The Surfer

"I think it's about the mindset. He wants to restrict the other side from scoring. He is waiting for the wickets to come by. He is hesitant to put pressure on the opposition. He has the class but he has to apply pressure on the minds of the batsmen. An attacking field is the best way to make the batsmen think differently, which he is not doing too often," Maninder said.

Are you a rugby man? Yeah, I do like rugby. I'm more of a rugby man than a cricket man. Err, no, I mean, not a cricket man, I'm more of a rugby man than a football man.

Having scored his runs, taken his wickets and contextualised his name in perpetuity, there is no doubting which side Shane Warne is on now: forget the Ashes, he said this week, the IPL was one of the greatest moments of his cricketing career, if not the greatest.

Harare Sports Club has never looked so good and, to be absolutely honest, Zimbabwe Cricket has never had more of a buzz. Sponsors who abandoned the game during a decade of decay during the 2000s have returned and along with virtually all of the players who felt alienated enough to leave the game, and often the country, at some point in the last ten years.

The biggest bowling disappointment, however, was Harbhajan. Simply put, it was an unacceptable performance from a spinner who is pursuing greatness. He allowed himself to be persuaded too easily into bowling a leg-stump line. He created problems when bowling with greater over-spin, but surprisingly didn’t do more of it. Nor did he try and get the batsman to drive against the turn often enough. Where Harris bowled 19 maiden overs, Harbhajan managed just one, indicative of the measure of comfort Kallis, Amla, and later A.B. de Villiers played him with.

All it needed was a few lusty blows by Kallis to reach his double century but although he batted well enough he didn’t change gear against an unthreatening attack and when the declaration could no longer be delayed he was on 189 not out, scored off 443 balls.

How big a factor is economic well-being then? It’s a mixed bag really. In some cases, quite significant, especially to sports such as tennis, golf and swimming, but not quite so with cricket and football. Federer, for instance, comes from an upscale background; his father was an executive with a multinational pharma company which enabled not only access to facilities, but also expenses for coaching, etc. Ditto with Phelps in swimming and Woods in golf. But Bradman’s background was modestly rural middle class, while Tendulkar’s was modestly urban middle class. Ali, in contrast, was the son of a poor (in the American context) signboard painter from Louisville, while Maradona was even more underprivileged—he was the son of a bricklayer and came from the slums of Villa Fiorito outside Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The new WI coach Ottis Gibson has said he wants his players to stop looking backwards. He needs to tell the Windies selectors the same thing. It does not matter how well or badly Wavell does...it is whether such a selection reflects structured planning.