The Surfer

Greg Baum in the Melbourne Age on pre-match blithering, which traditionally lacks spontaneity and grace

Sourav Ganguly's exculsion from the Test squad for the third Test against Sri Lanka has evoked several strong responses;

One of the outstanding aspects of England's tour of Pakistan has been watching The Rawalpindi Express - Shoaib Akhtar - get back on the rails after a tough period

Gary Gilmour, the former Australia allrounder, is recovering from a life-saving liver transplant and should be back home in Newcastle for Christmas

Ricky Ponting writes in The Australian about adjusting from one-day games to Tests and also deals with the unique aspects of the Perth pitch

Mini Kapoor, writing in the Indian Express , celebrates Sachin Tendulkar's 35th hundred and says, thirty five centuries later, we still haven’t figured out what we did to him.

Two pieces on Freddie Flintoff after he was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year:

The ICC’s plea to tone down verbals is dismissed by The Australian’s Malcolm Conn as a in extremely strong terms :

Australia’s reserve bowling stocks came under heavy inspection following the loss to New Zealand and The Daily Telegraph’s Robert Craddock worries that after being spoilt rotten by slick baton changes the team may be in for a bumpy ride

There are a few things that stir India as much as Sachin Tendulkar and his record 35th Test hundred provided journalists across the country celebrate a momentous ocassion.

Wasim Akram is clearly not happy with the ICC

Australia have two new bowlers in New Zealand so it’s time to get to know them

The downmarket tabloid the Daily Telegraph runs with the backpage headline “BRETT LEE WILL KILL SOMEONE”

The Guardian reports on how cricket books are taking the Christmas market by storm

It is not unheard of for Andrew Flintoff to have the odd late night occasionally when celebrating a win (or not even go to bed if it's after winning the Ashes)

Michael Vaughan's withdrawal from the England one-day captaincy because of injury begs the question as to whether he should even be in the side , says Mike Selvey.

The slanging matches have started ahead of the Australia v South Africa Test series

Peter Roebuck meets Merv Hughes , a former fast bowler and national selector who talks about the game with passion and intelligence.

R Mohan celebrates the virtues that make Virender Sehwag such an exquisite batsman to watch.

“Curses” as the evil Mojo Jojo of Powerpuff Girls fame no doubt said when he and a team led by Mark Waugh were beaten by a side which included Bob the Builder