Ashes squad of "losers and malcontents"?

Well, the English selectors have spoken and named their anointed 16 for the Ashes.

Online newsletter Crikey has pooh-poohed the omission of Michael Vaughan, describing him as "the winner of the 2005 Ashes" and adding:

Look at the losers and malcontents they have picked before him.

Andrew Strauss (captain) James Anderson, Ian Bell, Ravinder Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad Paul Collingwood, Alastair Cook, Andrew Flintoff, Graham Onions, Monty Panesar, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior, Adil Rashid, Ryan Sidebottom, Graeme Swann

A bit strong methinks given the contributions made by other squad members in the 05 series and subsequently. To my eye, and I've watched a fair amount of England cricket on TV in the last few months, there are one or two surprise inclusions eg Ian Bell and perhaps Monty Panesar, but it should be possible to field a competitive eleven from the 16.

A little light relief. See if you can match some squad members to their less than complimentary descriptions in Crikey:

1. "that weird little boy who doesn’t make runs".

2 "a rough Essex lad who didn’t go to a public school".

3. "the portly all rounder who can’t tuck his shirt in."

4. "a singer in a terrible pub band".

5 "a guy who looks like he should be a drummer in a terrible cover band".

If you want to cheat or check your answers see http://tinyurl.com/npdz74

Pakistan and England World T20 champs

Congratulations to the Pakistan men's and England women's teams for winning their respective World T20 championships.

I didn't expect to but, as with the IPL, I watched quite a lot of the men's tournament and much of the small amount of the women's which Sky/ Foxtel showed.

Some observations

# Great to see spin bowlers, eg Ajanta Mendis, play such an often positive part in many matches.

# Also good to see some excellent wicketkeeping on show, notably James Foster of England with an honourable mention to the feisty Irishman Niall O'Brien. Some excellent catches were also taken in the field.

# The Duckworth-Lewis method is inappropriate for these ultra short matches, especially when one team has an absurdly low number of overs and 10 wickets to chase a modest score. I thought that West Indies beat England in what the D/L rules turned into a walkover.

# Without seeking to detract from the winners' achievements (or to excuse Australia's early exit from the men's tournament) it must be acknowledged that upsets are more likely when there are fewer overs bowled.

# The Sky/ Foxtel TV coverage was generally good, though some commentators in the women's matches, eg Ian Chappell and David "Bumble" Lloyd, at times forgot (eg "man on the boundary", "batsman") that they were not describing the men's game.

Trivia

Which player appeared with a black eye?
Answer here .

Cricinfo summaries

Men's

Women's

Brief Australian encounter with World T20

In the ICC World T20 Australia lost its first game to an unfancied West Indies

Next Sri Lanka defeated Australia and thereby eliminated them from the tournament.

As Ricky Ponting said after the game Australia have now lost five international T20 fixtures on the trot . Well short of world champion standard.

No excuses: it's clear that our national team just hasn't adapted to the new format which even purists like me have to acknowledge has its own appeal. The 20 over a side format means that upsets (eg England's loss to the Netherlands ) are more frequent but class should still trump good luck most of the time (even if Ireland seem to have ridden their luck and that of their draw well enough to move on to the next stage).

Results from Cricinfo.

Symonds' Australian career finished?

Andrew Symonds has been sent home from England.

Controversial all-rounder Andrew Symonds has been banished from Australia's Twenty20 World Cup squad in England for breaking team rules.

Cricket Australia boss James Sutherland told a press conference in Melbourne tonight that an alcohol-related incident resulted in Symonds being sent home.

Mr Sutherland said the breaking of a number team rules by Symonds in the past 24-48 hours was "the final straw".

"In isolation the breaches that I am talking about are not serious, but in the scheme of things, in the scheme of history, they are enough for it to be the final straw," Mr Sutherland said.

"I'm disappointed in Andrew but at the same time I'm disappointed for Andrew.

"There's no joy in me standing here tonight and advising you of this and in fact I'm quite sad about it.

"But at the same time we must balance the interests of Australian cricket and the Australian cricket time with those of the welfare of individual players."

Unfortunate it may be, though having watched Symonds perform so well in the IPL I wonder how upset he really is. He has probably earned more for a short stint with the Deccan Chargers than he would for his stint with the Australian team.

England attack more than tripe and Onions

England 6/569 6 dec (A Cook 160, R Bopara 108, M Prior 63, P Collingwood 60*) Defeated West Indies 310 (R Sarwan 100,J Anderson 5-87, S Broad 3/62) and 176 (C Gayle 54, S Chanderpaul 47, Anderson 4-38, T Bresnan 3/45) by an innings and 82 runs: T#2/ 2 at Chester-le-Street, Durham.

Very good batting and superb bowling, admittedly in favourable (sub-arctic) conditions, propelled England to a commanding match and series victory against a demoralised West Indies.

Scorecard

The TV commentators, especially Messrs Atherton, Gower and Lloyd, in their extended post match inquest seemed to be of the opinion that England now have the makings of a team fit to compete with Australia in the Ashes. That remains to be seen though, writing on the eve of the announcement of the Australian Ashes touring party, I'm apt to agree. Whether England can actually win the series I'm not so sure. I shall have more to say about this and related matters anon.

Some interesting inclusions and omissions in contract list

Cricket Australia's 25 player contract list for the next year contains a few surprises.

The list is:

Doug Bollinger: NSW, 27
Nathan Bracken: NSW, 31
Stuart Clark: NSW, 33
Michael Clarke: NSW, 28
Callum Ferguson: SA, 24
Brad Haddin: NSW, 31
Nathan Hauritz: NSW, 27
Ben Hilfenhaus: TAS, 26
Brad Hodge: VIC, 34
James Hopes: QLD, 30
Phillip Hughes: NSW, 20
David Hussey: VIC, 31
Mike Hussey: WA, 33
Mitchell Johnson: WA, 27
Simon Katich: NSW, 33
Brett Lee: NSW, 32
Graham Manou: SA, 30
Shaun Marsh: WA, 25
Andrew McDonald: VIC, 27
Marcus North: WA, 29
Ricky Ponting: TAS, 34
Peter Siddle: VIC, 24
Andrew Symonds: QLD, 33
Shane Watson: NSW, 27
Cameron White: VIC, 25

A noteworthy inclusion (not only to parochial South Australians) is Graham Manou, the long serving SA wicketkeeper and latterly captain whose batting has flourished in recent years. Another is Brad Hodge, the seemingly perennial reserve batter.

Brendan McArdle in The Age goes into bat for Hodge and poses some pertinent questions: "why does he constantly get overlooked, and how will his career be perceived in time?"

Two omissions which have raised some eyebrows are Phil Jaques and Shaun Tait, both of whom have been afflicted by injuries, Jaques after a long Hodge-style time in the wings and Tait after touching the heights in the 2007 World Cup. Will they return? I think that both could but that Jaques' age and questions about his fitness may make it had for him. Tait should be able to but seems to have accepted being typecast as a limited overs specialist.

English conditions= English supremacy

England 377 (R Bopara 143, G Swann 63*, F Edwards 6/92) and 0/ 32 defeated West Indies 152 (G Onions 5/38,G Swann 3/16)and 256 (B Nash 81,D Ramdin 66, Swann 3-39, S Broad 3-64) by 10 wickets: T#1/2 at Lord's.

OK, it wasn't just the conditions which were typical of an English May (the earliest a Test has been played there). Though they did play a big role in the convincing English victory.

The West Indies fielding was atrocious and the batting well below par, though England's batting wasn't much better.

How reliable a guide to the Ashes the performances in this match of the England successes Ravi Bopara, Graeme Swann and Graeme Onions will be remains to be seen. Bopara and Swann look good though whether Onions will be able to trouble Australian batters in July and August remains to be seen.

Scorecard .