Cricket Being Played Again!
I havn’t talked much about the actual game of cricket over the past couple of weeks - too much new England shirts and Telegraph fantasy cricket to worry about!
However, the county season has begun under grey skies and on damp pitches (this April is rubbish compared to last year), with the County Championship and Liverpool Victoria cups. I tend not to cover county cricket in too much detail here, there is far too much going on and not enough time to keep on top of it all, but I also find some interest at the start of a season, and below I mention how the start of the season will affect some of the England hopefuls.
Sky Sports showed their first game of the season on Sunday between Durham and Yorkshire in the LV Cup, and they managed to pick a decent game with a surprisingly tight finish. Yorkshire managed to nearly win the game thanks to Bresnan and Shazad, after looking right out of it, and it was a really good game to see the end of. Hopefully we’ll have more decent county cricket, but in the sunshine! Twenty20 managed to hit the worst part of the summer last year but that is always good fun, although now it will forever be compared to the IPL/ICL - the first of which started last Friday.
There are a few test match places up for grabs, so the start of the season is an important one for some England hopefuls and those who need to cement their place in the team. Shah will probably miss out but needs to score some runs to put pressure on Strauss who himself needs to score (for the same county - no run outs there please!). If Ravi Bop can continue his storming start to the season his hat will be in the ring as well.
Flintoff needs lots of hours batting and bowling, the second part of which Harmison, Hoggard and Anderson also need. Mustard and Ambrose both showed promise over the winter tours, but one of them needs to step up to the plate, and a decent start to the county season might just help them do that. Add in players such as Plunkett and Mahmood who will harbour thoughts of getting back into the frame and it could be a fighting first month in the bowling department!
Also, my own games of cricket start in a couple of weeks time - I should probably have played a friendly or two, so I’ll go into the first league game a bit cold but hey, its too cold to play cricket at the moment!
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Hoggy gets 5-51 against Hampshire today. In all fairness Hoggy is mis-treated by the ECB, one bad test match and he gets shafted. Hoggy did well in the Sri Lanka tour and saved Englands blushes in a tour game v New Zealand.
As a Yorkshireman I hope Hoggy gets overlooked in the New Zealand series and in the beginning of South Africa whilst Hoggy will get nearly 100 wickets for Yorkshire. Then the coaches and selectors are on their knees begging for Hoggy to come back in the England squad only for Hoggy to shove their pleas where the sun doesn’t shine and bowl Yorkshire to the County Championship.
Stewie Broad, James Anderson et al, you can keep your place in the England side.