Lara deal good marketing

It seems that Brian Lara might be about to sign for Surrey for Twenty20 which is an interesting move. There's no doubt he was a great batsman, as this Lara video shows on the BBC site (although the right-handed shot is an editing error - he didn't also bat right handed!), but will he come good at the Oval? Well it may not matter - I bet the marketing men there have worked out that those of West Indian extraction around Kensington will instantly be engaged by this signing.

Whether he'll be successful is open to question and I would argue he'll struggle to ever play ahead of an athlete and true all-rounder like Andrew Symonds. But he might just still have it, and his penchant for going arial could work on what last season were some pretty small boundaries when they brought the ropes right in for Twenty20 (but where would he field?). Either way, Surrey will see it as a risk worth taking....

Murali ranks an Englishman as 2nd hardest to bowl to

Interesting to hear Murali's comments on who the hardest batsmen were to bowl against following his record. Brian Lara heads the list, but an Englishman was next on the list along with Andy Flower of Zimbabwe. Who? Graham Thorpe was apparently right up there as the hardest player to bowl at, according to Murali - I've always felt that we didn't quite realise what a great player Thorpe was while he was playing, so it was interesting to hear Murali's thoughts.

Too easy for England

Sad though it is to say it, it was all too easy for England against West Indies at Headingley. I hope Andy Roberts and the others that criticised Brian Lara in the Caribbean and pushed him into retirement are suitably ashamed now. The West Indies had one class player and 4 or 5 others well capable of supporting him (Gayle, Sarwan, Chanderpaul, Bravo, Powell...at a push) but they have paid the price for pushing out their best player now as, without two of those support players at Headingley (Sarwan and Chanderpaul), they looked pitiful. They are better than the likes of Bangladesh and Zimbabwe but not by much without Lara.

What a pity it is that Lara isn't playing. A pity for him, a pity for all spectators in England and most of all a pity for West Indies cricket. Such was the standard of the batting at Headingley that Sir Viv Richards suggested that he was tempted to make himself available and no-one would put it past him to do better than the current top order. If 55 year-old Viv thinks he could do better, what must a 38 year-old Brian Lara be thinking right now? And more to the point, how embarrassed must the likes of Andy Roberts feel in the Caribbean having successfully hastened his retirement?