The Surfer

Watching Dravid bat remains an occupation for the connoisseur. Unlike Virender Sehwag, he pays the bowler due respect at all times and by the time he walked off, with 65 to his name, it was hard not to calculate what Sehwag might have scored had he and not Dravid batted for 205 balls. The answer was 160. Oh well.

The other day in a conversation with New Zealand seamer Iain O'Brien, he spoke of what it means to be known as a test cricketer. "Every day is a dream come true. To call myself a test cricketer is pretty cool," he said. And I'll bet if he was asked how he wanted to be known, it would be as a New Zealand test cricketer, not a Black Caps cricketer. To be fair, most of his teammates most likely privately feel the same.

Often the veteran opener seemed to be beaten for pace as the speedsters bent their backs. Wisely, the tourists did not give him opportunities to move back to assess the delivery. Throughout they harried and hurried him, snapping at his heels like a pesky terrier. In his best years Hayden always had time to play his strokes. Only in his youth did he look stiff and slow and then observers concluded that he lacked the speed of wit and foot to score heavily in this company. It was a mistaken diagnosis. Then Hayden was petrified into inactivity. Perhaps history is repeating itself.

When Giles Clarke looks in the mirror he is, like Snow White's stepmother one senses, not displeased with the view. And when a mirror is not at hand there is always Sir Allen Stanford. Clarke, the chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, is first and foremost an entrepreneur, a bright gambler who financed his Oxford education playing backgammon and bridge, a committee member of the Society of Merchant Venturers. And in Stanford he sees a man made in his own enterprising image, a taker of calculated risks.

The PCB must not take India’s decision lying down either. The matter should be taken up at the ICC and the hypocrisy of the international cricket community exposed — a community that dances too quickly to India’s financial tune, at the expense of less fortunate cricket nations and cricketers. India fought a 30-year campaign to win control of international cricket, and it has more than achieved that aim. Yet leadership comes with responsibilities, and there is currently little to suggest that India intends to rule with wisdom and foresight. While there is mounting evidence that its motivating force is self-interest.

As I step over it, another security guard becomes aggressive and charges me. Harris is outraged and angry. He asks what the problem is. "My job means nobody gets in there!" snarls the official. For once, it's me urging the player to be calm. All part of the beautiful experience of touring Australia, and I mean that. Late at night, as I finish my daily diary, I really mean that it is a great tour. It just has little 'difficulties' along the way.

Although Panesar failed abjectly to do his bit on the final day, bowling 27 wicketless overs, comparing match figures does not show him in the poor light one may imagine. Amit Mishra, the leg spinner, bowled 51 overs, taking four for 165; Harbhajan bowled 68 overs, taking four for 187; Panesar bowled 46 overs, taking three for 170.