There are not many times Ricky Ponting has been left speechless over his long career. But when a reporter put it to him after the Perth Test that he had spent the previous evening in a hyperbaric chamber in an effort to boost his recovery from an elbow tendon injury, Ponting feigned surprise.

"Was I?" he replied. The cogs were turning and he was trying to work out how that little secret might have escaped the dressing-room. The journalist responded: "Apparently. Justin Langer said it on the radio this morning".

For a few seconds Ponting was genuinely lost for words. Eventually, he couldn't keep up the charade, and conceded with a smile: "Yeah, I was actually. Secret's safe with Lang, isn't it, by the sound of things."

Langer is the Australian Test team's batting coach but during his home Test at the WACA he was doubling as a special comments man on the ABC radio commentary. Ponting wasn't thrilled that his treatment was made public, but took it all in good humour. "I'll probably have a few more of those treatments over the next couple of days and if you want to know if I am, just ring Lang and he'll tell you."

They can bat, can bowl, but can they sing? Check out the West Indies’ Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo and Sulieman Benn singing at a function on WA News. And is that Doug Bollinger, Australia’s fast bowler, running out with $5?

"That is my second talent, I felt like showing it off last night," Gayle said of the impromptu performance. "It kind of makes you a bit more relaxed - that's how we are, we try and entertain whenever we can. The Australians came up last night and said 'You guys were brilliant'. It's good, I got $5 from Bolly for my performance, so I appreciate it."

Maybe Shivnarine Chanderpaul reads the paper, maybe he doesn’t. But a couple of hours after comments from Ricky Ponting and Peter Siddle that Chanderpaul might not cope with the short ball on the bouncier Australian pitches, the left-hander was in the nets at Allan Border Field being peppered by bouncers.

There was no danger – it was tennis balls flying from the bowling machine - but tiny Chanderpaul was increasing his reaction time by standing a couple of metres outside the crease. His footwork was sharp and he was generally untroubled, mostly ducking but also playing the occasional pull. He looked ready.

After 121 Tests Chanderpaul knows what he is doing and has proved himself a man for any surface. The Australians are desperate to find a weakness because he batted for more than 18 hours the last time the sides met in a three-Test series.