Squad for Bears vs Eng-er-land

Warwickshire have picked a strong team for their game against England starting on Wednesday.

Ian Westwood (*)
Tony Frost
Jonathan Trott
Jim Troughton
Ateeq Javid
Tim Ambrose (+)
Rikki Clarke
Ant Botha
Chris Woakes
Boyd Rankin
Jeetan Patel
Naqaash Tahir

Ashes mania

Well the World T20 has been put to bed, the T20 Cup has been put on hold for a bit (with the Bears in the QFs) now attention turns to the Ashes of course. Sky are mentioning 2005 a lot (though not the series that followed in Australia for some reason) of course. I love the trailer with Shane and his barby!

England play Warwickshire this week, as i have a doctor's appointment on Friday morning i thought i might as well take the whole day off then go along to the last day of the game, hopefully the Bears haven't beaten England already!

Reducing the county championship?

Next season will be even more congested than usual because of the Champion's League and thus the fixture planners at the ECB are looking at "radical" ways to relieve it. One suggestion is to reduce the county championship to 14 games down from 16 for one season only.

But how can they possibly do this and retain the fairness and relevance of the county championship? 16 games means each of the 9 counties in the 2 divisions plays the other 8 teams home and away. Reducing the games means that this is no longer possible. What then happens to the concept of every team in a division playing each other and the best team at the end of it winning? Also how will they decide what are the missing games? Could some counties end up "lucky" in that their missing games are against the best teams in the divisions (and of course vice versa?) It is lunacy, but what do you really expect from the ECB?

Ambrose has ideal chance to cement understudy role

The Ashes warm-up fixture between Warwickshire and England that starts on 1st July is bound to be a tense affair. Not only will players be wary of injury – the series opener begins at Cardiff seven days later – but many know they are taking part in the final chance to stake a place in England’s team.

Most spots have been definitely filled, including, unusually, the wicket keeper role. Matt Prior’s consistently excellent form with the bats in all formats, combined with more reliable glovework, has cemented his place in the team, to the point where he is expected to bat at number six.

However, the selectors are still casting their net wide to identify the rest of the keepers’ pecking order. James Foster was given a chance in the ICC World Twenty20, but the gloveman’s role in the Lions team for the match against Australia has gone to Steven Davies.

Tim Ambrose will also be under scrutiny, assuming he plays for the Bears against England next week. The discarded England keeper is doing a steady job in protecting his place as Prior’s understudy, although Davies’ runs for Worcestershire and Foster’s sparkling Twenty20 glovework are keeping the pressure on.

Ambrose did everything he could in the Caribbean earlier this year, scoring a fluent unbeaten 76 and keeping efficiently in his solitary Test appearance at Barbados. The selectors were reminded that if Prior was missing for more than one match his replacement could be fully trusted.

Ambrose’s ultimate aim is obviously to displace Prior, but he knows future chances are more reliant on the man in possession’s form than his own. A few runs and catches next week will be a good place to start in doing what he can to work his way back into the England set-up.

For now though, keep a close eye on the Lords Test odds for your early Ashes bets. If you need to get in the betting mood, check out Betfair's new fan v fan site.

By Philip Oliver

Bell still in but Vaughan out!

Ian Bell has been named in England's development squad for the Ashes but Michael Vaughan misses out, though considering his meagre form this season keeping in the Yorkshire side is probably his target for the rest of the season. As for IR Bell he will captain England Lions against the Aussies at Worcester.

Women's World T20

One benefit of being ill off work today is being able to see the first semi-final in the women's T20 game between New Zealand and India. Its the first full women's cricket match i have seen and was a good game though NZ won fairly easily. Good skills on show such as some of the fielding and some of the Indian spinners were intriguing. I look forward to seeing more games, unless i have a rapid recovery i shall be seeing England vs Australia tomorrow anyway.

It was amusing to hear commentators like Nasser get in a pickle about what to call the players, i think he called them "women", "girls", "ladies" and "men" at various times. Some of the field placing and other cricket jargon words may need modification like "third man" and "batsman" by the way.

15-20 the key to 20-20 or 10-15?

In the wake of England's demise in the World T20 i have been thinking about what a successful strategy might be to get a decent score in the game (seeing as England need a strategy they are welcome to use mine!)

Now orthodox thinking is that you keep wickets in hand for as long as possible for a final assault at the end. However i believe this plan is flawed in T20 cricket. These wickets in hand will likely be coming in against the best bowlers in death bowler mode and will have to try and start whacking from the off. Launching an assault in the final 5 overs is too late.

Perhaps the 10th to 15th overs are where the assault needs to take place. Having had an early whack in the power play maybe England need to use overs 7-10 for consolidation and then whack out against the bowlers in 10-15 which usually are the second-string seamers and the spinners. With momentum gained then the final 5 overs can be a continuation of the assault, or if there are not many wickets left a run-a-ball cruise to the end.