The Surfer

Watching him walk back to the pavilion after being put out of his misery by Swann on the last day, amidst eerie silence at Lord's, was agonizing. The grim face behind that visor was matched by that of the glum eleven year old sitting beside me watching. In that juxtaposition of the two sad faces lay the tragedy of cricket's loss. Our game's newest generations just got tainted for life.

By the next time he played there, in 2001, Steve Waugh was such a hero that the applause he received for his century made the Indian players stare at each other quizzically. By the third evening, Waugh’s all-conquering side, chasing a 17th successive Test win, were well on course, still 20 runs ahead with just six Indian wickets to take.

By the next afternoon, we were all going through the record-books and contemplating the unthinkable. VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid didn’t just bat through the day; they broke Australia’s spirit.

The mood of the crowd too had changed. Subdued in the face of imminent defeat in the morning, there were as loud as could be by afternoon. By the time Laxman went past Sunil Gavaskar’s 236 – then the highest score by an Indian in Tests – the crescendo was such that you could not hear the person next to you speak.

I made things very simple. I used to tell him to watch the ball and hit it so he would be entertaining the crowd and entertaining me on the balcony. I told him that was his job. With the ball, he just wanted to do the basics, such as hit the top of off stump. He did not like to bowl slower balls because he didn't think he had to. He didn't want any fancy field setting.

He's a coach as well as captain. "The coaching staff have talked to me about not spending too much time trying to help the young blokes out during the summer at the expense of my own preparation - but that's what I love," Ponting said. "If I don't know enough about them, about how they're going to handle situations and what they can and can't do, then it's pretty hard for us to win games together.”

The Dolphins team Pietersen “guests” for pretty shortly will be light years more representative, when you consider that a 20-man squad announced for the campaign recently contains at least a dozen black players and Imraan Khan as captain.

Just as tellingly, though, the South African national landscape, certainly as far as Tests are concerned, was arguably less promising then than it is now: Australia remained very imperiously atop the pile a decade back, whereas the situation is altogether more fluid these days, with the Proteas potentially poised to seize top spot if they beat current leaders India at home this season and also prosper in the lead-up to that series.

The manner in which Andrew Flintoff chose today to acknowledge a fitness battle lost even as the tightest County Championship for years was coming to its conclusion did him little credit. What abject, thoughtless timing, a slap in the face for the game that nurtured him and set him on the road to fame and considerable fortune.

After a run of very successful seasons in international cricket, he was put in charge of the team. It was obvious to us that the crown of captaincy did not fit him perfectly. Under Sachin's leadership for the first time in 1996, many of us found it difficult to match his expectations. His demands and anticipation of his teammates' performances originated from his own talent. Lesser mortals found the going tough even to understand their roles, never mind the whole business of taking on the pressure of international cricket.

The timing of yesterday's announcement summed up why Flintoff was never as popular within the game as he was among the supporters. It should have been the day when a great finale to the Championship race could be celebrated, when the grand old competition of the domestic season had a rare day in the sun. Instead it was a day hijacked by Flintoff, who could have waited but who orchestrated his retirement at the behest of a sponsor and overshadowed the drama of Nottinghamshire's unlikely triumph at Old Trafford.

Since his career restarted early last year, he has batted 32 times at an average of 42.03, scoring those runs at 5.19 an over, hitting 145 fours, 4.5 an innings, and 13 sixes. The increased aggression and its results are plain.

But there is much more to Strauss's place in the team than that. He is the captain and his importance in that role cannot be underestimated. There can be no room for sentiment in selecting sporting teams (although, on the other hand if there is no room for it in sport, where is there?) but Strauss's position embraces a great deal more.