The Surfer

One cannot forget how anguished he was in Dhaka, 2000 when the Hansie Cronje match fixing controversy broke out. At first, he was not willing to believe it. But as confirmation came through at the coffee shop where we both had a sandwich, you could see how sad he was to see his beloved sport tarnished. He insisted on picking up the tab. "I must pay. Nothing to celebrate, of course," he said.

After he paid the bill, he got chatting to a youngster about cricket. The kid spoke about how he wanted to make it to Lord's one day. And I heard this in the background: "Son, you can stay in my flat in London. It is right opposite Lord's." He had never met the boy before and the goodness of this prince came shining through.

It’s over. Everyone is sick and tired of the West Indians. South Africa ought to withdraw its invitation to take part in the Champion’s Trophy. Let Ireland come instead — at least they want to play. West Indies have been treating cricket badly for years. It’s high time the favour was returned.

Before Gurusinha faded out of Sri Lanka cricket in the aftermath of their World Cup win he had a respectable average of 38.92 in Test Cricket and 28.27 in the limited overs version. Ironically Asanka was also moulded essentially a Test player by the pundits at that time. Nevertheless he always had his place reserved in the ODI side as the peers of that era knew the balance in the team was more important than blind experimentation.

Ponting needs to assess if the team's structures are balanced and in the right place. Does he need to have four full-time selectors? Or does Ponting need only three selectors, with himself being a selector? Having Tim Nielson as a selector can only cause problems, as players would struggle to be honest and candid with him on how they are travelling. They would be frightened it would end up on the selection table.

If the 2007 World Cup was the most tedious international cricket tournament of all time, will the 2011 event have any relevance in an evolving marketplace? Will the 2015 event, scheduled for New Zealand and Australia, even happen?

At bottom line, we believe, the WICB and its territorial affiliates, surrounded though they are by an increasingly professional world, have remained trapped in a culture of amateurism and insular parochialism. Hence that still officially unexplained disaster in Antigua earlier in the year when a Test match had to be abandoned in the first few minutes because the field was unfit for any kind of cricket - except the beach variety - and the countless gut-wrenching embarrassments such as the latest 'no contract' allegation reportedly made by the dismissed coach Mr John Dyson.

Had they picked the so-called first choice players, including Chris Gayle, Shiv Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan, West Indies cricket could have been exposed to even greater embarrassment than what is anticipated in some circles given the perceived limitations of the team now in South Africa.