The Surfer

I feel a very significant Proteas freshening is advisable at T20 level, something that could pay dividends for the other two formats at the same time in the way it would curb the threat of some of South Africa’s more seasoned “treadmillers” from becoming blasé about donning a national shirt.

At the Kensington Oval, England went at Pakistan with pace but in St Lucia against a good New Zealand side on a slower wicket they took pace off the ball, bowled lots of cutters and slower bouncers and generally looked like a highly effective side.

A fine player and innovative captain who has an outstanding leadership record, Clarke is Australia's least successful T20 batsman in the same way that during the 1970s and early '80s, Brearley became one of England's finest Test captains but averaged just 22 and never made a century. Clarke has reinvigorated Australia's T20 cricket since being appointed at the beginning of last summer, but that has had almost nothing to do with his batting.

If the reasons for his omission are based purely on cricketing logic, then Irfan could have waited in hope. But, it seems, there is more than what meets the eye.

Underneath the Greenidge and Haynes stand, named after former Barbados and West Indies opening batsmen Gordon and Desmond, cooks spice up the chicken and the beef stew, while fans from all over the cricketing world share a beer.

Dhiraj Nayyar, a senior editor at The Financial Express, said the cricket scandal was best understood in the context of India’s economic evolution. When India’s stock exchange took off in the late 1980s and early 1990s, scandals erupted over market manipulation until regulatory structures were strengthened. Today, the same absence of transparency and regulation exists in cricket.

So far this season it has produced some interesting, vibrant and, on the smaller grounds at least, well-supported cricket. The England Test players who have missed the party in the Caribbean, notably Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook, have been reminded what a stern school the county circuit still is.

Coalition may be a whole new ball game here, but over in the Caribbean it could not be working better as three South Africans, an Irishman and some Englishmen have joined together under the guidance of a Zimbabwean to see off a whole lot more South Africans and some Irishmen with South Africans and Australians stirred in. It's complicated.

Despite the recent revelations, there's little indication things will change. All those vying for power in Indian cricket share the same assumptions and the same methods and not a few of the same cronies. Modi's successor Chirayu Amin – chairman of pharmaceutical giant Alembic and former president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry – promises a more disciplined and cautious approach but his model for cricket's future is no different from Modi's.