The Surfer

At first sight, it seems like there are gaps in the schedule. A week here, a little more there but then think again. Between tours, there’s the whole thing about keeping sponsors happy, preparing for the next tour and getting some rest if possible. And once on tour, there is simply no downtime. You think about the game 24 x 7.

While it is easy to blame big players for opting to play in the IPL in spite of a jam-packed schedule and chastise them for being 'in it' for the big bucks, it should be remembered the IPL is a BCCI enterprise in the first place, with some office-bearers even owning big stakes. This unprofessional attitude of the board does rub off on players, so they too must own up to moral responsibility if an injury problem is a well-kept secret.

Though not equipped with the elegance, style and maybe talent as many of the other international cricket teams of this era, the Darren Sammy-led Caribbean outfit is trying their best. But try as they may, it’s the 12th man, their own man, who continues to conspire against them. His name is ‘Caribbean pitches’ and he rears his ugly head when the West Indies can least afford it – during Home Series.

But what happened in Sydney and at other points around Australia should persuade England that they have what it takes to be the best Test side in the world. Stuart Law, the coach of Sri Lanka, has missed no opportunity to say that he thinks they are the top side already. The rankings put them at two, behind India, with Sri Lanka at four.

In 1979 I saw a teenager Saad Bin Jung, nephew of Pataudi, score a brilliant hundred against the deadly West Indian attack at Hyderabad playing for South Zone. Batting without helmet, he was hooking the bowlers past square-leg. His unbeaten knock of 136 against Tamil Nadu on a rank bad turner of Chepauk in 1979 is considered one of the finest by those who witnessed it. Serious illness cut short his career.

Thompson certainly has a challenge on his hands. He runs a media rights and talent management company called Merlin Elite but he has no magic wand as he attempts to awaken the sleeping giant that is Surrey. They are the biggest and wealthiest of all counties but are without a trophy in eight years and are languishing in the second division of the Championship. Crucially, they have not produced an England Test player since Mark Butcher.

It isn’t just the ample figure in his wickets column that makes him Gambhir’s go-to man, just take a look at his season’s economy rate — 6.00. And despite his lack of variations, Abdulla has learnt the art of survival in the pro-batsman world by taking advice from the best in the business — his Kolkata team mates.

“Gambhir is the best player of spin, Yusuf Pathan is the best hitter in the world and Wasim Akram (bowling coach) is the original trickster. By just talking to them, you get to learn so much about the game,” he says.

Mr Modi may tut-tut-tweet about dipping IPL ratings, but the fall has little to do with the absence of his brilliance. One is, obviously, the overdose of cricket. I mean, we all have jobs to do, wages to earn. Two is, though I have no scientific research to back my theory, the increasingly ridiculous packaging of the tournament has much to do with viewer apathy. Who would waste time to hear Sidhu say this: “They have dug their own grave with their teeth and god gives the toothless nuts to chew on,” a comment he made after Kochi Tuskers lost against Delhi Daredevils. Funny, you think? I have seen housewives and children (the supposed target audience of such tomfoolery) switch to other channels when the tamasha brigade takes centre stage.

Dumbing down is so passé a content strategy that even Bollywood has taken note. When will the cricket broadcasters wake up to this change?

Jenner did a nice line in exasperation, not with the spinners themselves but with those who failed to understand why they couldn't all be like his most famous pupil. He expressed his exasperation regularly, with the selectors who sent spinners through a revolving door to the Test team, with the states that wouldn't pick them, with the captains and coaches who wanted to turn them into robots.

I remember vividly dropping in to have a quick chat and drop off some photos to Terry after our last interview and he looked spent. He didn't make it to the door, asking me to help myself in, and struggled to get up to shake hands.One of my daughters was with me, and that lit his eyes up. She was asked to show her bowling action, and soon enough Terry was on his feet, wanting to help her along and fan her interest. She won't forget it, even though she only just knew about Shane Warne, Jenner's most famous pupil.

Something happened and it has not yet unhappened. He has been afflicted by injuries in the past two years and his batting has mislaid the carefree fluency of yore. Maybe bowlers know a bit more about him, but sometimes he has been in several minds at the crease and what was outrageously successful has looked daft. The risks that once paid dividends in a bull market have cost him dearly in a bear market.

Being hit while batting, though, remains the most conventional way to suffer injury in the game and those who withstood West Indies' attack, and Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson during the 70s and 80s, deserve most praise. Chief among them was India's happy hooker Mohinder Amarnath, recalled after a long exile in the Lancashire leagues with Lowerhouse and Crompton, who took them on with, initially, only a solar topee to protect himself. Richard Hadlee fractured his skull, Imran Khan knocked him unconscious, Malcolm Marshall dislodged his teeth, Thomson cracked his jaw and Michael Holding sent him to hospital to have stitches put in his head.