The Surfer

As the cricket fans get excited about getting the first feel of the city-based league with international stars and get blissfully lost in their dilemma to be a Knight Rider or a Daredevil, it’s quite unfashionable to speak about [Nilesh] Kulkarni. Or say, Amol Muzumdar, Amit Bhandari, Gagan Khoda, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Sairaj Bahutule and Shitanshu Kotak. These are the stars; who for more than a decade have turned up for their respective state, city or region but their efforts haven’t been significantly applauded, rewarded or even recognised. T-shirts with their names were never seen at retail outlets, there were no promotional videos made of their team, nor have they walked on to the field with a theme song on the public address system.

Under Chingoka and his evil-eyed side-kick Ozias Bvute, Zimbabwean cricket has been crippled. Only without them could cricket in the country ever hope to begin dragging itself from its "quagmire of cronyism", as one close observer has described it.

All hell is being let loose out there. Every cricketer in England – and beyond – is talking about the advent of the Indian Premier League, how they might get a piece of the action and instructing their agent, if they have one, to check if there might be a contract available. There are millions of dollars swilling around the game and cricketers – some of them – will be rich beyond their dreams and perhaps be the objects of adulation not seen since, well, W G.

But MCC are still playing the champion county. Oh to be in England now that April's there. It is a safe bet, given the rapidity of events, that in 2108 the season's curtain-raiser willnot be a first-class match at Lord's between MCC and the champion county. MCC may still exist; not so the champion county. Doubtless Lord's will host some Twenty20 festival match for charity. It may not take a century, but more like a year.

I've been sending video footage for Troy to inspect my bowling action after recovery from my knee injury...He was building my confidence when, frankly, England were no longer keeping in touch.

Here meetings are being held, statements made and gossip garnered. Shame that caution and compromise are county cricket's time-honoured watchwords. So probably best not to hold your breath about any great structural change. After all, Twenty20's invention was a blip in the conservatism; where marketeers prevailed over the majority of the cricketing fraternity.

There has to be something terribly wrong in the order of things when the news of a Test match in India is relegated behind whether or not Shoaib Akhtar will be allowed to play in the IPL.

Test cricket is the most wonderful game. It has been played since 1877 and yet, still, the plot of every Test match is different - provided it is not hopelessly one-sided, like those involving Bangladesh. This month sees the end of an era, with 20-over cricket becoming the pinnacle of the game in the commercial and financial sense. But long may Test cricket continue to be played, and Wisden to record it.

Taibu is expected to relocate to Melbourne and represent Northcote, a move that could position him for future Bushrangers selection, although he will not be considered for a place on Cricket Victoria's contract list for next season. Northcote president Mark Sundberg confirmed the club hoped to recruit the bright young wicketkeeper-batsman, but said he had so far been unable to contact Taibu.

I agree with the majority of opinion that seems to think that a five-year ban on Shoaib is excessive and out of proportion for the offence that he was hauled up for on this occasion. True, that his record has a lot more than this or any one offence, but since the ban has come following the last offence, which was of criticising the board, the perception inevitably is that this is the offence for which he has been punished.

In fairness, Sinclair was given every opportunity to regain his early international form but showed he is not the player he was in 1999. So the selectors were able to ignore his good return for Central Districts again and his quite outstanding domestic record.