If the Pears win we riot

The Bears finally got their T20 campaign on track with a convincing win over the local rivals. I listened to the game on BBC WM, could not attend unfortunately though due to a twist of fate i actually had to spend the afternoon in the Edgbaston area for work and then had to leave the area not long before the game started. Fate can be a sadist sometimes.

It seems like a big crowd (10,000 according to Brian) though so i probably wouldn't have enjoyed that, being anti-social.

Barker impressed with his bowling again, the lad is going to be a future star.

Lancashire the Twenty20 team to beat

Last season’s Twenty20 cup was dominated by teams from the South Division. The three qualifiers from that group, Middlesex, Kent and Essex went on to make the semi finals, with the Crusaders going on to be crowned champions.

However, the name is not all that has changed at Middlesex this time around. Now known as the Panthers, the holders have lost some key personnel, with Tim Murtagh, Owais Shah, Eoin Morgan, Dirk Nannes and Murali Kartik missing out on large portions of this year’s tournament.

Essex have also been weakened thanks to the international call-ups of James Foster, Ravi Bopara, Ryan ten Doeschate and Graham Napier, whilst Kent are lacking the energy and sharpness that characterised their limited overs performances last term.

That is not to say the South Division is weak – Sussex are always hard to beat, whilst Surrey are rapidly improving and Hampshire, Friends Provident trophy semi finalists, are a team to look out for.

However, the favourites are surely Lancashire. Quarter finalists last year, when they missed out on a finals day place thanks to a sparkling Dawid Malan century, they look to be a formidable limited overs outfit.

New coach Peter Moores has got the under-achieving red roses playing with confidence and in Francois du Plessis, a key man in their run to the Friends Provident semi finals, they could have the batsman of the tournament. With regards to Twenty20 betting, he scores quickly without taking risks and is a good bet to be the tournament top runscorer.

Zander de Bruyn is another South African in good form and his talented Somerset team are the team to beat in the Midlands/Wales/West Division.

Gloucestershire and Warwickshire have made slow starts, but I expect them to both be soon in the qualification picture. Both have shown enough form in the Friends Provident trophy to suggest they have something to offer in this format and their squads will not be affected by ICC World Twenty20 call-ups.

The Bears are particularly strong in the batting department, with Neil Carter, Jim Troughton, Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott forming one of the strongest top orders around.

Written by Philip Oliver

AD staying put?

Brian Halford reports on his blog that Alan Donald has been unsuccessful with his application to become head coach of the Eagles. As in the South African team not the rock band obviously. Though AD in charge of The Eagles band would certainly be surreal.

So i guess AD is staying put at least for now.

T20 waning? Time for customer service!

Advance ticket sales for this year's T20 have been sluggish, yesterday Lords' was around half-full for their first match of the year. Not a bad crowd but when you consider it was the Middlesex-Surrey local derby on a hot sunny bank holiday Monday it seems the crowd was a bit disappointing. Not that the ground made things any easier as the ridiculous mess with tickets as recounted in the Cricinfo article.

Customer service at so many cricket grounds is ridiculously bad. Obviously the clubs have not quite cottoned on to the fact that these customers want to give the club money. Therefore why try and piss them off as much as you can? In these tough economic times money is getting tighter and people want value for money and to be treated with respect. Cricket needs to tighten up it's customer care and service especially with attracting new fans. Someone coming to a T20 game for their first ever cricket match and who is messed about might never come again. And of course he/she will tell far more people about why he/she won't be coming again than a happy fan will tell people why they are!

There apparently were problems getting into the ground for the ODI between England and the Windies at Edgbaston today (according to TMS, though some said they got in fine). Volume appears to be a problem for Warwickshire. When there are county championship games and the volume of fans is slightly lower i find there are no problems with getting into the ground and the gate staff are friendly and polite.

Squad for first T20 match

The Twenty20 Cup returns tomorrow and the Bears play Northamptonshire away. The squad for this game has been announced :

Neil Carter, Jonathan Trott, Jim Troughton, Tony Frost, Ian Westwood, Richard Johnson, Ant Botha, Keith Barker, Steffan Piolet, Jimmy Anyon, Boyd Rankin, Chris Woakes and Jeetan Patel.

Tim Ambrose, who suffered a thigh strain injury in the FPT defeat against Kent, is aiming to be fit for the first home game on Friday.

Ant Botha seems the most cowboy in the squad, cool.

5 days until T20

Currently its 5 days and 21 hours until the first T20 game for the Bears according to the counter on the special site for the Bears T20 campaign, though actually as the first game is on Monday away to Northamptonshire i make that 2 days so i suspect they mean the first home game. This year's T20 season seems to have crept up on us rather lost in the IPL/pre-Ashes hype.

That is cricket!

The Bears fell just short in their final FPT qualifying match against Kent, rain stopped play with the scores level on Duckworth-Lewis and a tie was not enough to put them through ahead of Middlesex. That is cricket though, in the rain had started a minute or so earlier or later it may have been a different story. Its amazing how a game that can last all day (or even up to 5 days) can often turn on one split second or one minute. That is why the game is so fantastic though, even if you lose!