England ask for joke games on Ashes tour

Cricinfo report that the ECB have asked Cricket Australia to allow them to use all sixteen members of their squad in their warm up games. It really is about time the ICC stopped this. It makes a mockery of cricket, and it doesn’t give the team with the 16 players any idea of how their players play as a team. It’s a joke.

All hell breaks loose

What up to then was a series without controversy between two teams whos encounters have thrown up more than their fare share of incidents in the past was ruined yesterday.

Daryl Hair accused the Pakistanis of ball tampering, which led to the players refusing to come back out after tea, and the match being awarded to England by forfeit.

None of Sky’s cameras have picked up any ball tampering, and they have at least two dozen of them. Did Pakistan tamper with the ball? I doubt it, no one is that stupid these days. But one assumes that Hair isn’t so stupid as to accuse someone without actually seeing something. But Hair isn’t saying anything.

If Hair hasn’t seen anything, then the Pakistani team were well within their rights to protest. They may have done it for too long, but they were within their rights. I don’t think we’ve heard the last of this. Statements need to come from all parties, including the umpires.

Anyway, for a little fun, you can enjoy more details of Hair and Doctrove incompetence at Cricinfo, here.

Prince Charles takes £200,000 from Surrey cricket

And it could rise too. This article details why he earns the money, and points out that in 3 years time, the money could rise by an extra £540,000. This isn’t on. If it rises as much as that, he’d be taking three quarters of a million pounds from Surrey County Cricket Club. Money that could be used to develop the sport, especially in the inner-cities, which Charlie claims to want to be developed, is instead going to someone who gets a ridiculous amount of cash from the UK tax-payer. It just isn’t on.

England wrap up series

England have beaten Pakistan at Headingly, thus taking an unasailable 2-0 lead in the series. It is England’s first home series win against Pakistan for 24 years.

Batting first, England made a huge total of 515, with Pietersen scoring 135 after a contraversial not out decision early on in his innings, and Ian Bell again in the runs with 119. Umar Gul bowled well to take 5/123. The total was overhauled by Pakistan, who scored 538. England looked like dismissing Pakistan for a low score at 36/2, but Younis Khan (173) and Mohammad Yousuf (192) put on a partnership of 363 to steady things somewhat for them. Pakistan couldn’t capitialise on that fine partnership though, and extras were the next highest scorer.

Counties back to one overseas player

County cricket will be back to one overseas player from 2008, after a few years with two.

Those years, however, have seen an increase in the number of Kolpak and EU players, hence reducing the oppurtunities for young England players.

A good move from the ECB in my opinion.

England selection

Earlier this month I wrote about Chris Read, saying he deserved another chance with the gloves for England. It seems that Duncan Fletcher has come to his senses on that issue, but the Panesar v Giles issue still seems to be a puzzle to him. It seems he will be quite happy to pick an inferior bowler when Giles is fit. Giles, of course, being the inferior bowler. (Averaging over 40 with the ball in tests in England is not good enough!)

Even Ashley Giles has admitted that Monty is the number one spinner in England, so why on earth would would Fletcher not want to select Panesar, especially when his opposite number Bob Woolmer has said that Panesar has the potential to become one of the great spin bowlers. Woolmer played with Derek Underwood who, Phil Tufnell on his day aside, is the last match-winning English spinner, so he should know.

Fletcher needs to get over this obsession that bowlers have to bat. They don’t, look at Murali. Would Fletcher happily not pick Murali if he was English? If they want a bowler who can bat, drop one of the seamers and pick Glen Chapple, who should have been playing for England for the last ten years anyway. A first class bowling average of 28, and batting average of 25 (with a top score of 155) is very useful for a tail-ender, and they’re not light years away from the stats of the afore-mentioned Mr Giles. He has also averaged over 30 with the bat in four of the last six seasons, including the current one.

But will Fletcher learn? I doubt it.

All we are saying…… is give Read a chance.

Imagine that you’re Chris Read and are dropped from the wicket keeping position for England for a player for whom it is acknowledged that he is worse with the gloves, but he strengthens the teams batting. (Gerraint Jones for those who don’t know) Then imagine you work your arse off to improve your batting, to the point at which you are averaging more in first class cricket than Jones was before he replaced you.

Then imagine how you’d feel if the chairman of selectors then said that Jones was the best wicket keeper after all, just after you’d scored 150 against the team England are about to play.

You’d be pretty pissed off right?

David Graveney told Sky Sports yesterday that Gerraint Jones was a better wicket-keeper than Chris Read. What has he been smoking? Watching Jones, he sometimes looks like a complete fish out of water behind the stumps. Sure, he makes some good catches, and has his moments. But he makes too many simple mistakes. Watching Read however, you see fluidity and prowess behind the stumps, someone who looks completely at home.

Just about everyone other than the England selectors sees this. They think Jones is better as a keeper and as a batsman. Chris Read was dropped because of his batting. Since he was dropped in 2004, Chris Read has averaged 50.14 with the bat. In the same time period before England selection, Jones averaged 44.31. Since the home series against New Zealand in 2004, which featured his one and only test century, he has averaged 23.54 in Test cricket. Surely it’s time for a change.

ICC announce hosts for World Cups and more

The ICC have announced hosts for a whole range of events going up to the 2019 World Cup, to be held in England (probably in Wales, Scotland and Ireland too).

The 2011 World Cup has gone to Asia, with the 2015 event being jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand. The 2009 ICC Trophy will be played in the UAE, and the 2013 event in Scotland. The Netherlands also get a look in, and will host the 2010 World Cricket League Division One tournament.

Surprisingly, the ICC have decided to move the Under 19 World Cup to the associate countries. Malaysia will host the 2008 event, followed by Kenya in 2010, Canada in 2012, and the UAE in 2014.

I was quite surprised by this, as I thought the Twenty20 tournaments would have more of a chance of going to associate countries. Whatever your opinion of Twenty20, one can’t deny that it is probably the most marketable form of the game, and holding it in a country where cricket is not popular could do wonders for the sports popularity in that country. Instead, the first two tournaments will go to South Africa in 2007, and England in 2009, which I suppose is fair enough with those countries being early adopters of the format.

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

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?