I’m going to be careful what I say in this post as I don’t want to get into any trouble, but it is with regards to West Indian all rounder Marlon Samuels being given a two year ban for “receiving money, benefit or other reward which could bring him or the game into disrepute”.

The “dodgyness” of cricket was well exposed a few years ago when Hansje Cronje, the South African captain was found to have spoken on a number of occasions with bookmakers and fixed matches, and then the allegations came out for lots of players who were said to have given “information” to the bookies in return for some cash. A lot of the allegations weren’t for downright cheating (although I think a couple were), they were more for giving team and pitch information, and for giving their opinion on the upcoming games.

Whether or not the latter is actually wrong is probably another point, but the ICC quite rightly stamped down on the lot of it. If there are grey lines then people are always going to push the boundaries - much better to have it black and white as to what players can and cannot do, and in recent history it hasn’t been mentioned in the media or around the game of cricket (from a fan’s perspective).

For a while, cricket’s name was tarnished, as more and more info was uncovered - and people began doubting some of the great games of the past. It wasn’t a great time to be a cricket fan (although I was a bit too young to really understand the ins and out of it all).

Now it has reared it’s ugly head again with this allegation, and I really hope it doesn’t start off another round of bashing cricket, as it doesn’t take much for the common man in the street to hear a few stories and all of a sudden cricket is “dodgy” and its all we end up talking about.

I don’t know why the players do it after everything that happened a few years ago - maybe they don’t mean to and do it unwillingly and unwittingly, maybe the money is better than I can imagine - but it just doesn’t seem worse the risk. Samuels (appeal permitting), will miss out on two years of cricket now not just for his country but with new twenty20 tournaments popping up who’s to say he wouldn’t have been picked for an IPL side and make more money than by giving some information to bookmakers.

We wait and see whether the allegations hold true (although having given the ban the ICC must be pretty sure), and what effect this will have on the rest of the cricket world.

We’ve just had probably the hottest weekend of the year (at least in the sunny south), and now we are in the week of the start of England’s summer. On Thursday, the first test match against NZ starts off a summer of test matches, ODI’s and Twenty20’s against them and South Africa in what will hopefully be an entertaining summer of cricket.

Annoyingly, I have to be at work when the tests are actually on, I think I’m going to have to try and work something out for next year when the Ashes are on and I definately won’t want to be at work! I will still get to see a fair bit of cricket, and highlights on Sky so I won’t exactly miss out, but when the sun is shining and cricket is on the tele you either want to be there or watching it at home with the patio doors open and a glass of cold beer in your hand!

With Freddie gaining another injury, Hoggard and Anderson are probably fighting for one spot in the team on Thursday, and I would definately go for Hoggy. Anderson wasn’t really all that in NZ and doesn’t deserve to be ahead of Hoggy who has done the business without much fuss for quite a while. He took being dropped in NZ as well as could be expected, and he has started the season taking wickets for both Yorkshire and the England Lions against a NZ XI.

So with the team sorted, the weather dry, Sky Sports and TMS ready, everything seems set for a hot summer (please) of good cricket starting on Thursday!

Been a while since i actually posted about England test cricket it seems, but its time to start thinking about the squad that is going to be picked for the first test against NZ in a couple of weeks. There are undoubtedly a few questions which need to be asked, and some tough decisions made in the coming week before the squad is announced on Sunday.

There is talk that we will stick with the 6 batsman, 4 bowlers and a keeper formation that we have done since Freddie has been out injured. In the past he always gave us the freedom with him batting at 6 to still keep 4 bowlers in addition to him, but we’ve almost settled with the new look side, and barring injury during a game, it should be enough firepower with the ball to bowl sides out twice.

If we stick with the 6 batsman formation, expect no change from the side that beat NZ - Strauss still there at the top with Cook, with Vaughan, Bell, KP and Colly following. Despite the storming start to the season Ravi Bop has had, it would take an almighty shift of focus to pick him, or other outsiders such as Shah. If Vaughan has another poor series though, expect the calls for change to louden, as they will if someone like Strauss also doesn’t score big. Ambrose will keep the gloves in the test matches, he was tidy overseas and we’ll be hoping for more of the same.

It is with the ball that questions need to be answered. Sideshow Ryan and Monty P will obviously be there without any shadow of a doubt but who will join them? In NZ it was Broad, Anderson, Harmison and Hoggard to pick 2 from, but now we can throw Flintoff back into the mix as well. Freddie has been bowling for Lancashire since the start of the season and the talk coming through is positive. Whether his ankle can stand up to being one of four main bowlers is a question I can’t answer, but I know that if he is fit, I want him in the team. His bowling is hard, fast and aggressive, and even if his batting isn’t where it was a few years ago we won’t be as reliant on him if we put him at 7, or even 8 behind Ambrose.

So that would leave me with one spot to fill, and I would have it between Hoggard and Broad. I’m still not quite sure why Hoggy was dropped in NZ, and it wasn’t that long ago he was the mainstay of the attack. Picking him is the safe and maybe boring choice, especially in early season England where the conditions should suit him, and looking forward to the rest of the summer we’ll probably be crying out for his experience against the South Africans, but I can’t help but want to live on the edge a little and pick Broad. I don’t think I can rationalise it, its a hunch and a look to the future - and I’m glad I don’t have the final say!

I don’t expect everyone to agree with me on this, and maybe I havn’t questioned the batsmen enough, so let me know if you would do anything different!

Well the Telegraph Fantasy Cricket competition started its point scoring last week, so I thought it time to show who I went for and a brief reason why after my summary of some of the players a week or so back.

Batsman
Chris Rogers and Stuart Law are both excellent Australian batsman who should both score bags of runs pretty easily. Put them both in at 6 points and have a good foundation to the team, although I’ve now heard that Rogers is being replaced for the twenty20 tournament. Usman Afzaal was too cheap at 3 points to miss out on, despite every man and his dog choosing him. Marcus North of Gloucestershire has already shown points scoring ability with bat and ball, so despite not being a household name and 7 points, I chose him and stuck the captaincy on him so I expect big things now!

All Rounder
I was going with Rikki Clarke and ten Doeschate at 5 points each, but seeing the start of the season Boje has had and the fact he has the ability to score big in this game I changed my tactics a bit and stuck him in as a 7 pointer. And his double hundred over the weekend helped justify my decision! The other all rounder i went for is Azaar Mahmood from Kent. He may be 33, but at only 4 points he is a proven performer if he can keep fit.

Wicket Keeper
I went with Luke Sutton from Lancs here - despite a lack of time in the middle already I’ve taken a punt on someone a bit different at 5 points.

Bowlers
This is where i was most uncertain - there were a number of ways I could have played it, and I expect this to be where I’ll have to make changes. Saj Mahmood looked good value at 5, but being my third Lancs player I’m a little bit unsure, and he missed the games over the bank holiday weekend and I’m not sure why. Yasir Arafat always seems to do well in this country, so I stuck him in as a 7 pointer, alongside 6 pointer Kabir Ali. He seems to be a decent county pro and had ability to be talked about for England a few years back, but it’s a bit of a guess, and he has become injured as well! The final spot only came onto my radar whilst making my final changes - Saqlain Mushtaq from Surrey. I did have Pedro Collins from the same county in my team, but the thought of having a name as big as Saqlain at only 4 points was too big a temptation. Yes, being a spinner he may have to wait to get some wickets, and Schofield had such a blinding year last year getting in the team might be a struggle, but he has the potential to take big wickets so I took a bit of a gamble. It looks like Surrey will play him in the four day games and Schofield in the shorter forms of the game, so I might have to rethink my strategy here in a couple of weeks.

So there we have my brilliant title winning team! Well ok, maybe not, but it should do ok and my aim is to win the mini league that I’m in! Only problem is the injuries and lack of playing in the bowling department already! I won’t make any knee jerk reactions though as I was still top of the league when I looked last night!

As you will no doubt notice I have gone for a new theme for this site! I last changed it back in November 2007, but I was never that happy with the theme I chose and I was waiting for the right theme to come along. I think it has now, and I hope you find this one as easy to read and follow! If I’ve missed anything out, please let me know!

With New Zealand arriving in England a couple of days ago, its time to have a look at what might happen in the upcoming series. The information below has been written exclusively for cricket-blog.co.uk so I hope you enjoy!

The performances of the New Zealand (”Blackcaps”) Test side on English soil have been nothing short of abysmal. Of 47 tests played, New Zealand has won just 4, with England winning 25 and 18 matches drawn. The Blackcaps have faired slightly better in One-Day Internationals (ODIs), winning 5 matches of the 15 played, England 9, with 1 no result. In the recent tour of New Zealand, England recovered from one down to win the Test series 2-1, though lost the series of 5 ODIs 3-1.

ENGLAND v. NEW ZEALAND – SOME MEMORABLE MOMENTS

TEST MATCHES

First Test, Hamilton, 2008

New Zealand consigned England to one of their most ignominious defeats, winning the first Test by 189 runs. The Blackcaps declared on 177-9, leaving England needing 300 from 81 overs. Kyle Mills stunned the tourists with four wickets in twenty-four balls. At 36 for 4 at lunch, England`s batsmen attempted to salvage a draw, but were defeated by Chris Martin`s bowling, 3 for 33. England totalled a mere 110.

Ryan Sidebottom, 3rd Test, Napier, March 2008

Left-arm seamer Ryan Sidebottom led England to a commanding position with career-best figures. 15 wickets fell on the second day. At the close of play, England was 91-2, a lead of 176, Sidebottom`s figures being 7-47.

The Nottinghamshire bowler took his tally for the series to 23, the most by an England bowler in a series against New Zealand. Despite a stubborn fourth-innings performance by the hosts, the required total of 543 was beyond their grasp, England winning by 121 runs and the series 2-1.

Mike Atherton, 94 not out & 118, Christchurch 1997

Atherton “carried his bat” in a poor first innings of 228, trailing New Zealand by 118 runs. The bowlers got England back in the game, leaving them needing 305 to win. Atherton led the way with a match-winning century.

Dennis Amiss and Tony Greig, 1st Test, Trent Bridge, Nottingham, June 1973

All appeared well in the 1st Test, England amassing some 250 runs, and dismissing the tourists for 97.

However, in the 2nd innings, Geoff Boycott was dismissed after 2 balls, followed in quick succession by his high-order batting colleagues. This brought Tony Grieg to the wicket, joining opener Dennis Amiss. Grieg went on to score 139, whilst Amiss carried his bat for 138 no, England declaring at 325-8, a lead of 478. This was just as well, since New Zealand batted superbly in the fourth innings, with Congdon scoring 176 and Pollard 116. The tourists totalled 440, succumbing by a mere 38 runs.

ONE-DAY MATCHES

Memorable ODI performances in England / New Zealand one-day cricket include:

England Batting

David Gower, Brisbane 1982, 158

Bill Athey, Old Trafford, 1986, 142 no

Keith Fletcher, Trent Bridge, 131

England Bowling

Vic Marks, 5 for 20, Wellington Reserve, 1984

New Zealand Batting

Nathan Astle, Christchurch, 2002

Astle scored Test cricket`s fastest ever double century off 153 balls, with the second hundred coming off just 39 deliveries. He was eventually out for 222.

New Zealand Bowling

Most expensive: M.C. Snedden, The Oval, 1983, 12 overs, 105-2, 8.75 runs per over

Cricket online betting guide

Given New Zealand`s spectacular lack of success, England are overwhelming favourites for the 5 Test series, best-priced 2/7 with William Hill, New Zealand at 11/1 with totesport, and a drawn series at 5/1 with Stan James. The 5-match ODI betting is likely to be more open, though prices are not widely available.