The County Cricket Review

ECB bosses have been meeting with each to discuss the situation of county cricket. Three of the main points they’ve been addressing is County Cricket competitions, the possibility of a new English Cricket Twenty20 League and Kolpak players.

The tournament problem that the ECB has lies in the One Day competitions. There is nothing wrong with the 4 day game, leave that as it is. At the moment there’s the Twenty20, Pro 40 and the Friends Provident trophy. I don’t think we should have the Pro40 game, one of county crickets objectives is to produce international players. There’s not a competition in International Cricket that has 40 overs in it, so why have it? Keep the FP trophy with 50 overs, the same as ODI cricket and have the Twenty20 league.

What’s your opinions on the condition of County Cricket, leave your comments…

Test Cricket: Long Future IPL: Limited Future

This topic has been a hot one for a lot of bloggers. In the past seven days we’ve seen two fantastic test matches take place. This is in a time where the IPL is apparently going to rule the cricketing world. The first test was the West Indies vs. Australia. The Windies a recovering side took the Aussies right to the wire. Although Australia won the game itself was fantastic. The other test match is the England vs. New Zealand one. A Kiwi collapse left the door open for England who walked right in and won the match. Two purist test matches.

The IPL might have big hitting and cheer leaders. But test cricket is still the centre of world cricket. I’m a fan of the IPL and Twenty20 Cricket itself, it attracts new people into the game and gives it a larger profile. But these IPL fans will eventually turn into Test Match fans. It’s the cycle of cricket. There is no way that Test Cricket will wear out. It’s the pinnacle of cricket, the form of the game that everyone aspires to.

The perfect test is to see who would give up their international contract for six weeks of mayhem in the IPL? I can’t see many of them doing this. Obviously the money is the big attraction. $400, 000 to play for 6 weeks will attract anybody and everybody. But the biggest attraction should be playing and representing your country.

What do you think? Leave your comments…

Flintoff injury extension

It looks like us Englishman will be facing another few weeks without our star all-rounder Andrew Flintoff. It’s been announced that he’s likely to miss the ODI series next month. His side strain has been the cause of his recent injuries but it’s been his ankle that’s kept him out of cricket for the majority of the time. He last represented England in the 2006/07 Ashes. Surely though a fully fit Freddie is better than a half fit one that wont be able to bowl?

England clinch win

Everybody was writing England off this morning. 218 runs seemed too much for an England side short on form and short on confidence. The other hurdle they faced was Daniel Vettori, who in England’s first innings had caused all sorts of problems for the batsman. In was the Kiwi seam attack which faced the most difficult challenge, bowling into a strong gale force wind.

England’s batting was solid and unspectacular, just what they needed. Strauss has finally come together as a test batsman and this innings will give him immense satisfaction. It will also give the selectors immense satisfaction who’s decision to rest him for the Sri Lankan series in the winter is starting to pay off. Once again Vaughan impressed scoring 38 valuable runs. Strauss and Vaughan’s partnership almost sealed the deal for England as they negotiated a tricky passage of play. Without those foundations I sense that the pressure on the middle order would of been to much. England didn’t give New Zealand many chances with the exception of an easy caught and bowled to O’Brien but by then the game looked lost for New Zealand anyway.

What England have achieved in this test match was what they didn’t achieve in the first; finishing the job. They chased the required runs down with caution but were also aware that they needed to score at a healthy rate so that if wickets did fall they’ll have something to fall back on. We shouldn’t get carried away by this win, not at all. England have only just managed to beat a fairly ordinary test side. New Zealand aren’t South Africa who they’ll be facing in the second half of the summer. Neither are they Australia who’ll they will be playing next summer.

The third test should be one which following from today’s performance they should win comfortably. New Zealand will be bruised and battered from collapsing so agonisingly badly on the third night. That will hurt them. England will be confident following from today. Although they haven’t really achieved anything above what was expected at the start of this series a win is a win. At Trent Bridge they’ll have to be just as good, in fact even better than what they were in these first two tests.

A lot to do for England….but they can still win

England face an uphill task today as they go in pursuit of scoring the remaining 218 runs to win the Test Match. Yesterday Andrew Strauss and Michael Vaughan took England to a comfortable 76 for 1 after losing Alistair Cook. England’s challenge today is to play the spin of Daniel Vettori who took 5 for 66 in the first innings. England need to score at around 3 an over and the game will be there’s. Easy said then done when facing Vettori who yesterday was getting some remarkable bounce from a wicket that’s still very much alive.

We also saw in the first innings that the New Zealand pace attack was very dominant and those with Vettori will cause problems. 0’Brien made life uncomfortable for most of the English batsman with frequent close LBW shouts. These two test matches have proved to England that this series wont be a walk in the park like they expected. They’ve been dominated by a fairly ordinary test match side in every day of the series so far. Without Monty Panesar I really don’t know where England would be in this match at the moment.

Changes to need to be made in the England side. Bell and Collingwood are both under pressure for places, despite what Bell himself has said. Collingwood has the burden of an injury but Bell hasn’t had a score in a long time. He once again failed, this time with 8 in the first innings and this second innings will be an important one for himself. He needs runs. This New Zealand attack has really embarrassed England a lot. Like I said a little earlier O’Brien, who yesterday bowled in the wind, bowled brilliantly well. Mills also bowled well and at times was a little unlucky. England should be able to play New Zealand’s seam attack with ease but their main challenge will be playing Vettori.

There’s a lot of time in this test match still to play so England don’t need to go mad. If they can accumulate runs by scoring one’s and two’s then they can chase this score down. If they can find quick singles and turn one’s into two’s then Vettori will get unsettled. When the bad ball comes they need to punish it and take the chances they have. What New Zealand need to do today is take a burst of two or three wickets and the test match might be there’s.

Sachin Tendulkar Video

The Little Master at his best.

The music isn’t great though.

New Category

I’ve added a Videos category.

England fight back might turn the result

It seems that this match is one of collapses. First England’s; at 111 for 2 they seemed like they were sitting comfortably with wickets in hand to play with. Instead they fall to 202 all out. New Zealand are also currently 99 for 6. The chief destroyer in New Zealand’s innings has been England’s sultan of spin Monty Panesar. His 5 wickets in this innings have flattened the Kiwi’s chances of building a huge lead.

With two whole days left, and the rest of today, there’s a lot of cricket left to be played. It seems that a positive result will come out of the match which is a relief following from the draw at HQ.

Sidebottom keeps New Zealand at bay…

Once again Ryan Sidebottom has been Englands chief attack bowler yesterday when he took two Kiwi wickets and kept them at bay. It was a bowling performance which was as much about keeping the rate down as it was taking wickets. He went for little over two an over while his other colleagues went at over five an over in Andersons case and four an over in Montys. Sidebottom and his composure made sure that England finished the day reasonably.

The problem England face today is Jacob Oram. He’s currently unbeaten on 22 with Taylor also not out on 67 as New Zealand currently sit on 202 for 4.

Warne Returns

As you probably know Shane Warne has voiced his opinions to play for Australia in next years ashes series. Whether or not he does is another matter. I really hope he does, Warne’s by far my favourite player and being a leggie myself he’s always been the guy I’ve looked up to. He’s bowled well in the IPL and when the Ashes come along next year he would of again played in the IPL giving him match fitness.

Being an Englishman myself though I know he’ll give our batsman a tough time. I’m sure any batsman in the world would much rather face Stuart MacGill then Shane Warne. Warne is a bigger spinner of the ball and his presence and reputation takes a fair proportion of his wickets with batsman probably giving him a little to much respect. With MacGill he’s not really had much experience at test level despite being around for roughly the same amount of time as Warne. He’s a lot less aggressive than Warne and doesn’t have as many variety deliveries.

The replacements that the Aussies have slotted in Warne’s position haven’t come close to being as successful as him. Cameron White was a good option especially with his batting ability but didn’t cut it with the ball. Brad Hogg is getting on a bit now and wasn’t really good enough with the ball. It seems that MacGill is the only option so Warne’s announcement is actually quite an intelligent one. But he’s only filling in a gap for when another Aussie Warne comes along.