As bad as it gets

It's time to come clean. Yesterday I played for Old Merchant Taylors' in the Cricketer Cup - a competition for old boys of public schools. Over the years the competition has been graced by many internationals and a far larger number of county players. Yesterday we played Haileybury. We had prepared seriously and were determined to get through to the later stages of the 5 round knock out competition.

We started badly and were soon 20 for 3 and then 45 for 4, forcing a big rebuilding job. We kept revising the score we thought we could defend as it became obvious we wouldn't be able to get anywhere near 200. Their skipper was Nick Walker, formerly of Derbyshire and Leicestershire although he's only 23. He took just the one wicket and coming in at 9 I even hit him back over his head for six (admittedly amidst lots of playing and missing) in my 17 towards the end, so you could say he was nothing special.

With the ball that is. Although considered a bowler at 1st class level, even there he can hit the ball a long way, as his profile on Cricinfo shows. He opened and his first couple of heaves didn't come off the middle, prompting calls that it was like watching Devon Malcolm bat. Unfortunately for us, he soon got his eye in and declared himself "in Twenty20 mode" to anyone that would listen. He started to take a liking to the one 1st class cricketer we had in our side, peppering the short-leg side boundary so I got the call up to bowl in the 7th over of the innings with just the two fielders allowed outside the ring still.

My over went 4,0,4,6,6,1. Surely enough to come off, right? Wrong. Our skipper also happens to be one of my two best men, but rather than take pity on me he asked me to continue. When I questioned this post-match, he said he thought I'd get him out and he knew I had the character to take being hit! The second over was even worse - 0, 1 (to the other batsman), 6,6,6,4. Two overs for 44, thank you very much.

Although the whole thing was completely humiliating, the other bowlers took the same stick and Mr Walker made a mockery of the game. He reached 50 off his 25th ball, and then scored 100 off his 36th - yes, just 11 balls for his second 50. When he was out in the 11th over, his team were 128 for 1 chasing 157 from 50!! We lost in the 17th over - you can see the scorecard here.

As I lay awake last night reflecting on the match, I thought through my 12 balls. One ball slightly short - the sort that normally gets tapped back to me at the level we play at on Saturday's these days, but this time went for 6. One slightly over-pitched as I went for a yorker and he took a big stride forward and made it into an easy full toss, 6 again. Apart from that "decent" balls. Could I have bowled well outside off stump? Tried to vary my pace more (which I struggle with at the best of times)? I'm not sure anything would have helped.

So now I'm left wondering what the benefits of having a phlegmatic character are. Anyone else would have been taken off after the 1st over, but I got the second because of my "character". My best man owes me big time!

Worst over you've bowled?

Apart from when bowling for a declaration, what would be the most runs you've conceded off an over? I think I bowled my worst - in terms of runs against - and second worst overs of my life yesterday. I'll let you know just how many runs I conceded once I get the feeling that I'm talking to others who know the feeling....!!

Probable England Twenty20 side

If you believe what Cricinfo say in this preview article, England's Twenty20 side is likely to include Luke Wright and Ravi Bopara as the opening pair, Swann will play ahead of Panesar, and Anderson will play despite the roasting he took in NZ.

They claim Mascarenas will bat below Anbrose - I hope not - although I'm sure Ambrose will play an amazing innings now I've said that!

West Indies start well in 3rd Test

The West Indies have given the Aussies the odd scare in their current series and they are doing so again in the 1st session of the 3rd Test - at lunch Australia are 98 for 4. Beau Casson may be needed for his batting as much as his bowling....

Everyone seems to be talking about Stanford's $20m match and what that will mean for English cricket, but I'm not sure we'll see any of it if the West Indies keep improving....

One of cricket's not so enjoyable days

We're all stupid enough to love this frustrating game even when we're being carted all over the park or getting fingered as badly as one of my players was in the pub match I revealed I was going to captain (we won, thanks for asking).
But another member of my team ( a regular club player) was, I felt, entirely justified in taking the opposite view. One of the oppo's two 'proper' players middled a slog sweep and my man misjudged it just sufficiently to receive a broken collar bone from the impact. I was hiding myself at mid on and the noise alone was dramatic.
What really put the lid on it is that he's now unable to drive for 6 weeks and he'd only got his licence back the previous day.
Poor s*d.

Who would you pick for England?

We all love to play England selector from time to time, so here's my team for the Twenty20 and ODIs coming up against New Zealand. This is from the squad that has been selected, rather than considering from scratch - personally I'd definitely have used a different keeper if I had a free choice over selection! The squad is: Paul Collingwood, Tim Ambrose, James Anderson, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Stuart Broad, Alastair Cook, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Kevin Pietersen, Owais Shah, Ryan Sidebottom, Graeme Swann, Chris Tremlett, Luke Wright.

Twenty20: Wright, Bell, Pietersen, Bopara, Collingwood, Shah, Mascarenas, Broad, Ambrose, Swann, Sidebottom.

ODI: Wright, Cook, Bopara, Pietersen, Collingwood, Shah, Mascarenas, Broad, Ambrose, Sidebottom, Panesar.

Bopara breaks Essex ODI record

Did you really think that I wouldn't post about this?!? Cricket Burble readers will know that I'm a Ravi Bopara fan, and I think he was very shoddily treated by England over the winter. He played 3 Tests against the best spinner in the world, suffered a wrong decision, a run out and was out 3 other times. That's not enough of a run to take a decision on whether a guy can play Test cricket and I'm still confident he'll be an important part of England's future despite the knock his confidence must have taken.

So I was particularly pleased that he won Essex's match for them almost single-handed in front of England selector Geoff Miller yesterday. Coming in with Essex in big trouble he scored 201 not out with a strike rate of getting on for 150. His last 50 came off 16 balls which is a pretty handy effort.

I'd love to see Bopara and Pietersen fill the number 3 and 4 spots for the ODIs coming up, in whichever order they prefer. But I assume Bopara will be stuck back down at 7, if he gets in the side at all - what a waste.

What would you have done ?

Last night a 20 over game began with an inexperienced umpire at the bowler's end and me at Mid On. Prior to the umpire's arrival the bowler had left his cap and spectacles hanging from the stumps and there they remained.

Would you be polite and bring the umpires attention to them or just leave them there and wonder how long they'd stay there for (minor) comic effect?

Sadly I chose the polite route after one ball.

Presumably if I'd left them there and they'd been hit that would have been a 5 run penalty so probably the best thing to do but you can't help wondering how long they would have remained in situ if I hadn't intervened.

Magic underpants?

According to Cricinfo, the New Zealand cricketers have been wearing special underpants in order to give themselves the edge against England. The high-tech Baselayer IonX underpants purport to deliver "ionic energy to the body through a negatively charged electromagnetic field."

Perhaps this revolutionary sartorial breakthrough heralds the eventual downfall of the humble jockstrap, though Cricket Burble is personally not too keen on the idea of a "negatively charged electromagnetic field" within its underpants.

Nightwatchman for Sidebottom?!

According to the Test Match Special commentary at the first day of the Trent Bridge test match today, Jimmy Anderson's promotion up the batting order from 11 to 9 was in order to act as nightwatchman for Ryan Sidebottom (test batting average of 15.60)!

Can this have been the motivation? Has Anderson been carting it around like KP in the nets recently? Or was our hirsute left-arm cricketing hero merely temporarily indisposed at the fall of Ambrose's wicket? I guess we shall never know.

Don't say I didn't warn you

Like all popular moves that start out with huge popularity it seems that Twenty20 cricket is subject to the vagaries of fashion.

Yorkshire (well Martyn Moxon, on the radio, actually) are reporting that for their five home matches this year they have sold fewer tickets than they had done at the same stage for their four home matches last year.

Don't get me wrong I'm a huge fan of T20 and will go to several this year at Lord's and The Oval but to assume that it is cricket's panacea may well be short sighted.

Don't they float?

Interesting conversation on TMS this morning. Vic Marks admitted to being used when his Somerset team mates wanted a ball change. The idea being that he'd toss some pies up so that the ball was lost or further damaged when crashing into stands or buildings.

He also said that divers were placed on standby when he bowled at Taunton which had a river or pond nearby (actually he was a much better bowler than all this). But my memory of playing at Broxbourne, where there is a river alongside the ground, is that cricket balls float, as you'd expect with all that cork in them.

Does anybody know whether I'm right or do I have to sacrifice one on an experiment in my kitchen ?

Hand touching reaches the US

Unfortunately I can't find the image online anywhere, but did anyone who read them notice that on the front of the London Lite and London Paper last night was a picture of Mr and Mrs Obama looking like they were just about to touch hands in the same way that the England batsman do at the end of every over?

Nicknames

Ed has got me thinking about Nicknames and appropriate animal ones might be a suitable topic for this forum or perhaps better for Tour (for those reading this who are lucky enough to be coming on OMT Thames Tour). So far I have thought of Rabbit, Cat and Hippo for certain players.

Over the years I have known lots of amusing ones (such as Battimat, Ivanhoe, Bongo) and each of them has a story behind them which its probably best not to share here!

Warne has "no time" for Test cricket

Following on from Dave's post, I noticed this article which quoted Warne's agent as saying that he doesn't have time for Test cricket. There are a multitude of reasons why Warne shouldn't play Test cricket again but I liked the fact that the focus of this article was about his time - the poor guy apparently has work 198 days of the year.

Let's see - 25 days holiday a year = 340 days. That leaves over 240 working days if you leave out weekends, so Warne has over 40 days extra holiday than "normal people", or maybe 35 once you take out a few bank holidays.

Oh to be a retired legend of cricket with over 700 wickets to my name....!

Stuart MacGill retires

Aussie wrist-spinner Stuart MacGill has announced his retirement from internationals after an underwhelming start to the West Indies tour. The news will presumably reopen speculation (see Ed's previous burble) of a rather unlikely Warne comeback, though the spinning legend (Warne, that is, rather than Ed) has recently played down talk of coming out of retirement for the 2009 Ashes.

It looks like the reality will be that the Aussies will now have to blood one of their promising youngsters a couple of years earlier than they might have wished. Gone are the days when
players had to serve a decade of domestic cricket apprenticeship (a la Darren Lehmann or Mike Hussey).

Does anyone know anything about the young spinning Padawans who are next in line?! Beau Casson is the remaining spinner in the squad, but Dan Cullen and Bryce McGain are also names mentioned. Or maybe burblers Ed or Mark have an Aussie passport...?

Six wrong decisions in a day

I know, I know - I'm always banging on about wrong decisions changing match results. But this time it isn't me - it's the well respected voice of Tony Cozier following 6 wrong decisions in one day in the West Indies v Australia 2nd Test in an article entitled "A strong case for technology". Eventually I will get round to adding them to the enormous Cricket Burble list of wrong umpiring decisions which is nearing the century mark now, but they aren't there yet, and the wronguns from the England v New Zealand series still need to be added too.

Although the article on Cricinfo stangely starts mid-way through a point he's making(!), he sums up by saying "In six hours, the case for the use of technology had been appreciably advanced." As I've argued before, if a business leader was to wait until events forced him/her into making a change, they'd be considered a failure and would be sacked. The cricketing authorities and the ICC member countries need to consider that carefully and try to get ahead of the game in terms of use of technology, not wait until events force them into action.

A great day of cricket - part 3

After 7 overs, 3 wickets had already fallen and things were looking good, although we hadn’t dislodged Michael Simpkins who had opened the innings. As our young “fast” bowler (Julian later told me that he had a side strain last season so he must be fast!) kept taking wickets, I was struck by Steyning’s wicket celebrations, or lack of them. Steyning’s style is the old-fashioned hand-shaking that was common many decades ago. If you’ve ever seen the footage of Laker taking his 19 wickets in a Test, he simply simply walks back to his mark or at best his team mates casually come over and shake his hand, and this seemed to be Julian and Steyning’s way, rather than those over-excited high five things.

So with Harry Baldwin’s XI 3 down quickly, we “opened the game up”. Traditionally this is done by the bowlers bowling slowly, allowing the batsman to get some good strikes in, but I like Steyning’s version – they also drop all catches to ensure the batsmen have every possible chance of success. I got involved with the spirit of things by not going for a catch to me at deep square – it was hit pretty hard and flat and, to be honest, I didn’t fancy losing my teeth, which would have been a distinct possibility if I’d tried to dive forward to take it, so I taxi’d it. I also wasn’t helped by the fact that the boys on the boundary who were trying to drink water through their mouth and then get it to come out of their nose had caught my attention and I wasn’t concentrating properly. Fortunately the length of Steyning’s shortest boundary meant that even my jelly arm made it in ok from there and my complete lack of a throwing arm wasn’t exposed.

I got the call up to bowl asking me to toss it up – given that my Saturday “bowling properly” figures were 4-0-45-0 – I spent most of this weekend watching the ball go back over my head! Having been in this situation before, I know that I’m rubbish at tossing the ball up – I bowl flat and if I ever try to change it, the result is normally a full toss. So my figures after 1 over were 0 for about 10 and I got the chop – “you can come back later and bowl properly”.

What my skipper Andy didn’t realise was that my “proper” bowling wasn’t going to be much better but of course I couldn’t really explain that on the spot – he’d soon find out. And he did as I got about 5 overs at the end as the game was expertly managed to an exciting conclusion – the Harry Baldwin’s supporters making themselves heard on the boundary cheering their side ever closer. I managed to take 2 wickets, one caught and one stumped but I found myself doing all that sort of stuff that bowlers do to make it seem like they are bowling better than they are. In between the obligatory one four ball an over I was bowling (at least) there was one ball that went for byes that probably would have missed another stump outside leg, but I held my head to try to give the impression it was quite close – after all I’m meant to be a bowling all-rounder!

Harry Baldwin’s ended up at 169 for 8 chasing our 178 so an honourable draw and a very good game. Michael Simpkins then gave a great talk about Harry Baldwin’s and repeated some of the anecdotes in Fatty Batter. Ensuring that I really was seen as a bit of a cricketing nerd, I took an (admittedly poor) photo of Michael on stage, and got him to sign my book - photos to go up when bandwidth allows. I even advertised this blog to a few of my team mates so you never know – Cricket Burble could have a new additional audience.

If you ever get someone offering you the chance to play at Steyning CC or in a match against Harry Baldwin’s XI, I’d bite their arm off….

Setting the field - how difficult can it be?

So you've done the difficult bit and chosen who you want where, now all you have to do is communicate that to your men. One veteran slow bowler in our club has recently selected a new method of doing this, which is to point in several different directions very quickly without making any sort of contact, eye or verbal, with anybody he wants to move. I hope it convinces the batsmen that he knows what he's doing because it doesn't half cause confusion in his team mates, particularly when he's pointing in one direction and looking in another.

Yesterday I saw another example of confusion when the skipper at deep mid wicket was trying to get deep extra into a precisely chosen location against the noise of a steady stream of traffic behind the sight screen - no chance.

All it needs is four signals, wider, straighter, deeper and closer - perhaps we should invent them. On Sunday, when I've got to captain my local pub, I'm sure I'm going to see super eager fielders settting out to move from fine leg to fine leg and from deep extra to deep extra at the end of the first over - yet another type of chaos!

A great day of cricket - part 2

So 26 for 4 it was and I was bizarrely nervous….not the 150 for 4 that I imagined. I left the first couple and then managed to at least hit one. No runs, but all the same I felt slightly better. Finally after what must have been 10 or 12 balls I managed to nudge a full toss out for a single – I’d managed to avoid the ignominy of a duck on debut.

But as soon as I relaxed a little I was soon in a familiar situation – looking up at the umpire hoping that he wouldn’t put his finger up after a loud opposition appeal. You’d think it would be easy to keep your legs out of the way, but no, LBW is still my trademark dismissal, no matter whether I take 1 or 2 as a guard or stand outside leg stump. So I’m quite used to the routine of listening to a big appeal, looking at the ground for a hesitant moment, and then up at the umpire expecting the finger of death. This time thankfully he hadn’t moved – I think I was helped by the fact he’d already given an LBW earlier in the innings.

While I was prodding around and still on 1, Matt at the other end was knocking the ball to all parts and batting superbly. We survived an over of mysterious leg-spin from Michael Simpkins himself (he has an interesting action!) and managed to start to get the scoreboard going so it was a bit of a surprise when Matt got himself out, but in strode Andy, the Steyning 1st XI captain at what must have been about 70-5.

As we tried to accelerate the scoring I started to enjoy it, but that didn’t help in terms of runs off my bat. Andy seemed to be hitting fours effortlessly while I tried to hit the ball out of the ground and missed or got hit on the pad (as usual). But eventually everything came together and I hit a straight six – a bit of a puny effort where the umpire had to ask of it was 4 or 6 - and a couple more over cow or, as I like to call it, wide long-on. When I got to 50 the wicket-keeper wasn’t shy about repeating his “ringer” comment! 61 not out on debut and 178 for 5 declared for Steyning, and a 50 for Andy as well, so all was good.

However, I’d stupidly mentioned that I was maybe slightly more of a bowler than a batsman. It’s tricky to know how to advertise yourself when you are playing your first game for a team as an all rounder. You have a three choices really – a genuine all-rounder, more of a batsman or more of a bowler. Or, I suppose, the self-deprecating “I’m a genuine all-rounder – equally crap at batting, bowling and fielding”. I’d gone for the bowling option on the basis that at the highest standards that I’ve played/play, I tend to bat 7-10 and bowl, and also thinking to myself that as a bowler you get more bites of the cherry.

So having scored 61 not out my new team mates were expecting great things with the ball, which slightly concerned me as we munched on tea. Tea, incidentally, was excellent – a key criteria for cricket club selection.

A great day of cricket - part 1

It’s strange that having played adult club cricket since the age of 9, I still managed to be a bit nervous as I strode out to the wicket at 26-4 in the 17th over, for Steyning CC against the Harry Baldwin’s XI. Steyning (pronounced “Stenning”!) have a beautiful ground just down the road from our new home in Shoreham-by-sea, and what better game to make your debut in?

For those not in the know, the Harry Baldwin’s XI is the team made famous in the book Fatty Batter by Michael Simpkins. Admittedly, I haven’t read the book yet, but fellow Cricket Burbler Mark Davis had recommended the book, so I had it sitting at home alongside John Major’s "More Than a Game" and a 2nd hand copy of Maurices Tate's autobiography (bought when at Hove for a bargain £10), ready to read when I got a moment. You can buy your copy of Fatty Batter by clicking on the link or on the banner top right.

I’d already let the side down slightly when I first arrived, and asked the Harry Baldwin’s XI, who were enjoying an outdoor pint in preparation for the big game, if they were Steyning. They weren’t, but of course their suspicions had been aroused that I was a “ringer” brought in from outside the club to play against them. I tried to play down that suspicion by explaining that I’d just moved to the area a few weeks ago and so didn't know my own team mates, but their keeper remembered our intial conversation throughout the match!

Safely united with my own side, I started to meet a few of the players. There seemed to be a penchant for calling people by animal names – Panda and Squirrel – perhaps invented to make it easy for new players like myself to remember them….too many John’s, Jim’s, Peter’s and Will’s and it becomes impossible to remember 10 names - squirrels and pandas, no problem. But I still had no hope when people like the Chairman and various supporters introduced themselves – I’d long since given up trying to remember names. (I once borrowed a book on how to improve your memory and forgot to give it back to the owner for many months!)

What struck me was that Steyning had 3 young guys playing, and a 4th, Julian, who came in off a run up of more than a few paces and still had youth on his side – more than a third of the side capable of throwing themselves around in the field! Perfect for an old-before-his-time slow bowler who needs all the help he can get from his fielders. And before I left after the match, one of them asked if I was on Facebook!

To ensure I felt at home, the bar served both Pedigree and Bombardier – a choice of bitters rather than one drunk at the rate of about 5 pints a week as in some cricket clubs. There were a few tuttings when I refused a second pre-match pint which bodes well, and I was installed at number 6 – absolutely ideal for a new player who wants to be able to get a bat, but without the pressure of being in the top 5 and having to play a big innings. I imagined coming in at 150-4 with 10 overs to get on with it, but the reality was somewhat different….

Bopara takes record Essex ODI score

Readers of Cricket Burble will know that I'm a far of Ravi Bopara and think that he's been shoddily treated by England. In his 3 Tests to date he's not batted once, he's had a wrong decision, and he's been run out once, so despite Strauss' resurgence, I still think Bopara should have been given a proper run in the side.

He's been playing beautifully all season and it all came together yesterday for him as he scored 201 not out at a strike rate of over 140 for Essex with Geoff Miller watching. I'd love to see him and Pietersen fill numbers 3 and 4 in the batting order in the ODIs coming up, in whichever order they prefer, but unfortunately I fear Bopara will be asked to drop down to 7 which will mean we won't see the best of him.

1925: Hobbs makes his 125th and 126th century

This is an interesting little piece of cricketing history that I didn't know about. For those equally in the dark as me about the way Jack Hobbs overtook WG Grace's 125 centuries, read this article on Cricinfo.

I found this comment intriguing "...on 97 he danced down the pitch, missed the ball but Mervyn Hill failed - or chose not to - complete the stumping." Surely, even back then when cricket was played in the most fair of spirits, a keeper wouldn't deliberately miss a stumping in a 1st class game?

India ODI squad

Whether you like the IPL or not, I don't think there's any denying that it must have helped the Indian selectors take a look at their players before they announced their squad to go to Bangladesh and Pakistan.

I've watched virtually none of the IPL, catching a few Gilchrist sixes at one point, but that's it. But I've checked out various scorecards and kept a vague track of who's doing well and who isn't. I was quite suprised that no room can be found for Venugopal Rau of the Deccan Chargers - he's in the top 20 in the list of averages that are dominated by big money foreign signings and he's also bowled a few handy overs. Whatever critics argue about the IPL, it's giving some young Indian's a stage to show their talents, as shown by Yusuf Pathan's promotion. Pathan was recently sighted by Kumar Sangakkara as one of the IPL's top finds.

I wonder it English cricket fans appreciated how close we've come to IPL cricket here this summer, and you never know - it could still happen. As this article on sportbusiness.com shows, there were plans to play matches at The Oval on 15th and 16th July but these have fallen through due to the lack of a TV broadcaster to cover the matches.

Strange selection?

There is always general humour to be had at my cricket club when considering the basis for selection to the 1st team. For a long time now, a duck in the 2nd XI the week before is considered the perfect pre-cursor to a promotion, or 0-100 normally does it for a bowler. That doesn't normally happen in international cricket though.

So I was surprised to see that Tim Ambrose got the nod for the ODI squad today. It must have been his average of 1.5 in the current series and a total of 24 byes in 2 matches that have swung it his way. Personally, not that I think he's the greatest keeper in the world (or even in England), I would have selected Matt Prior who averages over 40 in Tests. Admittedly, he averages only 20 in ODIs but that's because England insisted on making him a pinch-hitter at the top of the order most of the time, rather than batting him 6 or 7.

Who would you have selected?

Low-score blues

Ok, Burble-fans. It is probably a measure of the psychological impact that the following event has had on me that I have taken weeks to build up to a report on these pages, but...

I recently played in a first-round fixture in the university 'cuppers' tournament held over a 40-over format between the various college teams in Oxford. My college (a combined Wolfson and St Cross force) put in a fine bowling effort vs St Johns, restricting them to 171-7 off their 40 overs, and both bowling and fielding well in the process. In reply, we were bowled out for - ahem - 17.

Yes, that's seriously 17. Seventeen. As in, the UK minimum driving age, the seventh prime number, the age at which the band Travis's stretching of the truth resulted in inclement weather (and, presumably, cancelled cricket matches). 17.

It wasn't like the opposition even bowled particularly well. Straight and full, I'll grant you, but...17 all out?! See the back pages of this link for the gory details.

Anyway, has anyone ever heard of a lower innings total? I'll wager not.

Short Memories

It seemed like the whole of the country was under water yesterday but we were able to watch England's successful assault on what looked a very tricky target whilst we were frequently reminded that Bell and Collingwood were under pressure (I'd say from Shah and Key, rather than Bopara). What short memories some people have - not only of the past performances of the players in question but of Michael Vaughan at Lord's; he looked as out of form going into that match as these two did here and look what he achieved. I suspect that for some players (and Collingwood is certainly of that type) adversity and responsibility for a national team are the best motivators of a return to form. I'd certainly stick with a winning side (although as Mike Brearley said just because you've won your last match there's no reason why a team can't be improved).

England batsman played Vettori well

In my post yesterday I was worried that Vettori would win the game for NZ, but also said that England had superior batsman to New Zealand. That, along with the fact that the heavy roller was requested to deaden the surface, helped England pull off what was a good victory considering the position they'd put themselves in.

Should the team be changed? It seems that Bell and Collingwood are considered under pressure, and deservedly so. But personally I'd keep them both for the next Test. Bell was one of the Wisden players of the year in 2008 and averaged 50 (real average 48) in the series against NZ away, so he's hardly out of form. And while I'm the first to jump on his back as he seems to go missing whenever we really need him, he shouldn't be dropped at the moment.

Collingwood is struggling right now but I'd like to see him retain his place for the next Test. Bopara is snapping at his heels given that he's also a part-time bowler and a good fielder and I'm a big fan of Bopara's, but again it's the wrong time to consider dropping Collingwood. He's going to captain England in the ODIs after the Tests and it would destabalise that team to drop him now. I also think he'll come good - nothing can be guaranteed, but if England back him in the way they have Strauss in the past during a bad run, then there's no chance of him getting dropped just yet.

Not a confident England cricket fan

I refer you to my previous post, "Vettori could win it for NZ". Panesar took 6 for 37 but Vettori is the better bowler of the two so there should really only be one winner in this game if the weather holds. Having said that, England's batsman are - whatever doubting England "supporters" think - better than New Zealand's batsman. It only needs two half centuries by the top order to get us into a winning position. Surely two calamitous capitulations isn't even possible for England's middle and lower order?

If I had to bet my house (I don't own one!) on it, I'd bet it on a New Zealand victory with at least 7 wickets for Vettori. But I have this lingering thought that Vaughan and Pietersen can do it. Bell has never, ever, scored runs under real pressure so maybe this could be his moment? (I think I read that every one of his 7 Test centuries has come when a colleague of his has also made a century.) And Collingwood has hardly scored a run all season, but is one of those players I'd always back in a crisis. From 7 down, we only have Broad - Ambrose isn't going to worry the scorers much, so it's down to the batsman to do the job. (Incidentally, Ambrose's only chance of a continued run in the side is if Flintoff comes back and bats 7 as there's no way he's capable of batting 7 in Test cricket, despite his debut century.)

I for one will be tuning into TMS at 11 tomorrow hoping that the weather doesn't spoil an absorbing day of cricket. What a pity it's not on terrestrial television....

Vettori could win it for NZ

Now I realise that this is a tad defeatist as an England supporter, but from the brief bit of the Test match I've watched so far, I don't think the England players will be looking forward to facing Vettori in the 4th innings. It's turning a lot already for Panesar on the 1st day, but for the part that I watched he was bowling too short. Having said that it's great to see that Vaughan brought Panesar on in the 9th over as an attacking weapon. Vaughan has changed ODI results with that tactic in the past and, although it didn't come off today, in the right circumstances it's worth a go.

You can see the latest scorecard here.

On another note, was that Flynn's tooth falling out after he was hit when they showed it in ultra slow motion?

Bowlers - a new analysis ?

Time was when the main judge of a bowler was his average and little else was considered but now we have economy rates (ouch!) and strike rates (o k ) as well as the speed of each ball bowled.

We get told the fastest, slowest and average speeds for each bowlers and as ever talk is of variations in speed - how long will it be before bowlers get marked on the mean differences of their speeds?

Atherton argues for caution over use of technology

As all Cricket Burble's readers know, I'm very much a champion of the use of technology to aid umpiring decisions. It is only a matter of time and, in my opinion, discussions should be turning to how to allow umpires use of technology while not slowing down the game every time an appeal is made. At the present rate of change, that's a decade away though.

However, in the interests of a balanced argument, I'd urge you to read Mike Atherton's article in The Times today. He urges caution but he also makes clear that some errors were made in the England v New Zealand Test at Lords.....errors, I should add that haven't been added to the list of Cricket Burble wrong decisions yet (they will be when I get time!). Both Vaughan and McCullum should have been out in their 30s which would have made for an entirely different Test match. This seems to me to make the case for further use of technology, but Atherton does a good job of explaining the high skill level of the two umpires, Bucknor and Taufel in difficult circumstances and makes a good argument for caution.

However, when it is agreed that 3 out of 13 close decisions were wrong, it just goes to show that even the very best umpires in the world don't stand a chance without the aid of technology. That's over 23%!! Those concerned over the impact technology could have on the game often quote figures in the high 90%s for accurate decision making, but that is a meaningless stat given the optimism of many appeals. When you start considering that getting on for a quarter of the decisions from "proper" appeals are wrong, the argument for using technology appears to me to be an unstoppable one, especially if you read the article titled "Hawk-Eye goes to College" in this month's Wisden Cricketer which suggests that in tests Hawk-Eye was about a centimetre out only.

Unless you aren't interested in the best team winning, or for individual's results to be a true reflection of their skill, the argument for technology seems to be stronger than ever to me, even if it doesn't to Mike Atherton.

Cricketing extra time

Watching the Champions League final has made me wonder about cricketing extra time. If an ODI or Twenty20 finishes with the scores level perhaps cricket might want to consider a one over "shoot out" for each side? Wickets would need to be a negative, but apart from that it would be cricket as normal (well as normal in Twenty20).

Pietersen and Collingwood v Symonds and Hussey sounds like an interesting match up....perhaps with Lee and Sidebottom as the bowlers....

I wonder if there'd be any appetite for that amongst cricket fans?

Comical Warne story

I suppose it's quite nice to find that nothing's changed and Shane Warne will still respond to questions from journalists with tempting quotes. But does anyone really think that he'd come back to play for the Aussies in The Ashes next year off the back of a few Twenty20 games? He might need to bowl 100 overs in the match - I don't think 4 overs per match in the IPL will quite get him in shape for that!

Click on the link above to see what Warne's up to in the casino world these days.

Another unique Test first name

Following Mark Davis' burble about unique first names, according to TMS Aaron is a first. Aaron Redmond has managed to avoid a pair for New Zealand, but from an England point of view we could do with getting him out tonight....

I'm intrigued about his father, Rodney Redmond, who only played one Test despite scoring 107 and 56 - recorded for posterity is the wagonwheel from his century versus Pakistan in 1973. According to Cricinfo he couldn't get used to wearing contact lenses and retired! Surely he could have gone back to wearing a traditional pair of glasses if the contact lenses didn't work for him? Rodney Redmond clearly didn't go to Specsavers!

Lighten up Bucknor!

Yes, I know it's not Steve Bucknor's fault that there are some idiotic laws in place covering bad light, but it was hard not to hate him yesterday as he kept waving around his lightmeter. Let's remember it's meant to be about the safety of the players (allegedly) - when Vettori has just hit Anderson for 12 off an over I think we can "safely" say that he's feeling pretty safe! With all the advances in protective equipment I think it would be quite difficult to argue that they are ever unsafe - exactly the argument that Mark Davis made last year.

Up and down the country today club cricketers will be playing in far worse light than there was at Lords on Thursday and Friday, and that is far more risky. The bowling may be slower but equally that batsman's reactions are slower, and there is no first aid on hand in case of injury. If the cricketing authorities are really worried about player safety then they'd have to tackle play where emergency services aren't available first. But they aren't really worried about safety at all really are they? Is it too cynical to suggest that once they have got past their 25 over threshold for spectators not getting any money back, they are quite keen to go off? Both against West Indies last year and against New Zealand this year, bad light could be used as an excuse to ensure there is 5 days play and the money rolls in.

That sort of view will undoubtedly see the death of sell out crowds for Tests, with Twenty20 taking over, so something needs to be done. But having said that, I wonder if Twenty20 will actually become a saviour of Test matches if the authorities don't use common sense first (which evidence suggests they won't) - if grounds require floodlights for day/night matches then these can be used for Tests too. Of course, we'd probably be told that it was the wrong sort of light!

Fortunately, to save this post becoming rediculously long, Cricinfo have already written much of what I wanted to. You can read their thoughts here. I'm personally coming round to the view that there should be no bad light law at all - the only possible reason for coming off is if the spectators (who over the last 2 days paid far more than £1 an over) can't see the middle.

Ba humbug.

England XI (or XII)

So, the England squad was announced on Sunday and there seemed to be a huge surprise that Hoggard had returned to the squad. I can't see why as the selectors are fairly predictable.

This squad doesn't surprise me. There is a strong bias against bowlers who have to be 'on form' to be selected but batsmen can carry on with low scores and still get picked. I would have liked Collingwood to have been given a rest so that a) he could recuperate from his shoulder injury and b) get some runs in the county championship. His replacement would have been Bopara (picked on the excellent start he has had to this season and also provide a handy 5th bowler).

Comments on the referrals system

Readers of Cricket Burble won't be surprised to see my comments on Cricinfo here. What's annoying is that they edited out my link to Cricket Burble wrong decisions!

IPL comings, but no-goings

It's getting really boring hearing about English players who have been approached by the IPL - is there anyone that hasn't been approached? The ECB should have been very clear that while they were going to support the IPL over the ICL, they expected something in return - hands off potential England players this year, while they sort out schedules to allow England players to play moving forward, if they so wish. As it is now, the players are showing a lot of restraint not to take the money. What I'm still trying to get my head round is why these players are being approached - each team seems to have far too many overseas players given the quota allowed per game. Moving forward I'm sure the owners will realise that they aren't exactly getting value for money.

On a positive note for the IPL, what ever traditionalists' concerns, I think it will be around for a while, despite fellow Cricket Burbler Mark Davis' recent views. The news today that Vodafone has just signed a 5-year deal gives the competition some big funds, but more importantly gives it credibility.

The perfect day for KP?

"Centuries don't come round very often whereas sex is on tap, isn't it?" - Kevin Pietersen.

I would have thought both would do nicely, and after his hundred today....

Lots of Yakka

I umpired "officially" for the first time on Saturday and, apart from calling no ball when a batsman was caught, it was quite uneventful.

Except..... having only been peripherally involved in the game over the last few years (cricket tour does not really count) I was surprised at the amount of chatter on the pitch that I suppose is called motivational. At times this bordered on sledging with comments such as "we are amongst the rabbits now" and "shame his shots are not as elegant as his designer pads". I appreciate that times change but it does become rather tiresome and the only thing that really surprised me was that the batsmen just seemed to accept it.

1 to go for Ramprakash

I had the pleasure of making my first visit to Hove yesterday morning to watch Mark Ramprakash make his 99th century, leaving him just one away from a hundred 100s.

I'll be interested to see how many people make it along to watch him score his hundredth 100 - there wasn't a particularly big crowd given that he was on 60 odd over night and it wasn't a working day, but locally the league season started yesterday, so players possibly didn't have the option. One man in front of me shouted "one more" as the crowd politely applauded but several people seemed completely unaware that it was Ramprakash's 99th, a few turning up just after he'd made his 100.

A little bit of pressure seemed to be created with Ramprakash on 84 and 85 off the bowling of Ollie Rayner, with Chris Adams using a slip, short-leg and silly-point to create some doubt from Ramprakash and his batting partner Mark Butcher who also looked fluent before edging behind off Rayner. But having made it to 90, Ramprakash put Rayner over mid-wicket for four and then came down the wicket to hit him straight for 4 two balls later. In Rayner's next over, a short ball allowed Ramprakash to step back and cut for 4 (see photo above), leaving Ramprakash one away from the hundred 100s landmark.

His next opportunity is versus Hampshire at the Rose Bowl but many Surrey supporters will be hoping that they get the chance to watch him make his next hundred at The Oval against Yorkshire. You can see Surrey's fixtures here.

Testing the accuracy of Hawk-Eye

It appears that the ICC have decided to test the accuracy of Hawk-Eye in May but somehow doubts still remain as to whether or not to use Hawk-Eye for predicting where the ball would have gone. What if it isn't shown to be 100% accurate? That's easy isn't it....just use it to give decisions to the appropriate level of accuracy. If you believe Hawk-Eye to be accurate to the width of a stump (and this accuracy level is what needs to be tested and scientifically proven), then the decision is only out if Hawk-Eye suggests the ball was hitting the outside stump full on - any suggesting that the ball would have just clipped the stumps makes the decision not out.

What is in no doubt is the accuracy of Hawk-Eye to show accurately where the ball bounced prior to hitting the batsman. Pitched outside leg? That type of wrong decision could be instantly made a relic of the past and we'll laugh at the rediculousness of the fact that players had to put up with wrong decisions that changed the results of matches for years, before finally technology was used to help.

It all seems so simple to me - I'm totally confused as to why the cricketing world are being so pondorous. Is there any other event or business that, when offered the chance to take a significant step forward, would back away from that opportunity? The answer is that there will always be those that resist change, but it is up to the those in the senior positions to drive through change anyway, and Hawk-Eye is just one of many required. That is what top managers are paid to do isn't it? If they do nothing until there is a huge groundswell of opinion emploring them to make a change, that's not leadership - that's administration - and their pay should reflect their lack of leadership and foresight.

Is Flintoff at 7 really news?

It's great to hear that Vaughan is happy with Flintoff at 7 rather than 6, but I love the way that's reported to be a surprise! Interestingly this article doesn't mention the likes of Collingwood or Vaughan himself bowling. In English conditions Collingwood is at least half a bowler so the quoted scenario of Panesar bowling 25 overs on the first day if you only pick 4 specialists seems incredibly unlikely to me.

The prospect of 7,8,9 comprising of Flintoff, Ambrose and Broad (in whatever order) is an exciting one from the point of view of lengthening our tail, but I hope we pick the best possible side rather than overly focussing on the batting ability of our bowlers. A quartet of Flintoff, Sidebottom, Hoggard and Panesar is the best we have right now and it will be interesting to see if that's the 4 that get picked.

Here's a question for you though - how do these 2 options compare:

1. No 6 averages 45, no 7 averages 30, no 8 averages 20 = 95
2. No 6 averages 35, no 7 averages 32, no 8 averages 30 = 97

With the right players, option 2 allows you to play a 5th specialist bowler. I trust that the England management are doing the appropriate statistical analysis....

Boycott supports Hawkeye use by umpires

Comments like these from Geoff Boycott are like music to my ears. Whatever I think of him, the more cricketing personalities that support allowing umpires use of technology, the better. He doesn't suggest that they use snickometer and hot spot, but I do. Anything that can help them make a decent decision - anything that aids that has to be a good thing...

To see the consequences of not using technology, see the list of Cricket Burble wrong decisions.