On many levels, cricket seems to be full of contradictions and confusion right now

  What the Champions Trophy has just showed us is that cricket needs these occasional global tournaments to provide a wider perspective on a game that is still only genuinely competitive amongst a handful of nations

Perhaps it’s worth giving serious thought to the 4 x 25 over format that Sachin Tendulkar (and others) are expounding, to renew and regenerate the 50-over game

Instead of viewing it as another tactic in the batting arsenal, it’s almost viewed as Devil and Saviour in the one incarnation, thereby giving it that real Jekyll & Hyde quality that confuses clear thinking

I’m sure all domestic structures have these characters who dominate the local scene but rarely sustain it on the international stage but for some reason, in England, these players seem to enjoy relatively long international careers, recalled time and

What’s interesting is the tendency for commentators the world over to be far more aggressive in their analysis than in their playing days

If captains can somehow manage those adrenalin-charged moments of high emotion and allow the batsman to get away from the square without incident, we may well avoid a host of unseemly incidents.

The nature of Australian pitches lends itself to bigger, stronger physiques dominating senior club cricket

At the end of the day, ODI’s and Twenty20s require the quintessential modern athlete to conquer it

  Predicting the final outcome of the Ashes Series is a tough call

Phillip Hughes – from golden boy to Twitter in three Test innings

The only way for a noble but essentially irrelevant concept like this to meaningfully find its way back into cricket is for the ICC to take a firm position on what it stands for

I’m firmly in the camp of those who think that this modern preoccupation with multiple coaches and support staff is a case of massive overkill

To get some answers from someone who has recent experience of the art of fast bowling in Australia and India, I hunted down Joey Dawes, former Queensland and Middlesex fast bowler and the current fast bowling coach of the Queensland Bulls.

It’s easy to forget how young Afridi still is

Why apologise

Whilst Queensland supporters are irate at their system for allowing Noffke to fly the coop, I can see why the CEO decided to hold his ground and not be held to ransom by one player

Symonds is entitled to ask himself; are these friends, managers, counsellors and employers actually interested in my welfare or do they just want to use my marketability and skill until I become a liability

Are the best cricketers of our times born with talent or have they been unwittingly dealt the best hands in life, courtesy of their lucky birth date

Chanderpaul’s innings, after a brisk start, disintegrated into something that almost defied belief