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Tale of two 'keepers rules headlines

Christopher Martin Jenkins in his column draws attention with two points.

It was proposed in the recent Cowdrey Lecture on the Spirit of Cricket that there might be experiments with an alternative to a toss of the coin to decide which team bats first. The variant suggested was that if either captain felt that there was a strong advantage in batting or bowling first, each could "bid" a certain number of runs with which the losing captain's team could start their innings.

[Those who missed the post on the Cowdrey Lecture go here.]

Also Read: Ignore jellybeans incident, play to win: Shah Rukh

And on Dinesh Karthik, who has captured the collective imagination of the British press, this:

Yesterday it was the youngest and brightest of their stars, Dinesh Karthik, the 22-year-old from Madras, who delighted most on a day made for batting. He had thoroughly earned a second Test hundred when he was given out sparring at a ball angled across his bows four overs before tea. Nine runs short meant even more to Karthik than to most because, like many Indians, he believes in the unusual science of numerology. It has persuaded him to change his name four times since becoming a first-class cricketer, each time following advice that an extra letter either way would add up to something luckier.

He needed nothing but his talent and spark yesterday once he had overcome a testing opening burst by James Anderson and the unlucky Sidebottom. Having started as a wicketkeeper batting with a flourish down the order, opening the innings has tightened his technique without dulling the sheen of his strokeplay. A six off Monty Panesar hit inside out over extra cover into the Bedser Stand was the jewel among several beautiful strokes played with the full face of the bat through the off side.

Top: Kevin Pietersen is pictured with a packet of sweets on the first day of the third Test.

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