Over the Easter weekend I caught my first view of the new England one-day international kit for 2009. Now at first you’ll probably think (like me), didn’t they only release one last year? Well yes, they did – but in these times where a company such as Adidas is on board they are clearly trying to stitch up the public like they do in football by releasing a new kit as often as possible.

Moaning out of the way though – it doesn’t look all that different from the previous kit as you can see in the image to the right. There is a hint more white in it with a new collar and piping, but otherwise it is still the dark blue of the 2008 version (if not even darker than that one).

I can’t say I’ll be buying it myself, but if you want to pre-order you can do so from Kitbag here.

And as if they weren’t going to make enough money out of the ashes, there is also talk of a special England vs Australia odi kit (maybe it’ll have 5-0 or however many odi’s we’re playing written on it already!)

England players and those following them out to the Caribbean have the right idea by getting out of this cold country over the next couple of days. How I’d love to be joining them and staying out there until they depart back for England on the 4th April, but following England isn’t a cheap hobby! Things have quietened down after all the fuss that was created when KP and Moores left their respective positions – and with Andy Flower as an interim appointment lets hope that the senior players get behind the new captain and perform well whilst out there. No doubt the tv and press will bring up the shortcomings of the ECB over the “row” surrounding KP, but it shouldn’t distract the players from doing the business.

Losing your coach isn’t ideal before a series but in all reality it shouldn’t be that difficult for them to adapt to the situation in the West Indies. The squad is generally the same, the back room staff are generally the same, and they are playing a side that is beatable when we play well. So there should be a postive vibe, especially as this series could set the tone for the year – a year we know is vitally important if you are an England cricket fan or player.

I’m hoping for a test series win, a win in the twenty20 game (to banish the horrible memories of the Stanford Twenty20 final), and of the ODI’s – who cares as long as we see some entertaining cricket!

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again in the future, but following England is never dull!

At first when the news came out of the camp about KP and Moores not quite seeing eye to eye, most of the talk was backing up KP, saying that Michael Vaughan and Paul Collingwood also didn’t have the best of relationships with Moores and that he wasn’t respected by the players enough. Then the commentary shifted after news that the ECB were hardening their stance towards KP as well, and that they weren’t going to cave in to all of his demands, whatever they may be.

After that we then have the shenanigans of Wednesday, with the “did he quit the captaincy in the morning or not”, and the announcement at the end of the day that Moores had been sacked and KP resigned as captain, but only in the afternoon. It all seems a bit farcical, and the Aussies are having a field day with it all (much better to talk about us than their pathetic team obviously!) – but today the papers, websites etc have gone full circle and are now making KP enemy number 1, and for what reason I’m not sure. Yes, it seems he pushed too hard and asked too much of the ECB, but he must have seen the chance to make a real difference as captain, and who’s to blame him for that? Sounds more like he needed someone he respected to quietly take him to one side and bring him back down to earth but keep him on board, not a basically forced resignation.

When KP was made captain he was almost the default choice, the only one secure of his place in all the sides (aside from maybe Freddie, whose fitness was still, and probably will always remain a small doubt), and by making Strauss captain for the WIndies tour they’ve chosen someone not even in the ODI squad! I’m not against Strauss as a captain at all – I think he is a damn fine one – but it was less than a year ago he had only just got back in the team due to poor form, and as I’ve just said, he isn’t currently in the ODI side (although he could do just as good a job as Ian Bell has at the top of the order in that form of the game).

Coach wise, the ECB now have a new hunt on their hands – I don’t know if Andy Flower can step up to the plate from being batting coach but I’d be happy if he did, and by probably taking on the job for the WIndies tour will be a good interview for getting the job full time. Otherwise, the first chance a new coach will have to get used to the team and implement some new practices is a short home series against the WIndies before the Ashes series! Not a perfect solution by any means.

But what of KP though – how does he handle such a high profile loss of the captaincy after only a few months? As often with KP, no-one will know the answer to that than himself. He is professional enough to go out there and do the job, but you’ll always have a nagging doubt under the surface that it wouldn’t take much for him to say “sod it” and run off and chase the Indian Twenty20 money.

All we can hope is that it doesn’t disrupt our performances from here on – we need a good series home and away against the West Indies so we go into the Ashes in good form and with players settled and knowing what is expected of them!

I put together a post the other day about how England were being taught a lesson in one day cricket by an Indian side at the top of their game, but before I could post it we had the horrific news about terrorist attacks in Mumbai.So the England team head home for now, which is probably the best thing since the final one-dayers were cancelled. I would imagine that the players would be climbing up the walls in their hotel rooms with increased security around them probably not giving them much space to do anything. It is better to come home, and either relax and recharge, or get in the nets. What happens to the test series is currently up in the air (since one of the tests was supposed to be in Mumbai), so hanging around in a foreign country when you might not even have any cricket to play at the end makes little sense.It is a shame for the Indian crowds that had gathered to watch us get beaten in the first five one-dayers they were probably enjoying it! However, security is obviously number one in these situations and you can’t blame the players for jumping on the plane whilst the heat is still on.Lets hope that a certain sense of normality returns to the streets soon and we can get back out there and regain some pride in a test series!

The latest England one day series has crept up on us a bit with all the fuss surrounding the recent Stanford Twenty20 and despite being in India only a few days England have already played two warm up games. The first they won quite convincingly, the second they lost in a similar fashion. That doesn’t surprise me at all or anyone who reads my ramblings here, England are consistently inconsistent!

The 7 one dayers are going to be really tough against a very good Indian side who are also riding high on confidence having just beaten the Aussies 2-0 in a test series. I don’t expect us to win the series, but a couple of wins and some good showings would probably be an achievable target.

Starting at 3.30am on Friday morning it isn’t exactly a recipe to high live viewing figures, and I won’t be that bothered about missing a fair bit of the live action – highlights is good enough when there are so many ODI’s. Its a shame that there are only 2 test matches, but the Indian way at the moment is getting people and advertising in, and test matches just do that for the moment.

So I think we’ll lose the series, yes. Maybe that is defeatist of me or maybe its realistic. I have no real expectations so the England players will do well to let me down (but I bet they find a way of doing it!).

Well well, where do I start when I try and round up the Stanford Twenty20 for $20m competition?! As you all know, we looked like a bunch of amateurs when trying to bat, and I don’t think any of the players would get into local club cricket batting like that! After everything that happened during the week, all the players had to think about when going out to bat was that – bat – and they failed miserably.

I mentioned to the people I was watching it with that on a slow pitch like that, I would have preferred to chase a target – it wouldn’t have made a difference to the outcome on the day such was the lack of quality from England, but when you don’t know what a good target to set is, you have no idea knowing how to come out batting. Still, almost everyone made a mistake getting out and it just wasn’t the spectacle that everyone wanted in such a high profile game. It wasn’t the superstars fault – they showed that they wanted the victory which the England players didn’t (how you don’t show it when there is $1m per person up for grabs I don’t know!), and I’m glad they won it in the end and celebrated in the right fashion.

Who knows what the future will hold for England and this competition, I hope they go back as there is no doubt that it creates a bit of interest, I just hope the media stop complaining about and embrace it if it does happen. Take me along ECB and I’ll create some positivity (and have a nice holiday in the sun!).