The Surfer
On the eve of his first Test as captain, Kevin Pietersen get some advice from his former coach Duncan Fletcher, who writes in the Guardian that Pietersen should "be himself" and not change his style of batting because of the added responsibility
It's the greatest challenge for any captain: how do you remain the same batsman you were before? The danger, of course, is that the responsibility of the new job will make Pietersen exaggerate whatever approach he wants to take. If he wants to be positive, that can easily spill over into excessive aggression. If he wants to bat with caution, he must not retreat too far into his shell. Captaincy plays with your mind in funny ways - you think you're not making allowances, but then you find yourself batting out of character because of the pressure.
The Indian middle order has had an ordinary series so far with just one half-century in the first two Tests
In the second Test, where he made five and 31, especially in the second innings, Tendulkar looked ominously good before giving his wicket away. What this points to is that there isn’t a particular chink in technique or blind spot that the bowlers are exploiting. Usually this means that it’s only a matter of time before a batsman comes good.
Ricky Ponting has achieved many things even A-list cricketers can only dream of, but he joins the Olympic buzz by saying he cannot think of anything better than his sport being part of the Games
I know my time will be well and truly past if it was to happen. It's probably a couple of generations of players away. But the fact that teams from Australia or India or China or the US could be playing cricket in the Olympic Games is an awesome thought.
In the Guardian , former captains Kim Hughes and Bob Willis debate whether Kevin Pietersen is the right man to help England regain the Ashes after their 5-0 humiliation in Australia
Kevin was always going to be the No 1 challenge to Australia; he is confident, cocky, the things every good player is. He will captain as he bats: with supreme confidence and leaving his opponents constantly guessing at what he is going to do next. He is a gambler and to be honest I think that's going to be good for English cricket, not evidence of a lack of responsibility. He will be enthusiastic and aggressive but the most important thing is that he doesn't try to change his exuberant style because he has to remain England's match winner.
Nasser Hussain catches up with the man who not only got rid of him (in 2003), but also Michael Vaughan
He was always a very calm guy, always in control, difficult to break down. I used to think, 'when is he going to snap?' But in this series he was a lot more combative, had a lot of one-on-ones with people and that seemed unusual for him. It was something I hadn't seen before. He always used to make me feel that he was one step ahead of me but in this series he was different.
Look, we don't really know each other that well. It started with the comments he made about South Africa and naturally, as national captain, I would walk into a press conference and his comments would be thrown at me.
Rahul Dravid went past Sunil Gavaskar's once world-record aggregate of 10,122 runs, though there was barely a mention of it with all the attention on Sachin Tendulkar eclipsing Brian Lara's tally
He has played fewer Tests than Gavaskar, averages three runs per innings higher, and averages nearly 72 in 40 Indian victories (Gavaskar averaged 44 in the 23 wins he was involved with). Had it not been for the phenomenon called Sachin Tendulkar, the media would have been indulging in the Gavaskar versus Dravid debates.
The lure of an Olympic medal could help Australia avoid losing teenage cricketers to the football codes, Jamie Pandaram writes in the Sydney Morning Herald .
"I thought this kind of stuff only happens in India," Gilchrist said as he signed caps and shirts. "I haven't been out of the game that long, but it's nice to think I haven't been forgotten."
Mark Ramprakash has joined the elite list of players with hundred hundreds and Simon Hattenstone, in the Guardian , compares and contrasts Ramprakash's records with Graeme Hick
What makes Ramprakash and Hick different is that despite their outrageous success, they both failed at the highest level. Amazingly, they made their England debut in the same Test, against West Indies at Headingley in 1991. Sure enough, both blew it. Ramprakash scored 27 in both innings, and maybe my memory is playing tricks but he seemed to score 27 in virtually every Test innings he played. After 52 Tests he finished with an average of, yes, 27. Hick had an even worse time of it on debut, with a pair of sixes. He went on to average 31 in 65 Tests. Of their 235 centuries, only eight were for England.
Stephen Pollard in the Spectator is not too pleased with the BBC's decision not to bid for the TV rights put on sale by the ECB
The ECB made it clear to the BBC that it wanted to have Test cricket on the BBC and would find a way to accomodate it within the overall rights package. Yet there was no bid of any sort from the BBC, not for one Test a year, not for two, and not for a highlights package. Cricket, as far as the BBC is now concerned, is not worth a penny.
That should lead to further questions about just what we pay our licence fee for, if it is not in part for the BBC to televise the national summer sport.
Amrit Mathur, in the Hindustan Times , criticises those who write off cricketers only to be proved wrong soon enough.
When we know cricket is fundamentally uncertain, like the weather, why do people still put their front foot out and make bold predictions?