The Surfer

Yet again a racism controversy has rattled international cricket. And, yet again, an Australian is at its epicentre. When Dean Jones labelled Hashim Amla, a coloured South African batsman and devout Muslim, a "terrorist" on air this week, he not only lost his tax-free $US2000 ($2615)-a-day contract with his Dubai-based employer but hinted at a national problem - one that will further deteriorate unless it is acknowledged and acted upon.

His Hampshire burr had become compulsory material for every mimic good or bad and round the world — in those days BBC could be heard everywhere — those in love with cricket arranged their lives around their need to hear him speak.

While the International Cricket Council claims match-fixing may no longer be a threat, anti-corruption chief Lord Paul Condon says players are still susceptible to "micro betting" - accepting bribes to under-perform during match stages. Condon said although it was less likely players would throw a match, micro betting, or betting on incidents or a particular session within a match, was rampant.

And since John Wright has captained New Zealand, we recommend him and his friends to read another former New Zealand skipper Glenn Turner's book Lifting the Covers which has exposed the New Zealand Cricket Board's machinations.

While Read's selection was surprising to me in its timing - a Test match had just been won but the series not yet secured - it demonstrated absolutely where the selectors' priorities lie. By dropping Jones at a time when his keeping had improved immeasurably, the message is as clear to Read this time around as it was when he last felt the selectors' axe in the West Indies three years ago: runs are essential.

'You're never far away. You can just be one innings away from clicking back into form. That could be 30, then you're away. You might start with a hundred, who knows. It's a feeling, very much so with my game. I can feel when it's about to go. You start picking the ball up easily and early, your feet get in the right place, your head's still to watch it nicely, then you click. The concentration kicks in after that.'

Superbly though both [Younis and Yousuf] of them played, they were helped immeasurably by the dressing-room decision to abandon far too soon the old Headingley principle of bowling on a length around the line of off stump in sure and certain hope of eventual edges to normally positioned slips and gullies. The pitch, it is true, lost pace much more quickly than had seemed likely on Saturday, rather vindicating Inzamam’s judgment that the first day was the best for the fast bowlers. England, however, simply played into their opponents’ hands, first by trying to bounce them into submission, as to some extent they had on the bonier Old Trafford pitch, then by losing patience and attempting instead to bore them out.

Panesar beat an attempted sweep with a ball that not only spun back but seemed to give Inzy an electric shock. Then began the Inzy heptathlon. His first event was the shot putt as he lumbered round, virtually bent double, only for it to metamorphosise into the high jump as he tried to clear the stumps - a leap of 27 inches, nearly six feet below the world record - flicked off the bail with his glove and finished straddled and confused, as if looking for the landing mat.