Jimmy Anderson for the ODI team?

"I couldn't argue when I was left out. I hadn't done anything to keep my place, I wasn't bowling well," That's Jimmy's view of the decision to drop him during the recent world cup.

Does Jimmy justify a recall? On the form he showed in Australia and at the world cup, I'd have to say no.

He could be excused his performances in the ODI series in Australia due to his travelling back and forth to England after the birth of his baby, but after that he should have been able to get himself up for the world cup.

He also went onto say "I now have work to do to get back in the one-day side. I want to play for England as much as I can." For me, this is good in a couple of ways.

1) He doesn't regard himself as just having been left out for tiredness and expect to walk back into the team.

2) He is showing a good attitude.

The downside for me with Anderson is that I believe he is very much a confidence player. In 50 over cricket he is easier to get after and his head tends to drop if a batsman takes a fancy to him.

Another bad experience this summer might knock his confidence even more and start to have an effect on his test performances.

Then again, if he is going to perform, surely it will be in England with the home conditions he excels in. If he hits the ground running and regains his form and confidence in the test matches against Sri Lanka then why not give him another chance.

For me, I think I'd wait and see how he performs against Sri Lanka in the tests, if he looks confident and up for it then I'd pick him, if he struggles, then leave him out.

Barmy County Championship season continues

It's been a bit of an entertaining and crazy start to the county championship so far this season, Somerset struggling, Warwickshire's batsmen scoring runs, summer weather in April, etc.

This week a bit of normality appeared to be returning to proceedings. Marcus Trescothick is back in the runs with a double ton (227), Surrey getting hammered and Warwickshire's batting collapsing again, then I seen this headline - Bopara ton leads Essex victory - and I realised that after all we are still in silly season.

In fairness to Bopara it's a timely contribution. A match performance of 197 runs while only losing his wicket once is just what he needed after an early season struggle, he now is averaging 41.28 after 4 games for Essex.

This can only help Bopara with Eoin Morgan not exactly setting the world on fire at the IPL, but it's still not the sort of form that demands an England test recall.

The hardest job in world cricket

I was surprised to hear today that Duncan Fletcher has been named as India coach on a 2 year contract.

With India the number 1 test team and ODI world champions, it would seem like the dream job. But I'm not so sure and think he could be on a hiding to nothing here, this job looks full of pitfalls to me, I can already hear Geoffrey Boycott sniggering at the thought of Fletcher falling on his face here.

Despite all these misgivings, ultimately this was an offer he could never have turned down. It will probably be his last high profile job offer in cricket, and by the end of it I would imagine no one will touch him with a barge poll.

In the test arena Fletcher is going to have to oversee the end of the careers of Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and probably Sachin - assuming he doesn't go on for another 20 years.

Replacing Dravid and Laxman could take up the bulk of his 2 years. Also if he handles the Sachin issue badly, then he will obviously be out on his ear. When the time comes for Sachin, he has to be allowed to go in his own way.

It will also be interesting to see how he handles the lack of Indian seam bowlers, he is famously known for not wanting to know any bowlers in English county cricket who couldn't bowl between 85 and 90 mph. Will he have to break his principles there?

I can see this job being the ultimate test of Fletcher's man management skills - not only with the senior players, but the press.

In England he struggled with the press and he always struck me as a man who didn't have much in the way of man mangement skills, but in fairness to him I have listened to Nasser Hussain and Michael Vaughan a lot and they both speak very highly of him.

On the whole Fletcher did a good job with England, but it will be interesting to see if the Indian players buy into his ways. The BCCI know that this is going to be a transitional period for Indian cricket and there is a cynical part of me that thinks they may well have been looking for a potential fall guy.

Good luck Dunc, I think you're going to need it.

Cricinfo's insult to wicketkeepers

Today Cricinfo wrote Pakistan wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal, who was dropped from Pakistan's squad for the Twenty20 and ODI tour of West Indies, has said that he is ready to make his comeback into the national side as a "specialist batsman".

How would you feel if you were Brad Haddin, Tim Paine, MS Dhoni, Steven Davies, Mark Boucher or Kumar Sangakkara, etc, to have your job description slandered in this way?

Even Matt Prior (in ODI's, tests he is ok) and Brendon McCullum are probably a bit pissed off.

To describe Kamran Akmal as a wicketkeeper is just lazy journalism, I'm sure there are loads of different words that could be used to describe him, but a wicketkeeper?

When describing his performance in the World Cup match against New Zealand, where he dropped Ross Taylor twice (3 in total) before he had made the runs that defined the match, Kamran said, "some people don't want to forget it. The day seemed to be cursed. People just criticise and forget my past performances".

It's at this point I fell off my chair, past performances, yes like the one in Sydney where Mike Hussey was dropped how often?

And I thought it was generally footballers who deluded themselves and lived in their own world of self importance.

What has happened to Somerset?

Just what has happened to pre season county championship favourites Somerset?

Their innings and 20 run thrashing to Lancashire is their 2nd successive innings defeat in the 2 games they have played so far this season. In fairness at least it is a bit of an improvement on their 50 all out against Warwickshire last week.

Innings defeats for Somerset seem to be as common as Varun Chopra double hundreds for Warwickshire at the moment. After crashing to 201 all out in their 1st innings on a decent batting track at Worcestershire, I started to wonder was the Somerset win just a blip.

The 2nd innings has seen Mohammad Yousuf get runs (81) and Chopra will resume on 223. Chopra has already passed the 210 he scored against Somerset last week, he must have thought it would be a long time before he bettered that effort, batting must seem easy to him at the moment - so enjoy it while it lasts.

Now Lasith Malinga retires from test cricket

I wondered where all this was going to end and it seems that having been backed into a corner, Lasith Malinga has reacted by quitting a format of cricket, he barely ever played in, in the first place.

I'm not going to debate the rights or wrongs of his decision to quit test cricket, that's another issue.

What I am going to say is that I can't believe the abysmal way this whole issue has been handled. Why has the Sri Lankan cricket board - a so called professional organsation - conducted it's business via the media?

We have just seen a similar dispute between Chris Gayle and the WICB, in fairness we are more than used to seeing the WICB conducting it's business in the public arena, so the latest fiasco they find themselves involved in comes as no surprise.

Was it beyond the wit of man for someone to have contacted Chris Gayle or Lasith Malinga and had a quiet private chat and resolved these issues, rather than issuing demands via the media?

To publicly call for Malinga's return and seemingly question the validity of his injury looks from the outside, very confrontational.

When you take into consideration that he has only played 30 tests in 7 years, you get the impression that he previously had the support of the Sri Lankan board to miss a large bulk of test cricket, so why the sudden change in policy?

If the board have changed their policy, which it appears they have, then why couldn't someone get in touch with Malinga to discuss this? If Malinga doesn't want to know, then at least if the board still want to hang him out to dry, they can do so in the knowledge that they have at least tried to do things the correct way.

The way this whole episode has been handled doesn't make Sri Lankan cricket look very professional.

As for the West Indies and Chris Gayle, again I get the impression that no one speaks to each other - that's certainly what Chris Gayle is saying.

I also get the impression that both are a bit to blame. The board could have informed Gayle that he was out of the squad due to fitness, and that as soon as he is fit again, he can return. Likewise, Gayle surely could have picked up the phone and told WICB that if they don't need him, he would be going to play IPL.

It seems that no one has bothered to contact the other, and then they end up in this ridiculous public slanging match.

Malinga the Sciver

Wednesdays news that Lasith Malinga had been left out of the 16 man test squad selected to tour England came as a surprise to me, I was then even more surprised to hear that this was due to him making himself unavailable due to injury, while currently playing in the IPL.

Then the plot thickened as it emerged that he has been asked to go back to Sri Lanka to undergo a rehab programme, it was then becoming obvious that all parties where not happy with the current situation.

But the most amazing news of all for me, was yet to come, I couldn't believe it when I read that Lasith Malinga has only played two tests since 2007.

I have to admit to not being the closest of followers of the internal politics of Sri Lankan cricket, so am putting my faith in the hands of the person who wrote this article as to the accuracy of it, but if this is true, then how has this been allowed to happened?

Just who has taken this decision, the selectors, or Malinga himself?

It's clear just how important Malinga is to the limited overs teams and maybe at times the selectors have saved him to make sure he is fit for tournaments, but 2 tests in 3 years, surely he could have played more than that.

This kind of thing doesn't look great, it is a bad sign for the future of test cricket - the supposed pinnacle. Whether this be because players (mainly bowlers) can't handle the intensity of test cricket, or because players now show preference to ODI's for the money, I don't know, but either way it's not good for test match cricket.

I suppose it is possible to be fit enough to play in T20's, but not 5 day test matches. But the '2 tests since 2007,' stat, tells a different story. Clearly now, someone in the Sri Lankan hierarchy has had enough.

ICC shamed into rethink

As a straight living guy who can sleep easy at night, I'm thankful to be able to say that I have no knowledge of what drives the politics and make up of ICC, so I am not sure what the significance is of the president, Sharad Pawar asking the board to reconsider it's original decision to boot the associate and affiliate nations out of the 2015 world cup for money, sorry, I mean the good of cricket.

Two comments I have read and heard in the aftermath of the announcement today pretty much sum up the ICC and it's decision making process and the lack of regard it is held in.

"The sporting world we live in now is driven by greed, money, and television holds the key to everything and no doubt that was the basis for a lot of their decisions." Irish spinner Andrew White.

"I would like to think that the decision has been revisited as a result of a reflection on their duty to the sport as a whole but I suspect the reaction and the condemnation has had something to do with it." Warren Deutrom, Cricket Ireland chief executive.

I believe both to be correct, there isn't much doubt now that this was a purely financial decision, as White basically says.

While Deutrom believes that ICC are only looking into the decision because of all the fuss kicked up, rather than their duty to the good of the game - I couldn't agree more.

The England ODI Captaincy Debate

Stuart Broad and Andrew Flintoff are the latest names to give their views on the issue of England captain of the 50 over side.

Broad has been tipped for the job by former captain Michael Vaughan, unsurprisingly though Broad has given his backing to the current captain Andrew Strauss.

Andrew Flintoff didn't directly call for Strauss to go, but he may well have done. In saying that the 2015 captain decision needs to be made this summer, he is basically saying that Strauss needs to go now.

It is a tricky one and I'm not 100% sure what my view on this is at the moment. One one hand I understand Flintoff's view, but the problem is who do you make captain?

While I don't mind a different captain for T20's. I would prefer the same captain for tests and ODI's - and I believe that is probably the view of Andy Flower and the selectors.

Therein lies the problem - Alastair Cook.

He is the natural successor in the test team, but is he worth a place in the ODI team?

I've previously stated that I wouldn't have him in the ODI team, but after his performances in Australia maybe he deserves another chance.

During the Ashes he was far more positive and went for his shots more. England also seem to lack natural openers in 50 over cricket and if Strauss isn't there, we won't have any at all.

So trying Cook in the ODI team is a viable option, and probably the one favoured by Flower and Geoff Miller.

The other option for me is to pick Cook for the team but leave Strauss as captain for 12-18 months and see if Cook is worth a place in the team, while exploring other options like Bell, Trott, Broad or Morgan.

The danger of doing that though, is you risk setting the team back 12-18 months.

But as we have seen with the Steven Davies/Matt Prior situation, decisions are made at the last minute and you could argue that nothing that happened to the team after the 2007 world cup had any bearing on the make up of the 2011 side.

Personally I think that Strauss will go unless he is asked to stay on for the benefit of the team. It is a tricky decision for Andy Flower to have to make, that's why I am split between leaving Strauss in charge for another 12 months, or making a fresh start now.

Cricket Betting Blog on Facebook

I have finally succumbed to the other social media scurge and created a Facebook Page to go along with my rarely used Twitter Page.

If I use Facebook as often as I do my Twitter account, then it is hard to know why I have bothered - but good intentions and all that, so lets see how it goes.

I've had a look around the facebook site and it has shown just what a social media dinosaur I am, I haven't a bloody clue how to use it.

Anyway, first things first, and apparently I need 25 followers to get a username, including my misses I have only a pathetic 4 at the moment. I haven't a clue what having the username entitles me to do, but getting one sounds pretty basic so I don't want to fail there.

So come on Stani Army, Tracerbullet, BP and my 4 or 5 other followers (I think I might have), get your acts together and give me an honorary follow, at least get me into double figures.

The Return of Graham Onions

It was great to see Graham Onions back playing cricket and taking wickets for Durham in their win over Yorkshire in the latest round of County Championship games.

5 wickets in the 1st innings, 6 in the match - I'd say Onions would have happily taken that at the start of the game.

Apparently England selector James Whitaker was there to see Onions take his 5 wickets, it's hard to see where Onions could fit into the England set-up at the moment though.

A lot has happened in the 15 months he has been out for. Chris Tremlett, Steven Finn and Tim Bresnan are now all ahead of Onions in the race for the 3rd seamers spot in the England test team.

Another player who may well have jumped ahead of Onions is Chris Woakes. Woakes impressed in Australia and has also got his County Championship season off to a good start.

If Onions can get back to the level he was at in 2009, then England will have a nice problem. With the amount of cricket played these days and the injuries picked up by bowlers, it is always handy to have players of the quality of Onions in reserve.

Heavy Rollers, Tiflex Balls and £100,000 down the pan

Another bad week for Ravi Bopara, 56 runs from 4 innings is hardy the sort of form that will have Andy Flower pencilling him into the side for the 1st test with Sri Lanka.

More worryingly and telling for me is Bopara's response to his latest low scores. He said on Twitter "No heavy rollers & tiflex balls is a recipe for low scores. Crap cricket!"

That sounds like excuse making to me, it's not the sort of response I'd expect to hear from a top class test cricketer. It's taking the easy way out.

I keep hearing about how talented Ravi is, how he has all the shots in the book. This all may well be true, but I think he badly lacks the temperament and strength of character to be a test cricketer.

He was found badly wanting against Australia in 2009 and I haven't seen or heard much to convince me that anything has changed with him. I just don't see him 'gutsing it out,' a quality that top class test cricketers possess.

At the moment it looks like Ravi should have took the hundred grand on offer.

In other matches it was great to see Graham Onions back in the wickets with his 5/53 against Yorkshire.

I was shocked when I heard it was his first game in 15 months, it's amazing how quickly you can forget about a cricketer when his name is out of the public domain.

I would imagine that there must have been times when he wondered if he had played his last game. England looks a long way off for him now, but I'd imagine he'd quite happily take a quiet season playing for Durham after the last 15 months.

What has happened to Warwickshire? I got quite excited yesterday when they got to 416/6, I was absolutely amazed when 642 was finally posted.

I heard it mentioned on a radio show this morning that this must be the first time in 2 years that Warwickshire had secured maximum batting points, I thought at the time that it was a sarcastic remark. On thinking about it, such has been the Bears poor batting over the last couple of seasons, it's probably not far off the truth.

I did then expect to see Somerset blitz their way to a similar score, but no - they haven't. Rikki Clarke and Chris Woakes triggered a collapse and now Somerset are in deep trouble.

Boyd Rankin struggled and still needs the kick up the arse I recommended yesterday, while the unknown (to me anyway) Andrew Miller got off to an impressive start with figures of 12-3-25-1.

Great start for the Bears

What a start to the season for Warwickshire at Taunton today. To end the day on 416/6 after being asked to bat first is a start I'd imagine Ashley Giles could only have dreamed off.

When I heard on the radio that Warwickshire had got off to a decent start, I thought it was down to the famous old Taunton batting paradise, although it did cross my mind that it is a bit early in the season for such a pitch to already exsist.

But there must have been something dodgy looking with the pitch or the conditions for Trescothick to ask the Bears to bat first. I suppose how the rest of the match pans out will answer that particular query.

I'm not getting carried away with one days cricket though, but compared to how Warwickshire batted throughout last season, todays batting display is the equivalent of Geoff Boycott scoring a century off 40 balls.

Varun Chopra is already on the verge of a double hundred, hopefully this is the start of things to come from the former Essex player who it would be fair to say didn't even manage to achieve the dizzy heights of an average season last year.

He is nearly 24 now, so it's now the time when he needs to make the transition from a kid with potential, to the real thing.

It was also a reasonable start for Will Porterfield, 45 on debut for your new county isn't a failure. I'm sure he'll find his feet and better will come eventually.

I do worry about the bowling now though, after Chris Woakes it looks a bit thin.

We have Ant Botha who is a steady player - but nothing special, Rikki Clarke is unpredictable, Boyd Rankin reasembles a man who needs a good kick up the arse and Andrew Miller is a bit of an unknown quantity at the moment.

Early thoughts suggest this game could end in a draw.

Easy Start for Michael Clarke

As baptisms go, Michael Clarke's first tour as full time captain of Australia couldn't have gone much better.

The biggest problem with playing Bangladesh, or a side of similar standing is the prospect of making a mess of things against a side that you are expected to beat convincingly.

Thankfully for Clarke and Australia, that didn't happen. Although for us poms, it would have been a good laugh had they done so.

I didn't see the games, but I followed them by reading the reports and catching some of the highlights. The results clearly went well and I believe that the Aussies aren't currently in that bad a place in ODI's.

One thing that stood out too me straight away is that Clarke hasn't tried to implement many changes. He has stuck with the bulk of the players and to the formula used by Australia over recent years.

I got the impression that he kept things simple, there was no sign of any 'I'm the boss now' message for Ricky Ponting, and he would appear to still be the main man that the batting is built around.

I think it would have been pointless for Clarke to start upsetting people like Ponting at this stage, the fact that he hasn't tried to impose his authority in a heavy handed needless way shows good common sense and temperament to me.

There is probably plenty of cricketers who would have tried to publicly demote Ponting in some way just to show who is really in charge, Clarke appears to have been sensible and avoided going down that road.

The Aussie batting is looking strong again and they are in good nick with wicketkeepers also. To take two on tour, with a view to using one or both as batsmen shows how blessed they currently are with Brad Haddin and Tim Paine.

In the bowling department thay still have the experience of Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson and now big John Hastings seems to be establishing himself as the allrounder.

Steven Smith is also continuing with his development, I wonder if the long term plan for Smith is for him to be the spin option. Xavier Doherty got another chance and failed to make any major impact, that would probably be the main area of immeadiate concern to Clarke and the Aussie selectors.

Australia can't keep chopping and changing in this department, if they don't see Smith as the front line spinner then they surely have to stick with Doherty and give him a run in the side and a proper chance to prove himself.

But overall I think that the Aussie ODI team is in a decent place. Yes Lee, Hussey and Ponting will need replacing soon, but they have probably got a year or two left in them yet and that gives Australia valuable time to gradually blood their long term replacements.

Ravi Bopara Watch

Not quite the start that Ravi would have hoped for in his quest to get the 6th batting spot in the England test side.

Scores of 0 and 39 isn't a great start, and he was also upstaged by Kent youngster Sam Northeast (112) who scored a century in the match when conditions weren't great for batting.

Ravi did put a block on Northeast's attempt to upstage him by claiming the youngsters wicket in the 2nd innings. Figures of 2/50 from 18 overs in Kent's 2nd innings was probably Bopara's greater match input.

Bopara's bowling could be very important when it comes to selecting the 6th batsman. With England only playing a 4 man attack, a batsman who is reliable enough to bowl 8-10 overs a day would be invaluable and probably high on the selectors tick list.

And you never know, if Collingwood's standards are anything to go by, you wouldn't need to score bucket loads of runs either.

You could scratch around at the crease, score 16 or so runs in about an hour, then get yourself out with a ridiculous shot or a lack of technique and keep your place for years as long as you can bowl a few overs when the seamers need a rest. There is hope for Ravi yet.

Another thing going for Ravi is that Eoin Morgan hasn't done much in the IPL yet, in his latest (2nd) game he didn't even get a bat. He only managed 6 runs in his 1st match, so there is still all to play for.

Not the ideal start for Ravi

It was a mixed day for England hopefuls on the first full day of the County Championship season, with Ravi Bopara coming a distant second best to Sam Northeast at Chelmsford.

I was impressed to hear that Bopara had turned down a £100,000 IPL contract to concentrate on playing for Essex in an attempt to get his England test place back.

Eoin Morgan has gone to the IPL, it is widely expected that Morgan is next in line for a test spot with Paul Collingwood's place becoming available.

So why has Ravi decided to stay at Essex instead of going to India? Especially if Morgan is going to get the vacant test spot.

Well, maybe Ravi has had a wink and a nudge, possibly from Graham Gooch? Either it is a very brave call, or he knows something that we don't.

It could be that someone has told Ravi that the test place is far from secured for Morgan.

Anyway, things couldn't have gone much worse for Ravi today with him getting a 16 ball duck.

This came after Kent youngster Sam Northeast had scored a century. It wasn't just the 112 runs Northeast scored that was impressive, it was the fact that he scored them on a pitch that seen 16 wickets fall on the day.

It was also a massive 88 runs more than any other player managed on the day, with no other player making it past 24 and just the 2 batsmen passing 20.

If anyone from England had come to see Ravi play, they would have left Chelmsford with another name to throw into the hat.

The only good thing to happen for Ravi today, was the fact that Morgan could only manage 6 runs in the opening IPL match.

Morgan was unable to get his Kolkata Knight Riders across the line as they lost to Chennai Super Kings. They needed 42 runs from 28 balls when Morgan came into bat, far from an impossible task by his high standards.

England Watch Scoreboard - Ravi 0, Morgan 0.

Wisden breaks with tradition

No, not by naming just the four 'Cricketers of the Year' in it's 2011 Almanack, but by having it's own Facebook page.

What is going on? This is the sort of progress that will shorten the waiting list too get into the MCC.

Cricketing dinosaurs up and down the country will be dropping dead with heart attacks at the thought of this.

Wisden on Facebook, what next?

Well done Ian Bell

He did it this time, Ian Bell managed to see a job through to the end.

All the usual characteristic traits of Bell where on view, he looked good, he got off to a good start, he looked totally at ease and comfortable with the situation.

So what could go wrong? As something usually does.

Would Bell's past tormentor, Shane Warne turn up and ruin things? Or would Bell simply capitulate like he used too when the pressure was on?

Well apparently nothing went wrong on this occasion, Bell managed to tie the knot and is now proudly married to new wife Chantal.

Chantal Bell! Surely she will have to use her maiden name.

Anyway, Shane Warne didn't turn up and humiliate Bell again by calling him the Sherminator, or shouting out in objection (and with a good reason) from the back when the 'does anyone know any reason why this man and woman should not be joined in holy matrimony' question was asked.

I bet Bell must of had nightmares about it happening though, Warne haunted him throughout the early days of his England career. I can just imagine Bell waking up in a cold sweat at the thought of Warne turning up and ruining his wedding.

On a serious note, it was great to see Bell take time out to turn up for Warwickshire's media day today. After the long winter and the obvious fact that he has only been married a day, he could have well been forgiven for not turning up.

It shows that Bell is a staunch supporter of the his county and the county game, and for that I think he should be applauded.

More Criticism of ICC

Malcolm Speed and Michael Vaughan have now added their voices to the growing list criticisng FIFA, sorry I mean ICC, for their decision to gerrymander the qualifying rules for the 2015 world cup.

Sorry to bang on about this, but I do have a bit of a bee in my bonnet about this one.

There seems to be two schools of thought in the criticism of ICC. One is the 'it is out of order on Ireland' line, the other is that it is just 'a bad decision for cricket in general,' as it isn't going to help promote the growth of cricket on a world level.

Vaughan seems to be in the Ireland camp, Speed the cricket in general camp.

Malcolm Speed said it was an "insular and backward looking" decision and that it is in keeping with the way things where going towards the end of his tenure.

Cynics - and I may be one of them - may say that it is convenient for Speed to get himself back in the public eye as he is currently releasing his memoirs.

Where both Vaughan and Speed agree (and me, for what it's worth) is that the ten world cup spaces should be made up of the top 8 ranked countries, with two qualifiers from the remaining test sides and associate nations.

I'm also pleased to see Cricket Ireland's justified tantrum throwing continue with another attack on ICC, with Cricket Ireland claiming that ICC are "unfit for purpose or governance".

I'm not sure it will do them any good in the long run, but it is funny seeing someone pan ICC in this manner, keep up the good work lads.

Warren Deutrom hits back at ICC

I was delighted to hear Cricket Ireland, chief executive, Warren Deutrom, on the radio today confirming that he intends to fight ICC over their ridiculous decision to exclude Ireland from the 2015 world cup.

As more information seeps out about this, it seems more and more like it is a purely financial decision by ICC, or BCCI - whoever runs cricket these days.

The stories now seem to point to 2015 being a 10 team 'round robin' format with no 'meaningless games' involving non test playing nations who would apparently weaken the tournament - or weaken the TV deal as it is otherwise known to the cynics.

Unlike Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, who clearly wouldn't weaken the tournament in the eyes of ICC.

Contradictions? Yes, in my opinion.

This is starting to look like a FIFA style carve up, the sort of scratching of backs we are used to seeing from Sepp Blatter and co.

The Daily Telegraph are claiming that Ireland are considering legal action, Deutrom didn't say that in the interview that I heard, but he did say he was going to explore all avenues and fight the decsion.

For what it's worth, I certainly back Warren Deutrom and Ireland in their campaign to get this decision reversed. I'm glad they are fighting it and I wish them every success.

I don't though hold out much hope for them. If this is a decision by BCCI, which is an accusation already made in a roundabout way, then what chance do 'little old Ireland' have?

Not much.

Closed Shop ICC a Disgrace

I have to say that some things that happen in the world of sport disappoint me, but don't surprise me.

Today that was all surpassed by ICC's decision to kick the Associate Nations out of the 2015 (50 Over) World Cup.

It disappointed me and is that bad a decision it even surprised me. I know full well that ICC are capable of blundering, I'm not naive, but even by their standards this is something else.

I accept that decisions are taken in which - we the public - aren't privy to the reasons why. To the average guy in the street, it makes no sense, but behind the scenes there are good reasons why a particular conclusion is come too.

But on what level can there be a logical reason for this decision?

I have read reports that it is down to playing only competitive matches in the next world cup, to stop the farcical one sided affairs that Kenya and Canada were involved in, as a new TV deal is up for negotiation after the 2015 tournament and ICC want to be in a position of strength going into negotiations.

Surely games involving Ireland and Holland aren't that damaging to the TV contract? Or to put it another way, are they any worse than games involving Zimbabwe or Bangladesh?

Anyway, at what stage of the last competition did Ireland embarrass themselves any more than West Indies, Zimbabwe or Bangladesh did? Or even England for that matter.

I can also understand that the tournament is too long and too many meaningless matches were played. Yes, I agree with all that, I agree changes had to be made, but this is going way too far.

Maybe just cutting it to 12 teams would have been much fairer, with the top 10 ranked ODI teams and 2 qualifiers taking part.

It is also outrageous that only the 10 full members will be the teams taking part. This is an ODI tournament, not a test match one.

If it is to be 10 teams, then it should be the best 10 ODI teams - made up of either the top 10 ranked, or the top 8 ranked with 2 qualifiers.

On every level I can think off, this decision stinks.

2011 World Cup Top Run Scorer

Tillakaratne Dilshan was the top run scorer of the 2011 cricket world cup with 500 runs, he averaged 62.50 and had a strike rate of 90.74.

I know that is a very helathy strike rate, but from what we've seen from Dilshan in the past, it actually looks quite tame.

Dilshan was one of only 4 players to score over 400 runs. The other 3 are, not surprisingly Sachin, he scored 482 runs, with an average of 53.55 and a strike rate of 91.98.

Nothing Sachin achieves surprises me anymore. Teams have their best batsmen at the top of the order to give them the maximum amount of overs to face. At his age and with all the talented batsmen India have, Tendulkar still commands a place in the team as an opener.

Kumar Sangakkara scored 465 runs at a remarkable average of 93.00 and with a strike rate of 83.78. Like MS Dhoni, Sangakkara carries all the teams responsibility on his shoulders, to be a wicketkeeper who can bat is one thing, to be a wicketkeeper and a world class batsman and captain is something else.

How do these guys keep performing at the level they do? I know that Sangakkara gave up wicketkeeping in the test team, but he still has a lot to do and is still a world class performer.

Then we have Jonathan Trott with 422 runs at an average of 60.28 and strike rate of 80.84. Trott may not have the strike rate of the others, I'm not sure he has the shots either, but he was effective for England.

I have heard people on radio and TV criticising him for been too slow in games, I even heard some idiot blaming him for the Sri Lanka defeat saying his slow play cost England wickets at the other end.

As it was, we got hammered. But I think we would have looked a lot more stupid getting bowled out for around 160-170, which I think may well have happened without Trott.

Trott looks set to be an important member of the England 50 over team moving forward, the only problem with the start he has had, is how long can he keep it up for?

A full list of the top run scorers can be found here.

World Cup Final - Congratulations India

Well, what the hell do I know? Not a lot, as at the half way stage I thought Sri Lanka had enough runs on the board to win this.

How did MS Dhoni manage his Man of the Match, match winning performance? At one stage when he was around the 40-50 runs mark, he looked out on his feet.

I thought Sri Lanka's fielding let them down as well, the dropped catch off Gambhir early in his innings was obviously a massive factor in the outcome of the match, but overall their ground fielding was very poor.

If I were a Sri Lankan fan, I'd have been fuming watching them in the field. From about the 38th over onwards, certain members of the team looked like they had already given up. This was a world cup final for god sake, what were they playing at?

But with cricket being cricket, there is always a braindead shot waiting to happen and get you interested again, this time it was Gambhir who supplied it, and within touching distance of a century as well. Just what was he thinking?

What Gambhir's shot did do, was paved the way for Yuvraj to come out and get his team home, after failing with the bat in the semi-final, it was always a safe bet that Yuvraj would do the business this time.

In seeing his team home, Yuvraj capped off an all round impressive world cup which has seen him confirm himself as one of the top ODI players in the world. His batting, bowling and fielding was all top class. He might not have fulfilled his test potential, but he certainly has excelled in ODI cricket.

From the Sri Lanka side of things questions should have to be answered, like who's decision was it too leave out Mendis? Especially when you look at the performances of Murali and Kulasekara - who hardly covered himself in glory.

Kulasekara did his best to get India over the line single handed when he offered up a tasty over of full tosses in the 47th over, just after Malinga had built some pressure in the previous one.

Murali was a massive disappointment and to go out on that performance will be a rare low point in his illustrious career.

Dhoni showed just what a real leader he is and did the business when it really mattered. He might not have had a great competition with the bat, but when it mattered Dhoni produced.

To be captain or wicketkeeper must be difficult, to do both at the level Dhoni does is unbelievable. So to criticise him for not scoring enough runs is very harsh.

All-in-all, from my point of view India were the best team over the whole of the competition and fully deserved their win. I thought there was a chance that they had already played their final against Pakistan earlier in the week, but obviously they hadn't.

Well done India.

World Cup Final - Half Time Thoughts

Big games call for big men, so what a time and day for Mahela Jayawardene to get a century. What a century it was as well, Sri Lanka were in a bit of trouble when he came to the crease at 2/60 in the 17th over, the pressure was well and truely on at the time.

The innings more than played it's part in getting Sri Lanka up to a competitive score of 6/274, it has pretty much ensured that someone in the India side needs to put their hand up and play a big innings to win this world cup, I think that chasing 275 on this wicket under this pressure won't be easy.

Could that man be Yuvraj? Well why not, it has seemed impossible to keep him out of the game over the course of this tournament, so far today has been no different, he got lucky with the wicket of Sangakkara, but used the review system well in the dismissal of Samaraweera.

It's not very often you see Taufel get one wrong, but I can see why he didn't give it out as there was enough doubt, with the big stride, etc. It was a brave review, it could have been an 'umpires call,' but Yuvraj was proved right on this occasion.

Despite my reservations, India also fielded brilliantly, again Yuvraj seemed to be everywhere, even Sreesanth was throwing himself about and early in the Sri Lanakan innings he brilliantly saved a four down on the boundary.

At the end it was remarkable to see Zaheer going the round the park in the final over, it showed how the pressure can get to anyone. Can India's batsmen now handle it?

The bookies have it close in the betting, but India are still slight favourites at a best price of 5/6 with Stan James. Sri Lanka are 13/10 with Betfair.

I'm going to stick my neck out and say that I believe Sri Lanka have this won, as I think they have enough runs on the board already.

Cricket Betting - India, World Cup Favourites

No surprise to see India as the hot favourites to lift the cricket world cup in Mumbai on Saturday. India are generally available at 4/7 and Sri Lanka are a best price of 6/4.

Tendulkar is 13/2 to be Man of the Match, serial MOTM winner Yuvraj is 10/1 and Murali (on his one leg) is 11/1.

It's fair to say that the best two teams of the tournament are in the final, no one got here by fluke or good fortune, both teams have played the best cricket and are in the final on merit.

I hope both sides go out and play their natural attacking games, I thought that Sri Lanka played a bit cautiously against New Zealand in their semi and nearly came unstuck. A repeat of that performance would almost certainly end in defeat here.

India also weren't at their best against Pakistan, I thought nerves got to both teams and in the end the runs on the board and the pressure that created, along with tight disciplined bowling got India over the line.

After a great start from Sehwag as usual, India stumbled badly when Pakistan's bowlers put them under pressure, only a late order cameo from Raina made the score look competitive.

Sri Lanka's bowling attack is certainly no worse that Pakistan's is, so India can't rely on just cashing in on weak bowling.

I do though believe that the teams are a lot closer than the odds suggest.

India clearly have strength in their batting, and alongside the impressive Zaheer, Harbhajan has shown some form lately with the ball. Their weaknesses are the fielding and the back up bowlers, India badly need their back up bowlers to be firing in this one.

Sri Lanka have a strong top order and a complete bowling attack. Their so-called weaknesses are claimed to be the middle order batting, in a way that's an unfair accusation as they have hardly had a chance to show what they are capable off.

Another possible weakness is Murali, not usually words I'd put in the same sentence, but you have to wonder just how fit he really is? His injury has to impact on his performance.

But at the same time he is a big game player, and like Sachin, nothing they achieve would surprise me.

The game is being hyped around these two cricketing giants, I can see it being about far more than just them though. From the reports we hear, it doesn't look like a 300+ runs wicket. So it looks like it could well be another one of those nervy tight finishes.

Impressed with Shahid Afridi

I have to admit to being very impressed with the way Shahid Afridi has handled and conducted himself during Pakistan's impressive run to the world cup semi-finals.

I don't mind admitting that prior to the start of the world cup, I thought that Afridi lacked the discipline and maturity to be captain, that he wasn't responsible enough and couldn't be taken seriously. Over the course of the tournament I am happy to say he has proved me wrong.

The pressure that Afridi must have been under in the build up to this game is probably like nothing he has ever experienced before. To have conducted himself in the professional manner that he has, shows just how far he has come as a cricketer and a person over the testing few months Pakistan cricket has just endured.

Afridi has shown maturity and has been very gracious and respectful. The most unexpected of all for me, is that he has been a great ambassador for his country, his complementary remarks towards India on their victory is a great example of this.

Also, to hear Afridi apologise for the defeat on Wednesday is a remarkable show of humility. I think he has gone beyond the call of duty there. Ok, so the fielding could have been better, as could the run chase. But to lose to India on home soil is no disgrace.

Pakistan can go home with their heads held high, I believe that as a team they have taken massive strides forward over the past 5 weeks. At the start of the competition I think they would have regarded reaching a semi-final as a great result, not many pundits would have given them much chance of achieving that.

The Captain who lost Three Ashes Series

That seems to be the phrase I keep hearing used to describe Ricky Ponting's tenure as captain of Australia. What a total joke that is.

Whatever Ponting's failings or achievements as a captain, his knockers should remember that here is a man who has given his all to the cause of representing his country.

Criticism of Ponting such as the view that anybody could be a good captain with players like Warne and McGrath in their side is a bit of a cheap shot.

People should remember that not only is he a truely world class batsman, he is also a great leader of men, a great team man and he never hid or ducked anything when he was captain.

Ponting wasn't perfect, I have shouted at my tele over his actions and onfield conduct many a time, and the incident with Aleem Dar at Melbourne certainly wasn't his proudest moment.

But having watched a lot of Australia over the years, I got the feeling that his players would run through brick walls for him. They seemed to trust him and knew that as their captain, he would back them to the hilt.

So if he was such a crap captain (as all these ex-Aussie cricketers keep telling us he was), then why was it that his team mates seemed to hold him in such high regard?