Cricket

Shoaib Akhtar given five-year ban
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/other_international/pakistan/7323360.stm

IPL has just kicked off, is this end of cricket as we know it?

Holy shit 158 off 73 balls from McCullum!

The first day of the first test and summer is....... where?

Any chance of this lasting til Monday does we reckon? The weather offers one hope that it might but by all accounts aren't England expected to give NZ a pasting?

They'll be extending each day's play should today be a wash-out. But yeah, a fairly good chance of play on Monday I reckon.

Then there's a fairly good chance I will be not at work on Monday I reckon. Still do cheapio final day tickets at Lord's right?

NZ 2/1

This ain't goonna last til monday.

Anderson will be swinging it about like no one's business.

NZ 104-5

pwn

Anderson will be shit for the next 2 matches then. The boys got talent if only he had consistency.

Captains innings from Vaughan, a century.
England 317-8. montys in to parter the skipper.

montys out 2nd ball

England 235-3 Strauss out for 106. 59 needed to win.
Will England collapse?

KP run out

Pietersen gone

Go the Bluck Cups.

An incredible and unlikely win for England!

Finally a gutsy performance from England when the chips are down. Well done Monty and Strauss!

Aus avoiding an upset

Great work from Clark.

bah bluddy Clark.

I know its only NZ but I enjoyed this.

Gotta feel if Collingwood and Pietersen find form, maybe dump Bell (bit of a Hick/Ramprakash type to me), MAYBE if Flintoff comes back batting well and firing in four over spells, THEN MAYBE, y'know...oh and I hear Simon Jones is recovering ok w/Worcestershire

Damn, i was hoping the Windies would win:\

Nah Bell aint going anywhere. Colly might get dumped if hes awful against SA.
Flintoff bat well? That would be a first. I suppose there's more chance of that however than Anderson being consistent.

Jimmy's on fire. 2 wickets with the new ball. I just wish he could bowl like this all the time.

Good innings from Broad as well. Boycs reckons he'll get a century before his career is over.

Oh I think he'll get more than 1. I think he will be a better allrounder than Freddie.

I would be more worried about his bowling than his batting

He needs to develop a metronomic action a la McGrath. He has the height, but not the pace at the moment.

Joel garner was in his late 20s before he got the pace. They're probably around the same size and Broad will get get stronger.

If England do go with a 4 man attack against Australia or South Africa we might have Freddie at 7 and Broad at 8.

Joel garner was in his late 20s before he got the pace

He was pretty good all along!

The BBC text commentary guy has annoyingly taken to calling Broad Malfoy. The beeb should have stuck with the factual stuff and not tried to copy the Guardian IMO.

Jimmy Jimmy
62-3

Good stuff.

4 down now. Jimmy nearly got Flynn LBW and he did next ball.

Jimmy is so frustrating because you know he can bowl like this, then he is awful for the next 3 tests. If he could bowl like this against SA/Aus then we might have a chance. But wouldn't be surprised if he was mince tomorrow nevermind the 2nd innings.

Going to the pub in a minute to watch this...

And Jimmy has a five-for

might have missed it all by the time I leave!

86 to avoid the follow on. but jacob oram could fairly easily knock through that in an hour on his own.

well, maybe two.

NZ inverted batting order.

Now here's something to play during the tea break:

http://img388.imageshack.us/img388/1995/629a1ji6.jpg

Jimmy now has 6

93-6 (Oram was the wicket btw)

This BBC stream is miles behind.

Fuck sake, I'm missing this, stuck in work... not that I'm doing any work of course

We need to take a backup of Anderson and restore it before every match.

4 to go for a laker

I think they will be going off for bad light soon