Good Week For...

Alastair Cook
Picking through England's list of ODI captains since the turn of the century, one probably wouldn't have chosen Cook to be the first to land back-to-back centuries.

Against the odds, though, Cook this week upstaged Andrew Strauss, Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff, Michael Vaughan - all of whom had ample opportunity to do so during their tenure - to fetch the record feat.

Not a year ago serious question marks hung over Cook's head, who arguably shouldn't have been in the ODI XI altogether, let alone as captain.

Scores of 119 not out, 95 not out, 31, four, 80 not out, 23, 12, 50, 60, zero, three, 10, 60, 137 and 102 - for 786 runs at an average of 60.46 in total - since July 2009 see Cook right up there with the Virat Kohlis and Jonathan Trotts - 2011's leading ODI run-scorers - of the world.

Such has been Cook's positive impact on England's limited-overs plans, that one has to question his omission from the T20I unit. With the World Twenty20 taking place in Sri Lanka later this year, Cook's glut of runs in sub-continental and gulf conditions across the past year can't be ignored for selection in the shortest format.

Thami Tsolekile
Just over seven years after the last of his three Tests, Thami Tsolekile finds himself back in favour with the South African selectors.

Although the decision to award him a central contract without giving him a few games first raised quite a few eyebrows, no one can say that he doesn't deserve to be back in the national mix.

Tsolekile has come a long way since he was given the gloves in 2004 against India and England when Mark Boucher was dumped. Although tidy behind the stumps, he averaged just 9.40 and was dropped. His career stagnated after that, but instead of fading into obscurity, he packed up his bags in Cape Town and moved to Gauteng to join the Lions.

He found a new lease on life and his improved steadily over the past few years. Last season he finished fourth in the batting averages, scoring 476 runs at 59.50 with four half-centuries.

Now that the selectors have shown their hand and made him Boucher's heir, it will be interesting to see when exactly he ascends the throne. Do they throw him in against New Zealand so that he can be ready for the England series or do they hold back until the Black Caps and Pakistan hit the South African shores later in the year?

The timing remains to be seen, but it's been made quite obvious that Boucher's days are numbered.

Predictability
The BCCI are "not agreeable" to the changes proposed by the Woolf report. What a surprise.

As mentioned in this column a couple of weeks back, the recommendations were always going to meet resistance from those who have the most to lose, and in this case it is the Indian board. They do not have a record of putting self-interest aside for the good of the game.

This week's confirmation that the BCCI will oppose the changes was followed by understated support from Cricket Australia.

It was a reminder that cricket will only come under the guidance of a governing body that serves the game ahead of individual interests if the smaller boards stand up to the big guys, instead of kowtowing to them - as has been the case for two long.

The future is likely to come down to one hugely important meeting in April.

Bad Week For...

Pakistan
From the highs of their three-nil Test series sweep over Andrew Strauss' men, Pakistan have quickly fallen to the lows of back-to-back defeats at the hands of England's limited-overs posse.

Their dour but successful approach deployed across the five-dayers has brought a detrimental effect to their one-day game, with a large contingent of their batsmen struggling to fetch a strike-rate in excess of even 70.

While Misbah-ul-Haq's dogged batting is excusable, in that he has had to bat around a wobbling order, the selection of the labouring Azhar Ali ahead of the attacking Asad Shafiq is an odd one. The latter didn't deserve the chop after one poor performance in the series opener.

The balance of the team is wrong too. The belated call-up of Shoaib Malik - nothing more than a specialist number eight batsman these days - continues to perplex, while Pakistan have to end the merry-go-round that has Aizaz Cheema, Junaid Khan and Wahab Riaz dizzy at the insecurity of their place in the side.

True, Alastair Cook and Steven Finn have been superb in their dissection of the hosts, but Misbah's men really haven't done themselves any favours in terms of forethought, selection, and tactics.

Australian Thinking
Steve Waugh found the move daft, Ricky Ponting was happy to roll with it and David Warner sufficed with the vice-captaincy, but ultimately the naming of Michael Clarke's stand-in was not done in the progressive manner we have come to expect from Australian cricket of late.

Quick to promote Cameron White and George Bailey in the past, blood young fast bowlers on a whim and employ former rugby players in cricket posts, the oft-pioneering setup took a step backwards this week as they returned Ponting to the helm in the absence of the injured Clarke.

With Ponting's captaincy return set to last a maximum of two games, one of which he has already lost, the choice didn't inspire confidence in a management team supposed to be fixed on a dominant, pioneering future.

The latter half of an ODI tri-series, the likes of which doesn't hold any real bearing in the bigger picture, would have been the ideal platform to test Warner's leadership skills.

Instead, they've essentially left Ponting, who perhaps should have been more begrudging in his acceptance of the position, to hold a fort that would've been far better off with a future leader at its helm rather than one whose captaincy ambitions are long gone.