that the English game’s authorities are effectively saying that practice – proper practice and preparation for different formats of the game – is not anywhere close to being a priority.

Here’s a simple, yet telling, comparison. All three Tests in the recently concluded series between India and the West Indies in the Caribbean played to near empty stands. This was the first series featuring India immediately after their World Cup triumph, and you might have imagined there would be more interest. Apparently not. Moving to the other side of the Atlantic, even before the India-England series can get underway, tickets to all four Tests have been sold out. Clearly, it takes the promise of a real contest to arouse spectator interest.

Comparisons with Don Bradman, who made 29 hundreds and averaged 99.94 to Tendulkar's 56.94, remain one of cricket's favourite parlour games. Statistically, Bradman will always be untouchable, but the gentler fixture list of his day meant his workload paled in comparison. Bradman played 52 Tests in 20 years, although his career was interrupted by the war. Tendulkar is about to embark on his 178th in 22 - and he has played a year-and-a-quarter's worth of one-day internationals.

Where do you bowl at Sachin to try to get him out? There aren’t many places, to be honest. But at Lord’s this week, we will aim to starve India’s master batsman of runs and hope we hang in long enough for him to make a mistake.

“I got wickets at Lord's, the second match was marred by rain and when we got to The Oval, I knew I had to perform really well. In a way it was my last chance. I got two wickets in the first innings and I had to strike in the second innings to help India win. I gave my heart and soul in that stint,” Chandrasekhar said.

The Indian Premier League has just wrapped up its fourth season and player salaries are higher than ever. A recent survey reported the average salary on some teams, which play 14 regular-season games, approached $90,000 a week this year during the frenetic six-week schedule. Then there’s corporate cash. Seizing an opportunity for a toehold in a country whose economy has charged ahead over the past decade at a 9 per cent annual clip, sponsors are signing cricket’s top stars as so-called “brand ambassadors” to contracts worth as much as $3 million a year.

For Strauss Flower is more a collaborator than a mentor and he is more important to him now. But that does not mean that Strauss is about to deny the massive contribution of Fletcher to England's cricketers in the recent past.

"He made me aware of what Test cricket actually entailed," he maintains. "He is a great father figure; he has been there, done it all, seen it all and once he worked with you for a while it was very hard not to be loyal to him as a bloke.

All the more reason therefore that England have to hit India hard at Lord’s and Trent Bridge, the ground that most favours their pace bowlers, and go 2-0 up.

"It is absolutely a long-term target of mine," he said. "If you asked anybody, would they like to captain England in a Test match, one-day international or Twenty20, they would jump at the chance."

"I am a leader within the batting unit. A good leader leads from the front and the way in which I play can have a positive effect on the side. It is something that I can develop over time." And time, not to mention timing, is on his side.