The Surfer

But cricket is not in its right mind. Instead it has been taken over by apologists whose thoughts turn to the frenzied mob and the bottom line. None of them has sufficiently considered the bigger picture. Probably the game can be uplifted only by those currently consumed by its dazzle because they have its ear.

If I had to point out one area where we could see a significant improvement, it is the umpiring standards in domestic cricket. Like in the case of our national cricket team, where a good side is built on the basis of strong grassroots and domestic structures, umpires too cut their first teeth at domestic competitions.

I am a positive character so I always try to do positive things, be aggressive and win games. I might do some changes when compared to Sanga and Mahela because all of us think differently. I go to every match thinking that I want to win it so there might be a few changes on the field.

It is going to be tough and this time around in England especially the early part of the summer are very testing conditions for any player no matter how good you are The youngsters will have to adjust, but on the other hand even experienced players will find it difficult to play in England with the ball swinging around a lot. It is going to be a huge challenge for me but I have faith in my squad. The conditions are going to tough and there is a new coach and I am a new captain as well so I am eagerly awaiting for the challenging tour.It is a rebuilding phase and young blood needs to be infused to the team since we are aiming at the 2015 World Cup.

It is hard to say whether these men and women have lost their appeal or the star-struck Indians are more in love with the idea of glamour than glamour itself. Or, is it that once these ageing stars overexposed themselves, their aura too vanished? I wonder what agony the Badshah of Bollywood would have gone through on discovering that the Kolkata crowd had largely kept away from the Eden Gardens in their opening match.

Simon Katich believes the competition lacks experience and labelled the conversion of the state second XI to an under-23 tournament of three-day matches a "failure". Stuart Clark claimed that for the first time in his 15-year career he feared for the safety of an opposing opening batsman because he was "scared" and could not cope with fast bowling.

The current and former Australian veterans are saying publicly what many others are voicing privately to the team performance review set up following last summer's Ashes debacle. Their views are diametrically opposed to Cricket Australia.

Andy Flower and the selectors must not waste this opportunity to be strong, brave and far sighted by telling some of the older guys, ‘sorry we are moving on’.

It is impossible not to think of Ian Botham, who stayed concreted in at No. 6 even as his career congealed. Botham had a lot of what I would ideally want from my No. 6 batsman.

I would have accepted if I'd been asked - there can be no greater honour in cricket - but, if I'm honest, I'm happy to remain one of the foot soldiers.

I've never had strong captaincy ambitions with England. I like to be a bit of a joker around the dressing room, taking the mickey out of the lads. I'm not sure I could continue doing that so easily if I was put in charge.

More relevant, for the game that has hitched its future prosperity on Twenty20, is a survey of Indian TV audiences that suggests the lustre is fading even in the game's heartland. In season one, Indians abandoned soap operas for the IPL, but viewing figures for this year's first 26 games were down 22 per cent, the lowest in the league's history.

The danger to Strauss's ambition to lead the Test side into both Ashes series in 2013 is that the one-day side will flourish under Cook and so put the sort of pressure on his Test leadership that eventually caused Hussain to pass on those reins to Vaughan. It is a risk Strauss recognises, although the team would have to make massive progress for that to happen. Four series against subcontinental teams this winter and two at home this summer with the World Cup finalists will not make that any easier.

It certainly looks as if Flower will assume the autocratic role once filled by the single captain of old. If he does not, how will differences of opinion over who plays in each of the sides become settled? What if Cook wants James Taylor, the highly promising young batsman from Leicestershire, to play in the 50-over side but Broad does not want him in the T20 side? Flower will have to make that call, as he does already for Tests in collusion with Strauss, but you can see how it might quickly become messy.

The British press said that Sri Lanka will go home in three days, not five days. Ian Botham said that Sri Lanka were a piece of cake for him. This was after they had lost to West Indies 5-0, mind you. That really motivated us and we wanted to do well. We put up a good show and the English didn’t know where to hide