Over the weekend it was in the papers and well rumoured that Michael Vaughan would retire from cricket this week. It’s a shame to see one of the best English players of recent times and one of the best English captains of all time call time on his career, but if there’s something that cricketers have, it’s that sense of timing about when to leave. With footballers it’s all to obvious and known quite in advance, with cricketers they are often playing for their country one minute and the next minute they announce retirement.

Vaughan hasn’t played for England since he relinquished the captaincy last year, and it wasn’t looking too likely that he would be getting back into the team. Maybe this meant he has lost his drive as I can imagine being a competitive professional you need to know you are doing something for a reason, and maybe Vaughan lost his reason.

He was the most successful captain England have had in terms of test wins, and I look forward to reading some knowledgeable pieces about him in the papers over the next few days from those that knew him well. Enjoy your retirement!

England’s pre-Ashes squad was announced today and there were two main things – No Harmy or Vaughan, and the inclusion of Rashid. On the first point, I said a while back I wanted Vaughan in the side, but he’s been playing county cricket without playing well enough to force the selectors to pick him in the squad, and Bell probably deserves his place in the squad. Harmy has done well, but I fear him letting us down on countless occasions when we expected big things from him has gone against him. Rashid coming in is exciting – he showed promise in the Twenty20 and it could be argued to give him a go ahead of Monty and alongside Swann. Monty has definately dropped down the pecking order over the last twelve months, maybe paying the price for not being multi-dimensional enough, but he gets a chance in the Lions team to play Australia prior to the first test.

I was impressed with the returning Sidebottom in the Twenty20, bowling with good pace and aggression which suggests his immediate injury problems are behind him. I still struggle to see him getting in the side though with Anderson, Broad, a fit Freddie and debut sensation Onions in front of him. Nothing too much to discuss on the batting side – its probably quite settled with Prior at 6, Freddie at 7 and Broad 8 in the lower middle order for me and I’d be quite confident going into the Ashes with that line up.

In just over 2 weeks time it’ll be time for the talking to finish and the action to start, I can’t wait…

We gave it a good go and at the point we got Gayle and then Bravo out I thought we were going through to the semi-finals – but Sarwan and Chanderpaul we too good lower down the order in a chase shortened to 9 overs. I’m relatively happy with the way we performed overall, we put in some good performances after the shock against Holland, beat the defending champions and generally entertained. Not sure that the team was exactly right but there’s always going to be discussion surrounding who should / shouldn’t be in the side. There’s definately room for improvement with the batting line up, I’m pleased Foster showed what a good keeper he is, and the bowlers all did pretty well, so the side is heading in the right direction.

Who will win out of the final four? South Africa will play and in my opinion beat, Pakistan to get through to the final to play the winner of Sri Lanka and West Indies. One that could go either way but I’m going for Sri Lanka. The winner? Not sure yet… give me a couple of days to mull it over..

So, aside from watching the end of the tournament as a neutral, we can start the build up to the Ashes! In just three weeks we’ll be underway and the remaining Aussies have made their way over to join up with those that were here for the Twenty20 tournament. The press will probably wait for the Twenty20 to finish before really starting to build the hype, England name a training group next Monday and then the thoughts will turn towards the team. With Freddie back bowling for Lancashire this past week we should be back up to full strength which is a huge boost and gives us options of the make up of the team. Team picking can wait for another blog post though!

As always, following England is never dull – I wasn’t near any way of hearing the result against Holland so when I heard we lost I thought someone was having a laugh, I mean we can’t lose to them can we?!! But alas it was true and probably luckily for me I’ve still not seen how it happend.

I did see Sunday’s game against Pakistan though, and like I predicted to some friends before, they came out hurting after the shock two days previous to show what they really can do as a team. It was pleasing that everyone contributed to the win, although Ravi Bop didn’t have the greatest game he went to a good catch and Eoin Morgan was a good sub fielder – maybe Shah can go off injured every game when we’re fielding…. and Rashid is exciting to watch – a proper leg spinner, English and young, don’t put too much pressure on him too soon and he’ll be a real good one in a few years.

So we’re through to the next round when we won’t take anyone too lightly hopefully. KP admitting he isn’t fully fit is a bit of a worry with the Ashes but he strikes me as the sort of player who just wants to be there playing so let him manage his injury and I’m sure he’ll be key for us as we expect this summer.

Also, a quick line if you fancy supporting your team – Kitbag have some ODI, test and Twenty20 shirts and training kit available from their site here. I bought the Adidas traning fleece earlier in the year and I love it – the Adidas stuff seems really good quality and I can see myself buying more in the not too distant future!

We’ve had a successful ODI series against the West Indies, and now we can move onto the first really big event of the summer – the Twenty20 World Cup. I’ve enjoyed watching bits of some of the warm up games without really taking too much notice of the results yet, as some players have been rested and the intensity isn’t there compared to the actual competition.

Once the competition gets up and running however, it should be good viewing. Daily updates during competitions aren’t really my thing on this blog, but I know some people are after this, and I’ve been in touch with a team running a new blog at WorldTwenty20Cricket.co.uk – check this site out as it should offer you what you want in terms of news, reaction etc.

There will be a lot of interest surrounding this tournament once it gets underway with it being held in this country, and with two games played on one ground in a day there is plenty of action to keep the supporters happy. If you’re looking for a ticket to any of the games then World Twenty20 Cricket will help you in the right direction as well as they have included links to one of the ticket exchange sites. Give the site a go and keep in touch with the Twenty20 World Cup.

Who do I think will win? India won it last time and when you look at their side they just seem to have the match winners in it. Australia will push them whilst England have warmed up well but in my mind don’t have that killer instinct yet. Go on boys – prove me wrong!!