The Surfer

During his stint with the national side, Dravid had spent several evenings with Upton talking about the world outside cricket. Music, books, surfing, karma and the true meaning of life; the conversations between the two men had no boundaries. Shared interests saw them bond.

In what is seen as his last season, Dravid wanted the like-minded Upton on board at Royals. He wanted to recreate a happy Rajasthan dressing room environment - similar to the one that prevailed in the Indian team during the Kirsten era.

There's the lesson for all sports bodies, a group of organisations for whom the first thought is often to cover up, not 'fess up. Stand up straight, confess your mistakes, all of them, and say what you'll do to put matters right. Then do it. Only then can there be closure and healing.

No matter what you think of Taylor's statements, there can be no doubt. NZC brought this on themselves by not sealing all the gaps.

The first agreement of Arun Pandey's life was signed with his mother. Before he came to live in Delhi in 1994, she made him put his signature on a piece of paper listing the things he would do, the things he would not, the time at which he would step out of the Lodhi Colony flat he had rented, the time he would be back, the people he would meet, and the kind he would not. Pandey's father died when he was a little boy and the mother, a State Bank of India employee in Varanasi, was worried that her son might go astray in the city of hard drugs and easy girls.

Javed Khan could be the latest Cinderella story. A week and a half back the strapping pacer was a net bowler who had never played any agegroup cricket. His bowling in the nets caught the eye of Sachin Tendulkar, and the 20-year-old now has an IPL contract with Tendulkar's Mumbai Indians to show for it.

Khan's breakthrough moment arrived during a nets session at the Kotla before the final Test between India v Australia. Khan's pace and bounce had Suresh Raina hopping and even got him on the body with a vicious bouncer. Sachin Tendulkar was getting throw-downs in the adjacent net and took note of the rookie pacer. According to Khan, Tendulkar went up to statemate Ajinkya Rahane and lauded his 'speed'.

It is this life lesson that I try to imbue in the minds of these young athletes who are used to living on razor- sharp instincts because that is the source of their sporting genius. And yet sometimes, there is that fine line between acting instinctively, and knowing when to defy instinct. Depending on the circumstance, either option could be a life-saver but the hard part is to know which button to push in which situation.

Now the question is whether he can come back at all. Ryder faces his toughest battle - first to survive, then to recover. Everybody who has any passion for the game wants it to happen. Getting him back to play international cricket - or any sort of cricket - might seem hopelessly irrelevant, were it not for the fact that out in the middle, with a 156g projectile flying around, is the one place he has always been safest.

Should it have been more assertive in ensuring that if a few quiet drinks were to be had to mark the end of the season, with Ryder as a team member present - and this is not suggesting he was even drinking on Wednesday night - there weren't some checks in place? For example, why was Ryder the last player to leave the Aikmans Bar, rather than exiting at the same time as his teammates? It may not sound much, but with this player, and his history, it is.

The roll call of names is important because this expedient measure is, in the end, about them. It is not based on some abstract principle of not playing cricket with another country, which, highly debatable though it may have been, would have moved the discussion away from the field of play. As the state of play currently stands, Sri Lankan players are very much part of the IPL, they will play at other venues, and it is only on account of presumed security concerns in Tamil Nadu that they will not be allowed to alight on the Chennai ground. This move is, then, clearly not about using sport as an element of coercive diplomacy to pressure the Sri Lankan government to deliver on devolution, reconciliation and rehabilitation. It is only targeted at a bunch of individuals to make some point -- which is what exactly?

Nitty-gritty apart, this episode is another warning of our rapid decline as a straight thinking people. Shallow symbolism has replaced the desire to find sustainable solutions, fringe elements now dictate policy and thought and forced villains are propped up as tools for silly brow-beating. Tragically by snubbing the Sri Lankans, Chennai has also shut its door on its adopted son, Muralitharan

England's thinking in the field was schoolboyish at times. McCullum has been the complete opposite. He has known when to attack and used the right bowlers at the right times. One small example from this match. Stuart Broad hits a six and four but McCullum puts a man on the drive rather than spread the field. Next ball, Broad is caught driving.

..when Dar stood face to face with Ricky Ponting at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in the fourth Ashes Test in 2010 - Ponting rabid, angry, mouthy; Dar dignified, impassive, calm and right - it was not hard to think back to the infamous and seismic photograph of Shakoor Rana and Mike Gatting, wagging fingers at each other in Faisalabad in 1988, and feel a little closure. So it has been a little jarring to see him get a few decisions wrong lately. Actually, I will be honest: it has hurt.