Stuart Broad's Captaincy

I can't have been the only one who was fairly pleased that Stuart Broad's first game in charge of the England Twenty20 side resulted in a thumping defeat can I?

In my view he was an odd choice for the following reasons:

1. He's very young and English cricket doesn't tend to push young players as much as other nations, although i suppose that this can be seen as a positive that England are trying to groom (that word has different connotations nowadays, but I mean it in the innocent sense) a player in their early twenties to become captain of the whole shebang eventually - that is what they are doing with Alastair Cook after all.
2. He's been injured for much of the last year.
3. He's in dreadful form, particularly with his supposed strong suit, the ball.
4. He's petulant and is often seen shouting at his team-mates for a misfield or whatever, which is not what is expected of a captain.
5. Paul Collingwood was cast aside as the reigning World Cup holding captain, and I agree that he's playing badly now but it's a little harsh just to ditch him totally.

I think that this is a major gamble for the England management and one that could well come back to bite them on the backside. It's only one game against the World Cup Runners-Up, but leopards don't change their spots and I really can't see a future in Broad's captaincy. I hope I'm wrong, but fear that I'm not.

Sri Lanka's Tour

Sri Lanka came a fairly distance second in the 3 match test series, losing the series 1 nil. It could have been more had it not been for the awful weather and a superb innings from Kumar Sangakara in Southampton.

Let's be honest their bowling is average, but their batting is very good, although struggled to adjust to English conditions. They miss Murali's javelins terribly and barely look like getting England out despite having favourable bowling conditions. Points for trying though. Talking of Murali, he was on Cricket AM last Saturday and was asked how he held the ball and spun it. Interesting that he couldn't straighten his arm as he demonstrated it. World record holder and nice bloke, but I still feel cheated as a cricket fan!

We now have the seemingly endless one dayers - 7 in all, plus a T20. It's a chance to see England's new captains in action: Alastair Cook for the 50 overs side and Stuart Broad for the T20s.

Both men are under a bit of pressure. Cook couldn't even get in the 50 over side for the recent World Cup and Broad is bowling really badly.

I will probably watch the games, but I struggle to get excited about 50 over cricket, especially when Sri Lanka really don't appear to want to be playing in England, or at least they didn't during parts of the test series.

England for World number 1? Not yet, but number 2 is definitely doable.

How stupid is Amir?

When you get banned from something, you aren't allowed to do it as I understand. Not in talented fast bowler Mohammad Amir's mind clearly, as he turned out for Kent League side Addington 1743 CC, taking 4 for 9 off 7 fairly rapid overs, plus opening the batting and getting 60. He certainly got his money's worth, or they did, whichever way around it is.

He got a shorter ban than the other players (Butt and Asif) due to his tender years and therefore naivety, but one has to wonder whether he's just prodding the ICC until they snap. To be honest, what were the club doing allowing him to play, and with all league cricket players have to be registered, so what are the Kent League doing by accepting his registration?

One does have to hope that he gets an extended ban or a hefty fine for this, despite claiming that he thought it was a friendly on a private ground. It is a shame that someone with such a huge amount of talent can have an apparent career death wish, but if he doesn't get suitably punished, he will no doubt slip again, as the ICC have found with Mohammad Asif, who has a record as long as his arm (all quashed by the PCB), but has only just been suitably punished.

Bizarre...

A Draw vs Switzerland

Is a 2-2 draw against Switzerland really such a disaster?

Let's face it we haven't won anything since 1966. We were awful at the World Cup in South Africa.

But we do have the self proclaimed "Best League In The World", filled with players who aren't English and therefore don't qualify for the England team. If you named the best eleven from English football, how many would be English? Not that many actually.

We invented the game, but we invented lots of games that we're not the best in the world at.

England football fans and the press really ought to smell the coffee and not expect the England team to win tournaments no matter how much money we throw at a manager.

This is precisely why I couldn't care less about international football - it's riddled with delusions of grandeur in England.

Face the facts people, we are just an average side.

A Sepp In The Right Direction?

Good old Sepp Blatter has managed to win an election where he was the only candidate - congratulations Sepp!

He apparently expressed surprise that the FA, the original one, tried to block the election. It could have something to do with the following:

• Mr Blatter is now in for a fourth term, the previous three of which have seen controversy and scandal grow within football. Allegations of bribery, match-fixing etc.
• Mr Blatter's total refusal to embrace technology, now used in most top class sport, except the richest one. To be fair, Michel Platini also has an issue with it, having stated that it would only be used once every 40 years. To be honest, you don't need to invent new technology, just use the cameras that are there, like they do in cricket, rugby etc. Luddites (look it it people!).
• Mr Blatter has awarded the World Cups of 2018 and 2022 to two of the largest oil producers on the planet - coincidence? Especially as there are some grave doubts as to the validity of the 2022 vote, but our Sepp seems oblivious to the allegations.

New Fifa vice-president has called for the FA to get in new people and build bridges over this - why? The FA haven't done anything wrong other than ask for an election, where there's only one candidate, to be postponed. If a similar thing happened in a developing world country there'd be a massive outcry about democracy and economic sanction put in place. Fifa however, just bumble onwards and seemingly downwards.

They described the FA a pompous and arrogant (and it undoubtedly is), but I think they probably need to have a long, hard look at themselves too.