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| • Batting giants in Asia |
| Five out of the top 10 all-time highest averages in Asia belong to batsmen who are playing in the Test series in Sri Lanka |
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| • Thank god for England v Pakistan |
| Tired of dead pitches, run gluts and off-field stories full of legalese? Here are two teams: one bursting with young talent and the other, willingness to engage in battle |
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| • 'The more the pressure, the stronger I got' |
| The charismatic former Pakistan captain on wanting to be fast, teaching Wasim and Waqar to bowl, the allrounder wars of the 1980s, ball-tampering, and more |
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| • Amateurs show their value |
| As the counties face crucial decisions about the game's structure, many are struggling to stay afloat, although the Unicorns have shown money isn't everything |
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| • Shirtfront strategies |
| What do you do when the curator has it in for bowlers? You plan, persevere and pray |
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| • How the mighty have fallen |
| Australia and India face similar problems, with ageing stalwarts and unproven youngsters. The upcoming series between the two doesn't seem as good a prospect as those in recent times |
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| • The lions and their shares |
| Bowlers and batsmen who took the largest percentage of their team's wickets and scored the largest percentage of their team's runs over their careers |
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| • Murali's magic, and Australian collapses |
| Five-fors and ten-fors against all teams, Raina's captaincy record, an update on ball changes, and more |
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| • A train trip, a walking physio, and the best ATM of all time |
| When in Sri Lanka: listen to local music, skip Colombo, go to Galle and enjoy the laidback lifestyle |
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| • Give neutral Tests a chance |
| Despite the poor turnouts, the Pakistan-Australia series was a success, and it serves as an invitation to other English grounds to get behind the concept |
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| • The Invincibles |
| When you count the number of greats who had to be omitted from this XI, you realise the wealth of talent West Indies possessed |
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| • We need to keep Harbhajan under control |
| If we can keep India's No. 1 bowler quiet, we will probably have won half the battle |
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| • Honest but hazy |
| Amid all the statistical highlights, you get a look at the man behind the umpire, but it's a fuzzy image |
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| • Hope floats after hoodoo ends |
| Despite the near panic at the end, this win is memorable as the one that breaks the stranglehold Australia have had over Pakistan |
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| • How cricket matches are scripted |
| Everything is up for betting, from how many runs will be scored in a session to how many players will wear floppy hats |
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| • Lloyd's pace quartet |
| Till then fast bowlers had hunted in pairs; Clive Lloyd decided his attack would hunt in packs |
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| • 'Glad I don't need to face him' |
| The tributes pour in as Muttiah Muralitharan ends his Test career with 800 wickets |
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| • Nobody could have done it better |
| Murali was top of the world on the field and classy off it |
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| • Best and worst venues for batting first |
| A look at grounds with the highest and lowest averages for the team batting first in Tests |
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| • The case of the missing teeth |
| With a bowling line-up like the one they have at the moment, India look anything but the No. 1 team they supposedly are |
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| • Cheeky, chatty, charitable |
| To know Murali was to love him (and occasionally to wish he would be quiet) |
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| • Hurry up with the World Test Championship |
| It's going to be hard to squeeze it into the schedule, but cricket needs the context provided by a definitive tournament to crown the top Test team in the world |
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| • Thirteen wins and counting |
| The most consecutive wins, and the longest unbeaten streaks, by one team against another in Tests, ODIs and Twenty20 |
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| • Past perfect |
| Talent, skill, cricketing smarts and a ferocious will to achieve: the world's most romanticised player had it all |
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| • A whole (almost) new ball game |
| Rather than trimming a format slowly being reduced to un-coveted ashes, Cricket Australia is involved in a dramatic redesign of one-day cricket |
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| • Honours boards, and bored with the ball |
| Bowling unchanged through an innings, fifties in consecutive Tests, Bangladesh's most dependable batsmen, and more |
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| • 'I could never plan against him' |
| Virender Sehwag takes his hat off to a bowler he was never quite able to figure out how to play comfortably |
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| • Those two pals, and Toothpick |
| West Indies may not have produced as many top-notch spinners as fast bowlers, but the ones that did come through were world-beaters |
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| • Don't blame Afridi |
| What was the board thinking by appointing as captain a player who hadn't played a Test in four years, to lead one of Pakistan's most inexperienced sides? |
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| • 'Afridi has harmed Pakistan cricket and should be penalised' |
| Former players and columnists on the latest saga to unfold in Pakistan cricket |
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| Updated: 340 minutes ago |
