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!