The Surfer

"Let's not dwell on that too much because it might be something we do again," Buchanan said when asked whether sensitive material that had been leaked, most recently in Adelaide, England and New Zealand, had all been accidents. "It can be good to get certain thoughts out there - and there are various ways that can be done."

Under the tutelage of softly spoken captain Bashar, Nafees is now being groomed to one day take over the leadership of his country. Bangladesh's cricketer of the year in 2006, the left-hander says marriage to law student Eshita has brought him luck. "After the wedding, I scored about 400 runs in seven or eight one-dayers."

Jacques Kallis and Ashwell Prince score runs in a similar fashion and a similar pace. They both know that and, in fact, are sick and tired of hearing about it. Nonetheless, they need to be perfectly clear about how they will approach their partnership in whatever circumstances they find themselves batting together.

The talk from within the camp is that the length of the tournament, a tortuous eight weeks, means it is important to peak at the right time. That is nonsense, and with teams taking points from the group stage through to the Super Eights, every game is vital. Indeed, England's opening match with New Zealand on March 16 will be hugely important, the winner enjoying an advantage come the second stage.

'About nine or 10 years ago my dad had a liver transplant, but now there's a complication with his kidney and he's waiting for dialysis. He won't be able to travel to the West Indies, which is sad because it's a big thing for a father to watch his son playing for his country at the World Cup. Everything I am as a cricketer is down to my dad. He was a decent fast bowler for Marske (in the North Yorkshire South Durham League) in his day, so there must be something in the genes. But he's also my strength, a real driving force, and I wish he could be in the Caribbean because we've got a chance to pull off something special."

Cricket is about to lose a generation of blue-bloods who have underpinned its success for the past decade. Yet there is no expectation that the generation of players below them will soar to the same stellar standards. The game is short of new stars.

"It's not an easy thing to bowl at the death ... you really have to try to bowl as full as you can at the stumps and also mix your pace up," McDermott said. "I know batsmen go harder at the ball these days, but I don't think the game has changed that much where, if you bowl full and at the stumps, batsmen are so good they can just flick a yorker for four on the leg side. There are a lot more fours and sixes hit today which suggests they are bowling the wrong length. If you bowl a length where the batsmen can get under you, you are going to go for runs."

Players, I believe, would have adjusted accordingly to the current demands, although I am sacrificing some agility for other quality skills. It is not the niftiest fielding side. Anyway five front-line batsmen first: Graham Gooch, Marcus Trescothick, David Gower, Pietersen and Collingwood. No room for Nick Knight, a brilliant opener and fielder, the powerful Graeme Hick nor Graham Thorpe, Neil Fairbrother or Allan Lamb, superb pacers of an innings all. Collingwood's supreme fielding and improving bowling get him in.