The Surfer

Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh turned heads on trendy Oxford St when they walked into the Ed Hardy store in Paddington. In the end, the men, who play Australia on Sunday at the SCG, left with a whopping bill of A$9120.

Cricket is undergoing a radical change, the second in its history. Far from being a passing phase, the franchise system launched in India recently will spread. Before long, Pakistan, South Africa, the West Indies and Sri Lanka will have their own franchises in place. Within a decade the entire structure of cricket will have changed beyond recognition.

Just before a batsman is about to go onto the field, he gets a few last-minute instructions from a teammate. Along with the usual ‘stay cool, play your natural game,’ there is a small bit of advice delivered in half-jest. “And don’t forget to take off your helmet when you complete your 50. How else can everyone at home see your new hairstyle?” he sniggers.

Sport is at its best when spectators feel that players share their cause. IPL cricketers will have time only to learn to love their pay clerks and their first-class seats on the first flight out. The usual tired arguments have been advanced about how sportsfolk have only a small window of opportunity and cannot be blamed for making the most of it. But it is not as if any of yesterday's stock was facing a life of destitution.

It defied cricketing logic that Yusuf Pathan was sold for more than Ponting, that someone like Ishant Sharma, the flavour of the day but very much a greenhorn still, came in at close to a million dollars.

The cynical will say that they have missed the bus to the next big thing in cricket. But what the three Aussies with the best of their careers ahead of them have done is make an eloquent choice between, 'cash and country', to use the words from Symonds' latest column. At the very least, they have also earned the right to express outrage at cricket's cash-rich fat cats.

The invitation back then should have been sent to Orion FC in Aberdeen, but in a heartening reminder that misdirected post is not an invention of the recent past, it was sent inadvertently to the Orion Cricket Club. Obviously eyeing a spot as a trivial pursuit question in perpetuity, they decided to accept the offer of an away trip to Arbroath, called themselves Bon Accord FC, and arrived without kit or, as history recounts, much talent.

It might be the bowlers, the batsmen, the balls or the pitches, but whatever the explanation the facts remain clear: this summer's one-day international series is in the middle of a run drought so severe Al Gore could include it in his next film ... Six months after the ICC introduced a rule to change the ball after the 35th over, an extra power play and allowed a free shot after a no-ball, the batsmen who dominated the game are in such bad touch the administrators might have to ban swing bowling.

There have been more than a dozen bowlers reported for suspect action and though one of them, Mohnish Parmar, is an offspinner from Gujarat, he has been picked for the Duleep Trophy final in place of classical offie Ramesh Powar.