Rough Deal

It's been a fairly quiet week. The only major news stories in this neck of the woods have been India's narrow failure to win their first tour match at Hove, the ECB's decision to order Worcestershire to re-play the Kent game (which was eventually - and inevitably - abandoned), and the preliminary England squad for the Twenty20 World Cup in September.

For what it's worth I think the ECB got it just about right over Worcestershire, although I wouldn't expect the people in charge of other counties who have been badly affected by the weather in this bedraggled season to agree. A ticking-off for what was undoubtedly a major cock-up (New Road was never going to be ready in time and it was deceitful at worst and deluded at best to pretend otherwise) and Friday's Pro 40 game moved to Derby, together with some financial assistance to help with the clean-up.

The news which everyone has grabbed from the Twenty20 squad has been the returns of Marcus Trescothick and, to a lesser extent, Chris Schofield. One after a journey into mental turmoil and the other after a sojourn in Minor County cricket. In truth the selection of Marcus was a no-brainer - the squad has still to be whittled down and he can easily be cut from it if he starts to have doubts about the trip - but I think he'll be there. If he isn't all bets are off for the future of his career.

As for who won't be there, am I alone in feeling that Ed Joyce has had a rough deal somewhere along the line? Okay, his form did fade in the West Indies but this is someone with an ODI hundred against Australia, which is a tad more than Mal Loye (highest score 45) can boast.

At Last...

A week with not much going on. Just ODIs in India and South Africa and the announcement of World Cup squads, most of which were fairly predictable.

England's was, although most of the media comment had fancied Mal Loye to be included, rather than Ravinder Bopara.

I think Bopara was the right choice as he's one for the future with plenty of time on his side. Loye looked very useful at times in Australia but he didn't manage to pass fifty, and his international career may well have finished almost as quickly as it started.

He'll doubtless be left wishing he could have been picked earlier, but he'll at least be able to look back for ever on his part in the winning of a one-day trophy abroad.

And how many England players can say that?

An Unfamiliar Feeling

I saw a fair amount of England's first ODI win over Australia in Australia since January 1999 on either side of a brief trip into the gorgeous Exe Valley for a pre-arranged, work-related, meeting.

It looked as though they were good value for it, and it was especially pleasurable to see Ed Joyce confirm the improvement he'd shown in the last game against New Zealand and go on to get a hundred. I've seen him make good runs for Middlesex on a number of occasions and have a high regard for his abilities, but I was beginning to doubt him earlier in the series when he was repeatedly getting out for low scores in the middle-order and his body language seemed to betray his dwindling confidence.

Mal Loye assisted him well at the top of the order, Belly played his usual quality cameo (when will he really cash in?) and there was plenty of good bowling (chiefly from Liam Plunkett) and sharp fielding.

More of the same, please.

Same Old, Same Old

Well, yes. But England managed to put together a decent fist of things in the field against Australia in Brisbane yesterday, although, having only made 155, their chances of winning were always slim.

The gloom of the defeat wasn't without a few rays of sunshine, though. Mal Loye simply stepped up and carried on batting as he has for Lancashire for several years now and has surely inked himself into the World Cup squad (if not the team), and Jon Lewis achieved his best international figures with 4-36.

I haven't thought much until now about some people's claims that Lewis might have been a useful addition to England's Ashes squad, but, although he may lack pace at this level, as an acknowledged line and length merchant, he would surely have been more threatening and consistent than Mahmood, even if he'd been below his best.

That's hindsight for you...

New Boys

With Flintoff re-installed as captain (wrongly, according to Richard Hobson in The Times), we can now look forward (if that's the right phrase) to another ODI. The only problem is that it's against Australia, which makes the likelihood of England being able to build on the win over New Zealand slim, to put it mildly.

Whether they make the side or not (and at least one probably will), England will have two new players to choose from - Malachy Loye, the hard-hitting 34 year-old Lancashire opener, and Ravi Bopara, a useful young batting all-rounder from Essex who's obviously done okay with the academy in Perth.

I've seen a fair bit of Loye on TV over the years - he's been knocking around the county circuit since the early nineties, after all - and he's a more than handy operator, the sort of player (and there were many) who could well have had a Test career if he'd shown a bit more consistency at the right times, not played for Northants (never a great career move) and lost his way in the appalling mess that was late twentieth century English cricket.

Bopara I've hardly seen, but he gave a bullish interview on the radio this morning and seems to be relishing the prospect of mixing it with the Aussies.

His awakening may be rude, but at least being around the likes of Loye and Nixon will, as someone who's yet to see 22, never mind 30, keep him feeling young.