The Surfer

Katich has now tallied 569 runs at an average of 113.80 in grade cricket. If he scores 31 in this weekend's semi-final against Gordon, he will maintain an average of 100. Don Bradman was the last player to post better averages in state and grade cricket in the same season, scoring 1051 runs at 116.77 for NSW, and 549 runs at 109.80 for St George, in 1929-30.

Top of the priorities will be sorting out a collection of batsmen who can not only survive but succeed in demanding early-season conditions in England. Stephen Fleming won't be there to nursemaid players along. Mathew Sinclair is unlikely to make it after having five tests to cement his place and failing to take it.

Its proposal is a bureaucrat's solution to cultural problem. Make a rule, press a button, tick a box, all fixed. But what is fixed? No one has properly established even what constitutes sledging.

At the start I was afraid to share a room with a player like [Navjot] Sidhu, whom I always admired. I was thinking of what I would talk him [about], how I would talk to him and all that. When I reached the room and met him, he congratulated me on making it to the international stage. He told me not to be under any pressure and just play as if it were another Ranji Trophy match. 'Just continue bowling the same way; there is no difference in the way one bowls in international matches. Just try and do the best you can, but don't get overawed by the atmosphere in the ground. Once the match starts, you won't realise how the five days of the Test match go,' he said.

The West Indies territories are poor, the West Indies board is broke (or almost broke) the people of the West Indies have always backed the players and with the players earning so much money from the ICL and the IPL, the West Indies Cricket Board will never ever attempt to prevent them from earning that amount of money by issuing a 'no objections certificate'. That means, therefore, that as far as the West Indies are concerned, it is up to the players to make a decision. And with, for example, US$800,000 coming from the IPL and US$30,000 coming from the West Indies, the choice seems obvious.

Why is he retiring? There have been some explanations: he would have preferred to remain as captain of the Test team; the move to Daniel Vettori may have hastened his departure. He has burgeoning business ambitions, a two-year-old daughter, a baby on the way, and a contract with the IPL. Yet he goes leaving us puzzled. He is not past his peak and in this era no Englishman, Aussie or Indian retires before their powers are manifestly in decline.

A couple of days ago I admitted that the selection problems and off-field controversies that have hung around South African cricket for the last month or so had adversely affected the team. I was asked the question and I didn’t see any point in not telling the truth it has been unsettling and emotions have run high at times. But let me be equally honest now: we are fully focussed and by the time we walk on to the field on Wednesday morning, the last thing on our minds will be selectors or administrators.

He [Kumble] just smiles when asked how it feels to suddenly be dubbed the best thing to have happened to Indian cricket in the eventide of an illustrious career. The irony wasn’t lost on him. “I’ve always done things the way I thought they should’ve been done, accepted whatever’s come my way. I never went after the captaincy but when it did come, it was an honour. I’ve always believed that life should be taken as it comes, you need to plan and do the things you can as best as possible, not worry about things you cannot control.”