Since it was introduced, this Duke ball has always had a reputation for moving around - and it has let nobody down. The white ball became the main player in the opening week of the tournament, and it is showing few signs of going quietly. IT HAS always been a batsman's game but what the World Cup needed after the first few games was some runs to prove it. Presumably he practises the mad Vince scowl while he is at it..

He rested it and exercises it daily by manipulating a small weight. Eyeball to eyeball.The shoulder caused him further difficulties during the last winter when he tore a tendon - but not before he made a significant breakthrough by taking nine wickets on the Perth glass top in the second Test.Fleming took the injury in what is now his comfortable stride. That change has been responsible for the easier follow through which takes him closer to the batsman. He also got his left leg going through straighter down the pitch and his body swivelling to the left off it. No more than 15 paces, he thought, but in action it seems around 12. He is ready to pay handsome tribute to all his colleagues (Ricky Ponting's desire for the ball in the field "embodied the side's hunger" and Steve Waugh's resilience as a batsman "embodied that characteristic in our team") but Fleming amended his bowling action in the way that Nick Faldo once rebuilt his golf swing.First, he shortened his run from a normal, race to the moon and back sort of fast bowler's run to no more than a gentle amble round the block.

What Fleming did is a tribute to his perseverance and innovation. I knew what I wanted to do, it was doing it," he said, reclining on the bed in his Cardiff hotel room. His action appeared to disintegrate along with it and two seasons ago he was dropped by Victoria."It was a worrying time and I knew if I was going to continue I had to work hard. Suddenly, the Fleming body began to fall apart quicker than a torso in a blazing wax museum. He became the fifth bowler in history to take a hat-trick on his Test debut - and then the shoulder went.Although he appeared in three Ashes Tests later that winter (being picked ahead of McGrath and acquitting himself well) it was to be a long haul back. All his limbs were in prime condition.On his debut for Victoria he took 6 for 37 against Western Australia, where he was born, and four years later he was called up by the Australian touring side in Pakistan.