Cricket Has Been Busy!

England have just embarked on their tour of India, drawing their first game against a strong India A side who included Yuvraj Singh. Tons for Alastair Cook and Samit Patel, and half-centuries from Matt Prior and Jonathan Trott. The bowlers did pretty well too, although the loss of Steven Finn could be an issue on the unresponsive tracks out there. The cricket was almost secondary to the return of Kevin Pietersen after his texting indiscretions of the summer. Personally I wouldn't have allowed him to ever play for England again, despite him being a good player. He is a disruptive influence in the dressing, and I have never got over the fact that he is actually not English, but South Africans seem to feature in most test nations around the world nowadays.

England will lose the series in India, but the selection of the side will be interesting, with a partner for skipper Cook the main priority. Nick Compton could be the man, but was out cheaply in the warm-up game. The choice of Stuart Broad as vice-captain is shocking though, as the hot-headed all-rounder showed his lack of tactical nous during the T20 World Cup, and was only in the side because he was the skipper by the end.

Other things have been happening though as I read that Surrey have signed Graeme Smith as their captain for the next three years. This looks a great move for the county, but is there really no young English skipper in the ranks? Actually I have no real problem with the announcement as Surrey need a strong character in charge of them after recent events, but I fear for Chris Adams as if this doesn't work out pretty quickly he will almost certainly be relieved of his position. He has spent a lot of money bringing in big name players and must deliver results. Smith's relationship with Kevin Pietersen will be of interest too, as the two have history shall we say. It may not be so much of an issue now that Pietersen is back with England.

Sussex have made some good signings, the biggest of which being former Surrey captain Rory Hamilton-Brown. The guy is potentially a superb signing as long as his mental state is sorted by April. The county have extended the contracts of leg spinner Will Beer and wicketkeeper Ben Brown. Brown is a good player and with the loss of Andrew Hodd to Yorkshire, his signature was a priority. Beer is an interesting one, as he looked to be out of the door when the county signed Michael Rippon, but the South African (another one!) with a Dutch passport has not taken the world by storm as coach Mark Robinson would have hoped. Ed Joyce has taken the captaincy from Michael Yardy who needs to concentrate on his batting, and Luke Wright has established himself as a genuinely world class T20 batsman. All-in-all things look good for Sussex!

Gutted for Harbhajan

Couldn't have happened to a nicer bloke.

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.