Ed Smith

We often tend to overstate certain characteristics of teams as permanent qualities, but a team's identity is constantly in flux

When you go to watch a Test, you participate in a ritual that is a part of civilised existence

A two-division structure will give the format the shake-up it needs. It's important for fans of the traditional game to embrace change

Records and victories matter, but not as much as the power sportsmen have to engage our emotions and imagination

T20 has produced a breed of player who with his imagination, athleticism and technical mastery proves that scoring prodigiously and fast does not have to involve massive risk-taking

The sport and media landscape has changed so much that we may never have definitive voices like his ever again

Who will win the war of techniques: the batsmen or the power hitters? Will timing triumph over muscle?

The way they throw themselves into cricket with unfettered passion is a lesson to those of us for whom the game may have lost its freshness

For all the perspective he gained later in life, would Martin Crowe have been the batsman he was if not for the disharmony within him?

He was able to free himself of the pressure of looking in the rear-view mirror and instead set about building an expressive, audacious team

George Bailey's technique shows that an alternative set of solutions is evolving, which are less derivative of baseball

It's about trusting yourself rather than premeditating events, achieving simplicity in a complex environment, and finding clarity in the midst of a contest

The doomsayers may believe different, but sport is a more prominent part of our culture than ever, and fears of its decline are vastly exaggerated

The greatest competitive advantage, in cricket and other games, is the ability to use existing information better than the opposition - i.e. critical thinking

Is ranting at players during team talks like bloodletting in the age of quack doctors?

In most sportsmen, extraordinary ability and strengths are inevitably accompanied by some inadequacy, big or small. Not so with AB de Villiers

Test cricket will be under threat if there is resistance to experiments such as day-night matches

The bad-light farce in Abu Dhabi should be a wake-up call to the ICC to be more proactive in enforcing rules that benefit the game at large

The legend of great sportsmen like WG Grace, Babe Ruth and Sachin Tendulkar is partly to do with the eras they lived in

Mastery, playfulness, naturalness, style, wonder, mystery - all these concepts are relevant to the idea of genius. But is the term relevant to sport at all?