Boring cricket post time… well boring to many, but interesting to me, so there! There has been a load of chit chat on the radio last few days about the state of English cricket, and most recently the selection of Darren Pattinson. So what’s going on?

Firstly let me introduce Darren Pattinson, born in Grimsby he soon moved to Australia when just aged 6. Of course not his own doing (at a guess). He then spent the next twenty odd years down under having BBQs and eating Kangaroo’s. My reaction to his call up was similar to that of Beefy and The Village Cricketer, little knowledge of who this guy was. A little research later and I found a lovely post by Jrod, who refers to him as Eyelids, and mentions, sarcastically, that he would be playing for England soon.

So why was he selected? Basically with the suspected injury of Jimmy Anderson and Ryan Sidebottom it was necessary to call up a second potential replacement bowler, Tremlett was already on the side lines to fill in if Sidebottom was injured. Strangely it turned out that Sidebottom wasn’t fit to play, so you would think Tremlett would fit in nicely. Nope, the nod went to Pattinson. Now I have no problem with bringing new players in, but I wonder why? The best logic I’ve heard so far is from Micky Vaughan who stated that his suspicions on the Headingley pitch was that he would need bowlers to pitch the ball up. Something I guess Tremlett has not made a career of doing, neither has Harmison or Jones (two other names who probably should be considered in any bowling discussion). Leaving one name, Hoggard, yeah the guy who has played at Headingley, for Yorkshire for god knows how many years. Surely he should have been the first name back on the team sheet? The utter madness seems shared by the Third Umpre, in this uber kudos post about all the problems the England team face.

I guess more ranting / confusion to come after the next test…