Where to bat Fred

In my opinion that is what the selection of the next England test squad boils down to.

Obvious picks:

1) A. Cook
2) A. Strauss
3) I. Bell
4) K. Pietersen
5) P. Collingwood
6)
7)
8)
9) Harmison
10) Hoggard
11) Panesar

I say obvious but it is consistency of selection which means I include Collingwood over the slighty younger and perhaps more talented and in-form Owais Shah.

I want to pick Matt Prior over Nixon, because Prior is more likely to be the long term option and is more of a batsman by pedigree than Nixon, but I would like to pick Nixon for the 20-20 World cup side (and maybe for the next ODI squad - as he is someone with the nous which is lacking in the present set-up).

Panesar hasn't shown any wicket taking potential of late but is ahead of the rest of the field, so gets a series to reconfirm his international credentials.

I am of course assuming Vaughan won't make it. It's really not fair on Strauss (I assume he is next in line to skipper England), to just step in on Thursday morning if Vaughan can't make it, when he is pushing all stops to even dream of being fit for the 1st match in the series.

Which takes me to the crux of this post:

Andrew Flintoff to bat at 7 (bringing in Shah in the absence of Vaughan) - allowing England to bat down to 8?

or play Flintoff at 6, and stick to the Ashes 2005 winning formula of 5 bowlers (not to mention formula that won England 10 wins in 11 matches. ) When Vaughan plays, this would solve who of Cook, Bell & Collingwood to leave out (I say Collingwood).

I'm going to say bat Flintoff at 6 against the West Indies. Play Andersen in the side. This leaves open the expected slot for Simon Jones (unless of course Anderson excells). Otherwise will England be expected to restructure the batsman-bowler ratio to re-accomodate him? Better to stick to a format where players know what role they play in the side (as batsmen).

So my suggestion:

6) Flintoff
7) Prior
8) Anderson (of course not batting at 8)


Squad members: Dalrymple & Plunkett

All is not well in the Windies Camp

Bennett King resigns as West Indies coach

Yesterday at a press conference he gave a less than ringing endorsement of Ramnaresh Sarwan - saying that he seemed to be the most obvious candidate to take up the West Indies captaincy as he was the vice-captain, but it doesn't necessarily have to be the case that vice-captain becomes captain. I think Sarwan's reported drinking and partying activities have put a scar on his leadership credentials. Yet he remains the only obvious candidate. Darren Ganga is yet to cement his place in the test side and a split captaincy is far from ideal in a scenario where Sarwan is the more experienced (internationally speaking) player of the two.

Putting this aside I don't think Bennett King has done much to improve the West Indies over his period in charge. Sure they are a decent one-day side (pre-world cup), but that seems to be more due to the talent on board rather than a team gelling to be greater than the sum of the parts a la New Zealand / Sri Lanka.

Former West Indies captain Brian Lara refused to rule out a return to first class cricket after making his final bow on the international stage on Saturday. In his last press conference as skipper of the World Cup hosts, Lara also expressed regret that he would not be part of next month's tour of England -- a view which is likely to fuel speculation he retired after being told he would not lead the team in that series.

I'm not sure where I stand on this. I grew to love Lara the batsmen - outside of the two ginormous innings he played against England (whom I was supporting at the time). I don't think as an on field captain he was that bad - better than chanderpaul. It was his off-field disputes with the Board which seemed to filter onto the pitch ie. some really strange selections in the World Cup just gone (gone as far as the Windies team are concerned). They say Sarwan is a good on-field captain - assuming he gets the nod, we can see if ths is true. However, statement of the obvious - they have noone to replace him - not even a Hooper/Sarwan/Chanderpaul category player.