The Surfer

One colleague/friend you miss most?

There has never been a lack of effort on my part. Unfortunately, I have not been able to show results. I will definitely be able to do so in the future...I did not give up the captaincy even when I wanted to. If I had quit, questions will surely be asked next time I am made captain.

None of the young trio have reached their full potential but they skittled South Africa and will test England to the point where Clark and Lee could be squeezed out for good if the frontliners remain uninjured. The only member of the attack who was vulnerable entering the Test was surprise selection Hilfenhaus and he was Australia’s best bowler, a man born to bowl in England with his natural swing. Johnson’s position is non-negotiable and Siddle’s close to it. Hilfenhaus will get better the more he plays. He is the future as much as the present. I hope Australia gives him a decent run. Unfortunately there is no Shane Warne around to trim totals of 400 back to 310.

Do the leaders of their organizations, Messrs. Hunte and Ramnarine - even though they were once President and Director respectively of the WICB - know each other? Do they care about reaching a beneficial outcome? Have they considered moving beyond the initiation stage of the negotiation and onto the problem solving stage, and hopefully on to some resolution? If as leaders they cannot figure out the way forward beyond the never ending cycle of strike and temporary appeasement, then they are failing as leaders and must either agree to be led, or step aside. Who is the CARICOM leader responsible for cricket, and when is that person going to step up? Can CARICOM, in the face of the failure of all other efforts banish the WICB as an entity from doing business in the Caribbean and start afresh with a new managing organization?

It is good to see, though, that England resisted the trap of picking Steve Harmison just because of the way he bowled to Phillip Hughes. You can't pick a bloke just to dismiss one batsman, and in any case I believe the seamers who were selected have the ability to keep him quiet. The crucial thing is to make sure Hughes plays with a vertical bat: if you give him width to free his arms he can be dangerous.

Over the years Englishmen have rarely gone to cold, damp Wales with any high expectations but this time their optimism is evident. They come in search not of coal or five-pointers but in pursuit of a disrupted Australian cricket team. They come seeking the Ashes...

As a kid I played with Andy Flower for the same club, when I was actually the captain, and he passed on a lot of things to me that even now I still use. He also gave me a copy of a book, Mental Toughness in Sports, and what he followed in it is what got him to be the Number 1 batsman in the world. At 24 they said I was too old to be playing and they pushed me into coaching, I had to do 2 years of it and playing and proved that I was good enough to play,and still one of the fittest. I haven't given up playing for my country and I will be making a return - I have always wanted to return to international cricket when we start playing Test cricket again, Test Cricket is the Cricketers ultimate Test.

There are two images of Andrew Flintoff and they flicker like holograms, struggling for primacy in the mind's eye. One is of his heroic deeds, with both bat and ball, in the Ashes of 2005, when he was truly immense; in the other he reels, like a stage drunk, as he celebrates that famous triumph in Trafalgar Square.

"One of the things that is fundamental to my captaincy and that I have talked a lot about is player responsibility and not encouraging them but making them make decisions for themselves. Vaughan did that and so did Duncan Fletcher. When the England team were playing well under him the environment was the best I have experienced in any cricket." So Strauss recognises that it is crucial to recapture the mood of 2005. "There's no doubt that if you want to play well against Australia you have got to take them on and be prepared to scrap. Anybody who goes in there and just thinks 'Oh no, we'll just stick to our own game' is going to come unstuck. Our players are absolutely certain that they will go out there and go blow for blow.

Kevin Pietersen is hyperactive at the best of times but he becomes even more so when he throws down a can of caffeine-infused Red Bull just before he bats. He does it to give an electric edge to his senses and, as a consequence, often has a slightly manic appearance about him when he arrives at the crease. That, in turn, can prompt him to set off for death or glory singles to get off the mark - the Red Bull run as it has been dubbed in England. The Australian side is aware of this little foible, and so they should be.