The Surfer

Another leaf that Packer's World Series Cricket overturned after its second season was that it bridged the differences between 'banned' players and their boards. Each realized that they were interdependent on one another. Players returned to donning their national colours and ended up retiring as some of the most talented and famous cricketers of their day. They may have played their hearts out at the World Series but at the end of the day, it's their national contributions that make them what they are today.

So what's the next step? Paid office-bearers? That seems logical. That is one way of introducing transparency and accountability, two elements foreign to the Board at the moment. If the Board can take away one lesson from the success of its IPL tournament, it is the efficacy of professionalism. Not just among the players, but in the administration too.

As far as the West Indies leaders are concerned, the way to develop young talent, in the territories, is simply to employ someone, any one, to coach the young players whenever he has the time or the inclination to do so. And the way to develop a strong West Indies team is to employ a coach, from anywhere, a coach who works only when the team is preparing for a series.

Development, however, is more than that, much more than that, and until those in charge realise that, until they realise that as important as coaching is - good coaching that is, it is secondary to good facilities, to a good atmosphere, to good discipline, to motivation and inspiration and to good, strong competitions.

Rahul, Sourav and Sehwag are top-class players and have served the game splendidly over the years. However, as selectors we have to look at the larger interest of Indian cricket at all times. Besides, with so much international cricket being played these days, as well as injuries to key players, we have to look to the future and to the bench strength to take us ahead. The competition for slots too brings out the best in players. Whenever we picked somebody, we backed him to the hilt. At the same time, if somebody was dropped, we didn't ignore him but made sure that he was monitored; never neglected.

David Hopps' highlight of the season: Sitting on the popular bank at Scarborough at Festival time watching Yorkshire v Kent with, I kid you not, the sun shining from a cloudless sky. And KP's first press conference as captain, which was so full of love it gave me an insight into what the 1960s must have been like.

Cricket Kenya needs at least $1.2 million to run the sport professionally in the country but there is a shortfall of around $500,000. Kenya gets $450,000 from the ICC, $150,000 from TV rights and $100,000 from a newly-acquired sponsorship from a local company Tusker.

A few moons back when Twenty20 cricket hit the billboards many a cricket lover did not take it seriously as it was originally meant as a vehicle to spread the game among the non-cricketing countries. It was an attempt to give the non-cricketers a cricketing version akin to their loveable baseball and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

For me, it was a combination of events both on and off the field. I guess it's hereditary as well. It took time to realise something wasn't right and I finally realised it was time to quit cricket and move on. Every now and then we come across people in our lives who are suffering from some sort of stress. It's a horrible thing for anyone to go through. I'm on top of it at the moment ... It's important to write down some goals. The world we live in has so many things thrown at us and I think, if you've got goals, you can overcome that.