In the aftermath of Australia's thumping Test-series win against New Zealand, Peter Roebuck is concerned about the state of the game, with some teams falling way behind the others. Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, he hopes that New Zealand can arrest their slide.

New Zealand has found little comfort in these Test matches. It is not much consolation, but it is not alone in its suffering. Pakistan has imploded after its increasingly bad-tempered tour of Australia and the captain of that party has retired from international cricket.

Meanwhile, Dwayne Bravo, the rising star of Caribbean cricket, has said that he puts Trinidad and Tobago first on his list, Mumbai Indians second and West Indies third. So much for hope.

It's not a question of the top three or four sides coming back to the field. It's a matter of the rest meeting their challenge. New Zealand has fallen short and, like a struggling player, needs to identify and correct its weaknesses. For all the trans-Tasman rivalry, Australians will wish them well in this endeavour.

Harbhajan Singh might be at the top of his game with bat and ball, but his consistently poor conduct over the first three seasons of the IPL leaves a lot to be desired, feels Khalid A-H Ansari. Writing in Mid-day, Ansari says that although he loves 'Bhajji', the phenomenal entertainer, "I could do without his wanton shenanigans".

Leave aside his behaviour towards opponents in Test and one-day cricket, which have earned him opprobrium from umpires, match referees, the media and fans in India and abroad, Harbhajan's raffish behaviour in the three editions of IPL has been notably consistent.

The redoubtable off-spinner's constant refrain that his "aggression" helps his performance is patently misconceived. If anything, it is self-defeating.

Writing in his blog, Smoke Signals, Prem Panicker thinks it is time for Yuvraj Singh to rise above fitness and attitude problems, and stop taking things for granted.

When the batting bench was under-staffed, the Prince of Sulks could get away with riding his luck and playing the odd game-breaking innings once or twice a season to keep himself in the frame [when I brought up his name in a recent chat with friends, two of them were quick to go 'Remember his six sixes?']. That, I suspect, is a luxury he can no longer afford.

The IPL's reliance on foreign cheerleaders reinforces unsavoury Indian stereotypes about sex and women, writes Kanishk Tharoor in the Guardian.

I'm not offended by cheerleading, more bored by it. In any grown-up context, it offers a dispiriting definition of both leadership and cheer. Many cricket fans, including myself, would be happy to see the (metaphorical) back of these cheerleaders. Their twists and pumps add nothing to what is, in truth, a wonderful sporting spectacle. They are a reminder of the ocean of inanities that commercial modernity promises our lives, drowning all occasions in froth. First the fall from grace, then the flood.

The start of the English domestic season and the subsequent schedule reflects the shift in priorities among counties and the ECB, writes Simon Wilde in the Sunday Times.

Tradition counts for nothing any more. Anything can be sold or moved for a price. Tomorrow’s match in Abu Dhabi has been relocated from Lord’s partly to facilitate a project being driven by MCC to find a suitable coloured ball for day-night Test cricket, and partly because the season is starting earlier than ever. There is also MCC’s financial deal with Abu Dhabi.

Vic Marks, in the Observer, while agreeing that the decision to start the domestic season in Abu Dhabi marks a departure from the conservatism that once characterised English cricket, says it might just be a good idea. The experiment with pink balls, he adds, too may prove a favourable development.

Rohit Mahajan, writing in Outlook, examines why Kochi's bid for an IPL team made perfect business sense given the city's rapidly growing consumerism and the impending housing boom.

“It’s recognition of Kochi as the economic capital of Kerala,” says Kochi-based economist Ajit Kumar. “The average Malayali is a very emotional and competitive person, and it satisfies his ego to have a team in the IPL.” He also mentions a more compelling reason for the presence of the IPL in Kochi—fiscal fluidity and demand for housing. “I’ve estimated that by the end of the 11th Five Year Plan (2007-2012), there would be a demand for 1,20,000 housing units in Kochi alone,” he says. “At present, 50,000 units are available—the shortfall is massive, and that’s why so many builders are among the Kochi owners.” They want to build a brand through the IPL and lure customers to future housing projects

In Outlook, among India's most popular news magazines, Anil Kumble speaks to Snigdha Hasan about his book of photographs, Wide Angle.

Why did you choose the medium of pictures?

I have always believed photographs speak a thousand words. I wanted to bring about what the team does in its off time and how players do team-building exercises.

India Today, one of the country's leading newsmagazines, has a cover story that looks at the IPL money machine, whether it can be sustained and what plans Modi has for the future.

As the new teams scramble, Modi will continue to venture further. New media rights such as live streaming on mobiles, mobile Internet, mobile scorecards and smart phone applications, which he hopes will explode once 3G technology is introduced in India. He also hopes to tap international audience, changing the IPL's platform in the UK in Season 3 from the bankrupt Setanta to free-on-air ITV 4.

The Economist looks at how and whether teams can make money given the astronomical sums they have paid to be part of the IPL.

Deepti Chaudhary points out in Mint how companies who are new to India are using the IPL to become household names in the country.

On DreamCricket, Gulu Ezekiel wonders where the two new teams, Pune and Kochi, will find their players from.

Sachin Tendulkar has been electric in the IPL so far, prompting speculation last week whether he should return to international Twenty20s, which he gave up in 2007. Ayaz Memon sums up in the Daily Telegraph the three prevailing attitudes towards Tendulkar's return to India colours for Twenty20s.

One which feels that Tendulkar is too old for T20 and should not go even if he wants to (minuscule), another which believes that he should go only if he wants to, and the third which says that that he should go for the sake of the country even if he doesn’t want to.

Tomorrow, at his home ground of Seddon Park, Daniel Vettori will toss the coin to start his 100th test, 99 for New Zealand and one for the ICC World XI against Australia in 2005. Only Stephen Fleming, with 111, has played more for New Zealand, writes Dylan Cleaver in the New Zealand Herald.

Fellow Northern Districts and New Zealand left-arm tweaker Matt Hart well remembers the day when Daniel Luca Vettori first came bounding in at training. "He was all arms and legs, he had a mop of hair and glasses," Hart says. "He had a very young face. Crikey, he showed an enormous amount of talent right from the word go, but the thing that stood out was that nothing fazed him. It's exactly like he is today, nothing seems to faze him."

The New Zealand Herald also has a gallery of pictures of Vettori over the years.

The England and Wales Cricket Board is one of the six large sports governing bodies that have gone up in arms against the media regulator Ofcom's attempt to force Sky Sports to lower its prices for selling its sports channels to competitors, in England. Owen Gibson gets behind the scenes in the Guardian.

Six of the largest governing bodies – the Rugby Football Union, the England and Wales Cricket Board, the Professional Golfers' Association, the Football Association, the Premier League and the Rugby Football League – have written an angry letter claiming Ofcom has not taken into account the impact of its decision on sport and has ignored their views.

It is understood that Ofcom is determined to press ahead and feels its case is backed up by the evidence. It has been investigating the issue for almost three years and will claim that governing bodies have had ample time to make their case. Ofcom will attempt to apply the cuts immediately but Sky will apply for a stay on the verdict while its appeal is heard.

Manu Joseph analyses in Open magazine how the opinion of Indian men on Sachin Tendulkar reveals more about them than about the cricketer.

When they speak of him, usually through pilfered opinions, they reveal fragments of their own fears and private grouses. So when a guy says that Rahul Dravid is a more useful Test player than Sachin, he means to say, ‘I am an ordinary person and I want the ordinary to triumph over the flamboyant, I want hard work to be accorded the same respect as unattainable genius, otherwise what is the whole point of my existence.’ When he says Laxman is more beautiful to watch than Sachin, he is saying, ‘I want you to believe that I am classy, an opera among rock concerts.’ And when he says that Ganguly was a better one-day opener than Sachin, he is saying, ‘I am a Bengali.’

In Wisden Cricketer, Dileep Premachandran looks back at Tendulkar's historic double-century against South Africa in Gwalior last month.

In Open magazine, Akshay Sawai profiles lawyer Rahul Mehra, the man who forced the powerful BCCI to become more transparent and who has now filed a public interest litigation against almost all major sporting bodies in India, demanding that they come clean.

“It is a clear-cut objective,” he says in a voice that resembles Saif Ali Khan’s. “I’m sick and tired of seeing the way every sport is molested and raped by people administering it, and I say this with utmost responsibility.”

In a country where even personal disputes languish for years in court, wouldn’t a case involving several organisations take forever? Mehra’s reply is on the tip of his tongue and out before the question is completed. “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

Matthew Syed is having a hard time keeping up as sports evolve at a dizzying pace - the many rule tweaks in Formula 1, the switch-hits and scoops of Twenty20, the changes in the badminton scoring system. He writes in the Times that sports which fail to adapt to the demands of the Xbox generation will be consigned to the backwaters of village halls.

There is little point resisting the logic of the global market, unless you want your sport to be dependent on the subscriptions of half a dozen members. I happen to love the tempo of Test cricket, its soothing rhythms and evocative associations, but I would be foolish to suppose that my preference counts for more than one vote in the democracy of the market.

Those who proclaim that there is something “wrong” with Twenty20, or that administrators should somehow resist its march, do not recognise how capitalism works. Either the existing governing bodies (the ICC, ECB and so on) embrace what the fans want, or they leave the door ajar for others to take control, able to purchase the best players and the biggest stars with money the traditionalists can never match.

Michael Atherton says a couple of lifeless pitches robbed the series of excellence and intensity, but writes in the Times that despite the disappointing results for Bangladesh and the questions raised over their Test status, it is a country where the game inspires and is central to a notion of national identity.

It is a country with little other than enormous manpower. The only positive stories to emerge recently out of Bangladesh are the Nobel prize given to Muhammad Yunus for his revolution in microcredit, and the Bangladesh cricket team. People recall the celebrations after the unexpected World Cup victories over Pakistan in 1999 and India in 2007, and the outpouring of national pride that followed. Suddenly, people were seen wearing Bangladesh cricket shirts and Bangladesh flags were paraded proudly in the street.

Now Shakib Al Hasan, the captain, is one of the world’s leading all-rounders — a great source of shared pride — and his contract with Worcestershire is seen as evidence of Bangladesh’s growing influence on the cricket world. Each landmark — Siddique’s maiden hundred and Bangladesh’s highest Test score against England, for example — is cherished as a step in the right direction. Cricket provides rich nourishment in a diet that is low on self-esteem.

Simon Hughes writes in the Daily Telegraph that Bangladesh needs more exposure to the top teams, and lauds the vibrancy and enthusiasm they bring to world cricket.

In the Guardian, Mike Selvey works in a reference to Orson Welles' classic 1949 film while calling for a more regular deployment of a fielder at third man.

Perhaps, for true evocation, this should be read while sitting in the Café Mozart in Vienna, eating strudel while listening to Anton Karas and his zither, for it concerns the third man and his virtual disappearance, a species threatened with extinction.

Ayaz Memon is still flabbergasted at the money offered for the two new IPL franchises. In Mint, he ponders what player salaries are going to be like when the new auction is held later this year.

Where this will take players’ salaries is the big buzz already in board rooms and dressing rooms. Some of the figures being mentioned for stars with strong brand value are so astronomical that I can’t even repeat them here for fear of being considered a lunatic. All I can say is that cricket, and particularly the IPL, appears to be going out of whack.

In the Hindustan Times, Soumya Bhattacharya wonders why he doesn't get the same rush watching Sachin Tendulkar's exquisite strokeplay in the IPL as during a Tendulkar innings for India.

For the most part, there is only one big motivation for playing — and playing well — in the IPL: money. In the league, there are many players whose international careers are over (Warne, Gilchrist, Kumble, Ganguly).

The money from this is all they can make out of playing cricket now. But for fans like me, it's different. I don't get paid to watch the IPL.

And my cricket-watching days are far from over. (At the flick of a remote, I can watch an Australia v New Zealand Test in Sydney.) Without the frisson that watching one's country play, the IPL seems like what I've suggested before: a game that is not cricket at all.

Steve Waugh chats with the Hindu about the future of Twenty20 cricket, the nomination of John Howard as successor to Sharad Pawar as ICC president, and different styles of cricket coaching.

Telford Vice makes tongue-in-cheek analogies between the IPL's protagonists and the main characters of Alice in Wonderland, in iol.co.za.

Lalit Modi would make the purrfect Cheshire cat. He's always smiling and smug, appearing and disappearing on our screens at the whim of the director, who is, we are told, at the beck and call of the fat cat himself.

So, who's the IPL's own Bandersnatch, the big, bad feline monster who first attacks Alice and then becomes her ally? Step up, Andrew Symonds.

Stayne, the Knave of Hearts? Forgive me, Shahrukh Khan.

Preity Zinta will do nicely as the White Queen. Shilpa Shetty will have to put up with playing the nasty Red Queen. Absolem, the blue caterpillar who dispenses absolute wisdom from within a cloud of hookah smoke, seems to me a dead ringer for the sage-like Sachin Tendulkar.

An article in the Indian business paper, Mint, suggests that the IPL could be one of the 200 most valuable brands in the world, but warns that viewer fatigue is likely to become a serious problem.

We are already seeing data that suggest viewers are now being more finicky and watching only those matches that feature their teams. It is likely that IPL may not keep getting new viewers, but existing viewers may be spread across more matches. Since broadcasting revenues are so critical to profitability, this is a risk the IPL management will have to grapple with.

The Canadian newspaper, Globe and Mail, puts the valuation of the new franchises in perspective: the new teams are each worth at least US$100m more than the winners of the National Hockey League, the Pittsburg Penguins.

Gujarat may have lost out on its IPL dream with Ahmedabad failing to make the cut, but the state will still have a strong connection to the IPL going forward. A report in the Telegraph reveals that Gujarati businessmen have a 50% stake in the Kochi franchise which was picked up for the price of $333.33 million by Rendezvous Sports World Ltd.

The consequences of making the Ashes free-to-air would be vast and a compromise needs to be put in place, writes Mike Brearley in the Guardian.

Almost 80% of the England and Wales Cricket Board's income comes from broadcasting. The huge increase in revenues from this source over the past 13 years – it was £15m in 1997, £64m in 2010 – has been used to prop up the (in some cases) ailing counties, but also, importantly, it has boosted coaching at all levels of the game. Since 2005, 24,000 new coaches have been trained. In particular, the broadcasting money has been used to fund the significant increase in cricket played by disabled people; and it has greatly enhanced women's cricket in this country. All three national teams, men, women and disabled, won their respective Ashes series last time round. England's women are world champions at one-day cricket and at Twenty20. One fifth of the ECB's spending goes on grassroots cricket and it has contributed to the growth and quality of the game.

In addition to such support, the ECB have also funded the highest level of cricket. Central contracts have changed the face of the top professional game. And there is now a national cricket performance centre. All this would be threatened if the income from broadcasting were to be cut.

G Viswanath, writing in the Hindu, says the IPL's two new franchises, Pune and Kochi, can expect to shell out a fair sum by way of investments and expenditure in the next few years, while the other eight franchises, that earned significantly lower bids when bought, will be bouyed by their valuation count in a short span of three years.

Former New Zealand fast bowler Bob Blair was 21 when he learnt he'd lost the love of his life in a rail tragedy back home. The second Test between New Zealand and South Africa was underway, and he fought through the tragic news to deliver a memorable performance. Another hero on the day was Bert Sutcliffe, who, after recovering in hospital from blows to the head, blasted Hugh Tayfield for three sixes in an over in a brave innings of 80. Sutcliffe and Blair set Boxing Day aglow with their courage, in "a story every New Zealand boy should learn at his mother's knee". Click here to read Richard Boock's flashback to that day in 1953 in SundayStar Times. Click to read Cricinfo's Rewind column on the unforgettable day.

And then it happened. Just as patrons rose to acclaim Sutcliffe, a figure appeared from the tunnel and started walking towards the middle. The crowd, about to cheer and applaud, was suddenly rendered silent. Sutcliffe went to his stricken team-mate and put an arm around his shoulders.

"C'mon son, this is no place for you. Let's swing the bat at the ball and get out of here."

Brittenden wrote vividly of the effect of that scene. Blair's team-mates in the gallery above were weeping openly, as were the South Africans and Sutcliffe. Blair had to wipe tears from his face before receiving his first delivery. And then would come the roar of defiance. Sutcliffe would hit three sixes off a Hugh Tayfield over, and take a single to bring Blair on strike. To the delight of the crowd the Wellington paceman would swing the final ball of the over high over the midwicket boundary and into the terraces.

Barney Ronay in the Guardian dissects the ITV coverage of the Indian Premier League. Not so much the cricket, but it is the studio punditry he believes is one of the most compellingly stilted and uneven productions the game has seen.

"We've got 10 times last year's audience in the UK," Ravi Shastri purred on commentary, and a high-water mark of 400,000 viewers does sound impressive. This must be put into perspective. In the same time-slot Grandpa In My Pocket (target age: 4-6 years) is pulling in 518,000 viewers on CBeebies, a margin of victory that makes you wonder if Grandpa In My Pocket should think about getting in a DJ, fringing itself with podium dancers and going out to "crack" America

There's always good humour when Navjot Singh Sidhu's around. His political aspirations seem to have got a lift lately and Ajith Pillai imagines his secret diary in Outlook magazine.

“Surprise him, Navjot,” an inner voice told me, “surprise him like Murali foxes batsmen with his doosra.” I pondered for a while and then saw the (100 watt) light. “Learn some Marathi, good fella, that will astonish him,” I told myself. So, pronto I rung up Raj Thackeray. “Maharaj, you have to help me with this one. If not, I will be like a drowning man who left his straw behind in the dressing room,” I pleaded.

Four candidates are in the running to lead Pakistan for the World Twenty20 in the the Caribbean. Sohaib Alvi in his blog on the Dawn website assesses their strengths and weaknesses of Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzaq, Misbah-ul-Haq and Salman Butt.

	What were you thinking Shane? © (file photo) Getty Images

The Twenty20 format is too one-sided and monotonous to enjoy, where the batsman is the emperor and the bowler a pauper. Pradeep Magazine, while assessing the IPL in the Hindustan Times, believes for any sport to be enjoyed, it has to pit two sets of skills against each other and create conditions and ground rules which do not favour one against the other.

The IPL reminds me of Hans Christian Andersen's tale 'The Emperor's New Clothes' where two conmen trick the emperor and his subjects into believing that the dress which they have made for him will not be visible to those who are either not fit for their jobs or are fools...In the story it is a child who speaks the truth. Here, at the risk of being called a dunce, I echo what the child said: “The emperor is not wearing anything at all.“

Although Shane Warne can still keep a tidy length, his days of pulling rabbits out of hats are possibly behind him. Peter Roebuck elaborates on the beginning of the end for the Rajasthan Royals captain in the Hindu.

Warne has not played any hard cricket for three years. No amount of nets or training runs, let alone hands of poker, can prepare mind and body half as well as genuine combat. Great cricketers can keep going for a year or two before time catches up with them. Eventually brazen opponents realise that the Emperor is not wearing any clothes.

More Warne bashing, as Mike Selvey in the Sport blog on the Guardian website says the Rajasthan captain calling Yusuf Pathan's blitzkrieg against Mumbai Indians as the greatest innings ever is an insult.

Dear God, Warnie, forget the greasepaint and the roar of the crowd and all that living-in-the-moment adrenaline stuff. Forget, for a minute, your vested interest in promoting IPL, or even making a team-mate feel even better about himself. Just think before you open your mouth. Nope.

With MS Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir and Yusuf Pathan all picking up injuries in the first week of the IPL, Partha Bhaduri asks in the Times of India whether the league is denting India's hopes of winning the World Twenty20 which starts next month?

Could the sheer intensity of IPL games derail India's World T20 prospects? Given the spate of injuries to players who are expected to play a key role in the West Indies starting from April 30 - New Zealand play Sri Lanka at Providence just five days after the IPL final - it might finally be time for some cricketers to take a call on how best to preserve their energies.

Sharda Ugra says the $20,000 fines handed to Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambir and Kumara Sangakkara during the IPL's first weekend is obscene because it flaunts the tournament's bloated self-image and complete detachment from proportion. Read her blog on the India Today website.

Could the IPL's slow-over rate actually just be a Prada bag in disguise? To be given to some really lucky woman (or rather the woman who thinks she is lucky to get one)?

Dileep Premachandran's spent the last week criss-crossing India to watch IPL matches. Here's his take on the tournament so far in the Guardian.

There's been some fine cricket, too. Sure, Shane Warne was guilty of hyperbole and revisionism when he called Pathan's 37-ball century the best he'd ever seen, but it was still a thrilling display of power and timing. In the same match, Ambati Rayudu, once touted as India's next big thing, and Sourabh Tiwary took on Warne with the fearlessness that comes easily to the young. A day later, Manoj Tiwary, the wasted years in Delhi behind him, delighted his home crowd in Kolkata with a superb innings against Dale Steyn and Anil Kumble.

All well worth watching, if not quite in the same league as the Kallis masterclass on Tuesday night. Not too many sides chase down 204, and even fewer do it with seven balls to spare. Manish Pandey (38 from 26 balls) and Robin Uthappa (51 from 21) exploded grenades around him, but it was Kallis that finally took out the Kings XI, easing to 45 from 38 balls before smashing 44 from the next 17 that he faced.

With the IPL, it seems jingoism has found a new vehicle in India and the rest of the cricket world is told to dance to its tune or take a hike, feels Gulu Ezekiel. Read his piece in the New Indian Express.

Make no mistake — Modi and the IPL’s ultimate target is not six or eight weeks in the calendar. The recent deals struck by the Rajasthan Royals franchise with teams from England, South Africa and the West Indies is just the first step. The franchise owners will never be satisfied with being in the spotlight for just six to eight weeks a year. Their target, hand-in-glove with Modi, is to expand their operations worldwide and year-round. The Board of Control for Cricket in India too is complicit in this scheme of things.

World cricket domination is in Modi’s sights and it is the Indian cricket public who will decide whether he gets what he desires or has his ambitious plans thwarted.

Critics claim Bangladesh should not be a Test nation, but with the right infrastructure they will develop the bowlers to compete, writes Duncan Fletcher in the Guardian.

Developing that bowling talent is a tough task. Even India have faltered because they do not have a consistent squad of pace bowlers who can really intimidate the opposition. Bangladesh face similar difficulties. Between the flat wickets and the heat and humidity of the conditions, not many young players are going to want to run up and bowl at 140kph for any period of time. One way forward would be to develop wickets that offer more encouragement for seam bowlers.

But the bedrock for future development is what is happening underneath Test cricket. I would want to visit and inspect Bangladesh's domestic set-up before passing judgment, but wherever you are in the world strong first‑class cricket is absolutely crucial for Test success. You can't pluck players from a weak domestic league and expect them to make a quick transition to the top level. This also takes time. Bangladesh have had 10 years to work on their domestic structure. England have had more than 100, and still not got it right.

In his analysis of South Africa's ODI squad for the tour of West Indies, Sport24 writer Rob Houwing expresses his concern at the lack of finishers in the list.

While I do appreciate the dilemma consistently faced because Albie Morkel’s bowling has become something not far off a liability in run-concession terms, I might personally not have been so swift to remove the Titans player entirely from the plans, given his proven ability to give the ball an old-fashioned “bliksem”, if you like, at the end of an innings.

Or, if no Morkel, my temptation would have been to go the whole hog and restore Justin Kemp not only to T20 contention, as has just happened, but also to the ODI mix for the West Indies, where his wobbly little seamers on spongy surfaces could aid the cause for four or five overs and his ability to go “long” at the crease is not in any question.

Run through the South African squad and you may fear, as I do, that batting momentum could suddenly “stop” after Mark Boucher’s deployment at No 7 or sometimes even six.

In the desperate search for superlatives, players and coaches are constantly going overboard, and a brilliant case in point is the IPL. Anand Vasu explains in his blog Drinks Break on the Hindustan Times website.

Only recently Shane Warne described Yusuf Pathan’s scorching IPL hundred as the best innings he had ever seen. Now, either the megabucks the Rajasthan Royals are paying the great leggie are getting to his head or he has completely erased two decades of international cricket from his memory.

With murmurs about West Indian great Brian Lara returning for the next season of the IPL, Ayaz Memon writes in his blog in the Daily Telegraph that while star-power was essential when the IPL was launched in 2008, it is no longer the case with the tournament having had two successful seasons.

The best talent should find expression in the tournament, which means selection should be highly merited. If Lara – and I am only using him as an example – fits in, great; if he doesn’t tough luck. Star value and the entertainment quotient, so crucial to the success of the IPL yet, can only be extraneous to the game itself. What will ensure credibility in the long run is the quality of the product. In other words, the cricket played in the middle.

In the New Zealand Herald, David Leggat analyses the team the selectors have picked for the Trans-Tasman trophy against Australia.

Sinclair last played a test against England in 2008. His story is one of New Zealand cricket's most thumbed - two double hundreds and a 150 against Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock and Makhaya Ntini at Port Elizabeth. Those considerable spikes stand out among a pile of troughs and eventually he was dispensed with, only to return as a stop-gap for an ODI against the West Indies a year after his previous appearance. He has had a good season with CD, averaging 58; he has 29 first-class hundreds and a 48.81 average. The problem is: would you put your shirt on getting more runs from Vettori at No 6 or Sinclair anywhere in the order?

It looks like it is a case of when, not if, Brendon McCullum relinquishes the keeping gloves in Twenty20 and ODIs, and I think it will be a good thing, writes Mark Richardson in the Herald on Sunday.

McCullum has a terrific work ethic but must split that work between batting, keeping and fitness. His batting quality gained him selection as a wicketkeeper and, to his credit, he has been able to turn himself into the best keeper in the country, but he has yet to realise his true quality as a batsman.

We've seen some spectacular glimpses but not enough consistency. An average of 29 in ODIs is simply not reflective of his potential. While he is not physically an elder statesman yet, he is not young any more at 28. If he is going to make a change, then now is the time.

In the same paper, Andrew Alderson says," New Zealand's Chappell-Hadlee cricket series loss was bad enough, but also vexing is the fact the experiments trialled against Australia have generally raised more doubts than answers, less than a year out from the World Cup."

This year's Twenty20 World Cup gives the ICC a chance to put the things right it got so horribly wrong in 2007, writes Mike Selvey in the Guardian.

It is not just the lure of a noisefest that will bring an audience, however, nor even the attraction that is Twenty20 cricket. Rather it is the pricing. Affordability, so goes the official line, is the key. Tickets cost from US$3 (about £2) for single group stage matches (US$5 for double headers) and US$8 for Super Eight games, while semi-finals are US$10-20, with admission to the final in Barbados on May 16 costing US$20-40.

Under 16s get free entry to group matches and discounts elsewhere while there is no charge for entry to the women's matches on St Kitts. If they have learned nothing else from the 2007 fiasco, then this at least is a step in the right direction.

The Indian Premier League's market-targeted speed brings a depressing echo of the age. Why not offer an alternative rhythm? asks Mike Marqusee in the Guardian.

There's nothing new in the power of money shaping cricket's destiny. It's 230 years since Thomas Lord put a fence around his ground and began charging admission. Gamblers and publicans sponsored much of the game's early development. But the ideology of cricket, as it developed in the 19th and for much of the 20th century, disdained the cash nexus. Sordid monetary affairs were disguised behind the cult of amateurism and its ugly shadow, "shamateurism".

The difference now is that money is in the forefront of the game's culture, its power shameless and explicit. And with the IPL's introduction of private ownership of major teams – by far the most significant and potentially invidious of its innovations – that trend is institutionally entrenched. Not since the mid-19th century (with the exception of the Packer interlude) have representative cricket entities been private assets. As in other industries, the change from patronage to ownership will prove a giant step. Whether in the right direction is another question.

When Twenty20 started a few years ago, it was famously labelled as Mickey Mouse cricket by the oracle of cricketing puritanism. But then India won the inaugural T20 World Championship in 2007 against all odds and all hell broke loose. The IPL arrived the following year and Mickey Mouse, it was realized quickly enough, was in fact Godzilla, writes Ayaz Memon in the Daily Telegraph.

For instance, a 22-year-old rookie India player is reported to have bought a three bedroom apartment in tony area in mid-town Mumbai within a year of his playing in the IPL. How high the stakes now are becomes evident from the fact that it took the great Sachin Tendulkar almost a decade to invest in an apartment in a similar neighbourhood. The rookie, I hear, has also bought a Porsche and lives life in the fast lane in more ways than one.

One of Zimbabwe's most colourful allrounders, Andy Blignaut, is back from exile and appears hungry to get back into the national fold as soon as possible. Now married, and blessed with twins, he is now a different man altogether. Fluent in Shona, he talks to Enock Muchinjo if the Zimbabwe Independent of his childhood in the family farm in Chivhu and his plans for the future.

“It’s a funny story. I grew up in the bush so I was kind of seeking the city lifestyle. Now I find myself looking for the quiet life again, where I belong. I live 6kms away from Falcon. Ku Harare ndinombouya, but kunotyisa. Isusu tajaira mudondo, tinotsvaga quiet life (I come to Harare once in a while, but it scares me. People like me are used to the bush), ” he explains.

In the Times of India, Imran Khan gives his views on each of the eight IPL captains.

Shane Warne: A born leader, I rate him very highly for his cricket brain and also his ability to absorb pressure. Shane has also shown that he can work with youngsters, and Rajasthan did really well under him in the first year. The only reason I have not placed him at the top of the heap is because he is not playing regular cricket. This will make a difference with every
passing year of the IPL. He has now not played cricket for over two years, and that’s a long time.

In his column in the Hindustan Times, Gautam Gambhir shares an anecdote about how the IPL has brought players of different nationalities together.

At the T20 World Cup last year in England, on the eve of South Africa’s semifinal, I got an SOS visit from my Delhi Daredevils’ mate, AB de Villiers in Trent Bridge. India, unfortunately, were already out of the championship and AB, one of the mainstays of the Proteas line-up, had broken all his bats.

He dropped in and asked if he could borrow one of mine. I just said, “My kitbag’s over there, open it and take what you want. We’re out, you’re in, they're all yours”.

If you don't know the Knight Riders from the Royal Challengers, the Guardian provides a basic intro to the eight IPL teams. And in the Daily Telegraph, Nick Hoult calls this year's competition the first real IPL, since it's being held in India and is not the rush job that the first season was.

Also check out this profile of Lalit Modi in the Times, where he is called "a successor to Gandhi, in Gucci loafers."

Kevin Pietersen’s recent loss of form and travails against left-arm spin have been well documented, but Duncan Fletcher, the former England coach, writes in his Guardian blog that he believes the batsman has the necessary reserves to meet his problems head on and fight his way back to his best.

All players have weaknesses. One of the things that impressed me most about Pietersen when I worked with him was that where a lot of people run away from their problems, he has always been willing to meet them head-on. If he feels that facing left-arm-spin is an area of concern, then he will practise playing that style of bowling over and again in the nets.

In an interview to Mint, a business paper, Kolkata Knight Riders co-owner, Jay Mehta, talks about choosing the wrong players in the first auction, how the team has attracted pan-India support and a slew of sponsors thank to having Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan as a co-owner, and his concerns over two new teams joining the competition next year.

The addition of two more teams means there will be more competition for players, sponsors and fans. I am not too concerned on sharing of revenues. But it will mean more teams vying for the same sponsor base.

In the Guardian, Jason Burke watches IPL mania build up in Kolkata, while in the same paper, Dileep Premachandran warns that the bounty on offer at the IPL could distract Bangladesh's upcoming young stars.

You also wonder how much both Ashraful and Mortaza have been affected by IPL fortune. The Knight Riders' signing of Mortaza for $600,000 represented perhaps the most bizarre acquisition in the annals of sport. As everyone assembled at the auction in Goa and thousands watching on TV scratched heads in disbelief, he joined the august rank of misfits like the footballers Andrea Silenzi and Juan Sebastián Verón. Apart from being carted all over the park by Rohit Sharma in a match that the Knight Riders had as good as won, he did next to nothing in South Africa.

Also read this Economic Times article which suggests that brand clutter is gaining momentum with more than 100 brands competing for the consumer’s attention during the IPL.

While the motives behind the decisions to hand out bans to the Pakistan players are laudable, the haphazard manner in which they are likely to be carried out could see Pakistani cricket sink deeper into the quagmire. Rishad Mahmood, writing on the BBC website, believes the verdict has come five years too late.

There's no doubt that bad governance from politically motivated, less-than-competent cricket board officials has also contributed hugely to the current cricket scenario. More often than not, it has been the PCB heads themselves - including Lt Gen Tauqir Zia, Shaharyar Khan, Dr Nasim Ashraf and now Ijaz Butt - who have made monsters out of level-headed, talented players like Inzamam-ul-Haq, Yousuf, Shoaib Akhtar, Afridi and many others.

Digging deeper into the PCB ban, Khalid Hussain suggests that the motives behind the stunning move are not all that noble. He throws up some uncomfortable questions in his piece in the News.

It’s quite absurd actually. If things were so bad in the national team for so many months that you were forced to kick several big names out of it then what was the Board and the management it had hired to run the team was doing all that time? If Shoaib Malik and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan made so much trouble in Australia that the PCB had to ban them for a year, then what stopped it from calling them back home when the tour was still in progress? Why didn’t the team management take action against them and the other culprits then and there when it had the mandate to so?

The Nation has an editorial which agrees with most of the punishments handed out, but questions the composition of the inquiry committee, which was entirely made up of PCB members.

Ravi Shastri captured the imagination of millions of Indian fans when he turned in a performance befitting a Champion, to steer India to victory in the World Championship of Cricket in 1985. 25 years later, he relived the moment in an interview with Clayton Murzello from Mid Day.

Despite India's fine win in the opener over Pakistan at Melbourne, England had good reason to fancy their chances against the Indians considering their recent success. But for them to say that their spin attack was superior to India's proved too hard to swallow for Shastri, who remembers reading a passage from the match preview which said, "Our spinners better than India and we should put it across."

Shastri decided to wake up his roommate and fellow spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan. "I read that and threw the paper at Siva and woke him up literally to the extent of saying, 'Get up and read it. By 11 that night it was history." He ended up getting an inauspicious 13, but claimed three wickets to send England packing to an 86-run defeat.

The reason for Australia's vice-captain Michael Clarke for walking out on the tour of New Zealand, has disappointed Chris Rattue and in the New Zealand Herald, the writer wonders whether the batsman would have quit an Ashes series?

But nothing life threatening is going on in this superstar moment, as far as we can make out. As embarrassed as Bingle is, this is hardly an overwhelming disaster. Clarke, a team leader, has important and well paid responsibilities to his country, teammates and the sports fans of New Zealand. Battle on through, pal.

Robert Craddock writes in the Courier-Mail that Michael Clarke's decision to fly home from New Zealand indicates that he is deeply distressed, and a break from the game might be his best option.

Allan Border once dropped a timeless quote: "If you want to go the long journey in cricket, you either have to have a smooth relationship or be single - anything in between is a nightmare". Through no fault of his own, Michael Clarke is caught in the territory no man wants to visit. Clarke must get his home life in order and, if needs-be, take a decent break from the game.

His fiancee rather than his cricket must be his first priority and he should not return to cricket until he and his partner are at peace with their lives. The nude photo scandal which has engulfed Lara Bingle has claimed Clarke as well because he is the man who must ease his partner's angst.

Peter Roebuck writes in the Age that Clarke has reached a critical juncture at which he needs make a choice regarding his career path.

Michael Clarke needs to choose between a fraught personal life and his career in cricket. All the evidence indicates that the current position is untenable. As Mark Antony could testify, obsession can be a man's undoing. If Clarke is unwilling to make the call then cricket will make it for him. In the nick of time, Ricky Ponting sorted himself out. Now it is Clarke's turn.

The sport is big money in India, but this piece in the Economic Times believes it’s not quite cricket to prise such sums for new IPL franchises in a country where others sports house themselves in cowsheds and crumbling infrastructure.

Is some enterprising soul going to now try and convince us that some sort of trickle-down effect from the rich coffers of the IPL/BCCI is going to better things all around? Or are these vast sums more a reflection of what the bosses of the IPL think their scheme deserves?

	Jonathan Trott made his first hundred since he became an instant Ashes hero © Getty Images

The second day's play in Chittagong was Jonathan Trott's, writes Mike Atherton in the Times, because the ‘Forgotten man’ of the tour gave the selectors a reminder of his ability with a well-timed century. Come the first Test, Trott will open with Alastair Cook if England decide to play five bowlers, or bed back in at No 3 if they play a four-man attack.

His idiosyncrasies (or irritations, depending on your point of view) have not disappeared, but the Bangladesh A players seemed less annoyed than South Africa’s. Trott still fiddles at the crease and spends an age marking out that curious line of his that stretches a yard or two down the pitch from leg stump. But somehow the pace of the game is slower here, the Bangladeshi players calmer, and so his mannerisms were less grating.

Simon Barnes looks at Kevin Pietersen's run of poor scores and wonders what has happened to him, that he should fail four times in succession against Lilliput.

A trip to Bangladesh should have got feet and bat and mind back in rhythm, but so far we have seen nothing but a troubled man. The first Test against Bangladesh begins on Friday. Not a walk in the park, but a serious test of technique and inner strength.

Oliver Brett technically analyzes the reasons behind Pietersen's loss of form in his blog in BBC Sport.

The trouble is, if he doesn't get out poking around like an old lady at a church fete he gets out playing an expansive shot, which is exactly what happened when he was bowled by part-timer Mohammad Ashraful on Wednesday. Which, exactly, is the more pernicious mode of dismissal?

There was a time when being picked for India was a life-and-death issue. The IPL has changed that, however, writes Anand Vasu in the Hindustan Times.

In no other profession does being picked for something become so important. Able-bodies, agile-minded men give up so much of their life to cricket that they're often not good for much else if they don't make it. Catching the selector's eye becomes an all-consuming pursuit, and occasionally, a matter of life and death.

Suresh Menon is of the opinion that John Howard's impending tenure as the ICC president from 2012 could be crucial to the evolution of the game. Writing in dreamcricket.com, Menon believes that Howards' diplomacy in reinstating ICC as the foremost body in the game, while not alienating India, the game's financial power-house, demands the vision to look beyond bottom-lines.

It will be interesting to see how India react to the appointment of Howard. His track record as a supporter of apartheid and white rule in Zimbabwe is well known. That alone could bring him into conflict with India, especially if his unstated brief is to create just such a conflict and put India in their place. The Test cricket world can be split five and four on the basis of colour if we leave Zimbabwe out for the moment (but Howard can’t, the ICC will have to deal with that country). But ultimately, the cricketing world will not be ruled by either colour of skin or political convenience, but something more basic – money. Keeping India happy has been on the ICC agenda for a few years now, ever since Jagmohan Dalmiya showed the body how it could make money if only it knew how to market itself.

India captain MS Dhoni's rise to the top reflects the story of the rise of different layers of society, with cricket often anticipating that change. Suresh Menon traces the emergence of a major allrounder and the most respected captain in the game today in Tehelka magazine.

There is thus a historical inevitability about Dhoni’s elevation. It is the story of small town India grabbing chances denied for a number of reasons from the need for the rulers to maintain exclusivity to a lack of infrastructure to diffidence brought on by years of being outside the charmed circle. The progression from royalty to the middle classes to the also-rans appears ordained when viewed from this side of evolution.

They may have been worn down by failure but Bangladesh's story is also one of individual achievement in the face of much hardship. Writing in the Guardian, David Hopps believes their naivety belies a passion that deserves respect.

England's Test series against Bangladesh could prove dangerous, not because the hosts are good, but because they are bad. In the Telegraph, Scyld Berry warns of the dangerous consequences.

This series will be a test of character for England – another fortnight of shuttling between Dhaka and Chittagong – and a test of their reserves, as their fast bowling resources have drained away with injuries; the inevitable result of making England play all year round, as if the ECB didn't already know. But the two Tests won't be a proper test of cricket skills: for England it will be like an exam in which you are given an occasional look at the answers.

In the same paper, Steve James picks out six lessons for England from the one-day whitewash against Bangladesh.

By dredging their talent from an open pool, England are losing the power to make their fans feel deeply unhappy. Barney Ronay explains in his blog on the Guardian website.

This is a mix-and-match bunch, although there's nothing wrong with Alastair Cook that couldn't be solved by simply not letting him play again until he's in his mid-thirties. Cook is a peculiar contradiction a young, thrusting, handsome, baseball-capped arthritic nurdler. It feels wrong.

Kevin Pietersen, under pressure and out of sorts, needs to go back to his basics against Bangladesh, feels Vic Marks.

With Jacob Oram sustaining yet another injury, there's no better time to bring up that old debate about whether he should stop bowling. He should, writes Mark Richardson in the Herald on Sunday.

He likes to take a full part and his value in the Indian Premier League is also tied to his skill as an allrounder. However, if he continues to go the way he is, his desire to be an allrounder will diminish his all-round skills, as he takes far from a full part in games. He has retired from Test cricket to reduce his workload so he can play as an allrounder in the short forms but here he is - injured again.

Scott Styris might be difficult but there is no questioning his ability. He is also 34, not 104. Play the best and manage them. After all, isn't that what has been done with Jesse Ryder? Styris demonstrated again last night he is, indeed, among New Zealand's best and surely that has to be respected with selection, writes Paul Lewis in the Herald on Sunday.

Mike Atherton is of the opinion that downplaying England's ODI series win in Bangladesh would be doing a disservice to Bangladesh as well as to the consistent English side which has now won its third consecutive away ODI series. Writing in the Times, Atherton is pleased with the overall English performance, barring Kevin Pietersen's form.

Pietersen’s continuing lack of productivity was just about the only irritation for Flower, who conceded after the match that his star batsman was “worried” about his form. To add to the frustration, he fell to a left-arm spinner again yesterday, although he seemed less than pleased to be given out leg-before on the front foot to Abdur Razzak. Ten years ago it would not have been given out but times have changed and replays showed that Pietersen’s stride was a big one, but that the ball was straight enough.

	"You can’t be predetermined" © Associated Press

Sachin Tendulkar feels awkward about being compared with legends such as Don Bradman and Viv Richards. “I respect every individual who graced cricket before I came to play. Can you take away their contributions? You can’t. So why make these comparisons?” he says in a chat with Vijay Lokapally in Sportstar.

You seem to have discovered your vintage form, if experts are to be believed ...

I don’t think I had lost my touch. Since 2000 I have had a fair amount of injuries but the momentum was not lacking. In 2003 I had a finger injury, then tennis elbow, then shoulder, then bicep… All these injuries affected the upper body but the bat swing has not changed. Certain changes happen involuntarily but not to the extent that it would have a big impact on my game. In any case, I can’t bat as I did in the first decade of my international career, but then I have gained so much in terms of experience and I use it to my advantage.

Given that Indian business houses account for so much of the game's income, any steps taken to boost Test cricket's popularity in the subcontinent must be encouraged. Writing in the Guardian, Dileep Premachandran supports an idea like playing under lights, if it is the only way to get back the sort of crowds you had two decades ago.

Lalit Modi's right when he says that people can no longer afford to take days off to humour such a habit. Maintaining tradition is one thing, but is it really worth risking extinction for it? When probes have been sent to Mars and you can voice-chat in real time with someone in Buenos Aires, is it really so difficult to produce a white or pink ball that will stay intact for 80 overs under lights? Is keeping the ball red more important than keeping Test cricket in good health?

	We need to talk about Kev © AFP

Though the England camp may not be worrying too much about Kevin Pietersen, Stephen Brenkley in the Independent wonders whether his slump in form more than just a blip?

The question is not whether he can play well enough as an international batsman to retain a place in the team. He certainly can, if only because this is a cycle in the game where the cream of English batting out there in the shires is really only semi-skimmed. The question is whether Pietersen can regain the powers that made him such a glorious spectacle and formidable opponent.

With the runs having dried up, Pietersen appears to have found life’s road an ever lonelier one to tread. Simon Wilde in the Times says the pressure is on him to produce for England like never before.

As ever, Pietersen’s situation is the most intriguing. It doesn’t seem to matter whether this fame-junkie is doing brilliant things, or looking sorry for himself as he is now, the viewing remains compulsive.

It isn't Matt Prior's glove work that is under scrutiny, but his batting, particularly his ability to see England home in just the situation he and Eoin Morgan found themselves in on Tuesday. Hence, with the ODI series against Bangladesh secured, the selectors may hand Craig Kieswetter the gloves for Saturday's final match, writes Derek Pringle in the Telegraph.

Batting at No 6 requires a wide range of strokes and nerves of steel. Nobody doubts Prior’s competitive spirit but his shots under pressure are usually limited to big ones between long-off and extra cover. In a different context, it would have been noted just how suspect Prior was under duress when England were hanging on for those two last-gasp draws against South Africa two months ago.

David Hopps raves about Eoin Morgan in the Guardian and believes the Irishman has the ability and the temperament to become one of the best one-day finishers in the world.

In the same paper Mike Selvey says Morgan is not just drawing comparison with England's best ever finishers but with the remarkable Michael Bevan.

Morgan's sparkling century, which carried England to victory, leads Lawrence Booth to claim that England may finally have a big-hitter to take on the world. Read on in the Daily Mail.

This is a batsman who honed his excellent hand-eye batting skills in a Dublin alleyway with three cricket-mad brothers — not, as has been claimed, in a primary-school dabble with the Gaelic sport of hurling. And he has translated his unorthodoxy into success at all but the highest level. Test cricket will surely not be deprived of his originality for long.

In the same paper, Nasser Hussain explains why Twenty20 has taken the fear factor out of modern batting, thereby causing so much innovation these days.

Bob Willis cannot find enough words to praise Eoin Morgan after his calm unbeaten ton under pressure saved England the blushes in the second ODI against Bangladesh. Writing in cricket365.com, Willis is of the opinion that Morgan deserved to be carried off the pitch shoulder-high after his Mirpur heroics.

The left-hander's innings reminded me of the very best of Graham Thorpe and Neil Fairbrother rolled into one. He is a very resourceful player who has the advantage of being stronger than either Thorpe or Fairbrother were; that power allows him to loft the ball for six and execute a punishing reverse sweep, a shot which remains a revelation.

It’s heartening that India is the No. 1 Test team in spite of several areas requiring attention. But it’s time to stop leaving things to chance; conscious action is the need of the hour. S Ram Mahesh has more in the Sportstar.

How India’s system handles Ishant will be watched closely. Bowlers that can defeat great batsmen don’t come around too often. Neither Ishant nor leg-spinner Amit Mishra can be allowed to slip away. A long-term bowling coach will help immeasurably, for at the highest level, skills need constant development and refinement. Consistency augments an attack’s menace, and consistency cannot be had if mind and bowling action aren’t sound. Ishant needs nurturing, but it’s just as important that he isn’t over-coached.

Brendon and Nathan McCullum became the 10th set of brothers to represent New Zealand in cricket last year. James Ihaka in the New Zealand Herald catches up with the two proud parents, Stu and Jan.

The young Dunedin boys would play the game religiously with their mates in their backyard or on their St Kilda street - often until after dark. But in trying to emulate their heroes, who included their dad, himself a former Otago opening batsman, the pair would sometimes incur the wrath of their parents or those next door.

	John Howard in batting mode © AFP

John Howard's nomination as the next vice-president and eventual president of the ICC provokes a curious mixture of regret and hope, Peter Roebuck writes in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Regret stems from the overlooking of the admirable candidate put forward by New Zealand. Sir John Anderson's praises were widely sung and a more gracious neighbour might have acknowledged his obvious merits. Of the insiders he was clearly the best qualified.

Cricket Australia chose no such course. Nor did it hesitate to reach outside the game in search of a plausible alternative. As far as CA was concerned, Anderson was not the problem, the ICC was the problem. And Howard was the only possible solution.

In the Herald Sun Ron Reed writes that despite his reputation as a "cricket tragic", Howard will be seen as a political figure from outside the tent rather than a family member from inside it.

The New Zealand Herald wonders how someone with absolutely no cricket experience got the job. “How could CA not find someone more suited to the job than a politician?”

Cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle describes the spectacular arrival of fast-paced Twenty20 cricket as it parallels the rise of modern India. Watch his Tedtalk here.

Donald McRae, of the Guardian, caught up with Lalit Modi, the IPL Commissioner, in Mumbai. He had a lot to say on a variety of topics - IPL, EPL, security, Test cricket and day-night cricket.

Modi talks animatedly about how Twenty20 cricket, unlike its Test equivalent, can reach new markets in America and China. He also believes the IPL can eventually take on the Premier League. "Don't forget that our model is unique. All our teams are equal. And the sports fan wants unpredictability. Look, my son is a Manchester United fan and I'm a Chelsea fan – and I was very upset to see my team lose [last Saturday]. But, normally, we know exactly what is going to happen. My son and I know that nine times out 10 either Man U or Chelsea is going to win it. The Premier League is basically so predictable. I wanted to base my league on an unpredictable model – so we don't have a Man U or a Chelsea in the IPL."