The Surfer

Certainly, there would be some instances in which more firebrand personalities might be expected to clash pretty quickly in such circumstances but Arthur, for one, is a thoroughly decent person for whom ego issues come some way down on his list of characteristics and priorities.

Fletcher, too, while an intriguingly more complex individual - this comes out in his autobiography, in which an arguably excessive distrust for an array of people is a recurring theme - is, at the end of the day, a salt-of-the-earth and utterly proven “cricket man” to the core.

It is not known whether the team protested in any way, made their displeasure known.

It was the princely sum of $1million that started it. This is the amount that the Indian Cricket League offered Yousuf through former Pakistan captain Moin Khan, who had become the manager of the Lahore Badshahs and was recruiting for them.

Symonds left a few people cold at his "return" press conference in Melbourne last week with his belligerent air which radiated everything except the one quality people were desperate to see - remorse. "How can he really repair any damage he's done if he doesn't feel the need to apologise?" was a common view uttered by people there.

Ian Healy watched Australia's painful demise in India a number kept flashing through his head ... 1988. A small part of him was transported back to his first rugged tour to Pakistan. The brutally long days in the field, the painful insecurities of new players - himself included - the grinding burden on an overworked captain. Captain Allan Border was 33 then, just as Ricky Ponting is now.

But India's influence might not stop at cricket. It could conceivably become a major battleground between sports bodies who increasingly want to maximise commercial revenue from their matches - as well as to have the disturbing ability to sanitise coverage - and traditional media outlets who believe that independent coverage is under threat.

We sensed this was a distracted side, and now stronger and stronger evidence is unfolding before our very eyes. This is a sensitive issue among the team and its management. They resent such insinuations. Indeed, coach Peter Moores was defiantly denying them again yesterday. But he should know there is only one sure way of knocking them stone-dead: by his team performing in the middle. Tomorrow in Indore would be a good place to start. Six matches remain in the series and much can still be achieved.

...my performance under gruelling conditions in Penang against an RAF side, when Jai [Jaisimha] cursed me fluently after I asked to be taken off (the only time in my life), having run out of shirts and trousers, drenched in perspiration as never before or after in my career, and unable to grip the ball, the sweat simply pouring out from every pore in my body. “Stop giving me f---ing excuses! Can’t grip the ball indeed! God save me from bloody sissies!” he said. I had no option but to go on.

The cricket world is taking perverse pleasure in the apparent crumbling of a cricket empire - everybody loves seeing the playground bully's glass jaw exposed. The reason is simply this: where once there was grudging, yet tremendous admiration for the Australian juggernaut, now there is contempt.