Bangladesh agree to day-night Test in England

The MCC would like to host the Test now with its brand new floodlights in place at Lord's © Getty Images

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has agreed to the ECB's request to appear in the first-ever day-night Test during the team's tour of England in May-June next year. However, the ICC has not yet cleared the idea and its approval will be subject to suitable equipment being developed for the purpose.

The idea was first proposed by the MCC during its World Cricket Committee meeting at Lord's in July as a way of making the game's longest and oldest format more appealing. The other proposals included the use of pink balls and a World Test Championship.

The ICC has made it clear that though the concept of day-night Tests was discussed by its cricket committee, no decision has been taken yet. "The ICC cricket committee had last year agreed in principle that the notion of day-night Tests should be investigated," an ICC spokesperson said. "For now, we are happy for members to try this at the domestic level first and if it proves successful, the cricket committee would consider recommending this on a trial basis at the Test level."

Apparently, there are a number of key issues related to the concept that are still being discussed: the colour of players clothing, whether the suggested pink balls retains its colour or needs to be changed frequently due to discolouration or wear and tear, to what extent would batting, bowling and fielding conditions vary and so on.

An MCC spokesman confirmed to Cricinfo that the World Cricket Committee would meet with the ICC in November. The future of Test cricket is on the agenda, and within that floodlit Tests will be discussed. "We are very keen to help in any way we can," the spokesman said, "and have been continuing with our trials of coloured balls to see if it will work on television."

The MCC could have a dual role in this process: as well as being fully behind floodlit Tests. Lord's could be the ground to host the match. One of the Bangladesh Tests is currently allocated to Headingley; the other is part of the bidding process, with Lord's in the running to hosting it. "We would like to host it and we have our brand new floodlights," said the spokesman.

The future of Test cricket has been the subject of debate within the ICC over the last year with the concept of a Test championship initially gaining ground. But the idea was opposed by the India and England cricket boards who did not find merit in sharing their substantial TV revenue that would have gone to a common pool.

India and England have subsequently backed the idea of day-night Test cricket as a way of taking the format forward amidst the rise of Twenty20 cricket. However, the ICC, which is finalising its Future Tours Programme post-2012, is yet to arrive at a decision on the matter. The ICC's executive board meets next in October, when the issue is likely to be discussed again.

Herath sets SL on course for clean sweep

New Zealand 234 and 182 for 6 (Flynn 50, Herath 4-73) need another 312 runs to beat Sri Lanka 416 and 311 for 5 decl (Sangakkara 109, Jayawardene 96)
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

	Mahela Jayawardene fell just four runs short of what would have been his 10th century at the SSC © AFP

New Zealand began their last innings of this series needing 494 to win or, more realistically, over four-and-a-half sessions to bat out a draw. They were again three down for less than 100, on a track whose bounce and spin suited Sri Lanka's spinners, and failed to forge partnerships. Sri Lanka remained the superior team, batting and bowling with far more skill. If Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene frustrated New Zealand in the morning, then Rangana Herath's wiles left them haemorrhaging in the evening.

Thrown the new ball after one over of spin from Tharanga Paranavitana, Dammika Prasad's first six overs went for just 16 and he knocked back Tim McIntosh's off stump after a fatal decision to shoulder arms. Delayed until the 15th over, Herath came over the stumps and with his first delivery got Martin Guptill to edge. Ross Taylor counter-attacked briefly, sweeping and slogging, before Herath lured him into another nick with a classical left-armer's turn and bounce.

Daniel Flynn, who had struggled to buy a run so far on tour, handled the spinners well for a period and played with an ease the openers struggled for. He mixed caution with opportunism, not shying away from using his feet to drive and cut. Yet his too was an aborted innings. Having raised his first fifty of the series in 110 minutes, Flynn became Herath's third victim, playing back when he should have gone forward. Herath was outstanding today, outdoing Muttiah Muralitharan for accuracy and turn.

Brendon McCullum's temperament has been questionable all tour and he was very nearly out third ball, top-edging a slog to deep midwicket where Thilan Thushara, covering a lot of ground, dived bravely but in vain. It didn't hurt much, as McCullum swung at Murali and edged onto his stumps. Jesse Ryder, uncharacteristically dropped by Prasanna Jayawardene down the leg side on 7, batted with assured footwork. He seemed up to the task of batting for time, and sensibly too, for the most part, eschewing the showy strokes he is prone to indulge in. But he was out lbw to Herath for 38, attempting to sweep.

New Zealand's almost hopeless position owed significantly to another morning of remorseless accumulation, when Sangakkara and Jayawardene further deflated their spirits. Sangakkara put in his first century of the series, and sixth at the SSC, extending his stand for the third wicket with his good mate to 173. Sangakkara's lack of runs in Galle had hardly told on Sri Lanka so far, but rarely does a home series roll by when he doesn't score a century. Having done the hard work yesterday, he reached his goal today.

It was an innings that sported an array of strokes - a full-throttle swivel-pull off Daniel Vettori; three scorching drives off Ryder, completing his follow-through while on his knees; and a straight drive off Iain O'Brien. Typically, the drives off the front foot were methodical. In fact, that flowing bent-knee drive past cover has become as customary for Sangakkara as the nudge off the hips for one. Sangakkara was cheered though the nineties by local fans and when he forced Jeetan Patel off the back foot to deep cover, after roughly three-and-a-half hours at the crease, he punched the air as the crowd clapped in delight.

There was another large innings panning out at the other end as well. Jayawardene was again in his element on a pitch and against an attack which would have reminded him of his Indian Premier League days. He skipped down and lofted Patel for six on the third ball of the day and repeated the shot off Vettori for four, then settled as he eased past fifty. Though he hit a number of trademark drives off the seam bowlers, front foot right to the pitch and head low as he caressed the ball through the covers, Jayawardene was overall cautious.

Sangakkara advanced and edged Patel to slip for 109 - with Sri Lanka's lead on 444 - to bring Thilan Samaraweera to the middle. Sri Lanka had pushed back the declaration before lunch to allow Jayawardene reach his tenth Test ton at the SSC but it wasn't to be. After the break, O'Brien, for the second time in the match, dismissed Jayawardene in the nineties. The new ball was taken shortly after lunch and Vettori swiftly dismissed Samaraweera lbw for 25, then looked on as Taylor spilled a catch off Chamara Kapugedera. A few moments Taylor redeemed himself by holding onto a poke from Jayawardene.

From here, Sri Lanka continued to confound New Zealand, ensuring nothing bar rain would come in the way of a 2-0 series win and a prolonged stay at second place in the ICC Test rankings.

Bowlers help Sri Lanka keep advantage - Sri Lanka v New Zealand, 2nd Test, SSC, 2nd day

New Zealand 159 for 5 (Taylor 70*, McCullum 5*, Thushara 2-37) trail Sri Lanka 416 (Samaraweera 143, Mahela Jayawardene 92, Sangakkara 50, Patel 4-78) by 257 runs

	Thilan Samaraweera scored his fourth century of the year to hand the momentum to the hosts early on © Associated Press

The contest veered between bat and ball, dominating certain passages and providing the limited crowd with entertaining viewing, but, at the end of the day, New Zealand had their backs firmly to the wall.

The match was intriguingly poised with Sri Lanka at 295 for 4, but Thilan Samaraweera, with help from Chamara Kapugedera, powered Sri Lanka into the box seat with a breezy 72-run stand. Then the tail imploded - five wickets went down for 27 - to let slip a position from which they could have batted New Zealand out of the game. Samaraweera's fourth century of the year, though, guided the home side past 400, and the Sri Lankan quick bowlers struck thrice early to grab back some of the momentum the visitors had seized.

A limp reply from New Zealand, which included the haphazard dismissal of Martin Guptill, left the middle order with too much. Dammika Prasad, taking the place of Nuwan Kulasekara, struck with his first ball to get Tim McIntosh, though replays suggested he was lucky. Thilan Thushara needed no such help in getting Daniel Flynn to nick one that pitched outside off stump and held its line.

Guptill showed brief resilience, playing some cracking on-side strokes, to race to 29 from 26 balls. Then Thushara tested him with a series of bouncers. Guptill hooked one for four. The next ball reared into his ribs and he gloved it to fine leg. A man went out to deep square leg. Three in a row followed and Guptill was visibly torn between leaving or pulling. Then he got another short one and fell for the trap, getting a top edge straight to the fielder placed back. On air, an incensed Danny Morrison called it "brainless cricket".

Ross Taylor led a passage of recovery with Jesse Ryder, adding 85. Taylor took his time, playing out 31 deliveries for 10, before opening up with some aggressive shots through the off side off Prasad. He survived an extremely tight call on 30 against Muttiah Muralitharan but continued to sweep the spinner. He was dropped on 56 off Murali, but was left looking from the other end as spin accounted for Ryder, popping to short leg, and Jeetan Patel, edging to slip.

Unfortunately for New Zealand nobody could match Taylor's defiance and shot selection and the tourists found themselves struggling for survival. New Zealand had brought themselves back into this match well after lunch after Samaraweera made 500 look a distinct possibility, but their top order failed to reciprocate.

Without Samaraweera, Sri Lanka would have really struggled. Iain O'Brien put New Zealand on the right track with a good first spell of quick bowling on an unresponsive track, dismissing Mahela Jayawardene when a hundred seemed inevitable, but the visitors again sat back to allow Samaraweera flourish. A sumptuous on-drive for four - taking him past 1000 Test runs this year - set the tone for his innings along. The eighties were a blur as Samaraweera unfurled slow-motion pulls past square, spiffy drives past cover and a couple of deft dabs.

Samaraweera slowed down after Jayawardene's dismissal, facing 14 balls when on 99, but eventually reached the landmark, after 277 minutes at the crease, with a push between cover and point off Martin. The next ball was hooked for six, a release of adrenalin. A classy drive past cover followed off Jacob Oram, who continued to bowl without pace or menace, after which Samaraweera clouted Jeetan Patel for consecutive fours, unafraid to go over the top. Kapugedera, who enjoyed a life on 9, eased his way to 35 before miscuing to mid-off four minutes before lunch.

New Zealand came out after the interval and turned in their best passage of the match. Chris Martin began the session by bouncing Prasanna Jayawardene, who top-edged to long leg. Then Patel struck, first getting Prasad to poke to slip and trapping Herath lbw next ball. His fourth victim was the man of the moment, Samaraweera, who gloved a reverse-sweep to depart for an excellent 143.

It was an inning of insatiable determination and skill, and New Zealand - like Vettori had hoped - didn't manage to learn from it. Taylor will need much of the same determination shown by Samaraweera to help New Zealand leave Colombo without suffering the sort of crushing defeat they experienced here in 1998.

England regain Ashes with huge win

England 332 and 373 for 9 dec beat Australia 160 and 348 (Hussey 121, Ponting 66, Swann 4-120) by 197 runs

Andrew Flintoff celebrates his run out of Ricky Ponting that sparked England's march to the Ashes

Amid scenes of delirium unwitnessed in South London since the unforgettable summer of 2005, England's cricketers reclaimed the Ashes on a tumultuous fourth afternoon at The Oval, as Australia's brave resistance - led by a century of incredible mental fortitude from Michael Hussey - was unpicked, wicket by wicket, minute by minute, until, at 5.47pm, and with an expectant crowd willing on the moment of glory, Hussey prodded Graeme Swann to Alastair Cook at short leg to spark the celebrations into life.

At the moment of victory, all of England's players rushed into a huddle on the edge of the square - all except for one, that is. In his moment of Test retirement, Andrew Flintoff's first instinct was to seek out and console the crestfallen centurion Hussey, whose 121 from 263 balls had given his side a hope of salvation, but whose careless running between the wickets during a fraught afternoon session had been the single biggest factor in their demise. By calling for the single that led to the run-out of his captain and resistance-leader Ricky Ponting for 66, Hussey is unlikely to recall this particular innings with any fondness whatsoever.

Inevitably, it was Flintoff who stole the show from the Australians. He could not be the tub-thumping batsman of old in this series, while his bowling - though thunderous at Lord's - faded cruelly as the concerns about his right knee began to mount. But as a presence, and as a man who can make things happen on a cricket field, his spell has scarcely diminished. In a moment that is sure to be replayed for years on end, he gathered a firm clip from Hussey, steadied himself as Ponting hesitated fatally, then unleashed a fast, flat, unerring swing of the arm that plucked out the off stump with Ponting a foot short.

Though the decision went to a replay, Flintoff was in no doubt. He raised his arms in his now-habitual Kodak pose, and waited to be enveloped by his jubilant team-mates. It was a moment eerily reminiscent of Gary Pratt's series-turning shy at Trent Bridge in 2005, when Ponting once again was the fall guy, and it uncorked the tensions in the crowd as surely as the champagne was uncorked in England's dressing-room some three hours later. It brought to an end an unnerving stand of 127, and it shattered Australia's collective will.

Five balls later, their batsman of the series, Michael Clarke ran himself out for a duck after a clip off the pads ricocheted to Andrew Strauss at leg slip, and Australia could not recover their poise. Though Hussey was badly dropped by Paul Collingwood at slip on 55 off Swann, in Swann's next over, Marcus North dragged his back foot out of the crease as he swung at a big ripper, and Matt Prior, having gathered well high to his left, flicked off the bails almost as an afterthought. Their target of 546 had become a distant figment of their imagination, and at 236 for 5, their only remaining hope was to bat out the final four sessions of the series.

Brad Haddin chose pugnacity as the means to reboot Australia's innings, and he signalled his intent with two fours in his first nine balls, including a fizzing cover-drive as James Anderson overpitched. But Anderson might have dismissed him three times in a single over, including a regulation clip to short midwicket that was spilled by the substitute, Graham Onions. As he and Hussey took their seventh-wicket stand to 91, an ever-anxious crowd began to shuffle in their seats. On 34, however, his luck finally ran out, as he advanced down the track to Swann and picked out Strauss with a lofted flick to deep midwicket.

It was to be the game-breaking moment. Strauss, usually the coolest of characters in the field, celebrated euphorically as The Oval erupted once more, and seven balls later, the end truly was nigh. Steve Harmison - hitherto muted on a pitch that did not suit his style - extracted enough life for Mitchell Johnson to fence to second slip, where Collingwood, to his relief and joy, finally held on. Then, when Peter Siddle played around his front pad to lob a simple chance to mid-off, Harmison had his second scalp in the space of 12 balls.

	Mike Hussey was last man out for a magnificent, if in vain, 121

That quickly became three in 13, as Stuart Clark fenced nervily to Cook at short leg, and though Hilfenhaus averted the hat-trick with a stabbed defence straight back down the track, there was no longer any way to stem England's tide of emotion. With Harmison stalking to the crease with a predatory menace unseen in Ashes cricket for four long years, the crowd finally dared to proclaim the Ashes were coming home. Fifteen balls later, they were.

After the ease with which Australia's openers had pushed along at four runs an over on the third evening of the match, England's day of destiny had dawned with more than just a frisson of anxiety in the air. But Swann claimed the initial breakthrough at the end of his second over, tweaking a succession of sharply spinning offbreaks past Simon Katich's edge, before nailing him plumb lbw with the arm-ball.

Swann bounced for joy in the middle of the pitch as a massive roar of relief and ecstasy erupted from the stands, but almost immediately the fervour morphed into a respectful standing ovation for the incoming Ponting, in his 136th Test and almost certainly his last in England after four memorable Ashes tours.

Before he had faced a delivery, however, England had struck again, as Broad this time hurried Shane Watson on off stump and beat the inside-edge of his defensive prod. Watson did not seem best amused at the decision, but replays suggested there was nothing wrong with the appeal at all. For all of Watson's impressive form in five innings at the top of Australia's order, it was nevertheless the fourth time this series he had fallen in such a manner. Food for thought as he works on his new career as an opener.

At 90 for 2 and with a jittery Hussey at the crease, England swarmed onto the offensive, with Swann camping four men around the bat at all times and at one stage sending down 28 dot balls in a row as Hussey prodded and smothered with desperate determination. At the other end, Ponting's eagerness to play the pull was tempered by his wariness of the vagaries of the wicket, although whenever he was tempted, he executed the stroke with the mastery that has made it his calling-card for the past decade.

In the first over after lunch, Ponting laced a first-ball full-toss from Broad through the covers for four, then tickled Swann around the corner to bring up a battling and brilliant half-century from 76 deliveries. Broad subsequently received a warning for running on the pitch to deepen the crowd's growing concerns, who had just seen Collingwood at slip parry a rare Ponting edge with his left boot. But then up popped Flintoff, and once he'd had his say, there was no holding back the inevitable.

Dilshan ready to take up opening role

Sri Lanka are likely to go in with a new opening combination for the first Test against New Zealand beginning on Tuesday in Galle. Having sat out the limited-overs leg of the recently concluded home series against Pakistan due to injuries, Tillakaratne Dilshan is likely to feature at the top of the order on his return.

Dilshan, 32, had fractured his right index finger and underwent several stitches above his left eye on the second day of the third Test against Pakistan at the SSC. But following his 68 off 60 balls while opening for Sri Lanka Cricket Development XI against the New Zealanders in the tour game in Colombo, he is likely to replace Malinda Warnapura as Tharanga Paranavitana's opening partner.

"The selectors told me to have a knock here [in the tour match] as opener and I got a great opportunity to bat in the middle facing the new ball," said Dilshan. "It was good practice for me I am now ready for the Test match.

"The coach and [Kumar] Sanga[karra] discussed with me and they wanted me to come up the order as an opener to balance the side. I said if you want me to open I will do it. It's a new position for me in Test cricket. It's not easy like in the one-dayers, but I will try to deliver 100%. I am ready to accept the challenge."

It will be the first time Dilshan will be opening the innings during his 55-match Test career, during which he has scored 3166 runs at 41.11. The pressure will also be eased off as he would no longer be required to don the wicketkeeping gloves (as he did in the Test series against Pakistan) with Prasanna Jayawardene having recovered from a finger injury.

Dilshan has continually strengthened his reputation as a limited-overs specialist, which has fetched him many accolades, the most recent being named Man of the Tournament at the World Twenty20 in England. However, he was keen to repeat the success in the longest format as well.
"I am not worried that I am playing in a Test but play in my own positive way and try to score runs off every ball," Dilshan said. "I am not going to change my gameplan because it is a Test. I will try to play to my strengths.

"I've been in good form in the last one-and-a-half years and I will try to continue that form. If the ball is in the right area to hit I will go for the shot straight away. I am not thinking whether it's one-day or Test cricket and whether it's the first over, it doesn't matter."

Trott likely to replace Bopara

England's selectors are ready to put faith in the men they put forward for the fateful fourth Test at Headingley, and are believed to have overlooked the claims of Mark Ramprakash and Robert Key in favour of Warwickshire's Jonathan Trott, who just missed out on his Test debut in Leeds last week. Trott is expected to slot into the side at No. 5, with his county team-mate, Ian Bell, promoted to No. 3 in place of Ravi Bopara, the only anticipated batting casualty after a humiliating innings-and-80-run debacle.

England's four-man selection panel - Geoff Miller, James Whitaker, Ashley Giles and Andy Flower, plus the captain, Andrew Strauss - met for five hours at Trent Bridge on Friday, where they witnessed Bell comprise a timely 126 to secure a draw for Warwickshire against Nottinghamshire. Coming off the back of Trott's 121 in the same innings on the previous day, it was enough to convince them that wholesale changes will not be required ahead of Thursday's Oval showdown, where England will seek the comeback victory they need to reclaim the Ashes.

If the reports are confirmed at 9.30am on Sunday, when the squad is officially announced, then the selectors will have shown an admirable determination not to be hustled into "panic" measures after a week of intense media speculation. Strauss and Flower were understood to be particularly keen not to jettison their entire Ashes strategy after one poor game. Nevertheless, the decision to pitch a Test debutant into England's most eagerly anticipated fixture for four years, alongside Bell, who bagged a pair in the corresponding match in 2005 and whose temperament in pressure situations has often been shown to be suspect, will undoubtedly leave them open to further scrutiny.

Bell's average at No. 3 is a lowly 31.00, set against an overall figure of 39.84, suggesting he is a player who prefers to react to events on the pitch rather than set the agenda. Trott, meanwhile, has been withdrawn from the England Lions team to face the Australians in a two-day match at Canterbury starting today, a sign that the selectors don't want to give the tourists an early look at him. Either way, both men undoubtedly benefited from the presence on the selection panel of Giles, who serves a duel role as Warwickshire's director of cricket.
The Headingley fall guy is expected to be Bopara, who has managed 105 runs in seven innings so far this series, having recorded three Test centuries in succession against West Indies earlier in the year. The selectors took soundings from within the Essex dressing-room to assess Bopara's frame of mind, and a morale-boosting 52 not out for Essex at Lord's on Friday is unlikely to earn him a reprieve.

"Every batsman has been through a run of low scores and he hasn't managed to really get in and show what he is made of in this series," said Flower, Bopara's former Essex team-mate, after the Headingley defeat. "It's a tough situation for him but he is a pretty calm bloke, so he's keeping it in perspective." There is no question that he will be an integral part of the Test and ODI parties to South Africa this winter, which were also discussed at Trent Bridge.

England's other change for The Oval will be the welcome return of Andrew Flintoff, whose damaged right knee was given a positive verdict by his specialist, Andy Williams, last week, and who can be guaranteed to bowl until he drops in what will be his final Test before retirement. He is likely to come in for Graham Onions, who has performed impressively since joining the side in the second Test, but who lacks the outright swinging skills of James Anderson, or the presence that Flintoff and an in-form Steve Harmison bring to the line-up.
Monty Panesar is likely to rejoin a 14-man squad as back-up for Graeme Swann, although he is not expected to play as part of a two-spin attack. Surrey's former captain, Mark Butcher, who knows the conditions well, told Cricinfo that while the surface was likely to be responsive to spin, it made more sense for England to stick to what they know best. "If you've got two world-class spinners, you play them both," he said. "But we don't really have them, and the England are much more comfortable with a four-pace and one-spin attack."
The Oval wicket has been the subject of much scrutiny this week, in the wake of comments from the Surrey CEO, Paul Sheldon, saying that they would not be "cooking the books" to create a surface to suit England's requirements. Butcher, however, came to his club's defence. "The pitch will be as they always are at The Oval," he said. "It'll have decent bounce, decent carry and it'll turn as the game goes on. That's what they are like, and that's what they are always like.

"They can't change the character of the pitch, it's not that they won't or they refuse to, it's because they can't," he added. "They are what they are. The Test match pitch always goes through quicker than the county pitches, and England have bowled there well in the past. Harmison and Flintoff bowled South Africa out twice last year."

Probable squad: 1 Andrew Strauss (capt), 2 Alastair Cook, 3 Ian Bell, 4 Paul Collingwood, 5 Jonathan Trott, 6 Matt Prior (wk), 7 Andrew Flintoff, 8 Stuart Broad, 9 Graeme Swann, 10 James Anderson, 11 Steve Harmison, 12 Monty Panesar, 13 Graeme Onions, 14 Ryan Sidebottom.

Words of Experts on T20 World Cup

NEW ZEALAND MY TIP FOR GLORY

Graham Thorpe,

You might be surprised, but my pick for winners of the World Twenty20 are New Zealand.

 

The Black Caps have got some big names playing for them and plenty of IPL experience in their ranks - which will count for a lot.

 

Ross Taylor in particular has impressed me. He's got good experience in the format and seems to produce the goods more often than not.

 

Another reason for backing New Zealand is the English pitches, which will be fairly similar to the ones they're used to back home.

 

Andy Moles's side will make many other teams look sloppy in comparison to their superb fielding and discipline as an all-round unit.

 

Jesse Ryder and Brendan McCullum are exceptional players in the format, and it will take a very good side to match that sort of firepower.

 

Twenty20 is a very different game to Test cricket, but if England can mount a serious challenge in the next couple of weeks it will do their Ashes chances no harm at all.

 

Paul Collingwood and his men are outsiders, but if they can start winning, the momentum will build quickly and the whole country will get behind the team.

 

If that happens, the England players will grow in confidence. When the Ashes arrives they'll be raring to go and have the groundswell of support behind them.

 

But you'd have to say England's lack of experience in Twenty20 will count against them.

 

They've also got a potential banana skin in the form of Holland to get past in their opening game. And that might not be as easy as you'd think.

 

India have been successful in the format largely because they play so many more matches than other nations.

 

The IPL may be criticised, but as far as India are concerned it is a real blessing because each side is composed of experienced stars and young, developing players.

 

The number of young cricketers from India who are involved in this time is of huge benefit to the future of the team.

 

I think they will be favourites for many World Twenty20s to come because of the experiences which the developing players will have gained.

- - -

When it comes to batting technique in Twenty20 it's the players who don't panic who will do well.

 

The pressure builds very, very quickly and you've got to be versatile.

 

These days it's all about flicks and dinks. The Yorker is being dealt which much better than it used to be. The game is evolving all the time and it's fascinating to see techniques evolve.

 

Eoin Morgan is a classic example of that invention and batted with real confidence when he came in against Scotland in the warm-up match.

 

It is encouraging that an England player is showing as much composure at the top level as Morgan is, and it will be very interesting to see how he fares against better opposition.

THE TEAM IS A BALANCED ONE

Paul Collingwood, 

The benchmark for the T20 World Cup was set in 2007 when all the teams played some real high-octane cricket in a charged atmosphere for two weeks. The tournament now comes to England, and I expect the country to embrace this showcase of international cricket warmly. It starts an exciting summer of cricket for us, what with the Ashes following on the heels of the World Cup.

 

Looking across the teams, one would have to say that India and Pakistan would be the teams to beat. The defending champions have some really powerful hitters in their batting line-up and plenty of skill in their bowling. It was all on show during the Indian Premier League, and the fact that all the Indians featured prominently in that tournament ensures that they are the most mach-ready side in the tournament. The side is of course wonderfully led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who has made the Indian team an attractive, talented and aggressive unit.

 

However, it's hard for any team to go back-to-back on World Cups and the defending champion tag brings with it huge expectations. The Indians will be the most watched team in the tournament, and while they are used to that, it will be interesting to see how they respond to being favourites ahead of the tournament.

 

If I have to pick a team as dark horses, it would be South Africa. They have good seamers in the side, and these blokes could play a critical role in English conditions. Once again, they have some good hitters in the side, who relish batting on wickets here.

 

Another factor I would like to mention is that most of the South African squad players were involved in the IPL, and that exposure will hold them in good stead. I think the 'IPL effect' will be felt in this World Cup, and players who have been involved in the tournament will have a major role to play in the World Cup. This is why, looking ahead, I would like to see more English players involved in the IPL. It's a world-class tournament, and even though I did not play a single game for Delhi Daredevils, I really felt the exposure to the team was a value-add for me. The same goes for all the other England players who were part of the first weeks of the IPL.

 

The England team is not on the top of anybody's list of favourites, and we are not complaining. It's good to play without the pressure, and truth be told, we have not won enough as a team in T20 as yet. This is a bit of an irony since England was the place where T20 was played, but the national squad has been a bit of an under-achiever. This is mainly due to the fact that we have not played enough as a team, and there are some rough edges that show up in a format that gives very little margin for error.

 

This time round, we will miss the many talents of Freddie Flintoff, but we have to get on with the game. Guys like KP, Dimi and Bopara give the team good firepower, while our bowling has been in pretty good rhythm of late. The team is a balanced one and if we stick to our plans and back our abilities, we could go the distance this time. (Gameplan)

RARING TO GO IN WORLD TWENTY20

Paul Collingwood, 

A lot of people would have looked at Twenty20 as a step too far when it was brought in to county cricket. However, it has brought a modern edge to the game which has proved to be extremely popular. Twenty20 to an extent revitalised the county cricket circuit, and it is now proving to bring the same to the international scene. In terms of the excitement, we as players are the same as the fans.

 

It is great for us to be involved in, as it is for the fans to watching the game. Playing in a shortened and exciting format, in front of bigger crowds, is great for players. It is also great to bring in a new brand of fan to the game, and appeal to a younger audience. The success of the IPL shows that, and all professionals want to play in the IPL. Twenty20 really is great fun to play in.

 

Chris Gayle is the best Twenty20 batsman in the world, without a doubt. In this shortened version of the game, it is essential to get off to a good start. With Chris at the top of the order, you have one of the best strikers of the ball in world cricket. He's not afraid to take on the quicks at the top of the innings, and this can take the game away from you before you know it. The game is perfectly suited to his aggressive style, and as a captain, he is someone for the young West Indian team to look up to. For a neutral, he's also great to watch.

 

For me, Muttiah Muralitharan is the best bowler in Twenty20. When Twenty20 cricket came in, I think everyone thought that spinners would struggle. This has been proved wrong though, and Murali has been an example of this. He has shown in all formats of the game how dangerous he can be, but in Twenty20 this is emphasised. One over can win or lose you a game, so having a magician like Murali come in to your attack will make Sri Lanka a real threat in the competition. As a captain, being able to turn to someone who consistently ensures runs are restricted, is a real quality to bring to the team.

 

In the 2007 ICC World Twenty20, there were a few things that weren't right for us. We were still an inexperienced Twenty20 side, and looking back on the tournament and the quality of players on show, we simply weren't quite good enough. Individuals like Yuvraj Singh were at the top of their game. He came in against us and changed the game in an unforgettable over when he hit six sixes off Stuart Broad. It was a tournament where a few players made a name for themselves, and unfortunately we couldn't match it.

 

This year, England will have a real chance of winning the competition. As the hosts, we will have the fans behind us, and also the self-belief that we can do well. We didn't have the belief in 2007, but with a younger side with a lot of potential, there is no reason why we can't go far. Twenty20 requires a little bit of luck, and we will need that, but on a serious note, if we start well and get some momentum, I think we will be there at the end.