Trevor Marshallsea writes in the Sydney Morning Herald how Glenn McGrath is ahead in his career-long fight with Sachin Tendulkar.

Ali versus Frazier. Borg versus McEnroe. McGrath versus Tendulkar. There are few more enticing rivalries in cricket than between the great Australian bowler and the Indian batting genius. On Sunday, McGrath took another step towards being declared the final winner.

In the Herald Sun Jon Pierik reports about Channel 9’s confidence of conducting on-field interviews during the Ashes. However, James Sutherland, Cricket Australia’s chief executive, has already said batsmen won’t be spoken to straight after they’ve been dismissed.

Ian Healy’s niece has made her school’s 1st XI, but the Daily Telegraph reports there is a push from the old boys to kick her off the team.

I always try to give credit where it's due, and in the Test arena Fletcher deserves it. But what is important is that the excitement and euphoria of last year's Ashes series should not be allowed to cloud anyone's reasoning or judgment for the future. Watching the team, you often get the impression that some of the players don't want to be there, and that they have no passion for the one-day game. If that is so, then the coach must take responsibility.

And as for those who took a pop at him, Boycott makes clear that he has no time for the views of one man in particular :

I resent the fact that my argument has been misrepresented by a pompous prat who obviously has his own personal issues regarding my cricketing record as it compares to his own public school and club career.

The jury is out on who he means, but the public school and club career comment narrows the field. The press box in Brisbane next month could have some added spice.

It's now my last few days at home before we fly to Australia on Friday, so now’s the time to make the most of home comforts, writes Matthew Hoggard in The Times.

Only when the plane lands in Australia this weekend will I tuck my novel away in my bag and start thinking about why we’ve flown to the other side of the world. We have a couple of warm-up games to get into the spirit of things and then, I believe, there’s a pretty big game in Brisbane beginning on November 23, so I’d better make sure I’m in decent fettle for that one.

Australia are using the Champions Trophy to collect masses of data ahead of the World Cup, Ben Dorries reports in The Courier-Mail. Richie McInnes, the team analyst, has been nicknamed “square eyes” for the hours he is spending in front of the tv.

In the Sydney Morning Herald Ricky Ponting repeats his criteria for the replacement of John Buchanan while The Australian reports SBS will screen every ball of the 2009 Ashes live.

	Out of form? Out of sight. © Getty Images

Following Kevin Pietersen’s match-winning 90 yesterday, which handed England a consolation win over the West Indies, Simon Wilde in the Sunday Times says form matters not-a-jot for him:

When he has got his eye in, and there is a match to win on a good batting pitch, the form book gets shredded along with the bowling. Tell-tale averages, hard-won reputations, both are scattered to the winds. He knows that once the ground work is done, he can score at around two runs per ball against the seamers.

In the same paper Wilde interviews Ian Bell; as Iain Duncan-Smith, the former Conservative leader once said, “never underestimate the determination of a quiet man”. Pleasingly for England, Bell is rather more popular and a far greater success than Duncan-Smith.”He has left the chrysalis and started to spread the most handsome butterfly wings”:

Bell still barely looks old enough to cross a road unsupervised, let alone the boundary rope of an international arena, but he has, at 24, assumed a stature worthy of the predictions made for him by many good judges while he was still in his teens. Don’t bet against him being England’s leading run scorer in the Ashes this winter.

	Harmison insists he will be ready for the Ashes © Getty Images

Over at the Daily Mail, Steve Harmison says the management didn’t reveal their reasons for dropping him in England’s final Champions Trophy match yesterday against the West Indies. He does, however, insist he will be ready to roll come the Ashes:

I know things haven’t quite worked out as I planned here in India at the ICC Trophy. I don’t quite know why I was dropped yesterday because the management didn’t tell me, but I can only assume it was because I didn’t bowl particularly well in the first two games. I feel a little hard done by because on both occasions we were defending a low score, but it’s not the end of the world.

What I do know is that everything’s going well in the nets, my fitness is good and Kevin Shine, the bowling coach, is very happy with my progress. I know how I am best of all, both physically and mentally, and I can categorically state that my confidence is good and I expect fully to be ready, fast and taking wickets in the Ashes series.

There’s a video of Simon Hughes interviewing Michael Vaughan at The Telegraph today. After waxing lyrical about him (“he’s an impressive person”) to the audience, the talk moves onto the rise in popularity of cricket in England. It’s a corporate schmooze-fest for Hugo Boss, who now sponsor England, but Hughes’s (and Vaughan’s) dry humour still make it worth watching.

	Shane Watson can smile again, after a turbulent year © Getty Images

"A year and a half ago when things turned bad in the personal side of my life I just realised I've got to have so much fun in my cricket"

Read the full piece in The Sunday Mail.

In the same paper, Glenn McGrath insists he is not washed up, and asks for more time to perform.

I've been around long enough to know that every year is different and you don't have be a rocket scientist to work out that, if you don't perform in this team, you get replaced

	'You never really get much time but it's just so important to get off the [cricket] train sometimes because I find you just get so mentally tired as well' says Hayden © Getty Images

Cricketers spend their time off from cricket in different ways. All that Matthew Hayden needs is his collapsible fishing rod. Hayden talks to Malcolm Conn of The Australian about fishing, surfing and Grandma's shepherd's pie.

In Galle, the famous southern fort city later devastated by the Boxing Day Tsunami, Hayden saw a group fishing off the rocks near the team hotel, just out of town.

"I noticed they were catching little mackerel so I took my fly rod down to the rocks and within the space of 10 minutes I reckon I had close on 300 people watching," Hayden recalled this week.

"I was thinking, 'this is good, they're obviously keen followers of cricket'. But no-one knew who I was. They were looking at my fly rod. They invited me back to their village to show off this rod. It wasn't me at all."

Ten years ago, around this time of the year, a promising wicketkeeper batsman set foot on the tarmac of New Delhi's airport at 2 AM, called upon as an emergency replacement for the injured Ian Healy. Still dazed, he stumbled onto his hotel room, trying not to wake up his captain, and four hours later, hopped onto the team bus and introduced himself to the rest. That cricketer was Adam Gilchrist and he didn't have to introduce himself again.

Gilchrist was at home in Perth in October, 1996, preparing for his third season of domestic cricket for Western Australia in the hope of making it to the international stage when he received a call telling him to catch the first available flight to India

Read the full piece by Andrew Ramsey in The Australian.

	'I'm young, but 25 is not a kid' - Clarke © Getty Images

Nicknamed 'Pup' by his team-mates, Michael Clarke burst onto the international scene with 151 on Test debut, representing the new crop of dashing young Australian cricketers. However, he has struggled to maintain the consistency expected of him, now having to fight for his place in the side. Clarke analyses his career so far, his endorsement deals, influences, and his determination to shake off the label of a one-hit wonder.

About the age of 13, when Michael Clarke decided he would play cricket for Australia, four posters adorned his bedroom walls. Three were of cricketers: Brian Lara, Michael Slater and Damien Martyn. The other was a picture of a Ferrari.

Read the full piece in The Sydney Morning Herald.

	Monty Panesar: ready to take on the Australian cricketers and the crowd © Getty Images

Monty has had the best of two worlds. His background has given him dedication, spontaneity and fighting spirit. England had offered quietness, attention and opportunity.

Read the full piece in Sydney Morning Herald.

Also read The Age, where Chloe Saltau talks to Panesar about his experiences with a club side in Adelaide last season, and discovers that Panesar has nothing but kind words for the Australians. Meanwhile, Rod Marsh, the former England academy coach, reckons Panesar won't have too many problems with the crowd.

"The Barmy Army will worship the ground he walks on, and they might drag a few Australians with them. He's a lovable young man, he's got a beautiful smile and if the Australian crowds do get into him, it will only be because he's taken a lot of wickets."

	Captain Marvellous: Fleming's demand for more international respect might have gained at least a foothold now © Getty Images

New Zealand's progression to the semi-final stage of the ICC Champions Trophy may have surprised some sections of the public and media, but for Stephen Fleming the success has been hard-earned. Aggrieved at the lack of recognition his team received for their efforts on the international scene, Fleming's role with the bat has spoken louder than his words, feels Richard Boock.

Writing in The New Zealand Herald, Boock lauds New Zealand's effort - in particular, Fleming's captaincy and influence - and chalks up just where each member of the squad stands in the tournament.

"The win means New Zealand are now guaranteed of qualifying for next week's semifinals, and pressing for a repeat of their epic mini World Cup triumph at Nairobi six years previous.

Fleming yesterday hailed a grand team effort; the win coming on the back of some excellent batting from himself, Scott Styris, Jacob Oram and Brendon McCullum, and some demanding bowling from Kyle Mills, Oram, Vettori and - eventually - fast-bowler Shane Bond."

Click here to read more.

Robert Craddock asks the question in a comment piece in The Courier-Mail

It's a shame MacGill has never been able to find inner contentment throughout an outstanding career. You can understand early in his career, as a tempestuous youngster scrambling to get ahead, he must have felt a huge sense of frustration at being trapped in the jumbo-sized shadow of Shane Warne. But he is no heartbreak kid.

The true hard-luck stories of cricket are players such as Jamie Siddons, whom Steve Waugh claims was "as good as Mark or me", or Darren Berry, whom Waugh branded "as good as any gloveman I've seen". Neither played a Test. MacGill has played 40 and taken 198 wickets.

In Darren Lehmann’s column in The Advertiser he writes about how good it was seeing Shane Warne working with Cullen Bailey and in The Age he says Shaun Tait is a “real show” for the first Test.

So Australia’s throng of fans, cheerily known as the Fanatics, have a songbook for the Ashes to combat England’s notoriously boisterous and equally cheery Barmy Army. The Courier Mail have a list of songs England can expect to “enjoy”, including:

Monty Panesar's Useless
Tune: My old mans a dustman

Monty Panesar useless, a poor old English chap
& when he's not spin bowling, he's visiting the quack.
He's useless in the covers, he's useless in the slips
And when he straps the pads on, he'll pass out with the yips

And...

Ode to a British girlfriend
Tune: Living Doll, Cliff Richard

Got myself a yawning, boring, pasty, nagging, whinging pom
Got to do your best to leave her just cause she's a whinging pom
She's got a lazy eye & big fat thighs from all those chips & pies
She's not the only boring, pasty, nagging, whinging pom

Oh dear. No word yet from the Barmy Army and what their song list might be…

	'Pietersen is at the stage of his career where perhaps he feels it is incumbent on him to be a crowd pleaser when selective or even total discretion might better serve his and the team cause' © Getty Images

Kevin Pietersen needs to use his crowd-pleasing hook shot carefully if he is to have a great Ashes series, says Mike Selvey in The Guardian. Pietersen, Selvey feels, has it in him to be a great player in a great series. But he might look at the career of Steve Waugh and wonder if there might be a better way.

"There is a large element of adventure attached to his batting that, as he becomes more familiar to the opposition, bowlers are beginning to exploit: impatience outside off stump and scant recognition of the dangers inherent in taking on the short ball without regard to circumstance.

In the second Test against Pakistan in Faisalabad last winter he completed a fine century by hooking Shoaib Akhtar for six. Next ball he tried to repeat the shot but spliced a catch to mid-on instead. Shoaib unveiled his "chicken man" celebration for the first time. "I'd hit the previous one for six, so why not that?" was Pietersen's response. The answer was, he had been suckered by tremendous bowling; the second bouncer was different, faster, on him before he could execute the stroke. It is what Andy Roberts used to do to hapless batsmen who thought they had the measure of him."

Click here to read more.

Over at The Corridor there's a sneak preview of a collection of cartoon-postcards called Postcards from the Sledge, based on famous sledges in cricket. Beach, the artist, has kindly donated a copy to Cricinfo and we'll have a review of the cards for you very soon.

	Munaf Patel: despite the bonhomie, it is an embarrassing return for the prodigal son © Getty Images

The local officialdom in Munaf Patel's home state of Gujarat has put the lanky fast bowler in a spot at times.

Now, as he gets ready for Thursday’s Champions Trophy game against West Indies at Motera — his first in his home state — fellow players and local officials walked down memory lane with the star, who was once their own but has now drifted away.

Rajeev Desai, Munaf's Under-22 coach, recalls: “I always thought he would play for India. People say he was raw initially but he was a finished product. His run-up was flawless, if you talk about pace, it was higher then.”

A few old friends recall Munaf's initial spells - some even teased him, saying he would never play for India - but all's well that ends well. And, thankfully, today's professional Munaf is no different from the amateur of those early days.

Read on in The Indian Express.

“Whispers around the sport are Mick Jagger has been courted by series broadcaster Channel 9 to make a cameo appearance at at least one of the five Test matches between Australia and England,” reports the Daily Telegraph’s Sydney Confidential.

On a day for big name dropping, Shane Warne reveals his friendship with Coldplay’s Chris Martin during the Australian launch of his latest book. Alex Brown becomes the Sydney Morning Herald’s music reporter for a minute.

"We bumped into each other in a lift in England during the 2001 Ashes series and became very good friends," Warne said. "I went over to his house for dinner in London, we spoke all the time on the phone and hung out a few times. He's a really good guy."

In cricket news Warne speaks about England being a better team in the Daily Telegraph.

Andrew Ramsey, writing in The Australian, reports Kevin Pietersen was surprised by his first look at Mitchell Johnson and Ben Dorries takes a similar shock theme in The Courier-Mail in a story on Sajid Mahmood.

	Duncan Fletcher's fan following doesn't include Geoff Boycott © Getty Images

Geoffrey Boycott’s call for Duncan Fletcher’s head has attracted most of the headlines in the UK, and reaction to his suggestion is, at best, lukewarm.

In The Times, Christopher Martin-Jenkins is not one to sit on the fence:

With every respect to Geoffrey Boycott’s profound knowledge of, and deep passion for, cricket, his opinion that Duncan Fletcher should be instantly dismissed from his post as England coach is patent rubbish.

Leaving aside the fact that our Geoffrey — whose 48,000 first-class runs at an average of 56 entitle him to an opinion on the art of batting and anything else in the cricketing realm — always thinks that he would be a better coach than the incumbent on the completely erroneous premise that he was invariably a better player than they were, 30 days before England begin their defence of the Ashes is no time to change the coach

In The Daily Telegraph, Mike Gatting shows a glimmer of support for his former England colleague's gripes:

It may be that some of Fletcher's methods are coming back to haunt him He has given the players so much time off over the last few years and now it is looking as though they have not played enough cricket to make themselves consistent in certain disciplines. But I wouldn't subscribe to the view that the coach should be changed at this moment.

In the Daily Mail, Nasser Hussain describes Boycott’s comments as “ludicrous”. He goes on:

Duncan is the best thing that has happened to our game in years and we should be giving thanks for him rather than trying to push him towards the exit door.

If it had been someone else making these comments it would be best to ignore them, but Geoffrey is still a hugely respected figure with an exceptional cricket brain and I worry that people will listen to his views. Boycott likes people who agree with him and there has always been a problem because Fletcher won’t bow down to Geoffrey or indulge him. Boycott has been waiting for this opportunity to go on the attack and he has used England’s poor one-day form as an excuse.

In the Evening Standard, David Morgan, the ECB chairman, gives Fletcher his full backing:

I think Geoff Boycott’s comments are untimely in the middle of the Champions Trophy and at the start of a very important winter. I’ve every reason to believe Duncan is the right man and that he has the full support of the captain, the players and the management team. I find it astonishing that having won back the Ashes [last year] we should have this bold statement that his time is up.

No single moment has summed up England's ineptitude in the Champions Trophy more excruciatingly than Steve Harmison's opening delivery to India's Virender Sehwag, writes Lawrence Booth in The Guardian. It was so far outside leg-stump that a statuesque Chris Read merely watched it go for five wides, since when Harmison's tournament has gone from embarrassing to look-away-now. That first over went for 20, and on Saturday against Australia he returned figures of 4.5-0-45-1

"Losing here [to Australia in Jaipur] has no bearing on the Ashes," Kevin Pietersen tells Stephen Brenkley in a freewheeling interview in The Independent. "Conditions are completely different, it's a different format, the hype, the crowd at Brisbane will be much bigger... Everything now, is totally focused on the Ashes."

Chris Gayle has been finding it difficult to sleep in Ahmedabad. There isn't much to do in proximity of the West Indies' team hotel so find out how Gayle spends his time by reading his tour diary in The Trinidad Express.

Robert Craddock reports in The Courier-Mail about Allan Border having a net session against the Australian Women’s team in Brisbane.

Border borrowed pads and a bat - it was the first time he had batted with a pinkish handle - then realised the one non-negotiable essential for all batting performances, a groin protector, would not be available given that women don't need them. "I've had my four kids so I suppose there should be nothing major to worry about," Border quipped with a nervous grin before heading to the nets. "I've occasionally been criticised for not having enough balls so as far as some people are concerned it shouldn't make much difference."

Missed out on Ashes seats for the SCG? Alex Brown reports in the Sydney Morning Herald thousands of tickets are to be reissued.

The Sydney Cricket Ground Trust hopes to fit an extra 420 seats in the Dally Messenger, MA Noble and Members stands in time for the Ashes Test. And Cricket NSW has sold only 360 of the 1250 seats it was allocated for its initiative, The Cricket Club, and may hand back any leftovers for general sale.

	Peter Chingoka: 'To look at him nowadays is to see a man who knows the corruption of his soul' © Getty Images

In the Sydney Morning Herald he launched a stinging attack on Peter Chingoka and Ozias Bvute, the chairman and managing director of the board, demanding that they be removed from office immediately.

It's no use waiting for the local police to act, let alone the cricket community, because these scoundrels long ago stacked the board - besides which, they have friends in high places. Chingoka will resist every attempt to launch an investigation into their activities. They know that any genuine investigation will result in long prison sentences.

Roebuck continued:

Under the shameless stewardship of these men, the game in Zimbabwe has sunk into a pit of bullying, corruption and despair. The good work performed by numerous coaches and the promise of young black and white cricketers has been betrayed. Money intended for the development of the game has been used for private purposes. Any player daring to question the conduct of these thugs has been chased away, or else threatened.

And Roebuck went on to savage Chingoka, who, he wrote, had become a pitiful figure:

To look at him nowadays is to see a man who knows the corruption of his soul. Drink has become his solace. It was not always the case. Until a few years ago, Chingoka's reputation remained high. Eloquent, intelligent and charming, he represented the best of liberated Africa. He was universally trusted. Not bad progress for an Ndebele in a country dominated by Shona. The only warning sign was a passing remark made to a cricket official from another country. Something about ‘playing the hand he had been given’. Principles meant nothing to him. The result has been a man drunk on power and liquor.

Chingoka's deterioration has been painful to behold. Money has been his undoing. He has always enjoyed flash cars, malt whiskey, tailored suits, elegant houses. Alas, he sold his name to obtain them.

And Bvute does not escape Roebuck’s attention either:

If anything, Bvute is even worse. He who does not bother to hide his ignorance about cricket, his contempt for the players or his greed. Despite a shady past that allegedly includes dubious dealings in Botswana, Bvute secured and maintained a high position in Zimbabwe cricket. He is as thick as thieves with the crooks running the country. Like them, he conceals his improprieties under a cover of post-colonial bluster, hides his disregard for the common man beneath a veneer of populist claptrap. Meanwhile, he keeps his snout in the trough.

	Andrew Strauss on his way to 56 against Australia © Getty Images

I still maintain, however, that this trip has been very beneficial. The training and fitness work we have done will set us up for the Ashes and World Cup, and the feeling of togetherness which a bit of hardship brings will stand us in good stead later this winter.

Although he was not blaming the conditions for England’s problems, he did say that they had caught a number of sides on the hop:

One thing which hasn't helped us is that the pitches haven't been anything like the ones we played on earlier this year, so touring here in March and April might not have been an advantage. A late monsoon apparently hasn't given the groundstaff the chance to prepare the hard tracks we were expecting, and I don't think we are the only side in the tournament to have been duped into thinking this would be a high-scoring event. No batsman has so far scored a hundred in this Champions Trophy. In fact it wouldn't be going too far to say that every run to date has been worth two.

In an interview with The Australian’s Andrew Ramsey, Michael Hussey speaks about his embarrassment at being ranked the world’s No. 1 one-day batsman.

If Michael Hussey were the egocentric type, he would doubtless feel miffed by his comparative lack of celebrity in cricket-crazy India. Even within the relative sanctuary of the Australia team's hotel, players are routinely stopped by guests, security personnel and the occasional staff member to pose for photos and sign scraps of paper.

Cries of "Ponting, Ponting" or "Brett Lee" announce the imminent arrival of big-name players, but Hussey seems free to move about in much the same way he plays cricket: purposefully, unobtrusively and brimful of good humour. However, the 31-year-old says he feels uneasy about the latest development in the extraordinary career progression he has undergone since securing a place at international level 18 months ago.

Australia’s win over England at Jaipur is analysed in the Sydney Morning Herald by Peter Roebuck, who says Andrew Flintoff’s side received a prod in the belly.

In the same paper Trevor Marshallsea writes about how England won their early battles with Glenn McGrath.

“We really should have known better as we wondered who the hell was Mitchell Johnson as he loped over the turf for the first overs of his life against England,” writes Simon Wilde in The Sunday Times as he profiles Australia’s latest pace sensation who rocked England on Saturday in a crushing Champions Trophy defeat.

Neither, he posits, is this the last we will see of him. Read the full article here.

	Shane Bond: Like a good sports car, he needs more time on the track © Getty Images

Writing in The New Zealand Herald, Mark Richardson, the former New Zealand opener, reckons that Shane Bond needs to be played as much as possible. The long he sits on the sidelines mulling over his fitness, the greater the chances that he may even become obsolete.

Writes Richardson:

"He is like that prized sports car you keep locked in the garage. Man it can hum and itturns heads, but the factory warranty has expired and you can't really afford the insurance.

So it sits there, looking all shiny and sparkly. Occasionally you climb into a seat,
start it up put it in neutral and pretend you're charging down country roads at
break-neck speeds, slamming it into second and taking corners like you just
shouldn't, then back up through the gears laughing at those you overtake"

Click here to read more.

It's his first time playing the game in father Shashi's homeland and, albeit for just a moment, Jeetan Patel is public idol No 1. Read more at the New Zealand Herald

Patel's passion for the game goes back to his father's fanatical background, having been born in the Gujarat province - of which Ahmadabad is the main city - before immigrating to England in his early teens and moving to New Zealand after marrying.

"At our home in Wellington, Dad and I would just play cricket day and night. I'm glad to be playing in his country of origin, but I'm here to play for my country now."

	Adam Gilchrist with nine-year old Mangesh © Getty Images

Steve Waugh started it. Now, it's Adam Gilchrist making a difference. The stark divide between some vast riches and devastating poverty in this country tugs at the heartstring of all Australian cricketers when they visit here. Gilchrist took it upon himself to sponsor a young impoverished boy in Mumbai, giving him an education he could never have dreamt of.

"The smile on his face said it all when he was able to meet me. Regardless of whether I was an international cricket player or ran my own local shop it meant little to him.It was a look of great gratitude to meet the person that is helping his family and his life."

Read the ful piece in The Courier Mail.

The Indian board's decision to take on the ICC could split the cricket world, warns Mike Coward in The Australian. Launching a scathing attack on the BCCI, he says it has become "drunk with power", and its "behaviour is becoming increasingly reckless and potentially destructive".

Indeed, no longer can it be taken for granted that the international cricket family will be together after what is bound to be one of the most rancorous meetings in the ICC's 97-year history in Mumbai on November 3 and 4. If the puffed-up, cashed-up Indian powerbrokers reckon they can prosper without Australia and England they may just opt to leave the fold.

Adam Parore, the former New Zealand wicketkeeper, looks back at his experience of playing against Pakistan and wonders how their bowlers managed to bowl "25 overs on a searing hot day and seem to get faster as the day wears on".

I remember thinking more than once in the subcontinent, "something's not right here". I prided myself on being pretty fit during my career. I'd look at some of these guys and think "you can't do that".

Read the full piece in The New Zealand Herald.

Courtney Walsh, the former West Indies fast bowler, is in Ireland on October 31 to urge fans to support their country in next year’s World Cup in the Caribbean. Walsh is Jamaica’s official ambassador for the World Cup and will be joined on the trip by Robert Bryan, Jamaica Cricket 2007’s executive director, and David Shields, deputy director of tourism for the Jamaica Tourist Board.

“There is an incredibly strong cricket fan base in Ireland and we are very much looking forward to meeting and personally inviting people to come and party with us in Jamaica,” Shields said in a statement released today. “We are also gearing up across the entire island to ensure that accommodation at all levels, attractions and transport are ready so we can offer the warmest possible Caribbean welcome to visitors from across the globe.”

Peter Roebuck writes in the Sydney Morning Herald about the return to form of West Indies and how Australia looked flat.

Funny how much can change in a day. Bowled out by Sri Lanka for about two dollars and fifty cents, Brian Lara and his boys were supposed to be the easybeats. Beating them was the banker.

Not that a defeat in a single one-day match played on a pitch held together by a mysterious plastic substance need provoke too many long faces. Still, the fact remains that Australia must win their next two matches or catch an early flight home ...

If excuses are wanted, then at least one finger can be pointed at a pitch that, like many an ageing lover, did not quite last the night. Moreover, a light evening breeze blew over Mumbai, causing the dew to seek calmer pastures.

In the same paper Trevor Marshallsea analyses the defeat.

When you are ranked No.1 but get beaten by a qualifier who made 80 in their previous match, whose top scorer made the world's slowest duck against you last time out, who needed a local fieldsman to fill in because they were down to 11 men, and who sealed the win with a hat-trick, you'd have to start wondering if you were cursed.

On the Fox Sports website Scott Heinrich looks at Australia’s failures in the Champions Trophy.

Over the past few decades, cricket has had its skirmishes with drug problems, but generally, when placed alongside the issue in many other sports, they have been small ripples, writes Mike Selvey in The Guardian.

The cases of Shoaib and Asif are different, with more serious implications as this is the first time players have produced positive tests for steroids, and in so doing it suggests a parable for our times. While on the one hand the ICC condemns drug use and encourages full cooperation by all its members with the demands of the World Anti-Doping Agency, it has made a rod for its back by increasing the physical and mental demands its schedules are placing on players.

John Huxley has a go at answering the question in the Sydney Morning Herald.

While the cricketing world continues to debate whether the Ashes urn contains the remains of a burned bail, the National Museum of Australia believes it can answer the question of what happened to the "other" bail.

It was made into a paper knife that has belatedly been put on display in Canberra alongside other national sporting treasures, such as Don Bradman's batting gloves, Evonne Goolagong Cawley's Wimbledon trophies and Phar Lap's heart. For several decades the knife lay in the desk drawer of Michael Clarke, grandson of Lady Clarke, the woman who famously presented visiting English captain Ivo Bligh with the Ashes urn when the team stayed at the family's Victorian estate.

Some may suggest Akhtar's cricketing career has been one long dress rehearsal for an entry into the acting world … not noted for his devotion to training, Akhtar seems to be an outside chance, at best, of resuming his career beyond the World Cup, especially considering his creaky back and troublesome hamstring.

On the surface, a move into acting does not seem a major leap for Akhtar, who has made as many headlines for his activities off the field as his performances on it. On his latest tour of Australia with the Pakistan team, Akhtar was spotted in nightclubs across the country, invariably in glamorous company, while he was said to be battling back and hamstring injuries.

Last year, it was much the same in England, when injury ruled Akhtar out of Worcestershire's tour match against Australia, only for the fast bowler to show up in several of Worcester's premier nightspots. Again, no guesses as to the aesthetic calibre of the company he was keeping

The MCC is not a body that usually washes its dirty linen in public but according to Mihir Bose, all is not well in NW8. The problem appears to be that Charles Fry, grandson of CB Fry and the club’s president, has angered some committee members with what they alleged is a "presidential style" which lacks consultation.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Bose says that Fry has effectively run roughshod over procedures, and quoted one member as saying:

"It is a matter of style. The MCC is meant to be run by the entire committee but at the moment Charles runs it with a small group and the rest of us feel excluded."

Liam Plunkett, the England allrounder, has recently started blogging. (For those not in the know, blogging is not a term to describe a cricketer’s batting or bowling style; it’s short for “weblog”.) In his latest entry Plunkett, recovering from injury, says he’s been using boxing in his rehabilitation and preparation for the Ashes.

I’ve also been doing a bit of boxing to spice my training up a bit.... Myself and Durham team-mate Mark Davies have been sparring with our gloves on and I’ve been enjoying it. I'm not trying to increase my aggression ahead of the Ashes, it is simply a great way to keep fit and I used to do a bit of kick-boxing when I was younger. I’ve had to get all my gear sorted out and I went to see Slazenger to pick up a few bats for the trip – thankfully because it’s all sponsored I didn’t have to pay for it!

More at the BBC.

	Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif added to the growing turmoil in Pakistan cricket © AFP

Pakistan was in shock yesterday after the withdrawal of Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif from the squad for the ICC Champions Trophy, writes Zahid Hussain in The Times.

This may be the end of the road for Shoaib, 31, an immensely popular and mercurial player, regarded by many as a flawed genius. Nicknamed the Rawalpindi Express for his blistering pace, his career has been a mixture of brilliance and waywardness. Any ban would be a serious blow to the career of Asif, the talented seam bowler who has taken 30 wickets in six Tests at an average of 21.16 and 19 wickets in 17 one-day internationals. The 23-year-old is considered to be the brightest fast-bowling prospect in Pakistan.

"It's easy to see why pacemen are tempted," writes Angus Fraser in The Independent.

To play the game, which involves standing in 40C heat for more than six hours a day, a player needs endurance. Fast bowlers need to combine this with up to 150 explosive deliveries and, as of yet, there is no substance that provides both in equal measure.

Derek Pringle concurs in The Daily Telegraph by saying that cricket is 'no longer a game of tea and sandwiches'.

Also in The Times John Goodbody says "Cricket, like so many sports, has often believed that it was immune from the scourge of doping. Now it must fear that its reputation has been tarnished". While Richard Hobson reports that Shoaib left the Champions Trophy in tears to return to Pakistan.

What is nandrolone? Tom Lutz gives us the dope on the dope in The Guardian.

Robert Craddock writes in The Courier-Mail about Shoaib Akhtar following his positive drugs test.

Shoaib Akhtar was asked just last week did he have a great cricketing dream. "Yes," he replied. "To play one day of my life without pain."

Cricket's indomitable showman turned his back on a legion of experts who told him to cut down his outrageously long 34m run-up for the good of his body and longevity in the game. As a consequence he broke down more often than an Indian phone line.

In the Sydney Morning Herald Alex Brown compares Darren Lehmann’s philanthropic activities with those of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet.

Morris Iemma, the New South Wales premier, is under fire from England’s non-violent Barmy Army after he wrote to Tony Blair asking for a list of the country's sports hooligans.

	Andrew Flintoff: a bad day at the office © Getty Images

Events in Jaipur emphasised the perversity of Indian cricket and the predictability of England's. Having secured over £500 million in sponsorship and TV rights, the Indian cricket board is the richest in the world, but yesterday's one- day international was played on a diabolical pitch which would have disgraced the poorest village.

Sending out their lavishly remunerated superstars to play on that was like racing a £2.5 million Formula 1 car round the North Circular. With bald tyres. This folly was compounded by the premature launch of a massive fireworks display just as the meticulous, ever-reliable Rahul Dravid took guard. Utterly distracted by the commotion, his innings lasted three balls.

	Will acting be as hard as training for Brett Lee? © Getty Images

Brett Lee is incredibly popular in India and has already knocked back a lead role in a Bollywood film, reports Andrew Ramsey in The Australian.

Like so many of his international cricket peers, Brett Lee is eyeing a post-playing life in front of the cameras, being beamed into the homes of countless millions around the world. But Lee's journey from cricket will not take him into the television commentary box, but instead the sprawling studio lots of the world's biggest and most lucrative movie industry. The 29-year-old self-confessed Indophile was offered a lead role in a lavish Bollywood production when he visited Mumbai on his way home from Australia's tour of Bangladesh this year.

The Ashes urn arrives in Australia tomorrow and John Huxley writes in the Sydney Morning Herald about how little is known about the trophy.

What is beyond doubt is that the tiny pot - which arrives at Sydney Airport amid high security tomorrow morning - was presented to the English cricket captain Ivo Bligh by Lady Clarke, whose husband hosted the team at his estate in Sunbury, Victoria. But when? For some time it was believed that it was handed over after England had controversially beaten Australia 2-1 in the 1882-83 series, said Beth Hise, the curator of an Ashes exhibition at the Museum of Sydney, of which the priceless urn is the centrepiece. "Recent research, though, suggests the gift - probably intended as a personal joke but destined to become a genuine icon - was presented before the series, after a social match at the Clarkes' Rupertswood estate," she said.

Cricinfo’s short history of the Ashes series is here.

In Queensland’s Sunday Mail the founder of the Barmy Army says supporters shouldn’t be ejected from Australian grounds this summer for calling England fans “Pommy bastards”. In Sydney Morris Iemma, the New South Wales premier, writes to Tony Blair in a bid to stop hooliganism from England fans.

The end of Australia’s domestic competitions will involve the naming of all-star teams, according to a report in the Daily Telegraph.

Glenn McGrath's injuries...England's use of sub fielders...sold out grounds of English fans...they have all be used as excuses why the Ashes slipped away from Australia last year. Well, in case they can't wrestle them back in the series that starts next month Richard Hinds, in the Sydney Morning Herald, is getting his excuses ready early this time around.

Excuse 7: John Buchanan's lap top meltdown. Let's just say Buchanan had been devising a groundbreaking PowerPoint presentation that would have seen the Australian bowlers reason their way through England's top order. But, just as he was about to back up the program, a power failure in the sheds at the Gabba wiped out all his good work. At least that's what we are going to claim.

	Unhappy with any delivery that does not land on a postage stamp before trimming the off-bail © Getty Images

Australia's mainstay for the Ashes, Glen McGrath is part of their Champions Trophy squad. But Peter Roebuck feels that he would have done better playing domestic cricket ahead of Brisbane, November 23. Read on in The Independent.

McGrath is easily underestimated. From a distance he does seem disconcertingly simple. Yet he has been the cleverest, most subtle and analytical of leather-flingers. For most sportsmen the journey from natural ability through the minefield of experience and on to maturity takes years.

Over the years he has taken Australian cricket on a wonderful journey, into the past, into the bush, back to the basics. He has been the most disciplined of bowlers, a professional determined to cook 'em quickly but prepared to cook 'em slowly just so long as they don't get away.

In India for the Champions Trophy, Neil Manthorp witnesses the harsh realities of life for the several thousand pavement dwellers in Mumbai and writes how such scenes bring out a person's benevolent side.

The pavement is wet from the thunderstorm the night before. But it is also far cleaner than the rest of the street because it is the home of half a dozen families. They are required to clear it for the benefit of passers-by between dawn and late evening, but there is no mistaking that it is their home. Or, 'home'.

Read the full piece in Supercricket.

	Forget 2006, it's 2009 that is definetely on © Getty Images

Whatever happens in the coming Ashes series, England should be strong favourites for 2009. It is just a question of whether they retain or regain the urn. This, at least, is one possible conclusion from the long list of eight candidates for the ICC Emerging Player of the Year award, which includes three Englishmen and no Australians

There appears to be little to choose between Panesar, Cook and Bell, arguably the three strongest contenders in their section. Panesar would be the most popular choice in England. He has struck a rare chord with the public who like an underdog, especially one who is a bit different. But any cult appeal that Panesar attracted through his doziness in the field has been replaced by respect for his hard work and admiration for his skill as a spin bowler.

"Fears that the World Cup in the West Indies next autumn will be a debacle have been laid to rest", writes Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald.

“Far from falling behind in their preparations, the organisers are months ahead of schedule and expect to have everything in place before the end of the year.”

The Herald's blog The Tonk is running a competition for Ashes chants. Check it out here and see how England fans are sending spam to Australia's players here.

	Glenn McGrath: age doesn't weary him © Getty Images

Troy Cooley, the Australia bowling coach, tells AAP’s Greg Buckle he thinks Glenn McGrath will be able to stay in the international game until he’s 40.

“With the fitness programs that are now in place and the research that has gone into fast bowling, the longevity of careers is going to take a hold,'' Cooley said. "You probably won't break into the team as early, unless you are a standout, but the maturity of the body is the big thing and how you look after it. Nowadays the fast bowlers are definitely looking after themselves a lot better.''

Andrew Ramsey writes in The Australian about how Shane Warne influenced an unlikely disciple in Dan Cullen.

At the height of Shane Warne's remarkable climb as a cricketer, the game's marketers claimed a generation of budding bowlers would surely follow in his wake to produce a legacy of leg-spin. Few of them predicted that that the first acolyte to tread Warne's path would reach international cricket while the master was still plying his trade. Even less foresaw that the pupil would be bowling off-spin.

The Telegraph's Robert Philip joins Ian Botham on a ten-mile leg of his latest fundraising walk in aid of Leukaemia Research and the Teenage Cancer Trust.

Beefy, I should explain, walks faster than most joggers and so after setting off at his right shoulder below the castle ramparts in Edinburgh's Princes Street on a pleasantly nippy autumn morning ... I frequently had to rest my aching limbs slumped in the back seat of the support car. There can never be any such respite for Saint Ian. "When I started these walks in 1985, there was a 20 per cent chance of people surviving leukaemia. Now the survival rate is 80 per cent and I won't stop walking until it's 100 per cent."

Boria Mazumdar takes a look at the new brand of cricket coverage on Indian television which is set to transform the nature of global cricket coverage.

It may well be that the revolutionary Sony coverage is yet another fantasy, which has the power to enamour and also infuriate. We have already seen that the success of Sony’s entertainment focused cricket programming has led other Indian news and even sports channels to replicate the same model. In fact, the strategy—special programming with women anchors and other innovative attractions have become the standard way of covering cricket in India. With cricket across the world in need for infusion of new innovations, it is only a matter of time before it becomes the global norm.

Indian Express tracks the story of Sitanshu Kotak’s 12-year-old domestic battle.

“I was playing for BPCL in Udaipur on Monday. I finished that game, drove 250 kms myself to reach Ahmedabad and from there took a train here [Mumbai, to play the practice game against South Africa]. Tonight, I take the train back to Ahmedabad and drive to Udaipur to join my BPCL teammates again.’’

Was this the most satisfying day of his cricketing career? “Could be. But I didn’t remember to collect a stump as a souvenir

Nathan Bracken is in India with the Champions Trophy squad, but he hasn’t forgotten his mother-in-law, who he says has premonitions about his performances. AAP reports she predicted his haul of 7 for 4 in a Pura Cup game for New South Wales against South Australia two seasons ago.

"For about six months beforehand, she kept talking about something will happen, you will be involved and it will be something about four runs, but it's something to do with bowling,'' Bracken said. “And she rang [his wife] Haley on the morning of the game. Her mum's gone 'I think you should get ready to go to the game'. By the time Haley got up, she turned the radio on and I had two wickets. The rest is history.''

Beware Indian provincial bowlers. Adam Gilchrist says in The Australian he won’t treat you lightly in today’s warm-up for the Champions Trophy in Mumbai.

"In the couple of games we play, I'll just try and bat as I normally would," Gilchrist told the paper. "If I pull my horns in and get too tentative, then I'll probably just get out and that defeats the purpose.”

Justin Langer replies to Mike Gatting’s view that cracks are appearing in the Australian team, telling The Australian the comments are “far from the truth”.

The common thought is that the Champions Trophy is being held in a country that can't get enough of one-day cricket. However, Rohit Brijnath says he is losing interest in the shorter form of the game as more and more matches become forgettable events. After the recent matches between West Indies, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in the early rounds of the Champions Trophy it is easy to understand why. Read his thoughts here on the BBC.

The point, of course, is larger than the Champions Trophy. Quite simply, like an affair that has tired in time, one-day cricket has no fascination for me any more. Once I leapt onto my sofa as the final five overs unfurled, but no longer. Though this could be because the springs of an old sofa and older knees complain as much as the wife.

	Damien Martyn © Getty Images

"My wife is into her horses and equestrian riding. I was down on the farm and running around after horses and learning the horse trade, it was just great," Martyn said. "She has events every two or three weeks in the state competition - showjumping, dressage and cross-country - I would go with her to watch.

"I wasn't into horses but she wasn't into cricket either so it's been a swap. It took my mind off everything really which was a good break from cricket. Marriage has come at a good stage because it's at the end of my career. After cricket my first focus will be family."

Shaun Tait believes his injured shoulder is back at 85 percent, but he tells AAP’s Daniel Brettig he still doesn’t think the national selectors are comfortable picking him.

The domestic season begins today and The Courier-Mail runs a question-and-answer interview with Queensland’s captain Jimmy Maher.

	Warne in The Times: ' I don’t know what the atmosphere will be like in Brisbane for the first Test, but it is buzzing here already' © Getty Images

We will definitely be stronger than we were in 2005 but, as I’ve said before, I think the same applies to England, writes Shane Warne in The Times.

The idea that Glenn’s 5-0 prediction has put more pressure on us is rubbish. We just think of it as Pigeon Talk, from his nickname, roll our eyes and smile. He is a very positive thinker and he can’t imagine Australia losing a game. He expects us to win them one by one, and at the end of the series that adds up to five. There’s nothing deep about it.

It will occupy a £6,000 business-class seat and spend the journey hand-cuffed to a museum curator. The metal container that it will be packed in took a whopping 18 months to make. It isn't the crown jewels we're talking about but the ceramic urn that contains the Ashes. Andrew Culf tells us more about the journey.

"The Ashes urn is so delicate and irreplaceable that you need a cast of dozens to take it out of its case, repair it, insure it, and then guard it against accident, fire or theft," writes Simon Briggs in The Daily Telegraph.

Meanwhile Ashley Giles is with England's Champions Trophy squad in India for the final part of his rehabilitation from surgery as he strives to be fit for the Ashes. Richard Ashley of The Guardian caught up with Giles in Delhi.

"This time last year some people didn't even think I was good enough for county cricket," Sajid Mahmood tells Donald McRae in The Guardian.

Such honesty is an example of Mahmood's ability to overcome disappointment - and he relishes explaining how he rediscovered himself in the wilds of second-team cricket.

Michael Yardy, the England and Sussex allrounder, talks to Gareth A Davies in The Daily Telegraph about topics ranging from his earliest sporting memory to his most respected opponent.

Apart from cricket, I love football. I'm a West Ham fan. It has been an interesting one this season, with the arrival of [Carlos] Tevez and [Javier] Mascherano. I think Alan Pardew has come in and done brilliantly.

	Kim Hughes © Getty Images

"I think he's shown a complete disregard for the position that Buchanan has held and his attitude to the camp was very poor for a senior player," Hughes told Britain's Daily Mail ... "He would have been an embarrassment if he had captained our country."

Reuters reports Mike Gatting saying Australia’s infighting is a good thing for England.

"That doesn't often happen over there. They are normally a pretty tight unit," Gatting said. "It is usually the Aussies having a go at us for things we've done badly. But I think we've done things well, we're a good unit and the guys have now got to go over there and show that."

Peter Roebuck writes in the Sydney Morning Herald the plans of a terror attack during the last series were not a surprise.

The walls came down long ago, the battlelines were blurred, the general population became fair game, the rules went out of the window. Nor is the enemy easily pinned down. Nowadays battles are waged by nationalists, religious extremists and other unsavoury types. No one is sitting in trenches. Hit-and-run tactics, and the fear they create, are the chosen weapon of the ecstatic killers.

Of course the most public representatives of the Western hegemony are in the firing line. No point having an attack unless it spreads alarm, provokes fury. Either you are with us or against us. The more celebrated the figure, the more significant the victim, the better the message is driven home.

	McGrath fearlessly runs the risk of another prediction going wrong © Getty Images

Another Ashes, another 5-0 prediction in Australia's favour. The fact that his 4-0 forecast - Glenn McGrath felt the weather would claim one Test - for the 2005 Ashes backfired horribly hasn't stopped him from talking up Australia's chances again. Read Patrick Kidd's view on it in The Times.

Beware the man who talks up his side — it suggests he is nervous. Remember Sven- Göran Eriksson’s prediction before the World Cup finals this summer that his England football team were going to come back from Germany with the trophy?

Meanwhile Chloe Saltau went to practise with the Bushrangers. Read her account of an eventful session in The Age

You can imagine my horror when I see Fitzy limbering up at the nets. There are a couple of other women around the world who bowl just as fast these days, but when she charges in and strikes former Melbourne footballer David Schwarz high on the body, I know she's still dangerous.

	Johnson and Glenn McGrath arrive in India © Getty Images

Admit it. Part of you wonders why Mitchell Johnson is in India with the Australian one-day squad for the Champions Trophy, writes Alex Brown in The Sydney Morning Herald.

Simple answer would be this: express left-arm bowlers, particularly those with the ability to swing the ball, have been the rarest of commodities in Australian cricket for more than a century. Surely, though, there is more to Johnson's rise than a mere attempt by administrators to match a man with a job description. Perhaps, then, the answer lies in the battles Johnson has waged, and seems to be winning, against his body and mind.

The terrorist threat to gas players during last year’s Ashes series is front page news today in The Australian. Despite the news, Ponting is happy with Australia's security measures.

The Courier-Mail reproduces quotes from Ponting’s tour diary of last year’s Ashes series, when a series of bombs exploded in central London.

"I know quite a few players feel there is an element of inconsistency about our decision to continue with the tour and I agree with that," Ponting wrote in his Ashes Tour diary. "If we were in, say, Pakistan or Sri Lanka and something like this had happened, I am sure we would have been on the first plane out. Countries like that have lost revenue as a result of tours being called off because of terrorist threats yet here we are, staying put in the United Kingdom after terrorists just didn't threaten to do something, but in fact detonated explosives in the city where we are due to play our next two matches.”

News Ltd reports Shane Warne’s hosting of a high-stakes game of poker has “sparked a political stoush”. “There are claims that celebrities who attended the $25,000-a-head night, which attracted stars including singer Sting and actor Hugh Grant, did not realise some of their donations would go towards Britain's Conservative Party.”

	Excitement mounts over TV rights © Martin Williamson

As such a move would be unprecedented in the history of cricket, the implications of India owning the broadcasting rights to ICC events are impossible to specify exactly. The main events in the cricket calendar over the next eight years – notably the World Cups of 2011 and 2015, the Champions Trophy tournaments and the new Twenty20 World Championships – have already been decided. But conflicts of interest and issues of governance would be bound to arise as, in effect, a limb would be taking over control of the body.

At present, in the Champions Trophy, the arbitrary, last-minute way that Indian officials can act is being illustrated. Two days before the tournament began, one of the main venues, Mohali on the outskirts of Chandigarh, announced that it would refuse to host all five of its matches if compensation for any losses was not paid by the ICC. And the 'king of Mohali', the president of the Punjab Cricket Association, is Inderjit Singh Bindra, India's joint representative on the ICC.

Andrew Strauss missed out on the England captaincy but is now ready for the winter ahead after a break to refresh himself after a long summer. In his Sunday Telegraph column he talks about how important it is for England to build on their two late wins over Pakistan before heading Down Under.

The Ashes has always been the pinnacle of Test cricket as far as England's cricketers and supporters are concerned, and by the end of this winter we want one-day cricket to be viewed as equally important. As players we therefore have the responsibility to improve and perform in the Champions Trophy, the one-day series in Australia and the World Cup. And after plenty of difficulties in one-day cricket last summer I believe we have a much clearer vision of what we need to do, of our roles and the right frame of mind.

One allrounder has so far dominated the build-up to the Ashes with the regular medical updates on Andrew Flintoff's ankle and the effect of handing him the England captaincy. It is the one area where England are, without doubt, currently ahead of Australia - a matchwinning allrounder. However, that has just made the Aussies more keen to find one of their own. In terms of sheer power with the bat Andrew Symonds is the closest match, but the man earmarked for the No. 6 role is Shane Watson, the Queensland allrounder who has just enjoyed an impressive tournament in Kuala Lumpur. Will Buckley, in The Observer, profiles the cricketer whose stats are currently the wrong way round, but may not stay that way for long.

The thinking behind picking Watson (Test batting average 20.25, bowling average 61.50) would be in the hope of giving the Australia team the balance that Andrew Flintoff provides for England. For two decades the English have striven to emulate the Australians; now the position may be about to be reversed.

	Mike Young (left) finds solace in a 'strange game called cricket' © Getty Images

"It was a Monday or Tuesday and I asked them when it was over. They said Friday. I said 'oh, my God'. We started talking about prizemoney and trophies teams win and they mentioned 'the Ashes'."And I said, 'You play for five days and might only tie or draw and all you win is some ashes'. I thought 'I hope Australian baseball is not like this'."

Well he has come a long way since then, and cricket has compensated what he couldn't achieve with baseball. The Australian players have given him the respect he deserves, chipping in out of their own pockets to pay for his own room during the 2003 World Cup.
Read the full piece by Robert Craddock in The Courier Mail.

Mark Waugh plays selector and picks his Australian XI to stir up the Old Enemy in a bid to reclaim the Ashes.

I was asked to be an Australian selector a few months ago. Although it would have been a great challenge, I decided to turn it down. I have a few commitments these days that take up a fair bit of my time and the thought of travelling around the world watching cricket every day would've driven me mad.

Read the full piece in The Sydney Morning Herald.

Mike Hussey burst on the Test-match scene with an incredible run of scores last season, quickly establishing himself as a key member of Australia's middle order as they rebuilt following the Ashes loss in England. When he made his Test debut, against West Indies at Brisbane, he'd scored over 15,000 first-class runs; it took him just 166 days to register his first 1000 in Tests. Now he his gearing up for the biggest season of his life, seven months of non-stop action that includes the Champions Trophy, Ashes re-match and World Cup. Read David Sygall's interview with him in The Sydney Morning Herald.

Journalists have baited Hussey, expecting him to criticise the selectors for not picking him sooner. He wouldn't bite. But, reflecting on a great year, he reveals his conclusion. "I would have loved to have played a lot earlier," he says. "I probably wouldn't have been 100 per cent ready, but I would have loved the opportunity to make my mistakes and learn that way."

It was a night to remember at the MCG as old Victorian cricketers from Ashes series spanning 60 years turned back the clock.

Cricketers have longer careers than most sportsfolk, and so its generations are more closely linked. Colin McDonald, 77, remembered a brave century made by his opening partner, the youthful Bill Lawry, on a Lord's pitch made treacherous by a ridge in 1961.

Read the full piece in The Age.

Ricky Ponting talks about Australia's preparations during the off-season and about the importance of the Champions Trophy. Read his column in the Australian here

Writing in supercricket.co.za Neil Manthorp feels that in its efforts to maximise the value of all its 'rights', the ICC may well be forgetting the most basic and important rights of all. Human rights.

ICC should be very careful how far they take the process of signing sponsors. They are currently in the process of renegotiating their rights deal with brokers GCC and I have heard talk that the last number, which was US$550 million, could be nearly doubled for the period between the 2007 World Cup and the one in 2015. The deal will be the most 'inclusive' in sports history, which means that everything the players eat, drink and think will be sponsored or provided by an 'official supplier'. There was even talk, at one stage, of players being required to dress in 'official' casual clothing in their spare time between games during ICC tournaments. At what stage does a player belong to himself? Quite apart from the fact that he may have a personal endorsement with Levis, why should he be forced to wear another brand of jeans?

	© Getty Images

Fact is, of course, that neither experimentation, nor order shuffling, is the cause of India's recent woes. Merely that lately the batting has had more cracks in it than a Bush argument. In their last 10 innings, India's batsmen, from Dravid (105, 11, 0, 15, 18, 9*, 26, 6, 0, 7) to Raina (6, 7*, 27, 26, 7, 2, 34, 1*, 11, 26) to Dhoni (3, 59, 18, 2, 15, 46*, 14, 2, 18, 23) to Yuvraj (4, 63*, 7, 24, 12, 93, 52, 26, 0, 0) to Sehwag (73, 22, 12, 97, 11, 95, 9, 8, 10) to Pathan (46, 1*, 26, 7*, 1, 14, 1, 8, 64, 0), have been edgy.

Apart from the strains of leading the side through a critical phase, there is pressure on Rahul Dravid to deliver as a batsman, writes S Dinakar in the same magazine.

Frank Tyson believes Sachin Tendulkar should examine Don Bradman's post-WW II figures and take inspiration from them.

At the moment Tendulkar is at a comparable stage of his international career as Bradman found himself on the Australian tour of England in 1948. At this juncture "the Don" was 40 — eight calendar years older than the Little Mumbai Master. But in terms of playing experience, both men were on a par. Bradman lost eight years of cricket to the Second World War; Each suffered injury: Bradman to a gym accident as an Army Physical Education Instructor and Tendulkar to his lingering tennis elbow.

It is not known whether Ricky Ponting follows English non-League football closely, but one fixture in the Arngrove Northern League second division on Wednesday evening may have aroused his interest, writes John Westerby in The Times.

Making his debut in the No 10 shirt for Crook Town against Brandon United was none other than Gary Pratt, the substitute fielder who famously riled the Australia captain by running him out in the Ashes Test at Trent Bridge last year. The good news for Ponting is that Pratt is hoping to play the rest of the season for Crook, which means that he will not be carrying out twelfth-man duties for England in Australia.

R Mohan, writing in the Deccan Chronicle, wonders how the ICC let off Darrell Hair so easily, the man at the centre of the ball-tampering row at The Oval:

There have been too many holes in the manner in which the so-called elite umpiring system has been run by a section of the ICC. The Hair imbroglio is a rare instance in which it got its comeuppance. And it was not Asian money and clout that swung the verdict this time as much as the blatant unfairness of one man’s actions being exposed cruelly by expert witnesses and the forensic examination of the ball in question.

Clayton Murzello meets who he says is “one of the most fascinating, yet unknown enthusiasts of the game”, a stamp collector who has amassed more than 30,000 cricket stamps in three decades of collecting. Read the interview in Mid-day, a Mumbai daily, here .

I feel distinctly uneasy, writes Simon Barnes in The Times. The Aussies are getting cocky: they are still beating everyone, the last Ashes series was just a blip, the Poms got lucky but when they come to Oz we all know they’ll curl up and die.

In other words, the Australians are strong and ever-so-slightly smug, the English are stronger than they have been but ever-so-slightly anxious. Exactly as it was 16 months ago, when Australia came to England.

	A is for Ashes. They didn’t take place this summer, but they still dominated conversation © Getty Images

In The Times Tim de Lisle goes from A to Z of whats been an eventful summer with more than its fair share of controversy.

C is for captaincy. Complicated, in England’s case. David Graveney, the chairman of selectors, called Andrew Flintoff “the man in possession” last week, when Michael Vaughan was still the official England captain and Andrew Strauss had been in charge for 17 successive matches of various kinds. In Tests, the stand-in for the stand-in did an outstanding job ... L is for Lancashire, nearly men once again. They blamed the weather, with good reason. When they finally refurbish Old Trafford, they should give it a sliding roof.

Thank goodness Inzamam has been properly called to account for his intemperate conduct at The Oval, writes Peter Roebuck in The Hindu. Admittedly his team, and he seemed to think his entire nation had fallen foul of an untimely accusation made by a headstrong umpire.

Thank goodness Dean Jones has been allowed back into the commentary box. Certainly he deserved to be censured for his silly gag, but there was no need to send him permanently into the long dark night. His employers were right to teach him a lesson and then call him back.

	Adnrew Flintoff consoles Lee after the Edgbaston epic © Getty Images

Brett Lee has never watched the replay. Too painful. Too many what-ifs, writes Alex Brown in The Sydney Morning Herald. What if, for example, the third-last ball of the Edgbaston Test last year had breached the boundary rope and not been cut off by the off-side sweeper?

"It's too painful," Lee said. "You want to take yourself back in time and think the one that I hit to cover point, if I had hit it a metre to his left or right it could have been a different story. So I have never sat down and watched it."

As Australia gears up for a momentous and hectic summer, James Sutherland speaks to Jon Pierik about the key issues facing the sport.

Finding a coach to replace John Buchanan is the biggest decision we'll face over the next 12 months. It's a really important time for the development of the Australian cricket team. That's partly because John Buchanan has done such a great job. John is standing down when Australia is No.1 in the world. How do we manage the transition?

A failiure in his first Challenger Series outing doesn't necessarily mean the end of the road for Sourav Ganguly. Makarand Waingankar in The Hindu feels that Ganguly can take inspiration from Dilip Vengsarkar, the chairman of selectors, and Mohinder Amarnath, both of whom defied the odds and made successful comebacks.

Destiny is irreversible. Yet ambitious people hope to reverse it. To a participant in sports, all that matters is top quality consistent performance

	© Getty Images

The weekend newspapers were almost universally critical of the way the whole episode was dealt with, and while there was not much sympathy for Darrell Hair’s on-field actions, there was concern about the way the ICC has treated him.

Leading the assault was Michael Atherton in The Sunday Telegraph. he wrote that the affair:

Showed the ICC at their worst: prevaricating, in that a judgment which should have been handed out on the fourth evening of the game was allowed to fester for a month; callous, when it revealed confidential e-mails from an employee; and ultimately fudging a verdict so as not to upset the key players in this very political game – the Asian bloc.

When the big issue arose, the ICC official froze. Woe-betide anyone who walks out to bat with a logo half an inch too big, mind you. Moreover, shortly after the ICC announced that Hair had been withdrawn from the Champions Trophy because of security concerns, India, the host country, flatly contradicted the game's chiefs. Who is being open and honest?

Stephen Brenkley in The Independent on Sunday was in an equally unforgiving mood:

The ICC are a governing body, but only when their members can be bothered to let them be so,” he wrote, adding that the blame lay with the members. “The ICC look as toothless today as they can have ever done. That will remain so until their members allow them actually to govern.

In the News of the World, Richie Benaud described the hearing as "crass and unbecoming". He added:

There are two men with stilettos between their shoulder blades - the Pakistan manager Zaheer Abbas, who has been sacked - and Hair, the ICC umpire. But at no point in any of this has Hair acted alone.

Reacting to Malcolm Speed’s comment that “we all move on and put this issue behind us”, John Stern in The Sunday Times said that:

There seems little chance of that when so many questions remain unanswered and so much resentment remains.

Referring to Darrell Hair, he went on:

He claims that he is happy with the support he has received from his employer, the ICC, although it is hard to imagine he really believes that. The ICC hung him out to dry by publishing the e-mails in which he demanded $500,000 to resign and also by standing him down from this month’s Champions Trophy in India, citing security concerns — a claim that has been denied by the Indian cricket board.

In The Australian, Malcolm Conn cut to the quick:

What a joke: the ICC has dedicated next month's Champions Trophy to the spirit of cricket … whether it's from players or the game's governing body, the rhetoric does not match the reality that the game is still a shambles and has little credibility as a major international sport.

Inzamam-ul-Haq's actions are also forcing the ICC to reconsider its laws regarding umpiring protocols, particularly in regard to accusations of ball-tampering and the decisions involving forfeitures, writes Richard Boock in The New Zealand Herald.

But more than anything else, Inzamam showed that despite all the opposition and outrage, there is still a place in sport for protest.

Cricket might not have affected Gandhi, but Gandhi certainly affected cricket. The political movements he led and the social changes he sought to bring about had their consequences on how the game was played in the sub-continent. Click here to read a article in The Hindu, dated 2001, by Ramachandra Guha on Gandhi and cricket.

In the Mumbai-based tabloid, Mid Day, Clayton Murzello recaps his Pentrich to Pietermaritzburg train ride, where Gandhiji was thrown out of a first-class compartment in 1893, during the 2003 World Cup

November 23 can't be too far off for Andrew Flintoff who is training with Dave Roberts, the former England physio, in the West Pennine Moors in Lancashire. Simon Hughes caught up with Flintoff and they talked of the year gone by.

This is sporting life in the raw, a newly shaven-headed Freddie and Rooster ready to plough the shale-strewn, mud-spattered tracks.

We stop at the foot of a steep incline and Flintoff and Wyatt race each other up it three times. The lack of an obvious spring in his step belies Flintoff's power: he wins each time.

Mukul Kesavan, with some witty analysis the Indian team's recent one-day methods:

Pathan and Dhoni have played in pretty much every position from the opening slot to the tail-end of the team. Dravid has moved from the middle order to opening the batting. The move mightn’t have worked but the important thing is not the result but Dravid’s attitude, his willingness to commit himself to the total process.

Also, check out Javagal Srinath's take on events, where he feels the criteria for coach selection must be reassessed.

When it comes to bowling and its nuances, neither Chappell nor his devoted assistant has a clue. Nothing reflects this more than the fact that over 10 fast bowlers have been "experimented" with in the last year. And still the team does not seem to be in any position to name our best three bowlers.

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As they prepare for an encounter that could leave fans bleary-eyed for weeks after late nights on the edge of their seats, the Observer Sports Monthly meets both Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen - and find out why darts could be vital to the tour.

Read Jamie Jackson's interview with Andrew Flintoff where he says, "We'll go out there confident. And I have every intention of enjoying the whole experience."

Also read Rachel Cooke's interview with Kevin Pietersen, one that caught him totally unawares.

'I've been up since six,' says Pietersen, seizing the opportunity for a good moan. 'I only got to bed at midnight. I've got to go all day this afternoon and the launch party tonight, so I'll be up till four, then I've got to get up in the early hours to go to Milton Keynes.' Poor lamb. He is, he tells me, in need of a holiday - which is why he and Jess are about to head out to his parents' place in South Africa. 'I can just cruise there. There's a swimming pool. I don't have to leave the house. In England, I cruise. But Jess and I are all over the place. She's singing. I'm playing and shopping.' Playing and shopping. What a life.

The Champions Trophy is less than a week away but no team has a steady opening pair. Read The Times of India for more.

Only three pairs have opened in more than 10 One-dayers in the past one year: Australia's Gilchrist and Katich, Jayasuriya and Upul Tharanga for Sri Lanka, and South Africa's Graeme Smith and Boeta Dippenaar.

Even in the not-so-recent past, most teams could boast of a recognised opening pair. That has now whittled down to only one steady option for most teams, and most managements are playing Russian roulette in an attempt to pin down a steady partner for that opener, who is, in most cases, a tried and tested veteran.