England Squad vs NZ
Been a while since i actually posted about England test cricket it seems, but its time to start thinking about the squad that is going to be picked for the first test against NZ in a couple of weeks. There are undoubtedly a few questions which need to be asked, and some tough decisions made in the coming week before the squad is announced on Sunday.
There is talk that we will stick with the 6 batsman, 4 bowlers and a keeper formation that we have done since Freddie has been out injured. In the past he always gave us the freedom with him batting at 6 to still keep 4 bowlers in addition to him, but we’ve almost settled with the new look side, and barring injury during a game, it should be enough firepower with the ball to bowl sides out twice.
If we stick with the 6 batsman formation, expect no change from the side that beat NZ - Strauss still there at the top with Cook, with Vaughan, Bell, KP and Colly following. Despite the storming start to the season Ravi Bop has had, it would take an almighty shift of focus to pick him, or other outsiders such as Shah. If Vaughan has another poor series though, expect the calls for change to louden, as they will if someone like Strauss also doesn’t score big. Ambrose will keep the gloves in the test matches, he was tidy overseas and we’ll be hoping for more of the same.
It is with the ball that questions need to be answered. Sideshow Ryan and Monty P will obviously be there without any shadow of a doubt but who will join them? In NZ it was Broad, Anderson, Harmison and Hoggard to pick 2 from, but now we can throw Flintoff back into the mix as well. Freddie has been bowling for Lancashire since the start of the season and the talk coming through is positive. Whether his ankle can stand up to being one of four main bowlers is a question I can’t answer, but I know that if he is fit, I want him in the team. His bowling is hard, fast and aggressive, and even if his batting isn’t where it was a few years ago we won’t be as reliant on him if we put him at 7, or even 8 behind Ambrose.
So that would leave me with one spot to fill, and I would have it between Hoggard and Broad. I’m still not quite sure why Hoggy was dropped in NZ, and it wasn’t that long ago he was the mainstay of the attack. Picking him is the safe and maybe boring choice, especially in early season England where the conditions should suit him, and looking forward to the rest of the summer we’ll probably be crying out for his experience against the South Africans, but I can’t help but want to live on the edge a little and pick Broad. I don’t think I can rationalise it, its a hunch and a look to the future - and I’m glad I don’t have the final say!
I don’t expect everyone to agree with me on this, and maybe I havn’t questioned the batsmen enough, so let me know if you would do anything different!
Telegraph Fantasy Cricket Team Update
Well the Telegraph Fantasy Cricket competition started its point scoring last week, so I thought it time to show who I went for and a brief reason why after my summary of some of the players a week or so back.
Batsman
Chris Rogers and Stuart Law are both excellent Australian batsman who should both score bags of runs pretty easily. Put them both in at 6 points and have a good foundation to the team, although I’ve now heard that Rogers is being replaced for the twenty20 tournament. Usman Afzaal was too cheap at 3 points to miss out on, despite every man and his dog choosing him. Marcus North of Gloucestershire has already shown points scoring ability with bat and ball, so despite not being a household name and 7 points, I chose him and stuck the captaincy on him so I expect big things now!
All Rounder
I was going with Rikki Clarke and ten Doeschate at 5 points each, but seeing the start of the season Boje has had and the fact he has the ability to score big in this game I changed my tactics a bit and stuck him in as a 7 pointer. And his double hundred over the weekend helped justify my decision! The other all rounder i went for is Azaar Mahmood from Kent. He may be 33, but at only 4 points he is a proven performer if he can keep fit.
Wicket Keeper
I went with Luke Sutton from Lancs here - despite a lack of time in the middle already I’ve taken a punt on someone a bit different at 5 points.
Bowlers
This is where i was most uncertain - there were a number of ways I could have played it, and I expect this to be where I’ll have to make changes. Saj Mahmood looked good value at 5, but being my third Lancs player I’m a little bit unsure, and he missed the games over the bank holiday weekend and I’m not sure why. Yasir Arafat always seems to do well in this country, so I stuck him in as a 7 pointer, alongside 6 pointer Kabir Ali. He seems to be a decent county pro and had ability to be talked about for England a few years back, but it’s a bit of a guess, and he has become injured as well! The final spot only came onto my radar whilst making my final changes - Saqlain Mushtaq from Surrey. I did have Pedro Collins from the same county in my team, but the thought of having a name as big as Saqlain at only 4 points was too big a temptation. Yes, being a spinner he may have to wait to get some wickets, and Schofield had such a blinding year last year getting in the team might be a struggle, but he has the potential to take big wickets so I took a bit of a gamble. It looks like Surrey will play him in the four day games and Schofield in the shorter forms of the game, so I might have to rethink my strategy here in a couple of weeks.
So there we have my brilliant title winning team! Well ok, maybe not, but it should do ok and my aim is to win the mini league that I’m in! Only problem is the injuries and lack of playing in the bowling department already! I won’t make any knee jerk reactions though as I was still top of the league when I looked last night!
Another New Theme!
As you will no doubt notice I have gone for a new theme for this site! I last changed it back in November 2007, but I was never that happy with the theme I chose and I was waiting for the right theme to come along. I think it has now, and I hope you find this one as easy to read and follow! If I’ve missed anything out, please let me know!
New Zealand in England
With New Zealand arriving in England a couple of days ago, its time to have a look at what might happen in the upcoming series. The information below has been written exclusively for cricket-blog.co.uk so I hope you enjoy!
The performances of the New Zealand (”Blackcaps”) Test side on English soil have been nothing short of abysmal. Of 47 tests played, New Zealand has won just 4, with England winning 25 and 18 matches drawn. The Blackcaps have faired slightly better in One-Day Internationals (ODIs), winning 5 matches of the 15 played, England 9, with 1 no result. In the recent tour of New Zealand, England recovered from one down to win the Test series 2-1, though lost the series of 5 ODIs 3-1.
ENGLAND v. NEW ZEALAND – SOME MEMORABLE MOMENTS
TEST MATCHES
First Test, Hamilton, 2008
New Zealand consigned England to one of their most ignominious defeats, winning the first Test by 189 runs. The Blackcaps declared on 177-9, leaving England needing 300 from 81 overs. Kyle Mills stunned the tourists with four wickets in twenty-four balls. At 36 for 4 at lunch, England`s batsmen attempted to salvage a draw, but were defeated by Chris Martin`s bowling, 3 for 33. England totalled a mere 110.
Ryan Sidebottom, 3rd Test, Napier, March 2008
Left-arm seamer Ryan Sidebottom led England to a commanding position with career-best figures. 15 wickets fell on the second day. At the close of play, England was 91-2, a lead of 176, Sidebottom`s figures being 7-47.
The Nottinghamshire bowler took his tally for the series to 23, the most by an England bowler in a series against New Zealand. Despite a stubborn fourth-innings performance by the hosts, the required total of 543 was beyond their grasp, England winning by 121 runs and the series 2-1.
Mike Atherton, 94 not out & 118, Christchurch 1997
Atherton “carried his bat” in a poor first innings of 228, trailing New Zealand by 118 runs. The bowlers got England back in the game, leaving them needing 305 to win. Atherton led the way with a match-winning century.
Dennis Amiss and Tony Greig, 1st Test, Trent Bridge, Nottingham, June 1973
All appeared well in the 1st Test, England amassing some 250 runs, and dismissing the tourists for 97.
However, in the 2nd innings, Geoff Boycott was dismissed after 2 balls, followed in quick succession by his high-order batting colleagues. This brought Tony Grieg to the wicket, joining opener Dennis Amiss. Grieg went on to score 139, whilst Amiss carried his bat for 138 no, England declaring at 325-8, a lead of 478. This was just as well, since New Zealand batted superbly in the fourth innings, with Congdon scoring 176 and Pollard 116. The tourists totalled 440, succumbing by a mere 38 runs.
ONE-DAY MATCHES
Memorable ODI performances in England / New Zealand one-day cricket include:
England Batting
David Gower, Brisbane 1982, 158
Bill Athey, Old Trafford, 1986, 142 no
Keith Fletcher, Trent Bridge, 131
England Bowling
Vic Marks, 5 for 20, Wellington Reserve, 1984
New Zealand Batting
Nathan Astle, Christchurch, 2002
Astle scored Test cricket`s fastest ever double century off 153 balls, with the second hundred coming off just 39 deliveries. He was eventually out for 222.
New Zealand Bowling
Most expensive: M.C. Snedden, The Oval, 1983, 12 overs, 105-2, 8.75 runs per over
Given New Zealand`s spectacular lack of success, England are overwhelming favourites for the 5 Test series, best-priced 2/7 with William Hill, New Zealand at 11/1 with totesport, and a drawn series at 5/1 with Stan James. The 5-match ODI betting is likely to be more open, though prices are not widely available.
Twenty20 Championship in England
I wanted to talk about this when the news broke - I wasn’t able to, but better late than never! If you don’t know about the what where and when, go read the bbc report, then come back here for my view.
Allan Stanford, the American Billionaire looks keen to invest in a tournament that would give England a good IPL rival twenty20 competition. It looks like this is a great idea for a number of reasons, and I think that Stanford has given all the right noises that he seems like the right kind of guy to be a driving force in its conception.
Stanford has had a lot to do with Twenty20 in the West Indies, building his own ground for the competition over there, and bringing a sense of excitement and even innovation in the fact that they use cricket bats painted black in the competition. It is said that he has absolutely no interest in the longer forms of the game, especially Test Cricket, but with the sums of money he can bring in that is not that much of a problem - it will all be money for the game and raise the profile of cricket as an entertaining sport.
I also like the fact that we don’t seem to be rushing too much into this, looking at doing it in 2 years time. This should hopefully mean that when it comes about it isn’t as a knee jerk reaction and is planned out properly with all the relevant interested parties consulted and listened to. Twenty20 in this country currently has a spot in the middle of the summer to itself, so it shouldn’t be that difficult to schedule something in - the only difference really is the marketing and and the rules in terms of players etc. Will it still be counties and will they bring in players even more specifically for the tournament - and will you be allowed more overseas players than currently? Lots of questions, but there is a decent length of time to come up with the answers and as long as the right people are making the decisions I feel positive.
Another good reason for having our own competition like this is to help keep a bit of power in international cricket over here. There is no doubt that India are a very powerful country when it comes to cricket politics, and with the IPL/ICL we have started to see the repercussions of that power - Test Cricket has already lost some of its stars and county cricket is also feeling the pain. Maybe this is a bit selfish, but I don’t think one superpower is healthy as they end up dictating to the rest of the world who can play where and when. Spread the money that players can earn and hopefully it will all be a bit more balanced.
It might be that we end up with too many players that start to try and specialise in the shorter form of the game, and these players might not make the transition to the four and five day games, but that kind of happens now anyway so in my mind this isn’t an issue… yet.
So it all seems positive, and I’m struggling to see a negative side at the moment - anyone out there know anything wrong with this proposal?
Pink Cricket Balls
I posted last November about an MCC trial during 2008 to use pink cricket balls instead of white balls with a view to implementing this into international one day cricket. Their trial started on Monday, and Tuesday morning on the BBC news the sports reporter talked about it as he was part of the first trial. Looking at the ball which was in the studio (not sure how many overs it was used for), and what the reporter says, it sounds like it was a decent trial. The pink lacquer doesn’t get dark like the white ball, and if it rubs off at all, the white underneath can be seen and it still remains quite visible.
From first impressions, it seems like pink cricket balls could well be the way forward, but we will have to see how the ball responds under lights and most importantly for its success, if the TV cameras can pick it up ok. It was the TV cameras not being able to pick up a yellow ball which condemned that idea, but with pink being not that far in the colour family from red this should be better.
If the manufacturers and shops could get a few of these manufactured I’m sure there would be plenty of people looking to buy them and give them a go themselves!
