Cheers Vaughny

Michael Vaughan made many astute decisions as England captain, and the one he’s just made to retire from first class cricket is just about as good as any of them.

Much better that he bows out now before he became a liability to Yorkshire and suffered the ignominy of being dropped by his county, and risk tarnishing his reputation by continuing to scratch around for whatever runs he can find on the county treadmill. Where, as his record shows, he never really made many runs even when he was on top of his game.

Vaughan will be remembered as the best England captain of the modern era, and as one of the top batsmen we have produced in recent times.

The other great thing this announcement achieves is putting an end to the phoney war coming from the Aussies…. Warney et all kept coming out with patently ridiculous claims about how Vaughan should still be in the England side, and that he is still second only to KP in our line up!

It was obviously rubbish, and probably designed to try and pile pressure on the man who has taken his number three slot in the England line up, Ravi Bopara.

Team of the tournament

Here goes my team of the tourney, a lot of the players pick themselves to be honest, but hopefully there's a good bit of balance to this team.

Tillakaratne Dilshan (Sri Lanka)

Man of the tournament, the top run scorer and the best batsman by a country mile.

Kamran Akmal (Pakistan)

Stumpings galore keeping to Ajmal and Afridi, he might not hang around for long with the bat, but would get the innings off to a flyer.

Jacques Kallis (South Africa)

A model of consistency, he scored 238 runs at an average of 59.5 – something that will please him. The rest of the batting line up would be built around this slightly more stoic performer.

Kevin Pietersen (England)

Peerless boundary hitter and a man for the big occasion

Younis Khan (Pakistan), captain

Younis held the Pakistan batting together through the early stages of the tournament, scoring 299 runs. Also captained Pakistan to victory superbly.

Shahid Afridi (Pakistan)

Like Pakistan, he started slowly and built into the tournament, taking the whole competition by the scruff of the neck from the semi final onwards.

Dwayne Bravo (West Indies)

Up there in both the wicket taking and run scoring charts, all done with panache and enthusiasm, a go-to guy in tough situations, he turned in one of the performances of the tournament in victory against India.

Umer Gul (Pakistan)

The leading wicket taker, and almost impossible to score quickly off his swinging yorkers at the death, would warrant selection for his 5-6 against New Zealand, the best bowling figures ever in international Twenty20.

Lasith Malinga (Sri Lanka)

Like Gul, a massive wicket taking threat and very difficult to score off of. His slower ball full toss / yorker was simply unplayable.

Ajantha Mendis (Sri Lanka)

Outbowled the more illustrious Murali in taking 12 wickets at 9.08, all at less than five an over. Kamran Akmal managed to get after him in the final, but otherwise no batsman looked comfortable against his fast spinners.

Wayne Parnell (South Africa)

I’d have Parnell taking the new ball. Fast, straight and adding variety with his left arm over action. A big breakthrough for the nineteen year old.

Credit where it's due for the T20

Ok, England still sometimes look like they’re playing a slightly different game to everybody else, and yes, our specialist six hitting all-rounder is scratching around making 25 from 27 balls, but I’m loving the Twenty20 World Cup.

After the diabolical fifty over World Cup held in England in 2007 I’ve got to be honest, I was half expecting a bit of a damp squib from the T20 version, but I’ll happily hold my hands up as being wrong. The only time I can remember cricket capturing the public imagination in the same way was during the once in a lifetime 2005 Ashes series, but travelling around, whiling away hours in the pub, and actually going to the games, I don’t remember hearing so many people excited about the game.

Previous World Cups have seemed to last a couple of lifetimes, but the format of this tournament feels just about right. Only using three grounds has given the tournament a hub - although the large ethnic communities in Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham for example suggests that having two of the homes in London is misguided.

Scheduling two games a day at the same venue has also helped build the momentum – encouraging larger, more diverse crowds and ensuring excitement is held even when one of the games doesn’t quite match the billing. The short three-week format also works beautifully with games every day, the vast majority of which have a real purpose to them. While whether by design or serendipity the timing of the competition between the end of the football season and the start of Wimbledon has helped keep cricket at the centre of the sports media – only interrupted by the latest vulgar goings on with the Portuguese clown and the British and Irish egg chasers competing for attention.

On top of all that the cricket has been terrific, with a sprinkling of upsets, some exceptional individual performances (Umer Gul and Dwayne Bravo spring to mind) and of course Australia being unceremoniously dumped early out of the competition is a Delia Smith-esque recipe for success.

It’s pretty rare they get things right, but credit where it’s due and hats off to the ECB, and the ICC for the competition. I hope it holds up right through to the final.

Oh Lanka, Lanka. Lanka, Lanka, Lanka, Lanka, Sri Lanka

After getting marmalised by South Africa yesterday, England now have a fair idea how far behind the very best we are at Twenty20. I doubt anyone was surprised that we lost, but so soon after the humiliation against the Netherlands it was pretty demoralising. We’ll know more after the game against India this weekend, but at the moment I’d suggest the thrashing we gave Pakistan was probably more of a one off than the clogging we got from the Dutch.

As usual in (2020) hindsight of defeat I think we made some pretty basic selection errors, most obviously with the batting. Comparing our line up with any other test playing side in the tournament, we just don’t bat deep enough. As soon as KP was third wicket down in the sixth over the game was up, with Collingwood, Foster and MascarAnus batting at five, six and seven. The problem is we’ve got too many medium pace bowling all rounders, and not enough specialist batsmen that can consistently hit the ropes.

Of the eleven that took the field, only Foster is a complete non-bowler - even Shah has been known the turn his arm over), while I’m not sure of the merits of bowling Colly ahead of Mascarenhas, Bopara or Luke Wright, I do know that we sure as hell don’t need all of them if they’re not contributing with the bat. As Colly is captain, the fall guy should be Dimitri who only seems to get picked because Shane Warne championed his cause about three years ago (and it worked for KP) – although I notice he didn’t get too many games for Warney’s Rajastan Royals.

James Foster also looks a bad shout, we’re not getting enough benefit out of him standing up to the stumps to compensate for his batting. Haddin, Sangarakarra, Kamran Akmal, Dhoni, Brendon McCullum and Fletcher are all contributing in a big way at the top of the order for their teams, Foster well, isn’t. Steve Davies gave us a bit of a flier in his only Twenty20 game against the Windies so I’m not sure why he got jettisoned. Hell, even Colly looked ok when he took over from Prior in the recent test match. Why not?

With the current squad all we can probably do is bring Morgan – we identified him as a specialist, so let’s back the judgement - in for Warney’s mate and keep our fingers crossed Bopara and Wright get us a good start. Can’t see it worrying India too much though.

England aside, South Africa were very impressive yesterday, especially their fast bowling and fielding – and to be fair their batting wasn’t given much of a challenge. It’s clear to see why they’re most people’s favourite, but having seen Sri Lanka twice I’m backing them to win the trophy.

Two factors in particular swing it their way, they’ve got by far the best spin bowling attack with Mendis and Murali backed up by Jayasuriya. And with games being played on used pitches expect spin to come into play even more as the tournament progresses. Secondly they’ve got the best opening partnership to launch the innings. Dilshan has been the tournament’s leading batsman to date, and we all know what Jayasuriya can do when the mood takes him.

With the supporting cast including class acts like Malinga the Slinga, Jayawardene and Sangarakkara, and a few big hitters down the order they make a pretty compelling case.

O.K. Riiight, what went wrong there then?

Even in the undistinguished annals of English one day cricket that was just about as embarrassing as defeats come.  Entering the game we were on something of a high after a comprehensive series of victories over the West Indies, and England were actually being talked up in some quarters as potential World Twenty20 Champions.  Hmmm.

Now we’ve really managed to usher in our own tournament with a real bang, by managing to orchestrate an almighty cock-up, which no doubt has gone down brilliantly across the rest world game. 

At one stage with Ravi Bopara and Luke Wright going well, England were 100-0 after eleven overs – so without indulging in too much hyperbole how did we manage to turn such an overwhelmingly dominant position into ignominious defeat?

 

Foot off the gas

Having worked their way serenely into a strong position against a team of ‘minnows’, England thought the game was won, and the intensity was lost in the batting 62 runs were scored in the last nine overs as the middle order failed build on the early impetus.   No problem, we got to 162, and after all it was only the Netherlands wasn’t it?

 

Spinning heads

I haven’t heard why Adil Rashid played ahead of Graeme Swann, but if was a conscious decision rather than injury related, it smacks of huge complacency.  Swanny’s an experienced cricketer who has been bowling superbly for England in all forms of the game, whereas Rashid is a very young man just making his initial steps in international cricket.  If the idea was to give the newby a gentle introduction into the tournament against the whipping boys of the group it was sadly misguided as four overs for 1/36 reveals.  If he was picked on merit it was just plain daft.

 

Throwing it away

I saw one of the county sides in the domestic Twenty20 (I forget which) talked about targeting two run outs in every innings, I lost count the number of times a direct hit in the field would have added a crucial wicket – including several times in the last over.  They all missed, It’s a basic skill, but hugely important.  Add in a couple of dropped catches and it all adds up to double fielding practice tomorrow.

 

What’s important now is not to over react, if England can beat Pakistan we should still qualify for the Super Eights on run rate, the line up won’t change dramatically (although we need KP and Swann back in the side), and we’ve still got some strong performers, but what’s clear after this shambles is that there’s absolutely no margin for error now.

Too Much Alastair Cook Spoils the Broth

As a lover of the game it’s almost sacrilegious to say it, but there’s just too much international cricket being played at the moment. The result of the never ending pursuit of the almighty dollar (or rupee) is that the really dramatic, high octane action is being diluted by too much mediocre cricket that does little but devalue the sport.

Exhibit one is the just completed West Indies tour, be it the Test matches or the One Day Internationals, the series was characterised by some of the least inspiring cricket I can remember. Taking their lead from the captain Chris Gayle who would clearly have preferred to have been back in South Africa enjoying the sun on his back and the crash bang wallop of the IPL, the Windies – cold and unfamiliar with the conditions – put in a collection of performances as insipid, and lacking in application and basic technique as any seen for a while.

But you can’t blame them entirely, this was an ill conceived tour from the start – scheduled to meet contractual obligations to show a minimum of five home test matches each summer on Sky, the tour was far too early in the English ‘summer’ (pushed there by the addition of the World Twenty20 to an already cramped calendar), an error which was compounded by the allocation of one of the tests to the most northerly ground in the country in early May... and guess what? Yes, it was bloody Baltic.

Leading international sides are now operating a squad system, picking and choosing the battles that their top players fight to avoid burn out, and inevitable injuries. Someone at the top of the game has to realise this simply isn’t good for the sport. Lessons need to be learnt, but probably won’t, rather than quantity, the long term future of the game depends on the quality of cricket played.
A test series against the West Indies should never be a side issue again, but that’s what it was – now that it’s out of the way I’m looking forward to some truly exciting, competitive cricket in the World Twenty20, and on through the Ashes.

Bring on the Ashes

Reading through the Australia squad for the Ashes, I’m actually feeling a little more confident about England’s chances. Any team without Warne, McGrath and Gilchrist is obviously going to be significantly weaker, but I genuinely think the Aussies have some pretty serious issues to address.

Unless Mitchell Johnson continues his batting form this squad lacks a genuine test all rounder (and despite what many people are saying Andrew Symonds wouldn’t have been the answer either). Shane Watson has been around for a long time without ever looking like changing the course of a Test Match, and Andrew McDonald may just turn out to be the most limited player I’ve ever seen Australia bring to these shores.

Running through the entire squad you can make a case for most players falling into one of the categories of out of form, injured, untested, or simply not good enough. To be frank with Ponting scratching around for form (admittedly by his own high standards) only Michael Clarke, Mitchell Johnson, Michael Katich and Brad Haddin escape the cut on all fronts.

So, no spinner to speak of, a question mark over the balance of the team without a proper all rounder, and many key men only just returning from injury all of a sudden I’m getting the feeling Australia might just be there for the taking... Famous last words.

Early Season Conclusions

• Phil Hughes’ gentle introduction to English conditions going alarmingly well, his first class scores read 118, 65*, 139, 195 and 57. Thanks for that Middlesex.

• Excellent to see Notts top of the table and looking really strong after beating Somerset, showing the depth of their squad with important performances from youngsters Luke Fletcher and Alex Hales in particular taking the slack from senior members of side missing through either international selection or injury.

• Everyone now needs to stop even mentioning Michael Vaughan in terms of England – I keep hearing of his psychological advantage over Australia, but I doubt they’ll be too intimidated by first class returns of 12, 24, 20, 5 and 16.

• Cruelly deprived of Simon Jones and Kabir Ali, Worcestershire are doomed to ignominious relegation from the County Championship division one.

• The West Indies non-performance in the first test highlights just how poorly England did to lose the away series earlier this year. The real bonus from the game though was to see us winning without a performance from the senior members of the squad, nothing of consequence from Pietersen, Strauss or Collingwood, and Flintoff didn’t even play...

• ...As the anomaly of England’s record without Flintoff continues one of Andy Flower’s most important challenges will be to discover whatever it is that gives other players the freedom or responsibility to deliver when ‘Fred-the-talisman’ isn’t in the side, and channel it whenever Flintoff is back fit.

• Graeme Swann’s transformation from outsider to number one spinner has been remarkable, and it opens up the possibility of England playing two spinners, certainly later in the summer during the Ashes. All of which makes the decision to give a test (especially the first one) to Glamorgan instead of Old Trafford stink even more than it did at the time...

• Given the money grabbing nature of that decision, starting a Test match against a flaky West Indies side in early May on a Wednesday seems incredibly naive – three days later and the game’s over before the bumper weekend crowds come through the gates. Cue much grinding of teeth at the ECB.

Fantasy Cricket 2009

If you only play one fantasy cricket game this summer, it’s got to be the Telegraph’s version, the original and best – hit http://fantasycricket.telegraph.co.uk/

It’s the most accurate, detailed version of the game, but be prepared to spend all day at work refreshing Cricinfo to see how Tim Murtagh is getting on in the second division against Glamorgan, or cursing that the clash between Northants and Leicester is being rained off. Be warned it might take over your life.

Teams need to be registered by Weds May 6th to take part from the start, if a few people are up for getting involved, I’ll create a mini-league.

There are several games this year, but the big one is the county challenge. Here’s my starting line up. I’ve tried to limit the number of enforced transfers I’ll have to make, so have looked to pick players unaffected by IPL / international call ups.

Batsmen
Marcus Trescothick: 8
A fantasy banker. One of the best players in the country, but never going to play international cricket. He’s also such a fast scorer he’ll be good for bonus points in all forms of one day cricket.

Adam Voges: 6
The Australian is clearly a class act, and has started the season well for Notts, a quality one day player, although will be lost when he joins up with the Aussies Twenty20 squad.

Dawid Malan: 5
There had to be one of Middlesex’s young batsmen, and I’ve plumped for Malan for his explosive one day play, and the fact he’s started to pick up a few wickets for a few Brucie Bonus extra points.

Ian Bell: 4
At four points, Bell’s as cheap as a Kerry Katona Iceland advert. I don’t see him getting back into the England side any time soon, but he should fill his boots on the county circuit.

All Rounders
Samit Patel: 8
A bit like Trescothick, an international class player not involved with the national team. A top performer in all formats of the game. Samit’s my pick as skipper so will deliver double points.

Josh Cobb: 3
A bargain buy, talked about as having huge promise he’s been picking up some decent runs so far this season.

Wicket Keeper
Tim Ambrose: 3
Another cheap buy, Ambrose has started superbly with the bat this season, and isn’t in immediate contention for another England call up.

Bowlers
Danish Kaneria: 7
A bit like Mushy for all those years, Kaneria’s just too good for the majority of domestic batsmen. Expect hatfuls of wickets to follow.

Andre Nel: 6
Nel’s still a class act although not to everyone’s taste, now that Gunter’s gone Kolpak I expect him to be a key bowler for Essex in their promotion push this year.

Saj Mahmood: 5
I’ve always liked Saj despite the criticism he gets for being a bit too wayward. Genuine pace, and with Freddie and Ando likely to be on England duty all season he’ll be the man to lead the Lancashire attack.

Wayne Parnell: 5
I caught a glimpse of Parnell in South Africa’s one day series against Australia, and the boy’s got a future. He also picked up runs in Kent’s game against Essex which swung his inclusion.

England Squad Announcement

Andrew Strauss (capt), James Anderson, Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Paul Collingwood, Alastair Cook, Graham Onions, Monty Panesar, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior, Graeme Swann

I’m quietly encouraged by the first squad announced under Andy Flower, the line up shows some joined up thinking, and demonstrates a willingness to take a look at new options rather than just going back to the same old tired names.

Michael Vaughan, Steve Harmison and Ian Bell now know they’re not just going to spend a little penance in the domestic scene, and walk back into the side. Good. Maybe taking them out of their comfort zone will encourage them to push on... or push off – a positive move either way.

Yes, Bell’s made big runs for Warwickshire so far this season, but the question has never been about his ability and a couple of impressive knocks in the safety of the County Championship haven’t changed his mental flaws on the biggest stage. Equally while I’m sure Vaughan is ‘hitting it brilliantly in the nets’, neither he nor Harmison have the numbers behind them to justify a call up.

Now it looks like Ravi Bopara will bat at three – for at least the test series against the West Indies. I really like Bopara as a player, but I think it’s a bit unfair on him. Number three is the pivotal position in the batting order, and is usually filled by one of the most senior, reliable batsmen. Bopara’s played four test matches.

Someone else should be stepping up to the plate, KP, Collingwood, Strauss and Cook are all experienced, but in the case of Colly & KP in particular are just too comfortable in their current position. So much like Shah, and to a lesser extent Bell before him – the most vulnerable batsman in the order is given the most effective role. I hope he succeeds, but don’t think he’s being given the best chance to.

It’s hard to argue with the logic of any of the other selections; the man in possession Owais Shah hasn’t even played a game in the IPL, so has no form whatsoever – and doesn’t have weight of runs from the West Indies series to retain his place; and Graham Onions celebrated his call up by ripping through Somerset, taking 6-31, so at the very least we’re picking a man in form. Bresnan has been on the scene for a while now and probably deserves his shot.

I’m not wholly convinced either Onions or Bresnan will go on to enjoy successful Test careers, but I’m pleased that we’re going to get a chance to find out.

County predictions '09

Now that the county season is under way, time to risk making a fool of myself with a few predictions for the coming months.

Starting with Notts, and obvious bias aside, they look as strong as anyone again – stronger if they can get their first eleven out. A bowling attack permeated from Stuart Broad, Charlie Shreck, Ryan Sidebottom, Darren Pattinson, Mark Ealham, Andre Adams and Graeme Swann is more than capable of sustaining a County Championship title challenge. That said, I can hardly see Broad or Swann in particular pulling on a Notts shirt all summer, although it currently looks likely we’ll be seeing more of Sido this year.

Notts’ trophy chances then will be down to scoring enough runs, where a lot will rest on Adam Voges (especially with Samit Patel likely to be spending chunks of the season on international duty), who wasn’t quite able to fill the admittedly huge shoes of David Hussey last year. With a plethora of allrounders, Notts bat deeper than anyone else in the championship – if we can get the openers to pull their weight I see a strong push for the title.

We’ll also expect to be very competitive in all of the one day competitions, whether Ali Brown turns out to be a masterstroke or wishful thinking, the combination of experience, the variety of options and a smattering of class will serve the Outlaws well in pyjama cricket.


County Championship Div one
Between Notts and Durham again, the two teams with the best bowling attacks. I’m going to stick my neck out and plump for Mick Newell’s men to take the title back to Trent Bridge.
Sussex, missing Chris Adams and Mushtaq, and with Murray Goodwin ageing, to go down with Hampshire.

County Championship Div two
There are some big guns in this year’s second division after the relegation of Surrey and Kent last year, but they won’t have it all their own way in the push for promotion. Surrey just keep aging and I don’t see them getting straight back up. Middlesex have a very talented young batting line up with the likes of Malan, Godelman and Morgan, alongside established pros like Owais Shah, I think they’ll score enough runs to underpin their title challenge. Essex will continue to improve, and Kent’s band of mercenaries should be strong, but outside of those three I don’t see much quality cricket being played in the second division. Middlesex as champions, and Kent to be promoted.

Friends Provident Trophy
The early season qualifiers will suit those teams too not affected by IPL/Twenty20 call ups, and with strong seam attacks. I quite fancy Somerset to go well with Trescothick, Langer and Kieswetter spearheading the batting. I’ll plump for them to beat Durham in the final.

Twenty20
Essex have got some terrific boundary hitters in Ravi Bopara and Graham Napier, and have a young, united squad. I also like Notts’ chances in the short format under Chris Read’s captaincy and with a team stuffed full of allrounders. Notts, Essex, Worcestershire and Kent to make finals day... and if pushed Essex to take the title.

Pro40
Who knows? Sorry, it’s just too early to pick a winner.

Hoping Flower Blooms for England

As expected then, Andy Flower is the new coach, or ‘team director’, and it’s a move that I’m reasonably happy with. He might not be the best man for the job, but he definitely seems like the best available.

Despite losing the series in the West Indies, Flower managed to come out of the tour in credit, backed up by improved one day international performances. The players seem to like and respect him, which is half the battle at international level, where, as Shane Warne keeps pointing out, the actual coaching players require should be minimal.

What’s beyond doubt is that Flower was a superb batsman, and his actions alongside Henry Olonga protesting about the state of Zimbabwe during the 2003 World Cup mark him out as a man of courage and integrity.

In many ways the ECB have managed to fall on their feet following their utter mismanagement of the Kevin Pietersen captaincy debacle. With Strauss and Flower in place of Moores and Pietersen I’m pretty comfortable that we’ve somehow managed to end up with the better operator in each position.

The bigger worry moving forward is the lack of candidates for the role. Most of the big name coaches around the world, the likes of Tom Moody, Mickey Arthur and Gary Kirsten all ruled themselves out of the running before even interviewing. The top job in English cricket should be one of the most coveted positions in world cricket, but I fear the continued abject management at the highest level of the game is putting off the elite coaches.

I wish Andy Flower all the success in the world as England coach, but would love to see a new generation of English coaches coming through when the time comes to replace him. The likes of Ashley Giles, Graham Thorpe and Matthew Maynard are all in the early stages of their domestic coaching careers it would be great to have their home-grown hats in the ring in a few years time.

England player rater

England have just returned home from the West Indies, where the test series defeat was countered somewhat by victory in the one day series, but how did England’s players stack up... just in, here’s the top 20.


20. Ian Bell
1 test, 32 runs @ 16.00
Looked frightened by his own shadow in his only test match when he probably shouldn’t have been selected in the first place. Time for a season away from the spotlight at Warwickshire.


19. Ryan Sidebottom
3 tests, 32 runs @ 32.00, 2 wickets @ 181.00
Turned up injured, picked injured, his pace was well down and to be honest he never really looked like taking any wickets. Fingers crossed he get his body right for the Ashes, as on form his variety will be valuable.

18. Amjad Khan
1 test, 1 wicket @ 122.00,
1 Twenty20, 2 wickets @ 17.00, 2 runs
Very erratic test debut some good balls interspersed with a lot of rubbish, and not especially trusted by his captain on the final day. Decent pace, but I’m not convinced he’s an international class player.


17. Gareth Batty
3 ODIs, 24 runs @ 12.00, 1 wicket @ 72.00
1 Twenty20, 4 runs, and no wickets for 17
An erroneous selection, Batty’s not the man for the present, and certainly not the man for the future. Surely Rashid should have been given a go. Performed adequately but no more.


16. Steve Davies
1 Twenty20, 27 runs
Batted well in his one opportunity opening the innings in the Twenty20. Davies scored his 27 runs off just 21 deliveries – I actually think he may be a better option in one-dayers than Prior.


15. Monty Panesar
3 Tests, 0 runs @ 0.00, 5 wickets @ 54.00
Monty responded well to a bad start and being dropped, and finally bowled superbly on the final afternoon at Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad nearly contributing to a fine win. May well benefit from the added competition Graeme Swann offers.


14. Little Timmy Ambrose
1 Test, 76 runs
Came in when Prior popped off home to see his new baby and couldn’t be faulted on his performance, scoring 76 in his only innings, and keeping wicket well. A little unfortunate to lose his place once Prior decided he wanted to play again.

13. Owais Shah
4 Tests, 133 runs @ 22.16,
1 Twenty20, 6 runs
5 ODIs, 107 runs @ 26.75
Finally given the chance many had been calling for when Bell was dropped after the first test and although it wasn’t in his natural home at number five or six he was disappointing. Great batting tracks and an average attack should have offered more than a batting average of 22. Unfortunately Shah our best ODI batsman of the last couple of years took his test form into the 50 over game.


12. Steve Harmison
2 Tests, 4 wickets @ 36.75, 14 runs @ 7.00
4 ODIs, 0 wickets for 139 runs
Hurt somewhat by seeming to be picked on all of the wrong tracks Harmy still doesn’t look like an experienced pack leading fast bowler. Took a pasting at times in the one-dayers, down on pace an inspiration, he’s not even half the bowler he was on the last tour and to be honest I just wouldn’t trust him to play for England again.


11. Dmitri Mascarenhas
1 Twenty20, 0 runs, 0 wickets for 17 runs
5 ODIs, 65 runs @ 21.66, 5 wickets @ 30.40
Pretty average figures from an average player, bowled a little better than I expected, batted a little bit worse – at strike rate of 57 is dire for a big hitting lower order player


10. Matt Prior
4 Tests, 310 runs @ 77.50
5 ODIs, 74 runs @ 37.00
Topped the test match batting averages where he performed very well with the bat, but his keeping remains poor at best, catches dropped, and nearly a world record number of byes conceded in the Trinidad test match, and many more in the ODIs, which could prove very costly in tight games. He also doesn’t convince as a limited overs batsman not scoring as quickly as he should through a lack of inventiveness in shot making.


9. Andrew Flintoff
3 Tests, 67 runs @ 16.75, 5 wickets @ 30.20
3 ODIs, 3 runs @ 1.50, 6 wickets @ 16.00
Mixed as he always seems to be these days, inspired for his decisive bowling performance in the final ODI in St. Lucia, he never bowled less than well, although generally not quite hitting the heights. Batting form more impeded by his on-off injury problems.


8. Kevin Pietersen
5 Tests, 406 runs @ 58.00
1 Twenty20, 12 runs
5 ODIs, 80 runs @ 20.00
Not quite himself after losing the captaincy, started with a typically belligerent 97 in the first test, and hit an important century in Trinidad, there apart too often out to poor shots, and not looking quite as self assured as usual. Well below par in the ODIs when apparently he was thinking of home. Needs to find his spark again in time for Australia.


7. Stuart Broad
5 Tests, 94 runs @ 18.80, 12 wickets @ 30.58
1 Twenty20, 2 runs and 1 for 26
5 ODIs, 11 runs @ 3.66, 8 wickets @ 26.75
Broad has continued his rapid improvement as an international cricketer, with the injuries suffered among the seamers he stepped up to a senior role, leading the pack alongside Anderson and growing as a wicket taking threat. Remains a quality one day bowler, although didn’t get going with the bat.


6. Ravi Bopara
1 Test, 104 runs
1 Twenty20, 13 runs
5 ODIs, 146 runs @ 29.20
Quality hundred in his one test match in Barbados, full of great attacking shots to the leg side, and was a little unlucky to miss out when the extra bowler was selected for the final game. Bopara also showed promise opening in the fifty over games without getting the big score. He’s got the ability to clear the infield in the early overs, I’d tell him now he’s opening the batting through to the next world cup.


5. Alastair Cook
5 Tests, 384 runs @ 54.85
Broke that hoodoo by finally turning a half century into a hundred at Barbados and batted well throughout the test series forming a very reliable opening partnership with his Captain. Sure to me a major fixture in the side for years to come, maybe at number three though?


4. Graeme Swann
3 Tests, 31 runs, 19 wickets @ 24.05
Established himself as the number one spinner in the side following on from out bowling Panesar in India. Missed out on the first test, but after that bowled with control and variation, finishing as the leading wicket taker on either side. Also looks like a good character especially on a long tour.


3. Jimmy Anderson
4 Tests, 24 runs @ 12.00, 9 wickets @ 38.00
1 Twenty20, 1 wicket for 19 runs
5 ODIs, 8 runs, 9 wickets @ 21.11
His test stats don’t quite justify this ranking on their own, but I think he bowled superbly throughout. Ando’s always bowled wicket taking deliveries but his consistency has improved, and he’s also bowling at a really good pace now. Batting has improved and he’s turned himself into a reliable nightwatchman – even when he shouldn’t be used in that role.


2. Paul Collingwood
5 Tests, 430 runs @ 61.42, 0 wickets for 73 runs
1 Twenty20, 14 runs, 0 wickets for 8 runs
5 ODIs, 111 runs @ 37.00, 5 wickets @ 22.80
Confession time, I was wrong – before the tour I was advocating dropping Colly, but he’s been absolutely superb. As always never looking too pretty, but bloody effective, and always there when he’s needed. Two hundreds in four completed tests speaks for itself, and he’s still as absolutely essential member of the limited overs side – taking useful wickets, and topping the scoring rate charts (of anyone facing more than 20 balls) at 88.80.


1. Andrew Strauss
5 Tests, 541 runs @ 67.62
1 Twenty20, 22 runs
5 ODIs, 204 runs @ 51.00
No surprises that the skipper is in at number one. Handed a hospital pass by the Pietersen / Moores debacle before the tour, he handled himself brilliantly throughout, and the captaincy clearly helps his batting. Four hundreds in all forms of cricket, Strauss led from the front and actually played more fluently than for years, culminating in some one day innings as welcome as they were unexpected. A world class tour, where my only criticism is a tendency for slightly negative captaincy in the test matches.

KP the Capitalist is trapped in the wrong sport

Much has been written about Kevin Pietersen this week, for all that KP is someone on the edge of greatness, and the best English player of his generation - he’s clearly unhappy and a difficult character to manage. The problem is he’s a fantastic talent doomed to play the wrong sport.

One of the things that makes cricket unique is that it’s essentially an individual’s sport played by teams. Like no other team game, personal contributions are there to be analysed and judged in black and white, runs and wickets are the only currency that matters and the scorecard never lies.

Consider rugby and football, our two other dominant team sports, in the Six Nations tournament just finished, 53% of the points scored came from the boots of the elected place kickers, but the opportunities for Ronan O’Gara or Toby Flood to score only came from another member of the team crossing for a try, or teammates forcing an error from the opposition and winning a penalty within kicking distance. Yes, kickers do get their fair share of glamour, but some of the most celebrated of all players barely scored a point for their country.

Martin Johnson is one of the greatest sportsmen England has produced in any discipline, and yet in 92 tests for England and the Lions he scored only two tries – a paltry ten points – but we all appreciate what Johnno brought to the cause.

Rugby’s probably the ultimate team sport; the best teams attack and defend as a collective. One man comes up with the ball when a pack drives over the try line, but it’s the collective effort, will and strength of the group that’s responsible for the score – not to mention those involved in the previous phases of the move that earned the territorial advantage in the first place. There’s nothing equivalent in cricket – sure occasionally a fielder will pull off a sensational catch to gift a bowler a wicket – but essentially you’re on your own.

Ideologically speaking rugby is the Communist sport – a fantastic irony that the stockbrokers, bankers and farmers that play the game will surely appreciate. Which makes individual games like golf or tennis Capitalism, where the success of the victors can only be achieved at the expense of others. Cricket falls somewhere in the middle; maybe its New Labours fabled ‘the third way’ - but let’s hope not.

Similarly in football, games are won and lost on goals scored, and although strikers are generally the highest paid and most celebrated individuals on a team, they’d struggle to function without the support of the rest of a team. And no-one doubts the contributions of defensive players like Nemanja Vidic or Claude Makelele for example – although it’s only in recent years that the Carling Opta boffins have started collating statistics on tackle or passing percentages, to ‘rate’ their performances. Anyone who was watched players such as these, or those like Fabregas and Xaxi for Arsenal and Barcelona respectively will appreciate their game offers so much more to the side than the scorebook reveals, the heartbeat of the team they dictate the style, pace and movement of the collective.

So back to KP’s, he is fantastically dedicated to cricket, and to squeezing every last drop reward out of his physical ability. By all accounts he practises harder than anyone else, improving his own game and pushing it to new heights – the addition of the switch hit to his repertoire being a perfect example.

So as an individual within the England team he delivers to a remarkable degree, but after that I think he struggles. He clearly gets frustrated by the limitations of those around him who aren’t as dedicated, single minded or talented as he is. Throughout Pietersen’s career he’s consistently moved on to pursue his goals, from leaving South Africa behind and moving to Nottinghamshire to fulfil his ambitions, to ditching Notts in favour of his buddy Warne and the money offered by Hampshire, and then more recently manoeuvring to have Peter Moores replaced as England coach. He lets nothing or nobody get in the way of his individual success. Only now he’s reached the pinnacle there’s nowhere to go, nothing to rail against.

In this respect Pietersen would be much more suited to an individual sport like golf. He reminds me hugely of Tiger Woods or Nick Faldo; displaying absolute dedication to mind, body and technique to attain the greatest heights; not bothered about upsetting people on the way to achieve their goals; absolutely unafraid of speaking their mind to rivals or the press; and not great team players – witness Tiger’s relative struggle in the team restrictions of the Ryder Cup (although curiously not for Faldo at least as a player).

It’s that individual format that would allow Pietersen to flourish, reliant solely on himself rather than having anyone else to rely on or hold him back, although at least cricket still affords him the opportunity for the individual glory and personal records that he craves.

Who should host the IPL?

If I was Lalit Modi I’d opt for South Africa rather than England to host this year’s IPL.

Although putting aside the unfortunate circumstances leading up to the relocation, on a personal level I’d love to see the IPL come to England. Like it or not Twenty20 represents the future, and the opportunity to see the world’s most exciting players lining up against each other in the shortest form of the game would be superb.

I don’t doubt that we’ve got the infrastructure to hold the tournament; we’ve definitely got the grounds; given the will there shouldn’t be any problem fitting the games into the domestic schedule; and I’m sure the public (both ex-pat / second generation Indian and ‘English’ cricket fans) have got the appetite to fill the stadiums.

But as the big shots at the IPL understand this isn’t really a tournament for live spectators, instead the long term success of the competition will live or die by TV money, and I just feel that South Africa will deliver a better televised spectacle.

Two reasons, both weather related, mean that a South African based competition will provide more exciting cricket. England in April and May means showers, and we’ve just seen in the West Indies just how unsatisfactory one day games that finish on the DL method can be. Equally unsatisfactory for the worldwide TV audience would be early season English conditions, great for traditional English seamers, but hardly conducive to the barrage of boundaries that Twenty20 thrives on.

That South Africa wins on both fronts is a real shame, as I’d love to Ishant Sharma coming in to bowl at Sehwag at the Oval, or Chris Gayle facing up to Dale Steyn at Trent Bridge...

Do we even want to win the Ashes?

Talk about all working in the same direction.

Kent continue to be a blight on English cricket. Not content with racking up countless mercenary Kolpak players with disregard to providing any kind of future England international players, they've now decided to take on Stuart Clarke for the start of the domestic season. Giving the Aussie pace man time to facilitate his rehabilitation from injury and grow accustomed to English conditions just in time to take us on in the Ashes. Maybe we shouldn't be surprised that a team full of South Africans cares so little about the success of the England side, but all the same, Thanks. For. That. Kent.

The move follows on from Middlesex taking on of Phillip Hughes, the newest member of the Australian test side, who's made a very promising start to his career in South Africa, and as far as I'm aware has no first class experience in England. First class counties rely heavily on the England team (and the success of) for funding, so why are they so determined to undermine the national side for the sake of a few weeks performances. As Geoff Miller said, it would never happen in Australia.

If Giles Clarke wants to work on something why not work out a system of approval for overseas signings?

The ECB have already put us on the backfoot for the Ashes by ignoring the two test grounds that offer us the best match winning opportunities in favour of smaller stadiums with deeper pockets, now it's the club's turn to bite England on the backside.

Do we want to win the Ashes or not?

Reflections on a tour

So I’ve managed to fulfil one of my lifelong ambitions – to watch an England test match abroad. And what better place to start than the Caribbean, and more precisely the Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad? By all accounts the most picturesque ground in the West Indies, and certainly the stadium with the liveliest ‘calypso’ atmosphere.

So did the trip live up to my admittedly pretty high expectations of following England away in the West Indies? There were a few things that I was hoping for / expecting to get the most out of the experience... and it pretty much delivered on all counts.

1. Atmosphere
Growing up watching the great West Indian sides of the eighties and nineties, the one thing that always appealed so much about cricket in the Windies was the unique atmosphere created, a million miles from the G&T, don’t walk on the grass, reverential atmosphere of Lords et al, but that of passion, noise, character – a joyous celebration of cricket and life. The final day delivered that in spades... in retrospect a close fought West Indies series clincher was probably the best result possible, for a nation deprived of cricketing success in the last decade a rare series victory at home brought out the very best in the home crowd, with a busy Queens Park Oval bouncing to the sounds of the steel band, and fuelled b y local rum and coke, chanting and celebrating a morale boosting rear guard ‘victory’. I didn’t realise it before hand, but that’s exactly what I wanted to see.

2. Performances
The other thing I wanted was a memorable test match, one that gave me plenty of memories both of the game, and of the individual performances within it. Like much of the test cricket played recent months the pitch was too placid to deliver a perfectly balanced game of cricket, but England’s aggressive batting and declaration on the last morning did at least provide a tense and thrilling final afternoon climax, when Jimmy Anderson, Swann and Panesar all bowled excellently. The game also saw seven centurions including by both captains and the star batsmen Kevin Pietersen and Shiv Chanderpaul. So while the game wasn’t quite a classic it certainly delivered enough to be genuinely memorable.

3. Off the pitch
Watching cricket isn’t all about just the game, there’s so much more to enjoy, it’s about the build up, the anticipation, it’s about the banter, talking about everything and nothing. It’s about getting slowly toasted in the sunshine with friends. I enjoyed everything about the experience from a great hotel, to the delights of goat roti, or salt fish with rice in the ground, to that guilty pleasure of joining in with the bulldog element in the Barmy Army, through to long evenings on Carib beer in the local bars. A fantastic experience all round.

Tragic times for cricket

Sport and politics never mix. It’s a statement often repeated, but the very tragic events in Lahore yesterday sadly once again underline the total and utter nonsense of that ideal.

The idea that professional cricketers (as well as officials and innocent bystanders) can be targeted in such a ruthless bloodthirsty manner is deeply worrying for the future of the game in Pakistan, and I fear wider into the subcontinent as a whole. The attack seems even more depraved when you consider that Sri Lanka were only touring Pakistan as a replacement for the planned visit of India which was called off following the Mumbai atrocities. The Sri Lankan team stepped into the breach offering home international cricket to a hugely enthusiastic nation for the first time in years. It will be even longer before anyone returns.

There’s very little way of protecting sports teams or officials against single minded terrorist attacks such as this, so the chances of any team agreeing to play in Pakistan in the near future are – absolutely understandably – nil. Instead the only option would appear to be for Pakistan to play ‘home’ fixtures at neutral venues, potentially in Dubai or the UAE.

I wouldn’t claim to know anywhere near enough about Pakistani politics to understand the wider implications of events yesterday, but for the time being thoughts deserve to be with the victims and their families, as well as thanks to those whose actions limited the number casualties to much fewer than could have been the case.

Prior's engagement alters the balance

Balance is much talked about when it comes to selecting cricket teams, I’m usually an advocate of a simple process of picking your best six batsmen, wicketkeeper and four bowlers and asking them to do the jobs they’re paid for. But with Matt Prior returning home, to keep nappies and bottles rather than wickets, and Flintoff succumbing inevitably to injury the selectors are left with some serious thinking to find the right combination to win the fourth test.

When Flintoff was ruled out the obvious solution was to move Prior up the order to number six and bring an the extra bowler, but now with Prior unavailable (why the modern trend dictates that highly rewarded, massively privileged and responsible sportsmen always return home in these situations beats me) it’s just not a viable option to bat Ambrose at six in a test match which means bringing in an additional batsman and relying on four bowlers to take the twenty West Indian wickets needed to win the game.

While neither Freddie or Prior could command a place in the test line up on their batting alone, they are both close to the genuine article as all-rounders, which gave the line up that all important balance. Without both of them the onus is going to have to lie with the bowlers to pick up the slack.

It does leave a couple of questions though:

Which four bowlers are best equipped to take on the challenge?
Assuming fitness for all Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann have inked their names in after the performances in the last test, on top of that I’d go with Anderson, and have Sidebottom in to replace Harmison due to his left arm variety, heart, and ability to get through more overs at a tighter run rate.

Who bats at number six?
I think the ever-cautious selectors will go for Bell (who at least has a much better record down the order than at three), but I’d have Bopara in like a shot and give him the chance to go out there and prove himself. I can’t for the life of me see how Ian Bell can have changed as a batsman, or a person in the week since he wasn’t considered good enough for the Antigua test.

The only other solution I can see is more aggressive and risky, so wouldn’t even be considered by those in charge, but how about asking Stuart Broad to bat at six and deliver on the promise he’s already shown with the bat. In his short career to date he’s displayed the character to rise to a challenge, and it just might be the making of him. That would allow England to pick five bowlers and go all out for the win. Worth a punt?

Negative attitude hurts England

Fantastic test match, and all credit to the obdurate West Indies batting, especially numbers ten and eleven at the end, but no two ways about it this is a game that England should have won. That they didn’t is largely due to a concerning lack of aggressive intent when they had their opponent on the ropes.

With Harmison off colour and Flintoff crocked I don’t have any argument with the decision not to enforce the follow on, but the way they went about setting a target for the West Indies portrayed a distinct lack of killer instinct. Two hundred and eighty runs ahead on first innings the situation called for a dominant batting performance to take advantage of a demoralised West Indian side, and offer as much time as possible to win the game.

Sending in Jimmy Anderson as night watchman on the third evening sent off all the wrong signals, suddenly it was a about protecting the position we’d worked, not trying to exploit it. When the game called for quick runs on the fourth morning, Anderson scored 20 from 53 balls in 70 minutes, alongside the equally stoical Alastair Cook. With Strauss obviously set on a five hundred lead Owais Shah in for the same period as Ando would have allowed us to declare a good half hour earlier.

If we really needed a night watchman then surely a more positive move would have been to send in say Graeme Swann or Stuart Broad, players who would have been able to push on in the morning and play a few attacking shots against the Windies opening bowlers.

Following a similar passive batting performance in India where England allowed the momentum of the game at Chennai to shift on the fourth day leading in Sehwag’s match winning performance, it’s a trend that needs to be addressed.

All said though there were some real pluses from the match. Broad looks to be growing into a genuine test match performer at just the right time, Owais Shah brings more belief and momentum to the batting line up, and Swann picked up where he left off in India and must have established himself as the number one spinner for the foreseeable future. Sidebottom in for the uninspiring Harmison at Barbabos and fingers crossed Fred pulls through.

Giles Clarke needs to be challenged

Giles Clarke is the King Midas of English cricket, although instead of gold, everything he touches turns to a great steaming pile of crap. Sir Allen Stanford’s arrest for alleged fraud reflects badly on how quickly and wholeheartedly the English game jumped into bed with the Texan billionaire.

From the tacky start, landing in a helicopter at Lords with $20m dollars in a Perspex case, through to the underwhelming Stanford series the whole arrangement has been unseemly and slightly desperate right from the start, and serious questions need to be asked about the ECB and the position of the newly reappointed Giles Clarke.

I’ve just seen David Gower on Sky Sports saying how it’s just not good enough to go into these things with the ‘best intentions’, but outcomes and consequences have to be evaluated. After all, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Most of all though it’s West Indies cricket, and the West Indian people that will lose the most. Stanford made a long term commitment to Windies cricket and was/is a huge employer in the region. Where that leaves plans for development, contracts and cricketing infrastructure in the Caribbean is beyond my understanding, but one thing’s for sure it’s not going to be good news.

Away from politics, really pleased to see Swanny take 5 for yesterday, I thought he bowled excellently with a nice loop, and drift. After outbowling Panesar in India and now this performance he’ll be in p1 for the forthcoming games against West Indies and forward towards the ashes.

Catches win matches

You've got to check out this catch by Nottinghamshire's Adam Voges to effectively win the 20/20 between NZ and Australia today.

Sensational.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8VkcqgCR6M

Life's a beach for the cricket fans

During the last couple of winters teams of illustrious ex-pros have competed in a beach cricket tournament across Australia, good fun cricket with lots of banter, and no small quantity of lager consumed. Today international beach cricket descended on the Test Match arena in farcical scenes.

Firstly it’s clear that the right decision was made in the end, and it’s good news that some kind of game has been salvaged by introducing an extra test at the traditional St John’s Recreational Ground in Antigua (although it remains to be seen what kind of condition that’s in).

But let’s be clear this is a day of shame for West Indian cricket, far greater than the shame England felt being bowled out for 51 last weekend. This is a different kind of let down all together, by abject failures of the Antiguan officials, groundstaff, and the match referee.

In this day and age, to not be able to produce a pitch that can be played one, one that can be realistically not expected to cause injury to the participants is disgraceful. For no-one to realise, or at least act on it until after the game had started is arguably even worse.

For crying out loud, the date for this test has been in the calendar for near on a year, in the weeks and months leading up to the game, surely someone could have said, “hang on a minute guys, we might have a bit of a problem here…” Instead, somewhat appropriately, everyone seems to have buried their head in the sand and hoped somehow it would all turn out ok in the end. It didn’t.

And then, with concerns growing the match referee Alan Hurst yesterday inspected the pitch and declared it not satisfactory, but playable, well that’s a joke too. It was patently unplayable to sound surprised that the bowler’s run ups were not fit for purpose is a dereliction of duty. He actually came out and said that they couldn’t know how the bowlers run up would perform until the morning of the match. Seriously, how difficult is to ask someone to run up to the stumps a couple of times to see whether it’s like running through Skegness beach? (albeit without the washed up contraception and empty beer cans).

The spectacular win in Jamaica will have given cricket in the region a huge boost, inspiring enthusiasm and belief in equal measures, for this to happen so soon after is a crying shame for all involved, players and spectators alike.

There’s a great tradition of beach cricket in the West Indies, it’s a pity it couldn’t stay on one of Antigua’s 365 natural beaches and out of the Sir Viv Richards stadium.

BTW, kudos to The Sun for describing Pietersen after his first innings rush of blood; The Dumb Slog Millionaire

England Spineless, but celebrate a great performance

Even as an England fan it would be pretty churlish to begrudge the West Indies sensational victory yesterday. Coming from a generation founded in West Indian world domination I fully subscribe to the notion that cricket needs a strong Windies team to bring a unique flavour and atmosphere to the game.

Whilst it might not be a full blown renaissance just yet, I hope this result leads to improved attendances and passion for the remainder of the series. Best of all, the rout was inspired by a genuinely masterful spell of traditional West Indian fast bowling, full, quick, accurate and skilful - Taylor lived up the past exploits of Marshall, Ambrose, Holding et al. Whilst it’s all well and good having a 6 foot 7” West Indian bowling off spin of all things, there’s nothing like a Caribbean quickie with his tail up.

On the question of where this humiliation leaves England it might not be all bad. Such was the abject nature of the performance there can simply be no question of just retaining the status quo. Maybe this is just what we need to facilitate a proper shake up of personnel and attitude.
The game was up as soon as Pietersen’s off stump was sent spiralling towards the boundary edge by Taylor, with the rest of this timid, insipid batting line up offering nothing. I’ll happily join the bandwagon clambering for Bell’s exclusion. If not now, then never. Finally we’ll see Owais Shah in for the next test in what I expect will be the only change to the batting order given the squad that Strauss has to pick from. Shah at least will bring a bit of bite and personality to the line up, although he might not be the natural number three that we need long term.

So the rest will probably get another chance to right the wrong from Sabina Park, although Collingwood will have to consider himself very lucky that there’s no-one else in the tour party to take his place. On the verge of being dropped, expect another ugly, gritty innings to cement his place in the side again for another five games!

The worst thing about the performance was the attitude of top line batsmen, who never looked to have any confidence, authority or presence at the crease. The ball wasn’t bouncing alarmingly, or threatening the batsmen physically making the gutless performance all the more alarming. New captain Andrew Strauss has a huge challenge on his hands to lead a turnaround in attitude before the second test. And he must start with his own form.

The bowlers can’t take so much of the blame, although Panesar will find himself under pressure again having been comprehensively out bowled by Benn and Swann may come into the side to bolster the lower order batting as well. For me Harmison gets one final (absolutely final) chance to prove he can resurrect his international career.

The Smart Money on England vs. West Indies

I think England will squeeze home in the test series, probably by two tests to one. The Windies have enough match winners to gain one test victory, but not the consistency to repeat the performances. The odds on an England series victory at 8-15 don’t offer any value though.

I’ll be looking closer at the value in the individual performances. Kevin Pietersen is 5-2 to be the top England run scorer in the first innings, which looks pretty generous given KPs belligerence and propensity to rise to the big occasion, I reckon a Pietersen hundred in the first innings is all but nailed on. I’ll also be sticking to the ex-captain as England’s top run man for the entire series at 2-1, which isn’t long, but is pretty much buying money in my eyes.

The bowling is a little more interesting , at the moment I’m not quite sure which way the selectors are going with the pace attack, Flintoff is favourite for top series wicket taker but for all his excellence he just doesn’t quite take the number of wickets he should. I’ be tempted to go with Sidebottom at fives, but I’d need to be convinced about his fitness – even if he’s ready for the first test I’m not sure he’ll last the full tour. Instead I might have a small interest in Monty Panesar at 6-1, he seems to have started the tour pretty well and the Windies traditionally struggle against tweakers.

As for the West Indies, Chanderpaul is absolutely nailed on to be their top series run scorer, but no-one’s going to get rich too quickly at 6-4, maybe a cheeky punt on Gayle to be the top first innings run scorer at 4-1, he was in fine form through the tour of New Zealand, and the hope is that the tail won’t last long enough to hang around with Chanderpaul if he gets stuck in.

All odds on Paddy Power; http://www.paddypower.com/bet?action=go_type&category=SPORTS&disp_cat_id=&ev_class_id=31&ev_type_id=11055&ev_oc_grp_ids=47830&bir_index=

England in the Windies

Good to be getting back to the cricket after all of the political shenanigans. I've got high hopes for the forthcoming series against the West Indies. A lot of people seem to be assuming that England will win comfortably, but I think it could be a lot closer than that.

The West Indies are slowly improving under Chris Gayle, and seem to be believing in themselves a little bit more. They played well in patches in New Zealand but were a bit hit and miss... but that could be a pretty accurate description of England as well.

If the newer members of the team can contribute enough to support Gayle, Sarwan and especially Chanderpaul (probably the World's most effective batsman for the last couple of the years if not one you'd necessarily pay to watch) then I expect some more tight cricket and fifth day afternoon finishes.

I take England to sneak the test series on the basis of our bowling attack, but the Windies to win the one-days fairly comfortably.

One thing that's for sure though knowing the belligerent character of KP, I'll be taking a small investment in a ton from him in the first test.

ECB to blame for the latest debacle

So it looks like we've managed to lose a coach and a captain.

We put all of our eggs in the Pietersen basket, so how on earth can we be surprised when he turns out to be demonstrative and egotistical - every single one of us know what kind of character he is - having put him in place we simply cannot afford to not back him now.

If it comes down to one or the other, only one of these two men is indispensible, and it's our best player, captain and talisman, not the anyonymous, out of his depth coach.

What happens now is anyone's guess - obviously a competitive England team needs a committed Kevin Pietersen to entertain any idea of taking advantage of the weakest Australia outfit that I think I've ever seen, but as a follwer of Nottinghamshire cricket, there's plenty of evidence about how destructive a presence an unhappy KP can be within the dressing room.

I also don't envy the task of the next captain taking over in a camp with such large ego's, not only, Pietersen, but also Flintoff in the side.

I fully blame the ECB, they knew exactly what they were getting as a captain, and simply had to back him to the hilt. If they wanted a captain to be a clean-cut, PR savvy stool pigeon then we should have gone for one of the nice young public school boys like Strauss or Cook. We went for the guy with a bit of fight, attitude and aggression, having done so we can't be suprised when he acts to type - and shouldn't try to clip his wings now...

From what I understand I'm not sure Pietersen's a particularly pleasant bloke, and I don't think he's someone I'd necessarily want as a friend, but for the love of good he's the best (only?) chance we have of winning the ashes, and that's a price I for one am willing to pay.

lost generation

I won't shed a tear if Moores departs, but what this issue does raise the paucity of potential replacements...

Given the background of Moores' appointment it seems the prevailing wind is for an Englishman (although I'd go for Tom Moody if we could get him).

As in football there's a lost generation of English coaches with international experience. Where's the likes of Gooch,Gatting and Gower for instance. From the teams I grew up watching very few players have progressed to coaching / management - usually prefering the cosy sanctuary of the press room or Sky's studio. Let's call it Alan Shearer syndrome.

Embury and Fraser have flirted with Middlesex, but they should have a lot more to offer the game, similarly I think Atherton or Hussain could be in a position to be a respected and successful coach but they dont seem to have the interest or application to pursue a coaching career.

The saddest thing is with the increasing sums of money flowing into the game I can't see any of the current generation of players wanting or needing to get into coaching in ten years time.

South Africa - Worthy Number Ones?

Ahead of the third test between Australia and South Africa, the Aussies are still the world’s number one ranked team, but after the recent series against both India and the Proteas - in name in only. So if finally not Australia – who are the best team in the world right now?

If SA can beat the Aussies in the final test they’ll be the official world number one team for the first time since the rankings were introduced, so worthy world number ones?

The only contenders to the crown would be the other side to inflict defeat on the once unbeatable Australians in recent months, India. Both India and South Africa have beated England away and Australia in recent times, although the Saffers came up with the more groundbreaking result – beating Australia away from home (currently 2-0).

So on results alone Graeme Smith’s side hold the edge, but I’d favour India, slightly, to play a test match for my life. Man for man the Indian batting line up looks more dangerous from the successful and positive opening partnership down to Harbajan coming in at number eight , they’re more aggressive and adaptable. While Smith’s turned himslef into a genuinely world class performer with at least two potential ‘innings of a lifetime’ in the past twelve months with centuries in thrilling match winning run chases against England at Edgbaston and versus Australia at the Wacca, the rest don’t quite match up.

With Gambir establishing himself as a proilfic scorer alongside the exhilerating Sehwag at the top of the order, and with Tendulkar still fighting against the fading of thelight, there’s no discernable weakness in their batting order, whereas you get the feeling South Africa rely slightly more on a couple of stars and an etremely workmanlike, one paced, supporting cast.

Spin bowling – no question. Harbajan’s not quite what he was, but i haven’t seen a South African spinner that could turn tricks. Pace bowling is a slightly different matter; Steyn, Morkel and Ntini is a top quality trio led by Dale Steyn – the world’s leading fast bowler over the course of the last twelve months.

However again I’d just give India the edge in terms of variety in their bowling; pace, seam movement, left arm, reverse swing, leg and off spin for any pitch in any circumstance Dhoni would be pretty confident he’s got an option. In comparison South Africa’s seamers are all similar beasts.

As tradition would have it, South Africa are the better fielding outfit, but India are probably more athletic now than at any time.

So it’s India number one by a head above India... with third between England and Australia... it promises to be an interesting year!