The Surfer

The residents of Sahitya Sahawas decided to have a small celebration with Sachin after he scored his hundredth international century last year. He came early so that he could visit an ailing childhood friend, went to the homes of a couple of senior residents who could not come down for the celebration, posed with wide-eyed kids who could not believe that their hero was actually back, and ate the simple meal that was on offer.

So far, though, his record speaks for itself. He has led England in 16 Tests, won nine and lost only one. And he's averaged nearly 55, even accounting for his mediocre series with the bat in the summer. Those are remarkable figures.

"There had been speculation. I won't say I was totally surprised. At the same time, it's not something I was looking forward to. Sachin must have given it a lot of thought, for such decisions aren't taken casually. At the end of the day, you have to respect the call made. It's in our hands to make his last two Tests special. We'd like to win the series for Sachin and, hopefully, he'll get loads of runs. We'll do our bit, he'll have to do his.

"We have to keep it as normal as possible. There will be distractions, but we'd all like to make this series special. It will be an achievement if we succeed in not making Sachin feel as if the two Tests are his last. Basically, in the dressing room, we've got to keep things calm. We can control what happens there, we can't control what happens outside."

When he (Watson) eventually came out to bat down the order, after Faulkner in fact, in the 23rd over, he couldn't use the runner as the laws say so. He drove his first delivery to extra cover where Dhawan stopped the ball before the moment turned ugly. Dhawan hobbled across, mocking the limping Watson. The long-running verbal slinging between the two players had spilled into gracelessness. Later, Bailey couldn't help himself from having a quiet go at Dhawan, which reveals the ever-present tensions between the two teams. "Sometimes the art of winning is as hard to learn as the art of losing," Bailey said when asked about Dhawan.

And, to top it all off, at some point in his innings he will be showered with 199 kilograms of rose petals released from three specially-hired aircraft flying low above Eden Gardens. At some point in that list, the plan for a send-off has moved from poor taste to parody. In fact, the exaltation of his departure to the exclusion of all other facts about this Test or the two teams doing battle on the pitch is the exact opposite of the values that Tendulkar espoused and epitomised in his long career.

"I was always Sachin. I never knew who Pramod was," he says, "I never identified with that name. My grandfather introduced me to the game when I was two. Tendulkar was already a star when he made his Test debut and my parents say everybody started calling me Sachin. I would always be running around with bat and ball. By the age of 10, I was a huge Tendulkar fan. If a friend called up at home asking for Pramod, I wouldn't know what to say. Call me Sachin, I'd tell them. Pramod had disappeared long before I officially changed my name when I was in Class 9. It was not a difficult decision."

The venue of the match was not the handiwork of a smart-thinking Board, which may have wanted a village flavour to Tendulkar's last match for his state. It was due to the Ranji Trophy scheduling, which is done on a home-and-away basis, that Mumbai were pitted to play Haryana on their turf. By sheer chance, the setting of the match became as much a talking point as the farewell itself. This village background for the swansong of a modern-day legend may have seemed incongruous to begin with. But it turned out to be a perfect setting that connected two disparate worlds. And therein lay the significance of Tendulkar's last first-class match. What it symbolised may be greater, and more important, than his final bow at Mumbai's Wankhede stadium on November 18.

As a batsman, Bailey currently has the Midas touch. His hot streak in India - 474 runs at a Bradmanesque average of 118.5 - means he is the form player at the start of the season. But at a time where culture has become the buzzword in Australian cricket, what Bailey, who averages 38 in the first-class arena, brings off the field is just as important as runs on it. And on this front Bailey is almost without peer. From the board room to the dressing room, there is not a bad word said about Bailey. And why would there be? The former Launceston Church Grammar School captain can do it all. As a footballer he was good enough to play at under-18s level for Tasmania and attracted the interest of AFL scouts. He could also swing a tennis racquet.

During earlier editions of the IPL, he acted as a liaison officer whenever matches were played at the DY Patil Stadium. "This means, if the players need ice for an ice bath, I get the ice," he says, "If someone wants their gear looked after, I do it." For the first IPL match at DY Patil Stadium, he remembers walking around the Mumbai Indians' dressing room, asking cricketers if they needed anything and working up the courage to request photographs with them. Tambe's is a remarkable story of a bounce back to top form. Before the CLT20 tournament, he was "a nobody", he says. But just a few matches later, spectators were sitting up each time his captain handed him the ball for an over. Both off and on the field, he was suddenly seen as a threat to batsmen.

A couple of weeks ago, the Australian Olympic Committee announced it was to look to the example of - and this must have caught in the throat - Britain in attempting to restore hope and glory for Rio 2016. "You are entitled to your disappointment," said John Coates, the man in charge of the AOC, in the wake of his men and women coming 10th in the medals table in 2012 with their worst gold medal return since 1988.

Ryder says he wants to play for New Zealand again. His last match was in February 2012, when he was dropped after he went out for a drink with Doug Bracewell when the pair were both recovering from minor injuries. He said he had been "hung out to dry", and quit cricket for personal reasons. The suggestion was that he felt he wanted to deal with his drinking problem, something which he says he has done.