The Surfer

Twenty20 is simply the descendant of the game played by Medes and Persians. Man throws a ball, another man hits the ball with a stick, runs around a marker and scores a notch! — and the team registering most notches wins the contest. Simple! In this regard, however, it is worth remembering that democratisation can make a sport too coarse — or too lacking in the refinements which underlined an innings by Tendulkar or a spell by Bishan Singh Bedi.

There is a strong rumour doing the rounds that when the England squad to contest the Test series against Sri Lanka is announced tomorrow week, the name of Andrew Strauss will be missing and in its place will be that of Mark Ramprakash. It would, were it to happen, be another stunner in a sporting autumn that already has had more turn-ups than a Savile Row clearance sale.

It is as if embracing young cricketers within academia is dangerous to the development of West Indies cricket.

The chairman of the selection committee, Dilip Vengsarkar, reacts like a TV anchor and not like someone who should know and be more responsible in what he says. Almost every second day we have Vengsarkar in an ‘exclusive’ interview berating his team.

The truth, though, is that neither side has emerged with reputation enhanced. Hair's allegation of racism - based on the fact that he, a white Australian, was in effect sacked from the ICC's elite panel, while Billy Doctrove, his Dominican colleague at The Oval, was not - has been exposed as groundless. But his grievance forced the ICC to do its dirty-linen washing in public, and the game's governing body now faces serious questions after seven days of testimony at a London employment tribunal in which its handling of the case was shown to be amateurish at best.

Stumping is an elaborate, high-speed composition, a sort of symphony of movement, where Dhoni was bending, rising, collecting, watching Ponting making a decision, his hands responding, so alert and quick that it would have earned him instant membership in any union of pickpockets.

Images of Lee can be found emblazoned on T-shirts, billboards and magazines across the country, and his deeds on the pitch are analysed and dissected in infinitesimal detail on India's cricket-devoted television channels. Lee feels neither overwhelmed, nor overexposed, by these developments. In fact, he plans to increase his presence in India over the next 12 months. Following the chart success of his debut single with Asha Bhosle last year, Lee plans to record and release his first studio album in India during breaks in Australia's schedule.

Stuart Broad is not the new Andrew Flintoff, so do not even imagine as much, but as he proves his ability to win one-day matches for England in tight situations, he is looking a young cricketer of substance, a fast bowler who might one day gain the mantle of a genuine all-rounder.

Botham's candour, however, can be moving rather than just amusing. He contemplated, with rare seriousness, the prickly selfishness and contrasting selflessness which underpin not so much his knighthood as his life.