Ho hum...

Random thoughts today:

Paul Collingwood - how could he not recall the New Zealand player? He said that after consideration and with the benefit of hindsight, he made a mistake. Oh, really? If it takes him that long for things to compute, its little wonder he's banned for a slow over rate. It is quite staggering that a captain at any level would initially accept a wicket under those circumstances. At club level you'd never play the club again if they did that to you. I hope he realises how lucky he is during his 4-match suspension as such an action wasa disgrace to the game.

What's happened at Leicestershire? A bright start exceeded expectations, but they've really gone off the rails. Looking at their fans board on 606, the natives are getting restless and even Ackerman is criticising their recruitment policy, even though it is basically along the lines of "lets bring in people from South Africa". Same with Notts, their fans are a-grumbling because they have messed up the 20/20. The biggest problen was that Voges, while performing steadily, is no Hussey and Patel didn't perform with the bat. Nor for that matter did Cairns to the expected standard.

We were two good batsmen short of doing well in that competition. An overseas batsman and A.N. Other. The focus of the close season work this year has to be improving the batting. A reliable middle order bat and retaining Rogers (or signing someone comparable) is essential.
As long as whoever signs can play the 20/20. When you see that India and Pakistan are playing those heavyweights of United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong during our tournament takes some good playing options from the equation.

Finally, can we get back on track in the Championship. Yes, if Charl is fit and Rogers rejuvenated from his rest. Assuming the other seamers retain form and fitness and we can squeeze extra runs from Hinds and Smith than we've had thus far, we might well be up there come season end.
My team for the Essex game:

Stubbings
Rogers
Birch
Hinds
Clarke
Smith
Pipe
Wagg
Clare
Langeveldt
Doshi

My team for the Leicestershire game? Don't care quite frankly, the game is deader than the dodo. I hope we win, but let's get onto the real stuff!