Easy money: Mitchell Johnson is part of Australia's big pay day even though he didn't play a game © AFP

AAP reports the 15 players in the Australian squad will get a win bonus of more than A$180,000 for their World Cup victory. It’s especially good news for Brad Haddin and Mitchell Johnson, who didn’t play a game.

All members of the squad will share equally in the $US2.24 million ($A2.71 million) prize money awarded to the winning team, according to Cricket Australia.

Alex Brown writes in the Sydney Morning Herald about the different prospects of the retired Glenn McGrath and the group of Australian coaches who are currently without posts.

John Buchanan, Tom Moody, Bennett King, Greg Chappell and Dav Whatmore will conclude their contractual commitments with Australia, Sri Lanka, West Indies, India and Bangladesh respectively by the end of the month. Of those, only Moody seems guaranteed a position in his homeland, with Western Australia confident they have secured his services for at least the next two years.

	Dancing in the dark © Getty Images

Mike Selvey in The Guardian leads the way:

The World Cup, the final of which began in spectacular fashion before descending into the unseemly realms of the bizarre, was awarded eventually to Australia in such farcical circumstances that it would have been no surprise to see Steve Bucknor drop his trousers to reveal polka dot underpants and inquire if there was anyone for tennis.

And Selvey also revealed some fascinating facts:

Ten of the 51 matches went down to the last over, in only three of these was the result in any doubt in that last over; 45 games were decided by winning margins of more than 45 runs or five wickets - that is, comfortably; £12.50 to £25 ticket prices hit attendances. In Guyana the price of seeing a game was equivalent to two weeks' wages; 7,000 fans had to make a day trip to St Lucia from Barbados for the Australia v South Africa semi-final. St Lucia hoteliers accepted only 14-night stays at $500 per night.

In The Daily Telegraph, Derek Pringle believes heads should roll for the shambles at the end of the final:

Unhappily for the players, as well as the thousands who selflessly gave time and effort to this blighted tournament, the chaos overshadowed Australia's victory and their incredible feat of winning three World Cups in a row. If the ICC were wooing prospective sponsors at the match, let alone their current partners for this event, they must have been appalled.

And in separate article in the same paper, the busy Pringle reflects on the much-metioned legacy of the event to the region:

The legacy is likely to be a mixed one. Safety and security were over the top, the latter geared mostly to stopping fans bringing in drink not produced by one of the major sponsors. The sight of an old lady being harried before the semi-final in Kingston as she was made to pick the label off her water bottle because it wasn't supplied by a sponsor, was pettiness gone mad. The newly-built stadiums are likely to prove controversial too. Although some were gifts from the Chinese government, others were built with loans, something bound to impact on national budgets. Unless the man in the street has done well from this World Cup, he could end up cursing it for years to come.

And also in the Telegraph, Michael Henderson, as ever, gets straight to the point:

One can only assume that the ICC care not a jot for the game's welfare, or the way it is perceived. If they did they would have ensured that this final ran its proper course: 50 overs a side. Spectators are mere serfs in the ICC's estimation. They don't care whether the grounds are empty or full so long as the telly people continue to pick up the tab.

This World Cup was a disaster, and did nothing for the friendly, cricket-loving people who hosted it. Whether it is Zimbabwe, chucking, hanging Darrell Hair out to dry, endorsing that preposterous non-event called the Champions Trophy, or mucking up the only one-day competition that matters, the ICC can always be relied upon to get it wrong.

In The Times, Christopher Martin-Jenkins writes that Speed himself is now under pressure:

Commercial concerns have overridden cricketing integrity to a dangerous degree. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was not going to miss its chance yesterday to embarrass Malcolm Speed, the Australian lawyer who retires soon as chief executive. After the call by Lalit Modi, vice-president of the BCCI, to replace Speed with a chief executive from Afro-Asia who “understands the problems of a majority of ICC members”, the honorary secretary of India’s own archaic and frequently hypocritical administration, Niranjan Shah, has criticised the council for becoming “more and more bureaucratic” and costing its members money by “unnecessarily employing so many people”. He refused to rule out a no-confidence motion against Speed’s administration at the next meeting of the chief executives in June.

Even in Australia, where the team’s victory is the main story, there is time for reflection on other aspects of the final in the Sydney Morning Herald:

At the post-match ceremony the International Cricket Council president, Percy Sonn, and its chief executive, Malcolm Speed, were jeered. Around the world bewildered TV viewers presumably shared the sentiment.

Dick Motz, the first New Zealand's bowler to reach 100 Test wickets, has died in Christchurch.

Geoff Longley offers his in tribute in The Press while Lynn McConnell writes on Sportal about the fast bowler who loved hitting sixes.

The Waikato Times, which rates Motz as the fifth best seamer that New Zealand ever produced, hails him as:

"He could be a shock and a stock bowler. Extremely courageous and durable, with a fine fast bowler's hatred of batsmen."

Michael Donaldson, writing in The Sunday Star Times looks at the existing system, suggests changes and picks his possible 15 for the next World Cup.

A possible 15 for the 2011 World Cup: Daniel Vettori (captain), Peter Fulton, Lou Vincent, Todd Astle, Ross Taylor, Tim Southee, Corey Anderson, Jacob Oram, James Franklin, Brendon McCullum, Aaron Redmond, Kyle Mills, Daniel Vettori, Jeetan Patel, Hamish Bennett.

Ricky Ponting wanted Glenn McGrath to deliver the last over of the final, but bad light ended that plan. Jon Pierik reports on McGrath's farewell in the Courier-Mail and in the same paper Robert Craddock rates the Australian squad.

Over in The Australian Pierik writes about Adam Gilchrist’s secret squash weapon. His batting coach Bob Meuleman offers his reasons for the experimental exercise.

Andrew Strauss, Scyld Berry, Ian Chappell and Kumar Sangakkara dissect the 2007 World Cup in The Sunday Telegraph, and, in their deliberations, Chappell comes to the conclusion that it was the worst in the tournament's history.

Atherton: I think it's ridiculous, the number of Associate Member countries that have been involved. The World Cup should be about showcasing the very best.

Berry: Ian, you played in the first in 1975 and have seen the following tournaments, how do you rate this World Cup?

Chappell (never known for pussy-footing): One of the worst. Four decent games out of 50 is not a very high percentage: the Ireland v Zimbabwe tie, Sri Lanka's games against South Africa and England, and England against West Indies. The main reason to play a one-day game is to have a close finish. Maybe there have been a couple of other good games along the way but too many one-sided matches. One of the few good things to come out of this World Cup is that the two best teams reached the final.

Atherton goes on to say that there is too much cricket being played overall, though Strauss believes the problem lies with the scheduling.

Glenn McGrath says he’s happy to go out on his own terms in his column in the Sunday Telegraph. He also lists his toughest XI to play against and tells how the prankster and selector Merv Hughes wanted to drop him.

He told me that, as I effectively replaced him in the Test side in 1994, he was looking forward to getting square by sticking the knife in and ending my Test career. He said he was disappointed I announced my retirement before he had the chance to swoop. Merv, of course, was only joking.

In the Sun-Herald David Sygall looks at a possible Australian line-up for the 2011 World Cup. Mark Waugh rates his best team of World Cup performers in the same paper.

As the World Cup finally ends - yes, honestly – the flak continues to fly in the direction of the ICC. In The Daily Telegraph, Jim White is in no doubt about the target:

“Malcolm Speed, the chief executive of the International Cricket Council, despite presiding over the most over-stretched, bloated shambles of a competition, despite his organising committee redefining the term criminally short-sighted, is to carry on, refusing so much as to contemplate handing over to someone else.”

The Mirror is equally unimpressed, despite Speed’s admission that the tournament was too long:

“He might have added that it has also been wholly uninspiring and suffered from poor attendances, a lack of decent atmosphere, too many one-sided games, and hosted by a team which dragged the tournament down even further.

How is it possible that a football World Cup involving twice as many teams can be held in far fewer than the 47 days this has taken? The answer is greed.”

Patrick Kidd in The Times notes that “wars have been declared and ended in less time than it has taken to stage the 50 matches before today’s final”. He adds some stats about what has happened since the first match back on March 13:

The average price of a house in England has risen by £4,415
A strand of human hair will have grown 1.6cm
The Earth will have travelled about 75,576,000 miles in its orbit around the Sun

	Muttiah Muralitharan has told Brad Hogg that batsmen can't pick his wrong'un © AFP

Ricky Ponting wants wickets in hand during the middle stages of the final so they can attack Muttiah Muralitharan and the other Sri Lankan spinners.

"We can be a bit more aggressive and a bit more positive against them and try and put their slow-down sort of guys through the middle, put them under a bit pressure," he said in the Herald Sun.

Muralitharan told Brad Hogg during the week that batsmen can’t pick him. Robert Craddock says in The Australian Hogg’s wrong’un is close to being the World Cup’s most effective weapon. Craddock also profiles Tom Moody and looks at his stint coaching Sri Lanka.

In the Sydney Morning Herald Alex Brown writes how Australia-Sri Lanka clashes rate among the most spiteful match-ups in international cricket.

Simon Hughes, writing for Daily Telegraph, outlines the strategy Sri Lanka should adopt, suggesting that Muralitharan be introduced as soon as Ponting walks in.

Tim Lane says in The Age Australia are on the verge of domination not even achieved by West Indies.

Michael Clarke tells AAP facing Shaun Tait in the nets will help the Australian batsmen deal with the threat of Lasith Malinga.

Viv Richards tells Tait not to change a thing, Jon Pierik reports in The Australian.

"Tait has been reasonably erratic, but when you have an individual of that pace he is going to cause some havoc, as the South Africans found out," Richards said. "I would never, ever change the sort of action he has."

It’s Glenn McGrath’s last game of his record-breaking career and his column appears in The Hindu.

"The other record I am keen on holding on to - playing the fewest number of balls despite playing four World Cups. I have only faced four balls in World Cup cricket."

Jenny McAsey, writing in The Australian, looks back at Australia’s first World Cup triumph in 1987.

Showers are forecast for the final, according to Reuters.

Breeda Jayasuriya, mother of Sanath Jayasuriya, talks of his remarkable comeback after he retired last year from one-day internationals, in an interview to the Daily News.

Patrick Kidd, writing for The Times, pulls out some interesting figures since the 'long-drawn yawn' began 47 days ago.

Wars have been declared and ended in less time than it has taken to stage the 50 matches before today’s final

In an interview to CNN-IBN, Pawar said companies which sign on a large number of cricketers for endorsements try and use undue influence to keep them in the team. Read the extracts in the Hindustan Times.

We had received a complaint that a player's contract had a clause that said, more incentives for more time he spent at the crease. It’s an unofficial complaint and if found to be correct, the system needs to be strengthened. So I have asked the players to submit copies of their old contract.

But it seems you are targeting the players and preventing them from doing ads.

Well, there is one more issue. If eight or nine players sign a contract with XYZ company, the companies always want the players to be in the team. It is not an official complaint but on the surface it looks like one. There is a feeling like this amongst the younger players.

	There's no guarentee that John Bracewell's successor will do any better © Getty Images

The blame for New Zealand's disappointing exit from the semi-finals shouldn't rest on the coach John Bracewell, writes Richard Boock in the New Zealand Herald. He says that naming individuals as scapegoats isn't going to help as it's the entire squad which should be made accountable.

New Zealand bombed out in the Caribbean because the individual players, when presented with the equivalent of a rigged draw to see them through to the semifinals, choked like a chihuahua on a chicken bone. Remember the old saying about a champion team always beating a team of champions? Utter rubbish. Romantic bollocks.

Writing in the same paper, Adam Parore has a different opinion and feels that Bracewell hasn't done enough to warrant a second term. He also pushes for John Wright as a worthy replacement.

I've always hoped that John Wright would get his chance at some stage and from conversations with him many years ago, he has had his eye on the Black Caps' job

The World Cup might be about to finish, and Malcolm Speed is engaged in a positive-spin initiative that would make Alastair Campbell glow with pride, but the all-out assaults on the way it has been run continue unabated. In The Daily Telegraph, Michael Henderson warms to the task, explaining why there will be a rare sell-out for the final:

Embarrassed by their mismanagement of the World Cup, which has not posted a 'house full' notice until now, the International Cricket Council have rounded up corporate guests from every nook and cranny, and distributed tickets to anybody sound of mind and body who will have them.

This has been the worst tournament imaginable; short of spectators and memorable games, it has also been far too long.

The ICC have had to 'paper the house' time and again because the tickets have been prohibitively expensive for the locals. In St Lucia on Wednesday, more than 6,000 tickets were given away so that television viewers would not see a half-empty ground for the Australia-South Africa semi-final. Also, those grounds have been zealously policed by killjoys instructed to ban anything and everything that is not officially endorsed by the sponsors.

So a competition that was supposed to reflect the best of the Caribbean has been nothing less than a disaster for this part of the world, whose peoples have given so much to the game.

And Henderson, who can never be accused of courting the popular vote, then turns his attention elsewhere:

Neither Pakistan nor India advanced to the not-so-super Super Eights, and, no matter how many tears were shed by the ICC accountants, and the tournament's propagandists, that wasn't a bad thing. Far from it. There are too many cocky people in the sub-continent, particularly India, who think that the future belongs to them because they have attained such commercial clout. As Greg Chappell, their outgoing coach, reminded them on his departure, it's no use trying to match Australia on the field if your organisation off it resembles that of Zimbabwe.

	© Getty Images

Robert Craddock writes in The Australian Glenn McGrath has proved us all wrong.

Hands up if you are a cricket fan and did not have doubts over whether McGrath should be in Australia's World Cup squad. If both hands are by your side, congratulations. You are a member of a very small club. In the dying stages of the summer, McGrath looked a fading force. The speedometer was sagging below 130km/h and vengeful batsmen, stirred by years of torment, were charging him at every opportunity.

McGrath’s last game is on Saturday and Sydney’s Daily Telegraph runs a tribute to one of the greatest bowlers. Steve Waugh gives 11 bits of trivia about McGrath from the origin of his nickname to how he eats his eggs. You can even send him a message.

In the Sydney Morning Herald Tim Nielsen, the next Australia coach, enters the debate over South Africa’s failure to challenge in the World Cup semi-final.

Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, is interviewed by Robert Craddock in The Australian and says he would like the next World Cup trimmed to 40 days. He also talks about ticket prices and one-sided games, but starts with the length of the event.

Do you agree it is too long? “I take a different view. I think it is a positive for the game that cricket is on the back pages while the World Cup is on rather than have an abbreviated schedule. This format with four groups of four going into eight teams and a round robin then a semi-final and a final is a good mix. It gives the associate nations a chance to make their mark and then the round robin works well.”

I think we can assume that the vast majority of Cricinfo's readers have a degree of knowledge about the game (and, in some cases, an actual degree). But your friends might not, so why not buy them a cricket dictionary for their mobile phone?

	Herschelle Gibbs: "His moment of truth awaits" © Getty Images

Steve Waugh, writing in the Courier-Mail, says Australia should be confident of victory against South Africa, but like all the teams they are only ten overs of poor play away from the exit.

Australia must continue to allow the process to lead to the end result and not focus on the actual winning of the World Cup, for the only way it can lose is to defeat itself by looking too far ahead.

Waugh also thinks an opponent from 1999 might have a say in the match.

I can't help but think Herschelle Gibbs will again play a pivotal role and either clean the slate from the "Headingley catch" or perhaps be the villain with a reckless piece of cricket. He is a match-winner against all countries except Australia and his moment of truth awaits.

In the Herald Sun Jon Pierik writes about Ricky Ponting, who is talking about Glenn McGrath’s World Cup weapons. "Over the last 12 to 18 months, batsmen have tried to be more aggressive against him but not too many have succeeded.”

Christopher Martin-Jenkins in The Times warns that despite widespread criticism at the bloated nature of the current World Cup, things could get worse in 2011. He explains that suggestions that the number of teams should be reduced have already been bypassed by the ICC, which has agreed it will again feature 16, and, furthermore, there will an extra two matches, taking the total to 53.

He says while the tournament may have been slammed, it has made large sums of money.

All this, however, has been gained at a high cost if the “product” is seen to be less attractive than it should be. The best cricketers in the world need a proper framework to display their skill but to those following from afar, the tournament has seemed interminable. And for interminable read, alas, boring.

All concerned with the tournament in the West Indies and certainly those watching at home are agreed on one thing: a seven-week tournament is too long. The commercial success of the world’s governing body is not in doubt. The snag is that it tends to put the cart before the horse: to consider the bottom line financially before looking after the attraction of the game itself.

Martin-Jenkins' well-argued column is unlikely to go down well among those at the top of the ICC who have been adopting an increasingly siege-mentality attitude to the flack that has been heading their way in recent weeks.

What better way to celebrate the anniversary of such an important date in Australian and New Zealand history than by playing a game of cricket? By playing it in the nude, of course.

Nudists say they will be celebrating the Anzac Day value of freedom in a naked cricket match in Byron Bay on the north coast of New South Wales tomorrow. Free Beach Australia president Anita Grigg says the event is a tradition that was started by two Vietnam veterans. She says the game honours the values of mateship and freedom which diggers fought for.

"These two guys thought that the one thing that they wanted to honour about their mates was the good times. To remember the good times between the battles when they relaxed and played a game of cricket, football whatever - because they wanted to emphasise mateship, which is the best thing to come out of war."

[via ABC]

It's been a bizarre World Cup for plenty covering the event but two innocent Indian journalists had another bizarre story to write home about - being nabbed for arousing suspicion in Barbados, of all places, based on the colour of their skin . Read Atreyo Mukhopadhyay's first-hand account of the incident in Hindustan Times.

But even in my nightmares, I had not imagined I would ever be unceremoniously bundled into a police car and interrogated at a police station for an hour, being treated all the time like a criminal.

New Zealand play the first semi-final at Sabina Park in Kingston, the venue of coach John Bracewell's only Test for New Zealand. As he recalls, it was a game best remembered for Richard Hadlee's six bouncers in an over to Joel Garner, and the Big Bird's not-so-generous return gift. Bracewell also recounts the power of the feared West Indies fast bowlers.

"I can remember Ian Smith coming off (Bourda) looking reasonably white. He'd got 50 and said 'Malcolm Marshall's just told me that when we get to Barbados he's going to kill me'."

Read the full piece in Stuff.co.nz

Robert Craddock writes in the Courier-Mail how bags arrived at the semi-final destinations faster than the players on a day of disrupted travel in the West Indies.

Three of the four semi-finalists – Australia, Sri Lanka and New Zealand – were trapped on the same charter flight which was mysteriously delayed at Grenada airport and there were further delays for the teams in Barbados. Hundreds of international tourists were scouring airports throughout the Caribbean for lost bags as the worst fears of cup organisers were realised when the West Indies' fragile flights system fell apart.

	© Getty Images

In The Daily Telegraph, Mark Nicholas says the whole processed was too rushed:

Filling this man's boots will be no sinecure and quite why the ECB have done so in haste is a mystery. Having commissioned the Schofield report, it might have been wise to wait for its findings, which are due in mid-May. Michael Vaughan can handle the team perfectly adequately in the short-term and Peter Moores could have dealt with the peripherals. But Moores was signed and delivered in full before Fletcher's tears had dried. It has a strange smell about it. The ECB should have covered the globe in their search for the right man, or men even, for the demands of modern international cricket may now call for separate coaches in the two forms of the game. The ever-present nature of the role, the endless nights away from home and the repetitive calls to arms, take an extraordinary mental toll. But not a bit of it - out with the old, in with the new, just like that.

In The Observer, whose Vic Marks refers to Moores as cricket’s Steve McLaren, former England captain Mike Brearley offers a similar view:

Installing him permanently in the job at this stage risks putting him in too difficult a position; if things go wrong over the next year, the future of an excellent person might be compromised. He should either have been selected as provisional coach or allowed to get experience with the England squad under someone else …. [and] there can have been no proper search. However good Moores is, there was no time to advertise the job. His selection smacks of favouritism. It is not right for such an important job to be handed out without a proper competition.

Brendan McArdle writes in The Age about how wrong he was to doubt Matthew Hayden’s one-day credentials.

What on earth were we thinking a couple of months ago when we believed our best one-day team didn't have him in it? By far the highlight of this long-winded World Cup is not the potential of Shaun Tait, the deception of Brad Hogg or the injury status of Shane Watson, but the return to his commanding best of Hayden. Hayden's century against New Zealand last Friday was further confirmation of his position as player of the tournament.

Nathan Bracken uses his column on the BBC website to say the big games bring out the best in Australia.

Dav Whatmore announced that he would end his tenure as coach of Bangladesh after the series against India. In an interview to the Times of India, Whatmore reflects on his legacy with Bangladesh over the last four years and what the future holds.

The family is behind me. At present, we need to balance a little bit with some personal contact with them all. But they understand that cricket is my life. They have been more than generous in allowing me to achieve so many things in my life.

	© Getty Images

The England Cricket Board could regret their decision to appoint Peter Moores, says former England captain Mike Brearley in the Observer.

Scyld Berry, in the Sunday Telegraph, lashes out at the ECB.

Peter Moores has been given the next worst thing to a hospital pass. He should have been inducted by Fletcher this summer and allowed to bring in his right-hand man to bolster his authority.

Stephen Brenkley gives his views on Duncan Fletcher, the outgoing coach, in the Independent on Sunday while Michael Atherton and Simon Wilde do the same in the Sunday Telegraph and Sunday Times.

	Selfish? Me? © Getty Images

A malicious whisper campaign is on against Sourav Ganguly, and it is time someone put a stop to it, reports Kadambari Murali in the Hindustan Times.

... these reports, part of a whisper campaign over the past month to oust Ganguly, have referred to his taking 129 balls to make 66 against Bangladesh, and implied that he took the time for purely selfish reasons. There is unattributed talk within the cricketing fraternity that these reasons are to do with some vague clause in an endorsement contract he has, that allegedly fetches him more money for more minutes spent at the crease.

Yet, not one so-called BCCI “source” has had the guts to come out and say this publicly, or display a copy of this “contract”. If someone has proof, then why not show it and put an end to all the gossip and take action against the player? If no one does, then be fair to a man who has a staggering 10,000-plus runs in one-day international cricket, at a very high average of 41.37. It is a stupendous record.

Damien Fleming, who looks back at his two World Cup campaigns in the Sunday Age, wonders if this tournament will finish on a high.

They say marathon runners hit the pain barrier and get a second wind to get them to the finishing line. Can this World Cup do the same? It's been a marathon and the pain barrier has been strung out over a month, but let's hope the second wind arrives in the form of an exciting finals series.

Brett Lee has been in India where he has met Bollywood producers and senior music label officials, David Sygall writes in the Sun-Herald.

"It's all happening," Lee said. "I love music and am interested in acting. Rather than think in a few years, 'I wish I'd done this or that' I thought, 'Bugger it, I'll give it a go'."

Brian Lara's announced his retirement two days ago but the tributes and opinions continue to flow in. Below is a round-up of what the West Indian papers had to say about their boy.

	© Getty Images

The Trinidad & Tobago Express reports what Lara's older brother, Mervyn Lara, and other people in his village Cantaro, Santa Cruz, feel about his retirement:

Mervyn thinks that his brother's decision to quit international cricket might help the family. "At least now people when they see me won't blame me when things go wrong. Brian did enough."

But also in the T&T Express, Garth Wattley speculates that Lara might have been given a nudge to go:

"It is understood that the West Indies selectors (Gordon Greenidge, Andy Roberts and Clyde Butts), who reportedly met with the WICB boss last week in Grenada, were of a different view and were not considering Lara for the Test and one-day tour of England next month."

The editors of Jamaica Gleaner write that Lara decided to quit at the right time. Also read the Gleaner's Vox Pop on whether it was a correct decision.

Unfortunately, Lara's genius with the bat did not translate into his captaincy, either on or off the field. Lara inherited a team that was in decline, but, wilful and self-absorbed, he lacked the skill to mould the replacement into a disciplined, coherent unit.

The Jamaica Observer editorial laments the burden that Lara has had to carry all these years - one that no other West Indies batsman since George Headley came on to the scene in the 1930s has had to bear.

Fatima College, where Lara studied, add their two-bit which can be read on windiescricket.com

Colin Croft, in his column for BBC Sport, says that Lara would have traded half of his runs simply to have been known as the successful leader that he has not been, something he craved.

	"Moores will be like a breath of fresh air after Duncan Fletcher in terms of his relationship with the counties and his dealings with the media" © Getty Images

Following in his father's footsteps, Robin Martin-Jenkins - Sussex's allrounder and the son of Christopher, The Times' correspondent - has welcomed the ECB's appointment of Peter Moores. Martin-Jenkins has experienced Moores's coaching credentials first hand at Sussex, but also knows the man behind the profession:

Cricketers can be precious and take criticism poorly, but with Peter it was always fair and, mostly, constructive and it was this, combined with his genuineness as a human being, that inspired the Sussex players to want to improve and win trophies.

I once interviewed him for the club magazine. What he told me that day is very revealing about the man: “I want Sussex to be the team of the decade. I want the players to respect the traditions of the club, to know what the martlets are, to know what standards are expected of them to be a Sussex player, to know why they play the game; for each other and the love of the game.”

My advice to England players? Don’t be ambivalent towards those three lions on your shirt. Intensity, passion, drive. Call it what you will. It is, above all, these qualities that Peter brings to the party. A half-hour chat with him about cricket (admittedly a fairly one-way conversation) will leave you feeling that it is the greatest game in the world again — and how invaluable might that effect be on, for instance, a tour-weary Steve Harmison?

In The Daily Telegraph, Charles Randall is also upbeat:

Moores has earned his reputation for getting things done. He stood out on the Bangladesh tour for energy and approachability. He was always open to discussion - even with the media - a virtue evocative of the late Bob Woolmer, one of the game's great thinkers.

Bruce Talbot, writing in The Independent, charts the transformation of Moores, an Elvis Presley fan, from a modest player to a successful coach.

As a youngster on the Lord's groundstaff, he would always be the last to leave when the coach Don Wilson held court in the bar after the players had been paid their £32 weekly wage. He recalled: "I was always happy to make sure there was a full glass in front of the coach as long as the stories and his theories about the game kept coming."

	© Getty Images

The joy of Brian Lara's batting was tempered by his inability to succeed as captain, writes Greg Baum in The Age, a Melbourne-based daily.

In The Daily Telegraph former England seamer Derek Pringle salutes the greatest batsman of this generation.

Ricky Ponting may have the bigger Test average and Sachin Tendulkar the larger fan base, but Lara has won more matches, more often, and always with more style than any of his closest rivals.

The Times' Christopher Martin-Jenkins writes that Lara’s special talent has been to combine remorseless efficiency with an ability to be constantly entertaining.

Robert Craddock, writing in the Courier-Mail, looks at the career of Lara, a player the Australians rated incredibly highly.

No lesser judge than Steve Waugh, once asked which batsmen he enjoyed watching the most, didn't even have to contemplate the question before answering "Lara". "He tries to play the same cavalier way no matter what the conditions and even though its almost impossible to pull off you have to admire him for trying," Waugh said.

Also read Cricinfo's tribute: Rahul Bhattacharya on the last king of Trinidad.

The most anticipated team selections in the history of all international tours to Bangladesh was bound to raise a few questions, with a few seniors being 'rested', while the form of those being retained haven't been exemplary either. Pradeep Magazine, writing in Hindustan Times, picks out a few bizarre decisions, such as the non-appointment of a vice captain. Read the full piece here.

What has saved Sehwag is his great match-winning hundred against a team like Bermuda and what has not saved Sourav Ganguly his place in the team is his six half centuries in the nine ODIs innings he has played after his comeback to international cricket.

	The end is near for Glenn McGrath © AFP

Glenn McGrath has only a week left in his international career and he talks to Chloe Saltau in the Sydney Morning Herald about walking away.

The next time you see McGrath, he might be fishing with his son, James, or relaxing with his family at their property near Bourke in outback NSW or getting his helicopter licence. "To be honest, I was ready to retire a few months ago but this World Cup was that extra incentive to keep going,” he said. “That I'm the leading wicket-taker at the moment means I'm not just going through the motions."

Greg Chappell's lack of success with the Indian cricket team has come as no surprise to the Australian cricket fraternity. He is admired greatly for his wonderful, graceful and successful batting and I feel he was one of the greatest slip ...

Read the full article at the Sportstar.

East Preston Parish Council have been forced to withdraw their application to build an ugly office block on Warren Recreation Ground, following angry opposition from hundreds of residents.

Simon Locke, captain of the cricket club, said the council's U-turn was good news for everyone that used the pitch. He said: "The cricket club was organising the campaign but the whole point of it was that it was on behalf of the village, not just a small group. Shops have been displaying signs against it in their windows and everyone has given their support.

"It is a lovely piece of green land and it's great news it will stay that way. We can now get on with looking forward to playing cricket rather than leading campaigns."

Read more at Sussex's Argus newspaper.

Following the announcement yesterday that Brian Lara will retire from international cricket, Charlie Randall informs us of an exhibition to be held at Lord's, in May, of the great batsman.

The MCC say the exhibition has been organised with input from Lara himself and will feature many cricketing artefacts and photographs from the Trinidadian’s astonishing career. On loan from Lara will be several bats used in historic innings, including the left-hander’s 501 for Warwickshire in 1994, the world record score in first class cricket, and the 400 against England in Antigua, the Test record score.

In addition, there are balls, stumps and clothing from other significant matches on view -- and the jacket given to him by Nelson Mandela, the BBC overseas sports personality of the year award, as well as family photos from his personal collection. To complete the exhibition will be the acclaimed MCC-commissioned portrait of Lara by Justin Mortimer.

	© The Daily Telegraph

In The Daily Telegraph, Derek Pringle writes:

Duncan Fletcher's most eye-catching achievement as England coach was the 2005 Ashes, but his greatest was to make them a better team abroad. Before he took over, England travelled worse than a punnet of strawberries, until he showed them how to win in places as hostile to tourists as Karachi and Kingston.

He will never admit the error of recent ways or relief at going, at least not publicly. But whether you liked him or not, Fletcher took the job of coaching England with enormous seriousness and pride and turned them into a better Test side. For that alone cricket in this country owes him heartfelt thanks.

In The Guardian, Mike Selvey says:

In the end, it was his stubbornness and loyalty to his charges - traits which for much of the time served him well - which brought about his decline. The system he created became too cosy, the familiarity of it all becoming less challenging for players who might now better respond to fresh faces and voices even in doing the same routines. He knew in his own mind his guns and he stuck to them rigidly, always offering reasoned, if not necessarily cogent, argument to back up his judgments. But the players he supported stopped responding. It was time to go

In The Times, Simon Barnes points out that Fletcher just hung around too long:

Players run out of steam, legs, courage, coordination, appetite, but a coach is under no physical stress. You’d think a coach could go on coaching for ever. But it doesn’t happen. Coaches, too, suffer from the stresses and strains of sport. Coaches, too, run out of steam. Coaches, too, have a sell-by date.

And that, alas, is what has happened to Fletcher. He was a very good coach who ran past his time. Like a great writer who had said all he had to say, he fell back on cliché, repetition and self-parody. That was what led to the disaster of the Ashes series in Australia last winter and thence to England’s ludicrous performance at the World Cup.

And also in The Times, Shane Warne, who admits to being a fan of Fletcher's, says it was time for him to go:

What made us laugh in the Australia dressing-room about Fletcher during the last Ashes series was how often the England coach would contradict himself in his public statements. He would often change his story, depending on whether it suited England or not, just to try and have a go at us. And although there may have been method behind his madness, I think he did sometimes say things to suit what was best for Duncan Fletcher.

The Duncan Fletcher-bashing continues, this time from Geoff Boycott, who revealed to The Daily Telegraph that Michael Vaughan approached him for batting tips, insisting that it should be a hush-hush affair.

"This winter I had a captain of England requesting to have dinner with me to get my help on his batting but he said he must not be seen wtih me. He said it must be I quote: 'Under the radar'. Because I have been critical of the coach Michael Vaughan is now frightened to have dinner with me. What a farcical situation is that?"

	To talk or not to talk? © Getty Images

Stephen Fleming talks about New Zealand’s verbal approach when playing Australia ahead of the Super Eights game in Grenada on Friday.

"We've gone from open abuse, to not saying a word, to trying to be more aggressive, to being passive," Fleming said in The Australian. "We used to talk a lot about our approach towards it off the field but in some ways that detracts from the skills you need to beat them on it. It just naturally happens now that skills are what's going to beat Australia and the mental approach and the confidence that goes along with those skills."

In The Age Chloe Saltau speaks to Craig McMillan about his first attempt at life after cricket.

"I went to a couple of interviews, which I found quite intimidating, moving outside my comfort zone,” he said. “As a professional sportsman, you're in a bit of a bubble at times.”

Cricket Australia and the Australian government continue to wait for the other party to make a decision on whether the side should play a one-day series in Zimbabwe in September. The Australian carries the story.

The Barmy Army really did create a boom for Australia with Visa saying UK-issued cards spent A$551 million during the Ashes.

	Where did it all go wrong? © TigerCricket.com

It hasn't been right for a while, say most experts: the Champions Trophy triumph in 2004, the success against India, the defeat of Australia and subsequent run to final in the 2006 Champions Trophy were exceptions in a decline unchecked by an inadequate structure.

Deryck Murray, World Cup-winning 'keeper and head of Trinidad's cricket, says, "In the amateur days, people didn't realise the serious structure, albeit informal, that we went through. Our administrators didn't see it. They thought a Gary Sobers fell out of the tree."

	It was a successful fishing trip off Grenada for Matthew Hayden © Getty Images

Just when you thought Matthew Hayden’s World Cup couldn’t get any bigger he has out-done himself by landing a marlin. The game’s biggest angler was asleep when the 136kg fish took his bait and suffered a similar fate to many bowlers.

“We had about 80 people there to greet us when we got to shore,” he said in The Australian. “It was just magnificent. My arms are sore. I might have to get a massage later this afternoon."

In the same paper Jon Pierik writes the Australian players are preparing to fight Cricket Australia over personal sponsorship deals from finance companies.

Adam Gilchrist isn’t convinced about hoodoos as he looks ahead to the semi-final with South Africa in the Sydney Morning Herald.

	© The Daily Mirror

As England were booed off the Kensington Oval yesterday after their feeble elimination from the World Cup, Duncan Fletcher may well have been mulling over the thought that Saturday's dead rubber against West Indies will be his last game as their coach, writes Lawrence Booth in The Guardian.

In the same newspaper David Hopps reports on how scores of England and South Africa fans were stranded in Grenada after their cruise liner to Barbados was cancelled without explanation at the last minute.

In The Times, Simon Wilde pulls no punches:

"Another World Cup, another nightmare for England. Every four years, English one-day cricket gets put up against the rest of the world and is found horribly wanting. The big spotlight is turned on them and what it reveals is an embarrassment to all. Good grief, is that really how bad we/they are? English cricket caught inflagrante. Naked in its naivety and inadequacy."

"The upshot surely, hopefully, will be the end of Fletcher," writes John Etheridge in The Sun. "If he has any pride he will resign. If not, he should be sacked."

Strauss enforces claim to captain Vaughan's crown, writes Mark Nicholas in The Daily Telegraph.

If questions must be asked of them and their fitness for purpose, they must also be posed about the manner in which they were prepared, writes Stephen Brenkley in The Independent.

South Africa's comprehensive nine-wicket victory over England, which guaranteed them the fourth spot in the semi-final, had the newspapers of the country churn out advice on what to do next - South Africa meet Australia in the semis - and how the players' binge drinking is OK.

Michael Doman wonders in the Independent Online whether Makhaya Ntini should be brought back for the semis or straight into the final:

At grounds short on pace and bounce, Ntini has struggled to make an impact at the 2007 World Cup, claiming only six wickets at an average of 48.83 runs each in seven matches. It has been his inability to strike with the new ball which has been of concern to the selectors.

t will be a strong consideration to bring Ntini back should the Proteas reach the final in conditions which suit him. Should he replace Kemp, though, and weaken the batting, or can South Africa use wicketkeeper Mark Boucher at No 6 in the order, as they have often done in the past? It is hard to see Ntini replacing any of the four frontline seamers, all of whom have been performing well.

Neil Manthorp writes in Supercricket website that as long as the players are in control of their compromised sense after a night out drinking there is no need to make a fuss about it.

So don't make the mistake of blaming South Africa's players for drinking or staying up late at night when the real complaint is that they didn't win.

I wonder what the view of Smith and his players would be at home if they went out until 4.00am once again after the nine-wicket thrashing of England?

Former Indian fast bowler Javagal Srinath hails the appointment of Venkatesh Prasad, his former new-ball partner, as India's bowling coach. Writing in Hindustan Times, Srinath hopes Prasad will be given time to grow into the role, one that will be crucial to India's prospect in the coming years.

Michael Holding, Arjuna Ranatunga and Ricky Ponting were surprised by Sri Lanka’s tactics to rest Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas against Australia to improve their prospects of reaching the final. Holding’s worries about the consequences of the move in betting circles are reported on www.news.com.au

“What it does is allow people who know what is happening to get a head start if they are gambling. I have an account with Betfair and I watch a lot of different markets. Before the game started, Australia was 1-2. As soon as the toss went to air, when (Betfair) found out, Australia went to 1-5 because Muralitharan wasn't playing, Malinga wasn't playing, Vaas wasn't playing."

In The Age Chloe Saltau writes about Nathan Bracken, who picked up 4 for 19 against Sri Lanka.

"In what has already proved a bizarre tournament the real possibility exists that by tonight England, having played consistently poor cricket since they arrived in the Caribbean, will have secured a place in the semi-finals of the World Cup," writes Mike Selvey in The Guardian. "To do so they have to beat South Africa, a team that veers from sublime to ridiculous on a match-by-match basis, on the paciest pitch in the competition."

"When Fred [Flintoff] is on form, just about anything is possible. When he isn't England are insipid. With England's vital match against South Africa on the horizon this observation may pile the pressure on Flintoff's once broad shoulders, but it's the stark reality," says Vic Marks in The Guardian.

In the The Independent, Angus Fraser writes that "England are dangerous, as they proved in Australia during the Commonwealth Bank Series when they produced a remarkable victory, but they will struggle to live with the South Africans at their best. In Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff and Paul Collingwood, England possess potential match-winners, but Smith's side have twice as many."

Robert Craddock writes in The Australian about “the Catapult Kids” – Shaun Tait and Lasith Malinga. The pair met for the first time before the Australia-Sri Lanka game, but their opening on-field exchange was ruined by Malinga's ankle injury.

The cricket world - Tait included - marvels at Malinga's round-arm action, which he developed playing rubber ball cricket in the dusty back streets of his home town of Galle.

	Vusi Sibanda: "I don't feel like my game has improved, and I believe that will happen in Australia" © AFP

Vusi Sibanda tells the Sydney Morning Herald’s Alex Brown how he plans to walk away from international cricket in Zimbabwe to play for a Sydney club side.

There is little joy in Sibanda's voice when he outlines his intention to retire aged 23 in pursuit of what would seem an inverse sporting dream. Sitting in the pavilion at Bankstown Oval, a fortnight after playing at the World Cup, Sibanda wearily details the social and sporting decline of his homeland.

"I had dreamed of playing for Zimbabwe all my life but, over the years, it has changed a lot," he says, having just guided an invitational African XI to victory in the annual Cricket Masala tournament in western Sydney. "The young guys have been left to clean up the mess. In the last three years, I don't feel like my game has improved, and I believe that will happen in Australia."

	Enjoying the World Cup? © Getty Images

Here are two editorials from West Indian newspapers that project contrasting veiws on the World Cup - ticket pricing, the ICC, the local organising committes and the final.

The Nation, published in Barbados, tells its readers that the event will be an enduring legacy for the country. It also chides those harping on the negative issues like high ticket prices and asks them to look at the positives - money spent on developing the Kensington Oval, massive road expansion and general enhancement that has been undertaken by the government.

Sceptics in our region tend to react as though being smaller and less affluent is somehow a hindrance on ability to be constructive and industrious.

	Or feeling cheated? © AFP

The Trinidad & Tobago Express, meanwhile unapologetically harps on ticket prices and the ICC dictatorial attitude.

Remarking on the way in which the ICC was allowed too free a hand to dictate the conduct of these games, a Trinidad and Tobago government official involved in some aspects of the arrangements, made this public comment, after the fall-out began to emerge. The people of the Caribbean were never allowed to take ownership of these games.

Such a capitulation must never be permitted in the future.

Ian Smith has called the pitch in Grenada, where Australia will play Sri Lanka on Monday, a “compost heap”. Robert Craddock reports in the Daily Telegraph the toss could be crucial.

Muttiah Muralitharan finds Australians the toughest players to bowl to, according to Ricky Ponting in The Australian.

In the Sydney Morning Herald Chloe Saltau speaks to Arjuna Ranatunga, who thinks Sri Lanka are the only team that can beat Australia.

Australia face Sri Lanka in Grenada on Monday and the Murali factor is bound to play a part, according to Mark Waugh. In the Sun-Herald, Waugh writes that he found Muttiah Muralitharan even harder to face than Shane Warne.

Muralitharan is a far more dangerous bowler than when I last faced him a few years ago because the doosra is harder to pick, because he is bowling it quicker and with a trajectory similar to the offie.

Peter Roebuck pulls no punches in his column in The Sunday Age, where he calls the World Cup a debacle.

The tournament has been an abysmal failure. Far from representing all that is best in sport, it has exposed the greed and self-interest that have compromised supposedly healthy and periodically inspiring recreations.

In the Sunday Telegraph, Robert Craddock and Jon Pierik consider the negatives of Ireland reaching the Super Eights.

And back in the Sun-Herald, Will Swanton looks at Justin Langer’s recent comments that he found sledging a disturbing part of the game.

The English season has sprung into life - with Alastair Cook scoring the first century - and next week the County Championship gets underway. One of the biggest draws on the circuit will be Shane Warne, back at Hampshire after ending his Test career, and in his latest column for The Times he puts forward ways the domestic game can improve. As usual he doesn't pull and punches.

After what has gone on this winter, I will be super-angry as well as frustrated should Pietersen be ordered to rest by Fletcher before the first Test against West Indies on May 17. And if that happens, the ECB should overrule him, England coach or not. The board runs the game, raise the money and is entitled to kick up a stink.

The calls for Duncan Fletcher to be replaced as England coach are growing louder with every feeble World Cup performance. The problem for everyone involved is that there isn't much time. Even if England leave the Caribbean after the Super Eights, it is only three weeks before the first Test against West Indies at Lord's. Angus Fraser, in The Independent, says that regardless of what happens over the next few matches it is the time for a fresh perspective.

Those of us who have followed the England team closely this winter have seen the life slowly sucked out of the squad. The criticism in the aftermath of England's 5-0 Ashes defeat hurt Fletcher deeply and it has affected his approach to the job. In public, he walks around stony-faced looking like the world is against him. He barely acknowledges the media, even though we see and work with him on a daily basis.

Fraser goes onto say that England's game has gone backwards since the Ashes success in 2005.

The victory over Australia has brought arrogance and complacency to the England set-up, too. One of Fletcher's aims when he took charge was to create a tight unit of players that fed off himself, the assistant coaches he appointed and themselves. He prevented outsiders from becoming involved or coaches that he could not control.

	Glenn McGrath is smiling more these days © Getty Images

AAP’s Greg Buckle talks to Glenn McGrath about his career as it continues to wind down. He finds the “peaceful veteran” has mellowed.

"With everything that has happened at home with Jane and having two kids, it does put a different perspective on things and you work out what's important in life. I think just natural progression has helped me there.''

Peter FitzSimons asks in his Sydney Morning Herald column if there’s ever been a more boring tournament in the history of the world? Philip Derriman follows the theme in the same paper.

In The Australian Jon Pierik writes India have confirmed their status as the game’s most powerful country by cutting Australia out of a one-day series in Ireland.

Whenever the Barbadians are reminded of Malcolm Marshall, they say that there would be none like him. From the common man on the street to officials, this one sentiment runs through all, writes Atreyo Mukhopadhyay in the Hindustan Times.

The Hindu's Nirmal Shekar looks at the fading careers of modern era cricket's two biggest batting superstars, Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar, and asks the question: merely because we believe that sporting icons should say goodbye in their pomp, is it fair to nudge Tendulkar and Lara off the stage?

Read on to see if you agree or disagree.

	Will Duncan Fletcher and Michael Vaughan be walking soon? © Getty Images

Mark Ramprakash says that Duncan Fletcher has ruined England's World Cup chances. The former England batsman accuses England of lacking the boldness to win a World Cup, and believes Fletcher has failed to fulfil promises made following England's exit from the 2003 World Cup. Read more in the Guardian.

Mike Selvey, in the same publication, feels that Michael Vaughan has talked the talk, but now must walk the walk.

"The debate about the top order is starting to get tedious but, like a niggly tooth, it won't go away until something is done about it. Central to this is the tolerance afforded Vaughan, who, as captain, has been given some sort of primacy, a kind of divine right that overrides any problem of form."

According to Selvey, if Vaughan fails in England's must-win two remaining matches, there can be no logical reason for England to persist with him. Click here to read more.

	© AFP

Ricky Ponting gives his view on the World Cup issues in his column in The Australian.

"We heard after our game against West Indies - surprisingly played before a half-full house - that some ticket prices at the ground were up to $US100. That's too expensive."

After dealing with tickets, he moves on to the length of the tournament.

"When you look at other major sporting events such as the Olympics, which lasts for just over two weeks, the two-month cup seems too long.

"It does seem to have gone on for a long time but logistically it is very difficult to organise because you need reserve days for every game."

Greg Chappell is back in Australia and he will consider his options in the next three weeks after resigning as India’s coach. Chappell, whose health is fine, said in the Herald Sun he is planning a holiday around Australia.

“I just want some time away from it all," Chappell said. "We are just going to spend some time catching up with family all around the country and then we will work out what happens."

Matthew Hayden spent a day off surfing in Barbados, writes Jon Pierik in the Daily Telegraph.

While the waves may not have been of the same size as those he is used to surfing at Stradbroke Island, the Queenslander was rapt to enjoy the local conditions.

The Indian board took a firm stance when it decided to limit player endorsements to three each but then relaxed its grip a bit when it agreed to P Sainath, a writer normally associated with social issues and not cricket, believes the watering down of the board's earlier decision is due to the power of corporate rage. He writes in The Hindu:

Even the most experienced and strong-minded cannot evade the effects of endorsement raj. So imagine a 21- or 22-year-old caught up in this. A kid who has been blazing away at the best bowlers in the world without fear of failure. Once the endorsement web closes in and you have crores riding on your next performance, it's different. That too when you've had a couple of bad outings. With what freedom will you play that next innings? Will you play safe or with spirit?

There are no more boundaries in cricket. There's only Corporate X's Fantastic Fours, Business Y's Super Sixes and Company Z's Magic Moments. Not to forget some other concern's Sizzling Catches. As this whole culture takes root, the successful player drowns in sponsor money. The distinction between cricket player and product peddler blurs in more ways than one. Logos and uniforms proclaim who owns the players and it's not the country.

	Egged: Andrew Flintoff © AFP

Call it a rant, call it a rave, but Geoff Boycott wants Andrew Flintoff to bat well up the order, because he just isn't scoring any runs.

If Boycs and his mum were in charge of that scraggly outfit, free-spirited Freddie wouldn't sit at No. 6 - a place where "he finds himself needing to build an innings against the spinners and the dibbly-dobbly seamers".

Read the full article in the Telegraph here

In the Guardian, Lawrence Booth rings a similar tune by saying that Flintoff must trust his strokeplaying instincts as he strives to return to form against Bangladesh.

"While England's batting has at times resembled a dog's dinner Flintoff's World Cup contribution is a curate's egg," he writes. You really can't deny that.

Indian selectors brush off the rumours that high-profile seniors are dropped for Bangladesh's tour, reports Kadambari Murali.

“I am shocked and appalled by what I saw and read,” said one selector. “How can unnamed board sources be quoted saying Ganguly and Tendulkar and the others will be dropped? On what cricketing grounds can we drop someone like Zaheer Khan? If the BCCI has disciplinary issues with any of them, that is something it has to take a call on. If it doesn’t, we can pick whoever we want to. Who told that mysterious official whatever he has said, and what locus standi has anyone but the selection committee have to decide on selections?”

Read the entire piece at The Hindustan Times.

Meanwhile, Rudi Webster, the psychologist, is of the opinion that Greg Chappell should have stayed for a couple more years. Click here to read the interview by Sandeep Dwivedi in the Indian Express.

	We're not meant to talk to you but ... © Getty Images

Ricky Ponting wanted Australia to keep quiet when Kevin Pietersen batted on Sunday, but he couldn’t help himself, writes Robert Craddock in the Courier-Mail.

"Pietersen's name came up at a team meeting and I had got the feeling that he is a little like Tugga [Steve Waugh], Matty Hayden and Brian Lara, in that when you have a go at them it makes them play better ... they enjoy it," Ponting said. "I actually said to the team: 'If he starts something, let him go.’ But as soon as he started, I could not help myself. I jumped all over the top of him. It wasn't great leadership as far as I was concerned. But I am not sorry I did it."

With Australia set to play a record 20 Tests next year, Chloe Saltau writes in the Sydney Morning Herald it is unlikely they will take part in a lucrative Twenty20 carnival in the West Indies.

A few months ago Cricinfo revealed that Darren Gough was on the brink of retiring after leaving his Essex contract unsigned. He now admits that he was indeed on the verge of jacking it all in, but only an offer from Yorkshire for the captaincy – an offer they had to make three times in all – changed his mind. Read the interview in The Guardian.

Kris Srikkanth rewinds to 1989 when he was the captain and to the sordid events just before the tour of Pakistan.

For long, the issue of graded payments had been uneasily hanging in the air. Senior cricketers were insisting that this be implemented ... Raj Singh Dungarpur, the then powerful chairman of selectors, who was staying in the same hotel (Taj Palace in Delhi), called me to his room. He told me in no uncertain terms that if I abandoned my senior colleagues, he would give me a brand-new team, a second XI of sorts made up totally of youngsters, for the Pakistan tour. He said I would have the BCCI’s complete backing.

I refused.

Read the full article in the Hindustan Times.

	Under pressure: Michael Vaughan © AFP

England arrived in Barbados with Michael Vaughan and Duncan Fletcher still insisting that the team are not far from their eureka moment, writes Richard Hobson in The Times.

The seven-wicket defeat by Australia on Sunday mirrored the two-run loss to Sri Lanka four days earlier. For some of the time England played very well, but they proved unable to put together a complete performance and, with one more reversal enough to bring elimination, time is running out, Hobson feels.

In The Independent, Angus Fraser says that Vaughan has three innings - possibly five - to save his one-day international career.

Vaughan must know that he is struggling to crack this form of the game. It is not as though he has been dynamic in domestic cricket, where he has reached three figures only three times in 258 innings. Vaughan may well take the decision out of England's hands at the end of the tournament by announcing his retirement from one-day cricket.

Click here to read more.

The BCCI working committee meeting held last week threw up some pretty drastic changes; the Indian board took a number of good decisions and made some right noises.

Some measures look attractive, but will they yield results, asks Makarand Waingankar in The Hindu.

And in the Indian Express, Anil Kumble says that outgoing coach Greg Chappell's principles were...pretty basic...in terms of what what he wanted from the team.

Elsewhere, news filters in that Suresh Raina is giving a post-surgery rehab programme the look-over. Kolkata's The Telegraph says Raina told them that he recently had an operation on his left leg and it’s unlikely that he'll be available for the trip to Bangladesh. Hmmm.

Australia have been unstoppable, writes Robert Craddock in the Daily Telegraph, but questions remain over the make-up of the bowling.

There will be days, perhaps as soon as New Zealand next week, when the Hodge-Clarke-Symonds ticket may not be the right one for Australia and Stuart Clark or Mitchell Johnson will be the men for the day if Shane Watson does not return. Not only does the four-bowler option put the heat on Symonds and Clarke, but the top four bowlers are also under heavy pressure to fill their ten-over quota and not misfire. If any one of them goes down it could spell big trouble.

Jon Pierik writes in The Australian about Ricky Ponting’s exchange with Kevin Pietersen during Australia’s seven-wicket win.

Ireland are still mixing it with the big boys and one man who helped to put them there is their coach Adrien Birrell.

He has just ten days left in his job before he hands over to Phil Simmons. In his five years in the job, Birrell’s noted changes aplenty, as he tells the Sunday Tribune, an Irish newspaper. "It was a bit dispiriting in the beginning. Cricket was never in the press. It was a really low-key affair."

"The upset means South Africa's World Cup dream is now under direct attack and that Bangladesh, who have yet to play England, Ireland and the West Indies, are still in contention for an unlikely semifinals finish," writes Richard Boock in The New Zealand Herald. "And whom should we thank for all this uncertainty? Bangladesh of course, for proving once again that there are no certainties in sport, and that upsets do happen."

England face a serious uphill battle to reach the World Cup semi-finals after losing to Australia and in The Times Simon Wilde lays some of the blame with the captain.

At the moment, Michael Vaughan's reactions simply don't seem good enough. When he batted, his defensive stroke was undone by Shaun Tait's pace. This was more forgivable than his bad miss in the field when the match was very much in the balance.

Simon Hughes writes in the Daily Telegraph that England seem to find the powerplays a handicap when they bat.

Blogging for the Guardian, Lawrence Booth takes a more positive tack and writes about Ian Bell’s potential as a one-day opener.

"Trapped in a circle of fire, the Indian board was of course expected to come out shooting; but nobody really imagined that it would do this: end up shooting at its own feet. It has virtually declared war against the players and the sponsors and advertisers who have clearly made deep inroads into the system," says Bobilli Vijay Kumar in The Times of India.

Australia’s bonus if they win the World Cup will be spare change if they play in a Twenty20 tournament in the West Indies next year, according to Robert Craddock in The Australian.

American-born, Antiguan-based billionaire Allen Stanford has offered Australia the chance to be part of a Twenty20 competition that he hopes will also draw India, Pakistan and New Zealand and feature prizemoney of more than $20million. Stanford, who is trying to make Twenty20 popular in America, has made a direct proposal to Cricket Australia, which is considering the offer.

In the same paper Jon Pierik writes South Africa’s reputation as chokers is “greater than ever”.

	Should Andrew Flintoff be promoted up the order? asks Mike Selvey © Getty Images

"England could still reach the semi-finals after losing to Australia, especially if South Africa continue to fall apart after their defeat by Bangladesh. Any feelings of superiority England had after winning the one-day finals in Australia were dissipated when they threw away the warm-up match in St Vincent last month," writes Scyld Berry in The Sunday Telegraph.

Also in The Sunday Telegraph, Ian Chappell says that England's chances of beating Australia depend on whether they dismiss Ricky Ponting cheaply.

"Should Vaughan continue to open, or might he profit down the order? He likes the hard ball but it is getting rid of him too often. Could Bell open as he did last year? Could Flintoff go in at the top of the order with licence to belt the daylights out of the ball?" asks Mike Selvey in The Guardian.

In The Observer, Vic Marks says that "if England are defeated today [by Australia] and are then consigned to another unsuccessful World Cup expedition, the juggernaut for change will be hard to halt."

"Many of the qualities that have made Lara the great batsman of the past 15 years - the self-obsession, the ego, the individualism, the outrageous talent - are qualities that often do not transfer to captaincy. This World Cup has not told us much we did not already know about the Prince of Port of Spain: he is a great batsman who is singularly ill-equipped for leadership," writes Mike Atherton in The Sunday Telegraph.

	Has AB de Villiers been prematurely promoted to 'Golden Boy' status? asks Neil Manthorp © Getty Images

"If [Mickey] Arthur, [Graeme] Smith the rest of the senior players and management decide to try and glue the pieces back together the hard way, these may be some of the very difficult issues they could address," writes Neil Manthorp on supercricket.co.za after South Africa's loss against Bangladesh in Guyana.

* If the golden boys of the national team (Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis, Shaun Pollock, Mark Boucher, Herschelle Gibbs and Makhaya Ntini) are untouchable when the team is playing well and winning, why is Andrew Hall still dispensable even when he is in the best form of his life?

* Is Shaun Pollock happy? Has he been able to cope with the murder of Bob Woolmer, one of the most powerful influences on his life and career? With a young family at home and the simmering reality that Woolmer was killed in an official, ICC sanctioned hotel, and the fact that the ICC have basically said nothing more than 'get on with the tournament' - has his equilibrium been affected?

"First, there was disaster. And now, we seem headed for a calamity. Typical of an effete polity whose only agenda is to survive and wreck everything around them, the Indian Board’s reaction to the World Cup disaster puts even logic to shame," says Pradeep Magazine in The Hindustan Times.

What beats me is that the same coach whose team did not even enter the top eight of the World Cup has been rewarded with one of the most important jobs in Indian cricket. He is being offered the job of grooming and guiding youngsters at the National Cricket Academy. If Greg Chappell is thought to be so good, then why remove him as coach of the team in the first place?

	Ouch: Glenn McGrath strikes Kevin Pietersen © Getty Images

Australia will take aim at Kevin Pietersen’s healing ribs when they face England in the Super Eights match on Sunday, according to Chloe Saltau in the Sunday Age. Pietersen was forced to leave the Australia tour with a fracture after charging Glenn McGrath and Ricky Ponting would like to inflict some more pain.

"If Glenn could hit him in the ribs, break his ribs and have him retire that would be lovely," Ponting said. But Ponting said the main tactic would be to greet the dangerous Pietersen by bringing Shaun Tait into the attack.

Kyle Mills, the New Zealand fast bowler, has taken his own aim at Matthew Hayden, calling him a “bully who tends to pick on guys he perceives as weaker players”. “I can't imagine him saying anything to Shane Bond.”

Mark Waugh says in his Sun-Herald column the idea of billionaires taking cricket to a new dimension through Twenty20 is “far fetched”.

It’s good to see the Aussies aren’t engaging in any kind of schadenfreude where Gary Pratt - destined to be known as the man who ran out Ricky Ponting - is concerned. The Australian has traced his career path post-Ashes 2005 and found him released by Durham and now playing lower league football. But cricket remains his true love and he has been given a contract with the minor county Cumbria.

For Pratt’s part, it’s good to see that he’s not bitter about being released by Durham, blaming a lack of opportunities on the captain Mike Hussey who is, of course, Australian.

Make your own mind up.

The 2007 World Cup has been severely criticised for its poor crowds, lack of competition and several other shortcomings but Richard Boock, in The New Zealand, herald, has come out in defence of the Caribbean.

This tournament was never going to be about massive, seething crowds. It was always going to be about colour and energy; about spirit and fun and the beauty of a game. If visiting fans haven't been plentiful or adventurous enough to seize that opportunity that's their fault. The Caribbean deserves this tournament more than any other cricketing region; the near-crime is that they hadn't been invited to host it earlier.

Also in The New Zealand Herald, Adam Parore says that "New Zealand cricket has never had a better chance to take the game by the scruff of the neck".

Mike Gatting continues to be accosted at airports around the world with unkind questions on his sanity - why did he try the reverse sweep of Allan Border in the final of the 1987 World Cup? yet Paul Nixon on Wednesday unveiled two of the finest against Muttiah Muralitharan, writes S Ram Mahesh in The Hindu.

"It was not the biggest reverse-sweep six I have hit," said Nixon. "I hit Monty Panesar for a bigger one last year. I have probably hit 20 in my career now. I've had a bit of banter with KP (Pietersen, who has reverse-swept Murali for six). He told me that was one each. I said no, it's now about 20-1, but I suppose in proper cricket it is one each."

Also in The Hindu S Dinakar singles out Mahela Jayawardene's innovative use of the third Powerplay as the period when Sri Lanka won their Super Eights game against England.

	Greg Chappell to indiatimes.com: 'No regrets. I have enjoyed every moment of it [coaching India]. Wouldn't have missed it for anything.' © AFP

Greg Chappell spoke to Sumit Mukherjee and said that coaching India was "a huge learning experience" for him. He goes on to say a lot more, click here for the full interview on indiatimes.com.

If you want to be like Australia, you can't run your cricket like Zimbabwe. The BCCI must adopt, may be, a 10-year plan, spelling out the aims and objectives and go about attaining those goals in a professional manner. Any half-measures or cosmetic changes at this stage would be like putting band-aid on cancer.

He also calls Suresh Raina "a complete package".

I asked Brian [Lara] what he thought of Raina. Brian just said: 'Anyone who can play like that off his back foot has to be special'. In Malaysia, a couple of Australians, including John Buchanan and their fielding coach Mike Young had asked me 'Gregy, where did you find this guy?"

Imran Khan in The Hindustan Times says that in success or failure, the captain comes before the coach.

Since the coach cannot play for the players, he can only be pulled up for strategy. The Indians did not play well against Bangladesh; when the players under-perform, even an excellent strategy will not help. I would say that it is harsh to blame Chappell for India's exit.

"India has been blessed with an exceptional bunch of cricketers who have managed to paper over the cracks in the national game. Sooner or later this team will be seen in its proper context, as a collection of impressive characters who overcame formidable challenges to serve with distinction," writes Peter Roebuck in The Hindu, who believes that nothing will change unless the deeper causes of India's decline are confronted.

In The Australian, Peter Lalor says "Not even the third umpire can establish whether Chappell was pushed or jumped, but the most extraordinary thing was not that he fell victim to the blood-letting, but rather that it was Sachin Tendulkar who delivered the final blow."

	Can I play with your hair? © AFP

Andrew 'Roy' Symonds is settling in well in the West Indies, writes AAP’s Greg Buckle. In Antigua he’s being treated as a local and even got into an argument with the street vendors over what is going wrong with the game in the Caribbean.

"Walking down the road, a lot of the Rastas will give you the peace sign. I don't know what they are talking about, but they sort of give you the nod or they want to bang fists. They don't actually know where I come from until I open my mouth.”

Matthew Fynes-Clinton profiles John Buchanan in the Courier-Mail.

	Andrew Strauss and Ed Joyce might be swapping spots © Getty Images

Michael Vaughan is not bothered that Andrew Strauss hasn’t played in the tournament as he considers him as an opener for the match against Australia, AFP reports.

"We've discussed it already and we have an idea of the way we are going to go because it is an area of concern," Vaughan said. “We haven't been firing at the top of the order and we have been putting batsmen under pressure. But there have been stages when we have been getting to good positions as well and not going on."

Robert Craddock writes in The Australian Ricky Ponting’s team has the chance to end Michael Vaughan’s one-day career. “England will be all but out of the World Cup if Australia wins and Vaughan, who has an ordinary one-day record, is likely to go down with the ship.”

The Indian board is meeting to discuss the team's World Cup debacle, appointment of a new coach, probably even a new captain and the way forward for Indian cricket. Here is a round-up of what the Indian newspapers are mulling over ahead of the meeting.

In The Hindu Barry Richards, the former South African player and currently a cricket commentator, advocates the need for a local coach.

The Indian Express tries to get down to what exactly went wrong with India's World Cup plans.

The real story of India’s World Cup disaster does not begin with that initial fumble against Bangladesh, or the embarrassing surrender to Sri Lanka. By the time India reached the West Indies on March 1, the wheels had already come loose, threatening to fall off any time.

The Hindustan Times ponders the cricket coaching scenario in the country. 'Are we grooming home-grown coaches', it asks.

Kiran More feels that the work his selection committee, which preceded the current one, was nullified when their tenure ended after 15 months of having worked closely with Chappell. He writes in Mid-Day:

We had to discontinue because we finished our four year-terms. It is very unfair even on the new selection committee to get adjusted quickly.

It takes time to build a rapport and once we had an understanding in place, we should have gone ahead with it. That’s where probably I feel the constitution of the board can be amended.

Also, after losing to South Africa, we panicked badly and dropped some youngsters. The new selection committee was also under tremendous pressure from the media.

In the Sydney Morning Herald Chloe Saltau looks at the move to put James Hopes on standby for Shane Watson.

While Brad Hodge is favoured to replace Watson for Sunday's Super Eights game against England, the decision to dispatch Hopes to the nets in Brisbane revealed much about the attachment to a fourth seam-bowling option and the unease about unbalancing the team.

	Greg Chappell resigned as India coach citing "personal reasons" © Getty Images

Indian cricket faces a multitude of unanswered questions after their World Cup exit and Greg Chappell's resignation and Harsha Bhogle in The Indian Express says what India now needs is a benevolent dictator, a person who "is not beholden to it and who is committed to it".

There are immediate issues to be decided. The coach, the captain and therefore, the future of many senior players. There are reports to be discussed and the perpetrators of leaks have to be identified and put on television as villains. And someone has to ask: why are the nine players, including, presumably, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly, so worked up? What does an admirable person like Rahul Dravid has to say? And most important; even if the manner of delivery of the coach’s message was unpalatable, was the message wrong?

Ajit Wadekar, the former Indian captain, welcomed Chappell’s resignation. “It’s good that he has put in his papers, because it wasn’t a happy thing happening anyway in the Indian squad,” Wadekar told The Indian Express. “How can anybody even talk of a player of Sachin Tendulkar’s capability like that? This was a man, a legend, who has lived and breathed cricket virtually since he was born, and you call him a part of a ‘mafia’? Even terming the seniors as mafia wasn’t the right thing to do. “I am glad the Chappell chapter has ended.”

Krishnamachari Srikkanth, another former captain, was also critical of Chappell. “From what we can gather, it looks like he was trying to dictate,” Srikkanth told The Hindu. “It is unfortunate what we are hearing, that he was trying to divide the team. He will not be remembered in Indian cricket because he has not contributed anything. [Chappell's predecessor] John Wright will be remembered more because he has given something to the team. Everything has slipped back since Chappell took over.”

In The Hindu, Kiran More, the chairman of selectors during the Chappell-Ganguly dispute that resulted in Ganguly being dropped, backed Chappell. “He is straightforward and an upfront man. And people in India don't like that. He would say it on the face and we don't want to hear that. There is a lot of pressure on players and coach now because of the media. BCCI will have to take a strong stance and back the right people. They will also have to find the cause of failure in the World Cup.”

	Brett Lee's next career could be in entertaining © Andrew Miller

Brett Lee might be missing the World Cup with an ankle injury, but he is keeping busy as he sets up for life after cricket – as a musician, actor and businessman. Alex Brown reports in The Age Lee has a tutor teaching him Hindi.

The Australian fast bowler has flown to India with his manager, Neil Maxwell, to meet sponsors and negotiate a recording contract. Maxwell envisages that the contract will be finalised within two months.

"The focus is to build a platform for Brett to perform at Bollywood level after his career," Maxwell said. "He doesn't want to be starting from scratch when he retires."

Geoff Lawson, writing on his Sydney Morning Herald blog, worries about Shane Watson’s growing medical file.

An AFP report says Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Michael Slater and Justin Langer have been approached to play in a rebel series in India.

Yesterday, the World Cup organisers, stung by a barrage of criticism about their handling of the tournament, reissued a list of dos and don’ts for spectators attending matches (click here for the full list). The list was quickly ridiculed by Patrick Kidd in his blog on the website of The Times …particularly the ban on alcohol and all animals, except guide dogs:-

What if your guide dog is a St Bernard with one of those kegs of booze round his neck?

It is important that the necessary precautions are taken to ensure maximum safety and security for all patrons. How did we manage to avoid mass injuries and deaths at previous World Cups when there weren't such restrictions? For that matter, how do many of us poor cossetted souls manage to get out of bed, cross the road or stick our face in a fan without dire injury?

"I'm going to bet that Shane Watson hadn't learnt how to get down on one knee and scoop-heave a yorker-length ball over the fine leg boundary for a six in that young cricketer's technical bible, Don Bradman's The Art of Cricket," says Aakash Chopra in The Hindustan Times who feels that the increasingly unorthodox shots in one-day cricket are going to become the norm.

If Chappell had indeed used ‘friends’ in the media to get the news out before it could be discussed in the appropriate forum, then that does not talk highly of his methods. Right from the moment he took over the reins of Indian cricket, he has resorted to a policy of divide and rule. It may have worked in the ouster of Sourav. Maybe, he is trying his hand again now. Another area where Chappell has been found wanting is in not understanding his role with Indian cricket. He is not a Messiah to clean the system. He is a paid professional whose job was to ensure the Indian team won matches. Sadly, that never happened.

Read the entire article by Kris Srikkanth at Deccan Chronicle.

The Pandora's box keeps throwing up more allegations and blame games. Sample this from Times of India. TOI reports that Sachin Tendulkar's deep anguish at his and other senior players' attitude being questioned by coach was shared by a number of senior players.

... If only Sourav (Ganguly) had heeded the warnings (about not hiring Chappell as coach) of several Australian players, including the highly-respected Steve Waugh, Indian cricket would have been saved of this 'tamasha'," he added with obvious bitterness at the nasty turn that Indian cricket has taken in the aftermath of the World Cup flop.

A respected Indian cricketer choked with emotion as he went on to recall Chappell's 'high-handedness.' "In life, we have our share of good and bad experiences but, to be honest, I have not come across anyone like him before. He has made life hell for all of us. It's definitely the worst experience of my cricketing career."

Meanwhile, The Hindu, reports that three former BCCI Presidents believe player-agent nexus regarding endorsements is ruining Indian cricket.

Elaborating on the typical modus operandi of an agent, the former official said, "he charges 30 per cent commission on total contract. He enrols a senior player, who has a say in selection and then ropes in other players (for advertisement) and shares his 30 per cent with the concerned senior player in exchange for the inclusion of the other players named by him (agent) in the team."'

Chloe Saltau writes in The Age about Shane Bond and New Zealand being Australia’s greatest dangers at the World Cup.

With 24 days left until the final, Robert Craddock’s comment piece in The Australian covers the problems of the event, including the length of the tournament.

The ridiculous schedule has been highlighted by Australia's justifiable decision to allow its players to leave camp for three days this week before they return for the England game on Sunday. This tournament is as much about which team can stop itself from going stir crazy in the never-ending wait for matches as it is about firing up for the big occasion.

Steve Waugh, who has been at the Laureaus Sports Awards in Spain, says Australia are favourites to beat England on Sunday.

Today it’s The Australian’s turn to run through the problems at the World Cup.

The nightmare seems to get worse every day for organisers, sponsors and hosts. Crowds are not turning up to matches, viewers are tuning out by the millions and sponsors are running as far from the event - and the game - as possible.

The Tonk, the Sydney Morning Herald's blog, wants to know who is the best World Cup bowler.

It’s an almost constant gripe in the media – not to mention those attending the games - but the organisation of this World Cup appears to have set a all-time low. In The Guardian, Mike Selvey flags the issues he experienced in Antigua on Saturday. One has to assume that the ICC has stopped reading the daily deluge of criticism …

Ground security makes Checkpoint Charlie look like a farm gate and is a constant irritant for those who take advantage of park-and-ride that leaves cars several miles away from a greenfield site with huge unused parking space. Once in, spectators are stuck: exit passes are not issued, another rankle when they are forced to wait five hours for play to start. Others, largely from abroad, have been forced to purchase blocks of tickets for extraneous matches which they are unable to attend if they want to attend the final. So the ICC has the revenue in the kitty and issues "sold out" statements while viewing the empty spaces.

	Where is everyone? © Getty Images

The economic importance of the World Cup to the Caribbean is unquestioned. But, as Simon Wilde in The Sunday Times comments today, “if West Indies do go out of the World Cup early, it will be a commercial disaster for the region”.

There was only one match of adult cricket taking place as well. That was on an ill-kept field less than a mile outside the village of Swetes, where Ambrose grew up and where his mother used to ring a bell every time she heard on the radio that her son had taken another Test wicket. Even from the boundary the pitch looked rough - and it certainly played rough. Balls flew through at varying heights, making it difficult for batsmen to play shots with any confidence. They took a few blows on the body.

Those waiting to bat sat on an old church pew and discussed, in patois, the merits of various West Indies players. But noone was listening to the radio for news of the progress of the West Indian reply to Sri Lanka's mammoth score. One of them wore an England shirt. I passed only one other cricket ground. Equally scrappy, it lay unused.

[…]

Interestingly, the cricket commentators on my car radio often distinguished the West Indies players by the islands from which they come. Chris Gayle was referred to as a Jamaican, Brian Lara as Trinidadian. Further evidence, perhaps, of the fragmentation of the West Indies as a unit.

Shane Watson is injured again and Robert Craddock, writing in The Australian, says it is dawning on Australia he might be unable to combine the roles of fast bowling and top-order batting.

The physical toll on fast bowlers is enormous. There are freaks of nature like Glenn McGrath and Courtney Walsh who, team-mates joke, could bowl in gum boots on snow and not leave footprints, so light is their tread. But Watson is not one of these.

He is built like a brick outhouse and moves with a robotic, clunky stride and a heavy tread that puts pressure on leg muscles that struggle under the burden. You can give him the best injury management tips in the business - he's heard them all - but he is what he is.

In the Sydney Morning Herald Chloe Saltau says Cricket Australia’s medical staff will look at whether Watson’s bulky body is responsible for his run of injuries.

Michael Atherton writes in The Sunday Telegraph that some of the greatest players of the modern era – including Inzamam-ul-Haq, Glenn McGrath and Anil Kumble - came to the Caribbean in the knowledge that this would be their last hurrah - in the short form of the game at least. But one, Sachin Tendulkar, has not said anything about his future … so far.

The runs have dried up. The man with more one-day international runs than any other … found himself impotent to prevent his team's demise. He seemed a peripheral figure, scoring seven and nought in the two defeats that condemned his team to early departure. In truth, Tendulkar's decline has been in evidence for a while, even to his normally adoring public. His dismissal in his last Test match in Mumbai against England provoked a round of boos, and recently in a Times of India poll 92 per cent of respondents felt Tendulkar should quit.

For whatever reason - fatigue, injuries, the goldfish bowl that is Indian cricket - the joy of playing has not been in evidence in Tendulkar's batting for some time. He is careworn, not carefree.

But Atherton points out that while his powers may be on the wane, there are many commercial interests that may delay his decision to bow out.

The truth is that Tendulkar has been marketed as a brand for some time, advertising many of the biggest commercial names in India. There are many interested parties who are keen to see Tendulkar wearing India's colours for a while yet.

	© Getty Images

In The Observer, Vic Marks doesn’t hold back, and points out it’s worse in reality that it seems to TV viewers:

Television helps to disguise some of the flaws of the tournament. In between overs we can watch the tourist trailers of sun, white sand and azure seas, which are more pleasing to the eye than some of the building sites outside the grounds. More important, the cameras can be turned away from row upon row of empty seats in brand new stands.

The pricing structure here verges on the scandalous and highlights what is increasingly becoming a cancer for the modern game - rampant commercialism, which was once known more simply as greed. In Guyana, one of the poorer nations in the world, the cheapest ticket for a place on the grass is US$25 (£12.60). It can cost up to $100 for a seat.

Not only is this pricing structure greedy, it is stupid. Someone has made a major miscalculation when applying the old economic law of supply and demand. This is, inevitably, a TV World Cup - that is where the money comes from - and the TV product has been diminished. Not even the most skillful producer can hide those empty stands and the lack of atmosphere for eight hours a day.

In the Mail On Sunday, Daniel King also takes a pop at the prices:

It will be no more than the organisers deserve if the home team’s exit from the competition ... plunges the box office into deeper crisis. The cheapest ticket at grounds across the West Indies is $25, or around £13, which is just about the average weekly wage of someone working in the sugar industry in Guyana. Malcolm Speed, chief executive of the International Cricket Council, is once more in Pontius Pilate mode. He said: ‘We had to rely on the advice of the local organising committee to establish the prices of the tickets. It is, in retrospect, a little too rich for the local palate'.

In Saturday’s Daily Telegraph, Martin Johnson railed against the seemingly never-ending competition.

This World Cup is so bloated that if the Sky commentary team decided not to shave for its duration, they'd all come home with the kind of beards that would make WG Grace's resemble teenage bum fluff. There was some nonsensical blather about needing 47 days to find a winner to give the players plenty of rest, but the real reason is to keep the tills jingling for as long as possible.

And he’s not any more enamoured with the quality of TV commentary.

There are several excellent ones, and no one is better at conveying tactics and what might be taking place in a fielding captain's head than Nasser Hussain. On the other hand, there are some so-called expert summarisers, mostly with a delivery like the Speaking Clock, who specialise in the bleeding obvious.

In this field, leading by a short head from Ramiz Raja is Ranjit Fernando. Batsman plays and misses. "He nearly hit that ball, but he really didn't make contact." Batsman hits just short of fielder. "That ball was in the air for a while, but it didn't quite reach the fielder." Much more of this and there'll be no one watching on the TV either.

In The Jamaica Gleaner, the respected Tony Becca agrees:

According to the visitors, they heard about cricket in the Caribbean, they saw cricket in the Caribbean on television, they saved to come and enjoy cricket in the Caribbean and, now that they are here, cricket in the Caribbean for whatever reason, is not what they expected it to be. Here's what one Englishman said to another at the end of the first day of the West Indies/Australia match: "It is like watching cricket at Lord's. It's no bloody different."

Maybe it is too late to do something about it, but regardless of what the organisers say, the World Cup is hurting, and it is hurting, not only from the manner in which the tickets were sold to the locals, not only from the false announcements that matches were sold out, not only from the trouble, from the pushing and shoving that people have to go through now to get tickets, and not only from the fact that in terms of their music the Caribbean has been silenced, but also from the price they have to pay, or had to pay, to enter the matches.

	© Sunday Mirror

UK tabloid The Sunday Mirror puts forward the theory that Woolmer was drugged with aconite, a herbal poison that dates back to medieval times, which causes death by asphyxiation. The report suggests that the poision, which could take the form of a white powder, could have been mixed in with Woolmer’s other medication.

The newspaper claims that this would account for the fact Woolmer died without a struggle and why no marks were found on his neck.

Professor John Henry of St Mary’s Hospital in London told the paper that the drug would not show up on a post mortem unless the examiner knew what to look for.

The Mail on Sunday carries a claim that Woolmer had drunk a bottle of whisky on retiring to his room after the Ireland defeat.

“Do I love India?” Or do I love my state more? Are administrators thinking more about their own associations, their own grants, their own players? Inherently, a team cannot progress unless every constituent has the same objective. Gujarat, or Maharashtra, having three teams does not help India because it dilutes the stream in which young talent bathes. Not even Barbados in its prime could have possessed 45 first class standard cricketers in a year. But three teams from a state means three votes, three grants. So what then is the primary objective? Producing tough cricketers for India or protecting the vote and the grant? Yes, everybody loves India but it is conditional and that condition is hurting Indian cricket badly.

Read the entire piece by Harsha Bhogle in the Indian Express.

Ajit Wadekar hits out at critics who are baying for the seniors in the Indian team.

how can we go ahead and criticise somebody of the stature of Sourav Ganguly, the best captain India has ever produced? And Rahul Dravid? He is rated as the best batsman in any condition against any attack, on any wicket. How can we deny them their genius? How can we talk so irresponsibly? Do we really have to sacrifice these greats just because they are in their early thirties? If only a little attention was given to their fitness, by preserving their energy and not playing them in six-penny tournaments like the one in Malaysia or Timbuktu. Then you would have got a set of fit, nimble-footed, talented stars even now. Consider the average age of the team. Except maybe Bangladesh or the West Indies, India are much better off. Are the likes of Matthew Hayden, Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist, Brian Lara, Stephen Fleming and Sanath Jayasuriya just out of their cots?

How much of the blame should be laid at coach Greg Chappell's doorstep?

Dilip Doshi Not more than 10 per cent because I believe in a team game; its all about owning collective responsibility. What can a coach do, if his advice is not followed or strategies not implemented? It would be a crime to make a Greg the scapegoat for India's World Cup show.

Do you agree that Chappell indulged in too much experimentation?

I have heard this before. If giving youth a fair chance is experimentation, then every coach is guilty of doing so. I think Greg simply didn't have enough time to rebuild Team India.

What about the constant tinkering with the batting order?

To read, the full interview in Times of India, click here

	Sri Lankan cricket thrives on its strong support base at the school level © AFP

There are a variety of reasons for Sri Lankan cricket's excellent health. The players, selectors, administrators, coaches, and above all, the fans, have contributed to it. But there is an unseen factor which needs recognition, namely, Sri Lankan culture, especially the culture of the majority community, the Sinhalese, writes P.K Balachandran, Special Correspondent of the Hindustan Times in Colombo.

"They had a hunger for the game. Playing for the country was something very big for the small town boys. They worked hard also because they had few other preoccupations, unlike the ones from Colombo's elite schools who were into studies and computers"

Read the full piece here.

	Totally uncalled for © AFP

The months prior to India's World Cup campaign and the days after have witnessed extremities in emotions among the Indian public, including obscene displays of hatred towards the same players fans once worshipped. But is it justified? Is it fair to blame the sponsors and the players themselves who endorse products? Vir Sanghvi has a valid point by saying that perhaps it's time for all frenzied Indian fans to take a long, hard look at themselves and accept their gullibility instead of being so unforgiving to the cricketers.

It wasn't that we didn't love cricket in 1983. It just wasn't as big a business then. Andso, there was nothing like the 2007 hysteria those days. The unrealistic optimism surrounding our optimism this year was largely a creation of marketers who wanted to exploit our gullibility to flog their products.

Read the full piece in the Hindustan Times.