The Surfer

He is cosmopolitan, married to a non-Maharashtrian, Dr Anjali Mehta, and named after a Bengali music director, SD Burman. On the other hand, he is irrepressibly Maharashtrian in several other ways. He loves vada pav, for one. And also Marathi staple food. Jai Bokey, a US-based sports marketer, became friends with the cricketer when he was in India working for Professional Management Group. Once, when Tendulkar happened to be in Pune, where Bokey lived then, Bokey invited him for dinner. Tendulkar accepted it on the condition that the menu would be "varan bhaat poli bhaji".('Varan' is a mild Maharashtrian dal, 'bhaat' is rice, and 'poli bhaji' is 'roti subzi'). His son, Arjun, can eat varan-bhaat with sautéed potatoes every day. Some friends jokingly call Tendulkar not 'Master' but 'Maastoor', a rustic Marathi pronunciation of the original word.

Among the museum's treasures are this skeleton of the so-called Head Down Man, believed to be the first Stone Age cricketer. Preserved in a mixture of peat and his own bile on a Yorkshire moor, he was interred with some sticks of rhubarb, probably a totem for use in the afterlife.

"These kids learn how to play cricket from watching on Youtube. They'll be watching Shane Warne bowl his leg breaks and then you see them go out and try to do the same," Blackwell said. Miyaji is training with NSW and playing first-grade cricket with Universities and Blackwell is confident she will make enormous strides during her time in Australia. "So that's really how the kids in Japan become familiar with cricket because it isn't on live TV anywhere."

It is a mark of the gulf between county cricketers and the centrally contracted overclass that it is hard to imagine the batsmen Carberry will be hoping to appear alongside filling their pre-tour downtime in a similar way: Jonathan Trott moonlighting as a plumber, Ian Bell honing his skills as a roofer, Kevin Pietersen in chippy mode. But then of all England's Ashes tourists Carberry is perhaps the most striking. The joint oldest man on tour - albeit even at 33 still perhaps the fastest in a foot race - Carberry has yet to play an Ashes Test, or indeed any Test outside his sole appearance in Bangladesh in 2010. Despite this he is anything but an innocent. This is a cricketer who has scored 16,000 runs over 15 years for Surrey, Kent and Hampshire and who has in effect already had an entire career, even as he prepares to embark on his second life as an Ashes tourist.

Tendulkar stood a few runs away from his 100th international century. The Wankhede was a cauldron. And it was me who hung onto that catch at slip off Ravi's (Rampaul) bowling to get rid of him for 94. It was a great moment as an opposition captain, even though I knew Darren Sammy probably lost a lot of friends that day across India. I spoiled what was shaping up to be a crazy party in Mumbai. But it has to be my greatest Sachin moment. I've seen him play so many incredible knocks on television but the time I foiled his 100th hundred will be my special moment. That wicket also set up a great finish.

Siva, who played just nine Tests between 1983 and 1986, said Tendulkar's preparations set him apart. He said: "Seniors' guidance would have helped me prepare for every match, which is what Sachin did. He prepared for every match, right from schools to Tests. "When it is so difficult for youngsters to come and play at that level, Sachin started preparing even harder. An example of how he prepared was in 1998 when he called me to the nets to prepare for Shane Warne. We created a rough outside the leg stump and practiced for a week. The result was he got a brilliant 155* in the second innings in Chennai.

Small steps. Bangladesh draw a series against New Zealand for the first time, and gain 8 points in the ICC Test Rankings as a result. That is all good, but you really got the feeling that 0-0 was the extent of their ambitions. The refusal to give even casual thought to a chase in Chittagong, and a second innings here that showed no signs of taking advantage of the dominant position they were playing themselves into. And those pitches. From beyond the grave. There was a hope for a while that the Dhaka pitch may be more like a zombie, but as the test wore on it showed fewer signs of any life whatsoever.

In the second test against Bangladesh, Sodhi demonstrated enough to suggest he is something special. Rhythm, loop and speed were packaged into an action reminiscent of India's Anil Kumble. Sodhi possesses an attacking mindset. His three first innings wickets for 59 runs from 18.5 overs made you sit up straight on the couch. If he can eliminate the four-balls which release pressure each over, he'll threaten.

Armitage strode out to open the batting for Essex team Eastwood CC in their tour match against Bradfield CC in Berkshire. What happens next is painful to watch. Armitage doesn't worry about playing himself in, trying to pull his first ball for four. He fails to get bat on ball, is hit in the box, and tumbles to the ground. After shaking off his discomfort, he attempts to smash his second delivery - with even worse consequences. He makes a mess of his shot, falls over backwards, and is out hitting his own wicket. This would have been bad enough if witnessed only by those present, but unfortunately for Armitage, his antics have since been viewed by thousands.

Would I have enjoyed Boycott's hundredth hundred any less if England hadn't won (at least I think they won - it doesn't matter now), or KP's 158 in 2005 any more had it been less manic and flukey and chanceless? What about all of those Steve Waugh tons when I loved him and hated him at the same time, and why did I get a lump in my throat when he hit that boundary from the last ball of the day at the SCG?

On a personal level, Smith upgraded the archetypal captain's innings for the 21st century. It had all the over-my-dead-body qualities associated with the genre, but its purpose was victory rather than the avoidance of defeat, and he scored at a 21st-century strike-rate of 63. In some ways this was the completion of an almost Shakespearean character arc. He lost his way after the spectacular start to his captaincy career in England in 2003. He went two-and-a-half years without a Test century between 2005 and 2007 and was often criticised for immaturity or boorishness and embarrassingly misplaced machismo. In 2008, still aged only 27, he matured into the spiritual heir to Steve Waugh he had promised to be on the previous tour of England.

A friend of mine who knows little about cricket gave my contact details to the single mother of a 10-year-old boy. She was sobbing with fury. She had been promising all year to take her cricket-mad son to his first Test match, at Newlands. Now there isn't one. The same lady has been selling coffee under the Centenary Stand for almost 20 years. She makes a quarter of her annual income from that one match. Never mind the corporates and big businesses with hundreds of thousands to lose.