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.

Chris Read can’t bat

Or can he?

Well according to this scorecard he can, scoring 107 against West Indies A.

Time to drop Gerraint Jones?

Bright future for Cook

Former England captain Graham Gooch is predicting a bright future for England newcomer Alistair Cook.

To score 60 on your test debut in India, after having to fly over from Antigua is an impressive start, and hopefully there’ll be more to come.

Under 19 players to look out for.

Cricinfo have a list of players from the recently concluded Under 19 World Cup to look out for in the future.

Eoin Morgan is the name people on the county circuit could well be hearing a lot from over the next few years. He came fourth in the player of the tournament list, was the second highest run scorer, had the third highest average and the third highest individual score of the tournament.

He currently plays for Middlesex and Ireland, but like county colleague Ed Joyce, it would appear that his future lies with England.

In an interview with the BBC back in November, Morgan indicated that he would like to follow Joyce from Ireland into the England set-up.

This is a problem that also affects Scotland as well as Ireland, and it needs to be sorted out. Joyce has recently made his debut for England A, and so we have the very real possibility that he could have helped Ireland qualify for the World Cup, and then play for another team in the competition itself.

I’ve no problem with players chosing to qualify by residence for another country, but I think that once you have played for one country, that should be it. The best players from Scotland and Ireland are always going to be attracted to the county circuit, but why should England be the ones to benefit from the development clubs are putting into their young players in Scotland and Ireland?