Charging to play a charity match.

According to Cricinfo, the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi is charging US$1,000,000 for India and Pakistan to play two fund raising ODIs there in April.

This is ridiculous. That million dollars would be very useful to the earthquake victims the matches are raising money for, instead it is going to be lining the pockets of the Abu Dhabi Cricket Council. They should be ashamed of themselves.

900?

Checkout the scorecard of the Pura Cup final between Victoria and Queensland at the Gabba.

Queensland have scored 900! Two double centuries in the innings, plus two further scores of above 150.

Top 5 Freddie urban legends

From The Burnt Bail.

1. Freddie doesn’t have to practise reverse swing, he just whispers to the ball and it does as it’s told
2. Freddie once hit a cricket ball so hard it went back in time
3. An Indian bookmaker offered Freddie $180,000 for a sample of his DNA
4. The X-Men character Wolverine is based on Freddie as they both have indestructible metal surgically attached to their skeletal frame.
5. The War in Iraq would stop if Freddie told it to

A good idea at the time

Cricinfo has a good article detailing the various ideas that have been tried out in cricket. It appears that crap new ideas have been around for more than 100 years, so it’s not just today’s administrators who are idiots.

Clare Connor announces retirement

From cricinfo, who report that England Women’s captain Clare Connor has retired from international cricket.

She’ll be sorely missed, but one thing that caught my eye was this:

She will now return to teaching English and PE and will head up Brighton College’s PR department.

Surely the ECB could offer some sort of financial package to the woman who helped bring the women’s Ashes back to England after more than 40 years?

Australia set record

Australia have set a world record ODI score of 434/4. It is also the 2nd highest score in all list A cricket, but falls 21 short of the record in Women’s ODI cricket.

India and Pakistan to play in England?

According to the BBC, something that several people have been saying is a good idea for years could soon be set to happen.

India and Pakistan have recently agreed to start playing matches at neutral venues again, and will play two ODIs at Abu Dhabi in the UAE next month.

They also have England in their sights, and Lord’s has already agreed to host a game. They just need the go-ahead from the ECB, and the ECB would be mad to pass this oppurtunity up.

West Indies turn the floodlights on

The first ever floodlit game in the West Indies was played yesterday at St Lucia.

West Indies A beat England A by 118 runs in the encounter, which leaves Zimbabwe as the only test nation yet to host day/night cricket.

Zimbabwe will be the first team to play a full ODI under lights in the Carribean, when they play in St Lucia next month.

Afridi signs for Ireland

Shahid Afridi has signed for Ireland as their second overseas player as they take part in the new-look C&G Trophy.

He joins his countryman Saqlain Mushtaq after Abdul Razzaq pulled out recently.

Having Afridi up the top of the order will help Ireland greatly, especially if they are unable to call on the services of Eoin Morgan and Niall O’Brien.

The two Pakistanis will also give Ireland a formidable spin attack, but I do wonder where this leaves young Irish leg-spinner Greig Thompson.

Scotland pick county players

Scotland have been able to pick their four county players for their pre-season tour to Barbados. This is good news, as the counties will be starting their pre-season training now.

But will they be as keen to release them during the season itself? The ECB have said that counties will release players for ODIs, but what about the Intercontinental Cup? Scotland and Ireland both have games during the English season and could use the experience of their county players for them.

It’s doubtful. Two years ago Warwickshire wouldn’t even release Dougie Brown when they had an eight day break.