The Surfer

The need of the hour is not only tight security at the grounds but careful choice of venues. The BCCI has been playing populist politics. On paper it seems to be a good idea to take cricket to unconventional places. However, such a strategy exposes cricketers to risks because of divergent standards of arrangement and quality of law enforcement. In some States, the police forces are not exactly known for their professional skills ... Fundamental, of course, is strict access control to dressing rooms and hotel rooms. The Oval has a permanent space for a control room for the Met. Can the BCCI make a similar provision at least in the major venues? It will help infuse confidence in foreign teams. A full-time chief security officer could guide the BCCI in what has become a specialised discipline.

The tournament should have been rescheduled immediately in another country once it became obvious that Pakistan was not safe to host the tournament. By postponing it they have just created confusion and compounded the future scheduling problems of international cricket.

The wee bloke played every shot in the book over the space of five minutes but he kept the ball on the carpet, ran like the wind and had his socks pulled up. He looked every bit a cricketer, something no one in the New Zealand top order did yesterday. Even accounting for their inexperience and the quality of opposition, New Zealand's specialist batsmen were an embarrassment to their country.

... make no mistake that selector is already known to Dhoni and he will have warned his teammates about him. It won't be a surprise too if the BCCI removes him at the next meeting because the Board is aware how much of a danger such a selector is to Indian cricket. Sure there will never be unanimity in selection meetings and there will invariably be a difference of opinion especially about choosing the fringe players in the squad. It is for this reason that the argument about the common man having faith in the selectors is important. This is a season where two senior players have already called it quits and there are questions about other seniors being asked. In such a scenario the common man needs to feel confident that those taking the call on the seniors know their onions and are not going to succumb to pressure from anywhere.

... the selection committee comprises five men with one single issue.

It was in Adelaide last summer that Adam Gilchrist (the name has come back) saw the ball fall from glove and with it the will to go on. Haddin, who waited so long to go from bridesmaid to gloveman, has come of age at the corresponding Test. The New South Wales wicketkeeper smothered his doubts and silenced the doubters with an aggressive 169 ... It was, in the main, as game-changing as anything Gilchrist dished out.

At his best - and we are yet to see his best in Tests - Watson can be a more valuable player to Australia than Andrew Symonds because he is capable of being chosen as a specialist fast bowler. That's gold. Pure gold. The jury is still out on who is the better batsman.

England will stay in the Fortune ­Landmark, a 20-minute drive from the stadium which is made quicker when you represent Team England and rush-hour traffic is being cleared by armed police escorts with blaring horns. Behind the duty manager's desk at the hotel today lay a fresh consignment of CCTV cameras, not yet unpacked. While Neerah Gewali, the assistant manager, explained how ­England would be protected, an Ahmedabad crime prevention unit arrived at the front desk to issue new instructions for all.

Come to think of it, very little of pure cricket was discussed or even consumed. How could we? Most seats on this block (others were worse) were at third slip or wider. Making out whether a ball is outside the off stump or the leg stump was difficult till one saw the wicketkeeper collect. We would mostly applaud the gross — a boundary or a wicket. Indeed, not many of us had the cricketing acumen to appreciate a defensive stroke on the back foot that made a chest high ball drop docilely at the batsman’s feet. On top of it India seldom won any matches those days. So, to the vast majority of us, cricket was an excuse for a winter picnic in the Maidan.

For someone who has so unquestioningly served his country whenever called upon -- whether as a player, captain, coach, or ordinary citizen -- it is surprising how often Miandad gets mixed reviews. On the one hand, there is a category of Pakistani fans defined by an irrational love for Javed Miandad. On the other hand, more than a few observers of Pakistan cricket feel his name is synonymous with trouble. The reasons for such a polarised reputation are varied but, one way or another, are centred on a personal style and manner that courts controversy.

Nevertheless, certain facts are undisputed. Miandad’s arrival in the Pakistan side shook things up. He became quickly recognised as the best batsman in the team. He hit a six in Sharjah that was heard around the world. He succeeded everywhere, including the proving grounds of the West Indies, where he made unforgettable centuries in epic battles. He anchored Pakistan to a World Cup title. He dominated his opponents’ psyche to the exclusion of almost everything else. He understood the game tactically and psychologically like few others. He was at the forefront of an improbable golden age. It was said of him that so long as he was at the wicket, Pakistan always had a chance, no matter what the circumstances

Unlike Pakistan, India is the hub of cricket, both in terms of its popularity and its financial health. If the game’s revenues have grown manifold and the players are earning more, it has a lot to do with India and its growing economic clout. Already the postponement of the Champions League is having a negative impact on state teams from Australia and South Africa. They and even their boards were hoping to make huge financial gains from the League, which is supposed to impact the future of cricket in a major way. If India loses its primacy in cricket’s pecking order due to the fear of terrorist strikes and if the economic meltdown further erodes the investments in the game, then cricket could be in serious danger of losing the kind of mind-boggling revenues it had started generating of late. It is because of these very reasons that foreign teams will think ten times before refusing to come and play here.

'For instance a lot of young players now try to play the slash instead of the drive. When they play the slash they are not in complete control over their shot. They play it because they have seen Sanath Jayasuriya playing that stroke and scoring runs. But, the irony is that Sanath Jayasuriya is a rare gifted player and every young cricketer cannot become another Jayasuriya.'