The Surfer

In cricket, supporting the underdog meant siding with Australia when they came to contest the Ashes in Britain in 1977. I had cheered on England in 1975 against the Australians and in 1976 when they took on the West Indies. But in the summer of 1977, I kind of fell in love with the Australian team. Everything was against them.

Inaugurated in June 2012, the Alur facility now houses the Royal Challenge-KSCA Academy, headed by Indian legend Gundappa Viswanath. Srinath said, "Initially, academies in Karnataka were used for specific representational teams, like the Under-19 squad would train here for a camp ahead of a tournament. Access was limited, and it would almost seem like a transit camp. But now the idea is to make full use of the facility all round the year."

There was a discussion. At one point, I was joking to someone "Listen, I am going to tell the TV channel at the start of every season that let me coach these girls and I will teach them that this is how you ask questions. It is very easy. Just make sure you pay me like a really good stipend or whatever it is called. I will coach them. You get me any two girls, and I will teach them how to ask questions on television about cricket." And my friend looks at me and says, "You are a really sad person. Do you think that is what these girls are for?" and I replied, "Sorry. I forgot that." That is not what they are there for in the first place.

Michael Clarke is Australia's Moses, leading the Israelites into battle against the Amalekites. For as long as Moses held his staff in the air, his tribe prevailed, but when fatigue caused him to lower his arms, the tide turned. Clarke's staff is his bat.

By dramatizing Rasool's non-debut, Abdullah does disservice to his future as an India cricketer. There were murmurs already that his elevation was as much about symbolism as about merit. Abdullah has added weight to that sinister argument. Abdullah should have recognised Rasool's predicament isn't new. Indian cricket is replete with examples of players who have carried drinks over long overseas tours. Think back to the tri-series in Australia in early 2012, when Manoj Tiwary failed to get a game. Did Abdullah hear the Bengal chief minister throw the toys out of the cot? Cricket selections are at times flabbergasting and outrageous. But once a player is part of the India set-up he ceases to be regional representative. When that tag is reasserted it impedes the player's progress. When Rasool does finally play for India, Abdullah's twitter tirade will inevitably be brought up. And the doubters will whisper, "Maybe he's playing because his chief minister raised a stink and got his dad in the BCCI to put pressure on the powers that be". How awful will that be for Rasool to hear that on the proudest day of his cricketing life?

All the talk about DRS and technology has overshadowed the fact that players have played some very average cricket shots. Khawaja played a big drive out of the rough to Graeme Swann. All right, he missed it, but it was a terrible shot. Pietersen playing a big drive to Peter Siddle, with the pressure England were under, was a poor shot. The problem is that Ian Bell scores a great hundred at Trent Bridge, and yet we are all talking about Stuart Broad not walking. On the first day here, Michael Clarke got 125 not out, yet we all talked about the Khawaja dismissal. We have all had to speak about DRS for so long that some exceptional cricket has been overshadowed.

For all his admirable qualities, Cook has yet to nail the captain's role against Australia, when the need to win is so pronounced - and the opposition so hostile - that the brain is bound to freeze at first. The captain's frivolous review of a clear lbw off Ryan Harris when he was still on nought in England's rocky second innings was the clearest sign yet that responsibility is weighing on him heavily. Cook must have known he was out. So must Joe Root at the non-striker's end. But the leader still subjected himself to the ignominy of throwing away a review for purposes unknown. Vanity? He is not that type. To waste time? Surely England were not so desperate that they needed to burn five minutes? The simplest explanation is that Cook was in the mental vortex known to everyone who has worn the general's tunic in Ashes cricket.

His misfortune was perhaps to come into the Australian team when the baggy green conferred magical powers. Arrogance was required. Matthew Hayden and Ricky Ponting so dominated the pitch that they were practically hitting the ball out of bowlers' hands. This encouraged a front-foot technique and a policy of intimidation. What affected Watson were two changes. One was that the great players retired, giving him responsibilities beyond his abilities. The tide went out, leaving just the bluster. The other was DRS, which meant that batsmen could no longer get away with the front-foot stomp. Was Watson's failure to convert starts into big scores a weakness that was mental, or technical?

"Playing cricket is very difficult in Jalna. Besides, we hardly get to play any matches. We play one or two matches a month and that too against the same set of players. I have had to practise for weeks on end with tennis balls because the leather ones ran out," says Zol. He adds that the lack of match practice has forced him to grab every opportunity that comes his way. "Boys in Mumbai and Pune play 20 matches a month. Here we would be lucky to get those many in a year. A match is where I can show what I am capable of. That's why I have to score big runs," he says.

If a Kevin Pietersen century were on the big screen, it would have to be un film de Baz Lurhmann. You only have to watch a few frames to know whose it is. Bombastic yet brittle, unlimited in its ambition and self-regard, it contains, at every moment, the equal possibility of artistic genius and mind-boggling ineptitude. For many, it is a triumph. For others - say, the eleven Australians in the front row on Saturday - it would be twice as good if half as long.

There was a time when a man on the leg side, standing anywhere from fine leg slip to leg gully according to the pace of the pitch and bowler, and the length he bowled, was a standard position to the pace bowlers. David Lloyd, who spent many years on this ground, remembers standing fine to the great Brian Statham and plucking catches as batsmen played the ball from the hip, and parking himself squarer for the seamer Peter Lee, say, who bowled a fuller length

What would change everything would be cricket regaining the Olympic status it had more than 100 years ago. As the official in charge of cricket at the Sports Ministry in Beijing told me, if Olympic medals were up for grabs, the ministry would swing into action. Across China, boys and girls would be identified as potential Olympic cricketers, brought together and trained by top international coaches. China's national teams would rise up the world rankings. Only, though, in the short form of the game. T20 cricket is probably the only format that could be played at the Olympics. As for China becoming a Test match-playing nation, let's just say that when I asked the man at the sports ministry whether he had ever sat through a five-day Test match, his response said it all: "Oh no, that would be torture."