Therefore on a dull, rainy afternoon I thought I’d put together a montage…

The other great thing about Cricket is playing Smacky Chest (yes Carl has a potty mouth so apologies for the language):

Today I wanted to talk a little more about CricHatter.com. A new Cricket (obviously) related site which I have recently set up.

What is it?
A site with Cricket news, editorials on the sport, individual teams or even a single player.

Why?
I love Cricket? There aren’t many sites doing a similar thing? It’s therapeutic? Take your pick…

Where is it going?
I hope to turn it into an advice platform for anyone who wants information about Cricket related matters. Ranging from tips on skills, technique or the game, to advice on equipment, clubs and tours.

Most recently I have been writing about my decision to buy a new Bat this season, there was The Decision… and The Purchase…

Check it out, let me know what you think, follow it on Twitter (@crichatter).

Do you love Cricket too? If you want to contribute let me know…

So here is the first test from Cardiff:

colinmercer: Finally there is an atmosphere again. We have got to get in their faces, as they have done to use for the last 20 yrs. #ashes

colinmercer: Top notch Freddie, thats who! Great catch #ashes

colinmercer: @pingudownunder we’ve been doing that for a while already, rain dance worked well yesterday #ashes

colinmercer: Katich should have gone, tough call for the umpire, Strauss / Swann would have referred that… #ashes #bringonreferralsystem

colinmercer: Monty appealing already #ashes

colinmercer: RT @trevslibrary: It’s Monty time! #ashes

colinmercer: @nickobeano convict colony is one of the better songs yes #ashes #barmyarmy

colinmercer: What is the song the army are singing? sounds like “i shagged matilda”, anyone? #ashes #barmyarmy

colinmercer: 10p to everyone following me if Pontings gets a golden #ashes

colinmercer: Has @Aggerscricket not seen @GeoffreyBoycott? I guess it might not be him… #ashes

colinmercer: @ElwoodGooner england are 46-1 #ashes

colinmercer: @thealanmercer what a surprise! ive taken the whole week off

colinmercer: Bopara off the mark in traditional fashion… #ashes

colinmercer: Simon Jones you have a very attractive lady friend… no wonder you’ve been ‘injured’ #ashes

colinmercer: Just heard about @bumblecricket – excited!

colinmercer: @nickobeano lots of work to go yet, wickets which have fallen have been soft #ashes

colinmercer: Fed up of Sky’s coverage of #ashes already, every 5 minutes there are adverts.

colinmercer: How can i listen to TMS when the only bands my radio has is FM and MW? #ashes

colinmercer: Great shot handsome broad #ashes

colinmercer: @ceejay2222 hehe, it would be cool to have #tdf on the laptop and cricket on tellly

colinmercer: Another wicket which can be accounted for by the thigh pad. a redesign is needed? #ashes

colinmercer: @Aggerscricket is that chappell or bruce forsyth?

colinmercer: @davidgryguc the guy chucking the red round thing at 94mph, who just dropped katich #ashes

colinmercer: Dear Australia, meet Freddie! #ashes

colinmercer: @BumbleCricket Cairns Fudge umpiring situation, OCA legislation is wrong. Give Wantage CC a shout out too, we need umpires!

colinmercer: RT @trevslibrary: It’s Monty time! #ashes

colinmercer: @nickobeano is all about waltzing matilda, thanks to @davetaprobane

colinmercer: RT @ECB_cricket: does anyone actually enjoy watching Katich bat? <– Lol at the comment and Lol at the source

Fun hey?

Follow me on Twitter for all the latest and greatest on The Ashes here.

No not the houses of Lords, I mean the cricket place, it was a Twenty 20 World Cup warm up day. Which basically meant two games, firstly South Africa vs. Sri Lanka, followed up by England vs. West Indies.

As you would expect at any cricket related event there was a certain amount of beer involved, fuelled by the fact that we were going for my birthday celebrations.

Both games were relatively anti-climatic, West Indies didn’t bother letting Gayle bat which is a shame as he is one of the most exciting batsmen in the world at the moment. England did have their full team out though, and also had them out during the gap between games to warm up. Its cool to get up close and have a little chat with them.

You can check out some pictures from the day here.

I’ve been neglecting this site a little bit over the last few days, honestly I have an excuse. I have been spending my time working on one of my other sites, the Wantage & Grove Cricket Club site.

Been playing around with the html code, the design and even some PHP stuff, get me hey! Have a look and let me know what you think, it is not fully working yet so bits and bobs are still missing unfortunately.

Photo show, as I realised I haven’t put many pretty pictures up for a while, here’s the view and excitement on approach:

Once inside, which for the record only cost $5 to get in, you see the insane size of the place:

A cauldron of sport! Can only imagine watching a test match with 100k people there etc. There are loads more pictures on Flickr here. The only play which I feel is worthy of note here is the little slideshow below. Andrew Symonds was playing for Queensland after being dropped from Australia team due to going fishing instead of showing up for a game. Watch him comically drop one…

Alastair Cook: Solid opening batsman, seems to get a start in almost every innings he bats. Once he matures he will turn all these sixties into hundreds consistently. I can also see him being a candidate for future captaincy.

Joe Denly: We need some new blood at the top of the order, he is young and has a lot of potential. I’m not 100% sure he is the right man for the job, but a left / right combination is always preferable, and I’m fed up of Strauss not performing.

Michael Vaughan: Best captain in International cricket at the moment, needs a break from Test cricket so he can go get some runs in county cricket. Whether this will happen anytime soon is doubtful. You would normally like your number 3 to be averaging 50+, but I see his captaining being worth 10-15 runs on the average.

Kevin Pietersen: As good as we have got. When you need runs mr KP always seems to step up. Look at the first test versus South Africa. Only problem KP has is his temperament, he is likely to totally lose his head once in a while. An acceptable compromise to have him in the team if you ask me.

Ian Bell: Classy batsman who is the best in front of bat close fielder we have. Seems to suit the number 5 role more so than the number 3 which he had a few years ago. Maybe it’s a pressure thing?
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Andrew Flintoff: Have faith in him please! In a tight spot with the ball this guy will make things happen. Even when he is bowling around 85mph and Harmy is flying in at 92mph, the batsman still complain that Flintoff seems to be the quickest bowler we have. Its all about hitting the deck hard. I have him batting at 6, because we all know he is good enough, just needs some match practice and a spell of good fitness.

Matt Prior: Third or fourth best wicket keeper in the country, so I hear you ask what is he doing in the team? Well he can bat, and he can bat well. If we are going to go with 5 bowlers then we need Prior in to strengthen the batting line up. The runs he gets will in the end make up for any bloopers he makes with the gloves on.

Stuart Broad: Over the next 10 years this guy will take more wickets than anyone in the team, possibly even the world, fitness dependant of course. He is also very competent with the bat, at the moment he is top of the batting averages (70) for the tests vs South Africa. A hardworking individual with a good manner, and appears to love the game.

Ryan Sidebottom / James Anderson: This is totally down to the conditions. They are both potential match winners, I think Sidebottom would be in ahead of Anderson, due to being something different. Left hand bowlers are somewhat of a rarity so facing one is always going to bring up new challenges. Problem with Anderson is his consistency, he will take 5 wickets and be unplayable in one innings, and then bowl like a drain in the second. Sidebottom is however relatively slow, by test cricket standards. Compare him against Brett Lee, who would you rather face?

Monty Panesar: Spin spin spin, you need someone to bowl all day from one end in some circumstances and Monty is the man to do it. Probably the most excitable member of the team, loves a good appeal. Starting to field like a real cricketer (much to the amusement of the crowd) and is a determined batsman. Along with KP, he is the first name on the team sheet.

Simon Jones: If he gets properly fit again then he is a great asset to any team. Quick, attacking and dedicated. Very much a tail ender though.

Who else did I consider, and who are the next line of reserves. Batting wise it would be Strauss and Collingwood. Collingwood has done some of the work to prove himself a capable batsman but there is a long way to go still. Strauss seems to be better when he is popping in and out of the team, the tests he plays in he scores big. Maybe this is a problem with central contracting?

It wont be long until Harmy and Hoggard are going to be knocking at the door again. Twenty 20 finals day Harmy was bowling quick, 92/93mph gives a different meaning to quick. Get rid of the yips and you have a chance. Hoggard is experienced and knows what to do, maybe the body is fading.

Thoughts?

Cricket has been played for hundreds and hundreds of years, the first official references dates back to 1550, however it is suspected that the sport runs back earlier. In the last 15 years, one of the stumps has changed. How I hear you desperately asking… blame TV, but they have hollowed out the middle stump and added a little camera. This is the easy bit, its running the cables under the ground to get the signal back to the van that seems tough. They just showed the groundsman / technician (this is where sound would have been helpful) cutting cable runs, and digging holes to hide the wires. All seemed like a lot of effort, is the view it offers worth it? You decide…

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…