The Surfer

He has tried to be conservative and I don't think being conservative comes naturally to him. I think, perhaps, at times he should have been confident enough and courageous enough to be aggressive. Be the best with what you have rather than be conservative and play safe. It's not in his nature and it doesn't work for him.

The grim competitor that we are familiar with morphs into a large-hearted man of charity outside a cricket ground. There's, in fact, not even a trace of cricketer in him. He is passionate about music, loves going for a cinema with his friends, and he likes movies so much that he has formed a club within the England team consisting Stuart Broad, Steve Finn, Graeme Swann, Matt Prior and Jonny Bairstow.

There was nothing beautiful about Dhoni's batting but there was a magnificent resolve. He punched away the odd overpitched ball with a short-arm jab that you do not find in the textbook. Watching the ball intently, he played late with barely a backlift. In this there were echoes of Basil D'Oliveira and his self-taught technique. With such powerful forearms and deft timing an elaborate backlift was of no great value to a D'Oliveira or a Dhoni.

Indian techniques are so geared to the ball coming back and playing it to the on side that the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli and Murali Vijay were found out. They move their right shoulder around, bringing them square on to the wicket so their front foot is pointing down the pitch. If you look at Ajinkya Rahane, the best technical player in the Indian side, his front foot is placed on a 45-degree angle, which gives him a better chance to cover the ball swinging into his pads.

I am not asking for the game to be made sterile, for emotion to be quarantined. No, not at all. I am not asking for the "finger on the lips" that primary school teachers demand of young boys and girls. I don't mind a word spoken in anger or jest or even contempt. But filth and abuse must stop, references to families and parentage must stop for it is inevitable that it will lead to a punch thrown. We are not far away.

The best bowlers channel the aggression in the right way. You knew you were on top of McGrath if he started losing his rag. At Lord's it was clear England were unsettled by the allegations that came out of the Trent Bridge Test. They were very fragile and stand-offish out in the middle. I think it really got to Jimmy. But at the Ageas Bowl he was back to being the Jimmy of old.

All this is in contrast to how it once was, back in the days where West Indies were the supreme cricket machine. Tours then, much less concentrated than they are now, seemed to conform to a template. First came some seductive island warm-up matches, what we would term beach cricket: St Kitts, St Lucia, Grenada, that sort of thing, and all very nice. For the most part, unless they happened upon the fearsome Antiguan trio of Vaughn "Hungry" Walsh, Randy Challenger, and John "The Dentist" Maynard, they would find numerous overs of spin confronting them, hardly the preparation they required for facing Curtly, Courtney, Bish and Kenny Benjamin over the course of the next five matches

Sledging is a blight on cricket and needs stamping out. Light-hearted banter, amusing remarks are great for the game. But this stuff is downright offensive. Downton agreed with me but was reluctant to tell Jimmy not to do it in case he lost his competitive edge. Presumably winning must be everything whatever the cost. I believe if something is not right you should set a moral standard. It ishould have nothing nothing to do with winning or losing.

"It's ridiculous that it has all dragged on for so long. I blame the match referee [David Boon] and the ICC. If I'd been the match referee - and I used to be one - I'd have had Jimmy and Jadeja into my room there and then, asked them to sort it out between them and, if Jimmy was at fault, I'd have asked him to apologise. If he refused, then it could have been an issue but it should have all been sorted out in five minutes."

"We sat down after Australia and asked whether it was a technical or mental issue," Fraser said. "After talking to Andy Flower and Richard Johnson, we decided it was technical. The logic, therefore, was get that sorted and he would bowl well again and confidence would return."

I believe there have been calls from some quarters for India to 'man up'. I'm not quite sure what that means. Are they trying to say that cricket must be like football, that if somebody tackles you hard, the next time you tackle them just as hard? I don't understand it. I thought cricket battles were fought out in the middle with bat and ball, but apparently not. It seems those calling for India to 'man up' think 'manning up' will stop what supposedly took place in the walkway leading to the dressing rooms from happening again. I think teams 'manning up' will lead to more confrontations, not less.

Maybe, when the trip is over, we will go back to that bar where it all started. We can talk about our travels, catches taken, and sixes hit. Maybe, as we toast, we will spy a young couple sitting across the table from each other, speaking shyly, strangers becoming something more, and we will watch them and smile, knowing they have no idea what they are in for.

The so-called "Bali Agreement" was poised to become the most important trade pact in decades, and according to some economists, had the potential to boost global growth by as much as $1 trillion. The deal collapsed at the eleventh hour midweek after India demanded concessions allowing it to stockpile agricultural supplies (effectively subsidizing its domestic industry). Diplomats were "flabbergasted" by New Delhi's stance, according to Reuters.