The Surfer
In The Age , Brendan McArdle predicts the increasing demand for allrounders in Australia
Things have changed dramatically since Australia won the past World Cup with a Test-class pace attack. The next tournament [World Cup] in the West Indies in 2007 could feature as few as two specialist bowlers in the starting XI, with the balance of the bowling done by all-rounders.
West Indies are soon to take on Australia in a three-Test series and, while some are writing them off, others say it could be a close contest
The haircuts were new age and the attacking play was revolutionary but, writes Poet Laureate Andrew Motion , it was cricket ancient as much as modern that made the summer so compelling.
Despite the success of the Ashes series, in The Guardian Mike Selvey flags that all it not well in many areas of world cricket.
While the good ship England sails on serenely from success to success, spinnaker billowing like Shane Warne's flares on a windy day, the rest of the cricket world appears to be struggling, either in the doldrums or shipping water in Southern Ocean storms.
Producing emails and letters for public consumption is the in-thing these days
If you ever asked, I’d say between you, Chappell and Sourav, you should sit out. You get the resonance, surely, Mr Mahendra.
Writing in The Indian Express Harsha Bhogle looks at the whole crisis in Indian cricket from a business perspective and writes:
Indian cricket has been one of the most astonishing brands in the world. It has had huge demand, huge investment but has at best shown average quality. It has brought society together, in celebration and in mourning, and brand loyalty has been unmatched, if a touch irrational.
Standing on a pitch all day and concentrating over every ball is hard and tiring work
Life since England's Ashes triumph has been hectic for a high-flying Kevin Pietersen, writes Greg Baum in The Age
Pietersen, of course, would stand out in a crowd anyway because of a hairstyle seemingly modelled on a toilet brush. He said it was a joke, perpetrated by himself, on himself.
At the end of the most-awaited Review Committee meeting in recent times, Ranbir Singh Mahendra, the Indian board president, said, "No player, captain or coach will write or have any interaction with the media on this issue."
