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.