It must be the middle of summer – no, not the rain outside your window, its the return of Twenty20 cricket to England!

I really like the way they schedule this competition, creating a few weeks where nothing is played but twenty20 cricket. It helps get a bit of hype in the media, and it means there is plenty of cricket on the tele to watch after work! I havn’t actually been to a live Twenty20 game before (the perils of living in a ‘minor’ county), but this year should be different – and I reckon it’ll be a laugh!

There are plenty of changes happening within most of the counties, with overseas players being called back by their countries and new players coming in. The most intriguing of these is Essex’s signing of Adam Hollioake – the one day specialist who retired a couple of years ago. Lancashire have brought in Jayasuriya who could be explosive, and Somerset didn’t need to bring anyone in as they already had some massive players in Langer, Tresco and Cameron White. Somerset are the favourites to win because of these players, but you can’t count out a ‘lesser’ team such as the holders Leicestershire were considered last year. The fixtures can be seen on the ECB site, and as the competition goes on I’ll write a few of my thoughts!