The Surfer

Pathan and Dhoni have played in pretty much every position from the opening slot to the tail-end of the team. Dravid has moved from the middle order to opening the batting. The move mightn’t have worked but the important thing is not the result but Dravid’s attitude, his willingness to commit himself to the total process.

When it comes to bowling and its nuances, neither Chappell nor his devoted assistant has a clue. Nothing reflects this more than the fact that over 10 fast bowlers have been "experimented" with in the last year. And still the team does not seem to be in any position to name our best three bowlers.

This is sporting life in the raw, a newly shaven-headed Freddie and Rooster ready to plough the shale-strewn, mud-spattered tracks.

We stop at the foot of a steep incline and Flintoff and Wyatt race each other up it three times. The lack of an obvious spring in his step belies Flintoff's power: he wins each time.

Only three pairs have opened in more than 10 One-dayers in the past one year: Australia's Gilchrist and Katich, Jayasuriya and Upul Tharanga for Sri Lanka, and South Africa's Graeme Smith and Boeta Dippenaar.

Even in the not-so-recent past, most teams could boast of a recognised opening pair. That has now whittled down to only one steady option for most teams, and most managements are playing Russian roulette in an attempt to pin down a steady partner for that opener, who is, in most cases, a tried and tested veteran.

In the course of the hearing, it became clear that Darrell Hair and Billy Doctrove — the umpires at the centre of last month's ball-tampering storm — had not fully followed protocol during the emotional and chaotic afternoon of Aug 20. Insiders say this has weakened their case substantially.

To invoke grounds of safety and security, when he has received by all accounts a single cranky email and no other threat, is just an expedient way of keeping him out of the way. But the umpire himself has said that he has been given no assurances of any firm commitments beyond that, or even an indication that there would be any. He is in limbo, on gardening leave, technically employed but actually unemployable.

The view of Australia's human rights and equal opportunities commission is that Pom, while hardly a compliment, isn't quite an insult: it has ruled that Australian fans may utter it, though it wearily acknowledges that Pom might stray into the realm of racism when deployed in conjunction with words commonly associated with the term.

After decades of wasting their summers at Lord's, the SCG and Sabina Park, a clique of ageing Test cricketers has finally realised what the rest of us have known for years - the best games are played on the beach.

Mark Waugh, Damien Fleming and Dean Jones will make up the rest of the local side, which will face off old adversaries such as Courtney Walsh, Joel Garner, Curtly Ambrose, Graham Gooch, Allan Lamb and Graham Hick in the international clashes.

The refusal to take the field may not have been his idea but that of Waqar Younis, the touring team’s bowling coach, or one of the other senior figures in or around the Pakistan dressing-room at the time, The source said that Waqar, who was suspended and fined in 2000 when found guilty of changing the condition of the ball by a referee in Colombo, took Inzamam into the lavatory for a secret discussion at the start of the tea interval, from which point the situation spiralled out of control.