Hi everyone,

I’m back with another blog about the England test cricket team, their defeat to Pakistan and their forthcoming tour of Sri Lanka.

England’s disastrous test series in the UAE against Pakistan has ended in a 3-0 defeat. Some of the stunningly bad facts for England include the team only reaching 200 in two of their six innings and only five players passing 50 in the series, only three of whom passed 60 and none reached three figures.

This feeble effort from the England batsmen cost the side the series and probably their spot as world number 1. If South Africa beat New Zealand 3-0 next month, which weather permitting they should do, the South Africans will surpass England at the top of the rankings.

In the first test Pakistan simply out played England, but with Monty Panesar coming in for the second and third match England’s bowlers excelled and gave the batsmen opportunities to win both matches. In the second test England should have comfortably scored the 145 needed to win and in the third test things would have been very different if England’s first innings had properly capitalised on Pakistan being bowled out for just 99.

I believe it’s time for change in England’s batting line up with a two test series in Sri Lanka next month and the four test tour to India in the autumn coming up on similar types of pitch to this series.
The Squad I would select for the test matches in Sri Lanka is:

Team
A Strauss (Middlesex, Captain)
A Cook (Essex)
M Carberry (Hampshire)
J Trott (Warwickshire)
J Taylor (Nottinghamshire)
S Patel (Nottinghamshire)
M Prior (Sussex, wicketkeeper)
S Broad (Nottinghamshire)
G Swann (Nottinghamshire)
J Anderson (Lancashire)
M Panesar (Sussex)

Reserves
I Bell (Warwickshire)
S Davies (Surrey, wicketkeeper)
D Briggs (Hampshire)
T Bresnan (Yorkshire)
S Finn (Middlesex)
* S Meaker (Surrey)
* I understand Meaker is unlikely to be fit if selected, so instead I’d go for:
J Brooks (Northants) or N Buck (Leicestershire)

My reasoning for these picks is:

Kevin Pietersen has showed time and time again he can’t play spin, especially left arm spin, with a tour to India coming up where spin will be key to the series it’s time to make a change and give someone else a go.

Eoin Morgan is a hard worker but he simply does not have the ability to play test cricket and a catalogue of failures illustrates this point.

Ian Bell has had a dreadful tour, but is a class player who averaged well over a hundred in test cricket during 2011. We know his abilities and we know that with preparation before the India tour he can sort things out and be a serious asset to England’s middle order again. So I would keep him involved with the squad as his experience can play a useful part in the dressing room.

The simple facts are that on spinning pitches against Pakistan, Pietersen, Morgan and Bell only scored 200 runs in the series between them at an average of 11. The highest score any of them made including the warm up matches was 39 and they all scored fewer runs in the series than Prior, Broad or Swann who all batted below the hapless trio.

Strauss, Cook and Trott were all inconsistent in this series but all of them played at least one genuinely good innings and all are likely to be better prepared for the India series. I would move Trott down to four though as without Pieterson or Bell England need some experience in the middle order.

As for the players I would bring into the team, if it wasn’t for injury Carberry may well have been in the team already as he has test match experience from England’s last tour of Bangladesh and after recovering he showed true quality at the end of the last county season. As well as a triple century near the end of the county season Carberry played a marathon innings to help Hampshire to the draw that denied Warwickshire the county title.

James Taylor is the best young batsman in English cricket since Alastair Cook, he has a small mountain of first class runs despite spending the beginning of his career with county championship wooden spoon side Leicestershire. Taylor hasn’t had a great tour with the England Lions, but every match on their tour has been limited overs and his game at this early stage of his career is best suited to the longer form of the game.

Samit Patel has made it almost impossible for the England selectors to ignore him, since joining up with the England Lions in Sri Lanka he has done everything asked of him, he has scored runs in his natural position of number 6 and when asked to open the innings he got a half century first game out. He plays spin well and bowls it pretty well too finishing with the best bowling figures in several matches during this Lions series, including dismissing three of Sri Lanka A’s top four batsman in the decisive game of the series.

Reserves

As I’ve stated before Danny Briggs is clearly the best of England’s next group of spin bowlers and his extremely impressive form in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka with the Lions should nail him down as back up spin bowling option.

I would stick with Bresnan and Finn, but I would have the last seam bowler there as a youngster as it’s unlikely they’ll be called on but it’ll be a great experience for them. Stuart Meaker is my preferred choice but if he isn’t fit Brooks and Buck have been by far the best quick bowlers on the Lions tour this winter.

The most important thing for me is that the England selectors look at form, experience and performance in the sub continent when selecting the test squad for Sri Lanka. It would be a big mistake to select based on a players perceived position in the pecking order, just because Bopara, Borthwick, Dernbach and Woakes had been in the One Day squad and near the test squad it doesn’t mean they should be next in to the side. I mention experience as some have mentioned youngsters Joe Root and Jos Buttler, whilst both are talented Root has only one first class century and Buttler hasn’t got enough experience of playing long innings to be ready for test cricket yet.

Pakistan

Pakistan had an excellent series against England but even playing in their preferred conditions they aren’t a finished side yet. In home series’ the key gaps to fill are an opening partner for Mohammed Hafeez and a new ball bowler to work with Umar Gul. Even with these two weaknesses covered off the team isn’t proven in overseas conditions, particularly in conditions where seam bowling dominates.

Personally I wonder if Pakistan may look for a seam bowling all rounder to pair with Gull in home tests as it seems pointless using quick bowlers who bat at eleven and bowl a dozen overs a match. For such short spells it must be possible to find someone who can at least do a competent job with the new ball and can then re-enforce the batting as they don’t have a natural number 8 in the side at present.

Despite this Pakistan are undoubtedly the most improved side in test cricket at present, I wouldn’t fancy their chances in away series’ in England or South Africa yet but I think they would have a decent chance away to India, Australia or Sri Lanka and I would expect them to comfortably beat the other test playing nations home and away. I would also say on current form only South Africa and India would stand a chance of beating Pakistan in sub continent conditions.

On other matters

As a Nottingham Forest fan I would like to express my sincere condolences to the family and friends of Forest owner Nigel Doughty who died suddenly a few days ago. Nigel was a genuine supporter of the club he owned and has put almost £100 million of his personal fortune in to the club, his judgement over managers may not always have been great but he always meant well and wanted so much to see Forest succeed, RIP Nigel.

On a lighter note I was delighted to see Ronnie O’Sullivan rediscover his incredible talent over the last week as he won snooker’s German Masters, this was O’Sullivan’s first ranking title for three years, he is one of the most exciting players in the history of the sport and it would be great to see him back on top form against some of the excellent young players that have come to the fore in the last three years.

I’d also like to congratulate the GB Women hockey team on their superb Champions Trophy performance which resulted in a narrow defeat in the final and the GB Women tennis Fed Cup team on their excellent week which has left them just one win away from World Group 2 qualification.

Lastly an update on my injury situation, I’ve finally had a big jump forward in my recovery and whilst I’m still getting some pain I seem to be a lot more mobile and I’ve completely stopped with pain medication. I’m hoping that I might be fit enough to attend one day of February’s England training weekend and both days of March’s, but I have to be careful and make sure I’m fit enough before doing so. This operation was the most painful thing I’ve ever experienced and it’s been a very painful recovery, so I’m desperate not to have to go through it all again.

By Dave Gavrilovic

www.twitter.com/DaveGavrilovic

As I’ve spent the last 10 days recovering from surgery to repair a large hernia tear I’ve had plenty of time to watch England and England Lions’ cricket tours against Pakistan and Bangladesh ‘A’ respectively.
I’m not going to follow those who suddenly think England are a rubbish team, but I do think England’s preparation and team selection have been questionable at the start of the series in UAE against Pakistan.

Let’s start with the strange selections, I was genuinely shocked when Nottinghamshire all rounder Samit Patel didn’t even make the squad. England prefer to play three quick bowlers in test cricket, but the ground in Dubai where two of the three tests in this series are taking place, are suited to spin bowling, so including Patel to bat at six would have seemed the obvious solution. Patel has a decent record for England in limited overs cricket both as a spin bowler and a batsman and he had a strong summer.

In contrast Eoin Morgan has struggled to settle in to test cricket and his lower than expected batting average has not been improved with a string of failures on this tour. So not only would Patel have added a significant extra string to England’s bow as far as bowling goes, there’s a good chance he would have batted better than Morgan too.

So we get to the team selection for the first test, Swann, Broad and Anderson had three places nailed down, which left Tremlett, Panesar, Finn and Onions competing for one spot. I am a fan of Chris Tremlett but he has been struggling with an eye infection that has by his own admission seriously hampered him and he took the least wickets of the four candidates in the warm up matches, yet it was he that was given the chance in the first test. Some would describe this as a gamble and as he didn’t take a wicket, had by far the worst economy rate of the quick bowlers in the England side and contributed nothing with the bat, the gamble most certainly failed.

The ground for the second test is supposedly a batsman’s paradise so if I was selecting the England team I would bring in Ravi Bopara and one of Finn or Panesar to replace Morgan and Tremlett. I don’t rate Bopara but with Patel not there and a lot of overs to bowl the Essex all rounder will offer the best support to the main bowlers and will struggle to bat any worse than Morgan. The choice of Finn or Panesar has to come down to whether the pitch is likely to take much spin, a question impossible to answer until England see the condition of the pitch.

I also mentioned preparation, I genuinely think nobody took the challenge presented by Pakistan that seriously, whether it’s the media or the ECB everyone seems to have under done their preparation. With the fact that England have rarely played in UAE and Pakistan have played there a lot in the past couple of years, a third practice match was surely needed.

A number of the England batsmen got little time in the middle and most of the bowlers only got one game, which gave very few players time to get used to conditions their opponents are very familiar with. The fact that a lot of the English media seemed shocked when Mohammed Hafeez came on to bowl after just five overs on the first day also shows a desperate lack of research, Hafeez has been opening the bowling for Pakistan in limited overs cricket for nearly a year now, so if they wanted to use spin early surely someone used to bowling with a new ball was the most likely candidate.

All of these errors certainly contributed to a very poor performance from England in the first test, but they can still avoid disaster. England don’t need to win this series to keep their world number 1 ranking, in fact if they lose the series 1-0 or 2-1 they will still be world number 1. This is worth remembering as England will have to improve massively by the time they return to Dubai for the final test if they are to have any chance of even drawing the series.

The main thing I’ve been watching on the England Lions tour is England’s next two spin bowlers, Scott Borthwick (Durham) and Danny Briggs (Hampshire), despite playing less first class cricket than his rival Borthwick has found himself catapulted into the England One Day and Twenty20 sides ahead of Briggs who remains uncapped. A lot of people, me very much included feel Briggs is at this stage significantly ahead of Borthwick and the Lions tour has very much backed up that opinion. Look at these total figures from the four matches in the One Day series that both players featured in:

Borthwick: 34 overs, 3-127
Briggs: 36 overs, 8-135

As well as the fact Briggs has by far the better total figures, he actually ended up with better figures than Borthwick in each of the four matches that featured both players.

Clearly this was no fluke, maybe now the England selectors will see what most cricket fans have known for at least six months, that it’s time to give Danny Briggs a go in limited overs cricket and that Scott Borthwick isn’t as good as the selectors wish he was.

As far as I’m concerned, I mentioned in my blog before Christmas that I was hoping to make a late bid to get in the England squad for this summer’s blind cricket Ashes series. I’ve now had the hernia operation I had been waiting for and am recovering well, although I am still experiencing significant pain and it’ll still be at least a fortnight until I can attempt to play cricket, do fitness work or even lift anything heavy, the medical people are pleased with the speed the wound has healed at and they expect no complications.

So I’m feeling quite positive that once the pain eases and I am able to train I will be fit enough to give myself a chance of being selected, but that’s as positive as I can be right now as there is still a very long way to go before I’m even in a condition to be considered for selection.

By Dave Gavrilovic

http://www.twitter.com/DaveGavrilovic

Hi everyone.

It’s been a while since my last blog and it’s been a busy year. I’m going to tell you about my 2011 and plans for 2012, but I’ll start by putting my journalist’s hat on and talking about Sports Personality of the year.

This year Sports Personality has generated more interest and debate than ever before, so I thought I’d rate the contenders in reverse order.

* * *

Shouldn’t have been nominated:

Joint 9th: Amir Kahn (Boxing)

Amir Khan is a talented boxer, but should beating one decent opponent justify his nomination? In my view no! Khan gave an opportunity to Paul McCloskey and he found the fight more difficult than most expected, eventually winning in the 6th round. A good win over Zab Judah increased Khan’s profile and gave him a second world title, the win was impressive but many argued Judah was past his best. His year then ended in defeat as he lost both belts to Lamont Peterson. The defeat was controversial, but a better, smarter performance would have meant a win even with inconsistent refereeing. If Kahn can grow up as a fighter and get his ego under control he could go on to big things and maybe even become as good as he already thinks he is! Khan’s a very good boxer, but he’s not SPOTY material in 2011.

Joint 9th: Andrew Strauss (Cricket)

I was shocked to see Strauss nominated and I certainly don’t agree with his nomination. Yes as England test captain he has done a terrific job, but England failed under his captaincy at the World Cup and his batting form dipped during the year. Strauss is a terrific cricketer, but he hasn’t had a great 2011 and only his performance as test captain got him any points with me.

8th: Andy Murray (Tennis)

Murray had a good year in 2011, but he didn’t move forward. He ended the year as world number 4, the same ranking he started it with. He is still to win a Grandslam, reach the Wimbledon final or win the tour championship. Five titles and reaching the Australian Open final is a big achievement, but for me just living up to your previous achievements doesn’t justify being nominated for SPOTY, let alone winning it.

* * *

Worthy nominees, not done enough to win:

7th: Darren Clarke (Golf)

Darren’s Open Championship victory was one of the sporting moments of the year, the emotion and the unexpected nature of it will live long in the memory. It was a brilliant performance, the reason I only rank Clarke 7th though, is that it was his only serious success of the year and he ended 2011 with the lowest world ranking of the year’s four major winners. It’s a shame SPOTY doesn’t give an award for One OFF Performance Of The Year, as Clarke would be hard to beat in that category.

6th: Rory McIlroy (Golf)

McIlroy took his first step to possible greatness in 2011 with his first major title, the US Open. I’m sure a lot of people will think Rory should finish higher than I suggest, but my reasoning is simple, McIlroy is a potential world great and once he adds consistency to his game we will look back on 2011 as a start for him, not a career year. McIlroy has ended the year as world number 3 and has put in a number of terrific performances, but if he had shown more consistency he would undoubtedly have reached world number 1, as amazing year as Luke Donald had, he didn’t win a major and his ranking points total could have been within McIlroy’s reach.

* * *

Great candidates, any of whom would deserve to win:

5th Dai Greene (Athletics)

Dai Greene put in a brilliant performance to add the 400m hurdles World title to his 2010 European and Commonwealth crowns. He also showed terrific consistency throughout the year to win the Diamond League title for 400m hurdles.

If Greene could win the Olympic title next year he would become only the 5th Britain in history to win all four major Athletics gold medals and many believe after his amazing year in 2011 he could achieve this. However I’ve only put him 5th, whilst Greene was excellent in 2011 he didn’t dominate his event and he is still to beat Kriss Akabusi’s time to take the British record.

4th Luke Donald (Golf)

If only for a major! Donald was brilliant in 2011 and his stats are eye watering, but without a major his excellent year didn’t become legendary. Luke took the world number 1 ranking and held it for more than half the year and still has a reasonable lead at the top of the rankings. He has become the first player in history to win both the US and European Order of Merit and has won every major international award whether from his fellow players, the fans, the media or tournament organisers. A staggering 21 top 20 finishes in 27 tournaments with just two missed cuts is the sort of record Tiger Woods would have been proud of when at the peak of his career, but it’s that illusive major title that means Donald is unlikely to win the SPOTY crown.

3rd: Alastair Cook (Cricket)

Alastair Cook had an unbelievable year in 2011, some of his best achievements include:
* 766 runs in the Ashes series, the second most runs by any England player in any test series in history.
* MBE: Cook was awarded the MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.
* ICC Test Cricketer of the year.

As well as all of this, Cook broke a number of other records and became England One Day captain. However he failed to make the World Cup squad and hasn’t broken into the Twenty20 team. An outstanding year, but for me he just falls short of the top two.

Runner up: Mo Farah (Athletics)

At the end of 2010 Mo Farah would have been likely to be described as a talented European athlete not capable of challenging the dominant African distance runners. At the end of 2011 Farah is rated as the best distance runner in the world after becoming 5000m World Champion and claiming the silver medal in the world 10000m final.

Farah became the first British man to win World gold at the 5000m and also won the 3000m at the European Indoor Championships as well as winning the New York City Half Marathon. He also broke The European record for the 5000m and the British record for the 10000m. These achievements earned Farah the European Athlete of the Year trophy, but he falls just short in my opinion for SPOTY.

Winner: Mark Cavendish (Cycling)

Mark Cavendish broke new ground for British Cycling in 2011. The man nicknamed Cav became the first Britain for 46 years to win the World Road Race title. He also increased his number of Tour de France stage wins to 20, moving him into joint 6th on the all time list. As well as winning the final stage of Le Tour in 2011 he became the first Brit to win the Green jersey for best sprinter. He also won the Olympic Road Race test event, was awarded the MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, won five Tour de France stages, two Tour of Britain stages and won at least five other races throughout the year.

I’m sure loads of you will disagree with me and we might find when the official vote takes place I am way off, but any event like Sports Personality is purely about individual opinion. For what it’s worth I’m tipping Lucy Ghaner (Cycling) to win the Young SPOTY crown and Novak Djokovic (Tennis) to win Overseas SPOTY.

If you want to find out live how the voting goes, Sports Personality of the year is at 8pm on BBC1, Thursday 22nd December 2011.

My 2011

I had a reasonably successful 2011 winning a couple of awards and breaking a record. My major success was winning an award from the Torch Trophy Trust for my voluntary work with British Blind Sport. The award was presented by Princess Alexandra and I was lucky enough to spend half an hour chatting with the Trust’s president Sir Bobby Charlton and his wife Norma. They were incredibly nice and down to earth and the event was a big success with a number of other very deserving award winners.

In blind cricket my club Northants Steelbacks struggled in the national league, finishing 7th. We also lost in the quarter finals of the national cup, but we did finish 4th in both the Twenty20 Cup and the national development tournament.

I was voted Northants’s Low Sighted player of the year as well as being re-elected as both Captain and Chairman. The record I set was becoming the only player to have played at Twenty20 finals day in all four seasons it’s been run.

Blind Cricket

Thanks to the excellent work of national blind cricket development officer John Garbett in 2011 more clubs and more players played the game than ever before. The national winners for the year were:

BCEW National League: Sussex Sharks
BBS Primary Club national Cup: Warwickshire Bears
Twenty20 Cup: Yorkshire VICC
National Development Cup: Berkshire Stags

The BBS national cup final was a big success at the County Ground in Bristol and plans are already well under way for 2012.

I must personally thank the Primary Club for their excellent support of blind cricket, without them the cost of travelling to away matches would be too much for most clubs to survive.
2012

In 2012 I will blog far more often, I am planning to try and make the squad for May’s blind cricket Ashes series, but a two month injury layoff has reduced my chances. Whether I make the squad or not I will update you on the build up for the series as well as giving my journalistic view on the major sporting events of the year.

By Dave Gavrilovic

www.twitter.com/DaveGavrilovic