“The Olympic stadium should become our Twenty20 venue with £10 tickets … but that’s not going to happen.”

So said Bob Willis to TWC at the end of a textbook rant about Cardiff hosting the first Ashes Test and what he called “the regionalisation of Test cricket”. His Olympic comments sadly fell to the cutting room floor because of their tenuous relevance to the Ashes.

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Many observers feel that England’s bowlers are in for a long, hard, staring-at-the-boundary winter. South Africa’s batting line-up is fearsome: even Ashwell Prince, who averages 47 with 11 Test hundreds, struggles to get in the current side.

They also have two players who have turned enormous hype as teenagers into consistent, world-class performances: Hashim Amla, 26, and AB de Villiers, 25. I spoke to both of them a couple of days ago for TWC’s next issue and, while they share in common the ability to score lots of runs, the two seem to be vastly different personalities. Read the rest of this entry »

The McGrath Foundation are releasing their annual calendar of Australian cricket hunks. Not to be outdone, the ECB have unveiled plans for their own series of pin-ups…

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One of the fun things about a tournament such as the Champions League that is set over a number of venues, is all the people involved end up travelling together, giving people like me a chance to rub shoulders with people like them (the players).

So, on the early flight from Delhi to Hyderabad, I had the whole New South Wales squad sat behind me. Not desperately interesting in itself, but when I did the reverse trip earlier in the week, I travelled alongside the Somerset players – and the differences were marked.

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Phillip Hughes, Australia’s next big batting thing, had a torrid time against Andrew Flintoff in the Ashes, losing his place after two Tests of nervous jerking and hopping around the crease, avoiding short balls.

He next appears on the global radar forming an impressive opening partnership with David Warner for New South Wales in the Champions League. At the start of the semi-final against Victoria, he was the tournament’s leading run scorer.

But these two performances, once you see them in the flesh, are surprisingly similar. He’s got a big glitch in his technique – he got found out in the Ashes and is riding his luck for his state.

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The failure of any of the three Indian Premier League teams to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League has been treated by some like a victory for pure sport – as if such a concept exists any more – over its adulterated cousin. But, for county cricket, the IPL’s under-performance has also been a handy smokescreen. Because let’s face it: Somerset and Sussex haven’t exactly matched the Diwali fireworks either.

Six games involving the two counties yielded five defeats (one of them following a Super Over in which Sussex lost wickets to the first two balls) and a victory that said as much about Deccan Chargers’ disarray as it did about the fighting spirit of James Hildreth and Alfonso Thomas. If the inaugural Champions League has flown the flag – get that pennant a sponsor! – for Australian competitiveness and the national pride and broad blades of Trinidad & Tobago, it has also cast yet another shadow over the quality of our domestic game.

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“If you want to drive, buy a car,” says Michael Holding. In India, if you want to drive, go play cricket – driving a car is not advisable.

The roads here are ridiculous. Anyone who has travelled more than a few miles will never forget the experience. To put it in a British context, think of the worst driver you know and they’d be King Chauffeur here. The standard technique is Police, Camera, Action – cutting in and out of the traffic, hooting whenever you need to get by, being as close as possible to the car in front, only breaking when absolutely necessary. Then hooting more.

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One of the great things about cricket is the way it merges, mixes and enjoys all its nations and cultures. This is the great privilege of the sport and to find myself in India during Diwali was a treat.

Diwali – the Hindu ‘celebration of light’ – is the major public holiday here and for Hindus around the world. That Lalit Modi scheduled the inaugural Champions League over this festive and extraordinary time is not an accident.

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The cheerleaders have been some of the stars of the Champions League – tireless, enthusiastic, energetic – and American. Well, most of them. There are a few South Africans who are annoyed that the Americans are getting all the attention. Cheerleading is cut-throat competitive.

So what do the American dancers make of cricket – and India? “It is my first time here,” says Katrina Alston (on the right in the above picture), 26, from Seattle, Washington. “And I love it.”

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Here’s another way that I was persuaded to part with more cash than was strictly necessary:

“I hate cricket,” he says – which is a surprise as he has a well-groomed Shahid Afridi beard, the same floppy hair and looks like he spends most of his days bowling over-quick legspin. I am sure it is Afridi.

“I hate cricket. There is too much money.” Mr Non-Afridi is a tour salesman. He organises trips for visitors to the likely sites around Delhi – the Taj Mahal being a popular destination and that’s where I am trying to go.

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