Weighty issues and Samit Patel

England allrounder Samit Patel's recall to the national ODI side has prompted much discussion over his fitness state. So intense has been the focus on one man's unchiselled abs, observes Barney Ronay in the Guardian, it is almost tempting to wonder if there might be something else going on here.

If there is a coherent source for the rather unkind public debate over Patel's heft it is the England management's fixation with nurturing a pack-like sense of intimidatory conditioning, the relentless corporate identity that so thrillingly steamrollered the Australians in the winter

Patel may or may not make it as an England player, but determination cannot be measured by muscle tone alone and here is a man who is plump with acquired cricket knowhow.