The Surfer

For Ravi Bopara, the possibilities are endless, but we know, as much as we can know anything in sport, that Graeme Swann and Graham Onions will not finish their international careers as greats of the game. Yesterday, though, they rose above the largely humdrum nature of this contest, Swann biffing his way merrily to his highest Test score, then sharing eight wickets with Onions, who picked up five on a debut that he will not forget in a hurry.

A time-out also allowed many other theories to enter a captain's mind, many theories from many sources and I am not sure that is how it should be. For the hour and a half that an innings lasts, the captain must run the ship, take bold and yet calculated decisions, soar or sink with them. He must only have the six balls between an over and the one to follow to decide on the next course of action. It will require the captain to juggle many possibilities in a short period of time, to have his mind working furiously and yet project calm. T20 cricket tests a captain in many different ways than a Test match does — neither is necessarily the superior test for it requires a different skill. Is the 5000 metres a more skilful race than the 100 metres? Or does it demand different skills? Even in its infancy, T20 is showing that a good captain is an invaluable asset to possess.

However, subtlety and the IPL are about as compatible as oil and water - the two just don't mix - so we'll have to put up with spokesmen screaming about a six that's no longer a six, but a maximum sponsored by an Indian property company whose finances have taken a hit during the credit crunch, and a catch that's a success backed by a bank that needed bail-out money from the Obama administration.

Mr Griffiths was Leeds' Yabba. Only he didn't hurl insults, he shouted tactical advice and always in the most polite terms. "Captain, it is time to bring Mr Underwood on," he would call in his deep and sonorous Caribbean voice. "An extra slip fielder might be in order when Mr Old is bowling, Mr Greig." Soon Mr Griffiths was so well known that it was hardly a surprise when one morning during the 1975 Ashes Test he walked out into the middle before start of play to inspect the wicket with the Australian captain Ian Chappell.

Ponting has played the short form just 35 times, 15 of them at an international level. Australia were knocked out of the first World Twenty20 in 2007 by eventual winners India, who went with a bright young side, in contrast to Australia's elderly Test line-up.

Owais Shah in the Caribbean looked so intense, banging his bat into the turf with a vice-like grip that led to cramp and often running with the harum-scarum horror of a deer caught on a motorway. If Bopara was nervous at Lord's it did not show. He ambled around the crease casually and in between deliveries he could be spotted at the non-striker's end wandering over to mid-on for a little chat with Shivnarine Chanderpaul.

Nor has Bopara batted as often for Essex at number three as his supporters would claim. He batted there in only four of his 12 championship appearances last year, scoring one century. His experience of the job is distinctly limited.

He was a sweet boy like the others. But one of the outstanding qualities about Sachin has always been his determination during training as well as during a game. Some say he overtrains, to this day. As a boy he would run with more vigour, do more push ups than the other boys, demand that it was his turn to bat more often, hit more runs, and play on more maidans around the district, as his coach ‘Achrekar Sir’ ferried him from maidan to maidan on the back of his scooter on game days. And most likely he had more fun.