The Surfer

"When I was here with the England Academy three or four years ago, and last year in Adelaide grade cricket, you could see the passion Australia has for cricket and it is nice to come to a country where there is passion for the game," Panesar said.

Ponting, while reiterating he was not a selector, said yesterday he had no issue with McGrath and Clark playing alongside fellow right-arm New South Welshman Lee in the series opener, even if that lent his attack a certain sameness. "You always want variety, but at the end of the day you have to pick your best bowlers, the bowlers you think are capable of taking 20 wickets in a Test match for you," Ponting said.

The Courier-Mail has learnt that ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed strongly lobbied for Hair to remain on the elite umpires panel in Friday's ICC board meeting in Mumbai but was howled down by the board members. Speed does not have a vote on the ten-member executive board which voted 7-3 to sack Hair after heavy pressure from the Asian bloc countries.

Whether it be chasing the rights to host a World Cup, getting officials in important positions or getting rid of an umpire, the Asian bloc gets what it wants. England and Australian officials may luxuriate in holding the oldest, most famous series of all but when it comes to power broking they are no longer the kings.

They can be divided into two schools of thought, the cerebral and the warlike. Although a fighter on the field, Flintoff is a genial fellow and might not care to provoke the locals. Nor is he content to serve as a master puppeteer.

Once you have arrived and been deloused at customs (contamination is a major fear and they scrub your cricket boots and shave the bottom off cricket bats that have picked up dirt), it isn't long before the banter starts. The only trouble is, it never stops. "How do you like our sunshine? How do you like our beer – better than your warm rubbish, isn't it? Where do you keep your savings – under the soap?" (The last is a jibe about our apparent reticence to wash.) And on it goes.

Andrew Flintoff will stroll into Sydney early tomorrow, probably hooked up to an iPod playing Elvis, Elton and Sinatra tunes, giving no hint he is carrying more than the weight of his kit bag.

If the present lot were suddenly going to turn into world-beaters, they would have done so a long time ago. So we need to accept that, if we continue to support the incumbents, we cannot win the World Cup.

A sod of soil south of Perth could provide the base that restores the WACA Ground's once-famed reputation as Australia's liveliest pitch. WACA curator Cameron Sutherland spent yesterday analysing soil samples on the Harvey River, about an hour's drive from Perth, in the hope of finding the dirt that will return the pitch to its glory days.

Rather than starting work on the pitch only a week or so before the Test, Sutherland will begin preparations this month to build a compact base for the playing surface. The new method was trialled in Western Australia's one-day match against Tasmania last week, which Test opener Justin Langer said made for exhilarating cricket. "It is exciting for cricket - though not for opening batsmen when you see the keeper standing so far back," Langer said. "It was a classic WACA wicket."

The fact that the hotel was an hours drive out of town, in Indian traffic containing camels, dogs, pigs and elephants as well as the usual hoard of tuk-tuks, bicycles and oblivious pedestrians deserves genuine sympathy. A journey of 15 minutes in such conditions, with the constant braking, swerving and hooting, can be as physically and mentally draining as a journey ten times as long on a South African highway