Apologies over the delay of this blog, but the focus point is quite simply the Modern day debacles of International Cricket.               

           All through the world cup people were saying players are showing signs of fatigue after a long, hard winter but surely now the ICC has learnt their lesson. The changes to the Schedule ahead of the next world cup means that 2 ashes series will be played in just 6 months. That may mean that the players will be less tired in the world cup and therefore increasing the quality but surely that will DECREASE the quality of the ashes. It was a fantastic ashes this year and it saw some brilliant performances but 10 tests and 14 ODI’s in 2013/14 will take a lot out of the players. Having said that this summer England host both India and Sri Lanka in 7 tests. Focusing on the next world cup a lot  of controversial decisions have been made. The ‘minor countries’ or the associate nations did not produce the most entertaining of games and in fact Ireland were the only team who caused any kind of upset. The ICC later went on to announce that the next wold cup will be slashed to just 10 teams. The fury produced in the Irish camp caused the ICC to have a rethink and as it stands now it looks likely for the Irish and a couple other nations to have a chance to take part, Brilliant news!!! It has not quite been 100 % confirmed as to how many teams.

             It is quite simply going to be an outstanding sumer in 2011. The fastest improving test nation in England playing two of the best teams in the world, who can’t be excited. The little master playing against England’s Hero Graeme Swann. England’s weakest point, well is their one? To split a hair i suppose it is the batting. There is still plenty of depth but possibly they rely too much on Johnny Trott. Trott always seems to be in form and constantly comes up with the goods. In terms of India, they certainly have the batting but in the bowling they are almost equal. A bit like England to be picky maybe India’s weakness is the lack of a quality second fast bowler to follow Zaheer Kahn, Ishant Shama is still a very good bowler. My prediction for the England team is: Strauss (c), Cook (vc), Trott, Pietersen, Bell, Morgan, Prior (wk), Broad, Swann, Anderson, Finn. Samit Patel has been in good nick recently and will be pushing for a place in the next few months.

Bresnan and Tremlett loose out to Finn in my opinion but i don’t think Finn will last the whole series. India will certainly Play Tendulkar, Yuvraj and Harbajan as well as Khan, Dhoni and Sharma. The rest of the team will consist of probably of Raina, Gambhir, Sreesanth, Dravid and the other spot is probably up for grabs. The Sri Lankan team will involve: Sangakarra, Dilshan (c), Samaraweera, Jayasuriya, Mendis, Welegedera, Tharanga, Herath, Randiv, Perera, Fernando. Certainly a weakened team but with the retirement of Maliga and with Matthews not being chosen Sri Lanka will have to fight hard to get their 1st win under new captain Dilshan. My prediction for the England series vs India is 1-2 in India’s favour. For the England and Sri Lanka encounter i predict a 2-0 victory for England.

           Around the world, Australian captain Ricky Ponting has retired and leaves the space open for Michael Clarke, it will certainly be an interesting year for them as they try to rebuild the great team of 2003-2007. Sri Lanka have their own problems as well, new captain and some fresh faces will make the team a bit more fresh. South Africa look strong and in my opinion one of the top 2 teams at the moment as the rankings suggest. Over to England, Andrew Strauss retires the ODI captaincy and Cook takes his place. Captaincy problems al round then but 2011 still promises an awful lot.

Please let me know what you think by writing a comment about the World Cup or Captaincy problems or just about Cricket in general........... Weekly Blog to follow very soon.......