The Surfer

Here's the anecdote: "I remember it flashing up on the screen that it was Sachin's birthday when he was smashing us on the field. When the game was about to end, it flashed up, 'Happy birthday, Damien Fleming', and there is nothing like being booed by 30,000-40,000 people really to make it special," said Fleming with a chuckle.

Instead of lining up the soft targets, the players, let's ask some serious questions of the administrators. When you can't pay an international cricketer a fair wage – those that aren't Indian, English or Australian often take home in a season what one of our talentless ham-actors gets for a show – why do you come between them and IPL riches? When more than 95 percent of international cricketers express an interest in being part of the league, why the reluctance to create a window for it?

In my early days of visiting India one woman bounced up to me, introduced herself and stated very confidently, "I know a lot about cricket." I replied simply: "How come?" She responded with an equally simple answer: "I've watched a lot of games." "So has my mother," I shot back quickly. The slightly bewildered lady replied, "What do you mean?" "Well," I explained, "Jeanne [my mother] had a father and three sons who all played cricket for Australia so she watched a lot of matches. However, that doesn't mean she really understands the game."

Perhaps his background will help him cope. His father, Ged, is a former New Zealand rugby league international who brought the family to England in 2003 when he was offered the coach's job at Workington. Ben, born in Christchurch – although with no trace of a Kiwi accent, and ambitions only to play for England – was 12, and while he had played a little cricket, he was more interested in following his dad into rugby. While some of his mates might have imagined themselves being Flintoff, such fantasies never crossed his mind.

Alastair Cook, at 26, is far and away the strongest candidate to lead England into the 2015 World Cup in Australia — where pitches have tended to suit him — and New Zealand. But he is a man best equipped to bat all day, such is his self-discipline and strength of character, and by nature a Test batsman.

So the arrangements that will give Cook the best chance of succeeding as a 50-over batsman and captain will have to be elaborate, lest he starts off on the wrong foot and never arrives. He has to bed in first as a one-day batsman, without thinking about the captaincy as well.

He may not have a cool, calm head like Dhoni; he may not be a tactical wizard like Mark Taylor; he may not be diplomatic like Sangakkara or a strategy specialist like Daniel Vettori but he brings explosiveness, innovation and aggression to the team, similar to what Shahid Afridi brings to the Pakistan team. Hopefully he will not take captaincy too seriously and change his game plan as he knows one way to play -- attack at all costs.

Perhaps even more toxic is the unwelcome odor of exclusivity reeking from the ICC proposal. Cricket, a product emerging from Victorian English gentry, has its roots in snobbery and social hierarchy. Indeed, there was a time when the sport would distinguish between "gentlemen" and "players", and captains of national teams would be chosen based on heritage and social rank rather than tactical acumen and cricketing ability. ICC’s plans for keeping even the most promising second-tier teams out of the next World Cup harken back to those clubby days. In the 21st century, this is most jarring.

Can one visualise a situation where a national team goes to play a series in another country with the core of their team missing for practice games? Imagine India embarking for the tour of England with their main players, including their captain, still playing in a league tournament in some other country? Will the Indian public and the hyper jingoistic media allow that to happen?

Only four teams competed in the inaugural event which was won by the Rebels from Jakarta, Java. Fourteen years later, 12 teams featuring players aged from 16 to 70 will gather at the Bukit Oval, Udayana Cricket Club’s ground on Bali’s Jimbaran Heights, where cobras and monitor lizards await fielders retrieving balls whacked beyond the boundary.