The Surfer

The most glaring deficiency exposed by Australia has been England’s brittle middle order. In seven games, the middle order contributed only two fifties, one each from Paul Collingwood and Eoin Morgan, an unacceptable return.

The winner gets Rs 8 lakh and runner-up will take home Rs 4 lakh. That’s not even chump change by IPL’s standards. But then, KPL seems to be about giving Bangalore’s builders the flurry of publicity they need just as the local real estate sector grows hot, what with the city’s metro project reshaping land usage patterns along with the rest of the urbanscape.

We have been reminded that 50-over cricket requires as many skills that are relevant to Test cricket as to Twenty20. There is a need to build an innings and to survive against attacking bowlers like Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson. We are pining for Jonathan Trott and – this is a fine indication of how reputations can blossom when a player is out of the team – Ian Bell. Kevin Pietersen would be handy as well.

Further humiliation may follow over the next few months in South Africa. England had been hoping Kevin Pietersen would be fit to rejoin them for the full tour of South Africa after Achilles tendon surgery but there are fears he may struggle to make the start on November 1. The medical staff overseeing Pietersen’s rehab insist he is on course to leave with the rest of the party.

While he talks, England’s latest disaster in the one-day series unfolds on television. Is he surprised at how one-sided it has been? “A year ago, the England one-day team [which beat South Africa 4-0] was a good-looking side. It shows what happens if you take out Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen. I don’t know why but you chop and change a lot here, too.

To be fair to Majola, he went on to qualify his remarks in saying, 'I don't know what the criteria are for these nominations but I simply can't believe that this has happened to South African players.' Ignorance is always a short-cut to incredulity, Gerry.

The eligibility dates are 13th August 2008 to 24th August 2009. As such, the biggest omission from 'The Big Four' is not South African but Tillakaratne Dilshan, who had a good year in Tests and also was player of the tournament at the ICC World T20.

Two of the most influential ODI players this country has had were Nathan Astle and Chris Cairns.

Their equivalents in the current team are Brendon McCullum and Oram, probably our most highly paid cricketers and thus meant to be world class performers. But they are far from it.

As for the charge of too many ODIs, the people who complain most about this phenomenon, the players, are the most culpable, for they have always wanted to squeeze in as many games in a career to chase every last buck possible.

As St Freddie hobbles off into a supposedly golden sunset, dreaming of making as much as £18m over the concluding five, pain-killer years of his career, from Dubai to Chennai and who knows where else, an old verity resurfaces: in professional cricket, the team game played by a collection of often insecure individuals, it is everyone for himself.

Here's a thought. What if next year a player went to NZC and said he'd had a variety of offers to occupy him through the coming months round the globe, with big financial spinoffs. The board replies: 'Fine, off you go, best to the wife and kids, see you same time next year?' Who would suffer more?