The Surfer

Modi talks animatedly about how Twenty20 cricket, unlike its Test equivalent, can reach new markets in America and China. He also believes the IPL can eventually take on the Premier League. "Don't forget that our model is unique. All our teams are equal. And the sports fan wants unpredictability. Look, my son is a Manchester United fan and I'm a Chelsea fan – and I was very upset to see my team lose [last Saturday]. But, normally, we know exactly what is going to happen. My son and I know that nine times out 10 either Man U or Chelsea is going to win it. The Premier League is basically so predictable. I wanted to base my league on an unpredictable model – so we don't have a Man U or a Chelsea in the IPL."

Has there ever been a series where a team lost by an innings and then came back to win the next match by an innings? And when was the last time that a player from the losing side got a Man of the Match award, and that too without any doubt that he should get it? And what is wrong with the man called Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar? When will he stop? When will he say that he has done enough? Clearly, there has never been a cricketer like him, even perhaps a man like him. Who could have ever imagined the feats that he has achieved, and who can imagine what more he will?

In a bar in Melbourne in December 1998 an old Australian Test cricketer was barely able to contain his excitement. Rodney Marsh, director of the Australian academy at the time (he would go on to do the same job for the England and Wales Cricket Board) and a frequent contributor to the Observer's sports pages, was so excited he barely had time to sip his beer.

We expected Australia to be a class above the Black Caps and they were; we expected Shaun Tait and Dirk Nannes to bowl fast and they did; we expected our batsmen to struggle with the pace of Tait and Nannes and they did; we expected Mitchell Johnson to continue to dominate our batsmen and he did; we expected Shane Watson to play just as well with his mouth as with bat and ball and he did; and we might just have expected Billy Bowden to have one of those moments and for that 'whoopsy' to favour Australia. He did.

So how does sport deal with this? It's a terrible situation for any sports administrators to find themselves in. There is no easy answer but I have some thoughts, based on my own experiences, about how to navigate through this type of situation.

South African cricketers do not just come in and storm the castle. Geoff Miller and his selectors choose them for no reason other than that in their opinion they are the best players qualified. Were there home-grown players who could prove themselves better, they will get selected instead. So where are they? Specifically where are the batsmen? What is on trial is not the ambition of mercenary cricketers but the system in this country that identifies talent early enough but then fails to advance batsmen of promise from representative age-group cricket through the system.

The idea that some kind of cultural divide is to blame finds credence, perhaps, in the failure of Panesar to kick on. In these pages yesterday the spinner was quick to blame himself for listening to others instead of his instincts. There is an echo here of his failure to impose his ideas upon the England captain he played under mostly, Michael Vaughan. Vaughan always set Panesar’s fields for him, yet Andrew Flintoff has recounted how Panesar, before his debut in India, came to his room full of ideas about his field placings.

Freshened by a decision to forego the rigours of first-class cricket, 26-year-old Tait is bowling the swiftest spells of his life, and as the West Indians and Pakistanis will attest, to face him now is to watch the ball - and life itself - flash before a batsman's eyes.

That extraordinary drive and enthusiasm are what make Tendulkar so special. He has been playing international cricket for 20 years under the intense scrutiny being an Indian superstar brings, so it is remarkable he still loves holding a bat as much as ever.

Do we seriously expect Modi or other sports administrators to go weak at the knees each time some obscure terror group decides to exercise the speed-dial option? India has the Commonwealth Games to host in October and a cricket World Cup final next March. Admission of any inability to secure the IPL would be tantamount to saying that those events should be moved as well. After all, how many Commonwealth athletes, Usain Bolt apart, are as renowned as a Warne or Sachin Tendulkar?