The Surfer

Unlike Shane Warne, whose leg-spin variations often bewilder a batsman before the lbw decision is won, Panesar's success has owed more to a persevering tread. It is generally accepted that more leg-before decisions are to be welcomed because the threat of them forces batsmen to play more with the bat than the pad. But if the umpires' willingness to give lbw decisions persuades Panesar to abandon art in favour of painting and decorating, the advantages will not be altogether apparent.

Any sportsman is reliant on his colleagues: that is the whole point of team games. But the wicketkeeper, more than any other player, can be painfully exposed by the shortcomings of others. If the back four part like the Red Sea, allowing the striker a free run on goal, even the best stopper sometimes finds himself praying for the earth to swallow him up.

With most batsmen, it is the shots they play that determine whether or not they are in form. The back foot punch from Tendulkar, the flick wide of mid-on for Dravid, the cover drive and the pull for Ganguly. But with Sehwag it is what he doesn’t do that gives a better clue. When Sehwag is not reaching out to balls wide off his stumps with his feet firmly planted on leg stump, you feel optimistic.

Yousuf, in fact, took the same elevator as Woolmer when the devastated team returned to the Jamaica Pegasus. “Shoaib Malik and a couple of other players were also there and when it stopped on my floor (third), Bob quipped ‘ladies first’... We laughed... I didn’t get to see him after that...”

“Ash (Ashraful) is a very good thinker. He is not only a natural talent but also thinks about the game. He follows the game minutely, which is not so common in his generation. Definitely I will give my best support to him but I hope everybody will have patience on him. He should be given enough time to establish himself as a skipper."

Vaughan needs no special training, though, for ever since he became England captain he has provided intelligent comment whenever questioned. In St Lucia … he was asked about match fixing. Does it go on, Michael? He could have obfuscated, but it did not sit with what he believed. So he said he had no proof but his professional knowledge told him there were situations that gut feeling told him might not quite stand up to scrutiny. It was an honest assessment.

What Vaughan might find bemusing, though, is the reaction now to his candid words given that he is not revealing a state secret but reiterating something that was blindingly obvious at the time. Flintoff will be incandescent, say some, which might be the case, but will he be more so now than he was at the time? Is Vaughan telling him something of which he was not already aware and that the general public could not at least surmise?

The Indian team with a Sri Lankan coach when Sri Lanka does not have one at the moment does make curious reading. Yes, it can happen when players choose the coach.

Indeed, the days of the multi-tasking professional 12th man, the bloke who always seemed to be knocking on the door of the Test side, who got within the very precincts of the dressing room with the smell of liniment (actually it's fragrances by Hugo Boss now) only to be stymied again and again as fitness tests were passed, and potentially troublesome pitches re-assessed on match morning as benign, are over. Duncan Fletcher enjoyed inviting people to his party, the more the merrier, and if it meant they were unable to pursue their chosen career beyond bowling between motorway cones and mixing isotonic drinks, then so be it.

Sidebottom will find swing less reliable at Old Trafford, though he deserves to keep his place. Swing makes him a match-winner but his accuracy offers Michael Vaughan control, something England have lacked while Andrew Flintoff and Matthew Hoggard are injured.