© Getty Images

"The Australians, in that endearingly smug way of theirs, have been so busy airbrushing history since last summer that half the population still think they hold the Ashes. Their opening batsman, Justin Langer, was recently floating the suggestion that his team had become so bored and complacent with constantly sticking it up the Poms that getting beaten was actually a brilliant idea."

Not content with only upsetting one country, Johnson then turns on Pakistan's batsmen, whose bravery he questions:

"Their coach's plan to get them ready for Harmison by pinging a cricket ball at a marble slab would have been better served by cutting a hole in the practice net in the general area of square leg in order to provide them with an escape route ...

"This is a team who congregate for five prayer meetings a day, and Harmison at full throttle on a bouncy pitch is certainly no impediment to acquiring religion."

It’s The Invincible Bill Brown’s birthday today and Phil Wilkins pays tribute to the world’s fourth-oldest Test player in the The Sydney Morning Herald

He toured with Don Bradman's 1934 and 1938 teams to England and was in his prime upon the declaration of World War II, eventually leading Australia to a two-day victory in the first Test against New Zealand in Wellington before returning to England as a member of Bradman's unbeaten Ashes side in 1948.

Now living in Aspley Gardens in Brisbane's north with Barbara, "the first lady of Australian cricket" and his wife of more than 60 years, he is as charming as ever, white hair brushed back, a gentleman in every way, humor breaking through like sunshine after rain.

The Sunday Mail’s Andrew Dawson begins with a story about how Brown was mocked by the tram conductor on the way to a Test in Sydney.

Not recognising Brown as Australia's Test rookie, the conductor watched him drag his "cricket coffin" on to the tram and ask for a ticket to Moore Park, the stop outside the SCG. “You won't get a game there today son. There is a Test match on," the conductor smirked.

People who heard the quip laughed. Brown sat silently, resisting the urge to deliver a comeback line which would have humiliated the conductor. It would not be the last time Brown was bashful about his achievements.

A list of the game’s oldest living Test players as of July 18 is here and a table of the oldest-lived players is here.

	© The Observer

Even though Steve Harmison grabbed 11 wickets and the Man-of-the-Match award, it was Monty Panesar who grabbed the media attention.

Vic Marks, in The Observer, wrote that at last Panesar had cast off the label of being something of a comedy figure:

“Panesar has dominated in a manner that has embarrassed some pundits. One or two had advocated an all-seam attack for England. In the first innings Panesar was Harmison's ally and patently the second most important member of Andrew Strauss's attack. Yesterday he was the main man.”

Huw Turberville in The Sunday Telegraph said that Panesar was now assured of Ashes selection:

“England coach Duncan Fletcher has never appeared to be fully convinced of Panesar's abilities, expressing concern at his lack of batting and fielding skills. But surely this performance will have persuaded him the 24-year-old warrants a place in England's starting line-up for their Ashes defence this winter, even if Ashley Giles regains fitness.”

	© The Mail On Sunday

“His big challenge will come in Australia this winter where the pressure on the entire England team will rise to new levels and where the home crowds will be quick to seize on any signs of weakness. By the look of it, he has the capacity to cope with them but he will have to be wary of an Australian batting force that will be intent on making life as hard as possible for him.”

Jon Culley in The Independent noted that if BBC Sport were scratching their heads for a nominee for the Sports Personality of the Year after a fairly bleak year elsewhere, they now have a clear contender. He added:

”As a display of attacking spin bowling, yesterday's performance by the 24-year-old Northamptonshire player was as good as has been witnessed from anyone in an England shirt in decades.”

	The pavilion at Old Trafford © John Dawson

The club now finds itself in the invidious position of having to rent back office space it sold in the 1960s; a two-tier stand built in the 1990s has been rarely utilised fully, and only Lancashire could name one of its ends after its greatest bowler who always bowled from the opposite end.

"For the first time since Sydney, nearly four years ago, England are coping well in a Test match without Andrew Flintoff. Which makes you wonder how he will get on without them," writes Tim de Lisle in The Times. Here are six ways how Flintoff can spend his lay off.

1. Having tea with Sourav Ganguly: Relations have been frosty since Ganguly’s less than triumphant spell with Lancashire in 2000, which Flintoff said was “like having Prince Charles on your side”. Now the Prince is even more of a pauper at Northamptonshire (first-class average yesterday morning: 3.80) and he has been dethroned by India. So he might be chuffed to be asked for some advice. And he is well placed to give it as the last visiting Test captain not to get thumped in Australia.

	Ian Bell: the polished gem to Alastair Cook's rough diamond © Getty Images

After Ian Bell and Alastair Cook's superb hundreds on the second day against Pakistan, Derek Pringle argues in the Daily Telegraph that it is Cook's which is the more valuable.

A tall left-hander, Cook can often look ungainly coming forward with that lunging front pad of his, though there is a swan-like transformation when he is fed anything wide of his off-stump, something Umar Gul and Mohammad Sami seemed happy to do. Experts talk of people possessing good hands in sport. Cook's are exceptional ones that, when given room to express themselves, can cut, drive, caress and feather the ball with a thrilling ease into the arc between extra cover and third man.

For a 21-year-old, Cook's overriding strength is to have a uniquely organised mind, one not easily seduced by thrills and spills, even on a cricket field. Perhaps a life that has experienced little beyond cricket and school lends itself perfectly to focusing on scoring runs.

And in the same paper, Cook was clearly delighted with his innings although envious of a certain someone's power...

When I was out, Kevin Pietersen said: "I wish I had your patience." I replied: "I wish I could hit it as hard as you." I have to bat long periods of time to score my runs - that's just the way I am - but I am usually able to block out all the peripheral stuff and just watch the next ball.

In The Guardian however, Steve James remarks of Bell's elegance and orthodoxy:

He looked confident enough from the off yesterday, even if his arrival at the wicket at 288 for four coincided with the crowd's first Mexican wave. That usually denotes more than a small degree of ennui with the cricket. Bell's immediate on-driven four off Umar Gul altered that. For all the calmly crafted diligence which had gone before, we were now witnessing England's most aesthetically pleasing batsman, a touch player to whom timing is a given extension of his manner - "Atherton with shots" as was once mischievously observed of him.

	© The Daily Telegraph

Yesterday, however, Steve Harmison blasted out Pakistan. While the pitch was poor, it was the fast bowling that grabbed the headlines.

Derek Pringle in The Daily Telegraph was blunt, arguing that “it was a gutless display by the visitors, with many of the later order backing away”.

But he also pointed out that while the pitch may not have been perfect, Harmison’s performance was, nevertheless, a great one.

“With his height and pace, Harmison can be a handful on most surfaces, but when given conditions that amplify his gifts he brings a fear factor that make batsmen do foolish things. Of his victims only Inzamam-ul-Haq was dismissed by a ball that did anything unexpected, in his case climbing sharply from a good length after hitting one of the many cracks pitting the surface of the pitch.”

In The Guardian, Mike Selvey was in no doubt that groundsman Peter Marron’s work was not good enough.

“The pitch did not quite play to order. It had promised pace, which it delivered, and ditto good carry. What should not have been evident yet was a nasty, if occasional, variation in bounce as the ball struck either side of the cracks, which, if the sun continues to bake the surface, will only get wider and more influential.”

Selvey was also critical of the Pakistan batsmen who, he wrote, “batted with questionable commitment and a negative mindset”.

	© The Mirror

“Harmison and England were aided by a fast, bouncy and slightly unpredictable pitch, and a woeful batting display from Pakistan. The venom of Harmison and the steep bounce he extracted from the helpful surface unsettled the tourists who showed minimal resistance.”

In Dawn, Kamran Abbasi pondered Inzamam’s decision to bat:

“Winning the toss turned into a nightmare for Inzamam-ul Haq. He is unlikely to see a quick end to the public debate about his decision to bat first on a hard, greenish track, under gloomy skies and a humid day. Forgive my meteorology but weren't those once known as ideal bowling conditions?”

He also had little time for the Pakistan batsmen:

“Most of these fair-weather youths have grown fat on the plunder of lifeless pitches. They have indeed pulled Pakistan out of some desperate situations but those rescue missions have been in conditions that have offered little for bowlers. Yesterday, a more testing examination questioned the quality of their defence. The same examination that is failed each time we tour Australia, and particularly at Perth. On this evidence we are no more ready.”

"I love maiden overs in the same way that civil servants do forms or VAT inspectors a pile of receipts," says Mike Selvey. "What is boring to one person can send waves of pleasure coursing through the veins of another. If this sounds slightly anal then part of it is the feeling of giving nothing away and maintaining control." Read on ...

Once upon a time, Shahid Mahmood might have cursed a scoreboard that showed Pakistan all out for 119, writes Richard Hobson in The Times . Yesterday, from high in the members’ area, he looked down with paternal approval. His allegiance is now firmly with England and Sajid, his son, had helped to dismiss one of the best batting teams in the world in less than two sessions.

The moment Panesar was tossed the ball yesterday, then, saw him under some pressure, says Jon Culley in The Independent. At 90 for 2, Pakistan had recovered from the latest failure of their top order. What is more, Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf, two parts of arguably the finest middle order in world cricket today, each looked well set. Yet Panesar was nerveless,

In The Guardian, David Hopps bemoans the loss of a more sporting approach to the game ... not a hankering back to the "good old days", but a valid argument that cricket might have lost some of its charm.

It has taken me a long time to realise where cricket, the most cerebral and yet joyful of games, has been going wrong. Mercilessly stifled by grim-faced commercialism, it has utterly lost its generosity of spirit.

He cites several examples of the way things used to be:

Maurice Leyland paused as he walked to the crease - to give the Somerset fielders a hot quadruple tip from the afternoon's race card. The players pooled their loose change and all four came up. The home scorer semaphored the succession of betting triumphs. In their excitement, Somerset put down four catches.

Imagine the scene. Saturday morning in the Midlands village of Balsall Common. You lug the kit bag out of your car boot, in preparation for the match you have been looking forward to all week. Then you catch sight of the opposition warming up. "Er, hang on a minute. Isn't that Shoaib Akhtar?"

On Saturday week, Shoaib Akhtar will be turning out for Berkswell. The heats on the Brummie boys, suggests Simon Briggs in The Telegraph.

	'Hard luck mate. It happens' © Getty Images

There was the pre-Gordon Ramsay tirade from Allan Border when Robin Smith innocently requested a drinks break. Charlie Griffith ran out Ian Redpath at Adelaide without a warning from the bowler. Derek Randall was similarly treated by Ewan Chatfield at Christchurch.

Talk about permutations and combinations and if Thandi Tshabalala happens to be around, chances are he would pounce at the opportunity to narrate his real-life tale. In the age of frequent-flyer miles, his journey from Brisbane to Colombo would have fetched enough for a free ticket to his dream destination. Oh and with 72-kilos of luggage in tow, he was spotted with borrowed clothes. Confused? Read the full piece in Supercricket.

Distance is measured in many different units but, so far, there has never been a unit of measurement that combines distance travelled with the amount of hassle, confusement and jetlag encountered along the way. Now there is: Thandi Miles.

“Get Freddie,” writes Mark Fuller in The Age.

"That was the catchcry within Australian cricket yesterday as state associations and their clubs salivated at the prospect of injured England all-rounder and captain Andrew Flintoff using a stint in Australian grade competition to improve his chances of playing in this summer's Ashes series."

The Sydney Morning Herald runs an AAP report with Ricky Ponting warning his side about wanting the Ashes too badly.

Derek Pringle explores the history of customized boots for fast bowlers as Andrew Flintoff heads to Germany where Adidas are fashioning a protective boot for him.

Most manufacturers of cricket equipment offered a single model of bowling boot, and probably still do, though the research and development costs that went into it would have been minimal. Dissatisfaction with the lack of choice and quality caused most serious bowlers to explore other alternatives, which led many to specialist cobblers like Whiting's and Ian Mason in Sutton Coldfield, and Hope Sweeney in Australia.

Frist, the good news. One of the most respected Australian cricket commentators thinks that England have a good chance of retaining the Ashes. Now the bad news. Richie Benaud is taking the credit for encouraging Shane Warne to play one more series in England, in 2009, writes Patrick Kidd in The Times.

Benaud may have said his last “Morning everyone” on British television, but his task of lifting England fans out of despondency is not over. “I hold exactly the same position that I held 18 months ago, before the last series,” he said. “I said that if England had a fast-bowling attack that was fit and bowling well, they would win the Ashes.

"The most remarkable bowling feat in the history of Test cricket, Jim Laker’s 19 for 90 against the might of Australia at Old Trafford in 1956, could have happened 100 years ago, not 50, for all the available pictorial evidence there is of it," writes John Woodcock in The Times.

Unlike Muttiah Muralitharan, Laker bowled off breaks in the classic manner. Other than relentless accuracy and the fact that their stock ball turned from off to leg, the two have little in common. Laker was not a conjuror in the way that Muralitharan is. He relied entirely upon line, flight, length and pivot, although, to the young cricketer, he always emphasised the importance of spin. “Concentrate first,” he would say, “on learning how to spin the ball. Then hammer away to control it with length and direction.”

Read David Llewellyn's email conversation with Steve Waugh on topics as diverse as which four people in history Waugh would want to invite to a dinner party, whether Australia had it coming in the 2005 Ashes series, what his predictions are for 2006-07 battle, and whether he is a culture vulture or adrenalin junkie.

I think Australia will start favourites. I think it will be a pretty close series. I think it will be 2-1 or 3-2. There won't be much in it. Obviously those scores are in Australia's favour. That goes without saying.

	Fraser: 'Flintoff's problem is caused by the position in which he places his foot when he bowls' © Getty Images

"The handling of Flintoff, along with that of Michael Vaughan, Simon Jones and Ashley Giles, who were advised to rest before undergoing surgery, has put the medical set-up at the England and Wales Cricket Board under the spotlight," writes Angus Fraser in The Independent.

The left foot of most right-arm bowlers is placed flat on the ground and points down the pitch towards the batsman as the ball is delivered. Yet Flintoff initially lands on his toes with his foot pointing towards fine leg. He then twists it straight as his right arm comes over to bowl, a movement that places a huge strain on a tendon at the back of the ankle. And it is this motion, rather than the tiny fragments of bone in the joint - the diagnosis incorrectly given by the England and Wales Cricket Board after the Trent Bridge Test against Sri Lanka - that is the root of Flintoff's injury.

As England face the rest of the season without Andrew Flintoff, Christopher Martin-Jenkins says, in The Times, that "victory against Pakistan now would be a bonus."

When Flintoff had his last operation in January last year, to remove a bone spur on the heel of the same foot, the hope was that rehabilitation would take 12 weeks, but in the event he did not bowl again for 14 weeks and he was used sparingingly in the series against Bangladesh, before starting to bowl flat out against Australia three weeks later.

Those who paid careful attention to the glorious triumphs of the England Test side last summer may have noticed, among the unparalleled hoopla and hullabaloo of the press, mention made from time to time of David English and the Bunbury Cricket Club, muses Stephen Fry in The Telegraph.

	'the longer he [Adil Rashid] bowled against Warwickshire, the better he got' © Getty Images

Christopher Lyles in The Observer writes about Adil Rashid, the 18-year-old legspinner who made his debut against Warwickshire last week, taking 6 for 67 in their second innings to hand Yorkshire a crushing victory

‘Adil's a lovely lad who bristles with a really nice confidence,' Byas says. 'He obviously has limited experience at the moment, but he is capable of batting in the top four or five in domestic cricket. He is also a magnificent spinner - the longer he bowled against Warwickshire, the better he got. Adil is just one of a number of young cricketers from an Asian background who we think an awful lot about. And if they're good enough, they'll play.'

Rashid is only the second Yorkshire-born player of Asian extraction to play for the club in a Championship game, a sentiment Lyles makes extensive mention of:

This is, of course, the same Yorkshire who have, in some quarters, been pilloried down the years for not giving Asians a fair crack of the whip. While there may have been more than a grain of truth in the accusations a decade or two ago, it is demonstrably not the case now. Apart from the Bradford-born Rashid, there are currently a further seven players of Asian background at the county's academy and plenty more in the various age-group sides.

A fascinating, positive article well worth reading.

	Paul Collingwood after his 186 at Lords: 'What the hell am I doing here?' © Getty Images

Cricinfo’s own Andrew Miller interviews Kevin Pietersen in the Sunday Telegraph:

What's the toughest situation you've ever faced as a batsman?

I've played in some really tough situations since I made my debut but I honestly don't think anything will ever be as bad as walking to the wicket against South Africa at The Wanderers [in January 2005]. That was a massive series for me, I was back in the country where I'd come from and I copped so much stick, all day, every day.

In the same paper Andrew Strauss - who in the continued absence of Andrew Flintoff, will captain England against Pakistan at Old Trafford on Thursday – writes his weekly diary, and insists England have the “raw ingredients” to beat sides in the absence of Flintoff. He does, however, hint that the bowlers need to improve on their showing at Lord’s:

We showed last week that we have the raw ingredients to beat Pakistan without Flintoff, and in some ways being forced to play without him may in time reduce the reliance that we place on his performances. The difficulty in losing a genuine all-rounder from the team is that it affects the balance of the side. He does the job of two players, but can only be replaced by one. Ian Bell showed that he is more than capable of filling Flintoff's boots with the bat in his hand, but extra pressure is put on our bowlers in his absence. In situations like this, the senior players, those who have experienced the rough and tumble of Test cricket for a while, will have to put their hands up and make up for our loss.

In the Sunday Mail, Chris Foy reveals that despite Paul Collingwood’s increasing maturity as a middle-order batsman, he is still painfully wary of assuming he has “made it.”

"The other day, to me, was as perfect as it gets," he said. "Everything about it — the Lord's full house, the Long Room. You probably can't describe to people what the Long Room was like as I walked through.

"It was just lined with people giving me a standing ovation. I was thinking, 'What the hell am I doing here?'. I was walking off Lord's to a reception like that and it was genuinely surreal. I have to pinch myself."

"It has taken a long time to get into the Test side — I have been touring since the last Ashes series in Australia. That's why I want to make sure that spot is mine. Anyway, I'm probably the kind of character who likes to push himself so I don't necessarily want to feel too comfortable."

Over in the Sunday Times, David Gower implores England to resurrect the attacking instincts and sheer boldness which helped down the Australians last summer:

After all, England out-thought the Aussies last year, and it appeared that they had learnt the art of taking the fight to the opposition first. Only a similar approach will do for the rest of the summer against Pakistan. As we know from the winter tour there, they are not a side to be beaten easily; indeed, they are ranked above England at the moment.

	Is Panesar really as poor a tailender as he is made out to be? © Getty Images

Scyld Berry in the Sunday Telegraph suggests that England are sending mixed signals to Monty Panesar, while dampening the myth that Panesar is a genuine No. 11:

In the previous Test, the third against Sri Lanka, Monty Panesar scored 26 off only 28 balls at No 11. Panesar swept Muttiah Muralitharan for four and six, and when he eased Lasith Malinga through midwicket for three you could tell he had spent some of last winter at Darren Lehmann's academy in Adelaide.

Now if England had wanted to integrate Panesar into their side, to give him encourage-ment, to tell him he has a long-term future, they would have promoted him in the first Test - his seventh in all - against Pakistan. And they didn't. Matthew Hoggard batted at No 9, even though he had a right hand with six stitches in it and has passed 20 only three times in his entire career of 55 Tests.

[...]

By typecasting Panesar as a No 11, England have made plain that he is in the Test team on a temporary basis, almost on sufferance, a stand-in for Ashley Giles. Giles is the better cricketer, but the Sky commentary team almost to a man said last week that Panesar is the better bowler. Given some promotion, Panesar could turn into a capable tailender; Giles, after all, reached 20 only once in his first nine Tests.

The Old Trafford Test between England and Pakistan starting on Thursday will mark the 50th anniversary of one of the greatest of all individual cricketing deeds - Jim Laker's 19 wickets against Australia. Read Christopher Martin-Jenkins' description of the match in The Times.

As a sporting achievement it was a freak, the cricketing equivalent of Foinavon’s victory in the Grand National, Bob Beamon’s long jump record in the 1968 Olympic Games, or Tiger Woods’s first victory in the Masters, 12 strokes clear of all the others.

Saurab Chatterjee was a frustrated young man after waiting three years in the Bengal team reserves.With no state-level opportunities in sight, Dr Ali Bacher had an offer he couldn't refuse - to play league cricket in South Africa, and also be the first Indian to do so.Read what the latest star of the Gauteng Lions has to say about his experiences, in BBC News.

"I jumped at the chance. I talked to my parents (who live in Calcutta as do his three brothers and a sister) who said if the standard of cricket was good, I should take up the offer. I have played continuously for the club since then."

	There is no need to worry about Irfan © AFP

His mind, body and spirit will recover and he will reappear not as a colt but as a thoroughbred. A fine young cricketer has come across hazards others encounter as teenagers.

Ray Illingworth recalls the day Mike Atherton was accused of ball-tampering.

The first I was aware of any problem was when the South Africa team manager, Mike Procter, came to see me on the Saturday afternoon and said: "You'd better have a look at this." I thought he was joking at first but, when I saw the TV footage of Mike Atherton with the ball, I agreed with Procter that it didn't look right

	Flintoff might be spending a lot more time on the sidelines © Getty Images

England are dreading the catastrophic news that Andrew Flintoff might be unfit for the second Test against Pakistan at Old Trafford, or worse. Here's what the papers had to say.

Far from playing again this week, Flintoff must be fearing the possibility that an arthroscopy on the left ankle will now be advised to deal with the tiny fragments of bone or crystal shown by a scan on June 5, writes Christopher Martin-Jenkins in The Times. Any operation would mean a further six weeks of rehabilitation, leaving the possibility of only two four-day games in September before final decisions are taken about his fitness to captain England in the Ashes series.

Angus Fraser says, in The Independent that the Ashes should be Flintoff's priority. "The first Test against Australia in Brisbane is now only four months away and it is this series that should dominate the thoughts of Flintoff's medical team when they meet today. If Flintoff's misses the second Test he has no chance of playing in the third at Headingley, which starts three days later. It would then appear pointless to rush him back for the fourth so it is the Ashes that should take centre stage."

"If Flintoff is out, England will almost certainly revert to the side that emerged from the first Test at Lord's with a tame draw," writes Andy Wilson in The Guardian. "There is one possibility of a change, however, and that would be to replace the underperforming all-rounder Liam Plunkett with the Lancashire fast bowler Sajid Mahmood."

According to Derek Pringle "Flintoff's absence, should the selectors decide to leave him out when they name the England squad tomorrow, would mean a reprieve not just for Andrew Strauss, as the stand-in captain for a stand-in, but also for Ian Bell, the man earmarked to be jettisoned despite making a hundred in the first Test."

As the end of his amazing career approaches, John Buchanan shares some of the highlights with Phil Wilkins in The Sydney Morning Herald.

Adam Gilchrist will be the same because of his ability to change the course of a game and what it has meant for selectors and people looking at wicketkeepers. The Alan Knotts and Rodney Marshes and Ian Healys of the world began to change the whole phenomenon of what a keeper should be and how he should bat. But Adam has obviously taken that another step further.

"Maybe I'm getting a bit philosophical but that's a major issue," Langer said.

"After the impact of the Ashes I'm amazed that every kid in England isn't able to watch cricket."

Sky's coverage of the matches with Sri Lanka and Pakistan this summer is reportedly attracting an average of around 200,000 viewers, compared with the 9m Channel 4 regularly achieved during the epic Ashes series last year.

"I have been in this country for four weeks now and I've seeen maybe half an hour of cricket on TV," Langer said.

More at the BBC.

Brian Lara is in Dubai while West Indies take time out from the international merry-go-round, and while there he talked to local journalists about his views of the modern game, making it clear that Test cricket was where his heart lay.

“Test cricket is my game. It is a game I really love to play. Before being asked to captain the team for the third time, I tried to guide my career in the direction of playing more Test cricket and less one-day games."

He also gave his views on Twenty20.

"I don't think it tests the ability of players like Tests do. But it is good for the crowd. You are playing a sport, and sport is all about spectators."

A sobering story from the Sun of a 16-year-old pilot who died when his Cessna light aircraft crashed on a cricket pitch in Southend, Essex. It seems that Sam Cross deliberately steered the plane away from houses as it was coming down. One eyewitness said:

“I suspect he deliberately pointed the plane to make sure he didn’t hit anything. Half an hour earlier the field would have been full of children coming home from school.”

Prince didn't choose or ask to be captain, Arthur didn't arrange for Kallis to have elbow surgery or encourage his captain to go a little over the top on his pre-tour holiday in Knysna. Whether South Africa head to Sri Lanka to face a carnage or not remains to be seen. Neil Manthorp in Supercricket recommends they just smile through it all, no matter what.

In fact, many of the chief protagonists in the French Revolution (before the common people started to win) were led to the guillotine with a smile, a cheer and wave to the crowds. There was something very noble about having your head sliced off in front of a crowd of colleagues.

Ben Dorries reports in The Courier-Mail about the pace race between Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson.

The good friends and Australia A team-mates are locked in a break-neck battle to determine the quicker man and impress national selector Merv Hughes. "We are having a great pace battle and we are feeding off each other, bowling faster and faster," Johnson said. "It's a great challenge having someone quick like Shaun bowling at the other end. It pumps me up and makes me bowl quicker."

No, not that one ... When Liam Botham took five wickets on his county debut aged 18, England thought they’d found a chip off the old block. Sadly for the cricketing fraternity, Liam thought better of trying to cope with the expectation of emulating his father and headed instead for rugby, where he ended up playing both codes. Cricket’s loss was rugby’s gain, until injury cut short his career aged just 29. To that end he’s been rewarded with a testimonial match … of cricket … which will see Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen line up against Shane Warne at the Rose Bowl this Sunday in a Twenty20 fest. Well, if your dad’s Ian Botham and he can’t pull in a few favours, who can? He’ll be there, too, of course. If you fancy heading down there, tickets are priced £10 for adults and £5 for children.

'Whispering Death' aka Michael Holding aka Mickey walks tall with a Civil Law degree from the University of East Anglia for his contribution to cricket. Read on in The Jamaica Observer.

"My mother was a teacher and she used to tell me when I was a young man, 'Mikey, I know you love sport, but I want you to remember one thing: you've got to get a piece of paper behind you.' Well, now I have"

	Under fire: Hoggard and his colleagues © Martin Williamson

“The situation on the final day was crying out for the ball to be pitched up but instead our batsmen were given plenty of wayward, short-pitched bowling (by Liam Plunkett as well as Harmison). It was too easy for us to pick off the bad balls and Harmison has to think about his bowling a little bit more.”

Just for good measure, Younis went on to say:

“It is wickets that you have to take as a fast bowler - that is how you earn your living - but sometimes simply banging it in short is not enough. You have to use your brain as well as your brawn.”

Given that Pakistan conceded 824 runs in the match and failed to bowl England out either time, some on the England side might argue that Younis should be concentrating on sorting out his own problems before attacking the opposition.

	Panesar's foibles have endeared him to all in rapid times. But can he deliver? © Getty Images

Steve James writes in The Guardian that

the quickie was expected to exploit any variable bounce, but he simply did not deliver. All the great bowlers have always attacked from the Pavilion end here. Qualms about his action meant Harmison spent much of this match operating from the Nursery end..

All eyes were then on Monty Panesar.

From round the wicket the first delivery drew Faisal Iqbal forward and snorted past his outside edge in a classical piece of left-arm orthodox spin bowling. Some observers even swore that there had been a deflection. Television technology demurred.

England's newest pair of spinners - Panesar and Pietersen - are definitely not their secret weapon for the Ashes, despite Panesar confounding Iqbal with his first ball after lunch and Pietersen claiming his first Test wicket with a bit of Hollywood. Read The Times for more.

The first Test draw was more of a sparring match than a proper bout writes Simon Hughes in The Telegraph

The tempo suited the original heavyweight, Inzamam-ul-Haq, who does everything at his own leisurely pace. He prepared for his innings before play with the kind of net you associate with the village players of Hambledon. No pads, no gloves, and stroke a dozen gentle half volleys back to the bowler before heading off for a cup of tea...He ambled to the wicket, his beard and rotund form making him look like a latter-day WG. His first-innings dismissal had had the essence of Grace, too, Inzi getting his legs in a bit of a tangle, then looking round in disbelief at the disturbed stumps. You almost expected him to mutter the Urdu for "Strong wind today umpire, isn't it?"

The Herald Sun has tracked down a serial scalper who used at least three addresses to grab Test seats to sell at massive mark-ups on ebay.

“The batch of Ashes tickets Craig Jones was waiting for will be cancelled,” the paper reported. “But most have already been sold to English fans, who face huge financial losses having already booked airfares and accommodation.”

Imran Khan was more than just Pakistan's cricket captain. He was a warrior, an ambassador and a playboy of the Western world. But after retirement and divorce from one of Britain's most glamorous heiresses, he is dedicating his life to saving his country from political corruption. Tim Adams, of the Observer, travelled to his secluded villa to talk to him about his mission.

The most alluring figure at Lord's was Imran Khan, writes Mark Nicholas.

	'A moment of madness' - Ian Bell is run out trying to get Andrew Strauss to his century © Getty Images

Lord's saw the beauty and the beast as Andrew Strauss' rush of blood proved his undoing, says David Hopps in the Guardian. Mark Nicholas calls it as a moment of madness. Read Martin Johnson's take on the subject here.

You could say that Bell was unlucky to be run out by a direct hit from Inzamam, which is cricket's equivalent to being killed by a falling meteor while out walking the dog on Dartmoor. If International Cricket Council regulations permitted, the Pakistani captain would employ a butler to do his fielding for him.

From supercharged leg-break to swish of the bat Afridi ensures there is never a dull moment, writes Lawrence Booth.

When Afridi is not running an impatient hand through his luxuriant mane, he is generally chuntering at anyone who has had the temerity to steal a single, or throwing his hands up in pantomime-dame despair as a brisk leggie rips unjustly past the outside edge. On Friday he sent down an 80mph bullet to Monty Panesar, which may have been Test cricket's fastest leg-break since Bill O'Reilly called it a day in 1946. It raised eyebrows and oozed irritation.

Simon Briggs, of The Telegraph, watches Danish Kaneria and Shahid Afridi spin their web at Lords and compares their respective arts - Kaneria, the thinker, vs Afridi, the pounder.

It has been a 12-year wait for England to declare both innings, says Simon Hughes.

Half the year has drifted by already, and Kevin Mitchell's thoughts are turning towards the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards. For precisely the reason that there have been no personalities to speak of in any of England's major sports. Cricket, rugby, football? Nope, nope, nope.

This time last year, of course, there were a whole team of possibles lining up. They all wore white and they would go on to take part in what Richie Benaud described as the best Ashes series he had seen. There were heroes from one to 11 in the England cricket team. Not so many now. If they retain the Ashes this winter, they will be back in contention, but they have had a fairly ordinary time of it since sending Ricky Ponting's men home so chastened last September

In the midst of all the uncertainty surrounding West Indian cricket, the A team are embarking on a tour of England, one that, Tony Cozier feels, is likely to be as pointless as a club jaunt.

New South Wales is buzzing. The new recruitment campaign, aimed at raising the number of junior players in the state, is working and who better to have as a face of the project than Michael Clarke?

New Zealand aren't able to rustle up a single meaningful match while the rest of the world is talking a about player burnout. Is it really a problem, asks Dylan Cleaver in the New Zealand Herald.

	John Stern 'So the paradox is that Jones, picked for his batting, is becoming a sounder keeper and a less effective batsman. How far will the tables turn?' © Getty Images

Mike Atherton tries hard to find the problem area of Mohammad Yousuf and Inzamam-ul-Haq.

To get an insider's view on the weaknesses of Inzamam and Yousuf I asked Ramiz Raja, the former Pakistan opening batsman and now commentator, how best to dismiss these two batsmen. He thought for a while and then said 'run them out'. The problem for England is that I'm sure he was being serious.

As England's bowlers toiled against a resilient Pakistan, Mike Brearley, in the Observer, blames climate change.

John Stern, writing in the Sunday Times, believes that Geraint Jones holds advantage over rival Chris Read.

Simon Wilde feels that in the absence of Andrew Flintoff, it is vital for Harmison to stand up and deliver.

Harmison hasn’t always been big on responsibility. At school, he was inclined to go missing from class and in his early days as an England cricketer didn’t always do the management’s bidding. It’s no coincidence that he really doesn’t like bowling at Lord’s. He says it’s not just the slope that makes him feel uncomfortable, it’s the whole place. And why should he feel at home at a place so redolent of authority? The great feature of his annus mirabilis of 2004 was that he did lead from the front on a regular basis, from his astonishing demolition job in Jamaica to his surgical excision of the same West Indies side at The Oval. Unfortunately, he found the view from the top of the world rankings vertigo-inducing and he has been slipping towards earth ever since.

Andrew Strauss asserts the England team are far from a spent force.

	Paul Collingwood symbolises the rise of Durham © Getty Images

Rick Broadbent, of the Times, is also not impressed with Jones.

His 18 improved on his averages in his last two Test series and also helped him to a world record. Jones has now gone longer than anyone else, 45 Test innings, without getting a duck. ... Alas, that just shows how numbers can get in the way. The truth was that his main achievement on a lustrous Lord’s day was to press Chris Read’s case for inclusion in the team.

Paul Collingwood marks the rise of Durham with a flourish, writes Simon Hughes.

With a low back lift, he punches rather than assaults the ball, chipping it around the green with deft placement and control. You could bank on him getting down in two from anywhere. Becoming something of a spin specialist, he has, in seven Tests against sub- continental teams this year, made only three less runs than Kevin Pietersen, and at a significantly better average. ...With a slightly crooked bat in defence, he might yet come unstuck against bouncy Australian bowlers, but it won't be for the want of trying.

Amongst the newcomers rushed into action, Alastair Cook alone has proved that he belongs in the highest company, writes Peter Roebuck in The Hindu.

Flintoff's appeal is not limited to field of play. Simon Briggs reports that thousands watched England's colossus practice in the nets.

Revolution? Panama hats and blazers still set trend at Lord's. Jim White reports in The Telegraph.

Funny as it may seem, but for the first time, yesterday was the first time David Shepherd watched a Lord's Test as a spectator. Geoffrey Dean of The Times caught up with 'Shep', watching England bat, proudly sporting his bacon-and-egg MCC tie.

He admitted to popping up to the umpires’ room in the lunch break to say hello to Steve Bucknor and Simon Taufel. Bucknor, with whom he stood on many occasions.

As Pakistan's tour of England gets underway, the thousands of immigrant Pakistanis face a dilemma of which team to support - their country of origin or their adopted country. Jack Shencker of The Guardian spoke to a few immigrants, who had some interesting things to say.

"I would normally support Pakistan, not just because they are the underdog in terms of technology and resources but also because both the players and the country want it more"

Five dropped chances by Pakistan on the opening day threw Bob Woolmer's theory of IPS (Ideal Performance State) into The Thames. David Hopps digs deep into the murky world of sporting acronyms with an original slant. Read on in The Guardian.

Please try to concentrate, otherwise you may well be dismissed as GROLI, which happens to mean Guardian Readers Of Limited Intellect, as if such a thing could possibly exist.

Dravid, spoke to S. Ram Mahesh, of the Sportstar, after winning a historic series in the West Indies.

There's a perception that the captain and the coach are getting the team they want, and that it is a bad thing. Your thoughts.

For a long time I kept hearing the argument that a captain and a coach should get what they want! Maybe an impression gets created that we get what we want. I'm here to tell you that that's not always the case. Sometimes what I might want and what Greg Chappell might want may not be the same thing, so it's not that me and Greg agree on every single issue. The selectors have their point of view as well

And Makarand Waingankar feels Greg Chappell needs to show more tact while handling Irfan Pathan.

Greg Chappell, who publicly said that the all-rounder was not considered because he had lost his confidence, would do well to realise that the mindset of the Indian fast bowlers has insecurity as its core in spite of the tremendous hard work put in by them to reach the top.

Owing to Graeme Smith's ankle injury, Ashwell Prince will lead South Africa on their tour of Sri Lanka in August. He answers a few questions on his reaction to the appointment and his plans to counter Muralithraran from his fans on News24.com.

Haroon Lorgat, the convenor of selectors, called me around midday on Tuesday to break the news. I'd heard that Smithy had injured his ankle and was in doubt for the tour. Obviously it's a massive honour to lead your country and the phone has been ringing off the hook with well-wishers so no complaints - it's been fantastic.

Martin Crowe had much to say about ICC's '15-degree bend' and a lot more during the annual Cowdrey lecture. In The Guardian Mike Selvey didn't agree with some of the finer points of the discourse but tells of an intriguing conversation between Crowe and Rameez Raja about New Zealand's tour of Pakistan in 1990-91.

Crowe had a fine series personally but remembers, during his century in the second Test in Lahore, a game played on a green top with a lush outfield, picking up the ball and noticing chunks removed from one side. In that innings Waqar Younis took 7 for 86 and Wasim Akram, he said, was unplayable. "It was the first we really saw of reverse swing. They said it had roughed up on the outfield." Next Test, Crowe recounted, they decided that they too should have some of this. So they took bottle tops on to the field with them, the better to gouge the ball. Pakistan were blown away, bowled out for 102 by a medium-pacer called Chris Pringle, who took 7 for 52. A dozen wickets in the game for Waqar meant that the Kiwis lost that match, too, but at least they felt there had been some equality.

Several top former West Indies Test cricketers and administrators have paid glowing tribute to Joey Carew for his service to West Indies cricket. Read them in The Trinidad Guardian.

"I believe that his departure will leave a void that will be difficult to fill"

A three-day match against Leicestershire, a one-day bash in Scotland, a four-day fixture against England A at Canterbury and a Twenty20 slog, irrelevant to the longer form of the game, has been the sum total of our preparation before the first Test, which starts today, writes Bob Woolmer in The Times ahead of Pakistan's first Test against England at Lord's.

I am expecting a dogfight, not least because positive results are normally obtained on three of the four Test grounds we are playing on, namely Lord’s, Headingley and the Oval...

Pakistan’s preparation going into the first Test of the tour can hardly be described as satisfactory, as their suspect batting has had little exposure to front-line English bowlers, writes Asif Iqbal in The Khaleej Times. He adds that for Danish Kaneria to succeed,he needs the weight of runs to bowl at so the onus is on the batsmen to perform.

With so many injuries and the batting having had limited exposure on this tour so far, I would expect Pakistan to approach the Lords Test with a great deal of caution.

Matthew Hoggard has been spending time in an oxygen chamber to speed up his recovery from a hand injury. It wasn't the most exciting experience but he hopes it will help him play against Pakistan at Lord's. Read about Hoggard's time in the chamber in The Times.

My ears usually pop shortly after going in, but then the effect is the same as taking a dive 14 metres under water. It’s basically like taking a dry dive. I haven’t dived properly before. I’ve always liked the idea of it, but I’ve actually been pretty scared. Unsurprisingly, it’s not quite as scary doing it without any water, but one bright spot of this recuperation process is that I think I may have conquered my fear of diving. So next time I have a holiday, I think I may be heading underwater.

"Non first-class cricket in Pakistan has been played with a tape ball in every galli (lane) and rural field for 20 years," writes Osman Samiuddin in The Guardian. "Parallel to this period has been an assembly line of fast bowlers, able to extract reverse swing almost on demand."

Until Andrew Flintoff and Simon Jones last summer, old cricket balls were mostly useful in Pakistani hands. Explanations for reverse swing came within quotation marks, accompanied by winks and nods - "working hard on the ball" or "rough outfields help" mostly meant "show me a finger nail/bottle top and I'll show you a collapse". Last summer reverse swing became a science. Vindicated Pakistanis blustered. They might also have pondered the role of the tape ball - a tennis ball covered with electrical tape.

In The Daily Telegraph former UK sports minister Kate Hoey reveals that the Blair government’s obsession for creating red tape wherever possible now extends to club bars. She quotes the example of Guildford in Surrey. Last year, their bar licence for the annual festival was £10.

“It now costs £906 for the cricket club to ensure that they can run a beer tent -something that has always operated in the past with no public nuisance problems. They must also have a designated premises supervisor, who holds an accredited licensing qualification, requiring an examination involving much time and commitment.”

As Hoey says, Guildford might be able to absorb the costs. Many smaller clubs won’t. Add into the mix a swathe of ridiculous forms for volunteers, scorers, umpires, and it is not hard to see why many people are giving up rather than submitting themselves to often unnecessary controls and checks.

It will be a pleasure to return to the majesty of Test cricket after the frenzy of the football, writes Mike Marqusee in The Hindu.

While kids in England were watching football on the telly, their counterparts in Pakistan were bowling and batting in whatever space they could find and with whatever implements came to hand. As in India, the route from the streets to the stadiums is circuitous and littered with obstacles and injustices. But in Pakistan it tends often to be a shorter leap, and more of the elan of street cricket — the hustle, the improvisatory spirit — survives in the Pakistani game. Combine that with sophistication of technique and discipline, and you have a cricket team that's both competitive and entertaining.

Greg Chappell has impressed certain loyalists and made friends in Indian cricket circles, and then some. Maninder Singh, the former Indian Test spinner, has criticised the Australian's one-day tactics and India's preparation for next year's World Cup. Read on in The Hindustan Times as Maninder takes shots at Chappell.

Inzamam-ul-Haq tells Donald McRae, of the Guardian, he is confident of repeating his success from last winter on his final tour of England.

..it is reassuring to hear that Inzamam is not about to resume the misguided diet which almost ruined his career in 2003. "I never do that again," he promises while patting his stomach gently. "Just before the World Cup I work harder than I ever did. I lose a lot of weight - 17 kilograms!" He shudders. "Can you believe it? It was too much. I didn't score any runs without those 17 kilograms. And that's when I got dropped from the Test team. It hurt me so much that I say I'm not willing to play again. But after three months I realise that I'm only 33 and have many years ahead of me. So I decide to come back.

	'My rhythm wasn't quite what I'd have liked it to be - but I was a bit excited to be back' © Getty Images

Following his superb spell of 3 for 4 in his comeback match for Lancashire yesterday, Andrew Flintoff says his ankle is feeling a lot stronger. Richard Rae at The Guardian has more.

"But I was confident and I trusted in my ankle, it's a lot stronger after the rehab. I didn't have any strapping on it. I've had another scan and I'm still waiting for the reports, but I'm hopeful. I need to bowl more overs now, so I'll play in the Twenty20 at Headingley on Tuesday, and in the championship match against Kent, and see how I come out of that."

He confirmed he had a lost over a stone in weight.

"The one thing I have to do now is a constant rehab programme. Bowlers do have areas of weakness, and with me it's my ankle, and I'll have to keep working on it for the rest of my career. My rhythm wasn't quite what I'd have liked it to be - but I was a bit excited to be back."

Tebbit would no doubt feel a bit smug if he read what The News had to say about many Pakistani immigrants in Britain today.

Qureshi... the president of the Islamic Society in Britain, said second generation British Pakistanis like himself and their third generation children often felt closer to England than Pakistan... "my son also wants to go and support England against Pakistan."

But there are others who feel differently.

“We, as a minority people, should strictly believe in the rules of the country we live in but equally we should not then lose our culture and background,”... said Khalid Hussain, a teacher in his early 40s who lives in Yorkshire, northern England.

Putting England’s endless injury list to one side for a moment, Mike Atherton concentrates on the Pakistan side and their abundance of talent and flair in today's Sunday Telegraph.

It is always a treat to watch Pakistan play because their players bring an instinctiveness that is increasingly hard to find in a modern game dominated by a uniformity of coaching methods. This is because the game in Pakistan is still largely unstructured, because their players learn to play the game by playing tape ball on any patch of scrub land that can be found.

If that wasn’t a daunting enough prospect for England to contend with, he sounds a further warning of the support Pakistan will receive.

That particular tour [in England, 2001] was played to a backdrop of race riots in Oldham, Burnley and other northern industrial towns. The issue of identity and race is a more complex one than simply a case of being either 'one of us' or 'one of them' and little that has happened in the intervening years suggests that Pakistan will not enjoy the same level of support that they enjoyed then. England's players should brace themselves for a fierce time on and, especially at Headingley and Old Trafford, off the field.

	Kevin Shine, England's bowling coach © Getty Images

Under the guidance of Troy Cooley, England's bowlers were a tougher lot who rarely broke down. No sooner did Cooley depart for Australia to take up the role of fast bowling coach, than the same Ashes-winning ensemble - or the Horsemen of the Apocalypse - have either fallen apart, broken down, or learnt to use the cricket ball as a watering hose. Sizing up Cooley with Kevin Shine, his replacement, Scyld Berry feels that England's specialist coach needs to be more of a psychologist. Read more at The Telegraph.

It's been three years and 32 Tests since Andrew Flintoff last missed a Test for England, and it has shown in the remarkable run of performances the team has put together in that time. But, on Thursday morning at Lord's, his team-mates will have to look elsewhere for inspiration. Mike Selvey, writing in The Guardian, suggests that the man who was widely lampooned for his early-season performances, Monty Panesar, could well provide the X-factor.

It's time to wake up. The idea that Michael Vaughan is still the 'undisputed' captain of England is laughable. With Alastair Cook and Paul Collingwood among the runs, Vaughan might still have to earn his place in the side, writes Mike Selvey in The Guardian.

His knee, in other words, is shot, its condition chronic. In which case this is no longer about getting Vaughan fit for cricket. It is about trying to make sure that by the time he enters middle age he is not doing so on a stick.

Angus Fraser however feels it's still premature to write off Vaughan for good, looking back at his own career-threatening injuries. Fraser recounts his tale in The Independent.

"Why me?" is the sentiment that prevails as you consider a life without cricket, but it is the uncertainty that gets you down.

Today is the funeral of Fred Trueman, who died on Saturday, and the tributes continue to flood in. The BBC are putting together a programme full of archive footage and the country's cricket writers reflect on his career. In The Daily Telegraph, Derek Pringle gives his personal memories of first listening to Trueman on the radio and a further insight into this extraordinary character.

It would be another two decades before I saw film of Fred bowling in a Test match. The footage was from the 1963 series against the West Indies, considered by many to be the apogee of Fred's career. Yet what struck me, and still does, is not just the marvellous side-on bowling action but the run up, which is probably best described as a bounding skip, something not coached these days.

	© Getty Images

Heffer offers a slightly left-of-centre insight to the man:

“Fred was rarely injured and missed Test matches usually only because, in his profoundly English bloody-mindedness, he had been caustically rude to someone in officialdom. His successors, none of whom has yet reached his league, spend more time recuperating from strains and stress fractures than they do engaging the enemy.”

He also trots out some anecdotes, but not necessarily the ones used in most other obituaries:

“Trueman berated some Yorkshire batsmen for finding Wes Hall, the equally terrifying West Indian, so hard to play. When he, too, was knocked over by Hall, one of his team-mates had the nerve to point out that it wasn't so easy as it looked. ‘Ah'd 'ave been all right,’ retorted Fred, ‘if I 'adn't slipped on that pile of s--- tha'd dropped out there’.”

But it is his conclusion which not only sums up the man, but also the way that the world has changed:

“In his way, he had his cult of celebrity, but this was not a man who would be worshipped for the sunglasses he wore or the women he stepped out with; all he wanted to be judged by, and would be judged by, was what he could do on the field of play. He died on a day when hideously overpaid grown men wept over having lost a game of football, and one of them assisted his side by engaging in the simian action of stamping on the private parts of a rival, and being sent off. They never did that in Fred's day.”

Delightful article in tomorrow's The Age newspaper:

But my spirits needed a quicker lift than waiting for the debut of Tom Hawkins. Thankfully, I found solace in Yani, the T-shirted manager here. "Where you from?" he asked in that Greek way that wants to know. When I told him, he recited the postcodes of all the Melbourne suburbs on the Epping line. "Northcote, 3070. Thornbury, 3071." He had once lived in Brunswick.

He was the rarest of all things — a Greek cricket lover. "You let the f---ing Pommies win the Ashes?" he said, throwing his hands in the air. "After 19 years. And you let the Swiss win the America's Cup. What a joke. They don't have the ocean."

He continued: "Is Merv Hughes still a selector?"

"Yes," I said. He shook his head. "And so is David Boon."

"Bab-Boon," he laughed. "You tell that fat Tasmanian there is a Greek in Santorini who knows cricket is the beautiful game. The Greeks think soccer is the beautiful game. But it is not so strategic as cricket."

He then told me about being in London in the '70s ("f---ing Geoffrey Boycott!") and the beauty of Viv Richards, Gordon Greenidge, Gavaskar, Kapil, Manjrekar, Lillee and Thommo. He asked about the Chappells.

The ICC might like to take a leaf out of FIFA’s book – and that’s not something we ever thought would be written here. The endless protestations about not being able to get involved in domestic issues which the ICC wield like an invisibility cloak whenever anyone mentions Zimbabwe have been put into context by FIFA’s suspension of Greece because of excessive government control in the sport.

The Daily Telegraph reported that FIFA acted because the Greek government had exerted levels of interference “not in line with the principles of the FIFA statutes regarding the independence of member associations and the independence of the decision-making process of the football-governing body in each country."

Compared with the shenanigans surrounding the politiciasation of the Zimbabwe board, the Greeks are pussycats. The difference is that those who run the global game are not prepared to sit and look in the other direction.

Put two doctors in the same room and you’ll get a breakdown in opinion. Put two doctors in a room with an England cricketer and you’ll get a statement from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) saying everything is fine, then the player breaks down.

An excellent and forthright piece from Simon Wilde in today's Sunday Times

	Strauss' introduction to international captaincy has been a forgettable experience, but an invaluable learning curve © Getty Images

A very interesting interview by Michael Atherton of Andrew Strauss in today's Telegraph reveals the steel behind Strauss' relaxed demeanour (and banality), and of his credentials as England's Test captain.

Does he want the job? Pause. A pause, I reckon, is always a bad sign at this juncture. Such is the mental strain that comes with the captaincy - it is a constant companion, and not always a pleasant one - that the potential candidate really has to want the job. Not covet it necessarily, but he should relish the prospect and the challenge. This is the one great advantage Flintoff has right now, that and the fact that if he is captain he can always call upon himself to bowl, an advantage denied to Strauss throughout this series.

But Strauss's pause is not so much because he doesn't want the job - he soon makes it absolutely clear that he does - but because he is not sure a candidate should be so brazen about it. "It's not a job you should demand. If you're constantly jumping up and down shouting for it, I'd question your motives. I'd question whether you're doing it for the right reasons, for your own ego. Having said that, if the selectors asked me to do it against Pakistan I'd love to. And I know that I'd have the players' absolute support."

	Sanath Jayasuriya took England took the cleaners © Getty Images

Scyld Berry argues whether this is the most humiliating defeat in England’s one-day history:

It is difficult to believe, however, that any of England's defeats has been so comprehensive and humiliating as the one which left them with a 5-0 series whitewash. The only thing to be said in England's favour was that so few people watched it.

He also mentions that England are clearly missing Troy Cooley, their former Australian bowling coach who has returned to his native country.

His successor, Kevin Shine, has proved himself a capable replacement in these respects. What they are missing is the confidence that Cooley imbued in England's bowlers, especially their pace attack. An affable soul, he was more an older brother than a coach, and created a warm, comforting tent within the camp for those who were about to go over the top.

According to Vic Marks, England lost yesterday because they scored too many runs:

Obviously one of England's problems was that they scored too many runs themselves, 321, with Marcus Trescothick, inevitably, laying the foundation with his century. This meant that the Sri Lanka openers had to play with some licence. What licence. In this situation Jayasuriya, in particular, can be devastating. The ball sped into the stands, his trademark slices sailing over the off-side boundaries. If a fielder was stationed there, he cracked the ball to the the leg side instead.

Simon Wilde is similarly incensced and concerned by the bowling attack: “England’s fast bowling resources had already been revealed during this NatWest Series as chronically threadbare but their least glorious hour was saved for this final game”. He also sounds a warning ahead of the Pakistan series:

After such a rout, avoiding defeat to Pakistan will take some doing. Bob Woolmer, their coach, knows how to win matches in England and can be guaranteed to play a clever game. He has started by bringing in John Snow, the former England great, to teach his fast bowlers about local conditions.

	England's players line up for a minute's silence in honour of Fred Trueman © Getty Images

Yesterday’s sad news of Fred Trueman’s death has understandably produced many tributes across this morning’s papers.

Scyld Berry calls him the greatest of the greatest, in a touching homage in The Sunday Telegraph:

Michael Holding had a beautiful bowling action, Harold Larwood too, but nobody has matched Trueman for a classical side-on action. It was magnificent theatre, and being no fool but full of street wisdom, coming as he did from a mining community, the man himself knew it.

[…]

When Trueman reached the crease, his left arm was pointing towards the batsman as a veiled threat. When he lifted his left side into the air, his right arm was simultaneously cocked back, fully armed and ready to strike. The end-result was normally an outswinger to the right-handed batsman, if he had not been entranced by the spectacle which had unfolded before him.

	'[his] classical side-on action was lent an additional romantic quality by his athleticism and mane of swirling dark hair' © The Cricketer International

Vic Marks, who shared a commentary box with Trueman for Test Match Special, offers similar sentiments and hints at the humour which made Trueman such an engaging character:

Trueman was notorious for spending much of the time in the opposition's dressing room, rather than his own, before the start of play. Puffing his pipe, he would announce to Yorkshire's opponents who would make up his five-wicket haul later in the day, pointing out in some detail how he was going to get them.
Ray Illingworth, who also started his career with Fred, said: 'There was always a smile on his face. There was no malice when he was telling them that he was going to find out whether they could hook or not.'

He was assisted by a classical side-on action which was lent an additional romantic quality by his athleticism and mane of swirling dark hair. For the better part of 20 years and more he was an essential part of the national round, pipe man of the year among other things and a perennial card.

From tearaway fast bowler to inspirational captain, from international playboy to domestic politician, Imran Khan has been many things to many people. Tim Adams of The Observer sought out Imran in his house near Islamabad, and found him in the mood for a chat. They talk about cricket, about politics, but a domesticated Imran even reveals:

I have fruit trees. Cows for fresh milk, yoghurt. My own wheat. I'm basically self-sufficient. I have made my boys a little cricket ground.

	Rising from the rustic © AFP

The story of Munaf Patel's rise from rustic surroundings in a remote village is remarkably similar to that of the protagonist of the film Iqbal, which released last year. Atreyo Mukhopadhyay of The Hindustan Times caught up with Munaf, who spoke of his early battle with poverty. Also read Sriram Veera's Lowdown on Munaf.

"I knew I could play at a higher level but had no idea of how to go about it. I didn’t know what Ranji Trophy or Duleep Trophy were. I started thinking of playing for India after moving to Mumbai"

We seem to be living in an era of stalemates - no better example than the first three Tests in the West Indies. Peter Roebuck joins Brian Lara's plea for faster pitches to protect an endangered species known as fast bowlers. Watching an inept batsman against the moving ball doesn't seem to be the most ideal form of entertainment nowadays. Blame it on television. Read the full piece in The Hindu.

Alas an eagerly awaited confrontation in the Caribbean has been reduced to a standstill by the lifelessness of the pitches. Throughout they have been as dreary as a plate of meat and two vegetarian dishes served by an English cook.