The Surfer

Afghanistan, for example, were this month accepted into the Asia Cup, the continent's premier one-day international tournament, as the fifth side along with the Test nations. It is not difficult to see that becoming a permanent arrangement, given the inexorable rise the sport has enjoyed in a nation still the ravages of war. The Afghans are a decent team who will get better and - crucially, given how broadcasters pilot the sport - they are box office. Yet Afghanistan was still a good seven years away from even setting up a formal national team when the UAE won the 1994 [ICC] trophy.

They are not the only Asian side who have thrived where the UAE has stood still. Aaqib Javed, the UAE coach, rates Nepal as one of the team's main rivals for qualification in New Zealand. Where the national team once had no worries over facing the Nepalese, recent history suggests the two teams are evenly matched

Junaid doesn't have the obvious charisma that is associated with the Pakistani fast bowler. His run up just doesn't look Pakistan -- our greats were defined by flexibility and apparent beauty; something that Amir had. His run up, from the bunny hop to final twang of the arm seems to require effort. Amir, much like Waqar and Imran, seemed to glide to the crease, as if running on top of the blades of grass without ever touching the ground beneath. Wasim's was blur of tippy tappy steps, feet moving faster than the eye could register, until the arm too followed that definition. Junaid seems to require effort, but not the outlandish bull-in-a-china shop that Shoaib showed, but a more plebian one. Junaid looks almost South African or Australian.

Seated inside the conference hall, Sehwag takes off his glasses. He rubs his eyes, and also the imprints left behind by the spectacles on his nose, as he narrates the story of his school. It starts with Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda gifting him land in 2008 after his second triple ton in Tests. Disregarding advice from friends and family, Sehwag refused tie-ups, stayed away from partnerships, and didn't invite investment. Like always, he wanted to do it his way. Like always, he didn't like interference. He dug deep into his earnings, signed hefty cheques, managed big loans and built a "KG to Class IX" co-ed school that within two years has 400 students, a cricket field, a football turf, an indoor swimming pool, tennis courts (clay, grass and synthetic), 400m athletics track, modern classrooms, labs, a stable for horses, auditoriums, an amphitheatre and air-conditioned hostels.

Former India opener Chetan Chauhan has watched Sehwag from close quarters. Now a senior official in the Delhi and District Cricket Association, he, too, hopes Sehwag can fight the demons and stage a memorable comeback. "Work harder, play more matches, alter your back foot play, don't go searching for the ball and trust your instinct," is Chauhan's advice. "The moment he starts getting runs, everything will fall into place. Runs are runs, so it doesn't matter if you get them for your company (ONGC) or local club or state or country. He is a great player. Let's not forget that."

The Australians talked a great deal about bowling in partnerships, but the most productive of them was an unexpected one. Johnson and Harris captured more than half the English wickets, but not necessarily while bowling together. Johnson took 20 of his 37 wickets, in fact, while Nathan Lyon was working from the other end. Lyon took 14 of his 19 wickets in tandem with Johnson. The England collapses in both innings in Brisbane, in the first innings in Adelaide, and in the second innings in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney, all occurred while Johnson and Lyon were operating together.

No matter the sport, the head coach must be the only man who is unequivocally in charge, yet even Flower's job title of 'team director' muddies everything. In our national set-ups both in cricket and rugby, too many key decisions are being made by committee. That in turn leads to popularity contests and allows compromise to come into play. When things go wrong reports are commissioned -- the 2006-07 Ashes whitewash sparked the Schofield report -- but nobody fronts up to take the blame.

Almost everyone who's managed to get in has clambered over others in ways implicit or explicit: by offering more money to someone, tearing out tickets from booklets promised to others. And if we've come here to watch Tendulkar at such expense and effort, we are entitled to ask batsmen to get out to pave the way, or abuse a captain who refuses to toss him the ball. We've beaten others who wanted to be here and the same aggression is easy to see in all that surrounds the match. A strange combo of genuine emotion and crafty self-interest pervades the affair from top to bottom.

Understandably there's a clamour for heads to roll but I don't see any viable candidates to replace Alastair Cook as captain. Fast bowlers like Stuart Broad aren't guaranteed to play because they need to be rested and rotated, which you can't do with your captain, so that only leaves you with the two other senior batters in the side in Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen.

Was this the best series victory Australia's cricket team has ever produced? I have no idea; in any event, "best" is a bland superlative. But there's little doubt that this was the most carnal of victories - carnal because it was a pure product of desire, an achievement so driven by lust it could easily pass as a Pedro Almodovar film ("La Revancha: Los Ashes"). And it was a victory that, more than any other in recent memory, the country as a whole could relate to at a deep level, a feast more enjoyable for the famine that preceded it, the kind of win to make you believe in progress, and self-betterment, and the very perfectibility of things.

It has not been an easy ride for Sarfaraz. In 2011, he was accused of being overaged in an inter-school game and Naushad had to run from pillar to post to prove the allegation wrong. He then took the help of a psychiatrist to re-energise his son. Not long after that, Sarfaraz was sent back from the BCCI's batting camp at the Bandra Kurla Complex because of disciplinary issues. Naushad rationalised the past as a learning curve. "Some nights, I make Sarfaraz sleep without food to make him realise how lucky he is, and on days I make him take the train to the ground instead of his bike," says Naushad. "Till you don't experience hunger, you will not know what it is. If you want to make it big, then at an early age you need to know that life is not all about money and fame."