Those who love cricket will be YCCC members who don't have a problem getting tickets. I didn't.

Had I known they where planning this ridiculous ballot I too would have become a member





Those that love cricket also follow the England team around the globe as I do

Don't "TwelfthMan" members get priority too?

Chance for Rashid and Shah to stake a claim for a test place. Will be an 11 a side game instead of the usual 12/13 player farces.



Side to face St.Kitts & Nevis (3 day game)



England XI: Andrew Strauss (capt), Alastair Cook, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Owais Shah, Andrew Flintoff, Matt Prior (wk), Adil Rashid, Steve Harmison, James Anderson, Monty Panesar



[urlhttp://content-usa.cricinfo.com/wiveng2009/content/story/387701.html[/url

2nd ball duck for Strauss

100 for Pietersen

Shah (80 no) is staking his claim after Bell failed, Rash next one in be very interesting if he gets a few runs and out bowls Monty what they do?

Freddie out of the rest of the match with a side strain.

In any other test side in the world Owais Shah would have had a proper run in the team but with this being England then you cant rule out him still not being picked...Bell did "bat brightly" to get 36 so maybe he's coming into form...Im sure there'll be some feeble excuse not to pick Shah.



The biggest shocker for me from yesterdays score (424-8 declared) is that Harmison scored 58





Hopefully the Flintoff injury is just a niggle and not a proper injury...St Kitts have allowed Stuart Broad to play as a substitute too which is good of them

Harmy is always good for the odd swipe at the end

Shah's also out for the rest of this match with an eye injury, which I'm sure will give the selectors all the excuses they need not to pick him in the test side. Not heard anything about a replacement for him though.



As for Freddie, he's gone to Jamaica for a scan on his side strain. They did mention that he'd flown directly from St Kitts, and made it sound like it was a private plane rather than a scheduled service. Maybe I'm reading too much into that, but it does sound somewhat worrying.

St Kitts 202-7 at tea, 2 wickets each for Jimmy and Broad, 1 each for the other 3 (harmison, monty, deirdre)

Hopefully it's not serious. (He doesn't seem to know how it happened - "scratched cornea" apparently, which ddoesn't mean a lot to me.) He wouldn't have batted in the second innings anyway as those who missed out in the first were pushed up the order to get some time at the crease. And don't forget he's a county teammate of the new captain, which might make a big difference selection wise.

Decent run out, all the batsmen got runs and the bowlers shared the wickets, Monty did particularly well.

10 wickets in the match for our 2 spinners on a West Indies wicket

The captain isnt a selector any more is he?

Unfortunately I can still see them keeping Bell in the side

He was doing some fielding yesterday, so I agree it's probably nothing. If I had to guess he probably got a bit of sand in his eye and rubbed it, causing the scratch.



As for the comments about spinners taking wickets, the pitches over there seem to be getting slower and lower, see the Stanford games for proof of that. Of course some pitches will still have lots of "Pace and Bounce" (C) Michael Holding, but I can see some of them taking quite a decent amount of turn.

who do they think they are . shane spin king'' warne. shiek of tweek

What's a shiek?



And why use the second best spinner in the world, if you're going to strive to be somebody as a spin bowler, it'd be better if you aimed for number 1.

The following players have been put forward for the this years IPL auction.



Bopara

Panesar

Key

Foster

Mahmood

Prior

Bell

Collingwood

Shah

Udal

Gough

Sidebottom

Swann

Wright

KP

Flintoff

Harmison

Anderson

Joyce

Cork

I didn't know Goughy was after a last big payday!!

Out of that list I'd be very surprised if more than half actually get contracts. Not just because England are rubbish in limited-overs cricket, but because of the sums of money that are being quoted to have these players for about 3 weeks. Cricinfo is saying KP's going to get $1m but if the ECB has reached an agreement with the IPL saying that centrally contracted players are only going for 3 weeks it represents abysmal value for money.



Plus there's the likes of Harmison, who turns off the 'bothered' switch as soon as he checks his bags in at Heathrow. You'd be an absolute mug to pay him £200k for three weeks where Brendon McCullum and Virender Sehwag will cart him to all parts.





Did I mention I'm not really a fan of this Twenty20 b0llocks?

Really?





Neither, it would appear, is Stuart Broad who has decided to prepare for a big summer of international action by playing some real cricket rather than chasing the rupee.

Stuart Broad has got years left to 'chase the rupee'. A fair few on that list are just topping up their pension fund.

I like the way Dominic Cork has sneaked in there as well.



Fair play if one of the IPL clubs is enough of a mug to give you a contract. i'd say its far more likely he'll turn up in the ICL, assuming thats still going in a couple of years.