Australia's Damien Fleming was involved in probably two of the most famous death overs in World Cup history, in 1996 and 1999. He recounts those nerve-wracking moments to Aditya Iyer of the Indian Express.

When it was one to win off four, Fleming says an interesting incident occurred on the field. “I told Tugga that I wanted to come over the wicket to change the line and bowl a yorker. But Steve didn’t even look at me. He said ‘Yeah, whatever.’ The captain knew that the ship had already sunk,” reckons Fleming. The pacer did so eventually, and the rest as he says is ‘bizarre history’.

In the early 20th century, Australia was gripped by a sectarian conflict between Catholics and Protestants, one which was believed to play a part in Donald Bradman not being so popular among some of his team-mates. Before Bradman's time, cricket wasn't free of this divide and it was captured through a sensational divorce trial between a Test cricketer, Arthur Coningham and his wife Alice Dowling, who he claimed was seduced by a Catholic priest Denis O’haran in Sydney. It was a trial which changed Coningham's life, for the worse. Sriram Veera chronicles that passage in Mumbai Mirror.

So the ingredients for a pot boiler were set: A fascinating character, a divorce, a catholic priest, and a nation split in its loyalties. Alice confessed to Coningham about her affair and that the father of their third son was actually O’haran. Coninham saw it as an opportunity to make some money; he tried to blackmail the priest for compensation but when that didn’t work, he went for divorce, naming O’haran as co-respondent and claimed £5000 damages for loss of honour.

Former Australia fast bowler Jeff Thomson talks to Rohit Bhaskar on bowling to Sir Don Bradman, meeting George Best and the best batsmen he bowled to. More from the Hindustan Times.

It was at Adelaide in 1977-78, when India was touring Australia. Sir Don was batting in a suit, no pads, no gloves, just a bat. He must've been around 70 and hadn't batted for almost 30 years and he was still so good. It was a turf wicket, and I bowled within myself, but there were a couple of young blokes who were bowling at full speed and he was carting them all over the place. Along with meeting Georgie Best, bowling to Bradman is the greatest moment of my life.

Andrew Faulkner, writing in the Australian, reminisces how watching Graham Yallop thump India at the Adelaide Oval 34 years ago drew him into a lifelong love of cricket.

Out on the off-white and scorching concrete Adelaide Oval terraces, the boy watched Graham Yallop score 121 against India 34 years ago. Young minds as they are, Yallop sounded like wallop, which is exactly what the future Australian captain did that day in Adelaide. The boy's fascination with Yallop, along with the dash of debutant opener Rick Darling and obduracy of Bob Simpson, ended his parents' dreams of him winning Wimbledon.

Les Murray, on the SBS Sports website, writes of the threat posed by the Big Bash League to the popularity of the football A-league in Australia.

Now part of that summer has been populated by the Big Bash with 32 well publicised, fabulously hyped matches over six weeks. Okay, that’s nowhere near all of the summer and it’s only a short slice of what the entire duration if the A-League entails. But it is, nonetheless, a new highly appealing product smack in the middle of the football season and one with the potential to eat into the A-League’s capacity to draw fans.

Remember Gavin Robertson, the Australia offspinner who made his Test debut against India in Chennai in 1998, and then fell off the international circuit after a few months? In the Sydney Morning Herald, Daniel Lane narrates what happened to Robertson after his Australia and New South Wales career. Not all of it is pretty, but Robertson's story turns out okay.

Dropped from the national team and axed by NSW, off-spinner Gavin Robertson fell from being a respected athlete to a 31-year-old father who depended on social welfare payments to feed his family because he couldn't get a job - and it was humiliating.

He'd kill time by sitting alone on a park bench tormented by the void that appeared to be life after cricket. Robertson was frustrated to realise he'd invested so much energy into representing Australia in four Tests and 13 one-day internationals that he hadn't prepared for the day when his sporting career ended.

Malcolm Knox, in the Sydney Morning Herald, says having ridden in on a bat with no name, Michael Clarke can claim naming rights to the 100th Test at the SCG.

Success for Clarke seems to spark the same public reaction as failure: a national referendum on the crucial question of whether he is a good bloke. With recent captains such as Ponting, Steve Waugh, Mark Taylor and Allan Border, people thought they knew already. With some, they didn't care one way or the other. Perhaps Michael Clarke: Saintly Hero or Axe Murderer? is for Channel Nine to ask its viewers. This rather bizarre fretfulness over his immortal soul is something he shares in common with Don Bradman, as well as now being Test triple-century-makers.

The wicket of Sachin Tendulkar was the game's last staging post. In the karmic way of these things, it fell to Clarke, writes Greg Baum in the same paper.

It was a Test match played on an epic scale, but won in the end by shifts - hunches, quirks, ricochets and deviations - so small as to be almost imperceptible ... Clarke in this match demonstrated touches both exquisite and Midas. He spent all but 40 minutes of it on the ground. He is making a new name for himself, and it was written all over this Test.

Michael Clarke batted in a baggy green for a while during his epic 329, and Barney Ronay, writing in the Guardian, says "batting in a cap makes all cricketers look more dashing, more complete and more poignant."

For Clarke the cap resembled a set of laurels this week. The new captain has been coddled by his countrymen and celebrated by the English and Australian media after four hundreds in his last seven Tests. Once dismissed by some as insufficiently flinty, he has begun to look instead manly and classical. There is an unencumbered quality about this sandy-haired creature who speaks to something gay and celebratory in the way Australia would like to see itself. For all its newness Australia can still be an oddly nostalgic country, in love with its own romantic near-past. To this end the delicious mawkishness of Clarke's declaration in Sydney with his own score just shy of Don Bradman's sacred 334 may have an element of PR about it, but as a register of manly sporting romance it hits all the right big fat happy notes. A triple hundred. A series win. A cap. It looks like an era under way.

In the Independent, Chris McGrath writes: "If he discovered a cure for cancer in the morning, sorted out global warming in the afternoon, and paid off the national deficit before going to bed, someone would still mutter something about Michael Clarke just showing off."

It's all very odd. With an average of 62 in 17 Test innings as captain, you would think Australian pragmatists might pardon Clarke his perceived heterodoxies. Instead they agonise pathetically about his image. They were appalled by his admission that he sobbed on the sofa with his father after losing his Test place in 2005. Some may even have been mischievously gratified that his Herculean deeds this week were played out against swathes of pink, from the stands to the stumps (in support of the Jane McGrath cancer foundation). Yet here is a man who sacrificed the joyous freedom of his game in the cause of a team in decline; who is proving a most adept captain, not least in respectful rehabilitation of Ponting.

From the unruly Hill stand to Warne's first spell, the SCG, which hosts it's 100th Test today, stirs a legion of memories says Malcolm Knox, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald.

When I was eight, my grandfather took us to watch the English from the Bob Stand. I remember the SCG smell - a cocktail of tomato sauce, hot chips, beer, cigarettes, turf, soot, old concrete and metal. Even though they've replaced all but the Members and Ladies stands, the SCG smell lives on. There was a man that day whose beer gut enlarged the strained lettering on his shirt: ''POMMIE B*******''. We giggled at how rude it was to have the B-word on a T-shirt. The Bob Stand was replaced by the Pat Hills Stand, named after the SCG trustee and Labor MP. My grandfather thought this a scandal: ''How many wickets did Pat Hills take?''

The Sydney Morning Herald's Andrew Wu looks back on some memorable debuts at the venue that will host its 100th Test in the new year.

Born Reginald Erskine Foster, but better known as Tip, Foster was the only man to captain England at football and cricket. His 287 on debut in 1903 has stood for more than a century as the highest score made in an SCG Test ... Foster's debut effort remains the highest score by a Test debutant, well clear of the unbeaten 222 by South Africa's Jacques Rudolph in 2003.

Who would have thought, after taking 1-150 on debut at the SCG, that the chunky 22-year-old with a blond mullet would retire with more than 700 Test wickets and be regarded as one of the best players ever? Shane Warne was punished by opener Ravi Shastri and a softly spoken teenager called Sachin Tendulkar in the 1992 Test against India. Shastri hit a career-best 206 and shared in a 196-run stand for the sixth wicket with Tendulkar before entering the record books as Warne's first Test victim.

Jamie Pandaram, writing in Australia's Daily Telegraph, speaks to Dan Christian's family about his growing up years.

Christian's mother Toni spent hours driving him from Campbelltown to Kensington when Christian joined the University of NSW cricket team, where he was mentored by Geoff Lawson and Michael Slater. "And the M5 Motorway didn't extend all that way back then," Toni laughed. "It was especially busy when the footy and cricket seasons overlapped, we'd be driving from the footy to the cricket, and the cricket to the footy."

She added: "The move to Sydney was a big thing for him at 13, he had to make a whole lot of new friends, but that was his dream, going to St Greg's mainly to play footy. Cricket came second back in those days. "He broke a leg playing footy when he was 14, he had to get screws put in but came back from that fairly well," she said.

Michael Clarke, writing in Australia's Daily Telegraph, says his team takes responsibility for the batting in Hobart. Australia, he says, have the prefect chance to start moving in the right direction once more in the Border-Gavaskar series.

When I first came into the Australian team everyone said we had a weakness against spin bowling and we did a lot of work on that. That's what we're doing now against the swinging and seaming ball. We're practising as much as we can. It will take time for us to improve and we will keep working on it. So, I think the pre-Test batting camp is a positive initiative.

[India's] their bowling lacks experience and they're dealing with injuries as well. They'll have concerns there. Zaheer Khan is a big player for them. I think it's going to be a really good contest between youth and enthusiasm versus some old wise heads in the Indian team ... I am 100 per cent confident there'll be no repeat of the unpleasantness the last time Australia played India in a Test series at home.

Once, nations schemed and tinkered before testing themselves against the indomitable West Indians, and, later, Australians. Now the robust and healthy selection debate about the Australian team this summer can be reduced to a single pertinent question: How would we fare against England? writes Richard Hinds in the Sydney Morning Herald.

The new Australian selection panel's first test might be whether they are willing to make the potentially unpopular decision to drop Ponting and/or Hussey, even after they have scored decent runs. To make the assertion that others are not only capable of matching those contributions, but more likely to do so in 2013 when it matters most.

The test applies not only to the veterans. Such is his raw talent and dead eye, it would not be surprising if Phillip Hughes slashed a big score in Hobart. If so, it should buy him only enough time to prove he can close the vast gap between his occasional success and more common failures. As it is, the thought of Jimmy Anderson bowling to Hughes on a seaming pitch beneath a cloudy sky does not overwhelm one with confidence.

In the Guardian, Mike Selvey writes of one of the most exciting young pacemen around, Pat Cummins, and the dilemma he presents for Australia vis-a-vis protecting him from the rigours of international cricket.

There are two points at issue here. First, injury prevention is a worthy enough aim, but should it be the primary consideration or should fast bowling be regarded as a high-risk occupation? Motor sport would be a whole lot safer, after all, if they all drove a little slower. Thus, play less cricket and there is less chance of injury. Bit facile that, but then again, if indeed injury prevention is high on the priority list, what is the most appropriate way of implementing this?

In an interview with Ian Chappell for the Sunday Telegraph, Mickey Arthur talks about why Australia need a coach, the relationship he expects to have with Michael Clarke, why he wanted the Australia job and more.

I am really excited about the way Michael Clarke has gone about his captaincy. I think his captaincy has been very positive, it's been aggressive and has been on gut feel and I have really enjoyed it and I like that. But the one thing that Graeme had was that he had the ability to be able to get the best out of his players and he had an aura in the dressing room. I'm pretty sure Mike has that aura, but that's what made Graeme truly good.

Robert Craddock discusses the problem of Australia's fast bowlers getting injured too often, in the Herald Sun. The main question, he says, is whether to give fast bowlers workload restrictions or let them build up rhythm and strength by bowling continuously.

vThe Argus interviewers were bombarded with theories from well-known cricket people who pointed out that West Indian great Courtney Walsh bowled more than 30,000 balls toiling year round for the West Indies and Gloucestershire for 14 years and barely broke a toe nail. Once asked to the secret of his longevity, Walsh replied "I never stop ... I'm almost scared of stopping. You have a Mercedes you keep it running."

The fact that Australia have appointed a foreign coach reveals a lot about where their cricket is at, Kepler Wessels writes on Supersport.com. It may also have ramifications on how many Australian coaches find jobs with other national sides, he says.

The decision at the conclusion of the review was that the Aussies wanted to return to the good old days of Australian cricket and adopt the hard line that made them so successful. The ideal candidate for this coaching style was Steve Rixon. He learnt his cricket and much of his coaching approach from the highly successful Bobby Simpson who coached Australia successfully for many years. It was thought also that captain Michael Clarke wanted a higher work ethic and more discipline. With all that in mind, Rixon was the strong favourite to get the job. What made Cricket Australia backtrack and go the diplomatic and non-confrontational route again is not quite clear.

Australia's move for the South African coach Mickey Arthur is an indication of a new realism and humility, writes Vic Marks in the Guardian.

Like many of the best coaches Arthur does not appear to have an ego; he does not crave attention; he recognises the primacy of the captain in running a successful cricket team. We have seen that he can work extremely effectively with a strong, decisive captain, for that is what Smith has undoubtedly been for South Africa over the past few years. He can dovetail effectively, relieving the captain's burden, filling in the gaps.

The temptation for Australia now is to believe that they are only as good as their last match. Fortunately, that falsism never was applied to Don Bradman. Now Australia, under new management, again must show themselves to be better than that, writes Greg Baum in the Sydney Morning Herald.

India await, with New Zealand as an entree. England is far ahead of anyone else in the world now, but, fortunately, also distant in Australia's program. One thing is certain: whatever changes are on the new selectors' minds, they must make them immediately. The idea of valedictory appearances against New Zealand makes no sense. Cheap runs and wickets would only cloud the picture. New Zealand treats series against Australia as their Ashes, and will give an honest contest. But in their most recent Test, they only narrowly escaped defeat by Zimbabwe.

The reactions to Australia’s stunning collapse for 47 in the Newlands Test have been predictably scathing. Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Malcolm Conn adds to the castigation of Michael Clarke’s team, calling it “the worst Australian side in a quarter of a century”.

The embarrassing loss means Australia have won just two of their past 12 Tests. That dreadful sequence is the most miserable since Border's battlers went 14 Tests in a row without a victory from November 1985 to January 1987. At least that struggling side had some valid excuses. The game in Australia was still healing following Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket schism of the late 1970s and had been gutted by rebel South African tours of the mid-80s.

Ian Chappell, also writing in the Sunday Telegraph, is a little more restrained, saying that the time has come to wring the changes, including replacing former captain Ricky Ponting.

For a long time, Ponting has been a tremendous player who intimidates opponents. However, the expected rejuvenation resulting from relinquishing the captaincy and moving down the order hasn't eventuated. It's starting to look like Ponting's is a terminal decline rather than just a slump.

Clarke's brilliant hundred at Newlands has established his credentials as a tactically proficient captain who can lead and score runs. There's less reason now to retain Ponting and the selectors may decide - as the American baseball manager once said to his departing star player: "We lost with you, we can sure as hell lose without you."

In the Sydney Morning Herald, Peter Roebuck echoes Ian Chappell in saying that the selectors have some tough choices to make, particularly in the case of Mitchell Johnson.

Assuming Ryan Harris is fit, and he looked sore at the end of the Test, the only other doubt concerns Mitchell Johnson, the most frustrating cricketer in the country. Johnson bowled without pace or swing at Newlands and batsmen have rumbled him. Not until a few runs were required for victory did he attain full speed, 145.8 km/h, or take a wicket as Hashim Amla drove loosely.

In the same paper, Tim Lane writes that few Australian losses have been so embarrassing.

This match was played by cricketers whose attention span has been compromised by the emphasis on the comic book form of the game. What other conclusion is to be drawn after Michael Clarke's and Graeme Smith's innings provided such weighty bookends to this procession of self-destruction?

In the Age, Greg Baum writes, "Ricky Ponting is perched on that precipitous threshold between a brilliant and complete career and one season too many. If he is still good enough, a rapid succession of matches against South Africa, New Zealand and India can be his Indian summer. But South Africa is not the sort of team inclined to strew his way with palm fronds.

At the nets, Ponting is indefatigable, spending longer there than any other Australian player. As long as there is one ball left to hit, throw or catch, he will. He is whippet-fit. It is not desperation, just Ponting's way and always has been. He still loves cricket, and still hopes it might give up one last secret to him, if only he is patient. It is admirable, but now could become a complication. Ponting is toiling as hard as always, but always is not forever.

In the WAtoday, Marcus North recounts the time he faced Patrick Cummins.

The first ball goes pass my left ear before I can even react. I had that feeling you get when you just wake up after you made the mistake of turning your alarm off when you thought you pressed snooze. I had a look around the field and the placement of the fielders suggested that he seemed more interested in knocking my head off than getting me out. I thought "this kid is not just a great talent but a mind reader as well". The overs that followed were full of aggression and intimidation and I would be lying if I said I wasn't concerned for my health and safety. The inevitable eventually happened, a fierce blow to the head. Thankfully the helmet took the impact and I was left just a little shaken.

Greg Baum unveils No. 1 in the Sydney Morning Herald's countdown and there are no marks for guessing who perches atop the heap, the man who quietly slipped out of the game and our collective conscious, while his stats continue to leave us spellbound.

Bradman was a man of his time, but it was another time. He was a Protestant, mason, Anglophile, monarchist and knight. He loved classical music, was an adept pianist and became a champion at squash. For most of his playing days he was a teetotaller and a non-smoker. In a highly social sport he was almost a hermit. Bill O'Reilly first met him in their early teens, played with and against him, jousted with him, studied him, wrote about him, but said near the end of his own life that he hardly knew him.

In the Sydney Morning Herald, Mike Brearley writes in rich detail of a fierce opponent who went on to win his respect and become a close friend - Dennis Lillee.

Still a fine figure of a man, direct of gaze and striking of looks - bald now, but with cheekbones high and his trademark moustache still strong - Dennis Lillee gives the impression of a person who has enjoyed his life and continues to do so. He remains a real Aussie, one who can afford to show his softer and generous side more amply now that he doesn't have to live out the burden of ''If Lillee don't get yer, Thommo must''. It has been a privilege to know him; and to have batted against him, however ineptly.

As part of the same 'Australia's 25 to 1' series, Malcolm Knox pays Adam Gilchrist a fitting tribute.

Freedom. There's no other word to summarise how Adam Gilchrist played. When he became a Test cricketer in the month of his 28th birthday he stepped lightly onto the Gabba to face Shoaib Akhtar, whose thunderbolts had just sent off Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting. In his stance, Gilchrist tapped his bat tremulously, but his feet did not move until the last moment, if at all. He had the self-belief to play late.

Keith Miller is perhaps the most glamorous cricketer to come out of Australia, and one of the most talented. More than 120 Australian cricketers have chosen their five greatest players for a new book, and in the Sydney Morning Herald, Ian Chappell waxes lyrical about why there was no one to rival Miller.

The Miller escapade I most admired was one of quick-thinking ingenuity. He was lounging around at mid-on and the pro-South Australian crowd was baiting him over the lack of interest he seemed to be taking in the thrashing NSW were administering. When a lofted shot went over his head, to the right, he loped after it, casually got his hands under the ball, then let it fall to the ground. The crowd erupted, calling Miller a mug. What they didn't realise was there'd been an early no-ball call under the old back-foot law. Once the batsmen saw the ball hit the turf, they called for a second run. Seizing his opportunity, Miller pounced on the ball, whirled and threw to the bowler's end. John Drennan was run out for nought.

This summer, Australian cricket's two big summer attractions - the Big Bash League and a promising Test series - are set to run parallel to each other, dividing the season, and stakeholder loyalties down the middle. Gideon Haigh in the Australian explains how the excessive partying that the Big Bash entails could leave everyone concerned with a hangover.

After devastating India at Lord's a few months ago, Stuart Broad credited his having been left out of England's one-day squad and allowed to play a county match for Nottingham-shire, where the red ball had encouraged him to pitch the ball up and regain his swing. In other words, whoever designed CA's schedule did not have the priorities of fast bowlers in mind.

Whose priorities were served? It's obvious when you peruse the Bash fixtures: the states. There are fixtures at the SCG while the MCG Test is in progress and vice versa; Bashes on 11 Test match evenings, the final coinciding with the Perth Test's scheduled last day.

In the Sydney Morning Herald, Peter Roebuck says John Wright would be the best man to coach Australia and the fact that he is from New Zealand should not prevent him from getting the role.

Wright has coached New Zealand and India with considerable success. Wright handled India well and they rose steadily on his watch. Some regarded him as indulgent towards the older players but the strong don't need to bang a drum and, anyhow, sometimes it is wise to let the players get on with it. Like most openers worth their salt, Wright adjusts his game to meet varying conditions.

Australia have introspected hard and are on track towards reclaiming a high place in the rankings, says Peter Roebuck in the Hindu.

One report has been produced and already several of its recommendations have been adopted. The selection panel has been sacked, a new head coach has been sought, specialists have been hired and a more professional and rigorous approach has been adopted across the board.

In short Australia's response to its drift from first to fifth in the rankings has been ruthless. The stables have been cleaned out. Those in charge deserve credit for putting their own positions in peril. That does not happen in countries where people come to the game for the wrong reasons, vanity or opportunism or the social milieu.

Rob Smyth, in the Guardian, looks back at the career of Kim Hughes, a story also captured in the book Golden Boy by Christian Ryan.

Hughes was undeniably a genius, with the qualities of the Prom King, yet perversely these led to unpopularity. Hughes was not entirely blameless, but in essence he was a thoroughly decent man whose apparent destiny to captain Australia happily ever after was compromised by factors beyond his control. His story is harder than most to distil. The main themes are the mutinous behaviour of senior players while he was Australian captain, the only partial fulfilment of his rare ability, and a horrible, grubby ending to his international career: a tearful resignation, two runs in his last four Tests, and finally a rebel tour to South Africa.

The Argus report into Australia's performance has been presented and already there have been casualties. The most obvious was Andrew Hilditch, who is no longer chairman of selectors. Chloe Saltau in the Age writes that it's surprising Hilditch lasted so long, given some of the glaring mistakes he and his panel have made - as recently as this month.

So the story goes, Hilditch recently phoned a member of team management in Sri Lanka to inform him Aaron Finch would be left out of the Twenty20 team. When Hilditch was asked why, he said the selectors felt Shaun Marsh was a better proposition against destructive fast bowler Lasith Malinga. Malinga, though, was injured, and had been publicly ruled out of the series. The exchange suggests a scarcely believable lack of awareness, and while cricket insiders laugh in telling the story, its theme is a common one when the topic of selection is raised.

Also in the Age, Greg Baum notes that now the off-field heads have rolled, the players must justify their own positions.

Whatever your standpoint on the remedial measures - to make coach and captain selectors, for instance - it is clear that Australian cricket will be run differently henceforth. As when a football club sacks its coach, everyone with his head above the parapets is nervous. But it does not finish there. Unlike at a football club, the Argus report puts the players squarely in the gun.

Peter Lalor, in the Australian, compares the Australian side in Sri Lanka to the Soviet cosmonauts who called home from space one day to be told their country no longer existed.

For a start, on-tour selector Greg Chappell has just been informed he is no longer a selector. Although he will remain in that job until somebody is found to replace him ... Coach Tim Nielsen finds himself in real Twilight Zone territory. His biggest concern is that the job as he knows it has been scrapped and he will have to apply if he wants to take on the new enhanced coach's role.

In the Herald Sun, Ron Reed notes that reading the Argus report, "one is reminded of the English cricket writer who lambasted the Poms during a tour of Australia a few years ago with the acidic observation that there were only three things they could not do - bat, bowl and field."

In the Sydney Morning Herald, Peter Roebuck notes that much work remains to get Australian cricket back on track.

The next step is to call to account those responsible for the debacle. Abysmal decisions have been taken in recent times, the three-year contact given to Nielsen, the faith shown in Chappell, the foolish season launch, the doomed nomination of John Howard, the appointment of Craig McDermott as bowling coach, the undermining of the state 2nd XI competition, the contacts given to T20 bubblers and denied to accomplished cricketers, the grovelling before Indian power (not least in forcing players to play T20 a few days before a Test series was to begin), the toleration of conflicts of interest. It tells of incompetence in high places.

The dumping of Simon Katich from Cricket Australia's contract list this year signalled that the selectors wanted to build a Test side for the future. But in the Daily Telegraph, Malcolm Conn wonders why they aren't revamping the one-day team as well.

The World Cup is the only one-day tournament that really counts and the next one is almost four years away. From the team that played overnight, Ricky Ponting (36), Mike Hussey (36), David Hussey (34), Brett Lee (34) and possibly Doug Bollinger (30) won't make the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. If the selectors are serious about building for the future, why aren't players like Shaun Marsh, Callum Ferguson, David Warner, Aaron Finch, James Pattinson and John Hastings in the one-day team?

In the Daily Telegraph, Malcolm Conn interviews Ricky Ponting on retirement, whether he draws strength from watching Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni's decision to reinstate Ian Bell at Trent Bridge, the hook shot, fatherhood and more.

Ponting was particularly impressed with Dhoni's recall of England's Ian Bell during the second Test this week, when Bell walked off believing it was tea and was then run out. "From the outside Dhoni has always been pretty willing to play the right way," Ponting said. "Four years ago there was a different captain and he had a fair bit to say about different things. I thought he was way out of line with some of the things that he said. The right outcome has been met (with Bell's recall), which is what you want to see in the game. That's a good sign for international cricket."

Australia's selectors have received plenty of criticism lately, and are one of the chief subjects of the Australian team performance review due to report to the Cricket australia board in August. Writing for The Drum, the ABC's Gerard Whateley makes a passionate plea for action to "take our team back".

That this panel has been allowed to appoint the next captain, end careers, hand out contracts and pick the next team is beyond negligent. It's reckless. It's a failure of every principle of accountability. Cricket Australia will say it has a review underway into the Ashes failure. It's August people. Simon Katich has done your work for you. Selection policy and practice has been incoherent. It actively undermined confidence and morale. If those entrusted with the responsibility won't act then we the people simply must.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In the Age, Adrian Proszenko, who watched Shane Warne play his first Test in Sydney in 1991-92, says he'll miss Warne the man just as much as Warne the cricketer following his retirement from all competitive cricket.

In Warne, we saw one of us. A knockabout bloke who got himself into trouble only when he wasn't true to himself. We can forgive the weather reports to subcontinental bookies, the banned diuretic and the even the way he pursued ordinary sorts with the same zest as good ones. What we couldn't stand for was the Nicorette deal (how can he have such white teeth while smoking so many durries?) or putting his name to a wine range. Shane Keith Warne is a joker, a smoker, a midnight toker - and he definitely gets his lovin' on the run.

Friend and former team-mate Ashley Mallett pays tribute to Terry Jenner in the Sunday Herald Sun.

Fourteen-year-old Terry Jenner was leaning on the wall of our ancient wooden pavilion at Shearn Park in Mt Lawley, an inner suburb of Perth.

"I'm a wicketkeeper," he said with a grin, "But I plan to become a leg-spinner."

Ah, I thought, every keeper thinks they can bowl leg-breaks. Terry spoke as though the world was his oyster. He exuded confidence.

Does anyone give a toss? That's the question Chloe Saltau asks in the Age, with a legal dispute involving broadcast agreements meaning Australians haven't seen a single ball of the IPL this year.

More relevant, for the game that has hitched its future prosperity on Twenty20, is a survey of Indian TV audiences that suggests the lustre is fading even in the game's heartland. In season one, Indians abandoned soap operas for the IPL, but viewing figures for this year's first 26 games were down 22 per cent, the lowest in the league's history.

Explanations include cricket fatigue after India's World Cup win and the mass movement of the players to new teams.There are lessons for Cricket Australia, which will launch a city-based Big Bash League in December and hopes it will, eventually, generate as much TV revenue as international tours.

Senior players have highlighted the demise of the Sheffield Shield as the root of Australian cricket's tumble from the top says Malcolm Conn, writing in the Daily Telegraph.

Simon Katich believes the competition lacks experience and labelled the conversion of the state second XI to an under-23 tournament of three-day matches a "failure". Stuart Clark claimed that for the first time in his 15-year career he feared for the safety of an opposing opening batsman because he was "scared" and could not cope with fast bowling.

The current and former Australian veterans are saying publicly what many others are voicing privately to the team performance review set up following last summer's Ashes debacle. Their views are diametrically opposed to Cricket Australia.

Damien Fleming, the former Australia seamer, shares a birthday with Sachin Tendulkar. He tells Mid Day's Clayton Murzello about April 24, 1998, when Tendulkar was smashing Australia's bowling all over the park in Sharjah.

Here's the anecdote: "I remember it flashing up on the screen that it was Sachin's birthday when he was smashing us on the field. When the game was about to end, it flashed up, 'Happy birthday, Damien Fleming', and there is nothing like being booed by 30,000-40,000 people really to make it special," said Fleming with a chuckle.

Great knocks are about context, argues The Old Batsman, and despite the endless hype, Shane Watson's unbeaten 185 lacked one.

It's probably appropriate that Australia's much-hyped 'modern' captain, Michael Clarke, hit the slippery slope when he described Shane Watson's slogathon as 'probably the best innings I've ever seen'. Not seen a lot of cricket then, Michael?

Michael Clarke faces a greater challenge than any of the 42 Test captains before him, writes David Sygall in the Sunday Herald. Apart from being loaded with the burden of turning the fortunes of the struggling team, he is also expected to lead cricket's resurrection and reinvent its identity.

Where there are big-picture challenges facing the game - such as privatisation, the place of T20, a rusty player-development structure and administration, and challenges to popularity, ratings and revenue - internet forums, letters to editors, and some media have found an easy, and sometimes too obliging, target in Clarke.

In the the Age, Richard Hinds writes that he is trying to hate Michael Clarke, as seems to be the norm. But try as he might, he can't; he thinks Clarke will make a good captain and even perhaps a great one.

Indeed, I can't help thinking that a captain who has endured a few real-life problems might be able to assist his young teammates with more than just a few tips about their front-foot defence. And, as much as we revered the win 'em and wear 'em toughness of Allan Border, Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting, maybe the time has come for a sensitive Gen Y skipper.

Writing in the Telegraph, Michael Vaughan predicts that Ricky Ponting's decision to step down from captaincy could herald a second wind in his career, much like Sachin Tendulkar's resurgence in the last few years.

It is not the Aussie way for a captain to continue playing but he has a role to play by simply helping his team win cricket matches. He should drop down to No4 and maybe even eventually move to five in the order but I expect him to emulate what Sachin Tendulkar has achieved in the past two years. I have little doubt we will see Ponting play in the Ashes in England in 2013 and following winter in Australia. He has not had many serious injuries and once freed from the burden of captaincy, he should feel refreshed.

Expectations from Michael Clarke's captaincy should be tempered because he has ordinary bowlers and will not be able to play the way he wants, writes Robert Craddock in the Courier Mail. Clarke's greatest challenge, he feels, will be to find a spin bowler.

As is almost always the case with Test captains, Clarke's success will be dictated by the strength of his bowlers and Australia have their weakest Test attack for 25 years.

Captains of bad bowling attacks must learn to be psychologists with patience by the bucket load ... Mary Poppins could have captained teams with Warne and McGrath.

The Telegraph's Nick Hoult identifies the five key challenges Clarke will face when he takes over the reins.

4. The bling

It was staggering to witness the hostility towards Clarke from certain sections of the Australian public and media when he took over from Ponting for the fifth Ashes Test. Clarke’s publicised split from girlfriend Lara Bingle, the million dollar apartment in Bondi and the flashy cars do not play well in a buttoned up society that expects a certain level humility from its sports stars.

Ricky Ponting, in his column in the Australian writes that while his journey as captain has changed his life, he is looking forward to the next chapter of his playing career where he expects to adapt quickly to not being captain.

I still don't have a finish line in mind and all I am focused on is being the best player I can be, a great teammate, an experienced leader around the group and a guy that my new captain can rely upon to give him something special.

While Ponting led his side on the field, he was confident in the knowledge that he alone had the power to shape the course of the match writes Andrew Stevenson in the Sydney Morning Herald. But Michael Clarke is not cut from the same cloth. As a batsman he's been a helper rather than a leader, a player able to add to the cause rather than change the course of a match.

When all hope appears lost would you get down on your knees and pray for Clarke to bat for your life or the country's honour? While his career figures are sound he has rarely been able to impose himself on an opposition or a series; the pressure on him will become only more relentless with the captain's responsibilities added to his kitbag.

In the same newspaper, Richard Hinds writes that though Ricky Ponting's decison to stay on as batsman is contentious, rather than being embittered, Ponting will be refreshed at an age when most are burnt out. And it is very likely that when Clarke taps Ponting on the shoulder, he will lower his form guide, greet his skipper with a smile and share his vast experience freely.

In The Telegraph Sarah Crompton writes that while Ponting in his pomp was one of the best captains, there is no denying that his recent failures and frustration communicated themselves to all around him. It will be interesting to see whether his successor can bring a sense of pleasure back to the way they play.

In this sense, the character of the captain is crucial. A captain has to lead to victory, to want to win, but also to be gracious both in triumph and disaster, because sport needs its heroes to be models for the way we want to live.

Stephen Brenkley in the Independent writes that while it became the height of fashion to deride Ricky Ponting as a captaincy numbskull, there is no denying that he was the sort of captain that every cricketer wanted to play for.

The great Australian cricket machine is cracking and creaking at the edges, writes Kevin Mitchell in the Guardian and if Michael Clarke is to survive those torments, he will need a dressing room of uncommon unity in a time of flux and will have to find his inner mongrel.

Back to the Sydney Morning Herald, where Peter Roebuck writes that of all the Australian captains of the past 25 years, Ricky Ponting is the hardest to assess. At once he was an unselfish and unswerving leader whose devotion to the team and to the pursuit of victory cannot be questioned.

Ponting's achievements as captain are substantial. If anything he has been given too little credit. A certain coldness kept the world at arm's length, prevented watchers warming to him as they did to Allan Border and Steve Waugh. He never heard their cheers, never touched people as they did. He has found that success and affection don't hold hands. Maybe it's not too late.

Ponting's attributes are probably better appreciated by close-up peers than distant observers, writes Gideon Haigh in the Australian. He has always been, and remains, very much a cricketer's cricketer

It could not be said of every holder of his office, but Ponting has always seemed like the kind of bloke with whom it would be good to play cricket, no matter the level.

In the same newspaper Malcolm Conn writes that with tours of Sri Lanka and South Africa before all-powerful India arrives in Australia, Clarke will need all the hard-headed support he can muster. There is no harder head than Ponting.

According to a report in the Courier Mail, a research produced at a Cricket Australia conference shows that cricket is under siege at junior level: seven out of 10 Australian children have no interest in the sport. Robert Craddock writes that cricket is not dying but it is like a mighty lion who once ruled the jungle suddenly developing a limp and a stagger, but Queensland cricket is looking to buck the trend.

"The biggest hint I had that the format is wrong is that over the last few years the happiest I have heard parents is when I ring them on Saturday morning and tell them it is too wet to play," Queensland Cricket chairman Jim Holding said.

"These are people in the game who have already made the decision to commit to play. I hear them doing the celebration dance on the phone. That has to be the most massive tip that the format is not what people want."

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

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

Allowing Ricky Ponting to play the Boxing Day Test despite a broken little finger was a mistake, writes Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald. It was a big risk to take with his future, and the injury is taking longer than usual to heal.

Not only was the Ashes campaign undermined by this decision but the World Cup campaign might start on the wrong foot. For that matter the career of a fine batsman has been put in peril. From start to finish it was wrong. Of course, this is hindsight. At the time, emotions were running the show.

But there is a lesson to learn. Sometimes the brave and the stubborn need to be protected from themselves. That is the role of elders.

Writing in the Age, Peter Roebuck says that Cricket Australia needs to implement substantial improvements in the domestic game in an attempt to restore standards and that Australian cricket is in trouble primarily because it has taken its strength for granted.

Australia's deterioration did not happen overnight. It has been a creeping decline covered for years by the brilliance of the national side. Although Australians long ago stopped measuring themselves against England, a heavy Ashes defeat ought to give the entire community pause for thought. The time has come to stop protecting patches, and to start rebuilding the pyramid.

Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald writes that 50-over cricket is not dying, if the Australia-England series is anything to go by.

Next comes the 50-over World Cup. Alas, the past few tournaments have lacked lustre. Nor can any high optimism be felt about the forthcoming shindig. After all, it's due to last seven weeks, and the bulk of the time will be filled with redundant qualifying matches. But those insisting that the 50-over game is old hat might be mistaken. Whereas T20 provides the promise of a boisterous night out, the longer version gives spectators a day at the cricket and offers them a chance to watch great players pushing themselves hard.

But in the Age, Martin Blake notes that Australia-England contests are not necessarily reflective of the wider cricket scene.

While the figures would have astonished those who believe ''traditional'' one-day cricket is in trouble, they need to be taken in context. More specifically, it's necessary to consider that the opponents are England. When Australia hosted Pakistan and the West Indies last summer, crowds were small, ratings poor and people jumped in to dismiss 50-overs cricket as an anachronism. The opposite has occurred this season.

In the nick of time a group of players is emerging capable of rejuvenating Australian fortunes. The Big Bash and other domestic affairs have thrown up a few prospects to savour even as the old guard remind observers of the folly of judging a sportsman by his birth certificate, writes Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald.

In a trice Finch has become a vital member of his State side. That his promotion into the team was somewhat delayed has not harmed him. In the interim he added to his skills and has emerged ready to rumble. Of late, Victorian batsmen have felt neglected. Finch is destined to break the mould.

At the start of the campaign Patrick Cummins expected to spend the summer concentrating on his books and opening the bowling for Penrith. He seemed to have more chance of becoming Tasmania's Premier than playing for his State. A spate of injuries and promotions left NSW searching high and low for a fellow capable of hurling them down. And then word spread about this express train from the Blue Mountains.

He may have led his country, in a previously barren summer, to four wins on the trot but Michael Clarke just can’t seem to gain the love of his nation. A few runs might help but Ben Dorries, writing in Australia’s Daily Telegraph thinks there is another problem.

NOTE to Michael Clarke and his management. If you want to know why the Australian Test captain-in-waiting has an image problem - and is mostly unloved by cricket fans and the sporting public - look at his Twitter page. At 9.07am on Saturday, with Australia's World Cup plans in chaos after serious injuries to Nathan Hauritz and Shaun Tait in the previous night's one-day international, Clarke was playing romantic matchmaker.

"Trying to find a date for Steve Smith to take to the AB medal??'' Clarke tweeted. And a minute later: "You can tweet me with your expressions of interest . . .''

Besides the obvious point of who really cares whether Smith takes Dolly Parton or Daffy Duck to the Allan Border Medal (except perhaps the man himself), surely Clarke has more pressing matters to worry about.

Dirk Nannes introduces his Victoria team-mate, and recent Australia debutant Aaron Finch on his blog. Nannes' description of Finch is best summed up by this line: Yes, he drinks. Yes, he smokes ... Yes he picks a fight with his quick mouth ... But he’s a damn fine cricketer and will always be one of the first picked in my team.

Australian sport in general has become a bit of a nanny state – no one can have their own point of view, no one can have their own colour, no one can sledge or make comment in the media unless it’s promoting the next ‘big game’ or goodwill cause. My personal highlights of games are when things get nasty on the field, when feelings come into a game. Finch brings that feeling into every game he plays. He puts the fun back into cricket. After all, isn’t that what we play the game for?

Stephen Brenkley, writing in the Independent, says Shaun Marsh's match-winning century against England in the second ODI made a mockery of his omission from Australia's World Cup squad.

Ignored for the Ashes, he seemed a natural choice for the World Cup in the subcontinent not least for his prodigious efforts there in the IPL.

What was particularly extraordinary about his innings last night was the unfamiliarity of his position. Almost all his previous one-day cricket for Australia has been played as an opening batsman where the rhythms are much different.

Peter Badel, writing in the Sunday Mail, analyses Brad Hodge’s slim chances of winning a spot in Australia’s 15-man World Cup squad this week.

Despite topping the run-scorer's list in the domestic one-day series this summer with 494 runs at 82.33, Hodge was omitted from the 14-man squad for today's opening one-day international against England in Melbourne. Just as mysterious have been Hodge's repeated setbacks at the national selection table over an 18-year domestic career that has netted 17,084 first-class runs at an average of 48.81.

In the Sunday Age, Dean Jones writes about a coaching trip to an Aboriginal community and how the locals quickly fell for Courtney Walsh, the fearsome West Indies fast bowler.

I said to Courtney that the only way to get their attention was for him to bowl to me at top pace and show them how good and quick he was! Well, it didn't take long to get their attention. Courtney's second ball ricocheted off my neck, which led to a lot of laughter - much to my displeasure! Once they saw how quick Courtney was, they all just wanted to bowl bouncers and let 'em go. They had a ball.

It was my greatest time in coaching cricket. We drove out of the community at sunset, watching tennis balls flying everywhere, spotting kids off massive long runs hurling bouncers at kids who wanted to take them on. As I quickly glanced at Courtney to say what a great job he'd done, I noticed a tear appear on the great man's face. Enough said.

Andrew Symonds has gone from the glare of the spotlight to the anonymity of farming life in North Queensland, writes Peter Hanlon in the Sydney Morning Herald. Where the game that can seem like his cursed gift takes Symonds next will be decided at next month's IPL auction.

Even at 35, and with only a handful of Twenty20 games for Surrey this year to showcase his wares, he will surely be snapped up. And so continues the conundrum that has dogged him all along - his unique talent guarantees he is in demand, and while it seems he'd be just as happy doing something else, a man can't make the big bucks dangling a rod in the water.

Dan Silkstone in the Sydney Morning Herald says the world cannot get enough of the eternal party boy Shane Warne. He says whatever Warne did was always watchable and he never seemed to mind us watching. There are none so memorable now.

It's tempting to see him as some sort of everyman's dream - a glorious Peter Pan. But to say that Warne never grew up is to grossly oversimplify

Malcolm Conn, writing in The Australian, says it’s difficult to believe an innings defeat to England can have a silver lining. But he argues Allan Border's sometimes dreadful team from the mid-1980s found one.

Such a scenario is not so obvious this time, after Ricky Ponting's team became the first Australian side in 24 years to lose by an innings to England, capitulating in Adelaide this week. England retained the Ashes in December 1986 by winning the fourth Test at the MCG inside three days to go 2-0 up with one match to play. Just 2 1/2 years later Border was holding up a replica of the Ashes in England after winning a six-Test series 4-0 with basically the same batting line-up.

In the Sydney Morning Herald Peter Roebuck writes that not much is going right with Australian cricket.

Most of the wounds are self-inflicted. Supposedly gifted youth has been glorified and the hard heads have been pushed aside. It is not entirely the selectors' fault. The system has broken down.

After three solitary Test wins in Australia in 20 years, the correct feeling for an English person after a 1-0 Ashes lead has been established should be smirking schadenfreude or gloating triumphalism. But over the past few days, a most unworthy emotion started to brew. I began to feel pity, says Tanya Aldred in the Telegraph.

They have twice since 2005 had to put up with England holding the Ashes, but in neither case was the victory a rout. This time, it may be. If England win the next Test at Perth, they will have retained the Ashes before Christmas. Preposterous, but possible. What then to do with the pity? Remember it as the emotion most likely to rile an Australian and just go with the flow.

"I have never seen such a conclusive victory over Australia in a Test match. England outplayed them from start to finish," writes Duncan Fletcher in the Guardian. "Looking at the state of the two teams now I believe that England can win the series 3-0."

The only ground I can see Australia getting a draw at is Melbourne. If the wicket there is as flat as it has been in previous years then Australia should be able to bat out the match. But I think England should win the third and fifth Tests at Perth and Sydney. The only way I can see Australia fighting back in the series is if Ricky Ponting clicks and makes a big contribution as a batsman, simply because he is capable of scoring a lot of runs in a little time. That would leave his team with plenty of overs to try to work through this solid English batting unit. That is an outside possibility.

Malcolm Conn, writing in the Australian, says if Michael Hussey begins this Ashes series and is sacked for poor performances then part-time chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch should also be sacked.

The conservative four-man selection panel of Hilditch, David Boon, Jamie Cox and the recently removed Merv Hughes have left Australian cricket in a worrying position. They have failed to adequately continue a renewal process forced on them by a cluster of former champions fading away in recent years.

Brendan McArdle says in the Age the selectors have made a series of poor decisions.

In the Sydney Morning Herald Stuart Clark, who played in the past two Ashes series, rates the England touring team.

Australian cricket has lost its mojo mainly because it lacks the talent but also because it's become soft and indulgent. Many players are getting huge money and national caps without earning either, writes Robert Craddock in the Daily Telegraph.

This is the age of the silver spoon. Players have never been better looked after. There was a point early in the recent tour of India where Australia had more support staff than players. Players not only have personal managers but within the Australian framework have doctors, physios, psychologists, nutritionists, batting coaches, bowling coaches ... you name it. It's got to the stage where players have almost become over-managed. Many players lack the ability to think for themselves off the field and that can flow into their on-field psyche.

Australian cricket has paid its Indian counterpart a high compliment by adopting its format for Twenty20 cricket, writes Peter Roebuck in the Hindu.

Now Australia intends to go a step further and embrace the private sector. By all accounts local Indian businessmen are amongst the highest bidders for franchises. If so it's a good thing, as is the news that Venkatesh Prasad is in contention for the bowling coach position with the national team. It all helps to stymie those determined to drive a wedge between our countries. They succeed by stereotyping and they need to be challenged.

Robbert Craddock, writing on the Fox Sports website, says Indian investment in Australian domestic cricket should not be viewed as a threat. Instead, it should be viewed as an opportunity given the current state of domestic cricket in the country.

If Cricket Australia officials want to have a whinge about India let them do so about how a bus full of Australian players have spent the last three years in the IPL and Australian cricket has barely got a round of drinks out of it.

Here's a chance for payback.

Ricky Ponting was never a great captain, though he led a great side, says Suresh Menon in Tehelka. As he presides over his team’s decline, he is also approaching the end as captain. But he is still Australia’s best batsman, and should be persisted with that way, feels Menon.

Traditionally, Australia first choose their eleven and pick the captain, usually the best batsman, from within (unlike England and India who first pick the captain, thus investing the job with a special aura). With Ponting showing that at 35 he is still the best batsman in the side but not necessarily its best captain, it might be time to throw tradition out of the window and pick a captain who is not necessarily the best player. Australia can afford to do without their most successful captain, but not without their most successful batsman.

Cricket Australia's AGM is approaching, and Robert Craddock writes in the Courier-Mail that it's time for some firm decisions on the country's new Twenty20 competition.

Endless meetings have failed to resolve key aspects of the competition: when it starts, how many teams it has, how players are chosen for it, whether franchises are privately owned. You cannot blame Australia for being cautious, the game's future is at stake here, but the time has arrived for tough, firm decision making. If the competition is to start next season, as most officials hope it will, Friday's CA board meeting is seen as the one which should produce the rubber stamp.

David Riccio, writing in the Sunday Telegraph, tells the story of Usman Khawaja, who has been laughing in the face of adversity his whole life.

Too poor to afford a ticket into the SCG to see his heroes blaze away each summer, Khawaja would wait all day outside the old iron gates before grabbing a priceless glimpse of the day's play. "My dad didn't have a lot of money so we didn't have the ability to go out and watch cricket games," he said."But what I would do is I would come at the end of the game, when they would open the gates for the final 10 overs.

"I would wait at the gates ... wait at the gates and then run as fast I could to get in and watch the final overs. I did that every single time they played a one-dayer or when I heard Steve or Mark Waugh was playing for New South Wales, I would rush over and go watch them.

Khawaja is one of a host of young players pushing for Australian selection, but David Sygall says in the Sun-Herald that you don’t always need new blood.

There has been a distinct lack of discussion about the considerable experienced talent that knows how to win and is ready, willing and able to take over from struggling incumbents.

In the Sunday Telegraph Will Swanton argues critics of Michael Clarke are mad.

Martin Flanagan, writing in the Age, discusses the career of Gideon Haigh as he releases his latest book, Sphere of Influence.

As a writer Gideon has played his shots and he's got them all: wit, irony, erudition and endurance. The last quality has made him increasingly well-known throughout the cricket world and added to the authority of his opinions.

Ricky Ponting won a Test series in India back when most of his current team-mates were watching him on TV. Will Swanton, writing in the Daily Telegraph, says they hang on his every word and instruction.

He's a coach as well as captain. "The coaching staff have talked to me about not spending too much time trying to help the young blokes out during the summer at the expense of my own preparation - but that's what I love," Ponting said. "If I don't know enough about them, about how they're going to handle situations and what they can and can't do, then it's pretty hard for us to win games together.”

Tim Nielsen, Australia’s coach, wandered around London following the Ashes loss last year and contemplated his past and future. The Sun-Herald’s David Sygall spoke to him about the result and the signing of a new contract.

“I kept thinking, 'What's happened here?''' The Ashes had been close. A session lost at The Oval, another at Lord's, and the urn was gone. ''I read the media, and saw there were people questioning my decisions and accusing me of not knowing what I was doing,'' Nielsen said. ''I can get a bit emotional, and it was hard to focus on the big picture. I was trying to work out why, how, what had I done wrong? I questioned the decisions I'd made, and wondered if I could have done better.”

Sygall also has some questions for Australia ahead of the Ashes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"It has been a disappointing month or so in England for the Australian cricket team, in all forms of the game. Australia will be asking themselves: “Where did we go wrong?" writes Shane Warne in the Sunday Telegraph.

So, Australia return with plenty of questions about the make-up of their side. They have to ask how can they improve the team. Is there anyone outside the squad who can come in and make it better? They have to look at their combination of bowlers and ask how they are going to take 20 wickets.

They will be asking if Doug Bollinger and Ben Hilfenhaus is the best new-ball pairing, should Mitchell Johnson be first change, is Nathan Hauritz or Steven Smith our best spinner, or even do we play two spinners?

Australia will try to beat Pakistan for the 14th consecutive time in Test matches when the two teams take the field today. But while Australia still has that winning touch, the team has lost some of its magic, writes Stephen Brenkley in the Independent

But Warne is not alone in assessing – given his conclusion of the likely scenario this winter – that Australia are not as good as they used to be and England are better then they were. Australia's bowling attack, like most around the world, still appears to lack a cutting edge, that magic ingredient given them for so long by Warne and Glenn McGrath. They will persist in playing a four-man attack which might yet play into English hands. Two of the quartet will almost certainly be Ben Hilfenhaus, who hopes to recover from a sore shoulder to play in Leeds, and Mitchell Johnson, the world cricketer of the year. But Hilfenhaus, excellent though he is, for his accuracy and late movement, is not yet McGrath (who is?) and Johnson is again going through one of his most notoriously inconstant phases.

Robert Craddock, writing in The Sunday Mail, discusses Ricky Ponting’s age – and his future.

When a Test batsman turns 35, it's much like a businessman turning 60. With retirement looming, you quietly sense you are not what you were but are happy to still be giving a bit of cheek and you celebrate those moments when you give those young bucks a shake-up.

It's not easy, though. History tells us that 35 is about the age when the great become good, the good become average and the bad are long gone. Australian cricket fans should not be shocked that Ricky Ponting, who has reached this watershed age, failed twice in the Lord's Test or that he has averaged just 38 in the last year. He is not what he was, but he is not bad.

There’s a certain symbolism in how the City of Churches will lose its world-renowned cathedral views from Adelaide Oval when the old ground is redeveloped, writes Andrew Faulkner in the Australian.

St Peter's Cathedral - where the world's cricketing royalty bade farewell to Donald Bradman in 2001 - will be unseen from most of the ground when the oval becomes a multi-purpose stadium. Much more will be lost when the elegant old ground morphs into a 50,000 seat colosseum in order to welcome football back in four years.

Yes, the famous scoreboard, northern mounds and Moreton Bay Figs will stay - for now. But they too will most likely make way for more stands within 20 years.

Australia's batting had been their weakest link in the series against England but with captain Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke hitting format The Oval, they posted a big enough total to avoid a whitewash. David Hopps says in the Guardian that Ponting's innings shows that it is still too early to write him off.

Ponting's 92 from 93 balls was an ideal retort to the suggestion that Australia, having lost the series, were in danger of a 5-0 whitewash and that his own appetite to lead Australia into next year's World Cup might diminish as a result. This was no angry riposte, driven by desperation. This was an innings of deliberation and exactitude, a reminder of his lasting prowess. He has averaged between 40 and 43 in ODIs for 10 years; there is absolutely no evidence of decline.

Doug Bollinger will lead Australia’s attack against England in the NatWest Series and could wind up taking the new ball in the Ashes as well. In the Telegraph, Derek Pringle breaks down Bollinger’s recipe for success.

Analysts in this year's IPL noted that left-arm pace bowlers dominated and went for fewer runs per over than other types, but there must be more to Bollinger's sudden successes than angle. While computer-toting coaches would no doubt offer a detailed explanation, Bollinger shies away from dissecting the reasons for his success – saying too much information just confuses him.

"I just keep things simple and try to be patient," Bollinger said. "I try not to worry about things too much or think about things, as I just go haywire. Keep it simple and try to get the job done. I just try to figure out the conditions and adjust my game to them. Patience is the key because eventually things will figure themselves out."

Cricket Australia's decision to experiment with the split-innings one-day format next summer, with four innings of 20-25 overs each per match, is one that will have the support of Sachin Tendulkar, who had proposed such an idea last year. Sharda Ugra, in backpagelead.com.au, says the experiment will add some nuance to the 50-over version, which has looked unappetizing with the advent of Twenty20 cricket.

The plan may get more Aussies back into grounds and will also introduce some nuance back into the 50-over format. The original plan wants to reduce the longer version of the short game to 40 overs-a-side. The only difference that 10 overs a side will make is to reduce the length of a match by about 90 minutes. If folk begin to return to grounds for the four-innings 40-over game, they may surely stick on for the old Fifty50.

Since the advent of T20, though, the ODI particularly has looked distinctly unappetizing stuck as it is somewhere between slow cooking and fast food.

The gluttony of flat-wicket-short-boundary syndrome, most common in these parts, has often produced less match, more monotony. So any possible injection of suspense is to be welcomed like the discovery of an unreleased Hitchcock thriller.

Andrew Symonds seemingly couldn’t stay out of trouble during his international career. In an honest and revealing interview with Andy Bull of the Guardian, Symonds says the pressures of international cricket drove him to binge drink and he wishes he had never signed that contract with Cricket Australia.

"Losing my contract didn't hurt me, because of what playing for Australia had become. I wasn't having fun anymore. I wasn't enjoying it. I felt like I was in a cage. Always under the microscope. Once I had got home from England, and everything had settled down, it was a relief."

A year on, and Symonds is able to admit how serious his problems were. "I was diagnosed as a binge-drinker. With all the things that went with international cricket there was never enough time for myself. So when I got my day off, I would just guzzle it, guzzle it like they weren't making it anymore, just binge. It was not smart."

Steven Smith's match-winning turn in the Caribbean reinforced Greg Chappell's view that the young allrounder has the special talent needed to help Australia regain the Ashes. Chloe Saltau elaborates in the Age.

The thought of another audacious blond bowling leg-spin for Australia next summer is enough to send generations of English batsmen into therapy, but Chappell predicted Smith's entrance to Test cricket could more closely emulate Richie Benaud than Shane Warne.

''He is [part of the Ashes plans] in my view,'' Chappell said. ''In Australia, through the history of cricket, good wrist-spin bowling has been very successful and I think he has the capabilities to do that, and it gives you the opportunity to play two spinners. Remember that Richie Benaud played for three or four years as a batsman predominantly, and bowled the odd over here or there. I can see Steve Smith doing that in the early days of his career.''

Malcolm Conn, writing in The Australian, says Michael Clarke is fast becoming the Mike Brearley of Twenty20 cricket.

A fine player and innovative captain who has an outstanding leadership record, Clarke is Australia's least successful T20 batsman in the same way that during the 1970s and early '80s, Brearley became one of England's finest Test captains but averaged just 22 and never made a century. Clarke has reinvigorated Australia's T20 cricket since being appointed at the beginning of last summer, but that has had almost nothing to do with his batting.

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

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

Robert Craddock writes in the Courier-Mail that Michael Clarke's decision to fly home from New Zealand indicates that he is deeply distressed, and a break from the game might be his best option.

Allan Border once dropped a timeless quote: "If you want to go the long journey in cricket, you either have to have a smooth relationship or be single - anything in between is a nightmare". Through no fault of his own, Michael Clarke is caught in the territory no man wants to visit. Clarke must get his home life in order and, if needs-be, take a decent break from the game.

His fiancee rather than his cricket must be his first priority and he should not return to cricket until he and his partner are at peace with their lives. The nude photo scandal which has engulfed Lara Bingle has claimed Clarke as well because he is the man who must ease his partner's angst.

Peter Roebuck writes in the Age that Clarke has reached a critical juncture at which he needs make a choice regarding his career path.

Michael Clarke needs to choose between a fraught personal life and his career in cricket. All the evidence indicates that the current position is untenable. As Mark Antony could testify, obsession can be a man's undoing. If Clarke is unwilling to make the call then cricket will make it for him. In the nick of time, Ricky Ponting sorted himself out. Now it is Clarke's turn.

	John Howard in batting mode © AFP

John Howard's nomination as the next vice-president and eventual president of the ICC provokes a curious mixture of regret and hope, Peter Roebuck writes in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Regret stems from the overlooking of the admirable candidate put forward by New Zealand. Sir John Anderson's praises were widely sung and a more gracious neighbour might have acknowledged his obvious merits. Of the insiders he was clearly the best qualified.

Cricket Australia chose no such course. Nor did it hesitate to reach outside the game in search of a plausible alternative. As far as CA was concerned, Anderson was not the problem, the ICC was the problem. And Howard was the only possible solution.

In the Herald Sun Ron Reed writes that despite his reputation as a "cricket tragic", Howard will be seen as a political figure from outside the tent rather than a family member from inside it.

The New Zealand Herald wonders how someone with absolutely no cricket experience got the job. “How could CA not find someone more suited to the job than a politician?”

Brett Lee has been a thoroughly modern fast bowler. He has never played a Test in Pakistan. He has his own website. I presume he tweets. And he has chosen to retire from Test cricket in the hope that he may be able to prolong his one-day career, writes Vic Marks in the Observer.

In a bar in Melbourne in December 1998 an old Australian Test cricketer was barely able to contain his excitement. Rodney Marsh, director of the Australian academy at the time (he would go on to do the same job for the England and Wales Cricket Board) and a frequent contributor to the Observer's sports pages, was so excited he barely had time to sip his beer.

England had just gone one down in the Ashes series, but this was not the reason Marsh was jumping up and down like a kid with a new toy. The explanation came in his column of that week. "Just to cheer you up some more," he wrote. "I've just watched the academy side beat Victoria's second team – and I'm in a state of some exhilaration. Fast bowlers always excite me and I've just witnessed one in action. My boys asked me whether I had seen anyone quicker. 'Just one,' I said. 'Thommo.' The bowler in question is called Brett Lee. Remember that name."

	Shaun Tait: fit and firing © Getty Images

Shaun Tait is back in Australia’s team and is showing renewed vigor, writes AAP’s Daniel Brettig.

Freshened by a decision to forego the rigours of first-class cricket, 26-year-old Tait is bowling the swiftest spells of his life, and as the West Indians and Pakistanis will attest, to face him now is to watch the ball - and life itself - flash before a batsman's eyes.

Ever since he debuted for South Australia at 19, Tait has had days when he could bowl the sorts of spells that no batsman could survive. But the reduced stress of life without four and five-day cricket seem to have allowed those days to come around more often. "This year because of the decision to not play the longer form, it's been a lot easier and I've probably enjoyed my cricket more," he said.

A man of good cheer, a genuine paceman and an international man of mystery - that's what Luke Tagg thinks about Australian fast bowler Dirk Nannes. Not just his his fearsome pace and swing, he believes Nannes is a cricketing rarity and full of surprises. Read on in The Boundary Rider blog.

He boasts a permanent stubble and the straightest teeth in world cricket, and he's full of cracks and jokes and the odd bit of swearing. I like that - it gives him character. So many cricketers today talk team-speak, with very few capable of expressing creative thought.

Nannes is a true Renaissance man and I reckon the key to his cricketing success is his attitude towards cricket. He didn't let it matter too much and as soon as you let go, you find freedom.

	Back-breaking work: Peter Siddle © Getty Images

Australia's most promising fast bowler, Peter Siddle, is broken, writes Darren Berry in the Sunday Age.

It was sadly only a matter of time before the frame of the Morwell wood chopper could take no more. He has been hurting for some time, but has a big heart and refuses to yield to the pain barrier ...

The only thing that will stop him from becoming a truly great fast bowler up there with McGrath, Lillee, Lindwall and co. will be his body. If his back can recover fully from this latest setback and rebuild he will easily match numbers with the greats.

In the same paper the eventful rise of the Victoria allrounder John Hastings is covered.

New South Wales are having a difficult season after winning the Champions League Twenty20 and the Sun-Herald’s David Sygall takes a look at the troubles players have shifting between the three forms of the game.

	In demand: Alex Keath © Getty Images

The allrounder Alex Keath is in Australia’s Under-19 World Cup side but he is also a talented Australian rules player. On Saturday he will line up in the tournament final against Pakistan in New Zealand before having a bigger decision to make. Michael Warner of the Herald Sun takes a look at the situation.

Victoria coach Greg Shipperd has revealed Keath will be offered an unprecedented three-year senior contract worth at least $150,000 with the promise of future domestic and international riches to come if he eschews an AFL career. Keath, 18, has already been nominated by Gold Coast Football Club under special dispensation rules giving the club access to the best junior footballers in the country.

	Ricky Ponting lifts the 2007 prize © Getty Images

Will Swanton, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, says Ricky Ponting’s desire to extend his Test career meant Twenty20s or one-dayers had to be obliterated from his schedule. He chose to get rid of Twenty20s.

Why had Australia's front man bucked popular opinion and chosen one-dayers over cricket's version of Beatlemania? Why turn his back on truckloads of cash, packed crowds, adrenaline rushes, sure-fire ratings hits and even more truckloads of cash? His simple answer: ''World Cup.''

Ponting plays his 334th one-day international, the most by an Australian, when his high-flying team meets Pakistan at the WACA on Friday. He is a behemoth of the most prestigious one-day tournament of all. Viv Richards, Steve Waugh, Allan Border have all had moments of blinding brilliance in the World Cup's sun but Ponting's success shades them all.

Iain Payten, writing in the Daily Telegraph, says day-night Tests with pink balls sounds like an exciting idea.

But is it too simplistic for cricket's bosses to assume that by flicking on the lights, both the traditional and new-age fans will pour through the gates? Is it even logical? Just playing a game - or a good portion of it - under lights won't change its basic nature. Test cricket is a game of patience, endurance and tactics and sundown won't magically serve as a cue for batsmen to throw it all away and start slogging like madmen.

Robert Craddock writes in the Courier-Mail that Nathan Hauritz may just be the best thing for Australian spin since Shane Warne.

There's a famous photo of a national under-19 carnival in the late 1990s, when Warne was in his prime, containing a group of Warne wannabes – young spinners with blond streaks, ear-rings and big dreams. None of them progressed further than grade cricket. Very few leg-spinners ever do. The message was that Warne was a freak.

Hauritz, by contrast, is not. He is inspiring people partially because he is everything Warne is not. Spin bowlers around Australia learnt in a big hurry they could never be the new Warne. But there would be hundreds of young tweakers at this very moment who feel they could one day be the new Hauritz.

Gideon Haigh is convinced that, despite Australia’s convicing series scorelines against West Indies and Pakistan this summer, the manner in which the wins were achieved and the Ashes turned over suggest that they are far from their world-beating best. Writing in the Times Online, he points out that Australia benefited largely from the poor cricket played by their opponents.

West Indies, ambushed in Brisbane, belied their eighth place in the Reliance Mobile Test rankings by taking Tests right up to their hosts in Adelaide and Perth. Australia then disposed of a poorly led Pakistan team rivalling Shane MacGowan in their propensity for self-destruction, although only after trailing by 206 runs on first innings in Sydney.

Haigh also draws attention to the emergence of the Big Bash in Australia and what it could mean for the traditional format in the country.

For Big Bash read Big Cash: a place in the final translates to a place in the supranational Champions League this year and a share in its stupendous revenues. Not surprisingly, state associations hitherto dependent on distributions from Cricket Australia are agitating to enlarge the Bash at the expense of the Sheffield Shield.

Australia’s venerable first-class competition is also being squeezed from the other end, its last round this season coinciding with the Indian Premier League (IPL), an overlap that Lalit Modi, the league’s ubiquitous commissioner, warned rather forbiddingly “could mean penalties on such players, including termination of contracts, jeopardising future participation”.

Cricket Australia's decision to nominate John Howard as its candidate for the top job at the ICC is pitiful and disrespectful at the same time, with question marks hovering over his qualifications and knowledge of the game. Peter Roebuck explains in the Age.

Australia's position has been well nigh indefensible. Unable to produce a serious candidate of its own, Cricket Australia ought to have gracefully withdrawn. Its reluctance to back Jack Clark, its own chairman, told the tale.

	Ricky Ponting has filled most of the gaps in his side © Getty Images

Peter Roebuck believes Ricky Ponting can look back with satisfaction upon his team's performances this season. A side shattered by the Ashes defeat at The Oval, with poor selections and calamitous run-outs rubbing salt into the wound, might easily have gone awry, Roebuck writes in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Ponting is entitled to feel that most of the gaps have been filled. Australia has found its opening pair. A year ago, Shane Watson was a struggling player already with an unreliable body. Now he is a forthright opener and an adaptable seamer able to deliver probing stump-to-stump swingers of the sort that proved so effective at Bellerive.

Not so long ago Simon Katich was a battling first drop in Shield cricket. Now he is his country's senior opener. At last, too, Katich is starting to bowl. The last time both Australian openers took wickets in a Test match was in 1994-95 but it was a fluke. Suffice it to say that Mark Taylor and Michael Slater have much to offer, none of it at the bowling crease.

Mike Coward says in the Australian it has been the inevitability of the result which has made Hobart a disappointing Test match.

The Australian cricket team has an image problem, writes David Sygall in the Sun-Herald.

It's one the players and Cricket Australia find hard to understand. It's an issue that extends beyond on-field controversies, polarising leadership and perceptions of arrogance. It's not just about poor scheduling, advertising overload, high ticket prices or confusion about the game's future. It won't be fixed by a stage-managed makeover, nor by the team winning match after match. The players are only part of the cause. But, as the faces of the juggernaut, they bear the brunt of public frustration. They are winners but they are not as loved as they should, could or want to be.

Mike Coward, writing in the Australian, looks at the rise of Hot Spot, an aptly-named resource which is taking the heat out of cricket's hottest debate.

Dynamic infrared red camera technology is changing the way we are watching and analysing elite cricket and it is gaining markedly wider acceptance than predictive technologies which are also in play. "This is the greatest thing about the technology. It is real and people believe it," said Warren Brennan who has spent an inestimable number of hours and dollars pioneering the application of military technology to sport.

In the same paper Peter Lalor writes about Ricky Ponting’s mum and dad, who have watched their son play in seven of his 142 Tests. They picked a good one to attend this week, with Ponting reaching 209.

"It was special to be here when something like that takes place,” his father Graeme said. “We were at his first one when he was given out on 96 and that was no fun. And we've been there when he got a century [in his 100th], but today was very special."

	Ricky Ponting's cap pre-makeover © Getty Images

Michael Crutcher, writing in the Courier Mail, says Australia’s baggy green tradition has gone too far.

How else can you explain how Ricky Ponting wore his baggy green until it almost dropped off his head at the Sydney Cricket Ground last week? The tattered model, whose cloth had come apart to expose its white backing, was not befitting the highest sporting office in the country.

Relics from ancient Egypt have appeared in better condition than the caps in which Ponting and his predecessor Steve Waugh led their country. Ponting's cap has been repaired for the Test against Pakistan in Hobart – perhaps only because there was the real chance that Australia's most iconic sporting apparel was about to disintegrate and blow into the Derwent River.

In The Australian Malcolm Conn writes Ponting's repaired cap may just be the renewal the battered Australia captain needs to invigorate his unproductive summer.

	Storm clouds threaten the SCG © Getty Images

Surely the absorbing Test match which held the nation in thrall will have put paid to the persistent and surely frivolous talk of Test cricket being moved away from the SCG, writes Mike Coward in the Weekend Australian.

Much more than the match which saw Australia achieve its 11th consecutive victory over Pakistan in a decade, the occasion reaffirmed the greatness of Test cricket and the significance of seeing the traditional game played in its rightful setting. The SCG has a very rich history which its trustees and members must unselfconsciously trumpet as Cricket NSW continues to show intense interest in taking the game west to Homebush nearer the demographic centre of Sydney.

Despite Australia’s win in Sydney, Peter Roebuck says in the Sydney Morning Herald Ricky Ponting and his team will be hard-pressed to recapture the Ashes.

In the same paper Jamie Pandaram speaks to Mohammad Aamir, the left-arm bowler, who has defied death, a frugal upbringing, and now defies the best batsmen in the world.

In the Herald Sun, Ron Reed begins 2010 by composing a few teams of the decade. There's his team of players of the 2000s, his team of those still playing and the 11 biggest stories in cricket for the decade.

4 Shane Warne busted: The leg-spin legend copped a year's ban when he tested positive for drugs in 2003. He claimed it was a diuretic taken for vanity reasons, but many saw it as a comeuppance for his perceived social sins. His charity work ensured - rightly - that this shame did not linger.

5 The Ashes revival: The 2005 series produced riveting cricket played in tremendous spirit, with England ending 16 years of Australian domination. They did it again this year. The game's marquee match-up has been returned to full health, perhaps in the nick of time.

	Nearly man: Shane Watson © Getty Images

Greg Baum, writing in the Sunday Age, says a curse is upon Australia's Test team, denying it all-but-made centuries.

A bawdy but cheerful Boxing Day crowd, a benign pitch, a depleted and callow Pakistan attack and two crucial fumbles all favoured Australia on a sun-kissed MCG, but still two more tons went begging, one each for openers Shane Watson and Simon Katich. It is a flaw rather than a failing, but it has become a frustration. For Australia, the noughties are ending nervously.

Pakistan could hardly have made a worse start to the series, writes Peter Roebuck in the Sun-Herald.

They toiled away to little effect for four hours and it took an outburst of Keystone Cops cricket to bring them a wicket. Had Shane Watson and Simon Katich been on remotely the same wavelength between the sticks they might still occupy the crease. Instead their negotiations went about as well as those in Copenhagen.

The Australian cricket team’s repeated run-ins with opponents on the field have lead Mike Coward to believe that though the side is keen to dish out verbal aggression with interest, they are incapable of handling stick from opponents. Writing in the Australian, Coward believes that the historically significant series against Pakistan offers Australia a shot at redeeming their reputation, provided they carry themselves in a “civil and thoughtful manner”.

The very moment they are challenged they lash out. It is an ugly look and even ardent supporters are unhappy. The Australians need to realise that at a time of evolution they will be challenged more often than ever was the case when Messrs Warne, McGrath, Gilchrist, Hayden, Langer and company were on hand. It is a different time and they must make some accommodation. They need to think and behave differently. It is to be earnestly hoped that Ponting, coach Tim Nielsen and manager Steve Bernard have pointed this out in the strongest possible terms.

In his column in the Australian, Ricky Ponting writes that he's had better weeks than the current one.

From the time Kemar Roach hit me just above the left elbow with a short ball during the third Test in Perth I've struggled to hold a bat properly. I haven't batted since the Test ended on Sunday to give the damaged tendon as much time as possible to heal. Instead, I've spent regular sessions in a hyperbaric chamber, which increases oxygen levels, and just about every other waking minute on various ice machines.

...

Just how well all that intense treatment has worked should become obvious pretty quickly when I start batting in the nets at the MCG today. I want to have a full net session but I'll ease into it and see how I go and then hopefully be able to have a top-up session on Christmas Day. The selectors want me to wait as long as possible before making a decision but I've got to get some batting time. If it's too painful today then I may have to rule myself out because I can't see what difference a day would make.

In the Herald Sun, Ron Reed notes that the injury is just one of many problems for Ponting.

People are saying they will be barracking for Pakistan because they can't cop the way the Australians carry on, but can they be cut a bit of slack? Their on-field manners leave something to be desired, especially when they're under pressure, but at least they're not in the headlines for running riot off the field.

Andrew Symonds is not missed. Shane Watson has deserved the bagging for his childish performance in Perth and if, as he claims, he isn't embarrassed by it, he should be. But Watson was at a pub party for a bunch of very thirsty cycling people on Tuesday night and didn't touch a drop, for what that's worth.

	If the cap splits ... © Getty Images

There’s life left in Ricky Ponting, but not much in his baggy green, writes Peter Lalor in the Australian.

Over the years the face and the cap have worn and faded together. Nothing else in Ponting's career has been there for so long.

In the Courier-Mail Robert Craddock pushes for Doug Bollinger to hold his spot on Boxing Day.

Australia are not playing so well that they can afford to waste the form and momentum he has built up against West Indies. His eight-wicket haul in Perth was worthy of Man-of-the-Match honours. He has a certain force about him at the moment that no other member of the attack can boast.

One of Australian cricket's most publicised friendships has ended. Andrew Symonds has gone on record saying that he is not even in talking terms with Michael 'Pup' Clarke. The friendship began to sour when Symonds was asked to leave Clarke's engagement party after a row with guests and came to a head during the "Gone fishing" episode. Peter Badle has the full story in the Sunday Telegraph.

"A lot of people have asked me what Michael is like. The way he is being portrayed is interesting because people are asking me a lot about him. I don't know the answer. I'm not in the inner circle anymore. I'd be guessing if I answered that."

Following the Johnson-Benn-Haddin spat on the second day of the Perth Test, Mid-Day has put together a collection of photographs capturing the more heated moments in Tests at the WACA - Lillee-Miandad, the aluminum bat and Terry Alderman's run in with a spectator.

Stuart Clark reckons that it is very unlikely he will play Test cricket again. Instead of turning to an experienced bowler with with 94 Test wickets, Australia's selectors opted for Doug Bollinger and Clint McKay against West Indies. Paying homage to Clark in his own way on his cricketwithballs website, Jarrod Kimber says that if the fast bowler ever ends up as a lawyer with a firm of his own, he would use his services.

Ouch. That hurt. Being sledged by a West Indian about your shallow spin-bowling stocks is a bit like having Gordon Ramsay question your manners. So writes Robert Craddock in the Daily Telegraph.

Chris Gayle had a mischievous grin on his face on Sunday when he likened facing Nathan Hauritz to facing himself. Clearly he does not rate either. Australian fans probably thought they would never see the day when West Indies would deride Australia's spin bowlers because they felt they have someone more threatening. But it's happened with the lanky Sulieman Benn and you can't hide from the truth ... Australia's spin bowlers don't scare people any more.

	Brains trust: Michael Clarke and Ricky Ponting © Getty Images

Ricky Ponting opens up on Michael Clarke's leadership prospects in an in-depth interview with the Sunday Telegraph’s Barry Toohey.

Is Clarke a natural leader?
He is. He's done a great job as captain of the Twenty20 team, and in my absence from the one-dayers he's done a good job and led the team well. He's got a different mindset as well when he has the role, which is a good sign as a leader.

Were you offended by him publicly coming out about the captaincy?
Look, we had a good chat about that, actually, and I don't think it was ever his intention to offend.

	Allan Border: impossible to measure up to © Getty Images

It’s 25 years since Allan Border took over as Australia’s captain and guided them from despair. Not that anyone except Mike Coward noticed. He writes in the Weekend Australian that Border’s contribution to Australian cricket is almost impossible to measure.

Attention should always be drawn to December 7, 1984 when Border succeeded his mate Kim Hughes as skipper against the West Indies in Adelaide. It is a date of the utmost significance for it marks the beginning of what is best termed "the age of stability" in Australian cricket.

It is much too easy following the heady successes of the past 20 years under Border, Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist to ignore, even forget, the confusion, controversy and tensions which so characterised Australian cricket in 1984.

In the Sydney Morning Herald Peter Roebuck picks an Australian back-up team, ruling out anyone over 30. Peter Hanlon reports in the Age about the search for Aboriginal cricketers.

	Captain in waiting © Getty Images

Over the past three seasons of Test cricket Michael Clarke has quietly established himself as Australia's leading batsman and his rise is indisputable, writes Peter Lalor in the Australian.

Clarke's numbers have been imposing for some years now. If you push the starting date back to the start of 2007, Clarke has scored 2324 runs at 56.68 with eight 100s from 28 matches, Ponting 2133 runs at an average of 43.53 with five 100s from 29 matches and Katich 1923 runs at an average of 52 with six 100s from 22 matches. Raw figures are not always the best indication.

Openers will tell you their job is more difficult than anybody else's. The number three will counter it is theirs that is the toughest and few will argue with either statement. The number five, however, would be pushing credibility to mount such an argument.

Darren and James Pattinson are more than ten years apart but this week they became the first brothers to play together for Victoria in more than 20 years. Darren has already played Test cricket for England; James is touted as a future Australian player. Michael Horan tells their story in the Herald Sun.

More than a quarter of a century ago John Pattinson, a roof tiler just like his Dad, reluctantly acceded to his wife's wish to pack up their things and move, with their four-year-old son Darren, to Australia. Doveton, Victoria to be precise.

Being hauled off the roof was one thing, but carted Down Under was simply not on the radar for the pleasantly spoken, very English chap from Grimsby, Lincolnshire. If his profession was a family tradition, then so too was the unexpected, as he would discover with pride in his unique position of being the father of two Aussie-grown boys, born more than 10 years apart, who tread such different paths to attain their cricket dreams.

	Adelaide Oval is changing its face © Getty Images

Mike Coward, writing in the Australian, gets nostalgic about South Australia’s home ground, which is undergoing a major redevelopment.

Unlike most mainland grounds, Adelaide Oval evokes a sense of place and the good folk of this fair if conservative city gather each year to share their knowledge and celebrate the joys of the traditional game.

And while they were fewer in number this year and many were forced from "Out the Back" to "Out the Ground" because of the extensive building work being carried out on the western side of the Oval, they had good reason to be in the most nostalgic of moods.

For out in the middle there was one of the rarest sights of the modern game: two West Indian slow bowlers working in tandem. Could it be? This was news that demanded to be disseminated to every corner of the cricket world.

In Robert Craddock’s blog on the Courier Mail he says an Australian defeat in Adelaide wouldn’t be such a bad thing, and that this could be Michael Hussey’s final Test summer.

Peter Roebuck, writing in the Sun-Herald, says Australia’s need for a wrist-spinner was exposed against West Indies in the second Test.

Admittedly the West Indies tail wagged, a custom lost in the headstrong years. Nothing expresses a team's state of mind better than the approach taken by the lower order. For 15 years the tailenders have thrown their wickets away. Six out was all out, a luxury even the strongest team can ill afford. Now Ravi Rampaul and Sulieman Benn put a price on their wickets. Still, the lack of firepower seen from the Australians was unsettling.

In the Sunday Age Martin Blake chooses five of cricket’s unluckiest players. Phil Jaques has had an unfortunate time over the past year and he speaks to Peter Badel in the Sunday Telegraph.

Why did Brad Hodge only ever play six Tests? It's a question that has never been answered satisfactorily, writes Ron Reed in the Herald Sun.

No one in authority ever explained why he was so out of favour, at least not publicly. It remains one of the game's modern mysteries. Test captain Ricky Ponting insisted only a fortnight ago: "I don't think his playing days for Australia are over by any stretch of the imagination."

Hodge's exit comes as a shock, but he did say two weeks ago that once the time was right he wouldn't be hanging around filling a spot that could be occupied by potential Australian players. At almost 35, he is putting the game first and, for that, should be applauded.

Hodge has now retired from first-class cricket and Martin Blake in the Age looks back on the influence that Dean Jones had on Hodge in his younger days.

He wanted to be like Dean Jones, his new hero. He tacked a photo of Jones to his bedroom wall and it was still there when he was picked to play for his state at 18, under Jones' captaincy. ''In my mind, he's still the greatest Victorian batsman I've played with or watched or seen,'' said Hodge. ''He's the 'Legend' for a reason.'' Jones, the spruiker, took him on as a mentor. ''He was the mechanic behind teaching me the art of first-class cricket. He was such a great person to listen to, too, because he was happy to tell you!''

Robert Craddock, writing in the Sunday Telegraph, wonders how people will maintain interest in Australia’s series against West Indies following the one-sided opening game at the Gabba.

Five years ago, when Australia decided it was time to reduce Test series against West Indies from five matches to three, some stalwarts were offended. To them, playing only three Tests against the Windies was like inviting Jamie Oliver over to cook dinner and asking him to prepare the entree only. It seemed demeaning. A waste. Almost a tease. Not any more.

Robert Craddock in the Herald Sun writes that there may be debate over who is Australia's most over-rated cricketer but the most under-rated is no contest - Marcus North.

North is a shamelessly old-fashioned player who has quickly built a reputation for being robust under pressure at Test level. For much of his career he has greatly admired Steve Waugh and Justin Langer and his fighting spirit is cut from the same cloth as those Test warriors. As a youngster he got his father to drive him to club grounds in Perth where Mike Hussey was batting to view the player who at the time was making massive scores in local cricket.

In the Weekend Australian, Peter Lalor wonders why the selectors bothered with Andrew Symonds for all those years, when North was waiting in the wings.

Unfortunately, for much of the time, he was held out by some very heavyweight cricketers. And more recently, by Symonds, a cricketer who promised a lot but delivered less. North is playing his eighth Test at the Gabba this weekend, Symonds played 24. North has scored three centuries for his country. Symonds scored two. Somewhere, someone, must be asking why they bothered with all the drama and histrionics.

In the Weekend Australian, Mike Coward notes that it is the 25th anniversary of Kim Hughes' tearful resignation as Australia's captain.

It is terribly cruel that Hughes is remembered as much for crying as for his exhilarating batting. On song he had few peers. This scribe has always wondered why one wouldn't cry if circumstances compelled the surrendering of the most significant office in Australian sport. It seemed then and seems now a very human response.

In the Age, Martin Blake writes that the most fascinating piece of sports theatre on television over the weekend was the miking up of Australia's legends in the All-Star Twenty20 match - specifically the insight into the bowling plans of Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne.

Here is McGrath bowling seam-up with the new ball, chiding himself about only reaching 110 km/h speeds, but still ridiculously miserly. McGrath is approaching 40, and has played two Twenty20 games in the past six months, but he could bowl stump-to-stump in his sleep.

Here's where the brains kick in. McGrath bowls a couple of inswingers to the left-handed David Warner, cramping him for room. Then he flags that he will bowl a little slider, running the fingers down the seam and angling it across Warner. He tips that Warne, standing at slip, will get himself a catch. On cue, Warner nicks it. McGrath only gets one aspect wrong. The catch flies to Gilchrist behind the stumps. Gilchrist, who also is miked up and who has heard the plan hatched, is exultant.

Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald enjoyed Shane Warne's battle with Michael Clarke and McGrath's surgical removal of Warner.

His wicket brought to mind his finest piece of bowling, his hat-trick against the West Indies in Perth in 2000. Then McGrath began by beating Sherwin Campbell with a fullish outswinger, followed by a cutter angling across Brian Lara, and completed the trick with a lifter directed at Jimmy Adams's shoulder. All three wickets were beautifully conceived. All three were precisely pitched. They were not dismissals, they were executions. McGrath's greatness ought not to be forgotten.

In his Herald Sun column, Shane Warne expresses his concerns about the future of Test cricket.

There has been plenty of talk about a Test championship and nothing has happened, but Test cricket needs an injection of something to capture fans across the world. In Australia, England and India it's still big, but it is not attracting crowds in a lot of other countries and that's a concern. If we are not careful, it will hit us so quickly that it's dying.

That would be a tragedy and the International Cricket Council and Cricket Australia should lead the way and do something now - ask the players what they think and what they think should be done. Please, no more greed with these ridiculous seven-match one-day series. It is a joke for the public and the players.

Malcolm Conn writes in the Australian that the Gabba Test is in danger of being upstaged by a bunch of schoolboys with the AFL draft to be held on day one.

In the Daily Telegraph, Robert Craddock looks back at the scene in the West Indies dressing room at Sabina Park in 1995, when their era of dominance finally came to an end.

Australia's best young cricketers ought to think long and hard before rushing down IPL's yellow brick road, writes Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Numerous IPL players have returned with dreadful injuries, rotten form or soft brains. Playing a few 20-over games might not seem much of a commitment, but bad habits can easily set in. It's only possible to attend so many parties and emerge intact. A lot of damage can be done in that period. Although other factors were involved, Andrew Symonds, Brett Lee, Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff and Muttiah Muralitharan have all struggled to recover from their first IPL campaign. Nor has much been seen of bright sparks such as Ajantha Mendis or Shaun Marsh. For that matter Ishant Sharma and Ravi Bopara have gone backwards. India cannot find any youngsters to challenge its ageing champions. None of them have progressed. Some have become front-foot swipers.

	Man in waiting: Michael Clarke © PA Photos

Michael Clarke pauses when asked the question. "I could sit here and lie and say I don't think about it," he tells Iain Payten of the Daily Telegraph.

When it comes to it, ambition is a tricky animal. There are those who say overtly coveting this particular job questions if you are the best man for it. Hence the pause. "The truth is I hope I continue to get opportunities, whether it be one-day cricket, now with Twenty20 cricket or hopefully one day I get the chance to captain in Test cricket," Clarke admits. "But it is all so far away. Right now, I am over the moon and stoked I have been given the chance to captain the Twenty20. My leader, still, is Ricky Ponting.”

Malcolm Conn, writing in the Weekend Australian, says Matthew Hayden’s passion has moved from playing cricket to saving it.

Less than a year out of the game and already a Cricket Australia board member, Hayden fears that the sport he dedicated decades to is being overplayed and undervalued. "I don't buy this 'more is better' mentality," Hayden said. "We should have an obsession with perfection."

In the same paper Ricky Ponting talks about what he has been doing during some rare time off.

Jamie Pandaram, in the Sydney Morning Herald, looks at the task of Denesh Ramdin, who has the job of outwitting Ricky Ponting in his backyard with a crew of under-rated, under-achieving players who've known mostly failure for a decade.

	Not the best in Tests © Getty Images

Peter Roebuck, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, reminds everyone Australia have lost three of their past five Test series.

Amid all the backslapping, it is a point worth pondering. Ricky Ponting's side has slipped to fourth place in the rankings. Along the way, captain and selectors have blundered, with the wrong teams chosen, pitches misread and puzzling tactics pursued at critical moments.

Admittedly, it has not all been bad. Australia performed admirably throughout a long stint overseas. The one-day side surpassed itself. But Test cricket is the real deal, and in that arena Australia have fallen back.

Australia’s first Test squad was named on Thursday and there was no spot for Phillip Hughes. In the Australian Malcolm Conn says Hughes will have to repeat his prolific form of the past two seasons to get back into the top team.

Hughes’ coach Neil D’Costa tells Will Swanton of the Sydney Morning Herald why he is relaxed about his charge’s future.

Greg Baum in the Age argues that day-night games will not necessarily save Test cricket worldwide but doing nothing will certainly kill it.

Alone of the three forms, alone also among major sports, Test cricket is exclusively a daylight game. In its heyday that did not matter because all sport was played in the daytime. But for 25 years sport has been moving into the night. The biggest football fixtures are played after dark, the biggest tennis matches, too. At the Olympics, the biggest days are nights.

	Twist and shout: Brett Lee © AFP

The baton has passed from Brett Lee to the next generation, writes Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald.

It does not seem long ago that Brett Lee was a teenager playing for Campbelltown in the under-21 comp, and scaring the wits out of batsmen. Now his four- and five-day career seems to be over. Plain and simple, he can no longer last the pace. Cricket is not a sentimental game. Choosing him is too risky.

In the same paper Jamie Pandaram speaks to Josh Hazlewood, an 18-year-old fast bowler with a big future. In Queensland Robert Craddock looks at Alister McDermott, another teenager on debut, in the Courier-Mail.

Robert Craddock in the Courier-Mail looks at the case of Shane Watson, who could yet be one of Australian sport's great feelgood stories.

Cricket and Watson have invested a huge amount in each other. In the years when they had Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne as their banker blue-chip shares, the Australian selectors considered Watson their little speculative oil rig which might have three bad years but might strike when they need him most. Watson is not quite there yet. But he is close. It's eight years since Australia chose Watson on a Test tour of South Africa and during that time he has played only 11 Tests with his 96 one-dayers.

Watson is an interesting character who is a much better player than he is widely given credit for. He is such a fine batsman that in a year's time – with Ponting, Katich and Hussey in their 36th year – he may well be behind Michael Clarke as the second best batsman in the country. Some people say that his bowling is too mechanical but we must forgive him for that. After breaking down so many times he is a bit like a waiter who has just spilt the drinks heading out with the next tray. If he is taking things a bit cautiously and carefully you can sort of understand it.

In the Sydney Morning Herald, Peter Roebuck runs the rule over the gallery of stars who turned out for New South Wales in a one-day game on Sunday, and who will be hoping for place in next week's first Test.

Among the bowlers, Brett Lee did not advance or harm his case. His persistence has been commendable. Nine months ago his chances of playing Test cricket again seemed remote. Now he is back in the reckoning ... Stuart Clark was serviceable, nothing more, and it's hard to see him holding his place at the Gabba.

Kerry O’Keeffe, writing in the Sunday Telegraph, thinks West Indies are a good outside bet in the three-Test series against Australia, who have been focussing on their one-day triumphs.

The bottom line is the boys this winter lost the Ashes. Ponting has committed Australian cricket's mortal sin ... again! Beating India in a meaningless limited-overs series soon after the Ashes calamity is a little like crashing out in the first round of singles at Wimbledon but winning the mixed doubles.

Australia need an early Test kill and while Chris Gayle's West Indians might appear vulnerable, they could be very dangerous. Their pace quartet of Jerome Taylor, Kemar Roach, Gavin Tonge and Dwayne Bravo screams potential to take 20 wickets on the right surface.

Luke Pomersbach is returning to Western Australia training after being suspended for drink driving. John Townsend spoke to him and the story appears in the Age.

	Marcus North was outstanding in England © Getty Images

After three centuries in seven Tests Marcus North’s place should be certain, but Chloe Saltau reports in the Age that he is still not prepared to declare his position safe.

Anyone who has followed North's seamless transition from first-class stalwart to reliable Test batsman will be aware of his reassuring presence in the previously unstable No. 6 position, and know that his occasionally nervous starts can be followed by lavish, sweetly timed strokes. Despite all of this, after a decade aspiring to a baggy green, North is not yet willing to ink his name into the starting XI for the first Test against the West Indies. ''I don't take anything for granted,” he said, “and I guess that is probably because it took so long to get there.”

Chris Gayle’s squad arrived in Australia on Friday and the Sydney Morning Herald’s Peter Roebuck outlines his plan for cricket in the Caribbean.

The West Indies ought to be disbanded as a cricketing force. Followers of the game with memories of mighty deeds and fine gentlemen might regret the break-up but the culture has been ruined and every attempt to improve it thwarted. All the more reason to stop the charade.

Instead, let Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Barbados, Jamaica and the Leeward and Windward islands fend for themselves. In that case, their cricket might be informed by the commitment to the cause for too long missing from West Indian cricket.

Peter Roebuck, writing in the Age, says Australian cricket is facing its most deflating summer for decades.

Following hard upon the feckless nomination of Chris Gayle as leader of the West Indies, the news that Younis Khan had stepped down as Pakistan captain is a hammer blow. Pakistan and the West Indies are the summer's main attractions but both will arrive as fractured outfits. Whether the Younis decision or Gayle's reappointment is the bigger calamity is a matter of opinion. It's a close-run thing. All the evidence suggests that it's going to be a long summer and a hard sell.

In the Australian Malcolm Conn says Test cricket continues to be devalued, with a chronic oversupply of largely meaningless one-day games robbing most Australian players of any match preparation before the West Indies series.

Matthew Hayden is passing on the message that anyone can play cricket and Larine Statham reports in the Daily Telegraph on his trip to the Tiwi Islands.

Hayden wants more Aboriginal kids to embrace the baggy green and to become professional cricketers. "I'd love to see an indigenous player playing what is a really great game," he said. "It has been a sport that has really only been among mainstream Australia and I think there is a massive opportunity to change that."

Brad Hodge, the Victoria batsman, has changed his approach this year, writes Peter Lalor in the Australian. He is more laidback and isn't concerned if he doesn't add to his six Tests.

In the past he has willed himself into a mountain of runs and rage as he attempted to get into the Australian side. He wouldn't say no if the selectors asked him to pull on the baggy green should Michael Clarke not be fit for Brisbane later this month, but he's not fussed if they don't and he isn't waiting by the phone.

Hodge has redefined his approach to the game and for the first time there is no over-arching aim. "I really haven't got any goals this year," he said. "Every other year I've had goals and tried to achieve them, because I thought that would see me picked at a higher level.”

John Dyson, the former West Indies coach, is another who is back on the state scene. He has been appointed as a a talent scout for Cricket New South Wales, Jamie Pandaram reports in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Greg Baum writes in the Age that the gurgling sound you might be able to hear is the strangling of the goose that laid the golden egg.

The focus is on player burn-out, but ignores a parallel effect that in the long term may hurt the game more: fan burn-out. ''Spectator fatigue,'' it was called by Adam Gilchrist. Thursday night's stunner in Hyderabad, far from disprove the thesis, adds to it. Though replete with entertainment, the chances are that few were watching - why this one, rather than the last or the next? - and that it will soon be lost to memory in the rush of more matches. That's the pity.

Cricket Australia's sins of this winter can't be repeated, writes Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald. Australian players have had an overdose of cricket, domestic and international, and unsurprisingly the injury list has been lengthening by the day. Dizzy? Confused? Exhausted? Media managers and selectors came and went but the senior players hardly saw their front doors for months on end.

Complacent officials point out that strained sides and hamstrings are occupational hazards for pace bowlers while broken fingers are part and parcel of a keeper's life. They add that some of the crocks only joined the tour a few weeks ago. But the longer a trip lasts, the heavier the toll it takes. Peter Siddle had been on the road longer than Mick Jagger. How on earth was he supposed to stay at his peak for 25 weeks? Fast bowling puts immense pressure on the body, and the artificial way of life derails the mind.

Peter Lalor, in the Australian, says the Australian team is threadbare, living on care packages and needs replacements.

The Catholics are worried. The long-hairs, too. For there's news about that Andrew Hilditch, chairman of the war cabinet, is pushing for conscription to fill the quota. How else to make up the numbers? Already there are suggestions that the able-bodied are reluctant to serve. Hilditch is a cold-eyed and desperate man. There's talk in underage cricket circles of him trying to lure strapping young adolescents from suburban fields with the promise that they'll see the world and be home by Christmas.

The elevation of Burt Cockley to the Australian ODI squad after only four one-dayers for his state is not necessarily a mistake, writes Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald. He believes that promoting fast bowlers and batsmen with youth on their side is a bold and positive move.

Of course, the idea has been imperfectly applied. It is hard to justify putting Moises Henriques in front of a player as energetic and effective as Andrew McDonald. Yet the approach has much to commend it. Dirk Nannes and Shane Harwood are splendid bowlers, but what is the point? Cockley has strong shoulders, plenty of pace and can improve. Admittedly, he was a bolter but speedsters were going down like sprayed mozzies. Moreover, the alternatives were either seasoned campaigners or complete novices. Right or wrong, if it is part of a return to youth and aggression, it has merit.

In the Daily Telegraph, Nick Walshaw looks at the rapid rise Cockley has enjoyed.

It's a flight that represents a remarkable rise for this Blues speedster who never played A-grade in the Newcastle competition until he was 18. Who only came to Sydney at 21. Who was even forced to withdraw with injury from that one Australia A match he was selected in last year.

Peter Roebuck writes in the Sydney Morning Herald that in a supposedly packed marketplace where cricket is trying to hold its own, it is doing itself a major disservice with unnecessary rain delays. On Wednesday at the SCG, the Sheffield Shield match between New South Wales and Western Australia didn't get started until 3.15pm.

To approach the stadium in the morning was to observe a few apologetic drops dripping from the skies and to notice that the light was a tad gloomy. Only the lamest soul or someone fresh from a coiffeur would have raised an umbrella. Windscreen wipers were not required. The previous day the temperature had soared to 37 degrees and the batsmen had dictated terms. Now the tussle might be more even. Changing conditions are part and parcel of the game.

Apparently the outfield was damp. Research indicated that beads of water could be detected on the tips of the grass. Poor souls, the bowlers might be handicapped with a slippery ball. Poor lads, the batsmen might have to peer into the gloom. Inevitably news broke that the start had been delayed. Not that the players were huddled in the rooms. Instead they were on the park, loosening their prodigious muscles, preparing for the contest. Some cheerfully hoofed a footy ball around, others practised close catches. No one seemed to find any irony in this exposure to the elements. As far as could be discerned none of them contracted pneumonia or fell flat on their face or cracked a bone.

Peter Lalor in the Australian points out that the very few fans who turned up were understandably unhappy.

When the players did come out to start at 3.15pm one paying customer (there were only 241 others) yelled at Stuart Clark to get a move on. The bowler told the man that it was only 3.14pm and the umpires wouldn't let him. It gets that intimate at a Shield match.

It gets heated, too. With poor Beau Casson bowling at times like John Howard did to the troops, another spectator chipped in with some harsh criticism that echoed around the stands. This time NSW captain Simon Katich gave the bloke a single-barrel blast of advice.

	Blood brothers: Michael Clarke and Shane Warne © Getty Images

Shane Warne is Michael Clarke’s idol and treasured friend. He talks to the Sunday Telegraph’s Jessica Halloran about their special relationship and how Warne is helping him through his back injury.

"We both love our speed,'' Clarke said. "Our cars, our motorbikes, and a bit of shopping here and there - but we also both love trying to be the best cricket players we can. I guess that's how our relationship continued to grow. I had an idol who was willing to help me. I would have been stupid not to have listened to him. From there, we've built a friendship outside of cricket, which is very special to me. It's something I'm very lucky to have.''

Adam Gilchrist is not just worried about how the amount of cricket is affecting the players but also the fans, Peter Lalor reports in the Australian.

"The burn-out issue is there, but then the player has to be smart about management," Gilchrist said. "The lucrative dollars are there, but you have to be successful for the national team to reap the rewards in tournaments like the IPL and the Champions League.”

Brett Lee is off home and will have a break from signing autographs for a while. Jesse Hogan, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, says the invention of the camera phone has made Lee's life a lot tougher.

It hasn’t been a great year for the relationship between the Australian team and the media, and Greg Baum analyses the situation in the Age. He takes issue with Tim Nielsen’s Cricket Australia blog and the players' answers to Indian journalists this week, a paragraph which has since been removed.

	Are you Australia in disguise? © Global Cricket Ventures-BCCI

It’s been said that New South Wales players are given a baggy green as well when they are handed a state cap. Will Swanton, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, takes it further: just pick a NSW-only Test team and be done with it.

Pipe down, Victorians and assorted other non-Blues. NSW have proved themselves as the dominant provincial side in the world, let alone Australia, so the selectors might as well just flood the Test XI with Blues - 10 of them plus captain Ricky Ponting, who lives in Sydney anyway.

And before all those Victorians and assorted other non-Blues start moaning about NSW's struggles in the Sheffield Shield, come for a meeting in the fair dinkum department - the only reason they don't win the Shield every year is the unavailability of their premier players who are representing their country.

Cast ahead to the first Ashes Test against England next year. Australia lost the urn, NSW can win it back. A Blues-Only-Plus-Ricky-Ponting Test team isn't remotely far-fetched.

Bryce McGain, the legspinner, plays his first game for Victoria since returning 0 for 149 on Test debut in South Africa. Chloe Saltau spoke to him for the Age.

A fast bowler who has suffered with injury several times, Rob Cassell found the jump from the Melbourne club competition to the state level a tough one. Failing to break into Victoria's side after an initial run, he lost his Bushrangers contract in 2007 and went to Europe in the winter of 2008 to get a few things out of his system. He travelled for five months with two old schoolmates, hiring a car in France and driving into Spain. Cassell was done with cricket, or so it seemed. On a cathartic trip, his significant moment came in an Aussie bar in Barcelona, he tells the Age.

A little more than a year on and the journey is far from done. But Cassell, 26, might well be on track for the best comeback cricket has seen in years. Seven years after he last pulled on a Bushrangers shirt, he is playing Premier Cricket for Melbourne with conspicuous success, meaning he is only a step away from state colours. Bowling with an action remodelled over four months at the Centre of Excellence in Brisbane during the winter, he took four top-order wickets for the Demons in the first round, and backed up with a career-first hat-trick against Camberwell in round two, employing reverse swing with an old ball.

	Eye on the ball?: Merv Hughes © Getty Images

When he's at home the selector Merv Hughes can’t watch Australia’s overseas matches or the country’s domestic fixtures because he doesn’t have pay television. The Age’s Chloe Saltau speaks to Hughes about his not-all-seeing role.

''I think I follow the game closely enough anyway,'' Hughes said. ''If it is from overseas, all the Australian games are covered by another selector. While I saw the highlights on Sunday [against India], and while I followed it on the internet because I don't have pay TV, I have full confidence in the selector on duty, which in this case is David Boon. 'When you've got a selector actually covering the games I don't think it's a problem because we get feedback from him.''

	Nathan Hauritz went from club cricket to top grade © Getty Images

With Australian slow-bowling a growing concern, the Age’s Chloe Saltau runs through the official numbers that show the percentage of deliveries sent down by spinners in the Sheffield Shield competition has almost halved in the past four decades.

The figures were prepared for Cricket Australia and presented to the board's annual general meeting last week, at which chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch was reappointed for two years, despite the recent Ashes defeat. Hilditch and his panel have been criticised for sending five spinners through a revolving door to the Test team since Stuart MacGill retired in June last year. But in his report to the AGM, Hilditch said the selectors were placed in the impossible position of having to pluck a spinner, Nathan Hauritz, out of grade ranks for last summer's Adelaide Test because of the dearth of slow bowlers in first-class cricket.

Australia has had a lack of depth in spin bowling since Shane Warne left the international stage almost three years ago, but the figures expose an alarming decline since the 1960s, when nearly 45 per cent of deliveries were sent down by spinners, compared with 35 per cent in the 1980s, 31 per cent in the '90s and about 25 per cent this decade.

	Peter Siddle has been around the world in the past 12 months © Getty Images

Peter Siddle is at the end of his first year as an international cricketer and he looks back with the Age’s Jesse Hogan.

Siddle's progression from injury replacement to mainstay has taken him from India to Australia to South Africa, back to Australia, then a marathon stint between England, Scotland, South Africa again and now India. This newly imposed transient lifestyle is why Siddle has not been home in Melbourne since May 27 and will not get home until mid-November.

"It's just non-stop cricket, a lot of hotels, a lot of travelling by planes and buses and a lot of time spent away from home,'' Siddle said. ''It's been tough. I do miss family and friends and just being able to do the normal things, just to be able to relax at home, drive around in your own car, stuff like that. Bed's the biggest one I miss, being able to go home to your own bed. Different hotels in every city you go to it's always a different bed.''

	Phil Jaques is back on track © AFP

Phil Jaques, who opened for his country last year, continues to score heavily in New South Wales after his recovery from a back injury. The Australian’s Malcolm Conn writes about Jaques’ career-saving operation.

The opening batsman is several centimetres taller thanks to a prosthetic disc in the base of his spine. Jaques laughs about his sudden elongation, but has not bothered to measure himself. He's just delighted to stand up straight again and be able to move freely enough to play a proper cover drive without stabbing pain.

Off the field he can sit comfortably at dinner without the constant need to get up and walk around and his social life has also improved. Jaques can linger over a cup of coffee without fear that his back will seize up.

There was always too much unexplained about the way Albert Trott, the forgotten Australian slow left-arm bowler lived and loved. David Foot digs up the past and a few scandals in his blog on the Guardian website.

Why did he find himself left out of the Australian party to this country by the captain, his brother no less, in 1896? What caused him to pack his well‑worn suitcase and sail permanently for England? He deserved greater acclaim and recognition in the superficial obituaries than those suppressed guffaws and whispered compliments, however good natured, that carried a meaningful wink. "Poor old Alberto. Couldn't keep that up for ever, could he. It were the women, you know."

Cricket in Australia faces an unprecedented challenge to make itself heard this season, writes Peter Hanlon in the Age.

A scan of the sporting landscape in the months ahead does little to quell the suspicion there will be louder noises heard than willow striking leather ...

Interest in football's round-ball code is building, both towards next year's World Cup in South Africa and a domestic competition whose roots are deepening. And even the indigenous footy code won't back off its dominance of the back - and front - pages before taking a parting slap at the flannelled game; the AFL national draft will take place on November 26, day one of the first Test against West Indies. No prizes for guessing which will dominate the November 27 headlines.

Which brings us to cricket's other problem: after a hat-trick of home summers that offered up England, India and South Africa - the most marketable opponents in the modern game - the 2009-10 fixture groans with the prospect of three Tests each against the West Indies and Pakistan.

Andrew Symonds has been spending plenty of time with the Brisbane Broncos rugby league team since the end of his international cricket career. In the Sydney Morning Herald, he speaks to Phil Lutton about where his future lies.

Andrew Symonds waits for Corey Parker's last practice conversion at Red Hill, the suburban home of the NRL's Brisbane Broncos. The ball groans over the crossbar before Symonds rounds it up and stuffs it in a bulging mesh bag. Parker leaves the field, the last Brisbane player to adjourn to the ice baths and recovery rooms. Symonds picks up a few brightly coloured markers, stacks them neatly like a PE teacher at the end of class and ambles over to the shade of Brisbane's gym. There's no zinc on the lips to guard against the spring sun.

...

Symonds is about to head to India for the inaugural Champions League T20, where he will represent the Deccan Chargers in the October 8-23 tournament. After that, he will be available for any other T20 franchises that may be willing to pay for his tenure during the endless summer. Unlike Andrew Flintoff, who still insists he wants to play for England, Symonds is as free as a bird. "It was always going to go that way with the Indian Premier League [IPL]. In my last couple of years, they [CA] were very nervous about what was happening with the IPL. It came up in contract meetings," Symonds reveals.

The Australian team's beer-swilling image has changed over the past few years and in the Sydney Morning Herald, Jamie Pandaram meets one man who has played a part in that shift, the team's strength and conditioning coach Stuart Karppinen.

As the relationship between athletes and alcohol permeates social focus, team traditions associated with booze are coming under greater scrutiny than ever. Karppinen, who is completing his PhD in ''neuromuscular fatigue and physiological demands of international cricket'', says there will be times routine is scrapped for celebration - such as Australia's upset victory in South Africa earlier this year - but as a general rule he views alcohol as a detriment that could one day be swiped from sporting culture altogether.

If Australia are to regain their No.2 standing, Ricky Ponting must be given more power to determine who the national coach, selectors and support team will be, writes Dean Jones in the Age. Ponting needs to get more ruthless in his demands and needs people around him who will listen.

Ponting needs to assess if the team's structures are balanced and in the right place. Does he need to have four full-time selectors? Or does Ponting need only three selectors, with himself being a selector? Having Tim Nielson as a selector can only cause problems, as players would struggle to be honest and candid with him on how they are travelling. They would be frightened it would end up on the selection table.

Shane Warne turns 40 on Sunday. Will Swanton in the Sydney Morning Herald looks back on Warne's 30th birthday celebrations in the Caribbean.

He parked himself at the far end of the dining table. Brian Lara was in tow, hanging off Warne like he'd become best mates with the coolest kid at school. Warne spent the next few hours regaling all present with one anecdote after another, a charm offensive to do Bill Clinton proud. He was funny, revealing, open, honest, self-deprecating. Jokes were delivered at his own expense. What a jolly good fellow, and so said all of us.

Though Ricky Ponting will return to captain Australia after a period of rest, Michael Clarke's leadership in the first two one-dayers in England has provided enough indication that the gradual transition towards his taking over the role on a long-term basis has begun. Oliver Brett shares his insights in his blog on the BBC Sport website.

He [Clarke] has performed some sort of minor miracle by converting Shane Watson, a reluctant bowler indeed during the Ashes, into a devastating wicket-taking option.

And his aggressive field placement throughout England's innings at Lord's on Sunday was rewarded handsomely when wickets kept on falling. Of the recognised batsmen, only Paul Collingwood - starved of the easy singles which he so often dines out on - lasted until the final overs, by which point Brett Lee would not be denied.

Patrick Smith writes in the Australian that 50-over cricket is dying, as evidenced by the interest in the ongoing ODI series in England.

Once upon a time this would have been important. Australia leads the 50-over series against England 2-0. This is presumably of mild significance to the players' close family and a smattering of their friends but that would be about it.

Merv Hughes, the tour guide who helps pick Australian sides when not counting heads on the bus to the London Tower, might have poked his noggin in at Lord's on Sunday night to take a gander and jot down a few thoughts. Like who is Callum Ferguson? Why is Brett Lee still here? Who brung Adam Voges?

When Michael Hussey averaged 84.80 in his first 33 innings, his feat was called Bradmanesque. But can you really compare a batsman's early career to Bradman's 99.94, compiled over 21 years. On cricketweb.net, Dave Wilson decides the only way to make a comparison is to take Bradman's first 33 innings into account.

Bradman scored almost half as many runs again as did Hussey, but it's when we look at the big scores each man compiled that the gap between them is most apparent - of the 17 scores over fifty made by Bradman, he converted an amazing 76% of them into centuries, and, even more amazing, six of his thirteen hundreds were doubles or better. Hussey, on the other hand, had almost as many scores over fifty, however only four were centuries (28% conversion rate) and none were doubles. It would appear that Hussey, with his higher number of incomplete innings, was more the beneficiary of the method by which averages are calculated - looking solely at per-innings averages, Bradman comes out at 91.51 to Hussey's 64.24. So the only thing "Bradmanesque" about Hussey's performance was his high average.

Why does a man like John Buchanan, who has enjoyed such success inspire so much scepticism? The Guardian's Andy Bull meets the former Australian coach to find out whether he is a 'cricketing mastermind' or a complete fraud'?

Laid out across the sheets are a spread of the day's papers. Buchanan had been in the press a lot of late. Not least in the Times, where Shane Warne had recently written: "I think that for the ECB appointing Buchanan is a great move, because that means Australia have got more of a chance." The criticisms of old players and pundits are one thing, but Warne's, surely, are not so easily ignored. Buchanan sees the antipathy as the natural product of his coaching style. He almost suggests it was intentional. "If you take coaching on its broadest basis it's about helping people, about establishing a relationship. Shane and I have a relationship, it might not be as close as I'd like it, but we do have one. My role was to challenge him. Challenge him on a personal level, a playing level, and a team level. Because sometimes, for some people, you need to be provocative, to question what they do. They may not like it, but that's the role of a coach." That, presumably, was his thinking when he called Warne "vain, stupid and self-centred" after his drug ban in 2003.

So what's Phillip Hughes doing in Nagpur all of a sudden? To sharpen his skills with coach Neil D'Costa at the newly built academy. Seems like Australia's new kid is determined to recover his lost touch after his sudden blip in England. Peter Lalor of the Australian catches up with the two, where Hughes talks about England, and what else he intends to do in India.

Justin Langer thought he had met somebody on the same impassioned-plain when he received probing queries from the teenager via email some years back. Now the little opener is turning to the Little Master. He intends to fly to Mumbai on Monday and hopes to have dinner with Tendulkar. Hughes promises to gorge himself on cricket."I'll chew his ear off," he says with a laugh. "I've got questions about a lot of things that I want to ask him. I like getting around and talking to the guys who have been around for a long time."

A group of former Australian Test spinners has decided the doosra shouldn't be taught in Australia. Greg Baum, in the Age, looks at that issue and the state of spin in Australia.

Depending on your point of view, the proposed ban on the doosra is a case of Australia cutting off its nose to spite its face, affecting to despise what it cannot have, seizing the high moral ground or even usurping the authority of the ICC.

Cricket Australia says it is none of the above. Operations manager Michael Brown, who convened the summit, said the propriety of the doosra was just one of dozens of ideas to resuscitate spin bowling in a discussion paper that will go to the board later this year.

	Who's the greatest of them all? © Getty Images

Allan Border's 22-year custody of the record for most Test runs by an Australian is likely to end this week with Ricky Ponting needing 66 to go past Border and become the greatest run-scorer. But Robert Craddock, writing in the Courier Mail, believes he should rest easily becuase his legacy will never fade.

Border averaged 50 in a side which went three years without winning a series – in an era in which every team seemed to have at least one outstanding bowler – was quite special at a time where boundaries were longer, wickets spicier, bats inferior and attacks better credentialled than they are today.

Could Ponting have handled the mighty West Indian pace attack, especially as a batting Lone Ranger with a target on his chest?

Adam Gilchrist hit rock bottom after Australia lost the 2005 Ashes. Four years on though, he has perspective and a fitting new ambassadorial role. The Observer's Anna Kessel meets him:

Only reflecting on that intense period now does Gilchrist realise how isolated he felt at the time. Those around him barely knew what state he was in. "No one else really knew what was going on. Team-mates, not really. We were all going through such similar rides, anyway. All on the same journey. All away from home. Mel [his wife] was trying to make me aware of it at the time. I was becoming more moody when I'd never been a moody, bring-the-game-home person. Cricket had never before affected my life and my mood and my thoughts, but through that time it began to. My moods and my mindset were being dictated to by results: low-score life was bad, big-score life was good. I had never been that type before." In the aftermath of the defeat, why did the team not share the loss and ­support each other? "I've come to the ­conclusion that we don't do that enough, or we didn't when I was playing. It might be against the male instinct. I'm probably a little bit the other way. I've always been keen to express my emotions and my feelings. There was the odd time when I felt a ­little bit alienated from the group."

In the same paper, Emma John interviews Mitchell Johnson on relationship counselling, expensive jewellery, driving a truck full of plumbing supplies and more.

When you were trying to make it as a state cricketer you used to drive a truck. What was in your truck?

Plumbing supplies. I'd be up from 4.30am till midday and do my deliveries then train in the afternoon. My truck was more like a ute [pick-up] and you had the toilet pipes on the top. And I didn't have an accident - [Australian-born West Indies cricketer] Brendon Nash did the job before me, and one time he didn't tie the pipes on to the roof tight enough. When he braked they came off all over the road.

And Rob Smyth lists out 10 unlikely Ashes heroes from Bobby Peel in 1894-95 to Gary Pratt in 2005.

In the Sunday Times, Martin Johnson talks to Andrew Flintoff who still prefers to be considered a batsman who also bowls instead of the other way round.

“Early in my career I was regarded as more of a batsman than a bowler and I still see myself that way. Scoring runs actually gives me more pleasure and satisfaction than taking wickets but all the stop-start cricket I’ve had because of the injuries has affected my batting more than my bowling. I’m confident it’ll come right again and on a personal level the next Test century of my career will be more rewarding than a five-for.”

	Ricky Ponting: the only way is out © Getty Images

Ricky Ponting’s walk out of the World Twenty20 convinced the Courier-Mail’s Robert Craddock that it’s time for the captain to stand down from the game's shortest format.

It's got nothing to do with his ability - it's just a mindset thing. Strangely enough, as soon as I looked down from the television I noticed a copy of John Buchanan's new book, The Future of Cricket, and one of the first pages I flicked to contained the following sentence. "I believe that for the likes of Ganguly, Tendulkar, Dravid and Ponting this T20 format has arrived too late in their careers. There is no doubt they can play this game but I have my doubts they can play it at the pace the game demands."

In the Herald Sun Craddock looks at Buchanan’s views on Shane Warne.

"Since Shane and I left the Australian cricket team his critical views about my role have continued," Buchanan wrote. "It is disappointing coming from someone like Shane who, on the field, has been a player and a person who has changed the face of the game. It is puzzling that a person of his stature in cricket, someone with iconic status, would continue to criticise me.”

While it appears an embattled Andrew Symonds no longer fits in the evolving environment of the Australian cricket team, Robert Craddock says that when a player's life is spinning out of control, Australian cricket struggles to handle it. Cricket is trying to do its best but somehow the system, although it's full of psychologists, strategists, scientists, and more coaches than you would find at your local bus depot, struggles to identify the root of the problem and fix it, says Craddock. Read on in Australia's Daily Telegraph.

As provocative as the questions over Symonds' future are the simple ones about his recent past. How could psychologists, selectors and board officials misread his troubled mental state and send him to England after a season when he had fallen out of love with the game? There have been no apologies or admissions of error from anyone. And there won't be. That's just cricket.

In the Times, Michael Atherton wonders if he is alone in thinking that there is something deeply ambivalent about cricket's - sport's - attitude to alcohol. It is almost impossible to be part of the game, either as player or spectator, and not realise how central booze is to the whole thing. Even if you don't drink you can't escape it. But wouldn't Andrew Symonds be right to be just a little confused at this moral outrage from an organisation that shows such an enthusiasm for alcohol in its commercial arrangements, and a sport that cannot rid itself of its addiction?

It is true that Symonds has, for some time, been on the kind of slippery slope that Paul McGrath (and countless others, such as Tony Adams) described in his memoir of his time as a professional footballer, when booze became not just an enabler of good times but an emasculator of everything else. At Manchester United during Ron Atkinson's time as manager in the 1980s, beer was as much a part of life as pasta is now. “Drink offered escapism,” McGrath wrote, “and in no time I became an expert at escaping everything around me.”

The latest Andrew Symonds controversy is starting to fade but Robert Craddock, writing in the Courier-Mail, says the scars will linger for many years.

Symonds is understood to be in a very bad head space and so are the playing group in England who started the push to sack him. They are uneasy because they know, cricketing-wise, they have handed down a life sentence. They know they were right, but it is still a heavy burden and it's a small wonder some of them have had trouble sleeping since and Australia have gone belly-up in their first World Twenty20 match against the West Indies.

The other MCC – the Melbourne Cricket Club – is facing some of the same accusations the Marylebone Cricket Club has had to deal with during its long history. Cameron Stewart reports in the Australian about claims it is an undemocratic old boys' retreat that has lost touch with the modern world.

The unprecedented internal assault on the values of the powerful 171-year-old blue-blood club is contained in a private letter to the MCC president from Colin Beames, son of Melbourne sporting icon Percy Beames. Mr Beames is a 40-year MCC member whose late father was a sporting journalist, footballer and cricketer and has a bar named after him inside the members' area of the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

	Andrew Symonds is no longer flying high © Getty Images

Peter Lalor, writing in the Weekend Australian, looks back at Andrew Symonds’ behaviour over the past year. He says Symonds sees life through the glass darkly.

This summer his team-mates were told they had to keep a close eye on him. Management told the players that he couldn't be left alone when out drinking, his peers had to tell him when he had had enough and when it was time to go home. Unfortunately for the 33-year-old his peers have left the Australian cricket team.

In the Sydney Morning Herald Will Swanton analyses the picture of Ricky Ponting wearing a VB cap while lamenting the ruinous effect of alcohol on Symonds.

Ironic? Hypocritical? Irresponsible choice of major sponsor? Cricket Australia freely promotes alcohol and makes millions of dollars from it.

Chloe Saltau says in the Age that if Symonds had been sent home from the England tour in 2005 it would have saved Australian cricket a lot of trouble. In the Herald Sun Ruth Lamperd looks at the financial implications for Symonds.

Robert Craddock writes in the Courier-Mail that Andrew Symonds was a player never humble enough to learn from his mistakes, governed by weak officials who let him get away with far too much for far too long.

I live in Queensland and have had Bulls players tell me all summer that Symonds' head was nowhere near right for a recall to international cricket. That he simply is not the player he was. That he was distressed at the fact he lost millions of dollars in the collapse of the Storm Financial Group and, even more painfully, that his family lost money as well. And that he had fallen out of love with the game. It showed almost every innings he played in a season when he averaged 15 for the Bulls.

The national selectors' decision to recall him for the Twenty20 championships in England showed how completely out of touch they really are with his mindset and the game in general. Somewhere in Adelaide last night I can just picture head selector Andrew Hilditch getting the news and saying, "Oh really? What, not Symo? I'm stunned". It's going to be a terrible shock for Hilditch when he finds out Harold Holt has gone missing.

In the Herald Sun, Ron Reed considers how Symonds has let down his good friends within the team.

Symonds is an arrogant and often sullen character - not the sharpest card in the pack, either - who believes the rules are not made for him. His biggest crime is one that resonates with most Australians, whether they are sports stars or not - he let down his mates who went in to bat for him.

Symonds finds support in his Kent captain David Fulton, who writes in the Times that the Australian brought great passion to the game, but was undone by the constant public spotlight.

David Hopps writes in the Guardian about how Symonds can spend his time from here on, if this is the end of his international cricketing career.

He was born in London, grew up playing cricket in Australia, but now, aged 22, Josh Wells is living his dream, pitching for the Class A Lansing Lugnuts in the USA.

“I played cricket until I was 16 and sort of lost interest. One of my mates played baseball, and he asked me to come along to a tryout. The coaches said, 'Oh, you're tall, you want to get on the mound?' Because I played cricket, I obviously had a stronger arm than the other kids. And all of a sudden it was, 'Who's this Josh kid?' “

Wells knew so little about the sport that he secretly turned to the internet to read up on the rules and set his alarm to watch US baseball in the early hours on TV.

"Cricket in Australia is like baseball here - it's huge. So I went pretty much from the biggest sport to the smallest sport, which was pretty ridiculous for many. When I signed to play baseball in America, my friends were like, 'Baseball?' "

What do Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, Thierry Henry and Michael Clarke have in common? They all use the same razor. What don’t they have in common? Clarke is the only one who hasn’t won a major trophy in England. Christian Nicolussi talks to Clarke about his Ashes hopes in the Daily Telegraph.

Australia are still finding their way in the Twenty20 format and Kerry O’Keeffe, the former Test spinner, points out a few areas to improve during an interview with the Sunday Herald Sun. He thinks Australia should take this part of the game more seriously and consider a separate squad, a plan raised by John Buchanan.

"John has some pretty good ideas and I can see the rationale behind that," O'Keeffe said. "I can't see why Phillip Hughes and Simon Katich aren't playing Twenty20 because they both play Twenty20 pretty well. Equally, the workload ... I don't see how people can go from the IPL into a Test match as Chris Gayle did. I just don't know think you can be slogging it against the white ball and then three days later walk out at Lord's, batting when it's seaming around.”

Andrew Stevenson, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, says Ricky Ponting remains something of a boy in short pants at Twenty20 cricket. Ponting is 34 and goes into next month's World Twenty20 still to prove his relevance at a young man's game.

Ponting has played the short form just 35 times, 15 of them at an international level. Australia were knocked out of the first World Twenty20 in 2007 by eventual winners India, who went with a bright young side, in contrast to Australia's elderly Test line-up.

	Leader: Michael Clarke © Associated Press

Michael Clarke has been on work experience as Australia’s captain during the one-day series win over Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates. Sam Lienert of AAP has been impressed with the leader during Ricky Ponting’s rest.

Clarke has hardly put a foot wrong with his captaincy. The acting skipper has kept team spirits high despite the pressure they faced after being skittled by Pakistan's spinners in the series-opener to continue what had been a disappointing recent one-day record. He has had to manage pacemen being rotated in and out of the side on spin-friendly pitches and draw the best from a squad with numerous stars on the comeback trail and several other players new to international cricket.

In the Sun-Herald Andrew Stevenson writes that after the past two weeks Clarke is the leader in waiting.

	Peter Siddle "typifies everything that it is to be an Australian cricketer" © Getty Images

Chloe Saltau reports in the Age on Peter Siddle’s encouraging recovery from injury as the Test bowler sets his sights on England.

Siddle returned from South Africa with instructions to allow the stress reactions that recurred in his left foot to heal, and although he is still three weeks away from bowling, the first steps have been encouraging. "All that is actually feeling really good now. I've been running the last week and it's pulled up fine."

He is using the enforced rest to lay the foundations for his first Ashes series, get home to his family and mates in Morwell and see as many North Melbourne games as he can. The latter proved an instant ice-breaker with Australian captain and fellow Kangaroos fanatic Ricky Ponting, who during the South African tour declared that the 24-year-old "typifies everything that it is to be an Australian cricketer and to wear a baggy green cap".

In the Sydney Morning Herald Andrew Stevenson writes about two of the major problems facing world cricket: how to cope with the explosion of the IPL and the Twenty20 format, and how to deal with the security headaches that have confirmed Pakistan's no-go status.

Dean Jones has watched Australia’s struggles with spin bowling and has a few ideas for fixing the issue. In his column in the Age he outlines his solutions, including a greater acceptance of overseas coaches.

Australia's biggest problem right now is that we don't have a decent spinner. On top of that, our quicks don't really understand how to bowl reverse-swing properly. If our two finger spinners in Nathan Hauritz and Jason Krejza are the best spinners we can produce, we must look for new spinning coaches because these guys are average at best.

The doosra pioneer is Pakistan's great offspinner, Saqlain Mushtaq. He has taught many budding Pakistani offspinners the art of bowling the doosra. We need to sign him up now and get him to Australia to teach Hauritz and Krejza how to bowl it. And fast! Saqlain taught Saeed Ajmal about three years ago and look what he did to Australia in Dubai on Wednesday.

Peter Roebuck writes in the Sydney Morning Herald that Australia's struggles in 50-over cricket means their squad needs a radical overhaul, beginning with changes for Friday's final ODI in South Africa and then in the UAE against Pakistan.

Of course, the reconstruction will be confused by the inclusion of old stagers desperate to prove their fitness and relevance before the winter parties are chosen. So be it. The selectors were in a pickle. They could not very well choose a 20-over world cup team or an Ashes touring team on a wing and a prayer. Accordingly, they included serious candidates recovering from long-term injuries in their squad for these 50-over contests. Players with the records of Brett Lee, Stuart Clark, Andrew Symonds and even Shane Watson cannot lightly be discarded. Plain and simple, it is a trial run. Once the winter campaigns have been completed, the 50-over team will need to move along towards the 2011 World Cup.

	Will Michael Clarke have safe hands as leader? © Getty Images

Daniel Brettig, writing for AAP, asks whether Michael Clarke can juggle all the leadership tasks when he takes over from the resting Ricky Ponting in the one-day series against Pakistan.

Former England batsman and administrator Doug Insole once defined a cricket captain's duties as those of a "public relations officer, agricultural consultant, psychiatrist, accountant, nursemaid and diplomat". Among a raft of boxes to be ticked during Australia's two-week limited overs joust with Pakistan in the Middle East, the most important is whether or not captain-elect Clarke can perform those duties.

In the absence of Ponting, Clarke will skipper the national side on tour for the first time, and so will be faced with all the occupational hazards and challenges that face a skipper overseas. Having already shown he is maturing into the leader Australian cricket will need beyond Ponting, Clarke is now faced with what amounts to a 14-day job interview.

Australia may not see another decent Test spinner for 15 years because it has forgotten how to raise them, writes the Courier-Mail’s Robert Craddock after speaking to the spin coach Terry Jenner.

When Shane Warne bowled legspinners to motor racing ace Lewis Hamilton in a promotion this week it was enough to moisten the eyes of Australian cricket fans. That's because apart from the Indian Premier League it will be the last time Warne bowls to an Englishman all year. It's been just over two years since he retired and the six spinners chosen in his place have suffered all sorts of physical and psychological damage.

In the Age Richard Hinds looks at the Bryce McGain conundrum. "Is it better to have bowled and been tonked than never to have bowled at all?"

	Bryce McGain has struggled on debut © Getty Images

Greg Buckle, writing for AAP, says fans at Cape Town's Newlands ground have given Bryce McGain, the debutant legspinner, a new nickname and it's not a welcome one - Mick Lewis.

McGain's fellow Victorian infamously took 0 for 113 in the one-day international in Johannesburg three years ago when South Africa scored 9 for 438 to win. Lewis holds the world record for most runs conceded in a one-day innings and McGain's Test debut was shaping up like a similar shocker after Friday's second day of the third Test against South Africa.

In the Australian Mike Coward says Phillip Hughes is not the only cricketing prodigy whose life has been transformed in an instant this summer.

JP Duminy is not the same young man who went to the wicket in Perth three months ago. Known as Jean-Paul to his family and social intimates but JP to his cricketing mates and the game's community, Duminy is being hailed in South Africa much as Hughes is being lauded in Australia.

Malcolm Conn writes in the same paper that Australia’s preparation for the Ashes and Twenty20 World Cup in England will be hampered if the Indian Premier League is cancelled or postponed.

Philip Derriman remembers in the Sydney Morning Herald what it was like to sit beside Bill 'Tiger' O’Reilly, Australia’s former legspinner and journalist, and hear him analyse what was happening in the middle.

O'Reilly had an ability to read the play that left everyone else in the press box for dead. But for an odd quaver in his voice, O'Reilly would probably have done well on TV if he had wanted to. Interpreting the play is the TV commentator's stock-in-trade, although some, like O'Reilly, have a special gift for it.

In the Age Charles Davis looks at how left-handers are prospering in the modern game.

Robert Craddock says in the Courier-Mail that Australia’s victory in South Africa should have solved all of their problems.

But it's simply made them murkier. Australia's stunning series win over South Africa has, in fact, scrambled the pecking order for the Ashes tour party which is now clouded with intrigue.

Does Brett Lee replace Ben Hilfenhaus in the bowling attack? Should Stuart Clark be picked ahead of both of them? Can Bryce McGain be picked with confidence? Is Andrew McDonald worthy of a place as an allrounder?

Peter Roebuck feels Brett Lee will be hard pressed to regain his place in the Australian Test team. Why? Because Lee is 32, he does not scare batsmen, he has less room for manoeuvre than peers with similar track records, he has not bowled a ball at full pelt for arguably an entire year, and in the meantime another generation has risen. So, says Roebuck, the desperation to restore Australia's only experienced pace bowler has diminished. He writes in the Sydney Morning Herald:

Now Lee is trying with might and main to secure a place in the Ashes touring party. It is something he needs in his life, to retain the ready smile. However, recent results confirm he can no longer command a place in the starting XI. It's not easy for a 32-year-old pace bowler to break back into a Test team.

Nor will Lee be able to prove his worth in domestic matches. Injury has removed that opportunity. As if the odds were not already stacked against him, Lee failed with the ball on his last Ashes trip in 2005, taking 20 wickets at 41.10 in the five Tests. Indeed he has never succeeded in England. Presumably the pitches are not firm enough for his purposes.

	Call me Phillip © Getty Images

Will Swanton writes in the Sun-Herald about Phillip Hughes’ name request.

P. Hughes prefers to be called Phillip rather than Phil in print. Originally this seemed a bizarre request given Hughes - unshaven, a fan of shorts and thongs, the son of a banana farmer, vertically challenged, and a country bumpkin to the bone - is about as prim and proper as a stubbie-holder.

"Phillip" carries the outdated formality of a bygone era when players wore pencil-thin moustaches and paraded an almost mystical aura. Given the events of the Kingsmead Test, however, Phillip it is. Certain achievements command respect.

In the Sunday Age Tim Lane says the resurgence of Ricky Ponting's team in South Africa has diverted so dramatically from the script.

After taking Australia to a series win over South Africa, Ricky Ponting has some advice for the country’s business leaders in his column in the Australian. He spotted newspaper references to trouble when it came to the economy and the cricket team, but says his side did not panic.

I kept repeating that we knew we were a team in transition, that we had a plan and that while little things might go wrong in the short term, I knew if we did not do anything silly, we would be back on track very soon.

These are the same principles I reckon business leaders in Australia should be staying true to in these troubled economic times: keep working on your plan, believe in the people around you and, most of all, don't do anything silly when it comes to your leadership activities and beliefs.

In the Age Greg Baum writes a moving story about his trip to Pakistan with the Australian team in 1994.

Peter Roebuck, writing in the Hindu, says Australia's resurgence lies with the decision to gamble on bold youngsters and bowlers prepared to put in a hard day's work.

Ben Laughlin thought he was in trouble when ordered for a chat with Trevor Barsby, the Queensland coach, on Thursday. Not quite, reports Jamie Pandaram in the Sydney Morning Herald. Laughlin learned he was being sent to South Africa with Australia's one-day team.

"I thought, 'Here we go, I'm getting dropped for the Sheffield Shield final ... It was a numbing feeling. I had maybe some slight hope in the back of my mind but there'd be a few jokes among the boys and you wouldn't think about it. This is totally unexpected."

In the same paper Will Swanton says Peter Siddle is heading for the beach with Phillip Hughes after strong performances in the opening two Tests against South Africa.

Both have made names for themselves in South Africa, Hughes for his remarkable batting performances, Siddle for being such a confrontational and successful fast bowler. He's annoyed South African crowds to the point of distraction. The reason? They never knew he was this good.

	The Australians are back on top © AFP

Ron Reed says in the Herald Sun it looks like the start of a new era for Australia after their win over South Africa.

The No. 1 ranking is safe. Rumblings about Ponting's captaincy have dissipated. Gratifyingly for the veteran leader, all of the new and newish faces responded to the faith shown in them, none more, of course, than opening bat Phil Hughes, with his twin centuries.

Peter Roebuck, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, says Australia will be even harder to beat with a spinner and stronger catching.

Even then Ricky Ponting's side cannot be expected to overwhelm opponents in the old way. South Africa have been trounced but did suffer the loss of their captain and both tosses and could not muster the strength of mind needed to contain a reinvigorated visiting side.

There are some heavy heads in Macksville this weekend after Phillip Hughes’ century in the second Test in South Africa. The people from the small town in New South Wales, including Hughes’ parents, celebrated the exploits of their local boy, according to the Sunday Telegraph.

"We are very proud,'' his dad Greg Hughes said. "Just ecstatic. We just watched it at home on the TV. It was pretty exciting for him to get a hundred in his second Test.”

	Michael Hussey hits the nets in Durban © Getty Images

Michael Hussey is having a bad run, but he remains upbeat and enthusiastic, according to Will Swanton in the Sydney Morning Herald.

He's determined, but not too determined, to come good when hostilities against South Africa resume in the second Test on Friday. "I'm trying to go the other way and stay as relaxed as possible," Hussey said when asked if he had analysed the reasons for the first horror run of his Test career. "I had a good look at myself in the series back home against South Africa. I think, in the first two Tests anyway, I was really trying so hard.”

The Australian women’s team starts the defence of the World Cup on Sunday and Amanda Lulham writes in the Daily Telegraph about the new and aggressive outlook.

Long the poor relation to the Australian men's team in terms of support, profile and crowd numbers, the players have set themselves the task of winning over the Australian public by delivering an entertaining mix of aggressive, high-scoring cricket.

Peter Lalor, writing in the Australian, looks at Australia’s blue-singlet, working-class bowling attack.

They are union men who work for each other and back each other up when times are tough. One was a bricklayer from Tasmania, another an axeman from Traralgon and their leader has driven a plumbing supplies van around the building sites of Brisbane. Some are so green they might still be serving their apprenticeship. Each out-bowled the more experienced South African attack and every one of them contributed to a fantastic 162-run win.

	Ricky Ponting © Getty Images

Tim Lane, writing in the Age, says Ricky Ponting is at history's crossroad.

Captains require major achievement for their regimes to be recorded as better than time-marking exercises. Under Allan Border, Australia climbed out of one of its deepest troughs. Mark Taylor took over and led the team to the mountain top. Steve Waugh's team embarked on the road less travelled. Earlier, Ian Chappell and Richie Benaud inspired their own eras. Bradman was Bradman.

In the Test arena, Ponting can scarcely claim better than a pass in five years at the helm. He inherited the leadership at a difficult time but, even taking account of that, his reign has been less than exceptional. A third series defeat inside six months would inevitably have him edging to the wrong side of history's ledger.

	Michael Slater © Getty Images

Philip Derriman, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, asks why is Michael Slater's name included as a possible answer to a quiz question in one of Slumdog Millionaire’s crucial scenes.

Slater's own explanation, according to someone who talked to him about it, is that the filmmakers wanted to include an answer that was obviously wrong - and Slater's name was the one chosen. Why? Maybe because the movie's writer, Simon Beaufoy, who is English and presumably follows cricket, happened to see Slater commentating on a cricket telecast around the time he was working on the screenplay.

In one sense, though, Slater's name was not really out of place, for he was certainly up there with the other three batsmen in terms of natural ability. Because of later setbacks, we tend to forget what a brilliant player the young Slater was.

	Phillip Hughes was gone in 120 seconds © Getty Images

Will Swanton writes in the Sydney Morning Herald about the repercussions of Phillip Hughes’ fourth-ball duck on debut.

The following people were disappointed: Hughes, his parents on their first overseas trip, the team-mates so desperate to see Hughes succeed and the beer drinkers at the pub in Macksville. The reason for the angst in Hughes' home town? Free beer at the local watering hole until his dismissal. The revelry lasted two minutes.

In the same paper Peter Roebuck says Ricky Ponting stood defiant as his new and somewhat conservative side suffered grievous blows on an eventful but thinly attended first day.

Undeterred by the wreckage around him, and assisted mostly by his deputy, the Australian captain produced a stream of fluent strokes as he held the innings together.

The Herald Sun’s Ron Reed is impressed by Michael Clarke, who continues to thumb his nose at the critics.

	Michael Clarke can deal with praise or criticism © Getty Images

Something always seems to happen in Johannesburg, writes Peter Lalor in the Australian, as he looks at the venue for the first Test between Australia and South Africa.

Johannesburg has a reputation as one of the crime capitals of the world, and its famous bullring stadium, the Wanderers, provides no refuge for the timid cricketer. Something always seems to happen here. Good and bad ...

It's a heaving, threatening ground when it's full. The stands rise straight up above the field of play and fans perch above the players. The hill area in front of the low-level dressing rooms provides plenty of opportunity for the locals to say what they think to visitors. Even Steve Waugh says the place is "imposing".

Michael Clarke has his critics, but he tells Will Swanton in the Sydney Morning Herald the comments no longer bug him.

"If I'm praised or if I'm criticised, it's my job to try to keep going," Clarke said. "I'm paid to play cricket for Australia, and I take that seriously.”

In the Age Peter Roebuck writes that in theory the Australians do not have a snowflake's chance in hell of beating South Africa.

Stuart Clark isn’t on the tour, but is keeping busy studying, writes Tom Smithies in the Daily Telegraph.

In the Sydney Morning Herald, Jamie Pandaram reports on the Big Bash Victorian bushfire appeal match at the SCG.

Any match of this nature is fraught with the fears of officials in case a big name is injured, but all the cricketers escaped unscathed, as did all the footballers with big games looming, singers with important gigs to play, surfers with good waves to ride, and a politician with the environment to consider.

There will be fewer Australians in the crowds in South Africa during the Test series, writes Peter Lalor in the Sunday Telegraph.

The sight of a lonely Luke 'Sparrow' Gillian waving the flag alone at Australia's first game in South Africa is an indication of just how bad things are. With Australian cricket. And the economy.

Sparrow has been following his beloved cricket side since the mid-1990s and has seen them play 150 Tests. The founder of Waving the Flag is usually surrounded by hundreds of like-minded fans who have signed up for his budget tours. At the height of Australia's success he had 250 people following the 2004 Tests in India. This week in South Africa, it is Luke and Luke alone.

In the Sunday Age David Hussey, the Australia one-day international, writes about the Victorian bushfires and how they have affected people.

Richie Benaud has confirmed he will step down as a commentator in 2010 and Gideon Haigh writes in the Australian that the idea of cricket without him seems unthinkable.

But so did the idea of cricket without Arlott or Alan McGilvray, and the game marched on. This way, too, Benaud gets in ahead of the questioners, of whom some had begun gathering. The pithy Rodney Hogg recently compared Benaud with a 1960s LP "that you can't play any more because it has a scratch on it".

Instead, there is time for the composition of suitably expansive tributes. When Benaud signed off in England for the last time, at The Oval in 2005, players and spectators turned as one towards the commentary position to give him a standing ovation. The Nine Network is normally a little more sentimental and bathetic, although for Benaud it might make an exception: he has been a centre of gravity rather than a centre of levity.

Benaud tells AAP he is surprised by all the fuss created after his decision while Steve Crawley, Channel Nine’s head of sport, opens up in the Daily Telegraph about the life of Richie.

Peter Lalor, writing in the Australian, looks at the offspinner Nathan Hauritz, the Steven Bradbury of Australian cricket.

In 2004, he was twiddling his thumbs in the Australian tour party when Shane Warne broke a thumb and Stuart MacGill was too far away to make it for the Mumbai Test. Hauritz was ushered in for an unexpected debut.

When Warne resigned, Hauritz had only distant memories of the ball that got Sachin Tendulkar sweeping and the other that got VVS Laxman caught and bowled, not to mention the wicket of spinning guru Anil Kumble in his first over under a baggy green. The 27-year-old was a long, long way behind the pack of successors when selectors looked for a replacement.

Brad Haddin talks to Will Swanton in the Age about breaking his finger in his first Test while Peter Roebuck speaks to the coaching mentor of Michael Clarke and Phillip Hughes for the Sydney Morning Herald.

There’s a bushfire charity match in Sydney on Sunday and Steve Waugh will be leading one of the teams. In the Herald Maria Tsialis goes over Waugh’s close brushes with fire.

	Peter Siddle gets comfortable © Getty Images

Peter Siddle's mates still find it hard to believe their friend gets to have lunch with Ricky Ponting and all those other high falutin' Test stars. Peter Siddle himself still finds it hard to believe, writes Peter Lalor in the Australian.

Siddle says he is growing more comfortable with each passing Test and if his form-line continues his mates will find it hard to believe they have lunch with him. The hard-toiling quick debuted in India, impressing everybody with his ability to run in and bowl a good, honest line and impressive pace.

Back home things started to come a little undone in the first Test against South Africa in Perth. He couldn't get the breakthrough the side needed and he started to bleed runs. Siddle began to look out of his depth; worse, he began to believe he was.

Imran Tahir, the Pakistan-born legspinner, is about to qualify for South Africa and could face a challenging debut against Australia in the one-day series in April. Will Swanton spoke to Mickey Arthur, the South Africa coach, about him for the Sydney Morning Herald.

Robert Craddock says a summer without Richie Benaud is like Melbourne Cup day without a glass of champagne, or Christmas day without presents. With Benaud announcing he will step down in 2010, Craddock writes a tribute in the Daily Telegraph.

He loves cricket so much that the day he retires from it at the end of next season he will be just eight months short of his 80th birthday. Few people last as long in any profession.

In the same paper Andrew Webster tells of the shrewdest piece of advice Benaud received as a television commentator. "Don't speak unless you can add to the picture on the viewer's screen."

Darren Pattinson’s journey over the past year has gone from England Test bowler to Victorian club player. Jesse Hogan reports in the Age how he wants to prove he’s not a one-Test wonder, and is closing on state selection.

Pattinson hopes his return to first-class cricket will give him the opportunity to impress once again, so stories about his performances do not always hang on that Test against South Africa. "I don't want to be known as the bloke who played one Test … I don't want to be a guy that gets forgotten about."

The rise and fall of Mark Cosgrove shows that Australia's scattergun approach to selection can do emerging players more harm than good, writes Robert Craddock in the Courier-Mail.

This has been the summer of the cheap cap. Allrounder Moises Henriques was chosen for Australia's Twenty20 side last night despite having done nothing for NSW this summer. Adam Voges got a recent one-day call-up when he was one bad match away from being sacked by Western Australia. Shaun Marsh has been fast-tracked into the Australian one-day side despite averaging 34 over eight years as a first-class player.

Luke Ronchi got four one-day internationals last year but now has been dropped to district cricket because he can't fire for WA. Dave Warner still hasn't played a four-day game for NSW despite being rushed into the Australian one-day side and bats like Tarzan on some days and Jane on others.

The obsession with finding the next big thing has prompted Australia to adopt a scattergun policy at the selection table and history tells us that scatterguns rarely work. Which brings us back to Cosgrove, the big fellow who scored a century against Queensland in the Sheffield Shield match at Adelaide on the weekend and is suddenly back in favour after a painful demotion from his state team. Cosgrove is one of the most interesting cricketers of the modern era because he is so different. So - er, how do we say it - fat.

In the Age, Will Swanton looks at what the coming tour of South Africa means for Phillip Hughes.

Ricky Ponting heads to South Africa on Monday and writes in his column in the Australian about how times have changed.

David Sygall writes in the Sun-Herald about how David Warner got his chance to star during Australia’s limited-overs campaigns this season.

Some time after today's final match of Australia's international season at home, David Warner will buy Dominic Thornely a drink. He might also say to his NSW captain words to the effect of: “Thanks Mate. You changed my life."

Thornely will be watching today's Twenty20 match between Australia and New Zealand satisfied in the knowledge that his and Brad Haddin's insistence that Warner open the batting in New South Wales' one-dayers earlier this season presented him with the opportunity to make his name.

In the Sunday Telegraph Kerry O’Keefe, the former Test legspinner, makes some predictions for the Ashes.

	Mark Taylor was a breath of fresh air compared with grumpy old Border and the ruthless Steve Waugh. © Getty Images

In his Line and Length blog on the Times website, Patrick Kidd resumes the Ashes Heroes series. This week he takes at look at former Australia captain Mark Taylor.

He was a breath of fresh air compared with grumpy old Border and the ruthless Steve Waugh. Even now, when I listen to Taylor's commentary, he always sounds as if he has a smile on his face, a man who genuinely loves cricket and sees it as a game, rather than warfare. Yet when he was on form (and it came and went) he was one of the world's best batsmen. Not a bad slip catcher, either.

The memory I most associate with Taylor is his very public battle with bad form in 1997 and how he came through it. He had been in the Test side for eight years and become Australia's most reliable Test opener since Bill Lawry, but he was on the verge of losing his place in the one-day side because of a lack of runs (he dropped himself for the last match of the ODI series in England) and was similarly struggling in Test cricket.

	Mitchell Johnson's girlfriend provides glamour and glitz at the Allan Border Medal © Getty Images

Robert Craddock looks at whether wives and girlfriends will be travelling with the Australian team for the Ashes. In his column in the Courier-Mail he also writes about how the exposure of the WAGs increases when the side struggles.

When you are winning no one cares. When you lose everything bar your aftershave gets heavily scrutinised. You sweat over every decision and one of those sounds small but it's a big decision coming up soon – how much access will Australia give players' wives on this year's Ashes tour? It is the most delicate of issues because there was a major catfight on the 2005 Ashes tour which destabilised the side, not simply for the tour but the year after it.

Craddock writes that the squad environment has changed over the past year.

Australia have chosen 15 different Test teams in a row. Players are on edge and so are their wives. Insecurity is rampant. The new age cricketing wife or girlfriend tends to be a brassy sort of gal who can't wait to tell the Allan Border Medal interviewer who designed her dress and her hanky – both of which happened to be the same size.

South Africa coach Mickey Arthur, in his column on cricketnirvana.com, says Australia will never be able to match their dominance of the past decade.

They revolutionised the way cricketers trained and were coached in the early 1990s and then enjoyed the unprecedented arrival of three or four 'once in a generation' players - at the same time! But the game has changed forever now and, with three different formats and an international schedule packed to bursting point, I can't see any country being as dominant as Australia were. Although that should not, and will not prevent any of us from striving to achieve world domination!

David Hussey writes in his Sunday Age column about the past two weeks in Australia’s faltering one-day side.

The blowtorch has been on the team after some poor performances against South Africa and New Zealand and, as a "new" player, the expectation to perform has been intensified. I don't really get affected by outside pressure. My focus has been on proving to my team-mates and the coaching staff that I can be consistent at this level.

Phillip Hughes has been called into Australia’s Test squad for the South Africa trip and the Sun-Herald’s David Sygall spoke to him on the day his selection was revealed.

While Hughes may look very organised at the crease, he's a little less organised off the field and had lost his phone a fortnight earlier - not an uncommon occurrence for him. His new phone had few numbers in it, so he was left wondering who all these people [congratulating him] were.

The Australian’s Peter Lalor gives a blow-by-blow account of the incident between Michael Clarke and Simon Katich after the final day of the SCG Test.

Captain Ricky Ponting doesn't insist on too much from his charges, but he insists they celebrate a win and Australia's win over South Africa was a big thing. It had been a tough summer, the team had already lost the series and it had been a great Test that had gone down to the wire.

It was about five hours after the game finished and Clarke wanted to go. The older members of the team weren't ready to pack up just yet and the rule is that nobody can go until the team song is sung by its custodian. Things were heating up and about to get heated.

In the Sydney Morning Herald Peter Roebuck looks at Clarke’s 98 at the MCG on Friday along with the culture of dressing rooms.

Male sportsmen relish sitting in the rooms as night falls across an empty ground, sipping beer, exchanging yarns. It is their secret place and it has its own rituals. But exhaustion and alcohol are potent partners. Maybe the problem these days is that players are too tightly strung, and drink for the wrong purpose. Of course, the other problem has been the lack of maturity in the rooms since the departure of John Buchanan.

Will Swanton says in the same paper Clarke will be the next Test captain, but has some other questions over the scuffle.

All things considered, Australia have chosen a handy team to tour South Africa. Quibbles can be held about one or two of the minor positions, but overall the squad is as strong as circumstances permit, writes Peter Roebuck in the Witness.

To a fault, Ricky Ponting defended the old guard, but repeated setbacks reduced his influence and now the selectors have produced a bolder side lacking power but containing plenty of energy and spirit. Simon Katich and Phil Hughes will open the batting. Last week, I watched Hughes score 151 and 82 not out in the last Shield match before selection. Clearly he is not scared of the spotlight. A small, sturdy left-hander hungry for runs, Hughes has a homespun technique reliant on eye and hands.

	Phillip Hughes, the 20-year-old from New South Wales, is heading for South Africa © Getty Images

Phillip Hughes is one of the new faces in Australia’s squad for the South Africa Test trip, but Stuart Honeysett reports in the Australian that Hughes was a slow starter when it came to cricket.

When he was eight the only threats he wanted to face were his father and his older brother Jason in the backyard at home. "My brother Jason was two years older than me and he played Kanga cricket and I was in the backyard one day and they just kept pestering me," Hughes said. "They were going, 'Are you going to have a game?' and I said, 'No, no, I don't want to.'”

Peter Roebuck says in the Sydney Morning Herald Australia have picked a “bold and promising” touring party.

Bryce McGain, who is in line for a Test debut, has a nine-year boy and the pair “shared a pretty good moment” when he revealed his selection. Jesse Hogan writes about McGain in the Age.

In the Daily Telegraph Paul Kent looks at Michael Clarke’s desire for the Test captaincy and his dressing-room incident with Simon Katich after the Sydney Test.

	Should this photo be called The Night of the Vanishing Stars, or The Mountain Top? © AFP

Robert Craddock writes in the Daily Telegraph about how the mighty Australia have not fallen, but disappeared.

Australia's cricketing landscape has been devastated since its grand win in the 2007 World Cup final against Sri Lanka in Barbados - just 21 months ago. There are six survivors to play New Zealand at the MCG on Friday night.

A photo snapped just after the 2007 match shows the Australian side in all of its celebratory glory. If it was a painting by a famous artist it might have been called The Night of the Vanishing Stars, or simply The Mountain Top - because, for Australian cricket, life has never been as good since that moment.

There are nearly 80 one-day games between now and t