The Surfer

Jonty Rhodes threw some light on it a few days ago when he talked about the difference between playing on the coast (Capetown, Port Elizabeth) and playing on the highlands (Johannesburg, Pretoria) or the highveld as they are called here. Because of the high altitude the ball travels further and so fielders might find the ball going a bit behind them as they wait for it. More interestingly, he said, the ball comes down much faster than you think it is going to and so you can be caught out of position. The obvious solution therefore is to practise a lot of skiers. Now while Jonty’s local knowledge, and his enormous skill, clears the air a bit, it still doesn’t explain why fielders are not catching more high balls in practice. Or maybe they are and it isn’t working.

Swann has the added advantage that he turns the ball away from left-handers, and Australia will be bringing a few of those in their top order for the Ashes. From the way he's done against the West Indies' lefties, it seems as though he enjoys bowling at them and people such as Phillip Hughes, Simon Katich and Mike Hussey will be key wickets for England to take. Australia's batsmen have struggled against off spin before.

It is Flintoff's absence that is most intriguing. Not only are Flower and Strauss attempting to balance the books in his absence. They are also wondering how to do so when he is fit once more or, perish the thought, whether he is indeed indispensable. Yet again England won without him. He is no longer the talisman he was. One bowler who replaced him, Graham Onions, took seven wickets at Lord's on his debut, which Flintoff has achieved only four times in 75 matches. Bopara, who batted at six in his stead in Bridgetown, made a hundred there, which Flintoff has not done for four years. It is instructive. Two people cannot replace one but as much as anything, Flower and Strauss are planning for life after Fred.

But it's a problem that should concern everyone, not just Gayle. The reality is that Test cricket has been under threat for some time, despite the administrators' assurances that everything is hunky-dory. When we used to tour India, where they say cricket is a religion, we'd play Tests in front of grounds that were barely half full – and a third of the spectators were from the Barmy Army. Now we hear ticket sales for this game have gone badly, and England is supposed to be one of Test cricket's last bastions. Maybe the harsh truth is that Twenty20 has kept cricket alive more than we like to admit.

He is not the only cricketer to prefer one-day cricket and he certainly will not be alone in future in choosing Twenty20 cricket over Tests. It is an open secret that he would not choose to be captain and if Gayle was irritated by Strauss's criticism of his late arrival before last week's first Test at Lord's, he is far too laid-back to bear a grudge.

If one draws a comparison with the Australian players to certain South Africans it tells the true story.

I always liked to have players of character in my England side and I can see plenty of it in the likes of Ravi Bopara, Graeme Swann and Graham Onions. When you speak to Bopara, he will talk you through all his shots but you come away thinking, ‘what a lovely lad’, rather than ‘what a prat’. He has confidence and even arrogance but it manifests itself in an infectious, thoroughly likeable way. His was a match-winning contribution in his first taste of a Lord’s Test but what I would be saying to him now is go out at the Riverside and make it three hundreds in successive Tests — that would be staking a pretty decent claim for an Ashes place!

Last week, after six straight draws at Lord's, England beat West Indies inside three days. Their bowlers barely had to land it outside off before another nick was flying to the cordon. Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan, who in the Caribbean resembled Don Bradman's grandson, were both dismissed twice in a day. The temptation was to bemoan an undercooked West Indian side - the usual lament when a touring team loses the first Test - and wonder whether England's seamers will be up to scratch on more testing offerings later in the summer.

'Not quite. A good player can hit you out of the park because he’s taking more chances. A not-so-good player can do the same because he too is taking more chances. He won’t be blamed by the captain if he’s caught at the boundary line. The same shot that can draw criticism in Test matches will make a player famous in T20. As a bowler, I’ve to accept this.'