The small Caribbean islands of St Kitts and Nevis are preparing for the influx of Australia visitors expected for the 2007 World Cup, as reported by The Voice.

“The ICC Cricket World Cup will be a defining moment for our country," Skerritt told website windiescricket.com. “When we submitted our bid we had specifically wanted to host Australia, the world champions and that dream will soon be a reality.

The best argument in support of the latest theory swirling around the New Zealand team is that it doesn't make the slightest bit of sense, writes Richard Boock in The New Zealand Herald.

The idea of omitting Styris from the line-up has drawn gasps from media commentators. It doesn't make sense? Well, neither did it when Chris Cairns was virtually forced out of the game this year, when Nathan Astle's cage was rattled so vigorously he almost jumped of his own accord, and when Lou Vincent was dumped from the test squad.

Anyone trying to guess the composition of the South African side for the third and final Test will end up with a headache, writes Peter Roebuck in the Witness.

Justin Langer is set to play his 100th Test. After a baptism of fire - Ian Bishop almost knocked his head off, the man accused of having no shots has become one of the foundations of Australia's success, writes Andrew Ramsey in the Australian. Click here to read Peter English's tribute to Langer.

Tony Greig has accused the Australians of the worst sledging he has ever encountered. Click here to read some of the abuses allegedly used by the Australians in the second Test against South Africa.

There comes a time in every sportsman’s career when he hits the crossroad and needs to reassess his chosen path. Andre Nel has just crashed into that juncture, writes Mike Haysman in Supercricket.co.za.

Rabindra Mehta, a NASA scientist and a schoolmate of Imran Khan, had come up with a new theory, a new form of swing, what he termed as 'contrast' swing but was met with scoffs from certain quarters.

Harsha Bhogle jumps into the fray in support of the doctor.
Denial is usually in the swing of things when sportsmen confront science, but give him a fair hearing, writes Bhogle in the Indian Express.

Sir Trevor MacDonald, the veteran ITN newsreader, talks to the Daily Telegraph about his love of cricket which, he claims, "developed in the womb ... like a West Indian contagion".

"I remember, in Trinidad, playing from the age of four, hammering in stumps in neighbours' backyards and fashioning bats from the branches of coconut trees.

"There is a natural bend in that type of wood that can explain the tendency of many Caribbean cricketers to go for the hook stroke."

Geoff Boycott feels that England's worrying tendency to collapse under pressure persists, no matter what the composition of the team.

Angus Fraser, former England mediumpacer, reckons that more than one piece is missing in Duncan Fletcher's World Cup puzzle.

Mid-day, the Mumbai-based daily, profiles the curator of the Faridabad pitch - Vijay Yadav, the former India wicketkeeper.

Certain pressmen Down Under have hailed Australia's win in the first Test in South Africa as a sign that the team is back to its dynamic best. But this is far from the truth, writes a worried Bob Simpson, former Australia captain, in the Sportstar.

The Guardian's cricket correspondent, Mike Selvey, is a man who never leaves home without a guitar on his back. And as such he is well placed to pass judgment on England's obsession with Johnny Cash's sixties hit, Ring of Fire. Suffice to say, he's not best impressed with their taste in music.

Well we all know it's really a lads' lavatorial joke to do with the repercussions of touring that part of the world and there, under the shamiana behind the dressing rooms at Wankhede Stadium, it should have been laid to rest. But he has created a monster has Fred. Now it's the Ring of Fire that is implanted indelibly and, one week on, it burns, burns, burns in my brain. I may need counselling and I bet I'm not the only one.

What is it that drives cricket fans insane, analysing every minute detail of the game to death? Amrit Mathur in The Sportstar lists out the possible reasons why the game encourages so much opinion.

Indian fans are cricket PHDs who analyse every angle, discover every hidden agenda. Cricket is a social glue, a sport and a religion, and a hot, spicy conversation tool.

Cricinfo's All Today's Yesterday reminds us that this day, seven years ago, Brian Charles Lara played the innings of his life.

Surpassing a 501, a 375, a 277 or a 213 takes some doing, but this humble 153 not out against Australia in Barbados was the stuff of genius. At one point West Indies had been 98 for 6 in the first innings, still 392 behind Australia, but Lara's performance - nobody else on either side made 40 in the second innings - led them to 311 for 9 and an unforgettable one-wicket victory.

Click here to listen to the audio commentary of the great match. Listen to an extremely excited Fazeer Mohammad as he takes us through the final tense minutes. An eight-minute audio and worth every second of it. As Sambit Bal wrote once - But for light and song, for bliss and glory and for lifting the soul, who else but Brian Lara?

Warne likes to raise the stakes. He bowls better when he is in danger, writes Peter Roebuck in The Hindu.

Ricky Ponting is the leading batsman of his generation, asserts R Mohan in the Deccan Chronicle. He reckons that Sachin Tendulkar needs to derive inspiration from Sunil Gavaskar to get back to form.

When Rahul Dravid was bowled by Liam Plunkett at the Feroz Shah Kotla on Tuesday, the ball catching the inside edge of his bat, it was the ninth such dismissal for him in the last 24 ODIs, writes K Shriniwas Rao in The Indian Express.

What does the BCCI do with all this money? Does the government get to see its annual balance sheet and profit and loss statement? BCCI must be more transparent, screams the editorial in the Financial Express.

In the end the spinner was the winner, but it was close. Indeed, it took a dubious leg before decision as Makhaya Ntini padded up to a googly with 43 balls left to bring victory to a deserving visiting side, feels Peter Roebuck, writing in the Witness.

With 557 runs at an average of 111 per innings from three Tests so far in 2006, Ricky Ponting is well on track to surpass the 30-year-old record of most Test runs in a calendar year, set by Viv Richards in 1976. But a quirk of programming could deny Ponting one of the game's most enduring milestones, writes Andrew Ramsey in the Australian.

Captaincy, it seems, has only increased Ponting's hunger for runs. Of all the regular Test match captains the game has seen (to have skippered in 10 matches or more) only the legendary Don Bradman boasts a better batting average while entrusted with the leadership.

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Angus Fraser, in the Independent, believes England self-destructed .

Lawrence Booth dwells on the same theme: Ill-judged sweeping by England helps India to clean up, screams the Guardian headline.

Dean Jones, former Australian batsman and commentator, does a SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity, threat) analysis of India and England.

Richard Hobson, in the Times, feels England were swept away by inspired Harbhajan.

R Mohan, in the Deccan Chronicle, reckons the heat of battle brings out Harbhajan’s best.

Harbhajan was at his teasing best once he smelt blood. His deliveries were leaving the ball hanging in the air, his yorking of Jones being a particularly brilliant teaser

Vijay Lokapally, in the Hindu, dwells at length on the turning point of the game - when Dravid threw the ball to Yuvraj Singh and the fall of Pietersen.

Atul Wassan, former Indian fast bowler, hailed this victory as one of top 10 ODI wins by India ever.

Angus Fraser in the Independent believes that one of the biggest influences on the England one-day side is the nation's attitude towards limited-over cricket.

In the Hindu,Geoff Boycott, former England opening batsman, reckons that ODIs offer a great chance for youngsters to come good if they can take charge in tough situations while Kris Srikkanth, former opening batsman writing on deccan.com, thinks its time for Indian seniors to own up responsibility.

David Gower, former England captain, told the India Express that he feels ODIs will be a much stiffer test for England.

Could Ricky Ponting be the best Australian batsman since Sir Donald Bradman? While there may never be a definitive answer to such a subjective question, Ponting is mounting a strong case for consideration, argues Alex Brown at The Sydney Morning Herald.

Peter Roebuck reckons Ponting's men were smart enough to bide their time rather than be flashes in the pan. Also, click here to read Roebuck's ode to Ponting.

Groundsman Wilson Ngobese caused the major stir on day four by attempting to repair a damaged area of the pitch by hammering a dry pice of bulli (clay) into a small hole that had appeared in an area comfortably outside the line bowled to either right or left handers. Click here to read Neil Manthorp's take on it.

As the key player he was fantastic, but as the figurehead Flintoff was awesome, writes Stephen Brenkley in The Independent

Nasser Hussain chose to hand over the job to Michael Vaughan, it might be time for Vaughan to step aside for the outstanding Flintoff, argues Kevin Mitchell.

Seven years ago the ECB appointed Duncan Fletcher to guide the England team out of the doldrums. Victory in Mumbai last week is proof of amazing progress says Vic Marks.

When he's not in the field, Sreesanth pens poems - just one among his various talents. In an interview to Vijay Lokapally of The Hindu, Sreesanth explains his philosophy in life and what inspires him the most.

"Heads on shoulders. Feet on earth." A simple reminder from his mother and mentor keeps cricketer, poet and a compulsive dreamer, S. Sreesanth, focussed on the next assignment.

Peter Roebuck is bit puzzled with Ricky Ponting's captaincy, especially how he used Brett Lee and Stuart Clark.

Jacques Kallis was unhappy with the timing of his own dismissal.

"It would have been nice if I could have carried on. It was an important period when that second new ball came around but unfortunately we collapsed," said Kallis. "We didn’t bat as well as we could have today and we’ve put our bowlers under pressure."

Meanwhile, Brett Lee, who grabbed his 200th Test wicket, paid homage to his idol - Jeff Thomson.

Also, do click here to view the ABC radio commentator Jim Maxwell's photo gallery on the tour.

Mark Richardson, former dour New Zealand opener, says the present lot of openers - Jamie How, Hamish Marshall, Michael Papps, Lou Vincent and Matthew Sinclair, have the potential to dominate good attacks from ball one

Cricket is only accidentally British. Everything about the game is typically Indian, writes Shashi Tharoor in The Hindu

Scyld Berry chairs a fascinating discussion between Duncan Fletcher, Mike Atherton and Andrew Strauss. Topics include England's win over India (Fletcher: "It's got to be a finer achievement [than the Ashes]"); England's defeat to Pakistan (Strauss: "We weren't quite mentally right") and the dip of Sachin Tendulkar (Atherton: "I think he's lost a bit of instinctiveness"). An absorbing debate. Read it in full at the Sunday Telegraph

The epic Sourav Ganguly-Greg Chappell spat has now found its way into the classrooms of a management institute in Mumbai. Topics of debate between organisational behaviour students ranged from whether Chappell was a “situational leader” or if Ganguly was obsessed with “personal power", the Khaleej Times reports.

England's bullish triumph at Mumbai - under an inspiring Andrew Flintoff - has whetted the appetite well before the national side travels to Australia later this year. Australia are creaking, Flintoff can do no wrong, and this winter might just be a little warmer, points out Kevin Mitchell in The Observer

There's a raging debate going on in Sri Lanka, one about who should captain? Mahela Jayawardena and Kumar Sangakkara have inadvertently entangled themselves in a convoluted scuffle, writes Ganeesha David.

For Upul Tharanga, the Sri Lankan left-hand opening batsman, the last 13 months have been very hard work, not only has he had to concentrate on building up his cricket career but also help his family get back on their feet and get over the devastating Tsunami

Thursday marked four years since the death of Ben Hollioake, when his car crashed in Perth. England were playing a Test match at Wellington at the time and the tragedy overshadowed the remainder of the tour. Geoffrey Dean caught up with Adam Hollioake, who now lives in Perth but is still strongly involved in the CHASE charity, set up following Ben's death.

Adam’s priorities changed, part of the reason why he retired early from the game in 2004. Since then, although you sense that behind his bright-eyed gaze and strong smile the pain will never be far away, he has successfully rebuilt his life

Sajid Mahmood is a fast bowler in the Stephen Harmison, Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh mould. He is tall, loose-limbed and hostile, and he has arrived in India with his confidence high after an excellent A tour of the West Indies, says Angus Fraser in the Independent. Mahmood talks about hisfamous cousin - Amir Khan, the boxer he boxer who won a silver medal at the 2004 Olympics.

Stephen Bishop profiles him in The Guardian. Mahmood spoke to Tanya Aldred, in 2004, about his first trip to India. click here to read.

Andrew Ramsey imagines a Twenty20 World Cup at Orlando. He tells you of the various possibilities that might unfold, before describing an epic final contested between England and Australia.

Business day's Marc Smit gets critical of South Africa's bowling on the opening day of the second Test match. Bowl outside off, get the batsman to fish. Good strategy? No, not if its too wide and the batsmen aren't required to play, says Smit and he supports it with stats.

Peter Roebuck also wonders about the SA bowling and asks did the ends justify the means?

Peter Roebuck watches Michaelhouse and Durban High School contest in a semi-final of a local night tournament in South Africa:

Apart from their positions as school captains, they stood out in only one respect. Both captains had brown skin. Both were of Indian origin. They have risen to the highest point possible in their school's cricket and clearly command respect among their peers ... Never forget that, not so very long ago, it could not have happened. Oh yes, and one of the youngsters is a Muslim.

Adam Parore, former New Zealand wicketkeeper, reckons Stephen Fleming is missing the ruthlessness required to go from good to great.

Fleming will end up with a test average a good five or six runs short of what it should have been. He even said last year it had got beyond the point where he could rescue this situation - that his numbers would never stand out in the history books. I wonder if this thinking has infiltrated his game, and taken away that extra ruthlessness needed to get the big hundreds.

The Zimbabwe Independent interviews Zimbabwe's young captain
Terry Duffin, a man with cricket's least enviable job. Duffin has inherited a side with no experience and limited talent ... and in a month's time they head to the Caribbean to face West Indies.

"I think the two games we won we got it right in all departments. The other two games we lost we got it all wrong. It is something that we have to work hard on."

Clive Udal, cousin of Shaun, talks about Shaun's formative years in cricket, which began in a Hampshire village. Read the full piece here in The Times.

“I was getting stick at work from colleagues who were saying he was too old, and his children were stressed in their school playground, but we shall be having a big party when he arrives home. I am so proud of him”

Udal revealed how Andrew Flintoff has spent the last six months calling him a bald-headed old git.

John Woodcock in The Times compares the Mumbai Test with a similar Test at Brabourne in 1964 when a woefully understrength English side took on India. Same city, different venue,but the result? Read on.

Frakn Tyson writes in The Sportstar that the Australian selectors were only paying lip-service to the issue of youthful promise in their deliberations.

Bob Simpson, former Australian captain, is also not happy with the Australian squad and talks about the pitfalls of short tours.

As Australia and South Africa kick off the second Test at Durban, the newspapers crackled with expectation:

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Alex Brown writes about how the Aussies got back their swagger.

All eyes will be on Jacques Kallis and Shane Warne, two men who had a disappointing time at Newlands.

Warne was at his chirpy best, continuing his mental warfare with the Proteas. But Graeme Smith will not take all this lying down. He has mocked Warne's suggestion that the home side was trying to negate the Australian's spin bowling by preparing pitches to suit seamers.

Peter Roebuck previews the game and says the spotlight may be on the older players as they try to prevent middle age taking hold of their minds and midriffs.

Meanwhile Brett Lee's comments about Ricky Ponting has set a few tongues wagging. Brendan McArdle has drafted a letter that Steve Waugh might consider writing to Brett Lee after the bowler's recent remarks.

Also, rival captains Smith and Ricky Ponting believe the inaugural Twenty20 world championship will increase the dangers of player burnout.

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Fazeer Mohammed says West Indies are once again at that familiar position in a series - nothing but pride to play for.

Hamish Marshall is under the cosh after struggling as an opener.
He finished last season averaging more than 45 in Tests, while his last six Test innings, four as opener, have produced an average of 11.83. And he sees the writing on the wall.

James Franklin feels he is making steady progress towards sealing a position as the leading allrounder in the side.

John Bracewell has said he rates Franklin as a batsman who can bowl and highly praises his technical ability and timing. When told of Bracewell's comment, Franklin looked wide-eyed and said he still saw his primary role as being a wicket-taker. "As far as I'm concerned I'm in the team as a bowler first and foremost when I get picked and the batting's a bonus.

Kyle Mills, who booked his place in the third Test squad with a six-wicket haul, speaks about the healthy competition for seamers in the NZ side.

Chris Martin, who finished with 2 for 66 and 2 for 65 in the second Test, credits John Bracewell and Stephen Fleming, who had chat with him, for the improvement in the form from a poor first Test to the good showing in the second.
But more interestingly, he talks about his er... batting.

"I'm struggling a little bit. I'm in one of those patches again when I'm not troubling the scorers and even the partnerships that I tend to have, and are amusing for the spectators, haven't quite occurred in this series but hopefully I can fix that in this game.

Richard Boock writes about the bruise-some threesome - Chris Martin, Kyle Mills and James Franklin, the seamers who were, according to Boock, the biggest surprise at Wellington last week.

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Justin Langer has extended his congratulations to England on beating India in the third Test to level the series, while adding that Australia's respect for England is as "high as ever". In his diary at the BBC, Langer said:

Talking of tough opposition, it would be remiss of me not to mention England's outstanding victory in Mumbai.

Since the Ashes, we have kept a closer than usual eye on England's progress and had been quietly smug about their efforts in Pakistan and India.

But after yesterday's triumph the respect factor is as high as ever.

To defeat India in a Test match at home, particularly in Mumbai, is a colossal effort and hats must go off again to Freddie Flintoff, who led his team against many odds to a historic win.

© Cricinfo Ltd

People are being encouraged to sign up today for their Thames Pathway Walk on Sunday, May 21, and help people in the area affected by cancer.

Phil Tufnell said: "I think that Walk Wonders is a smashing idea and I will definitely be pulling my boots on to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Relief. You don't have to be mega fit why not get a gang together, go walking and enjoy the walk along the Thames?"

Matthew Hoggard, in his tour diary at The Times is confused and bemused about India's sudden collapse...and in particular, the outlandish dismissal of Mahendra Dhoni:

We are still a bit mystified by the speed of India’s spectacular collapse. They seemed intent on going down with all guns blazing. For example, what on earth was Mahendra Dhoni doing? Answers on a postcard, please, because we still haven’t figured it out.

Geoff Boycott says in The Daily Telegraph that Andrew Flintoff has 'an intuitive feel for the job' and would do a 'fantastic job' if and when Michael Vaughan retires.

I disagree with Vaughan that Flintoff cannot captain the side on a regular basis. I rate Michael as the best captain in the world at the moment and, if he recovers from his knee injury, he will take over. If he doesn't then Flintoff will do a fantastic job.

There is a theory that all-rounders don't make the best captains, but I don't subscribe to it. Garry Sobers, one of the greatest cricketers ever, was a successful captain of the West Indies.

Imran Khan, the best leader of men I have ever seen, lifted Pakistan to great heights, and Richie Benaud, whose opinion I respect, reckons that Keith Miller was the best captain he ever played under at New South Wales.

© Evening Standard

Despite missing Michael Vaughan, Marcus Trescothick, Simon Jones, Ashley Giles, and Steve Harmison – for the final Test – England rallied to a famous triumph at Mumbai, levelling the series against huge odds. The British press had a field day, savouring the win, and lapped up praise for Flintoff and his brave band of inexperienced cricketers.

Simon Barnes, in his column for The Times, went as far as to put this win as an achievement that surpassed the Ashes victory of last summer. “Inspirational Flintoff brings out the hero inside his men,” he gushed. “It has been a triumph of team solidarity in the face of unrelenting misfortune, but more than that it has been a personal triumph for the stand-in stand-in captain, Andrew Flintoff, who has developed and extended the team solidarity thing beyond all previous limits.”

Echoing Barnes’s effusive praise was Angus Fraser, writing for The Independent. “England have performed many amazing feats since Duncan Fletcher became head coach in September 1999, but yesterday's 212-run victory in the third Test against India was the most remarkable of them all. Winning the Ashes was a magnificent achievement, but defeating India here with - on paper - only half a side was as significant a performance as any of those against Australia” Strong words for a strong side.

Another column in The Independent waxed eloquent - “Bombay bonanza brings back memories of Madras in ‘85” – while praising England’s huge character on the tour.
Mike Selvey led the praise Flintoff for his inspirational role in the series and a worthy “annihilation” of the home side in his report for The Guardian. And then there was John Etheridge, who in his editorial for The Sun, sighed “Coochie coochie phew” while backing Flintoff’s decision to remain in India despite the birth of his second child. And in The Mirror, Mike Walters hailed a "Shaggy God story" to sum up the performance of Shaun "Shaggy" Udal, whose 4 for 14 sealed the match.

While there were words of recognition for other stars - Simon Hughes, in The Telegraph, cited Matthew Hoggard’s discipline as paramount to England fortunes – the focus of the UK press remained on one man, Flintoff. “He is a remarkable man,” wrote Barnes. Perhaps it was the best way to sum up the genius of a man who proved here in India, under testing conditions, and captaining an injury-hit and inexperienced side for the first time, that he was a born leader of men.

Time to face the music © Mumbai Mirror

India’s 212-run loss to a rejuvenated England in the series-leveler at Mumbai has elicited a slew of criticism from the Indian press. While not entirely overwhelming, the response from media highlighted the obvious: that India have yet again failed to deliver in a telling Test match situation.

Many criticised Rahul Dravid’s decision to field first; some lamented the inclusion of five bowlers; others found India’s constant experimentation hard to digest; but most slammed the teams’ weakness to fight back under pressure.

Harsha Bhogle, in his column for the Indian Express, said that Rahul Dravid will remember his 100th Test for all the wrong reasons.

Geoff Boycott criticised India's decisions to play five specialist bowlers, adding, "Chappell is trying to make up for a lack of quality with quantity."

“Bombay ducks” read a headline from The Pioneer, calling India’s capitulation to “an England B team” among the most embarrassing in history. Another column in The Telegraph, a Kolkata-based daily, blamed Greg Chappell and the selectors for giving too much emphasis to the future, forgetting to address the current problem.

The Mumbai Mirror took it a step further, calling for India to “raise the alarms” on their Test frailties that began with a bad decision and ended in “30 minutes of mayhem”. A front-page picture of a discouraged Chappell and Dravid only highlighted the weakness of this Indian outfit, one that the column termed “looked as lost as an Eskimo in the Sahara”. Ayaz Memon of Daily News and Analysis, a Mumbai daily, said that India’s second whopping Test loss should alert Dravid and Chappell “about which of their theories and experimentations have been counterproductive, and the tortuous road ahead to redemption”.

Not spared in the response was Sachin Tendulkar, about whom several questions have been recently raised. Ignoring Tendulkar’s record in Test cricket over the last 16 years, certain sections of the media felt his time is over and that he has little to offer. Others opined that that he retire gracefully rather than face an unbecoming axe.

Amid all the criticism, though, there was praise for the Andrew Flintoff-inspired England team that overcame the odds to draw level. “It takes a lot to beat India in India,” Memon wrote while signing off, “it takes huge cricketing ability and, more importantly, nerves of steel.”

Kadambari Murali writes about the reason she fell in love with cricket, and hopes Tendulkar gets a chance to choose his time of exit.

In a world of greys and blacks and whites, of people who seemed older, more forbidding, Tendulkar was a breath of fresh air - he filled in all the colours. We lived our lives vicariously, through his life. When he did well, we did well; when he didn't, we cried.

After the ICC’s report about racism in Australian crowds, Trevor Marshallsea writes in the Sydney Morning Herald about whether spectators will be able to call next year’s tourists “Pommy bastards”.

It seems the answer depends on who you ask, or perhaps on when you ask it … As James Sutherland [Cricket Australia’s chief executive] fielded questions, he was asked whether spectators might be ejected from grounds for shouting "Pommy bastard" at an English player. "I would have thought so, yeah. I would have thought if it is regarded as a racist comment, then yes," said Mr Sutherland, later adding: "We need to be very sensitive to it."

However, The Surfer is not convinced Bill Woodfull, the gentlemanly captain, was the source of the quote to Douglas Jardine at the end of the story.

Robert Craddock reports in The Courier-Mail Cricket Australia is expected to push for tough new fines to fix the crowd problem.

It is often said that the future stars of English cricket are hidden away in the strong leagues which are filled with talented Asian players. However, many of these players never progress through the ranks. But Yorkshire are now making a major effort to tap into the pool of talent as David Conn reports in The Guardian

Talented players of Pakistani origin played their way gradually in large numbers into the historic clubs of the Bradford League, arguably the country's strongest amateur competition - which starts up again in two weeks' time - but none was picked up by Yorkshire. Painfully few watch county cricket at Headingley.

Some day, it'll just not be worth it. The huge amount of ink spilt to make sense of it all will have been archived into obscurity, the heart would have numbed, the pages devoted to the West Indies' decline will be buried in newsprint devoted to modern cricket's instant dramas.

Simon Barnes told the readers of The Times not to pick up the paper this morning. Instead they should go and find a TV to watch the final day at Mumbai. England could be about to produce a very special win. Well, they've done it, so now you can read about how Andrew Flintoff's very un-Freddie style innings set it all up.

Lord, but it was hard yesterday. It was impossible to tell whether England were playing with masterly restraint or poking and prodding away the chance of a cricketing lifetime. I’ll tell you which at about elevenses today; when it’s time for a chocolate digestive and a cup of tea, England will know whether they were wise or foolish virgins yesterday.

It may be hard to believe, with temperatures in the UK barely breaking freezing point, but the new season is just around the corner. However, some county grounds are facing a problem because, even though the winter has been cold it has been very dry. Hosepipe bans are soon coming into force and the water restrictions could hit some counties, like Sussex, as reported in the The Argus

Vedam Jaishankar, Rahul Dravid's biographer, writes about Dravid's formative years in cricket,higlighting his ability to convert disadvantages to opportunities.Read the full piece in Rediff.

When a chit of a boy, just 13 years of age, and with parents in tow, hesitantly walked into St Joseph's Boys School principal Fr Dennis Coelho's office two decades ago to seek permission to skip classes for a few days, little did any of them guess that they were at the crossroads of history.

Not many would have imagined there would come a day when Sachin Tendulkar was booed out of his home ground at Mumbai.

Many sports lovers have lost the capacity to look at the larger picture and understand events in a historical perspective, writes Nirmal Shekar

Also read Sambit Bal's piece on Cricinfo on Tendulkar's recent Test struggles.

A bomb blast in the north-eastern city of Guwahati, the venue for the fourth England-India one-dayer, has caused the authorities at Lord's to keep a tab on the security situation. Mihir Bose has the story.

Rahul Bhattacharya writes in The Guardian on the two giant screens at the Wankhede Stadium.

It was the one on the north-east corner of the ground that informed Mahendra Singh Dhoni - the thrillingly vulgar wicketkeeper who hits mighty boundaries with both feet off the ground and who till recently had orange streamers for hair - of his dismissal. Only in classic Indian cock-up style the third umpire, Krishna Hariharan, had still to reach his conclusion.

Kenya's Daily Nation caught up with Maurice Odumbe and he talked about his life after being banned for associating with bookmakers. These days he stays away from cricket, preferring to read and play golf.

“I am in transition. Cricket was my life, you know, and I can’t just wake up one morning and forget about it ... I was born to enjoy myself. Why should I be miserable? Life is too short. Live and let live and don't have enemies. It's not worth it.”

It's not often that Sachin Tendulkar is booed from a cricket ground, but the unthinkable happened at the Wankhede Stadium, his home ground, yesterday.

Bishan Singh Bedi, who witnessed the scene, called for a more dignified reaction from the cricket followers.

Alex Brown writes in the Sydney Morning Herald South Africa’s first-Test defeat doesn’t seem to have happened. Brown also looks after the Herald’s blog The Tonk.

The evening after South Africa slumped to a seven-wicket Test loss to Australia inside three days, a television commercial for a local sports channel asked: "Can the Proteas carry momentum over to the Test series?"

And the very next morning, Cape Town's largest-circulation Sunday newspaper carried just one story on South Africa's Test loss, but detailed the previous week's one-day win over Australia in the news, sport, business and opinion pages. Readers even received a free souvenir medal of the one-day encounter.

In the same paper Peter Roebuck says Australia deserved their victory.

If the Australians can find some tape to put across their legspinner's mouth (they'd better buy an entire roll), a means of stopping Michael Kasprowicz overstepping and Andrew Symonds from taking the wrong risks, they can look forward to more happy days on the continent.

Ben Dorries comments in The Courier-Mail world order has been restored.

The ECB has admitted they lost out on £12million during last year's Ashes owing to their under-sized grounds:

Thousands of spectators had to be turned away during the five-Test series, which England won 2-1. The venues - Lord's (capacity 30,000), Trent Bridge (15,350), Edgbaston (21,000), Old Trafford (19,000) and The Oval (23,500) - could have sold tickets twice over.

Now the ECB is putting together plans to help those Test-staging counties spend the millions required to increase their capacities to nearer that of the top Premiership football stadia.

ECB marketing chairman Giles Clarke admitted: "It just frightens me when I think of how much more money we could really have made last summer. We could have sold at least another 200,000 tickets. "

More at the Sunday Mirror

It might only be March but one eye is, inevitably, on the Ashes next winter. After a difficult subcontinent winter, England's debutants have shown immense character and no shortage of talent which, as Mike Atherton says, could cause immense headaches for Duncan Fletcher and the selectors:

With Marcus Trescothick set to make himself available for the summer and Michael Vaughan on the mend, what is England's best line-up? All eyes, inevitably, are on Australia next winter and the defence of the Ashes and it is likely the selectors will want to use the summer to bed down the top six who will take on Australia.

Trescothick, Vaughan, Andrew Strauss, Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff are all certainties, leaving one place for Paul Collingwood, Bell, Cook and Shah to fight for. The competition is fierce.

None of the middle-order candidates is the complete package. A combination of their best qualities - Bell's orderliness and method, Collingwood's intelligence and spunk and Shah's undoubted flair and natural ability - would produce the ideal prototype and solve the selectors' dilemma. At the moment Cook looks the best bet, and he may yet spark a move to the middle-order for Trescothick.

Headache it might well be, but it's a nice one for England to have. Atherton has more on Owais Shah, too, who today made a fine 88.

Michael Atherton writes on a lifelong friendship between Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli:

A story of middle-class comfort and working-class poverty, of fulfilment and disappointment, of discipline and distraction, of acquiescence and rebellion, and, ultimately, of what is and what might have been.

Stuart Clark is the new Glenn McGrath, Australia's metronome and affectionately known as "pigeon". At least, that's the view of the Sydney Morning Herald. Clark fell one wicket short of becoming the third Australian to take ten wickets in their first Test match. Bob Massie's 16-137 against England at Lord's in 1972 and Clarrie Grimmett's 11-82 against England at the SCG in 1924-25.

Alex Brown from the SMH argues that the new Australian attack showed a lot of promise in Australia's victory over South Africa in the first Test:

Having relied so heavily upon the pace trio of Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Michael Kasprowicz in the past, Australia's current line-up of Brett Lee, Stuart Clark and Kasprowicz gave plenty of cause for optimism after running through the South African batting order for the second time in three days. At lunch on the third day, the Proteas were in desperate trouble at 6-127, holding just a 24-run lead.

Sachin Tendulkar talks to Clayton Murzello on his seven previous Tests at the Wankhede Stadium.

After last Sunday's carnage, in which South Africa chased down 435 to beat Australia, Trevor Marshallsea argues that it might act as a trigger for the "uber-bowler," and his sentiments are supported by Damien Fleming, the former Australian swing bowler:

"All we need are a bunch of six-foot-10 (208cm) quicks, who can bowl outswing, reverse swing, consistent yorkers, and have two or three changes of pace," says Fleming. He is only half-joking.

[...]

"What's needed is a generation of bowlers who execute their skills better than any other generation in history, who can bowl six yorkers an over if need be, but who also have more strings to their bow - bouncer, yorker, two or three slower balls. There weren't a lot of yorkers bowled in Jo'burg the other night. The execution has to get better."

Matthew Hoggard, in his tour diary in The Times cracks up at the sight of Andrew Flintoff and Michael Vaughan singing together in an advertisement. Read the full account here.

First, we had the pleasure of watching an advert for Kingfisher water featuring our present captain, Andrew Flintoff, and our usual captain, Michael Vaughan, which was filmed in India before Michael went home. And it had to be seen to be believed.

Andrew Flintoff is in preparation for the longest and hardest test of his career, when the Mumbai showdown gets underway tomorrow morning. And Simon Barnes, writing in the Times, sees in our Freddie some of the essential heroism that has traditionally found favour in the subcontinent.

The poet of the Ramayana would have written verse after verse about the woes that have befallen Flintoff’s army. Four key players from the great Ashes XI were missing from the start and now Stephen Harmison, one of the most frightening bowlers on the planet, is crocked and will not play in the third and final Test, starting tomorrow. Basil Fawlty, not schooled in the Hindu way of acceptance, would have howled: “Thank you God! Thank you so bloody much!” But Flintoff, being a man cast in heroic mould, has taken this on as one more hardship to bear, one more disadvantage to overcome.

Dean Jones recounts a hilarious anecdote about his epic knock in the famous tied Test at Madras. Read Ted Corbett's tour diary here

Alastair Cook, in his tour diary in The Telegraph, writes about a manic taxi ride in Mumbai, a humbling visit to an orphanage and his hope to end the tour on a winning note. Click here to read.

This day, 19 years ago, Sunil Gavaskar, in what turned out to be his last Test, produced a master class against Pakistan on a crumbler. However, it didn't result in a win, Gavaskar fell four short of hundred, and India fell 16 runs short of the target. Click here to read HS Manjunath's write-up on the match

Harsha Bhogle, in a tribute piece to the little master, wrote about his legendary powers of concentration.

That 96, his last Test innings, was a masterpiece played on a mass of rubble trying to impersonate a pitch. The spinners were making the ball turn at right angles and jump past the nose. "I thought I would get 10," he [Gavaskar] later said. Mohinder Amarnath once told me that he thought his partner was in a trance. In a rare interview Gavaskar admitted that he never kept the ball out of sight, following it all the way from the slips to mid-off to the bowler's hand. And he swears it is true that he did not know what his score was when he was batting, for the mind was only focused on the ball, on the next ball. When Javed Miandad apologised for sledging at him during the legendary 96 at Bangalore, he smiled back saying he had no idea what was being said. He hadn't heard it. When Javed Miandad apologised for sledging at him ... he smiled back saying he had no idea what was being said. He hadn't heard it.

The small town revolution is here to stay in Indian cricket.Makarand Waingankar in The Sportstar explains the sudden transition.

At the NCA, the difference between the boys from the districts and the big cities is that the former enjoy every minute of it. Not having seen such facilities, they sometimes spend extra time in the gymnasium.

Neil Manthorp revisits the big game.

As Graeme Smith led his shell-shocked troops back into the changing room at the lunch break of the Wanderers match, the mood was sombre. To say the least ... Just when it seemed nobody was going to break the ice, vice-captain Jacques Kallis punctured the pregnant atmosphere with the following gem. "It's a 450 wicket, guys ... they're about 15 short!"

Watching cricket on Indian television, with the incessant stream of adverts, tries one’s patience, says Simon Barnes in The Times.

It rather tries one's patience. Not because they kept losing the satellite feed, or anything comic like that. The problem was the advertisements.

On Indian television, any moment when they give you an actual program is bitterly resented by the station and is regarded as a wasted opportunity. So, naturally, there were adverts between every over. You were never off duty, always being nagged at, harried, pestered, or flirted at by lovely girls with rupees in their eyes.

The rush to grab tickets for England's encounter against Ireland has started, with £100,000 raised from ticket sales - even before they've gone on sale. 2,900 tickets remain to be sold, priced between £20 and £35 pounds.

The capacity at Stormont on Tuesday June 13 will be 6,200, the biggest audience for a cricket match in Ireland, and there will also be room for 800 schoolchildren and a hospitality tent accommodating a further 500.

More information can be found at Newsletter and a previous article on Cricinfo.

Despite losing the second Test against India, Mike Selvey comments that Andrew Flintoff is the one England batsman whose technique has withstood India's spinners:

Andrew Flintoff is learning and fast. He played two fine technical innings here that had about them much more of the front-line top-order Test batsman he aspires to be than the great crowd pleaser he has been. Innings of 70 and 51, eked out while the batting was failing around him, speak volumes of his development: 121 runs that took him more than 6½ hours. On another day he would have had 300 by then.

More at The Guardian

Peter Roebuck pays tribute to the latest entrant to the 500 club - Anil Kumble.

Kumble is a remarkable competitor. Dressed in civilian clothes, he counts amongst the most patient and thoughtful of men. Clothed in whites, he becomes a veritable firebrand. Woe betide the dozing fieldsman.

Greg Baum asks in The Age where is the management in the gutter battle between Graeme Smith and the Australians?.

It began in the Australian summer when Smith made it policy not to let Australia trample over his team in any forum. At one stage, Warne called Smith an unimaginative captain, and Smith retorted by calling Warne a frustrated captain. So to the gutter they went, the provocateur and the provoked, and evidently in the gutter they intend to stay.

But that is not good enough, for any of those involved, nor for the game of cricket. A standard is in operation that would not be acceptable in any schoolyard. Smith's intention might be laudable, but he has neither the experience nor the class to wage this war with dignity. The Australians know better, and so are even more culpable.

In Ricky Ponting’s column in The Australian he says the players are switching on to Test mode.

Armed with just two days of preparation and practice, we now begin a tough block of five Tests in as many weeks against South Africa and Bangladesh, starting at the Newlands ground in Cape Town tomorrow. With no practice games beforehand and just one full training run, yesterday, to be followed by a top-up session today in which to get ready, it's not an ideal preparation.

Cricket Australia announced a new sponsorship deal yesterday and the Sydney Morning Herald looks at the details while The Australian reports James Sutherland’s speech at a two-day development summit.

Frank Keating in The Guardian looks back at the 1981-82 England tour when Boycott moaned; Willis read the complete works of Wodehouse and Gower and Botham were on perpetual lookout for "something drinkable".

It seemed as vivid as yesterday when my friend, with a chuckle, recalled the moment we first met - sniggering at Geoffrey Boycott at the tour's official welcoming party off Marine Drive's dramatic lamplit curve, alongside the ocean, which they still call Queen Victoria's necklace.

Tom Eaton wonders, post the greatest match of 'em all, in the Mail and Guardian

Until Sunday, cricket's distinctions were clear. Tests were beautiful, subtle and - to the layman - excruciatingly dull. Fifty-overs games produced the odd thriller, but by and large were rendered plodding by those damned middle overs of nudge and trot. Twenty-overs stuff was good for a laugh, if you were into that sort of thing: the cricketing equivalent of flowers squirting water and revolvers belching out little flags labelled "BANG!".

This day, 25 years ago, Geoff Boycott was at the receiving end of perhaps the greatest over ever bowled. Cricinfo's All Today's Yesterday, records it thus: The six balls that Michael Holding bowled to Boycott at Bridgetown, only the second over of England's innings, were absolutely chilling in their ferocity and pace. So much for looseners: each ball was quicker than the last, until the sixth swung in and sent Boycott's off stump flying.

Click here to read Martin Williamson's piece on that dramatic episode.

Michael Parkinson wrote on that over.

In the folklore of cricket, those six balls have acquired the reputation of the most lethal over ever delivered. It is not something you can prove except to say that anyone who witnessed what happened, as I did, is bound to say they never saw anything quite like it.

Boycott admits he still has nightmares about that over. Holding smiles
at the memory and says 'If you believe Geoffrey, England would have
been six wickets down without scoring had he not been batting'.

However, one thing needs to be remembered. Boycott was 40 years old then, the great batsman's reflexes must have slowed down a bit. Here is Michael Holding, in an extract from Tony Francis's book Zen of Cricket, on Boycs.

"You were never worried about Boycott embarrassing you. I only remember him hooking me once, but he wasn't easy to intimidate. A lot of people said he didn't like the fast stuff, didn't want to face Lillee and Thomson, but I never saw him look as if he wanted to back off. Not once."

The man whom England missed more than any other was Simon Jones, writes Christopher Martin-Jenkins.

And Simon Hughes, of The Daily Telegraph, is surprised, not at the English loss, but at the delay in Indian win. "Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this series is how long it has taken India, with nearly 500 Test appearances between them, to exert their supremacy.

Simon Barnes, of The Daily Times reckons there were too many obstacles even for Captain Fantastic to overcome.

Peter Roebuck says in the Sydney Morning Herald it was the greatest one-day match ever played.

Here was a tale so far-fetched that no sensible person could conceive of it. Here was a chase so absurd that it might as well have been abandoned before it began. Here was a day on which 30,000 spectators of all hues rejoiced in the ferment of the moment and in the glory of an inspired victory.

Andrew Ramsey writes in The Australian the record-breaking loss shows up the country’s bleak bowling prospects.

After a summer of experimentation that was supposed to yield some finality about Australia's bowling stocks for next year's World Cup, the only certainty is one that was widely known before the season began. Without Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath, the world champion's prospects with the ball are undeniably weak. In failing to defend a world record limited-overs total of 434 against a team missing its in-form big hitter - Shaun Pollock, who was a pre-match withdrawal because of back pain - Australia received its most sobering reminder yet of life beyond its two ageing champions.

In The Courier-Mail Robert Craddock says Twenty20 is turning a civilised game mad.

On Sunday, South Africa and Australia took part in the greatest one-dayer ever. Or did they? "This match should not receive all the plaudits as being the greatest game of one-day cricket ever," thundered Surrey’s website because, they claim, there’s another match which deserves similar attention. No prizes for guessing which team was involved, mind you.

Stephen Moss, The Guardian columnist, pays tribute to the record-breaking feats of Australia and South Africa at Johannesburg.

While England were struggling to 112 for five in 51 overs against India, the Australians had made an astonishing 434 for four in their allotted 50 overs - 36 runs more than had ever been made in one innings of an international limited-overs match. That is a feat of Bob Beamon proportions …

But the most extraordinary aspect of yesterday's game was what happened after half-time. South Africa roared back and, impossibly, unthinkably, they won, scoring 438 for nine. Beamon's record stood for 23 years; Australia's record had stood for, oh, all of three hours.

Martin Flanagan writes before South Africa’s success and focusses on the behaviour of their crowds in The Age.

I didn't know what to make of cricket's racism-in-the-crowd dispute when I got to South Africa. A South African cricket official was reported as saying the racial abuse the Proteas endured on their recent Australian tour had not just occurred in Perth but across the nation.

This surprised me because I spent Boxing Day in the outer at the MCG listening for racist abuse and heard none. Wicketkeeper Mark Boucher had inflamed the situation further. Called on as a sort of adjudicator, Tony Greig did nothing to douse the flames.

The New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming has attacked his former opener, Mark Richardson - he of sprinting in a leotard fame - for comments made after the fourth day's play against the West Indies at Auckland. Before anyone gets too excited, Martin Crowe, Sky's executive producer of cricket, was quick to issue a statement explaining that all was not as it seemed. "The interview was a spoof in which Stephen has a crack at Mark about his commentary. It was scripted and not real although it has appeared on the internet as a news item."

The transcript read:

Richardson: OK, thanks, good luck

Fleming: Thanks mate (interview ends). Yeah, you're an idiot, that's ridiculous, seriously that's just ridiculous. Two things, you've forgotten who your mates are, some of your comments in the changing room? And the other thing is you're just an idiot talking about scoring rates and picking up the ... uh ... the tempo of games, you were one of the most boring players to watch and from what I've seen so far in your commentary position is crap. You're forgetting who your mates are mate, about six months ago you were with us.

The video can be seen at CricketWeb . [Thanks, Pratyush]

The Australian Open - the prestigious 102-year-old golf championship - will be staged a week early this year to accommodate the Ashes.

"We didn't think it would be a great idea to put it up against the Olympics of cricket," Golf Australia chief executive Tony Hallam told reporters on Friday.

R Mohan offers his tribute to Anil Kumble, the new entrant to the 500 club.

Michael Atherton, the former England captain, says Kumble may lack Shane Warne's spin but perseverance pushed him past 500 Test victims.

When I first played against Kumble (his debut was at Old Trafford in 1990) I thought of him as a one-trick bowler. He had a non-spinning leg-break and a quicker delivery that skidded on. He later added an easily detectable googly and is currently working on a second. His control is far better than it was 16 years ago, but the essence of his bowling remains the same. It is his strength of mind that sets him apart.

Umpire AV Jayaprakash, the man in the white coats during Kumble's 10-wicket haul against Pakistan, relives those moments. He has a interesting side-tale to tell.

The 127th match between Royal College, Colombo and St Thomas’ College, Mt Lavinia, finished today with a victory for the Royals. The encounter - known as the "Battle of the Blues," or the "Big Match" - is 127-years-old and has fielded "many great Prime Ministers, a former President, Ministers and leading citizens of the land" in its history.

There's a feast of information available on the most recent match, including a superb piece by Sripost, a scorecard, some photos and literally dozens of articles about its history.

Of particular interest is Indi's blog. Armed with a camera and a press pass, he provides a fascinating insight into the match and its importance to Colombo:

Colombo is an oven and I’m marinating in beer, coke and arrack at the Royal Thomian match. Boycy got me a press pass and that’s enough to get in. I’m no old boy, but it’s nice to run into so many people I know. Royalists and Thomians are the two elite schools that run Colombo business and society - for better or incestuously retarded worst. There are, however, a lot of good people coming outta there.

We have quite a few articles on previous Royal Thomian encounters at Cricinfo , and Technorati has a list of blogs covering the match.

Freedom of expression came at a high price for a teenager sent home from school for styling his hair like his cricketing hero Kevin Pietersen.

Read the full story in The Guardian

But, but, but ... it's not even the first time this has happened. Just what is it with KP inspiring a generation of rebel-headed students? Back in September, another boy got sent home for school for copying KP. And that one was without doubt a worse crime - he was apeing the skunk. Dark days indeed.

Now The Surfer wouldn't pretend to have much sense of style but, really, whether these dudes are choosing to copy the GI Jane look or the dead animal isn't important, we just want to know why.

In what looks like an open letter to Greg Chappell, Rohit Brijnath in The Sportstar pleads with Chappell to draw the line between professionalism and haste.

A lot of people sided with you when Ganguly lost his captaincy, but in your lingering fury over this man, maybe you forgot one thing. For all Ganguly's faults, he was our captain, and an inspirational one once, and if we criticised him occasionally, we also deeply admired him.

David Gower eulogises about Anil Kumble and how, the veteran leggie, is still learning new tricks.

A team of celebrity cricketers, led by Phil Tufnell, Jack Russell and Rosalie Birch, are heading for India to take on the stars of Bollywood. Ever fancied finding out just how good the drummer from McFly is on a crumbling dustbowl? Follow their progress here.

Anybody who doubts India is one of the most nakedly capitalist societies in the world should have watched Lalit Modi, the new power-broker in Indian cricket, at work yesterday. The second Test was about to start but the talk was not of the cricket but of the commercial clout about to make India the game's powerhouse.

The new BCCI regime is to turn Indian cricket into a powerful business animal,says David Hopps of The Guardian.

Bruce Pairaudeau, the former West Indies batsman, relives the memory of those dramatic hours at Eden Park 50 years ago, when New Zealand rolled his West Indies side for just 77 in the second innings, to end what is still the longest winless test streak.

Shifts are quicker, as dog-fights for the middle order intensifies; nothing is sacrosanct any more, says Harsha Bhogle.

The final round of the Pura Cup starts today and five teams are in with a chance of meeting Queensland, the sixth side, in the final. Comedian Dave Hughes delivered a set to the Victoria squad before their match against Western Australia. The Age reports Hughes, the television funnyman and Bushrangers’ No. 1 ticket-holder, told the side about winning and losing

“Losing is a lot funnier than winning,” he said. “There were a few jokes but I don't think that went down too well with the coach."

The Warriors are worried about Brad Hodge and Marcus North says in the West Australian he won’t be targeted verbally.

Trevor Marshallsea writes in the Sydney Morning Herald about New South Wales’ chances of reaching the final.

Last year, the Blues needed to beat Victoria and hope the only other team with a chance of making the final, second-placed Western Australia, went pointless to leapfrog the Warriors into the decider. This fell into place and the Blues won a thrilling final. So much more needs to happen this time. NSW are vying with not just one rival but four other teams. And, while they finished last summer on a wave of momentum, this year the Blues are limping into the last round in a sorry state.

South Australia will look to the Harrises, one who is a doctor and the other who is a lunatic, according to Darren Lehmann in The Advertiser.

In Queensland’s The Courier-Mail Robert Craddock writes about Nathan Hauritz’s first-class comeback.

Cardigan Connor, the former Hampshire fast bowler, is in Anguilla - the cricket-mad country in the Caribbean - and heading up a team of four cyclists and two athletes for the Commonwealth Games. And he hopes England's victory over Australia in last summer's Ashes will inspire them:

"In a bid to inspire them I'll make sure to bring up England's Ashes success in my pre-competition pep talk."

The 44-year-old was in England last summer but only for the one-day series.

However, he admitted he and the rest of Anguilla were glued to the television for the epic five Tests.

"I remember when we were at Hampshire and we were up against it on a rainy day we'd watch the British and Irish Lions in South Africa," he recalled.

"No one fancied them there but they still pulled it off. The likes of Michael Vaughan and Freddie Flintoff did the same in the summer, and I can only hope my guys do their best."

Writing in the Guardian, Mike Selvey says the Australian team is in danger of becoming a laughing stock after recalling four players to play South Africa. Post-Ashes, Australia had a chance to rebuild, but they have reverted to picking the same old faces. "Australia have gone back to the future and England who, even if it has been forced upon them, have moved on to the next generation."

And Selvey added:

"In backtracking, Hohns has done few favours for the credibility of a system once the envy of the world. Now the reaction is to recognise a shambles with no direction. In India we are seeing a series fought out between a blend of youth and experience on both sides, and it is invigorating to watch. Much the same applied in Pakistan before Christmas. The Australian machine, meanwhile, is becoming a laughing stock. Martyn, once acclaimed, can greet his selection with incredulity, while Brad Hodge, a double-century maker not so long since, has been discarded.

"A friend in South Africa with the Australia team told me they soon won't be asking the Australian side for birth certificates, they'll want carbon dating."

As the debate over the disparity in income between English counties whose grounds host Tests and those who don't rumbles on, Dennis Amiss, Warwickshire's retiring chairman, told Christopher Martin-Jenkins in The Times that there was more to the argument than first meets the eye.

“The non-Test grounds have a budget; they know what they are going to get from the centre. Yet they still lose money. That can’t be our fault."

The apparent imbalance is stark. Profits reported have included £750,842 by Warwickshire, a record £580,164 by Lancashire and £96,776 by Nottinghamshire, all hosts of memorable Tests in the Ashes series. By contrast, Yorkshire, who did not have a Test match in 2005, lost £1.2 million. Other glaring deficits were recorded by Sussex (£631,366), Kent (£310,000), Derbyshire (£215,000) and Leicestershire, who announced a £94,000 loss this week. Only Worcestershire have bucked the trend by making a profit of £50,000.

The New Zealand Herald spoke with the surviving members of the NZ team about their historic victory over the West Indies 50 years ago - their first in Test cricket. Sammy Guillen talks about his stumping of Alf Valentine that brought up the historic victory.

And, DJ Cameron, who reported on the match, relives those historic moments.

As that great West Indian batsman Everton de Courcy Weekes swung his bat like an executioner's axe at the juiciest of long-hops that cloudy afternoon of March 13, 1956, 10,000 Eden Park spectators (and thousands more huddled over their wireless sets across the land) plunged into that fatal coma.

Reaction to Australia’s Test squad still dominates the newspapers and Dean Jones tells The Australian the sacking of Brad Hodge for Damien Martyn could open the door for Matthew Hayden’s one-day return.

"The World Cup is certainly not out of the question for Hayden given what we have seen over the last couple of days. With the selectors opting for Damien Martyn in the Test side again, clearly their thoughts have changed ...

"It's a little different now. The players are a lot fitter. It's like they've got 25-year-old bodies in 34-year-old blokes. I've got no hassles with Martyn being recalled. It was only a year ago that he almost won the international player of the year."

However, Graham Yallop, the former Test captain, was fuming after Hodge’s sacking and in the Herald Sun called for more action from Victoria’s selector Merv Hughes.

“This position is disgraceful and it sends the wrong message to all budding future Test cricketers," Yallop said. "If you are playing five Test matches and averaging 58, you are not necessarily guaranteed of being assured another game. That's unbelievable."

Andy Bichel tells AAP the selection policy has brought some unrest into the team.

Even Haroon Lorgat, South Africa’s chairman of selectors was surprised Hodge missed out. He speaks in the Sydney Morning Herald here.

Andrew Ramsey focusses on the Test squad’s previous errors in relation to the lack of warm-up games. In his column in The Australian he says a key lesson remains unlearned.

Sachin Tendulkar, who became Monty Panesar's first Test victim at Nagpur last week, has signed the very ball for Panesar:

"I've seen replays of my celebration on TV and I'm not sure how it looked. But I didn't know how to react because I simply didn't expect to take Sachin's wicket as my first in Test cricket. It was a really special moment and I got Sachin to sign the ball afterwards because he's been my role model, which was very kind of him."

John Howard: 'I am tremendously impressed with the energy and the science and the application of this magnificent academy' © AFP

"But I look with some trepidation at this new coming breed of Indian fast bowlers."

After seeing the young men go through their paces, Mr Howard said the Australian team would have to redouble their efforts.

"(But) I am sure that we will be equal to the task, don't get too complacent," he said.

A few days ago, the American President George Bush had a net with Inzamam-ul-Haq and Salman Butt. George 1 John 0.

Some cricket-mad types in Estonia have taken to the ice to play the glorious game.

Just to prove that it’s snow joke (ouch, sorry), you can see a clip of ice cricket, as provided by the Reuters news agency, by clicking here.

[Thanks to Jamie Allaway for the link]

An amusing opening paragraph was written in the obituary for John Junkin, a TV scriptwriter and actor, who died yesterday.

In October 1998 a letter in The Times from John Junkin read: “May I confess to not being quite as upset as many people at the loss of first-class cricket by BBC Television, principally because it will give viewers a chance to see the three new series I have devised.

“These consist of 26 programmes on gardening, 26 on travel and 26 on cooking, with a Christmas special in which a well-known gardener is invited to take a celebrity chef to some glamorous location and cook him.”

More at The Times

Damien Martyn’s plans to attend U2’s Melbourne concert have been scrapped, as Alex Brown reports in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Such was Martyn's belief that his 61-Test career had expired, he had planned to take in a U2 concert and play for his grade club during the three-match series in South Africa. But an announcement aboard the Australian team bus in Durban by selector-on-duty Andrew Hilditch changed all that, ensuring South Perth must find an extra batsman and a pair of U2 tickets will be heading for eBay.

While Martyn celebrated, Brad Hodge was devastated. Martin Blake writes in The Age how he has been pinned with the “Not Quite Good Enough” badge.

The selectors might well be right. But surely Hodge was entitled to another couple of opportunities to prove himself before he was cast out. Who can say on the sample of five Test matches? Hodge is dead unlucky, make no mistake about it.

Shane Warne was stunned when he heard the news.

Richard Earle belts out a parochial column in The Advertiser about how South Australia and Jason Gillespie are missing out in selection meetings.

Darren Lehmann has his say in the same paper here.

Shane Warne has talked about his impending divorce and admitted that his behaviour in the past has cost him the chance of leading Australia.

"I've had a few one-night or two-night stands or whatever you want to call it … I've never fallen in love with anyone."

Matthew Hoggard reveals, in his column for The Times newspaper, that he is delighted that Andrew Flintoff has taken over the captaincy for the short-term, because it means that the burdens bowlers face are sympathised with quite nicely - and not before time.

It made a nice change to have a fellow fast bowler as captain. Usually, the captain is a batsman who doesn’t really understand what pain we poor fast bowlers have to enhdure, ploughing through our long spells in the extreme heat. Andrew understands all too well and would say: "You’re hurting now, aren’t you? Have a break." It was nice to have a bit of sympathy for a change.

In his weekly email, The Spin, Lawrence Booth sums up
his opinions on Andrew Flintoff’s captaincy of England.

Last week ... the Spin wondered whether Andrew Flintoff really needed to add the captaincy to a list of tasks that includes middle-order hitter, first-change battering ram, second slip bucket, the face of Sky Sports's trailers, and impending father-to-be-for-the-second-time...

His performance at Nagpur was enough to convince this column that he is the perfect stop-gap

Far more mature than his age, Pathan agreed in an interview to Chandresh Narayanan of Times News Network that he feels older than 21 and the hard grind of international cricket had something to do with it.

The Australian Cricketers’ Association’s new Legends Tour hits the Queensland outback town of Longreach, where Mark Taylor tells The Courier-Mail Glenn McGrath’s current lay-off could be helpful, and Rodney Hogg supports his bowling brother.

"He never shirked training in his life,” Taylor said. “He is a super competitor ... Only Glenn knows how long he can play for. Eventually there are those who have to step up."

Kepler Wessels comments on life without McGrath in The Age.

Was Lou Vincent really dropped, or did he simply talk himself out of the Test side to play the West Indies?

Read the full report here in The New Zealand Herald.

It was the player's triumph not because of runs and wickets, but because of his performance as a third-choice captain, writes Simon Barnes.

In an email conversation with The Independent Brett Lee talks about his "unfinished business" with England

Although India thoroughly deserved their draw, England's spirited performance will have given the tourists enormous confidence for the rest of the series, writes Jonathan Agnew.

Alex Brown writes in the The Age how Australia’s thinking for the Test squad didn’t get any clearer over the weekend.

Australia's record 196-run defeat by South Africa in Friday's one-day international in Cape Town provided little in the way of encouragement for on-duty selector Andrew Hilditch. And none of the fringe contenders playing Pura Cup has turned in stand-out performances, ensuring a difficult task for the national panel in naming a 14-man squad for the three-Test series against South Africa.

From his body language on the field, Flintoff clearly fancies the job, says Mike Gatting

As the cash influx into Indian cricket continues, the rewards are beginning to filter down to the club professionals and the Ranji Trophy is set to be revitalised

The Daily Telegraph has a remarkable report on how cricket is making a big comeback in Cuba after disappearing for almost 30 years. It seems that Fidel Castro is worried young people on the island are becoming too Americanised and wants Cuba to feel more affinity with the Caribbean.

In the late 1990s, the game was confined to the traditional east of the island, but it soon spread to Havana, where there are more than 500 players now. "Thanks to someone in Argentina, we've got the rules of cricket translated into Spanish," Miss Ford told a journalist.

In the past couple of years, as gifts of equipment poured in from other cricket-playing nations, the potential for the sport percolated through to the powers that be.

Two South Australians are needed to bolster the Test bowling stocks in South Africa in McGrath's absence, feels Darren Berry.

Chris Cairns reviews West Indies' performance in the ODI series in New Zealand and feels that the problem starts right at the top:

This West Indian cricket team currently seems like the geographical location of the Islands they represent - spread out, isolated and individual ... There has been talk of Shivnarine Chanderpaul's leadership but remember he doesn't choose to be captain - he is appointed. The appointment is wrong.

New Zealand have risen rapidly from No.7 to No.3 in the ICC one-day rankings but lack of ODIs leading up to the World Cup might affect them, feels Dylan Cleaver.

The travel writer, Simon Calder, dusted off his bat to take part in a very special cricket match, staged to help India's tigers

Pads: what a tiger does, and what I strapped on. It was my turn to bat. As I stepped up to the wicket, I hoped that the sun, and the opposition bowlers, would ease off a little on the heat

As you may have noticed President Bush has been in Pakistan over the last few days, and he has tried his hand at cricket. By some accounts he wasn't too shabby. Chances of him trying to push the game forward in the USA, though, are still pretty slim.

Bush, an avid baseball fan, even had to be shown which way around to hold the willow blade when he met local schoolchildren and members of Pakistan's team

Mitchell Johnson looks every bit the poster child for the Playstation generation, writes Alex Brown, and adds that he has the 'It' factor.

It is the rarest of Australian bowling commodities: a genuinely fast left-armer capable of swinging the ball viciously. The kind of cricketer who, if fit and in form, coaches covet and selectors salivate over. But there's the rub. The if factor.

Now, at 64, Abid Ali is looking for a decent `job' to take care of his primary concerns. Who says cricket is all about earning money, wonders VV Subrahmanyam.

Monty Panesar's dream debut was robbed of an Indian audience by a rights dispute engulfing All India Radio

Andrew Ramsey says that the increasing amount of international cricket is threatening the careers of the games major stars.

Such is the volume of cricket being scheduled around the globe these days that the rate at which players are being injured is beginning to resemble that usually associated with contact sports such as rugby union, rugby league and Australian football.

The world's most populous nation - China - is embracing the great game. Read the report in the Sydney Morning Herald here.

Also read about how Britain is giving its support to a new cricket revolution in Cuba.

The fans appear to be voting with their feet. Ticket sales for the final one-dayer between New Zealand and West Indies have been sluggish at best, as The New Zealand Herald reports.

Mike Selvey on the extraordinary reaction in India to his interview with Greg Chappell.

South Africans in general have a reputation for being stubborn and tenacious. Unfortunately, under captain Smith these qualities were taken to the extreme, writes Bob Simpson

A productive day for The Courier-Mail’s Ben Dorries who apparently discovers the South Africans have been giggling at the omission of Jason Gillespie.

The bemused Proteas rate Gillespie as one of the world's finest quicks and are stunned they have not had to face him all summer. Sources close to the South Africa side say relieved batsmen have poked fun at the omission of the 30-year-old, cracking jokes at team meetings.

Dorries also says generators are on standby at Newlands after power shortages hit Cape Town.

Series involving India and England evoke plenty of memories of a rich and colourful history. As the two sides lock horns at Nagpur cricket historian Boria Majumdar reflects on changing times.

ICC big cheese Malcolm Speed has engaged in a Q&A session with readers of the UK's Guardian newspaper. Among other things, Speed talks about Zimbabwe, his favourite innings (Garry Sobers's 254 at the MCG in 1971-72) and Twenty20 cricket:

Fifty-over one-day international cricket is a highly popular format with players, fans, broadcasters and sponsors around the world. Twenty20 cricket certainly has a role to play. We are in the process of determining exactly what that will be but we think it will complement 50-over cricket rather than replace it.

Alex Brown reports in The Age about Australia’s desperate search for fast bowlers ahead of the South Africa Test tour.

Australia’s four selectors will cast their net across two continents and five stadiums this week as they attempt to settle on a 14-man Test squad, which promises to be the most contentious in recent years ... Chief among their priorities is to identify a competitive pace attack in the absence of Glenn McGrath, and whether Stuart MacGill should play as back-up to Shane Warne.

In the same paper Martin Blake writes about the assignment facing Brad Hodge.

Brad Hodge is comfortable, or as comfortable as you can be when you're in the Australian Test team and you have the likes of Michael Clarke breathing down your neck. As his close confidante Michael Sholly says: "You average 50 in the Australian side and you're still under pressure."

After telling a press conference that he’s a cricket person, George Bush will get the chance to prove what he knows about the game when he is taken to a match as part of his visit to Pakistan, The Daily Telegraph reports.

Let’s hope he fares better with his knowledge of the game than his fellow American, the model Caprice. Years before she grabbed KP’s arm and the limelight as she jumped on to the Ashes bandwagon, Caprice was asked to help promote the 1999 World Cup in England. Professing her love for the game, she challenged reporters to ask her any question they liked about cricket. “OK. What’s LBW stand for?” asked one. “Ask me another,” she said, er, stumped. (sorry)

A new cricket blog has been launched today by the weblog publishing company Shiny Media and our very own Will Luke's editing it. It’s called The Googly. As you’d expect with a name like that, it's an irreverent look at cricket and its nuances, by professional writers - including Gideon Haigh.

In a wide-ranging chat to Mike Selvey, Greg Chappell opens up on the Sourav Ganguly issue:

... in essence I told Sourav that if he wanted to save his career he should consider giving up the captaincy. He was just hanging in there ... It was in his own interest to give himself mind space to work on his batting so that it could be resurrected. He was not prepared to do that. What I didn't realise at that stage was how utterly important to his life and finances being captain was.

In the Daily Telegraph, Mihir Bose writes about the importance of the maidan in Indian cricket:

If English cricket is essentially rural, Indian cricket is urban. Its roots lie in the lanes of India's teaming cities and on the broad patches of green, called the maidans, that occasionally break up the monotony of concrete.

A photograph claiming to be of Don Bradman will go to auction next week. However, the Sydney Morning Herald reports there is doubt over whether the lot is authentic.

The auctioneer's head of sporting memorabilia, Tom Thompson, is emphatic the verandah shot is the young Don, wearing his NSW cricket gear … But Richard Mulvaney, the director of the Bradman Museum, begged to differ.

Alex Brown writes in the Sydney Morning Herald Glenn McGrath’s withdrawal from the South Africa tour means Australia’s selectors may soon be pondering a move that until recently has been considered cricketing high treason.

Now that McGrath has ruled himself out of the Test portion of the South African tour and the series in Bangladesh, Australia's most prolific paceman has no opportunity to play Tests before the Ashes series. Though McGrath is eager to keep playing, the fact remains that by the Ashes he will be approaching the age of 37 and will have no Test-match fitness under his belt. And that will be of major concern to Trevor Hohns's panel.

Matthew Hayden usually stands at first slip to Shane Warne, but in Melbourne from Thursday he will be on opposite sides in the Queensland-Victoria Pura Cup match. He tells The Courier-Mail’s Robert Craddock he is wary of "information overload".