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ECB announce 16 man touring party to the Ashes 2010/11

Posted on September 23, 2010
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The England selectors today named a 16-man tour party under the captaincy of Andrew Strauss for the forthcoming Ashes Test Series in Australia with Surrey pace bowler Chris Tremlett and Sussex left-arm spinner Monty Panesar both recalled to the squad.

Tremlett, who won the last of his three Test caps against India in 2007, is recalled to the England set up for the first time since the tour of New Zealandin 2008. While Panesar wins a place in the tour party after a successful domestic season which saw him take 52 First-Class wickets for his new county.

Surrey’s Steven Davies has been named as England’s deputy wicketkeeper behind Sussex’s Matt Prior and is the only member of the squad uncapped at Test level.

The Selectors also today named eleven players to be awarded 12-month England central contracts with Warwickshire’s Jonathan Trott and Middlesex pace bowler Steven Finn each winning a central contract for the first time. A further five players have been awarded incremental contracts.

Today’s announcement also included the naming of the 16-man England Performance Programme (EPP) squad which will be based in Australia in the lead up to the first Ashes Test in Brisbane through until the start of the third Test in Perth. Michael Carberry, Craig Kieswetter, Ajmal Shahzad and James Tredwell, who have all represented the senior England side over the past 12 months, are among those included.

Commenting on the selections, ECB National Selector, Geoff Miller, said: “We believe we’ve selected an outstanding Test squad for what will be a fiercely contested Ashes series in Australia. In order to retain the Ashes we will need to play to a very high level and we believe we’ve selected a squad to do just that.

“Clearly there are always difficult decisions to make when selecting an England squad and this Ashes squad was no different. We feel that Chris Tremlett’s inclusion will add a real threat of pace and bounce …

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South Africa favourites to level series

Posted on March 3, 2009
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With the second Test match starting in Kingsmead, Durban this Friday Australia has its hands full according the latest odds across the board. Betfair have South Africa at 2/1 to win with Australia at 13/5 and the draw an outside chance at 6/4.

Despite the predicted second Test win for South Africa, Australia are clear favourites to take the series with odds of 4/5. South Africa is a distant 9/2 with a healthy offer of 11/4 for the draw.

I was quite surprised when I noticed this earlier today especially given the fact that Australia won the first Test in Johannesburg by 162 runs. In a shortened series anything could happen I guess and one thing is for sure – the Boks will be up for revenge after the bowlers failed to take advantage of the visitors in the first innings.

Following on from the terrible atrocities in Lahore today, it will be interesting to see how the players will handle the attack on the Sri Lankan team. Although none of the players sustained any critical injuries others within the party have perished and it is truly a dark day for cricket and Pakistan.

Australian captain Ricky Ponting had this to say in response to the gun attack in Pakistan:

“On behalf of the Australian cricket team I would like to express our deepest condolences to those who have been affected by the tragic events in Pakistan this morning. An act of violence like this is a terrible thing and when it involves those who are part of our cricketing family, players the world over are affected.

The wider cricketing community has been shocked by what has occurred and our thoughts and full support is with those involved.

We have spoken with members of the

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Australia cruise to 162 run win in Johannesburg

Posted on March 2, 2009
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Australia have taken a one-nil lead in the three Test series against South Africa with an impressive 162 runs win against the Boks. The visitors have shown the true value of batting to number 10 over the last 12 months but no more so than here in Johannesburg.

Day five loomed bright and early this morning with the game finely balanced with both sides in with a chance of snatching victory. Unless the weather had intervened the draw was the only unlikely result especially with a full day’s play on offer.

Australia required eight second innings wickets for victory and South Africa just 276 runs to win, both a possibility given the pedigree of the two teams on show. Unfortunately for South Africa the win was very much a distant dream by lunch with the home side sitting on a precarious 5 for 247.

Tight bowling was the key to the early success as the visitors just sat back and waited for the mistakes to come. Hilfenhaus and Johnson bowled well and troubled both batsmen (Kallis and Amla) early on. Despite the onslaught they survived the double pronged attack until Siddle forced a mistake from Amla who held out to Hughes at mid-wicket.

Five runs later Andrew McDonald, who is still learning his international trade, applied constant pressure and it was AB De Villiers who lost his patience and fell to a leg before decision with Billy Bowden officiating. Aware of the importance of his wicket South Africa went to a referral but it was in vain.

Kallis struggled to push the game on and was eventually bowled by Johnson five runs short of a dogged 50. The promising and highly sought after Duminy shared a brief 39 run partnership with Boucher until Duminy gave Siddle his second …

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