OMTs move into the Cricketer Cup semi-final

Yes, I know it's scarcely credible but somehow the OMT Cricketer Cup run continues and we now play last year's winners, Old Malvernians in the semi-final following Sunday's win against Felsted.

Still trying to work out who will be playing for them but ex-Middlesex player David Nash is likely to be playing judging from this photo after last year's final as are Mark Hardinges and Oliver Griffiths.

Should be interesting - the match is Sunday 24th July away at Malvern starting at 11:30. As in previous games, you can keep up to date every few overs by checking the blog that is updated during the match. You can still see the updates from the previous matches which sadly include a short video of yours truly giving his views on the match at the half-way stage on Sunday....

2 high profile retirements in the women's game

Aimee Watkins, the New Zealand Women's Captain, retired last week at the age of just 28. It would be interesting to know what she's up to next given her early retirement.

At a more apt age for retirement (although only 2 years older than me!), England's Claire Taylor has also retired. Back in 2009 she was the first female Wisden Player of the Year and she's been critical to England's middle order for over a decade, but fortunately her retirement coincides with Lydia Greenway's excellent form that saw her named England Women's Player of the Year.

How did we win in 2008?

As a long suffering member I'm very aware that prior to the start of this season Middlesex were statistically the worst side in T20 county cricket (wins as a percentage of games played) and now with 2 wins in 13 I can't bring myself to do the maths.

So that gorgeous day in 2008 when after playing in an win at a beautiful ground I got back to my local in time to see MCCC's famous victory surrounded by fairly gracious Surrey-supporting mates seems surreal. In other circumstances you might even wonder if a leather jacket were involved (but certainly not here).

So I checked and of the 11 that won less than 3 years ago only 4 are still with us (one on England duty, one injured, one lent to another county and one rested). And one played against us last night and one has joined us from the beaten finalists.

So no reason to expect the 2008 and 2011 sides to have anything in common - I suspect that there is more of a merrygoround in cricket than there is in the game with a bigger ball for those with short attention spans.

P S I see from the same Wisden that Adam Rossington, now of Middlesex had a wonderful year for Mill Hill School.

PPS at least Pinky the Panther won the mascot race last night. Middlesex till we die wants to give him the player of the month award ( I met some of them yesterday at a pub near the ground) http://www.cricketnetwork.co.uk/main/s66.htm

More on player discipline...

My County Sussex have been quick to do exactly as I suggested counties would do following the James Foster ban and have demonstrated to all that they take discipline seriously by issuing a statement about how they are disciplining Murray Goodwin. You'll note that there is no actual punishment for Goodwin though - just a verbal ticking off for now.

Interesting view from Derek Pringle yesterday too. He hopes that the push for greater player discipline may bring the umpire back to the centre of the game. Which got me thinking....has the crass implementation of the UDRS by the ICC and national boards led to a loss of respect for umpires? I certainly don't think it can help that players get to review decisions rather than umpires having sole discretion on when to use technology.

And Pringle also raises drinking with umpires after the close of play. That's something that has dropped off in club cricket too in my experience, although I do sometimes share a pint with an umpire or both of them.

Pints or not, it appears that under my watch Steyning won't be retaining the Sussex League fair play award, but I'm at a loss as to what I could have done differently to achieve a 10 out of 10!

Captains and player discipline

The other day I commented on CMJ's piece worrying about a deterioration in player discipline. As I wrote on Cricket Burble a while ago, I don't feel it's fair to saddle the captain with all player discipline issues and I'd like to see umpires challenging individual players that say things out of earshot of the captain.

So interesting then to see that James Foster has been banned for 2 games for persistent discipline issues at Essex. He's guilty of a big breach of discipline himself - the CMJ piece says that he had a slanging match with the umpires in front of TV cameras. But this ban comes as a result of 5 Essex disciplinary issues in the last 12 months - not the specific Foster case.

"The regulations make it absolutely clear that the captains are responsible for discipline on the field and ensuring no repetition occurs."

That is what they say, yes. However, it's simply not possible for a captain to ensure that no repetition occurs - the only way that can be done is through non-selection of the likes of Stuart Broad. All the other counties will now presumably put in place procedures that demonstrate they've taken action whenever a player is reported by an umpire, so they can demonstrate that they've tried to do something to avoid a repeat. But that doesn't really address the issue that the captain could be the best captain in the history of the game, but they still can't totally stop individual ill-discipline.

I'd like to see individual fines and penalties increased, and if the captain is deemed to have encouraged ill-discipline they might receive an even greater fine than the individual in question. While Foster's individual actions have demonstrated that he has set a very poor example, I fear for the precedent penalising the captain for the ill-discpline of his/her players sets. What might it lead to? Use your most dispendable player as captain for the toss and admin potentially?

As a captain in club cricket, I support the umpires wherever possible and do what I can to prevent ill-discipline. But I also know that it's impossible to ensure no repetition occurs. So why have regulations that aren't humanly possible to achieve?

Special from Suppiah

6 for 5 doesn't seem a bad return for Somerset's Arul Suppiah!

The Cowdrey lecture

It's a long listen of an hour, but you can listen to Kumar Sangakkara's Cowdrey lecture and apparently it's captivating (not that I've had the time to listen myself yet!).

Can't win.

So in today's papers Angelo Mathews , or whoever was instructing him, got flack for engineering it so that his partner Dinesh Chandimal got to 100 before their side ran out of target runs. Do you remember how much criticism Atherton got for declaring on Hick on 98* and Thorpe got for not engineering it so that Alex Tudor got to his nightwatchman's 100 ?

Oriental confusion

So you go into bat and seek help from either your new partner ( obviously now the senior partner) or the defeated batsmsan ( why, since he's obviously not succeeded). What you want to know is whether you need to worry about the ball outside your off stump cutting back to take your poles out or the one missing leg that's going to do for you. Last week I had this conversation and was told 'he's bowling chinamen' and it was then that I realised that this was an expression I didn't understand. We all know that the books say it's a left arm bowlers equivalent of a googly but what does that actually mean - which way does it pretend to be going to turn ( only relevant if you can pick up the arm 20 odd yards away) and which way will it actually turn? And how come some players e.g. Denis Compton were said to bowl googlies and chinamen.

No secrets on the internet

I see that Owais Shah has gone from being the 64th best ODI batsman in the world to be the 61st without playing in one - that's real class.
I also see that a Hertfordshire age group side won a game by -1 run. That's another useful trick.

Steyning win back Cup...

We play for a Cup annually against Horsham and they've been holding it since 2003, so it was nice to win the Cup back yesterday. Doubly nice because we came back from the dead when they were 164-2 chasing 244 and well ahead of the rate required, and trebly nice because at a crucial point in the match one of their guys didn't walk for a caught behind and it's good when cheats don't prosper!

And after my TFC in the Cricketer Cup for OMTs, it was also nice to play a leading role...

England's ODI team

Interesting to see that Mike Atherton has had a dig at Alastair Cook before the ODIs start. If Bresnan is fit I'd like to see him playing ahead of Bopara - with Bell at 6 Bresnan's bowling should be more important than his batting at 7.

Cricketer Cup quarter final

Not quite sure how we did it but OMTs managed to bowl a side out for miles under par for the second week running in The Cricketer Cup to go into the quarter finals where we'll play against Felsted. Oundle were 100 all out today with Ravi Patel taking 5 wickets for 1 run from 6 overs....not a bad return! OMTs got it 4 down....view the scorecard here. TFC for yours truly

One Stump Challenge

Do you reckon you could hit? The other day the local paper came to Steyning to see if any of us could hit one stump....the results weren't good!

Watch the "Pinnacle Sport and Leisure One Stump Challenge at Steyning Cricket Club" for yourself.

Good luck to Michael Carberry

I had no idea that Michael Carberry had been so ill....hope he makes it back.

Age as a selection criteria

I don't know why age is relevant to selection in professional or club cricket. At professional level, either a player is good enough to be in the XI or they aren't. In club cricket you might take into account a few other factors so it might be, for example, batting, bowling, fielding, availability, attitude. Whatever happens, age is irrelevant unless there is no splitting the players based on those criteria.

So Simon Katich being dropped from the Australian team is simply wrong, as a politician there has pointed out in strong terms. We already knew that the Aussie selectors were not up to the job by the fact they've selected 10+ spinners since Warne retired and the fact that Hilditch announced that they'd done a good job after the latest Ashes loss. Selectors can't play the match admittedly, but I don't think anyone would claim that Australia came into The Ashes with a settled side. Not so long ago, Greg Chappell announced that he'd rather give an aging champion one too many chances than one too few, when talking about Mike Hussey. Well he seems to have forgotten that advice now after not even selecting Katich for the top 25 Aussie cricketers. Not the top XI....he's somehow dropped from the top XI to outside the top 25.

It's with the 2013 Ashes in mind, when Katich will be the grand old age of 37. Some players do lose form in their 30s but many others don't. Look at Tendulkar and Laxman. If Australia had a player nipping at Katich's heels to get in then it would be more understandable but they don't. Phil Hughes has been, to date, average.

As an Englishman it's lovely to see Australia get it so wrong. They didn't select their best XI once during the Ashes and they don't look like doing it for the forseeable future. Long may it continue!

Another Aggers double entrendre

I was listening live to this double entendre from Jonathan Agnew and must admit I was sniggering along with Michael Vaughan....

Mohammad Amir caught playing village cricket

With the dust barely settled on his five-year suspension sentence on charges of match-fixing, talented young Pakistan pace bowler has got into trouble for playing a game of village cricket to keep his eye in.

Representing Addington 1743 CC, he opened the batting and bowling, scoring 60 and taking 4-9 off 7 overs, and helping his team to a comprehensive victory over St Luke's CC. And he didn't even have to pay his match fee.

The ICC are unlikely to be amused, however, and have already opened an investigation into the incident.

Dangerous bad light yesterday?

End of rotation for ICC Presidents?

While in general I'm in favour of selecting people on merit rather than a rotation basis, the timing of a potential change from the ICC's current rotation policy (although it wouldn't come into force until 2015) couldn't come at a worse time for those that think that India already effectively run the ICC. A change to voting for the ICC President will presumably mean a succession if Indian Presidents, and what are the chances of finding someone from India who isn't beholdent to the BCCI first and the ICC second? Zero sadly.

A balanced view on Pietersen would help England

I always read Stephen Brenkley's pieces for The Independent and he's a good writer but this one about Pietersen is just poor. It references a bloke in a pub, a cab driver and the unsubstantiated rumours that he might have wanted to retire from at least one form of cricket after the World Cup. Next he'll be quoting a "source" or a "close friend" tabloid style. It's a poor piece of writing.

The one thing that everyone in the know is unanimous on is that no-one works harder on their game than Kevin Pietersen, so any suggestion that his heart isn't in it should be ridiculed. Pietersen is this generation's Ramprakash so, while his place shouldn't be taken foregranted, he should be given every opportunity to succeed. Those that know him suggest that far from not caring, he almost wants it too much.

While his dismissals are often cause for annoyance from those willing him to succeed (because more often than not they're of his own making rather than the bowler's) Pietersen still averages late 40s in Test cricket after a relatively prolonged slump. And remember that's a slump which includes a double hundred. Andy Flower isn't a fool - if he didn't think Pietersen was the right man he'd move on, but he knows that Pietersen is key to reaching the stated target of world number 1.

I know there are many who read this blog who have taken against Pietersen, but for me baseless articles like Brenkley's this weekend have a lot to answer for. Few facts, mostly gossip. Journalists agree that there is no England player more polite and helpful to them, but they also confirm he reads everything and tackles them about perceived untruths. On Sky yesterday the Cricket Writers on TV all agreed they wouldn't drop Pietersen this summer if it was their decision, so suggestions that he may be dropped can wait until he's not scored a 50 and we're into August to have any credibility. He's only batted twice for England this summer after all. Sigh...

Hopefully Brenkley will quickly return to writing properly.

Humourous quotes...

A couple of things I was listening to lately made me chuckle....

The TV advert for Fire In Babylon, the tale of West Indies cricket's rise to the top of world cricket, makes big play of the fact that it is "One of the most acclaimed cricket films of all time". Exactly how many cricket films have their been exactly?

Also, listening to TMS yesterday, Jonathan Agnew commented on Stuart Broad pulling away as the bowler ran in, swishing an insect away with his hand, "That's the last thing you want as a batsman, a wasp stuck in your helmet". Agnew appeared oblivious to the alternative meaning for "helmet" but there was a snigger from the back of the TMS box....as Tuffers was on air shortly afterwards, I suspect it was him....

Would you have fielded?

From what I've heard about the wicket, it seems a strange move to field first from Dilshan. Time will tell, but England will kick themselves if they don't score 400+ from what I hear of the wicket....cue an England collapse!

IPL backlash?

Is it just me or is there a current feeling of negativity towards the IPL and the BCCI? I mentioned that the IPL hadn't been a total success this year and also that some, like Tony Greig, have started to question the BCCI's seemingly self-centred objectives given that the IPL over-runs the international season.

Now Arjuna Ranatunga has waded in with similar comments and a FICA survey highlights concerns about the BCCI's control of the game. It will be interesting to see if the BCCI listen to any of this negative feedback and adjust, or just keep marching forward in the pursuit of more rupees at the possible expense of the interntional game. What most worries me is the comparison Ranatunga gives with football, where club dominates country. That's not a model for the BCCI to admire, that's a model that it must do it's utmost to steer cricket away from.

Sri Lanka observe Vaas heroics

In the lead up to the 1st Test, I said that Sri Lanka should be a tough test given that they have a class batting line up. I can't see players like Sangakkara and Jayawardene missing out again at Lords and Jayawardene especially has a great record there. So England can expect to have to work much harder in the field than in Cardiff. When batting they'll be up against a similar low profile Sri Lankan bowling attack and Sri Lankan's must have had a rueful smile on their faces when they saw Chaminda Vaas' heroics earlier in the week for Northants.

Apparently Finn has been bowling well for Middlesex according to John Emburey, but I find it hard to look past the time I watched Luke Wright take him apart at Hove on a bowler-friendly wicket earlier in the year - I worried for his international future that day, and 3 back of a length-bowlers with no Bopara/Collingwood style back up worries me. It'll be interesting to see how England go if, as expected, they play the tallest ever Test bowling line up.

The great news is that the weather looks set fair and spectators shouldn't have to put up with the usual bad light issues....looking forward to it. Without having seen the wicket, I predict a draw!