The Surfer

An improving England will be the crucial factor when it comes to contesting next summer's Ashes, but the censure of Symonds should not be underestimated, and not just because he has averaged 77 in Test cricket over the last year. It suggests a return to the prissy correctness the Aussies tried before in 2005 but jettisoned once the opprobrium hit home.

Is it because of lack of runs that you can't concentrate on your keeping or is it the other way round?

When he leaps high in the air and lands on his left foot, Zaheer uncorks a potentially rebellious storm in his body. His left foot experiences pressure equalling six times his body weight; a force ten times his weight rages through his pelvic joints when he flings his shoulders to release the ball from his left hand. He's painfully aware of, and resigned to, the affinity between fast bowling and injuries. "When you bowl fast, you know you are going to get injured at some point of time," Zaheer told Outlook. "You know that you have to sometimes play through pain, sometimes stay away from the game and work hard to get back."

Indeed to call it cricket at all will be difficult. For November 1 will be the night cricket is turned into reality TV, where some grisly voyeuristic fare is served up for those of a short attention span. Big Brother has finished: roll up instead to watch the nervous antics of the England cricket team … this match has immeasurable potential for division and discord. Win bonuses in cricket always do. Always pity the poor county cricketer in charge of the players' kitty. It is an impossible task, forever leaping into a viper's nest of egos and irrational claims.

On Australia's bowling
None of the pacers has played Test cricket in India but Lee, Mitchell Johnson and Stuart Clark should be able to play to the expectations. I understand the series will be played in the days of a new season just as we had played India in 2004. The October-November weather in India should assist the Australians. As a consequence, I expect the pitches to be lively and outfield grassy. So Lee & Co. should have no worries. Spin department, as I’ve said, is a bit inexperienced.

England and Australia have the best arrangements. They have over the years built summer and winter major sporting calendar that is there to stay. England play all their home test games and ODI’s during the period May to early September. They do not tour during this period. The Australians conduct their cricket between November and early March.

A middle order containing Fulton and Marshall is not going to frighten anybody, whereas one that contains Ryder, Ross Taylor, Flynn, Brendon McCullum and Jacob Oram might ... one day ... maybe?

With the Champions Trophy unable to get off the ground as teams refused to tour Pakistan on security gorunds, a precedent has been set, the implications of which are dire, from a cricketing point of view

It might have been that only playing for Somerset, and knowing that was all he [Trescothick] had, would lead to inexorable decline. But he responded with the unmistakable sledgehammer of his bat. His 1,238 runs, making him the leading scorer in the competition, have taken Somerset to the brink of their first title. He is at home again in every sense.

He was once asked to describe his bowling and replied that, after delivering the ball he would go and sit on the turf at mid-off and wait for it to reach the other end which, he said, "it sometimes did". Sir James loved the game so much he formed his own side and named it the Allahakbarries, in the mistaken belief the Arabic term "Allah akbar" meant "God Help Us".