The Surfer

The contenders should form an orderly queue. Brownlie averaged a tick under 30 from 14 tests in the middle order, the last at Leeds 13 months ago, and stated his intention last week when confirming a move from Canterbury to Northern Districts. A back foot player who handles pace well, he hopes to follow the path of Mark Richardson, who shifted up to open on a New Zealand A tour in 2000 and never looked back.

Everyone knows this power-grab is utterly unethical, but everyone with a vote has been asked: do you want to say no, or do you want a lucrative tour by India, with all the broadcasting rights you can sell? Or if you feel like a nice soft ICC loan, like the $4m just given to the West Indies board, you have only to ask! Instead of behaving like a governing body, the new-look ICC will channel 62 per cent of the main money-pot into the pockets of Australia, England and above all India.

I think his square drive was much better than mine is right now, mainly because he could play that shot even on the front-foot. I am good at playing the square drive on the back-foot but I haven't tried doing it on the front-foot. It's about picking the swing and the length early on. You really need to be good at it to play the square drive on the front-foot because otherwise it puts your wicket at risk. These are the shots you try out in the shorter formats rather than in Tests. I have tried it out in the Ranji Trophy but not at the Test level, where the ball comes at a higher pace and the wickets have more bounce. It's better to play it on the back-foot.

If Cook were to score runs in the kind of quantity he once managed, then that would underpin the innings, with others feeding from it, and leadership would seem easier. It does appear, however, that he might be placing too much emphasis on being in the vanguard, perhaps trying to be something he is not, rather than being a little more selfish in that regard and thinking primarily about his own game. The point has not yet been reached where either Cook or his employer should be considering whether his position as Test captain is appropriate for both the team benefit and his own but it will be under discussion.

I do not think it is a bad thing to keep a lot of decisions within the inner circle but I always suggest to any young captain they should have outside help because you do not always get the truth from people inside the team. Sometimes the coach or fellow senior players are blinkered. There are occasions when they do not want to hear the truth and you just need someone to turn to who is honest and trustworthy. Basically someone who does not tell you as captain what you want to hear.

Bangladesh's steep fall in 2014 has at its roots -- and it is borne out in the results, particularly the spectacular implosions in matches they should have won -- an erosion of the values of a team which once sought to win matches through a concerted struggle and one that did not serially chuck away hard-fought winning positions. It must now be asked how big a role these two superstars of the team have had in the erosion of those qualities.

Given that the BCCI is cricket's 800 lb gorilla, I can't invoke that sense of injury that was such a solace when India was genuinely marginal to concerns of the Anglo-Australian axis that ruled world cricket. Five Tests in the prime part of the English season would have been a prize once; now, given our recent history against England, it seems like just two more Tests to lose.

For cricketers, however, once the dream has gone, it's snuffed out completely -- with a bucket of cold reality thrown over it just to be sure. It's one thing watching the great players of the game deciding when to call it a day, but quite another for those 30-year-olds for whom a successful career was denied by injury, form, fickle selectors and bad luck. Or they just weren't good enough. Accepting responsibility for one's own fate is a golden target for coaches of players in every age group. Excuses serve no purpose other than self-delusion.

It was instead an innings that played into the enigma of his batting. It was most impressive in its opening passage, played when England were within sight of difficulties that, given the parlous state of their cricket, could have caused significant image problems. Yet at the start of the second day, when a seam bowling attack best categorised as of county div 1 standard went all Bodyline for half an hour or so, the deep-set problems in his technique came running back out. As all of cricket knows, Root can be forced back into his crease and squared up, and he'll waft his bat with his weight and body travelling in opposite directions.

Whereas the Chappells, Rod Marsh and Dennis Lillee showed how cricket could feed the competitive colonial fire, Gilmour's appeal was more simple: he showed, without words or facial hair, how cricket could make you happy. He was responsible for more kids trying to bat and bowl left-handed than anyone but Garfield Sobers.