The English season is two weeks old. The sun is shining, I’ve got myself a sunburn and a seam mark across my left instep, and Ian Bell has made a regulation century on a featherbed at Taunton. Three things that any soothsayer worth their salt would expect to find within their “Captain Obvious” section, right next to the visions of Chris Martin losing his middle stump.

In a continuing series of articles where we introduce Series Points, a new way of ranking Test players, this time we look at the 1990s.

Over the past couple of generations, sensationalism has become a hobby of the national media. In this time, sports journalists in England have decried a continued lack of talent representing the national sides.

First things first – there wasn’t much about India’s recently concluded tour of New Zealand that was surprising – neither what happened during play nor the end result.

Continuing the detailed two part analysis of the DLF Indian Premier League and how the rest of the teams match-up and how they could fare in the 2009 edition of the tournament. This edition features the Mumbai Indians, Kolkata Knight Riders, Bangalore Royal Challengers and Deccan Chargers.

With the “outsourced” South African Edition of the DLF Indian Premier League days away here is a detailed two part analysis of how the teams match-up and how they could fare in the 2009 edition of the tournament. In the first part Rajasthan Royals, the defending champions, Chennai Super Kings, the runners-up and the two semifinalists Kings XI Punjab and Delhi Dare Devils are profiled.

Much speculation in recent times concerns the growing band of promising young bowlers making their way in Test cricket. With a genuine lack of world class quicks currently parading their talents on the international stage, fans of the game are hopeful of glowing careers for the big pacemen such as Ishant Sharma, Morne Morkel, Stuart Broad, and Peter Siddle, to name a few.