The Surfer

It is not going to be a cakewalk for these commentators — in each match, their hearts will beat for India but not so that we can hear them. They have to be impartial yet always highlight India’s chances — otherwise who will want to watch or listen to them? That’s a spot of tightrope-walking the likes of which you see in the World Cup commercial now playing on your TV screens. 14 teams. 1 Cup. February 19. Be there.

If you thought the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies was grim, it was a roller-coaster of thrills by comparison with the forthcoming one. The World Cup, in effect, does not start on Feb 19 with the inaugural match between Bangladesh and India. It starts on March 23 when the quarter-finals commence: and the winners will be the team that conserves its energy for the first month and caters for the eventualities when the World Cup springs into life with the knockout stages which are crammed into the last 11 days. It is incredible such a tedious schedule has been devised. Nothing can happen in Group A of any interest whatsoever in more than a month of qualifying matches. Which four countries are going to qualify from Group A, folks: Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand and Sri Lanka? Surely not. There was I thinking Canada, Kenya and Zimbabwe were shoo-ins.

I don’t know how long this selection committee meeting lasted but in truth, anything more than 15 minutes meant that either the coffee was late or the telephone link to South Africa was poor. Indeed they could have done this on sms; asked Dhoni to text one of four names to make up the 15th player since the other 14 could have been picked by my aunt, the security guard and the mithaiwala. Dhoni had to choose between a fifth seamer in Sreesanth, a third spinner in Chawla, a second wicketkeeper in Parthiv Patel and a ninth batsman in Rohit Sharma. It had to be his call; certainly I hope it was

The battle between these two competing visions of the future of sport is being played out right here in India. If the IPL succeeds in its present form, it will challenge not just other formats of cricket, but the very idea of sport. Consider it, for what it is worth, as India's gift to the world.

It’s an amazing journey that kicked off with the Kanitkar-led team first dominating the lower division to earn the right to join the Elite teams at the quarter-final stage. Their win over Baroda in the final on Saturday—courtesy their narrow 33-run first innings lead—was their third big scalp of the season.

Vettori's technique would not be front and centre in any MCC coaching manual, but his explanations would be in the leading chapters. Like Jim Furyk in golf, Vettori has honed his unconventional style and buttoned on one of the strongest minds in the game to make his methods work.

Existing tensions within teams escalate and cliques develop because of a lack of communication. Every squad has one or two natural room dwellers, but the more players who are allowed to bury their heads and emotions in a blur of meaningless image and sound the less likely a team is to function together as a unit on the field, especially under pressure.

India's hopes of winning the forthcoming World Cup have been badly damaged by the latest IPL auction. Of course the two are connected. Morale is critical in any team. Moreover a community with a compromised culture cannot expect to conquer. The sight of respected men huddled alongside fripperies and jewels whilst bidding for players did little to advance Indian cricket's reputation. Perhaps they were unaware of the grotesque picture they painted to those watching. These were not cricketing folk. These were bees in a honey-pot.

The two strains worth exploring in the southern players’ distinctive character are Brahminical inevitability, and a conservatism that comes mixed with insecurity. Even before the days of Prasanna, whose father told him he had to focus on his studies no matter what, the southern parent’s mantra has been: academics before sport. It might have mutated into ‘academics alongside sport’ over a period, but we are still some way before ‘sports above everything else’ takes over. Cricket as a career is beginning to be seen as an option, however, but this might be at the cost of education.

Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore have traditionally been cities of academic excellence. There is a certain inevitability to a child going from school to university to a ‘safe government job’. The government might have been replaced by an MNC as the aspiration, but, in essence, the story has not changed. Add to that the uncertainty of a sporting future, and the insecurity that comes with it, and the cry is for ‘something to fall back on.’ That ‘something’ in the south has always been education, even among the wealthy businessmen and technocrats who keep the chair warm for their offspring.

Despite topping the run-scorer's list in the domestic one-day series this summer with 494 runs at 82.33, Hodge was omitted from the 14-man squad for today's opening one-day international against England in Melbourne. Just as mysterious have been Hodge's repeated setbacks at the national selection table over an 18-year domestic career that has netted 17,084 first-class runs at an average of 48.81.

I said to Courtney that the only way to get their attention was for him to bowl to me at top pace and show them how good and quick he was! Well, it didn't take long to get their attention. Courtney's second ball ricocheted off my neck, which led to a lot of laughter - much to my displeasure! Once they saw how quick Courtney was, they all just wanted to bowl bouncers and let 'em go. They had a ball.

It was my greatest time in coaching cricket. We drove out of the community at sunset, watching tennis balls flying everywhere, spotting kids off massive long runs hurling bouncers at kids who wanted to take them on. As I quickly glanced at Courtney to say what a great job he'd done, I noticed a tear appear on the great man's face. Enough said.