Early thoughts on 2010

You know who's got good overseas players for 2010?

Leicestershire.

I'll come back to this in a few months time, but I fully expect Andrew McDonald, a team mate of Chris Rogers for Victoria, to star this year for them, while another Victorian, Brad Hodge, will be a great asset to their T20 side.

There's still no news on our equivalent for the twenty over sprint and John Morris is sensible in holding fire on his player for the competition.

With Glamorgan now sweating that Shaun Tait could be in the Aussie squad for the summer one day matches, and Worcestershire doing the same over Steve Smith, no one can it this stage be sure who will/can play for them this year.

I've not mentioned Pakistani players in this blog, but the fact that they are World T20 champions suggests their players have talents at this game. At present they're little better than Bangladesh at Test cricket, as their batsman, Mohammad Yousuf apart, play every innings like a T20 thrash. It appears strange that none of their players were pursued in the IPL and I'd be confident that it was a political, rather than sporting decision.

Part of their problem (and I can say this with conviction having spoken to Pakistani pals who play with our club) is that there is no consistency in the choice of captain or players. Lose a series and you lose the skipper's job. Good job my club didn't work on such principles...

It's the same with players. Abdul Razzaq, as he showed today, can be a player of brilliance when the muse takes him. Tight, reverse swing bowling, explosive hitting - it's a potent package that should make him a fixture in the side. Yet it doesn't. He is inconsistent, as spells in the county game for Middlesex, Worcestershire and Surrey have shown, but on his day he is a match winner par excellence

Kamran Akmal is another, Umar Gul a third and Rana Naved Ul Hasan, formerly of Sussex and Yorkshire a bowler who gets it into the blockhole at a lively pace and hits the ball a long way at the end of the innings. Indeed, the latter was good enough to play with distinction for Tasmania this winter in their Big Bash down under, averages 22 with the bat and 21 with the ball in the format - yet is out of their national side again. I saw him play for Yorkshire 2nds a couple of years back, returning from injury, and he hit the bowling to all corners of the ground at Denby. OK, it was mainly over cow corner, but he cleared the boundary on several occasions and completely changed the game.

Who is to say that one of these talented players may not be omitted from the Pakistan squad to tour England. Or that people like James Hopes or Phil Hughes might not miss the cut for the Aussies to see what other people can do? Hopes batted brilliantly for Australia last week in the one day international against West Indies and is another who is an excellent death bowler.

Be honest, if John Morris signed Travis Birt then one of those above turned out to be available, we'd all be a tad miffed, I think.

I still think our T20 specialist will turn out to be a South African, but there's other players out there who could do a very good job, depending on the vagaries of national selectors in the coming months.

So in the words of Diana Ross, I'm still waiting, just like the rest of you, and for very good reason.

See you soon.