pretty big upset if the lions win given they have no regular internationals?

true but in any given t20 game, anything can happen. it's a high variance sport and exciting too

Not seen / heard much about Davies yet. Potential test bat / keeper? Nothing really against Prior, just think a better bat / keeper allowing Prior to be used as a stand alone bat would be a real addition to the team

imo

Cos if we want our world class spinner to get the most he can then we should take the best keeper

meh im a big prior fan, hes an excellent attacking batsmen and rarely makes a mistake as a wicketkeeper these days but isn't a good enough batsmen to play as that alone imo. Prior has the test wicketkeeping locked up for the next few years imo.

One day is more open because prior has failed as an opener and is lol bad at rotating the strike against the spinners, so i can't see him getting back in now unless something remarkable happens.

Foster ain't getting back in any squad imo

I know Foster *won't* get back in, but I still think that he *should*.

Prior's first class batting average is only about 4 runs more than Foster's, and if we go with keeper batting at seven then the top order should be getting the runs and therefore it shouldn't make a huge difference. But in terms of glovework, it's not close.

Me and my mate used to always joke that he looked more like he should be a farmer than a cricketer. Just another player who couldn't do it at the highest level.

I was, however, surprised at how good of a talker he was on the game when he did some punditry.

Brag - I once took Rob Key's wicket, in a club match back in 1995. Even as a 16 year old he had a reputation as being very handy with a bit of willow and was already batting at number three in a men's team

Beat - he already had a ton

Variance - he also took my wicket, although this is admittedly much less of a challenge for bowlers

im trying to think of great wickets i ever took, and other then jo angel in the nets as an early teen, nothing.....

Fwiw angel played tests for australia, batted 11 sadly....

Ashley. I'm from Perth, went to Duncraig high, tell us about your cricket career please, have you played with Langer?

LOL no career what so ever apart from some rural district teams etc...

WA played a game many years ago in my country town, it might have even been a 20/20 before 20/20's were "invented" so to speak. Anyway, I went down with some friends and a somewhat coaching clinic was held during the game for some of the kids, which including some batting tips and bowling, where I managed to bowl Angel out with a slower ball (I actually bowled real slow for someone my age, think Chris Harris for NZ around 10 years ago...) to this day I have no idea if it was a "lets let the kid have some fun" wicket or he actually tried to belt me into next week but whatever, it was cool...

In terms of an actual cricket career past maybe 16, not much at all, I got really sick when I was 14 and lost all sense of physical conditioning (weighed around 43kg before I got sick, weighed 36kg afterwards in a week or so). Never really got it back...

[/rather boring from a misleading post lifestory]

lol nottingshire leading the championship going into the last round running bad. Rain limited play to 28 overs over 2 days and then the ultimate lol when they get started again they have to go off again for half an hour because the sun is reflecting off the new media centre at old trafford into the batsmen eyes.

if they lose it they can't really complain as they really should have won the championship by now considering they;ve lost their last two games and yet are still top.

hopefully yorkshire win it. They were expected to be relegated, have a load of good young players coming through and they finally seem to be bringing through the asians from the community.

ICC Test League to come in to play?

Would love to see this, the top four teams would play head to head to decide the winner.
Scheduled to start 2013.

Essentially this is a Test WC.

Hope it works.

word on the street(or at least the internet) is that flintoff is announcing is retirement from all cricket today. say day- guy was my hero.

Not surprised.

I guess he'll move on to being a sky puundit then, him and beeffy could provide some quality banter.....if not poor commentary

Not gonna happen unfortunately, unless we bowl Kent out for 89 or less


That Test championship is definitely what's been needed for a long time. Hopefully it'll mean we don't have to Bangladesh 12 times a year. Can't stand listening to their wicket keeper throughout the whole match. The article also says they're looking at introducing T20 world rankings when it makes sense. That obviously means when England are not clear no.1 like they are now.

last day of county championship brilliantly exciting today. props to bbc radio for their great live coverage

notts need 3 wickets in an hour(15+ overs) to win the county championship

omg ridiculous. notts county champions

I missed the action today, but hadn't paid too much attn to the season anyway.

Am in two minds whether to go to the ODI tomorrow, that or football then partay. hmmm

I did go to the ODI at the Oval yesterday, but pretty sure I'm never going to another England ODI ever again. I must be the biggest bad luck charm ever at ODIs, we always lose. Anyway, I always end up in the Beehive afterwards and I'm getting too old for hangovers which last a whole day

Also, in the news this morning, Pakis gonna Paki?

ICC looking into allegations regarding certain scoring patterns during yesterday's ODI.

Both teams failing to get 250 @ the ova, where avg score is 280+l is just bizarre.

Do the whole lot for match fixing imo

How stupid would they have to be to try and fix something again already when the team is basically still under investigation. I doubt anything will come of it this time.

brilliant hundred by bell today in the final of the 40:40 today to win it for warwickshire. He also has captained warwickshire very ably since he;s come back from injury so credit to him.

lol somerset must be devastated. tied 20:20 final but lost because they lost more wickets. tied county championship but lost because notts won more games. and lost the 40:40 by 3 wickets. i hope tres doesn't have another breakdown after this.


You can quote this in 4 months time, but i think england will win the ashes and ian bell will be the leading runscorer in the series.

Nice finish by Bell in the CB40 final, smashing 20 runs in the 38th over to seal it.

Just how he needed to finish off the season before the Ashes tour