1. Sometimes the tortoise wins the race. Brett Lee has gone miles as the slow bowlers have prospered, while Mendis and Murali look a potentially tournament-winning combination. Equally, captains are increasingly favouring multi-dimensional cricketers rather than the specialists.
2. Not playing Test cricket for a while does not do your fielding any good. Pakistan have looked like schoolgirls whenever the ball has gone in the air.
3. One batsman can turn any shower into world-beaters. Stand up Chris Gayle.
4. Yorkers work, yet still most seam bowlers seem reluctant to, or maybe are incapable of, employing them.
5. The BBC has its priorities wrong. Secure the highlights package for an event that is almost guaranteed to capture public interest, then schedule highlights for close to midnight presented by your biggest no-marks. Way to go.
6. England have a coach who is not afraid to change things decisively and effectively, and an opener in Luke Wright who could be on the verge of an international breakthrough. More worryingly, they also have a star-batsman who, having declared himself 70% fit, must be a major doubt to make it through five Ashes Tests in seven weeks.
7. Ricky Ponting is Leicester’s Betjeman. The Midlands won’t care if the Australian captain is this hangdog in 10 weeks time – Australia’s big players were nowhere to be seen when it mattered this week and on that evidence an Ashes upset is a real possibility.
8. England can’t do opening ceremonies. If there has been one moment more painful than Stuart Broad’s stump-miss against Holland then it was the sight of the Duke of Kent rabbiting away on the podium three hours earlier. The dancers aren’t a patch on the IPL either.
9. It’s really, really good fun watching the big-boys struggle. Finally a tournament that has allowed the minnows to compete properly with the established nations.
10. A quick game is a good game after all. Crucially, with things wrapped-up in just over a fortnight there is little time for getting bored.
    

Sam Collins is website editor of The Wisden Cricketer