The Surfer

Its debilitating effects were never better illustrated than by the tale of the Australian team Nerrena CC. In 2005 they travelled to Inverloch for a crucial league fixture. The Nerrena players were pleasantly surprised to find that the hosts had laid on a spread of suspiciously moreish chocolate cupcakes for their guests. "I thought, gee this is pretty good," said Nerrena player Tim Clark. "They usually feed us crap." He ate five of them. Soon his team-mates began complaining of "sunstroke-like symptoms". Two broke into hysterical giggling fits, and had to leave the field because their mouths were so dry. Clark said it took him 20 minutes to put his pads on once play started, and almost four hours to assemble a kit bicycle at the end of the day. "I was all over the shop. I was putting the handlebars where the seat was meant to be."

If that [South Africa] tour happens, then it will mark the beginning of a year that will see India visiting New Zealand, England and Australia - places that offer not much comfort for visiting teams. Here, Dhoni's skills as captain, batsman and man manager will come under harsh assay. It's a possibility that India may not have the towering presence of Tendulkar on those tours, leaving Dhoni in charge of completely new-look Test team

"I travel to and fro from Nairobi whenever I get the time to play in Mumbai. Playing in Kanga League is difficult and challenging. Your technique improves and helps in learning to pace the innings. In this season, the ball moves a lot and this experience came handy for me in Scotland as I was accustomed to the movement," he added

"Without my mum and dad there, I had no one to run to. But you know what? I didn't really care. I was quite a tough thing - and single-minded - and I wasn't going to let those parents get in my way. When I walked out on to the field I held my head high. I wanted to show all of them I could really play.

But surely as architect and founder of the IPL, a scenario where his competition was all powerful in the marketplace was exactly what he would have wanted? "I always wanted the IPL to be global but that's what the Champions League was for. To support the boards. The objective of the IPL being played overseas was to share revenues with other countries. But the BCCI will control all of it. They won't share their money with anyone. The BCCI mindset is different from mine. So the growth of the IPL will be detrimental to the game."

Modi is warming to the theme and he leans forward in his seat. He talks of other scenarios where the world's cricket boards are beholden to the BCCI, calling them a giant which must be stopped. He deplores the poverty which New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan cricket boards suffer from, reckoning that India, England and Australia have "hatched a plan" to stage global tournaments in only those three countries. Then he talks about the BCCI's row with Cricket South Africa and his mood, suddenly, changes.

This game is about dealing with failure. Bradman batted 80 times in Test cricket and he only got 29 hundreds. So he failed 51 times. The rest of us have had a huge struggle. It's only those who accept that they are going to fail a lot and have a belief that their method will work will be able to keep at it. Dhoni's method was and is unique. Not many people play like him, but he has immense confidence in it. And that's all that really matters.

I shared that 'buzz' of excitement and anticipation during the recent England v Australia ODI series when a resurgent Mitchell Johnson was sending down some genuinely quick bowling at English batsmen. It was a welcome sight, and I'm not saying that simply because I am Australian. To the naked eye, he was noticeably quicker and more hostile than anyone bowling in England this summer.

Take last Sunday. After the opening match of the Ryobi Cup, Tasmania's George Bailey gave reporters a straight answer to a straight question - something of which all our cricketers should be capable. Asked his view of the summer schedule, he gave it: the Big Bash League was too long, the Ryobi Cup too short, the Sheffield Shield too concentrated. Whether you agree or disagree, the view is at least arguable and hardly an outlier among contemporary cricketers, according to opinions sifted from first-class players by the Australian Cricketers Association, on whose executive Bailey sits. Bailey's remarks were news, a CA player picking a bone with the CA schedule, although he actually chose his words quite carefully, acknowledging the significance of "the commercial side" of the BBL and stressing his appreciation of the priorities of the broadcasters: he merely called for "a balance". The problem was, as CA saw it, that the remarks impinged on the commercial value of a cricket "product". Thus Bailey spent a good deal of Sunday night dealing with his irate paymasters, peeved that he had picked his nose in the company carpark.

There's a piquancy in that Bailey's remarks obtained their best run on Cricinfo, cricket's most prolific eyewitness, started 20 years ago by volunteers, and owned since 2007 by ESPN, an arm of Disney. Because CA doesn't much like Cricinfo either, regarding it as a competitor of its own website, cricket.com.au; it has designs on capturing ever more online cricket traffic, rather as the Australian Football League has done at afl.com.au, by recruiting its own reporting and editorial staff to generate original content. It's good news that CA plans to improve its dull-as-digital-dirt profile, which looks like it was designed on a Commodore 64. But the AFL's website works because of the sheer abundance of news thrown off by an established multi-team national competition; CA still largely depends on the fortunes of a middling national team with one marquee player. And why "freeze out" Cricinfo, as it is being put?

"The first time I played here [Lord's] it felt incredible but even when you turn up on a Monday morning and there are not many people around, you stroll across the ground to put your kit in the dressing room, seeing the pavilion, the Long Room or whatever, you realise this is such a special place, the tradition that comes with it, all the great players, the great games. I think all the Middlesex guys recognise that. I've got a good gig, if you like."

It's not just about the cricket. He is hanging out in a city that rivals any in the world. Yesterday he set off with his mates for a weekend in Barcelona promising to be "professional at the right times". He lists Rome as the favourite place he has visited, marginally ahead of Capri. Take a 90-minute flight out of Sydney and you might still be in New South Wales. "I love living in London and feel very lucky to be here. The city has got everything, especially for a young bloke, but on top of that, being a professional cricketer turning up at Lord's every day doesn't really get any better."

The spotlight over the past few years has been on powerful and seen-to-be-powerful officials like N Srinivasan, Lalit Modi, Sharad Pawar and Jagmohan Dalmiya. But since the exit of Modi, his former boss, in 2010, Raman has been the man taking the key decisions: negotiating and signing off with cricket boards on the T&Cs of bilateral tours, dealing with sponsors, broadcasters and the media to ensure the Board squeezes out every last dollar's worth, and exercising the 21st century right of any self-respecting BCCI official--showing the ICC who is in charge.