In the Economic Times, Mukul Kesavan describes the Pakistan cricket team as a lunatic repertory company, so unpredictable in their nature and so full of characters that entertainment is guaranteed. You could make a training film called How To Lose An ODI by making a montage of Pakistani mistakes in Saturday's match against Sri Lanka, he says. The trouble is, they won.

Watching Pakistan win at the Premadasa on Saturday, I realised that this team isn't a touring cricket side; it's a travelling theatre troupe, a lunatic repertory company. Tickets to Pakistan matches ought to cost double: Afridi's little army creates more drama in a single Power Play than most sides manage in a whole tournament. Imagine an Indian team made up mostly of Sreesanths and you have an inkling of the theatrical potential of this brilliant gang of drama queens.

Steven Davies' decision to reveal he is gay has received huge support from within and outside cricket. He joins a select list of professional sportsman to go public with their sexuality and, in the Guardian, David Hopps says that it shows how British sport has matured in recent years.

Davies has been set upon announcing that he is gay for some months. All that has been at issue has been when and how. Midway through the Ashes series was universally agreed not to be a very good idea. But while he has agonised about the detail, the chilled-out support of the England dressing room has helped to stiffen his resolve.

This is not just the England squad that won the Ashes in Australia, this is the England squad that learned officially before the Ashes tour of a gay man in its midst, shrugged, dealt with it, offered its backing and got on with trying to win cricket matches. If Davies is now automatically an icon for young gay men who wish to play any kind of team sport while being open about their sexuality, never mind achieve at the highest level, then the England cricket team deserves to be seen as a model for a team that dealt with admirable sang-froid with the recognition that it had a gay man in its midst.

Andrew Strauss called his hundred against India the best one-day innings of his career. Andy Bull, writing in the Guardian, was even more effusive, saying on this day, Strauss matched Sachin Tendulkar’s brilliance.

His game has grown immensely since he took on the captaincy. When he started in the England team Strauss was lauded as a batsman who succeeded because he knew his limitations and played within them. He had two prize scoring shots, the pull and the cut. But against India he seemed to have no limits. A chase that looked all but impossible became eminently achievable while he was at the crease. He said afterwards that during the interval his team talk amounted to nothing more than "this is an unbelievably flat wicket and we can chase this". Easy to say, much harder to do, or so the theory goes. But Strauss made it look as simple as shelling peas.

Websites crashing, police baton-charging fans, potentially angry sponsors and a court case claiming that too many complimentary tickets have been given out for reasons that have nothing to do with cricket. Add it all up and it amounts to a huge failure on the part of the Indian organisers, writes Richard Lord in the Wall Street Journal.

Cricket is trying to present itself as a bright, shiny, 21st-century product, but the sport can still be appalling at logistics and organization, particularly at any level below the very highest. Putting the responsibility for distributing tickets to a global event in the hands of local bodies is an elementary tactical error, as is making such a pathetically small number of them available to the public. The losers, as ever, are the ordinary fans. If India's cricketing authorities keep treating them like this, sooner or later their patience is going to run out.

Shakil Kasem, writing for the Daily Star, looks at the Bangladesh-Ireland match and asks other than the fact that it was a battle of wills rather than of wits, what else was of significance.

As a contest it was top drawer, but really it was just poor cricket triumphing over even poorer cricket. Ireland had their chance for some vertical mobility in this competition but blew it conclusively. Bangladesh after all the hype and hoopla about its team and its supposed prowess, stood the risk of being sued for deception.

Andrew Alderson, in the Herald on Sunday, says the Powerplay strategy used by most teams in the World Cup thus far has lacked nous.

The batting power play is an innovation that has rejuvenated the 50-over game but does not solve boredom seeping in during the compiling stage of an innings from overs 21 to 36.

It is mistakenly seen as an exercise in smash and bash which can end in a batsman being dismissed early and momentum squandered. It is arguably perpetuated by the Twenty20 myth that players need to produce big scoring shots every delivery to have influence.

What previously was perhaps a problem of overconfidence has now worsened to one of a serious lack of it for New Zealand, says Mark Richardson in the Herald on Sunday.

For much of the recent past, I have blamed over-confidence or, more accurately, a lack of personal understanding of what key players are actually capable of. But on Friday I saw indecision, inaccuracy, hesitancy and recklessness, all symptoms of doubtful minds.

Andrew Alderson, in the same newspaper, writes of the adversity the New Zealand team faced in the immediate aftermath of the Tangiwai disaster in the 1953, where the wife of Test cricketer Bob Blair was among the 151 people who lost their lives. Back then, the team pulled itself together and responded strongly in the Boxing Day Test in Johannesburg. That spirit, Alderson says, seems to be lacking in the current outfit.

Simon Doull, in the Dominion Post, focuses on a couple of selection errors that New Zealand made in their game against Australia, indicating they'd taken a backward step.

Ramachandra Guha picks his Indian all-time one-day XI. One for players who made their debuts after the one-day format had come into being, and the other for those whose careers had ended before India played their first ODI. Have a look at his picks in the Telegraph.

Choosing mythical elevens is always contentious, but let me say no more about this team and instead go about picking an eleven composed of those Indians whose own careers ended before the era of one-day internationals. For earlier generations had also produced attacking batsmen, wicket-taking or restrictive bowlers, and fine fieldsmen. What then might a Dream Team of Golden Oldies look like?

David Leggat, in the New Zealand Herald, says the maulings Kenya and Canada have experienced in their World Cup so far has vindicated the ICC's plan to limit the next World Cup to ten teams.

These countries have not markedly improved over the years. If they had, more power to them.

That's the rub, and why another way forward with more engagement between the majors and minors must be found. Tours to and from the stronger countries to play first-class sides for starters.

Stuart Clark agrees in the Age, saying too many teams with inadequate talent makes for a lot of meaningless cricket.

Angus Fraser, in the Independent, recounts instances of players venting their anger, the consequences of which include broken windows, verbal volleys and thrown bats. This, after what Ricky Ponting did after his run-out against Zimbabwe.

Mike Atherton was usually quite controlled after getting out but on one occasion, after a particularly poor decision in a Test in Port Elizabeth, his temper got the better of him. It was England's 1995-96 tour of South Africa and the players were constantly weighed to gauge how much fluid we should take after a long period in the field. Because of this, a set of scales were always by the dressing room door.

We could tell Atherton wasn't happy as he walked into the changing room and moments later we heard a loud crash and twang. We knew the scales had copped the brunt of his frustration. After a couple of minutes the silence was broken by a slightly embarrassed request call to Wayne Morten, the England physiotherapist. "Wayne, Wayne," came the weak call, "could you come here please?" It turned out that Atherton had booted the scales so hard that he had broken the big toe on his right foot.

The game against India is going to be England's acid test, writes Duncan Fletcher in the Guardian, and the poor performance against Netherlands will be the kick in the pants the team needs.

There will not be any arrogance about the bowlers on Sunday. As for their shoddy fielding, that is harder to explain. As a coach it is something of a mystery – the fielding drills don't change, the intensity levels at practice don't change, but the performance does. England's error count should be a lot lower against India, because the players will be switched on from the start and will be fully aware of how costly any mistakes will be.

England's bowling will have to be disciplined, else they can expect no mercy from India's openers, says Geoffrey Boycott in the Daily Telegraph.

India's new-ball bowlers and Harbhajan Singh versus Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Strauss is among the head-to-head battles to watch out for in the Bangalore fixture, writes S Dinakar in the Hindu.

Steve James, in the Daily Telegraph, says England would be under no pressure whatsoever in their game against India. Instead, the pressure would be the hosts. Vic Marks, in the Guardian, agrees.

Also in the Daily Telegraph, Anand Vasu says India's perceived weakness against the short ball may not be something England can take for granted, particularly against the hosts' openers.

The India-England fixture is significant for several reasons, with its potential for infusing a bit of excitement into the tournament being one among them. Stephen Brenkely has more in the Independent on Sunday.

Despite the gradual integration of Zimbabwe in the cricketing mainstream and the return of former players taking up coaching roles, there are still serious problems with governance, writes Simon Briggs in the Daily Telegraph.

And yet, despite all these improvements, the people at the top of Zimbabwe cricket have not changed. In this respect, at least, cricket really is a microcosm of Zimbabwe, for the sport is still governed by Peter Chingoka and Ozias Bvute, a pair of deeply discredited plutocrats who have been accused of embezzling International Cricket Council money.

The question we should really be asking is cui bono – who benefits – from Zimbabwe’s resurrection as a cricket power?

Peter Roebuck, in the Hindu, says the World Cup thus far has, barring some of the games involving the minnows, been a fair battle between bat and ball and not the one-way traffic expected before the tournament. Sensible batting, he says, is the key to winning that battle.

By and large it has made for sharper cricket. Few things are more tedious that the sight of a front foot bully belting the ball around on a pitch as scary as an Enid Blyton story. At least these slightly unreliable surfaces have forced batsmen to think. Shot election and placements have been important, and these count amongst the game's hidden delights.

Vijay Lokapally, in the Hindu, writes of the ordeal the Indian spectator is put through across cricket stadiums in the country, starting from the difficulty in procuring a ticket.

The ordeal begins from trying to procure a ticket. Typically, the queue at the counter begins to take shape with the first spectator reporting at 5 in the morning — at some places, people even camp overnight.

While entering the stadium on match-day, one can't carry food, water, medicines, pen, coins and whatnot. Braving the unfriendly police and organisers is now an accepted part of the process.

Suresh Menon, writing in Daily News and Analysis, laments the attitude of the Indian spectator, who he says has imbibed the arrogance of the board that runs the game in the country.

As protests in Libya intensify, responded by a brutal crackdown from the state, Murtaza Rizvi writes of how Pakistan's most well-known cricket stadium got its name. Read his article in the Indian Express.

It was Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, as the prime minister, who embarked on the policy of looking west to the Arab world for bonding and the obvious financial benefits that would accrue to Pakistan by being a player in the petrodollar economy of the Arab states, even if they were run by despotic autocrats. In 1974, Bhutto hosted the heads of Muslim states in Lahore for the Organisation of Islamic Conference summit, which included such adversaries as the reigning sheikhs of the oil-rich Gulf and Arab revolutionaries like Gaddafi and Yasser Arafat. The occasion was chosen to elicit support for Pakistan’s nuclear programme, as India was all set to go nuclear, and Gaddafi fitted the bill. In a grand ceremony at the Lahore Stadium, Bhutto announced the renaming of the cricket ground after the man whom he came to call one of his best friends.

Dominic Cork, writing in the Independent, says England are capable of beating India in their own backyard, and their tendency to play better against the more fancied teams should help them.

If Ireland, say, were next on the agenda for Strauss's men then the weight of expectation would be on them again. As it is, most people are going to make them long-odds second favourites against India on Sunday and, in many ways, they will have nothing to lose as they try to convince everyone that their efforts during the first half of the Netherlands game were not a true reflection of their ability.

In the New Zealand Herald Nathan Astle reckons that Friday's game against Australia in Nagpur could possibly be New Zealand's best chance to beat them on the World Cup stage. Despite their poor run of form in recent times New Zealand's line-up is more settled than Australia's which is a rarity.

The Aussies are still in a rebuilding phase and are there for the taking. It's not the Australian team of a few years ago when they were the best team in the world by a long way. They've come back to the pack now. Sure they still have some world class players, and have only lost to New Zealand twice at the World Cup, but the Black Caps should have all the confidence in the world to beat them.

Australia and New Zealand will also be fighting for the Chappell-Hadlee trophy in Friday's game. In the same newspaper, David Leggat revisits some memorable clashes between the trans-Tasman foes.

And once again in the New Zealand Herald, Adam Parore writes that while Ricky Ponting is trying to talk Australia up, but no one is fooled, because Australia's defeat against India before the tournament shows where they are really at and Ponting sounds a bit too desperate in trying to boost his team's status.

In the Guardian Mike Selvey writes that Netherlands showing against England proves the importance of underdogs. The plan to cut the so-called minnows from the World Cup could hamper the development of cricket as a global sport.

Perhaps it is overstating the case to say that associate and affiliate nations at large have any ambition to play beyond T20. For the majority T20 could well be the right way to go. But since their first World Cup participation, each of Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh have achieved Test match status and Ireland aim to join them. And in the future, do you think that China, a nation that receives all the cricket transmission offered by the Star TV footprint, and which is said to be gaining a rapid interest in developing the game, would be content not to join them?

Aditya Iyer in the Indian Express writes that when the ICC decided to field only the 10 Test-playing nations in the 2015 World Cup in Australia, they robbed the game not only of fantastic David-Goliath fables, but also of glorious moments.

The World Cup is the only event where non-Test countries can rub shoulders with the best in the business. And they have repeatedly dreamed of that one shot at worldwide recognition, of replacing the “minnow” label with one saying “giant-slayers”.

In the Indian Express, Shailaja Bajpai looks at how the various TV channels in India are doing their best to whip up mass hysteria in the Indian public, driving expectations on how this could be India's World Cup.

Indian TV news channels and crazed cricket fans will drink from that cup of good cheer if only Dhoni’s Devils (moving on from Kapil’s) realise Sachin Tendulkar’s dream of bringing home the World Cup. If they don’t, it’s going to take more than a cuppa to calm them down.

Jonathan Liew in the Daily Telegraph writes that the World Cup's never-ending schedule is matched only by its commentators who never know when to stop.

A few — Tony Cozier, Sanjay Manjrekar, Nasser Hussain, Michael Atherton — are very good. But to listen to the majority, however, is to be subjected to the banal, sterile witterings of imbecilic ex-players whose foremost achievement since retiring from the game has been managing to avoid eating their microphones.

Richard Hinds in the Sydney Morning Herald takes a look at (and tries to recreate) Ricky Ponting's tetchy outburst in the game against Zimbabwe that earned him a reprimand from the ICC.

The World Cup will lose far more than it gains from the ICC's planned culling of Associate nations in 2015, writes Andy Bull in the Guardian, arguing that the fascinating stories of men like Rizwan Cheema, Balaji Rao, Steve Tikolo and Ashish Bagai enrich the competition.

And for all the crowing about the longevity of the likes of Muttiah Muralitharan, Ricky Ponting and Sachin Tendulkar, what about the indestructible Steve Tikolo? He was persuaded to come out of retirement at the age of 40 to play in this, his fifth World Cup. Tikolo looked "too old for this shit" way back in 2007. His is the most creaky-kneed comeback since Danny Glover did Lethal Weapon 4.

Michael Atherton in the Times writes that while it would be tempting to write off England's chances after a three-hour horror show in which they conceded - to an associate nation - more runs than on any occasion in the World Cup bar the 300 made by West Indies in 2007,everything we have seen from England in the past 18 months suggests that this was an aberration rather than some reversion to the mean.

As bad as England was, and Strauss admitted to a "shocker", these games can be difficult to play in, the few thousand spectators dwarfed by the vast Vidarbha Stadium failing to provide much in the way of inspiration. Things will undoubtedly be different on Sunday against India in Bangalore and England know that it must be different, too: sharper in body and mind.

Overreacting to England's poor display against Netherlands will help no one, writes Vic Marks in the Guardian but an additional spinner might.

To cover all options England would be better off with another specialist spinner, who turns the ball away from the right-hander, in their squad. Sadly Samit Patel and Ian Blackwell are deemed to be too fat. There would be a better case for Monty Panesar or Adil Rashid, who has obviously failed to convince the powers that be that he is reliable enough on or off the field. These two are not makeshifts but attacking bowlers for turning tracks.

Lawrence Booth, writing in the Wisden Cricketer blog steps over the fielding fiasco to asses Kevin Pietersen's first performance as an England opener.

Ahead of yesterday’s game against the Netherlands, Andrew Strauss declared himself “excited” at the prospect of opening with Kevin Pietersen. If he sounded like a teenage boy about to embark on a first date with the girl he’s always fancied in geography, then for much of their alliance of 105 the feeling did not always seem mutual.

In the same blog, Daniel Brigham, an unashamedly big Essex fan, ignores England completely to salute the real hero of the match: Ryan ten Doeschate.

He’s been demolishing bowling attacks for Essex down at Chelmsford since 2003, averaging 46.87 with the bat in domestic one-day games (and 26.55 with the ball). It’s not overstating the case, or simply my Essex bias, that I genuinely think he would walk into 12 of the 14 teams at this World Cup – including England’s.

In the Guardian, Rob Smyth looks at five aspects, all involving dropped catches and poor fielding, that marred England's start to the World Cup.

England had hinted at unusual sloppiness in the field early on but this was the first major howler. Ryan ten Doeschate slogged Graeme Swann up in the air, but Kevin Pietersen and Jimmy Anderson, running in from long-off and long-on, left the ball to each other. The ball plopped gently to the ground and Swann gave both evil looks. Ten Doeschate, on 47 at the time, went on to make a glorious 119 which pushed England all the way

Writing in the the Daily Telegraph Derek Pringle describes England's fielding in the game against the Netherlands as an "embarrassment".

England could spin this in the dressing room as the tough game they needed, but that would be denial. The new opening partnership of Strauss and Kevin Pietersen worked well against a gentle attack but there were worrying signs in the field. Ten Doeschate is a formidable batsman but England should be mortified by how easily they lost control of their emotions, their concentration and their plans

Dylan Cleaver in the New Zealand Herald writes that Hamish Bennett, who was picked for the game against Kenya following an injury to Kyle Mills, starred with the ball in that game. His performance has posed an interesting selection dilemma for New Zealand ahead of Friday's clash against Australia.

Even if Mills is fit, it might be that Bennett's good form gives the selectors an opportunity to give him more time to recover. But when this tournament gets to the pointy end, they're going to have a tough decision to make.

C Raja Mohan, writing in the Indian Express, says Bangladesh’s zeal in co-hosting the World Cup signals the maturing of a nation and a new reality in which Bangladesh is ready to take off on the global stage.

The team’s can-do spirit underlines a defining moment in the political evolution of our [India] very special eastern neighbour.

For Dhaka, co-hosting the World Cup is about moving away from its traditional image as the “basket case” perennially dependent on international aid to showcasing the new reality of a dynamic economy that offers many attractive opportunities amidst the global recession.

Wright Thompson writing on ESPN.com looks at how the World Cup has taken Bangladesh by storm. The people of Bangladesh take to the boulevards and alleys of their capital, virtually all of them without a ticket to the opening game against India, excited not for a sporting event but for a chance to show off their nation.

There is something naive, even hopeful, about it, a place that isn't jaded by hype, that is moved enough by it to take to the streets.

Muttiah Muralitharan tells Donald McRae in the Guardian that he has no regrets and feels no sadness on forthcoming international retirement. Murali is set to retire from international cricket post the World Cup.

"I've played every type of cricket and every tournament and, up to now, I've lived up to my potential. I haven't let anyone down. So why should I be sad? This is a God-blessed career."

Swati Bhan, writing for the Deccan Herald, says boys from Munaf Patel’s village in Gujarat, who hail from families which find it near impossible to afford a pair of spikes, are inspired by Patel’s success and a passion for the game to pursue cricket.

His [Munaf Patel] achievements have triggered a trickle-down effect with hundreds of children taking to cricket seriously in southern Gujarat. Children travel several kilometres and sometimes hitch-hike rides to pick up the basics of the game at the academies that have mushroomed in the wake of Munaf becoming a star.

Mike Atherton, writing for The Times, says the World Cup brings with it an expression of Bangladesh’s national pride and unbridled enthusiasm for the game.

Supporters here are bemused by condemnation of the tournament's schedule. Having not been given a chance to share the booty from the two previous sub-continental World Cups in 1987 and 1996, they see eight games, shared between Dhaka and Chittagong, as too few, not too many.

Meanwhile, Quazi Zulquarnain Islam writing for the Daily Star, says Shakib Al Hasan must feel damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t, after being criticised for bowling first against India in the opening World Cup match, taking into account condemnation earned for decisions past.

Shefalee Vasudev, writing for the Indian Express, says Imran Khan is as fit as can be at 59 with a high intensity workout routine, one that women in the vicinity can’t take their eyes off.

The gym’s performance stakes were raised by Khan, they couldn’t just benignly displace a weight or two while he grunted and growled and worked 130 pounds on the lateral pull-down machine.

Andrew Alderson, writing for the New Zealand Herald, says the more experienced – in terms of World Cup appearances – New Zealand should fancy their chances against Australia in Nagpur on February 25, and success there could fuel knock-out round benefits.

Australia won the ODI series 6-1 against England but it was against a team struggling to focus after the Ashes triumph. They are struggling for pinch-hitters and slow bowling options. Their best effort was in the sixth match, chasing down a target of 334 to beat England in Sydney but they were also walloped by India in a warm-up that showed they may struggle against spin on the subcontinent.

Alderson, in the same newspaper, says though Brendon McCullum faces obstacles, he could hold the advantage over Ross Taylor to take over as New Zealand’s captain after the World Cup.

S Dinakar, writing in the Hindu, ponders over some of the strategies vis-a-vis the bowling that India might adopt in their next game against England.

Given the cloud over Aashish Nehra's fitness, India does not have too many options for the third paceman's slot. The side should, instead, play to its strengths and field a second specialist spinner against England in what could be a pitch assisting spin.

The two-paceman ploy, though, always carries a danger. The risk of one of the seamers getting injured cannot be overlooked. There are also chances that either Zaheer or Munaf might have an ordinary day.

New Zealand's poor performance in the field over the last year may not have led to sweeping changes in the side, or so it seems. It's the support staff where the change is most reflected. Aaron Lawton finds out in the Sunday Star Times.

She's [former New Zealand physio Kate Stalker] contracted to New Zealand Cricket until after the tournament, but like former coach Mark Greatbatch, bowling coach Shane Jurgensen, high performance boss Roger Mortimer and assistant coach Mark O'Donnell, Stalker's role as a member of the Black Caps touring party ended when John Wright took charge just before Christmas.

Ruchir Joshi in the Telegraph writes that while it would too much to suggest that India's World Cup win transformed our society for ever, it’s only accurate to say that the win was a building block on which rest several different cross-beams of subsequent Indian behaviour.

Businesses realized the potential of having an audience of millions captive across a whole day, and industries, led by their sniffer-dogs of advertising, expanded exponentially on the back of this discovery. Shortly after that World Cup, in 1985, a new colour was added to the tri-colour — the light blue allotted to the Indian ODI team

Piyashree Gupta in the Indian Express talks to Sanatan Sahoo, the head groundsman at the Eden Gardens, and finds out out what it it is to be in charge of a venue that has seen more than its fair share of controversy in recent times.

By the time the next World Cup arrives, Sahoo would have retired. No wonder, he is sorely disappointed at the India-England match being shifted to Bangalore. “It’s not easy to get over this place. I remember, as we sat inside our quarters under the galleries, how people had started pelting stones, bottles etc during the 1996 World Cup semi final with Sri Lanka. After the police threw the crowd out, we were asked to clean the ground very fast. As we started picking up things, I remember a couple of Indian cricketers picking up stuff and handing them over to us. How sad they were,” says Sahoo

In the same newspaper, Nandini Nair reviews Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka’s debut book Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew and describes it as a "ollicking account of a hack’s obsession, leading to uncommon discoveries."

But this book goes far beyond the euphoria of cricket, exposing the seamier side, be it dubious money deals, lascivious cricketers or diplomats with terrible secrets. Chinaman was written in Colpetty and Havelock Town, neighbourhoods of Colombo. Karunatilaka is certain that this book would not have been written if he had not been in the midst of the country’s sights and sounds. The civil war simmers beneath the text’s surface. It appears in the form of “men with clubs and knives storming buses” and asking passengers to speak Sinhala

Peter Badel in the Sunday Telegraph writes that Ricky Poting won't tell you he's gone eight years without a single World Cup defeat as captain. But if there is anyone can be impervious to the pain of defeat, it is the streetfighter from Mowbray who is on course to become the first man in cricket history to win four World Cups.

He is the talisman who has survived the ages, from the baby-faced 21-year-old who marked his turf at the 1996 World Cup, to the ruthless No. 3 who bludgeoned India in the 2003 final, to the battle-hardened 36-year-old eyeing his crowning glory in what is almost certainly his Cup swansong on the subcontinent.

The four-year gap between World Cups means teams are loathe to take chances on a young player at the expense of an older, more trusted performer writes Jesse Hogan in the Herald on Sunday. Precocious young players may get taken along for the experience of a World Cup, but can end up ignored by the rest of the world by failing to get into the first-choice team. Hogan looks at nine cricketers who could possibly buck the trend.

Former England cricketer Angus Fraser sympathises with the current World Cup squad, who have had to go straight from a long tour of Australia into the tournament, but says the lead-up is not nearly as bad as the one he was part of in 1999. In the Independent, he lists the plethora of distractions England had in a campaign that was "over before our official World Cup song had even been released."

Our World Cup preparations began in earnest with a training camp in Pakistan, which was followed by a triangular one-day tournament involving India and Pakistan in Sharjah. The trips were well meaning but, even now, it is difficult to work out how the 45 degree heat and slow, low pitches in Lahore and Dubai were ever going to prepare us for cold, wet seamer-friendly conditions in England in May.

It was while we were in Lahore that the players' contract dispute with the England and Wales Cricket Board erupted. With the squad selected and the fees agreed between the captain, Alec Stewart, and the ECB our contracts were presented to us. It is fair to say, they did not go down very well.

In the latest issue of Tehelka, Devangshu Datta has a rant about the flood of commercials one is forced to watch during cricket matches.

It’s bizarre to think how toxic the advertising really has become, and how much it has vitiated what would otherwise be a great viewing pleasure. To put it in perspective, I’ve happily risked sunstroke, dehydration, hypothermia, police brutality and mob violence to watch sports live, but I find it near-impossible to sit through commercials in the comfort of my drawing room. During the average ODI, you will see the same ads aired 100-odd times in succession. Even full frontal nudity or an SRT straightdrive would pall, given that sort of repetition.

Though the 2011 World Cup may have a bloated look with its two-month long schedule, the fact that anyone could win it may keep spectators gripped, says Stephen Brenkley in the Independent

The obvious home advantage to be gleaned on slow, low pitches may dissipate as the tournament progresses. The World Cup has been played twice before on the subcontinent and in neither did India or Pakistan reach the final. In 1987, they both astonishingly went out in the semi-finals, to England and Australia respectively. In 1996, after India beat Pakistan in the quarter-finals they themselves were eliminated by a Sri Lankan side who changed the face of the game with their unfettered willingness to attack.

Dileep Premachandran, however, writes in Tehelka the length of the tournament means one can skip watching the entire group phase.

By 2007, there had been another change of heart. This time, there were 16 teams in four groups of four, with the top two from each making it to the Super Eight. The idea was clearly to make the top teams lay as many golden eggs as possible. Instead, with India and Pakistan making their exit in the first round, the ICC ended up with a gigantic omelette on its face. The ‘dream’ match-up in Barbados between India and Pakistan became Bangladesh against Ireland, and thousands of hotel-room cancellations made it a disaster for everyone concerned. That experience has so scarred the ICC that the format for 2011 more or less ensures that none of the fancied teams can miss out on the quarter-finals.

In the Guardian, Mike Selvey says he understands the decision to skew the format so India quailfy for the latter stages, as he believes their progress in the tournament could define the future of 50-over cricket.

There is more at stake than India's place as cricket's powerhouse, though, for the very format is under ever-increasing threat from the instant spark of Twenty20. The 2015 World Cup, to be held in Australia and New Zealand, has long since been sold to broadcasters as a 50-over tournament but, particularly since the inception of the IPL, there has been increasing clamour to deem this outmoded, so that in the not-to-distant future, international cricket will consist only of the two extremes of Tests and T20.

Sourav Ganguly in the Open magazine writes that the balance in the Indian team is good, with the batting looking strong and the bowling available in full strength. And there are more than a few match-winners in the line-up.

Expectedly, there has been some debate over the composition of the Indian team. I think the selectors and team management did what was best. I wouldn’t have done anything different had I been the selector.

Ian Chadband in the Daily Telegraph writes that India is aching for Sachin Tendulkar to crown brilliant career by leading team to victory.

While the country also starts saying a billion prayers that the unmatched greatness of their Sachin can be sealed by the ultimate reward of lifting the Cup in his home city next month, Tendulkar is able to shoulder this unimaginable burden of expectation with serenity by recalling his father’s advice.

“'All things in life are temporary and everything has a deadline, but the only thing that will stay until your last breath is your nature’, my father told me. So you should always behave properly, because that is something that stays with you always and is appreciated by people. And I am just trying to follow that advice,” explained Tendulkar.

Back to the Open magazine and Aniruddha Bahal writes that a cricket feast is about to start and its the subcontinent bookies who are salivating at the prospect of an extended round of punter pickings.

Salahuddin Ahmed in the Daily Star writes that mega event like the World Cup can make a significant impact on the local economy in Bangladesh and can also have a positive affect on society.

A successful organisation of this world cup would mean a lot, and would give Bangladesh a positive image. Enhancing the name value of the region should be a major incentive for countries hosting either World Cup games or training camps. Through this world cup we will be able to reroute global tourist flows and establish new places as tourist destinations. Our goal should be to show the potentialities of our countries to those who will be in Bangladesh to watch the World Cup matches.

Players like Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis, Murali and Sachin Tendulkar are determined to shine in the Cup but also know that one man's high is another's cruel disappointment writes Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Twenty20 aside, cricket does not readily lend itself to continuous viewing. An ODI lasts for over seven hours; a Test match goes on for days. So for most fans, the game is watched in bites. An hour here, an hour there. In his blog, Siddhartha Vaidyanathan looks back at how he has watched, and not watched, the World Cup.

The longer the format, the longer cricket hovers. A day is planned around the timings of some matches. A two-hour work meeting is a pain under any circumstances but more so because you can’t surreptitiously keep glancing at your phone with just five colleagues around you. Often you need to find an excuse for an early lunch, to catch half an hour of the run-chase in the cafeteria. Or to make that phone call to ask your buddy about how the pitch is playing.

I’m sure all sports fans feel this way but cricket brings to it an added dimension of time. I’ve had similar experiences with football and basketball but those games are on your mind only for a short time. Ninety minutes. Done by the time you’re finished with one boring lecture in college. But cricket – Tests and ODIs, at least – mess with you all day.

Indian fans need to embrace the World Cup in its totality, writes Boria Majumdar in the Times of India. Packing the stands for the India games alone is not enough, he says.

It is a given that the India matches will be played to packed stadiums. The real challenge is to fill up stadiums for the non-India matches. Only if there are sizeable crowds for these games can we claim to have matured as a cricket-watching nation. It is cricket's biggest stage and hyper-nationalism, central to Indian cricket-watching, cannot continue to be the sport's only selling point in India. Take the FIFA World Cup: not only were matches involving South Africa well-attended, but most matches were played to sizeable crowds across the country in June-July 2010.

The festive reception for the World Cup opening ceremony in Dhaka was a sign of how deeply entrenched cricket has become in the country's collective consciousness, says an editorial in the Daily Star.

Overall, however, the fact that this year's World Cup has been inaugurated in Dhaka is symbolic of the desire of Bangladesh's people to see some of the best sportsmanship relating to cricket to be on display in this country. Ours has always been a hospitable society and this trait in the national character has once more been amply demonstrated by the zeal and euphoria with which we have welcomed so many foreign teams to the country

Ian Bell speaks to Brian Viner about England's preparation for the World Cup, the 1-6 thrashing at the hands of Australia, his own development as a batsman and the role he will be expected to play in his team's middle order. Read the interview in the Independent.

Bell is expected to bat at five in the World Cup, having played most of his one-day games, both for Warwickshire and England, in the top three of the order. He does not mind admitting that he prefers to bat higher up. "But you can't always do what you want, you have to do what the team is asking of you," he says, almost as if he is reading from a teamsmanship manual. "And my game is flexible enough to bat in any position. Plus, I'll be playing a fair amount of spin in the middle order, and I see that as a strong area of my game now. Spin is going to be crucial in this World Cup."

Mike Selvey, in the Guardian, says England's World Cup chances could hinge on the their gamble to open with Kevin Pietersen.

Duncan Fletcher, the former England coach, in the same newspaper, picks Sri Lanka and India as his favourites due to their superiority in the spin department.

Vic Marks, also in the Guardian, criticises the format for the tournament which lends itself to too many meaningless matches.

The last few years have seen Twenty20 cricket sweep the sport like a tsunami. Cricket boards the world over have rushed to capitalise on the format’s popularity, reflected most vividly in the extravagance of the IPL. So much is being made of the new format that the 2011 World Cup is widely seen as the 50-over game’s last chance to retain its primacy. But has one-day cricket really slipped so far? According to a to a study commissioned by Mint, the answer, at least in India, the game’s biggest market, is no. 55% of people surveyed across 10 cities said they prefer the 50-over game, while 32% chose the shortest version of the game. (In Chennai, home to the IPL champion Chennai Super Kings, a whopping 60% chose Tests as their favourite format. Only 3% picked T20s).

Also in Mint, Sanjeeb Mukherjea provides a light hearted look at the Indian team’s five-day camp for the World Cup, from the warm-up games of football that all the rage these days to Gary Kirsten's impressive ability to hurl throw-downs at 140 kph.

Kirsten and mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton joined in these games, in which S. Sreesanth was the victim of many pranks. In one game, Zaheer Khan crossed towards the goal from the left, and Sreesanth, who was the goalkeeper, intercepted the ball with his hand. Khan shouted, “Foul, foul!”, and a bewildered Sreesanth dropped the ball, only for Kirsten to come up and tap it into the goal. Sreesanth’s face dropped as the team erupted in laughter.

What is needed to ignite the 10th World Cup is not glitz and glamour but the draw of keenly-fought contests between even teams, writes Rob Bagchi in The Guardian.

This is supposed to be the tournament that puts all those moribund moneyspinning seven-game series into some sort of context beyond the purely financial. But it has been so badly served by administrators' bloating the itinerary and so thoroughly eclipsed by a flashier, even more ephemerally enjoyable format that a failure to excite this time will just about render it redundant.

It may endure a living death in the future as a made-for-television marathon devoid of emotion and substance, as an upmarket version of the Champions Trophy, but it needs a jolt to save its soul and significance.

There are two important elements missing from this World Cup, adds Steve James in The Telegraph - Marcus Trescothick and Herschelle Gibbs.

Not the obvious choices, granted, as they are clearly not quite the very best, but I’ve just got a soft spot for Trescothick’s brutal and bucolic simplicity, and for Gibbs’s charming chutzpah, strolling down the pitch to the quickest of bowlers and depositing them over extra cover.

But, sadly, both have had their problems, meaning neither is now in international cricket.

David Lloyd, writing in the Independent, says England need to rectify a few things, including their fitness concerns, in the warm-up games in the lead-up to the World Cup.

A clutch of recently injured players need to convince everyone, as soon as possible, they are back to full fitness and then shake off any rust. For Tim Bresnan (calf), Ajmal Shahzad (hamstring) and Graeme Swann (back), that opportunity will not come until Friday's second warm-up game, against Pakistan, at the earliest, but Paul Collingwood (back) may be able to play at least some part in tomorrow's fixture.

When executing the drive through the off-side, Virat Kohli is second to none. Nihal Koshie writes in the Indian Express why India’s most in-form batsman is ready to pierce packed fields and egos during the World Cup with a stroke that comes naturally to him.

Kohli’s cover drive finishes with a top-spin tennis-like flourish and without an extravagant follow through. The wrists come into play only once the bat meets the ball. The use of these supple, but strong wrists has also helped Kohli pick the gaps with ease ...

The makings of the cover drive, coach Raj Kumar Sharma had first witnessed before the Delhi lad turned 10. Even while an eight-year-old Kohli was picking up the nuances of the game at the West Delhi Cricket Academy — located within the premises of the St Sophia School in Paschim Vihar — his cover drive packed a punch, so to speak.

Whichever team parades around the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai with the World Cup, each and every nation will share in the moment. From Bridgetown to Brisbane, Christchurch to Chittagong, bonfireworks will be detonated. Strangers will take to the streets, lock themselves together in passionate embrace and, despite the emotion, the words will finally find a way past that lump in the throat: "Thank God that's over," writes Martin Johnson in the Sunday Times.

Only a particular form of genius can take an already bloated format, keep it exactly the same length and give it one inspired tweak. Namely, make absolutely sure you know the identity of the eight teams for the knockout stages before the first ball is bowled, then take a month to get there. It's all to do with money, of course, although one day the television companies and sponsors might twig that selling your product to that bloke on the sofa is not so easy if he happens to have fallen into an irreversible coma.

The crowds will be excitable, as always on the subcontinent, which is just as well because the matches in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will be played on pitches seemingly prepared by an undertaker with embalming fluid.

In the Sydney Morning Herald, Peter Roebuck looks back at past editions of the World Cup and analyses why the tournament began to lose its lustre with 1996. He predicts things could be different this time around.

And yet this year's Cup does have a few things going for it. Bangladesh will relish the opportunity to stage such a significant event, and might be inspired to great deeds on and off the field. India's greatest players might seize this last chance to win a World Cup. Heck, the final is to be played in Mumbai, Sachin Tendulkar's home town. It's a mouth-watering prospect. Or the trophy might be taken by a new team. England might prove their recent surge is no mere flash in the pan cooked up by African coaches. Or South Africa might slay their albatross.

That's the beauty of sport. The past is an open book - the future is an empty page.

Vic Marks, writing in the Guardian, believes there is plenty to look forward to in this World Cup since it could be the last for some of the biggest names in the game.

Some new names will surface as the tournament proceeds but this is a time to consider the old giants who will be aiming for one last hurrah. Tendulkar will be feted all around India as he has been for most of the past two decades. It is just possible that he will become the first man to score 100 international centuries during this World Cup. He needs three more. We have long since run out of superlatives for Tendulkar but here is a relatively rare one: he must be the hungriest cricketer of his generation. His appetite for the game appears to be relentless. After 20 years, during which he has been unable to step out of his front door without being swamped by adorers, he still seems excited by the prospect of his next innings.

He may not have the pace that first excited Indian fans when he burst onto the scene, but Munaf Patel's new, controlled style that sees him mainly just put the ball on a back of a length and mix it up with offcutters has been effective in its own right, Karthik Krishnaswamy writes in the Indian Express.

Like McGrath, Munaf approaches the crease at a stately trot, cocks his wrist under his chin as he moves adjacent to the umpire and skips economically into an upright delivery position. Like the Australian, Munaf delivers from extremely close to the stumps, and smiles only if Hawk-Eye tells him that his previous ball was on course to hit the top of off-stump.

The "cricket-industrial complex" banks on the game as "an effective means of conveying goods to the market". And there is no bigger market than insatiable Indian TV viewers. Gideon Haigh, writing in India Today looks at the changes taking place in the game and questions if it's the right way to treat the heroic Indian fan.

Cricket loves its heroes. Tendulkar, Dhoni, Sehwag. Warne, Kallis, Steyn. For the next few months, the game's hero should be the Indian fan. Here come the world's two biggest cricket attractions, right on top of each other. On February 19, commences the 10th cricket World Cup, somehow strung out to 49 games. Then on April 8, less than a week after the World Cup final, begins the first of the 74 games of the fourth Indian Premier League (IPL). In any other country, this would be too much of a good thing. In India, too much is barely enough.

Jim White in the Telegraph tells the story of council-run cricket facilities in decline says it's no surprise the England team is made up almost entirely of South Africans and public schoolboys.

In the past two decades, council-run cricket facilities have disappeared faster than Jonathan Trott's hair. With no statutory obligation to provide leisure activities, the wonderful stock of pitches built up over the generations has disappeared. Health and safety, compensation culture: any excuse is seized by councils to absolve themselves of the business of preparing surfaces. And the cuts have provided the perfect fig leaf to complete the process. As with free tertiary education, vibrant local libraries and rural bus services, one of our greatest sporting achievements – the widespread provision of municipal pitches – is disappearing before our eyes.

Former England allrounder Trevor Bailey died in a fire in his home on Thursday at the age of 87. The obituary in BBC describes Bailey as one of England's most outstanding post war allrounders, who later went on to become an invaluable member of the commentary team on the BBC's Test Match Special.

He followed his own line, both on and off the pitch. Most remarkable were his astonishingly contemplative performances at the crease during times of crisis for the national team.

David Foot in the Guardian describes Bailey as dogged but accomplished and hails him as one of English cricket's greatest allrounders.

Behind that phlegmatic exterior, though, lurked a measure of mischief, often based on his willingness to confront the game's laws with as much determination as legally permissible, and reinforced by his obsessive desire to win.

And again in the Guardian, Andy Bull in the SportBlog writes that Bailey's achievements for England and Essex and his off-the-field efforts meant he was so much more than the 'Barnacle' that was his nickname

Lawrence Booth in the Daily Mail writes that Trevor Bailey will always be remembered as a man steeped in cricket; a dry but but gentlemanly reminder of another age.

Known as Barnacle for his refusal to take risks at the crease - his 68 in 458 minutes at Brisbane in 1958 has pride of place in Wisden's table of 'slowest individual batting' - he could be equally cautious in the commentary box. When India's Kapil Dev hit three successive sixes off England spinner Eddie Hemmings at Lord's in 1990, his side were left needing six more runs to avoid the follow-on. With one ball left in the over and the No 11 at the other end, Bailey suggested: 'I'd take the single.' His colleagues chuckled and Kapil hit Hemmings for another six.

In the obituary in the Independent David Firth writes that there never was a batsman more patient, determined and obstinate than Bailey.

And in the same newspaper, David Lloyd writes that while there was a great deal more to Bailey's game than obdurate, they-shall-not-pass batting, the man himself was happy to go along with the image – even to the extent that his autobiography was entitled Wickets, Catches and the Odd Run.

As for the last word on Bailey's life, that should come from the man himself. "What I failed to realise early enough, except in the sporting field, was that nothing which is really worth having can be acquired without hard work," he wrote in his book. "Despite this weakness I can claim that I have been remarkably successful in my pursuit of happiness."

Huw Turbervill in the Daily Telegraph writes that while a defiant England retained the Ashes in Australia this winter, if there was one man who knew all about defiance, it was Bailey.

The IPL governing council conveniently decides that its wrongdoings are, in fact, not wrongdoings, writes Suresh Menon on www.dreamcricket.com. He says that the council follows a different code of conduct for players, and this is evident in the way it has dealt with Ravindra Jadeja, and now Manish Pandey.

Had Pandey played for India, he would have been entitled to greed, to a higher price and a nationally televised salary scheme. His IPL record, his first-class record and his status as the first Indian to score a century in the IPL count for nothing.

Like cholesterol, can there be good greed and bad greed?

The Governing Council, so eager to put the younger place in their place, might like to investigate just how easily their rules allowed the richer teams to break the ceiling on payment for their star players.

CricketWeb has had a look at the various books on the game that came out last year, and declared Henry Olonga's Blood Sweat and Treason as its Book of the Year 2010.

In the Guardian, Tim Dowling reviews the Out of the Ashes documentary about the astonishing rise of the Afghanistan team, and says that it has almost everything - but could have done with a little more cricket.

Can cricket afford to gloat at itself after the spot-fixing verdict? Lawrence Booth, in the Daily Mail, does not think so, and says that it must be kept in mind that it needed a newspaper to do part of the ICC's anti-corruption job.

Seen in that light, the prosecution of the Pakistani cricketers looks less like a vindication of cricket's capacity to self-police than a ruffle of the hair for tabloid journalism. What if the News of the World train their sights elsewhere next time? Who will shine the light in dark corners then? There is no definitive answer - and that, for cricket, is the scariest aspect of this sorry saga.

In the Sydney Morning Herald, Peter Roebuck lambasts the Allan Border Medal awards function, calling it a "fashion show", "an exercise in vapidity", and "the greatest load of hooey running around". He questions Cricket Australia's priorities in holding such awards functions while deliberating over dropping the Sheffield Shield final from the calendar.

It's nonsensical that overworked players are expected to attend such a grandiose function at any time let alone after a gruelling campaign. Half these blokes finished the match in Perth, with a three-hour time difference, jumped bleary-eyed onto a plane and next day were obliged to attend a long-winded dinner. On Wednesday they leave for a World Cup due to last another two months. Players are human.

Insufficient. Harsh. Inevitable. The spot-fixing verdict has elicited all sorts of reactions around the cricketing world. Scyld Berry of the Telegraph takes a look at the three talents that have been lost, for at least the next five years.

Try standing still and, in one hand, flicking a cricket ball 180 degrees. Asif could do that when running in, in his delivery stride, an astonishing sleight of hand that only a handful of pace bowlers — at most — have mastered. The purpose is to reveal to the batsman the ball’s shiny side, then to deceive him by flicking the seam over.

By the end of the series against England, after six Tests in two months, Asif was fading — and we now know he had other things on his mind at Lord’s.

In the same paper, Berry goes on to analyse the verdict itself, and concludes that the sanctions aren't a strong enough deterrant for pontential future transgressors and, more importantly, undetected culprits still playing the game.

There is so much smoke — rumours of spot- and match-fixing — circulating in world cricket that it is very unlikely there is no fire. And those already engaged are going to look at the sentences dished out in Doha and work out that the reprisals they will face from the underworld for ceasing to match-fix are far worse than a five-year ban.

Given Mohammad Amir's age and background, the tribunal should have not come down so hard on him, writes James Lawton in the Independent. He says, the officials who allowed Amir to be corrupted thus should have been the ones taking the rap.

The ICC put three cricketers in the dock but you have to ask the whereabouts of the people who were in charge of Amir's well-being, the Pakistani officials who left their team quarters open to the forays of a man charged with setting up irrefutable evidence that he could, for an agreed fee, engineer corrupt behaviour on the field? No one was saying that if proven guilty Amir should escape any form of punishment, only that there should be an understanding of his quite grotesquely vulnerable position.

Richard Lord in the Wall Street Journal writes that while all sports want to expand their geographical footprint, cricket needs to tread very carefully if it wants to preserve the things that made it popular. The aim is to narrow the gap between nations with established and new teams, but it could be causing that gap to widen.

Playing with a Twenty20 mindset, with 20 overs a side, can damage your technique in longer versions of the game. Test matches can last as long as five days, while one-day Internationals are up to 50 overs a side. If smaller nations' main experience is of games that last three hours rather than five days, the possibility of them ever attaining Test status recedes even further into the distance.

Robert Craddock in the Courier-Mail wonders, in the aftermath of the Pakistan trio being handed bans ranging from five to ten years, what a player would have to do to earn a life ban.

Would you have to perform a Hannibal Lecter and eat a rival's liver with "fava beans and a nice chianti"? Hannibal would have been an even-money chance of getting a suspended sentence (perhaps losing 10 per cent of his match fee) had he been put on trial by the International Cricket Council.

Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald argues that a sense of proportion needs to be retained.

The response to the infractions of sportsmen is out of proportion and smacks of hypocrisy. It's as if sport was treated as a separate world, a legendary place populated by heroes and villains. In fact it is merely part of the wider world.

And in the Australian, Malcolm Conn wonders why it took a tabloid newspaper to uncover the scandal when the ICC has its own anti-corruption body.

A strong and decisive punishment was vital against players so obviously guilty of corruption. Anything less would have completely gutted an already grubby and poorly administered game made more vulnerable by the riches of the IPL. Are the ICC and its organs capable of protecting it? The answer appears to be, without the News of The World, no.

Virender Sehwag has mastered the art of batting long, while scoring at a furious pace in Tests, but tends to lose his wicket too soon in ODIs. The Indian Express' GS Vivek analyses.

The dichotomy even Sehwag finds hard to explain. "Yes, I have played Test cricket where I have gone on and batted for a day and a half. If you look back in the last one year, that's exactly what I have tried to achieve in the one-day game. I have scored big hundreds and I have indeed gone on to play as much as 30 overs in an innings. So it is something I have realised, and something that is showing in my batting but I am not going to get into a match there looking to play long or survive. I have matured now to pick the balls on which I want to play my shots, and also know what shots to play on them," says Sehwag.

Too much cricket is making it hard to tell the difference between one game and the next, and ruining the appeal of even the sport's biggest events, write Ravi Krishnan and Anushree Chandran in Mint.

The World Cup has 49 matches spread over 43 days. That’s 8 hours of cricket daily over a month—a tad less than the 51 matches played over 47 days in the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies. No sooner does it end, that the IPL begins. With 10 teams playing 74 matches over 51 days, that’s another 222 hours of cricket.

One place where you probably wouldn’t expect to find a game of cricket is Croatia, but, as Neha Puntambekar describes in vivid detail in the same paper, the Croats play cricket too.

Take cricket, for example. It too has had to adapt to the local rhythm. So the ground sits between twin vineyards and a World War II airstrip, old wine barrels double up as scoreboards, the game starts only after the day’s fifth cup of coffee, and a six means yet another ball lost in the neighbour’s vineyard. Yes, things are different, but that’s half the fun.

I’m here with my husband Vivek, a part of the Zagreb XI playing the local team for top honours in the Croatian league. Since everyone chips into the team effort, I am the official scorer. It’s not a bad job on a hot day. I sit under a tree with my score sheets and a cool drink, hoping for a hint of valley breeze.

Peter Roebuck, writing in the Hindu, hails the Indian Supreme Court's decision to recognise cricket officials and administrators as public servants, bringing them under the purview of corruption laws that apply to public servants. Roebuck writes that the decision could usher in greater transparency and accountability over the governance of the game in India.

Gambling is rife, rigged matches are not unknown, brown paper bags smooth the path of building contracts. The corruption of the CWG in New Delhi has been exposed. Let the CWC come next. After that the IPL and ICL need to publish their documents.

Officials are servants of the game not its blithe masters. Already there is talk of hidden payments to IPL players whose auction price was low. Cricket has its seamy side.

In the Indian Express, GS Vivek writes of Gautam Gambhir's superior ability against the slow bowlers and how that came to be a crucial feature of his batting.

The left-hander has used the dash-down-the-wicket routine against the seamers to break early shackles, but his nimble, risk-free leap against the slower bowlers was met with awe during the Sri Lanka series. It was here that he effortlessly carted Muralitharan with the turn over the cover region and dished out more of the same for the then-unreadable Mendis.

From the hapless wicketkeeper to the furious captain, Barney Ronay, in an entertaining Guardian blog, finds something all too familiar with England's World Cup squad.

Some time tomorrow England's cricketers will belly-flop across the line to complete their final match of the southern summer. After which, pre-devastated by a month of the usual 50-over disintegration, they will head on towards the World Cup: frazzled, held together by surgical splints and seized with the usual sense of looming event-panic. Things were supposed to be different this time. The two Andys, Strauss and Flower, were supposed to have scoured away the stench of ancient 50-over confusion. But these things obviously run deep and, looking again at that compellingly sensible squad of players, dusting off the freshly crayoned swooshes and exclamation marks, it has all started to look oddly familiar. Here comes the World Cup: and here come the same old guys.

David Leggat, writing in the New Zealand Herald, says Pakistan's successful run on the tour of New Zealand has much to do with their captain Misbah-ul-Haq's impressive performance.

Misbah scored 9, 76 not out, 77 and 58 not out in the two drawn tests against the South Africans. Put those together with his New Zealand test return and Misbah has hit 451 runs at 112.75.

Unwanted in the one-day team for a year until last October, Misbah is averaging 40.27 with 11 fifties from 62 games overall.

With the ECB facing legal action to return around £2.2 million (US$3 million) received from the disgraced financier Allen Stanford Scyld Berry, in the Telegraph, revisits the episode and argues that is was the counties, as much as Giles Clarke, that wanted a dip in Stanford's pool of gold.

The ECB’s latest error is the seven-match abomination in Australia, which allows the England players a three-night break at home between their Ashes tour and the World Cup. Three nights at home between October and April, and jet-lagged ones at that.

Worse still, the ECB and Cricket Australia have just combined to desecrate the only thing left in international cricket that has been sacred. Staging Ashes series in England in 2013 and 2015, with another in Australia in between, devalues a tradition going back 130 years – over-killing which shows that they cannot be entrusted with guarding the flame. Their talk of 'maximising the Ashes brand’ was simply disgusting.

When it comes to getting into bed with Stanford, however, I do not think that the ECB under Clarke’s leadership can be singled out for exceptional criticism — any more than other people and organisations shoving their snouts into the trough in the Indian summer of western capitalism in 2008. From financiers to bankers to batsmen, the West was a Gadarene herd with only one thing on its mind.

Writing in the National Dileep Premachandran says that the spot-fixing verdict tomorrow, involving Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer, will prove how serious the ICC, the world cricket's governing body, is to rid cricket of corruption.

If two potentially great careers – Butt was unlikely to be one for the pantheon – are ended or stalled, it will be a sad day for cricket. But after the impotence of the past decade and more, it is time the game stood up for itself.

It's always worrying when a team fails to defend 333 but despite sliding to their fifth defeat in six against Australia Lawrence Booth, writing in the Wisden Cricketer blog, insists there is still hope.

All, weirdly, is not lost. By piling up 333 against an attack in which Australia’s big three seamers – Brett Lee, Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson – produced the combined figures of 25-1-168-4 – England at least answered some questions about a batting line-up that had been curiously frail in three of the previous five games.

The sentiment is echoed by Andy Bull, in his entertaining Spin newsletter in the Guardian.

As hangovers go, this is a bad one. England look shot. Spent. Burnt out. They have a thick layer of grey fuzz on their tongue, and their bloodshot eyes seem to be sitting above deep, saggy bags of pallid flesh.

Meanwhile in the same paper Rob Bagchi looks at Eoin Morgan, the star who England's ODI fortunes seem to rise and fall on.

It has been such a shame to see Eoin Morgan struggling in the first five one-day internationals of this gruelling marathon series in Australia because over the past five years for Ireland and then England he proved himself a master "finisher", a true heir to the punchy prototype Neil Fairbrother and his team-mate in toil, Paul Collingwood.

There's been a bit of action on the Twitter accounts of New Zealand's cricketers. Jesse Ryder vented, Scott Styris placated, and Chris Rattue has the story, and the larger picture, in the New Zealand Herald.

The first thing for Styris to learn is that, by going on Twitter, he is the media. That's why it is called the social media. So if we are the problem, then he is the problem. Secondly, we get an insight into Ryder's personality. He appears self-centred, moody, impulsive and immature. Some of these traits may indeed help his cricket career, others may not.

However, the former New Zealand fast bowler Iain O'Brien writes on his blog that the media has not necessarily come to grips with Twitter, either.

For me, and this is what really gets me going, Jesse’s tweets were nothing that he, or a lot of other players, wouldn't have said in a post match interview or press conference. His comments should have been ‘part’ of the story, ‘part’ of the days play round up that the original article also did. Jesse’s tweets should not have been ‘the’ story with the game fitted around. He was pissed at how he was run out, that’s ok isn’t it?

Kolkata has been host to the worst and the best of Indian cricket writes Suresh Menon on the website dreamcricket.com. And in the latest fiasco to hit the Eden Gardens, once again the larger picture is missed.

The fan asks for nothing more than a good match – and an India-England tie had the potential to be just that in the World Cup – but whether it was the arrogance of the president of the Cricket Association of Bengal or his stupidity that has denied them this, it is not good for either Kolkata or India, or indeed cricket.

In an interview with Dinesh Chopra in the Hindustan Times Gautam Gambhir gives his perspective on the World Cup, talks about India's victory in the Twenty20 World Cup in 2007 and his early World Cup memories.

A World Cup win is about leaving a legacy; an imprint. Other wins matter but this one could decide so many things. I don't want youngsters to take up cricket because IPL is lucrative but because of the pride attached in representing the country.