The Surfer

The sadness of Australia continuing to raise the bar in Test cricket means the foundation of the game is becoming less and less relevant in more countries as the Twenty20 phenomenon multiplies the excitement in shorter forms of the game.

Around 50 cricketers are milling around Chennai this weekend wondering what, if anything, is going to happen. ICL's signings include some great has-beens … but the majority are young Indian players whom nobody has heard of, and who have signed away their careers in official cricket after being promised 20 to 40 lakh rupees (£25,000-£50,000) for a three-year contract.

Fact is, we (I include myself because I'm just as guilty) the readers, listeners and viewers really aren't all that interested in such matters so long as we get what we want, never mind who is providing the coverage in whatever form-print or electronic. Given the reputation of journalists as a bunch of arrogant know-it-alls, there are no doubt more than a few out there who enjoyed the sight of Coward, Conn and others being locked out.

It should suprise nobody that the media's obsession soon became his with the result that he concentrated his efforts on doing everything he could to raise his average. It meant, of course, that he could not get out. Not outs were the bricks and cement required to build a proper average. It meant that not only did a couple of potential double centuries go abegging, but even some centuries. Kallis was determined to cement his place in the team and if that meant scoring slowly and playing so far within his limits that even his fabled cover drive was limited to sporadic displays, then so be it.

Recommendations for a new structure of governance, much more reflective of the interests of all stakeholders in the region, are therefore set out in the committee's report. These recommendations lie at the heart of the report and deserve to be urgently considered.

Meanwhile, here in Aotearoa, we’ve never had a female cricket commentator, as far as I can recall. It is total man-land on both RadioSport and Sky’s cricket commentary teams with no cricket commentary suffragettes on the horizon either. Possibilities from the ranks of those of the fairer sex who have pledged their allegiance to cricket at one time or another would include effective actress Jodie Rimmer, bespectacled Basin-loving politician Marian Hobbs or the voluptuous talkback host Kerre Woodham

Kumble has an abiding affection for Test cricket and no doubt will have even a greater spring in his step now he has retired from the arduous limited-overs game. Indeed, this is the first time India has had different captains for the one-day and Test match cricket.