If ever the players who have given statements to police are found guilty in court or by cricket authorities, I hope that the following is taken into account in the case of Mohammad Amir. Only 18, and from an impoverished background, Amir would appear as much victim as perpetrator, a teenager whose head was easily turned, writes Derek Pringle in the Telegraph.

Surely his seniors should have been assuring him that his talent is a thousand times greater than any loathsome parasite who grooms players for a role in a murky trade. Instead, it might turn out, if indeed the allegations are proved, that they merely allowed him to be exploited as grotesquely as if he were a serf chained to a medieval overlord.

Mohammad Amir's monthly retainer from the Pakistan board is less than half of what Ishant Sharma earns for a single delivery he bowls in the IPL, a tournament that is out of bounds for Pakistan's cricketers. Lawrence Booth, writing in the Mail Online brings out the vast income differential that exists within international cricket.

The £4,000 cheque that Mohammad Amir picked up at Lord’s on Sunday as Pakistan’s player of the series underlined his country’s status as the poor relations of world cricket. It would be small change for most international cricketers, but is more than three times the £1,300 he earns a month from his Pakistan Cricket Board contract. Although the Pakistanis are thought to pick up around £3,000 per Test, that is still half as much as the English and Australian players.

Stuart Broad, England's hero in the Lord's Test that has come under the scanner, writes in the same paper that even if the allegations are proved, they will not take away the sheen from the home team's come-from-behind win. He hopes the ODI series will go on, and says irrespective of who represents Pakistan, England will be giving their all and "we trust the opposition will be, too".

This was the biggest achievement in my Test career so far, even bigger than my bowling spell at The Oval when we won the Ashes last year, and nothing can take that away from me. Believe me, the bowling was of a very high standard against us at Lord's. Ask our batsmen, who were out cheaply as we slipped to 47 for five, whether or not that was full-blooded Test cricket out there and they will tell you that it was extremely tough going.

ECB chief Giles Clarke's disdain while handing out the series award to Amir left no one in doubt about his opinion of the seamer. James Lawton writes in the Independent that such a reaction was uncalled for from the man who welcomed Allen Stanford's dodgy millions with a smile and open arms, for Amir, like Clarke in the Stanford saga, has "put his trust in someone who soon enough was proved utterly unworthy of it".

This is wrong not because Amir is innocent, and can reasonably hope to escape without some punishment for his misdeeds. It is just too judgemental, too easy, and does not begin to recognise the fact that cricket did nothing to protect arguably its brightest star. Where were the leaders of cricket when the dynamics of the boy's downfall were being put in place? Universally, it seems they were on other business, some of it fawning on crooks with bags of gold.

Tariq Ali writes in the Guardian that the malaise surrounding the Pakistan team is symptomatic of the corruption in the country's politics and its past match-fixing shenanigans that were papered over as opposed to weeded out.

The rotten core of Pakistani cricket long predates the emergence of Zardari and the present bunch of rogue politicians. There have been three semi-judicial inquiries since the 80s, the last of which, presided over by Justice Qayyum in 2000, suggested that allegations of match-fixing in Pakistan began when Asif Iqbal was captain (1979-80). He was said to have lost the toss against India, simply informing his surprised counterpart that he'd won – somethign Asif has denied.

Ricky Ponting, writing in the Australian, outlines Australia’s philosophy of trying to win every game.

It is inconceivable to me that anybody would try to throw a game or be involved in fixing. I was completely shocked when I saw it on television and read the papers ...

It is the collateral damage that is most concerning to us and naturally the focus comes back to the Sydney Test. Not for one moment did any of us suspect that anything untoward or suspicious was happening as that game unfolded. It is interesting that it took a long time for suspicion to focus on that game. If it was that blatant you would have thought the allegations would have started straight away.

In the Age Greg Baum looks back at the Sydney Test.

The British press has expressed shock, disappointment, anger and a sense of betrayal over the Pakistan spot-fixing allegations. All agree that the damage to the game has been enormous, and that if anyone is found guilty, punishment should be exemplary.

The Guardian, in an editorial, says that even a decade after the Hansie Cronje affair, the devastating claims of fixing still hold up.

That Mohammad Amir, a precocious talent, is at the heart of the current allegations is particularly damaging. Cricket must put its house in order fast. Nothing undermines the credibility of any sport more than the suspicion that what you are watching is in fact a fix.

The Independent says that a country like Pakistan, where people look up to cricket for moral inspiration, deserves better than to have it rubbed in that cricket is not devoted to fair play. Just getting rid of a few rotten apples won’t solve the problem, vigilance is the only way forward.

Indeed, this whole saga is very sad. It is damaging to the reputation of cricket, and is another blow to Pakistan, a country that is still partly under water and desperately in need of good news. Misgoverned for decades, it has a political class that contains few people whom anyone seriously looks up to for moral inspiration – hence, in part, the almost fanatical devotion to a sport that supposedly incarnates the ideal of fair play.

Nasser Hussain, in the Daily Mail, finds it hard to believe that the issue is only about a few no-balls. He says that if people can be involved in spot-fixing, it can also lead to more ominous stuff.

And the worry is that this is merely the tip of the iceberg. I find it hard to believe that we’re just talking about a few no-balls. I’m not pointing fingers at individuals but if guys get sucked into so-called spot-fixing, it can lead to more sinister stuff.

One minute you’re conceding a prearranged number of runs in a bowling spell, the next you’re throwing an actual match — and this fixer is now saying the Sydney Test against Australia in January was thrown.

Jonathan Agnew, in his BBC column, wonders how people will react if they see Mohammad Amir or Mohammad Asif bowling a no-ball in the Twenty20 international in Cardiff on Sunday. He wants a thorough investigation into the affair.

The game cannot afford for this to be swept under the carpet and if that means Pakistan, when this tour comes to an end, must serve a temporary exile from international cricket then so be it.

In the case of Amir, who is 18, it is terrible that a supremely talented youngster could be exposed to this. He is a delightful bowler with terrific skills. How sad it would be if it turns out his career is wrecked, but if anyone is involved in corruption he must be banned for life.

Dileep Premachandran in his Guardian blog feels that the malaise can be traced to the low wages the Pakistan players receive compared to their IPL-playing Indian counterparts. He also says that the Qayyum inquiry a decade ago had a chance to cleanse the system, but it merely absolved some of the biggest names.

In 2000, Qayyum recommended that "the PCB increase the pay of its cricketers and develop for them more avenues of income ... Pakistani players for all their talent are not as well-paid as their counterparts abroad. As long as they are underpaid the tendency to be bribed remains."

Michael Vaughan, in the Telegraph, feels the ODI series can wait but the game deserves to be cleaned up first. He says what happened is good for cricket in a way because the administrators now have nowhere to hide.

The future will hold some pretty uncomfortable questions for the Anti-Corruption Unit at the International Cricket Council. Why has it taken a British newspaper sting to bring it out in the open? What has the ACU been doing? It has operatives working all over the world and the ACU costs the game millions. But a British newspaper story has blown it open. It is embarrassing.

Ramiz Raja, in the Telegraph, does not think a lack of money is the reason. He blames the mentality of quick-fix which is due to a lack of leadership in Pakistani society.

It is about how an individual approaches life. What he wants to be and how he wants to live. When money is thrown on the table some people will say 'take it away and get out'. Others will take the money. It is about dishonesty, not how much you are being paid.

Cricket needs to use its TV-generated wealth to zealously monitor the game, writes Peter Preston in the Guardian. Ceremonial bans will achieve little.

You won't, in short, solve anything by draconian bans, by wiping whole nations from the cricketing map. You need to target the pushers. Pakistan, in yet another way, needs help and understanding – not ritual rage.

The PCB has allowed a culture to develop that has continued to tarnish the game, says Martin Samuel in the Daily Mail. This culture has now claimed one of the brightest talents cricket has seen, Mohammad Amir, as collateral damage.

Too many trusting men allowed themselves to be mesmerised by the myth of Pakistan cricket, its mood swings, its brilliant highs and devastating lows. They were spellbound and did not spot that the truth was considerably nastier, more grimly depressing.

Marcus North, in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, talks about the immense scrutiny that playing Test cricket brings, making a century on debut, working on his bowling and competition from young players.

''I've never taken criticism badly or negatively,'' he says. ''Players are always analysed and if you're not performing to expectations you can't expect easy treatment.

''The thing is that in my 11 years of first-class cricket I've never had to deal with that. I've never come close to that sort of scrutiny at state level. It's something I had to learn very quickly and adapt to, especially towards the back end of the Australian summer when the attention on me was growing.''

"Pakistan have been this way before — their Qayyum Inquiry into match-fixing was damning when it was published in the summer of 2000 — but that was in a time of peace in the country," writes Scyld Berry in the Telegraph on Sunday after spot-fixing allegations rocked the Lord's Test. "This latest incident has occurred when the country’s cricket team can only play abroad because of the security situation, and only makes a sad situation tragic."

Mohammad Amir is one of the bowlers at the centre of the controversy. He took a six-for in the Lord's Test and spoke to Amir Rashid on how he had to fight a life-threatening illness before making it big as a Test cricketer.

"I got ill with the dengue virus in Malaysia before the 2008 Under-19 World Cup when I was 15," he said. "I was in a very bad condition, it was a death situation, the doctors thought I was going to die – it was very bad. I was in hospital for one week and was on 24 drips a day. The doctors were surprised when I came round. When they sent me home they said that for one month I couldn't do anything and just to rest. That time was very bad for me and for my future. I was really scared."

New Zealand got very little out of the tri-series in Sri Lanka; all they got was knocked out in inglorious fashion, writes Mark Richardson in the Herald on Sunday.

It's a shame because if there was some real progress to be made, it would have been to see how good young Kane Williamson could be. His performance carried the most interest. Unfortunately we're none the wiser after he got three swinging, seaming deliveries resulting in scores of 0, 0 and 13.

The other interest was how penetrative Andy McKay would be. He bowled tidily but was far from penetrative - two wickets in three games - but, again, these were far from typical subcontinent conditions.

It was also a chance for Ross Taylor to gain more international captaincy experience but how much influence does a captain really have when match trends are so one-sided?

Also in the Herald on Sunday, Andrew Alderson says "the selectors have made the decision to play Kane Williamson in the international arena, they need to stick with him."

Santosh Desai, writing in the Times of India, examines some of the reasons that may have contributed to what he says is an "unhappy form of arrogance" on the part of Indian cricketers in recent times.

Some cricketers in particular seem to possess advanced degrees in scowling, and for some reason this is seen as a sign of 'attitude', which by today's yardsticks is a good thing to have. We see a reflection of this unhappy form of arrogance both on the field and off it, in the way they respond to other teams and in their public interaction with the media and their fans.
.......
We put our cricketers on a pedestal as easily and frequently as we lynch them and in a short period of time we make them immune not only to our reactions but to any outside perspective at all. The cricketer learns very quickly that everyone connected with the game has an angle, and in most cases it is financial in nature.

The nobility of sport and its implicit aim to elevate us through its emphasis of purity and perfection has ceded to its need to be entertaining, popular and financially lucrative.

Neil Manthorp, writing for supersport.com, has had enough of one-day cricket in its current form and feels that all attempts to arrest its declining popularity have failed. There is hope, however, in the form of Richard Wood’s simple yet innovative proposal for multiple split-innings ‘5IVES’ cricket which is akin to the invention of the wheel in cricketing terms.

Some of the greatest brains in the game have failed to arrest the decline in popularity of one-day cricket, both internationally and domestically. There have been flirtations and dabbling with playing conditions, some of which have been very good and some just plain stupid (substitutes).

But did the ICC’s Cricket Committee really slap each other on the back and say “that’ll get the crowds flooding back” when they introduced the batting power-play? Now, however, there is a new format for Unions and Boards to consider, and it is so good -- and simple -- that it ranks among the invention of the wheel in cricketing terms. It was created by a man who most certainly does not rank among the greatest brains in cricket -- perhaps that is why it is so successful. Richard Wood is a South African actuary who took a completely dispassionate view of the game and looked at it as only ‘numbers men’ can. There was no outdated, emotive rubbish to consider about what you ‘can’ and ‘can’t’ do during an innings or bowling spell.

I've heard a lot of chat this summer from some of the more experienced [England] players about how much the ball is doing and how hard it has been for batting. To which I'd say: welcome to proper Test cricket, writes Nasser Hussain in the Daily Mail.

Test-match bowlers are allowed to make the ball misbehave - and Test match batsmen should be able to deal with it. I've never been the sort to bang on about 'in my day', but this was the kind of challenge we faced more often than not. If it wasn't Shaun Pollock and Allan Donald running in at you, it was Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, or Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie. You had to learn how to score ugly runs when the ball was moving. I may have had my faults as a batsman, but that was something I prided myself on. And I believe it's something this England team should be better at.

After Steve Finn's "Pakistan is a batting collapse waiting to happen" comment, James Lawton writes in the Independent that England have to watch for complacency.

Finn's assumption that he could so brusquely trash a team that had just beaten his own in a memorable Test match, and from a position of such slender, and favourable experience, rather more than hints at the old English disease: a self-belief that is maybe too quickly acquired, and too easily shed.

Former England coach Duncan Fletcher writes in his column in the Guardian that Kevin Pietersen is lacking first-class match practice, and says a lot of work needs to be done on Pietersen mentally and technically to get him back to scoring big runs.

In the same paper, Mike Selvey writes that the prospect of cloudy skies during the Lord's Test will favour Pakistan more than England.

They are on a natural high after their win at The Oval, and their bowling has come together brilliantly as a unit. This final Test is a game they have to win – and as long as the ball continues to chatter they will be happy enough to take their chances with the bat. On the other hand, while the desire to win every game is uppermost, England, leading the series, will feel less of an imperative to force the game. A draw will suit them fine.

Simon Hughes points out in the Daily Telegraph that if Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss put on 54 runs, they will become England's most productive opening pair of all time.

The Australian’s Peter Lalor writes that Michael Clarke is tweeting in a Cricket Australia meeting about tweeting.

Shane Warne is not in the meeting about tweeting, but is tweeting about the meetings and suggests to his friend that he should call a meeting about calling the next meeting. Clarke likes that and notes with tongue-in-tweet that Warnie always did like a good meeting.

The vice-captain then tweets that: "The youngsta is falling asleep in these meetings" - the meetings about tweeting, that is. "The youngsta" in this case is Clarke's new best mate now that Warnie has gone from the team, Phil Hughes.

In Back Page Lead, Malcolm Knox calls for an end to tweets from cricketers for the most obvious reason. Their tweets aren't very entertaining.

I’ve just checked Michael Clarke’s Tweets from the team camp at Coolum. Would you believe it, they’re having a lot of meetings. Would you believe it, Hughes is falling asleep. Would you believe it, Clarke wants to congratulate his coach Tim Nielsen for something or other. Would you believe it, Clarke has been trading jokes with Warney, who doesn’t like meetings either. Would you believe it, Clarke checks footy results with Wendell Sailor. Gosh, I’m not surprised this dialogue has 41,085 followers. I am surprised that there are 46 actually following it.

The outcry against Suraj Randiv's deliberate no-ball to deny Virender Sehwag a century is an example of how India has changed as a nation over the last 63 years. The transformation from servility to aggressive self-assertion is a remarkable aspect of the journey of independent India in which cricket has always been a strong metaphor, writes Ayaz Memon in the Times of India.

There was a time when India would get short shrift. Everybody knows Bishen Singh Bedi lost his contract with Northamptonshire because he complained to the MCC about John Lever using vaseline to tamper the ball during England's tour of India in 1976. Indian players were often at the receiving end of sledging, racist taunts and even physical abuse e.g. Sunil Gavaskar given a mighty heave by John Snow in 1971.

Today though, India is the world's richest cricketing nation as also the number 1 ranked Test team. A fast-growing economy and a billion-strong fan-base fuelled a boom that has made this country cricket's El Dorado. The BCCI contributes more than 70 per cent of the game's economy. This signifies enormous clout and should inspire India to play a leadership role in the sport rather than a victim's.

England’s loss to Pakistan in The Oval test has raised plenty of questions about the capabilities of the team in an Ashes year. But could losing be a good thing? In the Daily Mail, Nasser Hussain says the loss is the wake-up call England needed to force them to confront their deficiencies.

What will concern Andy Flower is the repetitive nature of some of the dismissals of his players in the last three Tests.

Kevin Pietersen is playing away from his body because he is searching for the ball, Andrew Strauss has been getting out the same way to Aamer, while Paul Collingwood has played on more than once. I would also sit Jonathan Trott down and ask him why he has gone completely into his shell a couple of times. There is a spell with Pakistan, after the shine has gone off the new ball and before it is reversing and turning, when they provide you with a really good time to bat. Trott was in then and could have been more positive.

Sport has many examples of players being brutally frank about their feelings through tweets. Now, it seems, the cricket authorities may be considering formal regulation, perhaps even banning players altogether from networks such as Twitter and Facebook. Cricketers, above all, should know that if you tweet in haste, you are liable to repent at leisure, writes Chris McGrath in the Independent.

Now, it seems, the cricket authorities may be considering formal regulation, perhaps even banning players altogether from networks such as Twitter and Facebook. In celebrities, all this stuff has an additional, commercial dimension of self- promotion. But its abiding impetus remains the same as for everyone else: self-absorption. And it is too much to hope, clearly, that those who condense their mental processes into 140-character spasms can reliably comprehend the bigger picture – whether that relates to their own image, or that of their sport.

Conditions in the ongoing Sri Lanka tri-series have proved that New Zealand will be best served by a medium-pace attack of "Dibbly, Dobbly, Wibbly and Wobbly" for the World Cup in the sub-continent next year, writes Andrew Alderson in the New Zealand Herald.

The latest match in Dambulla has highlighted the need to audition New Zealand bowlers for a remake of "Dibbly, Dobbly, Wibbly and Wobbly", a phrase initially coined by English commentator David Lloyd to describe the New Zealand medium pace attack of Gavin Larsen, Chris Harris, Willie Watson and Rod Latham.

While the sub-continent is understood to be under instruction from the International Cricket Council to liven up their wickets, the current Sri Lankan conditions are an indication bowlers who make batsmen do the work will be in demand.

Mark Richardson, writing in the New Zealand Herald, does not mince any words in expressing his displeasure at the fact that Ross Taylor will have to play for his IPL side Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Champions League instead of his home provincial team Central Districts.

What sort of outfit invites teams to a tournament then takes their best players? The Indian Champions League, that's who. It's like going round to your mate's house because he's got the best backyard, the bat and the ball but if you want to play, he gets to pick the teams. This has happened to Central Districts in this year's Indian Champions League. They've lost Ross Taylor to Bangalore Royal Challengers. Taylor had no choice. Under the rules, the Indian Premier League get first dibs on eligible players.

In an interview with Deccan Herald, Zaheer Khan reflects on a decade well spent as part of the Indian team and talks about being the pace spearhead, dealing with injury, winning abroad and India’s journey to becoming the No. 1 Test side.

It has been a wonderful journey. I am very proud of the fact that I have dealt with whatever situations that were thrown at me in a very confident and positive way. I have my share of injuries, some were really bad, but I have dealt with it. It’s not easy for any fast bowler to play this long in sub-continental conditions. That’s precisely why I admire pace bowlers from sub-continent, right from Kapil paaji to Imran Khan, Srinath, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis Chaminda Vaas and so on. They have played for a longer duration in sub-continental conditions and they are all legends. It’s quite satisfactory and a humbling experience to stand on the same line.

England’s twin batting collapses against Pakistan at The Oval has raised questions about the solidity of their batting ahead of the Ashes later this year. In the Independent, Stephen Fay says England’s soft underbelly has been exposed, and batting coach Graham Gooch must bear the blame.

With the loss of six wickets for 27 runs in 15 overs, a dreadful truth was exposed. England's batting is dangerously brittle. The truth has been masked, partly by the fact that of nine Tests played so far this year, four were against Bangladesh. Dropped catches had let them off the hook against Pakistan when they collapsed at Old Trafford and Edgbaston. On Friday the mask was ripped away.

This was a sad litany of batting breakdown. Jonathan Trott, Paul Collingwood and Matt Prior all edged Aamer, thinly to the keeper or thickly to gully. Kevin Pietersen and Eoin Morgan saw their defences pierced by Ajmal's spin. The cumulative impact of these batting failures is illustrated by the averages of the top batsmen in nine Tests this year, including this one. Four of the top batsmen average below 40. Strauss manages a disturbing 33.08. Collingwood (37.00), Morgan (36.57) and Pietersen (36.14) are little better.

Brett Lee is no longer just a bowler. Jo Casamento, writing in the Sun-Herald, says he is about to become a global money-spinning machine, with cricket a minuscule part of the empire.

Insiders say the fast bowler, who has just signed with the Nine Network, could earn $20 million in the next six to seven years from his Indian ventures spanning a clothing line, modelling, a television deal and Bollywood roles. His new band, White Shoe Theory, has eight Indian gigs lined up and he hopes to get back into the international cricket team for the 2011 World Cup ...

Lee, 33, has been to India more than 35 times and said he ''can't get enough of their culture, music and fashion''. ''I don't know what it is - I just love the people and I have just taken a real interest in it and I want to do a lot more over there with the charities."

Pakistan are playing England at Edgbaston under the shadow of the floods that have laid waste to much of northern Pakistan and claimed thousands of lives while displacing millions more. In the Hindu, Peter Roebuck asks cricket to stand up for Pakistan in its time of need.

Pakistan is in disarray. Cricket is a victim of forces beyond its control. Years might pass before international teams are allowed back. At such times it is important to show solidarity. A smile can achieve more than a hundred scowls.

Every cricketing country ought to reconsider its response. Over the years Pakistan has contributed enormously to the game and it remains one of the powerhouses. Numerous English clubs sign professionals from the Punjab. The national team has been considerably strengthened by settlers from Pakistan.

Australia has just added Usman Khawaja to its ranks. Now cricket needs to show Pakistan that it cares, and to that end ought to put its mind to staging relief matches to raise extra funds in this hour of need. Its not right to pick and choose between disasters.

Following an unsatisfactory start to the summer, Alastair Cook, England's captain in waiting, came into his own with a timely century at The Oval just when the worries were beginning to mount with the Ashes in mind. Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower were desperate for him to get back in to some form, and he didn't disappoint, writes David Hopps in the Guardian.

Cook does not seem the type to read motivational books, a point in his favour if so, but a growing sense of need brought motivation nevertheless. Before play began, he did something very English in its politeness and handed around a box of biscuits and perhaps vowed at that moment he was not about to bat like a custard cream.

In the Daily Mail, Nasser Hussain compares Cook's knock to Andew Strauss's face-saving century in Napier two years ago which more than just revived his career.

This was all about Cook’s mindset more than his technique. Yes, he wasn’t looking back at his bat in his stance, which was a good sign and one that showed he wasn’t worrying too much about his technique. But the key was that he had cleared his mind and was determined to be positive.

In the Independent, David Lloyd says the Last Chance Saloon has shifted from Cook to Kevin Pietersen, who's now due for a big score.

Of England's current top order, Andrew Strauss and Paul Collingwood have walked out to bat for England knowing that one more flop would almost certainly see them cast into the wilderness while Pietersen is trying quite a few people's patience of late. And Jonathan Trott and Eoin Morgan can rest assured their turn will come.

In the Telegraph, Simon Hughes writes that two elements played a big role in Pakistan's transformation after tea on the third day - reverse swing and the doosra.

Ajmal has both deliveries at his command and excellent disguise. Not one of the England batsmen read him confidently. This is partly because he bowls each delivery with a scrambled seam, so the batsman cannot use the seam as a guide to which way the ball is rotating. It is largely guesswork until someone has been in for a while.

Ricky Ponting has picked a World XI from his opponents of the past decade for his latest captain’s diary. But he selects only one Englishman, finally settling on Andrew Flintoff as the allrounder. The Australian runs the extract here.

"Freddie Flintoff was one of the most talented cricketers I saw during the past 10 years," Ponting said. "However, I can't help thinking he should have achieved more than he did."

Mohammad Yousuf went from pariah to potential saviour as he returned to the Pakistani fold for the third Test against England. And with team scores of 80 and 72 in their last two Tests, Pakistan were in desperate need of a saviour. So how did he do in his first international innings since being banned following the disastrous tour of Australia? He simply batted like a king, writes Paul Weaver in the Guardian’s Spin Blog

This was the day Pakistan rediscovered their mojo and their MoYo, as Yousuf is referred to in internet circles. He batted for only two and a half hours and scored just 56 but, for the first time in this series, Pakistan bossed the stage and England's bowlers looked a bit fed-up – no bad thing with the Ashes round the corner.

Changing name and religion did not have a noticeably adverse effect on Muhammad Ali's career and the batsman formerly known as Yousuf Youhana has been an even more formidable player since making the same alterations towards the end of 2005.

Yousuf is not just a good player, he is a great one. He is right up there with Javed Miandad and Inzamam-ul-Haq – Miandad may well be the finest of them but Yousuf has the higher average.

In Dambulla, Suraj Randiv was slapped with a one-match suspension for bowling an intentional no-ball under instruction from a senior player; at Lord's, England captain Andrew Strauss hardly drew attention for standing his ground after getting a healthy edge against Wahab Riaz. Doug Saxby in cricket365.com points out that the contrasting reactions to the two incidents highlight the inconsistency in the way the spirit of cricket is perceived.

The ICC reportedly intervened to put pressure on the Sri Lankan Board to apologise after Sehwag was left stranded on 99. They have conveniently stayed mum on Strauss and England's recent abuse of the referral system. There is a thing called gamesmanship and a thing called sportsmanship. It's a fine line between the two and incidents in London and Dambulla this week have highlighted just how unclear that line is.

Writing on Sport24.com, Rob Houwing says Graeme Smith made the right move in stepping down from Twenty20 captaincy.

To old-schoolers of cricket who count themselves as partial Twenty20 cynics, at least, Graeme Smith’s announcement on Wednesday that he was stepping down as national captain in that arena would hardly have got pulses doof-doofing at a raised rate. It was tempting, certainly on the part of this writer, to equate it with notice that Mr GC Smith no longer intended having chopped banana atop his corn flakes for breakfast.

In slightly more serious vein, though, I would not be so foolhardy as to under-value the significance of the move by the big left-handed “Biff”.

An incident of monumental triviality — the Randiv no-ball — has been turned into one of earth-shattering importance, writes Nirmal Shekar in the Hindu.

The tragic humanitarian crisis in Pakistan caused by floods, the continuing mindless carnage in Afghanistan, the snowballing crisis in Kashmir and a dozen other things that sane, rational human beings might have considered serious enough to warrant print space and air time have had to compete desperately, but mostly unequally, with the l'affaire Randiv ...

... If the Indian media had had its way, Randiv would have by now been rueing his life-shattering moment of folly on the field over a pot of poorly cooked gruel in a six by eight prison cell.

The editorial in DNA says that the brouhaha over the Randiv no-ball reflects India's obsession with personal glory rather than team performance.

"There is an interesting comparison to be made between Mohammad Yousuf and Alastair Cook, two batsmen who will be starting the third Test under intense pressure," writes Duncan Fletcher in the Guardian. "They will be judged largely on how many runs they score, but I suspect that both have been picked partly because of other considerations. There are aspects of team selection that some pundits and members of the public do not appreciate."

When a player is in a poor run of form, critics on the outside will always wonder why you are standing by him. The answer is often in the contribution he makes to the team behind the scenes. This is the situation England are in with Cook. The management seem to see him as a positive influence on the dressing room. When some players hit a poor patch of form they can become so self-involved that they do not realise the negative influence they are having on the rest of the team. Others will make an effort to stay positive in public but will never quite put their hearts into it. You can hear in a player's voice whether he really means what he says. It is a rare and valuable team member who can genuinely encourage and push other players along, even when he is on a poor run himself. I assume Cook is like that.

Randiv’s act of bowling a no-ball, with the scores level and Virender Sehwag on 99, has inevitably stirred a hornet’s nest. But just how much of the outrage is justified? asks Anand Vasu in the Hindustan Times.

Just as in life, where you and I obey laws rather selectively — who among us has not driven 10 km above the speed limit, or perhaps after a few drinks at an impromptu celebration? Both of these are against the law, and we know it, but don’t pay heed, not merely because the punishments, if caught, are relatively mild, and because peer pressure does not even come to bear. It’s as though it’s okay to break certain rules. In cricket, it’s much the same.

Venkat Ananth, in his Yahoo Cricket column, writes that player welfare has become a critical aspect of modern cricket administration. He says that Indian players must be kept fresh for national duty through a combination of rotation, injury management, a revamp of the graded contract system and having a full-time players’ representation body.

In the modern era, given the way cricket is played and administered, player welfare becomes a critical, if not the most important aspect, of cricket administration. Sadly, the BCCI isn't up to it. Or let's just say partly so, given that in this country player welfare is by and large seen through the sole lens of financial security. That view is no doubt is important, but in the big picture it serves more as an illusion than something concrete.

Financial security apart, the most important aspect of a sportsman's career is the accepted cycle of fitness and injury issues, and in today's circumstances that has become more acute than earlier. And this is where there is a need for the players to stand up and be heard on these issues - especially the ones involving scheduling particularly of needless commercially-motivated adventures largely driven by pre-decided obligations.

In just three Tests as Pakistan captain, Salman Butt has experienced all the highs and lows cricket has to offer. In his first Test after taking over from Shahid Afridi, Pakistan bowled Australia out for 88 and went to win the the second neutral Test to draw that series. Unfortunately for him, the team followed it up by being bowled out for 80 and 72 in successive Tests against England. Despite the ups and downs, Paul Weaver writes in the Guardian, that Butt is the best man to skipper Pakistan in these dark times.

This country produces some of the world's most richly gifted cricketers but their ability to self-destruct is even greater than that to detonate their opponents. They present madness in mime – earlier this month the former captain Aamer Sohail described Pakistan cricket as a "basket case".

Butt confounds this caricature; he is neither brilliantly talented nor chronically disruptive. He is, though, an impressive young man, and he speaks with a fluency and a quiet dignity in the middle of the wreckage of his country's cricket.

New Zealand fast bowler Andy McKay has been a qualified physiotherapist since he was 22. On the surface it seems to be an advantage because he knows his body and its limits. But it can also be something of a problem, as Partha Bhaduri explains in the Times of India.

There are two Andy McKays. One is that rare breed, a late-blooming fast bowler who has impressed the Kiwi set-up with his raw pace following Shane Bond’s exit. The other is a more experienced physiotherapist, and the two are forever at odds waging the never-ending battle between good pain and bad pain. It’s a mental conflict many injury-ridden pacers would gladly foment.

The glamour and glitz around the IPL proved that cricket in India is not just a sport anymore: it is now a brand, often endorsed by celebrities who are far removed from the world of cricket. Amrit Mathur writes in Hindustan Times that the Champions League is set to take this trend to the next level.

The IPL is a mass brand that appeals to everyone because of the exciting cocktail of cricket and entertainment it serves. The Ashes is different it is classy, exclusive and decidedly upmarket.

Whether the same holds for creating interest for events is somewhat less clear. The advertising for next month's Champion's League in South Africa is focussed more on Amitabh Bachchan than MS Dhoni or Sachin Tendulkar. It is uncertain what the megastar is supposed to do. Is the purpose to increase viewership or is he trying to attract sponsors?

When it is not injury, it is his attitude; when it is not attitude, it is a lack of form. When everything seems to be falling in place, he falls ill, loses his spot to a youngster and has to endure taunts from the crowd. Finally he contracts dengue, putting his participation in the remainder of the Sri Lanka tri-series in jeopardy. The last year has easily been the worst in Yuvraj Singh's career and it has not always been his fault, writes Partha Badhuri in the Times of India.

India's mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton feels repeated injury can sometimes result from mental stress under pressure to perform, and Yuvraj has certainly struggled to make the seamless transition from good to great we all expected him to.

Some phases of his Test career have been nightmarish. In the tri-series here, he was back to fielding at point against New Zealand but pottered his way through a 25-ball five as India collapsed for under a 100 runs. It proved the ghosts of dodgy footwork and fragile temperament still linger.

First Irfan Pathan, then Yusuf, and now an almost inexplicable faith in Ravindra Jadeja - India have tried several names at no. 7 but, with the World Cup round the corner, are nowhere near finding the right person for the job. Nihal Koshie writes in the Indian Express that if Jadeja does not live up to the billing in the lead-up to the event, India had better consider taking a leaf from their 2003 World Cup blueprint and play seven specialist batsmen.

On Sunday, Jadeja used his leftarm spin to beat the edge of Dhoni’s blade on a few occasions. This was shortly after the India skipper had reposed faith in Jadeja as the player who will do the job for India at No.7. The plan is to use Jadeja as the fifth bowler and hope that he clicks with the bat.

The severity of the problem of finding the elusive all-rounder can be gauged by the reluctance of the India team management to think beyond Jadeja at the moment because they feel there are no viable options. In case Jadeja’s bowling form fades, then India is planning to play a specialist batsman to fill the No.7 slot, a move that could backfire if the part-time bowlers, namely Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh have a bad day.

In the Independent on Sunday, David Lloyd compares England's Class of 2004 to the Class of 2010 and says "Strauss's charges are a work in progress with dreams of becoming the finished article".

For the moment, though, it is interesting to measure the team of 2010 against the one that walloped New Zealand and West Indies in 2004. And while marks may vary by a point or two here and there, depending on who is awarding them, most observers would agree, surely, that Strauss's current set still have ground to make up on their record-chasing predecessors.

Strauss is one of only two players to appear in both classes (the other being Anderson). And although the Middlesex man made a wonderful start to his Test career by scoring a century on debut at Lord's in 2004, he had played only six matches by the time England headed for The Oval. Strauss may not be in the same rich vein of form six years later, but throw in all the experience gained along the way and most would prefer the proven 2010 model.

Alastair Cook is the latest to come under fire for his performance. But it is time for some generosity. This England cricket team is in fine fettle, writes Steve James in the Sunday Telegraph

Finding a reliable opening pair is among the most difficult of tasks for a selection panel. England have a generally sound, settled partnership; surely much better than Australia's makeshift alliance of Shane Watson and Simon Katich. And so, unless calamity strikes, Cook must go to Australia, where the bouncier pitches will suit his game, with the pull shot as its strongest pillar.

In the Observer, however, Vic Marks is of the opnion that some time off will do Cook good.

The controversial administration of the PCB under Ijaz Butt has prompted one of Pakistan's leading sports broadcaster, Zakir Hussain Syed, to propose a doctorate degree for cricket system demolition and team disintegration. In his column in the Daily Times, Syed lists out the various blunders and inexplicable decisions taken by the Butt administration.

The first requirement after this tragedy should have been to go to Sri Lanka and express public sorrow over this tragedy with some compensation for players but this is beyond the PCB officials who are more interested in their own foreign travels and the huge daily allowances that they earn. Example Ijaz’s numerous trips at PCB expense including the latest summer stay in England. Reportedly, he received $48000 as daily allowance during one year alone.

Twenty20 finals day in England features both semi-finals and the final played in succession. While a full house is expected at the Rose Bowl, Vic Marks writes in the Guardian that it will be a long day for everyone.

The Rose Bowl is expected to be full, though there are those, including the Somerset chairman, Andy Nash, who think the concept of three Twenty20 matches in a day is outmoded. He believes three games in 10 hours denigrates the tournament and reduces the occasion's appeal.

"The final, supposedly our FA Cup, is actually played to a stadium either in the gradual process of emptying or containing large numbers of fans of defeated semi-finalists," Nash says. He would prefer a stand-alone final with the semi-finals taking place at county grounds, a format that would provide greater financial reward to the participating counties. Moreover, there is a strong argument that it is inappropriate to lurch into a prestigious final 90 minutes after completing a semi final.

The advent of Twenty20 and the sprouting of million-dollar leagues has changed the way cricket is played and perceived. Cameron White for instance has chosen to represent a franchise based out of Bangalore in India in the Champions League, instead of his home side Victoria. With commercial considerations clearly taking precedence over origins and identity, Richard Lord of the Wall Street Journal asks a pertinent question: just who do cricketers work for now? The answer is simple: themselves.

With the IPL, the Champions League and all the domestic Twenty20 competitions around the world, it's now quite possible for a player to have a long-term contract with absolutely no one, domestically or internationally. Australia's bad-boy all-rounder Andrew Symonds has already started to do this, after repeated disciplinary clashes with his national board. England's legendary Andrew Flintoff would probably do the same if he weren't injured all the time.

So the issue of who cricketers work for is no nearer to being resolved, except insofar as they definitely work for themselves. For the long-term future of domestic cricket in particular, that's not at all healthy.

It was quite a dramatic fall for the Indians, losing by 200 runs to New Zealand after their hard-fought win in the third Test against Sri Lanka. Sunil Gavaskar, in his syndicated column in the Times of India, says the cramped scheduling could be one of the main factors responsible.

That a one-day series then starts two days later is even more tough on the guys for that is even harder on the body than a Test match. Yes India is a team that most countries want to play, since there is so much more sponsorship for their boards when that happens, but that gives India all the chance to at least ensure that its players are given adequate break days between games. India has a busy season coming up culminating in the ICC World Cup and that is going to test the players physically and mentally.

Asian cricketers have a long tradition of playing county cricket. Sachin Tendulkar was Yorkshire’s first overseas player. Farokh Engineer gave Lancashire his best years. Javed Miandad turned out for Glamorgan and Sussex. But these days fewer and fewer of them can be seen plying their trade on English soil. In the Guardian’s Sports Blog, Dileep Premachandran bemoans this trend and says Asian cricketers would be better served by eschewing the IPL in favour of the country game.

Forget the quality of the opposition. Forget the paltry crowds. Think instead of a variety of venues, and an itinerary that puts the emphasis on match fitness rather than looking like a Manpower model. One week, you could be batting on a placid pitch where boredom is the biggest threat, and the next week will find you struggling to put wood on leather as the ball swings and seams prodigiously in overcast conditions.

As a slow bowler, you could revel one week on a dry surface and then get belted the next as the ball moves little off the straight. It adds up to the kind of well-rounded education that every young professional needs.

"I would hesitate before making judgments about Stuart Broad on the back of his behaviour in the last Test, when he threw the ball at Zulqarnain Haider in his follow through. Broad was responding to frustration, not pressure," writes Duncan Fletcher in the Guardian.

There is no doubt he was in the wrong. He made two mistakes. Firstly, it was clear he had no intention of hitting the stumps with his throw. Secondly, he reacted badly. He should have said sorry sincerely. Instead he offered only a cursory apology, as though he felt it was just a necessary gesture he had to make. As a coach I do not think the situation calls for anything other than a quick, quiet chat with him, over breakfast or at one side of the next net session. You do not need to call a meeting or take a headmaster's approach, lecturing the player about how you never want to see them doing that kind of thing again. These are grown people after all.

As the reaction to Stuart Broad and Saeed Ajmal proved, there are as many different understandings of the spirit of cricket as there are people who play and watch the game, writes Andy Bull in The Spin.

In the Daily Mail, Nasser Hussain says the England selectors should tell struggling opening batsman Alastair Cook that his Test spot is on the line.

The work Cook has put in on his technique with Graham Gooch seemed to have worked in South Africa and Bangladesh during the winter. His alignment, head position and foot movements were pretty good. But that all seems to have gone now and he has all sorts of concerns again.

Writing in the Independent, Stephen Brenkley says Cook's form is one of a few issues England need to sort out before making the trip to Australia for the Ashes.

Simon Hughes, writing in the Daily Telegraph, says Alastair Cook's unusual dismissals in the Test series against Pakistan are a sign of a lack of form, caused, to an extent, due to a preoccupation with technique.

Despite his [Cook's] fine overall record, he does not imbue anyone with much confidence. What he probably needs is an outing for Essex at Twenty20 finals day on Saturday with instructions to forget about footwork and backlift and go and give the ball a thump. After failing against a good attack on two tricky surfaces, he should probably be given the chance to recover his poise in more benign conditions in the third Test at the Oval.

If Stuart Broad' s transgression on Sunday was a one-off incident, a case of his aggression getting the better of him for the first time, then I would not have a problem with it. But if you take Stuart's history into account you have to say that he has been pushing things to the limit for some time, says Nasser Hussain in the Daily Mail.

I said last season, when Broad's place was being questioned by some, that England should invest in him and stick by him and he has become an integral and exciting member of this England team.

This should not make him change his attitude completely, just that he needs to be careful. He again celebrated wickets yesterday without appealing and that is another habit he must get out of.

At what point does New Zealand Cricket say, "Enough, Jesse"? Or should they? Why not accept that the Wellington lefthander is a different case, punish him when he breaks the rules but keep the faith? asks David Leggat in the New Zealand Herald.

NZC have tried to keep Ryder on track. They recognise what he can do for New Zealand on the field. His test average of 49.88 is the best of all New Zealand batsmen with a minimum of 20 innings. There is also a milk of human kindness aspect, in that it is right they try to help someone in their wider family who has his problems. But when NZC's general manager Geoff Allott said Ryder "clearly understands we will not tolerate a repetition of this type of behaviour" and confirmed that another similar incident would terminate his contract, it seems a line has been drawn.

Jonathan Millmow is more scathing in his assessment of the situation in the Dominion Post.

Jesse Ryder needs to be made to sing for his supper. His lucrative national contract should be ripped up and he should be placed on match payments. If he's fit and in form, he plays and gets paid. If he gets pissed he doesn't. Everyone's tired of Ryder. His team-mates, New Zealand Cricket, us.

At the heart of India's continued evolution as an intimidating Test unit lies the efficacy of its captain-coach combine and the careful nurturing of a stable work environment, writes Partha Bhaduri in the Times of India.

In the Indian Express, Nihal Koshie looks ahead to the tri-series and says "Yuvraj’s talent won’t be under question but he must show the heart to shake off the disappointment of losing his Test spot".

Instead of going into a shell, Yuvraj must enjoy the challenge and banish any negative thoughts the Asia Cup snub might bring to his mind. The grapevine has it that he sulked when he was replaced by Kumar Sangakkara as the Kings XI Punjab skipper. At the P Sara Oval, the venue of the third and final Test, he was heckled by drunk fans when going out with the drinks. ‘Waterboy’ they shouted, and got under his skin. It hasn’t been an easy outing.

In an interview with DNA, Hot Spot's inventor Warren Brennan explains the technology, how it came into being and the challenges of implementing it in international cricket matches everywhere.

It is like any television cameras. The difficulty with the technology is that it is restricted military equipment. In order to use it, you need to apply to the government of the country that produces the equipment and to the government of the country that uses it. It is a military-based camera that is being used first time outside the military. So, this involves a lot of paper work. I can’t take the camera to the US. I can use it in Australia, New Zealand, England, South Africa, France, UAE and India. There is also a catch here.

The Australian government can withdraw the permit to a certain country or all the countries at any time. We can’t leave the cameras at the ground. They have to be packed and taken back and kept in a safe place. That is the legacy of using military equipment.

For so long and so well has VVS Laxman played that we have paid him the ultimate compliment spectators can pay a performer — noticing him only when he fails, writes Suresh Menon in DNA.

Of the many things he has not been given credit for is filling the bowlers with the confidence to bat around him. Yesterday, while even Sachin Tendulkar played and missed, Laxman looked like he was batting on another planet altogether. One where the ball never spins, the bounce is always true and pacemen bowl short only to give him an opportunity to swivel and hook.

The travel burden on elite Australian cricketers such as Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke is well documented, writes Jesse Hogan in the Sunday Age. But for those just below Test level the demands are even more onerous. Hogan talks to David Hussey and Darren Pattinson about endless summers.

''It is hard to keep yourself up all the time,” Hussey said, “but it's about pride of performance, and that every game I play I have to win, irrespective of who's playing. If I'm playing with [his wife] Kristy, if I'm playing with you, I'm going to have to win the game. You might be a gun squash player - well, I'm happy to take you down.''

Lalit Modi has been conspicuously absent from the BCCI’s disciplinary proceedings against him. There is talk of holidays in Italy and rumours of mob threats keeping him from returning to India. In Outlook magazine, Rohit Mahajan maps Modi’s movements since his suspension from the IPL, and tries to figure just what the man is up to.

Modi’s current coordinates on this glittering itinerary of leisure is in Bali, for another holiday in a rented house. This will be followed by Bangkok, where his father, K.K. Modi, will celebrate his 70th birthday later this month. And then to perhaps another party, which prompts a BCCI official to chuckle: “He calls himself a businessman? He certainly holidays like no other businessman in history. Reminds me of how he dropped everything and camped in Rajasthan for years to get into cricket administration!”

The feeling in the board is that if Modi had any belief in winning his fight to keep control over the IPL, he’d have offered a bitter, tooth-and-nail fight. “This is the only venture he’s been successful in life, after countless failures in business, and he’d hate to give it up,” says a BCCI official. “However, the fact that he’s staying out of India instead of fighting it out suggests he’s aware of the futility of it all. Instead, he’s just arguing that the BCCI committee is biased, and wants its members to recuse themselves.”

In the Guardian, Duncan Fletcher writes that despite the success of England's swing bowlers against Pakistan, the key bowler for the Ashes tour will be Graeme Swann.

If England are going to become the top Test team in the world they need to be able to win on flat pitches in conditions that will not suit Anderson nearly as much as those at Trent Bridge. In Australia and India, Graeme Swann will become the key to the balance of the side. He will have to keep it tight at one end while the quick bowlers rotate at the other. If the opposition can discomfort him, suddenly England's attack is not going to look nearly so effective.

Swann has already proved his worth, but he is going to have to do that again and again as England go forward. Because if I was coaching a team who were playing England, he is the bowler I would be looking to undermine.

The Independent's David Lloyd argues that England's new bowling coach might just be the man to help the fast men thrive in Australia.

The million-dollar question is whether Messrs Anderson, Broad and Finn will be effective enough when they are operating on generally batsmen-friendly surfaces in Australia with a Kookaburra ball that swings less, and goes soft more quickly, than its English, Duke, equivalent.

Why not? That is the optimistic way to look at three young bowlers who appear to enjoy hunting as a pack and are apparently blossoming under the guidance of England's still new bowling coach, David Saker. And, if Mr Saker, born in Melbourne and of Victoria and Tasmania fame, cannot give them a few pointers about succeeding Down Under then who can?

Alan Isaac, the nomination for the ICC’s vice-presidency, has many skills but it is his experience as a corporate mediator that will be particularly necessary in his next role, writes Malcolm Conn in the Australian.

The New Zealand Cricket chairman has a lifetime of sports administration and corporate governance behind him but his ability to step through the culturally and politically fraught minefield of a credibility-starved ICC will be paramount.

In the New Zealand Herald David Leggat writes Isaac’s challenge is to polish the ICC’s reputation.

He is conscious the image of the world body is not all it could be. "I'd like to think in four years' time the reputation of the ICC will be enhanced for a world governing body of a very significant sport," he said. "I don't believe it has a reputation as good as it could have."

Jonathan Millmow, writing in the Dominion Post, says the day after Isaac was given the nomination he was out watching club rugby.

Why didn’t Brad Hodge play more Tests? It is a popular question. The Age’s Greg Baum takes a look at his journey.

Hodge's career is defined by the fact that he played just six Tests. In one, he made a double century, in Perth ... He was dropped because of susceptibility to the moving ball. If held to that test now, half the Australian team would go. Hodge could not suppress a mirthless chuckle yesterday when Marcus North's name was taken, and yes, in vain.

Here is the rub. Almost every Test player needs and gets a second, third chance, even the greats, even Bradman. Except for one isolated Test against the West Indies two years later, Hodge did not. Criminally, he was also ignored when patently the world's best Twenty20 batsman. He was told to keep on making runs, and did, in all countries and competitions, sometimes 200 and 300 at a time, to no avail. Eventually, he tired of it.

Following the recent death of Eric Tindill, who played rugby and cricket for New Zealand, South Africa's Norman Gordon is now the oldest surviving Test cricketer, having celebrated his 99th birthday at a cocktail party at the Houghton Golf Club. Gordon recollects his short Test career and the Timeless Test of 1939 which was to be his last. Kevin McCallum of the Independent Online has more.

"I was known as a guy who had incredible stamina," said Gordon. "I could bowl all day long, 20 overs in a spell. This was Durban in summer and I had sweated so much that my pants were stuck to my legs and my shirt was drenched. That wicket was so hard and flat, it was like glass. We struggled to get purchase with our boots and we wore the really long spikes in those days."

With Australia's era of dominance coming to an end, the field is wide open in the race for the top spot in Test cricket. Duncan Fletcher writes in the Guardian that England are one of the contenders and their performance on flat tracks that don't suit their seamers will determine whether they can break away from the pack.

If England are going to become the top Test team in the world they need to be able to win on flat pitches in conditions that will not suit Anderson nearly as much as those at Trent Bridge. In Australia and India, Graeme Swann will become the key to the balance of the side. He will have to keep it tight at one end while the quick bowlers rotate at the other. If the opposition can discomfort him, suddenly England's attack is not going to look nearly so effective.

In the Telegraph, Geoff Boycott writes that the England-Pakistan series is more like Men v Boys. Even if England win all four, the Ashes will be a different ball game.

This mismatch is the reason why we have to be careful reading too much into England’s performances and tactics and get carried away about The Ashes this winter. On a tactical front England are always going to pick six batsmen because they don’t make enough runs in the first innings to pick only five. They make too many mistakes and get themselves out.

Mike Selvey writes in the Guardian that the word 'mercurial' might have been coined specifically to define the Pakistan team. Given the kind of heady crests and grinding troughs they have beeen through in recent times, England will do well to expect a strong comeback from the visitors in the second Test, though given the right conditions the hosts should still prevail, he says.

The manner in which Pakistan came back from their defeat in the first Test against Australia to win at Leeds is warning enough to England that in helpful conditions their pace trio can be devastating. Nothing can be taken for granted. But this England team is well grounded – Andy Flower has seen to that – and it is hard to see how, given a good run with the weather (and heavy rain is forecast for tomorrow so that is not certain) they will not continue to make life difficult for Butt and his side.

England have been going through a purple patch in all three forms of the game recently. They lifted the World Twenty20 trophy, knocked Australia over in their ODI series and tamed Pakistan in under four days at Trent Bridge. In the Daily Telegraph, Simon Hughes lists ten reasons why England will soon be top of the cricketing tree.

Much of this has been achieved through attention to detail, orchestrated by Flower. He has drawn his influences from a number of sources, notably Moneyball, the book by Michael M Lewis that reinvented how baseball players were analysed. England spend more on research and have better facilities than any other country, and are reaping the rewards.

But there is a human element too, centered around a collection of specialist coaches as astute as any in the game. Their achievements disprove the old theory that coaches are vehicles that transport you to the game.

England were tenacious in the field against Pakistan, with Paul Collingwood in particular snaffling a couple of sharp chances at slip. Angus Fraser, who wasn’t the most brilliant fielder himself, explains why good fielding is so important in the Independent.

Good teams are vibrant, energetic and athletic in the field. They focus on their job and like an anaconda they constrict their prey, squeezing the life out of it by ruthlessly exploiting every mistake it makes.

Poor teams are the opposite. They tend to be lethargic, lonely and lost. They drift aimlessly around a field like lost goats that are solely interested in themselves. When a wicket falls they force themselves to join their team-mates, it is not instinctive.

In the same paper, Stephen Brenkley describes how England came to be the best fielding side in the world.

This was the sort of stuff that England have been promising to provide for a while. It is two years since they hired the specialist fielding coach, Richard Halsall, and no area of their game has improved so markedly and collectively.

The praise for James Anderson just keeps on coming. In the Guardian, Mike Selvey compares him to a young Ian Botham, before going on to explain how Anderson gets such movement with the ball.

Botham was – and Anderson is – a swing bowler through and through and at this point we should be clear about the distinction between that and someone who can swing the ball. It is not just nit-picking semantics. Matthew Hoggard, say, could swing the ball, but he did so on his action, with a lowish arm, and one way only. A genuine swing bowler is a manipulator of the ball. He can work it this way and that at will with a tilt of the wrist and little more. He uses swing as a spinner does variations. Botham could do this and so too could Richard Ellison and the Worcestershire bowler Phil Newport, who had a brief flirtation with the England side.

MS Dhoni has often spoken about the need to manage injuries so that players are fresh for major tournaments. An article in the Mumbai Mirror feels it’s high time he applied this policy in relation to himself, given how he’s been struggling with a hand injury during the ongoing Test series against Sri Lanka, and let Dinesh Karthik handle wicketkeeping duties.

With the three nation one-day series coming up followed by the Champions League, Test and ODI series against Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and then the 2011 World Cup it would be best advisable for Dhoni to hand over the big gloves to Dinesh Karthik — till his injury is fixed. Dhoni has himself in the past spoken about the need to manage injuries so as to keep the players fit for important tournaments.

Given the serious feuding in the Pakistan team over the past few years, Andy Bull says coach Waqar Younis' idea of choosing a young squad was a sensible one. Why, then, did Pakistan fall back on Mohammad Yousuf, captain of the winless tour of Australia, after just one defeat, Bull asks in the Spin, the Guardian's weekly cricket email.

The Wall Street Journal looks at the growth of cricket in an unlikely country: France.

Children across the country are slowly taking up the sport thanks to a government pilot project aiming to introduce the sport to around 200 schools over the next eight years.

According to figures released by the International Cricket Council, there are just 69 cricket clubs in France. Trivial compared to the 5,000 in England and Wales, but half of those playing the game in the nation of football and rugby are French, rather than expatriates or the children of immigrants from traditional cricketing countries such as Australia and England, and that number is growing.

Andrew Flintoff’s failure to recover from the knee injury that has sidelined him since last year’s Ashes has raised major questions about his cricketing future. But in the Guardian, Mike Selvey says it doesn't matter anyway, because Flintoff the cricketer has been replaced by Flintoff the personality.

The emphasis is changing. He is not Fred the cricketer any more, he is Fred the personality. He is earning millions through not playing cricket, the income from which would be small beer by comparison. It would be hard to believe that he has exiled himself in Dubai primarily for tax reasons or warm weather rather than getting paid a large sum to promote the place. A major high street bank rewards him handsomely because he is an "A list" companion of choice for major clients. He is going off on a motorcycle "odyssey" across India for some TV company or other. The cash is rolling in and will continue to do so.

In the Daily Mail, Nasser Hussain also writes that Flintoff's England career may be a thing of the past.

... the fact is that Flintoff's body has reached the point where he will never fully recover and he can only ever be patched up. We have seen it before with Michael Vaughan, Ashley Giles and Simon Jones. This has been going on for a long time and, basically, Freddie's body is just packing up in terms of him being a top-flight cricketer again.

Stephen Brenkley says in the Independent that Flintoff is in danger of becoming an irritatingly peripheral figure, hanging around, determined to have a few more pay days.

Watching Kevin Pietersen's batting struggles is not a pretty sight writes Stephen Brenkley in the Independent. A dipping average, a searching for the ball and and anxiety about his shots are all worrying signs for England. Especially with the Ashes looming.

When his short-lived captaincy ended in tears in early 2009, Pietersen averaged slightly above 50 in Test cricket, the benchmark for possible greatness. Since then, his average has been 42.92 and, since his return from the Achilles operation which forced him to miss most of last summer's Ashes, he has scored 550 runs at 39.28, which makes him human after all. He is struggling and part of the trouble is that he is having to try to rediscover form in international cricket.

However, some good news for England, following wicketkeeper Matt Prior's century in the first Test against Pakistan. Writing on the cricket365 website, Alan Tyers says that Prior has never been a fan favourite. One of the reasons is because he has made few big contributions when the chips have been down. Hopefully, following, Trent Bridge, that perception will have changed.

This ton at Trent Bridge, though, is a proper Test ton: made in the second innings, against a genuine Test class bowling attack in helpful conditions, with the team in a spot of bother. A few more of those, especially if one of them comes against Australia, and I guarantee that Matt Prior need never worry about not having the full backing of the England fans again.

In the Dominion Post, Mark Geenty pays tribute to Eric Tindill, the oldest Test cricketer and rugby international who died at the age of 99 in Nelson.

The quietly spoken Tindill prided himself on fairness and impartiality. The World War II veteran (New Zealand Expeditionary Force), All Black, New Zealand wicketkeeper/batsman, test rugby referee and test cricket umpire never regretted his part in the famous "try that wasn't" at Athletic Park in 1956.

All Black Ron Jarden, playing for New Zealand Universities, carved up the touring Springboks from inside his own half and the packed house erupted. But the touch judge stood firm downfield with his flag raised, and referee Tindill quickly reversed his try decision.

"It's probably one of the best tries I've ever seen," said Paul Tindill, then a St Pat's College pupil sitting in the Millard Stand.

So remarkable was the sporting life of Eric Tindill, who has died in New Zealand at 99 years and 226 days, that being the longest lived of all the 2,600 men who have played test cricket was far from his greatest achievement, writes Huw Richards in the New York Times.

Eric Tindill was the oldest living Test cricketer who died at the age of 99 on August 1. He was a double international, having represented New Zealand in rugby and cricket, and his great-nephew Elliot Lodge pays tribute to his life and achievements in the New Zealand Herald.

To this writer he was a dear relative, a great-uncle to be exact. My family took immense pride in having a figure of his significance amongst us. Even though I only spent time with him on a few occasions, those times are memories I treasure. He lived in a modest residence in the suburbs of Wellington with his sole daughter, Molly. She provided great care to her father and was a lively presence, always welcoming us into their home, never letting us leave hungry.

A memory which sums up his character was when I was a young aspiring wicket-keeper and Eric, well into his 90s, got down on his haunches and demonstrated the technique required.

Martin Kilner writes of his recent conversion to a cricket fan, brought about by Sky Sports' "exemplary" coverage of the ongoing Tests, in the Guardian.

As luck would have it, during the lunch break, Sky filled in some of the gaping holes in my knowledge of the game with archive features; one looking at past Tests between England and Pakistan, and another on the history of the one-day game. I am aware of the arguments for widening cricket's constituency by showing it on terrestrial TV but, from a purely selfish point of view, the all‑encompassing nature of the satellite coverage provides the kind of total immersion I need at this stage.

No Englishman has swung the ball so devastatingly since the youthful, lithe Ian Botham in the late 1970s, writes Vic Marks about James Anderson in the Observer after his 11-wicket match-winning haul in the first Test at Trent Bridge.

Today we witnessed Anderson the artist again. The supple wrist in alliance with the first and second fingers on his right hand smoothly released the proud seam of the ominously dark Dukes ball down the Trent Bridge pitch. And the ball swung in – or it swing out – depending upon Anderson's whim. On days like this he is as beguiling as any classical wrist‑spinner.

David Lloyd, writing in the Independent, says England's excellent slip-catching was the highlight of an outstanding fielding performance in the first Test against Pakistan. Their display vindicated the decision to recruit a specialist helper, Richard Halsall, in 2008.

Halsall, born in Zimbabwe, played second XI cricket for Lancashire before graduating in sports science. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given that, as an 11-year-old, he represented the North of England against the South at throwing the cricket ball, he has found his niche helping top-flight players hone their fielding skills.

Events at Trent Bridge must have had Halsall purring with delight – at least when he was not shaking his head in dismay at some of the efforts of Pakistan's fielders. While Collingwood and Co looked capable of catching pigeons, the visitors showed how not to do it. Calamity keeper Kamran Akmal had no real rival for the dunce's cap, despite one remarkable take to get rid of Kevin Pietersen, but Imran Farhat also grassed a sitter at slip to give Eoin Morgan a life.

The inaugural Caribbean T20 produced exciting games and unearthed talented players like Krishmar Santokie and Jonathan Foo, but the tournament itself could do with a sponsor and a format change, writes Tony Cozier in the Trinidad and Tobago Express.

When it comes to its evaluation, the WICB needs to consider an adjustment to the format and a time frame outside the rainy season. Competition between the six territorial teams, with each playing the other and the top four then moving on to semi-finals, would raise standards and create even more intensity. As it was, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, the Caribbean's sternest rivals, didn't meet. Nor did Barbados and the Leewards and Jamaica and the Windwards.

The ongoing Test series in Sri Lanka has brutally exposed India's non-existent bench-strength, especially in the fast-bowling department. GS Vivek writes in the Indian Express that one of the reasons for India's inability to unearth talent is the failure of the National Cricket Academy to live up to the hype it generated when it was launched in 2000 in Bangalore. He lists out the problems ailing the academy, ranging from a complete lack of focus to a disconnect with the requirements of the national team.

Over the years, the biggest possible names in Indian cricket with too many things on their plate, and few foreign experts too, have been at the helm of affairs at the NCA. Invariably, a change on the name plate outside the Chairman's chamber at the NCA has coincided with a shift in focus of the institution. The last decade has seen the academy being projected as a finishing school, a centre of excellence for elite cricketers, a monitoring institute for fringe players, a one-stop rehabilitation clinic and even a college for coaches. This has meant confused priorities, muddled planning, detached leadership and, ultimately, the NCA failing to groom talented cricketers.

A related article in the same paper lists some of the instances where the NCA failed to assist cricketers in need of help, and some of its ventures that were not thought through well enough.

India's once powerful middle-order is not the same anymore and some of the stars look "careworn". Suresh Menon writes in DNA that Suresh Raina's successful Test debut proves to the selectors that the successors are ready to be groomed and there is no need to delay their inception anymore.

The foursome of Kumble, Dravid, Ganguly and Tendulkar played together in a record 86 Tests; add Laxman to that list, and the world record is still theirs, with 65 Tests. Bring Sehwag into the equation, and that lot has played 36 Tests together. These are impressive figures, and speak of a settled team over a long period. They speak of remarkable skill and consistency in all conditions, against all opponents.

These are marks the next generation will be aiming at. It would be unfair to expect a whole new ready-made bunch to slip into the shoes of the masters. Over the next year or two, the Indian team will be in transition, the famed batting line-up reduced to figures in record books. We should have got to know their replacements by now. This is how teams evolve — some players making it through long-term planning and others taking a short cut in an emergency.

England's last Ashes defence may have ended in a nightmarish 0-5 drubbing Down Under, but David Lloyd writes in the Independent that the class of 2010 is in far better shape than Andrew Flintoff's troubled touring party from 2006.

No team could breathe easily after losing three players of the calibre of Vaughan, Trescothick and Simon Jones. But while Strauss must hope he does not have to find out exactly how much strength in depth England possess these days, there is reason to believe that the toughest decisions this winter will concern who to leave out of the XI, rather than who to put in.

Take the batting department, for example. Were Bell to be fit (and he won't be) for Friday's Second Test against Pakistan at Edgbaston, who would miss out? Morgan? What, after that terrific century at Trent Bridge? Jonathan Trott? Hang on, he scored a double hundred two matches ago. Pietersen, then? Some might like to show KP that no one is irreplaceable but the old expression about noses and faces springs to mind. OK then, Alastair Cook. But hold fire, he made three centuries in just five Test matches last winter.