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The Frank Worrell Trophy use to be the clash of the titans and it would have been the most anticipated series in the cricket calendar. West Indies have fallen from grace and are a long way from the team of the 80’s and Australia have also lost there aura that they have had over the last 10 to 15 years.

The gap in class between the two teams is immense with Australia 4th on 116 points, 6 points from top, where West Indies are 9th with 76 points. This should say a lot for the test series in how it should plan out with Australia being hot favourites. Australia have won 10 of the last 11 tests against West Indies in Australia, they will be looking to win there 5th test series in a row and match the record West Indies set between 1983 and 1993.

West Indies are on the verge of exploding as cricketing nation with the board incapable of running cricket for West Indies and it may be only a matter of time when the Caribbean Islands split away. The performance of T&T in the Champions League has shown how West Indies can play if they are united as one which will be the biggest job for Chris Gayle and ensure it does not get embarrassing as they have quality to win a test. The performances of T&T was largely down to Darren Ganga performance as captain and was subject to a debate if he should be recalled to the team as captain but the problem was for the selectors how to fit him in as a poor batsmen.

West Indies know they have the ability to win a test or two against Australia who are not as strong as they use to be, the batting will revolve around Gayle, Sarwan and Chanderpaul scoring bulk of the runs. In the bowling they have got a good variety of bowlers in the impressive Sulieman Benn who will get assistance from the wickets and be expected to play a crucial role. The pace attack they have Dwayne Bravo, Ravi Ramul, Darren Sammy & Jerome Taylor who have proven they can blow away batting line ups.

Australia are ranked fourth in the test rankings and it is a true reflection of with having won one of the last four series, losing to India, South Africa, England in the Ashes and beating South Africa. There recent form in the one day arena has been very impressive which has allowed them to retain there number one status and the core of the team have been playing together for the last year or longer which does not allow any more excuses for poor results.

They can be confident of the batting that out performed England scoring 8 centuries with all batsmen playing there part. The line up has got a good mix but will be reliant on Ponting to play the crucial match winning innings. They will be hoping Shane Watson can replicated his one day form in the test arena, and with the likes of Hussey, Clarke, North and Haddin they have a solid middle order which should be too much for the Windies to handle. The biggest concern for Australia is the bowling without Brett Lee who looked to have regained his fitness, hunger and form would have been too much for the Windies batting line, the onus will be on Mitchell Johnson to lead the attack.

Australia’s domination over West Indies will continue even with all there problems.

England continued there domination over South Africa winning there 6th one day match in a row with producing a complete an all-round performance against South Africa who need to address the balance of the team.

The loss of Jacques Kallis was a massive blow and he was replaced by Amla who did well scoring a half century who was one of two batsmen to half centuries in the South African innings. But the first half of the match belonged to England and Andrew Strauss was tactically aware where he gambled and he was rewarded with wickets and restricting South Africa to a below par score.

Strauss had a clear memory of the way Smith took to the English bowling a week ago but today he persisted with a slip when Bresnan was bowling and he was rewarded by removing Smith in the 6th over. Anderson then removed De Villers 9 balls later and South Africa were struggling on 38/2, but Amla and Duminy recovered the innings in a partnership of 73, but both batsmen were lucky to be at the crease thanks to captain Strauss having butter fingers costing Collingwood his 100th wicket and Trott his first and South Africa could have been in a far worse position.

England continued to collect regular wickets with Collingwood removing Amla and the Luke Wright removing Duminy. Petersen played a crucial innings but he was not able to play the innings South Africa would have hoped as England were very disciplined in the bowling and in the field. It is a stark contrast of the innings where in 50 overs South Africa were able to score 3 sixes compared to a week ago they scored 17 sixes in 20 overs. The wickets continued to tumble as England removed McLaren who is known from his Kent days and the dangerous Morkel and it was down to Boucher to keep the innings together and he did by scoring 30 of 37 balls and reached a below par score of 250.

England’s innings started of with two South African’s in Strauss and Trott looking to take a 1-0 lead and they shared a partnership of 28 before Langeveldt removing the captain which bought in another South African in Kevin Pietersen and he was bowled by Morkel. A partnership of 162 between Trott and Collingwood in 30 overs took the game away from South Africa who had no answers to the pair.

Both batsmen were in total control as they scored the singles easily and boundaries when the bad balls came, but as the pressure increased on South Africa mistakes were made and free hits were provided and Collingwood deposited one for six. As the game was coming to its final stages it was a question could Trott emulate Pietersen in scoring a century in his first one day against his home country and Collingwood score one in becoming England’s record cap holder going ahead of Alec Stewart. It was not meant to be for Trott as he looked to reach his century but he was caught by De Villers and it was down to Morgan and Collingwood to end the innings.

Morgan came in and looked too finish off the match and but luckily he was not able to deny Collingwood his well deserved century, which was his 5th century, 4th abroad with 3 in Australia and his 1st in South Africa.. Morgan finished of the innings in typical style scoring 22 out of his 27 runs in boundaries.

There were 4 overs left in the match showed England’s ease in chasing 251 which is firstly down to the captain and the bowlers restricting South Africa to such a score and then Trott and Collingwood batting in style reaching the target.

New Zealand v Pakistan is not the most mouth watering test series in this day and age compared to the clashes that would have happened over 25 years ago where it would have been a must see. This is a contest between Pakistan who are 6th with 84 points to New Zealand who are 7th with 80 points, this says a lot for New Zealand’s performance to be below Pakistan who will be only playing there second full series in two years.

There is not much between these two teams who can be quite brilliant at times but also frustrating to watch but the biggest factor in the series will be the team who is able to deal with the pressure and win the vital moments. The most recent one day series between these two where the in final match the Kiwis were able to deal with the pressure after the inning that was played by Mohammad Aamer. Both teams are currently dealing with lack of resources with Younis Khan stepping down as captain and Mohammad Yousuf taking over in the most hardest role in world cricket, where the Kiwis are without a coach and Daniel Vettori taking over as captain and coach. It will be interesting how the losses will affect both teams but with Vettori who is such a smart and street wise captain and cricketer he will relish the challenge but for Mohammad Yousuf will his batting be affected by being captain, and how will he handle the extra responsibility.

New Zealand will be pleased to have Shane Bond and Daryl Tuffey back in the squad and there selection with captain Daniel Vettori gives the bowling line up an ability to get twenty wickets with the assistance from Ian O’Brien and Chris Martin against a Pakistan batting line up that can be suspect at times. Like Pakistan, the New Zealand batting line up is suspect to major collapses, the difference between the two teams will be who can bat and put the score on the board and which will turn in to pressure. The recall of Peter Fulton will give the batting line up more of a sold look with Daniel Flynn and Tim McIntosh who will be required to set up the innings and allow the likes of Ross Taylor, Brendon McCullum and Daniel Vettori the more flare players to play the attacking innings.

Pakistan will feel the loss of Younis Khan not only a captain but as a world class test match batsman who has the ability to bat time and score vital runs which will key. The pressure will be more on captain Yousuf to perform as a batsman in his absence but the likes of Salman Butt, Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal have to take more of a responsibility as the more experience batsmen and allow the younger players to learn of them and play the way they know. As a batting line up they are more talented the Kiwis but it has been the same story day after day how the battling collapses and it is no ones fault apart from themselves. The bowling line up is majestic with so much variety they should not have any problem in getting twenty wickets, and it was the bowling attack that put the Pakistan team in a position to win the test series in Sri Lanka but only for the batting to throw it all away,

It is anyone’s guess what who will win this series, one to eleven Pakistan have the more talented team to New Zealand. The records also are with Pakistan having won the last 4 of 5 test series in New Zealand, the last series win for the Kiwis was back in the 1984/85 series with Jeremy Coney scoring 111 to win the 3rd and final test of the series to win 2-1.

So much has been written about the 20th anniversary of Sachin Tendulkar's Test debut that it's hard to know what else to say. In his 160th test he ended up reaching 30,000 international runs, 43rd test match century and 88th international century all in all in a period when he and cricket are celebrating 20 years of international cricket for such a humble player.

The Little Master seems to have been around for ever but then of course twenty years is a very long time by cricketing standards. It helps to have been a child prodigy, making his debut at only 16, and to have suffered relatively few serious injuries. Others have enjoyed similarly lengthy international careers but the likes of Gooch and Cowdrey played until their forties and Imran Khan was 39 when he finally retired. The thing about Tendulkar is that he is not still playing out of any nostalgic loyalty felt by the Indian selectors; he's still there on merit and he could surely play on at the top for a while yet. OK, so he may not score triple-centuries as he did as a 15 year-old. In fact, he has yet to compile a first-class 250, but his 42 Test centuries, more than 12,700 Test and 17,000 ODI runs make him a serial record-breaker, with only Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis and teammate Rahul Dravid of the current greats to keep him on his toes.

Funny to think Sachin started out as a potential fast bowler! Somehow I reckon a 5 ft 5 inch paceman would not last very long yet his 154 mostly medium-pace or spin ODI wickets make him one of his country's most successful bowlers, too. Oh, and don't forget more than 230 international catches, although his two brief spells as India's captain were less memorable. Nobody survives twenty years at the top of cricket without a few losses of form here and minor controversies there but while the runs keep flowing, Tendulkar would always be forgiven.

Barring some sort of disaster, He must surely reach the 30,000 international run mark and beat Steve Waugh's record of 168 Test matches. However, Tendulkar's greatest legacy will be his popularity, both with other players (including the bowlers he has punished over the years!) and fans. Yes, he is revered in his cricket-mad home country but all cricket enthusiasts around the world respect his talent and he will draw large crowds everywhere he plays. He's not the ruthless attacker he once was but that recent one-day 175 proves he can still take bowling attacks apart when he wants to.

I'll leave the glowing quotes to the likes of Warne, Donald, Sehwag and Bradman but as a cricket fan it's just good to see him keeping going, the look of concentation broken by childish smile of delight when he breaks another record or helps his side to another win, whatever the competition might be. I wrote earlier that he seems to have been on the scene forever and right now it feels that he could keep going for another eternity. It will certainly be a sad day when he finally puts his bat away for the last time but at only 36, time is on his side. I'll be glad to write another article in 2014 when Sachin Tendulkar reaches a quarter-century at the top.