Nannes the nomad joins Nottinghamshire

Dirk Nannes is the latest overseas star to sign up for next season’s Twenty20 Cup (following Adam Gilchrist’s move to Middlesex and the various other county comings and goings), having been snapped up by Nottinghamshire.

The Dutch-Australian fluent Japanese speaker and skiing enthusiast is widely regarded as a Twenty20 specialist, and given his success with Delhi, Victoria and Middlesex in the past (not to mention a certain incident over the summer), it’s hard to argue with Notts director of cricket Mick Newell’s assertion that Nannes is “the most effective Twenty20 bowler in the world“. If Graeme Swann, Samit Patel and Ryan Sidebottom are all available to their county over the summer, then the Outlaws will have quite a bowling line up in the short format next year.

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England’s World Twenty20 Squad

England have announced their squad for the summer’s World Twenty20, having trimmed their initial 30 down to a more manageable 15:

Paul Collingwood captains the side, somewhat suprisingly given his previous reluctance to do so, and the fact that he stood down as One-Day captain a mere nine months ago. Cynics may also suggest that if England’s best hope is someone who couldn’t even get a game in the IPL, then things don’t look good.

The other headlines are the inclusions of Rob Key (interesting because he hasn’t played for England – as opposed to the Lions – since 2005, and his last limited-overs international was way back in 2004), James Foster (also recalled after a long exile), Eoin Morgan (‘borrowed’ from Ireland), Graham Napier (another IPL bench-warmer, albeit with a fair bit of Twenty20 pedigree) and Leek’s very own Ryan Sidebottom.

The rest of the squad comprises James Anderson, Ravi Bopara, Stuart Broad, Andrew Flintoff, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Kevin Pietersen, Owais Shah, Graeme Swann, Luke Wright.

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England’s squad announcements offer few opportunities to raise eyebrows

There were few surprises in England’s squad for the Stanford Super Series. It’s pretty much the usual One-Day side.

Sidebottom and Harmison are both included, and Monty loses out to Samit Patel.

It’s a squad of 15 anyway, so the weeping and grinding of teeth by those left out at the last minute will have to wait for a bit.

Also, Michael Vaughan got a central contract. I’ve already said enough about him.

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England vs South Africa – One Day Series Preview

England take on South Africa in the first ODI of the series at Headingley tomorrow with a slightly re-jigged side, possibly featuring Matt Prior opening with Ian Bell, and with Owais Shah at number three.

The hosts will also make changes to their bowling line-up, partially forced by injury to Ryan Sidebottom and Chris Tremlett. Called up in their stead is Tim Bresnan. Former captain Paul Collingwood is still suspended, but Samit Patel may miss out to Luke Wright and/or Graeme Swann in the lower-middle order.

For South Africa, JP Duminy, Johan Botha and the tremendously-named Vernon Philander are all likely to play. Albie Morkel is definitely injured, and brother Morne is a doubt. Graeme Smith‘s side will be overwhelming favourites (although Duncan Fletcher is optimistic about England’s chances), and the return of Herschelle Gibbs to the side for the One-Dayers is likely to put bums on seats, as they say.

UPDATE: Harmison’s only gone and unretired himself.

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England’s bowlers make Steyn & Co. look bad

After the run-fest of the last two days, the casual observer might have thought that South Africa would settle in today for a long hard tilt at a big total.

The causal observer would have been wrong. Where Steyn and Ntini stuggled, Anderson, Broad and Sidebottom struck. And that was before Monty took 4-74 to leave South Africa 146 short of saving the follow-on. The ultimate embarrassment for Graeme Smith’s men? The last wicket taker, who then opened the second innings bowling owing to dodgy light in the evening gloom.

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For those of you looking for what happened yesterday…

Here it is (updated link).

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England’s selection: complacent?

England have named an unchanged side for the 3rd Test against New Zealand, which seems to suggest that the selectors think all is well.

All is not well. Pointing to three victories over New Zealand (two of which, at Old Trafford and at Napier, came despite poor showings from the top order) is not sufficient justification for keeping clearly out-of-form players in the side. Let Bell and Collingwood play some county cricket to recover their form, and give someone else a chance.

After all, that’s how players get Test experience, isn’t it? Where would Pietersen or Sidebottom be if the selectors had been so concerned with ‘stability’ in 2005 or 2007?

Things are muddling along, as I feared they might, and soon there may be comeuppance (although probably not knife-based).

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Ryan Sidebottom – back in the swing of things

Ryan Sidebottom, after a disappointing day yesterday, took four wickets for five runs in 10.1 overs (seven of which were maidens) today. The wickets included Jacob Oram (youtube here), Kyle Mills (youtube here), and lower-order danger man Tim Southee (youtube here).

He is quite good, you know.

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England vs New Zealand – the return leg

Even though it’s barely five minutes since the last Test series between these two sides, the next one gets underway on Thursday. The short interval means that the sides facing each other at Lord’s will be very familiar. The players who excelled in New Zealand, such as Ryan Sidebottom and Tim Southee, will be expected to continue in a similar vein.

There will be a few noticeable changes, though, not least the absence of Stephen Fleming. The Black Caps’ batting line-up will have to adjust for the first series since their former captain’s retirement, but good recent performances from the likes of Aaron Redmond mean that runs are still likely to be scored (although New Zealand often rival England in the art of the collapse).

Another source of runs for the Black Caps, and one of many New Zealand players who spent the short period since the last series over in India is Brendon McCullum, although he will probably need to calm things down a little to make big Test scores, after proving himself in the hurried pace of the IPL.

From England’s perspective, there are a lot of players hoping to regain form (not least the captain, who might do well to stop practising his textbook forward defensive shot and start scoring runs), or to prove something to the selectors (or to themselves). Nevertheless, home advantage makes England clear favourites.

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Stanford and the ECB – an update

Allen Stanford has been in talks with the ECB all week with a view to getting involved with an English (and Welsh) IPL-style Twenty20 league, and some sort of agreement seems quite close.

This sort of news should be getting Kevin Pietersen and Ryan Sidebottom excited.

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County Cricket 2008 Division 1 preview

As the County season is about to properly start, here’s my preview of County Championship Division One.

• Durham
  Positives: Should profit from the runs of Neil McKenzie and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, and Harmison is likely to play more often than usual now he’s not an automatic pick for England.
  Negatives: Ottis Gibson has retired, and Harmison or Onions will need to step up and take loads of wickets to balance out the loss.

• Hampshire
  Positives: Shane Bond has overcome that pesky ban on ICL players. Um, that’s it.
  Negatives: No Warne. Also, no Udal, and Danger Anus will be off in India for some of the season.

• Kent
  Positives: Joe Denly looks exciting, plus they are Champions of the most popular form of cricket at the moment (that’s Twenty20, not Brockian Ultra-Cricket)
  Negatives: The bowlers are OK, but they aren’t of the standard that many other county attacks offer.

• Lancashire

Positives: Ashes Hero Freddie Flintoff will actually play some games for Lancashire this year, and there are still more than enough wise old heads to suggest a decent chance of silverware.
Negatives: The psychological damage of last year will be hard to overcome, and the average age of the side is about 56.

• Nottinghamshire
  Positives: David Hussey, future Australia star, will score runs aplenty when he’s available, plus there will be occasional cameos from new signing Stuart ‘Ricky’ Broad.
  Negatives: Stephen Fleming’s captaincy skills will be missed, and there are a few concerns about the bowling when Sidebottom and Broad are away on England duty.

• Somerset
  Positives: Marcus Trescothick won’t be called away on England duty anymore, Justin Langer won’t be hopping off to the IPL (for this season, anyway), and Andy Caddick is still going.
  Negatives: Still quite reliant on Caddick and other old warhorses when it comes to bowling.

• Surrey
  Positives: Ramprakash will be out to add to his Transformer collection by reaching 100 first-class hundreds, plus Saqlain Mushtaq is back.
  Negatives: Have lost Rikki Clarke to Derbyshire.

• Sussex
  Positives: Have held on to Mushtaq Ahmed despite that ICL business, plus Matt Prior is now a man with something to prove after being dropped by England.
  Negatives: Naved-ul-Hasan has left for Yorkshire.

• Yorkshire
  Positives: Adil Rashid is coming of age, and the Hoggster will be out to earn himself an England recall.
  Negatives: Some doubts remain about the top order.

There may be a Division Two preview tomorrow, but there may not be if I can’t be bothered.

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New Zealand capitulate even more dramatically than England

Anything England can do, New Zealand can do better, or rather worse.

Ryan Sidebottom continued his recent good form, taking best ever figures of 7-47. This will no doubt add weight to the argument that he is one of the best in the world at what he does.

Also continuing his recent form, although in this case not so much good as god-awful, is Jack Davenport lookalike (and England captain) Michael Vaughan. The shot that got him out, off the third ball he faced, was properly mental.

Stephen Fleming now needs a fairly decent final Test innings of 54 to get his career average up above 40. If England’s batsmen break the habit of a winter and do their job properly, it could be a little while before he gets the chance.

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