The Surfer

The Husseys make no attempt to sugar-coat the situation. As children, adolescents and even young adults, the brothers didn't care much for each other. Acerbity and antagonism marked their relationship. The Bradys, they weren't.

It was so obvious that Paul Collingwood should have called Grant Elliott back after the New Zealander had collided with Ryan Sidebottom after setting off for a quick single.He should have done it instantly. That's part of the spirit of cricket. It's all there, in the preamble to the Laws, written by the great Colin Cowdrey. And if Collingwood hasn't read it, as an England captain, that's a major oversight.

At Carib's Leap, a sheer cliff face on the north coast, a memorial has been erected to the band of 40 Carib Indians who, having been cornered by French colonisers in 1651, jumped to their deaths rather than surrendered. Further south, Grenadians of an older vintage sit around the foreshore of Carneage Harbour and regale tourists with tales of the US invasion of 1983.

The same optimism cannot be shown as far as Pakistan is concerned. Right from the moment Inzamam-ul Haq forfeited the Test match in England, Pakistan cricket has gone from one crises to another — World Cup exit, drug scandals, Shoaib Akhtar’s ban and now Mohammad Asif’s detention.

England pride themselves on being a tough side, but there is a huge difference between making themselves hard to beat and messing with the spirit of the game. Collingwood sought victory at any price, little realising that its value would be diminished.

It is a damning indictment of the previous regime's handling of the issue that the letter from Andy Burnham to the ECB stating that England should not be playing cricket against Zimbabwe should seem to be so refreshingly direct an approach. That clarity of thought and action is the very least we should expect from a government which has been so keen to use sporting success for its own political advancement. Having been repeatedly shafted by the government's wavering over the years, it's childishly satisfying that one England player urinated in the garden of No10 Downing Street, while another called Blair a wally during their drunken post-Ashes party.

After receiving Burnham’s letter, the ECB released a statement stating its concern over the “lack of human rights in Zimbabwe”. Only now, after years of human rights abuses, has the ECB found the courage to speak. It appears that it is fine to be moral, as long as it does not cost you money.

This would be a bit higher than the recent going rate for baggy greens, but, given that it is reportedly the first of Border's baggy greens to go on sale, the price may well be realised. When and how this status was achieved is the subject of an interesting new book, The Baggy Green, co-written by Michael Fahey and Mike Coward.

Then came Saturday's riveting international at Bristol. For a while, as the Black Caps scrabbled to get a grip on things, it looked like being a replica of the midweek domestic non-event. But they rallied, played with purpose, got a workable total, and in turn made England struggle, running out worthy winners. Some commentators, more attuned to biff, bang and wallop apparently, declared this a grinding bore. To me, it was a match of ebb and flow, in helpful bowling conditions for a change, and thoroughly absorbing, I would have thought, for anyone interested in cricket beyond a very superficial level. Certainly it didn't look as if the ground had emptied as Paul Collingwood dug deep to try and haul his side over the line.

It is about time a group of administrators took action in response to what has and continues to take place in Zimbabwe; it is only a shame that it was left to CSA, Zimbabwe's closest allies, to make the decision and not the British Government, ICC or ECB. Zimbabwe has been a maggot-infested open wound sitting on the face of cricket for quite some time, causing huge embarrassment to anyone who places the moral integrity of the game ahead of money, the commodity cricket cannot get enough of these days. One of the only non-Zimbabweans to have taken a moral stand in recent times is Nasser Hussain, the former England captain. Hussain refused to take his side to Zimbabwe at the 2003 World Cup, a brave and admirable move that ultimately ended England's chances of winning the tournament.

Building work in the churchyard of St Gregory’s, in Canterbury, cannot proceed until his remains, along with the remains of about 200 others, have been disinterred and reburied away from the site of the proposed music centre. The trouble is, the planners have no idea where he actually is.