Blog Posts by Harsha Bhogle

While the world has cast its attention towards England and Australia and, inevitably, India, one country has quietly enjoyed a break (one of those things we thought cricket hadn’t heard of!). South Africa have stayed below the radar and that is not surprising because that is the way they tend to do things. Hashim Amla embodies that. Quietly he scores his runs, quietly he creeps up on records and he does it without a fuss.

South Africa win more matches than most and it is very difficult to go over there and win. But now they must look to a new peak. The next ICC tournament is about ten months away and even though it is only over 2 overs, they must convert what looks like an excellent squad on paper into one that poses with a trophy. And they must ascend to number one in the world in Test cricket. They have the team to do it, certainly as long as Jacques Kallis allows them to play with five bowlers.

The world, or certainly those that like to see South Africa play well, would

True, Ed Cowan made a debut half-century but I found it a touch unusual for Australia to pick a blocker; they don't normally do that. True, David Warner carried his bat for a century in that thriller against New Zealand but he is still work in progress.

True, Shaun Marsh made a fine debut in Sri Lanka and was the one most likely to find his way into international cricket but if Australia were 2-0 down there would have been questions about his suitability. True, Nathan Lyon tosses his off breaks well and

Winning from a perpetually one-down position is virtually impossible.India's batting, so celebrated in terms of numbers, ended 2011 scarcely breaching the 300 mark on tour. It hasn't got the attention it deserved.

Except for brief periods in India's history, the batting has tended to dominate and has needed to put runs on the board to give the bowlers something to play with. But Rahul Dravid apart — and even he added a touch of rust to the chrome in the last week of the year — the rest have fired sporadically. At Melbourne the bowlers largely did their job but the batsmen capitulated. Little has changed. India still need the openers to play the new ball to achieve both runs and comfort.

The bowling provided two bright sparks in 2011 if you briefly cast aside Yuvraj Singh's emergence as a bowler that gave India the balance the team needed at the World Cup. Ravichandran Ashwin suggested that he could be a regular No. 8 in addition to a hard-working spinner. And while Praveen Kumar's injury prevented us from looking at him in greater detail, the arrival of

Sachin Tendulkar adjusts his bat grip during the team's training at the MCG on Friday, Dec. 23, 2011. (AP Photo/David …The last time Sachin Tendulkar was in Australia, he got a standing ovation every time he went out to bat and every time he returned to the pavilion. He told me earlier this year that while he really liked the reception he kept asking himself whether they thought he wouldn't ever return!

But back he is and with a rather pleasant problem to surmount. While many batsmen on either side are wondering if they can cement Test places or enhance their reputation, Tendulkar has to think about whether he can get a hundredth hundred. It tends to put things in perspective.

Personally while I would be delighted if he got it on Boxing Day, I am not losing sleep over it. A century is an outcome of good batting and if he bats well it will arrive at some point. It is not a brand launch or a movie release; it cannot be pre-determined and planned. It must happen and when it does we must celebrate that moment not brood or lament over why it doesn't come when we want it to.

Nature has a way of denying you

Teams play bad cricket and teams lose, indeed Australia have lost too,
even from winning positions as they did at Eden Gardens in 2001 and from strong
positions like at Adelaide in 2003-04. But with good teams the losses become
events and that is why Australia
were such a good cricketing nation. They had good players because they had a
good system and they played tough. Beneath that excellent winning record lie a
number of matches that could have gone the other way had it not been for bold,
decisive cricket.

And Australia
never admitted they were down because that would have made the opposition
strong. They always talked a good game, said the right things and hardly, if
ever, revealed chinks in the armour. And that is why I am a little baffled at
some of the recent statements coming out of their camp.

"There was panic" one of the players said while the now infamous and, for
many in the opposition all these years, memorable collapse was underway. You
wondered, and you hardly

While the world has cast its attention towards England and Australia and, inevitably, India, one country has quietly enjoyed a break (one of those things we thought cricket hadn’t heard of!). South Africa have stayed below the radar and that is not surprising because that is the way they tend to do things. Hashim Amla embodies that. Quietly he scores his runs, quietly he creeps up on records and he does it without a fuss.

South Africa win more matches than most and it is very difficult to go over there and win. But now they must look to a new peak. The next ICC tournament is about ten months away and even though it is only over 2 overs, they must convert what looks like an excellent squad on paper into one that poses with a trophy. And they must ascend to number one in the world in Test cricket. They have the team to do it, certainly as long as Jacques Kallis allows them to play with five bowlers.

The world, or certainly those that like to see South Africa play well, would like

England were deplorable in India and while it had been apparent in England that they would struggle here, the capitulation came as a surprise. I had expected better only because I rate this England side, but to be honest I felt let down by a couple of things.

One was the disinclination to use their feet and hit the ball in the gaps. While much has been talked about the need to clear the boundaries on the sub-continent, much of it valid, there is also a great need to rotate the strike. England's DNA has always been to sweep and it is a dangerous shot in India if you don’t sweep for length. Their batting coach Graham Gooch and their coach Andy Flower were extraordinary players of the shot but that doesn’t mean everyone can do it as well.

The other aspect I was disappointed by was the assumption that a verbal confrontation can upset a player. It is one of the more disagreeable aspects of our game, which, at its best, is a contest between bat and ball across different conditions. Teams

There is a reason I like the Champions League very much and it has very little to do with the IPL (which I am quite happy to say I enjoy) or indeed the fact that it airs on ESPN-Star sports (with whom I have had a very long relationship). I like the Champions League because it gives the simple, hardworking cricketer a platform to showcase himself. Bombarded as we are by international cricket, those that play just below the stars, and are actually pretty good themselves, play in anonymity, before small crowds; they become a statistic in First Class records that only their relatives will see.

These are people who must make the most of the opportunity they get and so you get to see a fantastic range of emotions. You felt for the Auckland Aces, you rejoiced with Somerset and as always, you get carried away by the energy and joy that Trinidad and Tobago bring to their cricket. There is a charm in seeing them play on the big stage, giving the fancied teams a run for their money,