The Surfer

He [Clarke] has performed some sort of minor miracle by converting Shane Watson, a reluctant bowler indeed during the Ashes, into a devastating wicket-taking option.

Once upon a time this would have been important. Australia leads the 50-over series against England 2-0. This is presumably of mild significance to the players' close family and a smattering of their friends but that would be about it.

Four years ago, he was in his first season of county cricket and was playing a championship game at Grace Road as the final Ashes Test began at the Oval. Last week, he was a guest on Jonathan Ross’s TV show, alongside Ricky Gervais — “He’s always been my hero” — and Jamie Oliver — “Such a lovely man” — and fame has other perks.

If you start at the top of the order you have the skipper Andrew Strauss, a man who plays better and swats surer than most at the moment.

Graeme Swann's new found fame means he's become a real fashion guru, a menswear nag, if you will. Off the field, he's had a frustrating time though. As a Newcastle fan he's been eagerly waiting for manager news.

It is the manner in which the players approach the game. Between roughly the 20th over and the 40th in most innings of one-day internationals the game is put in a kind of suspended animation in which the bowlers bowl and the batsmen bat, but only way, as if by unspoken agreement.

On the prevailing situation even the elite umpires keep making mistakes and once the DRS (Decision Review System) comes into force in another few days things may get worse. Just imagine one umpire’s decisions are overturned twice in an innings and it keeps occurring on a regular basis! Then could the ICC have a relegation and a promotion system and also cover the entire Test playing cross section officiating at the highest level so that there would be more balance in the system.

The battle had been on more than one front. Sources say the BCCI, trying to hurt Modi in as many ways as possible, had refused to ratify the charitable endowments he had announced in South Africa during IPL-2. Modi, a BCCI source says, had two choices: submit to the will of his antagonists and persuade the IMG to renegotiate—or fight. “It’s a slap on the face of Modi,” says a senior officer with a franchise. “If he’s upset, he has every reason to be so.”

Judging by cricketing standards, Ejaz Butt is a failed captain. He selected some highly talented players for his management team at the PCB but was unable to get the best out of them, with the result that his best people have either left or been marginalised. Insiders report that the atmosphere within the Board has become very fractious and dispiriting. Pre-occupied with self-preservation, Butt has surrounded himself with loyalists and cronies while the larger goal of preserving and promoting Pakistan cricket remains adrift.

Rashid will be important for what he represents, of course, a kid of Asian background born in Bradford. He and Ravi Bopara, from the other end of the country, can be seminal figures in the development and evolution of Asian cricketers in the England team. Nasser Hussain, the finest of all England captains in the past 20 years, led the way, but things can be expected to change rapidly in the next decade.

The odds are that Rashid will replace Panesar in the Test squad this winter. It is certain that he will have more of a role in one-day cricket. He will experience similar pressures. Panesar was flavour of the month for a while for feature writers and was consequently endowed with qualities he did not possess. Now everyone seems to have lost interest.