The Surfer

When he was eight the only threats he wanted to face were his father and his older brother Jason in the backyard at home. "My brother Jason was two years older than me and he played Kanga cricket and I was in the backyard one day and they just kept pestering me," Hughes said. "They were going, 'Are you going to have a game?' and I said, 'No, no, I don't want to.'”

The last time I saw Richard Austin he was living in a bush. Location, location, location, the estate agents say, and this was a well-positioned bush, to be sure, in the car park opposite the Hilton hotel in New Kingston. The Hilton hotel, you see, is where international cricket teams stay when they are in Jamaica - England are staying there now - and Austin had located on the principle that someone might just remember him and give him some money to feed his habit.

... there was nothing ugly about Bell. He caressed and cavorted. It all seemed so easy. But it is indicative of the prevailing mood that, after a delightful three through mid-on, one press box cynic said: "Typical Bell this – he'll still get out for 30."

“As expected, the Australians and the British have acted like perfect fools in placing sanctions on people like Peter Chingoka and Ozias Bvute,” boomed the lead editorial in the Zim$500,000,000 an issue paper. “They think by doing so, they can permanently cripple the game and isolate Zimbabwe by excluding the nation from Test cricket.

Not too much distraction from the IPL auction set to go at the same time as the one-dayer. Affected players who will be getting messages from the dressing room throughout the night on how their lump sum mortgage repayments are shaping up are Kyle Mills (Minimum reserve: US$150,000), Michael Clarke (US$1,000,000) and Shaun Tait (US$250,000).

All of the individual stats are on the side of England. Shiv Chanderpaul, (49.71) is the only West Indian who averages above 40 in Test cricket. In contrast, Kevin Pietersen, who averages 50, is backed up by Paul Collingwood, Alistair Cook, and Andrew Strauss, all of whom average 42; Ian Bell (41) and Matt Prior (40).

Never say never is the cliché and Pietersen has insisted he harbours ambitions to captain again, but unless there is a giant reversal in circumstances, it is fair to assume his moment to lead England has gone. Whatever he might achieve in cricket, above will always be a glass ceiling. Pietersen’s destiny is not to be a winning Ashes captain, like his ally Michael Vaughan, or to return from the Asian continent a victorious leader, like Nasser Hussain.

The father was standing on the hill at Newcastle No.1 Sportsground as the son played the most important innings of his life. If the latter succeeded, he could be chosen to represent Australia. It was that simple, and that daunting. The son was displaying calm beyond his years, but the father was a nervous wreck.

Australia's cricketing landscape has been devastated since its grand win in the 2007 World Cup final against Sri Lanka in Barbados - just 21 months ago. There are six survivors to play New Zealand at the MCG on Friday night.

The goodish news is that only four members of the squad in the West Indies - Kevin Pietersen (bidding starts at $1.35m), Andrew Flintoff ($950,000), Paul Collingwood ($250,000) and Owais Shah ($150,000) - are on the IPL list. Three others - Ravi Bopara ($150,000), Samit Patel ($100,000) and Luke Wright ($150,000) - are in England. In theory, this limits the scope for jealousy. But then in theory, the Stanford match was a simple enough proposition too, and look how England failed to get their heads round that one.