Peter Roebuck, writing in the Age, says Australian cricket is facing its most deflating summer for decades.

Following hard upon the feckless nomination of Chris Gayle as leader of the West Indies, the news that Younis Khan had stepped down as Pakistan captain is a hammer blow. Pakistan and the West Indies are the summer's main attractions but both will arrive as fractured outfits. Whether the Younis decision or Gayle's reappointment is the bigger calamity is a matter of opinion. It's a close-run thing. All the evidence suggests that it's going to be a long summer and a hard sell.

In the Australian Malcolm Conn says Test cricket continues to be devalued, with a chronic oversupply of largely meaningless one-day games robbing most Australian players of any match preparation before the West Indies series.