The Surfer

If you weren't a cricketer, what would you like to be?

A Formula One driver or a golfer. I say F1 because that is seen as the pinnacle of car racing, but I love any type of racing. I went in a smash-up derby in Ashburton once. I bought an Austin Cambridge and came fourth or fifth. I didn't let my cricket bosses know of course.

He could turn his hand to so many different subjects, be so many different people, dominate the conversation in so many different areas, that he never quite fixed on what his central purpose in life was and never really derived much satisfaction from his achievements, perhaps because he knew that they were only a small part of what he was capable of.

Given the threadbare schedule for the next 18 months, there's every possibility that the ongoing Test in Mumbai will be the last time that Tendulkar and Dravid take guard in the Mecca of Indian cricket. The void they leave behind is too large to fathom, but those fans who break into a cold sweat each time they ponder the future can take some encouragement from a crop of young players doing their time in the Ranji Trophy.

In a nutshell, it simply does not give South Africa, sans Mr Kallis, enough specialist batting depth. Strike one or two very early blows, opponents must think under these circumstances, and you can expose an underbelly fairly quickly: so it proved in the Friendly City.

No one in authority ever explained why he was so out of favour, at least not publicly. It remains one of the game's modern mysteries. Test captain Ricky Ponting insisted only a fortnight ago: "I don't think his playing days for Australia are over by any stretch of the imagination."

The bigger pity is India’s Test team contains a small but very influential clutch of cricketers who have spent a decade pushing their team forward at home and abroad. Along with Mr T, to have batsmen of the quality of Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman play seven Tests in ten months is like limiting an artist’s access to canvas and paint. Or, if artistic metaphors are not your choice, try telling men building a house that their use of brick and cement is being restricted to mood, rather than measure.

Michael Vaughan notes in his autobiography how the underdog tag hung most naturally round their necks. Indeed the history of English sport is littered with examples of crowns uneasily worn – from the footballers’ defeat to Scotland in 1967 via the rugby team’s post-2003 demise through to the Ashes Class of 05.