There was a time when broadcasters had to be up to scratch in terms of certain basic requirements, especially when it came to having high-class commentators. But now, sadly, there are quite a few misfits writes David Frith in the Indian newspaper DNA.

It’s one of the great sadness of our time that starry-eyed producers have an obsession for employing men (at a rumoured salary of £600,000 per year for some of the Sky commentators), who once played international cricket, as if this achievement alone guarantees not only a suitable voice for long-term broadcasting but a good grasp of the language too. Occasionally, this is achieved.

On the CNN-IBN website Gaurav Kalra criticises the BCCI for dismissing concerns over its contracts with leading commentators Ravi Shastri and Sunil Gavaskar as "frivolous and trivial."

Imagine a senior reporter is discovered to be on the pay roll of the Congress Party. When confronted by the editor in chief the reporter argues he is under no compulsion to toe the official party line. A Congress party spokesperson concedes the contract exists but says when this reporter speaks it is "purely his opinion". With that knowledge in the public domain can the reporter continue to hold the trust of the viewer? Does his position in the organisation not become untenable? Why else was he on the pay roll unless it was to make the Congress Party's case? Where is the return on investment if what he spoke was "purely his opinion"?

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

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

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

In DNA, Avirook Sen bemoans the state of commentary in India, and in particular criticises the work of Sunil Gavaskar and Navjot Sidhu.

... there is something in Gavsakar’s commentary that is below banal. This is his preoccupation with personal achievement — and survival.

At times, this is merely petty: you will always find Gavaskar thinking on the batsman’s behalf when he is approaching a landmark. His assumption is almost unfailingly this: the guy will slow down to achieve the milestone, no matter what the state of the game.

At times, it gets plain ridiculous. Like his theory of “conserving energy” which is his advocacy of being less active on a cricket field. (Ian Chappell had a really good laugh about this one time.)

Suresh Menon, writing in DNA, says that while on-field innovations abound in modern cricket, the minds of the commentators have remained static. Indian commentators, he says, are probably inclined to clichés in an attempt to not rock the boat.

New strokes have been added to the game, new strategies abound, but the minds of those who provide the words to the pictures brought to millions of homes have, sadly, remained static.

Sunil Gavaskar tries to be funny, but doesn’t always carry it off, mainly because I suspect his employers do not believe in it … he is stymied by the first law of Indian broadcasting: keep serious and repeat the scores, that’s your job.

In a scathing indictment of the cricket media in India, Peter Roebuck writes in the Outlook that individual glorification and jingoism have blinded the bulk of the media to what should be its chief job, being the eyes and ears of the nation.

At such times, the only hope lies with the newspapers. As far as cricket is concerned, though, they too are rapidly losing ground. Capable and intrepid reporters continue to uncover stories and publish hard truths. That is the stuff of journalism. Left to their own devices, they could provide a sound critique of Indian cricket. But, unfortunately, they are not. Instead, they are undermined by a board that doesn’t feel the need to hire a media manager, disdained by a captain who didn’t feel obliged to attend a press conference after the Mohali Test, overwhelmed by the sound and fury and hemmed in by experts.

At a time when cricket commentary has degenerated into loud and cliched utterances set to the monotonous frenzy of Twenty20 cricket, Jonathan Agnew of Test Match Special looks back at the magical era of his predecessor as BBC's cricket correspondent - Brian Johnston. Andrew Pettie of the Telegraph catches up with Agnew, whose tribute to Johnston - Thanks, Johnners - is now for sale.

Johnston was describing a curious dismissal in which Ian Botham’s inner thigh had brushed his stumps, dislodging a bail. ‘He just didn’t quite get his leg over,’ chipped in Agnew mischievously. Cue Johnston, a lover of schoolboy innuendo to rival Frankie Howerd, erupting in a Krakatoa of snorts, whimpers, sneezes and, finally, uncontrollable laughter. Listeners were similarly afflicted; motorists had to pull on to the hard shoulder to wipe away the tears.

The ‘Leg Over’ has since become a commentary classic. But, at the time, Johnston was aghast. ‘He thought he’d been unprofessional,’ says Agnew. ‘It was only the next day when we listened to it that we realised it was very funny.’

In the Observer, Rob Bagchi reviews Test Match Special's anthology of its "30" best selected interviews.

The unifying theme is each subject's passion for cricket, which is teased out by the interviewing team, captained at first by Brian Johnston before Jonathan Agnew took up the mantle, with introductory questions that allow the guest to get off the mark with ease. It is exactly what you would expect from a show with that cosy, hypnotic quality that has made it such a cherished institution. The majority are conducted with impeccable manners, featuring anecdotes aplenty about on-field diversions from various excursions with the Taverners and Bunburys.

This past week, Geoffrey Boycott was heard swearing by listeners when he believed he was off-air. The BBC has since apologised to radio listeners for a foul-mouthed outburst from the former England batsman and current sports commentator during its cricket coverage. Writing in the Guardian, Mike Selvey believes the pundit's candid thoughts on radio have shown broadcasters must never be off their guard.

The thing about Geoffrey is that wherever he is he likes to be heard and that includes the background. The last summarising session I did on TMS was to the noise, through the headphones and likewise then to the listeners, of him apparently solving world peace, and climate change. Geoffrey tends to make his own rules these days. The TMS box has always been a lively place to be off-air but by and large, except when Blofeld's Rhinestone Cowboy ringtone got an airing, the then producer Peter Baxter managed to keep a lid on it.

Mark Nicholas, a centaur with an excellent tailor and magnificent mane? Well yes, thats what Robin Scott-Elliot in the Independent believes, heralding the return of Nicholas to the commentary booth ahead of a busy English summer. Hurrah the most conscientious groom known to man, or horse.

Five's show pony is back home after a winter of globetrotting and our screens are happier for it, for this is one of the great love stories – Nicholas and the camera, the camera and Nicholas. He loves it and boy, oh boy, does it love him, to borrow from his parlance. Have you ever seen a camera swoon?

Paul Hayward in his Observer blog fears that Test Match Special could be threatened by Radio 5. The suspicion has been that Radio Mate wants to eat away at Radio Old Chum, a mission to dump 5 Live's tone on a commentary box that used to be synonymous with Brian Johnston and his cakes. Thankfully there's still Phil Tufnell.

Great cricket commentating, as in all sports, describes what is happening and allows your imagination to do the rest. It respects your intelligence. It does not bombard you with all the voices in the ground. The promise it makes is to assist your love of the game and cast light on that which a) you can't see or b) don't fully understand.

These are the virtues that TMS embodies, as Tufnell himself acknowledges by turning down the dial of his laddishness. The good news is that the old guard, minus the scandalously discarded Mike Selvey, have all been signed up for this summer's Ashes. Even the trendies know not to mess with that.

Australia lost a Test match they could not have lost, prompting the question - Is this the beginning of the end of the world's number one team (or maybe even the middle portion of the end, after the 0-2 defeat against India)? asks Suresh Menon in his column on ESPNStar.

The signs of Australia's decline have been around for a while now. Perhaps ever since India toured there last. Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne were bound to be missed, but the world champions were carried forward by the sheer momentum of their victories in the past. Over a longer period, the weaknesses become more obvious, the gaps more exaggerated. This is certainly a team in decline, and captains who seem totally in control when things are going right, suddenly appear indecisive and bereft of ideas when things go wrong. You can see this with Ricky Ponting, now beginning to look more like George W Bush than ever.

Also on ESPNStar, Arvind Iyengar looks at the parallels between the historic run-chases in Chennai and Perth.

Cricketers can forget about quiet drinks and expect to be pestered and provoked by a variety of irritating people wherever they go. It is an inevitable consequence of cricket's increasing profile and profits, writes Andy Bull in the Guardian.

Sadly, modern cricketers will need to be PR savvy as well as professional. As with Premier League footballers, well-paid cricketers will find that every molehill of a misdemeanour is a potential mountain. The ramifications of Symonds' bust-up are no longer just a sore head and a short suspension; players now have responsibilities to their sponsors and the brands they represent. Whether they like it or not, they will have to alter their public behaviour to avoid being mired in scandal. From now on, Boon's beer record could be as untouchable as the Don's batting average.

The rise of internet coverage may provoke sport's biggest transformation since the expansion of the railways in the 1800s, writes David Hopps in the Observer.

But India's influence might not stop at cricket. It could conceivably become a major battleground between sports bodies who increasingly want to maximise commercial revenue from their matches - as well as to have the disturbing ability to sanitise coverage - and traditional media outlets who believe that independent coverage is under threat.

If any sporting body can be the catalyst for change, recent history suggests it could be the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). If bcci.tv, which was launched ahead of the India-Australia Test series six weeks ago to a lukewarm response, makes an impact, then rest assured that English football's Premier League, for one, will be among many official bodies who take note.

The fortnight we are amid features an enormously important cricket match. At the risk of sounding oracular, we don't know which one, writes Gideon Haigh in the Guardian. It could be the Test that finished last week in Mohali, where not just the wheels but the axles, transmission and beverage holders fell off Australia. Or it could be the climax on Saturday of the Stanford Super Series, where every misfield will have an impact on the Antiguan balance of payments. It will not, however, be both.

So far, the response of administrators has been to recite cliches from long-ago commerce and business degrees. Cricket, they insist, is splendidly positioned, with all these interesting varieties, each appealing to a different demographic. Because, you see, transport companies that prospered a century ago spread their investment evenly between automobiles, landaus and velocipedes, while the airlines that did well 50 years ago maintained an interest in Montgolfier balloons and Bleriot monoplanes as well as jumbo jets. Well, now you put it that way ...

Economies across the globe are not the only things going up in smoke; the stench of burning is coming from the world of cricket too, writes Bobilli Vijay Kumar in the Times of India.

The danger signs reverberated from Mohali a week ago even as India were thumping Australia. In a country that eats, drinks and burps cricket it was almost surreal to see empty stands through the Test match. Maybe it was just an aberration, a pre-Diwali quirk. But then Bangalore wasn’t bustling either; if Delhi and Nagpur don’t buoy the spirits, we can officially declare a crisis. If the crowds come back for the Champions League (there is no doubt they will for the Indian Premier League), we can all but kiss those whites goodbye.

Watching an international at most of our venues is a painful exercise. The average spectator must prepare himself for a day of torture, both mental and physical, and it is a wonder he keeps returning. Soon, fed up with the poor facilities and bad treatment, he might not. Perhaps that time is now - it was embarrassing to see the empty stands while Sachin Tendulkar went past what he considers the most significant world record of his career," writes Suresh Menon on Dreamcricket.

Olympics and cricket do eventually seem destined to meet, argues Saad Shafqat in Dawn.

Preceding the arrival of Twenty20 cricket has been the explosive rise in cricket’s mass following. Although only a handful of countries play international cricket, the huge populations of South Asian countries — which are among the most devoted cricket strongholds — have given it prominence on the world stage. In his book Corner of a Foreign Field noted author Ramachandra Guha observes that whenever Wasim Akram bowled to Sachin Tendulkar, you could be sure that the collective television audience exceeded the population of Europe. The eccentric cousin, in other words, can no longer be ignored ... The challenge now is to satisfy the requirements of the International Olympic Committee and wait your place in the queue. In December 2007, the IOC finally recognised cricket as a sport, bringing an end — at least officially if not actually — to the upturned nose attitude that Olympics devotees have long maintained towards cricket.

	The Elliott-Sidebottom collision at The Oval © AFP

With millions on offer, winning at all costs has become de rigour. Richard Boock, in the Sunday Star Times illustrates that point with the controversial run-out of Grant Elliott at The Oval, an incident where New Zealand were entitled to be furious. And we should prepare ourselves to witness more such ugly scenes.

Collingwood might have apologised for his antics in London last week but the mere fact he didn't immediately appreciate the correct course of action speaks volumes. Clearly, in his book, the end justifies the means. There is no such thing as honour, much less dignity.

The more money being ladled into the game, the less principled the contestants appear to become. The old saying about some people knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing has never seemed so accurate.

	But what Saturday's match showed vividly was that the longer form of one-day cricket, although by nature restricted compared with Test cricket, still gives allowance for the true fluctuations of a real match © Getty Images

Two contrasting limited-overs matches this week have caused me to rethink and wonder whether, in terms of the entertainment being offered (forget the dosh for a moment, if you can), Twenty20, cricket's zeitgeist, is being hyped beyond its unquestionable worth, and that by contrast 50-overs-per-side ODI cricket is being written off prematurely as a relatively unattractive option," writes Mike Selvey in the Guardian.

Then came Saturday's riveting international at Bristol. For a while, as the Black Caps scrabbled to get a grip on things, it looked like being a replica of the midweek domestic non-event. But they rallied, played with purpose, got a workable total, and in turn made England struggle, running out worthy winners. Some commentators, more attuned to biff, bang and wallop apparently, declared this a grinding bore. To me, it was a match of ebb and flow, in helpful bowling conditions for a change, and thoroughly absorbing, I would have thought, for anyone interested in cricket beyond a very superficial level. Certainly it didn't look as if the ground had emptied as Paul Collingwood dug deep to try and haul his side over the line.

From games of Twisti-Twosti to scraps of tarpaulin, Lawrence Booth lists six moments of invention that really changed the sport.

1) The googly

2) Bodyline

See the full list in the Guardian.

	Harsha Bhogle: 'Maybe it is the shape of things to come, maybe the new ‘V’ will be behind the wicket rather than in front of it' © Getty Images

"Sachin Tendulkar throws up a couple of extremely valid points in his interview to The Hindu a couple of days ago. And, as he often does with the bat, surprises us with a third," writes Harsha Bhogle in the Indian Express.

He thought Australia went on the defensive very quickly and points out how a deep point appeared almost inevitably after an aggressive shot. There was a hint of that during the Ashes series as well and it raises an interesting issue about teams like Australia that win, if not all, at least most of the time. Just as teams that don’t win often enough find themselves lost when victory is sighted, teams that win all the time can find themselves searching for ideas when a relatively new situation presents itself. It has long been my view that Australia are awesome when they are front runners, a great and often elusive quality in itself, but get a bit confused when they fall behind.

	Testing times for David Morgan © Getty Images

"Now, however, 99 years after patrician administrators from England, Australia and South Africa first established the Imperial Cricket Conference, it is legitimate to ask whether the ICC can maintain a relevant role in the game," writes Paul Kelso in the Guardian.

Next Monday the ICC board will gather in Dubai for a meeting that represents a genuine fork in the road. The formal agenda looks as sterile as the air-conditioned tower block from which cricket is now notionally ruled, but the issues could not be more incendiary. Zimbabwe, the future of the World Cup, the international calendar, the Indian Twenty20 leagues and the appointment of a new chief executive are all due to be discussed. After a decade of mismanagement, amid unprecedented commercial and political pressures and with its members increasingly placing narrow self-interest over the collective good, we are about to discover whether the ICC is still capable of governing the game.

"India have been assigned the task of rejuvenating an alarmingly forgettable cricket season. Nothing less than a stirring performance from the visitors can atone for the numerous setbacks the game has suffered as it lurches towards triviality," writes Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Despite their last-minute appearance and the recent rains, India could put up a fight. Certainly the team has sound leadership. Anil Kumble is a calm captain capable of commanding loyalty from his contemporaries and respect from the youngsters. Australia crushes the anonymous and fraudulent. But none of the Indians are burdened with a weak mind. Most of the team are larger than life and have proud records and high expectations. They will not be easily cut down to size or beaten before a ball has been bowled.

"Three key points of aggression in sport are: is it instinctive or conditioned? How closely related are instances of on-field aggression and crowd violence? And at what rate is aggression fed back into the system, with kids mimicking their heroes? These questions need to be addressed. They concern sport’s premise, they shape its future", writes S Ram Mahesh in the Sportstar.

Writing in cricketnext.com, Dr Narottam Puri laments the decline of radio cricket commentary in India and hopes private players would enter the market to shake things up.

The job of a commentator on radio is to transport the listener to the playing field. What is required is the ability to paint a picture, through your words, of the playing field, the weather, the crowd and above all of the play, so that the listener is transported to wherever the action is.

'Cricket and baseball, have inherited paths of development that has been entrenched in the political economies, where they have thrived," says Srinivasan Ramani in the Post.

Globalisation and the transfer of momentum into the emerging liberalised economies of the colonies is changing the nature of cricket now. From being a sport that was used to buttress nationalism, it is now taking the American professional route, a market-oriented one.

... Conversely, the re-emergence of nationalism in countries such as Japan has brought new trends in baseball. Japanese professional baseball players, many of whom are stars earning their bread in the MLB in America, were successful in winning the inaugural World Baseball Classic in 2006

The countdown has begun in the Times. There are two players who never played Test cricket and of course, the usual suspects.

Himalmag finds out.

Boria Mazumdar believes cricket has transformed India, as much as India has transformed the sport.

Cricket today provides India a feel-good space, where nearly all differences can be overcome. The assertion of an Indian ‘identity’, the expression of cultural nationalism or the feeling of a common emotion – these are no longer confined to the stadium and post-match activities. For instance, a poll conducted a few years back found that more than 50 percent of India’s youth would prefer to live in another country. However, as journalist Sandipan Deb has observed: “Even when they do go away to some other country, they have a live cricket scorecard open surreptitiously on their computer monitors throughout their working day, and they turn out in daunting numbers at the stadium whenever India’s playing in their adopted country.” The global Indian wants simultaneously to escape his country and to embrace it. Clearly, cricket is no longer a mere ‘national’ obsession.

Michael Roberts looks at the ceylonese origins of cricket in Sri Lanka.

Amber Rahim Shamsi writes on the journey of women's cricket in Pakistan.

Sport may be trivial, however it doesn't mean we have to trivialise people's names, be it Mudhsuden or Sonny, Femi or Muhammad, writes Fazeer Mohammed in The Trinidad Express.

As someone obsessed with maintaining an audience, the occasional appearance of this column on Cricinfo, the world's most popular cricket website, has served to further inflate an already disproportionately large ego.

I was taken aback, though, to see a minor alteration to Monday's piece which focused on the excellent rearguard by the West Indies batsmen on the fourth day of the third Test in Manchester. In highlighting the threat posed by England's specialist spinner, I deliberately referred to him by his proper name, Mudhsuden Panesar (it's actually Mudhsuden Singh Panesar), only for the web editor to replace that first name with the one that he is universally known by, "Monty".

	Where have all the fast bowlers gone? © Getty Images

One of the alarming features in world cricket is the lack of cutting-edge bowlers. The current Test at Headingley is a prime example with West Indies' pacemen hovering around the 80-mph mark and being thrashed at four-an-over. England have had to trawl the county scene for fit bowlers while most of the world's best fast bowlers are suffering injuries due to the amount they play. In The Sunday Telegraph, Scyld Berry delves into the problem and says ICC must take note otherwise the game is in major trouble.

Bowlers around the world - and not just in the West Indies and Bangladesh - are endangered, and the feebleness of the West Indian batting yesterday did not invalidate the point. One look at the ICC Test rankings should have been sufficient to tell the CEO as much.

However, England's plucking of Ryan Sidebottom out of county cricket for his second Test has proved a wise move. Steve James says it was an outstanding performance six years after his debut.

Yes, he has been consistent in county cricket, with an exceptional economy rate, but the worry was that he still could not swing the ball into the right-hander, as the most dangerous left-arm seamers and swingers always do.

"I'm going to bet that Shane Watson hadn't learnt how to get down on one knee and scoop-heave a yorker-length ball over the fine leg boundary for a six in that young cricketer's technical bible, Don Bradman's The Art of Cricket," says Aakash Chopra in The Hindustan Times who feels that the increasingly unorthodox shots in one-day cricket are going to become the norm.

Worrying news for fans of BBC's Test Match Special, according to Michael Henderson in The Guardian. Apparently the BBC are looking to 'drag it into the 21st century', which could be bad news for Blowers and co. Sad tidings indeed.

Notwithstanding the somewhat surprising level of support that is being lent to the Pakistan Cricket Board, over its decision to ban Mohammad Asif for a year, it is a monumentally foolish act, one that reflects an alarming level of ineptitude, writes Kamal A Munir in the Dawn Magazine.

Mohammad Asif is not the exception. He is the rule in Pakistan. This is a country where every medicine is available without prescription. This is a country where it is routine to have medicines administered by your friends rather than a doctor. This is also a country ruled by a military dictator who has flouted every line of the country's constitution.

Over the past few decades, cricket has had its skirmishes with drug problems, but generally, when placed alongside the issue in many other sports, they have been small ripples, writes Mike Selvey in The Guardian.

The cases of Shoaib and Asif are different, with more serious implications as this is the first time players have produced positive tests for steroids, and in so doing it suggests a parable for our times. While on the one hand the ICC condemns drug use and encourages full cooperation by all its members with the demands of the World Anti-Doping Agency, it has made a rod for its back by increasing the physical and mental demands its schedules are placing on players.

Writing in supercricket.co.za Neil Manthorp feels that in its efforts to maximise the value of all its 'rights', the ICC may well be forgetting the most basic and important rights of all. Human rights.

ICC should be very careful how far they take the process of signing sponsors. They are currently in the process of renegotiating their rights deal with brokers GCC and I have heard talk that the last number, which was US$550 million, could be nearly doubled for the period between the 2007 World Cup and the one in 2015. The deal will be the most 'inclusive' in sports history, which means that everything the players eat, drink and think will be sponsored or provided by an 'official supplier'. There was even talk, at one stage, of players being required to dress in 'official' casual clothing in their spare time between games during ICC tournaments. At what stage does a player belong to himself? Quite apart from the fact that he may have a personal endorsement with Levis, why should he be forced to wear another brand of jeans?

Thank goodness Inzamam has been properly called to account for his intemperate conduct at The Oval, writes Peter Roebuck in The Hindu. Admittedly his team, and he seemed to think his entire nation had fallen foul of an untimely accusation made by a headstrong umpire.

Thank goodness Dean Jones has been allowed back into the commentary box. Certainly he deserved to be censured for his silly gag, but there was no need to send him permanently into the long dark night. His employers were right to teach him a lesson and then call him back.

	© The Daily Telegraph

The BBC’s veteran Pat Murphy accused Sky of having “power without responsibility" for the way they presented and commented on the footage of Shoaib Akhtar working on the ball.

And Derek Pringle in The Daily Telegraph was equally critical:

“In a mischievous piece of commentary, Sky failed to draw their own conclusions, leaving it for viewers to email in their thoughts. Nasser Hussain's trenchant thoughts after England's innings — that Shoaib, was "very silly to do it in the current climate" as it would be "all over the morning paper" — was ironic given Sky's instigative role.”

Pringle also noted:

“The pictures, shown in slow motion, mostly looked innocent (you are allowed to clean the ball under the umpire's supervision). Yet when a bowler uses his thumb to lightly pick at something out of their line of sight, there is always room for other interpretations especially when you've been punished for ball-tampering before, as Shoaib was in 2003.”

In The Guardian, David Hopps wrote:

“Anyone who contends that the pictures shown constitute evidence of ball-tampering would find identical incidents taking place every day that first-class cricket is played. The nub of Pakistan resentment is less that they are being accused of cheating than that they are the ones who are being singled out.”

Richard Hobson in The Times said that: “the sequence was suspicious but inconclusive, because at no stage was it certain that his nail dug into the ball.”

You can see a video of the incident at The Corridor

Forget the bomb, the perceived threat to security and the kith and kin concerned for their husbands, fathers and brothers. Elmo Rodrigopulle in The Daily News tells us why he thinks South Africa were unjustified in pulling out of the Untitech Cup and what he feels were the real reasons behind the departure.

One cannot understand the South Africans indecent hurry to skip the tournament, considering the fact the Interim Committee, even bent backwards to promise them the best of security.

Osman Samiuddin, Cricinfo's Pakistan editor, offers a different point of view.

Any criticism of South Africa's decision should also be tempered, to an extent, by the understanding that safety is a very personal concept. They are not used to such incidents on as regular a scale and thus likely to react differently.

Martin Crowe had much to say about ICC's '15-degree bend' and a lot more during the annual Cowdrey lecture. In The Guardian Mike Selvey didn't agree with some of the finer points of the discourse but tells of an intriguing conversation between Crowe and Rameez Raja about New Zealand's tour of Pakistan in 1990-91.

Crowe had a fine series personally but remembers, during his century in the second Test in Lahore, a game played on a green top with a lush outfield, picking up the ball and noticing chunks removed from one side. In that innings Waqar Younis took 7 for 86 and Wasim Akram, he said, was unplayable. "It was the first we really saw of reverse swing. They said it had roughed up on the outfield." Next Test, Crowe recounted, they decided that they too should have some of this. So they took bottle tops on to the field with them, the better to gouge the ball. Pakistan were blown away, bowled out for 102 by a medium-pacer called Chris Pringle, who took 7 for 52. A dozen wickets in the game for Waqar meant that the Kiwis lost that match, too, but at least they felt there had been some equality.

We seem to be living in an era of stalemates - no better example than the first three Tests in the West Indies. Peter Roebuck joins Brian Lara's plea for faster pitches to protect an endangered species known as fast bowlers. Watching an inept batsman against the moving ball doesn't seem to be the most ideal form of entertainment nowadays. Blame it on television. Read the full piece in The Hindu.

Alas an eagerly awaited confrontation in the Caribbean has been reduced to a standstill by the lifelessness of the pitches. Throughout they have been as dreary as a plate of meat and two vegetarian dishes served by an English cook.

If Bangladesh could do it, so can Afghanistan. Their heartening performances in England could hardly be termed an 'upset' and Nick Greenslade explains why they are here to stay. Read on in The Guardian

Unlike football, which was largely driven underground, cricket survived the rule of the Taliban, though it first had to be cleared by the Orwellian Vice and Virtue police, who suspected the game of American associations.

"Former England captain Nasser Hussain recently wrote that cricket is much more professional and multi-dimensional these days. If it indeed is, he would do well to answer the 17 questions raised here," writes Bob Simpson.

"I hope Dravid's men play wonderfully when they tour the Caribbean. But if Lara's West Indians play better and take the series, somewhere inside me, a boy's ghost might stir to grin and cheer as cricket's world turns right-side up again." Read Mukul Kesavan's stirring article in the The Hindu to find out why he feels that way about a team that captured the imagination and so much more.

Who would you rather watch? Muralitharan, with all his energy and mystery, or Ashley Giles - I love you too, Ashley - plugging away over the wicket? Read Angus Fraser's tribute to Murali in The Independent.

In the third Test against New Zealand at Johannesburg, Jacques Kallis joined Sir Garry Sobers in an exclusive two-member club of players to have scored 8000 Test runs and taken 200 wickets. Read Neil Manthorp's take on the similarities of two completely different cricketers.

The pitch at Newlands was a victim of modern society - an ever-increasing desire for instant gratification; in a cricketing sense, an increasing desire for fast-paced play; and in a test-cricket sense, an increasing need for a result. ... One of the great nuances of test cricket is that a win is something of such reasonable rarity that it is undeniably an occasion for celebration. It should take days of hard toil, or be due to a performance of exceptional quality and be accompanied by a feeling of real accomplishment. There is nothing wrong with a draw if both teams have played so well or so poorly as to arrive at stalemate.

Click here to read Mark Richardson's pitch for better wickets

Members of the Indian cricket communities around the cricketing world continue to press ahead, writes Peter Roebuck in the Witness.

Why the allocation of the 2019 World Cup to England and Wales should be a cause for back-slapping and declarations of how much it shows us to be in the vanguard of the global game beats me, writes Mike Selvey in The Guardian.

If you really want to get up Makhaya Ntini's nose, try talking to him about being a role model for his country's budding young athletes, writes Richard Boock in The Herald on Sunday.

"I just don't accept the responsibility of being a role model for black or coloured people.I accept the challenge of playing cricket for South Africa. I appreciate that people might admire what I'm doing but trying to be a role model for them isn't what I signed up for. It's a huge responsibility to buy into, and I just don't accept it. I accept the responsibility for being a role model for my son but not for everyone else's sons."

Burnout is fast becoming the hottest topic in cricket. Read Stephen Brenkley's discourse on it in The Independent.

Ian Botham echoed the thoughts of a nation by indicating that Andrew Flintoff had to be given proper rest, if not wrapped in cotton wool for most of the summer. Botham was rightly concerned about one player - anyone who saw Flintoff towards the end of the India tour was witnessing a body on the verge of rebellion - but he was fairly late to the general debate.

Peter Roebuck feels that the Centurion Test between South Africa and New Zealand showed what a pampered lot modern-day batsmen are.

.. The current mob glared at the pitch as might a contralto interrupted mid-innings by a loud cough in the fifth row. Truth to tell the top order batting of both sides was abysmal. Bats were hung out to dry like beef on a hook. Batsman fished at wide deliveries. Far from moving smartly into position, feet stumbled between decisions.

Here's what Sunil Gavaskar had to say on the player burn-out issue. "These players are turning out for their countries. It's an honour to represent your country. I would be willing to sweat 365 days in a year for India. Those who can't stand the heat should stay out."

Read Mike Selvey's response in The Guardian.

Those who cannot stand the heat should stay out indeed, unless they want to end up on saline drips in the dressing rooms of Indore and Jamshedpur. What Gavaskar fails or is unwilling to grasp is the idea that it is not the volume of cricket but rather the sheer intensity of it that creates the problems.

Ponting's genius fails to obscure cracks in batting, writes Chloe Saltau in the Age.

They might have escaped embarrassment in Dhaka, but the spluttering form of most of Australia's batsmen means the world's No. 1 team can no longer be backed with such certainty to dig itself out of trouble.

Andrew Stevenson, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, believes Bangladesh's brave fightback has showed that they're no longer cannon fodder.

Beaten, Bangladesh still managed to look like winners. Or, if not quite like winners, Test cricket's 10th-ranked side - with a single victory to their name - had seen enough fear in the faces of their supposedly invincible adversary to know they had arrived as players and as a team.

The New Age, a Dhaka-based daily, eulogised the fighting spirit of Bangladesh players in its editorial.

Salacious debates of a rat killing a rhino began all over the world because Australian cricket is considered far above the game that most other nations play. In the end, the predicted ‘accident’ did not happen but we do not have any reason to be distressed either because our boys have shown that they can even take the best for a tough ride on a good day.

Harsha Bhogle, who was there at Fatullah commentating on the game, feels that it all came down to Australia knowing how to win.

Marcus Trescothick's mystery virus explanation was so ham-fisted you could have boiled it up, served it with mash and called it Eisbein, says Mike Selvey in the Guardian.

Trescothick's situation - however it may have been presented to the public - highlights cricket's apocalyptic vision. For great games you need great players, sharp of mind and body. Otherwise you have a sham,says John Stern.

As a vice-president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, it could be argued that Lalit Modi is the most important cricket administrator in the world today, writes Michael Atherton in the Sunday Telegraph.

This day, 104 years ago, a six-hitter is born. Cricinfo's All Todays Yesterday informs that Arthur Wellard had a first-class average of only 19, but he cleared the boundary over 500 times during his career. He spent his final playing years playing for Gaieties CC, a club founded in 1937.

Click here to read a tribute to Wellard, penned by the Nobel laureate Harold Pinter.

Rabindra Mehta, a NASA scientist and a schoolmate of Imran Khan, had come up with a new theory, a new form of swing, what he termed as 'contrast' swing but was met with scoffs from certain quarters.

Harsha Bhogle jumps into the fray in support of the doctor.
Denial is usually in the swing of things when sportsmen confront science, but give him a fair hearing, writes Bhogle in the Indian Express.

Certain pressmen Down Under have hailed Australia's win in the first Test in South Africa as a sign that the team is back to its dynamic best. But this is far from the truth, writes a worried Bob Simpson, former Australia captain, in the Sportstar.

Warne likes to raise the stakes. He bowls better when he is in danger, writes Peter Roebuck in The Hindu.

Ricky Ponting is the leading batsman of his generation, asserts R Mohan in the Deccan Chronicle. He reckons that Sachin Tendulkar needs to derive inspiration from Sunil Gavaskar to get back to form.

This day, 25 years ago, Geoff Boycott was at the receiving end of perhaps the greatest over ever bowled. Cricinfo's All Today's Yesterday, records it thus: The six balls that Michael Holding bowled to Boycott at Bridgetown, only the second over of England's innings, were absolutely chilling in their ferocity and pace. So much for looseners: each ball was quicker than the last, until the sixth swung in and sent Boycott's off stump flying.

Click here to read Martin Williamson's piece on that dramatic episode.

Michael Parkinson wrote on that over.

In the folklore of cricket, those six balls have acquired the reputation of the most lethal over ever delivered. It is not something you can prove except to say that anyone who witnessed what happened, as I did, is bound to say they never saw anything quite like it.

Boycott admits he still has nightmares about that over. Holding smiles
at the memory and says 'If you believe Geoffrey, England would have
been six wickets down without scoring had he not been batting'.

However, one thing needs to be remembered. Boycott was 40 years old then, the great batsman's reflexes must have slowed down a bit. Here is Michael Holding, in an extract from Tony Francis's book Zen of Cricket, on Boycs.

"You were never worried about Boycott embarrassing you. I only remember him hooking me once, but he wasn't easy to intimidate. A lot of people said he didn't like the fast stuff, didn't want to face Lillee and Thomson, but I never saw him look as if he wanted to back off. Not once."

Mark Waugh believes the limited-overs game has increasingly become very predictable and lopsided and has suggested some changes to make them more interesting.

No leg byes. Batting teams should not be able to be rewarded with runs when the batsman is not good enough to make contact with bat on ball. This rule would obviously benefit the team with the more skilled batsmen.

Click here to read Waugh's proposals.

Peter Roebuck wonders about the plethora of left-hand batsmen around the world and suggests a change in lbw rule.

Why are there so many more highly productive lefties around in cricket than in any other sport? Why so many more successful left-handed batsmen than can be found in the general population?

Against bowlers of pace you can play with controlled aggression, for their sheer pace means you don't have to go hard at the ball. Click here to attend the Bob Simpson coaching session.

Twenty-over cricket is here to stay. People enjoy it. Recently a child said he liked Twenty20 cricket "because they whack it every time." So there is no need to be snooty, writes Peter Roebuck

IS over-appealing leading to the spate of very poor umpiring decisions in international matches over the last 12 months? Bob Simpson answers the question in his column

There is no doubt that the players are less respectful to umpires than they once were. Perhaps this is because the changing world we live in is less respectful to authority in general. I wonder if bowlers who are verbally happy to chirp at umpires with such cracks as `Are you blind?', `How could you make that decision?', would enjoy it if umpires, after a bad ball, said things such as `Call yourself a Test bowler'? `Hell, my grandson is more accurate than you' or `What a lot of rubbish, how on earth did you get into the Test side?'

Rohit Brijnath agrees with Simpson and appeals for cricketing decorum, targeting Australia in particular.

Certainly a team must express itself, but neither must it believe that winning makes any behaviour acceptable. For a decade, Australia's team has personified cricketing excellence, their play a triumph of discipline, desire, talent and courage. But leadership in sport is more than swinging a bat and hurling a ball.

Bob Simpson, the former Australian player and coach, beleives South Africa would have to change their style of cricket if they hope to move up the ladder.

My assessment was based on their negativity and the inability to alter their tactics based on the changing circumstances of a match.

Telford vice lets rip against Tony Grieg and Bill Lawry.

Andrew Ramsey feels that so frighteningly efficient is the modern-day cricket bat that greatest danger lurks for the bowler whose momentum and follow-through renders him a virtually defenceless target from a distance of less than 20metres.

The game's capacity for contradiction has been disturbingly on show recently, says Tim Lane

Bob Simpson uses a letter from the great Don Bradman to argue that

Attractive cricket cannot be judged solely by the rate of run-getting — an orgy of which, against inferior bowling, can be the most boring thing of all. Attractive cricket comes from personality, character, style and a host of intangible things, associated with quality and with close competition

The argument that sportsmanship in cricket is dying out is nothing more than rose-tinted hogwash, argues Vic Marks.

Mike Selvey talks glowingly of Mark Nicholas, anchorman for Channel 4's Test coverage (which, sadly, ended this year):

I should declare an interest here. Nicholas has been a friend for a good many years since the days when, starting out in journalism, and covering a Hampshire match, I would sleep on the floor of his living room after drinking his wine and watching Bruce Springsteen videos with him into the small hours. He is a busy chap now and a great networker who has moved onwards and upwards, so we don't socialise much these days but, when we do, he is great company. With that out of the way now, dispassionately I find it incredible that a broadcaster of his skills has not already landed a plum television job in this country, not just in cricket but beyond, even into a shiny suit asking people to come on down or whatever...One day he will morph into Des Lynam.

India showed how they’ve perfected the art of playing the mindgame and endgame, writes Trevor Chesterfield in The Indian Express

Chess is the sort of mindgame where masters of the endgame use trusted tactics to outwit the opposition. And so far, in this series, India have cleverly employed the same tactics to outmanoeuvre Sri Lanka’s gameplan

Mike Haysman celebrates Richie Benaud's unique style behind the microphone - calm, warm and polite.

Also check out tributes by Ivo Tennant in The Times, Dan Nicholl in iafrica.com and Nick Hoult in The Daily Telegraph.