Shane Watson, despite his unexceptional batting in this series, has, at a push, all the attributes — particularly vis-á-vis the game's peculiar lack of admiration for him — to be the heir to Jacques Kallis's mantle as the world's leading fast-bowling all-rounder.
Hushed suggestions of hypochondria have circled around Michael Clarke recently, but the general consensus is that his back has now officially caused him even more pain and stress than Lara Bingle.
The Colin Cowdrey Spirit of Cricket Lecture always garners headlines, but few speeches have been as acclaimed as Kumar Sangakkara's in 2011. Strolling as effortlessly as one of his cover drives through sport, politics, his upbringing and the 2009 terrorist attack on Sri Lanka's team bus in Pakistan, he delivered an emotive, touching talk on cricket's role within life and its powers for the wider good.
George Bailey has his critics, but on Monday he achieved the impossible by making poor Michael Clarke grimace at something other than his cursed vertebrae. It was a slovenly piece of running from the affable Australian stand-in captain ambling towards what he thought was the non-danger end —he clearly hadn't studied Sri Lanka's previous in this tournament — and up on the balcony the official skipper covered his face in his palm as his replacement was caught a long way short of his ground.
N Srinivasan's performance at his press conference on Sunday teetered on the fault line between inspiration and delusion. There sat the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), plonked down like giant slab omnipotence, as he remained utterly unrepentant for and oblivious to what had happened in two of his fiefdoms, the Indian Premier League (IPL) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
After intense lobbying by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Sir Alex Ferguson stood down as manager of Manchester United on Wednesday, to be replaced by former Indian leg-spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan.
Compared to a few other members of the Test Match Special (TMS) commentary team, Geoffrey Boycott is a renaissance man when it comes to knowledge of world cricket. Listening, as is strongly recommended, to his regular ESPN podcast Bowl at Boycs; he exhibits an appreciation of the global game and its foibles which goes well beyond the often somewhat parochial confines of TMS and, at times, Sky broadcasts.
For some, Matt Prior used to be harder to warm to than an iceberg in the shape of Jimmy Savile. Perceived as brash and mouthy, the once fumbling ’keeper came close to being regarded as almost a proxy Kevin Pietersen, a South African import whose mucky aggression simply wasn't on within the gentler confines of the English game.
The toss for the first-ever Test match between South Africa and Pakistan at Johannesburg just over 18 years ago was ostensibly a noble affair.
Shortly after former New Zealand star batsman Martin Crowe protested against Ross Taylor's sacking by setting fire to his New Zealand Test blazer, another incident of what is already being termed "Crimation" occurred on Thursday when Ian Bell reportedly burnt his bat in protest at "the completely unacceptable treatment I've received at the hands of India's bowlers throughout this tour".