The first Test match of the English summer seen a nice profit landed as England beat New Zealand inside 4 days at Lord's. The quick turn around in the direction of the match on the Saturday morning allowed me to turn a potentially losing position, into a £30.01 win.
I started off trading the Test match on Betfair before a ball had been bowled. I thought the draw looked too short around 48-36 hours before the scheduled start of play, so I started off by laying it (it was 2.44 when I placed my lay bet). This short price was obviously down to the bit of indifferent weather that was lingering over London and most of the UK in the build up to the Test match.
It's amazing, the effect the weather can have on cricket betting in England!
Sure enough by the morning of the Test match, I was in a position to trade out for a couple of quid profit on all outcomes. Unfortunately, this is where things started to initially go wrong though.
I didn't trade out. I thought that in the hour or so prior to the start of play, the draw would drift further out to around the 2.9 to 3.0 mark (I believe it would have been around 3.4- 3.5 without a weather risk). It didn't drift though, it stayed at around 2.62-2.68.
This price still offered me a profit, but I didn't take it and I then compounded things as I then took my eye of the ball and missed the toss. This gave me a massive problem as England won it and decided to bat. This meant that the draw immediately got backed in, as the Betfair cricket betting market felt that England would probably bat for 4 or 5 sessions and take time out of the game, and with the dodgy weather in the air, increase the likelihood of a drawn match.
Had England bowled first, I believe the draw would have drifted, as the market would have expected England to bowl New Zealand out cheaply given the overhead conditions, and move the match on at a pace.
Anyway, I know found myself in the position of either having to take a hit, or sit tight and hope/expect that the match would turn. It clearly didn't on Day 1 as play was cut short by rain, and England had batted very cautiously and slowly prior to that.
Day 2 seen an improvement as wickets started to tumble. After the two Kiwi wickets fell early in their innings, I managed to trade out for scratch and thought I had got away with things.
On Friday night I then decided to trade the draw on Betfair. I put my lay bet up, it got matched, so and I put my back bet up, and that got matched, giving me a couple of quid profit.
I did it again, only this time I placed both my back and lay bet at the same time. This was a bit lazy of me, I didn't expect the draw to shorten, so I should have got my lay bet matched first (as I could only see the draw drifting), and only then should I have placed my back bet.
Anyway, only my back bet got matched as the draw drifted. I went to bed assuming it would come back in, and that I would get up in the morning to see a small profit on all three outcomes, but I didn't. When I got up in the morning, the draw had drifted even further. This left me with a nice profit on the draw, but large losses on an England or New Zealand win. And I didn't think the game would end in a draw!!
So I then decided to place a large lay of New Zealand at 3.75. I did this in the belief that that they would either lose wickets, meaning they would drift. Or they would also grind out a score over a long period of time, taking time out of the match like England did, and their price would also drift (but not as much).
My preference was a clatter of wickets, and luckily that's what happened. I then found myself in a position to trade out for a nice all round profit. My green on England was around £46.00, so I waited until it was time for England to bat again, and then stated to reduce some of my New Zealand red (by backing them at longer odds).
I gradually reduced my potential New Zealand loss over the Saturday afternoon, and I was pleased I did after England collapsed late on in the day.
This then left me in a position to back the draw for pennies, which I did. In the end I just decided to square the bet off so I was guaranteed around £30.00 no matter what happened.
The irony of the bet was that if I hadn't managed to get myself into such a mess trying to trade the draw, I probably wouldn't have been so bullish with my New Zealand lay. I probably would have played it safe, and tried to just win a couple of quid to top up my cricket betting bank.
Anyway, it ended up a good start to the English Test summer. Lets hope it is the first of plenty of cricket betting wins this season.
England V New Zealand - Test Series Betting Preview
Wednesday, 15 May 2013 0 comments
Although you could be forgiven for not noticing, the 1st Test match of the (so-called) English summer is almost upon us. Starting this Thursday, England resume battle with New Zealand, and the hosts will be looking for a somewhat better outcome than the one they got in the recent drawn Test series down in the Southern hemisphere.
In truth, England were lucky to escape with a draw in New Zealand, but on home soil it is widely expected to be a different outcome.
It is only a two Test series this time with the 1st Test played at Lord's from 16th - 20th May, and the 2nd Test at Headingley from 24th - 28th May. These will be immediately followed by three ODI's, and if New Zealand still have the will left to play any cricket, two T20's at the end on June.
In the betting, the online bookmakers certainly all expect a comfortable England victory as they make the home side heavy odds on favourite for a series win, England are generally available at 1/3 to 2/5 to achieve this.
New Zealand on the other hand are far less fancied in the betting, for a series win they are available at between 9/1 and 12/1. While a drawn series is widely available at between 10/3 to 7/2.
On the playing side of things, England have to cope without the injured knee brace wearing Kevin Pietersen for the whole of the series. Pietersen is recovering from the knee injury he sustained in New Zealand, and is now also out of the Champions Trophy as well.
On the whole England should be able to get by without Pietersen, in his absence Alastair Cook is the 5/2 favourite to be the top English batsmen.
Apart from Pietersen, England are at full strength. Even Stuart Broad is claiming to finally be fully fit, lets wait and see there.
England's batting looks a touch inexperienced without Pietersen, with Jonny Bairstow set to deputise. The batting line up now has Nick Compton, Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root in it, all players with limited Test match experience. Although Matt Prior coming in at 7, does counteract that.
New Zealand are starting to look more of a settled side (usually a good sign) these days. They are sticking with the bulk of the players that pushed England all the way in the last series earlier this year, and with Martin Guptill and Doug Bracewell pushing for recalls, competition for places seems really good in the Kiwi camp.
Guptill and Bracewell missed the England series due to injury (and not being able to force his way back in, in the case of Bracewell). All in all though, this is a good position for captain Brendon McCullum to find himself in.
As I already stated, the 1st Test starts on Thursday, and in the betting there has already been a big move on the draw - thanks to the great British weather. The draw on Betfair is currently trading at 2.56-2.58, having started out at around 3.5, and getting backed in to 2.26 earlier this week.
As is always the case when betting on cricket, always keep a close eye on the weather forecast for the dreaded rain. Rain generally plays a big part when betting on Test cricket in England, as there is quite often time taken out of a match due to it. It therefore effects the odds on the draw.
Although to counteract that, dark clouds and/or overcast conditions in England can lead to a large clattering of wickets, so beware backing the draw just on the basis of a weather forecast predicting rain!
Betting in the 1st Test again sees England as favourites, they are now at 1.86 on Betfair, and are around 8/11, 4/5 with the bookies. New Zealand are 8/1 and better with the bookies, and 13/1 on Betfair.
The draw is between 13/10 and 6/4 with the online bookmakers, while it is 2.56 on Betfair.
In truth, England were lucky to escape with a draw in New Zealand, but on home soil it is widely expected to be a different outcome.
It is only a two Test series this time with the 1st Test played at Lord's from 16th - 20th May, and the 2nd Test at Headingley from 24th - 28th May. These will be immediately followed by three ODI's, and if New Zealand still have the will left to play any cricket, two T20's at the end on June.
In the betting, the online bookmakers certainly all expect a comfortable England victory as they make the home side heavy odds on favourite for a series win, England are generally available at 1/3 to 2/5 to achieve this.
New Zealand on the other hand are far less fancied in the betting, for a series win they are available at between 9/1 and 12/1. While a drawn series is widely available at between 10/3 to 7/2.
On the playing side of things, England have to cope without the injured knee brace wearing Kevin Pietersen for the whole of the series. Pietersen is recovering from the knee injury he sustained in New Zealand, and is now also out of the Champions Trophy as well.
On the whole England should be able to get by without Pietersen, in his absence Alastair Cook is the 5/2 favourite to be the top English batsmen.
Apart from Pietersen, England are at full strength. Even Stuart Broad is claiming to finally be fully fit, lets wait and see there.
England's batting looks a touch inexperienced without Pietersen, with Jonny Bairstow set to deputise. The batting line up now has Nick Compton, Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root in it, all players with limited Test match experience. Although Matt Prior coming in at 7, does counteract that.
New Zealand are starting to look more of a settled side (usually a good sign) these days. They are sticking with the bulk of the players that pushed England all the way in the last series earlier this year, and with Martin Guptill and Doug Bracewell pushing for recalls, competition for places seems really good in the Kiwi camp.
Guptill and Bracewell missed the England series due to injury (and not being able to force his way back in, in the case of Bracewell). All in all though, this is a good position for captain Brendon McCullum to find himself in.
As I already stated, the 1st Test starts on Thursday, and in the betting there has already been a big move on the draw - thanks to the great British weather. The draw on Betfair is currently trading at 2.56-2.58, having started out at around 3.5, and getting backed in to 2.26 earlier this week.
As is always the case when betting on cricket, always keep a close eye on the weather forecast for the dreaded rain. Rain generally plays a big part when betting on Test cricket in England, as there is quite often time taken out of a match due to it. It therefore effects the odds on the draw.
Although to counteract that, dark clouds and/or overcast conditions in England can lead to a large clattering of wickets, so beware backing the draw just on the basis of a weather forecast predicting rain!
Betting in the 1st Test again sees England as favourites, they are now at 1.86 on Betfair, and are around 8/11, 4/5 with the bookies. New Zealand are 8/1 and better with the bookies, and 13/1 on Betfair.
The draw is between 13/10 and 6/4 with the online bookmakers, while it is 2.56 on Betfair.
Ashes Betting Update
Sunday, 12 May 2013 0 comments
Since I last wrote about cricket betting for the upcoming Ashes series, we have seen the announcement of the Australian squad, the return to competitive action of Graeme Swann, and a more worrying injury diagnosis of Kevin Pietersen.
This hasn't had any great impact on the Ashes betting, as with the exception of a handful of bookies slightly trimming England, the betting odds have pretty much stayed the same.
Nearly all of the UK and Irish based bookmakers now have England at 4/9, which sees a slight drift from a couple of weeks back, when a few of them had England at 2/5. Michael Clarke's men are still the same price, 3/1 to 4/1, with the majority at 7/2. And a drawn series is still 5/1 to 11/2, the majority offering 5/1.
For any Aussie punters who find their way onto this website, both Luxbet and TAB will probably have betting specials during the Ashes - so keep an eye on them.
In general the betting odds are still pretty much where they were about 3 weeks ago when I wrote my last piece about this. The only thing that has really changed is that some bookmakers have fallen into line with the ones that were offering longer odds on England, and shorter odds on Australia and the draw.
Taking that into mind, the consensus has to be that the punters are slightly moving away from England at the moment.
In a way I'm not too surprised, I don't really see England as great value at 4/9 as things stand. Yes, I believe England should win the series, but do I think 4/9 represents good value? No, not really. And 2/5 certainly wasn't.
Why? Well I'm not convinced Kevin Piestersen will make it, I'm not convinced Stuart Broad is 100% fit (and I believe England may well stick with him, even if he is not performing well), and I also genuinely believe that Australia aren't as bad as everyone wants to make them out to be.
Make no mistake, the Aussies have a seam attack that will cause England problems in English conditions. It will (in my opinion) rip through the English batting on occasions this summer (assuming we can call it that). It just remains to be seen if the Aussie batsmen can back the seam attack up.
I do think England will need to be at their best to beat Australia, at the moment I am expecting a close series. The upcoming test series against New Zealand starting later this week should provide a good marker as too where England are at.
Will we see the England that beat India on Indian soil? Or will we see the England that recently toiled in New Zealand? Only after I see this, will I want to make a serious judgement call.
This hasn't had any great impact on the Ashes betting, as with the exception of a handful of bookies slightly trimming England, the betting odds have pretty much stayed the same.
Nearly all of the UK and Irish based bookmakers now have England at 4/9, which sees a slight drift from a couple of weeks back, when a few of them had England at 2/5. Michael Clarke's men are still the same price, 3/1 to 4/1, with the majority at 7/2. And a drawn series is still 5/1 to 11/2, the majority offering 5/1.
For any Aussie punters who find their way onto this website, both Luxbet and TAB will probably have betting specials during the Ashes - so keep an eye on them.
In general the betting odds are still pretty much where they were about 3 weeks ago when I wrote my last piece about this. The only thing that has really changed is that some bookmakers have fallen into line with the ones that were offering longer odds on England, and shorter odds on Australia and the draw.
Taking that into mind, the consensus has to be that the punters are slightly moving away from England at the moment.
In a way I'm not too surprised, I don't really see England as great value at 4/9 as things stand. Yes, I believe England should win the series, but do I think 4/9 represents good value? No, not really. And 2/5 certainly wasn't.
Why? Well I'm not convinced Kevin Piestersen will make it, I'm not convinced Stuart Broad is 100% fit (and I believe England may well stick with him, even if he is not performing well), and I also genuinely believe that Australia aren't as bad as everyone wants to make them out to be.
Make no mistake, the Aussies have a seam attack that will cause England problems in English conditions. It will (in my opinion) rip through the English batting on occasions this summer (assuming we can call it that). It just remains to be seen if the Aussie batsmen can back the seam attack up.
I do think England will need to be at their best to beat Australia, at the moment I am expecting a close series. The upcoming test series against New Zealand starting later this week should provide a good marker as too where England are at.
Will we see the England that beat India on Indian soil? Or will we see the England that recently toiled in New Zealand? Only after I see this, will I want to make a serious judgement call.
How To Make Money From Cricket Betting
Thursday, 9 May 2013 0 comments
You don't always have to be able to predict who is going to win a Test match to win money from betting on cricket.
Betting on - or trading - Test cricket can be very profitable just from being able to predict what isn't going to happen, as opposed to knowing what is going to happen, or who is going to win.
Sometimes it is obvious that a team isn't going to be in a position to win a Test match, so in this instance (depending on the odds) I would/could place a lay bet against that team (I generally use this method when I'm trading cricket on Betfair).
Depending on the odds involved, I might be looking to place my lay bet and just leave it to run until the Test match concludes, or the other option is to place my lay bet with a view to trading it during the Test match.
For example, if team A is 2/1 to lay and I can only see that teams odds drifting, I would lay them. If their odds drifted, I could then back them at 3/1 or 4/1 to cover my potential loss on team A (in case they turned the Test match around and produced a comeback).
That way if team A does come back and win the Test match, I won't lose. If team A don't win as I expect, I pick up my winnings.
Another way of making money from Test match betting is to trade small price movements. For example, in the recent 2nd Test between South Africa and Pakistan, the South Africa price was hovering around the 1.33 to 1.38 mark for a spell of time.
Pakistan were batting and the market was looking to push out the South Africa price, but every time the South African price slightly drifted, an unplayable delivery flashed past a Pakistani edge, and the South African price came in again as the market expected a wicket to fall.
As a result of this, I just kept backing and laying. All I did was to keep backing South Africa at 1.38 for £125.00, then once my bet got matched I would place a lay bet of SA up at 1.35 for the same amount (£125.00), and after a couple of balls it would get matched. After a few trades I was about £15.00 green on South Africa (the Betfair term for winning money).
I then put some of that money on Pakistan and the Draw - just to be ultra safe - and ended up with a guaranteed win of over £12.00 on every outcome. An easy trade all done in about 15 minutes.
These are just a couple of examples of how money can be made from Test match betting. Like with all betting in general, if you are looking to try your hand at it, start off with £5.00 or £10.00 and just play around with it to try and get a feel for things first.
To open a Betfair account and claim a £25.00 free bet, please click here....
Betting on - or trading - Test cricket can be very profitable just from being able to predict what isn't going to happen, as opposed to knowing what is going to happen, or who is going to win.
Sometimes it is obvious that a team isn't going to be in a position to win a Test match, so in this instance (depending on the odds) I would/could place a lay bet against that team (I generally use this method when I'm trading cricket on Betfair).
Depending on the odds involved, I might be looking to place my lay bet and just leave it to run until the Test match concludes, or the other option is to place my lay bet with a view to trading it during the Test match.
For example, if team A is 2/1 to lay and I can only see that teams odds drifting, I would lay them. If their odds drifted, I could then back them at 3/1 or 4/1 to cover my potential loss on team A (in case they turned the Test match around and produced a comeback).
That way if team A does come back and win the Test match, I won't lose. If team A don't win as I expect, I pick up my winnings.
Another way of making money from Test match betting is to trade small price movements. For example, in the recent 2nd Test between South Africa and Pakistan, the South Africa price was hovering around the 1.33 to 1.38 mark for a spell of time.
Pakistan were batting and the market was looking to push out the South Africa price, but every time the South African price slightly drifted, an unplayable delivery flashed past a Pakistani edge, and the South African price came in again as the market expected a wicket to fall.
As a result of this, I just kept backing and laying. All I did was to keep backing South Africa at 1.38 for £125.00, then once my bet got matched I would place a lay bet of SA up at 1.35 for the same amount (£125.00), and after a couple of balls it would get matched. After a few trades I was about £15.00 green on South Africa (the Betfair term for winning money).
I then put some of that money on Pakistan and the Draw - just to be ultra safe - and ended up with a guaranteed win of over £12.00 on every outcome. An easy trade all done in about 15 minutes.
These are just a couple of examples of how money can be made from Test match betting. Like with all betting in general, if you are looking to try your hand at it, start off with £5.00 or £10.00 and just play around with it to try and get a feel for things first.
To open a Betfair account and claim a £25.00 free bet, please click here....
England should be wary of complacency
Wednesday, 1 May 2013 0 comments
There has been a lot of talk over the past week regarding Australia’s Ashes squad and the fact selectors appear to have the weakest pool ever to choose from heading into a modern-day Test clash with England.
Of their 16-man squad only five have experience playing the Ashes in England while nine have never faced the old enemy in a Test situation.
It doesn’t look good for Australia but betting fans looking at the bet365 cricket markets shouldn’t be getting too complacent just yet, for England are woeful at handling the ‘favourites’ tag.
The squad was at its best as plucky underdogs in the 2005 Ashes series and that 5-0 whitewash in the reverse clash 18-months later only fuelled Andrew Strauss’ drive to reclaim the Urn and defend it properly over the coming two series.
Winning the Ashes on Australian soil greatly improved England’s Test pedigree but in the preceding year they lost to Pakistan in the UAE, drew with Sri Lanka and humbly surrendered their world number one status to South Africa in August 2012.
England’s inability to cope with being favourites in the cricket betting odds cost them over 2011-12, but travelling to India last December they were underdogs once more. They even made the job more difficult after suffering a thrashing in the first Test, but Alastair Cook’s men delivered to claim a historic 2-1 series victory.
Heading to New Zealand as favourites two months later, they crashed to an uninspired 0-0 series draw – which more than satisfied the Kiwis.
England are at their best when facing adversity – it is a natural stance for all English cricketers after years of underachievement – and there is nothing that gets a Test player going more than facing Australia as underdogs.
Unfortunately for England, they are favourites heading into this Ashes and betting fans should be slightly wary of taking England at such short odds, given their track record as favourites.
Of their 16-man squad only five have experience playing the Ashes in England while nine have never faced the old enemy in a Test situation.
It doesn’t look good for Australia but betting fans looking at the bet365 cricket markets shouldn’t be getting too complacent just yet, for England are woeful at handling the ‘favourites’ tag.
The squad was at its best as plucky underdogs in the 2005 Ashes series and that 5-0 whitewash in the reverse clash 18-months later only fuelled Andrew Strauss’ drive to reclaim the Urn and defend it properly over the coming two series.
Winning the Ashes on Australian soil greatly improved England’s Test pedigree but in the preceding year they lost to Pakistan in the UAE, drew with Sri Lanka and humbly surrendered their world number one status to South Africa in August 2012.
England’s inability to cope with being favourites in the cricket betting odds cost them over 2011-12, but travelling to India last December they were underdogs once more. They even made the job more difficult after suffering a thrashing in the first Test, but Alastair Cook’s men delivered to claim a historic 2-1 series victory.
Heading to New Zealand as favourites two months later, they crashed to an uninspired 0-0 series draw – which more than satisfied the Kiwis.
England are at their best when facing adversity – it is a natural stance for all English cricketers after years of underachievement – and there is nothing that gets a Test player going more than facing Australia as underdogs.
Unfortunately for England, they are favourites heading into this Ashes and betting fans should be slightly wary of taking England at such short odds, given their track record as favourites.
Test Match Betting - Zimbabwe V Bangladesh
Friday, 19 April 2013 0 comments
I did a bit of cricket betting this week on the Zimbabwe V Bangladesh test match, currently taking place in the shadow of the IPL. Above is the screenshot I took after Day 2's play had finished, it shows the cricket bets that I placed overnight after Day 1's play had finished (before the start of Day 2's play).
Sometimes when a test match - or any cricket match, for that matter - isn't regarded as a big game (in the world of cricket betting), trading can be a bit slow. This is no bad thing though, as it opens up some nice big gaps in the market that can be exploited with a bit of patience and discipline.
In total, I did two cricket bets at the end of Day 1's play. At the time I placed my first bets the draw was trading at 2.34 to back and 2.36 to lay. I placed my back bet of the draw at 2.36 for £125.00, and then placed my lay at 2.28 (for £125.00). I then left my computer, and when I checked back about an hour later they had both been matched.
At this stage the draw had come in to about 2.30, but I noticed that there was a massive gap in the market below 2.30. So I put a lay bet up at 2.22, and a back bet at 2.34 - again for £125.00, and I then went to bed.
I got up in the morning expecting/hoping the back bet to be matched, but not really the lay bet, I was amazed to find both had been matched.
It was my intention to have my back bet matched (at 2.34), and hopefully find in the morning that I could lay at 2.30 to 2.32. The worst case scenario I thought I might find was the price had drifted out to about 2.36, meaning a slight loss on that trade (but I would still have been in overall profit from the first trade).
Anyway, when I did check my bets to find they had been matched, the draw was available to lay at 2.38 (a bit worse than my overnight worst case scenario , which I then did for £10.50, to level out my profit across all three outcomes.
This all means that overnight the draw traded at 2.22 when the market was quiet. It must have been a falsely low price, as it was trading at 2.36 (to back), and 2.38 (to lay), about an hour before the second day's play got under way.
This just goes to show how a market can fluctuate greatly - and how money can still be made - when there isn't much money in it.
Latest Ashes Betting
Wednesday, 17 April 2013 0 comments
The news that Kevin Pietersen is now out of the series against New Zealand starting in May hasn't really had any impact with the online bookmakers' odds with regard to cricket betting for the Ashes series.
In reality, it shouldn't impact Ashes betting, as what has the New Zealand series got to do with the Ashes? In short, the answer is nothing, but we have been here before with ECB injury updates.
When news of Pietersen's knee injury first emerged, he was only supposed to be out of the IPL. Now he is out of the New Zealand series as well.
So what next? The Ashes as well!!
Obviously the injury is worse than first thought. Are the ECB not telling us the full story? Are the medical staff getting their diagnosis wrong? Is he really a doubt for the Ashes? Because if he is, the odds will certainly change.
The problem I see here is that we have been here before. We had similar problems a few years back with Michael Vaughan, Simon Jones, Andrew Flintoff and Chris Tremlett.
More recently we have had the issues with Tim Bresnan, Graeme Swann, and I'm convinced Stuart Broad isn't right.
ECB injury updates remind me of a train delay when you are standing on a platform needing to get somewhere. It starts off as 5 minute delay, then a 10 minute delay, and so on.... I'm sure you get the picture.
Is this a deliberate drip feed of information, designed not to give the Aussies the complete picture of the England players health? Or is this (allegedly) misdiagnosis again?
I fully understand the ECB not wanting to give the Aussies a heads up about the medical conditions of some of our better players. My fear is that I'm not convinced this is what the ECB are actually doing.
Anyway, onto the cricket betting and with regard to the odds on the Ashes, they haven't really changed. England are still around the 2/5 to 4/9 mark for a series victory. A drawn series is still around 5/1 to 11/2. The Aussies have slightly shortened, a few weeks back they were generally 7/2 to 4/1, with a couple of bookies going 3/1. They are still in that price range, but I've noticed quite a few bookmakers are now offering 10/3 - as well as 3/1, 7/2 and 4/1.
When betting on cricket I feel it is worthwhile keeping an eye on markets long term. As we get closer to the Ashes, if news of the injuries to Pietersen and Swann isn't getting better, England will almost certainly drift on Betfair and the other betting exchanges. If you know where England's price has been sitting, it's easier to make a judgement call as to where you think it may go to.
In reality, it shouldn't impact Ashes betting, as what has the New Zealand series got to do with the Ashes? In short, the answer is nothing, but we have been here before with ECB injury updates.
When news of Pietersen's knee injury first emerged, he was only supposed to be out of the IPL. Now he is out of the New Zealand series as well.
So what next? The Ashes as well!!
Obviously the injury is worse than first thought. Are the ECB not telling us the full story? Are the medical staff getting their diagnosis wrong? Is he really a doubt for the Ashes? Because if he is, the odds will certainly change.
The problem I see here is that we have been here before. We had similar problems a few years back with Michael Vaughan, Simon Jones, Andrew Flintoff and Chris Tremlett.
More recently we have had the issues with Tim Bresnan, Graeme Swann, and I'm convinced Stuart Broad isn't right.
ECB injury updates remind me of a train delay when you are standing on a platform needing to get somewhere. It starts off as 5 minute delay, then a 10 minute delay, and so on.... I'm sure you get the picture.
Is this a deliberate drip feed of information, designed not to give the Aussies the complete picture of the England players health? Or is this (allegedly) misdiagnosis again?
I fully understand the ECB not wanting to give the Aussies a heads up about the medical conditions of some of our better players. My fear is that I'm not convinced this is what the ECB are actually doing.
Anyway, onto the cricket betting and with regard to the odds on the Ashes, they haven't really changed. England are still around the 2/5 to 4/9 mark for a series victory. A drawn series is still around 5/1 to 11/2. The Aussies have slightly shortened, a few weeks back they were generally 7/2 to 4/1, with a couple of bookies going 3/1. They are still in that price range, but I've noticed quite a few bookmakers are now offering 10/3 - as well as 3/1, 7/2 and 4/1.
When betting on cricket I feel it is worthwhile keeping an eye on markets long term. As we get closer to the Ashes, if news of the injuries to Pietersen and Swann isn't getting better, England will almost certainly drift on Betfair and the other betting exchanges. If you know where England's price has been sitting, it's easier to make a judgement call as to where you think it may go to.
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