In an analysis of how the Big Bash League will fair, Sydney Morning Herald's Chloe Saltau says there may be an effort to increase the ties with the Australian Football League in a similar manner to the way the IPL has a Bollywood influence. However, she says, the only way the league can succeed is if it eventually contracts Indian players or has Indian investors.

Cricket Australia has said from the outset it cannot and will not aim to emulate the Indian Premier League, but it must wish it had a Bollywood to lend its new baby, the Big Bash League, some cachet, if not some cash. Cricket Australia will send Credit Suisse representatives on a roadshow to India this week to cultivate potential investors. But in the meantime, Big Bash teams in Melbourne are leaning heavily on the town's only answer to Bollywood - the AFL.

SR Pathiravithana, writing in Sri Lanka's Sunday Times, says there has been no other cricket contest between Australia and Sri Lanka that has taken place on so even a keel as the upcoming tour, with neither side able to claim a clear cut advantage over the other.

The Australians have some problems in the batting department. Of late, they have put much onus on the skills and resolute of the batting of opener Shane Watson who has played his innings with more guts and spunk than the rest of the pack. Ironically, their best batsmen – by a few fathoms from the rest – Ricky Ponting seems to have lost some of his magic while the new skipper Michael Clarke too gets his act right sporadically ...

The Australian fast bowling arm - with Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris and Peter Siddle leading - is more potent than anything that Sri Lanka could offer barring the T20 bowling skills of Lasith Malinga. However Trent Copeland, James Pattinson, Nathan Lyon and Michael Beer are new to the Lankan conditions ...

In the Dominion Post, Gavin Bertram talks to members of the New Zealand team that famously beat West Indies in a Test series in 1980. They recount the controversies that surrounded the West Indies players' behaviour and their reaction to decisions that went against them that included Michael Holding kicking down the wickets and Colin Croft colliding with the umpire in his run-up.

The following day the volatile Croft became enraged with a Goodall decision when Hadlee was on strike and flicked the bails off. He followed this act of petulance by colliding with Goodall when storming in for a subsequent delivery. While Croft claimed it wasn't a deliberate act, television footage suggests otherwise. "Live it didn't look deliberate," Lees said. "It didn't seem that bad, but when you saw the replay you thought what the hell are you doing?" "It's physical assault, and there's no doubt it was deliberate," Glenn Turner says. The New Zealand batsman was a commentator during the series. "They thought Fred had it in for them. They were convinced the racist side of it was coming into the decision-making."

Why are elite educational institutions in south Mumbai - many of which have been modelled on the British public school - no longer fostering cricketing talent, asks Ayaz Memon, writing in the Hindustan Times.

Increasingly, Mumbai's cricket talent comes from the distant suburbs and while it is wonderful that more players are getting a chance, it makes one wonder whether the elite schools of south Mumbai are becoming too effete to compete with the vigour required? It seems that unless your parents are members of some fancy club, your exposure to sports goes no further than the television.

Writing in the Hindu, Suresh Menon says, despite the tendency to over-coach at the junior levels, India's cricketers still play the Indian way, and that is something their fans must be grateful to Test cricket for.

What is the Indian way? And have we lost sight of it in our obsession with centuries and rankings and Tendulkar? It was a question answered easily at one time. ‘Indian' meant wristy batsmen and cunning spinners, flashy if inconsistent all-rounders and flamboyant wicketkeeper-batsmen.

Dravid, for all his years of worship at the altar of orthodoxy, still plays the cover drive and the square cut in the Indian way, with the wrists doing all the work. Laxman is in the long line of Indian batsmen from Ranji to Vishwanath to Azharuddin who deal in surprises and unexpected gifts. At the top of the order is Virender Sehwag who has rewritten the book on opening batsmanship ... Among bowlers, Anil Kumble was a great original, as is Harbhajan Singh. Ditto Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Tony Cozier, writing in the Trinidad Express, looks back on Gary Sobers' remarkable record as the legendary all-rounder celebrates his 75th birthday and voices disappointment over his omission from the ICC's all-time dream Test XI that was voted on by fans.

By the time he ended a Test career that spanned 20 years, from 1954, when he was 17, to 1974 when 37, he had compiled more runs than any one else (8,032, average 57.78), held the highest score (365 not out), played more consecutive matches (85 out of 93 overall) and compiled more hundreds than anyone but the phenomenal Bradman (26 to 29). He had also captained more times (39) and held more catches (109) than any other West Indian. Only Lance Gibbs had taken more wickets than his 235, except that Sobers had done so in three different styles.

Rahul Dravid's second fine century of the series showed how valuable he is to the tourists' cause, says David Lloyd, writing in the Independent.

Their [Tendulkar and Dravid] nicknames suggest that one (The Little Master) is a craftsman while the other (The Wall) spends his life as a labourer: the architect and the hod carrier, if you like. But that is monstrously unfair on the hugely talented Dravid and there is not a team in the world that wouldn't welcome this 38-year-old into their line-up ... Someone worked out the other day that Dravid has spent almost a month of his life batting in Test cricket. For most of yesterday it looked as though it would take England a month of Saturdays to shift him ...

Stephen Brenkley, writing in the same paper, says Stuart Broad, by repeatedly hauling England back into contention in this series, has made mockery of the doubters.

Less than a fortnight ago, the concept of dropping Broad seemed mildly attractive ... If his deeds in the first Test, in which he took seven wickets and scored a crucial 74 not out, provided an adequate response, this raised the bar to the roof. On the first day, Broad made 64 in horrid conditions when England were on the verge of collapse. Now, with India in firm control, he bowled one of the unforgettable spells ... It was in fact the best spell by an England bowler since Andy Caddick took five West Indian wickets in 14 balls at Headingley in 2000.

If Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman were to retire from the game this instant, what would the Indian batting line-up look like, asks Suresh Menon, writing for the BBC website.

Of the youngsters who have done well in the last couple of years, Cheteshwar Pujara is out with an injury, Virat Kohli is out of form, Murali Vijay struggled in the West Indies and only Suresh Raina, who made a century on his Test debut against Sri Lanka last year, had a decent run in the Caribbean.

Will India's TV experts ever relinquish their jarring partisanship, asks Pradeep Magazine, writing in Outlook.

This England-India series is a very important Test encounter and one wishes more voices like Nasser Hussain, David Lloyd and Sourav Ganguly would illumine our understanding of the duel. In fact, Ganguly has all the makings of a sharp, incisive critic of the game, though he needs to be more fluent and witty, qualities that make Hussain a listener’s delight.

Commentating on the 2005-06 series, the former England captain and now a respected voice on British television, Mike Atherton, had made this stunning revelation when he was in India: “Local commentators are asked not to mention sensitive subjects or controversial selection issues, no matter how germane they might be to the action...and with compliant commentators on board, they (the audience) will hear only what the bcci want them to hear.”

Matthew Hayden tells Peter Lalor of the Australian that cricket lovers should stop worrying so much about Twenty20 breeding a generation of batsman who can't leave the ball outside the off stump, and suggests that perhaps there is too much focus on Test cricket at times.

"We are an entertainment package across the board now. In the end that's what I really enjoyed about Test cricket; it was how I could really bring to the table those skill sets I had for one-dayers and learned in Twenty20 cricket ... Apart from Ashes Tests and the Indian summer, I think as a cricket lover that Test matches sometimes have leaden strides despite all the concentration on them and that reeks of over scheduled matches."

Greg Baum, writing in the Age, says going by Cricket Australia's media releases during the Big Bash League's launch, the board thinks the league will attract new fans to the game, but seemingly takes these new fans for fools.

''The Melbourne Stars have launched their season with a bang,'' said one [release]. Ah, the good old reliable bang launch. You might have expected, for this new game, an updated bang, but no: this was the usual, stock-standard, time-tested, good-to-go bang, unchanged from the time of Bradman. This missive also talked about some bloke called Hussy, but what's an ''e'' between friends? ... The Melbourne Renegades tried a bit harder. Their pitch to the media told of how they would unveil their ''look, attitude and ambition''. They will, it added, be taking a ''super-cool, all-out-attacking attitude''. And there we were, thinking that they would block it out for the first 10 overs, then reassess.

The stand-out feature of the first day of the Trent Bridge Test was swing bowling. The Duke ball swung through the day, irrespective of whether it was old or new, and made for compelling viewing. In the Guardian, Vic Marks says we have Huw Evans to thank for it. Huw who?

Evans of Maber Architects in Nottingham has been the guiding light in the rebuilding of Trent Bridge, making it the most enchanting Test ground in this country outside of St John's Wood. According to the locals it is the construction of the new stands that has made Trent Bridge an even more fecund hunting ground for swing bowlers.

So why aren't India, who bowled England out for 221 in the evening sunshine, in the dominant position that seemed so remote when they trailed down St John's Wood Road a few days ago? asks James Lawton in the Independent.

It is because they learnt something utterly pivotal to their hopes of hanging on to their status as Test's cricket best team. This was that it may not be quite enough for them to win back their old appetite for the battle – and at least some of the confidence in supreme talent that first enabled them to conquer the world. They might just have to face up to the fact that here, at Edgbaston and then in the fourth Test at The Oval, they have opponents who have developed a resilience that may indeed be nearing world champion levels.

Aakash Chopra, writing in Hindustan Times, discusses possible options to provide cover for the injured Zaheer Khan, and tells us why he would recommend each of the suggested bowlers - like Pankaj Singh and Umesh Yadav - for the job.

Keeping in mind the English conditions and the pacemen at our [India's] disposal, I'd go for someone who can take wickets and yet bowl longer spells with discipline. Someone who could swing the ball but also bowl reasonably quicker than Praveen, for two of the same kind won't help. The first name I’d throw in for consideration is Rajasthan's Pankaj Singh, who was also the highest wicket-taker in the last first-class season. He’s tall, gets the ball to swing both in the air and off the surface, and can bowl for long spells ... Since the Duke ball used in England is quite similar to the SG Test used in India, he won’t even take time to adjust. But if we are looking for sheer pace to unsettle the batsmen, our search shall start and stop at Umesh Yadav.

During the Lord's Test India exhibited many of the flaws and characteristics that Fletcher was determined to stamp out and change during his hugely successful years as England's coach, writes Mike Atherton in The Times.

Fletcher insisted on improved fitness and better fielding, which go hand in hand, when he became England coach and he will have looked upon the relative fitness levels, and fielding ability, between England and India last week with some discomfort. There is a passage in Fletcher's autobiography, for example, about Tufnell's fielding practice in South Africa in 1999, where he takes the spinner to task for failing to buy into his demands. "It doesn't matter who you are, you've got to put the work in," he says after running Tufnell to the point of exhaustion.

In this age of instant gratification, waiting for anything has become a strange, outdated notion for most of us. Test cricket, however, requires a lot of waiting, which has its own joys, as Rohit Brijnath elegantly explains in Mint.

Waiting is Test cricket’s separation point. Waiting for openers to settle in, the shine to wear off and Warney to come in. Waiting for tea when Laxman the fencer might walk in, waiting for the pitch to turn and Tendulkar to elevate on tiptoe and drive straight. Waiting as a partnership drones on for eventually a wicket or many will fall. All this I cherish. But I am only a spectator, I need a player to understand the viscera of waiting, so I call Dravid because no one waits like Dravid.

In the Guardian, Mike Selvey argues that Rahul Dravid deserves just as much credit as Sachin Tendulkar.

And yet Dravid, in his own way, has been every bit as important to Indian batting as has been Tendulkar. Some of the statistics that have been unearthed in the past week or so tell their story in a way that such figures often fail to do. Of Tendulkar's 51 centuries 11 have come in a losing cause. By contrast, before this last match Dravid's 128, made against Zimbabwe 13 years ago in Harare, was the only one of what is now 34 hundreds that has resulted in defeat for India. Dravid represents security.

All the talk heading into the second Test at Trent Bridge has been about the impact of India losing Zaheer Khan, but another man’s absence looms just as large, especially if Gautam Gambhir fails to recover from his elbow injury in time. In the Times of India, Shashank Shekhar explains the significance of Virender Sehwag’s absence.

What puts Sehwag in a different league among Test batsmen is his sensational strike rate of 81.91, which along with his average (53.43) makes for a telling combination. His post-January 2008 (his comeback month) stats are even more striking - 3,539 runs at 58.98 and a strike rate of 90.55! While the other top Indian batsmen compare favourably with Sehwag as far as averages are concerned for the same period (January 2008-present) except Rahul Dravid, their strike rates simply pale in comparison.

Meanwhile in the Hindustan Times, Pradeep Magazine asks whether MS Dhoni has lost his Midas touch after the gambles he took in the Lord's Test failed to come good.

The dictum that luck favours the brave is an oft repeated cliché, but in Dhoni's case it has almost always proved true, be it the T20 World Cup final or the ODI World Cup. In the final at Mumbai, he made a tactical move of which he himself was the originator as well as the executioner. Failure here was no option since the stakes were too high. Dhoni, like many times in the past, dared destiny and conquered it.

India’s capitulation at Lord’s has incited plenty of commentary on how a No.1 side should conduct itself, with some even suggesting England are the real No.1, no matter what the numbers say. In the Independent, James Lawton laments the possiblity of India’s fall from its perch, saying the country has been sidetracked by the riches of the shorter forms of the game.

At Lord's only Dravid, on the third day, reminded us of the quality that made India's surpassing of the great Australian empire so inevitable. Only he looked comfortable in the skin of a leader of the world game. Over the next few days he has to revisit such high ground in the company of Tendulkar, hopefully recovered from his virus, and Laxman. Most vitally, the entire Indian team have to look much less of a parody of the best Test force in the world. Can they do it? Cricket will be much poorer for their failure.

Deep Backward Point, an independent blog, captures the essence of the Lord's Test in a song of just over a minute. It mentions Lord's missing out on 'Sehwagology', Broad collecting chickens and even includes the obligatory DRS reference.

Matt Prior's career has undergone a spectacular transformation in four years - from being labelled the instigator of the jellybeans incident, to becoming one of the best wicketkeeper-batsmen in Test cricket. The Independent's Stephen Brenkley profiles the unsung hero of the Lord's win.

As he demonstrated with some prowess at Lord's in the first Test, Prior has become an all-round player of style and substance. His recent form with the bat has been breathtaking: three hundreds in his last six innings, eight scores above 50 in his last 18.

The Hindu's S Ram Mahesh says it is too early to declare Prior the best wicketkeeper-batsman in the world, but his recent performances have earned him the right to enter the discussion.

Prior worked tirelessly with former English keeper Bruce French to groove his technique. In his early days, he rose late from an awkward wide-based crouch that anchored his bodyweight in his heels and prevented him from skipping sideways; the method was refined so he could move on the balls of his feet more often. His natural athleticism, with which he flung himself when standing back, was thus easier expressed.

MS Dhoni and his side have faced scathing criticism for their defeat in the Lord's Test, with England already being hailed as the No. 1 team by some. Andy Bull, in the Guardian, says that the rush to pass judgement, however, should be resisted until the series is decided.

The compulsion to rush to conclusions does not tally with the Test format. Dhoni knows that India have only lost the first round of the four. We're one-quarter of the way through.

India are the champion team, and should be judged on how they respond to defeat at Trent Bridge, not the fact that they lost at Lord's.

Dileep Premachandran writes in the Cricketer that the English media's criticism of Zaheer Khan's preparation, and their appreciation of England on the back of a single victory, are over the top. He calls for some respect and a 'sense of perspective'.

Zaheer certainly didn’t arrive at Lord’s as svelte as he had been back in 2007, when his bowling was the key factor in India’s series win. He did seem to be carrying some excess weight, but to equate that with laziness is … well, plain lazy. He was supposed to have played the three Tests in the Caribbean but had to pull out because of an injury to his right ankle. When a key weight-bearing joint is affected, your preparation suffers. You can’t jog or carry heavy weights. Nor can you even run in off a few steps to bowl some balls.

Praveen Kumar responded to Zaheer Khan’s absence in the Lord’s Test with a determined display of swing bowling that ended with a five-wicket haul and his name on the hallowed honour’s board. Writing in the Guardian, Rob Bagchi praises the latest “wizard of wobble”.

I thought we had seen the last of the breed when Mohammad Asif was banned, so Kumar's emergence has been a welcome fillip to the trade of Tom Cartwright, Geoff Arnold and Bob Massie, the ultimate one-hit wonder. Good days are promised as well as the bad that are part of the job description for such a precarious occupation. Fortunately for him, Trent Bridge is the ideal stage for an encore.

In the Indian Express Sandeep Dwivedi makes the radical suggestion that India should field an all-pace attack in the second Test. He suggests that in the event of Zaheer Khan being unavailable, both Munaf Patel and Sreesanth should be picked, with Harbhajan Singh making way.

If India are ever to go with a four-pronged pace attack on this tour, it has to be at Trent Bridge. The list of leading wicket-takers at this venue is overwhelmingly dominated by fast bowlers — of the top-20 wicket-takers, 17 have been pacers and three leg-spinners. Over here, finger spinners find it tough to make an impression. In the first Test of the England-Pakistan series in 2010 — the last longer-version international game played here — the pacers played havoc. Of the 37 wickets that fell, 33 went to the pacers and there were two run-outs. England offie Graeme Swann had perhaps the easiest game of his career, as he bowled just 2 overs.

England’s comprehensive defeat of India in the Lord’s Test takes them one step closer to becoming the No.1 Test team – they need to win the four-Test series by a two-Test margin to overtake India – but Stephen Brenkley in the Independent reckons England are already the best team, no matter what the numbers currently say.

England functioned with a resilience and conviction that made them difficult to withstand. From the moment they lost the toss under heavy cloud cover, there were several periods in an engrossing match, which paraded Test cricket in all its glory, when they might have wilted.

But each time, in each of the four innings, they responded as champions do by finding a way, and their exhibition on the final day was relentless. The occasion was uplifted, if it needed it, by an exultant crowd which had turned up spontaneously, rather than having booked tickets months and months in advance.

Also in the Independent, Angus Fraser wonders how India are going to take 20 wickets in a Test, especially if Zaheer Khan continues to miss out.

Dhoni was looking for sympathy following the defeat to an excellent England side, stating his team were unfortunate to lose Zaheer and the absence of the left-armer had a major affect on the game. His comments were, to some extent, correct but little sympathy should be extended to Zaheer or India. The injury was an accident waiting to happen.

In his column for the Daily Mail, Stuart Broad says he has never bowled better than he did at the Lord's Test.

Peter Roebuck writes in the Sydney Morning Herald that by including Nathan Lyon and Trent Copeland in the party to play Tests in Sri Lanka, Australia's selectors have cast aside established protocols, ignored contracts and acadamies, and focused on productivity and possibility.

At first sight the selectors might appear to be thrashing around. In fact, after a wretched and chaotic season, they may be getting back on track. Neither Lyon nor Copeland emerged from the schemes popping up all over the place and designed to microwave cricketers, a risky proposition because the brains tend to get left behind.

Two top-quality sides, gripping sub-plots, memorable milestones, a sell-out crowd and a fine finish - the 2000th installment of Test cricket did not disappoint Tom Fordyce, who narrates the final day on his BBC blog.

After four days of delightful ding-dong between the best two teams in the world came a denouement that was as perfect a commemorative gift as five-day cricket could hope to receive: thrills and spills from first delivery to last, a final-session triumph conjured from bowling excellence and an atmosphere that mixed febrile and fiesta to intoxicating effect.

The record turnout for the final day was unprecedented, but what struck the Daily Telegraph's Angus Fraser the most was the diversity and age of the people who queued up.

As this Test has gone on, the number of India supporters in attendance has increased. It appears as though large numbers of tickets only really become available to the general public towards the end of the match. An indicator of the number of Indian fans in the ground can be gauged by the roar that follows India taking a wicket or hitting a four. On Sunday it was loud, yesterday, when Tendulkar walked out to bat, we could have been playing in Mumbai.

In the Daily Mail, Lawrence Booth declares "the effect of the sport of an enthralling five days is incalculable".

Every day offered a fresh morsel. On Thursday, there was England’s stoic resistance against the swinging ball, and on Friday the renewed swagger of Kevin Pietersen. Saturday produced a back-to-basics hundred from Rahul Dravid — the wrong Indian maybe, but masterful stuff nonetheless. On Sunday it was the turn of Ishant Sharma and Matt Prior, and on the final day it was one vignette after another. If Test cricket is dead, long live Test cricket.

Also in the Daily Mail, Nasser Hussain writes that while England raised their game for the big occasion, India did the exact opposite.

Everything that England have done this summer has been geared towards making sure their players are as ready as possible for this Test series, including Andrew Strauss playing at Taunton and Stuart Broad playing for Notts. In contrast, India expected their top strike bowler in Zaheer Khan and their premier batsman in Sachin Tendulkar to rock up without playing a Test since January and just have a bit of a hit and giggle against Somerset before the big one. They did not help themselves.

The Daily Telegraph's Simon Hughes says the English bowling performance was so good that "a long hop was as rare as a spare ticket".

Jimmy Anderson was the star on Monday, but they all played their part. It was a Chinese water torture sort of approach, the drip, drip, drip of sustained perseverance administering a lingering death.

It may have not been the biggest wicket of the day, but the Independent's James Lawton singles out MS Dhoni's dismissal after tea as the moment when an ascendant English team may have broken the will and heart of Indian cricket.

You might say that Dhoni's fall was not so significant because the great ageing men, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and the Little Master himself, Sachin Tendulkar, had all gone before him. But if they are cricketers for the ages, it is Dhoni who best represents the hard edge of today's big-money game.

Matthew Hayden's decision to come out of retirement to play in the Big Bash League, and invest his own money in the Brisbane Heat franchise, will encourage Cricket Australia. But Greg Baum writes in the Age that cricket's new fans shouldn't let the wool be pulled over their eyes.

So, at cricket's cutting edge, plenty of honest but unprepossessing state cricketers, a ragtag army of international mercenaries, and a once-great Test opener who latterly has barely been able to hit the ball off the square … but not new Australian captain Michael Clarke, who - admirably - has forsworn the new pots of gold to dedicate himself to the task of resurrecting the ailing Test team.

Suresh Menon, writing for Cricketnext, says MS Dhoni's self-consciousness is not helping India and he needs to go back to being the positive captain he once was.

If you have the world's best batting line-up, and your best bowler is on the comeback trail, why would you shoot yourself in the foot by going in with just four bowlers? ... Much of Dhoni's reputation rests on his occasional illogical and unexpected moves that turn out well. He is a gambler whose moves are put down to 'intuition' and 'feel', and when these succeed he is feted. In fact, he nearly had Kevin Pietersen's wicket when he came on to bowl, and had the batsman fallen who knows what turn the Test would have taken? Pietersen survived, thanks to the DRS, and went on to make a double century. [But] While flamboyant gestures sometimes come off, there is no substitute for straightforward cricket thinking.

Bishan Bedi talks to Spin magazine’s George Dobell about his concerns over the modern game and reveals his optimism for its future.

"Bowling should come from the shoulder and involve the fingers and wrists, but too many of today’s bowlers use their elbow. There’s also too much emphasis on dot balls. It seems to be they are the holy grail for spinners and the urge to bowl wicket-taking balls is dying. But a wicket-taking ball is a dot ball automatically."

Martin Kelner, in the Guardian, wonders what will be the more attractive draw this summer - an epic battle featuring some of Test cricket's greatest names, or another Cesc Fábregas phone-in?

Certainly, Sky's opening caption on day one of the Test against India, IT.. DOESN'T..GET..BIGGER..THAN..THIS, spelled out in huge letters across the screen was beginning to look a slightly wobbly premise – depending on what you take IT to mean – as famine in Africa, massacre in Norway, and the death of a talented young singer, all laid claim to being BIGGER.

The problem with Test match cricket is that you never really know how BIG it is until it is over – history is usually the judge – and the drawn-out format invites those of us with itchy remote fingers to wander elsewhere – at least until the final act.

Four years ago, at Lord's, rain and MS Dhoni prevented England from taking a 1-0 lead in a series they went on to lose. Having taken firm control of the first Test this time, England must not let the opportunity slip, says David Lloyd in the Independent.

More than half the members of this England team – Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Matt Prior, Jimmy Anderson and Chris Tremlett, to name names – will, no doubt, recall the frustration they felt in 2007 (and, for sure, remember that the opposition's last batsman, Sree Sreesanth, somehow survived a leg-before appeal as the weather closed in).

How England were to rue those events. They went on to lose the Trent Bridge Test (which became more famous for the jelly beans that the hosts scattered, and which so fired up Zaheer that he bowled out of his skin, than the result). And then with a draw at The Oval, it was India's series.

A thrilling final day is in store and - added to what's happened already - the events will define the essence of Test cricket, says James Lawton in the same newspaper.

Matt Prior has improved considerably as batsman and wicketkeeper, writes Scyld Berry in the Daily Telegraph, and he's given England a good launching pad towards becoming No.1. In the Daily Mail, Nasser Hussain writes Prior's busy approach to his innings helped England gain the ascendancy. Vic Marks agrees in the Guardian.

Injuries to a bunch of players in the same game, as with India in the Lord's Test, might tempt people to argue in favour of subsitutes - like in football - but history has shown the concept is a disaster for both fans and players, writes Simon Briggs in the Daily Telegraph.

Not employing Ishant Sharma when England were reeling at 72 for 5 was probably the turning point on the fourth day, at the end of which England were in complete control, says Simon Hughes, also in the Daily Telegraph.

Once again, Rahul Dravid was the last man standing for India, this time in the first Test against England at Lord’s, in the process racking up his 33rd Test hundred. In the Times of India, Partha Badhuri pays tribute to a man who has never quite managed to receive the acclaim his deeds deserve.

Dravid was the artisan in this team of artists, the bedrock behind New India's early success under Ganguly, a throwback to an earlier era when craft and painstaking effort wasn't unfashionable. He would build his innings brick by effective brick and win match after match, yet shrouded in layers inside was a gorgeous strokeplayer of delightful ease, to be brought forth only when danger had been thwarted and the time was right for a display of arrogance.

Gautam Gambhir is an intense, driven cricketer and someone who is unafraid to speak his mind, as he did when dedicating India’s World Cup win to the victims of the terrorist attack in November, 2008. In the Hindustan Times, Sukhwant Basra gets Gambhir to reveal a little bit more about himself, like how he is too shy to approach women, that he does not own a laptop and he lasered the hair off his legs.

Sitting in its opulent psychedelic drawing room, reminiscent of a futuristic sci-fi flick, one of the richest self-made 29-year-olds in the country says that “money after one point of time is irrelevant”. There are some roads he won’t cross. “Young kid on the road seeing me endorsing a pan masala/tobacco brand will fell there is nothing wrong with it. I won’t do that.”

While India’s eyes were locked on the IPL in April, an experiment was beginning in Kashmir that hoped to use cricket as way of healing some of the state’s wounds as well as identifying its talent – the army announced the idea of the Kashmir Premier League (KPL). In the Indian Express, Bashaarat Masood says the valley has taken to the KPL in a big way, with more than 1,000 players from 193 teams playing in over 300 matches over the last two months.

In the past two summers, Qazi, like many other youth of Kashmir, was out on the streets of Shopian, hurling stones in protest against the alleged rape and murder of two women in the district. Today, though, he doesn’t hurl stones, only bats fabulously, taking his team to the final round of the Kashmir Premier League. This is the Valley’s first-ever T20 cricket tournament, modelled on the Indian Premier League (IPL), and organised by the Army and the state government. The team names have a flamboyance familiar to IPL fans: Shopian Super Kings, Budgam Badshahs, Srinagar Sherdils, Ganderbal Gladiators and Kupwara Knights, among others. The Army sponsors the teams, and provides them cricket kits, and even -refreshments.

Under pressure to keep his place in the side, Stuart Broad stepped up to hand England the advantage by sticking to the method that fetched him so much success against Australia two years ago, writes David Lloyd in the Independent on Sunday.

Stop, Stuart! Yes, David Saker, England's respected bowling coach, did indeed use that "enforcer" word during the Sri Lanka Test series when talking about Broad's role. But with conditions at Lord's yesterday crying out for the ball to be pitched up most of the time, Strauss's first-change bowler went back to the method that brought him so much success against Australia two years ago.

In the Mail on Sunday, James Anderson is more than happy to see Kevin Pietersen and Stuart Broad prove their critics wrong.

A change in lengths was key to Broad reaping rewards on the third day, writes Simon Hughes in the Daily Telegraph.

In the Independent on Sunday, Stephen Fay captures the buzz in anticipation of Sachin Tendulkar's 100th hundred. Simon Briggs, too, in the Telegraph on Sunday.

Steve James dissects Rahul Dravid's 33rd Test century in the Telegraph on Sunday.

Broad was the key component in England's counterattack after an enthralling partnership between Tendulkar and Dravid, writes Mike Selvey in the Guardian.

In the same newspaper, Mike Brearley pays tribute to Tendulkar, who revealed a few of his jewels in his brief cameo of 34.

Niranjan Rajadhyaksha, writing in Live Mint, looks backs on the first ‘Indian’ cricket team to tour abroad in 1911, which brought together different communities as a symbol of nationalism in pre-independent India.

The 1911 team has gone down in history as the first all-India cricket squad, since members of different faiths and regions were represented. Their travels across England were followed by the educated urban elite at a time when Indian nationalism was getting a more radical edge, in the last years of Bal Gangadhar Tilak and just before the emergence of Mohandas K Gandhi.

Kevin Pietersen struggled initially as he made the slowest hundred of his career before opening out as he closed in on a double. Vic Marks writes in the Guardian about how Pietersen briefly resembled the famous blocker Chris Tavare.

Here was Pietersen the grafter, the dutiful grinder, the old pro selflessly reining himself in at the start of what is supposed to be a heavyweight bout – even though it did not feel like one. It is not a role to which Pietersen is accustomed. Nor do we expect it to suit him. But even in the 90s, when he sometimes loses self-control, there was nothing harum-scarum.

James Lawton, in the Independent, says that Pietersen out the team first, and showed plenty of maturity during his 202.

Here he grasped a basic obligation. It was to be the backbone of his team, the guarantee of a solid start to one of the most important Test series England have ever played. He met it with an unswerving concentration and when Rahul Dravid dived for a catch that was rejected by the third official Pietersen's reaction was a perfect symbol of his vast body of work.

He chose to ignore the Indian appeals, utterly, and proceed with the building of an innings which might just prove to be the most significant of the summer. The details tell of escalating authority. In the end he finished in the kind of imperious hurry most familiar to his warmest admirers, reaching his third double century in Test match cricket just before Strauss waved in the declaration.

In the Daily Mail, Nasser Hussain calls Pietersen's double hundred was "as clever an innings as you could hope to see".

James Lawton, writing in the Independent, says Jonathan Trott may not have thrilled with his unbeaten half-century but in the context of the series, the knock could prove invaluable.

If the 30-year-old from Cape Town ever takes his eye off this reality for even a second it might be prudent to check if the earth is still riding on its axis. Trott, with his eternal fidgeting and pitch pruning and guard rituals, has never been a sumptuous vision of cricket's greatest possibilities. Indeed, he is more the grit in the corner of your eye. Yet once again England have a huge debt to the man who opened his Test account for them with an Ashes century at the Oval that underpinned one major shift of power in the modern game. Now, on the other side of the Thames, he has preserved England's chances of creating another one against the number-one ranked Test nation.

In the same newspaper, David Lloyd says India's fielding, both catching and ground-fielding, would have given their coach Duncan Fletcher plenty to worry about.

Nasser Hussain agrees in the Daily Mail, saying India's sloppyness in the field has given England the advantage at Lord's.

Praveen Kumar was given the new ball ahead of Ishant Sharma, and though he didn't get a wicket his prodigious swing troubled the batsmen. Sandeep Dwivedi looks at Praveen's performance in the Indian Express.

The stage set was perfect but cricket on the first day failed to live up to the hype, says Simon Briggs in the Daily Telegraph. But as is usually the case in Test cricket, the rewards will eventually come, he adds.

Also in the Daily Telegraph, Shane Warne reckons England have the advantage since the series, he feels, will be dominated by the ball and the conditions would favour the England bowlers more.

Vic Marks, in the Guardian, praises Trott for his calm, composed, unbeaten half-century that helped England recover from two early blows.

BBC's Jonathan Agnew asks former England captains Geoffrey Boycott and Michael Vaughan, and former Australia captain Steve Waugh to nominate their greatest Test match of all time. Listen in.

John Crace, in the Guardian, reviews the BBC documentary Botham: The Legend of '81.

James Lawton, in the Independent, says those in charge of running the game must realise there is no long-term substitute for the enduring quality Tests have provided.

For the next few days, and the rest of this English summer, perhaps all we can do is hope that what we see is another reason to believe that Test cricket is too good, too valuable, to be left in the hands of those whose loftiest ambition will always be to turn a quick profit today and hope that tomorrow has something to offer.

In the Daily Telegraph, Simon Hughes writes of England's best options to get India's batsmen out and score runs against their bowlers.

Sachin Tendulkar was 17 when he scored his first Test century, at Old Trafford in 1990. He now finds himself on the verge of his 100th international ton. The England players who watched him get his first international century recount his innings in the Daily Telegraph.

Andrew Strauss has had a problem against left-arm seamers of late but he has an opportunity to put the pressure back on Zaheer Khan this time, says Nasser Hussain in the Daily Mail.

In the Guardian, Mike Selvey says the stage is perfect for Tendulkar to score his 100th international ton but he's been short of rehearsal time.

An editorial in the Guardian celebrates Test cricket's latest landmark.

How has Tendulkar been preparing for the Lord's Test? The Daily Mail has more.

With Sachin Tendulkar on the brink of a century of centuries, Angus Fraser, writing in the Independent, says while many players are capable of producing the occasional moment of brilliance, very few can sustain a level of performance that is truly outstanding for more than 20 years like India's master batsman.

Around a billion Indians are perfectly sure about his genius. His gifts are obvious and he has lavished them on both forms of the game. Any doubts about his ability to provide under the most strenuous circumstances have long been allayed and the fact that he has amended his style to ensure longevity and yet retained or even increased his effectiveness makes him the leader of the modern triumvirate [that includes Ricky Ponting and Brian Lara].

Martin Chandler, writing for Cricketweb.net, looks back on Tendulakar's early years and the first time he read about the young genius.

... it was the fifteen-year old Bombay schoolboy, Sachin Tendulkar, who cornered most attention ... on his first-class debut , he struck a fluent 100 not out from 129 balls ... and followed it with other fine innings to top the Bombay aggregate with 583 runs at an average of 64.77. Technically sound and alert to the loose ball, Tendulkar showed astounding maturity for one so young and looked to be a Test cricketer in the making ...

Ahead of the first England-India Test, Nasser Hussain, writing in the Daily Mail, does a quick check of the touring party, player by player.

Gautam Gambhir: An impressive guy and a tough batsman in the new Indian mould. When India lost two quick wickets in the World Cup final, Gambhir was the bloke who came in and steadied the ship. He’s not an old-style Indian bully, scoring easy runs on flat tracks. He loves the competition and I know Duncan Fletcher’s very impressed with him...

Yuvraj Singh: An enigma. It’s fair to say he’s not the most popular guy on the international circuit, but Dhoni enjoys the fact that he’s not going to be pushed around. He’s in your face and lets you know how good he thinks he is. He’s another batsman England reckon doesn’t fancy the short stuff, but he plays spin pretty well and if he makes a good start to the series, we may see a bit of the strut that gets up opposition noses.

Former cricketer Nari Contractor, who led India to a historic series victory against the English in the '60s, talks to DNA's Gautam Sheth on his experiences of playing in England.

“In those days, we would rarely get a chance to play in England, we believed that education in cricket was incomplete till we didn’t play in England.” Contractor felt that the conditions in England were always treacherous in some sense. The 78-year-old, who played in 31 Tests, said uncovered strips and unpredictable weather didn’t help their cause as they had very little protection too. “Helmets were an unknown commodity then and we players made thigh guards with a chunk of sponge or rubber."

Avijit Ghosh, writing in the Times of India, remembers the time India and England scored 588 runs in a single day of Test cricket in 1936.

MS Dhoni enjoys the trappings of success, deservedly so, but remains rooted in the simple work ethic of his family, says Simon Briggs, in an interview with the India captain in the Daily Telegraph.

England captain Andrew Strauss describes himself as a winner, but for all the kudos of his three Ashes triumphs, the man on the other side of Thursday’s coin toss has done it all: World Cup, World Twenty20, World No 1 in Test cricket. And he has done it with such serenity and poise that you would think he was still playing in a tape-ball street game back in his native town of Ranchi. This is one of Dhoni’s greatest talents: the ability to transmit calm and relaxation to his players when things are tight. Yet it is something of a conjurer’s trick, for he is keenly aware of the responsibility he carries. Indeed, he himself sometimes feels the need to escape from the pressures of fame climbing aboard one of his 25 beloved motorbikes ...

England's Test series against India brings threats to Andrew Strauss' authority on and off the pitch, says Mike Selvey, writing in the Guardian.

He [Strauss] no longer has a complete empire on which to fall back. So now his international future will stand or fall on his Test record alone, on the success of the team and the runs he contributes personally. The young pretender is in place. Strauss believes, and he may be right, that concentration on one aspect will buy him time. Yet it may also place too high a demand on this drive to succeed. He has little margin for error now.

Nasser Hussain and Sourav Ganguly, were captains who introduced pugnacity and backbone to Test sides that were languishing in the rankings, says Rob Bagchi, writing in the same paper.

Twelve years ago the fortunes of both sides were bleak. England were ninth in the rankings, rock bottom beneath Zimbabwe and New Zealand, and India, led reluctantly by Sachin Tendulkar, were fifth with barely half the points of Australia. Two men in the commentary box for their home audiences for this seductive series, Nasser Hussain and Sourav Ganguly, were the catalysts for the progress made over the past decade and while they have been eclipsed by their successors, both sides owe a debt of gratitude to the men who transformed their character.

SR Pathiravithana in Sri Lanka's Sunday Times, on the team's new interim coach, Rumesh Ratnayake, his cricket career and what he could offer the game in the island nation.

The Lankan attack with the departure of especially Muralitharan, looks utterly wayward with the exception of off spinner Suraj Randiv who is beginning to grow his spinning fangs. Even Lasith Malinga who spearheaded the Mumbai Indians bowling attack in the IPL T20 was found wanting at times [against England] due to the lack of quality support. This is where a person in the calibre of Rumesh fits in like a glove. He understands what a bowler needs and knows how to hone it. As a matter of fact it was Rumesh who initially nurtured the fast bowling arm of Sri Lanka Cricket, when it was groping in the dark.

Andrew Strauss, writing in the Daily Telegraph, says cricket lovers have to embrace other forms of the game and use them to introduce newcomers to Test cricket, while administrators need to look at the bigger picture and not just instant financial gratification.

There should not be an unhealthy competition between the formats. The challenge for administrators is to get that balance so that all can coexist together. The difficulty is that commercially, shorter forms of the game make more sense than Test cricket so it is a challenge for administrators to look at the bigger picture rather than just the bottom line ... Sometimes that means investing in something that is not the most profitable in the short term knowing that in the long term it might pay off.

Is it time for England-India encounters to surpass the Ashes in importance? Should England sports fans care more about how their side do against Tendulkar, Zaheer and Harbhajan than Clarke, Hilfenhaus and Doherty? On Firstpost.com, Oliver Brett ponders the question of whether the shift in the balance of power in world cricket means the upcoming Tests between England and India will be the start of a new premier rivalry.

Even in the 1990s, when England were perennially rubbish, the excitement surrounding the Ashes continued to linger. Thus, one has to respect its position in the agenda of global cricket. However, there is no better time to explode the myth that the Ashes are the ultimate prize for English cricketers than right here and right now. It all starts with the most magical coming together of statistics, an eclipse-like moment in which the 2,000th Test is also the 100th between England and India.

Despite having a worse record, Stuart Broad will be the chosen one ahead of Tim Bresnan, when England choose their XI for the first Test against India, reckons Stephen Brenkley in the Independent.

Broad is both the player in possession and something of a golden boy of the selectors. The observations of all the men who matter – embracing the coach, Andy Flower, the chairman of selectors, Geoff Miller, and the captain, Andrew Strauss – indicate that they are prepared to back him to regain an ability to take wickets. Bresnan, one of the heroes of the Ashes, has impressed in England's one-day team since his return from injury, though he was erratic for Yorkshire last week. To pick him now would be to give him the first two, probably three, matches in the series.

Bob Willis talks to the Independent about his devastating spell of 8 for 43 in the 1981 Ashes at Headingley that resurrected his career, and looks ahead to the England-India face-off this summer.

In the summer of 1981, with the nation racked by industrial unrest and inner-city riots, it seemed entirely if dispiritingly consistent that the England cricket team should also be mired in haplessness. After leading the team to defeat at Trent Bridge, and then bagging a highly publicised pair in a draw at Lord's, Ian Botham resigned the captaincy of which he was about to be relieved anyway. Mike Brearley was then persuaded out of Test cricket retirement to skipper the team at Headingley, but at the end of that third day, with England already a wicket down following on, Willis can hardly have expected, to put it mildly, to be dining out three decades later on the story of the match and the rest of the series.

The stop-start nature of the performances in the Caribbean - when half the team's leading lights were missing - gave some clues as to the challenges that India face to stay No. 1 in the coming months, says Dileep Premachandran, writing in the National.

While the placid nature of the pitches, which have been made for five days of television, has thwarted them on a couple of occasions, it is fair to say that India have not been knockout specialists in the manner of the young Mike Tyson, the former world heavyweight boxing champion. Instead, they have resembled the lumbering Klitschko brothers - resilient, usually efficient and capable of capitalising on the opposition's frailties.

Great champions set standards that can often seem out of reach. The quest for the perfect game or perfect series is motivation in itself. The best sides do not just win. They keep winning and in the process, they subdue the spirit of those they overcome.

A true veteran of the county scene, Mark Ramprakash has been playing first-class cricket since 1987. The domestic game has gone through many changes since then, not the least of which has been an increasingly crowded schedule, exacerbated by the advent of Twenty20 cricket. County cricketers increasingly find themselves switching between formats with little or no time for readjustment, a situation that Ramprakash finds very troubling, and he warns, in his blog for The Cricketer that "cricket’s authorities in this country are aiding and abetting the demise of Test match cricket by their continued insistence that we should play County Championship and Twenty20 matches right on top of each other".

I understand fully the need for county clubs to make money from Twenty20, and county finances are currently under a lot of strain, but the domestic fixture list is so confused and damaging to our players at the moment that the English game’s authorities are effectively saying that practice – proper practice and preparation for different formats of the game – is not anywhere close to being a priority. One of the things that has always bugged me about how English cricket is perceived from outside is the view that we don’t take preparation seriously at county level – that another game and another innings will be along shortly so why worry? I think player preparation at county clubs has actually improved during the latter part of my own career – but where are we going now with the fixture list we have had to endure for the past couple of years?

We are all set for Test No. 2000. The Open Magazine's Boria Majumdar looks ahead to the India-England series which has generated considerable public interest, a reason to celebrate given the recent ambivalence to Test cricket.

Here’s a simple, yet telling, comparison. All three Tests in the recently concluded series between India and the West Indies in the Caribbean played to near empty stands. This was the first series featuring India immediately after their World Cup triumph, and you might have imagined there would be more interest. Apparently not. Moving to the other side of the Atlantic, even before the India-England series can get underway, tickets to all four Tests have been sold out. Clearly, it takes the promise of a real contest to arouse spectator interest.

Sachin Tendulkar will take guard in Test cricket's 2000th installment, with the opportunity to make his 100th international ton. In the Daily Mail, Lawrence Booth profiles the career of a man who has defied time since his Test debut, six days after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Comparisons with Don Bradman, who made 29 hundreds and averaged 99.94 to Tendulkar's 56.94, remain one of cricket's favourite parlour games. Statistically, Bradman will always be untouchable, but the gentler fixture list of his day meant his workload paled in comparison. Bradman played 52 Tests in 20 years, although his career was interrupted by the war. Tendulkar is about to embark on his 178th in 22 - and he has played a year-and-a-quarter's worth of one-day internationals.

In the New Zealand Herald, David Leggat looks back at New Zealand's part in Test cricket's march to 2000, and looks ahead into the future.

How long will the wait be for the next Richard Hadlee? At a wild stab, it'll be a while. The world test record-holder when he retired with 431 wickets, he was fit to sit among the all-time great masters of seam bowling.

From where will New Zealand's next Glenn Turner or Martin Crowe spring? Both, in their distinctive ways, among the best of their time. Highs and lows along the way, for sure, but from a small, initially unpromising acorn, it's been a no less exhilarating journey for that.

In the Hindu, Bhagwath Chandrasekhar tells KC Vijaya Kumar about how things fell in place for him during his 6 for 38 spell at the Oval in 1971.

“I got wickets at Lord's, the second match was marred by rain and when we got to The Oval, I knew I had to perform really well. In a way it was my last chance. I got two wickets in the first innings and I had to strike in the second innings to help India win. I gave my heart and soul in that stint,” Chandrasekhar said.

Cricket is growing in India at such a rate that it is not inconceivable that the top-paid sportsman in the world ten years from now will be an Indian cricketer, Rick Westhead says in Toronto's Thestar.com. He analyses what the Indian Premier League has done for the sport in terms of increasing its potential to make money and predicts that 13-year-old Armaan Jaffer, who recently broke the record for the highest individual score in Indian school cricket, could one day earn more than the $75 million a year Tiger Woods makes.

The Indian Premier League has just wrapped up its fourth season and player salaries are higher than ever. A recent survey reported the average salary on some teams, which play 14 regular-season games, approached $90,000 a week this year during the frenetic six-week schedule. Then there’s corporate cash. Seizing an opportunity for a toehold in a country whose economy has charged ahead over the past decade at a 9 per cent annual clip, sponsors are signing cricket’s top stars as so-called “brand ambassadors” to contracts worth as much as $3 million a year.

Sachin Tendulkar is one short of his 100th international ton Vic Marks in the Observer writes that Lord's would be the perfect venue for the record. If not Mumbai, then Lord's is the place for that 100th century, to set the record right before he even contemplates retirement and further beatification.

Indeed there is a script for this week that even the odd Bollywood writer might find a little too far-fetched. Sachin Tendulkar comes to Lord's, the home of cricket, to play in the 2000th Test of all time. It is probably his last chance to appear in a Test on the sacred ground, where his highest score up to now has been a bewilderingly paltry 37. On the boards in the Lord's dressing rooms there is no mention of Tendulkar. In the past the engravers have not even double-checked the spelling of his name.

In his column in the Mail on Sunday James Anderson writes that with everyone talking about the milestone and the fact that Tendulkar has never made a hundred at Lord’s, the hype might possibly have a detrimental effect on their side as a whole.

Where do you bowl at Sachin to try to get him out? There aren’t many places, to be honest. But at Lord’s this week, we will aim to starve India’s master batsman of runs and hope we hang in long enough for him to make a mistake.

If you sat down with a pen and paper to draw the perfect batsman, you would sketch out Tendulkar’s profile, writes Michael Vaughan in the Sunday Telegraph.

Back to the Observer and former India wicketkeeper Kiran More looks back to India's tour of England in 1990, which was also Tendulkar's first tour of the country and says there was never a time one would have thought Tendulkar was a 17-year-old new to international cricket.

Ireland-born Eoin Morgan risked his Test place to gain experience in India and it's paying off handsomely – now he has eyes on leading his adopted country. Stephen Brenkley meets Morgan. More from the Independent.

"It is absolutely a long-term target of mine," he said. "If you asked anybody, would they like to captain England in a Test match, one-day international or Twenty20, they would jump at the chance."

"I am a leader within the batting unit. A good leader leads from the front and the way in which I play can have a positive effect on the side. It is something that I can develop over time." And time, not to mention timing, is on his side.

The England v India series is unlikely to be a dull series and even if there is a dull moment in the series, there is the added piquancy of England's old coach, Duncan Fletcher, now taking on that role for India, and the reunion of England's captain Andrew Strauss with his former mentor, writes Vic Marks in the Observer.

For Strauss Flower is more a collaborator than a mentor and he is more important to him now. But that does not mean that Strauss is about to deny the massive contribution of Fletcher to England's cricketers in the recent past.

"He made me aware of what Test cricket actually entailed," he maintains. "He is a great father figure; he has been there, done it all, seen it all and once he worked with you for a while it was very hard not to be loyal to him as a bloke.

India are traditionally slow starters, and that reputation has only been embellished in the last three years when the only three Tests they have lost have all been the first Test of a series: home and away against South Africa, and away to Sri Lanka observes Scyld Berry in the Sunday Telegraph.

All the more reason therefore that England have to hit India hard at Lord’s and Trent Bridge, the ground that most favours their pace bowlers, and go 2-0 up.

Mohammad Isam writes in the Daily Star about the different pressures that the two youngsters in the Bangladesh squad for the Zimbabwe tour face.

In the course of the next one month, Nasir Hossain and Shuvogata Hom Chowdhury should be prepared for two different battles in Zimbabwe. The former has to live up to his billing as an exciting talent but the latter should have his shields up for an avalanche of questions and innuendoes related to his selection.

Vijay Hazare was one of Indian cricket's early greats, best remembered for his performance on India's first tour of Australia in 1947-48, when he scored a century in each innings of the Adelaide Test. Ramachadra Guha in the Telegraph writes that Hazare’s character, and his status in Indian cricket, are captured in a fascinating, forgotten short story by the Marathi writer, N.S. Phadke. Its main character, named Bihari, clearly modelled on Hazare, was always "inwardly groaning under this strange burden of popularity and responsibility”. Guha, asks - who is the modern Hazare?

Going by Phadke’s account, one might say it was Sachin Tendulkar, who, for much of his career, has had to bear “this strange burden of popularity and responsibility”, to score hundreds upon hundreds to maintain his fame and keep his team afloat. But one can also make a case for Rahul Dravid. For one thing, his style is more akin to Hazare’s, sound and orthodox — coming in at 5 for one, which soon becomes 10 for two — he seeks to patiently rebuild the innings, whereas Tendulkar would seek rather to play some flashing shots and immediately take the initiative away from the opposition.

Stephen Brenkley revisits England's remarkable comeback in the Headingley Test against Australia thirty years ago. Five people who witnessed the heroics retell their story. More in the Independent.

Day Five: The Commentator, Henry Blofeld, Test Match Special

'I don't think I have ever found it harder not to be biased on air'

It was probably wishful thinking. At breakfast on the Tuesday the feeling was that this extraordinary game might even have something more to offer. At 351 for 9, England were 124 runs ahead and yet...

In the Test Match Special box there was a happy mixture of gallows humour and extravagant optimism. Even the Australian commentator, Alan McGilvray – and Australia has never had a stauncher supporter – was prepared to concede that England had an outside chance. I don't think he meant it.

Bob Willis reflects on his devastating 8 for 43 at Headingley in the Independent.

Chloe Saltau in the Age writes, that for some, Australia's David Warner is one of the world's most exciting batsmen. To others, he symbolises a cricket world gone mad, a world in which, as Tasmania batsman Ed Cowan puts it in a new book, "you can be paid a lot more for not being as good as you used to have to be''. Warner knows he is viewed, sometimes scorned, as a short-form specialist, and it's a perception he is trying to change.

Not only because he believes sustained success in the first-class arena is still the best way to earn respect, but because he has realised that he derives as much pleasure from batting for three hours as he does from the pyrotechnics with which he lights up the Twenty20 circuit.

Teenage fast bowler Patrick Cummins will share the new ball with Brett Lee for the Sydney Sixers, during the upcoming Big Bash League. And Cummins is overjoyed at the chance of finally playing alongside his idol as Malcolm Conn finds out. More in the Daily Telegraph.

"Everyone has the dream of playing for Australia and bowling fast and being successful," Cummins said. "Brett's lived just about every kid's dream. It's something to strive towards."

Despite both being from NSW they had never met until a Cricket Australia training camp in Brisbane last week, where Cummins was also introduced to the rest of the squad.

The ICC's Pakistan Task Team recently released a report that recommended substantial changes to the way the PCB functions. Unsurprisingly, the report has drawn plenty of criticism from the board, which rejected the idea that there was anything wrong with its set-up. Writing for the Associated Press, Rizwan Ali says that there is no authority in Pakistan that could force the PCB to change.

Incumbent PCB chief Ijaz Butt had a modest record as an international cricketer, but his brother-in-law Ahmad Mukhtar is a defense minister in the present government of the Pakistan Peoples Party. It was no surprise when the then 70-year-old Butt got the PCB post when the government came to power in 2008 under Asif Zardari.

The governing board includes eight direct appointees of the president with six representatives of associations and departments. Even the appointment of the associations’ and departments’ representatives required Zardari’s approval.

Jonathan Trott is likely to be one of England's key batsmen against India. His former Warwickshire team-mate Mark Wagh, who batted with Trott when he made his championship debut for the county, writes that despite his run of successes, the public know little about him. As it turns out, that is exactly how Trott likes it. But there is much to uncover. More from the Daily Telegraph.

So, who is Jonathan Trott? South African but English, fiery but calm, famous but unknown. This enigmatic mix is held together by an indomitable desire to make the very most of his talent. The result is a cricketer who has taken the international scene by storm. Who knows where this journey will end? He may become one of the greats. If he does, I really will have a claim to fame.

India have failed to inspire the same hysteria in England that the Australians have, over the years writes Sandeep Dwivedi in the Indian Express. However it is time for the world's No.1 Test side to change public perception and add an air of intimidation around it.

The lack of an intimidating aura could be because of the historical baggage of India’s four winless decades while touring England since 1932, the year India got Test status. Plus the fact that the Indians, over the years, tend to pussyfoot into a land where the ball swings more than it spins and batsmen edge more than they middle too hasn’t helped. Mind games or pre-tour war of words hasn’t been the Indian skipper MS Dhoni’s style anyway.

But its time the Indians threw their weight and let their reputation check in much before they do. They have been the World No.1 Test team long enough and ODI World Champions recent enough to have an attitude that sees the meek surrender without a fight and the mighty grapple with self-doubt.

An editorial in the Indian Express says that what India did over the weekend in Dominica was not in the spirit of cricket, of sport.

Giving a competition your best is an essential contract — and of necessity it involves risk-taking ... This is not about a win at any cost — it is about being true to the possibilities a sport offers. This time, India have showed themselves to be unequal to their rank as the number one Test side.

This summer has already brought delights in abundance for aficionados of artful batting writes Rob Bagchi in the Guardian. Mahela Jayawardene and Ian Bell have both produced a series of scintillating innings and while the purists have been spoilt by early July, the arrival of India's VVS Laxman on Tuesday heralds that the best treat may still be to come.

The gifts these three share – a dreamlike quality of composure when well-set, the ability to transform a commonplace shot such as a leg-glance into a thing of charm and a handsome ease at piercing the infield that keeps the scoreboard moving at a pace that perplexes the assumptions of bowler and spectator alike – link the game to a past when guile was the equal of force.

Kieron Pollard has not yet made his Test debut for West Indies. Yet he is a millionaire today having played just one first-class game in the past two years and having survived almost exclusively on Twenty20 cricket. Depending on your viewpoint, writes Jonathan Liew in the Daily Telegraph, Pollard is the most exciting cricketer in the world today or a symbol of everything that is wrong with the modern game.

“Test cricket is always going to be the ultimate. My ambition is to play in all three formats. Next year, I’m going to play more first-class cricket. I decided not to go to the T20 tournament in South Africa because I wanted to play first-class cricket in the Caribbean. The Sri Lankan league is off now, but I pulled out of that as well.”

You sense that nothing Pollard says will sway his most ardent critics. But for a man accused of destroying Test cricket, he holds a suspiciously strong desire to play it. For someone castigated as a pariah, a philistine, a soldier of fortune, he is in reality something far simpler: just a cricketer. Just a family man, striving to earn a living.

On the occasion of the 79th anniversary of Hedley Verity's 10 for 10 against Nottinghamshire, Andy Bull writes that while 79-year anniversary seems an odd one to mark, a story like Verity's needs only the slenderest of excuses to be retold. It is likely it will never be beaten and carves his name in the record books as immutably as upon his grave. More from the Guardian.

Nobody had a better record against Don Bradman than Verity, who dismissed him eight times in 17 Tests. "With Hedley I am never sure," said The Don. "You see, there was no breaking point with him." There can be no higher compliment to a cricketer than that.

One question became a recurring theme, for Amol Rajan, while he doing research for his book Twirlymen- The Unlikely History of Cricket’s Greatest Spin Bowlers - why do Indians like to spin? How can it be that one nation produces no bowlers of genuinely express pace, but a conveyor belt of spinners of the calibre of Gupte, Bedi, Chandrasekhar, Prasanna, Venkataraghavan, Kumble, and Harbhajan, and all in the space of a few years? Here's more in the Open.

It is a complex interplay between cultural and natural factors. But above all, it is because the very essence of spin bowling is victory by deceptive means—and the intellectual agility at the core of that is in turn the very essence of Indian civilisation.

There has been an alarming decline in the number of Afro-Caribbean cricketers in the English set-up, since the era when the likes of Devon Malcolm brought an edge to the national side. The Daily Telegraph's Scyld Berry traces the recession to the ending of funding of Haringey Cricket College - the nursery of Afro-Caribbean talent in England - and terms its reactivation an important initiative.

English county cricket is well organised and well-coached – and perhaps too much so. No sign on the horizon of an unorthodox 'crackerjack’ bowler who can surprise opponents, like Lasith Malinga or Muttiah Muralitharan: and if Afro-Caribbean cricket dies, another source of England’s potential supply is eliminated.

Devon Malcolm, with his express pace, had this unorthodox quality. Afro-Caribbeans, like him, have taken almost 600 Test wickets for England and scored almost 8,000 Test runs. A fine XI could be made from those who represented England and England A: Michael Carberry, Wilf Slack, Mark Butcher, Roland Butcher, Mark Alleyne, Paul Weekes, Keith Piper, Chris Lewis, Phillip DeFreitas, Dean Headley, and Malcolm himself.

The Daily Telegraph's Oliver Brown profiles the man on the threshold of an unprecedented 100th international century, after catching up with him at the quotidian confines of Kenton Cricket Club.

The voice is mellifluous, the enunciation beautifully crisp. Tendulkar provides riveting company not because he seeks to drain his statements of any controversy but because he affects to care about their expression.

Do not suppose for a second, either, that he is unbothered by his looming milestone. In March, prior to reaching 85 during a febrile World Cup semi-final against Pakistan in Mohali, he was almost caught twice as the tension bit.

India's decision to call of the chase in Dominica is baffling, writes Siddhartha Vaidyanathan on his blog. MS Dhoni can keep totting up as many series wins as he wants but there must be some point where his team aspires to a higher, loftier goal. It’s pretty clear that India isn’t ready for that flight yet.

How is this Indian team so comfortable with confidently foreseeing the future? Sure, run-scoring was hard and six and over was close to impossible but haven’t these players been around long enough to know that it takes precisely one over to change the dynamic of the whole match?

I find that the most disappointing. This is a beautiful game because of the possibilities it throws up. And even without giving those possibilities a chance, Dhoni pulled the plug.

The honour of being world No. 1 comes with the responsibility to "present the game in its best light" according to Suresh Menon. He writes in his blog on the cricketnext website that India did not live up to that responsibility in the Dominica Test, much like they have abdicated their responsibility as the financial leaders of the game.

Test cricket needs good finishes, attacking attitudes and fewer drawn games. Off the field, it needs administrators who can look beyond the here and now and be statesmen rather than politicians. When what is good for the game is in conflict against what is good for a particular team or a particular set of officials, the game must win. And that is another major responsibility of the No. 1 - to place the greater common good above narrow, sectarian interests.

Following the series win in the Caribbean - despite the criticism over their decision to call off the chase in Dominica - India are back to full strength and little is likely to intimidate them in England, writes Dileep Premachandran in the Guardian.

Had Dhoni refused the dangled carrot with a full-strength side some of the vitriol would have been justified. But India played this tour without Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Sachin Tendulkar, three of the cornerstones of their steady progress to No1. Their replacements failed to stake any claim in West Indies. Prior to his 45 on the final afternoon, Murali Vijay had managed 27 in five innings. Virat Kohli's tally was 76. Neither can complain about not being in the squad for England.

In the Trinidad Express, Fazeer Mohammed says West Indies' young top-order batsmen have to learn how to put a price on their wicket like Shivnarine Chanderpaul does.

In the case of Barath and Bravo, the challenge appears to be as much that of temperament as technique. No-one questions their ability and both have shown in the occasional innings just what they are capable of when everything comes together. Still, and Barath needs to learn this very quickly, you can't play a shot to almost every ball, nor do you play with an open face against the new ball.

The issue with ball-tracking technology in its current form is that its accuracy varies depending on the quality of the cameras used, Mike Haysman writes on Supersport.com. In order to standardise the technology, he suggests the ICC find a global sponsor to fund it rather than have individual broadcasters pay for it on a series-by-series basis.

The harsh reality is that the speed of the cameras that collect all the essential information to enable ball tracking systems, varies substantially based on cost. These cameras are the engine-room of the process. They range from capturing 25 frames per second at the low end to 250 frames per second at the top end. The faster the cameras, the more accurate the information obtained and the less chance of error.

Alastair Cook's exuberant reaction after England beat Sri Lanka at Old Trafford showed just how much that win meant to him as England captain. There are moments when the game unhinges the most equable of men and Old Trafford yielded such a moment writes Patrick Collins in the Daily Mail. Especially when that captain is untried, unproven and uncertain about his ultimate role in English cricket. Like every other captain of England, Cook is permanently on trial.

His batting - in terms of both speed and productivity - has been virtually beyond reproach. And if he has been occasionally reluctant to slap down one or two examples of indiscipline within the English ranks, he has handled himself effectively. In general, Cook has faced his challenges quietly, with the air of a man who has carefully considered all of the consequences. For he knows, better than most, just how bruising those consequences can be.

Jonathan Agnew on BBC Sport writes that Cook has answered his critics in fine style. What we have learned is that Cook is capable of scoring runs when he has the responsibility of captaincy. That was the big question he had to answer, and he has done it.

He has had a fantastic series, and not just with the bat. He has shown a calm head in the field and I liked the way he felt confident, bold and flexible enough to take the batting powerplay early.

Now that Cook has proved his doubters wrong, its time for England's Test captain Andrew Strauss to do the same in the Test series against India writes Derek Pringle in the Daily Telegraph.

England will be facing the best Test team, one that will be fully briefed, as it should be, writes Scyld Berry in the Sunday Telegraph. Every facet of a cricketer’s game and personality is tested in the course of a series of proper length. England’s batsmen know that Fletcher - who coached them knows, and will have revealed all to India's bowlers - and they have to stay one step ahead.

Fletcher's secret knowledge

Andrew Strauss: he likes to pull and cut and dislikes being drawn forward. Zaheer Khan to bowl from over the wicket, and Ishant Sharma from round the wicket

Alastair Cook: prefers to wait on the crease, to cut and work through midwicket. Has to be drawn forward — Zaheer from over the wicket and Ishant round.

Kevin Pietersen: leaves a gap between bat and pad. A bouncer to stop him plunging forward, then a ball angled in. Or try Yuvraj Singh’s left-arm spin

England's victory in the final ODI against Sri Lanka showed that their spluttering batting order is still missing a few parts. The pattern of England's innings here was familiar, writes Barney Ronay in the Observer: an expertly laid platform but no real launch, albeit on a difficult pitch that offered some uneven bounce.

England have recovered well to take this series, but the back half of the batting is a knot they must still unravel. Bell clearly has to come in early or not at all. Kieswetter would be a more intimidating presence at six, but a straight swap would leave Bell and Cook as too refined an opening pair. So the permutations flicker. Three stately Test-honed batsmen into one top six won't fit. And in the end – like the open stands at Old Trafford's Brian Statham end – something is simply going to have to go by the time England continue their own rebuild against India later in the summer.

Echoing a similar view in the Sunday Telegraph, Steve James writes that the pitch at Old Trafford was not the sort England needed.

Yes, even though they prevailed yesterday, England must improve in subcontinental conditions, but that has been the case for some considerable time. They will have plenty of opportunities this winter against India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

In the same newspaper, Simon Hughes writes that England are very good when the pitches have pace and bounce. They look vulnerable when they don’t.

In his column in the Mail on Sunday James Anderson lists three reasons why the series victory over Sri Lanka was particularly satisfying.

Kumar Sangakkara's Cowdrey Lecture was the testament of a great cricketer trying to be a good citizen and that’s reason enough to listen, writes Mukul Kesavan in the Telegraph.

Sangakkara’s experience of what cricket meant to a small, racked nation and his ability to evoke both the darkness of the time and the role of the team as a kind of beacon, make his belief that Sri Lankan cricketers are the keepers of a sacred trust seem deeply felt, not just inflated windbaggery. The Sri Lankan team in its diversity becomes a blueprint for a pluralist Sri Lanka, and cricket becomes, potentially, an agent of reconciliation at the end of a brutal war.

Former New Zealand fast bowler Iain O'Brien reveals his battles with depression, how he is coming to terms with the illness and the road ahead. He opens up to Aaron Lawton in the Sunday Star Times.

O'Brien doesn't want to be a poster child for depression. He doesn't want to be a martyr, a role model or remotely like Kirwan. He doesn't want your pity either.But in talking today, on his 35th birthday no less, he hopes that his message might reach out to someone who, like him, has put off seeking the help they so desperately need.

"I don't want to be one of those statistics. I don't want this to fester away either. I've never been quite that low but I've certainly been on the way to being that low. I don't want to deal with that. I don't want my wife and my daughter to deal with me like that.I want to be sweet. I want to enjoy this. I don't want to miss out on what we've got."

After years at the top, Australian cricket appears to have lost its way, but all is not lost, writes Greg Baum in the Sunday Herald. As the pyramid system crumbles, the Argus inquiry needs to lift the lid on what's wrong with the game.

When the Argus investigation into what has gone wrong with Australian cricket finishes its work, it will surely conclude that the pyramid that has served the sport so well for more than a century is crumbling. In its place is that structure so beloved of modern bureaucrats: the silo. But on a ledge halfway up, someone has built a glittering, Vegas-style edifice, catching all eyes. This is how the cricket landscape looks to many who work in it.

India's S Sreesath on his recovery from an elbow injury, the challenge of bowling in England, and why he will not compromise on his pace. He talks to Sanjjeev Karan Samyal in the Hindustan Times.

I don't want to just bowl. I want to bowl fast. A lot of people question, why he is not playing? But I had this pain and whenever I bowled fast, it was getting worse. I don't want to cheat myself. I want to bowl fast and get back in to the team.

England are a very good side, they have done well everywhere. The conditions will be helpful, but not getting carried away by the bounce and the swing, like I did on my last tour in 2007, will be the key. It took me two Tests to understand how to bowl in England, and the experience of playing a season for Warwickshire will be to my advantage. One thing about England is that the conditions are helpful but if you don't hit the right areas you won't get wickets. If you can swing the ball with pace, nothing like it. I learnt that from Allan Donald and Ashley Giles, who were my coaches at Warwickshire.

Sunil Gavaskar talks to Jonathan Agnew, in the BBC website, about India's prospects when they tour England this summer. He believes veterans Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman will be at their best in the series, as they are keen to "go out on a high". Listen to the audio here.

Few players attract the sort of criticism from their countrymen that Darren Sammy does, Bharat Sundaresan writes in the Indian Express. But Sammy has actually been consistent with his bowling, regularly picking up wickets, bowling long spells and keeping the runs down too. Still, even though he has twice dismissed Rahul Dravid in the series against India, the fans haven't forgiven him for dropping Dravid in the first Test. That sums up Sammy's predicament.

Few West Indian bowlers have managed to bowl with the control that Sammy has displayed in his career so far. And the West Indian skipper provides one element that has been lacking drastically in bowling attacks from the Caribbean ever since Courtney Walsh hung up his boots. He bowls long spells, rarely short of eight or nine overs at a stretch, and despite not being as incisive as others before him, the lanky St Lucian can choke up the scoring. Not only has he led from the front so far in the series, having bowled the most number of overs, with 29 maidens he has also kept one end quiet, allowing his aggressive bowling partners the opportunity to attack.

As India tour the West Indies and England this summer, MS Dhoni will be trying to repeat Ajit Wadekar's feats. Wadekar captained India to series victories in both countries, but he was criticised by some as being a defensive captain. In an interview with Outlook, Wadekar speaks about how the players reacted to him replacing Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi as captain, Pataudi's refusal to come on the tours of England in 1971 and 74, and how he used his spinners.

Perhaps these guys failed to read my mindset then. I had a fairly new combination with me as a surprise captain. As against that, our opposition was as mighty as ever in WI, led by Sir Gary Sobers. I planned to curb their strokes and try their patience, how can anyone call it defensive tactics? Sobers and all others were known for going for their strokes all the time, but they got restless if they couldn’t get going. If I were a defensive captain, would I have enforced the follow-on in the first Test?

Peter Roebuck lauds Kumar Sangakkara's MCC Spirit of Cricket Lecture in the Hindu, and says the problems with cricket governance extend beyond Sri Lankan cricket. Cheats thrive when honest men hold their tongues, Roebuck says, and urges others to join men like Sangakkara and Malcolm Speed in speaking out about the failings of cricket's administrative bodies.

It took courage for a 33-year-old to speak out against his own administrators. Sangakkara could easily have kept his thoughts to himself, taken the money and the IPL contract and the advertising deals and the adoration that accompanies cricketing greatness in the region. Evidently he is made of sterner stuff. Along the way he did outstanding service to his country, his cricket community and the game.

Claire Taylor, who announced her retirement from international cricket on Friday, did a great deal, through her mixture of intellect and application, to raise the standards of her team and of women's cricket in general, writes Mike Selvey in The Guardian.

Taylor's personal story is an interesting tale of how she used her hyperintelligence to plan a path to the top of her game. She is 35 now, and says she is creaking a bit. The gym is used more for rehab than training and her body, as much as a recognition that there is a future career to plan as well, has told her it is time to go. When she was 21, though, her cricket lay before her. She was a high-flying Oxford maths graduate, singled out for a lucrative career in IT. Instead, as a fine hockey player, but a batsman of no great distinction and a sometime wicketkeeper, she announced her intention to transform her game.

In the Independent, Stephen Brenkley says Taylor was so good she changed the perception of her sport.

Despite his impressive Test credentials, Alistair Cook has had to deal with plenty of criticism in his career. The latest salvo came after he was appointed England's one-day captain. Considering he was not considered good enough to be part of England's World Cup squad a few months ago, some skepticism was perhaps justified. But Cook has responded with two fine innings against Sri Lanka, proving he has the potential to adapt to the one-day game. Writing in his blog for the Cricketer, Jonathan Agnew says Cook shows the folly of pre-judging class players.

Perhaps being named as 50-over captain, together with the questioning of his right to be in charge, has forced him to expand his game. But, so far, he has risen to the challenge very impressively and that should not be a shock to us. Cook is a very bright bloke, he’s got a serious Test batting record and he’s shown throughout his career that he is an incredibly quick learner. What’s happened in this one-day series against Sri Lanka has merely been an extension of that.

Kumar Sangakkara made 75 in the fourth ODI against England at Trent Bridge on Wednesday, but if this was distinguished work, befitting one of the most respected figures in the cricket world, writes James Lawton in the Independent, it surely paled beside the impact of his performance in the Lord's Long Room less than 48 hours earlier. Then he was given a standing ovation for a speech filled with courage and a biting insight into some of the reasons why cricket is seen so often to betray itself.

Sangakkara played cricket because of his passion for the game and for his understanding of how important it was to the morale of his people. It was more important than money and ego – and certainly it dwarfed, in his mind, any gaining of political influence. It meant that when he performed so steadfastly in what seemed certain to be a lost cause yesterday his work seemed to give off the kind of glow not normally associated with an admirable, if, in his terms, routine performance

Sangakkara has every right to make observations about the iniquities of Sri Lankan cricket, not just the right of free speech, but a right conferred upon him by 422 internationals over 11 years, more than 18,000 runs, two years of captaincy, a record of success both for himself and his team, a vast knowledge of his subject and a tireless commitment to the cause, writes David Hopps in the Guardian. If he has no right to speak, who does, Hopps asks.

So often we naively want our sporting heroes to impress us in a wider sense and so often they disappoint. Beyond their sporting genius, they have no revelations to make. Administrators quite like it that way. It is the Sangakkaras of the world, sportsmen who have achieved despite the machinations around them, and who dare to imagine something better, who possess a vision to question lesser men.

Sangakkara described Arjuna Ranatunga, as a "much-awaited messiah" in his speech, but while Arjuna defied such the system, Sangakkara cannot, even having well informed of the evils of it. That’s really what his MCC speech lacked writes Revata S Silva in the Island.

An editorial in the Indian Express states that at a time when many cricketing nations have been reticent to comment on the merits of the ICC’s recent suggestion to keep politicians out of the boards, Sangakkara has opened the debate. It is something that other nations could follow on.

Stuart Broad may be England's new one-day captain but he remains wicketless after the first three games against Sri Lanka, continuing his struggles to take regular wickets in recent times. Writing in the Guardian, Vic Marks makes the case that a spell on the sidelines might be the best thing for Broad as it would allow him to figure out his problems and come back stronger.

Broad himself must be desperate. Why else would he take the umpire Billy Bowden to task at Headingley for declining to give Jeevan Mendis lbw? That decision had no bearing on the outcome of the match since the appeal was made after the penultimate ball of the Sri Lanka innings. It could only affect Broad's bowling figures. That final column would be barren no more if only Bowden would raise his finger. It is a very bad sign that Broad should lose it over such a trifling matter.

Mumbai was once the undisputed powerhouse of Indian domestic cricket. Wining the Ranji Trophy was their right and anything less was a failure. Lately, however, Mumbai has made a habit of losing to some of the lesser lights. In the Times of India, Makarand Waingankar wonders what ails Mumbai cricket.

People talk of the khadoos attitude of Mumbai players; but it must be told, they were ruthless not only with the opposition but also their own players.

In the 1976 match against Bengal at the Eden Gardens, a ball from leggie Rakesh Tandon ricocheted off the stumps and smashed into the face of wicketkeeper Sharad Hazare. He spit blood but didn't take shelter in the comforts of the dressing room because the team needed him. For the next three days, he was on a liquid diet and that too had to be taken through a straw.

Though he is close to reaching the 400 Test wickets milestone, Harbhajan Singh's effectiveness in the longer format has come under scrutiny in recent times. Suresh Menon, writing for dreamcricket.com wonders whether the shorter formats of the game are to blame for his decline.

To find the route that made him a world class offspinner, Harbhajan might have to give up the shorter formats of the game. There is little doubt that one-day cricket and T20 have reduced his effectiveness in Test cricket. It is unlikely that he will take that step, though. For one, he is a fiercely combative player who will see any such move as an admission of defeat. For another, he loves to bowl, and cannot contemplate lean periods, especially if he believes (as he has in the past) that all problems can be solved in the running, as it were. That is, by playing as much as possible.

In the Trinidad Express, Fazeer Mohammed says Chris Gayle's call for Caricom leaders to intervene in his stand-off with the WICB will be answered only with talk and no action. The problem, Mohammed writes, is that cricketing controversies hold the attention for a short span of time and are not meaningful enough to induce political action. In the meantime, he says, West Indies cricket continues to slide into irrelevance, as is evident from the new Future Tours Programme in which many of West Indies' home games are scheduled after their traditional season.

And that really puts cricket into its proper perspective. Many of us feel passionately about it from a purely sporting context while others will see its value as a metaphor or a barometer of contemporary West Indian society. Still, after all of that, it's only a game. In the Arab world, like almost everywhere else, football is followed with an almost religious fervour. But the people of that region have taken to the streets for the past five months and have died by the hundreds, maybe thousands already, not over some perceived injustice on the football pitch, but for freedoms that we take for granted.

Allegations that India is failing to take a leadership role in world cricket are partially true writes Ayaz Memon in the Times of India. In some cases, pique and ego have taken precedence over professional and dispassionate thought.

Stories of bullying by India are getting louder and they are no longer confined to the usual suspects of England and Australia. The BCCI has long been accused of arrogance, but there cannot be any doubt that the Indian cricket board has given cricket a tremendous boost which has benefited everyone

The ICC required just one annual conference to be reminded this ruling the world malarkey is not as easy as it looks writes Paul Radley in the National. At the recent FIFA congress in Switzerland football's ruling group lurched from one crisis to the next humiliation and while the ICC's yearly pow-wow in Hong Kong last week would certainly not have registered a mark on the FIFA scale, they still came up with some scandalously bad conclusions.

While the governing body appeared to give with one hand, by guaranteeing extra space for the developing nations in the 50 over flagship, it took away with the other, by cutting the World Twenty20 back from the proposed 16 teams to 12.

So the Associates find their wings clipped again. Sad as it is for them, the World Twenty20 remains the best multi-nation tournament in cricket.

When the ICC pulled the plug on the use of runners last week, a unique cricketing character
breathed his last writes Sandeep Dwivedi in the Indian Express. A modest man who loved to stay in the background, the ‘third batsman’ brought joy, tears and hearty laughs to the cricket
field. Thanks for the memories, says the author.

Whatever said and done, the runner sure did add another dimension to the game, making cricket’s narrative all the more richer. He had to judge the power of his batsman’s shot, making a split second decision on whether to take the single or not. The batsman banked on the runner to give optimum value to his strokes. Like in life as in sport, when a man’s fortunes depend on someone else, drama isn’t too far from the scene.

In the same newspaper, Siddhartha Sharma looks at some classic cases in cricket history featuring runners. (And here's our own XI of best runner stories).

The Independent's Amol Rahan takes a close look at Ramnaresh Sarwan's astonishing decline in form, leading to his axing for the third Test against India. The visitors have a star of their own whose stock has dipped in recent times - their lead spinner, Harbhajan Singh.

Eleven days ago Sarwan turned 31. Harbhajan turned 31 yesterday. His figures were 14-3-31-1 and 19-2-42-1: ineffective. In March 2001, he took 32 wickets in three Tests against Australia – including the first Test hat-trick by an Indian – while none of his team-mates managed more than three. He was then a bowler whose stock ball turned sharply and drifted away from the right-hander, and whose whirligig, open action, which sometimes meant he bowled from beyond the vertical – ie 11 o'clock – induced terror in batsmen.

Aditya Iyer reviews Jonathan Smith's book, The Following Game in the Indian Express. The book, Iyer says, is rare and sensitive literature in the world of sports books, one that doesn’t revert to scandals and controversies to sell the contents within.

To put it more simply, it is about being a fan, a follower, a hero-worshipper. If you’ve ever surrendered to the magic of just following a game or a team or a player and wondered why it begins to rule your life, then with his divine craft of philosophising the everyday, the author justifies that love, putting mania into perspective with a wonderful personal journey as a man obsessed with cricket, rugby, authors and poets ... Diagnosed with cancer in January 2006, Smith — a Welsh-born professor of literature at Tonbridge School in Kent — sets forth on a journey with son Ed to India, the spiritual home of the game of cricket.

Ravi Rampaul is a fine example of how one should go about resurrecting a cricketing career, says Ian Bishop, writing in Mid-Day, while tracing the fast bowler's story.

My first encounter with him was as a 14-year-old when he was representing Trinidad and Tobago at the West Indies regional under-15 tournament ... With a smooth run- up and nippy pace for his age, he impressed me with his ability then and his willingness to learn. As manager of that team, I occasionally jogged back to the hotel from the ground and he, with one or two others, would come along. Any bowling advice given to him at practice sessions he would immediately try and implement ...

One day during the tournament I said to him, ‘ do you know that you have enough talent to play for the West Indies some day?’ His look was one of astonishment, as if to suggest, ‘ who, me? Are you mad?’ While his response spoke of his naivety then, as it probably would have done to most 14-year-olds at that time, it also speaks of his humility which has been his hallmark right through.

Mike Brearley, the former England captain, in the Observer, looks back at one of the greatest Test series of all time, 30 years on.

The first thing I should say is that the train of events in 1981 was extremely fortuitous. In that third Test at Headingley, for a start, Ian Botham and Graham Dilley, whose second-innings partnership of 117 turned the match, could have been out at any moment. Kim Hughes and the Australians were criticised for bowling too wide to them and it was true, they should have tightened their line. But on any other day they would have edged rather than missed, or edged more thinly, or the ball would have landed differently from one of the thick edges.

Had the Guardian website been around then, how would it have covered the series? Rob Smyth tries to find out.

Vic Marks, in the Observer, questions the ICC's decision to do a U-turn on its decision to cut the number of teams in the 2015 World Cup. He claims the 2011 World Cup wasn't really "higly successful" and that the new Powerplay rules complicate the 50-over game more.

The recent tournament in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh was neither highly successful (although it did make pots of money) nor universally acclaimed. A better résumé would be to say that the 2011 World Cup was not as disastrous as its predecessors in 2007 in the Caribbean, 2003 in Southern Africa or 1999 in the United Kingdom. But 2011 was still flawed. The first month would have been a complete waste of time and energy but for England's travails in their attempts to qualify. Even then precisely the eight teams anticipated qualified for the quarter-finals. That part of the tournament went on far too long.

Alastair Cook, England's ODI captain, has come in for criticism for his style of play in the shorter format and some of that has been unfair, writes Stephen Brenkley in the Independent on Sunday. He says he has the character to hit back with his performances on the field.

For the foreseeable future, Cook is here to stay, and it would not be in the England management's nature to jettison him for a long while yet. They genuinely believe, unlike a plethora of pundits, that he can lead them to sunny uplands.

Cook is so resolute that he might very well confound his critics, though he would never say so. He is not the only batsman who invites rumination. Jonathan Trott has been prolific,but in reaching double figures for the 10th consecutive time in Leeds, a run that has included six fifties, he was not busy enough. His overall strike- rate of almost 80 partly defies hiscritics, but he has to take a game by the scruff.

Steve James, in the Daily Telegraph, agrees Cook has the makings of a successful ODI captain.

James Anderson, in the Mail on Sunday, says any squabbles or differences between players on the field at an error or a dropped catch only show how determined England are to win.

In the Observer, Vic Marks says England must be prepared to adapt if Lord's provides a run-friendly pitch like Headingely did.

David Hopps, in the Guardian, pays tribute to Martin Searby, the former Times and Daily Telegraph sports writer and journalist, who passed away at the age of 72.

Searby – virtually everybody called him Searby – worked on the county cricket circuit when press boxes still bristled with purpose and a sense of self-worth and, after he had filed repeatedly for five evening papers, mostly ad-libbed with uncanny accuracy, and three radio stations, he had worked up quite a thirst.

In late evening when he turned to double scotch – "a gentleman's measure" – and his opinions became more aggressive, it was a courageous colleague who would not make their excuses and leave. Many a victim returned whey-faced to the press box the next morning to add another anecdote to the collection.

Matthew Hoggard says doing away with the runner rule does limit the opportunity for "comedy cock-ups" and wonders why nightwatchmen - he was one during his time - haven't been banned either. Read more in the Independent.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) could have struck another blow for bowlers this week by banning the use of Nos 9, 10 and 11 as cannon fodder on occasions when top-order batsmen don't fancy doing their job because it's a bit dark or there are only a few minutes to go before close of play.

Fortunately, I no longer have to worry about nightwatchman duties because, first, I'm captain (and I can order someone else to do it), and secondly, because I'm a specialist six-hitter these days (more of that in a minute, I promise).

Opening the bowling alongside Kapil Dev, in his all-time India XI, would be Zaheer Khan, says Siddhartha Vaidyanathan in his blog. In between the two, he says, stood a bridge that connected them - Javagal Srinath.

When I think of Javagal Srinath, I think of ’97. India v Sri Lanka in Mumbai. Final Test. India pushing for a win, trying to wrap up the Sri Lankan first innings when Srinath ran in and smashed the wicketkeeper Lanka de Silva in the face. The bouncer sneaking through the helmet grille, pummeling his left cheek and sending him to the hospital where he would need ten stitches. That was the first time I saw an Indian bowler do anything remotely violent. I felt bad for Lanka de Silva but I was perversely thrilled. An Indian fast bowler was smelling blood. Srinath probably apologised. I didn’t notice. But there was reason to hope.

Runners provided some of the most quirky and comic moments on the cricket field but the suspicions of abuse may have prompted the ICC to ban them, writes Mike Selvey in the Guardian.

It is a debate that has been rumbling on for several years, brought to a head perhaps by the issue not of pulled muscles or, say, a foot damaged by a special from Lasith Malinga, but of cramp, something particularly highlighted in a Centurion Champions League match between South Africa and England a couple of years back, when the South African captain, Graeme Smith, cramping after scoring a century, was refused a runner, AB de Villiers, by Andrew Strauss who reasoned that after a long innings in hot conditions, a batsman is going to be drained and that it wasn't that serious anyway.