In the Sportstar Ted Corbett relives the time when men like John Arlott, Brian Johnstone, Alan McGilvray and Don Mosey were giving cricket its worth, explaining the game to the uninitiated, and offering as fair a verdict on its rights and wrongs as is humanly possible.

It was 1948, the year of a severe thrashing by one of the greatest Australian teams that I became fascinated by the descriptive power of the men without pictures, reporters who clearly loved every minute of what I realised must be an ideal life telling anyone who would listen just what was happening in the wonderful world of sport.

I can remember their phrases to this day. “His name is Fred Titmus and he is on his way to the wicket, marching like at a good pace like a light infantryman, which is only appropriate since he is on leave from his Army unit.” That is just one line from the Arlott book of thrilling words.

In the last couple of years England has grown into a strong side, driven on by a smiling captain who understands sportsmen, by a coach whose solemn face camouflages an active brain and with talent to spare, writes Ted Corbett in the Sportstar.

So much is growing within this New England that they can beat India — perhaps by no more than 1-0 in the four-Test series — and set off towards global supremacy for the next half dozen years.

England not only have a talented and settled line-up but perhaps the best reserve strength since the mid-1950s when Peter May and his selection panels could leave out highly skilled men like Fred Trueman, Peter Loader, Frank Tyson, Tom Graveney, Willie Watson and a dozen more and still beat Australia and anyone else in sight. Look at their skill base of 2011 in detail and you will see what I mean.

The Indian legend's brief spell wearing the White Rose in 1992 ushered in a new era at Headingley, says Rob Bagchi, writing in the Guardian.

His [Tendulkar's] maturity had long since marked him out and he quickly acclimatised to the Yorkshire dressing room. After only a few weeks the coach, Steve Oldham, said: "They are all better players for his presence. His confidence is infectious, they all want to bat with him." ... A decade later, when he was inducted as one of five great Yorkshire players, Tendulkar said: "I will always remember this as one of the greatest four and a half months I've spent in my life."

Ross Turner, the head coach of Bangladesh's National Cricket Academy, talks to Bishwajit Roy and Mohammad Isam in the Daily Star, about his plans for the academy and nurturing young talent in Bangladesh.

Programmes such as the academy are primarily important so that they [players] don't have to be taught how to bowl, bat, field and behave when they are an international player ... It is highly necessary to have players who only need to adapt to life in international cricket and not the skills.

"There are a number of things that need to change among these players. Here the cricket is built around instinctive play -- aggressive batting. I want to teach them the different, productive ways of playing."

The ICC's decision over the DRS was a compromise to keep 'everyone' happy rather than something based on what is best for the game, says Ian Chappell, writing in Mid Day. The influential Indian board, says Chappell, should have pushed for genuine improvements.

The BCCI or at least some of their senior players are right to have reservations about the ball tracking system and other technologies previously used in reviewing decisions. They are occasionally flawed and in some cases involve a human hand in arriving at their conclusion. However, instead of tinkering at the fringes with the DRS the BCCI should have pushed for genuine improvements.

The DRS should be totally under the control of the ICC and not provided by the television network covering the series. The current situation compromises the whole system. And while they were at it the BCCI should have had the DRS placed in the hands of the umpires to review blatant mistakes. That way, it wouldn’t be used as much as a tactic by the players, as a review system.

The BCCI has finally agreed to accept the DRS, albeit a modified version without ball-tracking technology, but Pradeep Magazine, writing in the Hindustan Times, remains critical of India's behaviour and their attitude to technology.

The debate whether technology is foolproof or not has its merits, but when players and teams cry foul at umpiring errors and scream murder, it seems logical that anything available to assist the umpires in correcting their errors should be made use of. Especially by a country which believes there is much bias in the umpiring world against them and even goes public with their protests on the evidence of the same technology which they decry.

Alastair Cook takes over as England's ODI captain, knowing that if he succeeds the Test job could be his, writes Stephen Brenkley in the Independent.

More than his change of style, Cook has a steely resolve which has been seen in the manner that he has dominated the Test arena in the past eight months after his very career was put in doubt. But combining the roles of opening batsman and captain will push him to the limits.

Cook might not be a flair player but he'll thrive on the challenge of captaincy, says Nasser Hussain in the Daily Mail.

In the Guardian, however, Mike Selvey writes there must be doubts about whether Cook will be able to raise his game to the level required to succeed.

Cook and his team have several questions to answer and Lawrence Booth, in the Daily Mail, lists them out.

Simon Hughes assesses Cook's performance as captain in the first ODI against Sri Lanka, in the Daily Telegraph.

Sri Lanka failed to challenge England's new boy in charge in the first one-dayer, but not many conclusions should be drawn from a confused night like that, says David Hopps, writing in the Guardian.

He claims he's always been "crap" at cricket, but knows exactly what makes cricketers desirable. Hollywood actor Hugh Grant, who participated in a charity cricket game last week, explains his relationship with cricket to George Parker in the Financial Times.

“I did play a few times for the first XI at school, but I disgraced the side,” he says. “I pretended to bat but couldn’t. I dropped catches – that was my speciality."

He grew up in an era when solid English batsmen like John Edrich and Geoff Boycott would grind out the runs, almost taking root in the dusty soil as they scrapped and prodded their way to big scores. Didn’t he find all that a bit boring? “No, I rather liked that,” he sighs.

In an interview with Mid Day, Martin Crowe speaks of the DRS impasse, the future of cricket and his decision to return to first-class cricket.

I initiated the creation of UDRS in 2007 while on the MCC World Committee due to my experience in TV. But DRS was always meant to have only one challenge, yet ICC started with three! Hot-Spot is instant and must be used; Snicko isn't ready for instant use and therefore can't be used. Hawkeye is 99.5 per cent accurate. It's all there to utilise, but ICC won't pay, and India won't play. It's quite petty really, and cricket loses out again. We are all tired of the grandstanding.

Alastair Cook begins his stint as full time ODI captain when England face Sri Lanka but there's much he needs to do in order to improve his record as a limited-overs batsman, says Derek Pringle in the Daily Telegraph.

The notion that an opener should anchor a one-day innings by batting through it probably still existed when he began his career but the widespread tactic now is to make hay during the power plays, a period English batsmen have been among the worst at exploiting. In any case, Jonathan Trott, England’s No3, has bagged the accumulator role, so Cook will have to play something other than Shylock if it is not to end badly.

In the Daily Mail, Stuart Broad reflects on the defeat to Sri Lanka in a game that marked the start of his Twenty20 captaincy.

Firstpost.com on Shyam Balasubramanian and Vijay Santhanam's book, The Business of Cricket: The Story of Sports Marketing in India, which talks about how, a few decades ago, Sunil Gavaskar was a unique phenomenon in India - a batsman-cum-entrepreneur.

There was one more reason Gavaskar captured the nation’s imagination. The 1970s was the era of the angry young man, with widespread frustration over the high unemployment rate, among other things. What the original angry young man, Amitabh Bachchan, was to Hindi cinema, Gavaskar was to cricket. He was the lone anti-establishment figure, irreverent and uncompromising, fighting to the last. His image was well-suited to the national mood of the times, when the country was looking to these anti-hero figures for some sort of respite.

Scyld Berry, in the Daily Telegraph, looks ahead to the ICC annual conference in Hong Kong and, in particular, the proposal to abolish fixed terms for ICC presidents and its implications.

Even Sepp Blatter puts himself up for automatic re-election occasionally. But India have introduced into cricket the concept of president-for-life — Jagmohan Dalmiya, after becoming the first Indian ICC president made himself president-for-life of the Bengal Cricket Association — and so world cricket might have one person in charge in perpetuity even if, like one or two ICC presidents, he does not know one end of a bat from the other.

Scyld Berry, in the Daily Telegraph, says ODIs, for England, have been the most problematic of the formats and it'll also be a major challenge for Alastair Cook who's taken over as captain in the 50-over version.

Cook also has to jump in at the deep end after having one hand tied behind his back: 50-over county cricket has been banned by the England and Wales Cricket Board. So Cook has had nowhere to practise the various areas in which he now has to excel if he is to lead England into the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

Barney Ronay, in the Guardian, says there was too much focus on Samit Patel's physique following his recall but his skills have been overlooked.

As Australia's chairman of selectors, Andrew Hilditch's decisions make or break careers. Yet he does not talk much to the media, remaining an enigma for the public which has targetted him as the panel's figurehead, writes David Sygall in the Sydney Morning Herald.

In academia, Andrew Hilditch was brilliant, earning a law degree and partnering at a legal practice. In his playing career, he earned respect for his persistence and achieved more than his talent promised. In his role as chairman of selectors, he has shown remarkable resilience, absorbing criticism his employer, Cricket Australia, claims has amounted to personal vilification.

In 2011, India are holders of the World Cup and No. 1 in Tests, but 40 years ago their fans had dubbed the team world champions for two away Test series victories, in the West Indies and England. In Outlook, Rohit Mahajan and Sugata Srinivasaraju reminisce about one of India's finest summers.

Among the seniors was Dilip Sardesai, who ate like a giant and always demanded room No. 8 in hotels; an abrasive and religious S. Venkataraghavan, who mouthed shlokas on the field and did not think twice before declining a gift of cigars from a personage no less than Gary Sobers; Abid Ali, who could bowl all day, bat with determination and gusto, and then ask the debutant to get the winning runs; four different types of spinners—B.S. Bedi, E.A.S. Prasanna, Venkat and B.S. Chandrashekhar—all unbelievably good, a group an English newspaper called “the most dangerous attack in contemporary cricket”

Stuart Broad's former mentor, Frank Hayes, remembers how, as a 12-year-old, England's new Twenty20 captain looked 'a natural'. He writes in the Guardian that Broad be an excellent appointment for England, provided he is true to himself.

The thing I always liked about Stuart was the way he worked things out for himself. He didn't captain the first team because there was another guy at the school around the same time who was a natural leader of men. But he would always be thinking batsmen out.

In his column in the Daily Mail Broad writes it will be key to stay as calm as possible. You have to have a plan in your mind when you're in the field but you also have to be adaptable.

Players need to know their roles and what is expected of them. We were predictable in the last World Twenty20 but we were unstoppable. We were a well-oiled unit and that's what I want us to be again.

England allrounder Samit Patel's recall to the national ODI side has prompted much discussion over his fitness state. So intense has been the focus on one man's unchiselled abs, observes Barney Ronay in the Guardian, it is almost tempting to wonder if there might be something else going on here.

If there is a coherent source for the rather unkind public debate over Patel's heft it is the England management's fixation with nurturing a pack-like sense of intimidatory conditioning, the relentless corporate identity that so thrillingly steamrollered the Australians in the winter

Patel may or may not make it as an England player, but determination cannot be measured by muscle tone alone and here is a man who is plump with acquired cricket knowhow.

New Zealand allrounder Scott Styris recently announced his retirement from international cricket. Writing in the Dominion Post, Jonathan Millmow says that just because Styris has retired let's not pretend he has been an angel. While he will be remembered as a competitive and effective batsman, throughout his 11 years he banged heads with most people he crossed and right till the end was telling folk how it should be.

It was never dull when Styris was around. He has been a polarising figure, both in cricketing circles and with the greater public. He grew sick of hearing about "the great team of the 80s", constantly felt hard done by at the hands of the selectors, and by the end of his career was trying to control how the media should operate. In short he could hit boundaries but didn't always know them.

Decent bloke. Unfailingly polite. Big family man. Hits the ball a long way. That's Ross Taylor, New Zealand's new captain for you, writes Mark Geenty in the Dominion Post.

Ever since he was confirmed Vettori's deputy, he's coveted the top job, even if it arrived sooner than he thought at 27 years and three months of age. He favours the Stephen Fleming style; stand at slip, go on a whim and tweak the field, an occasional trot for a word with the bowler.

Not prone to press conference rants, Taylor insists he can turn up the volume within the dressing room walls. ""When it's necessary it has to come out. There's no use ranting and raving every time. It dilutes the message. But when it's necessary, I won't mind doing it."

Lawrence Rowe had a stand named after him before the recent Test match between the West Indies and India at Sabina Park. Rowe took the opportunity to apologise for going on rebel tours of South Africa in 1982-83 and 1983-84. Another cricketer who went on the 1982 tour was Alvin Kallicharran, who never played for West Indies again. On his blog, He Tore a Hamstring, Kallicharran’s son Rohan launches a spirited and lengthy defence of his father’s actions, as well the others who went along, saying they did what they mainly to provide for their families and have nothing to apologise for because of it.

I take great umbrage with the statement that these men simply ‘sold out to the rand’ and that they just ‘went for money’. Do not get me wrong, I am not naive, and for each and every one of these players, money was a key aspect.

However, Kallicharran was not the only player to be mistreated by West Indian cricket. The likes of Collis King, Rowe himself, and Sylvester Clarke could all have been treated better. The simple fact is that they had to make a living, and the West Indies was not about to provide it.

In his blog entry, Rohan Kallicharran refers to this editorial from the Jamaica Gleaner, which questions the naming of a stand at Sabina Park after Rowe.

At his peak, Ian Botham was one of the best allrounders to ever play the game. He also lived life to the fullest off the field. In the Guardian, Mike Selvey wonders how Botham’s hard-charging lifestyle would have fit in with today’s emphasis on fitness and preparation, and whether Botham would have been able to adapt to meet those requirements.

It is 31 years now since Ian Botham produced what was then, and remains the most remarkable all-round performance in a history of Test cricket that will extend to 2,000 matches when England play India at Lord's in a few weeks time. In Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, Botham scored 114 in his only innings, sandwiched between bowling figures of six for 58 and seven for 48, or 13 for 106 in the match. In statistical terms, the performance itself is astonishing enough, but what makes it all the more remarkable is that it was achieved on the back of the most ferocious 48-hour bender that came in the aftermath of a particularly dismal tour of Australia, the sort of excessive indulgence, they say, that would have felled a rhinoceros.

Tom Alter, writing in Firstpost.com, says in the second innings of India's first Test against West Indies, Rahul Dravid played the way only a champion can play.

He has never missed a series for personal reasons – very seldom for injuries – he wicket-kept when the team needed him – he has taken catches others would not even have reached – he has always been there – always. And as Gambhir and Sehwag and Sachin and Zaheer and Yuvraj nurse injuries and egoes, he is still there – in the middle, doing his job, Gary Cooper at sundown.

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan, in his blog, says an ideal Dravid innings needs a most challenging pitch.

If it’s a batting beauty with the ball coming on to the bat, give me Sehwag or Laxman; if there’s a truly great array of bowlers set to be unleashed, give me Tendulkar. If it’s a minefield, give me Dravid. Great bowlers and a taut state of the match are a bonus.

It has been 15 years since Sourav Ganguly became the first Indian cricketer to score a century at Lord's on debut. In the Times of India Sumit Mukherjee gets Ganguly to look back on that knock.

When did he start thinking about the milestone? “Century was the last thing on my mind when I went in to bat. I was playing for the moment. I knew I had to score runs to keep my place in the next Test. Getting to my century was indeed a great feeling,” recalls Sourav, who cracked another century at Trent Bridge in the final Test.

Andy Bull, in his blog in the Guardian, says Sanath Jayasuriya's farewell games against England are an example of politics mixing with sport and his selection is unacceptable because he is an elected representative of a government that stands accused of war crimes in Sri Lanka.

There is no convincing case to be made for recalling Jayasuriya. It has been two-and-a-half years since he scored a century in any kind of cricket, and the fact that he has said he will play only in the first of the five ODIs against England is testament in itself that he is not coming back because he has the interests of the team at heart.

But even if there was any cricketing logic to his inclusion, his selection would still be unacceptable. Jayasuriya is an elected representative of a government who, according to a United Nations report published this April, could be responsible for the deaths of 40,000 Tamil citizens during the final campaign of the civil war in late 2008 and early 2009.

On a different note, Mike Selvey, in the same newspaper, says England's selection for the limited-overs series against Sri Lanka shows they have already started planning for the 2015 World Cup.

Now that the prolonged two-man race for the captaincy is finally over with the appointment of Ross Taylor, it is time for the team to unite and win some matches for New Zealand, says Logan Savory in the Southland Times.

For too many years, debates have raged over who gets on with who in the Black Caps, whether the power should lie with the players or the coach, and just what is the best makeup of the leadership group.

The first major challenge is two tests against Australia in Australia in December. New Zealand's leading players must front as a unit against the Australians and win some respect in international cricket circles – if they don't win the tests, they must at the very least take them into day five of the tests.

In the Dominion Post, Jonathan Millmow writes that though Taylor deserves space to grow into his new role, he remains a player first, and still has to work on his inconsistent batting.

Geoff Longley says in the Press that Brendon McCullum, who lost out to Taylor, should have been given the captaincy, given that he is in his prime.

With McCullum deciding to dispense with the gloves at test level, having the captaincy would have kept him fully involved in the field, although he will doubtless still be expected to be a senior figure for Taylor.

Now Taylor, almost four years his junior, comes in and there will have to be a settling-in phase for a player who is still fine-tuning his own game at the international level.

David Leggat, in the New Zealand Herald, says Ross Taylor is fortunate his first stint as full-time captain will be the tour of Zimbabwe, but could be pegged back if things go awry against Australia and South Africa after that.

Marcus Trescothick talks to Donald McRae, in the Guardian, about the illness that ended his England career and his enduring determination to be the best.

No song, and no string of words pieced together in his head, can help Trescothick when "the shiver" returns with inexplicable force. Then, he feels himself being pulled towards that terrifying vortex which once left him sobbing on the floor of Dixons at Heathrow. Trescothick has long been open and brave in detailing the extent of his past traumas; and yet it is a shock to hear his response after he is asked when last he felt the "shiver".

"Last week," he says. In the midst of his imposing form, with Trescothick batting as impressively as he ever did in his 76 Tests for England, you might expect the beast within to be muzzled. But his answer is a jolting reminder of how vigilant he needs to remain ... "You're always only one step away from it and that's why you need to maintain the good things in your life."

Rohit Sharma talks to Devendra Pandey, in the Indian Express, about his form in the recently-concluded ODI series in the Caribbean, dealing with success and the disappointment of not making India's World Cup squad.

I still have to learn how to convert my fifties into big ones. My priority as of now is to spend as much time as I can in the middle. That has always been my main area of concern, something I’ve struggled with in age-group cricket, during my India A days, and now with India ... Before leaving for the West Indies, Yuvraj Singh told me that my biggest test will come only after I taste success. Now that I’ve tasted it, I don’t want to let go. I don’t want to waste any more opportunities.

Rahul Dravid completes 15 years in Test cricket today (June 20). Sanjjeev K Samyal in the Hindustan Times tracks Dravid's journey.

"During the 1996-97 tour of South Africa, Rahul got a call that his father had to undergo a bypass surgery. It's tough to imagine what he was going through in that situation. We could make out that he was very disturbed but the way he separated personal turmoil from responsibility was amazing. He came out and played an extraordinary innings, hitting Allan Donald all over the park at the Wanderers, Johannesburg. Good news or bad news, he is able to shut out completely from the world. The ability to channel all that energy and focus on the thing you love is what makes Dravid so special," says Srinath.

In the Observer, Robert McCrum writes of Jonathan Smith, teacher and author, and father of former cricketer Ed Smith, and his book The Following Game, a deeply personal memoir centred on family and cricket.

As well as following his son's game, and teaching Vikram Seth, Smith can claim credit for the theatrical career of Dan Stevens, who recently starred as Matthew Crawley in Downton Abbey. One of the most arresting passages in The Following Game describes how the 14-year-old Stevens auditioned for a school production of Macbeth, expecting to be allocated the part of Macduff's son, or Fleance, and found himself playing the lead.

June 21 is the day it goes hilariously wrong for England on the field. Rob Smyth, in the Observer, chronicles some of England's miseries on that day in the years gone by.

England's performances on 21 June, particularly in the 1980s and 1990s, have generally been pitched somewhere between gentle self-deprecation and vile self-loathing – a quintessentially English comedy to sit proudly alongside Fawlty Towers and The Office. England have not played Test cricket on 21 June since 1998. A good job, too, because on that particular day they are pathologically incapable of being anything other than truly, madly, deeply inept.

Batsmen of Eoin Morgan's class should be aiming at making big hundreds and not finishing with pretty half-centuries, writes David Lloyd in the Independent.

As for this summer, well at least he is on the inside looking out, rather than the other way around. But thanks to Alastair Cook and Bell continuing to bat like princes, Jonathan Trott making a double hundred in Cardiff and Kevin Pietersen rediscovering his silver, if not quite golden, touch, Morgan has spent many an hour admiring his team-mates from the dressing-room balcony.

In the same newspaper, Will Hawkes looks back at Sky Sports' coverage of another rain-hit day, where the combination of bad weather and a deluge of stats made for a dull viewing experience.

Nasser Hussain, in the Daily Mail, says Morgan is the right man for the job in England's middle order, and the right pick ahead of Ravi Bopara.

Simon Hughes, in the Daily Telegraph, says Ian Bell's third Test century in five innings confirms he is a batsman at the peak of his powers.

Also in the Daily Telegraph, Nick Hoult writes that the Stuart Broad's fortunes should take a turn for the better when he begins his role as England's Twenty20 captain.

Inclusiveness - as we are seeing in England with matches in Cardiff and Southampton - is a good thing but doesn't necessarily do a good job of selling the spectacle of Test cricket, writes Ian Herbert in the Independent.

Cardiff, Chester-le-Street, Southampton – all fine places and there's something commendably inclusive about stadiums which place you so close to the action that you hear third man cursing the bowler's length. But intimacy is not the same as intensity. Dress up your stadium however you want – and the Emirates Durham ICG certainly sounds less genteel than the Riverside, Chester-le-Street – but it doesn't give it the aura that sends statisticians rooting for the record sixth-wicket stand on that turf or makes it an opener's dream to see his name on the honour board/

Writing in Jang, Saad Shaqat attempts to unravel how and why Pakistan have become the de facto bad boys of international cricket.

Australian icons Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh once bet against their own team at 500-to-1 odds, went on to lose the match (the famous Headingely Test of the 1981 Ashes series), and pocketed huge wads of cash. Shane Warne, another Australian icon, was found using a banned steroid, and also got into trouble sending unwanted text messages with lewd content. And let us not forget that Hansie Cronje -- the only player so far to have confessed to match-fixing in cricket -- was not a Pakistani but a South African.

Yet you don’t see Australia or South Africa derided as thieves or cheats, and the idea of suspending these teams from the ICC does not even remotely cross the mind. Cronje even died in mysterious circumstances when a chartered plane in which he was a passenger crashed inexplicably, but the matter was glossed over. Clearly, Pakistan is not the only international team to which bad things happen. But the stigma sits heavier on Pakistan.

The Times of India draws up their list of list of players who can either strum a guitar or ride the octave with the same felicity as essaying a cover drive or hurling a bouncer.

Brett Lee The Australian fast bowler is all set to release his first single with his new rock band, White Shoe Theory. Earlier the Kings XI Punjab player was part of the band, Six & Out, that also included his brother Shane. Lee can play both the bass and acoustic guitar and loves to jam with offie Jason Krejza. During the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy, he also recorded a duet with the legendary Asha Bhosle, “You’re the one For me”. It peaked at No 2 on the charts.

Verdict
Two stars out of five.

Graeme Swann The pugnacious 32-year-old offbreak bowler is the lead singer of a rather erotically named Nottingham-based band, Dr Comfort and the Lurid Revelations.

Verdict
Let us go by what fellow band member, former Nottinghamshire spinner Andy Afford, says about Swann: 60% frontman and 40% singer.

In New Zealand Herald Andrew Alderson writes that when New Zealand Cricket release their list of 20 centrally-contracted players, they are likely to look to future promise rather than past experience.

A quick tot up of domestic form and statistics, combined with the list of emerging players selected for New Zealand 'A' in their tournament in Australia in August suggests a few new contracts could be handed out.

The ranking decision is largely determined by 'gut feel'. Coach John Wright, stand-in national selection manager Mark Greatbatch and cricket director John Buchanan make their final call from what they have seen (Buchanan is more likely to facilitate this time around, given his recent arrival)

Former England captain Tony Greig talks to Vijay Tagore in the DNA on India's performance in West Indies so far, why the BCCI shouldn't resist the DRS and the merits and demerits of the IPL.

The official facts say there is an eight per cent improvement when DRS is used. It’s one decision in every innings. If that is the case, then I don’t understand why it is not adopted. India are standing in the way of it. There have been some suggestions that it is because of Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni. I have seen some quotes from N Srinivasan. No one can tell me if Srinivasan knows more about cricket than the ICC cricket committee, which includes people like Mark Taylor. That’s why I am calling for some sensible leadership from India.

Australia have lost cricketers who have retired early. Adam Gilchrist retired because of the IPL. Andrew Symonds left cricket early because of the IPL. There are a few guys from New Zealand. Definitely from Sri Lanka and the West Indies and it will get worse. We have to come up with a sensible argument to make sure that this tournament doesn’t turn out to be detrimental for world cricket.

Rahul Dravid is on his fourth Test tour of the West Indies. In an interview with the Deccan Herald, he speaks of India's new opening combination on the tour and his past experiences of playing in the Caribbean.

From a cricketing perspective, I was there as a youngster in 1997, and I am going back there now almost 14 years later. When I went there first, I was in awe of people like Ambrose and Walsh, and wondered if I could ever even face guys like that and how it would be like. And here we are today!

Moving to Test cricket, the spectators at the Rose Bowl had spent a fair amount to watch the ongoing contest between England and Sri Lanka but the rain and some rigid rules combined to give them a raw deal, writes Patrick Collins in the Mail on Sunday.

Scyld Berry, in the Daily Telegraph, slams the decision to take the tea interval just as bright sunshine broke out on a rain-hit day at the Rose Bowl.

The England-Sri Lanka Test could produce the slowest over-rate in the 134-year history of Test cricket - another worrying sign for the five-day game. Berry has more in the Daily Telegraph.

Chanaka Welegedera has had Andrew Strauss in trouble this tour, and that's part of a trend, says David Lloyd in the Independent on Sunday.

It is the captain's fallibility against left-arm pace that has attracted attention, mainly because one of the best of that particular breed, India's Zaheer Khan, will be shortly heading this way.

Paul Hayward, in the Guardian, echoes those thoughts.

Steve James, in the Daily Telegraph, however, says that Strauss's problem may not be as clear cut as many think.

What's holding back Stuart Broad? In comparison to the other England seamers this series, Broad has looked bland. Simon Hughes tries to figure out why, in the Daily Telegraph.

James Anderson has a couple of problems with the DRS, and though he is in favour of the system he has some observations and suggestions to improve its implementation. Read on in the Daily Mail.

Philip Robinson, in the Daily Mail, laments the sorry state of County cricket, which is strapped for cash and struggling with poor attendances.

Even with cost-cutting measures, Kent still loses about £500,000 a year. After it reduced the wage bill from £1.4 million per annum six players left, including fast bowler Amjad Khan. Radio Kent no longer broadcasts a live commentary from the ground, and the lime tree that lived inside the boundary in one corner of the pitch has died from heart rot. If this club were a dog, it would be on its last trip to the vet.

Shaun Marsh has scored only six centuries and averages below 40 in his Sheffield-Shield career of over 10 years. However, writes Jesse Hogan in the Sunday Age, on closer analysis, however, it is clear why the Australian selectors consider the uncomplicated left-hander a Test contender.

In three of the past four seasons he has averaged 60, albeit from limited appearances due to injury, and was in sparkling form for Western Australia before breaking down - again - on the eve of last summer's Ashes. There is also the matter of Marsh's extraordinary record in the Indian Premier League, in which he boasts a better average (51.26) than the world's most destructive Twenty20 batsman, Chris Gayle (50.24).

Marsh is proud of his IPL record, yet the importance he places on Twenty20 is negligible compared to the longest form of the game. It is there, he told The Sunday Age, he wants to finally make up for his years of underachievement - and, by doing that, earn a coveted baggy green cap

By losing the last two games of the ODI series against West Indies, India messed up a golden chance to take revenge for all the 5-0 hammerings they have received at the hands of the hosts, over the years, writes Suresh Menon. Was it complacency, lack of drive, poor leadership or something else, he asks in DNA.

Only in recent years have India shaken off the habit of losing the first Test in an away series. True, the team will be strengthened when Mahendra Singh Dhoni, VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid return to their posts, but they will find it that bit more difficult against a team that has been injected with a crucial dose of self-belief by India’s approach. And going by the manner in which the medium pacers have performed, the man who will be missed the most is Zaheer Khan.

At a recent corporate event in Mumbai, former coach of India Gary Kirsten, spoke about what defines MS Dhoni as a captain, why the need to give a sense of affirmation to Gautam Gambhir was crucial and what Sachin Tendulkar demanded of Kirsten. More in the DNA.

“I will never forget the first interaction I had with each player. Sachin said just one line — ‘I want you to be my friend’. It was a very powerful statement and only later did I understand it because you know when I look back, I felt ‘gee that’s easy, I can be a nice guy,’ but that’s not what he meant. He wanted me to be a genuine friend."

“One word that comes to my mind about Dhoni’s leadership is presence. I put the words — inspiration and presence — together, because I believe, I was in a position to inspire people through my work ethic whereas Dhoni was a leader for them through presence.

He may not be part of the national side, but Chris Gayle is doing his bit as a cheerleader, supporting West Indies from the stands. With the occasional bit of banter thrown in. Bharat Suderesan observes Gayle during the final ODI in Jamaica at his home ground. More from the Indian Express.

The closer the West Indies got to their target, the louder Gayle got. He continued to shout out advice towards his team mates batting in the centre. He jumped in ecstasy and cheered wildly following every boundary but hooted every time an Indian fielder stopped a ball. The self-imposed West Indian cheerleader was holding court, and his teammates too began to respond to it. More than once Marlon Samuels and Kieron Pollard lifted their bat towards the Mound stand and acknowledge Gayle’s support. That is before Samuels — also playing on his home ground — rushed towards the Mound once West Indies had sealed the match and jumped over the fence to shake hands — almost a la Pat Cash — with his long-time team mate and friend.

With the Test series in West Indies round the corner VVS Laxman speaks to the Atreyo Mukhopadhyay in the the Hindustan Times about he rates the current West Indian side, how being named the Test vice-captain will impact him, and the role of the seniors within the side.

Transition or no transition, the seniors generally have a crucial role to play. And it's not restricted to international cricket only. I gained a lot from interacting with my seniors in Hyderabad and Lancashire . Obviously, a lot depends of how receptive you are. If you are receptive enough, you will always gain by interacting with seniors.

They [West Indies] are short on experience. When I played there for the first time, in 1997, they had strong fast bowling attack of Curtley Ambrose, Franklyn Rose and Ian Bishop. Even compared to the team we played in 2006, the current lot is inexperienced. Having said that, there is no denying that there is a fair amount of talent in this team as well.

Eighteen-year-old fast bowler Patrick Cummins is hot property. He is the youngest player ever to receive a Cricket Australia contract, and is being touted as the most exciting fast bowler to emerge since Brett Lee. However, as Malcolm Conn in the Daily Telegraph reports, he is also at the centre of a brawl between CA and New South Wales over how to manage him.

It didn't help that Cummins, then 17, bowled 65 overs in the Sheffield Shield final last March against Tasmania and subsequently developed stress-related hot spots in his back. He has been ruled out of this month's Australia A tour of Zimbabwe but will begin bowling soon in preparation for the summer.

Cricket NSW chief executive Dave Gilbert yesterday conceded that his state must take special care of a special talent who can bowl at 145km/h."The challenge for all of us is that we look after him and keep him on the paddock," Gilbert told the Daily Telegraph. "We all look back and cringe with the way in which we did that in the Shield final. For him to bowl 65 overs in the Shield final was wrong and we certainly learnt from that. That sort of situation will never happen again."

Ricky Ponting spoke to Jesse Hogan, of The Age, about how he is adjusting to life after captaining Australia for so many years. Here's an anecdote from Australia's tour of Bangladesh, Ponting's first series after his resignation.

''I wasn't told that I wasn't in the leadership group any more, basically,'' he told The Saturday Age this week. ''We had the first meeting of the tour … it was about 3 o'clock in the afternoon and I was ringing around trying to get the coach or manager to find out if I was expected to be there. I couldn't get in touch with them … so I just went down and pulled the door open and they were sitting in there.

''Of course, everyone came and apologised later saying, 'We should have let you know'. It wasn't that I was [expecting to be included], I just didn't want to be doing the wrong thing … for a meeting I might have supposed to have been in.''

Rain played spoilsport on the opening day of the third Test between England and Sri Lanka, allowing only 38 overs to be bowled. But that was enough for Mike Selvey, who writes in the Guardian that the Rose Bowl appears to have all the attributes required of a viable Test ground.

Busiest of all the Hampshire stalwarts was Nigel Gray, 21 years with the club and now the head groundsman. Back and forth went the covers. The first time they were removed there was some consternation. The strip was barely distinguishable from the rest of the square it was so green. After the mower had set to work the shade lightened considerably but still there was no agonising for Strauss once he had won the toss.Gray's pitch was impressive. The club and the groundsman could have played safe by producing one of those "chief executive" wickets, guaranteed to last five days, low in bounce and a friend to the batsmen. The temptation is always there to provide a surface guaranteed to produce play – and income – on every day (weather permitting).

In the Independent, David Lloyd says Hampshire chairman Rod Bransgrove remained cheery despite the damp opening day.

For Bransgrove, though, the moment of truth (and, no doubt, of huge relief) occurred shortly beforehand when the Hampshire chairman stepped forward to clang the five-minute bell on the pavilion balcony. The sun was breaking through, players on both sides were completing their pre-match preparations and nothing now could stop a dream from being realised.

Viv Richards talks to the Guardian about batting without a helmet, the state of West Indies cricket, and defending Ian Botham in frisky Taunton nightclubs.

I didn't wear a helmet because I wanted to show that the bowler wasn't intimidating me, and also that's just the way I liked to bat. I'm not here to say anyone should do the same. He's got to do whatever he wants. But the bowling was maybe more hostile in our time. You could bowl more than two bouncers in an over. And it's not just helmets, all the padding and the equipment, the gloves has got much better. That's a good thing. But back in my time the batsman had to be really brave.

The annual trans-Tasman series, which has produced several memorable games in the format of cricket most often criticised, is in jeopardy, says Geoff Longley, writing in the Dominion Post.

Much has been made in recent years of the overkill of the 50-over game, the number of meaningless matches played and the impact that the arrival of T20 has had on the limited-over game with many fearing for its future. Yet with the New Zealand v Australia rivalry, here was a short, sharp series with drama aplenty on both sides of the Tasman.

Many of the matches have been memorable encounters. Who can forget Mathew Sinclair's searing one-handed boundary-riding catch in Melbourne in the opening game in 2004. Then there was Chris Harris, playing his 250th match, batting No11 with a badly damaged arm trying to steer New Zealand through to an unlikely win in the next game.

Labour disputes currently threaten to derail the seasons of two out of the four major sports in the United States. With this potential sports void looming, Michael Schur and Nate DiMeo decide to watch the World Cup semi-final between India and Pakistan on DVD to see if cricket could fill the hole in their sports lives. On Grantland.com, they provide a rather funny blow-by-blow account of their experience.

Shahid Afridi, we learn for some reason right now, is the leading wicket-taker in the tournament. I am suddenly overcome with a wave of love for Shahid Afridi. All of his demonstrative nonsense suddenly feels like intensity to me. All of his cajoling and firing up of his teammates seems both warranted and necessary, in a game that moves this slowly, yet has this much at stake, national-identity-wise. He has a kind of universal athlete intensity gene which I admire. I know nothing of the man, really. He might be a terrible person, or a tax cheat, or a serial adulterer, but at work, the man wants to win, and his team is not really helping out.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, I am very much rooting for Pakistan. I want to see Shahid Afridi happy.

Chris Gayle and the West Indies board are locked in battle with neither side willing to back down. Simon Katich has slammed Cricket Australia for dropping him, while the BCCI are adamant that the DRS will never be used in any series that requires them to accept it. The problem, writes Makarand Waingankar in the Hindu, is that the game is being overtaken by big egos that are more concerned with their own interests than the larger picture.

And when John Hampshire, the first Englishman to score a century on debut at Lord's in 1969 against the mighty West Indians was dropped after the next match, he preferred to accept the decision of the selectors rather than call for a big press conference like Katich did by blasting all and sundry.

A glance through the records of Wisden and there are dozens of cases of players who had genuine reasons for hitting back at the selectors but unlike Katich none of them did.

Amid all the noise about Simon Katich's removal from the Cricket Australia contracts list, the national selectors have found some support from seasoned voices. Patrick Smith, writing in The Australian, makes his own case against Katich's retention, while also citing that of Robert Craddock, the long-time cricket writer for News Ltd Group.

If we take the rules of selection and run them over the case for Katich, we come up with this: his international career was waning. Katich's Test average quoted by Craddock over the past three series was running well below his overall mark of 45. With an obligation to both pick for the present and build for the future, Katich, at 35, was vulnerable. He was the obvious choice of the veterans because the selectors had no young solid middle-order batsmen screaming for attention, but they did have Hughes, a scorer of two centuries in 10 Tests with an average just short of 40.

India's intransigence to the UDRS is likely to prove self-defeating against England's Graeme Swann later this summer, says Mike Selvey, writing in the Guardian.

None of this will please England, and maybe Dhoni, shrewdly in his mind, sees it that way, for one player beyond all has reaped most consistent benefit from it – Graeme Swann ... Swann gorges himself on the readiness of umpires to give lbws where once they were reluctant. Tracking has changed their perception of what is permissible. Almost 30% of 138 wickets have come from lbw. With left-handers alone it is beyond that.

Here is the rub, though. Umpires will still give Swann his lbws because that is how they think. But Dhoni's intransigence on this matter means that his team will have no recourse to challenge that. It is something he might regret.

Steve Harmison, dubbed "Nasser Hussain's white West Indian" by Steve Waugh during the 2002-03 Ashes tour, remains the only England bowler to top the ICC's Test bowling rankings since the system was established in 1987 and before the ratings were applied retrospectively to mark every player in Test history. He provided of great moments before his sudden decline writes Rob Bagchi in the Guardian.

And yet for all England's success without him there is a sense of waste. Courtney Walsh took 297 Test wickets after his 32nd birthday, Sir Richard Hadlee 252, Glenn McGrath 186 and Curtley Ambrose, the bowler Harmison at his best most resembled, 147. He said last year that if his England career was over, he at least had the memories. So have we, Steve. So have we.

Bryce McGain, the former Australian Test legspinner, uses a column in The Drum to explain why he thinks the removal of Simon Katich from the list of Cricket Australia contracts was "unfathomable".

The Australian cricket team is not an AFL, NRL, or rugby team. No salary cap, no draft, no other artificial competition restrictions with the objective to creating an even competition, so therefore no performance cycles, no rebuilding cycles or youth policies required - just a simple pinnacle of the best 11 players from all the 550,000 cricket participants in Australia. The Australian cricket team is simply about playing the best players who are in form and for Simon Katich not to be acknowledged in the best 25 cricketers in our nation is unfathomable.

Over the last few years, James Anderson has emerged as England’s key strike bowler, but it wasn’t always clear whether he would be up for the job. In the Independent, David Lloyd explains that Anderson is now a different man on the field, even if he still retreats into his shell when faced with the press.

"I'm a different bloke when I've not got these things [tape recorders] and you guys in front of me," said Anderson with a smile when asked to explain his personality changes. And so he is, clearly. It was obvious to everyone that England missed their most experienced bowler during the drawn Lord's Test. But, perhaps less evident, the side strain that prevented Anderson from facing Sri Lanka also deprived Stuart Broad, Chris Tremlett and Steve Finn of someone who has become a guiding light in the pace union.

In the Guardian, Andy Bull looks back at one of the more well-known sentences in world cricket: “You’ve just dropped the World Cup”. Both Steve Waugh and Herschelle Gibbs have since said those weren’t Waugh’s exact words, and Bull attempts to uncover how and why the myth took flight.

It is easy to imagine how he allowed the press to run with the idea that he told Gibbs that the catch had cost his team the World Cup. "I liked the quote," he said later, "I think it is quite funny." It added to his aura, suggesting that he had such granite-willed self-belief in his own ability that he could predict Australia's eventual victory even though they weren't even in the semi-finals yet. And, of course, it suggested that he had a certain mastery over South Africa in particular, that contests between the two would, inevitably, be bent to his will.

Kieron Pollard tells John Sarkar, writing in Mail Today, about his fitness regime, and, among other things, how fatherhood has changed his approach to batting.

Pollard understands that in his business, the difference between success and failure is a fit body and mind. He is almost brutal in his training, spending an extra hour or two at the nets long after his team mates are back in the dressing room. He focuses on practical skills, not mirror muscles. “ Optimal fitness is not about sporting a six pack. They only look good on TV or the beach,” he says. “ I concentrate on what I need. A lot of sprints for speed, with timers. I try to improve on my times. For agility, I do shuttles with turning, staggered running and instant changes of directions.”

Christina Hoag, writing for the Associated Press, tells us about 'the Homies and the Popz', Compton Cricket Club's talented team. The first team from the US to tour Australia, they hail from a city on Los Angeles' southern border known more for gangsta rap and gang shootings. Check out the video here.

Compton Cricket Club players have sipped tea with Prince Edward at Buckingham Palace, played against Aborigines in the Australian outback, and swapped stories of violence-torn neighborhoods with residents of Belfast. At home, though, it's another story ... Several players sport tattoos saying "cricket outta Compton" and "from gats to bats" ("gats" is street slang for guns). The team raps cricket-themed songs titled "Shots" and "Bullets". A couple players have served jail terms. One missed the Australian trip because he was on parole. Another was killed in a driveby shooting.

The game's etiquette has helped them mature beyond the confines of urban street culture ... The Cazarez brothers, whose third brother Jesse was killed in the driveby, said the sport's emphasis on accepting the umpire's call helped them cope. "If something doesn't go your way, keep your head high and just go with it," said Ricardo Cazarez, 26. "Life's not fair sometimes".

Graeme Swann might just be the best spinner in the game today. In this interview in the Telegraph, dishes on how the DRS has helped him take wickets, batting down the order, and how Andrew Strauss, Alistair Cook and Jonathon Trott are a cure for insomnia.

“I’m not a great watcher but when those three are batting my God I struggle to keep my eyes open,” he said. “I adore the fact they love batting but I would happily pay to watch an Ian Bell, or Matt Prior.

"I always watch KP as well but Cook, Strauss and Trott, if there is an uglier top three in the world I don’t know of it. But they are amazing and I would not change any of it.

After a decade spent trying to obtain elite status for the Hampshire venue, Andy Wilson writes in the Guardian that the excitement is close to fever pitch as the Third Test between Sri Lanka and England - the first ever at the Rose Bowl - draws closer.

"It's going to be amazing really, somewhat dream-like," Bransgrove said as he made late checks before young Tremlett and the other players arrive for this morning's official practice sessions. "The more I am asked to speak about it, the more overwhelming it seems to be getting. It is a combination of excitement with trepidation, not just for me but all the other people who have worked towards this day, because it has been very much a team effort at Hampshire. I'm sure we will enjoy it, but we will also be relieved when it's all over next Monday night."

Craig Kieswetter appeared very much a work in progress in his fledgling international career, writes Barney Ronay in The Guardian. But an "impressively focused and ambitious young cricketer" re-jigged both his batting and his wicketkeeping over the winter with the help of former England players Graham Thorpe and Bruce French and has stated his ambition to become England's first-choice keeper in all formats.

At the age of 23, Kieswetter has carved out a niche as a notably fast-forward kind of cricketer, not just in his batting style but in the content-rich detail of his tyro career to date. In the last five years, he has played representative cricket for South Africa and England, rejected the country of his birth, been picked and then dropped by England's one-day selectors, remodelled his game at least once and earned a distinction unmatched by any cricketer in England's history: a man-of-the-match award from the final of an ICC trophy, in which his team were victorious.

There is a lot of cricket in southwestern Connecticut, says Cathryn J Prince, writing in Darien.patch.com. She catches up with some of the locals who are fascinated by the sport and gives us a glimpse into life on the pitches of Fairfield County.

Peter Smith, 14, started playing in sixth grade after watching Lagaan, a sports-themed Bollywood movie, in school for a unit on India. “I’ve always been interested in British sports,” Peter said. Smith immersed himself in the sport by watching YouTube. Then he organised a few foreign-born students — kids from India, England, and Guyana — to play at recess. At home in Oxford he plays on a homemade pitch and travels hours to find teams to play on.

...There are many reasons players play. Part of the attraction for [Neil] Kimberly is the intellectual challenge. “There is certainly a degree of fascination with it. It has a certain mystique with it—all these players dressed in white,” Kimberly said. “There is also an assumption that it’s a slow moving game. But it’s an interesting combination of baseball and chess.”

Bat-maker James Laver of Laver & Wood talks extensively to PakPassion.net about how the timber's grain effects a bat's lifespan, the Mongoose and, among other things, how picky Sanath Jayasuriya could be when it comes to his bats.

Essentially it comes down to the fact that tightly grained bats (12 or more) perform better initially but do not last as long. Bats with what we refer to as the optimum number (7 to 10) last much longer. This is important for our bats as they are known to continually improve over time. Obviously, the longer a bat lasts, the more opportunity it has to develop. Therefore tightly grained clefts may perform well to begin with but after half a season or so bats with fewer grains will begin to out-perform them.

...One of the pickiest was certainly Sanath Jayasuriya. I made a bat for him in 1998, which lasted him roughly four hours and 200 runs! Ever since then he was insistent on making every bat I made for him as close as possible to that specific one. It was difficult at times to get the bats identical but I enjoyed the challenge.

Tony Cozier, writing in Nation News, says it's necessary for the WICB and Chris Gayle to grow up and sort out their ridiculous differences, while, among other things, West Indian cricket sorts out it's selection woes.

The upshot [of some wild shots by set West Indies batsmen in the second ODI] was another loss, not because this weakened Indian team is any better but because of rank carelessness. It is a recurring theme. It hasn’t been helped by the present dearth of players capable of scoring a hundred – or, in the present West Indies context, even 50 – and reaping five or four wickets in an innings.

"People say, 'Pull yourself together, move on'. I wish that it was that simple. You try and forget, but it [depression] takes over your whole life," Lou Vincent tells Will Hawkes in an interview in the Independent. It's a battle Vincent is winning at present, but something he has to keep working at, he says.

"Getting away from the game was the right thing at the time, but, to be honest, things got worse and worse," he says ... Vincent took on some building work, working on a friend's home, before he got a job tiling at the new BBC site in Salford ... "After the 160th apartment I did at the BBC, I felt like 'I'm not really sure this is fulfilling my life'," he says. "But I did some more building work, more small stuff: I was digging a hole about a metre deep, I was halfway through it in the pissing rain and I thought – 'I'll just jump in the hole myself, this is not that great'."

A friend arranged for Vincent to return to New Zealand and play in Auckland. It proved to be a turning point. "I was like 'no way', but I went," he says. "When I got there I had to borrow pads, a bat, the gloves, I had two left shoes! I went to the training session, and I kept missing the ball. I was in tears: 'What am I doing? This is so embarrassing.'

Looking back on Kevin Pietersen's tenure as England captain, team-mate and England fast bowler James Anderson observes, in his column in the Mail on Sunday that Pietersen is actually much better suited to having a smaller but still important leadership role within the team, without the extra pressure of captaincy.

Perhaps the biggest lesson the experience has taught him is the value of team spirit and togetherness. His period in charge under the new coach Peter Moores was not a great time for the team; there were some big characters, big egos and big opinions in the dressing room. To me, too many people were bothered about who was the coach when they should have been focusing on performances on the field.

While he will probably say different, there may have been a time in the past when Kevin was possibly not the perfect team player. He still has a big voice in the dressing room but these days he is a strong team man. What's more, when he's with us, there is no 'brand' in sight.

In his fifteenth year in international cricket, VVS Laxman talks to Lokendra Pratap Sahi about his goals for the upcoming season, how he aims to improve his game and why he is still hungry for runs. Here's more from the Telegraph.

What’s the No.1 challenge in 2011?

To be consistent, to do my bit in the big Test series’... In the West Indies, in England and in Australia... Hopefully, I’ll be able to produce match-winning performances... I haven’t got a hundred in England, so there’s a small personal goal I’d like to achieve during the four-Test series.

Raising the bar entails...

You’ve got to have goals, you’ve got to look forward to something... I’d like to improve the conversion rate of 50s to 100s... Last year, I had seven 50s, but only two 100

Despite his successes the criticisms against Alastair Cook are harsh, rather like picking fault with a thread in the Bayeux tapestry - but they are being made. And it is to Cook’s credit that he was still willing to address them honestly observes Steve James in the Sunday Telegraph.

Talking of right decisions, there are those who feel Cook should not even be in the one-day side, let alone be captain. There are some who worry that it might affect his Test-match game. "I think it will actually help me expand my game," he says. "They are separate skills, but that is one of the challenges for a batter. I’ve got no fear of going in at the top order and not scoring quickly enough. I think I can do that."

It is praiseworthy to create something out of nothing - in the Rose Bowl’s case, to make the 10th Test ground in England and Wales out of what was a hillside farm, writes Scyld Berry in the Sunday Telegraph. Where cattle grazed 15 years ago, Chris Tremlett will at fine-leg when the third Test against Sri Lanka starts on Thursday.

At the same time, however, English cricket will move another step away from our inner cities, on a course which will take it - unless arrested - from being an urban to a suburban sport. While the cars drive into the Rose Bowl through the only entrance (mercifully, there is now a second exit), youngsters in Leeds will be less interested in cricket than they would have been if there had been a Test this year at Headingley.

Whatever happens on the pitch at the Rose Bowl this week it is a something of a triumph for Rod Bransgrove, the chairman and chief executive of Hampshire CCC, that a Test match is taking place there at all writes Vic Marks in the Observer.

So this Test match should be a celebration, although this was not reflected by the mundane but useful content of the latest email to emanate from Hampshire CCC, which reads "Transport Options Increased for England's Rose Bowl Test". The Rose Bowl has always been a bit of a bottleneck and in one sense those at the club will be hoping that this issue resurfaces this week. At least a transport problem will mean that there are plenty of people in attendance.

"If the BCCI refuse to concede [to use DRS], they must be told to. The regulations governing cricket must be standard and mandatory. Why must we wait for consensus, a majority is enough. Governments around the world work to that principle, surely cricket can too," writes Gaurav Kalra for IBNLive.

Its ironic but even among senior Indian players there are vehement supporters of UDRS. Virender Sehwag is one and his logic is compelling. I asked him after the world cup if his support for UDRS had dwindled since both in the semi-final and final he referred his lbw decisions, and was proven wrong both times! Sehwag answered that on the contrary he was an even bigger supporter because at-least 'he got a chance' to question the decision. I asked him if Sachin Tendulkar was a convert after he escaped what appeared to be a plumb lbw to Ajmal in the semi-final. And he cheekily answered, 'You will have to ask Tendulkar'!

Michael Clarke, the Australian captain, talks to Malcolm Conn in the Daily Telegraph about leadership, his pre-season training regimen, and the sins of the 2008 Sydney Test match against India.

Players and administrators from both sides disgraced themselves and the International Cricket Council reinforced its utter incompetence when an ugly Sydney Test finished with a racial abuse hearing involving Andrew Symonds and Harbhajan Singh. Clarke was a central figure in the match and admits his behaviour contributed to its degeneration.

As Sri Lanka move towards the climax of the Test series against England, their interim coach, Stuart Law, is finding it ever more difficult to watch from the wings, says Simon Briggs, writing in the Daily Telegraph.

“It’s very painful,” he [Stuart Law] says. “You say your piece to the team, you try to instill confidence in them but I’d rather be able to show them — to say ‘watch me’. That’s what I tried to do as a senior player.” Evidently Law is still learning about the peculiar limbo occupied by the cricket coach — that unfortunate soul who must bowl every ball and play every shot from his vantage point on the pavilion balcony.

From Javed Miandad's audacious bullying of Essex, to a gritty Nasser Hussain ton, Rob Bagchi and Rob Smyth, writing in the Guardian, pick half a dozen knocks to savour.

In a sense, all batsmen are doomed. They walk to the crease knowing that their innings is finite, and that it could end at any moment. It takes a very special person to relish that situation, but that's how Javed Miandad played. He had the mentality of a fugitive, content to live on his wits no matter how great the risks. In fact, he needed those risks in order to thrive.

Once the powerhouse of Indian domestic cricket, Mumbai seem to have lost their edge, says Taus Rizvi, writing in DNA India.

Once upon a time they (state teams) used to shudder at the thought of having to play against Mumbai. Such was the way the 39-time Ranji Trophy champions dominated the psyche of their opponents. However, the Indian cricketing powerhouse has started losing its grip and fear factor as well.

Former India bowler Balwinder Singh Sandhu, in an interview with Gautam Sheth in the same paper, says Mumbai had a dry last season because the team took things for granted.

In the afterglow of his Test debut, Usman Khawaja could have taken the popular road to India and accepted a gilt-edged IPL contract. In stead he thought about what he needed to do next and headed to Derbyshire, says Chloe Saltau, writing in the Saturday Age.

As comfortable as he [Khawaja] looked against England's fast bowlers, and as much fun as he had, he felt inexperienced. He knew ... his cricket education was incomplete. He went to English county Derbyshire to fill in some gaps. ''When I played for Australia I qualified to go over and I thought it would be silly of me not to take the opportunity because I could play against different players on different surfaces with different balls, a whole new style of cricket,'' Khawaja told The Saturday Age.

He likes to solve problems; a skill some older figures in Australian cricket believe is uncommon among the country's younger batsmen. It suggests, too, that Khawaja will demand the same excellence of himself as he builds a cricket career as he did when he was studying for a bachelor of aviation and learning to fly commercial planes. ''Flying is the kind of thing, you need to have your head on. When I did do it I was fully into it and I was switched on. Now, everything is cricket.''

A decline in the standards of play and the WICB being at war with its players have reduced the series in the Caribbean to a mockery of sorts, says Pradeep Magazine, writing in Hindustan Times.

Is it fatigue that is driving fans away from the ongoing India-West Indies series or is this a manifestation of a much larger malaise afflicting international cricket at the moment? Hard to say, especially when even the quality of cricket on display is, to use a mild word, poor. You rub your eyes first in disbelief and then in anguish while watching the West Indian bowlers turn their arms and bowl at a speed that would embarrass even the "worst" medium pace bowlers of the world. Is this the same team which, once upon a time, sent shivers down the spines of the best of batsmen?

Glenn Turner axing from the national selection panel is New Zealand's loss, says Jonathan Millmow, writing in the Dominion Post. Turner is not everyone's cup of tea, says Millmow, but if New Zealand are have the right players on the park for each series, then he should be in the mix.

Turner has always been his own man. He has little time for emotion and fanfare and absolutely no desire to establish any sort of relationship with the players or for that matter administrators. If the players want a pat on the back then Turner is the last person they should seek out, but if they want a lesson on technique and common sense he should be among the first. When Turner talks cricket, people listen.

Kieron Pollard is at once a struggling cricketer and hot property. His experiences will help to determine whether Twenty20 is a breakthrough, as supporters insist, a popular form of the game capable of unleashing exciting new talents or a distraction creating not greatness but its illusion, writes Peter Roebuck in the Hindu.

Pollard is still learning the game. His Test and ODI returns are modest. He has abundant promise and spasmodic delivery.

And yet Pollard can become a formidable cricketer. He has a rare gift. Just that he needs to tighten his technique. And that means working on his back foot game not his ‘dilscoop'.

Hamish McDonald, of The Age, takes a straight drive to Bowral, the childhood home of Australia's most famous cricketer, and visits the Bradman museum.

In a small room is a replica of the corrugated-iron water tank against which the boy Bradman used to hit a ball with a stump, honing his lightning reflexes as the ball bounced back at random angles. You can try it yourself with a ball and stick provided. There are photographs of the humble cottages of his parents, his beginnings in club cricket, the international career interrupted by war and the triumphant return in 1948 with the England tour of the "Invincibles", the first Australian team to return from the old country undefeated in any of their 34 games (25 wins, nine draws).

There were three old fogies in the Australian set-up, writes Peter Roebuck in The Age, a former captain and great batsman, another batsman in terrific form, and Simon Katich. The selectors felt the need to blood someone young, so it was Katich who had to go.

More troubling than the decision itself, though, is the explanation provided. Australia has no business talking about the 2013 Ashes. Instead, the think tank ought to be focusing on succeeding in Sri Lanka and South Africa and then welcoming and subduing India, the world's best team. A tough summer lies ahead, and it's foolish to look too far ahead. It's also a throwback. The Ashes are no longer the benchmark. The other disconcerting aspect of Katich's dumping is the lack of emerging players pressing for places. Promise does not butter the bread. That an accomplished player approaching the end of his career has been dropped a year ahead of schedule is nothing new. Sportsmen and selectors are always falling out about that last year. Far more alarming is the lack of proven replacements. Australia has become obsessed with scoring rates. Alastair Cook has reminded the cricket community of the value of a tried and trusted opener.

In the Trinidad Express, Sheila Rampersad recounts the initial optimism West Indian fans felt on the morning of each of the first two ODIs against India, and then the inevitable and familiar disappointment.

The weather was glorious in spells; so was the West Indies. Monday morning, old timers at the Queen's Park Oval for the first ball at 9 o'clock, people from far far like Moruga driving to town early early, not only because of the distance but because that's just the way they are, merciful sun shining over the field, the stands creating a shadow ring over the boundary, Indian opening batsman Dhawan strolling to take his position in the little shade in front Republic Bank stand, no noise yet from those Trini Posse party people, the Oval still sober, and it seemed, on a day that starts like that, nothing could go wrong.

But much did.

The footnotes of sporting history are laden with seemingly absurd excuses that might in fact be the plain truth, says Matthew Norman, writing in the Daily Telegraph.

When another tennis player, Richard Gasquet of France, blamed his positive cocaine test on being contaminated by a woman he snogged in a Miami bar, everyone ridiculed him. But forensic tests bore his account out to the satisfaction of the ATP.

All in all, then, the inadvertent ricochet theory, be it bat or glove or some mystical combination of the two (where the hell is Hawk-Eye when you need it?), demands the benefit of the doubt; and that Matt should petition the Court of Arbitration for Sport to overrule his ICC reprimand. The anecdotal evidence in his favour is overwhelming. Given how he kept wicket in the second Test, after all, is this a man who can honestly be trusted to judge a bounce of any kind?

A line of succession has been seemingly ordained in English cricket, observes Stephen Brenkley in the Independent: Andrew Strauss is the Test captain and when he abdicates, the job will pass on to Alastair Cook, with Stuart Broad the next nomination. However, in the past few months another member of the England team is laying claim to consideration.

It is not only Ian Bell's stature as a batsman that has altered. The view of him as a smart, intelligent cricketer who understands the nuances of the game, is tactically aware and bursting with ideas has gained in popularity.

There will probably be no change for two or three years, though sporting events can move rapidly. Cook is the intended successor, but he should not be anointed yet.

S Dinakar, writing in the Hindu, catches up with Carl Hooper and relives his classy brand of batsmanship.

Over the last 20 years, four exceptional right-handers have batted with the lazy elegance of a natural left-hander. They are Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mark Waugh, VVS Laxman and Carl Hooper ... Numbers would never tell the real Hooper story. He was a charmer at the crease, someone who would conjure his runs rather than construct his innings.

Going back to his playing days, Hooper said Wasim Akram and Abdul Qadir were the toughest bowlers he faced. “Akram was sharp, could bowl over and round the wicket with great control, swing and reverse swing the ball, and seamed it around too. Qadir had a bag of tricks as a leg-spinner, every delivery in the over would be different. Shane Warne bowled with great accuracy and had a terrific leg-spinner, but Qadir had more variety.”

On June 10, 1991 England completed their first Test win at home over West Indies in 22 years with a 115 run-win at Headingley. Mike Selvey in the Guardian revisits that victory and looks at the performance of one of the chief architects of that victory, Graham Gooch, who made a heroic second-innings bat-carrying 154.

He was a giant of a batsman and 20 years ago on Thursday he completed a giant of an innings, an effort so monumental that it deserves to be ranked not just as the finest innings ever played by an England captain, or even the finest by an England batsman, but perhaps one of the truly great innings of all time

Yuvraj Singh's - the player of the tournament in India's recent World Cup triumph - story is about resonance of success even though his mistakes continue to haunt him. Vijay Lokpally in the Hindu catches up with Yuvraj as he is recuperating from a chest infection, hoping to recover in time for the England series.

“When you are young, you are vulnerable. You don't listen to elders. As you grow, you understand life better. Criticism hurt a lot when I was young. Not anymore. I understand it is part and parcel of the game. But I welcome matured criticism.”

It is strange. The more I yearn for Test cricket the more it eludes me. I am hopeful to make it to the Test team for England. I am working to be fit and hopefully I'll get an opportunity. I want to do well in Test cricket.”

Former Bangladesh coach Jamie Siddons - who has been put in charge of New Zealand domestic side Wellington - talks to Mark Getty, writing in Stuff.co.nz, about living the comfortable life in Bangladesh and taking the team forward, among other things.

Siddons always felt safe in the cricket-mad nation, even if the post of Bangladesh coach ranks somewhere just below prime minister. He was feted often, abused little. There was plenty of advice from the punters, but it was generally good natured.

His main annoyance was the sport's politics, where some in high places boasted zero cricketing knowledge. "Some of the decisions that get made aren't quite from a cricket viewpoint." On the field, losing was a habit, so Siddons was starting low. "I was with the team two weeks before we went to New Zealand and we got smashed in most games and embarrassed in a couple as well. Their skill level was nowhere near international standard. I had just come from the Australian team and I knew exactly the difference, which was huge ..."

In the Australian, Peter Lalor argues that Andrew Hilditch and his selection panel must be held accountable for their decisions over the past few years, including the axing of Simon Katich. The argument that Katich won't be around for the 2013 Ashes is nonsense, Lalor suggests, given how well the older Sachin Tendulkar is playing at the moment.

Planning for the Ashes? How would you do that? Maybe you would get a guy like Hauritz and play him for two straight years - as they plan to do with the Katich replacement. Oh, but hang on, the selectors lost their bottle and dropped him on the eve of the first match. Remember they had named a squad of 17? One more player and they could have played summer AFL. That was understandable as Doherty was apparently your man. Well, he was until they lost their nerve with him too. That move didn't turn out well so it was announced that Michael Beer was your man for a Perth wicket. Hilditch said as much. He didn't play in Perth. Nor Melbourne. But he got a look in at the SCG.

Michael Vaughan leads a two-hour discussion on BBC radio on stress-related illness in cricket, examining what causes it and what the game can do to reduce its prevalence. Among his guests are former England opener Marcus Trescothick, whose international career came to an end due to stress-related illness.

Ian Bell's contributions are often overlooked, but according to Andy Bull in the Guardian, no player does more than Bell to adapt his batting style to suit the needs of the England team.

England were 22 for three [in the second Test], Strauss, Pietersen and Jonathan Trott all undone inside the first eight overs. Bell announced his arrival by cracking his first ball away square for four, as if to say "what have you lot been doing out here?" From that point on England began to retake control of the innings. His batting was steadfast and, one early edge past slip aside, secure. His fifty took 108 balls, his strike rate a third of what it was in the second innings.

These innings were miniature masterclasses in how to adapt your batting to the needs of your team and the situation of the game

Andrew Strauss has big aspirations for his men but the Lord's Test exposed a lack of ruthlessness, says Stephen Brenkley, writing in the Independent.

It was not simply that England made elementary mistakes in all three departments of the game, errors that they had virtually erased in the four innings defeats they had inflicted in their previous five Tests. There was a perceived lack of ruthlessness about their push for victory. England left themselves 58 overs to dismiss Sri Lanka, having first put the match beyond their opponents ... But a team with genuine belief in being the best ever might have trusted its instincts a little more, offered Sri Lanka just a sniff of victory and then crushed them.

At Lord's, says Lawrence Booth, writing in the Daily Mail, England interspersed resilience with mediocrity.

This [Sri Lanka's long innings] had nothing to do with the sameness of the attack – unless you genuinely believe Jade Dernbach would have overcome a tedious Lord's track on his Test debut – and everything to do with bowlers who had a collective off-day. It happens. It just doesn't happen very often these days to England. Andrew Strauss made the very reasonable point that his bowlers aren't robots. But, amid all the talk about England's plans to ascend to the top of the Test rankings, isn't it equally reasonable to wonder why the tall trio all fell short?

Geoffrey Boycott, writing in the Daily Telegraph, says while England's batsmen continue to shine, there are question marks over the bowling attack.

Somebody has to decide what type of bowler he [Stuart Broad] is going to be for England. I believe he is not an express, wicket-taking bowler. He should be the seamer who pitches it up and bowls line and length at off stump. He should be the “go to” block-up-an-end-type bowler who cuts down opposition scoring and squeezes the pressure on them. Every good side have had a bowler of that type.

With James Anderson set to reclaim his spot in the XI for the third Test at the Rose Bowl, choosing between Stuart Broad and Steve Finn is not as clear cut a choice as might be assumed, says Mike Selvey, writing in the Guardian.

When it comes to the Rose Bowl, both Andy Flower and Strauss may take the view that Broad is only just returned to the side after two injuries during the winter and that as such he is feeling his way back into international cricket. There is also a case for saying his figures from this series do not offer a fair reflection of his bowling, where good fortune has not followed him. Finn, on the other hand, will be seen as an extremely promising work very much in progress. But it is a close run thing between the two.

Simon Katich's axing from Cricket Australia's contract list has sparked plenty of debate. Richard Hinds, in the Age, writes that although selection controversies have always been part of cricket, in the past those decisions were at least generally based on form.

Now? We do not have simple selection. We have a contracts system that drastically diminishes the pool of players from which that elite XI is almost always selected. Often before we have any idea who is hitting and who is snicking; who is finding their line and length and who is being smashed over the rope.

In the Australian, Peter Lalor describes how Katich found out that his international career had been effectively terminated.

The Test opener received a call from selector Andrew Hilditch telling him his career was over in the middle of a Blues fitness drill at the SCG on Monday. A dark but determined cloud set over the session. Katich was a frightening sight as he processed the news and raged through a beep test. When it was done he had set the second fastest time for the squad. Not a bad performance considering he is coming off an achilles injury and the bloke who went better, Moises Henriques, is 11 years younger.

Malcolm Conn in the Daily Telegraph writes that the outrage at Katich's sacking has reached levels not seen in Australia since Steve Waugh was dropped from the one-day team nearly a decade ago.

While it is good to know that Australia are looking ahead, Jim White in the Daily Telegraph wonders whether the determination to do all that is necessary has not fried the brain cells of those in charge.

Since he made his debut for Pakistan last summer, 25-year-old Azhar Ali has impressed many with his technique, ability and temperament. Here he talks to PakPassion.net about his introduction to international cricket, the advantage of playing most of his cricket in Rawalpindi, his lack of a Test century and the key to his excellent temperament.

"I made my debut at the age of 25. Some would say that is quite late, but I would turn that around and say that I then had the benefit of nine years of experience in first class cricket. We have all seen instances of young cricketers being thrust into the limelight of international cricket and then failing to live up to the expectations. I haven't had things easy in domestic cricket, there had been ups and downs and I had all that experience to fall back upon."

Nasser Hussain, writing for the Daily Mail, says Matt Prior's tantrum that resulted in a shattered glass window at Lord's, is the kind of thing that happens all the time in cricket. It showed that Prior cared, so let us move on.

The dressing room is exactly the right place to take out your frustrations, whatever England are claiming about the manner in which the window was broken. We’ve all done it, and I should know. I remember kicking a fridge in Rawalpindi after Wasim Akram got me lbw in a one-dayer when the ball pitched miles outside leg.

Why has there been such a hoo-ha after Prior broke a single pane of glass in the Lord’s pavilion, following his sacrificial run-out on the final day of the second Test against Sri Lanka, asks Derek Pringle in the Daily Telegraph. Given the pressures on those at the top of the sport, it's no wonder manners sometimes slip.

The problem is that cricketers, as well as cricket itself, are held up – unjustly, as it happens – as the moral paragons of the sporting world. Oikish behaviour, however accidental, is widely frowned upon: breaking windows, other than with a cleanly struck six, is simply not cricket, as Prior well knows.

Tracking the latest fallout between Shahid Afridi and the PCB, Dileep Premachandran writes that there will be those that say Afridi spoke out of turn, that he has always lacked tact. But would a player really jeopardise his livelihood by going public with his grouses unless the situation behind the scenes was that dire, he asks in the Dawn.

The approach to captaincy has resembled a game of passing the parcel at a kids’ birthday party, while little has been done to address batting and fielding frailties that have repeatedly cost the team in recent series. Most of all, the culture of insecurity that Butt has presided over has made it impossible to create a leadership group with the vision to build for the future.

In the Daily Telegraph Steve James says that while Cricket Australia seem to be on the right track as they are likely to reconsider the split-innings experiment and instead revert to 50-over cricket for the Australian state cricketers, what is disturbing is that county directors of cricket in England have apparently voted in favour for the 40-over stuff.

What’s more, I hear that the mood has shifted somewhat among county players. Many of them are now pleading for 40 overs. In isolation, if asked, they would say that all domestic cricket should mirror international cricket, but when asked in the context of the absurdly onerous schedule, they would say they prefer 40 to 50 overs. It seems that 50-over cricket is just too arduous.

Writing on supersport.com Kepler Wessels says that South Africa are in safe hands with Gary Kirsten at the helm. His appointment as national coach, especially when South Africa are in a transition phase, will be a challenge but he has been around the block enough as a player and also as an international coach to make a success of a difficult job.

The South African situation is also a restless one at the moment and hopefully Kirsten can create the same stable situation here that he did in India. The challenge for Kirsten will be to assess the South African situation equally quickly in order to come up with a formula that will bring out the best in the individual players and the team collectively.

Everyone talks about Kevin Pietersen and his problems against slow left-armers but following Andrew Strauss' dismissal to Welegedara in the second innings at Lord's, Nasser Hussain in the Daily Mail reckons the England captain has clearly got an issue against the left-arm quicks.Strauss has been dismissed by left-arm quicks 22 times including four times to Pakistan’s Mohammad Aamer last summer and Zaheer Khan — who did the same in 2007 — will be arriving soon with the India team.

The problem seems to be that Strauss has lost the whereabouts of his off-stump. That might sound like a strange thing to say about a top-class player, but skilful bowlers can move a batsman around the crease so that he loses his bearings. I’ve always believed cricket is all about angles and that is where Strauss is coming unstuck.

Meanwhile, in the Independent David Lloyd observes that despite the potential shown by Stuart Broad when Australia were beaten in 2009, two years on, we are still waiting for him to become the unstoppable force that he looked to become.

Not only waiting, but wondering – after watching him bowl in the first three Sri Lankan innings of this series – whether he should be an absolute shoo-in for Thursday week's third Test at the Rose Bowl.

Tillakaratne Dilshan puts bowlers in a quandary, observes Simon Hughes in the Daily Telegraph. Do they keep on probing his perceived weakness - aiming at what they like to call ’fifth stump’ (two stump widths outside off) and risk leaking runs? Or do they go for the more conservative approach and bowl straight, trying to frustrate him?

When you see a batsman with such minimal footwork and an inclination to play with an open face, you immediately think as a bowler you’ll be in business with a bit of outswing from a fullish length outside off stump. And you might be right.

The dilemma though is that Dilshan loves width. Where a man like Alastair Cook will look to leave as much off target as he can, Dilshan is thinking runs as soon as he picks up the line of a ball wide of the stumps. His eyes light up, his back lift increases and he shapes to lash it through the covers. And such is his incredible eye and bat speed, he frequently succeeds.

England's bowlers have struggled for rhythm at Lord's and David Lloyd believes that there is no doubt that they are missing James Anderson's expertise as a swing and seam bowler. After all, as Lloyd writes in the Independent Anderson is head and shoulders above Broad, Tremlett and Finn in terms of wickets in the bank, if not in inches on the tape measure.

But, almost as important, they also missed the wise words which he would have passed on to his less experienced colleagues from mid-off. There were times yesterday when all of the bowlers, but especially Finn, looked lonely out there. The Middlesex youngster just could not stop himself from drifting onto leg stump during one spell – and there were a lot of hands on hips in the slip cordon when what Finn really needed was an arm around his shoulder and a bit of advice from someone who knows what it is like to be a bowler struggling for rhythm.

England don't have a balanced attack, writes Nasser Hussain in the Daily Mail, but that doesn't mean we should fall into the trap of saying England chose the wrong side.

You could see by the way even Tillekeratne Dilshan was jumping around at times that they were not entirely comfortable with the bounce England's giant quicks were getting.They didn't get enough balls in the right place, but that doesn't mean the principle behind the selection was skewed.

A year ago no one was talking about Jade Dernbach, but suddenly people are saying England need a pitch-it-up swing bowler to dismiss the Sri Lankans. It's a reminder of the old cliche: you become a better player when you're not actually in the side.

Brendon McCullum discusses all things IPL in a video interview with 3news.

At the end of the Twenty20 game in Trinidad between India and West Indies, it was the fans and spectators who were shortchanged, according to Tony Cozier. India were deprived of their big names either through injury or rest, while the home team were also without their most prominent T20 players. Even the match timings were tweaked to ensure convenient television scheduling for those cricket markets to the east. More from the Trinidad Express.

India, more than any other, should appreciate that West Indians feel patronised when they send a weakened squad for a series, even if one still likely to triumph. Until relatively recently, England despatched teams on sub-continental tours while allowing some of their best players the winter off.

Yet the West Indies should realise, as India did, that the only way to regain recognition is to start winning again.

Gautam Gambhir’s injury has given Suresh Raina the reins of India’s one-day side. It is an unusual position for Raina, who, for all his talents, has yet to make himself indispensable for his country. Writing in the Hindustan Times, Pradeep Magazine suggests this is Raina’s chance to prove his worth.

His short stint as the Indian captain in the one-dayers could lead him to more profitable ventures in the future, provided he manages to control, guide and discipline a young bunch of energetic players out to cement their places in the Indian team. More importantly, his own batting form would be even more crucial as he too like others in the team, is vying for one or two vacant spots in the playing XI, once the main players get back into the team.

2011 was a big season for Kolkata Knight Riders, who rebuilt their team from the ground up in order to change their fortunes on the field. They managed to finish in the top four for the first time, but were an over away from being in the top two, and lost to Mumbai in the first eliminator. There was also the controversy surrounding Gautam Gambhir’s shoulder injury. In an interview in the Telegraph, their coach, Dav Whatmore, looks back on the season and all the drama around it.

Please be honest... Was Gambhir fit to play the eliminator against the Mumbai Indians?
Did you see the way Gambhir ran out Rohit Sharma? I rest my case there... Gambhir would never prefer the franchise over country.

But Gambhir’s been hauled over the coals for playing all 15 matches despite a shoulder problem...
There are two types of injuries... One is trauma, when you get struck on your arm and a bone breaks or when you snap a hamstring while going for a run... You’ve then got to rest, there’s no option. The other type is an injury which develops slowly... Such injuries need to be managed... Some call them niggles and the issue is at what point does a player take a break in order to manage better.

Everyone connected with England these days is asked the Pietersen question, writes Stephen Brenkley in the Independent. While some say that everything will be all right and that one day soon he will go out there and prove the doubters wrong, the trouble is that few believe it any longer and fewer still would pick him in the England team.

The point of the non-expert witnesses is pretty persuasive. Neither of Pietersen's dismissals in the opening two Test matches of the summerspeak of a man who is within touching distance of his next double-century as the rest of the dressing room try desperately to make the case for him. Perhaps they are tryingto convince themselves.

Steve James looks at how Pietersen stirs emotion and opinion like no other modern-day cricketer. He is always a talking point, mostly the talking point, he writes in the Sunday Telegraph.

Indeed nobody in their right mind should consider omitting him for the third Test at Southampton, even if he were to fail a second time here at Lord’s. He’s failed twice this summer, that’s all.

And this is my hectoring moment: nobody please again use the line “if you take out his double-century at Adelaide...” in trying to emphasise Pietersen’s recent ineffectiveness. If memory serves correctly, those runs were not gifted during some boozy benefit match. They were scored in a live, hugely significant Ashes Test that England won. They count all right.

Mike Brearley in the Observer wishes Pietersen the speediest recovery of form in Test matches this summer and observes that while he can dominate against great bowlers like Shane Warne he can still look like a novice against ordinary ones.

No one would say that Pietersen is a saint. He clearly loves making money, he likes being a star, he may be at risk of being seduced by the limelight.

But through all this and underlying it all is a person who wants, as Andrew Strauss suggested (lightly) in his recent book, to be appreciated and loved. He may be awkward at times, a bit foolish perhaps, but basically he is a team-player with excellent skills and personal qualities.

England wicketkeeper Matt Prior scored his fifth test hundred on the second day of the Lord's Test against Sri Lanka. Watching him take the Sri Lanka attack apart, Steve James wonders why on earth can't Prior crack international one-day cricket. More from the Sunday Telegraph.

Here again on Saturday England’s wicketkeeper was taking a Test attack apart, making his second successive century at an excellent lick. He has made five Test centuries now, at an average of 44.58 and a strike rate of 65.21, which is higher than any of England's recognised batsmen.

And yet Prior the Test-dasher has made just three fifties in 62 ODI innings, and in 42 of them he has batted in the top three of the order, so it is not as if he has had limited opportunities.

David Lloyd in the Independent reckons that part of the problem, perhaps, is that England have spent a long time trying to convince themselves that their Test wicketkeeper should be their one-day international opener. Then, having come to the conclusion last year that they might do better by looking elsewhere, the selectors made an 11th-hour decision to recall Prior in the run-up to a World Cup that followed hard on the heels of an Ashes campaign.

Like England in general, Prior never quite knew what was coming next on the subcontinent. Six innings brought him a top score of 22 not out and a total of 78 runs but he batted here, there and just about everywhere, thanks to the short-lived experiment of opening with Kevin Pietersen

Still, the bottom line is that in 50-over cricket, after 68 matches in six and a half years, Prior has a best score of 87 and an average of just 24 – clearly that is not good enough to guarantee him a place in a one-day side that will now be led by Alastair Cook.

With all the pre-match talk centred around the height of England's pace attack and the potential for hostility and bounce, there was always a danger they might just lose their focus with the ball observes Jonathan Agnew on BBC Sport. And that is exactly what happened on the second day against Sri Lanka at Lord's.

It was a very inconsistent performance from the seamers, and Steven Finn in particular, who produced some uncharacteristically wayward deliveries. When you start firing the ball as wide as that down the leg side, there is a problem. You could see his wrist was tilting to the left and the ball was coming out of the side of the hand.

Once again, it was evident how much England are missing Paul Collingwood - they just lack someone who can come on and bowl a spell or two, offer a bit of variation and give the frontline attack a rest.

New Zealand batsman Kane Williamson played his first match for English county side Gloucestershire last month. A month on, Andrew Alderson in the Herald on Sunday found out that Williamson is brimming with ambition as he has begun a rite of passage taken by some of New Zealand's best past cricketers.

For now, he has three objectives. First, perfect his technique in English conditions as a reliable top order batsman against the swinging ball; second, expel the myth he does not score his runs quickly enough; and third, harden up to the daily grind of cricket.

The world's oldest surviving first-class cricketer, Cyril Perkins, is still smiling at the age of 100, says Simon Briggs, writing in the Daily Telegraph.

Perkins was a left-arm spinner, and a handy one at that. “I remember watching him bowl,” says my Telegraph colleague Simon Parry-Crooke, who was an aspiring leftie in the Seventies, “and he had this incredible control: he could just drop the ball on a handkerchief.”

That sport provides communities with a way to come together has been well documented. In Mint, Rudraneil Sengupta provides a new twist on an old tale as she goes behind the bars of India’s Tihar jail and discovers cricket removes the differences between murders, kidnappers, smugglers and yes, even those who protest their innocence.

The cricketers in Tihar cover every possible crime between them—murder, kidnapping, rape, honour killing, robbery, peddling or smuggling drugs, embezzlement, even terrorism. There’s Manu Sharma, Jessica Lal’s killer; and Santosh Singh, who raped and murdered his fellow law student Priyadarshini Mattoo. But many are also undertrials, and some, even though they have spent more than a decade behind bars, still vociferously proclaim their innocence.

On the field though, they are bowlers, batsmen or wicketkeepers, listening attentively to their 74-year-old coach Rajinder Pal’s instructions, padding up in anticipation, shadow-practising under the shade of a tree, running into the field with water bottles when needed, helping each other stretch or warm-up.

Matthew Hoggard might not be in the frame for England anymore, but as captain of Leicestershire, he has an upfront view of first-class cricket and in his column for the Independent, lays out what he has learned over the last week, including the dangers of playing too much T20 cricket and his advice for Kevin Pietersen.

Like Kevin Pietersen, I refuse to accept that I have a problem when batting against left-arm spinners. Unlike KP, I am sometimes forced to deny that I have a problem batting against right-arm spinners, left-arm fast bowlers, right-arm fast bowlers...

Now, it is not for me to offer Kevin any advice about the art of batting. Except this. If I was him, I wouldn't hit the ball into your foot when trying to drive expansively in the nets. It bloody hurts.

In DNA, Suresh Menon says an entire generation of Indian cricketers has little idea of how good the West Indies used to be, and bemoans how far they have fallen.

A whole generation in India has grown up in the years when the West Indies no longer ruled world cricket. Raina, born three years after India’s first World Cup victory, played a crucial role in their second a couple of months ago. Neither he nor his teammates will carry the kind of baggage into a West Indies tour that some of the earlier tourists did. In 1987, skipper Dilip Vengsarkar accused his batsmen of running from fast bowling. It wasn’t until 2006 under Rahul Dravid that India were able to repeat their 1971 series-winning effort.

Twenty20 cricket is often criticised as lacking in tactics and nuance. Writing on Yahoo, Joy Bhattacharyja, who is on the management team of Kolkata Knight Riders, uses a fictional situation based on real events to prove that there are, in fact, plenty of mini-battles being played out on the field even in the shortest version of the game.

Kallis has just been dismissed by Ishant for 26. KKR are 52 for 2 in 7.2 overs. As the next batsman walks out, the coach gives him his target -- to try and get 30 more in the next four overs without losing more than one wicket. Kallis also stops just short of the dugout to give the new batsman, Manoj Tiwary, a quick low-down on the pitch: "It's playing true, not stopping, so you can hit the ball on the up -- but Ishant is getting some bounce. Watch for the new slower ball he has; he holds it with a cross seam."

Meanwhile Sangakkara has recalled the brief in the team meeting on Tiwary. He is a ‘bolter' - he likes to dab the first couple of balls and quickly take a single. With that in mind, Sanga brings his best fielder, Duminy, back to point positioned slightly back of square, because that is where Tiwary likes to dab it.

Jade Dernbach's selection for the Lord's Test was a watershed for the England team which could have contained more players born in South Africa and Ireland than in Britain writes Barney Ronay in the Guardian. The real draw of all international sport arrives post‑natal: it is a business of testing how we do things, refining a methodology, ranging the products of one minutely constructed culture against another. Once this process is diluted, the magnetism fades a little.

The only relevant question is: what does this player tell us about English cricket? The more they tell you, the more English they get to be.

By this formula Dernbach is entirely English. He came to England aged 13 having only ever played rugby. His success tells us about Surrey schools and the county academy. Craig Kieswetter, on the other hand, a South African Under-19s player, tells us above all that South African cricket produces explosive adrenaline-cricket wicketkeeper-batsmen.

Of course, this is all no more than fan chat. Winning is everything and England have quite rightly picked their best teams. And for all this sense of a blurring of the lines, Test cricket will remain fascinating simply because it is Test cricket – albeit it is at its best when at its purest, methodology ranged against methodology, each part a chapter in the same larger story.

England have batted exceptionally well as a group for a long time now observes Nasser Hussain in the Daily Mail, but a couple of issues have crept in that they just need to be careful about.Sri Lanka will have noted that Strauss does have a slight problem with left-arm quicks while Trott's dismissal was the right-handed equivalent. As for Pietersen, his dismissal - reaching for a wide one - was the classic demise of a man out of form.

We all talk about Kevin Pietersen and left-arm spinners, but this was the 21st time in Tests Strauss has fallen to a left-arm seamer.

I would reiterate that England shouldn't make any rash decisions about Pietersen. He deserves to be shown the patience shown to others in the past: Ian Bell, Alastair Cook last summer, even Paul Collingwood in the winter.

And focussing on Pietersen, David Lloyd in the Independent writes that the time for talking in defence of Pietersen is over. Following his dismissal in the first innings at Lord's it is time that Pietersen himself had better take some positive action to convince the doubters – and they are growing in number by the innings – that all his best days are not behind him.

Yet it is not even a lack of runs that should be worrying England's selectors, it is the lack of certainty. Pietersen looked like that cat on the hot tin roof during his painful innings in Cardiff and, here, a hitherto plausible attempt to exude confidence was undone by the manner of his dismissal.

He is the inventor of the doosra and today, former Pakistan offspinner Saqlain Mushtaq is fast becoming a spiritual mentor for Australia's current crop of spin bowlers observes Phil Lutton in the Age. And it's not just the cricketers who are benefitting from Mushtaq's stint at the Centre of Excellence in Brisbane.

It's not just our tweakers who stand to benefit from his prophetic pearls. The softly-spoken but highly influential Pakistan great has urged the Australian selection panel to show patience and faith in their next spin selection or risk the post-Warne stagnation continuing even longer.

Kevin Pietersen has been dismissed 19 times by left-arm spinners in Test cricket - including falling to Rangana Herath in the first Test in Cardiff. And Sri Lanka will advertise the drama of one man's battle for self-belief by giving their spinner the ball as soon as Pietersen comes in at Lord's writes James Lawton in the Independent.

After the Cardiff denouement, Pietersen seemed almost to be in denial, slipping lightly over his problem while preferring to speak of the pleasure that fills the heart of every member of the England team when a colleague performs stupendously. It is a joy, Pietersen went on, enhanced by the certainty that if it is Trott or Cook today, there is every chance that it will be you tomorrow. Maybe it is so, maybe not.

In the Daily Telegraph, Michael Vaughan identifies the root of Pietersen's woes against left-arm spin - the positioning of his hips when he fronts up to play the ball.

[Pietersen] is not an orthodox technician but when he played in Bangladesh last year, and scored a Test match 99 against decent left-arm spinners on turning pitches, I felt he was aligning his hips to hit the ball through extra cover and mid-off rather than through midwicket, as he did in Cardiff. If you draw a line through the hips you want them going towards the non-striker at other end, but at the moment his hips are in line with midwicket. If your hips are not aligned straight you play more with your hands and your reach. The legs and feet follow so if the hips are in line everything else will go in the right direction.

England look like they are going to play three fast bowlers at Lord's writes Nasser Hussain in the Daily Mail, but while Sri Lankan cricketers may not be used to the bounce and carry, England must avoid getting carried away with too much of the short stuff.

They're brought up on slow pitches, and Cardiff - though not the quickest pitch - was their first Test outside the Subcontinent for three years. Throw in the fact that their favoured format is 50-over cricket, where the short ball is used less, and England have an obvious advantage.

As a result, you don't see many Sri Lankans who are great pullers. Someone like Ricky Ponting, brought up on quicker pitches, can pull back-of-a-length balls off the front foot, but you could see in the second innings at Cardiff, after the pitch had quickened up, that the shot wasn't an option for the Sri Lankans.

Australia's Dirk Nannes, currently playing for Surrey opens up to Paul Doyle on playing Twenty20 in England, his love of Lego and why he hates the movies. And yes, he's an international standard skier and doesn't speak fluent Japanese. More from the Guardian.

Presumably you speak Dutch, right? No. Our parents spoke Dutch when they didn't want the kids to understand what they were saying. I never got it.

On, then, to music. What's the last album you bought? Radiohead's new album

Not, Small Talk imagines, the ideal music to listen to before a match ... True. Before a game it would be something like Tool or Muse.

On June 3, 1971, the 23-year old Zaheer Abbas took guard at Edgbaston in his second Test and began his journey towards a sublime double-hundred, to announce himself to the world. The Dawn's Qamar Ahmed remembers the day, and pays his tributes to one of the most graceful batsmen to have emerged from Pakistan.

No one has summed up his skill and style better than John Woodcock, the celebrated cricket writer of The Times and the former editor of the Wisden Almanack, when he wrote these lines about Zaheer: “The most ruthlessly mechanical of them must have been the legendary Sir Donald Bradman, the most enduring was Sir Jack Hobbs with 197 first-class centuries, the most calculating may well have been Geoffrey Boycott, but none of them could have played with more ease and elegance than Zaheer whose batting gave as much pleasure in England when he was with Gloucestershire, as it must have done in Pakistan.”

This week has not been sports administration's finest hours, says Dileep Premachandran, writing in the National. It makes you wonder, he says, how much better teams like Pakistan and Sri Lanka - who have had decent onfield results recently - would be with a competent administration in place.

The ICC suffers as a governing body because it remains at the mercy of its constituent boards. The recent decision to limit the 2015 World Cup to the full-member countries was simply a case of turkeys voting against Christmas.

FIFA, for all its financial misdeeds, still has the authority to step in and interfere when a national association is out of order. The ICC doesn't appear to have any such mandate and that lack of teeth has seen administrators run amok in countries like Zimbabwe and Pakistan.

Homies & POPz, a cricket team from Compton, a city in southern Los Angeles County, have returned from a trip around the world and now want to use the game to get kids in Compton and LA out of gangs and off the street. Regina Graham interviews the team for intersectionssouthla.com and finds out why they like cricket and what they think it can do for their community.

In 1996, Haber and Hayes decided to expand their horizons and bring the game to Compton where they thought young people could benefit from the game that teaches proper etiquette and sportsmanship. They began by teaching a workshop on how to play the game at Willowbrooke Middle School. Some of those students grew up on the team and are still active on the green grassy fields. They love to play, but they also enjoy helping change the city’s negative reputation.

Sport is full of turning points that could have led to a parallel universe, as the England captain demonstrated in the first Ashes Test in Brisbane observes Mike Selvey in the Guardian. It is the Sliding Doors principle of a parallel alternative to events hinging on the outcome of a small, apparently insignificant factor. Andrew Strauss' dismissal in the first Ashes Test in Brisbane could well have been one such moment.

"Getting out like that was hard for me," he told me. "Harmison's was a bad ball to start the series but he ended up bowling OK in that match. We just played badly and were badly beaten. But people still look back at that ball which I don't think had a bearing on the outcome. So when I got out, I thought: 'OK this is fine, this is not a precursor to what is coming any more than Harmison's ball was.' Deep down, though, I was fighting against it, and thinking: 'I know what they are going to write.' Test cricket can always ask some pretty serious questions of you and I realised that I was going to have to dig pretty deep in the second innings."

Looking back at the Sri Lanka's shock defeat in Cardiff, Andy Bull in the Guardian writes that while no one is quite sure how the visitors threw away the first Test, a recovery in time for the second Test is not inconceivable.

It was a curious concatenation of circumstances that Sri Lanka faced on Monday, and they can take some succour from the fact that they are unlikely to find themselves in a similar situation any time soon. They played like a side who thought the match was over, which was understandable given that everyone else had come to the same conclusion.

Stuart Broad relives England's memorable win in Cardiff. More from the Daily Mail.

When we won it was a bit surreal. It was like: ‘Has that just happened?’ We had been sat in the dressing room for much of the five days but now we were back in those same seats after bowling them out in 24 overs!

One bloke was going absolutely mad as we ran up the pavilion steps. He told us he had had a tenner on us at 999 to one and had won £10,000!

We believed we could win and it happened for us. It’s amazing what this team can achieve.

He might not have the flair of a Lara or a Sehwag, but Jonathan Trott's remarkably successful run has allowed England to bat around him and he performs a crucial role for the team, writes John Stern in his blog with The Cricketer. After a brief wobble during the winter in South Africa, Trott "has gone back to basics and the results, if not the process, are eye-watering".

Since the start of May 2010, he has scored 1,317 Test runs at 94, 72 more runs than the next man on the list Sachin Tendulkar (1,245 at 77). The others with 1,000 or more are Alastair Cook (1,125 at 66), Jacques Kallis (1,104 at 110) and Virender Sehwag (1,003 at 52).

If one looks beyond the averages to the strike-rates, it gets interesting. Of the 20 leading Test run-scorers since May last year, only Sehwag has a strike-rate above 65 runs per 100 balls. His is 89. Trott’s is a steady 50, three an over. Others in the top 10 are slightly higher than that but not much. Tendulkar, for example, is 51. Others of note include Shane Watson whose strike-rate is 48 and Rahul Dravid 41.

Bevan Griggs, a regular for over ten seasons with the Central Stags, suddenly found himself unwanted and out of a contract at the age of 32. Griggs managed to pick up the pieces and establish a secure corporate career, but his story highlights just how easily and quickly cricketers can find their livelihood threatened, writes Mark Geenty in stuff.co.nz.

It still rankles for Auckland-based Griggs, who cut all ties with CD and barely took an interest in their results last summer. But he wasn't to be hurled on the career scrapheap. He had planned for that eventuality, slightly further down life's track, and took up a fulltime role in the ANZ Bank's commercial section, having decided five years earlier to get a foot in the door with a big company in the cricket off-season.

Given the number of Pakistan cricketers who have quit and then returned to the game in recent years, Paul Radley says in the National that Shahid Afridi's retirement will probably not last long.

Shahid Afridi has never been shy of retiring. As such, his latest announcement feels like it has all the permanence of a snowman on Jumeirah Beach in July. Retiring seems like something to do to pass the time in Pakistani cricket. In much the same way as players from England and Australia, for example, compete for Twitter followers, social standing in Pakistan seems to depend on how many retirements you have had.

Both India and West Indies will feature second-string XIs for the opening Twenty20 match of their series. Sandeep Dwivedi of the Indian Express writes that this seemingly similar ailment, rooted in the rapid growth of Twenty20s, has diagonally opposite causes: Indians are overpaid, the West Indians underpaid.

From an average Indian fan's perspective, the present-day, newlook West Indies squad provides zero connect. During the 1980s, the West Indies was cricket's Brazil -a team with a global appeal. Even when it played against India, it was acceptable here to support the highly skilful entertainers from the Caribbean. The slide has been gradual but the last decade saw a free fall. Today, Sammy has under his wings players like Lendl, Hyatt and Nurse in a largely unknown team. In case these names bring tennis, hotels and hospitals to your mind, it isn't an insult to the obscure players but a true reflection of the times in West Indian cricket.

The Gautam Gambhir injury controversy is media sensationalism at its worst, writes Ashok Malik in the Hindustan Times.

'Country versus club/county' debates and choices are not new to Indian cricket. These have long preceded the Indian Premier League (IPL). Where Mankad and Gavaskar were lucky was that their decisions were not dissected by that 24/7 khap panchayat called Indian news television.

On this count, the recent fracas involving Gautam Gambhir and the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) has been revealing. It has shown up the media for a fundamental inability to understand a sportsman's ethic. It has emphasised the dangerous sensationalism news -particularly cricket news -is subjected to. Finally, it has been a reminder of the tawdry and crude nationalism that (at least some) news channels have made their calling card.

From BCCI officials hogging the limelight instead of former Indian cricket greats, to a lack of uniformity in the attire of current India players, the BCCI awards ceremony in Mumbai was a poorly organised event. Clayton Murzello and Sai Mohan report in the Mid-Day newspaper.

Kapil Dev and MS Dhoni sharing the stage would have been an apt way to celebrate, but what does the BCCI do? Keep him in the audience while their big wigs give away the biggest honours of the evening - the CK Nayudu lifetime achievement award to Salim Durani and the Polly Umrigar award to Sachin Tendulkar, the outstanding cricketer of 2009- 10. These awards were given away by BCCI chief Shashank Manohar and president elect N Srinivasan even as legends Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Vishwanath, Kapil Dev, Dilip Vengsarkar et al were in the audience. The question on most lips was: “ why was Kapil called in the first place?” “I am sure Kapil is hurt about this, although he won’t talk about it and mar the function,” said a former teammate of the 1983 captain.

In the Independent, Stephen Brenkley recounts how Jonathan Trott, the balding, bottom-handed, risk-free shoveller of a batsman, who has never hit a six in Tests or one-dayers has worked himself up to being England's cricketer of the year.

Trott appears to have shed all needless adornments in the pursuit of his objectives, save for his extravagant preparation in the middle. It is a measure of the change in attitude towards him that his insistence on scratching out the crease, wandering down the pitch and excavating some more before being ready to bat, was once seen as an absurdly irritating piece of gamesmanship and has become an endearing affectation. That apart, Trott lacks style.

Trott may look unprepossessing, more like the watcher at a sporting event than the watched observes Derek Pringle in the Daily Telegraph, but it probably says more about our prejudices in our image conscious world than it does about Trott, who in any case gave us a grandstand view of his potential on his Test debut, when he made a nerveless hundred against Australia at the Oval.

England’s extraordinary win at Cardiff, the first time they have won three Tests in a row by an innings since beating New Zealand in 1958, has produced a spike in ticket sales for the Lord’s Test, which begins on Friday.

Of course the prospect of Trott grinding out another big hundred might be seen as a counter attraction. But if you enjoy seeing England win, as they have largely done over the past year, then the two have become closely entwined.

With the Friends life T20 tournament starting in England on June 1, Will Hawkes analyses why audiences were at a low last year, in the Independent. The two big problems for England's domestic Twenty20 tournament, he says, is that it will always be second to the Indian Premier League and it is not taken seriously enough by the ECB.

India's flagship event may have had a difficult year but it is undeniably the blue riband of Twenty20 tournaments. It has the crowds (albeit diminished in 2011), the big names and, most importantly, the money. Many of those young cricketers who do well in this year's Friends Life T20 will be dreaming, perhaps above all, of an IPL contract.

In the Daily Telegraph, Steve James suggests the problems may go beyond that and that perhaps fans have started to find the format boring and predictable.

Of course, Twenty20 can be exciting, but it remains a shallow game that has become more formulaic with time. I was watching one Twenty20 match with a current player last season, and before every ball of one over, by just observing the field positioning, he called correctly the ball that was to be bowled and the shot that was to be played in response. “It’s boring,” he said.