In a long interview with Donald McRae in the Guardian, Andrew Strauss talks about how emotional a day it was when he decided to retire, how surprised he was at the breakdown in relations with Pietersen and his plans for future.

Strauss says that he and Pietersen have since met – and he acknowledges that some of England's players have not been blameless in the breakdown of relationships with their star batsman. "I don't think anyone got to the bottom of the text messaging saga. But Kevin has since come up to me and apologised for it and I respect that. He seemed contrite and I think he was sincere. Looking back I think it was wrong some of our players were following that [spoof KP Genius] Twitter account. But I still don't think it's a justification for what Kevin did."

There have been calls for Shahid Afridi to retire after his dramatic dip in form with both bat and ball over the last year. His supporters claim that he is the best thing since the helmet grill, while his critics blame him for keeping out better players from the side. There's a middle ground to the Afridi debate that's hard to establish, and he continues to play because he has fans who back him to the hilt, writes Hassan Cheema in Dawn.

A lot of great – and not that great – sportsmen overestimate their abilities once their bodies begin to creak and their reflexes begin to slow. But the fans have no need to be slaves to the delusions of an ego. It is unreasonable to expect him to succeed with his record and ability being so apparently flawed. But that doesn’t mean that he should be forced to retire. If we were to consider him purely a bowler, there is a pretty strong case for him being part of the national squad. Perhaps the worst – and the best – thing to happen to Afridi in his career was THAT century in Nairobi.

Hilal Suhaib, writing on the Island Cricket website, says the Sri Lanka Premier League and the way it was run may have landed Sri Lanka Cricket in more financial trouble and unless there's greater accountability in governance, change may be difficult.

SLC was at one point the richest sporting body in the country, but it is now mired in debt, and that's largely due to dreadful decision–making by officials who don’t possess the qualifications to make decisions on matters that could potentially result in the loss of millions of dollars for the board.

Daren Ganga, in this article in the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian, writes of his first tour with West Indies to South Africa in 1999 and a surprising phone call that changed his life.

January 14th, 1999 was my 20th birthday; we played against the South African team that day at Newlands Ground in Cape Town and I received birthday wishes via the electronic scoreboard at the ground—this was very exciting and overwhelming. I returned to the team hotel that evening and had just entered my room when the phone rang. The operator said, “Mr Ganga, I have the President on the line to you.” I, of course, assumed it was the WICB or TTCB President, so I nonchalantly accepted the call with the routine “Hello, good evening.” I was immediately taken aback at the unfamiliar voice on the other end. The soft spoken gentleman on the other side of the line identified himself, with his South African accent as President Mandela. He said he was calling to wish me a Happy Birthday. In total amazement, I enquired politely whether I was indeed speaking to the President of SA, and he confirmed with a yes. Needless to say, I was in total shock and struggled to keep my wits about me during this conversation, but I will never forget the words spoken to me on that day, or the humility of the man who spoke them.

Peter Hayter meets James Anderson and his wife Daniella, who speaks of the strains on family life when her husband's away on tour for a good part of the year. Read more in the Mail on Sunday.

Since the couple were married, Lancashire paceman James has spent every winter abroad. The latest starts with a tour to India that runs until the end of the fourth Test in Nagpur on December 17. If Anderson is required for the two Twenty20s that follow, he will not see his family again until December 23. Then, after either nine days or a fortnight at home, he is due to fly back to India on January 2 for five ODIs, then on to New Zealand for a tour that will keep him away until March 28.

The match between Pakistan All Star XI and International XI in Karachi may not lead to international tours in the near future. But for a country deprived of watching their national team play at home, the match could be the entertainment the fans have been craving for, says an editorial in the Express Tribune.

While these matches cannot substitute for full-fledged international cricket, they can be first of the many steps still needed before it can resume in Pakistan. Sadly, the fact is that until the dismal security situation improves, top Test teams will not visit these shores. So, until such time, initiatives of these kinds must be encouraged, if for nothing else, then just to somewhat satisfy the fans’ huge appetite for watching cricket on home soil.

Any bowler getting called for 'chucking' during a match causes distress to the players and the spectators, but it can be shattering for the bowler. Australian bowler Ian Meckiff's career was destroyed when he was called at the Gabba during South Africa's last Test at the ground - in 1963-64, writes Robert Craddock in the Courier Mail.

With South Africa visiting Brisbane for a Test match next month for the first time in 49 years, old timers can still recall the mayhem of their last visit when Australian fast bowler Ian Meckiff was called for throwing by umpire Col Egar in the 1963-64 series.

Egar had no response to Meckiff's first ball but then shattered the convivial atmosphere of a sun-drenched Saturday afternoon by calling no ball to the second, third, fifth and ninth deliveries.

The true test of KP's 'reintegration' into the England fold will come when the chips are down and the changing room door closes, writes Angus Fraser in the Independent.

Despite the private face-to-face conversations, promises and agreements, it will only be when the England team spend time together alone in their dressing room that they and we will truly find out whether their issues have been resolved. It is after a tough and disappointing day in the field that nerves are frayed and stress levels rise. It is at these points that shared values and tolerance keep the team together. If the glue holding the team together is not strong enough, character flaws appear and the team fragments. Winning games in these situations is virtually impossible. Only after a tough session in India will we be able to see what is taking place. Will England look like a team together with shared values or be a group of distant individuals? If the team sticks together it will be real proof that Pietersen has been reintegrated.

Are Cricket Australia selectors becoming obsessed with Shane Watson? Is Watson that important to Australian cricket? And what is this undying love for having an allrounder in the team? asks Dean Jones in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Don't get me wrong, I think Watson is a wonderful player, especially in the one-day and Twenty20 formats. But let us not forget that Watson is first picked as a batsman, and has delivered only two Test hundreds in 35 Tests, while Phil Hughes has three to his name in 17 Tests. Does this Australian Test team revolve around Watson? I nearly laughed when I heard that Cricket Australia had ordered Watson home from the Champions League due to workload. Why isn't Michael Hussey coming home? Surely he has played more.

The shooting of the 14-year-old Pakistani girl Malala, who blogged against the atrocities of the Taliban in her native SWAT Valley has united Pakistanis in anger and there appears to be plenty of support for doing whatever it takes to solve the security crisis in the country. What does it have to do with Pakistan cricket? A lot, since cricket in the country is one of the pillars of national morale and self-esteem and such incidents like Malala's shooting could spark a change, writes Saad Shafqat in Pakpassion.

We cannot be faulted if we are now dreaming of rosy scenarios in which peace returns, and brings international cricket with it. If the insurgency is indeed brought to an end, it will be hard for even the likes of Australia and India to turn down a bilateral series in Pakistan dedicated to the greatness and valor of Malala. It is not known whether she was fond of cricket, but if cricket becomes one of the fruits of her fearlessness, then Malala would truly have taken one for the team.

Following the termination of Deccan Chargers, the IPL has lost further credibility. With the BCCI floating a tender for a new franchise, there are no takers for application forms and there's the other issue of finding a new title sponsor. Aminah Sheikh and Khushboo Narayan in Livemint find out why some corporates are staying away.

An executive said BCCI’s more-stringent norms had discouraged his company from picking up the tender document, which costs around Rs.5 lakh. The person, who had initially been interested in buying a team, didn’t want to be named. Another discouraging factor has been BCCI’s ongoing legal battles with three of the eight remaining teams, Kings XI Punjab, Pune Warriors India and Rajasthan Royals, apart from its terminal dispute with Deccan Chargers.

Wright Thompson, writer with ESPN.com, chats with Subash Jayaraman in Couch Talk on his foray into cricket writing since the 2011 World Cup, his writing technique and methods, cricket administration and more. Thompson also contributed articles for ESPNcricinfo during the 2012 World T20 in Sri Lanka.

Clayton Murzello, in the Mid-Day, talks to one of India's oldest Test cricketers - Roshan 'Deepak' Shodhan - who has revealed that some of his team-mates threw their wickets in a bid to deny him his his debut Test ton

“Two players, who came in after me, gave away their wickets so that I wouldn’t score a century. I told my partners to give me a stand. ‘Don’t worry,’ they said and started hitting out. But Ghulam Ahmed was a real gentleman. I knew he would never throw away his wicket,” said Shodhan. Off-spinner Ahmed stayed unbeaten on 20 while Shodhan was last man out for 110. “After all, Ghulam was essentially a bowler, so I had to take some risks and hit two boundaries to get closer to my century. Not all my teammates were happy for me. Let me be frank. They didn’t like a Gujjubhai scoring a hundred. But Lala Amarnath, my captain came on the ground to congratulate me as I returned to the pavilion at tea-time. I remember Pakistan captain Abdul Hafeez Kardar and wicketkeeper Imtiaz Ahmed congratulating me too,” he said.

Ahead of England’s tour of India, fast bowler James Anderson and offspinner Graeme Swann talk about the 2-0 Test series loss to South Africa, Cook’s dull personality, why they would not mind Kevin Pietersen back playing for them, and why the Cook’s elevation to Test captaincy could herald a “happy, new dawn”. More from The Telegraph.

It has to be a positive thing if he (Pietersen) is back to the mental state where he’s happy and wants to play for England again because he’s a world-class batsman. There’s never been a problem in the dressing room. You’re not always going to be best mates with every player you play with but the team’s always had a very good working dynamic. That just broke down for whatever reason at a flash point in the summer. Kevin would have tell you why. I can’t. But it’s time to draw a big fat line under it and for everyone to say, ‘Let’s get back to that really good working relationship we had’.

As Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced an Order of Australia to be conferred on Sachin Tendulkar, Peter Munro, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, reasons it could be a tactic for diplomacy. He notes that although Tendulkar is good at playing cricket, he hasn’t given an “extraordinary service to Australia or humanity at large” to deserve the honorary award.

Sure, many Australians like cricket and Tendulkar is particularly good at playing it. But beyond giving us something to watch over summer, what has he done to benefit Australia?

Award nominees must be nothing short of extraordinary people, "whose service and contribution have had the effect of making a significant difference to Australian life or, more broadly, to humanity at large".

It has been 60 years since the Pakistan team left Amritsar by train for Delhi for their first official Test, and Abdul Kardar's men were received at the railway station by India captain Lala Amarnath. On the anniversary of the occasion, Qamar Ahmed looks back on their cricket story in the Dawn. It has been a journey that has had its share of trials, tribulations and triumphs, he says, and on the whole one that is worth savouring.

Going through the pages of cricket history of this country, one would no doubt feel proud of the cricketers we produced, mostly grown on home soil, who over the years honed their skills playing at international level and on the county circuits.

B Alaganan, who captained Tamil Nadu to their maiden Ranji Trophy title in the 1950s, died earlier this week. S Thyagarajan pays tribute to Alaganan, who was also a famous radio commentator, in the Hindu.

Making it to the Madras Ranji Trophy team in the late forties, Alaganan later proved an exceptional leader. After taking over the captaincy reins, he achieved the distinction of winning the Ranji Trophy for Madras at Indore beating Holkar by 45 runs.

“You know, they put us in after winning the toss on a jute-matting pitch, hoping that spinner Dhanawade, playing in the English league, would finish us off in three days. But, everything turned the other way,” he had said

An editorial in the Jamaica Gleaner says that the clash between lucrative professional leagues and representing West Indies has long dogged the region's players, but with the mushrooming of T20 leagues, Test cricket looks likely to be the loser.

Mr Samuels has said with great feeling that he loves Test cricket and wants to leave his mark in the classic, conventional five-day form of the game. But how many Test matches will he be able to play if the current rate of growth in the Twenty20 leagues continues?

Leading players, especially from under-resourced cricket-playing regions such as the West Indies, can't be expected to ignore the money. And like it or not, the administrations will have to bend to fit.

Pulina Tharanga could not afford training shoes. He lost his parents to the sea. Yet he continues to draw attention in Sri Lanka's cricket circles and impressed Kumar Sangakkara with a gutsy innings at the recently concluded Under-19 World Cup. The Island Cricket's Hilal Suhaib in conversation with the 18-year-old.

“When my parents were alive, I found it hard to play cricket because a pair of training shoes was too expensive for us,” he says. “Once, when I told my mother that I was selected to play for my school, she looked upset. I asked her why she looked so sad, and she said that she was happy that I was selected and wanted me to play cricket, but she didn’t have the money to buy me shoes or any other equipment. Later, my coach spoke to her and explained that I could play very well and convinced her to let me play. Every morning, my mother would make string-hoppers and I would sell them to the shop near our home. We would get 75 rupees for 100 string-hoppers. Eventually, we raised 2000 rupees for a pair of shoes."

David Frith in the Daily News and Analysis writes that Darren Sammy and his team need to channel the talent visible during their World T20 win into something more solid and lasting and although, they may never repeat the Test success of the 1980s team, they have players to become a serious contender in the longer format.

Victories are obviously important, but for true cricket lovers something is equally important, and that is the means of achieving it. Sunil Narine is a fascinating bowler, with all the mystery of Sonny Ramadhin. Modern batsmen can’t simply pad him away in the fashion that Peter May and Colin Cowdrey did in 1957, before the lbw law was revised. TV referrals also help modern spinners.Then there is Darren Bravo, who has the class of his cousin Brian Lara. Chris Gayle remains the pantomime figure and a killer of bowling when his luck is with him. And that irritating little left-hander, Chanderpaul, the ultimate “never get me out” Test batsman. With the blossoming of Marlon Samuels, I’m now beginning to think that a return to No. 1 might well be a possibility over the next, say, 18 months.

An editorial in the Namibian criticises the new quota system adopted by the country's cricket bosses and says that if it has to be in place it should have a fixed duration.

We want to suggest, for cricket, as for the rest of the country: if the instant gratification of a quota system is needed, determine its duration right from the start. Leaving it open-ended only harms the sport, or other facets of society, when colour, a person’s elite status, or some unclear criteria is used in the selection process.

October 18 will mark 20 years since Zimbabwe's entry into the cricketing elite - they played their first Test on that day in 1992. Steve James, in the Daily Telegraph, looks back on that game and the lack of progress in Zimbabwe cricket since.

An Englishman, Alan Butcher, now coaches Zimbabwe, and there are other good men - including Grant Flower, Campbell and Heath Streak - involved in the game there, but, cruelly, maladministration and financial crises still blithely walk hand in hand.

The sting operation on the umpires show that the problem of match-fixing is not just limited to the players. However, a likely solution to the problem is hidden in the grainy video shown in the news channels, argues Sandeep Dwivedi in the Indian Express.

For years old-timers have moaned about the fading importance of on-field officials but in these depressing times the need of a virtual eye on all actions that influence the result can't be overstated. Umpires may feel redundant because of the advent of infra-red imaging, ball-tracking technology and super sensitive sound receivers on cricket fields, but when trust is lost, second opinions aren't just advisable, they should be made mandatory.

Having made several cricket trips to Sri Lanka, Anand Vasu writes in Wisden India that there was something refreshing and different about this World T20. The hospitality in the wilderness of Hambantota was one such example and the liberating feeling of not having to follow India's fortunes on a daily basis was another. It was also a chance to learn some interesting facts about players.

I learnt that Dilshan Munaweera was a studious boy who spoke impeccable English and that it was Sanath Jayasuriya who introduced Ajantha Mendis to his future wife Yoshini, at the sidelines of a match. Had I been covering the Indian team, or even following their fortunes closely like so many fans are compelled to by their sense of nationalism, I would’ve likely been so engrossed in what the team composition was for the next match, or the form of a certain player, that I would have missed the best things about a world tournament – the sheer breadth of experiences on offer, the amazing stories behind the ordinary characters, the role every last piece plays in the bigger picture of this great game.

Hitting a six is no longer the rarity it used to be, writes Barney Ronay in the Guardian; it has become the defining image of the modern game.

This is not intended to denigrate the complexities, technical and narrative, of Twenty20 cricket. It is simply to acknowledge that in a sport that lends itself more than most human occupations to a sense of ages passing – new dawns, old dawns, periods of mawkish, sodden, quavering reflection – we are currently passing through what is best characterised not as the age of Uncertainty or the Age of Revolution, but as the Age of The Six. The six is no longer a variation, an explosion, a tactical oddity, but an end in itself, the basic unit of cricketing success in the sport's noisiest and most lucrative form.

Mark Butcher, Surrey legend and former England player, points out the impracticalities of spirit of cricket in All Out Cricket. Cricket and life, he writes, teach harsh lessons. Stupidity should be no defence in either

Cricket has always had its own sense of morality – a gentleman’s code if you will. I recall the quaint practice of ‘clapping in’ the new batsman. Lovely on the surface of course; but the seven-year-old Michael Holding in me had thoughts of rearranging the poor unfortunate’s new dental work. Cricket – like the world in which it is set – has a brutal beauty and is governed by law and order. For the most part!

I conclude that the Spirit of Cricket is a commendable notion but is not without significant flaws in its interpretation. The Laws of cricket are comprehensive and most of the recent wrangles have come about because of a lack of understanding of such Laws, as opposed to massive breaches of some unrealistic utopian code.

While it's fine to toast West Indies' success at the World T20, it will be a travesty to spark off comparisons with what was achieved three decades ago by Clive Lloyd's team because the circumstances back then were different, writes Kunal Pradhan in Pune Mirror. Words and phrases like "comeback", "1979", "Lloyd", and "World Cup" should not be used.

Why the desire to trivialise history for the sake of a newspaper headline or a band running across a television screen? What’s worse is the content of the articles and TV discussions in which Sunday night’s champions are being celebrated as “freewheeling” cricketers, “just like their predecessors were 33 years ago”. It’s a reinforcement of the racist stereotype that West Indies cricket thought it had shed long ago. Their fast bowlers were not quick because they were “naturally gifted”, or because they were tall, strong and Black.

In the Guardian, Andy Wilson and Vic Marks list out the best and worst moments of the World T20.

And how to improve the tournament? - I'd go for two groups of six, with the top two from each qualifying for the semi finals. This would allow the tournament to start with a bang, as opposed to the damp squib in the current system, make every game meaningful, and give the less-fancied countries – Ireland, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe – more of a crack. AW

The attention the Women' World Twenty20 matches received from the journalists and the spectators in Sri Lanka was trifling compared to the men's game. Still, the current interest is a big improvement over the state of the women's game few years ago, thanks to the ICC's efforts. However, the game needs more push from the subcontinent, writes Osman Samiuddin in the National.

The ICC has a significant annual budget set aside for the women's game and promotes the game actively. Seven out of 11 national boards now have their female cricketers on central contracts, thus allowing them semi-professional or professional stability. To qualify as an associate member of the ICC, countries must have a women's set-up as well....

....For all the progress being made, it is maybe not happening quick enough, or evenly enough. At an ICC brunch on the day of the final, organised especially to promote the women's game, the general consensus was that the gap between the top four, including sides such as Australia and England, and the rest was increasing. More cricket for countries such as Pakistan, India and Bangladesh will be important.

India's failure to reach the semi-final of the World Twenty20 , despite the presence of the Indian Premier League, is due to the fact that the Indian players don't play in such leagues the world over, argues an editorial in sportzpower.com.

A good starting point is to relook their policy of not allowing Indian players to participate in other similar leagues around the world. In fact, permitting the big names of India to participate will actually showcase their true worth. In their backyard and in their local gig, many an Indian has risen to quick fame with a few innings of note or sharp spells of bowling. But none of them have risen to a superstar level.

If the board does not develop a long-term strategy and implement it to create the superstars of tomorrow, it won't be long before the IPL drowns in its own perceived glory.

After their World Twenty20 triumph, the revival of West Indies crick