If there is a silver lining coming out of England's dismal showing it is the performances of Hartley & Bashir. These are two young, virtually unheard of spinners who have taken the bulk of England's wickets at a cost that is by no means shameful. I wonder how much their performances owe to England's spin bowling coach: one Jeetan Patel.

Looking forward to the summer, it seems that both Somerset and Lancashire may have one too many spin bowlers in their squads. Might it strengthen our squad if we offered to take one of these guys on loan?

Difficult to believe, but the following (reported in The Times) includes comments from the new ECB Chairman that are music to the ears.

The ECB chairman, Richard Thompson, believes there is “too much white-ball domestic cricket” and that the time has come for the governing body to say “no” to broadcasters demanding more.
“There is probably too much domestic white-ball franchise cricket — ultimately a broadcaster can keep putting money on the table but the national governing body at some point is going to say no,” Thompson said. “I think we’re now at that stage where governing bodies have got to say when we actually have too much and that is probably now.”
“I have a personal view on this, and I think that view is shared by the ECB directors,” he said. “It’s that the primacy of the game is red-ball cricket. It has to be. Careers are defined by winning Ashes — probably before World Cup wins, and in that sense, the ECB I feel is, and has to be, the custodian of that particular format.”

He'll never last with that attitude!

James Hildreth has announced that he will retire at the end of the season. Whilst his pomp is somewhat behind him now, he remains a model for those of us who believe that batsmanship should contain some style as well as power. Good luck to him in whatever comes next.
He is the present holder of a title once held by Andy Moles, namely which current England qualified player has scored the most first class runs without playing a Test Match? He has nearly 18,000 of them. If you don't like spoilers, look away now, but next in line is Darren Stevens (about 17,000) and Steve Davies (in the 14,000s). Both those two could well be retiring at the end of the year too. There are then a few players betweeen 9,000 and 12,000 currently lead by Sam Northeast. I have often wondered if this title would eventually fall to Sam Hain ...

Somewhat unsurprisingly, Ashley Giles is leaving as Director of England Cricket. The Ashes shambles is not just his fault by any means but he did take the decision to make Silverwood Lord-High-Everything and that has been a failure. It was Giles' decision so he carries the can.

We know the KoS is basically a good guy so he'll pop up again somewhere soon. The ECB have still got a lot of work to do, though.

Somerset have announced that they will be hosting the Bears for a three day fixture beginning on April 1st and that they will be taking it seriously. Could be some good days out there.

Sibley, Norwell and Yates all in the Lions squad. Well deserved and every chance to push for a Test cap too.