The Surfer

"All we need are a bunch of six-foot-10 (208cm) quicks, who can bowl outswing, reverse swing, consistent yorkers, and have two or three changes of pace," says Fleming. He is only half-joking.

The poet of the Ramayana would have written verse after verse about the woes that have befallen Flintoff’s army. Four key players from the great Ashes XI were missing from the start and now Stephen Harmison, one of the most frightening bowlers on the planet, is crocked and will not play in the third and final Test, starting tomorrow. Basil Fawlty, not schooled in the Hindu way of acceptance, would have howled: “Thank you God! Thank you so bloody much!” But Flintoff, being a man cast in heroic mould, has taken this on as one more hardship to bear, one more disadvantage to overcome.

First, we had the pleasure of watching an advert for Kingfisher water featuring our present captain, Andrew Flintoff, and our usual captain, Michael Vaughan, which was filmed in India before Michael went home. And it had to be seen to be believed.

That 96, his last Test innings, was a masterpiece played on a mass of rubble trying to impersonate a pitch. The spinners were making the ball turn at right angles and jump past the nose. "I thought I would get 10," he [Gavaskar] later said. Mohinder Amarnath once told me that he thought his partner was in a trance. In a rare interview Gavaskar admitted that he never kept the ball out of sight, following it all the way from the slips to mid-off to the bowler's hand. And he swears it is true that he did not know what his score was when he was batting, for the mind was only focused on the ball, on the next ball. When Javed Miandad apologised for sledging at him during the legendary 96 at Bangalore, he smiled back saying he had no idea what was being said. He hadn't heard it. When Javed Miandad apologised for sledging at him ... he smiled back saying he had no idea what was being said. He hadn't heard it.

At the NCA, the difference between the boys from the districts and the big cities is that the former enjoy every minute of it. Not having seen such facilities, they sometimes spend extra time in the gymnasium.