The Surfer

The outcome adds weight to national coach Mickey Arthur’s contention that the A side not only requires more game-time but a full-time coach as well. Batting depth, in particular, appears not to be a problem in a broad national context at present – the young South Africans won the series of four-day matches primarily on the grounds of strong performances in this department ... But the one-dayers against Sri Lanka A also revealed that the country’s all-round bowling depth isn’t what it should be.

Perhaps the deal was stitched up through the contacts of Brendon McCullum. How? HDIL, another company in the Wadhawan stable, is one of the six headline sponsors of the coolest team in the Indian Premier League, the Kolkata Knight Riders. Baz has put his 10 cents in on the coach so why not throw out some names and cellphone numbers for potential sponsors of the front of the shirt as well?

Gilbert developed a unique style of fast bowling, based on a whip-like wrist action, and stories about his prowess abounded. His blistering deliveries were said to raise smoke on a concrete pitch; one of his balls reportedly crashed through a picket fence and killed a small dog. Another struck a box of matches in the wicket-keeper's pocket and set them alight.

While such tales are probably apocryphal, Gilbert was a cricketer of remarkable ability - yet he was never selected to represent Australia. Few doubt that racism was to blame. This was an era when the movements of Aboriginal Queenslanders were controlled by white superintendents, whose permission had to be sought to move around, work, or even spend money. Gilbert, a quietly-spoken man, was not permitted to stay in the same hotels as his team-mates.

The RCA’s was merely a yogic extension of Indian cricket’s routine backward bend. True sabotage, on the other hand, is what happened during the 2004 Nagpur Test versus the Aussies, which was where that Final Frontier actually fell.

Nagpur cricket authorities produced a wicket that was described as a “birthday present for Glenn McGrath” by the curator and a “22-yard suicide note” by a visiting English journalist.

For selectors, who are going to get paid 25 lakhs a year, they need to much more than just a ‘basic’ idea of what they are getting into.

'If I never played another international, I'd be OK with that. As far as the England players were concerned, they were nice and very welcoming. I guess (Michael) Vaughan was coming to the end of his captaincy at the time, so there might have been a few issues there. I didn't get all the stuff he said, but I take it, it was mostly to do with the selection'

The more significant aspect of Dravid’s performance I believe, however, was his splendid catching at slip. The diving effort to get rid off the dangerous Viru Sehwag was breathtaking in its execution, and match-winning in its impact. Quick-silver reflexes, terrific anticipation coupled with great ball sense showed that Dravid’s cricketing instinct was hardly blunted

Successful batting in India requires skill, character and patience - the three qualities Vaughan demonstrated so superbly when he made a match-saving hundred on a turning pitch against Muttiah Muralitharan at his peak in Kandy a few years ago. Who else of the current side can play an innings like that in the heat and humidity they're likely to encounter in Ahmedabad and Mumbai? It's a bit of a worry.

Durham, of course, just won the championship for the first time themselves, but they've only been trying for 16 years. Somerset have been imagining that each new season could be the season for 117.

Any thoughts of including the young Yorkshire allrounder Adil Rashid to give him experience should have been shelved. A single warm-up match in Baroda, in which presumably the projected Test XI will play, is all the cricket outside the Tests in Ahmedabad and Mumbai so there would be scant opportunity aside from assimilating a little dressing-room atmosphere, for which there will be time aplenty in the future. He is barely out of his teens and with astute handling may provide the fulcrum of England's spin attack for a decade in the future. He must not be rushed. For now his progress has flattened off and his development will be served better on the Lions tour.