Fact: Test is Best

Test cricket IS cricket.
- The picture shows cricket the way it's meant to be played.

With the Stanford Twenty20 coming up and more ODI matches being played One day cricket appears to be taking over the cricket world, and the England team. The IPL was the second step (after Twenty20) towards a cricket world dominated by the shorter form of the game.

My view remains that Test is the best form of cricket there is, the biggest test and the greatest honour for a player playing for their country. As i've said in the past much of the England squad were reported to have put the shorter form above the longer form of the game in terms of importance to them; money is probably brainwashing them along with the media.

The ECB have come out and said they want to support the England test team to even out the riches and fame the one day team is set to make. This is a great move, maintaining the importance of Test cricket is what i and many die hard fans believe to be best. The ECB want the Test match to be the main form of cricket for the England team with the Ashes coming up next year. Players may not be allowed to play in the IPL next year due to this, if they are then they will apparantly be closely monitored.

Test cricket has in the past been the big thing for cricketers. Playing a test match for ones country was a great honour and to some i suppose it still is. Cricket is changing, however, and the shorter form seems to be far more popular with media and monetary interests in it and the emerging young audience. I sincerely hope that Tests remain the focus of all international cricket boards and the majority of players; they aren't called Test matches for nothing, they are a great challenge and an awesome battle to watch.

Long live the Test match!

No 5-0 Whitewash for England!

Not great news but we'll take the 4-0 victory that we were able to achieve. Yesterday England were only able to bowl three overs of the 5th and final ODI of the English Summer. England therefore take the series victory but remain below South Africa in the ICC rankings. If they had won 5-0 they would have over-taken the South Africans.

South Africa made 6 for 1 before the heavens opened once more; unfortunately they stayed open and play didn't re-start. Matt Prior took a second magnificent catch off Stuart Broad (who has bowled beautifully throughout the series) to go with his one handed dive in the second ODI. Sadly England are not now second in the world as mentioned and they remain below South Africa - it makes little sense as we did just take them to the cleaners in this series.

Kevin Pietersen has now had five matches in charge, five victories; four ODIs and one test match. His captaincy has looked great, a different style to the relaxed/laid back Michael Vaughan, a fresh new approach to captaincy that looks set for the future. I know full well that he will make mistakes and hard times will come, especially in India later this year, but he has started as well as anyone could hope for and has not let anyone down; he treats the players well, he knows how to get them to perform, his mind is constant cricket and he's even good at attracting players back to the big scene. Steve Harmison has come back with a bang under KP and rumours say that Simon Jones (Ashes 05 hero) is the next target despite his present recovery phase following injury.

England did great, KP did great and long may it continue. Tonight i drink to England and the fine job they have done. Others, Aussies in particular, may disagree with my view on KP but let me say this; what team in the world would not pick Kevin Pietersen as their number 3/4 batsmen (the answer is no one is stupid enough to not have him in their team, he's WORLD CLASS).

Also in the news; Surrey will not benefit from the bowling of Shoaib Akhtar for the remainder for the season due to Visa problems. Surrey have been appauling and this attempt at some form of a recovery has failed before it even started, not that it would necessarily have been succesful with Shoaib's record.

Once again, well done England! (5-0 would have been nice but oh well!)

Farewell Hick!

Today Graeme Hick has announced his retirement from County Cricket as of the end of this season. At the ripe old age of 42 (and 102 days) Hick has played his fair share of cricket and is a name that will be remembered for years as one of the great run scorers in First Class and One Day cricket.

Hick as you will know appeared for England in the ODI arena as well as in Test matches; the latter was less succesful but neither saw Hick truly excel (a bit of a Hick-up some might say); it was in the county game that Hick has broken records and made his name one to remember. The most notable of records being the most prolific run scorer in any form of cricket with over 70,000 runs! As well as being 8th in the all time chart of the most hundreds scored in first class cricket with 136. Hick made a top score of 405*, one of the great innings that will be remembered just as well as Brian Lara's slightly bigger world record of 501.

Worcestershire was his true home and they will sorely miss such a cricketing great. I salute you Graeme Hick, you have been wonderful to watch; you've played county cricket for more years than i've been alive, that is a true achievement and i sincerely hope we see the name Hick soon in a new role in the cricketing world; Commentator? Coach? Writer? Cricket Tour Holiday Guide (what a sell out)?

A Career spanning 1983/4 to 2008; will anyone ever play this long again??
See Hick's Cricinfo profile Here

Watch out Cricket, Money is coming!

The Stanford 20/20 for 20 series is coming as the end of the year and the end of the cricket season in England approaches. This series, and the eventual match against the Stanford XI, could make each player of the England XI about half a million pounds better off, just from playing one game. This trend of money in to the game follows on from the Indian Premier League earlier in the year and the proposed idea of the Champions League.

My argument is that perhaps this isn't a great thing; a sudden influx of money in to football did it no good. Players are set to suddenly go from average wages to having thousands in the bank over night - from rags to riches (or not so extreme but you get the point). Players will have money from playing a few games; i mean look at Dhoni, he nearly got a million (in terms of English pounds) for 30 odd days work. I believe this will affect attitudes and could harm the previously bright looking future of cricket in both One Day and Four/Five day forms.

Football is a game filled with lazy players with more money than sense who now dive for fun and swear at the referee. Maybe the influx of money in to cricket will change it so severely that similar things will happen. Many players have said they would sacrifice Test cricket and playing for their country in order to make money playing in the IPL or similar tournaments. Personally i couldn't think of anything better than running out to play a test for England at Lord's, or anywhere for that matter! Today cricket is changing, Money is taking over and Twenty20 power is growing. I'm only 18 and still of the belief that Test is Best; there is hope for the younger generations i assure you, it's just a shame some want money in the bank and not international caps

England ODI Victory, 4-0!

Today saw England face South Africa at Lord's in the fourth ODI. It is pretty much a dead series in that England have won and South Africa seem to appear to have given up. The match was greatly interrupted by rain and sadly i could only see a few overs of it as i was playing today myself (scoring a half century so perhaps not so bad!)

The start having been delayed to rain and then rain throughout the South Africa Innings, batting first, meant they could only bat 32.1 overs making 183 for the loss of 6 wickets with a great innings of 74 by Gibbs (so i am told, having not seen it myself). Further rain and Duckworth Lewis intervetion gave England the target of 137 from 20 overs; to them that probably didn't sound too hard, especially with recent form of both them and South Africa (or lack of in their case). For the loss of only 3 wickets they ended up doing it relatively easily, even if it did come down to the last few overs - Shah batted well for his 44*, as did Flintoff for his 31*; these two finishing off the fourth ODI giving England victory.

The rain is always a pain in the backside with cricket and this summer has seen some terrible weather in England. As mentioned previously Pro40 has been greatly affected, but this was clearly a match where rain will have dampened the victory for England, but all the same a victory is a victory.

Taking the series to 4-0 in to the last game at Cardiff means that England have only one match to win to give them the ICC rank of second best in the world; whether that truly respresents the team is questionable as this is a new era and just the start of it, perhaps even just the honeymoon period of it? Who knows - we can only hope and be the loyal England fans we are, over the last decade the team has gone through a lot, great highs and GREAT lows. Personally i say bring on the next test series and lets see how we do there, real cricket for a real challenge - good luck to them, just the small issue of all that bloody money over in the West Indies to deal with too; silly stuff really.

Fingers crossed for a Cardiff victory!

England One Day Triumph

Having lost the four match Test series to South Africa 2-1 England have regained some pride and taken victory in the five match ODI series winning the first three matches. After a relatively close first match England took South Africa apart in the second winning by ten wickets, then in the third showing another great performance - Flintoff getting his second fifty in as many matches, Bell also reaching the 70's and Patel taking a well earned five wickets; the first English spinner to do so since Ashley Giles back in 2001.

Matt Prior continued to do well but as is common with him he got out having got a start. It was disappointing to see KP go for only five but no one is perfect, after his great innings in the first ODI he can be forgiven of course! For the third game in a row an all round good team effort; i feel slightly sorry for Luke Wright at the moment, a great player who is being under used in both batting and bowling departments in my opinion.

Well done England, i look forward to the remaining two matches, the first of which is tomorrow at Lord's.

Welcome

Hello and welcome to The Popping Crease, a new cricketing blog. I am a keen cricketer in my teens and have been playing cricket since the age of 4 or 5 and following it intently. I am a huge England fan and follow their every move. Surrey are my favourite county team but i will watch as much county cricket as i can.

I have started this blog to spread my knowledge and love of cricket to as many people as possible, to spread cricketing news and my views on that news. I hope you enjoy my blog, please do not hesitate to leave comments or e-mail me.

Thankyou,

T.