Played Skipper

The short Test series between Australia and the nominal home side, Pakistan, has started quite brightly. From the moment when Ricky Ponting stuck the elbow into the over-celebrating Mohammed Aamer, it was obvious this was going to be a feisty one.

And so it's proved so far. The Pakistanis bowled really well to dismiss Australia for 253, Mike Hussey - inevitably - marshalling the tail in making an unbeaten 53 after Australia were rocking on 208/7 and 222/9. As my old man drummed into me from a young age, never judge a pitch until both sides have used it. Where the Pakistan seamers impressed, so did Australia's pace battery. Shane Watson and Ben Hilfenhaus had reduced them to 83/5 when Shahid Afridi walked to the crease. The captain of the side, you'd think he'd do the job that was required: build a partnership with Salman Butt, who was well in having opened up, and sticking around long enough with the tail in order to get as close as possible to Australia's total.

Perhaps it's indicative of the lack of Test match cricket that Pakistan have had recently or perhaps it's just that Afridi will never change, whether he's the captain or down amongst the infantry. Either way, blasting Watson for 20-odd in one over and eventually falling - slogging, as if that should come as a surprise - to Watson for 31 off 15 deliveries.

What Pakistan needed was a captain's knock. This wasn't a captain's knock, but it was this captain's.

Identity crisis

Early days in the domestic season, but Essex all-rounder Ryan ten Doeschate has emerged as an early contender for MVP award. He has a lot in common with much of the England limited overs side insofar as he was born in South Africa and is quite good in the limited overs formats. That has led to understandable suggestions that ten Doeschate could be next in line. Not so, says the Essex tyro in an interview with BBC Sport. "There's nothing English about me", he said, which is fair enough. However, he then goes on to add "I'm South African through and through".

Short memory, then, about his 26 ODIs and 9 T20 internationals for the Netherlands.

The Pietersen perplexity

In the latest Test match, against Bangladesh at Old Trafford, Kevin Pietersen again fell to what is fast developing as his nemesis, Shakib Al Hasan. Well set in the 60s, Shakib floated one up and Pietersen ran past, stumped while still a thrupenny bus ride up the wicket. If it was just Shakib, then it might not be so bad, but it's every left arm spinner that seems to have Pietersen in a tizzy. While there may be a technical explanation for his failings in this regard - I'm no coach and was similarly baffled by all left-arm bowlers during a less than glorious career - the more worrying aspect is his complete failure to apportion some blame on himself.

This all started in the 2009 Ashes series. At Cardiff, Pietersen attempted a ridiculous sweep off Nathan Hauritz which ballooned up, took the peak of his helmet and gave the close fielder an easy catch. The ball was three feet outside off. One run was about the best outcome such a high risk shot could have achieved, but it was brushed off as being "the way I play". So it is with his latest dismissal. There's a complete failure to take responsibility. On a relatively benign Manchester wicket, there was a big hundred in the offing. Pietersen is clearly the best batter England have and he could easily be the best - or at least close to - in the world if he cuts this nonsense out. Pre-meditated shots are fine, but if it suddenly becomes too risky, there must be a plan B. All the best have this in their locker. A Ricky Ponting may have lined up that shot against Hauritz, but would have pulled out when he saw how wide it was. A Sachin Tendulkar may have given Shakib the charge, but would have dropped the bat on it or stuck out a pad rather than go through with a wild hoik when it clearly wasn't there to be hit.

It's often said that a side's best batter plays at three. Pietersen has been steadfast in his refusal to go one up the order in the long form of the game. Perhaps this is as close as we'll ever get to an admission that he's still not mature enough to accept that responsibility.

Strictly Come Batting

IPL 3 is underway and I have an issue with it.

Season one got by on novelty value and season two consolidated that. Now, though, it just looks like old men having a knockabout with some kids they bumped into on a local field.

The big stars of IPL 1 were the recently retired Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist et al. Now, however, they've been out of cricket for three years and their presence seems all the more unlikely and incongruous as a result. The backers would have you believe that this is supposed to be the best players in the world playing against each other, but the best players in the world are, in large part, involved in internationals elsewhere and won't arrive for a while, so instead you have this retirement home atmosphere and a competition featuring some of the best ex-players in the world.

It's much like the issues I have with Strictly Come Dancing. If I want to watch dancing, I'd like to see it done by people who know what they're doing and are at the top of their game. So it is with cricket. I'm just not interested in seeing long-retired players trundle in for four overs.

Bangladesh's problem summed up in four words

Too many one-dayers.


Simple, really. Watching the Bangladesh batsmen struggle against England at the moment, the rashness of the shots is the key to it all. There isn't much opportunity for the Tigers to play the longer forms of the game domestically and nobody seems to want to play them in Test matches too often either. That creates a vicious circle and it looks difficult, if not impossible, to address it as the riches on offer in a game of wham-bam-thank-you-mam outstrip Test glory.

Mind, that Tamim Iqbal can play.

Ian Bell - an apology

In recent times, this website may have given the impression that England's number six batsman, Ian Bell, was some kind of liability. Headlines such as "Bottler Bell's making our life hell" and "Why is this ginger tosser still being picked?" may have given the impression that we thought the Warwickshire right hander was in some way unsuitable for the rigours of Test cricket.

In light of his last three knocks for his country, we now realise he is not only the most gifted batsman of this and any other generation, but a man of such solid mental character that he can make the strongest and hardest men in the world (Graeme Smith) to a jibbering wreck and we apologise for any misunderstanding caused.

For whom the Bell tolls

Paul Harris is not a great bowler. Yes, he's managed to finagle his way up to ninth in the Test rankings basically by boring people out. He doesn't turn it - once thought of as a rudimentary principle of spin bowling - apart from the odd one that grips, such as the one Paul Collingwood got in the current Test match. If any English players should know about his game plan, it's his former Warwickshire team-mates among which Ian Bell is included.

So why then does Bell stand and watch as a straight-onner crashes into his stumps? It wasn't even close to being a good leave, hitting middle and off about half way up. I've been a big supporter and defender of Bell in the past, but that dismissal was simply diabolical. Park cricketers would be furious with themselves for doing likewise and so it's with heavy heart that I have to agree with what has been received wisdom for some time now and admit that he's got to go. He'll forever be remembered as a nearly man. He still has the ability, but every time he goes out to bat for England now, he looks nervous and opposition bowlers are beginning to see him as a walking wicket. The balance of the side for the first Test in South Africa looked all wrong from the outset and another bowler is needed. Bell has to step aside.