The Surfer

At a time when cricket is in a lot of trouble it is good to see such ancient ideals as fair play being remembered and Gale, who is being considered as a Test batsman and a long way in the future as Test captain, has done his chances of a bright career no harm at all by this single action.

He has only been in charge at Headingley for one season but good reports of his leadership are everywhere and in a world in which change for its own sake seems to be the rule he ought to get himself measured for an England blazer soon.

Of the 19 cricketers who have made their ODI debuts for India since the first season of the IPL, 10 were picked largely on the basis of eye-catching displays in the aforementioned Twenty20 jamboree. Of those 10, only Yusuf Pathan and Ashwin were part of India's victorious World Cup squad. Apart from these two and Ravindra Jadeja -who has figured in 35 ODIs -the other seven have, between them, made only 21 appearances for the one-day side. For one reason or the other, not one player among Manpreet Singh Gony, Abhishek Nayar, Sudeep Tyagi, Ashok Dinda, Umesh Yadav, Naman Ojha and Saurabh Tiwary retained selectorial confidence for longer than five matches.

To be fair to the selectors, most of these players were only given opportunities as part of squad rotation in the months leading up to the World Cup. But the fact that so few made a persuasive case for more chances perhaps showed the disparity in quality between the IPL and international cricket. It also challenged the wisdom of picking players for 50-over games based on their T20 displays. Keeping in mind their mixed fortunes, it isn't clear how much emphasis the selectors will place on IPL performances this time around.

Let's make one thing perfectly clear right at the off. Apart from both having 'an eye like a dead fish', they are gifted with extraordinary ability, hence the continued savagery they are able to employ. When they are in the character of a one-man wrecking machine, with strike rates often in excess of 200, they do it for a significant period of time. It isn't a lucky cameo teetering on extermination; it's a game breaking performance of duration aided by an uncluttered mind.

You’re ignoring the hours and hours of practice that made handling a bat second nature to him. You’re ignoring the fact that his coach, Ramakant Achrekar, ferried him from game to game at maidan after madian on his scooter, so that on a given day he got more turns at bat in a competitive environment than anyone else. You’re ignoring the more than 10,000 hours of purposeful practice that he had put in, honing his skills, before he made his India debut; hours that most others managed to do only by their late teens at best, more likely in their early twenties.

It wasn't supposed to be like this — whizz-bang Twenty20 looks very much like a young man's game. But shorter game length and the IPL's seven-week season mean it's less physically demanding than other forms of the game...

Older players are attractive to IPL teams because the concentrated format makes every ball that much more important, and therefore makes a clear head, psychological strength and a mental database of information about similar situations correspondingly more important too. They're also useful in an unofficial coaching capacity, mentoring younger players. And, last but very far from least, they're attractive because they're famous.

The strength in depth is remarkable; the selection is astute, and the coaching and training increasingly top-notch

The Academy has changed, as Harrison’s Glamorgan colleague Mark Wallace so eloquently describes in his article ‘From boot camp to think tank’ in this year’s Wisden.

Due to the big squad, there’s usually about six guys sharing the 12th man duties and everyone is pretty good about it, except Scott Styris. We think he’s trying to be part of the management team, so he’ll catch balls and hit balls, while the rest of us are running around doing the dirty work. There’s a theory that he’s got his eye on a coaching job, so we’ve given him quite a bit of stick. In fact, myself and Tim Southee clapped the other day when he brought drinks on for the first time!

Not for the first time, Pietersen is going to have to cope with the rejection. As Andy Flower knows. "I think he may be disappointed not to be involved in the leadership team for the next few years," the England coach says.

There is a ring of permanency about that phrase "the next few years". Flower is trying to build a leadership group that will last long into the next generation. Pietersen has no place in it. So long as Flower is in charge, his shot at the captaincy has come and gone

Cook is the man. He will prove his batting worth too. His overall ODI record may not be outstanding, but his last outing in Bangladesh was telling.

Recent evidence has proved that to be a tricky place to play in one-day cricket, but, in captaining three victories, Cook made 64, 60 & 32 from his three innings, with a strike-rate of nearly 91, higher than that of his partner Craig Kieswetter (86), who made a century in that series.

If they remain inflexible, it is impossible to imagine the coach and the most experienced player sharing the same dressing room, pulling in the same direction. It is an unsettling thought.

If Gibson has gleaned anything from this early experience in his term, it is an appreciation of the complexities of West Indies cricket and cricketers. As Greg Chappell discovered to his cost in his turbulent stint in charge of India, different situations and different players require different treatment