Under leaden skies...

Collapso cricket

The sun may be shining but it's hard to see any silver linings in the dark clouds that have engulfed Essex's start to the season.

Two comprehensive championships defeats to Kent and Middlesex have resulted from batting collapses.

At Lord's, Essex were bowled out twice in one day last Friday, having to follow on after a first innings total of just 115.

They offered a little more resistence in their second innings, making 215, but Middlesex wrapped up the game within the hour on the third day under the watchful gaze of Old Father Time.

Few batsmen came out of the game with much credit but Tom Westley managed 36 and 59 in those low totals while Jaik Mickleburgh got 41 in the second innings.

Having suggested before the season that it was the bowling rather than the batting that needed bolstering, it's been a surprise to see a line-up that boasts experienced hands like Alastair Cook, Ravi Bopara, James Foster and Matt Walker capitulate so cheaply four times this season.

What's been even more galling amidst this batting chaos has been seeing Essex old boys like Varuna Chopra, Will Jefferson and James Middlebrook amassing runs for their counties.

It seems likely that former captain Mark Pettini will return to the team to stiffen the batting and no doubt he'll feel he has a point to prove after being left out of the first two games.

The one silver lining in these dark days has been the emergence of Reece Topley as bowler to be reckoned with. In Middlesex's first innings he took five wickets to go with his similar haul in Kent's second innings at Chelmsford.

With South African bowler Lonwabo 'Lopsy' Tsotsobe now with the team, Paul Grayson's side will want to stop the rot and chalk up their first win of the seasson... but this won't be an easy prospect away to early Division Two leaders Northamptonshire.

But I think Essex are due a bit of both luck and form. The top order must be itching to notch up some runs and with two young left arm pace bowlers in Lopsy and Toppers in the attack alongside the ever-reliable David Masters, I reckon it'll be third time lucky for Fozzie's men in this year's Championship game.

Our man in the commentary box

Essex cricket fans should get down to the Cramphorn Theatre, Chelmsford tomorrow night (Thursday) for comedian Miles Jupp's show Fibber in the Heat. It's the story of how he decided after the final day of that wonderful Ashes series at the Oval in 2005 that he wanted to become a cricket correspondent... and promptly set about doing so by pretending he was one!

Jupp regales the tales of mishaps and misadventures as he gets press accreditation for England's tour of India and find out that being a cricket fan and a cricket commentator are two very different things.

When I intervied Jupp he said the whole thing was a mixture of comedy and awkward moments and it made him realise how hard cricket correspondents have to work. In short, he says, it's much better to be a fan!

You can read my interview here and I'll be going along to the show tomorrow so will post my thoughts on it afterwards.

Top stuff from Toppers in topsy-turvey opener

Top of the class

In years to come it'll be a question in the sports round of pub quizzes across the
country: Which cricketer got a five-for and a pair on his first class county debut?
Reece Topley, Essex's newest county cap, bears that distinctive honour.
The 17-year-old made quite a mark on his Championship bow, taking a wicket in his first over, bagging 5 for 46 in Kent's second innings and completing the dubious accolade of being out for nought in both innings.
While he'll be disappointed that Essex lost, young Toppers can be very pleased with his contribution to this match.A product of the Essex Academy, the teenager has only just broken up from school for the Easter holidays - it shows how highly rated he is by the Essex management that he was thrown in the deep end against Kent, ahead of an experienced pro like Chris Wright.
Topley has pedigree of course. He's the son of former Essex paceman and Zimbabwe coach Don Topley, himself a Kent native whose brother Peter played for the Garden of England side.
A 6ft 7in left-armer who swings the ball into the right-handed batsman, you can imagine young Topley being a handful... indeed, experienced Kent batters like Rob Key, Joe Denly and Geraint Jones certaintly did.
After a topsy-turvy game in which Essex had chances to take control, Topley must be a shoo-in for the next Championship game against Middlesex at Lord's starting Thursday where he's likely to line-up alongside new South African signing Lonwabo Tsotsobe, another left-armed pace bowler.
What games he plays after the Middlesex match very much depends on what he can fit around school, but one thing's for sure - he's got top marks for Essex so far.

Here we go again

Blues skies, blazing sun, after the gloom of last week, the cricket season starts today on this glorious spring morning. There is nothing quite like the anticipation of a new domestic cricket season and the promise of sunny days spent watching the glorious game unfold in all its modern variations

Perhaps more than most sports, cricket is bound with its own past, with a sense of nostalgia about halcyon days and endless summers. But the reality of the new season is times are tougher than ever for counties and that a good campaign can help swell the coffers of clubs that might otherwise struggle financially.


Bouncebackability

After relegation from the first division of the LV= County Championship, Essex will want (like Alan Partridge) to bounce back and they start their Division Two campaign today with a home match against Kent. Paul Grayson’s side will want to put down a marker for the season early on, a statement of intent. They’re one of the favourites to get promotion so they'll be keen to get off to a winning start.

The Cook report

Essex warmed up for today’s County Championship opener with a jolly outing to Cambridge for a university match at Fenner’s earlier in the week. A useful loosener for bowlers and batters, it saw Alastair Cook show he was still in good nick after his run fest in the Ashes during the winter. After that amassing of 766 runs against Ricky Ponting’s team Down Under, Cook bagged a second innings century against Cambridge and at Essex’s press day on Tuesday said he still had the same hunger to score runs, whether it be for his county or country.

Some cricketers find it hard to motivate themselves when they go back to the shires after international duty, but Cook seems to be like his mentor and coach, Graham Gooch - he loves to score runs, preferably ‘daddy hundreds’ as Gooch calls them. Unlike the rest of the England team who are, by all accounts, exhausted after spending the whole winter away, Cook is raring to go.

In fact he’s so keen, he underwent a rather unusual training regime while his England team-mates were getting a tonking in the One Day Series in Australia. On frost-bitten mornings in January, Cook and Mark Pettini would be up before 6am to undergo "The Triangle" under Gooch’s supervision at his home in Fryerning. This involves running a triangular route through the woods with a sack of bricks on your back with Gooch on his bike making sure you keep up the pace. Extraordinary stuff.

It would seem Cook is also motivated by not being picked for England’s One Day side. The rest from cricket may have done him good but he admitted he was disappointed not to be part of the squad for the ODIs in Australia or the World Cup. But England’s loss is Essex’s gain so it’ll good to have him around for the first couple of months of the season before the Tests against Sri Lanka and India.

A lot has been written about Cook’s achievements over the winter but surely there can be no greater accolade than being the cover star of the latest edition of the cricket bible, Wisden.

Ravi steps up

Hats off too to Ravi Bopara, not only for being Essex’s newly appointed vice-captain but also for turning down £100,000 to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for Rajasthan Royals, preferring instead to turn out for his county and try to establish himself back in the England set-up.

Ravi has a bit of a reputation for being disorganised and admitted himself this week to being a bit dopey sometimes. But Graham Gooch rates him as the most talented batsman he’s worked with so the vice-captaincy could give RavBop the right focus and motivation to really concentrate on his cricket.

New blood

With a few comings and goings in the close season along with Ryan ten Doeschate and Essex newbie Owais Shah being away on IPL duty for the next few weeks, it’ll be interesting to see if some of Essex’s younger players can assert themselves in the side.

Paul Grayson has named a 12 man squad for the Kent encounter which includes up-and-coming players like Jaik Mickleburgh, Tom Westley and 17-year-old fast bowler Reece (son of Don) Topley. Topley impressed in the match against Cambridge, his debut first class appearance, taking 3 for 48 in the drawn match. Could Topley and Maurice Chambers make for a potent young strike bowling partnership for the future?

Meanwhile, Essex have just confirmed the signing of South African bowler Lonwabo Tsotsobe on a short term contract. A left arm paceman, Lonwabo has just climbed up the ICC ODI rankings to number six after the World Cup. He's expected to join the Essex team for their second Championship game against Middlesex next Thursday.

Tsotsobe will be with Essex until the start of the T20 campaign when Scott Styris returns to the county fold.

Indian adventure

Not only is it the start of the domestic cricket season today, the IPL returns as well. The fourth series of the lucrative franchise comes hot on the heels of India winning the World Cup on home turf so no doubt cricket fever will be at an all-time high in the Sub-Continent.

So while their county colleagues face Kent, Ryan ten Doeschate and Owais Shah will be embarking on Indian adventures in the IPL.

Tendo is making his debut in the competition, playing for David Hasselhoff’s Kolkata Knight Riders alongside the likes of Gautam Gambhir, Brad Haddin, Yusuf Pathan, Brett Lee, Eoin Morgan and Jacques Kallis while Shah will be playing for his third IPL team, new franchise Kochi Tuskers Kerala, along with Mahel Jayawardene, WS Laxman, Muttiah Muralitharan and Brendon McCullum.

How exciting it must be turning out alongside those great players in packed stadiums... and a bit of a contrast to the opening salvos of the county season with its breezy days and half empty grounds.

Tendo’s Knight Riders play Chennai Super Kings today while Shah’s Tuskers face Royal Challengers Bangalore tomorrow… and the good news is you can watch the games live on ITV4 and at www.itv.com

There’s just no escaping cricket today! Hooray!

Season's greetings

Here we go again...

Leaden skies, a keen breeze, the smell of rain in the air... it can only mean one thing. The cricket season is about to start again, although you may think it never really ended.

Internationally, it certainly didn't with England's cricketers heading Down Under for the Ashes and an interminable ODI series followed by the World Cup in the Indian Sub-Continent (which has been brilliant if a bit long-winded).

But the domestic season starts next week so up and down the country preparations are being made. Grass is being cut, pitches are being rolled, bats and pads are being dusted off.

Essex face old rivals Kent in their first Championship game of the season, starting next Friday, April 8 at the County Ground.

James Foster's men have just completed a two day warm-up match against Worcestershire on home turf and then head to Fenners for a three day encounter with Cambridge MCCU before things begin in earnest against their Estuarine neighbours.

Essex coach Paul Grayson has already made it clear that promotion back to Division One of the LV Championship is a priority for the season and the team will also hope to continue their good form of recent years in one day competitions.

Grayson has been looking to strengthen the squad over the winter and the signing of Owais Shah will be a welcome boost to the batting line-up while the return of New Zealander Scott Styris for the Friends Provident t20 competition will bolster an already strong one day team.

Where Essex seem to lack a little at the moment is in the bowling department. In the Championship last season they had trouble knocking teams over twice and with Danish Kaneria now out of the picture, they need a bowler with real menace.

Aussie quick Peter Siddle was set to join Essex for the start of the season, due to play eight Championship games as well as a large chunk of t20 and Clydesdale Bank 50 matches. But Siddle has now pulled out and Essex's back-up option, Kiwi Tim Southee, has signed up for the IPL meaning the county are a week away from the start of the season without an overseas signing.

The club are desperately trying to find a strike bowler to lead the attack so it'll be interesting to see who, if anyone, they can find in the next few days. It would seem Andre 'Gunther' Nel is out of the question.

All hail Murali

It's the Cricket World Cup final tomorrow. of course, and it promises to be a brilliant climax to an enjoyable tournament as India take on Sri Lanka in Mumbai.

Both teams have played brilliant cricket at times during the last few weeks and it looks to be an intriguing encounter and hard to call who will win. I shall certainly be tuning into Test Match Special in the morning for what is all set up to be a classic.

Most notably, it will be the last time two greats of the modern game face each other. Master of spin Muttiah Muralitharan, the world's leading wicket-taker, and Sachin Tendulkar, the world's best batsman, go head to head as they both near the end of their careers.

For Murali, it's his last international game for Sri Lanka and he couldn't ask for a bigger stage for his last hurrah. A warm, humble man, he's been befuddling batsmen for years with his wild eyes, extraordinary action and mastery of the art of spin.

There's a great piece on Murali by The Guardian's Mike Selvey here which salutes not only his achievements but his qualities as a man.

Although he won't be touring England with Sri Lanka this summer, there's still a chance to catch Murali in action in the coming weeks. He'll be playing in t20 matches for Gloucestershire Gladiators so I'll be heading down to watch him play when they come to Essex on Friday, June 3. I've never seen the great man bowl, so this could be my last chance.

Non-stop cricket

As the Championship season starts, so does this year's IPL. I remember playing a game at school called non-stop cricket where the bowling and batting just continued on a rolling basis and that's how it must feel for a lot of the top players these days.

The unrelenting schedule of touring and playing abroad can certainly take its toll and we've seen how it can adversely effect individuals.

Essex's Ryan ten Doeschate has signed up for this year's IPL and before he jetted off to India he told the Essex Chronicle's David Arnold about how tough it can be when you're on the road all the time.

Tendo has had a brilliant year for Essex and various teams in Zimbabwe, New Zealand and Australia as well as starring for the Netherlands in the World Cup. His fantastic form has earned him a IPL call-up but he admits he's found the constant travelling and living out of a suitcase can be demoralising at times.

You can read David's excellent interview with Tendo here

I'm looking forward to watching the IPL and hopefully will be able to catch Tendo in action for the Kolkata Knight Riders (I wonder if David Hasselhoff is involved?) during ITV's coverage of the tournament.

But what's really whetting my cricket appetite is getting down to the County Ground in Essex to smell the freshly cut grass and hear the sweet thack of willow on leather.

I can't wait.