In the latest world rankings, released after the Joburg and Hobart Tests, England are without a single batsman in the top 20 for the first time, by my reckoning, since 2002.

Andrew Strauss has slipped seven places over the course of the series with South Africa to No 21 and Kevin Pietersen’s fall has been sharper: down from No 4 at the start of the year to No 26 now.

Pietersen has fallen behind Paul Collingwood (up to No 22 despite not scoring a hundred in his past 11 Tests) and he is only one bad innings away from falling to England’s fourth best batsman with Alastair Cook in 28th place.

Heck, by the end of the Bangladesh tour, Pietersen could even have slipped behind Ian Bell, who is at No 32 and rising.

Four, or even five, batsmen in the top 30 isn’t in itself a bad thing. We’ve had as few as three in recent memory - and no more than six. Sri Lanka and Australia have only four each at the moment. South Africa have five and India have six, but England have two more than New Zealand or Pakistan and one more than the Windies.

That reflects our overall world Test ranking of fifth. The problem is the lack of one or two superstars. Depth is one thing, class is another. There are six different nations represented in the present top ten and England’s finest is 11 places outside that list.

This may be only temporary - Strauss could slip back into the top 20 next week if VVS Laxman (No 17) pays for a poor match against Bangladesh - but it has been a long time since we were without any top 20 representative. Pietersen had been in the top 20 since 2006 and was as high as No 3; before him there was a Trescothick or a Vaughan to fly the flag and, apart from a slump in 2000 and a brief dip in 2002, Graham Thorpe was in the top 20 between 1995 and 2003.

Before him, Mike Atherton and Alec Stewart were regulars in the top ten - and briefly, in 1992, we even had the No 1 and 2 batsmen in the world, in Graham Gooch and Robin Smith. Read more…

Administrator Views Alastair Cook, Alec Stewart, Andrew Strauss, Bangladesh, England, Hobart, Ian Bell, Joburg, Mike Atherton, New Zealand, Pakistan, Paul Collingwood, Pietersen, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thorpe

LET’s be frank about this … if England win this Ashes series it will be a dark moment in Australia’s cricket history.

The further this series has stretched the less respect we have had for this modest England team.

If this series has confirmed anything is is how cricketers can gain an inflated reputation on the back of performances against rubbish teams.

Ravi Bopara, a superstar when he was playing the West Indies, has been exposed as being technically flawed.

Ian Bell, who has eeked out a beuatiful living just being Mr Average in England’s middle order, has again showed he lacks the class to match it with the best.

His lack of passion and personality grates on English fans and rivals.

Paul Collingwood is a solid scrapper but he’s no champion.

Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cooke are useful openers but please don’t mention them in the same breath as John Edrich or Geoff Bocyott or Michael Vaughan.

England have such little depth they considered recalling Mark Ramprakash who is 39 Read more…

Administrator Ashes Alastair Cooke, Andrew Strauss, Ashes, Australia, Blogs.CMDN.com, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, England, Geoff Bocyott, Ian Bell, John Edrich, Mark Ramprakash, Michael Vaughan, Paul Collingwood, Ravi Bopara

I thought today couldn’t get any worse when I got bowled out for one by Ryan Sidebottom and then found that Jonathan Trott had stolen my Official Team England dinner plate and spoon set in order to eat one of his disgusting biltong and melktert sandwiches that he says his nana used to make all the time when they was growing up in Shipton-Under-Witwatersrand and which he says is actually as English as warm beer, red post boxes and a crushing sense of being trapped by soul-sucking mediocrity and I dunno about that but to be fair he’s here now and that’s the main thing, stolen plate notwithstanding.

I get out the iPhone and there’s like six missed calls from Colin Gibson, who is what’s called a Director Of Communications at the ECB which is not as the name might suggest someone you go to if you can’t get a signal on your phone or Andersony’s hogging the official team laptop and you want to play Murder Death Kill IV: Revenge Of The Third Umpire online against some bloke in Myanmar but is in fact a sort of Public Relations person.

Anyway this Gibson isn’t your usual Public Relations person in that he doesn’t have blonde hair and a kind reassuring smile and say “Hi I’m Kyla / Katie / Klare / Keithetta etc” and offer to get you a hot or cold beverage before they make you answer the questions from the Bad People with the notebooks but in fact this Gibson is a large, angry man and he’s already on the iPhone again and I have to say he’s using some industrial language and not quietly neither. Read more…

Administrator England Blogs.CMDN.com, Cricket, ECB, England, Ian Bell, Jonathan Trott, Ryan Sidebottom, Twitter

In the course of my travels over the last couple of days, I’ve watched Ravi Bopara and Alastair Cook get out for one and four respectively at Lord’s, seen Kent skipper Rob Key score an assured 90 only to miss out on a ton when he was lbw to a straight one at Northampton, and called in at The Oval to sit in on an interview with Mark Ramprakash, to hear him say he’d definitely play for England again, if asked.

What a week this is turning into for speculation, counter-speculation and player watching.

Once Bopara and Cook were dismissed at Lord’s, England selector James Whitaker sat in the media centre, glued to the television, awaiting news of Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott from Trent Bridge.

The skies were leaden and it wasn’t a good day for batting. Who’d be an England selector?

Wholesale changes aren’t needed for the Oval. Yes, England had a horrendous time at Headingley, batted and bowled abysmally, but you don’t become a terrible side overnight (or even in two-and-a-half days as the case may be). Read more…

Administrator Ashes Alastair Cook, Ashes, Blogs.CMDN.com, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Edgbaston, England, Headingley, Ian Bell, Jonathan Trott, Kent, Kevin Pietersen, Leeds, Lord's, Mark Ramprakash, Ravi Bopara, Rob Key, The Oval, Trent Bridge

Despite such an emphatic defeat, England should not panic. All they need is a result pitch, a returning hero, and a miracle

There was fun and frolics to be had on the final morning at Headingley Carnegie, but the last laugh belonged to Australia. This was a crushing victory and the final flourish provided by Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann had no more effect on the punishment dished out than the student who flicks a “V” at the headmaster once his back is turned.

This was the stuff of men against boys. The fresh-faced, almost angelic-looking Broad and the cheeky chappie Swann throwing the blade with abandon and grinning cheerfully, as Australia became ever more ragged, provided some amusement, even solace for a short time.

But when Graham Onions was bowled to give Australia their victory by an innings and 80 runs, the realisation dawned quickly that England had been so utterly outplayed, that the momentum shift was so complete, that hopes of a revival at the Brit Oval are nothing more than mere fancy.

If, before the series began, England had been offered a level scoreline before the final Test, they might well have taken it. But that hypothetical fails to take into consideration Read more…

Administrator Ashes, England Andrew Flintoff, Ashes, Australia, Bill Gordon, Blogs.CMDN.com, Brit Oval, Cook, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Edgbaston, England, Graham Onions, Headingley, Ian Bell, Jonathan Trott, Lord’s, Marcus Trescothick, Mark Ramprakash, Mitchell Johnson, Old Trafford, Owais Shah, Paul Collingwood, Ravi Bopara, Ricky Ponting, Strauss

The talented but inconsistent batsman could finally be ready to step out of Kevin Pietersen’s shadow and make his mark in an Ashes series

Providence, in the form of Kevin Pietersen’s achilles tendon operation, has given Ian Bell an opportunity to re-establish his place in the England batting order. Bell has been missing from the side since his aberration in Jamaica precipitated a collapse of calamitous proportions (and with significant consequences) but, as expected, he was named for this week’s third Test at Edgbaston, in a 13-man squad that also includes Steve Harmison and Monty Panesar. No standby batsman is included although the national selector Geoff Miller insists they have “options”, whatever that means.

In going back to Bell so soon after patience ran out with him (he has missed only eight Tests and has been included anyway in squads this season) Miller and his associates are effectively saying that the substrata of batting in this country is not deemed to be of international quality. Unquestionably Bell has massive talent, and at times, when batting down the order, he has played impressive innings. None of his eight centuries have come during his most recent period where he was viewed as the natural first wicket down. He has been seen as someone who lacks the presence of top players.

This, though, might prove the making of him. His 10 previous Ashes matches have been something of a torment (although he was part of the winning side four years ago), but those who so ruthlessly exposed his mental frailties – Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne and, for Read more…

Administrator Ashes, England Andrew Flintoff, Ashes, Blogs.CMDN.com, Brett Lee, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Edgbaston, Glenn McGrath, Harmison, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Lord's, Miller, Monty Panesar, Ravi Bopara, Shane Warne, South Africa, Steve Harmison, Steve Rouse, stuart broad

The England selectors will be forced to take a gamble in making a straight swap of Ian Bell for the injured Kevin Pietersen at No 4 in the order, simply because there is no one else of Test stature.

So, to Birmingham’s Bullring without one rather decent matador. Kevin Pietersen is out, and only the ill-informed xenophobes – and, goodness, haven’t a few of them reared their ugly heads recently! – will take pleasure in his premature departure from this Npower series.

England have experienced their Glenn McGrath moment: 1-0 up and calamity has struck. Unlike Edgbaston in 2005, when Australia’s beanpole quick stood on a stray ball moments before the toss, England have at least had prior notice of the absence of such an influential figure. But, still, it is some blow.

As England’s finest batsman by a country mile, Pietersen will be gravely missed. Even when incapacitated by injury, he still top-scored in the first innings at Cardiff, and made 32 and 44 (albeit in ugly fashion) at Lord’s. He has a presence and a game that the Australians fear.

And England’s problem is that his replacement, Ian Bell, doesn’t possess either. In 10 Tests he has not managed a century against the oldest enemy. As Australia had to in 2005 Read more…

Administrator Ashes, England Andrew Flintoff, Blogs.CMDN.com, Cardiff, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, England, Glamorgan, Glenn McGrath, Harmison, Ian Bell, James Anderson, Joe Denly, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Michael Kasprowicz, Michael Vaughan, Onions, Owais Shah, Rob Key, Shane Warne, Stephen Moore

The International Cricket Council really are a cruel bunch. Months ahead of every global tournament they force the competing nations to name a 30-man squad, later to be trimmed to 15. 30 cricketers in England capable of influencing a one-day international? You must be kidding. My heart sinks every time such an announcement arrives. We have lots of cricketers, but few up to the mark. Many are foreign. They all play too much.

But here is England’s 30-man effort for September’s Champions Trophy.

1. Andrew Strauss (Middlesex)

2. James Anderson (Lancashire)

3. Gareth Batty (Worcestershire)

4. Ian Bell (Warwickshire)

5. Ravi Bopara (Essex)

6. Tim Bresnan (Yorkshire) Read more…

Administrator Champions Trophy Andrew Strauss, Blogs.CMDN.com, Champions Trophy, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, ECB, England, Gareth Batty, Ian Bell, James Anderson, squad