The Surfer

If you look at the past decade or two, there weren't too many Indian bowlers who bowled quick. Only a few of them like Srinath and Zaheer Khan bowled quick. Later in their career, the pace reduced and they relied more on swing. Srinath of course continued to bowl quick for nearly 10-12 years. After that, there have been quite a few fast bowlers. In my opinion, I think the pace foundation has contributed a lot but the BCCI needs to look into it very closely. If the BCCI can monitor it properly it would be beneficial. I don't think as of now there is any particular system in place.

What happens when your batting goes to pot? Does Ryder have the personality to walk into four foreign dressing rooms and win people over? And, perhaps most of all, how will he cope with the loneliness of a hotel room. Ryder lacks the mental toughness to handle that existence. This is not his cup of tea.

Central to KKR's popularity is the reconceptualisation of Kolkata, the city, into Kolkata Knight Riders, the cricketing brand. A Bengali-spouting Shah Rukh Khan professing his love for the city and its people, the ill-fated anointment of Sourav Ganguly as the first captain of the team, the team's Bengali theme song, its wide-ranging merchandise with the KKR logo emblazoned prominently, backed up by arousing chants and electronic diktats at the Eden Gardens galvanising the home crowd into getting behind the team are all elements of the aggressive marketing campaign that has both created and sustained a faithful fan base, which provides the plinth for this reconceptualisation.

He took over the reins and continued with the project of rebuilding the image of the captaincy, restoring the values of leadership, and reconnecting to the heart and mind of West Indies cricket. The madness was arrested and put away.

Sammy the Samson has not looked back. He is the mighty warrior for professionalism, ambassador for leadership, and the symbol of a West Indies strategic reaction to decline and despair; all evidence that a mind is at work in the affairs of West Indies cricket.

There is nothing grand about the stadium and it has none of the red-stoned ambition or Moghul pretensions of Lahore's Gaddafi Stadium. The National Stadium is white and cemented. Usually it is dusty. The stands, seating 34,000 make do, no more. The difference with Gaddafi Stadium - one, beautiful, faux-cultural, a work of art and architecture, and the other clunky and functional - is a difference not just of geography but reflective of the people, a thinking, a way of life. All told, the National Stadium took about four months to build. Kafiluddin Ahmed, chief engineer in the local government and cricket board treasurer was the man most responsible, a man who gave to cricket as much pleasure as he derived.

I think you need to be a leader, not a captain. You may have seen a lot of captains in this country, but, the most important thing is to be a leader. And the next question I think I need to clarify is that you will next ask me what is the difference between a captain and a leader? I think a captain is someone who captains on the cricket field but, most of the leadership that happens is off the cricket field. It's very easy to captain people on the cricket field, but if you can start leading them off the cricket field, and show them that trust, what you have in them.

The English Premier League (EPL) has become a high value global product not just because of the quality of the football on view. The EPL is supported because it has aligned itself to a transparent system of governance which every club has to adhere to. The IPL, by contrast, has aligned itself to a handful of team owners and cricket board officials, none of whom, it seems are accountable to anyone but themselves. Professional sport needs professional governance, not rules framed to promote private interests.

Shastri’s commentary, like much of his batting, mostly runs on two gears: the dour and the overstated. When he needs a shield, he pulls out his quiver-full of cliches; when he needs a sword, he attacks with hyperbole. There is a robotic quality to a lot of Shastri’s commentary. So legendary are some of the Shastri-isms that they are immortalized by a Twitter bot that automatically throws out terms like “I just get the feeling” and “that’s gone to the fence like a tracer bullet”.

If I was a member of the England management I would want a written promise from Kevin Pietersen that he is committed to playing in the next two Ashes series. If he has got any thoughts of quitting Tests in the next 12 months he has to be honest and tell Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower now so they have time to bed in someone else.

Tours are very time-consuming, Pietersen has a young family, he's pushing 32 and he's making lots of money playing in the IPL. You can see that playing one-day cricket is the last thing he wants to do. This matter could have been managed behind closed doors. England could have rested him for some one-day cricket this summer, let him play in the World Twenty20, and then he could have packed it in. Only the ECB and Pietersen will know why this hasn't happened.

There must be Garry Sobers – as he was three or four cricketers in one. Now I get parochial. I always pick Viv Richards, the best batsman I played with or against and the most terrifying one, for any side. Then there is Joel Garner, the meanest of those brilliant West Indian fast bowlers. Lastly I would choose Abdul Qadir. Mystery is a wonderful commodity in any form of the game, but especially in T20.