The Surfer

Ponting now leads Australia into the unknown. Were he three years older he, like others, might call time and quit while he's ahead. Were he three years younger, and a recently appointed captain, he could contemplate taking the team through a new era. Time, though, rarely makes these decisions so straightforward. The glory days are over and Ponting's new challenge has begun.

External factors may have contributed to his mood. Tours of Sri Lanka and New Zealand may not be ones to get his creative juices flowing. He prefers the really big stages and the really big needle matches. His record against Australia is outstanding and it is hard to imagine him staying in the shadows come the series against South Africa this summer.

Arnie, Ryan's father and a one-Test-wonder, popped up to the Test Match Special box yesterday, the right sort of proud dad. He has kept out of the way for most of Ryan's career; this was the first time he had seen him bowl in a Test match. Cheerful as ever he noted how "Mr Fletcher always wanted bowlers who bowled at more than 85mph. What he forgot to tell them was that they had to bowl at the stumps as well".

India's economic boom has released a new sort of cricketer - tough, independent, materialistic and comfortable in his own skin. Suddenly, India seemed to represent the future, Australia the past.

Modi works from the plush Mumbai offices of Modi Enterprises, the industrial conglomerate owned by his family. Founded in 1933, the group has interests in agro-chemicals, tobacco, tea and beverages, education, entertainment and marketing. Casually dressed and sitting on a large lounge chair, he flicked the channels of an enormous plasma TV, ignoring the constant buzzing of his palm pilot.

While there is no debate as to the merits of Eddie Barlow, Barry Richards, Graeme Pollock and Mike Procter among The Selected's top 25 players of all time and even the presence of Allan Donald, Jacques Kallis, Mark Boucher, Makhaya Ntini can't be disputed Smith's appearance ignites discussion. For, at the end of a career a player is judged by his statistics. Not on his ability as a captain, or the fact that he has to wear several other hats, in dealing with the tricky issue of transformation and captaining a team that may include some players who aren't in the Test XI entirely on merit.

Between December 2006 and January 4 this year, New Zealand did not have a single Test at home. The focus was strictly on the ODI game in preparation for last year's World Cup in the Caribbean. It got New Zealand their customary semi-final finish. With due respect to Bangladesh: England are here, the ODIs are done and the real game is back with us. There's a proportion of the cricket public who'll yawn and get back to life's realities. For others this is what they've been waiting, well, years for: a true test of a cricketer's worth.

... he worked on the ball that leaves the right-handers. Till that moment, he had been one-dimensional, bowling quickly but predictably. In the years to come, if he can retain his ability to learn, his spell of bowling to Ponting at Perth will become a defining moment. Australia knew they had a fight on their hands from a man who had taken no more than a handful of wickets. He had pace but more than anything else he was confident and willing to back himself. From that moment onwards, with the batsman aware that the ball could go either way, he became, to quote Adam Gilchrist after the Adelaide Test, “lethal”.

India played a brand of one-day cricket that might have been fashioned by Dhoni: nerveless, intuitive, street-smart. On the other hand, Australia’s fallibility was mirrored in its captain, Ricky Ponting. He was part of a collective batting failure, produced by fatigue and triggered by the swinging white ball.

It is often argued that cheating is getting worse and sportsmanship is declining. But one fact often ignored is not only that rules change, but also that conventions evolve. In cricket, not so long ago, most batsmen (in theory anyway) claimed to “walk” - in other words, if they knew they had nicked a catch to the wicketkeeper, they did not wait for the umpire's decision. Only recently has “standing”, when you know you have edged the ball, become typical behaviour in the first-class game.