Yeah, you saw that right. From this post on, every month six and out would dedicate the month to some cricketer who I feel strongly about. Throughout the month, I would garner facts and trivia about the person. Should be fun.

Marcus Trescothick announced today that he won’t take part in any England duty for the timebeing, ruling himself out of the Twenty20 World Cup and the Winter tours to New Zealand and Sri Lanka. Despite being in good form for Somerset, he expressed his concerns at playing for England and wanted to be sure that he was completely over his stress-related illness before playing again.
Quite right too. There’s been so much fuss over the team recently and we’re finally getting some stability. Peter Moores is doing a good job at the top. Micheal Vaughan seems to be over the …read more

India vs England, Lord’s Day 5
Sadly, the match that was truly poised for a thrilling finish, came to nothing as England’s shoddy weather intervened. Day 5 started with India needing some 250 runs for the win, or to save 7 wickets to ensure the draw. England were in a strong position after day 4 following some terrific batting from KP, which he subsequently described as his best batting performance to-date, and some equally terrific bowling from James Anderson and Monty Panesar. Late in the day, Monty yet again claimed the prize wicket of Sachin Tendulkar to set it all up.
In …read more

Brian Lara has announced that he is to come out of retirement to join the Indian Cricket League, the league that has “broken away” from International cricket, and is not recognised by the ICC. Lara, who announced his retirement from all forms of the game after the dismal World Cup, will certainly be one of the ICL’s biggest scalps, but questions must be raised over his motivation. Is it that he misses the game – or is he in it for the money?
Either way, it feels like the final nail in the coffin for a man whose career sadly slipped …read more

Six & Out has taken a wee break recently. The break was a little impromptu as a result of a couple of cricket-caused finger injuries, on top of a promptu week away in the sun, where there was no Internet access. That means that S&O finds itself a little behind the times and struggling to catch up with everything that has gone on. Even now it’s painful to type (broken fingers are like that) so this will, in all likelihood, be quite short.
England start their campaign against India in earnest tomorrow. After a convincing 3-0 win against a below-par …read more

Two Twenty20’s and two one day Internationals down and… scores are level. England and the West Indies are so evenly matched that there’s very little to separate them. And that’s not saying we’ve had four tense and exciting games – quite the opposite, in fact. Rather, we’ve been treated to four very one sided affairs, where one side showed the type of talent of which you would expect of a top side, whilst the other under-performed hideously. In fact, it is this ‘talent’ that ties to the sides so closely together, that is, the talent of inconsistency.
It’s all a bit …read more

After Vaughan quit as captain of the one day side, all eyes were on who would be named as captain. Speculation was spot on as it was eventually given to Paul Collingwood. Irony abounds, considering that Collingwood was the most-oft picked player for the chop during England’s recent “down-time”. Fortunately, the crazy men have seen sense and realised that Vaughan can’t play one day cricket and it was time for a change. In fact, Vaughan wasn’t the only one for the chop, as Strauss similarly got the arse.
Whether or not the twin-captain set up will be effective is still up …read more

The results of the inquest into England’s shocking performance in Australia this Winter will be published tomorrow. Anticipation is high surrounding the thoughts of 6 men, including Nasser Hussein and Angus Fraser, on where England went wrong (well, we already know that) but importantly what should be done in going forward in to the future. Expect another analysis of the county system and how there are too may professional players with not enough fighting for places.
Also expect the report to do near enough bugger all.

The waiting is over. The question has been answered. The era of a new English cricket team has been officially ushered in and it’s all systems go. New coach Peter Moores has made a statement. He’s done it. This is the one. The New England Squad. Wow. Exciting.
Oh wait, it’s the same squad as the one that lost 5-0 in Australia.
Hmm. Way to make a statement, Pete.

Australian prime minister John Howard has insisted to Cricket Australia that the proposed tour of Zimbabwe not go ahead on account of the political situation in Zimbabwe under the regime of Robert Mugabe.
However you feel about what is happening in Zimbabwe, it is absolutely right for this decision to be made by a government and not by the sporting body and will hopefully set a precedent for all International sides in the future. This is by no means the first discussion of cancelling tours over concerns about the situation in the host country, but it is the first example I …read more