The Surfer

Too poor to afford a ticket into the SCG to see his heroes blaze away each summer, Khawaja would wait all day outside the old iron gates before grabbing a priceless glimpse of the day's play. "My dad didn't have a lot of money so we didn't have the ability to go out and watch cricket games," he said."But what I would do is I would come at the end of the game, when they would open the gates for the final 10 overs.

"I would wait at the gates ... wait at the gates and then run as fast I could to get in and watch the final overs. I did that every single time they played a one-dayer or when I heard Steve or Mark Waugh was playing for New South Wales, I would rush over and go watch them.

There has been a distinct lack of discussion about the considerable experienced talent that knows how to win and is ready, willing and able to take over from struggling incumbents.

"A cricket dressing room is quite a cynical place. If someone says something out of character it will be noticed. Besides, cricket is very specific: you have to go out on the field and do the same job as the people you're captaining. You can't hide away, you either lead by example or you don't lead.

"I don't need to dream of lifting the urn," he says, "because I know what it's like."

The first thing this duo did, was to not try and mould players into what they believed cricketers should be. They realised that trying to get VVS Laxman to run like Rhodes would be as futile as coaching Laxman's on-drive into Rhodes' batting repertoire. They understood that the one thing standing in the way of Sachin Tendulkar playing the role of elder statesman was the coach demanding that he do it, and make long-winded speeches to youngsters.

As a writer Gideon has played his shots and he's got them all: wit, irony, erudition and endurance. The last quality has made him increasingly well-known throughout the cricket world and added to the authority of his opinions.

Vettori and Greatbatch front the NZC board in Wellington today and the thrust of their explanation will centre on solutions for improving the batting unit. Brendon McCullum down, Martin Guptill opening, Scott Styris here, Kane Williamson there. In reality, it is just shuffling the deckchairs. The problem stems from a fundamentally flawed management model that among other things has seen young players fall to pieces and Vettori's favourites and selection whims pass muster without question.

The way many of the players have conducted themselves has also been embarrassing.

Our leading players went about their business with their noses up in the air and growing egos alongside them, unaware that most of them were overpaid and under-delivered more often than not.

There is something to admire about a tournament that doesn’t take itself too seriously and produces a champion in exactly a week (I am looking at you, ICC World Cup 2007 and Indian Premier League). However, you can’t help but feel that a little more thought could have been put into the format. With four groups and a total of 13 teams, playing just two group matches each before the semis, it was essentially a knock-out from the get-go.

The argument in favour of multiple teams from one region is that it prevents any one team from being too strong, while making sure all the deserving players still get to play. In practice, though, this only ends up diluting the competition, not enriching it. A better approach to make the league competitive would be to loan some of the top players to a weaker side, like Quetta.

Test cricket is being killed off by meaningless Test matches played between mismatched teams or third-rate ones. It is suffering because of the International Cricket Council's idiotic missionary impulse, the mad idea that Test cricket's health depends on it becoming a more global sport. Nothing could be further from the truth: history teaches us that Test cricket is essentially a bilateral game: it prospered even when it was played by just two countries, England and Australia.