The Surfer

That cricket has been increasingly unfair to bowlers isn’t a secret, but of late Tendulkar is making this blatantly obvious. By using the pace that bowlers so excruciatingly generate to his advantage, the man who completed 20 years in cricket last year has evolved a fresh, energy-efficient approach to batting that suits his nearly 37-year-old body which has endured countless X-rays and MRI scans.

That there are problems at the top of the order - and settling on the most competitive and viable top six - and, more latterly, with the new ball bowling. Nothing new in that.

Pietersen points out a pattern that could help solve the riddle. “The successful foreign captains - Shane Warne and Adam Gilchrist - are retired internationals. The current foreign internationals leading the sides have struggled. It’s tough for them to lead,” he said. The Royal Challengers player draws upon his experience to elaborate. “I found captaincy very tough last year. I didn’t even know the names of quite a few local players and couldn’t understand them much. It affected my batting as well and I think Sangakkara is facing the same problem,” said Pietersen.

The BCCI, which for reasons beyond comprehension, is loathe to subject itself to public scrutiny (unless it has something to hide) and shields itself behind the argument that it is a private body and cannot be questioned by the state. BCCI conveniently forgets that not only does it get tax benefits, it also gets other largesse from the state, like stadias at throwaway rates and, most importantly, is allowed to use the name India for the team which represents it. It gets these concessions because it is deemed a charitable organisation which performs a public function.

Sceptical of the statistics available on the Internet this octogenarian keeps track of her favourite cricketer's achievements in her own way. Tiny scraps of paper with all the scores painstakingly written in neat handwriting are tucked away along with other prized possessions that include a couple of books on the cricketing genius gifted by her grandson. She secretly pulls out a few bits and shows them to me ensuring I handle them with care. All of a sudden, she chuckles. Saraswathi's face is bright with enthusiasm as she narrates another incident. “After the1998 Sharjah Cup, Shane Warne said he used to get nightmares about Sachin. Sachin ko ‘Man of the Series' ke liye car mila.”

It makes no sense for our county cricketers to be playing a 40-over competition this season while all except South Africa still play 50-over domestic tournaments to prepare for the next World Cup. The final will take place in Mumbai a year from tomorrow. Does anyone need to be reminded that the country that launched professional one-day cricket has yet to win a World Cup?

In return ITV 4 has garnered an audience that has frequently been more than 10 times its average afternoon viewing figures and often treble the size of its peak-time average. It's money well spent.

If you look back at the period right after the 2003 World Cup, you will see that a handful of players including Saeed Anwar, Wasim Akram, Ijaz Ahmed and Saqlain Mushtaq were discarded from the team. Wasim Akram didn’t even actually retire; he was in England when he got the news (of his ouster). That is when I decided that I want to retire from cricket when I am at my peak.