The Surfer
Greg Baum in the Melbourne Age on pre-match blithering, which traditionally lacks spontaneity and grace
The "war of words" is predictable, well rehearsed, lame and boring. It is a ritual, a cliche. It serves no purpose other than to while away the hours until the series begins. It is hard to know why the ICC bothered. Its crackdown has invested it with a gravity it is not due.
The war of words is a phoney. With exceptions, sportsfolk get along well enough most of the time. Spats happen, as they must, but they are superseded by events. The war of words is pseudo, a fake, an exercise in marketing. Call it off and let the real game begin.
Sourav Ganguly's exculsion from the Test squad for the third Test against Sri Lanka has evoked several strong responses;
"I am shocked. I don't think he should have been treated like this. He performed quite well in the Delhi Test (against Sri Lanka). Dropping him from the third Test defies logic. He has served Indian cricket for years. You can't treat such a cricketer so shabbily. They should have given him the opportunity to call it a day. That would have looked better. He should have been allowed to leave the game on his own. This is the least that he deserved." - EAS Prasanna
One of the outstanding aspects of England's tour of Pakistan has been watching The Rawalpindi Express - Shoaib Akhtar - get back on the rails after a tough period
Gary Gilmour, the former Australia allrounder, is recovering from a life-saving liver transplant and should be back home in Newcastle for Christmas
Ricky Ponting writes in The Australian about adjusting from one-day games to Tests and also deals with the unique aspects of the Perth pitch
Mini Kapoor, writing in the Indian Express , celebrates Sachin Tendulkar's 35th hundred and says, thirty five centuries later, we still haven’t figured out what we did to him.
Two pieces on Freddie Flintoff after he was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year:
The ICC’s plea to tone down verbals is dismissed by The Australian’s Malcolm Conn as a in extremely strong terms :
The International Cricket Council has slumped to a new low in hypocrisy and irrelevance. How can the game's governing body possibly complain about what is essential promotion of the game when it is standing idly by as Test countries self destruct?
Australia’s reserve bowling stocks came under heavy inspection following the loss to New Zealand and The Daily Telegraph’s Robert Craddock worries that after being spoilt rotten by slick baton changes the team may be in for a bumpy ride
There are a few things that stir India as much as Sachin Tendulkar and his record 35th Test hundred provided journalists across the country celebrate a momentous ocassion.