With the counties starting pre-season games this week (it seems far, far too early though!), thoughts start to look towards the county season and The Telegraph’s popular fantasy league cricket game. There isn’t much to report at the moment, it looks like they’re waiting for the last few decisions on who is actually going to turn up and not play in India, but you can “pre-register” for the game here, and start signing up from the 7th April.

I’m undecided if at the moment if I’ll sign up – a couple of years ago I enjoyed it but there is so much cricket to try and keep an eye on and not enough time nowadays and last year my team was just ignored once I’d set it up! Anyone else thinking of playing?

Quite a bold move, but if I’m honest it doesn’t surprise me in the least. Ever since he came over to play for Hants he’s taken them for a bit of a ride, saying he’ll only be over during particular dates, not playing in certain tournaments etc. Rod Bransgrove (Hants chairman) took it all though as Warne was a great marketing tool for him and the Rose Bowl outfit. And I’ll be honest, it worked to get me there a couple of times as watching the guy play did make you feel like you were watching a world class player.

However, ever since it was announced that he would miss the start of the ‘08 season to play poker (yes really), he went down in my estimation. Either you are a cricketer or a pro poker player, make up your mind and don’t play us all for fools, and sure as hell not this close to the start of the league season. Why has he taken until this point to say he’ll not play for Hants again? He was supposed to be happy where he was living and playing cricket, so something has come up, and its probably money..

Re-reading what I’ve written it seems a bit harsh on Warne as I understand that the Indian leagues and other stuff outside of cricket bring these guys a good retirement fund, but something about this announcement just seemed so inevitable I think I would have preferred to hear it early on, with all the cards on the table (no pun intended!)

I don’t know what is going on with the England team at the moment – it seems that when we’re good we’re very very good and when we’re bad we’re just bloody awful! The third test got off to a shocking start, but we recovered thanks mainly to KP, although Colly and Broad also helped out. Then with the ball we take an early wicket before giving them a chance, before Sideshow Ryan leaps into action and ends up with 7-47! The pitch looks a good one so there isn’t really a reason as to why both teams have relatively struggled with the bat in the first innings.

Fast forward to the second innings and watching Andrew Strauss possibly saving his international career with a not particularly fast, but telling big century. Quite why, when he got out, we continued batting baffled the commentators but I don’t see it as that big an issue, we’ve got plenty of time to bowl them out on the last day that if we don’t do so we won’t have deserved to win the series.

With Freddie talking a good game with his recovery though and aiming to be ready for the first test of the English summer, one of the current batsmen may have to miss out, so Strauss may not have completely saved himself just yet. It’s not clear cut though that he’ll walk straight back into the team, he’ll have to prove that he is ready before he waltzes back into the side..

Also, there is now just one day of test cricket left before we start wearing new Adidas England cricket shirts! As soon as there is some info/pictures and somewhere to buy these I’ll let you know so keep an eye out for that!

Not much interesting has happened this week – plenty of news just none of it really that interesting:

Freddie is on the comeback trail (again)

Darryl Hair and the infamous test match between England and Pakistan is brought up (again)

Eng vs SA this summer might use third umpire referrals (rubbish, whats the point)

Final NZ vs Eng test match (not been the most inspiring series)

Still, it’s a Bank Holiday weekend so at least we have that to be thankful for! If England don’t win I’ll be disapointed, as NZ are without Oram and Mills, so their bowling attack will be a lot weaker. Oram hasn’t really got going with the bat yet so they won’t miss him there so much, but his control with the ball has been useful, and Mills has been taking wickets so that’ll be a loss for them. Tim Southee who is replacing Mills is a decent young bowler, I remember first seeing him in a Twenty20 game against Aus I think and he showed he is one for the future. I’m not sure they would have planned to bring him in this early, but he has a chance now to stake a claim for a place in their side when they come over here in the summer.

England might be without Colly, and Anderson is apparently still feeling his ankle which he went over on last week. They should both be ok, if not then Shah will come in for Colly, which would be a bit of loss as Colly has been doing a fair bit of bowling for us so far in the series, but we shall see.. If the wicket turns (and NZ will probably play two spinners), we may well see KP turning his arm over for a few overs.

It’s also the last test match England will play in Admiral kit, as from the beginning of April the Adidas contract will have kicked in! Lets hope we see some exciting new shirts soon!

As I begin writing this NZ are 288-8 in the first session of the final day of the test and in all likelihood England will go on and win this game in the next couple of hours. Getting Vettori out cheaply was a big wicket, and after the disasterous fielding performance last night it was a good catch which got him out.

We have played much better in this match; we put some good runs on the board in the first innings and the change of bowlers in the side seems to have freshened things up. Anderson took 5 wickets in the first innings, and Broad has looked a really useful player as well.

If Anderson is fit for the final test after his warm down injury, I don’t see any changes being made to this team for the final test which is going to be played on a belter of a batting track, so a drawn series might well be favourite, but we shall see as until they get out there and start playing, anything could happen.

Speaking of the Anderson injury, I can’t believe how much fuss is being made about the football warm down which injured him (although luckily not too bad). All teams warm down at the end of the day and a light game of football is played by cricketers up and down the country. You have to keep exercise fun at the end of a day of cricket, and I don’t see how playing football is a risk. Anyway, hopefully the Sky Sports team will shut up about it! Speaking of the sky sports team, where has Nasser Hussain gone? He was out there for the first test but has been replaced by Paul Allot for the 2nd test. Lets start a “Nasser Watch” and if you know where he is let me know!

Right, 295-8 now – lets hope the England team don’t make me look a complete fool for posting this before the game is over!

I’ve not said much about the IPL and ICL so far on this blog but I think I’ve finally got to the point where I understand how much these new Indian tournaments are going to harm world cricket.

In broad terms, the ICL was the first, and known as the “rebel” league as it didn’t have the Indian Cricket Board’s sanctioning. Because the board saw someone other than them was going to make some money out of it, they quickly put together the IPL, or “official” tournament.

Both of these offer the players huge financial rewards for playing relatively very little cricket. You can’t blame the players for having their heads turned by these rewards, they are human after all. Earning a few hundred grand for about 14 games of 20 over cricket, yes please!

And I don’t blame these tournaments for their season overlapping the English county season either. Yes, some overseas players will have a choice to make and for some it is the moral decision of keeping loyal to someone who has backed you for a number of years or following the money to India. Loyalty, like in football though is in very short supply and we will be deprived of a number of overseas stars this summer. But that isn’t the fault of the Indian tournaments – their offering is more attractive than playing county cricket, and it is something that the counties will need to review. If anything it might give more youngsters a chance in county cricket which would be good – although it will probably just mean more mediocre overseas players who aren’t wanted by the IPL/ICL playing instead.

So although I’m not too bothered about the effect of losing overseas players from a bit of county cricket, I’m not happy that English players like Dimi Mascarenhas are now signing up to the IPL, and will miss a few weeks this season and the whole period of the ‘09 and ‘10 competitions. County cricket is going to die a very very quick death if the best players run off to India for half of the English summer. And this isn’t even my main problem with these tournaments.

My main problem is what these tournaments will do to International Cricket – which is there I think their harm is going to be biggest felt. Already we have the situation where players such as Shane Bond have signed up with the “rebel” ICL are now no longer available to play for their countries. International Cricket is already weaker, and the tournament hasn’t even started. You could point the finger of blame for this state of affairs at the ICL, the IPL or the New Zealand management, but the fact is its happening and it sucks.

Even the ICC sanctioned IPL is getting in on the ruining International Cricket action though, which is disgraceful. A few NZ players, including skipper Vettori are playing in the “official” ICL, and because of that, they will be missing the start of the tour to England this summer. A tour which fits in with the ICC’s ten year tour plan, and has been on the calendar for years is being ignored for a game of wham bam twenty20. Disgusting. If this is the case, how long will it be until test cricket is ignored altogether? Maybe I’m a traditionalist (if you knew me, I’m really not!), but I still think test cricket is the numero uno – all the other cricket is way way down the scale, and I see the IPL and ICL as stamping all over it at the moment. Do the people behind these tournaments really think they are better than anyone else in world cricket, as that is the impression I’m getting. They’ll make their money, be idolised in their country, but to hell with world cricket..