Australia's Find of the Year wasn't good enough for the World Cup © AFP

Stuart Clark - Australia

Here's a conundrum. Australia's one-day bowling is all over the place, so what do they do? They choose to ignore their Find of the Year, Stuart Clark, whose nine Tests in 2006-07 produced 47 wickets at an economy-rate of less than two-and-a-half an over. It was a baffling bit of selectorial whimsy that justifiably had Clark, "the new Glenn McGrath TM", seeking some sort of clarification from the chairman of selectors, Andrew Hilditch. "If there was a World Cup semi-final at stake, I'd much rather have him bowling than a couple of other guys," said Geoff Lawson among others. However, Hilditch and Co. perhaps had half an eye on the events in Kuala Lumpur last September, when Clark was spanked for 87 in seven overs by Chris Gayle and Brian Lara.

Cameron White - Australia

Ever-present in the opening rounds of the CB Series, and a qualified success in the Chappell-Hadlee disaster that followed, White's luck ran out when Australia's two Queensland allrounders, Andrew Symonds and Shane Watson, swapped roles ahead of the CB Series finals. Watson - perpetually promising but perpetually injured - returned to fitness
just as Symonds was being carted off in the other direction with a bicep injury. It was a destabilising trade-off for Australia. For all that White can do a passable impression of Symonds with the bat, the selectors were less certain about the reliability of his part-time
legbreaks. So Brad Hogg got Symonds' spinner's gig instead, and the Bear had to grin and bear it.

Khaled Mashud - Bangladesh

Bangladesh, quite literally, have decided to drop the Pilot by ousting their former captain, wicketkeeper and longest-serving international cricketer, Khaled Mashud. Apparently this decision had been a long time coming in the corridors of power at the BCB - since the tour of
England in 2005, Mashud has produced just one one-day innings of note, an unbeaten 48 against Zimbabwe in July 2006. Meanwhile his teenaged understudy, the former Under-19 captain, Mushfiqur Rahim, made an unanswerable case for inclusion in the recent return series in Harare. Mashud has not had much fun at World Cups - he was sacked as captain after Bangladesh's dismal showing in 2003.

Mal Loye - England

Another case of youth getting the nod over experience. Mal Loye, 34, made a mixed impression in his belated ODI debut for England this winter, slog-sweeping every fast bowler in the Antipodes before nibbling a wide one to the keeper, usually in the same over. Useful though his top-of-the-order impetus might have been, it was instead decided that a wild-card allrounder, Ravi Bopara, would provide England with more options. Even so, it seems highly probable that Loye will appear in the Caribbean at some stage, if Michael Vaughan's knee lasts an entire tournament.

Ramesh Powar - India

With Anil Kumble on the wane in one-day cricket and Harbhajan Singh less attacking than he was in his pomp, an opening in India's squad seemed to have been forged for Ramesh Powar, arguably the slowest flightiest offspinner in the game today, and a man who, since his recall 12 months ago, has been picking up his ODI wickets at a rate of almost two a game. His belligerent batting should have been a factor in his favour, but he has managed just one half-century in 11 visits to the crease, and it is believed that the selectors found it hard to
look beyond his ... err ... ample frame.

Boeta Dippenaar - South Africa's Fall Guy , though not for the first time © Getty Images

Nathan Astle - New Zealand

A surprise absentee, but this time of his own volition. Nathan Astle took a leaf out of Damien Martyn's book by jumping ship just moments before his liner docked at the perfect retirement port. One of the cleanest strikers in the game, and an under-rated seamer with 99 ODI wickets to his name, Astle will forever be remembered for his astonishing blitzkrieg against England at Christchurch in 2001-02 - 222 runs from 168 balls to all but seize the first Test of that series. He wasn't exactly sluggish in ODIs either, with a national-record 16 centuries to his name. But four ducks and a 1 in his last seven innings convinced him that his heart was no longer in it.

Yasir Hameed - Pakistan

It's hard to know what Hameed must have done to offend the Pakistan selectors. In the past two years he has played in just four ODIs out of 45, and yet in those games he has run up scores of 41, 57, 71, and 41. Admittedly they have come a touch slowly by one-day standards, but Hameed is by nature an opener, and that department has been Pakistan's Achilles Heel since the retirement of Saeed Anwar. Instead, Mohammad Hafeez, Imran Nazir and Kamran Akmal have been trusted to come up with a combination that can improve on their tally of three half-century stands in the past 12 months.

Boeta Dippenaar - South Africa

One of nature's stodgier one-day cricketers, Dippenaar's finest one-day innings was arguably his seven-ball 1 on March 12, 2006, in that match at Johannesburg - by getting out of the way nice and early, he allowed his flashier team-mates to cut loose and hunt down
Australia's incredible total of 434. And yet, in 10 previous one-day innings in the Caribbean, Dippenaar has been the plodder turned gamebreaker. He has clobbered 428 runs at an astonishing average of 107, and he has not once finished on the losing side. He might have
been worth a place as a lucky mascot.

Chamara Kapugedera - Sri Lanka

Several batting line-ups are vying for the Dad's Army tag in this World Cup, but few can make a more legitimate claim than Sri Lanka, for whom Marvan Atapattu (36), Sanath Jayasuriya (37) and Russel Arnold (33) are all expected to turn out. Clearly, the next generation will have to wait its turn, and with that in mind, Kapugedera will, in all probability, be ushered into the side. His 18 matches to date have yielded just 203 runs and a solitary fifty, but given that he only turns 20 on Saturday, time is very much on his side.

Runako Morton - West Indies

Not so long ago, Morton was the man of the moment in West Indian cricket. His unbeaten 90 against Australia in last year's Champions Trophy helped propel his side all the way to the final, an achievement that looked set to culminate in a memorable homecoming for one of the
game's most notorious bad boys. In the course of his career, Morton been expelled from the squad in 2002 for lying about a grandmother's death, and arrested in 2004 in connection with a stabbing incident. But his form fell away as the tournament drew nearer, and after 30 runs in his last five innings he returned once again to the margins.

Hamilton Masakadza - Zimbabwe

Masakadza hit the heights at Harare in July 2001, making 119 against West Indies when aged just 17 years and 254 days, to become the youngest debut centurion in Test history. It was a record that has since been passed by Bangladesh's Mohammad Ashraful, but unlike Ashraful, Masakadza has not pushed on to greater things. He scored his maiden half-century against England at Bulawayo in November 2004 and bowls useful legspin to boot, but a tally of 42 runs in three innings against Bangladesh this month counted against him. He was shunted out of the squad in favour of Friday Kasteni.

by Andrew Miller

'The batting efforts of our opposition are not assisting the development of our bowlers' one-day skills': John Buchanan might wish to reconsider that statement after six losses in seven matches © AFP

At the very moment of Australia's third defeat of the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy in Hamilton yesterday, the cameras panned - like the ghouls that they are - to the balcony of the visitors' dressing-room, where the coach, John Buchanan, was bookishly scribbling his final notes of
a chastening trip across the Tasman. After the fortnight he has endured, the man they call Ned Flanders was probably just filling out a final string of ho-diddly-hums before dumping the entire portfolio in the shredder.

"The batting efforts of our opposition are not assisting the development of our bowlers' one-day skills," were just a few of the many words Buchanan had uttered at the midpoint of the CB Series, a long-forgotten era when Australia were lords of all they surveyed, and England and New Zealand were mere timorous serfs at the banquet. Six defeats have since followed from their last seven matches - Australia's worst run of ODI form in a decade - and it's safe to say those skills have now been tested to breaking point.

Hubris, they call it. Exaggerated pride or self-confidence, often resulting in fatal retribution. It was a crime in Ancient Greece, and it's still a crime in the eyes of Buchanan's critics, both at home and away. Shane Warne, who memorably suggested that the role of the coach
was to drive the players from the hotel to the ground, this week elbowed his way to the head of a long queue of detractors, and pinned the blame for Australia's failings firmly on a man whom he believes has been a passenger throughout the team's unprecedented era of success.

Somewhere on the other side of the world, enjoying some family time in Cape Town no doubt, Duncan Fletcher will doubtless be permitting himself a wry grin at the chain of events of the past few days. Two weeks ago, there was only one international coach with his head in the
crosswires, and it wasn't the man who had just delivered a 5-0 Ashes whitewashing in his final Test series. But then, at the eleventh hour of the tour, Fletcher spirited up some last-minute silverware to salvage his reputation, just as Buchanan steered his farewell cruise
onto the rocks.

It's a coach's life. As a convoluted southern summer draws to a close, we're left to reflect on the successes and failures of two of the most dissimilar men of their genre - Buchanan the Nutty Professor and Fletcher the Inscrutable Seer, whose differing methods have been both utterly vindicated and hopelessly ridiculed this season, almost in the same breath.

Of the two, there is no doubt that Buchanan looks the most naked in defeat. He fell flat on his face after a solitary season at Middlesex in 1998 because none of the players could penetrate his corporate jargon, and in the 2005 Ashes he was ridiculed for having no answers when Australia's bowlers started malfunctioning. "Where is your bowling coach," everyone cried at Trent Bridge as no-ball followed no-ball and basic disciplines disappeared through the side door (The man they so needed, Troy Cooley, was in England's camp as it happens).

But perhaps that is exactly as it should be. A man should be at his most vulnerable when there is something to be vulnerable about, and in Buchanan's case that is, in fact, next to never. In his seven-year tenure, he has presided over an incredible 69 Test wins out of 90, and 24 series wins out of 28. Of the four rubbers that got away, only two ended up in outright defeat - and these were two of the greatest series of all time, against India in 2000-01 and, of course, the
Ashes.

Of course, in an era where no team has come close to challenging Australia, Barney the Bear could probably have coached such superlative charges, but Buchanan has been on hand to provide the challenge himself. One day it's the witterings of Sun Tsu, the next it's a pre-Ashes boot camp in the Queensland jungle. Warne certainly wasn't convinced of his methods and nor, it would seem, was Ricky Ponting. In the wake of the Ashes whitewash, Ponting attempted to
convey the gist of a team-talk that Buchanan had given during the Sydney Test, but admitted as his narrative tailed off that he had "probably been asleep for most of it".

Whatever happened to 'Duncan days' in Australia? © Getty Images

But there is, of course, one final function of a coach, and arguably it is the most important of all. He is the team scapegoat, the man upon whom the brickbats rain down when the results start to go awry. Fletcher played this role to perfection when Nasser Hussain and Michael Vaughan were his captains, lurking in the shadows when the going was good but quick to step forward on his designated "Duncan Days". But having failed to forge the same bond when Andrew Flintoff
was in charge, he abandoned his duty all too readily and left the captain to utter the same unconvincing platitudes day after day after day.

Buchanan is now also right in the firing line, and given the litany of injuries, retirements, paternity breaks and general weariness that is afflicting his team at present, he couldn't really be better positioned.

"The decision-making that accompanies being placed under the microscope of competition," was another thing that Buchanan wanted his bowlers to be tested on in these recent contests. Nathan Bracken, for one, is probably very grateful that everyone is still preoccupied with
working out what this means.

by Brydon Coverdale

Glenn McGrath risks a disappointing farewell unless Australia's bowlers can turn things around © Getty Images

There is one bright spot in the darkness of Australia's recent run of poor one-day form: their batting will be boosted by the return of the rested Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist and Michael Clarke for the World Cup. They can take no solace from their bowling situation.

Australia's inability to defend 336 at Auckland on Sunday was the latest in a worrying series of big targets they have proved incapable of protecting. New Zealand's impressive effort was the second-highest successful run-chase in ODI history and was nestled between two other Australian failures from the past 14 months.

In their second-last match before they travel to the World Cup, it should be a major concern for a team that has had its bowling line-up largely settled since at least the Champions Trophy in October. Only Shaun Tait has been added for his ability to bowl fast, inswinging yorkers at the death but he is yet to demonstrate that skill at international level.

Big scores could be common in the West Indies, where the small grounds will encourage the sort of boundary-clearing strokes that led to a combined 20 sixes at Eden Park on Sunday. Unless Australia's attack can remember how to bowl some tight, containing overs in the middle or closing stages, their one-day crown will be in danger of slipping even further.

Glenn McGrath and Nathan Bracken, two of their most reliable performers, have been below par in 2006-07. Both suffered at the destructive hands of Jacob Oram at Perth as New Zealand came agonisingly close to overhauling Australia's 343. The pair was also part of the four-man pace attack that could not break the partnership between Paul Collingwood and Ian Bell after England were in desperate trouble in the first CB Series final at Melbourne.

Bracken has picked up wickets here and there but his consistency in breaking top-order partnerships with the swinging white ball has fallen away. McGrath has not rediscovered the joy of his Test farewell and his ageing body has been unable to produce the metronomic accuracy that formerly demanded respect from batsmen the world over.

Mitchell Johnson has left behind the form that earned him the prize wickets of Brian Lara, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar at the DLF Cup in September. When he plays, he is now targeted by batsmen who want to belt him out of the attack.

As Ross Taylor and Peter Fulton reeled in the target at Auckland, what Australia needed was a string of miserly overs that ballooned the required run-rate close to ten an over. Tait, McGrath, Bracken and Shane Watson all threatened to do it but there was always a loose ball just around the corner that let the batsmen relieve the pressure with a boundary.

Australia have missed Andrew Symonds and his habit of tearing through overs of offspin as their fit slow-bowling options, Brad Hogg and Cameron White, went for a combined 87 from ten overs. White is, at this stage, not going to the West Indies but Hogg needs to regain the form that made him such a useful part of Australia's 2003 World Cup squad.

He has had limited opportunities this season and his knack for picking up important wickets seems to have deserted him. Batsmen have been willing to push him around and try for boundaries by hitting with the spin. On big grounds that can lead to outfield catches but on smaller ones he will need more control.

Nathan Bracken must again become Australia's new-ball destroyer © Getty Images

Within the 15-man World Cup squad, there are precious few other possibilities. Johnson was the only fit bowler going to the Caribbean who did not play on Sunday but he went for 49 from his eight overs two days earlier as New Zealand inflicted Australia's first ten-wicket loss. There will be a temptation to bring in Stuart Clark, who is known for his consistency, if Brett Lee does not recover from his ankle injury.

That might not be the best solution. Clark has been a Test match star but like the others, he has been too costly in the limited-overs game. His predictability - and on occasions his lack of control of the white ball - have led to an economy rate of 6.40 from his last ten games. He was the leading culprit as West Indies chased down Australia's 272 in Malaysia in September, when he went for 87 from seven overs as Chris Gayle unleashed a fierce assault.

Australia say they have been fine-tuning their attack in the lead-up to the World Cup. But they cannot possibly suggest their bowling line-up is in its best shape after their recent efforts, although Watson showed some promising signs on Sunday with his control and subtle variations. McGrath, Bracken, Johnson, Watson and Hogg are all capable of match-winning spells on their day. However, limited-overs bowling is largely about containment and unless they can remember how to restrict the runs, they will go to the West Indies in serious danger of being overpowered.

In their pool matches the No. 1-ranked South Africa will be looking to justify their promotion and Australia must be on their game to contain Herschelle Gibbs and his team-mates. After that, any number of sides and individuals could hurt Australia. A destructive Gayle, a resurgent Sanath Jayasuriya, a fit-again Oram or a rejuvenated Sourav Ganguly are just a few of the countless threats. They have all taken notice of the last month and will want to prove they too can conquer the former masters.

by Dylan Cleaver

Ross Taylor is the type of player New Zealand have been waiting for © Getty Images

You know the world has gone mad when poking his tongue out at you from the country's biggest-selling newspaper on a Monday morning is not a celebrity, a politician or even a rugby player, but a cricketer. Not just any cricketer, mind, but Ross Taylor, the part-Samoan being described as the most dynamic young batsman in world cricket after his second ODI hundred of the summer secured the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy for New Zealand for the first time.

If you needed any reminding that cricket is not just a funny old game but stark raving bonkers, think back a week, when the only consideration to putting an image of a cricketer on the front page would have been if they were locked in stocks with a baying public on hand armed with an assortment of ripe fruit and veg. New Zealand's premature ejection from the CB Series was not taken very well. Quite badly, in fact.

The man who bore the brunt was, for a change, not the coach John Bracewell. Instead the captain Stephen Fleming became the target of talkback ire. Despite having made 106 in the final match against England, Fleming led an unsuccessful chase and was castigated for being too slow, selfish and out of touch.

It was a massive and unpredictable fall from grace. His former team-mate Adam Parore used his column in the New Zealand Herald to demand a change of captain and just for a moment it looked as if his long-established empire was teetering. Now, little more than a week later, his position is as secure as it's ever been having beaten the defending world champions back-to-back.

While the result has to be taken with the tiniest pinch of salt given the absence of Ponting, Gilchrist, Lee, Clarke and Symonds, it's the manner of the victories that has reinvigorated the public. In Wellington they blew a weakened Australia off the park, with Fleming and his most reliable [when fit] henchman Shane Bond leading from the front. However, when Australia rattled up 336 at Eden Park - easily the highest ODI score on that curious piece of real estate - it looked like the evil empire had struck back.

But in front of at least 25,000 rapturous fans Taylor and Co not only stole the match with eight balls of breathing space, but also did so in a style that suggests they will go to the grand ball in the Caribbean fearing nobody and scaring some. Fleming is back on form; Bond has re-established himself as one of the most, if not the most dangerous strike bowler in the game; the human pendulum known as Lou Vincent is on the upswing; and, of course, there is Taylor.

Brendon McCullum seals the win at Eden Park to earn New Zealand the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy © Getty Images

It is not being melodramatic to suggest Taylor is the sort of cricketer New Zealand has been waiting for. While rugby has benefited from a healthy infusion of Pacific Island flair, the Polynesian influence on cricket has been inconsequential by comparison. It is hoped that Taylor is at the vanguard of a new breed of player.

His eye-hand co-ordination and incredible hand speed have been on display for close to four seasons at domestic level and there were calls for his inclusion in the national side long before his debut last summer. There was a great deal of consternation, too, when he was left out of the squad for the Champions Trophy last October.

Bracewell will feel comfortable about how he's dealt with Taylor though. He will go to the Caribbean as an obvious danger man, but one only Australia and, to a lesser extent, England can say they know enough about him to plan accordingly.

New Zealand's depth is also pleasing. Bracewell has been on the receiving end of a lot of flak for his so-called "rotation" policy this summer and while it has caused some awful growing pains, he can at least now point to the fact his chosen 15 have all had valuable experience and playing time at the top level. "We're doing nothing differently than we were a couple of weeks ago, and that's what I've been trying to explain over the past month," Fleming said after the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy was wrapped up.

That's where you're wrong, Stephen. You're winning. New Zealanders, like everyone else, love winners. That's what they've been trying to explain to you over the past month. Bring on the World Cup.

by Ian Chappell

Ricky Ponting has some work to do when he returns as captain © Getty Images

Australia have gone from raging favourites to suffering a case of raging World Cup fever in the space of three weeks. Some of the problems have been of their own making and others have cropped up via injury. No matter the cause, they have to start finding solutions in a hurry and they are short on time as the World Cup warm-up matches loom large.

The return of Ricky Ponting will help solve a large slice of the problem; he provides the team with not only strong leadership, but he's also the best batsman by a wide margin. It's no coincidence that in Australia's five losses in their last six matches Ponting wasn't playing in three of them, failed in another and made a big score [75] in the first CB Series final in which they were narrowly beaten. Here's a hint to opponents: to beat Australia it helps enormously if you get rid of Ponting cheaply.

The next thing Australia needs to lift their performance is some good news on the injury front. The loss of Brett Lee coming on the heels of Andrew Symonds is a huge blow to their World Cup chances. The best Australia can hope for at the World Cup is the return of Symonds as a slightly diminished batsman rather than the brilliant allrounder he was before the biceps injury. If he even makes the World Cup, opponents shouldn't have to worry about his throwing or even his bowling and there's also a chance his powerful hitting will be adversely affected by the injury. Consequently his return will only be a partial panacea.

Lee is in a similar position. A front-foot ankle-tendon injury is not good news for a fast bowler. If he makes it to the World Cup it will take him some time to trust the ankle when he bangs it down in the delivery stride and the best Australia could hope for is a confident and fit Lee by the semi-finals.

Thanks to a dangerous mixture of arrogance and stupidity during the Commonwealth Bank Series, Australia fiddled rather than found their best combination

So where does that leave Australia? They had better start making their World Cup plans without Symonds and Lee and if either happens to be fit and in-form by the knockout stage it will be a bonus. The first priority is to settle on their best side. Thanks to a dangerous mixture of arrogance and stupidity during the Commonwealth Bank Series, Australia fiddled rather than found their best combination and then the coach John Buchanan incited the opposition by indulging in ridicule.

Now they are not only unsure of who are the best bowlers in the final overs, they are also struggling to find a spinner to take a wicket or two in the middle overs after the powerplays. This is a crucial role and if Australia can't find someone to do the job with Symonds injured, they'll constantly encounter big targets or have their totals, even larger ones, chased down.

The ideal build-up for Australia after losing the finals series to England would've been to travel to New Zealand and quickly rebuild confidence. To do this they needed Ponting to lead them back to winning form and not a fill-in leader - especially not one who is unsuited to captaincy. Having lost the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy on top of the Commonwealth Bank series, Australia is now not only an injury-hit side but also a team searching for answers and confidence.

Ponting has a huge rehabilitation job to do as captain and he has no choice but to treat the two warm-up matches against England and Zimbabwe as though they actually count for the World Cup. Confidence-boosting wins in those two games may not restore the team to outright favouritism, but it might help clear up that dose of World Cup fever that is raging through the side at the moment.

Ross Taylor took few risks on his way to his second one-day century © Getty Images

Brydon Coverdale

Australia fell from their No. 1 one-day ranking for the first time as Ross Taylor, Peter Fulton and Craig McMillan propelled New Zealand to their huge target of 337 with an over to spare to secure the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy. Taylor's century bettered the one Michael Hussey had made to set up Australia's total, which until New Zealand's chase was the highest ODI score at Eden Park.

Taylor built the platform with 117 before Fulton, and in particular McMillan, hammered Australia to all parts of the ground in the dying stages. McMillan's 52 from 30 balls was telling after New Zealand went into the last ten overs with 91 needed.

He put the home side in touch with three consecutive fours off Shaun Tait and Fulton followed up next over with two slog-swept sixes off Brad Hogg to haul in the required run-rate. The second of Fulton's sixes was caught on the boundary by Cameron White but he was unable to counter the backwards momentum and stepped on the boundary.

White and Hogg, Australia's two spin options, were the most costly as their combined ten overs cost 87 runs. White struggled to find his line and length and Hogg at times bowled too straight and suffered from the late aggression by Fulton and McMillan. Australia's fielding was also sub-par and Phil Jaques' dropped chance on the boundary when McMillan was 5 proved vital.

The loss was Hussey's third from three games as Australia's captain and means South Africa will jump to the No. 1 place in the limited-overs rankings. It is the first time since the current system was introduced in 2002 Australia have fallen from top spot.

Taylor's second ODI century came up with a beautifully-timed off drive that continued his trend of finding the boundary through conventional, low-risk shots. He dispatched White for three consecutive fours through cover and his only six was a cracking pull from a White long-hop.

Most of Taylor's best shots were traditional drives and flicks through the on side. He used Tait's pace against him to help the ball on its way and finished with 16 fours. He departed when he was deceived by a Shane Watson slower ball and skied an attempted slog to Hussey at midwicket. Australia's stand-in captain made the high chance look easy and pumped his fists when he thought the danger man was gone.

But Fulton, who had until then taken a back seat, lifted his game and finished with 76 from 65 balls. Brendon McCullum and Fulton sealed the win after McMillan was caught trying for another boundary.

Michael Hussey's century was not enough to lift Australia to victory © Getty Images

Hussey and Brad Hodge dominated the Australia innings and set what looked like an imposing target. Hodge was stranded just short of a century for the second time in five matches - he finished on 99 against New Zealand at Melbourne two weeks ago - and White bludgeoned a late 42 from 19 balls to help the cause.

Hussey again batted at No. 4 and took full advantage of the short boundaries. He brought up his second limited-overs century with a sensational string of three sixes in four balls off the part-time medium-pace of Lou Vincent.

The hundred took him 81 deliveries and included six sixes and eight fours and despite his high strike-rate he rarely looked like mis-hitting a ball. Hussey picked up the length easily and, especially off the medium-pacers, had no trouble clearing the ropes over the on side. The six to bring up his century was one of his best as he went down on one knee and swept Vincent over midwicket.

Hodge took few chances but scored at better than a run a ball and added 84 in the final 45 deliveries with White. But for the second time in as many games New Zealand's decision to field first paid off and Fleming lifted the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy in his own right for the first time.

Ricky Ponting's back, Andrew Symonds's arm, Brett Lee's ankle and Adam Gilchrist's due baby... Australia's worries ahead of the World Cup © Getty Images

Ian Chappell

Will we see a spectacular cricket World Cup unfold over the next two months in the Caribbean or will it turn out to be the Well Cup, a trophy clinched by the team fortunate enough to have eleven men still standing?

The World Cup should be the most prestigious one-day tournament on the cricket calendar designed to unearth the side with the greatest skill, determination and nous. However, with players currently going down like pins in a bowling alley, the cavorting in the Caribbean is shaping up to be more like a survival of the fittest frolic.

For months we have heard players and support staff justify every move by saying it is part of the planned lead-up to the World Cup. Now, as the tournament looms, players are being rested from competition so that niggling injuries can be healed in time for the start of the World Cup. That should be a hint to the programmers that the players are "cricket ready" and what they need is a little bit of time to fine tune and heal, rather than more matches.

Injuries are a fact of life for cricketers and they often come at the most inopportune time. They test the dedication of an individual and often determine how badly he wants to succeed. Equally, they provide opportunities for players and the best teams prosper despite the setbacks. Nevertheless, mental fatigue is the sportsman's greatest enemy and when players start thinking about saving themselves for something bigger and better, problems generally occur.

Is it any wonder with the demanding program of the last six months that many players are weary and injured and heaven knows how many are showing "empty" on the competitive juices gauge? In the case of Australia and England, they have played the Champions Trophy, a five-Test Ashes series, a month long one-day tournament and now they have to front up for the biggest tournament of all.

For the better players that means no mental let-up for seven months; no club or first-class match affording an opportunity to play in a more relaxed atmosphere, just hard grinding international cricket the whole way. And for good measure a Twenty20 match was squeezed in between the Test series and the one-day tournament just in case the players were thinking about putting their feet up for a day.

There can be no argument that if cricketers want to be well-paid they have to play regularly; the money is only available if big matches are programmed at appropriate times. However, equally true is the fact that if players are pushed too hard they will adopt their own measures to cope with the grind. This will include performing at a slightly reduced level (especially in the case of pace bowlers) and taking matches off.

There's every reason to globalise the game but when star players then miss tournaments being played in major cricket playing nations because they are weary it does seem to be defeating the purpose

The administrators in Australia see no problem with rotating players to monitor their work load but that can lead to a game or tournament being diminished.

Because India has the money they offer huge financial incentives to the individual boards to participate in tournaments and you don't see star players opting out of series being televised on the subcontinent. However, some of these events are designed for television and played where cricket isn't a major sport, in the name of globalising the game. There's every reason to globalise the game but when star players then miss tournaments being played in major cricket playing nations because they are weary it does seem to be defeating the purpose.

Already the high cost of obtaining the rights for ICC events is adversely affecting the way cricket is telecast. If a plethora of advertisements eventually leads to a downturn in viewers then less young fans will be attracted to the game.

The administrators need to strike the right balance between greed and good intentions. Somewhere between the measly three matches that were played in the six months leading up to the first World Cup in 1975 and the multitude that have been crammed into the days prior to the 2007 tournament there is an acceptable work load for players.

Even though the players may have been a little underdone for the 1975 tournament, the final was contested by the two best teams at the time, both of whom were at full strength. It was a well-played Cup final not a last-man-standing affair, which could occur at the 2007 showpiece

by Siddhartha Vaidyanathan

Greg Chappell believes Sourav Ganguly's career can go on "for some time" © Getty Images

Greg Chappell says he "wasn't surprised" with Sourav Ganguly's remarkable comeback into the Indian team, adding that the timing of his exclusion, when he was dropped in September 2005, had allowed Ganguly to return in time for the World Cup. In a wide-ranging interview, Chappell also admitted that fielding remained a major worry ahead of India's World Cup campaign and said the side had to compensate for this with strong batting and bowling performances.

"As I said to him in Zimbabwe 18 months or so ago, he has three more years in his career," said Chappell on Ganguly, ahead of the final India-Sri Lanka match. "But at that point he wasn't in the right place mentally to do that and he needed to go away and reassess. He's done that and there's no reason why his career can't go on for some time. I expected that he could do that. Whether I thought he would do that or not is a different story. It was always up to him, no-one else could do it for him."

Ganguly returned to the Test side on their tour of South Africa, ending as the top-scorer for India, and soon returned to the one-day fold with even more spectacular results, rattling off three half-centuries and a 48 in five one-dayers. "To have a player of his record coming back is fantastic," Chappell said. "To bring a new player into the team and for him to have to go through the learning process is not the ideal situation. If we hadn't taken a decision when we did then I don't think he would have been back in time for the World Cup. The timing has worked out well. I wouldn't say it's a surprise but it's a bonus. It wasn't certain that he would do that, but it was
entirely up to him."

The return of Ganguly and several other seniors has, however, resulted in a flip-side: India go into the World Cup with ageing legs and a fielding handicap. So is this Dad's army? "It is what it is," said Chappell. "I can't change it. You can look at the positive side of it and say we've got more experience than anyone else. The downside is that we'll give away a bit in the field but hopefully we can more than make up for that with the experience with the bat and ball."

So is India's fielding a concern? "Concern may not be too strong a word, it is probably not strong enough," he said. "We are going to be conceding runs in the field to the better teams, there is no doubt about that. We understand that, we knew that when we picked the squad. We will have to organise ourselves accordingly and that means placing the right people in the right
positions. We can't afford to relax on that because there is going to a lot of low-scoring, medium-scoring games, below 200s, below 300s is going to be the norm.

Chappell expects part-time bowlers like Sachin Tendulkar to play an important role at the World Cup © Getty Images

"They will be close games so it's going to be very important, we just have to work at it and do the best we can. Which means we have to be conscious, our batting has to find 30 extra runs a game and our bowlers will have to concede that many less. So between the two we will have to make up for 30 runs somewhere."

Chappell felt that spin would play an important part in the World Cup, with the pitches expected to play on the slightly slower side, and was glad that India had the options to cover for that eventuality. "We want to play three seam bowlers in each match," he said. "We couldn't in Rajkot because of injury and illness but ideally we'll like to have five bowlers in every game but that's not necessarily going to be possible. I'm not worried about that because Sachin [Tendulkar] has shown us how clever he can be with the ball, Viru [Sehwag] is a more than
competent offspin bowler and Yuvraj [Singh] has played some important roles with the ball as well. So we have three better-than-part-time bowlers, in my view, who can take up the fifth-bowler option."

Gleanings from Greg

The batting order

Sourav Ganguly: He's improved his batting, his fielding ... his fitness is better than I've ever seen it.

Virender Sehwag: Sehwag in form is a damaging player, we have to give him every opportunity as an opener. He is a proven matchwinner at the top of the order, that's where he can do the most damage for us ... but if he is not performing then we may have to rethink that.

Sachin Tendulkar: We've used Sachin in a different role and it has worked out really well for us ... It took him two games to get used to batting in the middle order and now we have another multi-dimensional player who can be used both at the top and middle order.

Yuvraj Singh: The 20-40 over period will have a big bearing in the World Cup. I think with Yuvraj in form we have a better chance of doing that well than we had in South Africa.

Rahul Dravid: Dravid at No 5 is a good option, sandwiched between Yuvraj and Dhoni it's a very good balance. He can control the middle order and if he has some power players to hit the boundaries he can play more to his strengths.

Chappell says Mahendra Singh Dhoni is "one of the most improved cricketers in world cricket in the last 12 months" © Getty Images

Mahendra Singh Dhoni: Dhoni's worked very hard on his batting and keeping - I think he's one of the most improved cricketers in world cricket in the last 12 months. He was someone who would come in at the end of the innings and blaze away. Now we've got ourselves a quality middle-order batsman who can also hit the ball a long way.

Dinesh Karthik: We've picked him as a middle-order batsman, it's a bonus that he keeps wickets. He fields quite well for someone who's spent a lot of time behind the stumps. He has the potential to be a very good international cricketer as a batsman.

The fringe players

Suresh Raina: Look at Suresh's record now and compare it with Tendulkar's record at the same stage, you'll find it's exactly the same. If you've heard some of the complimentary remarks made about Suresh from teams such as Australia, you wouldn't be critical of him.

VRV Singh: VRV Singh is as good a cricketer as Craig McDermott, Merv Hughes and Carl Rackemann when they came into the Australian team. Morne Morkel played at Durban and didn't create any more opportunities than VRV did. But the catches were taken and he finished up with 3-4 wickets, VRV had one. Both will be fine bowlers
for their country.

RP Singh: Once he came to me and asked, "Why am I not being picked? Is it because I'm not fast, or tall, or this or that?" I said it's none of it. You're part of a development process and the best thing is go back to UP and get some success. This is your apprenticeship at the moment."

Venugopal Rao: I think his performance in last year's Challenger Trophy as captain of India A was exceptional. It's a great shame he hasn't been able to continue his development as a captain. Good leaders don't come in large lumps and we saw an outstanding leader there. He didn't do badly but not good enough to push past others.

Up in the air: Apart from injury concerns the possibility of Umar Gul's teaming up with Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif appears to be a chimera © Getty Images

Osman Samiuddin

While the rest of the world was calmly pondering one or two positions in their World Cup squads, Pakistan was mulling over half a squad. Seven names could be guessed before the announcement but the rest? Injuries, doping, form all had the PCB delaying the announcement all through the afternoon.

So first the less bad news: Pakistan have managed to cobble together a squad of 15 and within the ICC deadline too. Now the bad news, of which there is some.

Pakistan's success in the Caribbean was always to rest, in large parts, on their pace attack. But like the legend of India's spin quartet, who only played one Test together, the strength of Pakistan's pace attack has also now become a partial myth. Their first-choice trio, Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Asif and Umar Gul are a dream together, figuratively and literally for they have never appeared together and are unlikely to do so, possibly ever. Because of their presence, this still remains a squad that isn't.

Rana Naved-ul-Hasan has been Pakistan's most incisive ODI bowler for nearly two years. But with a sense of timing generally associated with Pakistani weddings, he has chosen the run-up to the World Cup in which to slump painfully and dramatically. Not to worry, for behind these four, every conceivable option...also appears to be crocked.

The selectors have taken two gambits in Danish Kaneria and Imran Nazir, both brave but also eminently questionable. For what it's worth, Kaneria is an admirable, shrewd pick, a victory in the mini-battle of cricket thoughts for those who prefer specialists over bit-part, neither-fully-here-nor-fully-there allrounders.

But he has so resoundingly not been part of Inzamam-ul-Haq and Bob Woolmer's ODI plans over the last two years that the move is, at its root, nothing more credible than a punt. He's played seven ODIs in the time since Woolmer took charge, only 16 ever and has not been part of any ODI squad for over a year. His will, and no little skill, may see him through but a punt is a punt is a punt.

Abdur Rehman, the specialist spinner Pakistan did try and prepare for the tournament is dropped, one two-over hammering on the back of three very decent batches of ten overs reason enough apparently.

Nazir's return is a racy decision; potentially it can be explosively good but you have to wonder about another man who hasn't been in your thinking until just recently sneaking in, essentially on the basis of one extraordinary innings in three years. By that stick, Yasir Hameed, who has dutifully made 41, 57, 71 and 41 in his last four ODIs spread over two years, should've been a shoo-in.

Beyond that mind you, options were admittedly limited. Opening has become such a desperate thing that Sadiq Mohammad and Mohammad Ilyas, openers from the 60s and 70s, called up Cricinfo (exclusively, wouldn't you know) and announced that they were willing to offer their services.

It was worth a call too, what with Moin Khan offering to keep wickets for Pakistan again. Moin's offer, tragically funny as it was, did ram home another planning failure as reflected in this squad. There is no back-up to Kamran Akmal, who has had a year so shaky that Wasim Bari, chief selector and one-time gloved genius, said as recently as four ODIs ago that he needs a break. He wasn't given one, Zulqarnain Haider becoming less understudy, more non-existent. Pakistan will now hope that Akmal's slight upturn in wicketkeeping fortunes just recently continues for there is no one behind him.

What these selections in particular say about Pakistan's planning over the last three years is similar to what Lord Mountbatten is reputed to have admitted years later about his role in the partition of the subcontinent: "I f****ed it up."

Add to this the fact that Shahid Afridi not available for the first two games, one of which is particularly vital, and Pakistan's prospects appear ever more precarious. In fact, if you inhale hard enough, you might just catch a whiff already of an impending clear-out post-World Cup, just like 2003. Captain, coach, chief selector, senior players, all can conceivably be gone after the West Indies.

Which is precisely why, of course, nobody will rule Pakistan out. It is at moments such as this, with squads as ravaged by controversies, scandals and injuries, that Pakistan, uniquely, can never be discounted as a threat. The build-up and run-in to 1992 wasn't this bad but it wasn't much better. Forget the plans and long-term vision, say selectors. We're winging it now, hoping and praying. At least we're used to it.

Stirring scenes: England deserved to celebrate after their CB Series win © Getty Images

Peter English

Australia's greatest danger at the World Cup is not their revived nemesis England. The most severe threat to an unprecedented three-peat in the Caribbean is themselves. The moment the CB Series started to slide out of control came after Lou Vincent accused the hosts of being "bigger than the game" and ego driven. On hearing this the Australians elbowed in front of each other to say what a compliment it was.

Ricky Ponting's response was he wanted his side to be ultra-competitive, but from then on they won only one of four games, were defeated three times by England and lost a home finals series for the first time in 14 years. It could be an incredibly valuable World Cup preparation if Australia work out the lesson.

England played superbly to take the awkward CB Series trophy after their glorious run began when Ponting suffered a minor hip injury and chose not to play at the SCG. If it was an important game, he said, he would have been ready, but as Australia had qualified for the finals it was better to rest. It was a crucial decision.

The 92-run loss, ending a nine-game winning streak, became the turning point of the series as the confidence of the home side over-rode the need to prevent the opposition gaining momentum. Ponting will now miss the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy in New Zealand, which starts on Friday, and while the reasons for the captain and vice-captain skipping the trip are admirable - Ponting has a minor back problem; Adam Gilchrist is preparing for the birth of his third child - the option paints the squad as high, mighty and set for a fall. (If players need in-series breaks then itineraries should be changed instead of diluting the quality.)

The surest sign of egos taking over was when Australia built winning positions and lost them spectacularly. In the first final two opportunities were lost and in the second game they restricted England to a gettable total before imploding with help from Liam Plunkett. Throughout the three defeats to England the players - apart from Ponting and Matthew Hayden in Melbourne - waited for the next man to do their work. "It's only England, someone will get us through." They were relying on reputation rather than self-disciplined action.

Australia got into strong positions, but were not able to keep them © Getty Images

Rotating the players and the arm injury of Andrew Symonds also left the selectors unsure of their first XI at the conclusion. Symonds' absence unsettled the balance and there was no immediate back-up plan for replacing the team's superhero. Two men, Brad Hogg and Shane Watson, were trialled during the most important one-day games of the home season, despite playing once between them in the qualifying phase. The move failed as neither was able to produce significant performances.

The big guns also did not explode, but picking Hogg after he had criss-crossed the country as a net bowler and rushing in Watson following his hamstring dramas were desperate calls. Men lacking match practice were preferred instead of Cameron White and Mitchell Johnson, who had figured throughout the series. Selectors can also be affected by notions of invincibility.

During the tournament the locals talked of 400-plus totals, a perfect summer and John Buchanan moaned the opposition teams were not providing enough challenges. Vincent was right: Australia were too confident in their own ability. The players thought they were too good to lose and were unseated in embarrassing fashion.

Australia's finals aura has been diminished - they had lost only one decider in almost seven years before Friday night - but they can restore it with a slight alteration in their outlook. An English friend mutters "pride comes before a fall" whenever his football team wins a couple of games. It is simple, cute and might be useful for Australia.

'It is easy to get riled by his weight or his supposed indifference to fitness drills, but his ability to take wickets is beyond doubt' - Ravi Shastri on Ramesh Powar © Getty Images

Ravi Shastri

In my view, India have picked up just about the right bunch for the World Cup. The batters have experience and promise, as is the case with bowlers. There would always be one or two spots open to debate but that's true about most teams.

Having said so, I feel for Ramesh Powar, who had a strong case to be included in the team. If you name the seven best bowlers in the land in the one-day format, Powar would among them. He has been the most successful Indian spinner in the last 12 months.

It is easy to get riled by his weight or his supposed indifference to fitness drills, but his ability to take wickets is beyond doubt. He is the kind of bowler who can get you the wickets in the middle overs. His variety and loop entice batsmen who, anyway, are uncomfortable playing him defensively. He brings them out of their comfort zone, which is the essence of a good bowler.

This Indian squad has some very fine bowlers but you need clever operators who stand the best chance of breaking a promising stand. Lasith Malinga is a case in point: he went for runs in Rajkot, but also picked up wickets at key moments to shift the pressure on the Indians.

Powar also possesses this ability. He would have pushed for a place even with Harbhajan and Kumble in the squad - now that's good bench strength! He would have been in my team.

On a separate note, I think there is too much of a sameness in the pace attack. Now that Rahul Dravid has made it clear that he wants key players to step up the pace, the onus is on India's big guns to be good finishers of matches.

I suspect if the wickets are low and slow in the West Indies, big hits wouldn't be always possible. It would then be the players' speed between the wickets that could be of critical importance. India came a cropper in the middle overs in the West Indies last year and the message shouldn't be lost this time around.

On tracks where scores of 300 wouldn't always be possible and where the difference between teams could be just a few runs, good fielding and running between the wickets could well be the difference.

I guess fans need to be aware of the conditions which exist in the West Indies. We don't want a situation like last year when India went to the Caribbean high on their performances at home and a win over Pakistan in an away-series, only to be frustrated in there with the ball not coming on to the bat. It happened in game after game as the Indians found themselves unable to force the pace.

Doubts then set in and the high ground achieved at home was quickly lost. India went on a downward spiral till the slide was arrested, again, in a home series last month. It's a cycle which has been playing out too often for comfort.

Most of our cricketers would now take a break for the next couple of weeks, except for those seeking to find form and fitness. Yuvraj Singh and Irfan Pathan need to play as much as they can, and the same is true for Sehwag. They most likely would turn out for the zonal sides in the domestic one-day competition and would draw huge attention. One hopes there would be enough good performances by them to cheer the Indian camp.

In the West Indies, from Trinidad to Antigua to Barbados, the conditions could be very different. One hopes the team has covered most bases and wouldn't be found wanting on different tracks, whether they are seaming and bouncy or low and slow. It's a real issue and no smart team would ignore this possibility.

by Anand Vasu

'India's biggest problem at the moment is that they go into the World Cup with a squad that has several players who are decidedly undercooked' © Getty Images

When a team for a big tournament is announced with no surprises, it could be for a variety of reasons. Firstly there's the Australia situation, where a team has been winning consistently over a period of time, and wears a settled look, only needing tinkering when someone is injured. Then there's the Sri Lanka situation, where a team has sorted out its combination, has had plenty of time to test it, and believes it gives them the best chance of success. And finally there's the India situation, where there are simply no other viable choices. Now, this isn't the ideal position to be in, but that does not automatically mean that the team chosen is a bad one.

India's biggest problem at the moment is that they go into the World Cup with a squad that has several players who are decidedly undercooked. Yuvraj Singh, a proven matchwinner in one-dayers, had two international matches in three months. Irfan Pathan is in much the same boat. Munaf Patel is returning from an injury, and Virender Sehwag has spent too little time at the crease, through indifferent form and a forced break. But, having said that, a lot of this is because of the circumstances the team has been faced with, rather than any fault of the team management or the selectors.

Rahul Dravid had said earlier that there was little to do now for these players other than to make the most of the last two matches against Sri Lanka and then put in a lot of "hard nets." That's precisely what they must do, but whether it will be enough remains to be seen. The one thing in India's favour is that all these players are experienced enough, especially in one-day cricket, and have tasted plenty of success in the past, which means they know the road forward.

If you have to feel for someone who has missed the cut, it is Ramesh Powar, the Mumbai offspinner. He's had his opportunities through injury to one of India's premier spinners, and has, largely, grabbed them. With Anil Kumble no longer the ace ODI bowler that he once was - there was a time when it was next to impossible to score more than 40 runs off his 10 overs - and Harbhajan Singh growing into a restrictive option rather than a genuinely wicket-taking one, there was hope for Powar. For, even in the face of some heavy mauling, Powar has shown the nerve and ability to continue to toss the ball up, stick to his plans, and look for wickets.

The disappointing thing for Powar is that all that he's done simply has not been enough to displace one of the two main spinners. The selectors have gone for pedigree over pluck, and you can't fault them too much. The hope was that Powar would bring to the table some of the belligerent batting that he so routinely delivers in domestic cricket, and that his fitness and fielding would be lifted once he was in the Team India environment.

Despite his steely nerve, Ramesh Powar simply has not done enough to displace one of the two main spinners © Getty Images

While his fielding is nowhere near as bad as it is made out to be by some people who cannot look past his podgy build, his batting has contributed little in the chances he got. With Pathan going off the boil, there was a real chance for Powar to cement his place in the side as a bowler who could contribute with the bat - not in a floating position but certainly down the order - but that never happened.

The other person who will count himself unlucky, and will be missed in certain ways, is Suresh Raina. Not long ago, he was the next batting hope, one rung below Yuvraj and Mohammad Kaif, the second of whom seems all but finished, and today he finds himself left far behind. Dinesh Karthik fields like a tiger and has done a lot more with the bat, and raced ahead of Raina in the pecking order. Robin Uthappa brings that same fielding electricity to the mix and has been a massive hit with the bat. Still, even with all his failures with the bat, having Raina in the squad would not have been a bad thing, just for the manner in which he fields, but there simply is no space.

At one stage in the recent Rajkot one-dayer against Sri Lanka, the field, starting from Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the wicketkeeper, and working your way around anticlockwise, was as follows: Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly (slips), Kumble (third man), Karthik (point), Uthappa (cover), Munaf (mid-off), Dravid (mid-on), Harbhajan
(midwicket) and Sehwag (square leg). Of course, this looks especially dodgy because Yuvraj, Ajit Agarkar, Pathan and Zaheer Khan were missing through injury, but still, you can see the vast gap between the trio of Uthappa, Karthik, Yuvraj and the rest. So will teams like Australia, and India will be conceding a serious handicap in the field every single time.

There will be those who feel wronged: VVS Laxman has already made some comments about not having being given enough chances, Kaif supporters will be up in arms over a career in disarray, and Gautam Gambhir may have nursed some hopes. But, if you assembled a completely different set of five selectors, and they honestly picked 15, it would not be much different from this one.

If Sehwag manages to get runs in the next game, it will be dubbed a timely return to form ahead of the World Cup but, if he fails, no one will spare a moment of thought in sympathy for the man © Hindustan Times

In another game, where it generally pays to whack the ball as hard and as far as you possibly can, another often misunderstood sportsman once distinctively remarked, "Slump? I ain't in no slump. I just ain't hittin." Baseball Hall of Famer Yogi Berra is now 80-plus, but many of his pithy 'Yogiisms' would be happily taken up by many of my cricketing colleagues. With the same spirit.

Case in point: Ever since India's tour to South Africa ended, Virender Sehwag has been the talk of the town. First for his omission in the series against West Indies, then for his inclusion in the side for this series (which, doubters believe, apparently bettered his chances for the World Cup), and now for an alleged manager's report that is said to reveal a lot of damning secrets about his behaviour in South Africa.

Intriguingly, this "report" was leaked just before Viru was set to play his first match after his comeback and that itself gives rise to many questions (which, of course, is not my job to raise).

However, the situation took me back to the day before I made my debut for India in October 2003. I got a call from an inquisitive (and well known) journalist, ostensibly to ask about my plans for the Kiwis but matters quickly went another way. He soon reminded me of a couple of balls I had nicked in the side game prior to the Test and how lucky I was to find no third or fourth slip in place. He went on to tell me about an inside edge that missed the stumps narrowly and how I was seen to be uncomfortable against the Kiwi attack.

He must have watched the tour game very closely indeed as he detected a flaw in my forward defence too (and told me in detail). Finally, when I put the phone down, I was in a daze and left wondering if there was anything right at all about my batting and technique. I had scored runs against the same opposition in the two warm-up games while playing for the Board President's XI and India A but that conversation scared me more than actually facing Daniel Vettori and the others.

And it was not an isolated incident. On the eve of our first Test in Australia, later that year, a senior, renowned cricket journalist took the time out to explain to me why I had neither the technique nor the temperament to face the Aussies at the Gabba!

I'm certain every cricketer who's played for the country has encountered similar situations. I haven't spoken to Viru about this but I'm sure he's been bombarded by calls and text messages in the past few days. I'm also sure a lot of people trying to get in touch with him were not ill-intentioned and were merely trying to put forward his case but does he need all that attention before a hugely important game?

His focus should be on the game but is it really possible to not only switch off your cell phone but also switch off mentally and turn a deaf ear to whatever is happening around? If he manages to get runs in the next game, it will be dubbed a timely return to form ahead of the World Cup but, if he fails, no one will spare a moment of thought in sympathy for the man.

Players are humans (though many believe they aren't) and are as affected by the environment around them, especially if they're in a fragile state of mind, as most other people. There's more than enough on your plate during these times (regarding your form and self-belief) and any add-ons are disruptive. But who's listening?

On the eve of our first Test in Australia, later that year, a senior, renowned cricket journalist took the time out to explain to me why I had neither the technique nor the temperament to face the Aussies at the Gabba

Before I'm attacked for being anti-media, let me quickly say I'm not. I think the media of today does a great job in highlighting domestic performances and bringing deserving players into the national reckoning. Look at how Robin Uthappa was rewarded for his outstanding first-class season and is now a new sensation. Or the way Ranadeb Bose has figured on every news channel after taking his team to the Ranji finals.

This wasn't the first time a player had scored in excess of 1000 runs or taken 57 wickets in a season. A few years ago, Tamil Nadu's Sridharan Sriram scored more than 1200 runs in 12 games, Dinesh Mongia totalled more than 1000 in 11 while I managed to cross the 900-run mark (in 9 and 11 matches respectively) in two consecutive seasons.

Similarly, Narendra Hirwani, the former India legspinner, took 79 wickets in 2002-03; the same season Sairaj Bahutule, another former India leggie, took 62 wickets. But did anyone really know anything about it then? The answer is no, simply because the kind of interest you see in domestic cricket now was absent a couple of years ago.

This has happened because purely because of the media, thanks to whom people across the country now know in advance who's next in line for an India cap, instead of knowing people only when they wear one.

The added pressure is the flip side of the publicity. So not only do you have to develop a skin thick enough to face verbal assaults (read: sledging) from the opposition but also to prevent whatever is written or said about you in the media to get to you. Or, to paraphrase Yogi Berra, the nickel you have won't be worth a dime.

'How come Samuels, who bowled 10 overs in the first match and was the most economical bowler in a run-fest, didn't bowl a single over on a slow and low pitch in the second match?' © Getty Images

Sambit Bal

The details are too insubstantial and hazy to frame conclusions or even
attempt to comment with any degree of authority. But this much can be said: for the sake of the game, let's hope this is a rare case of smoke
without fire and the conversations that the Nagpur police claimed to have taped between Marlon Samuels and an alleged bookie are no more than a temporary indiscretion from a gullible player. Cricket can't afford to have its foundations shaken once again.

The scars of the last scandal remain, the cynicism it bred hasn't been easy to ward off. The morning after the story broke, I happened to be chatting to an Indian player (not currently in the team) and the conversation inevitably veered towards the Samuels affair. "You wouldn't believe it", he said cautiously, "how many times have I looked at a session of play or a decision at the toss and wondered whether something was amiss."

Coming from a current player, it was a jolt. What would the fans be thinking? Questions are already pouring out, and they are not restricted to Samuels. Why did West Indies choose to field every time they won the
toss? Isn't it better to have runs on the board on flat pitches than chase 300? How can Chanderpaul score 149 off 133 balls in one match and 67 off 125 in the next? How come Samuels, who bowled 10 overs in the first match and was the most economical bowler in a run-fest, didn't bowl a single over on a slow and low pitch in the second match?

Of course, all of this can be explained in cricket terms. West Indies have been happy chasers for years and it is routine for Brian Lara to insert the opposition; Chanderpaul has been a schizophrenic batsman all his life - he has a 69-ball hundred, but once scored 136 runs off 510 balls; the West Indian medium pacers were doing quite well on an up-and-down pitch and Samuels wasn't needed. But once the seeds of doubt have been planted, we can safely bet that questions will continue to be raised. Every time a player's name is linked to a bookie, the whole game comes under a shadow.

That's why the administrators - the ICC and the West Indian Cricket Board - must act swiftly. Innuendo and speculation will hurt cricket. The last match-fixing scandal shook the faith of the believers. It took a while for the cricket fan to be able to watch a game of cricket for what it was.

Cricket is a game of unpredictable twists and turns. It's a part of the game that batsmen will be run out, catches will be dropped, players will have off days and, every now and then, a captain will make a silly mistake. If dark thoughts invade the mind each time such a thing happens we might as well stop watching the game.

We will never know the full story of the previous match-fixing scandal. Some of those found guilty have been rehabilitated, but it is more than likely many more got away. Some national boards acted half-heartedly, some shoved it under the carpet. Cricket simply can't afford do so again. To start with,if the matter isn't investigated and dealt with immediately, the World Cup will be played under a cloud.

Given the background and the strict ICC norms, it is incredible for an international player to be discussing team composition and bowling strategy on the phone a day before the match

If Samuels is telling the truth, that he knew Mukesh Kochar but didn't know he was a bookie, he can be accused of being unbelievably naive. Given the background and the strict ICC norms, it is incredible for an international player to be discussing team composition and bowling strategy on the phone a day before the match. That the subcontinent is the hub of illegal betting is hardly a secret and it is a failure of common sense from the player, and negligence on the part of the team.

And the Indian police will be doing no one any favours if they choose to leak out the selective information. For more than a day, India was agog with speculation over the involvement of an "Indian allrounder who batted in the lower order". Then Robin Singh's name emerged. And now, looking at the transcripts, it seems to be a reference to a "Robinson". Match-fixers, or those who dally with bookmakers, have no place in cricket. But neither should players be held guilty by suspicion.

It's time to act. There is no space for bargaining and politicking. To do so would be to play with faith and trifle with the future of cricket.

Aakash Chopra and Virender Sehwag are two players who're contemplating moving out of Delhi © AFP

Kadambari Murali

Step into the Ferozeshah Kotla this week and you will hear the story of how a desperate couple, at their wit's end over how to get their son into an age-group team, came up with a strategy that was as simple as it was smart.

Having heard about how a certain selector had made salacious suggestions to the mothers of several young aspirants, they took the man to dinner. Midway, the father got an urgent call and left, asking the lady to drop the selector home. Along the way, she and the selector made a private date and sure enough, soon after she obliged him, the boy made it to the age-group team.

Of course, as the selector eventually found out, the woman he had made (and kept) the date with was not the boy's mother; she had been paid to do a job. The money exchanged was apparently Rs 5,000 (the exact amount is unknown) which, if true, was far less than what some parents have allegedly paid to get their son to play for Delhi.

At one level, this story is funny. At another, it is a sad reflection on the state of cricketing affairs in India's capital, where, it seems, there are many ways to get oneself selected - heaps of money, top political or bureaucratic connections, a father or uncle in the DDCA brass, goon power. Perhaps even a despairing "mother".

Ironically, though, the topic of conversation among senior Delhi players at the current training camp at the Kotla was not entry but exit: Fed up with the mess in the DDCA, they are considering plans to leave the state and play as professionals elsewhere.

The topic of conversation among senior Delhi players at the current training camp at the Kotla was not entry but exit: Fed up with the mess in the DDCA, they are considering plans to leave the state and play as professionals elsewhere

While players do not obviously want to come on record with their plans, it is fairly common knowledge that Virender Sehwag has a standing offer from Haryana, that Aakash Chopra has been sounded out by a couple of teams, that Ashish Nehra might well choose between Maharashtra and Rajasthan and that Gautam Gambhir and Mithun Manhas are also thinking of shipping out to Rajasthan.

"It's a huge step, leaving home", said one player, "but if it doesn't feel like home any longer we might as well move to a state that wants us enough to pay for us and, more importantly, respects us as cricketers and supports us as its players."

Whether any or all of them will actually hold concrete discussions or make a move will be known only later this year but it is a chilling prospect for any organization. However, the DDCA, immersed in faction-fighting, may not care. They will ignore the iffy Ranji Trophy record and the shambolic state of affairs at the Kotla and instead point to the 10 India players, including nine Test cricketers, Delhi has produced since it last won the Trophy in 1991-92. That figure, equaled in Tests only by Mumbai, goes to show the talent that exists in the capital.

It is to Delhi cricket's credit that, though naturally reflecting the power-centric ethos of the national capital, it remained fairly sane till the mid-nineties. Despite a powerful administration, the players were a powerful lobby too and, while they bickered amongst themselves, they were a pretty united front when facing the world, not allowing any interference in selectorial policies.

However, the period after the 1996 World Cup saw a vicious fall-out between two of Delhi's senior-most players, with one joining hands with the administrators. That was perhaps the beginning of the end. The toehold allowed to non-cricketing officials, combined with Delhi's political culture and the hugely increased commercial stakes, resulted in an unseemly mess. The upshot: nobody in the DDCA has since given a damn.

And it shows. This season, the players had to spend about 15 hours travelling from Delhi to Rajkot - via Ahmedabad - by air and road two days before a crucial Ranji game. Why, they wondered, couldn't they be flown to Mumbai the night before and then taken on a direct flight to Rajkot , instead of the long road trip? That wasn't all: Match done, they had to endure a 22-hour journey to Vijayawada for the match against Andhra, a journey that included long hours in the Mumbai airport ahead of a connecting 3:15am flight to Hyderabad (obviously a cheaper option).

It wasn't just the travel: The hotel in Vijayawada, say the players, "was terrible" but as it had been paid for in advance (as is the norm), with no one checking the quality of services, they stayed put. In Rohtak, for their final game against Haryana, the team was spread over two hotels as there weren't enough free rooms in one. Obviously, no one had bothered with bookings in advance despite Ranji schedules being known months ahead.

And this is the Ranji Trophy side. Delve deeper and you will hear allegations of bribery and enticement, unhappy and sordid sagas that cannot be legally taken up because it is a world that protects its own. And because few want to come on record and say something that would almost certainly hinder their son/ brother/ nephew's quest for what, to most, is the ultimate prize - a Delhi Ranji cap.

Except, apparently, for those who already wear it and are sadly discovering it's just not worth the bother, or the heartbreak.

They're going to win it anyway, does anybody still care? © Getty Images

Tim de Lisle

Cricket, like the food in British supermarkets, has lost a lot of its seasonality. It rolls on remorselessly, year-round, and doesn't care if it loses flavour as a result. There are still certain fixed points in the calendar, giving shape to the year, like the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne. But even things that come round annually aren't always cheering. Early February has taken on a particular character: it's when lovers of one-day cricket lose the will to watch.

The reason is the qualifying stage of the tri-nation tournament in Australia. This is one of sport's great idiocies. You have three teams, and you need to reduce them to two. So you stage 12 matches! In six cities! Over nearly four weeks! And you expect people to stay awake!

Back in 1990-91, I covered one of these tournaments. I had been a cricket correspondent for a year and it was the first time I had found the game uninspiring. The itinerary had been designed to sap all energy and enthusiasm. I remember writing that the tournament was making geometric history, since it was both triangular and one-sided. That feat has been repeated many times since, and most of all now. Australia lord it in their own backyard to a ludicrous degree. The other teams are like a couple of small boys who get asked round to a bigger kid's house purely so he can trounce them at Call of Duty 3.

The Aussies can't help being good, but they could stop organising so many matches. Brevity is the soul of one-day cricket. Staging each fixture four times defeats the point. As it happens, the present series has stayed alive right through to today's final qualifier - depending on your definition of alive. And England have done their best to make it compelling, in a macabre way, by finding new depths to plumb. But that doesn't mean the tournament is the right length.

Not that Cricket Australia is the only culprit. The 2003 World Cup was way too long, sprawling to 54 matches. This time, our friends at ICC have learnt their lesson and cut it back - to 51 matches. In terms of time, it has somehow got longer, expanding from 43 days to 47. Even Fifa, which is not noted for underdoing things, manages to get a World Cup finished inside a month.

English fans used to be able to be "a little bit superior", as we are described in Tom Stoppard's Rock'n'Roll, about one-day scheduling. Not any more: this year England will host their first seven-match home series against a single opponent, India. This is part of a reciprocal arrangement hammered out by two boards who always disagree about scheduling. England played seven one-dayers in India last year, so the same must happen here. The fact that the series in India was the dullest piece of popular entertainment since the second Star Wars trilogy is neither here nor there. And yes, I know England were rubbish in that series, but the itinerary - a breakneck spin around some of the subcontinent's more obscure venues - was stupid, verging on sadistic.

With the World Cup only five weeks away, Test cricket has now taken a break. But one-day international cricket hasn't. South Africa v Pakistan dribbles on till February 14; India v Sri Lanka till February 17. At the end of the month, Bangladesh, Bermuda and Canada will be cooking up a little World Cup appetiser, consisting of three games that count as official one-dayers.

No sooner will Australia have lifted the Commonwealth Bank trophy, than they have to jump on a plane to Wellington to play another three matches against their mate Lou Vincent and the rest of the Black Caps. Even Mr Cricket himself, Mike Hussey, may struggle to care about that one. The two teams will be playing for the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy. What was meant as a tribute to two great cricket families ends up as a bit of an embarrassment.

How did the short form of the game get so long-winded? It's partly Kerry Packer's fault, for abruptly expanding our idea of how long a series could be. It's partly the administrators' fault, for being greedy and blinkered and working the players to the bone. It's partly the television companies' fault, for not seeing that less would be more. But mainly it's our fault, for watching.

This is a public service announcement. You may find a cricket match on your television screen that is not very interesting. Do adjust your set. Press the off button. The good of the game depends on it.

by Siddhartha Vaidyanathan

Shiny happy people - The smiles are back after a 3-1 win against West Indies © AFP

"When people score runs, it solves a lot of problems." Rahul Dravid's forthright assertion at the end of the opening game against West Indies at Nagpur summed up India's series, one which they began with several questions and ended with most answered. The margin of victory (3-1) conveys their dominance and it was mainly the shocking middle-order collapse at Chennai that prevented a clean sweep.

India returned from South Africa a destroyed one-day side and the home series offered a chance to get things back on track by finding answers to the various questions the team composition posed. We look at the crucial issues:

The openers: The opening combination was kaput - Sachin Tendulkar out of sorts, Virender Sehwag struggling and Wasim Jaffer not being able to make the cut - and that was having a knock-on effect on the middle order. All it required was some tweaking and fine-tuning and India were away. Sehwag was dropped, Tendulkar pushed down the order. Sourav Ganguly returned in fine style and the tyros who opened with him - Robin Uthappa and Gautam Gambhir - seized one chance apiece.

Gambhir's series was illustrative of his career - confidence at Nagpur, misjudgement, maybe even misfortune, at Cuttack, and sloppiness at Chennai. He could have eyed the reserve-opener slot for the World Cup but Sehwag's imminent return makes it an extremely long shot because Uthappa might just have upstaged him for that berth. His 41-ball 70 will be hard to match for its sheer impact, with crisply struck swats clattering into the boundary hoardings. The jury is still out on his technique -sophisticated slogger or adept thumper? - but this isn't the time for such philosophical questions.

Uthappa has amassed 854 runs in seven games in a bowler-dominated Ranji Trophy - significantly, three of his hundreds were on the first morning of games - and done enough, one might say, in the ODIs to deserve a spot. He needs to cash in on the starts he's got - in Chennai he gave it away when in the zone, in Vadodara he tried a cute glide to one that lifted from a good length - but he's an explosive talent and must be persisted with.

The middle order: India still don't know how well equipped they are in run-chases. Brian Lara chose to field on three occasions and Dravid decided to bat at Cuttack, the only venue where he won the toss. But Tendulkar shepherding in the middle order provides an element of calm. His hundred at Vadodara was a fine mix of strike-rotation and acceleration, giving India exactly what they missed over the last few months - consolidation followed by the final kick.

Word is that Virender Sehwag, likely to return for the Sri Lanka series, will bat in the middle order and, along with the impressive Dinesh Karthik and destructive Mahendra Singh Dhoni, provide the much-needed firepower at the death.

If Sehwag is indeed tried out in the middle order then he may have to compete with Dinesh Karthik for a place. Sehwag provides the offspin option but Karthik's agility, in a side that's loaded with weak fielders, will be impossible to ignore. And where does this leave Suresh Raina, who squandered his only chance at Chennai? India's ideal 12th man but whether fielding alone is enough for a spot remains to be seen.

The allrounder: This is one slot that doesn't seem to have any takers - Joginder Sharma muffed his chance at Cuttack, reckless with the bat and listless with the ball. Ramesh Powar, till recently a handy domestic allrounder, seized his chance with the ball, in his only opportunity at Cuttack, but his batting seems to have fallen away (and he doesn't have fielding to fall back on). He would anyway struggle to make the World Cup squad, with India almost set on picking two specialist spinners and the part-timers being slow bowlers as well. Irfan Pathan, lackluster in his only appearance at Vadodara, looks the ideal one to step into the No.7 void, provided he regains some sort of bowling rhythm.

Unanswered questions: What does one expect against Sri Lanka? The main question over the bowling is the choice between the erratic Sreesanth and the fragile Munaf Patel, with only one of them likely to be picked for the West Indies, and there's still a doubt over Pathan's rhythm. Yuvraj Singh hasn't done much with the bat since his return from injury and India will hope that the few remaining wrinkles are ironed over during the last lap of their World Cup preparations.

by Anand Vasu

Sachin Tendulkar didn't waste much time getting his eye in as he went on to make a 76-ball hundred © Getty Images

When it comes together like it did today, it is as irresistible as it is beautiful. The Indian batting line-up, for some years now, has been one of the most imposing teamsheets around. Even without Virender Sehwag, who will no doubt be back when the Sri Lankans come to India in a week, the top three batsmen in this team bring to the table 35003 one-day international runs and 75 centuries. In some cases whole teams don't boast such numbers. And when even two of the three fire, forget about all three backed up by some serious firepower at the death, big scores are inevitable.

In Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly India are fortunate to have, at the same time, three of the finest one-day batsmen of all time. In a World Cup year, this becomes especially relevant, for the temptation is to leave the big picture, the long-term, alone for the moment, and concentrate on winning the big prize, at all costs. And when the run buffet is as sumptuous as it was in Baroda, as a consumer you have to just cut loose and enjoy it.

Robin Uthappa may be the flavour of the fortnight, imposing himself with some barnstorming innings, but it was the calm, cool elegance of Ganguly that inspired confidence. There was an air of been-there-done-that to Ganguly as he picked off a couple of early boundaries, and then really signalled the kind of touch he was in with a lofted four off Marlon Samuels. Moving to leg slightly, Ganguly freed his arms, and could have hit the ball with all the strength in his torso, but instead, he gently coaxed it along, timing the ball perfectly, using the bat not so much to propel the ball but to direct it over mid-off to the boundary.

When Uthappa fell, Dravid joined Ganguly and the runs came with a minimum of fuss. Almost without a chance 101 runs were added for the second wicket, off only 113 balls, and when Ganguly jumped down the pitch and was stumped, India were going along at almost six, giving Tendulkar a buffer to settle in. But Tendulkar wasn't about to waste his time at the crease. Although he did not exhibit the same ease of boundary hitting as Ganguly, the intent to pick up singles was heightened, and the scoreboard was ticking over, the runs swelling.

Dravid, the rock of conventional middle-order ODI batting, helped himself to 78, with seven boundaries, but it was the man at the other end who was driving the crowd to distraction and making the connoisseurs purr with delight. Tendulkar's cover and square-driving were of the highest quality - the balance perfect, the weight transfer immaculate, the ball seldom going in the air. Dravid's dismissal, attempting to heave Samuels over midwicket, barely caused a blip, and brought on a roar from the crowd, not because it was time for him to go, but at 266 for 3 in the 44th over, it was MS Dhoni time.

Tendulkar, on 67 when Dhoni walked in, did not seem to realistically think he would make it to three figures, and was simply content turning the strike over and letting Dhoni loose on the bowlers. Dhoni certainly didn't mind, and proceeded to whip the bowlers to all parts. Long off, long-on, midwicket, the corporate office of Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited just outside the ground - nothing was spared as the ball disappeared to all parts.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni's hitting reached such a fever pitch that the crowd actually rumbled their discontent when Tendulkar was on strike © Getty Images

Dhoni's hitting reached such a fever pitch that the crowd actually rumbled their discontent when Tendulkar was on strike. Perhaps spurred by this, perhaps because he simply thought the time had come, Tendulkar unfurled his first big hit, a slog-sweep for six that took him to 83. Just two runs later Brian Lara did the unthinkable, putting down a straightforward offering from Tendulkar at mid-off, allowing an inside-out hit to somehow spear through him and run away to the boundary. On 91, Tendulkar was put down again, this time on the midwicket boundary by Lendl Simmons, and then it became clear that it was his day. Tendulkar's 41st one-day hundred was on its way, and off the last ball of the innings he pinched a single, taking his score to an even 100, off only 76 balls, and India to 341.

If there was still a chance, after India had posted such a tall score, then it evaporated when Ajit Agarkar delivered the prize wicket of Chris Gayle early on with a peach that curled away from the bat and Shivnarine Chanderpaul lobbed one to square-leg. All that was left, with the result not in serious doubt, was for the crowd to get one last look at Lara on Indian soil. They got one glide to third-man, and one whip off the hips before Lara, at the non-striker's end, was run out, backing up too much as a straight drive from Samuels ricocheted off Irfan Pathan onto the stumps. The crowd roared when the third umpire signalled the fall of the biggest West Indian wicket about, but perhaps they shouldn't have, for they'd just lost the last chance to savour a Lara innings in the flesh.

And yes, the time will come soon to see the back of Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly, not far apart from each other, and Indian crowds will then be left sampling what riches the next generation of batsmen has to offer. For the moment, though, in the approach to the World Cup, fans would do well to treasure the occasional pearls that they drop, instead of wondering whether these stalwarts are past their use-by date.

by Bob Woolmer

Ooooh, it was close. In the end it wasn't enough, as Inzamam knows only too well © AFP

So near yet so far is, I guess, the story of Pakistan's Test series against South Africa. I used a figure of 5% as the likelihood of a subcontinent side winning a Test here before. The figure for a series win is, of course, lower.

Statistically, South Africa deserved the victory. Subcontinent teams have pushed them since their readmission, but only Australia and England have bettered them over a series. Interestingly, Inzamam said that of all his tours this was the closest and best effort by a Pakistan side. I hope that the words I use will not be construed as excuses but will provide fair reasons why Pakistan failed at the final hurdle.

Madness of the modern-day calendar

I believe that, with these itineraries, it will become harder for teams to have enough preparation in adjusting to conditions. Seven days was not enough for us and the problem was compounded by Shoaib Malik and Umar Gul picking up injuries during Pakistan's Twenty20. So our best bowler and a fine allrounder missed the Test series, after both broke down during the one warm-up game in Kimberley.

By hook or by crook

Centurion Park is an ideal venue for the home team. The pitch has bounce and reasonable pace and while our tactics of taking on their pace bowlers were well-conceived, both our shot selection and timing went awry in the first innings, with seven of our players out hooking. Our total was adequate but not a winning one. In order to beat South Africa you have to score big runs like the Australians do. South Africa were able to build a substantial lead which, on that type of surface, is match-winning.

Make that a large one

Mohammed Yousuf's unavailability meant that the younger members of the team needed to put their hands up. Though Imran Farhat and Yasir Hameed both scored fifties at Centurion they needed to score hundreds. The fact that no Pakistan player scored a hundred in the series is a telling statistic. Inzamam's quite superb innings in Port Elizabeth, Yousuf's cameo in Cape Town and Younis Khan's belligerence went close but were not enough, though in Port Elizabeth they helped win the Test.

Bowl, bat, catch, appeal: Is there anything Jaqques Kallis can't do? © Getty Images

A man of many talents

You can't blame the batsmen entirely for we have to give credit to Shaun Pollock, Makhaya Ntini, Dale Steyn and Andre Nel who all did their bit for the home team. But South Africa have, in Jacques Kallis, one of cricket's great batsmen and bowling allrounders.

At Centurion and Cape Town we managed to dismiss Kallis in the first innings but he was rock-solid both times. At Port Elizabeth, he nearly denied us victory. His technique and desire enabled South Africa to cross the finishing line and he was ably helped by Ashwell Prince who has matured into a fine batsman.

Ultimately, Kallis turned out to be the difference between the two teams as his performances, especially at Cape Town on the last morning, were magnificent. He saw off two of the most outstanding young bowlers to emerge recently in Mohammed Asif and Danish Kaneria. Pakistan had their chances but crucially the few that they did have were missed despite a fielding display that was much better than in recent times.

Not all gloomy

Despite the doom and gloom that prevails over a Pakistan loss, I believe it was, as Inzamam said, a real sign that this side is progressing to a new level. The squashed nature of itineraries increasingly creates fatigue among the bowlers and leaves little or no time to work on the frailties of batting techniques. Therefore it conspires along with lack of preparation time to change the flow.

The win in Port Elizabeth was absolutely fantastic. A brief glimpse of Shoaib Akhtar in the game positively cries out for an Asif, Akhtar and Gul combination. There is no doubt in my mind if these three were fit together then Pakistan would be a real force. With today's schedules though, it may be asking too much.

Ntini is an exception to the rule and somehow his body seems to be indestructible although it was abundantly clear that, at Cape Town, he was exhausted. Steyn, who had been injured earlier in the Indian series, provided pace and took vital wickets at the end and by contrast Asif almost needed a wheelchair to get to the crease by the end, such had been his workload.

Lessons learnt

1. Never again must two countries agree to these torturous schedules, especially before the World Cup.

2. Players have to be completely match-fit in order to play Test cricket.

3. Pakistan need to create bouncier faster-paced pitches if they want to succeed abroad.

4. South Africa they need to look at the preparation of their pitches if they are to produce more batsmen of Kallis's pedigree.

The pitches were bowler-friendly throughout and Newlands in Cape Town has a lot of off-season maintenance ahead in order to bring the ground back to where it was. I say this remembering the bowler-friendly pitches at the Wanderers and Trent Bridge. Transvaal and Nottinghamshire used the conditions to win trophies with great bowling attacks, but eventually it cost their sides dear as their batsmen began to struggle.

And finally

I believe that Pakistan and India are improving on bouncier surfaces. Pakistan showed steel, competed harder than ever before and with more focus on weaknesses they will soon test southern hemisphere nations and eventually beat them.

Ultimately, it was a fascinating and competitive series. It will serve both teams well at the World Cup to have had a contest like this where all games could have finished differently and the result was never a forgone conclusion. This is what Test cricket is about.