The Surfer

Every one among the 15-man Test squad knew his place, knew his team-mates and knew his role. Those who were there as "cover" for certain places accepted and understood that those in the starting XI were happy to perform unglamorous tasks - like McKenzie's stoic batting that helped produce a world-record 50+ opening stand with Smith in eight successive Tests. And everyone knew they deserved to be there, too. They knew that for one very simple reason - because the transformation "target" of seven black players was not reached. That meant it really was a "target" and not a quota. It was reached in the one-day squad, however, and the insipidly creeping doubts about merit, which have haunted so many squads in the past, were quick to return.

The role he is playing with the bat, floating up and down the order, and being the backbone of the batting, whether against pace and swing Down Under, or Ajantha Mendis in Sri Lanka, shows how well he is reading the flow of a one-day match. You would understand if a cerebral Dravid or a charismatic Ganguly won such an award for leadership. That it has gone to a street-smart wicketkeeper from Ranchi is a testament to the success Dhoni has brought to the Indian team

In 2008 Northamptonshire have won three matches (to date). Klusener was absent for the first, scored 0 and 10* in the second and despite scoring 65 in the third was overshadowed by a stunning century from [David] Sales that thwarted Leicestershire’s bowlers in distinctly unfriendly conditions for batting.

Symonds and vice-captain Michael Clarke were once as close as a Brisbane summer, they were cricket's most effective offside fielding team and got on well socially, but things have had a tendency to turn arctic of late.

So, either the selectors must state that they are going to give youngsters a break but that they would like Ganguly to keep playing so that if he is in form and the youngsters aren’t they could go back to him. Alternately, they should make it clear to him that with Kaif, Rohit Sharma and Badrinath in the wings, and the enigmatic Yuvraj around, he is officially the first of the old guard to be asked to say goodbye.

Call this the IPL effect or the fact that limited-overs cricket is just so much more instant: instant cricket, instant fame, instant wealth. With the advent of T20 and the IPL, there is now more than one route to the top of the heap in the game and that route is a short cut. No grinding out batting or bowling epics over four-day games in two-tonga towns in front of an audience of bored tonga-drivers and their horses.

Oh we thought it worked towards our benefit. We smelled a rift in the enemy camp and it was good for us. We saw some grass on the pitch and loved it. We carried a lot of confidence after the comprehensive victory in Bangalore. We were going into Nagpur knowing that we could strike the rod when it was hot. However we were beware that the Indians have a fantastic batting line-up and we could not have made the mistake on underestimating them. So I would say the feeling in the camp was brilliant and we surely did party hard after clinching the Nagpur Test. It was one of the happiest moments in our cricketing lives, to know that we had done something that our predecessors had not achieved.

Oh! Adam Gilchrist's captaincy on that tour was simply fabulous. The manner in which he tackled the spinners and handled the bowlers was amazing. John Buchanan made a lot of useful contributions too. We used to sit and chalk out plans on how to dismiss VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid and touchwood all of them worked to our advantage.

Despite their reputations, I knew Nasser had the yips and could not bowl and I reckoned that I could score as many runs as Ramps. The possibilities seemed endless.

If he were to take on the national captaincy in all forms of the game, Dhoni would have to give up his habit of skipping Test series as he did in Sri Lanka most recently. The timing of the change would depend on when and whether he would feel comfortable with so many of the seniors around. Dhoni has done well with his young side but Tests are a different proposition.