Not because the side necessarily needs him, but because he’s getting fat:

(from Test Match Special’s Flickr…)

On a peach of a batting track, England made a steady start to the second test. Strauss made an uncharacteristic mistake failed again, chipping a slow one off Stuart Clark to Damien Martyn. Alastair Cook looked good for his 27 in an hour and a half, but after doing all the hard work let his concentration lapse and wafted at an ever-so-slightly wide one, again from Clark. Collingwood and Bell then steadied the ship, and when Bell departed for 60, KP joined the party and added another 50 to England’s card. Collingwood ended the day 2 away from his century, …read more

Tomorrow heralds a new shift in cricketing focus – finally we’re back on track with cricketing news that people are interested in – that is, England name their squad for the Ashes. Injuries aside, the big question that will be answered – which Andrew (assuming Monty actually doesn’t get the nod), that is Flintoff or Strauss, will lead England in Australia this winter?
My choice would be Strauss, but I have a feeling it will be Flintoff. Use the poll to the right to have your opinion heard.

I for one am quite pleased for this tour to end. It seems like it’s gone forever. This is most likely due to the long summer of cricket that has been played, which over the last year has included Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan again, with varying levels of success. And I suppose blogging the whole bally lot of it is bound to make it drag on a bit.
So with England’s second win on the trot, the one-day series was levelled at 2-2 and across the face of it is probably a fair result. Maybe not. Pakistan were by …read more

Pakistan lead the one day series 1-0. A lot has been made of England’s outright rubbishness when it comes to one day cricket – I’m struggling to remember a game in the last 2 years where we looked like we could play. Heck, we were even congratulated ourselves when we “didn’t lose” (in the traditional sense of the word) the first match of the series, which was lost to bad weather. What’s with the all the mutual back scratching and political correctness, though?