A game has developed in recent times during press conferences with Andy Flower. Football commentators would probably call it a game of chess.

A journalist prefaces a question in which he wants to elicit a clue about selection for the Test team by saying: “I know you’re not going to give away any clues about selection for the Test team, but…” Everyone chuckles, including Flower, who proceeds to give an answer of studied caution, elegantly saying not very much really. Then another journalist tries, and Flower deadbats him too. And so on until we’re all none the wiser. Cats and mice could scarcely be less playful.

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Michael Clarke has unexpectedly left Australia’s tour of New Zealand to fly home. Is his girlfriend about to give birth? Did a close family member receive some bad news? Is he mentally exhausted? No. He’s flying back because his partner, the model Lara Bingle, is pursuing legal action over publication of a half-naked photo of her in a shower, taken by an ex-boyfriend years ago.

Wow. Did not see that excuse coming.

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What, for an England fan, do these two Tests against Bangladesh hold? What will get us up at 3am on Friday?

A preview of Alastair Cook’s captaincy? Two Tests against Bangladesh will offer crumbs at best.

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After an Ashes year perhaps it shouldn’t have been a great surprise but cricket and cricket writing won big last night at the British Sports Journalism Awards. Of the 25 awards on offer, nine were won by cricket writers, broadcasters and photographers.

The big winner was Mike Atherton, who was named Columnist of the Year and also the ultimate accolade of Sports Writer of the Year. He was also highly commended in the Specialist Correspondent category which he won last year.

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With England’s top four pace bowlers all carrying injuries at present, we’re likely to get a chance to evaluate the strength in depth of England’s fast bowling. In the last year or so, it’s often been said that England are blessed with a deep pool of talent, but to me it always looks like England have got a lot of bowlers who are nearly good enough for the Test team but few who actually are.

With the first-choice bowlers, each is fairly distinct. Anderson’s your classic opening bowler, but is increasingly adept at reverse swing; Broad’s taller and generally a little quicker; Ryan Sidebottom’s a left-armer; and Graham Onions, unlike pretty much every other bowler in the world, seems aware that the stumps exist and that they play some sort of a role in the game.

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Are we witnessing the resurgence of Zimbabwe?

It isn’t just their two wins in the West Indies over the last week. Things have been going on behind the scenes for some time.

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The ICC needs a political grandee like it needs another seven-week World Cup tournament.

John Howard, the former Aussie PM nominated as its next president, likes his cricket and his politics but it is hard to see him as the radical visionary to shake ICC out of its torpor.

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Ruminating on Matt Prior’s vulnerability in light of the Craig Kieswetter meteor got me thinking about what might befall the make-up of the England Test team in the lead up to the Ashes this summer.

England, entrenched in the era of central contracts, are determined to mark their selection policy with consistency. A settled side is what they want when taking on Australia in just under nine months. But the Ashes also demands a tightening of selection. No more time for blooding a few players for the challenge ahead (as is happening in the Bangladesh series). This is the challenge ahead. Things can happen suddenly in these circumstances.

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The man on the train nudged his mate to show him a report of Tendulkar’s double hundred. “We were embarrassed,” said his mate in a South African accent. Well, that’s one way of looking at it if you’re being completely Cyclopic. Perish the thought.

Another way of looking at it is that you (South Africa) were humbled by greatness, made to look ordinary by the most complete batsman of this generation, and most others.

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So, it’s goodnight Brett Lee, and Test cricket loses one of it’s few genuine box-office bowlers.

His Test career was an odd one. He finishes as Australia’s fourth highest wicket-taker with 310 wickets in 76 Tests – more than Benaud, Lindwall, Thomson, Hughes and Miller. Yet for the English, Lee will be remembered primarily for his pace, and as an inconsistent nearly man, despite opening the bowling for the greatest side in Test history.

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