The Surfer

Maybe bowlers do look at the speed gun, but it’s rubbish anyway... The calculation is out of the bowler’s hand, not at the other end... It gives a false impression and the actual speed could be ten per cent slower... The question is: What are the coaches doing? It’s not that hard to make the ball swing and, so, why aren’t they working with the bowlers? Kapil Dev, Akram, Waqar Younis... All these guys swung the ball and picked up a huge number of wickets... The coaches and super coaches aren’t teaching the blokes properly.

I’m a believer in that the more you bowl, the better you get. Follow that and you’re going to be able to handle tough situations.

In a big day for the champion leg spinner — who is alleged to have written several books, though he claims never to have read one — Southampton and Solent University awarded him an honorary degree on Wednesday for services to cricket...

"Look, I like to think I will have an opportunity to captain the England team again," he says. "This was not about a leadership contest. It's about 16 guys keen as mustard to retain the Ashes. As captains I think Fred [Flintoff] and I both have plenty of attributes, but they are very different. I think your characteristics as a captain are your characteristics as a person and if, as captain, you do something foreign to your character, you'll come unstuck very quickly.

"It's September 12 today," said Pietersen as he passed the magazine to Jessica, who had stretched out on the hotel bed. "Exactly this time last year, at 10 past three, I was still at the crease, batting with George Clooney [Pietersen's nickname for the greying if not so dashing Ashley Giles]. It was everything I dreamed of as a kid, china."

The fact that I have not played any cricket since last November doesn't really concern me. I am a strong believer that if I am bowling well in the nets then I can carry that into a game.

I was standing on a cross-trainer in the gym when the team was announced on TV. I couldn't hear what they were saying – I just watched the pictures, but it was still a pretty amazing feeling to see my name up there. Over the next few minutes, I'm sure I set a personal best on the machine.

A closer look at the England squad reveals that Flintoff, himself returning from injury and preparing for his first Test in Australia without a "super" prefix, has little in the way of reliable, experienced campaigners with him. Only three other players have more than 50 Tests to their name, and of those, Marcus Trescothick's emotional issues and Ashley Giles's dodgy hip must surely be cause for concern. Nine members of the "senior" squad of 16, meanwhile, have played fewer than 20 Tests - including Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell and Monty Panesar, of whom much is expected this summer.

England might also have outsmarted itself by making Flintoff captain. Certainly, he proved himself last year as the long-awaited and much-mythologised next Botham. But it should not be forgotten that the last Botham, the original, not only was a conspicuous failure as captain, but while in office was reduced to a mere mortal as a cricketer, too.

If I was a betting man, I would say — sadly, for I remain an Englishman — that England will not retain the Ashes.

Watching with intense pleasure his two cameo masterclasses at Lord's in July I was smitten by a rare and cherished eureka moment which has not gone away. As the burly, noble fellow toyed with England's perspiring bowlers in the sun, I half closed my eyes and, of a sudden, the revelation overwhelmed me - in form, style, bearing and ingrained majesty, Inzy must be the nearest thing I'd ever seen to witnessing WG Grace at the wicket. The massiveness was all, and the control. In my reverie, it really could have been "the Champion" down there.