The Surfer

It was a less important inter-school game between Maris Stella College, Negombo and St.Anthony’s College, Katugastota. But I had a person to meet, of course without an appointment. He was a young cricketer who was a member of that St. Anthony’s side. Having joined the ‘Daily News’ as a cub reporter, I was in-charge of school cricket since 1987.

It was a great shame that umpire Asad Rauf’s poor decision to see off Ryan Sidebottom with about half an hour of light left should add a touch of controversy to the climax...

The players are unlikely to be significantly inconvenienced by the computerised vest, given that several of them have been wearing similar technology during games for the past few months. Michael Hussey, Mitchell Johnson and Nathan Bracken wore GPS equipment as part of an Australian Institute of Sport trial to monitor players' workloads, and vests were worn during Australia's recent one-day tour of India and the Test series against Sri Lanka.

Cricket fanatic John put the ball in a box of socks, then dug a hole and buried it inside an ice-cream container. "I thought it would be a bit rough - more than rough, a tragedy - for the ball to be on someone's mantelpiece," he said.

Murali has had to fight allegations about his action more than a few times and each time he has come out clean and come out on top on the field again. I've also had to go through the tunnel of suspicion and have come out unscathed, and even if the sceptics persist, the cameras are not lying. It takes a lot to come out and resume the fight and Murali, ever a fighter, came out on top whenever he was sent to the labs.

The open letter that Vengsarkar mailed to Sharad Pawar will not help sort out problems if that was his intention. The letter shows the working style of the BCCI Secretary Niranjan Shah in poor light, though he is not inefficient as he is made out to be. Convening the meeting of the selection committee is not the only function the BCCI Secretary has. He is virtually running the BCCI show and he is an honorary worker. That is never taken into consideration.

We don’t have to worry about a coach, about a permanent manager, about a cricket calendar, about unhappy captains, about systems for selectors to work within. Or about pitches and bright cricket. In three weeks we play a Test in Melbourne on what is bound to be a fresh, bouncy pitch. India will need three seamers in the playing eleven. Today, we cannot find two to pick in the first fifteen. But the most important thing about the selection committee meeting is not that. It is about whether or not the chairman of selectors will attend. Really!

MacGill will know better than anyone that consenting to surgery is a gamble that could cost him his career, but in doing so he has still given himself the best possible chance to guide Australia through the tricky early stages of the post-Warne era.

Where once the world champion had Shane Warne, with Stuart MacGill menacingly hovering in the background, there now is neither. Warne is gone forever, MacGill may now be following, and the dearth of young spinners at first-class level is a bigger worry than WorkChoices was for John Howard.

“Players have been going to England in off-seasons and taking opportunities to play and learn the game and earn some good money over in England, so it's not new,” Gilchrist said. “But I do understand critics might say that we are trying to get less [cricket], but when something else comes up we want more."