Russell Jackson

Summer is a time when the country kids itself about its cricket. It's likely to be different this season

The new man in the Australia squad is a fielder who has the potential to be ranked an allrounder by virtue of his skill close-in

How the Australian batsman touched the heart of a young fan he had never met by responding to his letters

In many ways, he was representative of a generation of Australian men - though he more accurately represented a historic shift that divides athlete and fan more than ever before

For all the emotion tied to his family situation and the depth of his contribution to the Test side, he was seriously out of form with the bat

Soggy in Cardiff, he was back to red-hot at Lord's, providing a fine exposition of the art of heavy metal bowling

Equal parts carthorse and strike bowler, whether fit and firing or bruised and shrugging away pain, he bowled for wins, and more often than not he got them

Remembering an Australian cricketer and footballer who played in the Ashes - against the country of his birth

Their batsmen are well seasoned going into the Ashes - like on other recent visits to England. It is a trend that has worked in terms of run-scoring, if not overall results

He did spectacularly well in county cricket and was part of many an escapade, but those exploits went largely unnoticed back home

Young players often pick cricket over the richer football codes for the love of the game. It is a risky proposition for them, though

He has played very little first-class cricket of late to prove his worth despite showing an aptitude for the longer format during earlier seasons

In the absence of information on how the technology works, it's hard for some of us to shake doubts about why what we're seeing with our eyes differs significantly from the reading of a computer

Aka the finest wordsmith from the planet of Australia

The Afghanistan fast bowler is an example of the exuberance the Associates bring to the table, but sadly they'll probably not be seen in four years' time

Back in the day, World Cup warm-ups used to be played against obscure and exotic teams

Cricket has had relatively few ugly on-field incidents when compared to other sports, so to start fearing the worst because of the verbal abuse going round is to take things too far

Ponting's debut on Channel Ten and his grilling of Kevin Pietersen hold out hope that cricket has found a high-calibre new TV voice

It's not as easily defined as just saying it is about playing positive, aggressive cricket at all times

He has experienced captaincy at every level. Most admirably, he has managed to reinvent his game to succeed at the highest level