Virat Kohli’s greatest achievement perhaps has been to make English cricket writers forget about Sachin Tendulkar, for whom they have always had a soft spot. And now, Kohli’s reservations about reducing Test matches from five days to four — “Look, I’m not a fan” — have been seized by all those opposed to the change. For a while, it looked like a done deal when the England and Wales Cricket Board announced, “We’re definite proponents of the four-day Test concept, but cautiously so,” with the former England skipper, Michael Vaughan, saying that he had been pressing for the change for a couple of years.

I can see both sides of the argument, although I am instinctively against four-day Tests. In England, Tests are well attended but it is dispiriting to see India play to nearly empty stands, as was the case during the last tour of the West Indies. In England especially, it would be wise to stick to five days to allow for time lost through rain.

Those who want to safeguard the traditional format are heartened by Kohli’s comment. Tim Wigmore in The Daily Telegraph said: “While Kohli has no official sway over whether four-day Tests will become compulsory, his power within Indian cricket is such that his intervention makes it more likely than the Board of Control for Cricket in India will not support the proposals. India’s clout in world cricket is such that this would be a significant, perhaps even terminal, blow to the controversial idea of making four-day Tests mandatory.”

Louis Sealey in Metro, a giveaway London paper, called Kohli “one of the most influential players in the world”, while in The Times, Simon Wilde said “the India captain... became the most influential voice to come out against a wholesale switch to four-day Test cricket”. He added that “not much happens in world cricket without India’s say-so”.

Hiding facts (AP photo)

Walk a tightrope

The West has been badly spooked by the cries of “Marg bar Amrika (Death to America)” and the massive turnout for the funeral of Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian revolutionary guard general assassinated in Baghdad on the orders of the president of the United States of America, Donald Trump. The latter did not take his closest ally, the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, into confidence, and India has to walk a tightrope between Washington and Tehran.

In memory of the 52 people who were taken hostage at the US embassy in Teheran, Trump said he was ready to attack 52 targets in case the Iranian regime resorted to terror tactics. How Tehran will respond remains to be seen, but one thing I can say is that the Iranian leadership has a remarkable instinct for self-preservation and will stop short of taking any action that will threaten its own existence.

I stood outside the US embassy while the 444-day hostage crisis was on in Tehran, and heard impassioned cries of “Marg bar Amrika” fill the air. But the moment the US networks switched off their cameras, the same protesters would approach the television crew and ask in a friendly manner, “How do I get a visa for America?” I could be proved horribly wrong but somehow I do not think “Marg bar Amrika” is necessarily a declaration of war. It is the Calcutta equivalent of “Cholbe na, cholbe na.”

For the future

My guess is that Boris Johnson misses writing his Daily Telegraph column and finishing off his planned biography of William Shakespeare, but he is stuck with being prime minister for one term, possibly two. It is usually the kiss of death to be tipped prematurely for the top, but according to Tim Shipman, the political editor of The Sunday Times, “the contest to replace Johnson, in about nine years’ time, will be between Rishi Sunak (backed up by Oliver Dowden and Robert Jenrick) and Victoria Atkins”.

Sunak is currently the chief secretary to the treasury. I would not be surprised if the home secretary, Priti Patel, also has leadership ambitions. I did wonder what would happen to the third Indian in the cabinet: Alok Sharma, secretary of state for international development. There were reports that Johnson, who is planning a major reshuffle next month, was thinking of absorbing international development into the foreign office but has apparently decided against such a move. The Daily Mail was keen to get rid of international development altogether because it believes (wrongly) that aid given to India is used up in the country’s space programme — “burning money”, it protests. Sharma’s job seems safe for the time being.

New insights

Now that Ratan Tata’s good friend and confidant, Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya, the founder-chairman of the Warwick Manufacturing Group, has passed away, I have to rely on other sources for an insight into what is happening inside Tata’s United Kingdom investments, such as Jaguar Land Rover and Tata Steel. These are key players in the British economy. Fortunately, Natarajan Chandrasekaran has spoken at length to a British journalist, John Collingridge. Among important disclosures, we have learnt that the chairman of Tata Sons has run marathons in New York, Boston, Chicago, Berlin, Tokyo and London; that when he lived in Hampshire in England, he walked and cycled in all its 52 parks; and his cars now include the Jaguar XF, Ranger Rover, Tata Harrier and Tata Nexon. And, in case Cyrus Mistry is interested, his favourite movie is The Godfather.

Direct contact with nature can be healing (Shutterstock)

Rangan Chatterjee, the son of a doctor from Calcutta and a general practitioner himself for nearly 20 years, has become a sort of fitness guru to post-Christmas pudding Britain. He suggests three five-minute “health snacks” per day in his much-publicized new book, Feel Better in 5. He says that direct contact with nature can be healing: “If you have a garden... go outside for five minutes, listen to the birds, watch the branches move in the wind.”