On Top Down South

England’s tour of South Africa is a litmus test for the side. They did well in defeating Australia but now have to tackle the South African’s in South Africa. The tour is a gruelling one and consists of two Twenty20 matches, five 50 over matches and will be finished off with four Test matches to be played in a month. Cricket betting has the hosts as favorites which is fair enough.

This is going to be a tough tour both physically and mentally and England will have to be on top of their game if they are to come out on top. It is a shame that the Test matches have been left till last because they are what the tour is really about. Alot of cricket is going to be played before them and one can only hope that both sides stay relatively intact until then.

It will be a big tour for a number of players for different reasons. Alastair Cook is the vice-captain but in some ways is lucky to be in the side. He didn’t have the best of Ashes series and but for his 96 at Lords, didn’t really do much.

Ian Bell fought his way back into the side but didn’t grasp his opportunity in the same way that Jonathan Trott did. He can’t have too many chances left.

How will Stuart Broad fare now that Andrew Flintoff has retired? The pressure is going to be on him to deliver all the time with both the bat and ball.

Kevin Pietersen is returning from injury and will be keen to make up for lost time. He needs to be patient and not suffer the brain explosions that affected him in the West Indies.

Will Adil Rashid get his chance to shine and how will he fare if that time comes? He has the potential to be a match winner for England and after being on the receiving end of some legspin they will appreciate having a legspinner in their side.

After his magnificent debut, the expectation will be on Trott to deliver every time. How will he fare on return to his home country?

Then there is Andrew Strauss and his captaincy. At times against Australia he went into his shell and every time he did it was costly. He will need to make the right decisions and hope that he also gets luck when it comes to the toss.

They are a good squad and will need to play at their best if they are to win.

David Wiseman writes for this blog. When he doesn’t do that he can be found pondering his tennis betting.

Pietersen set for England return

England have been dealt a boost ahead of their tour to South Africa  with the news that Kevin Pietersen is likely to be fit for the one-day series and test matches in the country of his birth after recovering from an Achilles injury.

The 29-year-old missed the majority of the recent Ashes series with the problem, but now it seems as though he is ready to return to action. To make sure his rehabilitation goes exactly according to plan though, he will not fly out with the rest of the squad on Saturday.

Speaking about the situation, England coach Andy Flower said that he was hopeful Pietersen would be ready for the first One Day International, but he has got a bit more ‘work to do’ before he is able to fly out to South Africa.

As for putting a specific date on the first game Pietersen is able to play, Flower said that ‘the warm-up game against South Africa A on 17 November’ was a very realistic aim. The infection that Pietersen had on the injury has now cleared and this was the main reason his comeback was delayed throughout the English summer.

As mentioned already, this is a huge boost for England. Pietersen makes the batting line-up so much stronger. He brings confidence to the side and inflicts the fear factor on the opposition. Not many England players can do this and it is why Pietersen is so important to the team and their Cricket betting odds.

Flower echoed these sentiments by saying that KP ‘brings a superb record, flair, confidence and the ability to counter attack.’ He also revealed that the player is ‘chomping at the bit’ to get going again and play his part in England moving forward as a test match team.

This is good for England as well. The fact Pietersen is likely to be highly motivated can only be a good thing. He  admitted that he had fallen out of love with cricket a little bit by playing so much over the last couple of years, so hopefully this break will increase his desire to achieve great things.

The reality is that he is adding to an already confident England batting line-up after the Ashes win as well. There will be plenty of decisions for the selectors to make in terms of who joins Alistair Cook, Andrew Strauss, Kevin Pietersen and Jonathan Trott in the top six.

All in all, it is a good situation to be in ahead of a very tough tour.

Welcome back KP.

Strauss ready for tough winter

Andrew Strauss has had a fairly remarkable couple of years. Not so long ago, he was out of the England team and facing a challenge to prolong his international career. Now though, he has just spent the summer captaining England to Ashes glory and is widely considered as one of the best batsman in the world.

The next test for Strauss comes this winter as he takes his relatively young side to play the Rainbow Nation in South Africa. The squad fly there this weekend and it is clear that the England captain is focused on the job in hand.

Speaking about the upcoming tour, Strauss says that it will be a ‘great gauge’ to see where abouts his team are at the moment. As everyone knows, England have ‘pretences to be the number one team in the World’, meaning that the test series against the current No.1 team on the back of beating Australia is very significant indeed.

As for his general approach to captaincy, it is fair to say that Strauss isn’t the type of person to shout or be aggressive towards his players, much like Nasser Hussain used to.

Even though he admits he has ‘lost it a couple of times’ over the past nine months, he prefers to have a team meeting where every team member has their say, remaining ‘honest’ at all times. This seems to be very important for the Strauss / Andy Flower partnership. Honesty. The players will know where they stand under this regime and know how they need to improve.

That’s what this winter is all about as well – improvement. England lost in India and the West Indies last year and they will want a more positive outcome this time around. The Ashes win needs to be built on and Strauss knows this. He knows the team must raise their game even further.

One thing you can count on is the Middlesex man leading from the front. He will know the standards he wants for the team and he will set them himself. His form with the bat while captain has been superb and this isn’t even something Michael Vaughan ever quite mastered.

Overall, Strauss seems like the perfect England Cricket captain. One that speaks to the media well, brings the best out of his players and leads from the front with his own performances.

Can he lead England to victory in South Africa though? After the few months he has had, nothing is impossible. Bring it on.

ECB 40 League draw/ Suggest a name

The draw for the new 40 over format was made on Monday. The new format sees 17 teams paired in 3 groups of 7. The 18 first class counties are joined by Scotland, Holland and an ECB Recreational XI. That team compromises of domestic players without first class contracts, with the venue to be confirmed.

Cut the number of teams + cut the number of games = better level of cricket?

The failures of the two English representatives in the Champions League has agian brought up the issue in how the quality in the English domestic game is lagging behind the rest. The English domestic teams play the most amount of games in each format, but quantity doesn’t exactly represent quality.

English Clubs Struggle in Champions League

English Clubs may dominate in football’s version of the champions league but this isn’t the case in cricket. It is probably even more galling for the English clubs given how the Twenty20 form of the game was invented in England.

Sussex didn’t win a match and Somerset needed the help of Trinidad and Tobago to advance to the final eight. Had the Deccan Chargers won, they would have advanced instead of the Sabres.

Can Luke Wright deliver in test cricket?

One of the most fascinating aspects of England’s winter tour to South Africa is going to be how Luke Wright performs. The Sussex all-rounder has been picked in the test squad for the first time and it is fair to say that not everyone is convinced that he has what it takes to succeed in international cricket’s toughest form.

First of all, let us look at what he has achieved so far for England. In 25 One-Day-Internationals, he has scored 404 runs at an average of 22.44 and taken 7 wickets at an average of 49. Not exactly the greatest statistics, I’m sure you will agree.

The Next Big Challenge

For England, the Ashes was one thing, but now they will want to do well in South Africa. After the Ashes, it is probably the biggest challenge for England and they will want to do well. If not for the reason of showing they are consistent. Consistency is the metric by which you measure a good team.

Owais of talent

The decision to drop Owais Shah was a difficult decision for the selectors but ultimately the correct decision. A talented individual indicated by his superb 98 off 89 balls against South Africa in the Champions Trophy. However, that is surrounded all too regularly by innings of frustration for the supporters, rash shots, poor running, poor fielding and despite his useful contributions in the Champions Trophy, his failure to transform such ability into big runs has led to his demise. However, some blame needs to be pointed at selectors, whom have treated him poorly since the start of his ODI career. At the age of 30, the international career of Owais Shah looks to have come to an end.

Cricket Champions League Preview

The first edition of the innagural Cricket Champions League kick starts this week in India. The competition comprises of 12 teams in four groups of three. 3 representatives are from India (IPL), 2 England, 2 Australia, 2 South Africa, 1 West Indies, 1 Sri Lanka and 1 from New Zealand. England Cricket looks at the competitors and in particular the potential performance of the two English qualifiers.