The Surfer

Tim de Lisle, writing in The Times , sees the current England and Australian teams on extreme ends of the age spectrum:

Vintage Australia showing age

Neil Harvey has called the pre-Ashes boot camp as "absolute garbage" but Alan Davidson differs

Past greats mixed on pre-Ashes boot camp

25-Feb-2013•Kanishkaa Balachandran

'Those phones will no longer ring'

Writing in The Indian Express , S Santhanam relives some special moments with former Test opener and gentleman cricketer Vijay Mehra, who died of a heart attack yesterday

Arjuna Ranatunga speaks to G Krishnan in The Hindustan Times regarding his stance on The Oval farce and his stint in Sri Lankan politics.

'The ICC should get rid of Hair'

Geoff McClure remembers an interesting anecdote about Wasim Raja, who died recently, during his first meeting at Perth almost 25 years ago:

Hooray for Raja, a sport to the end

That was Dominic Cork's reaction when Brian Viner of The Independent asked if he ever raised the seam of a cricket ball

"Never." Never? "Never."

25-Feb-2013•Kanishkaa Balachandran

Emails cast Hair into the wilderness

Pakistan will now need a new leader

Barry Jarman, the former match referee, says he confiscated a ball from the South African team, which was being coached by Bob Woolmer , when it was only 16 overs old because the seam had been lifted

Jarman recalls SA's tampering under Woolmer

25-Feb-2013•Peter English

Life after the leviathan

Peter Whalley in The Zimbabwean looks at the effect that the recent one-day series win has had inside Zimbabwe and the cases for and against the country being kicked out of international cricket because of the deteriorating political situation.

25-Feb-2013•Martin Williamson

Hacks' attacks a shame

The hostile response to the Hair drama has been pathetic and irrational, writes John Birmingham in The Australian .

If Darrell Hair may be assured of anything in these difficult hours, it is that smirking, jaded telly executives are even now dreaming up vehicles for him, writes Marina Hyde

Hair today, reality television star tomorrow

This day, 33 years ago, Garry Sobers produced his last Test hundred, an unbeaten 150, to charge West Indies to a massive win

Not so Sobers

Mihir Bose, writing in the Daily Telegraph , reports that Bob Woolmer is on the verge of resigning as Pakistan coach

Acrimony engulfs Pakistan

Alex Brown says in the Sydney Morning Herald Shane Watson is ahead of Michael Clarke and Andrew Symonds for the No

Watson firms as all-round Ashes option

25-Feb-2013•Peter English

Oval debacle makes front page in US

Darrell Hair may not score a goodwill ambassador job in Pakistan anytime soon, but the Australian umpire has achieved something rare for cricket - front page news in the US .

With a bit of statesmanship, it should be possible to make it plain to Inzamam-ul-Haq that he acted foolishly and that standing on national dignity is no excuse for a cavalier disregard for cricket’s laws and rules, without exacerbating the crisis

Inzamam does not need further punishment

To blame Hair for not having the perfect response to an unprecedented event or to play down the seriousness of Inzamam’s behaviour is fatuous , says Martin Samuel in The Times .

Why Hair's actions may just be enough to save his sport