btb

IIRC counties now have to bid for Test Matches (unsure about Lords) so the onus would be on getting 5 days play and gate receipts.

Under the Southern Cross I Stand A sprig of wattle in my hand, A native of my native land, Australia you little beauty.

Looks like County have done well to keep most of the players they wanted which is a pity as I was hoping their best players would be cherry-picked. I allus thought out SFL1 winning team in 2005/06 was much stronger than our 2007/08 team with Adam, Lappin, Broadfoot and Sutton gone. Hopefully the Sproule factor has been used up (started with 5 in 5 but only scored 1 in the remaining 9) 'cos the 2013/14 relegation battle starts here.

Tramp the dirt down.

You're not ginger, by any chance?

Erm I thought rather differently, India got the 500+ they wanted and time to give England an uncomfortable hour before the end of play. Still with Anderson out as nightwatchman it means England bat right down to No. 11 and they might need to - could Swann go 5 better than Tino Best at Edgbaston in the summer.

Given his options he did reasonably well, I was just saying not taking the new ball straight away shows a lack of trust in the seamers who went at 4.3 runs per over earlier in the day - arguably he made the correct decision but you can't deny it was safety first. It's all very well saying Panaser should be the second spinner but unless England can get close to 400 when it's their turn to bat I can't see him getting into the Test team. As it turned India scored 20 runs off the final four overs almost as many as they'd scored in the 10 prior to this - unless England's seamers run through India's lower & middle orders pretty quickly I see Swann having another long bowl tomorrow.

India 303/4 after 86 overs with Swann taking all 4 wickets and bowling 30+ overs on the first day - my guess is he'll have pretty sore fingers by the end of this series. Pretty average stuff from Englands seamers a combined 173/0 from 40 overs and Cook unwilling to risk taking the new ball. Oooops it seems they're going to risk it for the last 4 overs now India appear to have pretty much settled for going in 4-down. I await the ruturn of the prodigal..............

Had to go out with Windies at 14-2 after 5.5 overs just as Gayle was dismissed. They've been my team ever since the summer of '76 delighted to see they turned it around - Championeeeeeeeees! Oh & Tony Greig it may be 36 years but GIRFUY!

No gripes with Wardlaw for his time with Saints, he's the type of player the phrase 110% was coined for but Ayr are more his level. I don't reckon any team featuring him as a regular would be able to sustain a challenge for the Division 1 title. Having said that best of luck wherever he goes, unless of course............

One I'll watch with interest if it comes to fruition. It all ended rather messily with us (doesn't it always?) but most of the six and a half years were good and a he almost made himself a Saints legend.

I think the precise phrase was no "traditional bank debt".

Does that core include those who are getting free tickets? Not that I think giving away free tickets is a bad idea just that it'll have an affect in terms of revenue generated. Anyway this post seems less bullish than your earlier one when you said crowds would "swell above the 2500 mark". Better hope for a good winter and not too many midweek games. Time will tell.

............and how long will these fair weather fans stay when you're in the bottom half of Division 1 losing more games than you win?

Your average attendance for the last two seasons you were in Division 1 was below 2000. Average Attendance: 2008-2009: 1,866 (Division One) 2007-2008: 1,831 (Division One)

Second India vs Australia Test looking to be a high scoring draw - 15 wickets in 3 days. At 0/153 Hauritz's place must be in question. ******************************* Tea on Day 4 - Australia 94/3 (77 ahead) and the pitch is begining to offer something to the spinners. For Australia a lot depends on the current pair Ponting & Hussey. ******************************* Stumps - Day 4 Australia 478 & 202/7 (65.0 ov) India 495 Australia 185 ahead - big day for Hauritz tomorrow! PS - Who was that idiot who said it was gonna peter out into a high-scoring draw? ******************************* India win by 7 wickets, Australia drop to fifth in the rankings (below England) and Shane Warne "blasts" Ponting's field placings for Hauritz

A couple of surprises (for me anyway) in the England touring party - Panesar (don't see England picking two spinners for any of the Tests & it's hard to see England going for a genuine No. 11 if Swann gets injured Down Under) & Tremlett (I suspect his height (6ft 7") was the major facture in his selection) . My hunch is that Bell will play instead of Morgan but apart from that I see England's main problem being that the fringe players are very much that.

Decent in England.

Just read the KP article on cricinfo - found this interesting (to me anyway) piece of trivia tucked away in the last sentence. Makes me think the claims that the top players are playing too much cricket might be somewhat exaggerated. ********************************* Going off at a tangent the introduction of central contracts means that established Test players don't appear to often for their counties - going to the extremes Jimmy Anderson must've spent more time playing for England than Lancashire.

Moving on from the the obvious I see that KP is struggling to get a county to play for - bad news for England?

Again similar to The Oval with a great fightback for the eighth wicket - Trott & Broad this time. Currently 185/7 at Tea.

England 47/4 - Déjà vu.

Although I missed the bulk of the afternoon session (getting back at 143/6) it didn't seem likely that England were ever going to win - even at 132/6 it was more a matter of Pakistan keeping their nerves and seeing off a low target. Best call of the morning by FC_1919.