Australian Broadcasting Corporation. - Skullduggery

It was a typical night after yet another day of appalling golf. Melancholic, contemplating lawn bowls, I was sitting wistfully on the couch watching England and Pakistan go hard at each other. Or so I thought. My 20-year-old son looked subdued beside me what was he doing here? He doesnt even play golf! Mohammed Amir was making the ball behave more erratically than Lindsay Lohan. At once I announced that this lad would make millions out of the game I didnt factor in the recent allegations of spot-fixing.

On the screen the cricket was tough, trying-for-your-life stuff. The England number three, Jonathan Trott, an obsessive-compulsive South African who has unmistakeably cloned his demeanour and shot-making on Steve Waugh, was giving a masterclass in how to counter skilful swing bowling. He is the key to the Poms retaining the urn this summer. Trott requestshis guard at least once an over sometimes twice. In his lifetime, Douglas Bader would have asked for fewer leg stumps.

Then came that no-ball from Amir. This was no-slip on a greasy approach despite the fact sawdust was promptly ordered. It looked a far-from-subtle deliberate overstepping. Kyle Sandilands couldnt have crossed the line by a bigger distance. Teenagers can be mediocre at sleight of hand or foot. Curiously, the delivery itself was not particularly spiteful there seemed to be no wildeyed intention to crib closer for a body strike. Amir hadnt seen red he may have simply been chasing green!

I was at a loss to explain to my son how the Pakistani paceman could get it so wrong. The side-on replay was damning oddly, however, not as much for Amir as for the fieldsman supposedly moving in with the bowler at short extra-cover. One single frame (which I have now forensically watched dozens of times) said a great deal. The captain, Salman Butt, was that man at short extra-cover every fielder in this position must be watching the batsman at the moment the ball is released. He is duty bound to focus on the striker. Not Salman Butt: his eyes were only for the illegal front foot of Amir . his sight was firmly set on where the bowlers right boot had landed. Was an order about to be carried out? And yes a huge no-ball! Ka-ching, ka-ching? We wont know until the ICC hands down its findings.

And yes, it was the first delivery of the third over just as that scallywag in the hoodie had predicted on the News of the World footage. Seriously, that guy needs fashion advice if youre counting out 150,000 quid and trying desperately to impress a potential client, a designer label suit may have sealed the deal but a hoodie? Of course, all of this could be a massive coincidence. Whatever the outcome of the ICC investigation, which, on disclosed form, we should know by Princess Marys twins 21st birthday, there are bound to be victims.

The 18-year-old wunderkind Amir could well be mourned. Adolescents in cricket are much influenced by their seniors. When I first entered the Australian test team in the early 70s, the elder statesmen set a moustache and mullet standard. I shunned both you have to take a stand on some things. Mohammed Amir must wish the allegations against him were only about his bogan hairstyle. Mohammed Asif, a brilliant trundler with an eye for trouble that the Baldwin brothers would admire, is again under the kosh. And then there is Butt an intelligent, highly respected leader of his countrys cricket team who should have been watching the batsman on strike!

And there is still that recurring image of the alleged fixer boasting of how fat the odds of 40/1 had been about Australia coming from behind to beat the Pakistanis in the Sydney Test last January. I called that game for ABC Radio. During the visitors absurd, scatter-brained and eventually unsuccessful run chase on that fourth afternoon, I was having coffee with a reputable Irish journalist on his way to cover the Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand. After a clutter of wickets, there were two or three overs of intelligent, risk-free run gathering.

Theyre not playing according to the script, quipped Paddy.

Oh, you cynical thing, I fired back before disdainfully moving away.

Sadly, even cynics sometimes get it right.

5 September 2010

The Mentalist would find it difficult to fathom what has been going on in the heads of the Australian selection panel over the past few weeks. Fair dinkum, was the current spin-bowling order of merit conceived at Hooters during a session with John Daly?

Last Wednesday the Aussies began a crucial test in Delhi needing to take 20 wickets to level the series. Our panel came up with the slow-bowling trio of Cameron White, Michael Clarke and Simon Katich. Despite their genuine cricket talent, this grouping is unlikely to take 20 first-class wickets in a calendar year on doctored decks in the Gobi Desert. Is Jason Krejza sleeping inside the Taj Mahal with Stuart MacGills alarm clock?

And why is baby-faced Chinaman Beau Casson now considered fruit out of season? Cassons situation demands a public explanation from chairman Hilditch, whom the media feel is harder to catch than the multiple top edges he provided at fine leg during his hooking days. Come on, Digger, feed the chooks some crumbs! Cassons case is particularly perplexing: the New South Welshman contributed in his only test in the West Indies last June but has been overlooked for the subcontinent series. Rumour abounds that the panel felt a couple of hidings from Sachin Tendulkar and the boys may have torpedoed the slow bowlers career and that they were uncomfortable sending two wrist spinners in Bryce McGain and Casson on the same assignment. Chaps, the rule should be to send your best bowlers on difficult missions!

Of course, Casson may not be the real deal anyway like Brad Hogg, his wrong un is a much stronger delivery than his stock ball and, consequently, represents his major strike option. With Shane Warne and MacGill, the stock ball was forever their genuine wicket-taker. And Casson, too, has to develop his momentum on slow pitches where batsmen tend to play him a little too comfortably off the back foot. These are challenges Beau has been denied by selection panel perceptions. Perhaps, however, Cassons googlies will return against New Zealand this month in Australia the Kiwis would have trouble picking Bill Lawrys nose!

The Casson issue aside, surely the off spinner Krejza had to play in this Delhi test. Ricky Ponting is known to be a fan and could have cuddled the former New South Welshman had the going got tough at Feroz Shah Kotla. Part-time offie Virender Sehwag claimed three vital wickets on the third day to prove how valuable finger spin can be on such crusty surfaces. This was Krejzas pitch, too!

Having said that, Nathan Hauritz, the New South Wales off spinner, was the best finger spinner I saw last season although I didnt take in Greg Matthews of Sydney University. Haurie ticks the two most important boxes in the art of slow bowling: he possesses a genuine loop and hes precise two skills weve sadly lacked in India of late. Hauritz is a far better bowler today than when he was last in India in 2004. The shoulder injury to McGain has sparked a chain of irrational selections add Simon Baker to the national panel and allow psychic reason to rule!

Retiring Cricket Australia chairman Creagh OConnor lamented recently that Indigenous and European cricketers have not surfaced during his tenure. Dont worry, Creagh, exciting youngsters with exotic surnames are at hand. Here are three whom I feel will gain international honours within the next three years:

Usman Khawaja (NSW)

Born in Pakistan, this prodigiously talented left-handed opener could be our first Muslim test cap! Khawaja and Macksville star Phillip Hughes could well be the opening combination when England come to Australia in 2011. There is the small matter of the marvellous Shaun Marsh, but his footwork and stand-and-deliver outlook may be better suited in the middle order. If Khawaja was a race horse his breeding would read: by Gautam Gambhir out of Mark Taylor. The 21-year-old possesses the wide stroke range of Gambhir but also has that Tubby trait of not getting out when hes in!