Sharda Ugra blogs in India Today that the presence of a team from strife-ridden Afghanistan is reason enough to follow the World Twenty20.

Once again, men with new names come onto cricket’s biggest stage - Stanikzai, Ahmadzai, Shenwari, Zadran. Pathan names, names of tribes and geographies. Some of this team were born in the sprawling refugee camps in Pakistan, others in places whose datelines usually carry grim news.

Going by logic, all Afghanistan will get from the World T20 are two matches five days apart – India on Saturday and South Africa on May 5. What these cricketers from a country of conflict have already brought is a calming perspective to a sport often battling within itself over commerce, power and race.

After South Africa's innumerable disappointments in ICC tournaments, Neil Manthorp pleads with the side, in Mail & Guardian Online, to try and avoid a choke this time around in the West Indies.

Unlike England, South Africa have at least won one ICC tournament out of the past 20. Remember the inaugural Champions Trophy in Bangladesh in 1998? No, not many do. There were limited expectations back then and, realistically, there should be this time, too.

Pakistan are defending champions, India and Sri Lanka are red hot, the West Indies are hosts and New Zealand are perennial semifinalists at these things. Let's just hope that Smith's boys are not catastrophically embarrassed by Afghanistan in their second group match and take it from there. (No, seriously. Afghanistan qualified. Really.) Get past them and anything could happen.

Shane Warne has made the IPL one of two hunting grounds after international retirement, and on his personal website he's outlined what he thinks is the best way forward heading into the league's fourth season. The basis for major decisions should be total transparency and no favouritism to any franchises, believes Warne, for this will ensure all franchises will be on an even level in 2011.

The last big cricket event in the Caribbean was a disaster, with killjoy regulations, but this wide-open tournament could set things right, says Mike Selvey in the Guardian.

That the World Twenty20 comes so soon after the last edition, an outstanding success in England, is unfortunate, not least for the reigning champions Pakistan, but represents a recalibrating of the international calendar. However, the opportunity for the region to re-establish its cricketing credentials is huge, with a hit-and-dash schedule to match the cricket.

Elsewhere, the Telegraph speaks to Hamid Hassan, Afghanistan's Flintoff.

	Master of all he surveys ... once upon a time © BCB

The IPL commissioner’s friends and family got it all—no questions asked, write Rohit Mahajan and Arindam Mukherjee in this week's lead story of Outlook. Ultimately, what has proved to be Modi's undoing is his hubris, that of a man spoilt by his riches, who has known only to have his own way in life.

Though Lalit and Vasundhararaje had known each other for several years—he was seen accompanying her to a Union minister to seek clearance for a factory near Gwalior in the early 1990s—his star shone brighter than ever because she was now chief minister. Such was his clout, Lalit acquired the sobriquet of the ‘Super Chief Minister’. His arrogance was the talk of the town; his opulent suite at the luxury Rambagh Palace hotel almost the centre of government, as officials were summoned to receive orders.

The future shape of English first-class cricket will be decided in the coming days, as the ECB mulls over a consultation document in which are outlined five proposals of varying degrees of radicalism.

With the summer schedule already filled to the brim, something is going to have to give, and one way or another, that something seems certain to be the County Championship.

How, though, will it be restructured? To have your say, go to The Guardian, which is conducting a poll, the results of which will be published in the near future. The various options are outlined below:

BBC Radio’s beloved Test Match Special has won the Sports Journalists’ Association award for best radio programme this year. Martin Johnson pens an appreciation for the show in Test Match Extra, and argues that cricket is one of the few sports which is more enriching to listen to on the radio than watch on the television.

TMS constantly delights its small army of listeners with its seamless blend of expert analysis and coffee morning banter, even for those who’ve never seen a game of cricket, and who wouldn’t quite know whether a reference to the man at mid off being a little too square was a reference to his fielding position or his dress sense.

In the Times of India, Harsh Goenka provides a comprehensive analysis that traces the IPL's problems to its fundamental flaw - massively inflated financial valuations.

The financial valuation range based on these lies somewhere between $83 million and $133 million (Rs 370 crore and Rs 600 crore), a far cry from the $370 million (Rs 1,665 crore) bid the Pune team finally attracted. However, I do have use with this number. It can be argued that there is significant value appreciation to the parent’s brand. But whichever way you look at it, apart from UB group no other corporate owner is extracting significant branding. Reliance is not the face of Mumbai Indians.

In the Telegraph, Mukul Kesavan writes that he has little hope that the IPL will clean up its act and enumerates arguments to support his contention that the tournament, which is too firmly steeped in commercialisation, is beyond redemption.

But once you define Twenty20 cricket and the IPL as a form of showbiz — the cheerleaders, the gold-trim uniforms, the filmstar owners, the mid-over commercials, the commercial crassness of the strategic time-out, the stadiums wall-papered with advertising — its main justification becomes the money that makes it a gilded marvel. When the buzz about a game becomes its success in monetizing everything from post-match parties (where guests pay 40,000 rupees a pop to mingle with tired players) to sponsored sixes, what you’re seeing is cricket’s transformation from one sort of heavenly body into another: from a sun that burns with its own fire to a planet that preens in the reflected glory of money.

David Bond, on the other hand, has hope that the organisers will eventually clean up the mess. He writes in bbc.co.uk that while IPL-gate is far from over, the tournament is here to stay.

In the Times, Mike Atherton writes that as Lalit Modi prepares his defence against the myriad allegations, it is time for the IPL to assume a more mature form, stripped of its blatant commercialisation, and over-the-top excesses.

I have always been deeply ambivalent about the IPL: the gross commercialisation, the greed, the pandering to celebrities and the salesmanship of some older players who should know better have done little to enrich the game. Against that, it is important to recognise the good things: the competitive, sometimes compelling, nature of the cricket, the new audience brought to the game, the promotion of younger Indian players and the wealth created for them.

In the Guardian, Frank Keating looks back at Harold Larwood's almost unnoticed departure from England, 60 years ago to the day, with only a pressman and Douglas Jardine to wish him well.

Same quay, same boat and carrying the very same suitcase as he had 18 years before. Harrowing irony for now, 18 years on, the renowned fast bowler – possibly, even in 2010, still the most far-famed fast bowler of all – was not surrounded by jostling well-wishers, a commotion of newsreel cameras, swankpot MCC bigwigs, nor any press of press men.

That notorious Bodyline tour of 1932‑1933 saw the captain and unswerving autocrat Douglas Jardine ruthlessly let the former Nottinghamshire miner Larwood off the leash not only triumphantly to regain the Ashes, but tumultuously to scare the wits out of Australia with 33 wickets in the five Tests at 19.51 apiece.

Spending a day with the Afghanistan cricket team can be an unusual experience, as Andy Bull found out. Read his account of the encounter in the Guardian.

I would have liked to talk to them about how batsman Raees Ahmadzai was carried across the border to Pakistan in the 1980s as his family fled from the Soviet invasion. About how he and the others learned to play cricket in a refugee camp using balls made out of old torn up shirts and stumps made out of shoes. What I ended up discussing with the team's captain, Nowroz Mangal, was whether or not Pizza Hut's Chicken Supreme was Halal. We decided probably not. Margheritas and Sprite all round then.

Afghanistan's World Twenty20 opening encounter against India will pit a team of fans against the heroes they idolise. G.S. Vivek reports in the Indian Express.

Opener Karim Sadiq’s mates call him ‘Kabul ka Sehwag’ for his big hitting, and it is obvious who Sadiq’s cricketing hero is. “In January 2004, the Afghanistan Under-19 team toured India, and in a game at Mohali I scored a century, hitting six sixes. The Indian boys started calling me ‘Kabul ka Sehwag’, and the name stuck,” he grins. “I have videos of all Sehwag’s knocks in my laptop.”

Sadiq is disappointed he won’t meet his idol in the Caribbean - the Indian star having had to drop out due to injury. “I had planned to ask him for an autographed T-shirt. I have heard Gautam (Gambhir) is his close friend, maybe I will ask him to arrange a meeting with Sehwag,” he says.

Nasser Hussain writes in the Daily Mail that the main lesson learnt from the IPL fiasco is that no tournament should attempt to become bigger than the game itself.

Let us hope a full inquiry into the allegations surrounding Modi acts as a cleansing exercise not just for the IPL but for the dangers of corruption in Twenty20 cricket throughout the world. Cricket cannot allow itself to be tainted in this way.

The IPL is facing pressure to come clean from several quarters, and the latest group to join the bandwagon is the advertisers who pump in a major portion of the revenue. The Indian Express has the details.

Wall Street Journal's Sadanand Dhume writes that the IPL mess typifies everything that is right and wrong about India.

In a country with a weak legal system, venal political class and hidebound bureaucracy, some of this corner-cutting is expected. India ranks 133rd out of 183 countries in the ease of doing business according to the World Bank's and International Finance Corporation's 2010 Doing Business Report. But the danger, for Indian cricket in particular and for India more broadly, is that such scandals erode faith in market-opening reforms by creating the impression that they benefit only a few. The government appears serious about cleaning up the IPL, but in the long term, the real challenge it faces is to put in place systems that encourage entrepreneurship and innovation, but not at the cost of transparency and the law. India shouldn't have to choose between Mr. Modi the visionary and Mr. Modi the crony capitalist.

In the Wisden Cricketer, Lawrence Booth says that it wouldn't hurt if the tournament downsized a little, reducing it to a month and the ICC ensuring that no international cricket is scheduled at that time.

The commentators, too, can do their part. The degree of brown-nosing, the shamelessness of product placement and the contrived excitement have all been distasteful and demeaning. Jeremy Coney retained his poet’s quirkiness; Mike Haysman never lost sight of the need for serious analysis; Harsha Bhogle did his best to rise above cliché. But otherwise the sense was of grown men fighting to be heard in the cramped confines of Modi’s back pocket. It wasn’t big and it certainly wasn’t clever.

Blogging for the Times, Patrick Kidd wonders if Lalit Modi is the first sports administrator to be sacked for shooting his mouth off by text message.

Last year, Ravi Shastri likened Modi to Moses. This hyperbolic beatification was mocked at the time, but perhaps it seems more relevant today. Despite common belief, Moses did not lead the Hebrews all the way to the Promised Land. He merely led them out of their Egyptian (50-over) bondage, but he died before they completed their route across the wilderness.

Claire Taylor, the would-be Ricky Ponting of women's cricket, could have had a well-paid job in IT but is driven by a sporting obsession. In an extensive interview with the Guardian, Taylor talks about starting off as a professional cricketer to her current role as England captain.

"There have been points all through my England career where my dad has said, 'Right, you really need to think about what's going to happen after cricket. Isn't it time now to go out to work?' There's an obvious generational difference in outlook. My parents were both the first generation of their families to make it to university and have middle-class jobs. So their ambitions were centred around a secure house for the family while I was more confident I could pursue this dream and support myself. I guess I was quite selfish."

Anand Vasu writes in Hindustan Times, that Lalit Modi's ouster is a classic case of getting a taste of one's own medicine.

Once in the BCCI, Modi led the witch-hunt against Jagmohan Dalmiya, and having had him suspended, champi- oned the need to press crimi- nal charges and have the police go after the former ICC chief. Why, Modi famously threatened to “lock up Dalmiya and throw away the keys". Such bravado would have been empty had it not had the backing of a heavy-weight like Sharad Pawar. A seasoned politician and no stranger to fingers being pointed, perhaps Pawar might have cautioned Modi that what goes around comes around, but either he never did, or it fell on deaf ears.

Suhel Seth writes in the Economic Times that while it is easy to brand Modi as the fall guy, the blame for the IPL fiasco rests with everyone associated with the brand.

Respectable brands, be it Hero Honda or Citibank, were part of the IPL. They have been supporting the IPL since its inception. Who, if anyone at all, is going to be accountable to them and the monies they’ve invested in building this property? While a lot of us may say that the IPL in its present avatar was Lalit Modi’s brainchild, the truth of the matter is everyone else other than Lalit Modi nourished the baby. It was powered by the belief and the monies of a Hero Honda or for that matter a Citibank. It came to fruition because a Mukesh Ambani or a Vijay Mallya believed in the brand proposition and its eventual worth.

Simon Hughes writes in Telegraph that irrespective of the ontroversies, the IPL was a tremendous success on-field.

The melodrama of the matches, fortunes lurching one way then the other, has often mirrored the plot of a Bollywood movie. That is the IPL's winning formula – every match has the real sense of an event – and there is nothing else in the sub-continent to compete with it. It delivers what the burgeoning Indian middle-class crave – western-style entertainment. For that simple reason the IPL will continue to thrive, in spite of all the off-field machinations.

Former Wellington and New Zealand fast bowler Heath Davis has lost half his foot but not his sense of humour. Davis suffered a horrific workplace accident in Brisbane, but as he told the Dominion Post, he's joked to close friends that he got so sick of bowling no-balls he decided to do something permanent about it.

"I can build up to a jog, that is about the height of it and I can still roll my arm over off four paces. Everything is swinging in though when I bowl because it is hard to complete the [bowling] action."

Lalit Modi's ouster is only the first step towards cleaning up the IPL. Ayaz Memon writes in Hindustan Times that the Governing Council meeting holds the key to ensuring that public trust is restored in the system.

It is absurd to let the IPL collapse because of managerial impropriety, as nihilists and the lynch-mob would suggest. The biggest casualty in this sordid drama is not who will lose out to whom in national politics, financial deals or the ego battles between pompous cricket officials but public trust. The cricket lovers of India are the biggest stakeholders in the game in India, and they are anguished.

The power struggle for control of the fastest growing sports property in the world may end in a whimper or reach a higher octave today, depending on the resolve and arsenal either side possesses. But that is not now germane to the issue. It's public trust. To restore this, it is imperative that the act of cleansing is demonstrative, not merely symbolic.

Desh Gaurav Chopra Sekhri writes in the Indian Express that IPL is not the first sports league to suffer this kind of a crisis. He draws parallels from other sports like baseball and football to chalk the way forward.

Once the BCCI and the IPL 's governing council share their vision with the public as to the way forward, then one can discuss options such as a player's association, collective bargaining, or even an in dependent regulatory body or committee - the Satyam model has been recommended. Another option is a corporate structure like football's English Premier League, where the team owners are shareholders. The CEO and other key management personnel are appointed, and accountable to the public, with the aim of trying to ensure that they are independent and have no apparent conflict of interest that could taint their decision making.

In Deccan Herald, MJ Akbar explains how the scriptwriters of the IPL stretched rules and imagination so much that they forgot to give a happy ending to their fairytale.

The damage in cash terms can be calculated, but who will do the accounting of the damage to IPL’s credibility? There is cynical response: why should a circus need any credibility? Who believes a Hindi movie to be the essence of truth, and if it is the essence of truth, who watches it? But Cabinet ministers do not use their power to preside over the Hindi movie industry, or divert Air India aircraft to pick up cast and crew. The story has reached where it has because the credibility of the Union government is also at stake. Try being cynical about this.

In BBC, Southik Biswas says the latest crisis should mark the beginning of a serious effort to clean up the game in India.

Indians have become inured to - even callous about - corruption, so there is a real possibility that Mr Modi will be made the fall guy, and there will be no meaningful, demonstrable change in the running of the cricket. At the same time India is largely a reactive society - only crises and scandals sometimes lead to real reforms. IPL-Gate - as many networks are describing the row - could then actually end up cleansing and reforming the cricket board, and the game could actually emerge stronger. It is time to restore the dignity of Indian cricketers and their fans.

	Whatcha talkin' 'bout, Willis? © BCB

From fast-bowling great to cult hit on TV, Bob Willis tells the Independent he would ban overseas players and despairs at how our game is being run.

"I would stop all overseas players in the Championship. Overseas players, it is said, can improve those around them but I remember Gordon Greenidge and Barry Richards at Hampshire, a great opening partnership, but Hampshire didn't produce any other batsman who played for England except Paul Terry, who won two caps, which defeats the argument. But generally it's evolution versus revolution and it's not evolving too well. We're always followers."

After the fiasco of the World Cup comes the chance for some serious rebuilding in the land of calypso cricket, writes Vic Marks on his blog in the Observer. Now is the time to claw back some credibility in the Caribbean.

In Guyana, St Lucia and Barbados there is scope for some sort of redemption after the debacle of that World Cup. The tournament can work there; the stands can be filled, though it remains a problem that the stadium in Guyana is in the hinterland of the city of Georgetown; it takes some reaching for the locals. In St Lucia there is a shortage of locals. In Barbados there should be no problem, though it would help if West Indies became contenders for the trophy.

The IPL final is today and in his final installment of his column in the Hindustan Times, Soumya Bhattacharya says he can't wait for the circus to end.

I'd pay for the privilege of not having to listen to Ravi Shastri or Danny Morrison or many of that lot. The terrific thing is that I shall have that privilege without having had to pay. Very often, I tend to watch Tests or ODIs with the TV throttled into silence. Like the marketing jargon that masquerades as English (`feedback'; `on the same page'; `aligned'), Indian cricket commentary clichés are so clichéd - and so rampant - that they have corrupted the language.

In the Indian Express, Aditya Iyer lists out the snippets and comic capers of IPL 3, including Dhoni's innocent gaffe about being welcomed in Chennai, and Yuvraj's meeting with the Dalai Lama.

The controversy involving the BCCI and the IPL dominates the media and public attention because this issue is not about the political interests of the Congress or the BJP, or about IPL commissioner Lalit Modi or former minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor, writes Arun Nehru in Asian Age. This concerns all of us as huge money is involved in the game and all government high-ups are involved.

We have seen the havoc created by offshore accounts in the US, UK and other European countries and we are all aware of the “special” financial agreements available in Dubai. We face a serious internal security threat on several fronts and a detailed investigation with the co-operation of the government in other countries is necessary to unveil the accounts in tax havens. Hopefully, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government will try to ensure that there is minimal discomfort to those who are not involved directly.

Lalit Modi's phenomenal success in conceptualising and executing the IPL has shown off his business acumen in the field of cricket. But outside of cricket, his other business ventures haven't been so successful, which involved court cases with ESPN and a proposed lifestyle channel which never took of. Archana Shukla has more in the New Indian Express.

In the same paper, Apruva writes on Modi's brush with politics and politicians, one that hasn't escaped controversy, including court cases and allegations of corruption. It all began with a slap in the face...

It was five years ago, soon after Modi became president of the Rajasthan Cricket Association. Modi had managed to accompany Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on his visit to the Ranthambore National Park and drove his car behind the PM’s motorcade. But a senior police officer, who didn’t recognise the cricket official, stopped Modi, asked him why he was “following” the convoy and then slapped him for getting too argumentative. Though that officer escaped Modi’s now-famed wrath, perhaps this incident sparked Modi’s disdain for government officers and bureaucrats.

In the same paper, Joby Joseph writes on Modi's background and a brief history of his foray into cricket.

Much before he finished school, Modi was keen to go to the US for higher studies. To realise this dream, he skipped his school-leaving examination in India, making him no longer eligible for admission in any of the Indian colleges. Lalit hated life in boarding schools in Shimla and Nainital. With no other option, Modi’s parents agreed to send him to America. To his credit, he performed well in SAT, or the Scholastic Aptitude Test, essential for admission to American colleges.

Mark Richardson writes in the Herald on Sunday that New Zealand have all the ingredients to make a major impact in the World Twenty20 in the Caribbean.

It has three world-class performers in McCullum, Taylor and Bond. Vettori is no Fleming yet but could be. And Styris, Oram and Mills are experienced stalwarts.They have just as much if not more batting depth than the 2000 side (which won the Champions Trophy) and I'd say the present team are a better bowling unit.

In the Herald on Sunday, Andrew Alderson has a long interview with Shane Bond about the New Zealand fast bowler's experience in the IPL, where his team the Kolkata Knight Riders missed out on a semi-final slot on net run-rate.

"Hundreds also paid to come and they were filmed for a show called IPL nights which was shown the next day on MTV.

"So you'd have a quiet beer and walk out only to face enormous crowds in the lobby. Then you'd turn on the telly in your room and the news channels would be talking about the game.

"In the end, you get used to people taking your photo and asking for signatures at breakfast and lunch. Everyone wants a piece of you all the time, but you realise how passionate Indians are about their cricket. It's a real eye-opener."

On Sachin Tendulkar's 37th birthday, Vijay Lokapally writes in the Hindu that the maestro is still learning and imparting.

Look at Tendulkar in the ongoing IPL. His influence on the team is unmistakable. That Mumbai Indians has preformed consistently points to his leadership. He has guided the young Saurabh Tiwary and the temperamental Harbhajan Singh with some astute handling. He has performed on the field and shepherded the lads well off it. No Mumbai Indians player can be spotted at the late night IPL parties.

	The crisis in BCCI and IPL is something we are familiar with in the corporate world. © BCB

Politics has not just got mixed up with cricket, it is now threatening to overwhelm and damage it, writes Shekhar Gupta in the Indian Express. It would be tragic if just because of the shenanigans of a chosen few who have operated for six years as if they “own” the game, IPL itself were to acquire a bad name.

Armies of taxmen are now raiding anybody with anything to do with cricket as if they have busted the underground network of Dawood Ibrahim or discovered the headquarters of Lashkar-e-Toiba. There are weird demands to ban IPL, nationalise BCCI. Even usually sensible people are saying BCCI should be made a statutory but “autonomous” body. All of this is dangerous for India’s cricket and must stop. Indian cricket has never been in better shape. IPL is the finest new Indian brand of global value.

The weekly newsmagazine India Today analyses the IPL scandal, from the exit of Shashi Tharoor to the attempts to oust Lalit Modi.

In the Hindustan Times, Pradeep Magazine writes that the BCCI must put its foot down.

To show their positive intent, the first thing that Manohar should do is to restore the amended clause in the Board's constitution which barred a member from being part of any group which has business deal- ings with it. Not only has Modi to go, even Srinivasan should be told to choose between being a fran- chisee or a Board member.

Anand Vasu, in his blog for the same newspaper, says that if we all enjoyed the IPL, which certainly seemed the case, we should at least give Modi the opportunity to defend himself, or resign. What’s that phrase about giving the devil his due?

Surjit S Bhalla, in Business Standard, asks why Indian politicians are so bothered about promoting cricket in India when they, by their own admission, are overburdened with work and especially work that is in the service of the nation.

The Indian Express has a long profile of Lalit Modi, outlining his rise to becoming one of the most powerful men in cricket.

In the Wisden Cricketer, Sharda Ugra provides insight into how Lalit Modi operates, and how went about creating the Indian Premier League.

As the IPL gathered strength, Modi hit top form as businessman and powerbroker. A CEO of a national cricket board said dealing with Modi was like being in discussion with George Bush: “Either you are with him or you are against him.” The IPL is not cricket’s Afghanistan or Iraq, so everyone is with him. On the record, that is.

The closest anyone in office has come to speaking coolly is when the BCCI president, Shashank Manohar, said: “Mr Modi is a very good marketing person. In one line I’ve described him and that’s all I would like to say.” Cricket Australia’s CEO, James Sutherland, who held meetings to discuss the IPL with Modi in its early stages, said: “To grow in a cluttered entertainment market, cricket must provide a compelling proposition to its fans. Lalit has a remarkably clear view of this relationship between the sport and the public.”

IPL India is in shock, writes Sharda Urga on her blog in India Today, and that includes not just everyone with a stake in the event itself, but everyone who believed that the IPL was living proof of new India’s entrepreneurial muscle.

The official IPL power structure was blinded by the light. On Thursday evening, former India captain Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, a member of the IPL Governing Council whom Modi is battling against, confessed to the council’s errors on Indian televison saying, “As long as the product looked good, I was happy with it”. Those part of this “good” product – cricketers and commentariat - offered nothing other than devotional diarrhoea because it was part of their contract and their cheques did not bounce.

Having seen Kieron Pollard and Saurabh Tiwary play Dale Steyn in the IPL, Soumya Bhattacharya would really like to see them face him in a game of cricket. He writes in the Hindustan Times:

It's all very well for some of us to say that bowling in T20 deserves a different set of skills and a yorker at 145kmph is a yorker at 145kmph and that's that, but, come, come, we shouldn't delude our- selves. We are all adults, aren't we? Or so we like to believe.

In Sportstar, Kunal Diwan looks at the role of the finisher in the IPL. Seeing an innings through to a flourishing conclusion is a skill as specialised as bowling at the death. Finishers, thus, have their own sweet place in Twenty20 cricket, where three good overs — or three bad ones — can heavily influence the outcome of a match, he writes.

With the condensation of the game blurring lines between roles and elevating shorter spans of play to the status of an increased, more determinant proportion of the match, the importance of a player who provides the critical thrust in a few, potentially game-changing overs cannot be overstated. Then again, the art of finishing an innings — whether batting first or in pursuit — is exemplified by those who are perpetually aware of the bearing of their chunk of runs in the grand scheme of team interest. Awareness, however, is one thing. Its translation into reality is quite another, since the best interests of the finisher are perforce in conflict with those of the bowlers, the fieldsmen and the opposing captain.

In the same magazine, Raakesh Natraj looks at the rise of R Ashwin during IPL 2010.

	It is a known fact that Bangladeshi cricketers have a tough time interacting with the foreign media © BCB

The Bangladesh Cricket Board's decision to drop the media manager from the World Twenty20 in the West Indies and the two-Test series in England is stunningly inexplicable and that too at the expense of an observer, writes Mohammad Isam in the Daily Star. The BCB is part of world cricket's growth and as one of the Test-playing nations, they have tried to follow the bigger nations every step of the way. But they have the tendency to fall back on ancient times every now and then.

Most of the players, admittedly from humble backgrounds, do not feel comfortable speaking in English and while this could be a trivial matter to some, it turns out to be a national embarrassment every time they face the camera. But hardly these cricketers are to blame. They spent half their lives playing the game and when they end up at the top level, they seek the help of professionals to guide them through a press conference or an interview after they have done well. In these instances, the players feel comfortable in the company of a media manager who translates for them as well as make sure they get the best treatment in the newspapers.

Ayaz Memon, writing in Mint, pays tribute to Sachin Tendulkar ahead of the batsman's 37th birthday. He singles out this current season has Tendulkar's best ever, for his sheer consistency in all three formats.

But for sheer quality of batsmanship and consistency in run-getting, there has been no season like the current one. Too much has already been written over the past 45 days about his magnificent form in the Indian Premier League (IPL), but that is only one-third of the story. In seven Tests this season, he made five centuries, and even if two of these came against lowly Bangladesh, three were made against the quality attacks of Sri Lanka and South Africa.

Writing in the Times, Mike Atherton has come out strongly against the ECB for the way it has effected unsound changes in the domestic scene, the latest of which is move to institute a conference system, which "is a possibility because — wait for it — it works in the United States".

Consider what the cricket supporter in this country has had to put up with over the years: the championship has moved from three-day to four-day cricket and from one division to two, while the premier limited-overs competition has been reduced from 65 overs to 40, with multitudinous changes in format along the way, before being swamped completely by Twenty20. It is hard to maintain loyalty if you are not sure to what it is you are supposed to be loyal.

A move to a conference-style system, within the present structure that does not allow for the weaker clubs to strengthen their playing resources to any great extent, would be a recipe for disaster, a muddle of the free market and the welfare state that would produce a low-intensity, uncompetitive environment ill suited to the demands of the national team.

Kadambari Murali Wade pieces together the power and political angles of the IPL jigsaw in Hindustan Times.

While the IPL is mired in off-field controversy, the brand itself has been tremendously successful. An editorial in the Indian Express asks the Indian government to deal with the mess the same way it handled the corporate fraud at Satyam - punish the offenders, but save the brand and its stakeholders.

Consider the interests of stakeholders other than the bosses of IPL. Consumers in India, and indeed abroad, are enjoying the cricket and the larger entertainment package being offered. Advertisers seem to find it worthwhile to pump in money where there is such a large audience. Broadcasters and franchise owners, and leave aside the murk for just a moment, must also see plenty of potential for profit to have invested so much money in the IPL. And the cricketers involved in actually dishing out the action are all better off (at least financially) from their participation in the league. Purists may worry about the fate of the game as they once knew it, but that is another debate.

With the Kochi-franchise controversy backfiring on Lalit Modi, Bachi Karkaria wonders in the Times of India whether the under-fire IPL chief is regretting his move to go after Shashi Tharoor.

The IPL is a nepotism scam as well. For now, only the Modi clan and cronies seem to have the juiciest plums, but who knows how many more family trees will tumble as the government, the BCCI and the media dig up the pitch. The biter has been bitten harder. Is Lalit Modi wishing that he had let sleeping Shashis lie – even through their teeth?

Jug Suraiya writes in the Times of India that the best way to clear up the IPL muddle is for fans to boycott the event, leading to a fall in TRPs and the money generated by the league.

Bans, in any context, are not part of the solution but only a compounding part of the problem. So who's to solve this problem? Greed is the key both to the problem and the solution. The IPL scam took place because of the humungous money involved. Who generates all that boodle? No, not the players, superb performers though they are. It's the Indian fans, more than willing to put their purse where their passion is, who've made cricket, particularly T20 and IPL, the money-spinner that it is. What would happen if these fans - if you - as a mark of protest to what is being done to the game were to switch off their TV sets, or switch channels to the news, or a soap, when a match was being played? Ratings would drop, the money would dry up. Greed would meet its comeuppance.

And on rediff.com, Sheela Bhatt deconstructs the murky goings-on in the Indian Premier League. Also check out this hilarious cartoon involving the now-defunct Indian Cricket League.

Dileep Premachandran writes in the Guardian that for most of the season the headlines were hogged by quality players like Sachin Tendulkar, Jacques Kallis and Anil Kumble but the bottom fell out of the IPL after one tweet from Lalit Modi. He wonders how long it will take to recover from the scandals of the past week.

Commentator Mike Haysman talks of a fascinating conversation with Sunil Gavaskar over dinner, where the former Indian batsman used to head to cinemas of Mumbai as a kid, not to watch movies but to catch newsreels of cricket matches. In the age before television in India, Gavaskar made best use of every given opportunity to catch his idols, sometimes hopping from one theater to another. Read on in Supercricket.

On a good day Sunny could not be happier. Once he got his cricketing fix from the news reel he would leap out of his seat and sprint with serious intent for the exit. He had another scheme in place. Sunny would realise that the staggered showing times of the latest movies would provide a unique opportunity. He could sprint from one cinema to the other in metropolitan Mumbai, and after purchasing a full price ticket at each, could sometimes catch about five minutes of precious cricket in an afternoon. That was utopia for a young Gavaskar.

The controversy surrounding the Kochi IPL franchise raises a number of uneasy questions for Ashok Malik, who poses some of them in Hindustan Times.

Was similar 'guidance' offered to bidders when the eight original franchises were sold in 2008? Is Kochi the only franchise with multiple proxy ownership suspicions - another person is supposed to be standing in for a Mumbai-based former cricketer - or does this cosy matrix extend to other teams? In handing out jobs and contracts at the IPL, did Modi invite tenders, issue job ads or did he just do as he pleased? In 'guiding' bidders and, initially, attempting to fix parameters so that only two bids were valid for - coincidentally - two franchises, was he acting on behalf of two powerful ministers who were themselves 'mentoring' teams?

Rohit Mahajan gets behind the scenes in Outlook's cover story to understand all the angles and potential off-shoots of the Kochi controversy.

Playing the unfamiliar role of a whistleblower, Modi was possibly unaware of its first consequence: immediate, intense scrutiny of the alarm-raiser himself. Unfortunately for Modi, his private dealings and operations as IPL commissioner don’t present a very flattering picture. His family’s ties with the IPL present a conflict of interest with his incumbency.

Be it controversies or auctions, the IPL is not entirely about on-field action. Richa Bhatia, in the Indian Express, looks at what happens in one of the tournament's biggest off-field activities - the after-match parties.

Delhi Daredevils teetered before Kings XI Punjab in the heat and dust of Ferozeshah Kotla, but you wouldn't know it at the ITC Maurya at the Capital -where the cricketers were put up and where they could, conveniently, party with the Others. The arrival desk outside the party zone was manned by bouncers in black suits, warding off the swarming crowd. Behind the desk, event management executives ticked off names on three lists - host IPL, designer's guests and fans. The fans were those who had bought Club Lounge passes for Rs 35,000 - for a match and this much more. (Or else, the match-alone ticket comes for Rs. 300 - 6,500.) Fans, festooned on the wrist with a green ribbon with "Match Number 44" (the Daredevils-Kings XI) inscribed, were ushered into a long IPL Night.

Lalit Modi's Midas' touch has helped him to make money for, and rise high within the BCCI, but Sharda Ugra, writing in backpagelead.com.au, believes the latest controversy has put the ball firmly in his higher authority's court.

Cranking up the ante may be an IPL staple, but what’s happening these days could make Don King swoon. The ‘world’s hottest sports league’ (Forbes feels so) is in boilover mode. Lalit Modi, the man considered cricket’s shiniest trophy is now the ornament whose plating is starting to chip. Not on television though because that is both his and the IPL’s kingdom. Modi still shows up in our air space, trailed by plumes of coloured smoke and words saying that his latest enemy-in-chief had an agenda which “will be taken down.” Oo, Dirty Harry, eat your heart out.

Cricket is no longer the innocent game it was at the time of C L R James, and while the IPL is not entirely to blame, it has taken the excesses to massive proportions according to Rajeev Deshpande in the Times of India Crest.

A long time ago, in an unimaginably more innocent era, C L R James famously wrote, “What do they know of cricket who only cricket know?’’ He certainly nailed that one, but he may never have in his wildest dreams — or nightmares — foreseen the crazy evolution of his beloved sport. Like the men who play it, cricket is no longer clad in pristine white. Instead, it’s draped in psychedelic, garish hues, accessorised by beautiful women with tawdry pasts, moneybags whose bulging bank accounts seem to go hand-in-glove with a bankruptcy of scruples, dark whispers of underworld funds and ubiquitous fixers engaged in a frenzied climb up the greasy social pole.

While Lalit Modi and Shashi Tharoor have been at the centre of the latest storm, the real game-changer according to Sumit Mukherjee, is Shashank Manohar. He explains, in the same paper.

The contrast between Manohar and the urbane, US-educated Modi couldn’t have been any greater if a scriptwriter had set out to create them. Manohar doesn't carry a cell phone or a watch, didn't have a passport until 2007, and had never travelled abroad till he flew to Dubai to attend the ICC meeting in 2008. Also, unlike the smooth-talking, naturally exuberant Modi, Manohar is a man of few words. But when he does speak, he usually makes an impact. He certainly did so when the bids were first tabled for the two new IPL teams on March 7. Only two bidders qualified, leading to a stream of complaints that the draconian norms had been deliberately ‘fixed’ to ensure that only favoured parties could participate in the auction.

In the midst of the murkiness, P Sainath in the Hindu steps back to question why the cash-rich league is penalising the public while it enjoys unfair tax concessions and security subsidies.

A whole raft of concealed freebies from public resources to the BCCI-IPL is also not discussed. We have no picture of their full scope. No questions either on why a public sector company should be billing itself as the “sponsor” of a team owned by the fourth richest man in the planet. No questions asked about issues ranging from super-cheap land leases and stadia rentals and low-cost stadia security. We don't even know what the total bill to the public is: just that it is probably in tens of crores.

Pradeep Magazine writes in Hindustan Times that now is the time to intervene and clean up the mess.

Before knives are thrown at me, let me make it clear that I am not accusing anyone. Let me quote what Paul Condon, the director of ICC’s anti-corruption unit, had to say in 2008: “The IPL brings with it the biggest threat in terms of corruption in the game since the days of cricket in Sharjah.” Today when we are being made aware that there could be dubious funding involved in the IPL, shouldn’t we take this statement seriously?

Unfortunately, the IPL, for all its phenomenal success in becoming a global brand in barely three years, has lacked a certain transparency in its functioning. Do we, for example, have full disclosures of all the stakeholders of the IPL teams, including ‘related parties’ and ‘associate businesses’? asks Rajdeep Sardesai in the Hindustan Times.

These are questions that haven’t been fully answered because the IPL has been run like a tightly-knit Boys Club, a clique of the rich and famous who appear to have mutually decided the rules of engagement with Modi and Mammon as the presiding deities. IPL Kochi, let’s be honest, tried to gatecrash into the party. The owners weren’t business barons (or at least none we’d heard of), nor were they film stars. The only recognisable ‘face’ they possessed was a high-profile minister with an unquestioned passion for cricket.

The editorial in the Hindu is also about the controversy engulfing the IPL.

The Indian Premier League is an ingeniously conceived and spectacularly executed show. It features genuine sporting skills along with elements of the burlesque. Now into its third edition, it has acquired not just a mass following but also new cohorts of fans among those who did not know they would love cricket lite. But success has brought a stiff price: serious questions about the league's integrity and internal governance.

Shekhar Gupta adopts an "I told you so" tone in his column in the Indian Express reiterating the concerns he had raised when the IPL was shifted to 2009. He is thankful to the two power brokers - Shashi Tharoor and Lalit Modi - who have turned on each other to bring the issues surrounding the IPL to the fore.

Tharoor can now deny till he goes red in the face the insinuation from the other end that he allegedly advised them that the only way he could help block the visa was if someone filed a police complaint against her. But if he, instead, sent Modi a curt note as a minister as “propah” as his accent should have done, saying that such requests are not entertained by the minister’s office and can you please go to hell, it has not been shared with us.

In his blog for the Dawn, Ahsan Butt has picked his Pakistan dream team - Mohammad, Anwar, Younis, Miandad, Inzamam, Imran, Wasim, Latif, Qadir, Fazal, and Waqar.'

First things first: I understand the batting is a touch weak. Playing two all-rounders at six and seven is usually a recipe for disaster, particularly if you lose a couple of early wickets. Plus, the tail is a bit long – Qadir, Fazal, and Waqar could all bat a bit, but none count among the uber-dogged tailenders who could bat a session. And it’s not like Rashid was Adam Gilchrist with the bat.

But you know what? It can’t be helped. If Pakistan had a super-duper star available at number six, I’d pick him, shunt everyone down a spot, and drop Fazal. But I can’t do that because there are no contenders. Asif Iqbal is a possibility, but when you consider that his batting average of 38.9 is barely better than Imran Khan’s (37.7), it doesn’t make much sense. One could also play Mohammad Yousuf here, but other than that one ungodly period from October 2005 to February 2007, his career has flattered to deceive. He doesn’t belong in this team. No, two allrounders at six and seven is the only way to go. But I’ll come back to this.

It's the 25th anniversary of Ian Botham's fund-raising ‘walk’ for leukemia research and Beefy's at it again. He has raised £12million over 25 years for leukaemia and lymphoma research and his ‘Great Forget-Me-Not’ walk through 10 towns and cities in 10 days which finishes in Hyde Park on Monday will add another large chunk of money to the fund, possibly as much as half a million. The Daily Mail's Paul Newman joins him in one leg of the journey and has great trouble keeping up with Botham's pace...on foot.

When I eventually finish, seven miles later, I am so far behind the group and public who have joined in for the last four miles that everyone has almost packed up for the journey to the next leg in Winchester. There is just the sight of Botham sitting in a chair, feet up, packed with ice, and glass of wine by his side, talking to the public who are clearly so excited to meet him. No matter. It has been a truly inspirational four hours. Botham shows no signs of slowing down.

The news of Mark Cosgrove losing his contract with South Australia is part of a continuing trend in Australian sport of overweight players coming under the scanner. Robert Craddock has more in the Courier Mail.

Over the years people have related to big sportsmen because their physical state stirs up so many emotions. In some ways they are courageous because they are trend buckers, in other ways selfish because the only beep test they are interested in is the one which alerts them that their steak roll is ready. But in many ways they just seem more normal than the chiselled clones around them. One little porky, Sri Lankan cricket captain Arjuna Ranatunga, was so unfit that once during a Test in Colombo he failed to come out after lunch and lead his side in the field.

In order to avoid future spats like Twittergate, an editorial in the Indian Express says the IPL can emulate the model followed by soccer's English Premier League.

There shouldn’t be an iron curtain when it comes to information on team and league ownership in professional sports leagues. Indeed, the IPL is one of the only global sports leagues about which so little is known when it comes to the stakeholders. Until now this was not really an issue; but transparency in ownership is a must, as is accountability of the league and confidence in its conforming with legal and ethical considerations.

Another editorial in the same paper says Modi’s weekend-ful of tweets has exposed the power struggle within the BCCI and confirmed suspicions about the arbitrariness and, worse, personal interests that dictate the conduct of Indian cricket. And given the context, the imposition of transparency on the sport must begin at the IPL.

A Hindustan Times editorial says that given the financial potential of the IPL, it cannot get by without being transparent.

If the IPL gets free press from the public auction for players, it cannot justifiably deny a similar interest in the less public auction for clubs. Messrs Modi and the grey eminences in the Board of Control for Cricket in India need to work this out. Till then, a via media is for the owners to take their clubs public. This serves the purpose of getting a proper fix on how much each club, and hence the IPL franchise, is worth.

It is not yet clear if anything will come of the allegations of so-called "spot-fixing" against a pair of Essex cricketers. However, it would be naive in the extreme to think that fixing does not go on and, despite the best efforts at regulation. The shorter the game, the easier it is to fix outcomes, which therefore makes Twenty20 vulnerable, writes Mike Selvey in the Guardian.

Some years ago, I arrived at Lord's for a domestic final, to be greeted by a friend who likes his gamble. What, he asked, did I think would be the spread on the number of deliveries before a wide was signalled. Knowing who would be bowling the opening over and from which end, I thought the chances of a first-ball wide were extremely high. It transpired the spread was 24 to 26 deliveries. As predicted the first delivery went miles down the leg-side and my chum was instantly several thousand pounds richer.

Stuart Broad's turning out to be one of the most expressive England cricketers around. Apart from taking wickets, he's also in the news for the wrong reasons, like the ball-tampering allegation and on-field conduct. He tells Simon Briggs of the Telegraph that he is just a passionate cricketer.

"Obviously I don't want to get overstep the mark, so it's something I'm aware of. But I certainly don't want to lose my passion for the game and I don't want to be tamed down. I have to be in that sort of bubble to get the best out of myself. When I watch my favourite teams play other sports, I think of Wayne Rooney who throws himself about and is aggressive and passionate, and people like Martin Johnson who used to get stuck in."

The Indian players in the IPL have not played to expectations consistently enough, though there are exceptions like Robin Uthappa, writes Makarand Waingankar in the Hindu. There has been a suggestion from some of the foreigners in the IPL that the number of overseas players be raised to five.

To raise the level of the matches in the IPL, they could consider five foreigners for 50 per cent of the matches. This will definitely enhance the skill level and help the teams work on their strategies better. If a team is adding a foreign player it should inform the IPL Committee 24 hours before the match. That would make the match interesting. At the moment it is clear who the four foreign players are because no team carries all the 10 foreigners with it.

IPL teams have largely benefitted from Indian leaders with Shane Warne being the notable exception, says R Kaushik in the Deccan Herald.

Kumble isn’t as subtle as Warne. His aggression is naked, he sets high standards for himself and his team-mates, and isn’t afraid to turn on the heat in public, never mind if the recipient is a greenhorn or a former international skipper. His commitment is a hundred percent every single minute, and he won’t ask anything of his mates that he himself wouldn’t do. He believes in doing the hard yards himself – such as taking the new-ball against the likes of Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden in crucial games – and benefits from the respect and admiration of his peers and opponents alike.

Debesh Banerjee and G S Vivek explore in the Indian Express how the IPL's sponsored after-match parties, at which "the unwritten rule is that top stars need to make an appearance", are adding to players' exhaustion.

A top player speaks about the effect on their body clock. “We return to the hotel from the match around midnight and get ready for the party. Most of these parties go on till the wee hours. When the players get up around afternoon, it’s time to catch a flight to the next destination,” he says. “There are days when the game is over in three hours while the party goes on for six hours. Off-the-field fatigue is more than the tiredness on field.”

If Essex players are found guilty of any wrong-doing, the implications for English cricket would be huge and financially disastrous, writes Scyld Berry in the Sunday Telegraph.

In the Sunday Times, Simon Wilde looks at the development of two of England's most exciting home-grown prospects - batsman James Taylor and fast bowler Steve Finn.

At 5ft 5in, Taylor, whose father, Steve, is a former National Hunt jockey, is easily the smallest English player on the circuit, but he regards his lack of inches as an advantage. He enjoys facing the fast men, who find their short-pitched balls either fly harmlessly over his head or are cut and pulled with brutal force. Bowling to Taylor at one end and the 6ft 10in Will Jefferson at the other must be the equivalent of patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time.

The Observer says the mad dash for Twenty20 riches by the game's administrators is serving neither spectators nor players. It urges the ECB to stop valuing short-term profit over long-term stability.

It is time for a coherent plan to be formulated by the ECB alongside its international partners that provides a balance between all forms of the game, which allows our players the time and space to improve, which will last more than one season and which does not necessarily kowtow to the largest cheque.

In the Independent on Sunday, Stephen Brenkley shows how insufficient efforts to reform the county have been by highlighting the similarity between Grounds to Play, the new five-year plan for English cricket, and Raising the Standard, a blueprint from 14 years ago.

Ramachandra Guha questions the choice of Pune and Kochi for the two new franchises in the IPL, arguing in the Kolkata-based Telegraph that neither city has a cricketing reason to get a spot in the Twenty20 tournament. He also asks why the three large north Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh have no franchise in the IPL.

... this tournament both reflects and further intensifies a deep divide between the India of wealth and entitlement and the India — or Bharat — of poverty and disenfranchisement. Writing about the dangerous growth of inequality in India, the economist, Amartya Sen, warned some years ago that if present trends continued, half of India would look like the American state of California, the other half like sub-Saharan Africa. Since he made this comment, California has been beset with an acute — and apparently irreversible — fiscal crisis. Perhaps we might then substitute the state of Massachusetts for it. But the point remains; there are indeed two Indias, the one which is awarded IPL franchises, and the other which is not.

Peter Roebuck asks in the Hindu whether Twenty20 players can achieve greatness, though the stage is smaller.

Cricket has been as good as any other sport at enticing greatness from the recesses of the mind. Now, though, greatness faces an unprecedented challenge. It needs to cut its teeth in a format that does not require its existence.

Youngsters can become stars, millionaires and celebrities without so much as trying to make greatness's acquaintance. But a game dies without greatness.

In the Guardian, Mike Selvey is highly critical of the ECB's move to stretch the county season at both ends, which he believes has compromised the championship's integrity.

So disrespectful is the schedule to the integrity of the County Championship – for which the winners will receive £500,000... – that some will have completed four matches before the daffs are over, with all the impact of the weather, and half the programme by the time the football World Cup kicks off. It is as if the County Championship, which should provide the breeding ground for future England Test cricketers, has become the stale bread surrounding a cash-cow filling of Twenty20.

The sheer presence of the IPL is such that it demands to be watched. Private money has poured into the tournament, uncaring of the financial crisis that has coincided neatly with the IPL's lifetime. But the tournament is also a symbol of capitalism gone horrifically wrong, writes Samanth Subramanian in Huffington Post.

The IPL pursues revenues at the expense of other valuable resources: Test cricket, but also domestic cricket, the inevitable breeding grounds for young talent. In its grubbing for money, in fact, the IPL is dismissive of anything old-fashioned, anything aesthetic; even the four seconds between one ball and the next, held sacrosanct through more than a century of cricket, have been sold for inconsequential advertisements. Meanwhile, owners buy teams for staggering quantities of money and with the fuzziest possibilities of recovering their investment; they desire only to dice up the risk and sell it in parts to sponsors and other companies, a practice that should surely sound familiar to us today.

Altus Momberg writes in supersport.com that the South African playerspoor form in the IPL is jeopardising the national side's preparations for the World Twenty20 tournament.

It was hoped beforehand that the majority of the national players would get regular game time in the IPL so that it would serve as ideal preparation for the World tournament. However, the opposite has transpired, with the likes of AB de Villiers, Mark Boucher and JP Duminy spectators in the IPL.

In the Wisden Cricketer, Lawrence Booth lists five things he would like to see in the new county season which is about to begin.

Fingers crossed for Simon Jones. Hampshire are the latest county to take a gamble, but his career has long since lapsed into a nostalgic gaze at 2005 and the fear must be that his fragile body will break down again. Even so, a dream: Jones – whenever he makes it back on the field – holds it together for just long enough to have one more tilt at the Aussies and put the Brisbane 2002-03 nightmare behind him.

He may have been dropped by the England and Yorkshire selectors, but Matthew Hoggard, in his new role as captain of Leicestershire, tells the Guardian that he has a lot to offer to his new county.

Coming to Leicestershire as captain gives me a clean slate. I've come here to do a job which I'm more than capable of doing. I'm going to prove that to myself and my team and become a good leader. The key will be to judge the situation right. Is it time for me to put a hand around their shoulders or give them a rocket up the arse? I need to get that right but I'll still tell the truth. I'll call a shovel a shovel and a pick a pick.

Sir Alec Bedser's death has triggered a series of tributes. The Telegraph looks back at the life and times of the man who retired in 1955, as the world's most successful Test bowler, with 236 wickets to his name.

Gathering himself at the start of his run-in with three walking steps, he would approach the wicket with nine mastodontic strides. Arrived at the crease, his left arm would be flung up high, while his body — pivoting on a firmly braced left leg — adopted the classical sideways-on position. The right arm, high at the point of delivery, would follow through to describe almost a full circle.

Derek Pringle observes in the same paper, that Bedser thoroughly deserved his knighthood, a rare honour for a bowler.

In a sporting era where materialistic rewards were few, his playing career was the very epitome of service, a foreign word to most modern players. His 236 Test wickets were the most ever taken by the time he played the last of his 51 Tests in 1955.

Simon Hughes goes a step further, calling Bedser the "Shane Warne of his time".

The Times has unearthed a gem - a letter from Bradman to Bedser that sealed the friendship between the two Ashes rivals.

“It did seem to me that the best ball you bowled was the one which went away to the slips off the pitch and if you could reproduce the one with which you bowled me in Adelaide then you would not have to worry about any others.”

Christopher Martin-Jenkins revisits the memorable rivalry, in the same paper.

He was humble, down-to-earth, unspoilt, loyal, always willing to serve and a master of British understatement. “Bradman,” he would say in response to yet another inquiry, with a gentle smile and in a voice somewhere between a growl and a whine, “Yes, he could play a bit.”

The Guardian's obituary says it would be hard to find a more endearingly old-fashioned, uncomplicated man – or, many would say, a finer bowler – than Sir Alec Bedser.

A one-dimensional, some would say unworldly, bachelor, his conservative attitudes and single-minded lifestyle, generated by upbringing and reliability, Bedser did what he was asked, avoided social excesses and lived for his cricket.

Mike Selvey looks at why Bedser was a genuine giant of England and Surrey cricket, in the same paper.

There was a deal more to him than the stereotypical fellow who bowled a season's-worth before the end of May, wearing hand-me-down boots, before walking home each night to Woking. But the wisdom came on the back of thousands of overs, delivered faithfully and with such stout heart that it is a wonder that finally it has stopped beating.

Alec Bedser was often mistaken for his identical twin brother Eric. The BBC's tribute includes a wonderful anecdote about the two brothers.

Against Old England at the Oval in 1947, Alec bowled the first three balls to Frank Woolley and Eric completed the over. The batsman never noticed the difference, but turned to the keeper and remarked, "He's got a wonderful change of pace."

The whip through midwicket has been replaced with a glide past square leg, the monstrous pulls with taps over the slip cordon. Sandeep Dwivedi writes in the Sunday Express on how Sachin Tendulkar, pushing 37, has adjusted his game to cope with injuries.

That cricket has been increasingly unfair to bowlers isn’t a secret, but of late Tendulkar is making this blatantly obvious. By using the pace that bowlers so excruciatingly generate to his advantage, the man who completed 20 years in cricket last year has evolved a fresh, energy-efficient approach to batting that suits his nearly 37-year-old body which has endured countless X-rays and MRI scans.

In one-dayers, in the space of a year, he has scored four marathon knocks (163, 138, 174 and 200) and at the halfway stage of the IPL, he wore the Orange Cap for being the highest run-getter — his first six coming after having faced 142 deliveries in MI’s fifth game. Making the liability of a fragile frame and growing years into an asset, he has not only extended his stay on the field without comprising on his strike rate, but also increased longevity in the shorter versions of the game.

Stephen Brenkley writes in the Independent, that the selection of the England side for the World Twenty20 tournament, including three new-faces, is a shot in the dark and is not based on detailed planning.

Michael Lumb is the latest to be called up as a catch-all opener, in the footsteps of such discards as Vikram Solanki, Darren Maddy, Joe Denly, Matt Prior and Luke Wright to name but a handful. It's possible they have landed on a correct combination, but impossible that this has come about through careful planning rather than blind panic.

While Shane Warne and Adam Gilchrist mat have led their sides to the title, Subhash Rajta feels that, in general, foreign captains have struggled in the IPL. At a point when the bottom three teams in the league table are the ones being led by overseas captains, he digs deeper in the Hindustan Times.

Pietersen points out a pattern that could help solve the riddle. “The successful foreign captains - Shane Warne and Adam Gilchrist - are retired internationals. The current foreign internationals leading the sides have struggled. It’s tough for them to lead,” he said. The Royal Challengers player draws upon his experience to elaborate. “I found captaincy very tough last year. I didn’t even know the names of quite a few local players and couldn’t understand them much. It affected my batting as well and I think Sangakkara is facing the same problem,” said Pietersen.

New Zealand had an awkward cricketing summer which promised much but delivered mostly ifs, buts and maybes, writes Andrew Alderson in the Herald on Sunday.

How do the Black Caps replace, or at least formulate a back-up plan, if they lose Daniel Vettori? He may retire from the shorter game soon and step down from the leadership after the 2011 World Cup. His shoulder injury may need surgery mid-year.

Leadership options are limited. Vice-captain Ross Taylor will make an effective leader with experience and Brendon McCullum can't be ruled out if the word "freelancer" is not heard. Vettori has been the saviour this summer, even with his various responsibilities. Equally important is his status off the field. He is respected by the players, media and public for his playing ability but also his thinking on the game which is articulate and canny.

The New Zealand home season has ended and the verdicts are out on what sort of a summer it's been.

What did we learn from the visits of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Australia? asks David Leggat in the New Zealand Herald.

That there are problems at the top of the order - and settling on the most competitive and viable top six - and, more latterly, with the new ball bowling. Nothing new in that.

When they sit down to do their season assessments, New Zealand's management will conclude the national side remains solidly competitive, if a shade inconsistent, in the shorter forms of the game, but still well outside the top echelon when it comes to the five-day version. Nothing new in that either.

Adam Parore says he's feeling "under-whelmed and short-changed" by the 2009-10 season.

I suspect New Zealand are going to have to get used to playing more often against the "have-nots", such as Pakistan and Bangladesh - both of whom we play again next season - rather than the "haves" which is a shame for both the New Zealand cricket public and the state of our national side.

Given our current status on the world pecking order and that we can no longer attract better nations regularly; and allowing for similar results from the system that produces cricketers, what sort of expectations might a fellow hold dear and whisper into the pillow at night? asks Jeremy Coney in the Dominion Post.

Turning his attention towards domestic cricket, David Leggat says Northern Districts, winners of the one-day title and the Plunket Shield, were easily the best side.

It is rare for one province to dominate and so it proved, with Central Districts grabbing the HRV Cup as Twenty20 champions and earning a trip to India for the lucrative Champions League later this year.

But overall honours lie with the Hamilton-based province, who beat Auckland in the one-day final at Colin Maiden Park on a sunlit evening in February, then waltzed through the Plunket Shield, winning by 16 points on the back of six outright victories from 10 matches.

Writing in the Hindustan Times, Pradeep Magazine says the Indian government should bring the BCCI under the Right to Information act.

The BCCI, which for reasons beyond comprehension, is loathe to subject itself to public scrutiny (unless it has something to hide) and shields itself behind the argument that it is a private body and cannot be questioned by the state. BCCI conveniently forgets that not only does it get tax benefits, it also gets other largesse from the state, like stadias at throwaway rates and, most importantly, is allowed to use the name India for the team which represents it. It gets these concessions because it is deemed a charitable organisation which performs a public function.

Dileep Premachandran writes in the Guardian that blocking Indian players from county cricket makes little sense, especially in the case of players like Yusuf Pathan and VVS Laxman who aren't part of the national team in all three formats, which reduces the need for them to be rested.

The most perverse case is that of Laxman. He hasn't been part of India's limited-overs plans for years, and it's doubtful whether he will get an IPL contract next season. To deny him a stint with Lancashire is nothing short of restraint of trade. In a recent interview, Dravid spoke of how difficult it had been to mentally adjust to not playing all the time after he was jettisoned from the one-day squad. For Laxman, who has played only Tests for years, any match practice is valuable. With (yet another) series in Sri Lanka scheduled for July-August, denying him a few hits in the early part of summer makes no sort of sense at all.

Saraswathi Vaidyanathan, 87, has been following Sachin Tendulkar's career since he made his international debut at the age of 16. Such is her passion for Tendulkar's game, that she has no difficulty rattling off his records and achievements, even with the ball. Read on for more in the Hindu.

Sceptical of the statistics available on the Internet this octogenarian keeps track of her favourite cricketer's achievements in her own way. Tiny scraps of paper with all the scores painstakingly written in neat handwriting are tucked away along with other prized possessions that include a couple of books on the cricketing genius gifted by her grandson. She secretly pulls out a few bits and shows them to me ensuring I handle them with care. All of a sudden, she chuckles. Saraswathi's face is bright with enthusiasm as she narrates another incident. “After the1998 Sharjah Cup, Shane Warne said he used to get nightmares about Sachin. Sachin ko ‘Man of the Series' ke liye car mila.”

Younis Khan, the former Pakistan captain, currently serving an indefinite ban imposed by the PCB, speaks to Pakpassion.net about when he plans to retire, Pakistan's squad for the ICC World Twenty20, his success at the No.3 slot and his experience as captain.

If you look back at the period right after the 2003 World Cup, you will see that a handful of players including Saeed Anwar, Wasim Akram, Ijaz Ahmed and Saqlain Mushtaq were discarded from the team. Wasim Akram didn’t even actually retire; he was in England when he got the news (of his ouster). That is when I decided that I want to retire from cricket when I am at my peak.

The expectations of ITV - the broadcaster for the IPL in the UK - were not great when it was offered the rights, but halfway into the tournament, the viewing figures for the channel have been described as "unheard of", says Robin Scott-Elliot in the Independent. The booming UK audience is a measure of the success of the league, but the coverage may not be to everyone's taste, he adds.

In return ITV 4 has garnered an audience that has frequently been more than 10 times its average afternoon viewing figures and often treble the size of its peak-time average. It's money well spent.

The last two Sundays have earned peaks of 563,000 and 530,000 respectively. On that first Sunday, England's Test in Bangaladesh attracted an average audience of 151,000 – ITV 4's average for its nine hours of IPL transmission that day was 297,000. This on a channel that has a usual day-time return of fewer than 50,000, and this for a tournament that averaged 33,000 on Setanta last year.

Christopher Martin-Jenkins, in the Times, suggests an alternative - which, he hopes, could be adopted next year - for the crammed schedule for the summer of 2010. He recommends a return to the 50-over format in the domestic circuit for the one-day competition and proposes a shorter County Championship.

It makes no sense for our county cricketers to be playing a 40-over competition this season while all except South Africa still play 50-over domestic tournaments to prepare for the next World Cup. The final will take place in Mumbai a year from tomorrow. Does anyone need to be reminded that the country that launched professional one-day cricket has yet to win a World Cup?

It has been an astonishing success, but an evening spent at an IPL game reveals a grand spectacle desperately in search of a point, writes Barney Ronay in the Guardian.

Having sat through (and enjoyed) back-to-back Delhi Daredevils fixtures, later described separately in the Indian press as "pulsating" and "mighty", I would identify two problems. First the standard of cricket is mixed: spectacularly skilful moments, combined with some mediocre bowling and often appalling fielding. Secondly it simply doesn't matter who wins. As a sporting contest these matches have no real content. The franchises are still hotchpotches of familiar faces, (most of whom will rotate in the next two years). The allegiance in the stands is only replica shirt-deep, and the IPL itself still a vehicle mainly for personal achievement.

Stephen Brenkley believes that England's squad selection for the World Twenty20 lacks in long-term planning. Read his entire article in the Independent.

The choice of the 22-year-old wicketkeeper batsman, Craig Kieswetter, flavour of the month and it is to be hoped the decade, makes it certain that England will use their 17th different opening batting combination in 26 T20 internationals. As soon as one pair fails another one is summoned, which is less selection policy than hailing a cab and hoping for the best.