The Surfer

Now? We do not have simple selection. We have a contracts system that drastically diminishes the pool of players from which that elite XI is almost always selected. Often before we have any idea who is hitting and who is snicking; who is finding their line and length and who is being smashed over the rope.

The Test opener received a call from selector Andrew Hilditch telling him his career was over in the middle of a Blues fitness drill at the SCG on Monday. A dark but determined cloud set over the session. Katich was a frightening sight as he processed the news and raged through a beep test. When it was done he had set the second fastest time for the squad. Not a bad performance considering he is coming off an achilles injury and the bloke who went better, Moises Henriques, is 11 years younger.

"I made my debut at the age of 25. Some would say that is quite late, but I would turn that around and say that I then had the benefit of nine years of experience in first class cricket. We have all seen instances of young cricketers being thrust into the limelight of international cricket and then failing to live up to the expectations. I haven't had things easy in domestic cricket, there had been ups and downs and I had all that experience to fall back upon."

The dressing room is exactly the right place to take out your frustrations, whatever England are claiming about the manner in which the window was broken. We’ve all done it, and I should know. I remember kicking a fridge in Rawalpindi after Wasim Akram got me lbw in a one-dayer when the ball pitched miles outside leg.

The problem is that cricketers, as well as cricket itself, are held up – unjustly, as it happens – as the moral paragons of the sporting world. Oikish behaviour, however accidental, is widely frowned upon: breaking windows, other than with a cleanly struck six, is simply not cricket, as Prior well knows.

What’s more, I hear that the mood has shifted somewhat among county players. Many of them are now pleading for 40 overs. In isolation, if asked, they would say that all domestic cricket should mirror international cricket, but when asked in the context of the absurdly onerous schedule, they would say they prefer 40 to 50 overs. It seems that 50-over cricket is just too arduous.

The South African situation is also a restless one at the moment and hopefully Kirsten can create the same stable situation here that he did in India. The challenge for Kirsten will be to assess the South African situation equally quickly in order to come up with a formula that will bring out the best in the individual players and the team collectively.

The problem seems to be that Strauss has lost the whereabouts of his off-stump. That might sound like a strange thing to say about a top-class player, but skilful bowlers can move a batsman around the crease so that he loses his bearings. I’ve always believed cricket is all about angles and that is where Strauss is coming unstuck.

Not only waiting, but wondering – after watching him bowl in the first three Sri Lankan innings of this series – whether he should be an absolute shoo-in for Thursday week's third Test at the Rose Bowl.

When you see a batsman with such minimal footwork and an inclination to play with an open face, you immediately think as a bowler you’ll be in business with a bit of outswing from a fullish length outside off stump. And you might be right.

The dilemma though is that Dilshan loves width. Where a man like Alastair Cook will look to leave as much off target as he can, Dilshan is thinking runs as soon as he picks up the line of a ball wide of the stumps. His eyes light up, his back lift increases and he shapes to lash it through the covers. And such is his incredible eye and bat speed, he frequently succeeds.

His short stint as the Indian captain in the one-dayers could lead him to more profitable ventures in the future, provided he manages to control, guide and discipline a young bunch of energetic players out to cement their places in the Indian team. More importantly, his own batting form would be even more crucial as he too like others in the team, is vying for one or two vacant spots in the playing XI, once the main players get back into the team.

But, almost as important, they also missed the wise words which he would have passed on to his less experienced colleagues from mid-off. There were times yesterday when all of the bowlers, but especially Finn, looked lonely out there. The Middlesex youngster just could not stop himself from drifting onto leg stump during one spell – and there were a lot of hands on hips in the slip cordon when what Finn really needed was an arm around his shoulder and a bit of advice from someone who knows what it is like to be a bowler struggling for rhythm.

You could see by the way even Tillekeratne Dilshan was jumping around at times that they were not entirely comfortable with the bounce England's giant quicks were getting.They didn't get enough balls in the right place, but that doesn't mean the principle behind the selection was skewed.

A year ago no one was talking about Jade Dernbach, but suddenly people are saying England need a pitch-it-up swing bowler to dismiss the Sri Lankans. It's a reminder of the old cliche: you become a better player when you're not actually in the side.