The Surfer

Never a person to mince his words, captain Arjuna Ranatunga rubbed salt into the English wounds at the post match media conference, after the historic 1998 Oval triumph, when he was asked the reason why England didn’t award Sri Lanka a three Test series. "I don’t know. Probably they don’t want to lose 3-0 to us," he said in the typical sarcastic Ranatunga style.

After having surveyed through players in the competition, it has been gathered that there is a huge lack of interest. That is mainly due to the ridiculously low pay they receive during a match. And a lack of competition is another major reason. The points table of this year's competition says a lot about the quality and standard of cricket played. While Rajshahi and Dhaka have already qualified for the final (to be held from May 10 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium), the rest, particularly the bottom two, have provided nothing to first-class cricket in Bangladesh.

When Ganguly was cold-shouldered by all the IPL teams in the auction for the fourth season, it was believed that, pushing 40, he was staring at the end of his playing career, that his days as captain and cricketer were finally over. But then Ganguly, the master of reinvention, never seems to see that door marked exit.

The third ought to be the most worrying, though, and it comes back to the English experience. The marketing people call this "cricket fatigue", which in essence means that a quarter to a fifth of those who followed IPL last year have had enough of it. Few games have caught the imagination.

But what is of overriding concern is the effect that the captaincy could have on Cook's own game, the bread and butter of Test cricket. A year ago he was being tormented outside off stump, his bat edge drawn to the ball as if magnetised. Wicketkeeper and slips dared not waver in concentration for a moment. Then, finally, in Australia, he got his bearings, memorably so, to the tune of 766 Test runs. Fundamental to that was his unwavering capacity to ignore, for hour upon hour, the delivery outside off that so often had been his undoing.

Yet the angled nudge down to third man is a default shot in one-day cricket, an instinctive stroke, productive in the frequent absence of close fielders and one that those grounded in ODIs who then come to Test matches have to fight to expunge from their games. Think Eoin Morgan. Yet here we shall be, asking Cook to reintroduce that to his weaponry.

The excitement in Parameswaran's voice is hard to miss when he speaks about the day he got spotted by Lawson. "I wanted to impress people be cause all the big players were around. But frankly, initially, I didn't expect to be picked. I knew that coach Lawson was happy with the way I bowled in the nets. But getting a contract with Kochi Tuskers Kerala was unexpected," Parameswaran added.

Talk of England players' excessive workload does not please everybody. Envy is part of the reason, as is the tendency of some players to go off and play IPL whenever they get downtime. But England's programme last winter was excessive, undermined their World Cup challenge and betrayed a squad full of committed, hard-working professionals. England's MD, Hugh Morris, has told Flower he is sympathetic, but a reduced commitment overseas could go hand in hand with fewer internationals in an England summer and that would infuriate counties. Will England dare to rest more players against weaker opponents?Full post