The Surfer

Once so decisive, they are second, third and fourth guessing their options and it is causing widespread insecurity. Will Australia really need five seam bowlers on a green-topped wicket against a club strength New Zealand batting line-up? It's a bit like hiring a SWAT team to chase the neighbour's cat out of your backyard. One of them - probably either Symonds or Watson - should have given way for spinner Krejza.

It is much too easy for red-blooded young pacemen to get carried away when they sight a grassy Gabba deck after days of heavy rain. But not Southee. He showed admirable poise and bowled with commonsense on a consistent line and an immaculate length. He moved the ball enough to disconcert and did not try to take a wicket with every delivery. And when he let loose his well-concealed quicker delivery the extra bounce brought Australia's top-order batsmen undone.

Isn’t it high time the ICC finally put its hitherto lethargic foot down?

I believe the solution is for the umpires to more forcefully police, hour by hour, the over rate and insist on a minimum of 14 for each one – and if that is not met, then how about adding 20 or 25 penalty runs on each offending occasion to the batting team’s extras tally?

A former executive of a company with strong and traditional ties to Cricket Australia this year took to calling CA the "Jolimont juggernaut". (CA is headquartered at Jolimont in Melbourne's inner-east.) It is most apt.

Injury is an occupational hazard for a sportsman and, sadly, there will be the occasional player whose body cannot cope with the constant demands that are placed on it. Fast bowlers are the most prone to injury. The physically trying nature of the job means that a pull, strain, tear or stress fracture is never far away.

The simplest thing Ricky Ponting could have done to revive his side’s fortunes was to change his call to heads. He didn’t, and Australia lost three straight tosses — not all-determining, but serious concessions in these conditions. It wasn’t a coincidence that the only Test Australia dominated was when Ponting got lucky. Champion teams often take the toss and the conditions out of the equation, so flexible and varied are their cutting edges, but thi s Australian side, considerably less formidable than its predecessors, suffered. The batsmen were denied access to the best batting conditions; the bowlers, forced to go first when the surfaces were less abrasive, were often deprived of reverse swing.

Now the inference is clear: spinners, in the world according to the England captain, are allowed to play a role, but only in so far as they are there as fodder for batsmen. It is almost as if they are a subspecies. Why should spinners not be important in one-day cricket?

When in mood, moody players destroy the opponents. When not in mood, they destroy themselves. This is an apt description of Yuvraj Singh. Such players are not slaves of technique. Their technique is a slave of their emotional state. To Yuvraj Singh, the point of impact while playing shot is what matters. Technical gyan doesn’t interest him.

Up until then Krejza played soccer, sometimes in nearby Amalfi Park alongside Mark Bosnich. A professional footballer during his former life in Czechoslovakia, Krejza's father George knew the Bosnich family well.

He’s a natural fun-loving member of the team, he enjoys being part of a group of blokes and enjoys the up and down nature of our game. Most importantly has the ability to carry other guys along with him when times are tough. Those sorts of people are few and far between.