Am I watching IPL or Babestation?

After turning on the IPL on Saturday to watch the Delhi Daredevils vs Kings XI Punjab I quickly had to check the TV channel I had turned on as at the point of my viewing the camera was fixed on one of the young cheer leaders who was cavorting in front of the camera with numerous pouts and hair flicks and wearing minimum amount of clothing possible. Once the camera returned to the cricket and then the game went for the time out period of play we were then treated to a slow motion show of this girl dancing in front of the camera.

How on earth the producer gets away with this I have no idea but fair play, the greatest part is the fact that no one is trying to be subtle with it. You could argue that nothing to do with the IPL is subtle so what’s the problem with a few young ladies dancing like they were performing at Stringfellows on A Friday night, if you ask me absolutely nothing, one of the better innovations in the game of cricket in recent times it could be argued.

Just in case you want to do your home work on this matter and research the similarities, Babestation is on channel 906 on Sky, well that’s what I’m reliably informed anyway.

Scotland’s Prospects

Scotland played a friendly on Thursday against MCC in a 50 over match in preparation for their 2011 Clydesdale Bank 40 campaign that starts on Sunday against Yorkshire. The first question that has to be asked is if it was in preparation for a 40 over competition then why was the format of the friendly a 50 over game, surely to gain maximum match preparation it would have been more beneficial to play the format that you are going to play.

To the game itself Scotland won the match at Lords by 4 wickets. Scotland will be delighted with the win and they most definitely got a contest during the game by the MCC who had players such as Mark Alleyne, Darren Bicknell, James Benning, Jamie Dalrymple and John Stephenson representing them. Ex Scotland captains Gavin Hamilton and Ryan Watson also represented the MCC.

MCC in their 50 overs scored 254-6 which was mainly due to 50’s from two of the young MCC players Mark Tomsett and Keith Wilkinson and then a hard hitting 65 from Mark Alleyne at the end of the innings. The big name players all failed with Hamilton scoring 21, Bicknell Retiring hurt early in his innings and James Benning only adding 1 before being bowled and Dalrymple being run out without troubling the score. It was a disappointing day for Dalrymple who to go with his duck was also expensive in his 5.5 overs which cost 42 runs which included two big sixes being hit off him.

Scotland’s bowling on the whole didn’t look all that threatening and the fielding in general was also poor and included numerous dropped catches, two in the space of a 5 minute period from Richie Berrington, both being very simple chances at mid wicket.

Scotland’s performance continued to disappoint as they slumped to 90-4 and you started to think that if they can’t beat a MCC team who’s bowling attack included Kevin Dean, former Derbyshire left arm seamer who is aged 35 and been retired from first class cricket since 2008 and John Stephenson who is 46 and is now working as the MCC Head of Cricket then what are their realistic opportunities in their upcoming Clydesdale Bank 40 campaign, at this stage it wasn’t looking promising.

This is where things started to look up for Scotland and a glimmer of hope for their summer prospects begun. Ewan Chalmers and Scotland’s Australian oversees player Luke Butterworth who was playing in his first game for Scotland shared a partnership of 130 which was the main reason for the eventual Scottish victory.

Luke Butterworth in particular looked a good prospect scoring a hard hitting 80 that included two big sixes hit into the top stand. The Tasmanian partner Ewan Chalmers was a perfect foil and looked a very good prospect scoring 109 and for Scotland to achieve any victories in future games will need these two in particular to carry on this form.

I believe that Chalmers will carry a lot of responsibilities onto his 21 year old shoulders and will need to contribute greatly as will Butterworth with the bat and ball. The bowling and fielding is still a concern and I will be surprised to see Scotland make much of an impact in this seasons competition but on the whole the Scottish team is made up of a lot of young and promising talent so the experience will do them the world of good and if Chalmers and Butterworth click again maybe a few surprises will occur.

Day at Lords

It was my first experience of visiting Lords yesterday watching a day of County Cricket and what a day it was. I was very excited especially at the prospect of seeing Alistair Cook and Ravi Bopara bat for Essex, well yesterday was my lucky day as I was fortunate enough to watch them bat twice. Essex it is safe to say had a nightmare day, the conditions suited the Middlesex bowling line up and they took full advantage. They were helped considerably by some very average batting, the batsmen didn’t show much fight, regularly wafting or hanging their bats out waiting for the edge, they duly came with 12 of the 20 dismissals falling to catches by the wicket keeper or slip cordon.

Cook looked good in both innings scoring 19 and 25 and in particular in the 2^nd innings before falling to a decent return catch by Stephen Finn. Ravi Bopara on the other hand was very disappointing, he showed a glimmer in each innings of the stroke maker he is but in both it appeared as though he wasn’t prepared to show the grit that was so obviously required in yesterday’s conditions.

The only bright spots for Essex were Jaik Mickleburgh 41 in Essex second innings and Tom Westley who top scored in both innings and his 59 in the second innings showed that Westley has a more than solid technique as well as possessing a number of scoring shots, if he carries on in this manner he could well have a very successful summer.

That is very much where the positives finish, Middlesex bowled well, their bowling attack comprises of a consistent county pro in Tim Murtagh who has flourished since moving to Middlesex from Surrey. Corey Collymore nagging line and length is perfect for Lords and he could prove to be an excellent player this season for Middlesex. Finn bowled with ferocious pace especially in his 2^nd innings spell that saw him remove Cook and Bopara. That will be a very encouraging sight for England and for the summer international fixtures to come. Finn will obviously not play much cricket for Middlesex as soon as the international schedule begins but Toby Roland-Jones will be a suitable replacement as he performed well last year and Gareth Berg who bowled superbly in the Essex 2^nd innings to take 4 wickets has improved significantly. Middlesex showed on this performance that they could have a very realistic chance of gaining promotion this season.

On the other hand the beginning of the season has not started well for Essex, after last weeks defeat to Kent they would have hoped for a much improved performance this week which just didn’t happen. The Essex batting on paper looks very strong but four failures out of four with the bat will now cause major concern for the Essex coach Paul Grayson who himself stated that promotion was the aim and priority of the season. This is looking a distant dream at the moment but surely the batting will come good at some point soon. With Lonwabo Tsotsobe to come into the team soon and then Owais Shah and Ryan Ten Doeschate to come back into the side after the IPL to go with the young talent of Westley, Mikkleburgh and Reece Topley, the 17 year old left arm bowler who has been sensational in the opening two games Essex most certainly have the talent at their disposal to improve on their woeful start, at least they know that things can hardly get any worse, if they do then this is going to be a very long and hard season for Essex.

Fantasy Cricket

It’s that time of the year again where I get thoroughly over excited and start dreaming that I am going to win the fantasy cricket league. I think in the years since 1994 that I have been doing fantasy cricket leagues my highest league position was 18,500 which I was very impressed with at the time.

This year I’m pushing for a top 10,000 finish, if that happens then happy days. Picking my team this year I found to be very challenging, they have decided to have three different leagues, a county championship league, a Twenty20 league and an international league.

My County championship team has been selected and in a moment of weakness I asked my girlfriend if she wanted to do a team, to my shock she said she did. The next 10 minutes of her picking her team was what I can only describe as traumatic, there are many methods that can be used to pick a fantasy cricket team, her first method was to try and pick players that she had heard of but it means she would have only selected 7 players, then went for the ‘are they fit’ tactic again had to be abandoned as they were all England players and wouldn’t play that much. She was adamant that Cook and Broad had to be picked, she was having none of me trying to tell her that was pointless.

The final approach which was the one she decided upon was just a random selection process which she claims was based on last year’s performances. One of her selections Alviro Petersen from Glamorgan has made me think that was a super pick and made me think that I may add him to my team, maybe the aura of disdain that she shows towards cricket is all a front and in fact she’s a fanatic. I’m still confident my team will come out on top, I most certainly hope so or it really is a new low.

My Fantasy County Championship XI

Trescothick                    Somerset                       Capt

Shah                              Essex

Taylor                            Leicestershire

Maynard                        Surrey

Loye                              Northamptonshire

Davies                           Surrey

Stokes                           Durham

Panesar                         Sussex

Collymore                     Middlesex

Mendis                          Somerset

Tsotsobe                       Essex

Girlfriend XI

Petersen                       Glamorgan                    Capt

Cook                            Essex

Wagh                           Nottinghampshire

Smith                            Leicestershire

Nixon                            Leicestershire

Rashid                           Yorkshire

Broad                            Nottinghamshire

Woakes                         Warwickshire

Pattinson                        Nottinghamshire

Lucas                             Northamptonshire

Philips                            Essex