The Surfer

‘I know I’m not the most talented cricketer in the world. There are more than enough people telling me. But I don’t need telling. I know I’ve got to keep improving my game and in the past I’ve always been right on that limit of “This could be my last game or my last tour”. When cricket is your love and what you do for a living, all that talk does hurt. I’m not kidding you. You might try to put on a face because you don’t want to bring the team down with you. But there are moments when, literally, you are in complete despair, in tears, thinking, “Where do I turn to? Where am I going to go from here?”.'

The tournament itself seems to be an incredibly special affair, with anyone who has been present at the venues returning touched in one way or another. The logistics and organisation are at a scale matched only by the Olympics and the kind of fan support – and nothing is cheap at a World Cup venue – has to be seen to be believed.

There remains a nagging doubt that Prior, Ashes hero that he is, has not been treated with quite the propriety he deserves. Through constant application, his wicketkeeping has progressed enormously and if he has put in the hours, the big secret is still a simple one: he stays lower for longer.

“I love playing local cricket because it brings back memories of the days when we would dream of playing big cricket. It provides us with a chance to keep in touch with the basics of the game. Remembering the basics and your humble beginnings help you keep your feet on the ground,” says Sehwag, who would happily travel a good 35km (from his Najafgarh home) just to play a local cricket match. And this a few weeks after he had made a Test triple century!

England’s league would more closely resemble India’s if more current internationals were involved. But West Indies and South Africa are engaged, like Sri Lanka and India, and Australia are about to be, which leaves the remaining, mostly ageing, stardust to be spread around 18 counties - and the situation is aggravated when England’s World Twenty20 winners are limited to token appearances, such as Kevin Pietersen to one.

Kieswetter was called up by England as soon as he was available, having served a four-year qualification period after deciding that he was not after all South African and would throw in his lot with the land of his mother, or at least the one next door to his mother, she being Scottish.

The tales about his tall hits that sailed over the palm trees lining the maidan and landed threateningly close to the crowd of evening commuters heading home, got exaggerated after every successive narration. "Ball ko limbu bana deta hai (He turns cricket balls into lemons)," they said, describing the ball's diminishing dimension when on the tip of the parabola that Yuvraj's towering sixes drew.

After the first-class system ceased to exist during the dark days, the Zimbabweans have borrowed a tried and tested formula from their neighbours. According to Heath Streak, the bowling consultant, the franchise system has brought about stability. “The South African prototype of the franchise system has worked brilliantly for us. We have five franchises in the country which play all year long. The results have shown in the national team. In about three years, we’ll be ready for the biggest names,” Streak says.

The plan may get more Aussies back into grounds and will also introduce some nuance back into the 50-over format. The original plan wants to reduce the longer version of the short game to 40 overs-a-side. The only difference that 10 overs a side will make is to reduce the length of a match by about 90 minutes. If folk begin to return to grounds for the four-innings 40-over game, they may surely stick on for the old Fifty50.