The Surfer

Perth and a year before that, the Wanderers in Johannesburg, provided evidence of Flower's concern that the batsmen in particular do not adapt sufficiently quickly when confronted with conditions unusual to them. At the Waca, where there was pace and bounce, they were given an object lesson in how to play by Mike Hussey, who knows the ground intimately. Some, Flower believes, do not acknowledge there is a problem in the first place, a starting post for any rehabilitation. Devising a training strategy to deal with that will be a priority

“Batting No 3 you’ve got to expect anything so you can’t be surprised by anything. You just go with it. I don’t think about my innings or going out to bat until I’m actually doing it.

Despite that gaping hole in Sri Lanka’s resources England’s batsmen cannot be entirely complacent, even if Murali and Lasith Malinga, another who recently called time on his Test career, won’t be around to torment them.

Sri Lanka will not be cowed easily. Dilshan, defiantly not a product of one of the elite Colombo schools, is a tough competitor who is prepared to mix it with his opponents a bit like Javed Miandad used to do for Pakistan. The combination of Dilshan and Stuart Law, the team’s Australian coach, means they will not lack the direct approach.

Cricket-as-India has become the worst kind of metaphor. It is continuously interpreted to arrive at the same glib conclusions about a country that appears fated to be explained only in such shorthand. This endless metaphorizing is a part of what Amit Chaudhuri, writing in Outlook, called a new norm: “to see India not as a place, but as a concept you could experience, an idea making its way in the world.”

It was not until other occasions that I realised the trick was not to focus on Holding until he was actually approaching the crease. For now, in the distance, I saw him duck his head in that way a thoroughbred might on the Newmarket gallops that he inhabits now whenever he can, and begin his majestic run. It was mesmerising, for as he strode, Holding's head, held high, swivelled slightly from side to side. The cobra, I am told, hypnotises prey in a similar swaying manner.

Of immediate concern is the choice that cricketers are forced to make with regard to playing for their countries or for their career sustainability. In particular, the situation faced by two impact cricketers — Chris Gayle and his ongoing tussle with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), and Lasith Malinga’s retirement from Test and his impending dispute with the Sri Lankan Cricket Board

In the upcoming ICC world cricket schedule for the next seven-eight years, bilateral series are likely to overlap each of the future editions of the IPL. Not only that, in four of the five upcoming seasons, the IPL will follow immediately after an ICC world event — thus leaving the IPL, again, susceptible to saturation and declining viewership/ revenue. What this will lead to is either uncertainty in choosing rosters for teams — IPL or national, or it could lead to warring factions of boards making fair or unfair demands of the ICC, BCCI and, even more unfortunate, the players.

What will it be this time? Will it be an appointment of a stand-alone coach who will be tasked to stamp his authority on the team and the captain, or will it be the other way round where the coach will once again be moulded by the senior players.

That approach hasn't worked. It may be time to evaluate the merits of the candidates on a stand-alone basis and decide who will make the best contribution in taking the team forward. Also, if for some reason Kirsten doesn't take the job and the appointment committee decides that they are unsure, there is nothing wrong in appointing a caretaker coach for a while.

For good or bad, Gayle is showing the way for players of the future. By declining an annual contract from the West Indies Cricket Board, he has kept himself free to play where and when he wants to. Every six, every century increases his market value in the T20 format which is pegged to the here and now. And if there is nothing else to occupy him, he could always announce his availability for Test cricket.

For one, Malinga is adept at not pitching the ball in a good length area, which is between four to six metres from the stumps. His preferred length is between six to eight metres, and by mixing his deliveries, he ensures that none of the batsmen are able to read him easily.

By the time you have read Malinga, an over is already up. Then there are the variations. If a batsman is expecting Malinga to bowl one of the deadly yorkers, there could be a bouncer - either fastish or a markedly slower one - in store.

Where Chappell had failed by trying to stamp his personality on an India side under the influential captaincy of Sourav Ganguly, Kirsten succeeded by redefining the role as a supporting one, staying in the background and going about his business in the same determined but unfussy manner with which he had accumulated 7,289 Test runs for South Africa.

So Fletcher comes to the position with the advantage of having had predecessors who are near-textbook examples of how and how not to make it work.