The Surfer

We are fortunate not to live in such dark days. While every death in Afghanistan is a disaster for the families of the fallen, the fact that 200 fatalities in a campaign is seen as outrageous rather than 200 in one hour shows how far we have come. There is little threat to cricket from conflict - save in Pakistan -and for that we should be grateful.

Bradman scored almost half as many runs again as did Hussey, but it's when we look at the big scores each man compiled that the gap between them is most apparent - of the 17 scores over fifty made by Bradman, he converted an amazing 76% of them into centuries, and, even more amazing, six of his thirteen hundreds were doubles or better. Hussey, on the other hand, had almost as many scores over fifty, however only four were centuries (28% conversion rate) and none were doubles. It would appear that Hussey, with his higher number of incomplete innings, was more the beneficiary of the method by which averages are calculated - looking solely at per-innings averages, Bradman comes out at 91.51 to Hussey's 64.24. So the only thing "Bradmanesque" about Hussey's performance was his high average.

For too long, one of Indian cricket’s most important stakeholders – the professional who toils in domestic cricket for no recognition – has been ignored. The Joginder Singhs of the BSNL team and the Avik Choudhurys of India Revenue showcase their skills in domestic cricket day-in and day-out, with no-one but their team-mates, opposition and a handful of journalists in attendance. Now, these men are on television, and perhaps finally the Indian fan will cast a glance in their direction.

One umpire would stand at the bowler's end, one at square leg and the other umpire side-on at the bowler's end watching for no-balls. This would allow the umpire at the bowler's end to concentrate on the speed and line of the delivery and not worry about the bowler's feet. This will give the umpires that spilt second of time they crave for to make better decisions. Umpires would also rotate every innings.

You can see that at IIM-Ahmedabad where the great Vikram Sarabhai was the visionary. It is as powerful forty five years later. Infosys is headed that way with Narayana Murthy and Nandan Nilekani slowly stepping aside. The IPL has a visionary in Lalit Modi but if it wants to compete with Wimbledon or the English FA or the Augusta Masters it must create strong systems and ease away from personality cults. Modi and Srinivasan cannot oppose each other!

Football itself is not the issue - although plenty wonder why cricketers prepare for a day's work playing with their feet and not their hands - nor is preparation or practice, two essential ingredients of success. What irritates players of a certain vintage is the ridiculous warm-up routines that they go through on the morning of a match that have gained universal currency and are nothing more than an exercise in job justification for the ever-growing backroom staff.