The Surfer

Kevin Pietersen and moderation have never gone hand in hand. Just as the flamingo and the switch-hit are inherent with risk, so his appointment as England captain has the faintly unsettling feel of a stab in the dark. No doubt the usual nouns and adjectives will be thrown in his direction - a mercenary and an opportunist, brash and selfish - but for those concerned about England's closed-shop tendencies, Pietersen may actually stand for the best of both worlds: a player who already has the respect of the dressing-room and is sufficiently unEnglish to sweep it clean with a new broom.

Good luck, then, to him as he embarks on the next stage of his remarkable journey. It is an enormous undertaking and he will need all his inner toughness to succeed. Yesterday, he said that Vaughan's were big shoes to fill, but unlike Tiger Woods, who was told the same thing about Jack Nicklaus, Pietersen did not say that he had big feet. I hope I'm wrong, but I have a horrible feeling that this is going to end in tears. But, then again, as Vaughan showed on Sunday, it always ends in tears.

The decision, I understand, was his and his alone and on the basis that he believed he could no longer continue, it is hard to argue against. The captaincy of England is just about the best job in the world but it is also an all-consuming one. If you take the job seriously, as Vaughan has unquestionably done, then there comes a time when you simply don't want to do it any more. There comes a time when you don't want to spend every evening at dinner ignoring your companions, or your family, thinking about where your next run is coming from, who should be opening the bowling the following morning or how to tell your mate that he is no longer good enough to be in the team. There comes a time when you want the headlines to be about someone else.

The first is Pietersen’s country of origin. It is true that Tony Greig, another South African emigre, did the job in some style in the late 1970s, and it is also true that there should be no half-measures about adopting a player born overseas; once you accept Pietersen as an Englishman, you must accept him on the same terms as everybody else.

Smith had neutered the England attack with his massive resolve and composure. By the end he was toying with an undermanned and exhausted England attack to take South Africa another step towards their long-term goal. They had not won a series in England since their return to the international scene. Next stop Australia. And Smith will not be intimidated there either.

The bottom line in the current Sri Lanka-India Test series that I am playing in is that obvious mistakes have been corrected and the quality of decision-making has been high.

There are times when batting with Ramps has made me feel a bit inadequate. It can be dreadful to be at the other end when you're out of touch. You watch him and wonder why it all looks so easy.

Twenty20 is capturing the hearts, minds and pockets of English and Indian administrators, but it has never yet given us drama of this kind, and it never will. Excitement and thrills, yes, but not raw human drama, for there is not enough time for the protagonists to reveal their emotions. Emotions – and action – superbly captured by television.

"I’d written him off as a crock – and a bit of a wally. I decided Andrew 'Freddie’ Flintoff had more in common with another bumbling Lancastrian, George Formby, and I transferred my affections to Kevin Pietersen. But now Freddie’s back in all his heart-of-oak omnipotence, and I wonder how I could have strayed?