DEVILS ROCKED IN FIERY CLASH

The Chieftains V Cardiff ENL Devils clash always has that edge and Saturdays' game was no different. The Chieftains had put themselves in an unassailable 7-2 lead with a brace from Tom Long and Aaron Connolly each with Danny Hammond, Kyle Jones and Darren Brown, but the game will be remembered not only for the skill on show but with what happened in the final few minutes. With just over 4 minutes to go an incident between BT Williams and Bryn Griffiths ended with Griffiths jumping on BT Williams and throwing punches at the Chieftains tough guy. Once Williams had his gloves off, it was only going to go one way and Williams ended the fight by taking the Welshman down much to the delight of the home crowd.

20 seconds after the first fight ended all hell broke loose when Devils netminder Mike Brabon went to the ice to make a save and clashed with Blaho Novak and this invoked the ire of the Devils players and Brabon who triple teamed the Chieftains youngster. The rest of the players on the ice came over to help out the 17yr old and it ended up being uneven numbers as the Devils had already sent some players out for a normal line change. Williams, in the penalty box, was desperate to get out to help Novak and eventually managed to, once Griffiths had jumped out and gone after star Chieftains forward Danny Hammond. This signalled the remaining players to leave the benches and come on to the ice and a mass brawl broke out with all players on the ice pairing off, or in some cases teaming up with teammates to double-team others. The huge crowd of over 700 were all on their feet cheering and watching something that is quite rare in ice hockey, but in many respects is a special moment to witness.

Once things had calmed down and the penalties awarded, the referee Jurijs Solavjovs, had awarded match penalties to both Griffiths and Williams for leaving the penalty box, as well as match penalties to Tom Long and Steve Fisher. Each side also had 3 players put in the penalty box on roughing penalties. The game itself played out without much further incident and as is tradition all players shook hands after the game, other than Novak and Brabon who visibly didn't shake hands with tension clearly between the two still rife

Outside the Long Room: An Ashes Twenty20 Finale

Well our resident cricket writer Jimmy Drew is back again with another edition of the 'Outside The Long Room'. After previewing the World Twenty20 in his last post, Jimmy reviews the tournament in the lead up to the final and speaks about the domestic cricket scene as well. Anyway less from me and over to Jimmy

The ICC World Twenty20 has certainly lived up to expectations so far, and with only the final left to go, there has already been lots memories that will stay with us for many years to come.

England have definitely been the surprise package, and although many pundits tipped them to get to the semi’s, many will be surprised in how they’ve performed in their matches and played with such control, power yet grace so far. It’s also pleasing to see that virtually all the team have chipped in with match winning displays at some stage of the tournament. Bresnan, Sidebottom and Broad provide a good mix in the seam department and this is complemented with the variety of right and left hand finger spin in the form of Swann and Yardy.

Batting wise, although skipper Collingwood himself has struggled so far (maybe he’s saving his runs for the final though!), Kieswetter, Lumb, KP and the ever improving Eoin Morgan have provided England with an explosive top-order which is incomparable to any previous England one day line-up that I can certainly think of. Luke Wright and Tim Bresnan have also chipped in with useful runs too, and fielding wise, we’ve been as good as any other side in the competition.

The inclement Guyana climate at the start of the tournament almost saw England knocked out in the group stage, with messers Duckworth and Lewis playing a pivotal role in both of their matches. In fairness, this would have been difficult for the players and fans to swallow, especially after their fine batting display against the hosts (West Indies), even if their innings against Ireland was just as memorable for different reasons!

Both South Africa and India, in my eyes, are the two teams who will be most disappointed by their performances in the competition. Home to the IPL, the Indians never really got going, with the only highlight that stands out coming from our friend SK Raina who smashed his way to 101 off just 60 balls against South Africa in the initial group stages. As for South Africa, I commented previously that they looked one of the strongest teams going into the tournament on paper, though their game plan let them down and too few many players stepped up to the mark and as a team they didn’t seem to gel at the crucial moments, especially when batting second in games.

As for the Ozzies, then the semi-final I’ve just witnessed says it all about them. Their “never say die” attitude was clear for all to see in this game, and with 4 or 5 overs to go they looked dead and buried. Mike Hussey (pictured top) has once again proved that he’s one of the best players who can adjust his game accordingly to the task in hand. Many a time has he played the anchor role down the middle order in test matches, but unlike so many talented international batsmen, he has that knack of knowing how to build an innings in whatever the context of the game requires. 18 needed off the final over, and with Mitchell Johnson taking a single from the first ball, what odds would you have got on Hussey swatting the following four balls for; 6, 6, 4, 6 to win with a ball to spare and against Saeed Ajmal who’s bowling has been very impressive in the comp, unlike his fielding though.

So, Sunday afternoon sees the love / hate relationship rekindled for what promises to be a great encounter between the old rivals of England and the Ozzies. 20/20 can be so unpredictable, though I’m going to stick my neck on the line and say that if England win the toss and bowl first then the trophy will be heading home to blighty, as we sneak past the ozzies total (which I’m not going to guess what this will be), with 5 wickets in hand and 2 overs left to spare!

Domestically, my tip for the division one crown (Durham), have continued to struggle since my last blog, with Notts over taking Yorkshire at the top of the table and becoming the form team in the LV County Championship (Div 1). This week saw Notts beat the current champions (that’s Durham remember) by a comfortable innings and 62 runs. Despite Broad, Swann and Sidebottom all being in the Caribbean, Notts still managed to bowl Durham out twice, with Pattinson, Shreck, Franks, Patel and Mullaney all getting a share of the wickets.

I remember saying that Notts would be pushing Durham all the way for the title this season, though it’ll be interesting to see how they cope with being top of the table so early on in the season. Have they got the strength in depth and ability to maintain top spot until mid-September?!? Only time will tell I guess.

Bowling wise, Durham have less bonus points than any of the other 17 counties, though with Steve Harmison now back in the team, surely it’s only a matter of time until their fortunes change, though as the saying goes, it’s tough at the top and the sides who have played them so far have settled a few scores on them from over the past couple of seasons. Like Notts and Yorkshire, Lancashire also remain unbeaten and if these teams can continue like they’ve started, I reckon the champions will be one of these three counties.

At the other end of the table, Hampshire’s draw against Somerset stopped their rot of defeats, though with 4 defeats from 5 matches, it could be a long hard season for them. Performance of the week has got to go to Sean Ervine (pictured left) of Hampshire who came in at number 7 with the team struggling on 123-5….a few sessions later and with good support from Nic Pothas and the tail, he produced a career best 237 not out. I’m happy for Sean, but also happy that I brought him into my fantasy team the previous day when he was on 75 not out at the close of play!

Moving onto division 2, Sussex remain top, and after starting the season so well, the East Midlands counties of Derbyshire and Leicestershire have struggled of late, which has resulted in Glamorgan, Gloucester and Middlesex all climbing the table and producing convincing victories in the week just gone. The table is tight though, with just 22 points separating 2nd place and 7th.

One day wise, then the Clydesdale Bank 40 competition is also starting to take shape. Sussex, Yorkshire and Warwickshire top each of the three groups, and there have also been impressive starts for both Somerset and Surrey whilst Worcestershire, Northants and Hampshire are the only three teams who have played matches and are yet to register any points on the board yet. Our friends the Netherlands and Scotland haven’t played any of their matches yet, and it’ll be interesting to see if either cause many upsets over the next couple of months.

On a more local level, the team I play for (Breadsall Cricket Club) have had mixed fortunes so far. The first team have won two and lost one of their league matches so far, though they have also progressed in the cup with a win against Alfreton last Sunday. The seconds meanwhile haven’t started as well, with one wining draw, one losing draw and one defeat so far, plus they are out of the cup. The newly formed 3rd team have only played one league game so far, which they won, so it’s probably too early to pass judgement on them just yet, though we’re hoping they make it two from two this weekend.

Our club website details all of our senior and junior results throughout the season, so why not keep track of our fortunes during the summer of 2010 yourself at www.breadsall.play-cricket.com Lots of info such as as our fund-raising events can also be found on our site.

Junior wise, then our under 14’s narrowly missed out in progressing further in the National Collard Dawn Cup Competition, losing out to Ticknall on Bank Holiday Monday, though with more and more of our under 17’s and under 15’s now playing senior cricket in either the 2nd or 3rd teams, the future is looking rosy for the club as these younger players continue their development.

Off the pitch, works continues on our new changing facility, which will incorporate home and away changing rooms, a score-box, umpires room as well as a garage for storing our ground equipment. Photos of the development can also be viewed online too.

I’ll be back in a couple of weeks time, though in the meantime, good luck to England on Sunday and I’m hoping that by the time most of you read this blog we will be World Twenty20 champions….for one year at least!

Outside The Long Room: Twenty20 Previewing And County Reviewing

Regular visitors to SportTrades Report might remember a fortnight or so ago we announced a new Cricket feature coming to the blog called 'Outside The Long Room'. It's being produced by SportTrades very own James Drew who will be giving his thoughts on all things cricket including international and domestic news. Throughout the summer we're be hearing more from Mr Drew with updates on his local side, Breadsall Cricket Club who play in the Derbyshire County Cricket League.

In this week's OTLR (hows that for an acronym) James previews the ICC World Twenty20 in the wake of the IPL finishing and reviews the start of the County Championship which has seen his favourite county side Derbyshire start of well winning 2 out of their first 3 games. Australian overseas start Chris Rogers has continued his fine form from last season with 3 hundreds so far.

Anyway i'll leave the talking to James, so to speak.

Seeing as it’s been well over a couple of weeks since my initial blog, I feel that now is the right time to share with you all my latest thoughts on all things cricket related.

On the International stage, with the final of the IPL (Indian Premier League) now all over other than the aftermath of charges surrounding Lalit Modi’s conduct, of which, I’m not going to speculate on or pass comment, all eyes will now head west (depending on where you located on the globe of course), to the ICC World Twenty20 in the Caribbean.

Going back to the IPL, the tournament was won by the Chennai Super Kings who beat the Mumbai Indians by 22 runs on Sunday just gone. SK Raina picked up the man of the match award, mainly as a result of scoring the only 50 in the match with a brisk 57 off just 35 balls and he also picked up a wicket too in Mumbai’s reply. Having only won half of their fourteen matches during the league stages, Chennai definitely saved their better cricket for the latter stages of the competition, especially as Mumbai had topped the group stages with ten wins from their fourteen matches.

The little master “Sachin Tendulkar”, captain of the Mumbai Indians ran away with the award of player of the tournament, largely down to finishing the tournament as the leading run scorer. Whether cricket lovers around the world are in favour of the IPL or not, based on its growing success it appears that it is hear to stay I’m afraid. Exciting matches played in front of bumper crowds with the best one-day players in the world competing against one another is bound to have its fans, though it appears that the jury is still out for many of the traditionalists amongst us.

Moving onto the ICC World Twenty20. The 17 day tournament with 12 teams (4 groups of 3) starts tommroow. For those who remember, Pakistan won the event last year held in England before the Ashess series started. Pakistan sadly have been affected by political and internal issues of late, which has resulted in many of the best and most senior players receiving hefty bans. That said, recent tournaments suggest that you can’t right Pakistan off, and if the forecasted early thunderstorms for the tournament remain out in the middle and not spread to the Pakistani dressing room, then they could be pushing all the way to retain their title. One thing that any cricket fan should never do is write of Shahid Afridi although everyone can certainly expect the unpredictable from the one the Pakistani fans call Boom Boom.

Australia and South Africa are both strong favourites too, though last years tournament shows that if you do slip up in one of your two group matches, teams could be packing their bags and heading home much sooner than planned.
A big shame for the Ozzies is hearing that Brett Lee, having retired from test cricket to concentrate on one-day cricket so to prolong his career is now injured again, so will therefore miss the tournament. It's a blow to the popular player but Australia can call on Yorkshire's Ryan Harris who has broken into the team of late. Even without Lee, they still have enough fire power with the ball and down the innings with the bat, I predict that Mitchell Johnson, Cameron White and Shane Watson will all have a good world cup.

Turning my attention to the 4 “minnows” of the competition: Ireland, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, well, I expect them all to impress, but I can’t see any surprises this year I’m afraid, and I feel that non of these 4 teams will make the Super 8 stage. It's a tremendous achievement that the Afghan team qualifed for the tournament after many years of struggle back in their own country, now they have a chance to play on the big stage. Every cricket fan will wish them luck.

With regards England, then I’m really looking forward to see how our adopted sons from SA perform at the top of the order (Michael Lumb and Craig Kieswetter that is), with the hard-hitting Lumb having impressed recently in the IPL. Coupled with KP, Eoin Morgan and Paul Collingwood, I feel that batting wise we look as strong on paper as any other team (if that’s ever a useful measure to use), though our lack of regular 20/20 International experience in the bowling department could be our Achilles Heel in going all the way. I do like what Graeme Swann brings to the party with the ball, and let’s hope he can put his recent run-in with the law to one side and show the rest of our bowlers the way to do it to bring some much needed one-day success. England also have Sussex's Michael Yardy in the squad so if the situation were to arise England have a reliable option should they wish to play a second spinner.

The big questions for the tournament, that everyone is seemingly asking are: Will there be six sixes in an over, will any team manage to post more than 300 in one innings, will Jacques Kallis’ strike rate be more than 50, will any of the West Indian players end up arguing amongst themselves on the pitch and will the Ozzies be the first team to be knocked out of the competition?!?! Only time will tell in what promises to be a couple, and a bit, weeks worth of fast and furious entertaining cricket.

Jumping back to the domestic scene, the weather has managed to hold it’s own for now, with hardly any matches being affected by the weather so far (Let’s hope I’ve not just made the mother of all curses there!). After all both the Rose Counties have been affected by the weather in recent years costing them a decent crack at the Championship.

Speaking of the Championship and the Rose counties, Yorkshire are occupying top spot in the LV Division 1 table with 2 wins and a draw from their 3 games. They're also going pretty well againgst title holders Durham racking up a mammoth 610-6 againgst a good bowling attack. With stars like Jaques Rudolph, Ajmal Shazhad, Tim Bresnan, Andrew Gale and Adil Rashid, Yorkshire fans have to be omptimistic of a first championship since 2001 when they beat Surrey for the title.

So far Durham have not lived up to not just my expectations (as i tipped them to do well) but everyone's expectations. They've been have been pretty hit and miss in their matches, and were somewhat lucky to avoid defeat againgst promoted Essex in their second game. Still though you cannot rule the double-champions out as there are still loads of matches to go though, so it’s worth remembering that things could all change rather sharply!

Both Notts and Lancs have also started the season well, both winning two from two so far, whilst at the other end of the table Somerset, Warwickshire and Hampshire have all lost their first two matches.

In Division two, Sussex have started the season very strongly, and it looks like that come Thursday evening they will have won all four of their opening matches, unless Leicestershire, who have equally started the season strongly can form the come back of all come backs in the second innings. My team (Derbyshire) have not let me down so far, other than a defeat to local neighbours Leicestershire, though they’ve won their other two matches so far and have started strongly away at Northants in the latest round of matches too. In the defeat to Leicester, then it was Derby born Wayne White who spoiled the day for the home side, coming back to haunt his former team with his maiden first class ton. He’s also been equally impressive with the ball so far this season.

The South-East counties of both Surrey and Middlesex have both started pretty badly, with no wins in their games so far with Middlesex having lost both their opening games and Surrey drawing one and losing two. Gloucestershire have faired no better so far either, losing both of their opening games though have the edge slightly over Middlesex in the game that’s currently being played between both counties. Surrey’s last match did see lots of runs at the picturesque Whitgift School, and almost pulled off a win. The game did see skipper Rory Hamilton-Brown (who I commented on last time around), smash a century, and there were also runs from wicket-keeper batsman Steven Davies and the best dancing English qualified batsman the country still has to offer (that’s Mark Ramprakash).

The best individual performance of the season so far has to be from Middlesex’s freakishly tall quickie Steven Finn (pictured left). First game of the season away at Worcestershire (New Road), he bettered his impressive 5-69 in the first innings with an amazing 9-37 in the second.

Despite his overall match figures of 14-106 in the match, Middlesex lost the game by 111 runs, but what a start to the season for the big man, and has one again showed the England selectors what he’s capable of. In my mind, he could easily fill the gap/s that’s been left by both Steve Harmison and Freddie Flintoff in recent years and become England’s premier strike bowler.

I’ll be back in a couple of week’s time with more of my cricket thoughts, probably when the Twenty20 World Cup is nearing the final stages and will also give you my thoughts on how the newly created Clydesdale Bank 40 over comp has gone so far by then too, so bye for now!

England's Bangladesh Tour - Squad Thoughts

After gaining a decent draw in the test series against South Africa, England now has to move forward into 2010 and continue the fine work that Andy Flower and Andrew Strauss have put into the team last year. Their success in the Ashes was a pleasant surprise considering the state the team was in after the Pietersen/Moores debacle at the start of the year.

The tour to Bangladesh on paper will look like a formality for England and considering the gap between the two sides, it should be. However, the tour represents a good challenge for several players. Alastair Cook has been given a chance to show that he's got material to be captain and it shall be intresting to see how he manages the daily duties of being captain. Cook has experience of captaining the U19 team when they reached the semi-finals of the U19 World Cup in West Indies held in Bangladesh in 2004.

Ever since coming into the England team in India in early 2006, Cook was touted as a future England captain and for him it will be a real test of character to see how he gets on. England will be expected to win the three one-dayers and two tests that they are playing against Bangladesh, so there will be a lot of pressure on the young Essex opener to achieve this. He will also be expected to bat responsibly and once in, to really score big runs.

For other players it's a chance to continue their good work. Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood were unfairly criticized during the Ashes series for not getting enough runs. This was despite the fact Collingwood's vital knock in the second innings helped save the first test match in Cardiff and Bell's knock of 72 helped England gain a good first innings score in the final match at the Oval. Both players batted well in the recent tour of South Africa with Collingwood seemingly back at his best. Bell showed great mental strength in scoring his century at Durban and he'll be expected to knuckle on now and get back to being in the batsmen that England and the media want him to be.

Kevin Pietersen, Jonathan Trott and Matt Prior will all need to do well in this series. The last of those names Prior has kept well since coming back into the team at the end of the summer of 2008. He is a classy aggressive batsmen but needs to bat more responsibly in the future. He had a couple of half centuries in the South Africa tour but had too many low scores for his liking.

In the last match of the series held at Cape Town, the way he got out was very disappointing, getting out twice on the pull. First innings he received a good ball but in the second innings he looked nervous and it was a shot that no international cricketer should have played. Keeping against spinners is never easy, but he's built up a good relationship with Graeme Swann and will need to go back to batting the way he knows he can.

Pietersen and Trott, meanwhile, will know that they need to bounce back. Trott was not the worst of England's batsmen in the test series, but looked scratchy at times. The best thing for him would be to go back and watch how he batted at the Oval against Australia when in difficult situations he batted with responsibility and a calm head and made sure he got himself in before playing his shots. Trott has the talent to overcome this and it should not be forgotten he's still early into his international career and even the greats had problems early on.

Pietersen, meanwhile, perhaps should almost go back to the basics. The great Geoffrey Boycott has said countless times over the decades that sometimes what a struggling batsmen needs to do is to just be happy with taking singles and the odd two, before the bad balls come along. From watching how Pietersen has played in South Africa this appears to be something that he just can't do. He has the ability to end up scoring 25 test match centuries for England and to score really big centuries. I am sure that once he is fully recovered from his injury and when his confidence starts coming back he'll be back to himself.

England need a fully physically and mentally fit Kevin Pietersen ready for a tough year ahead in which he'll need to score runs at home againgst Pakistan (and Bangladesh) before the Ashes come along in November. A model player that Pietersen should look at is Jaques Kallis who has the ability to get to around 20-30 runs and look odds-on (at least in the eyes of viewers) to score a big century which sets the team up for a big first innings score.

The tour to Bangladesh also gives new players to the squad a chance to prove themselves. With Andrew Strauss taking a much deserved well-timed rest, there is a position available for another batsmen to come into the team.

Hampshire's Michael Carberry has rightly been called up by the selectors and after doing well for the England Lions when he has played for them, it is a great chance for the top order batsmen to solidify his place in the squad. Carberry has worked hard to earn this chance and was the third highest run scorer in County Cricket last season. He should open alongside Cook and will look to bat well to make sure he's the next batsmen in waiting when a place comes up.

In the bowling department with James Anderson taking a rest due to a dodgy knee, it's a chance for some bowlers to grab their chance. Kent's James Tredwell has been selected as the second spinner on the tour ahead of the young Adil Rashid from Yorkshire. With Swann the number one spinner, I think the selectors have missed a chance to show their faith in Rashid.

After performing well in the One Dayers versus Australia last summer, the selectors have overlooked this because of one bad over against South Africa in a Twenty20 game where Graeme Smith and Loots Bootsman were whacking the ball all over the park. With a turning wickets in Bangladesh it would have been a good chance to give Rashid more experience. I can understand why they have picked Tredwell as if they are concerned about Rashid's confidence. It will be important to keep him in check with the Lions and make sure that the second spinner in Bangladesh is confident, considering the amount of overs he's likely to bowl.

The real interesting selection was of Ajmal Shahzad from Yorkshire. Shahzad was the first British born Asian to play for the county and at 24 has emerged as a real talent after a good 2009 season. The England selectors have clearly noticed him and he's been part of the England Performance Programme over the last couple of months in South Africa. In a way it's good for Shahzad that England have a good crop of bowlers as the selectors can give him experience whilst making sure he still plays for his county, getting games and overs under his belt. They only need to look at someone like Saj Mahmood, who after a bright start for England was not given the chance to play regularly for his county and now looks unlikely of adapting at the international level sadly.

The last real taking point of the squad was whether Andrew Strauss should have been selected. With a big 18 months of cricket ahead with the Ashes and the World Cup it's vital the captain gets a rest and keeps refreshed going into big stressful series. There is time before the tour for Strauss to rest, however it's vital that England continue to move forward and that when opportunities arise that young players get it.

It is the only way that the selectors can shape the future of the team and ensure that there are no panic selections in the future ahead. With that reason in mind it's a tour that should be well worth watching, plus Bangladesh have a few talented players looking out for as well. What be your starting XI for the tour?

World Cup 2010 - Post-Draw What We Hope To Look Forward To

Well after much deliberation and debate as to who the various favourites would get in their groups in the 2010 World Cup, today’s draw in Cape Town answered that question – and in doing so presented many more.

Firstly England have been drawn to face the United States, Algeria and Slovenia in the group stage of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Fabio Capello's men will play the United States in Rustenburg on 12 June, Algeria in Cape Town on 18 June and Slovenia in Port Elizabeth on 23 June. Now on the face of it, it looks an easy draw for Capello’s men, playing America up first will mean that England will have to start professionally.

America have good players in Tim Howard, Clint Dempsey, Jozy Alitdore and Landon Donovan so shouldn’t be taken lightly. England should be good enough to beat them. Another factor here worth mentioning is that Capello is wanting to base the team in Rustenberg, where of course this game will be played. This will hopefully be of benefit to the team as they can train in altitude ahead of the game in the Royal Bafokeng Stadium, which is at an altitude of around 1500m high.

Next up for the Three Lions is Algeria, the weakest african nation to qualify if you believe what the skeptics are saying. However Algeria dont look a bad team, they finished top with their qualifying group along with Egypt and had to face a one-off game in Sudan againgst the Egyptian’s to qualify for the finals. With alot more than sport on the line but politics as well, Rabah Saadane’s men pulled of a famous victory over their rivals, thanks to a splendid goal from Antar Yahia of German outfit Bochum.

Egypt by no means are a bad team and on reflection will feel that they should have won their qualifying group, after all they have won the last two African Cup of Nations. With that fact in mind, it’s useful for Capello and the FA to arrange a friendly with the Pharaoh’s as they should be a good test to play against. There’s also the fact that the friendly at Wembley should be a good opportunity to promote England’s 2018 World Cup bid and there’s no doubt that the Egyptian vote will be a welcome one.

There’s no doubt Capello and the various coaches will have a look at footage of Algeria’s as although they have a few players that British fans will know about. In Nadir Belhaj from Portsmouth, Hameur Bouazza from Blackpool, Majid Bougherra from Rangers and Hull's Kamel Ghilas, they have some decent players who will have come against the likes of Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard before in Premeriship competition. However England should be have too much for the Algerian’s and hopefully would have sealed their place for the second round heading into their final group game.

That final group game of course comes up against unfancied Slovenia, who finished ahead of Czech Republic and Northern Ireland to grab the runners up spot behind Slovakia in Group 3 in the European section. After drawing Russia in the play-offs the odds were against the former Yugoslav state. However after nicking a goal late on in Moscow whilst 2-0 down – they put in a good performance in Maribor grabbing a goal from Zlatko Dedič and defending well to earn themselves a place in South Africa. Technically they’re a good team with players playing across the top European leagues, Robert Koren is their captain and the West Brom man will be the creative spark for them to watch out for. Although the fact that they beat Hiddink’s Russia to qualify shouldn’t be forgotten, England have recent history on their side with a 2-1 victory over Slovenia at Wembley this season. Ideally Capello will be looking at this game for an opportunity to give a few of the squad players a chance to play as qualification for the second round should be wrapped up.

Now the way the draw has worked, provided England win the group they will probably face Serbia, Australia or Ghana in the next round who should finish behind Germany. I say ‘should’ because the last thing we’d want is to play the Germans in the second round, after all if there’s a team who can win ugly and go to the later stages of a tournament – it’s them. All the three sides that I’ve mentioned above have their good points. Serbia are a good technical European team, Ghana are a physical unit and Australia are a team that shouldn’t be underestimated with the players that they have in their squad.

However England should be able to beat those teams, although i’m sure it won’t be plain sailing just like their second round match versus Ecuador was like going back to the last World Cup. Thankfully on that day we scrappd through thanks to a David Beckham freekick and heroic blocks from Ashley Cole and Rio Ferdiannd.

Providing we reach the quarters, our prospected opponents should be the French, who lets face it were bloody lucky to qualify for the finals. Firstly they looked far from convicing in their qualifying group when they finished runners up behind Serbia. Then of course they met Ireland in the play offs and although they won 1-0 at Croke Park, it was far from an inspiring performance and their goal scored by Nicolas Anelka shot only came about via a lucky deflection of Sean St Ledger.

The second leg of course was going great for the Irish who took the lead in Paris through a Robbie Keane strike and had chances missed to double that lead from Keane and Damien Duff to stop the game going into extra time. Of course sadly a place at the finals was taken away from them, before they even had the chance to take penalties when a cruel handball from Thierry Henry set up William Gallas to score and send the French through after extra time. To win a World Cup you have to beat the best teams and this is a game that we should really find out whether or not Capello’s men are up to it, if England play half as well as Ireland then i fancy they should nick a victory.

That should set them up with a semi-final tie against either Holland or Brazil, two of the best footballing teams to watch in terms of style, pace and entertainment. Holland v Brazil should be a good quarter final but you’d fancy Brazil to win, but then again no one thought France would beat Brazil in the 2006 quarter finals. Anyway if England do reach the semi’s, this is where the likes of Gerrard, Lampard, Rooney and co need to put in the performances of their life if we’re going to reach a second ever world cup final. I’d like to think we can do it, but i think we may just be edged out in extra time via a moment of brilliance from Kaka or Luis Fabiano or knocked out on penalties – that great tradition we have in recent tournaments. Though who knows it could be our chance to win a shootout eventually, i mean it's about time isn't it?

Overall though the Draw gave some interesting results. It was really noticeable to my brother, dad and i that aside from maybe New Zealand, North Korea and Honduras their are not too many easy teams to beat. That hopefully should be good for the tournament and will make sure we see alot of close games. As for the other favorites, Spain should easily emerge from their group as should Italy who should finish ahead of Paraguay, New Zealand and Slovakia in Group F.

Aside from Germany’s group which i’ve mentioned above in this article, the one group that should be fascinating to watch is Group G. This will be the so-called ‘Group of Death’ in the media with Brazil, Portugal, Ivory Coast and North Korea making the numbers up. If you were to give me £5 to say who would finish behind Brazil in the runners-up position, i think Ivory Coast will do it. They are a team full of confidence at the moment and in Didier Drogba, the two Toure brothers, Salamon Kalou and Emmaneul Eboue have stars who any team in Europe would want.

Although Portugal managed under Carlos Quieroz have the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Simao and Deco – i do wonder if they can actually play ugly when it matters and i think they will finish third in this group. The game between Ivory Coast and Portugal on the Tuesday 15th June for me is one of the games that I won’t want to miss out on. For those interested it’s a 3 o’clock kick off, so for those going to work that day – start early and get your work done!!! Or watch it on the BBC I Player online!

In conclusion, I can’t wait for the tournament to start. It’s only 185 days away but everyone’s already talking about the permutations and drama that is going to happen. It’s probably too close to call as to who the favourite is with nothing seperating Spain and Brazil for me. England have given a fair draw and now it’s up to the players and staff to remain in-form over the current season and get in shape for the World Cup. Hopefully the final few weeks of the season will be kind to all the footballers who have a chance of going to the World Cup.

The last thing that we want, although I think some aspects of the media would want is another Metatarsal escapade that has haunted David Beckham, Steven Gerrard and of course Wayne Rooney over the last decade or so. As for top scorer at the tournament favourite it’s probably going to be Luis Fabiano or David Villa but watch out for Wayne Rooney who i boldly predict will score four times in the tournament! Providing he's there of course. Best player of the tournament always goes to a player that makes the World Cup final, and judging by the way they're playing at the moment Xavi looks a good bet for that title.

Thanks to Chris Onderstall for the photos that haave been used in this article, for more information and news on the World Cup check out his great website: http://www.shine2010.co.za/community/ which looks at the tournament from a South African perspective.

Posted by Adam Dennehey - SportTrades Report Manager

Strauss's England's Fanastic Summer Of Cricket - A Review

SportTrades Adam Dennehey Writing:

With the ICC Champions Trophy ending today, it brings an end to a fantastic summer of cricket for England. There have been ups and downs, some humiliating one day defeats but at the end of it, heroes emerged and the Ashes were regained in style at the Oval. As I am a massive cricket fan, I couldn't help but run through the summer.

That summer of cricket started way back in May when England under the full-time captaincy of Andrew Strauss beat a toothless West Indies team to retain the Wisden Trophy. Ravi Bopara at the time was England's man in form and he hit a century in each game to not only earn him plaudits but the team a 2-0 series win. It was just revenge for the hosts who bounced back from their disappointing defeat to the Windies in the Caribbean, where they lost the test series 1-0.

That series had it all, a laughable English batting collapse (51 all out) that gifted the Windies the win in Kingston. Other things of note were Strauss's 3 hundreds during the series, the match at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua being abandoned due to the dangerous outfield after a handful of over’s and the Windies saving 2 games due to England not declaring sooner than they should have. At the time the team looked disjointed, at least one bowler short and not exactly 'Ashes-Winning' material. However with the emergence of Bopara and Onions in those tests in May, the team looked fresh and was gaining backing in the press to regain the urn.

There were three 1-dayers next againgst the Windies which England won 2-0 with the first game being abandoned at Headingley without a ball being bowled. After those 1-dayers came the ICC World Twenty20 held in England in June. It was a thrilling competition to watch and must have been special as a player to take part in.

The competition was a success with high attendances at games and on television all over the world. Twenty20 cricket for purists of the game is seen as a threat and its no wonder when there's entertainment every over and a game lasts on average 2-3 hours. The winners of the tournament were Pakistan captained by Younus Khan and the spectacular all-rounder Shahid Afridi. England had a shaky start to the tournament losing to minnows the Netherlands in the first game. Stuart Broad could have won the game for England on his own in the final over of that match but somehow blew three run out attempts and dropped a catch of his own bowling. It was an embarrasing defeat but the team hit back to beat Pakistan to qualify for the next round. They slumped to a disappointing defeat to South Africa, but knocked MS Dhoni's India out in their second group game before falling to their old friends from the summer the West Indies on Duckworth-Lewis to go out of the tournament. The heroes for the Windies that day were Shiv Chanderpual and Ronny Sarwan who over the years have taken a liking to our bowlers, you just knew it had to be them to see the Islander's to a win.

Then in July came the Ashes. After much build up in the national press, the series everyone had been talking about finally got under way on the 8th of July. England scored 435 in their first innings, but Ponting's Australia scored 674/6 declared leaving England facing a tough task to draw the game. Going into the last day the hosts were still 219 runs behind with 8 wickets left and looked odds-on to lose the game at 102/5 at lunch. However gutsy batting from Paul Collingwood, Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann kept Australia waiting to win the game. When Collingwood was finally dismissed for a heroic 74 off 245 balls (that lasted 17 minutes short of 6 hours) the game looked to be won for the Aussies. However determined batting from last pair Jimmy Anderson and Monty Panesar helped gain England the lead and saw out the overs left to claim a draw. It was jaw-dropping to watch, I will hold my hands up and say that i thought we had lost that game. It will be the only time Monty's batting helps save England a game!

After that the teams moved onto Lords for the second test. England deservedly won this game. The foundations were built by Strauss and Alastair Cook's 196 opening partnership for England. Cook fell 5 runs short of his century but Strauss kicked on and made 161. Good batting from the tail helped the hosts get to 425 all out. Australia were surprisingly bowled out in just over 60 overs with only Mike Hussey reaching 50. With the game there to be won, England batted positively in their second innings and after good contributions in the middle order, declared leaving Australia 522 to win with 2 days left in the test. Although vice captain Michael Clarke and Brad Haddin batted bravely in a partnership together the game was England's. Good bowling from Andrew Flintoff and Swann bowled the Aussies out, the margin of victory being 115 runs. Was great to see Flintoff get man of the match for his great spell of bowling having announced that he was retiring from test cricket before the game, how he has only 3 of 5-for's in test cricket only god knows!

The third test was hit by the weather, but England still put on a good performance bowling out Australia for 263 in their first innings. Good batting particularly from Flintoff who hit a quick 74 helped get England a lead, but the weather and good batting from Clarke and Marcus North helped save the game for the Aussies. Australia carried the momentum from saving the game at Edgbaston by annihilating England at Headingley. England's first innings was dreadful and at lunch on the first day they were 72-5, which very quickly became 102 all out. Knowing that they only needed a good first innings score, Australia batted sensibly and compiled a total of 445 all out with North hitting his second century of the series. Trailing by 343 runs, England ever looked like saving the game and slumped to 120-7 at one stage. Although Broad and Swann hit half centuries batting at 8 and 9 they were all out for 263 with Australia winning by an innings and eighty runs. It was a shambolic performance up at Leeds and the media were well within their right (for once) to have a go at the team, as we lost inside 3 days which in test cricket is rather unforgiveable.

After that came the final test at the Oval. Ravi Bopara was dropped in favour of Warwickshire's Jonathan Trott who came in for his test match debut and delivered. It was a case of the selectors being spot-on in their decision to play Trott, who in the run up to the game wasn't even getting a mention in the media who were calling for Rob Key or Mark Ramprakash (at 39 years old) to be selected instead. Batting at 5 Trott scored 160 runs in the match, with a fine century in the second innings putting England in charge of the game. Strauss and Ian Bell's half centuries helped get England up to 332 in their first innings on an Oval pitch that wasn't easy to bat on. With Flintoff playing his final test, before the game there was much talk who was to be his successor as the all-rounder in the side - in this match we got our answer.

Freddie's successor looks to be Stuart Broad who bowled an inspired spell to help bowl out Australia for 160 in just over 50 overs. Although England got reduced to 39/3 early on in their innings, Strauss hit 75 to get England in control. Then Trott took over becoming the 18th England player on test debut to get a 100. Supporting England's new hero down the order were Flintoff in his final test innings, Broad and Swann as Strauss declared with England 373/9. That as we know left Ponting's side a mammoth record breaking 546 to not only win the test but keep the Ashes with over 2 days play left.

Though Australia's openers Shane Watson and Simon Katich hit 80 to start the innings, they fell quickly leaving Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey at the crease. The pair batted brilliantly on a wearing wicket adding 127 in just short of 40 overs before Flintoff ran Australia's skipper out with a direct throw onto the stumps. It was to prove to be Flintoff's last defining moment in a test match and no-one was more surprised with the run out than the man himself. Australia were all out almost 40 overs later with Swann and Steve Harmison getting in amongst the wickets as the Aussies lost by 197 runs as the Ashes were regained. It was a magical moment and even though i was sitting in my main room, i felt like i was at the ground it was a marvelous spine-tingling moment. After the horrors of Headingley i did not expect us to turn it around in the final game - but they did thankfully!

Australia and Ponting were to get their revenge over the forthcoming 7 ODI matches in the Natwest Series as they romped to a 6-1 victory. With Flintoff taking a break from the game due to surgery, England's bowlers struggled in containing the Aussie batsman. Cameron White, Callum Ferguson and Cameron White all shone with the bat whilst returning Brett Lee was too much for England's batsman to handle. England's only win in the series came at Durham in the final match of the series when they chased down 177 to win with 4 wickets left. It was a blow to end the summer on abit of a low for England, why seven matches were needed after the tests was a strange decision to be honest. Credit to the Aussies who did all they had to do though.

Barley a fortnight after that heavy series lost, England headed off to the ICC Champions Trophy. In a group that contained Sri Lanka, the hosts South Africa and New Zealand - England were not expected to qualify to the semi-final stages of the tournament, but they did!. Sri Lanka were beaten by 6 wickets, James Anderson and Graham Onions doing the damage with the ball as the Kumar Sangakarra’s team were bowled out for 214. Although Strauss and Joe Denly departed early on the middle order of Paul Collingwood, Owais Shah and Eoin Morgan clicked seeing England home by 6 wickets. Two days later England beat South Africa by 22 runs at Centurion. Batting first England reached 323-8 with 12 sixes being hit. Shah hit a simply stunning 98, Collingwood 82 and Morgan a brisk 67. Although the Proteas’ captain Graeme Smith hit a fine 141 he received little support from his team mates as a fine fielding performance saw England win the game. It was a classic ODI game and one without England's best batsman Kevin Pietersen whose wound on his leg was still healing after surgery.

With the team already through to the next round, there was no pressure on the team for their final group game against New Zealand. The Kiwi’s needed to win the game to stay in the tournament and on a poor pitch at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg they bowled out England inside the 50 overs and got the 147 needed to win the game. Fate declared that England’s opponents in the semi’s would be Australia and this time on a good pitch at Centurion, England’s top order failed. Only through good batting from Collingwood and Luke Wright and big hitting fromTim Bresnan were Australia set a competitive score to chase down. Although Onions struck early for England, Ponting and Watson hit unbeaten centuries as the Aussie’s won by 9 wickets. Today Australia have gone on to claim the tournament beating New Zealand in the final, Watson hitting another unbeaten century.

So at the end of a fantastic summer of cricket it’s Australia who have ended with the glory but the important thing this summer was for England to regain the Ashes. Heroes such as Flintoff and Steve Harmison look to be on their way out for England. But new ones such as Trott, Swann, Anderson and Broad have emerged and Adil Rashid is improving all the time. The future looks bright for England who will need to continue their good performances because in around 13 months time they will be heading to Australia where they will attempt to retain the Ashes – which will be a tough task. Roll on the winter tour to South Africa and whatever 2010 brings for the team!