The Surfer

With a group of 10 with four teams progressing, it's possible to have as many as 15 "dead rubber" matches. Does that sound exciting? There's a reason no other sport has a World Cup with that sort of format. What makes a tournament exciting is when as many matches as possible are "must win" games for one or both teams in a match. The best way to do that would be a knockout tournament, though that treats slow starters a little unfairly. The previously mentioned four groups of four followed by knockout is a good balance between providing a high number of "must win" games and allowing teams to come back after an early defeat.

Mark Butcher: You need a musician on tour who can sit at the back of the bus and sing a song when you have been hammered in a day's play. It just releases the pressure on everyone. As a player Butch liked a fag and a drink. He loved a night out and I always thought he was in the wrong profession because cricket seemed to get in the way of his rock and roll lifestyle.

Amre spent three years watching videos, studying bio-mechanics, reading and devising papers and presentations. "There are three aspects to a players' game: physical shape, mental shape and skills. Most players have two boxes ticked. A coach's job is to ensure a player gets everything right," Amre says.

The backfoot punch through cover point. If I play that shot then I feel like everything is there. It's all about position -- if I connect with one then I feel like my head, my fingers, my hands, my elbow, my feet, everything is in place. I'd say I'm desperate, initially, to play that shot. If I get that shot out, say in the first two overs, I feel really confident. It's comparatively easier to play one between covers and mid-off but a backfoot punch between cover and point isn't easy at all.

The most engrossing sections of KP have received no attention at all, as they concern neither Andy Flower nor IPL and are not readily reducible to a tweet. They concern the interior 'voice' of insecurity that Pietersen says he has never stopped hearing.

Those who haven't experienced failure and its debilitating impact on a person can scarcely have empathy for the less gifted. From our experiences we learn the methods of harnessing fate to our ambitions and dreams. Since Chappell didn't know failure, he couldn't have experienced the crippling fear accompanying it. And he couldn't have mustered empathy for the struggling Indian players because his own successful career ensured this emotion did not mature in him.

This was the game in which Lillee, enraged at watching his team-mates plummet from 50-1 to a paltry total of 77, responded to captain Rod Marsh's innings break instructions that Queensland should be made to fight for their victory by barking, "Make 'em fight for it, be buggered. We're going to beat these bastards." Western Australia coach Daryl Foster said he'd never seen Lillee so angry.

This series prompts another uncomfortable question: how best do the various academies, finishing schools, pathways and centres of excellence best prepare young batsmen for encounters such as the two Tests of this trip? Last week former national selector Jamie Cox mooted the introduction of Indian-style pitches using imported soil, but their utility would be questionable if Australia doesn't also produce the types of slow bowlers capable of giving batsmen that genuine subcontinental experience. Forget pitches, Cricket Australia would be better off importing net bowlers and in wholesale quantities.

Mainly, though, it is a wonderful achievement by this group of Pakistan players under the indestructible, brilliantly likable 40-year-old captain, Misbah-ul-Haq. On pitches that are slower and drier than those at home, Pakistan took down the team that took down England and then South Africa with a spin attack culled from that reliably productive domestic setup. And with some glorious batting performances, most notably by Younus Khan, the invisible colossus, who scored three hundreds in four innings and whose career, untelevised and beyond the immediate attention of the major nations, has thrived beneath the radar in recent years. He has slightly more runs at a better average from the same number of Tests as Sir Garfield Sobers.

Zone. It's a word Pujara uses often and uses casually, quite like you and I would say 'and I went into my bathroom'. He pauses when asked about this very spiritual space that a sportsperson slips into when in complete control. But without so much as hemming and hawing, Pujara stabs at an explanation for us mere mortals.

A bowler - pace or spin - needs to settle into a rhythm and work on a plan for a period of time. When fieldsmen are constantly being changed, the bowler feels the pressure to come up with a quick result and consequently he doesn't settle into a rhythm of thought or deed. If ever a pitch cried out for the metronomic relentlessness of Glenn McGrath, it was the bald, brown and lifeless strip in Abu Dhabi. When Clarke eventually produced a unique fielder placed behind the bowler's arm, it was the last roll of the dice before the white flag was hoisted. As an opposing batsman I would've been torn between the desire to annoy in return by asking the umpire to make Clarke provide a reason why it wasn't purely a ploy to distract the striker and the need to remain silent as Australia needlessly wasted a fielder.