The Surfer

Ponting was scratchy. Usually, smartly executed pulls are his damper and vegemite. When he is on song, such shots are lost in the crowd. Now the stroke stood solitary owing to the company it was keeping. Cricket is a tough game and captaincy can be the hardest part. Previously a constant scorer, the Australian captain might find reassurance in the ups and downs endured by counterparts such as Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara. But a man cannot sort out his game until he has cleared his mind.

There may be examples lurking in the Wisden Book of Cricketers' Lives, but this has more than 8,000 entries and the only one I've discovered so far is a man called Chadwyck-Healey, "quite well known as a composer of church music". Unfortunately he doesn't seem to have been much of a cricketer: "his enthusiasm greatly exceeded his skill".

The outstanding crossover case in this book is probably Neville Cardus, who within living memory wrote magnificently for the Guardian about both cricket and music. In later years, music seemed the more powerful passion. I can still remember those moments when his handwritten notices would arrive in the features department, brought in by his chauffeur. "From Neville Cardus, Festival Hall", they would say at the top, and at the foot : "please do not cut". One night the concert was cancelled, and his piece of paper proved to be blank; except that it said at the top: "From Neville Cardus, Festival Hall"; and at the bottom, as ever, "Please do not cut".

Indians Sourav Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh may combine to make Gilchrist the highest-paid Australian player to bolster their own pockets.

Paul Collingwood's young England team went through this Fleming-like rite of passage this week at Hamilton and Auckland. At Hamilton, defending a pitiful total, and having been given a last-minute blast by Collingwood in the now-familiar on-field huddle, England came out snarling, looking for a fight. After every delivery of Ryan Sidebottom's first over, Jesse Ryder was surrounded by a phalanx of fielders with plenty to say. James Anderson backed this up at the other end with a barrage of bouncers, and when Owais Shah dropped Ryder at slip, Sidebottom let rip such a howl of anguish it looked like his head would explode.

And Trescothick, who last played for England in a one-day international against Pakistan in September 2006, admits: "I won't deny I am a little nervous about the prospect.

A key component of the Schofield Review, however, was that there should be a reduction in the amount of professional cricket being played, domestically and internationally. Schofield was perfectly candid on the point. The report said: "It is essential the ECB act now."

So much about being at limited-over cricket is now not about the cricket. The short form of the game has become shorter in an attempt to win back the concentration of those attending, and to satisfy the base passions of a particular type of fan.

Paradoxically, though, Twenty20 cricket will be less satisfying in cricketing terms. The contest between bat and ball is skewed. It so favours the batsman. The games will become a poor imitation of baseball.