First the ECB were going to get rid of 40-over cricket next summer, then they brought it back. Then they realised perhaps they should keep the 50-over tournament instead and ditch 40 overs after all. Then the counties moaned and it was kept. It was the biggest will-they-won’t-they farce since Ross and Rachel from Friends. I’m sure I even heard Giles Clarke mutter a “we were on a break” excuse for the debacle.

You’d have thought that after all of that fuss the ECB 40-over tournament (no longer the Pro40 because that was scrapped, remember) would have a fitting finale. Well, the final is at Lord’s at least. But it is also scheduled for September 18.

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Here lies one-day cricket, dead at 32. It is survived by an ageless parent, Test, and a rebellious adolescent sibling, T20.

That, at least, is the received version of what the cricket family is staring at as we contemplate, not without a certain hollow enthusiasm cooked up by the marketing mavens, the ICC Champions Trophy.

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Like hapless poker players, England’s one-day side currently have to make the best of the hand they’ve dealt themselves. On Sunday evening, after a run of six defeats was ended in faltering fashion at Chester-le-Street, Andy Flower was asked about his middle order, whose contribution of two half-centuries in seven games felt worthy of one of the state-of-the-nation enquiries the ECB occasionally orders.

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The Champions League is a single Indian Gemini aged 50 with one friend named Tom. I suspected this all along. It is also in a good mood. MySpace tells me all these facts. It shouldn’t be in a good mood; on Twitter it has less than 100 followers. Stephen Fry would lose more followers after posting a picture of Sam Fox naked and smeared in marmite.

On Facebook the Champions League is quite popular. It has almost a thousand fans. The CL is also down with Orkut, obviously trying to woo in the lucrative Brazilian cricket fan market.

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There’s a begging question about this one-day series. It’s not about why it’s been scheduled at the end of an Ashes series, nor why there are a ridiculous number of matches. It’s not about England’s running between the wickets.

Not about why England win the toss and lose (Sachin Tendulkar says “we can tell the result of close to 75% of matches after the toss” – this series has proved him right). Nor is it about why not one England batsman apart from their captain has passed 50 in six matches (to think some people are worrying about their ability to score hundreds!). Read the rest of this entry »

It’s started to get a bit colder now, which isn’t to my liking. The scheduling has shoved us up higher and higher as it gets colder, so it will be interesting in Durham on Sunday that’s for sure! This one-day series has gone excellently for the team; I’ve only played two games, but the boys have been playing real well and it’s been good to watch. To be up 6-0 at the moment is a little bit of reward at the end of a disappointing summer. It’s pleasing, but we will still leave with the disappointment of not having the Ashes.

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Forget about The Ashes (if you haven’t already), for the country is ablaze with talk of the ferocious battle between five counties to secure the remaining promotion spot in County Championship Division Two.

With Kent already promoted, the five teams immediately below them are separated by just 15 points and are currently involved in their penultimate matches. There’s more: second (Northamptonshire) are taking on third (Essex), fourth (Gloucestershire) are playing sixth (Glamorgan) and fifth (Derbyshire) have it easy against second-bottom rubbish (Middlesex). Read the rest of this entry »

It’s not been an easy decision, but once it became clear that I might have to play in this England one-day side, I knew I had to take action.

There comes a time in every sportsman’s life when he has to think about providing for his nearest and dearest and the thought of going through the rest of my career without ever seeing a win bonus is just not a risk the Flintoff family can afford to take. It’s a short career and I would like to at some point be involved in winning a limited-overs game.

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If England keep on like this, they’re going to get torn to shreds in South Africa. I’m not thinking purely of Carry On Misfielding, the film they appeared to be auditioning for at Trent Bridge last night. I’m even going to cock a temporary deaf’un to their bowling (the three senior seamers – Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad and Ryan Sidebottom – have all gone for more than five an over). No, what’s really making Groundhog Day appear like a breath of fresh air is England’s batting.

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Flintoff has turned his back on England. Finally. As if his departure from the Test scene didn’t stink of indulgence and a sickening stage-management – announcing his retirement on the eve of the Lord’s Test; moaning about not being picked when he was clearly injured – he has now shown his true priorities.

By turning down a one-day increment contract with the ECB, he has admitted that he wants to be free from obligations to his country so he can pursue an international freelance cricket career.

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