Following on from the resignations of Michael Vaughan and Paul Collingwood as England's test and one-day captains yesterday, the ECB unveil Kevin Pietersen as successor to both.
The South African-born batsmen with the ex-pop star wife will also take over the running of England's Twenty20 side as the ECB go for consistency in all forms of the game. Oh, except for at wicket-keeper where Tim Ambrose stays in the squad for this Thursday's fourth test against the South Africans (but not Pietersen) at The Oval, but is replaced by Matt Prior in the one-day and Twenty20 squads. Confused? You will be.
With Vaughan out of the equation for now his place in the test squad goes to Essex's Ravi Bopara. Already a fixture in the one-day side, Bopara has been clearing the boundaries with ludicrous ease for Essex this season, and can also bowl a few overs here and there. Other than that it is an unchanged 13, with Stephen Harmison and Stuart Broad joining Bopara and the 10 who remain from the third test line-up.
While broadcasters everywhere nod their approval, they cannot help but add a note of caution on Pietersen's appointment. They fear that it will inhibit him as a batsmen, and that his performances and volume of runs might suffer as a consequence. Pietersen doesn't even deny that this is a possiblity (it would be hard to having seen it happen to Botham, Gower, Gatting, Hussain and now Vaughan), but instead just asks us to wait and see. Ok then, we will. In the meantime, let's just hope that Pietersen can inspire a little more adventure among the selectors, and finally put an end to the cosy Club England culture that has recently ruled.
On the field Middlesex continue to find ways to win one-day matches. They can only reach 203-9 in their Pro40 clash with Somerset at Lords, and owe their ability to get even that far to Owais Shah's magnificent 96 off 102 balls. Cue repeated discussion on Sky among Michael Atherton, Bob Willis, Paul Allot, Ian Ward and Graham Thorpe about why Shah was not given the nod for the test side ahead of Bopara. "You can't pick everyone." reasons Atherton.
In reply Somerset are abject. Former England batsmen Marcus Trescothick has always been the type to bludgeon his way to a few runs before needlessly getting out, and delivers again by miscuing one to Dawid Malan off the bowling of Tyron Henderson for 40. After that Somerset's goose was cooked as one-by-one they failed miserably to deal with the spin duo of Shaun Udal and Murali Khartik. Between them they took five wickets for 57 runs off 16 overs as the Sabres crumbled to a lamentable 160 all out.
Salford City Reds take the unusual step of publicly denying their interest in Paul Cooke. The former Hull stand-off has been left to sulk in the stands by Hull KR boss Justin Morgan, who cites issues with Cooke's lifestyle as the main factor. The presence of former Hull coach Shaun McRae at The Willows obviously fired the imagination of some local journalists, causing Football Director (or something) Steve Simms to dismiss any chance of Cooke joining the Reds. He did however drop a hint that Todd Carney, another man with a bad-boy reputation and a budding alcohol problem, could arrive after being ostracised from the NRL. Double standards? Nah.
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