The Surfer

The jaffa that Stuart Broad delivered to Michael Clarke on Monday evening will last. But not so well, in my mind, as the loud thump of Brad Haddin's bat as he dropped it, like an axe into a stump, on the yorker Broad sent him as a welcome to the wicket. It was so fast and forceful that the sound echoed around the ground like a gunshot across a moor. Or Broad's anger when he was told by Alastair Cook that the bad light meant he would have to come off. And how he was led, almost by the hand, away to mid-off, like a boxer ordered by the referee to stand in the corner while his opponent took a 10 count.

With the change in focus towards youth, many domestic first-class boards changed their core organisational goals from 'creating a strong first-class team', to 'creating Australian players'. As a result of the shift in focus and changes to the rules, older players on the fringe of first-class teams were finding themselves squeezed off the contract list, or that their yearly retainer was falling to a level that made a comfortable family life unattainable. They no longer had a cricketing forum to prove that they were better than the up-and-coming youth, and hence were shuffled on before their time.

Much will be said about the psychological and technical failings of the Australian batsmen under pressure, but this was a day to admire their conqueror. Dumb Broad, Lord Broad, Broad the Fraud…the banners are being painted, and this young man with incongruously narrow shoulders will have to take a lot. But he seems the type who enjoys a stoush. He will arrive in Australia as a credible and, when needed, formidable force.

Swann, at least, conjured out two left-handers but the critical wicket was that of Warner. Bresnan, replacing Swann, reverted to bowling over the wicket to Warner and the ball bounced and found the outside edge. It proved rather a good bowling change from such an apparently callow captain. Now, after another drinks interval - with no obvious messages passed on - Stuart Broad was inspired and maybe another little ploy worked. A backward short-leg to Michael Clarke hinted at a short ball straight after the interruption in play. Instead the delivery was full and lethal. Clarke's front foot never left the crease but his off stump did.

There is no grumbling about team factions from Harris. You would have to travel the world to find a fellow cricketer who will not give him a glowing character reference. He has a British passport, and might have been playing for the other side. Heaven help us. He came to Test cricket late in life, because his skills took time to develop, his body was unreliable, and selectors were not quick to recognise a bowler who wasn't as tall, lithe or fast as fashion dictated. This Ashes cause may be lost, but the series scoreline ought to record such heroes, whether they be unsung or, as Harris deserves, sung.

This was the ball that pacemen dare not dream about. It would surely have dismissed most right-handed batsmen in the world. Root has been around long enough to know there was no point in looking back upon hearing the rattle. Harris has been around much longer and he knew that this was not only an express delivery but a very special one. He beamed again like a teenager, eyebrows mischievously raised at such a ball, accepting the congratulations of his team-mates.

In his stance, squinting through contact lenses, bat dangling loosely, Rogers seemed like the red-haired, freckled class captain with his stats books who opens the batting because he cleans the kit and refuses to be the scorer. Look now - the cricket nuffie is a first-class batsman of 20,000 runs' standing, and an Ashes century-maker.

He would have scrapped away, just as Rogers did. He would have watched the ball like a hawk, playing it as late as he could, just as Rogers did. He would have played and missed, and then forgot it ever happened, just as Rogers did.

When I see Jamaica playing against Barbados, for example, in first-class cricket, I don't just see the game as merely a contest between two teams, but as a battle between two nations, where bragging rights and a feeling of national superiority, if only over four days, makes the game that much more meaningful.

Zoey Cape, 15, from Somerset, is one of the new generation of female players coming through. A Chance to Shine coach spotted her natural talent on a visit to her school, and she was invited to join Minehead Cricket Club. The teenager had only ever played cricket in her back garden, messing about with her brothers, so it was a big step for her to go to a cricket club. And in July last year, Cape made her debut for Somerset's senior women's side.

The 22-year-old not only plays two sports at the elite level, she does it alarmingly well and has the Botham-esque knack of creating something from not much. She debuted for Australia's senior national football team as a 16-year-old and scored a goal after just 90 seconds. In recent years Perry has found her football niche as an overlapping full-back and regularly sets up goals via her dead-ball acumen, invariably delivered with the same pinpoint accuracy as her 120kph bowling.

It took me more than a year of reading the cricket reports of various British papers. I started following the over-by-over reports on the Guardian's site, and found that the pace of the game opened up for me there. Wikipedia explained words like 'crease' and 'duck', and the various manners you could be 'out' according to the Laws of the game. And then, during England's tour of West Indies in early 2009, I suddenly understood cricket.

"This is precisely the sort of series that 7 of the remaining 8 major nations in world cricket use to test their youngsters. This tour would have been used to develop these guys - provide Nasir with the assurance that he's Pakistan's first choice; allow him to get a few easy runs and restart his five-day career."

First of all, the Caribbean Premier League is well financed and it needs to be. The promotions are outstanding. It is international class. The West Indies Cricket Board has got into absolutely no promotion whatsoever for its various competitions. I am not talking about spending millions on promotions, but even a basic promotion is not done by the West Indies Cricket Board in relation to any of their competitions. They suffer because of that. I do hope now that they are taking a bit of an example from the Caribbean Premier League, seeing what promotion can do.