A shorter run-up could make Finn devastating

Mike Selvey, in the Guardian, comes up with a descriptive analysis of run-ups and their impact on fast bowler's effectiveness. Steven Finn, he writes, can take a leaf from the Frank Tyson and Glenn McGrath books to shorten his run and become more menacing.

Steven Finn's approach contains an element at the start consisting of half a dozen strides that offer him little, before he gets into his run proper. Even that is inconsistent in its graded acceleration. I am told that in practice he bowls just as fast from a shortened run as from his longer one, while experience tells me that you could develop a much stronger body action consequently, which would also serve to improve an already solid method. I'm told, too, that it has been suggested, but that he is reluctant.

Angus Fraser writes in the Independent that "With the exception of a few lost kangaroos wandering around Alice Springs there can be few lonelier animals in Australia than Ricky Ponting at this moment". Captaining a losing time is difficult at the best of times, but when coupled with poor personal form, it becomes a nighmare, Fraser says.

Captaining a cricket team is a glamorous job because, unlike in football and rugby, you are the main man. The coach/director of cricket is responsible for preparing the players for the game but it is the captain's role to manage and direct them on the field. When it all goes right and victory is gained there is no better feeling but when it goes wrong it is extremely stressful. Defeats cannot be laughed off, they are taken personally.

In the Courier-Mail, Robert Craddock looks at why Australia have struggled to find a good spinner since the retirement of Shane Warne. Natural ability notwithstanding, he believes Ricky Ponting's handling of the slow men hasn't helped.

Ricky Ponting has his strengths as a captain, but sympathetic handling of slow bowlers is not one of them. He has little or no rapport with spinners like Bryce McGain and Jason Krejza and his confidence in Hauritz ebbed and flowed dramatically. Slow bowlers who do not have their captain's trust are dead men walking. It just kills them.

Warne was lucky. His first Test captain, Allan Border, liked him the moment he saw him and put the initial surge of wind beneath his wings. Mark Taylor was different in a no-nonsense big brother sort of way. He used to squabble with Warne on the field but Warne later appreciated that Taylor's firmness was good for him. No spinner who has followed Warne has had this sort of bond with Ponting.

In the Sydney Morning Herald, Peter Roebuck has been watching Steven Smith play in a Sheffield Shield match at the SCG and believes he is worth a go in the Test side.

Smith is a better bowler than his returns indicate. On this evidence he is worth a go as a cricketer who adds zest to the batting and bowling. He has more spark than Marcus North.