The Surfer

All we can really conclude from the recent one-day series is that these Australians are like walnuts: seriously tough to crack. ... Now [in the Tests against Pakistan] we can gauge more prudently whether, say, Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke do have genuine problems against the short ball, because one-day cricket's endless demand for scoring can blur both judgments and perceptions. Did the West Indian Kemar Roach really inflict lasting psychological damage upon Ponting in Perth last winter? Mohammad Aamer, Mohammad Asif and Umar Gul may provide the answer.

One of his Ireland team-mates, John Mooney, said this week if he was given the choice of paying to watch Morgan, Stirling or Ed Joyce, the former Ireland and England batsman who is set to return to the Irish side, it would be Stirling every time.

He [Mendis] had a really good series against us last time. But we have played him rather well since then. They didn't pick him in the one-dayers (Asia Cup). Even if he is not picked for the Tests we have to prepare for Rangana Herath and Suraj Randiv.

We have failed to win a Test series in Sri Lanka in the recent past. We have some unfinished business... like an unfinished assignment in Sri Lanka. We will definitely try to win this time.

But as with Hawk-Eye, or the pitch mat for lbw, or Snicko, or even the enhanced technology of Hotspot, it is not there to be taken too seriously. It has its flaws. It is not definitive. There is a margin for error. It may even be open to a little trickery if there is a little tinkering with the calibration.

I was reminded of this during the first of England's recent one-day internationals with Australia at the Rose Bowl, when in the course of the England innings Ryan Harris was deemed to have sent down a delivery in excess of 96mph. This marks him down as one of the fastest bowlers in history, and while I bow to no one in admiration of Harris's blood-and-guts, in-yer-face bowling, he isn't that. Goodness only knows what that would make Tommo, or Mikey Holding, or Shoaib Akhtar.

Merlyn was programmed to be 'human', in that he would bowl the occasional bad ball. One looked like a full toss. Late in the flight, I realised it was a full toss, and got enough bat on it to get it through mid on, if there hadn't been one. I got semi-cocky. The fear-sweat diminished a degree or two. I waited for the next one from Merlyn's implacable dead eye.

Here it came again - another full toss! I was out to meet it this time, 'Murali' was getting belted. Then it whirred, then it dipped, and then pitched just in front of me and took off - there's no other description for it - took off from leg to off, past the bat, past everything, me stranded halfway down the wicket.

I am looking at working on my bowling too. If you're there as a pure batsman, then if you get out cheaply, the game's over for you. But if you can also bowl five-six overs in an ODI, pick up a couple of wickets, help the team, it's good.

He did not carry the Sri Lanka attack for the bulk of his career, until his shoulder began to object and a little of the fizz went out of him – he was the Sri Lanka attack. Murali would occupy one end until play was done. Only his record against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, 176 wickets from 25 matches, diminishes him compared to Warne, who took only 17 from three games.

Darryl Foster, a former Sri Lankan bowling coach, and by then working at the University of Western Australia, put suspicions about Murali down to an "optical illusion". Murali bowled in arm braces for the TV cameras, in Colombo he even bowled with an ankle brace on his elbow because that was all they could find. Attempts to emulate Murali by Sri Lankan youngsters granted neither a revolving wrist nor a locked elbow meant a chucker on every beach.

What works well for Biswal is that he is a former player, has played domestic cricket, played alongside the likes of Kumble, Ganguly, Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar in age-group cricket. And also is currently the president of a state association.

But probably the most important qualification for Biswal presently is the fact that he is a Congress leader. In various ways the board is mollifying the ruling party by appointing Biswal, a former Youth Congress leader and a close aide of Rahul Gandhi. The appointment of Congress' Union minister of state Jyotiraditya Scindia on the disciplinary panel probing suspended Indian Premier League chief Lalit Modi is also a case in point.