It started as National Scrapbook Day, and it’s recognised as NSD or maybe iNSD for those who embrace the international participation, but I’m just going to make it easy and call it Scrapbooking Day. Sound okay to you? It’s today, by the way. The first Saturday in May, each year.

And to mark that special occasion of Scrapbooking Day 2011, there’s something special in store for you here at shimelle.com, all day long. Perhaps even all week long, depending on how you like to play!

Today I’m posting a series of challenges with new layouts, tips and tutorials, and each challenge has a prize up for grabs. Plus there are some bonus discounts and special offers coming up. But to get started, I’m all about getting some supplies ready.

The projects I’m featuring today are all made from the same supplies that I chose at the beginning. You can do the same and create a set of supplies then use them for all the challenges OR you can approach any of the challenges on its own and not worry about the supplies for the whole stretch. Cool? That way if you’re wanting to stretch your supplies as far as they can go, we’ll do that. And if you would rather take part in lots of NSD Scrapbooking Day challenges around the web with whatever supplies you fancy, you can do that too.

When I limit my supplies for a batch of layouts, I tend to grab four things: patterned paper, special paper, embellishments and letters. I like to choose things that will mix and match and are not overly themed, so I look for a mix of bold patterns and small patterns so there will be a balance. I also tend to go overboard on paper because I love it the most! (Shhh – don’t tell my other supplies.) So for today’s projects, I’ve set aside:
15 sheets of patterned paper, including Cosmo Cricket Upcycle and Social Club, American Crafts Hello Sunshine and Campy Trails, Sassafras Starters and Paper Crush and Sweetly Smitten, Studio Calico Countryside and Jenni Bowlin Family Tree. Which means I picked lots of different designs and manufacturers, but if you find it easier to stick with one collection, then that works too!
4 sheets of special paper, which is a very official term I’ve given to those things that are generally paper but they aren’t just a plain 12×12 sheet. I’ve chosen two sheets of dot-embossed Core’dinations Cardstock, one die-cut label paper by Jenni Bowlin Studio and one screen-printed transparency by Hambly.
5 types of embellishments, with my love of stickers really showing here! Three of the things I selected are all from the same collection – the large and small sticker sheet plus the banner stickers all from the Sweetly Smitten collection by Sassafras. In typing this, I’m thinking I may go pull the Sweetly Smitten foldie sheet too, though it’s not counted in this picture. Those stickers are all quite vintage and soft, so then I picked some stickers that are quite clean and modern, by American Crafts. And my non-sticker item is a butterfly, of course! These are wooden and by Studio Calico.
3 sheets of letters, and again I’ve gone with stickers. Letter stickers are really my go-to item with titles, especially a mix of sizes and some including dimension, so I have a shiny new pack of these Thickers by American Crafts and a smaller, flat set of Mini Market stickers by October Afternoon. Then the third option cheats a little bit, because this sheet of letters by Bella Blvd actually has four different alphabets on one sheet. Makes it great for packing for crops or working in a series like this. I’ve chosen brown and white but it comes in brighter colours too.

Now obviously there are some things missing here! If I use full sheets of cardstock for the background, I don’t count that. In this case, most of these pages will be on kraft cardstock, and I will just pull those sheets as I go. If you’re packing to go somewhere else, then you’ll need to that that with you! I also don’t include tools – so punches, cutting dies, stamps, inks and paints I will just choose as I go. That can help to change up the look even if the supplies remain the same. And lastly, if I’m scrapping at home I don’t worry too much about adding little things. If there’s something in my scrap basket or bowl of die cuts and I suddenly thing that’s what the page needs – then fine. The idea of the starting supplies is to make things easier, not to make everything else prohibited. So you won’t see any other major elements, but I might add in a scrap of paper or ribbon here or there. That’s pretty much my process!

Oh, and I don’t really use many themed papers, but I do like to include some themed things that can be subtle. I’ve been using this stamp set by House of 3 for Pink Paislee on many of my travel pages, so it’s pretty much living on my desk right now. I will admit I pretty much bought it for the globe, but the whole set looks lovely, and it stamps especially well with Distress Ink.

So there we go – that’s where I’m starting! But how about a GIVEAWAY to get Scrapbooking Day off to a great start? I have a pack of scrapbooking supplies to send to a lucky winner. Just comment on this post for a chance to win! (By the way, on some browsers, it helps to click the preview button when you’re leaving a comment.)

Happy Scrapbooking Day! See you soon with the first project challenge!

xlovesx

PROVIDENCE, Guyana: Pakistan's batting was undermined by West Indies' three frontline seamers and their bowling upstaged by another blistering innings from Lendl Simmons in a 10-wicket loss in the fifth one-day international on Thursday.

Cheetahs vs Lions Super 15 Rugby

The Super 15 is the largest rugby union football club championship in the southern hemisphere, consisting of provincial teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Lions vs Cheetahs

Match scheduled:
06-05-2011 from 17:10 until 19:10
Super 15 Rugby

Cheetahs team:

15 Riaan Viljoen, 14 Philip Burger, 13 Robert Ebersohn, 12 Corné Uys, 11 Coenie Oosthuizen, 10 Sias Ebersohn, 9 Sarel Pretorius, 8 Davon Raubenheimer, 7 Ashley Johnson, 6 Heinrich Brüssow, 5 Wilhelm Steenkamp, 4 Francois Uys, 3 WP Nel, 2 Adriaan Strauss (capt), 1 Riaan Smit.

Substitutes: 16 Ryno Barnes, 17 Lourens Adriaanse, 18 Waltie Vermeulen, 19 Kabamba Floors, 20 Tewis de Bruyn, 21 Naas Olivier, 22 Hennie Daniller.

Venue:

Coca-Cola (Ellis) Park Stadium

Ellis Park Stadium is a rugby union stadium in the city of Johannesburg, Gauteng Province, South Africa. It hosted the Rugby World Cup final in 1995, which was won by the country’s national team, the Springboks. The large stadium was the country’s most modern when it was upgraded in 1982 to accommodate almost 60,000 people. Today, the stadium hosts both football and rugby, and is also used as a venue for other large events, such as open-air concerts. It has become synonymous with rugby as the only time when rugby was not played at Ellis Park was during 1980 and 1981 when the stadium was under construction during an upgrade.

The stadium was named after Mr JD Ellis who made the initial area for the stadium available.

League, provincial, and international games have all been played at the stadium, and it has seen such teams as Brazil, Manchester United and Arsenal play. Ellis Park Stadium is the centrepiece of a sporting sector in the south-east of Johannesburg, where it neighbours Johannesburg Stadium (athletics), Standard Bank Stadium (tennis), and an Olympic-class swimming pool.

Ellis Park Stadium is home to the following teams:

Orlando Pirates, Premier Soccer League)
Lions (Cats until September 2006), Golden Lions, Currie Cup domestic rugby competition
Cricket matches were held at the stadium in the past. It hosted six Test matches between 1948 and 1954, but it has not been used for first-class cricket since New Wanderers Stadium opened in 1956 and is now used only for rugby and soccer.

Watch Lions vs Cheetahs Rugby Live 6 may 2011

History
In 1889 when after a long and hard fought battle the Transvaal Rugby Football Union (now the Golden Lions Rugby Union) was formed and established a domain. The first games were played at the Wanderers Club’s stadium whose grounds were situated where Johannesburg Park station is today. Rows between the different rugby clubs as well as the Wanderers Club’s claim of the field for the use of cricket games, forced the TRFU to look for an alternative.

An area with a quarry and garbage dumps in Doornfontein was identified in 1927 as the possible alternative. The TRFU negotiated with the Johannesburg City Council’s, Mr JD Ellis, (after whom Ellis Park was named) for the availability of these grounds and 13 acres was made available. On 10 October 1927 the final rental agreement was signed. A quote of £600 was accepted for the grass and with a loan from the city council to the amount of £5 000, the building of the new stadium could commence. The stadium was built in eight months and in June 1928 the first test was played against the All Blacks. Thus was born Ellis Park which became internationally renowned and synonymous with rugby. Crowds of between 38 000 and a record crowd of 100 000 against the British Lions (in 1955) attended the matches.

Ellis Park played the host for cricket matches after an agreement was reached between TRFU and Cricket|Union. From 1947 when the cricket pitch was laid until 1956, Ellis Park was host to various cricket matches with the final games played in the 1953/54 series against New Zealand. Cricket then moved to its new venue where the current Wanderers still is today.

On 28 April 1969 the TRFU formed a stadium committee to investigate the possibilities of a new stadium since the one in use did not meet all the modern requirements. Only fifteen years later, after the game between Transvaal and the World Team on 31 March 1979, the old Ellis Park was demolished. Games were played at the Wanderers while the stadium was being rebuilt.

A new TRFU management was elected in 1984 with Dr Louis Luyt as Chairman and Prof Joe Poolman as his deputy. The decision was taken to place Ellis Park Stadium under the management of a trust. In 1987 after the Ellis Park Stadium was listed on the stock exchange and due to sound financial management by Dr Luyt, Ellis Park could announce that the debt to the amount of R53 million was fully paid and a further 86 suites could be erected.

In 1995 rugby fever hit the country with South Africa’s hosting of the Rugby World Cup, the biggest event on the rugby calendar. Ellis Park was the venue for the World Cup Final which was played on 24 June 1995. In this spectacular final, New Zealand and South Africa ran onto the field at 14:45 in front of 62 000 spectators and millions of spectators in front of their TVs. South Africa won this game 15-12 in extra time.

In 2005 Ellis Park Stadium made history by becoming the first black owned stadium in South Africa. The Golden Lions Rugby Football Union passed the management of the Ellis Park Precinct to a company with 51% black ownership. Interza Lesego, Orlando Pirates F.C. and Ellis Park Stadium (Pty) Ltd make up the new management of the Ellis Park Precinct.
Future
Ellis Park Stadium will host one of the semi-finals of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, for which its capacity will be upgraded by another 10,000 to create a total of 70,000 seats. New upper tiers will be added behind each of the goals, to the north and south of the stadium.

Source – Wikipedia

Lions vs Cheetahs Rugby Live 6 may 2011

Awaking to the news on Monday morning that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had been killed by U.S. Navy SEALs in Abbottabad, Pakistanis had two ways to react: express outrage that the world's most-wanted terrorist had successfully sought sanctuary within their country's borders, with or without the assistance of Pakistan's security establishment; or, decry the fact that the United States had violated Pakistan's national sovereignty with a unilateral strike deep into its territory.[[BREAK]]

The fact that the Pakistani state and independent media have opted for the latter is no doubt frustrating for Washington, which is urgently trying to assess whether Pakistan remains an ally in the effort to stamp out terrorism. Since the news of bin Laden's killing broke, the Pakistani media has been railing against the American "insult" and "invasion" of its territory. The government, too, issued an obdurate statement describing the U.S. raid of bin Laden's compound as an "unauthorized unilateral action." What should have been an introspective moment has already become a defiant one. Rather than ask why bin Laden was able to live in Abbottabad, possibly since 2005, Pakistanis are asking how the U.S. managed to penetrate Pakistani airspace and hover for 40 minutes before leaving.

While Pakistanis fret about territorial violations, U.S. government officials have started asking difficult questions about bin Laden's presence in Abbottabad, and the nature of his support network within the country. Some members of Congress have called for economic assistance to Pakistan to be significantly reduced or suspended. Such enough-is-enough reactions are understandable, yet counterproductive, for they will only stir more defiance and reactionary tendencies among the Pakistani public. 

The fact is, Pakistanis are largely unmoved by the killing of bin Laden, but they are anxious about its potential fallout. The nation is currently bracing for a blowback, as the Taliban threatened retaliatory attacks barely hours after bin Laden's death had been announced.There are also widespread concerns about more unilateral strikes on Pakistani soil, especially after U.S. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers announced on Monday that at least a dozen senior al-Qaeda leaders are based in Pakistan.

Moreover, the Indian reaction to the news of bin Laden's killing has hardly helped matters. More than future U.S. actions, Pakistan fears that India may be emboldened by the Abbottabad raid to launch unilateral strikes against terrorist camps proximate to the eastern border. It is this cumulative paranoia of what might yet ensue that informed the weak response to the incident by Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir, who stated that the bin Laden operation "shall not serve as a future precedent for any state, including the U.S. Such actions undermine cooperation and may also sometime[s] constitute threat[s] to international peace and security."

In this perceived moment of vulnerability, the Pakistani public sphere is unlikely to turn against the Pakistan Army (except to criticize it for failing to prevent the U.S. incursion) and question its role in the bin Laden fiasco. Although the military and intelligence apparatus are the progenitors of Pakistan's current predicament (whether through duplicity, complicity, or incompetence), they are also being framed as the nation's last hope. 

Since Pakistan's creation, the army's institutional imperative has been to ensure state survival against threats posed by external enemies. The post-bin Laden concerns about interventionism play right into what Dr. Hasan Askari Rizvi has termed the Pakistan Army's "savior complex." In an ironic twist, a moment that should spark a crisis of credibility and a call for accountability could become an opportunity for the army to consolidate its role as the nation's protector against a variety of outside threats deemed to be existential. If this happens, the U.S. can only expect more of the same in its dealings with Pakistan.

But in the army's protectionist stance lies a rare opportunity to chart a new course in U.S.-Pakistan relations. Earlier this week, the Pakistani Ambassador to Washington, Husain Haqqani, said that the government would conduct internal investigations to determine how bin Laden was able to live undetected in the Pakistani heartland, and whether any state or security officials were helping to shelter him. On Thursday, however, the Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir backtracked on this idea, suggesting that investigations into the whole episode be left to historians.

Pakistan's civilian government should not back down from the chance to conduct an inquiry. By supporting the civilian government in such an effort - whether in terms of capacity, by helping establish protocols and a timeline, or by applying back channel pressure on military officials to comply -- the U.S. and other members of the international community can help Pakistan's nascent civilian government hold the army accountable. Such a move would significantly boost the government's credibility by helping it answer the Pakistani public's many burning questions regarding the bin Laden incident.

No doubt, inquiries in Pakistan are a bit of a sham, a highly refined form of political dodging and deferral. The current government alone has launched several inquiries into matters ranging from corrupt practices in accommodating Hajj pilgrims to match-fixing allegations against members of the national cricket team. None of these have yielded positive outcomes. Moreover, historic inquiries such as the Hamoodur Rehman commission - which investigated alleged atrocities committed in Bangladesh during the 1971 war with India - have set a poor precedent for such processes (that report was not made public until decades after the fact, and was found severely lacking).

But this needn't be the case again. Citing pressure from the international community to provide answers, the civilian government should appoint an independent, public commission to investigate the nature and scope of bin Laden's network within Pakistan. The commission should also investigate the army and intelligence agencies' claim that bin Laden's presence, and the U.S. raid it provoked, were the consequences of an "intelligence failure." Such a commission should be empowered -- and encouraged -- to summon high-ranking military and intelligence officials for interrogation.

This inquiry must be a purely civilian exercise that drives home the fact that the Pakistan Army is ultimately accountable to the Pakistani people through their elected representatives. It should be conducted solely by Pakistanis, without any foreign interference, but its findings should be shared with the world. And if the commission determines that bin Laden's presence and the Abbottabad raid resulted from army and intelligence failings, it should launch a stringent review of the Pakistan Army's defense expenditure. 

These actions will help reorient the conversation in Pakistan to focus more on the pitfalls of the country's current national security strategy. It will also put U.S.-Pakistan relations back on the right track. Seeking long-term, sustainable bilateral relations with Pakistan, the U.S. enacted the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act of 2009.  Assistance mandated by that act seeks to support Pakistan's democratically elected civilian government to develop increased oversight of national security issues, and maintain "effective civilian control of the military" and its institutions.  

Despite the positive language, though, the Obama administration has prioritized military-to-military exchanges with Pakistan, owing to a narrow focus on counterterrorism operations and the military and political endgame in Afghanistan. The recently concluded episode involving Raymond Davis, the CIA contractor who shot and killed two Pakistanis in Lahore in January, showed the extent to which the U.S. government is willing to defer to military officials at times of crisis. However, it is the world's historic reliance on the Pakistan Army that led us to Abbottabad. A new approach by the U.S., and a new debate within Pakistan, may yet show us the way out. 

Huma Yusuf is a columnist for Pakistan's Dawn newspaper and the Pakistan Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

If England's new limited-over captains do well, the Test captain's position could come under threat

In announcing a trio of captains for their international cricket England are entering uncertain territory and one that no other national side hitherto have matched as a matter of policy. With Andrew Strauss deciding to retire from the one-day set-up, the England management have turned to Alastair Cook to lead the team in 50-over cricket and, with Cook not likely to figure in Twenty20 cricket and Paul Collingwood stood down, to Stuart Broad for the few games that England play in this format. At 26 and 24 years old respectively, Cook and Broad, if all goes well, have youth on their side if not any lengthy experience of consequence.

The decision may be seen as innovative, a rarity for England, and one that flies in the face of recent mission statements, which give as an ideal one captain across the board, the general convention. This, though, is born of expedience and is being approached with hearty confidence on the outside but some trepidation as well. "It has never been tried before," Andy Flower, the director of England cricket, said, "so I'm quite excited by the opportunity. I don't think any side has had this situation with three separate captains before. It is covering new ground and for us that is exciting.

"We do not know 100% if it will work or if it will be the most effective or efficient system but we will give it a try. I think with the quality of people we have around us that we have a good leadership team."

With Strauss coming to his decision, the England management have moved swiftly, however. Flower confirmed that there was a formal interview process, with a number of candidates beyond those appointed, and that one of those spoken to was Kevin Pietersen, who was removed from the captaincy two and a half years ago with Strauss appointed in his place. He did not say that Pietersen had actually been interviewed but other names that may speculatively be added to the list could include Ian Bell and Graeme Swann.

"There was discussion about a number of other candidates and Kevin Pietersen was one of those," Flower confirmed. "But there was a rigorous interview process we went through and we are very comfortable with the decision that we have made. I think we have some very good young men to help make England a stronger cricketing nation."

It is not, though, in Flower's mind anyway, any sort of shoot-out between Cook and Broad for what might be termed a unified title. "Not at all," Flower said. "One of the things I would ask of these young guys is that they approach it in a very mature fashion and I trust them to do so. Everyone here is fully behind Andrew Strauss and he and I feel very comfortable with that.

"These two young captains will learn a lot from him. They are lucky to have him there as a sounding board and involved in the overall direction of the England cricket unit, so I don't see any problem in that regard."

However, hypothesising, if Cook makes little headway while Broad were to retain the T20 world title, then there would be room for a change when the next World Cup arrives. Appointing now, as he has, Flower has at worst bought himself some time to make strong judgments.

It is Strauss's decision that has been the catalyst for the change, however, with Flower admitting there had been considerable discussion beforehand, some of which will have centred on Flower's wish for Strauss to oversee the first stage of the regeneration of a one-day side that endured a torrid time in Australia and a generally poor World Cup in which they lost their quarter-final to Sri Lanka by 10 wickets.

"We have had a lot of discussions since the end of the World Cup," Flower said. "I don't think it was a matter of trying to change his mind. We discussed it over a number of weeks and I think that once it became clear in his mind the way he wanted to move forward then it became a lot clearer in mine."

To Strauss's mind the World Cup represented the end of a natural cycle. "I had the idea floating around after the World Cup and had discussions with Andy Flower. Ultimately the decision was made because the World Cup is a watershed for all one-day teams, not just England, and is a chance to regenerate and move forwards. I didn't think in my mind that for me to start that process knowing full well that I might not see it through to the next World Cup was in the best interest of the England cricket team. It gives Alastair Cook a blank canvas with which to take the team forward and I can concentrate on the Test side while overseeing him and Stuart Broad."

The theory of split captaincy is not a new one. In Australia Steve Waugh's first taste of international leadership came when Mark Taylor stood down from one‑day cricket. Michael Vaughan's England captaincy career began likewise when he superseded Nasser Hussain but, with both Hussain and before him Mike Atherton, a strong case could be made for doing it, with neither of them natural one-day players.

Convention, and stubbornness, kept them in place. The danger to Strauss's ambition to lead the Test side into both Ashes series in 2013 is that the one-day side will flourish under Cook and so put the sort of pressure on his Test leadership that eventually caused Hussain to pass on those reins to Vaughan. It is a risk Strauss recognises, although the team would have to make massive progress for that to happen. Four series against subcontinental teams this winter and two at home this summer with the World Cup finalists will not make that any easier.

• Pakistan 139; West Indies 140-0
• West Indies win by 10 wickets

West Indies cruised to a 10-wicket victory over Pakistan in the fifth and final one-day international at the Providence Stadium in Guyana.

After bowling the tourists out for 139, West Indies rattled off the required runs without losing a wicket as Lendl Simmons made 77 and Kirk Edwards 40, while Pakistan gave up 23 extras. Simmons was in scintillating form, requiring only 73 deliveries to rack up his score as he smashed three sixes and seven fours.

It is a second straight win for West Indies after Pakistan won the opening three games to seal the series at the earliest opportunity. But on Thursday they looked a shadow of their former selves with the bat.

Mohammad Hafeez was the only player to emerge with real credit, making 55 before he was bowled by Darren Sammy. By the time he went, four of his team-mates had already returned to the pavilion.

Hafeez's fellow opener, Taufeeq Umar, managed only three before he was caught behind off Ravi Rampaul, while Ahmed Shehzad made nine before becoming Sammy's first victim with an inside edge.

The score became 67 for three when Usman Salahuddin was trapped lbw by Devendra Bishoo on eight, and Pakistan added only five runs before Misbah-ul-Haq was trapped by Sammy for one.

Umar Akmal showed a little fight, his 24 off 27 balls including a six, but when he went to Rampaul with the score on 108, two more wickets quickly followed as Shahid Afridi (nine) and Wahab Riaz (a duck) went to leave Pakistan on 113 for eight.

Mohammad Salman made it through to end unbeaten on 19. Rampaul took four wickets for 45, while Sammy finished with three for 30.

For the first time in history, England have appointed three separate cricket captains, one for each form of the international game. Is this too many?

Should youths with dual-nationalties go to the back of the queue for academy places? The race row has raised tricky questions for France's authorities

Laurent Blanc's continued employment as France manager is in jeopardy because he conflated two issues in a way that was, at best, clumsy and, at worst, racist. The issues that he and other members of French football's top brass discussed at a meeting last November, whose contents were leaked by Mohammed Belkacemi and published last week, were ones that he and others had addressed in public many times before: what should the country's football authorities teach young players? And which young players should they teach? Both questions are obviously legitimate. But debate rages over the legitimacy or otherwise of the answers that they reportedly proposed, and the assumptions that may have underpinned them. One year out from a presidential election, the debate has become heavily politicised.

Since taking over as manager of Les Bleus last August Blanc has advocated concentrating on cultivating technique and intelligence rather than power and speed. In the leaked meeting he reiterated this philosophy and regretted that French academies seem to be populated primarily by youngsters chosen for their athletic prowess more than their football flair. He claimed that these youngsters tended to be black. "You have the impression that they really train the same prototype of players: big, strong, powerful … What is there that is currently big, strong, powerful? The blacks. That's the way it is. It's a current fact. God knows that in the training centres and football schools there are loads of them."

Although Blanc had stressed earlier in the conversation that a person's race was of no concern to him and that it would "suit me fine" to field a France team consisting entirely of black players if the best players happened to be black, the 'prototype' statement has been the focus of much of the furore, with many complaining that it could be construed as an endorsement of the cobwebbed racist notion that, basically, black people are physically superior but mentally inferior. Big and strong but blunt and dumb. Blanc, who has since admitted that he spoke maladroitly (he would surely have chosen his words more carefully if he'd known his comments were going to be published), professes to be "outraged" at this interpretation. Surveys and interviews suggest most people give him the benefit of the doubt, which seems reasonable as he has never previously been associated with bigotry and all visible actions in his playing and managerial career suggest race has played no part in his decisions. Indeed, one of the few players who has spoken publicly on the controversy is Alou Diarra, a black man and midfielder whom Blanc signed for Bordeaux and appointed captain of France. Diarra acclaimed Blanc for his open-mindedness, pointing out that when he was manager of Bordeaux he amended training schedules to enable Muslim players to observe Ramadan.

The second issue that Blanc and the Fédération Française de Football officials discussed, which was jarringly muddled with the first issue, is more interesting and also more difficult to resolve – not just for France but for all countries competing in international sport. To pit one nation against others, one has to determine who should represent a given nation and in increasingly diverse societies that is increasingly complex.

Consider this: a boy called, say, Marmaduke, is born in London. His father is Japanese, his mother is German. By his mid-teens he's such a good footballer that England U-16s are considering picking him and the FA is contemplating giving him a place in its elite training academy (this is the future, see, and England has such a thing). However, there is only one place available and there is another equally talented candidate, who was also born in London but to exclusively English parents and grandparents, which means that, unlike with Marmaduke, there is no prospect of him choosing to play for Japan or Germany at a later date (unless, of course, he goes to live there and acquires a passport under naturalisation laws). Which player should the FA give the place to? How should the decision be made?

In the leaked meeting the French officials discussed similar scenarios because many of the players in their country's training academies are like Marmaduke and many alumni – first, second or third-generation immigrants – have already chosen to play for countries other than France despite, in some cases, having won titles with France at youth level. "When people wear the jersey of the [French] national team at Under-16, Under-17, Under-18, Under-19, Under-20 and A level and then they go to North African or African teams, that bothers me enormously," Blanc said. "We have to limit that."

Although Blanc initially denied that he had ever heard any talk of imposing quotas, transcripts of the November meeting subsequently revealed that it was suggested no more than 30% of the places in French training academies should be filled by players who have dual nationality and could, therefore, one day declare for another country. Erick Mombaerts, the Under-21 manager, appeared to be in favour and the national technical director, François Blaquart, intimated that he had already given orders for it to be applied on the QT and has since been suspended pending the outcome of investigations by both the FFF and the Ministry of Sport. According to the transcripts, the one person at the meeting who objected to the introduction of such a plan – the Under-19 manager Francis Smerecki – complained that not only was it discriminatory but it might also mean investing in inferior players: if a Marmaduke could not take a place in an academy because the quota for people with foreign roots had already been filled, then the place may have to go to a less talented player: true, that player would not have the possibility of representing another country, but is he really the sort that France want to turn out for them?

A sinister undertone to the fallout of France's 2010 World Cup fiasco was the degree to which it became politicised. In particular, it fuelled the 'enemy within' strain of anti-immigration lobbying, with critics claiming that it was no surprise that many of the players behind the mutiny in South Africa were black or Muslim (or both) because such folk tend to be incompatible with France: their presence leads to discord. Football had already fanned that debate in France, most recently before a France-Tunisia friendly in Paris in 2008, when Tunisia supporters, many of whom had been born in France, booed the French national anthem and cheered for the opposition.

Blanc has never publicly subscribed to the notion that people of foreign origin are to be distrusted. After last year's World Cup fiasco he merely decried the lack of a team ethic and 'pride in the shirt', and since taking charge he has strived to address these perceived shortcomings. One method has been to insist that all players learn the national anthem.

At November's meeting he suggested that a way of ensuring that fewer France-raised players choose to play for other countries would be to reinforce their feeling of Frenchness. He intimated that respect for "our culture, our history" could be one of the criteria for admission to academies and that once in those academies players could be given "help" to "determine their identity". This was not elaborated on, at least not in the transcripts available so far.

Similar-sounding suggestions are common in the political arena, in France and elsewhere, but it would have been interesting to hear exactly how the FFF might have followed this up. When referring to "our culture, our history", was Blanc suggesting that 12-year-old aspiring footballers should only be admitted to academies if they can prove their knowledge of Napoleon, Voltaire and Johnny Halliday? Or did he mean football culture and history? Would this apply only to the children of immigrants? It is not certain but, with a presidential election one year away in France and political point scoring a priority for many, it has been noted that the former might not be radically different from the loyalty tests that the National Front has campaigned to have foisted on the children of immigrants (or similar, perhaps, to the tests that immigrants to Britain must pass before being granted citizenship). Race and nationality are different things but that was not always clear in the FFF debate, just as it often isn't in political debates.

Fifa rules stipulate which players countries can pick. Governments decide who can get passports. French football officials were debating whether to deliberately exclude people that both Fifa and the government allow them to pick. People in other countries often do the same. The debates about the mooted England call-up for Manuel Almunia showed that. Many fans were opposed on principle even though the government says he is entitled to citizenship, the England cricket and rugby teams would have had no qualms about selecting him if he were good enough and he has spent more time in the country than, say, Owen Hargreaves. Similarly, many Irish fans scoffed recently when Jermaine Pennant revealed that he was considering declaring for the Republic, the land of his grandfather. The reason many fans gave was that Pennant had not made his Irish roots known before and was presumably only doing so now because he had finally accepted that England were not going to give him a game. He is, therefore, an opportunist. But how could they know that? And even if they were right, so what? Is it wrong to go to the country that gives you the best opportunities? He would only be picked if he was the best man for the job. Isn't that how it should be?

Ireland all-rounder Andre Botha has announced his retirement from international cricket having made 141 appearances for his country.

Here's my Top 10 links from around the Internet at 2.30 pm  in association with NZ Mint.

I'll pop the extras into the comment stream. See all previous Top 10s here.

I welcome your additions in the comments below or via email to bernard.hickey@interest.co.nz.

The cartoons are back. Yay!

1. Not a joiner - FT.com's Robert Shrimsley reports exclusively on what Osama bin Laden's neighbours in Abbotabad thought of him.

Apparently the bearded one wasn't much of a joiner. It seems he wasn't keen on the local neigbourhood watch committee.

And he was an Arsenal fan.

No wonder he was grumpy.

He apparently also had a duvet cover with a picture of Arsenal's Dennis Bergkamp on it...

I wonder if Mr Shrimsley is having us on...

A known Arsenal fan, he would sometimes go to the village hall to watch live matches. One fellow fan said: “I remember once saying he looked like Osama bin Laden. He just laughed and said people were always telling him that.” Inside his bedroom the Seals also found a 30-minute DVD of all the team’s classic matches. The room itself was plain apart from a prayer mat and a Dennis Bergkamp duvet cover.

Children were rarely allowed in to the compound. If they hit a cricket ball over the 18ft high wall they could not collect it, but were reimbursed by one of the other adults living there. Javed, 14, admits: “It was always an easy way to make money if you were a bit short. You’d knock on the door and tell them you had hit a couple of balls over. They’d give you 200 rupees. I suppose we’ll have to go back to washing cars now. It’s a shame.”

2. Just so miserable - Remember the misery index? It was a creature of the stagflation of the 1970s and was referred to quite regularly then. It's a combination of the inflation rate and the unemployment rate. It's back into double figures.

Here's New Zealand's misery rate chart below after today's jobless numbers, courtesy of The Dim Post.

Our Misery Index is now higher than at any point since the Rogernomics Recession in the early 1990s (Q3 of 1993, to be precise).

Rather frighteningly, the latest unemployment statistics don’t even factor in the impact of the second Canterbury earthquake.

3. 'Just let us borrow another US$2 trillion...' - Reuters reports US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has asked Congress to lift the US debt ceiling by another US$2 trillion to US$16.3 trillion.

A Reuters analysis of Treasury's borrowing needs forecast Congress would have to raise the debt ceiling by more than $2 trillion to get through next year's election without having to revisit the issue. According to the Treasury, the government borrows on average about $125 billion per month.

4. Extend and pretend - Banks have put an awful lot of mortgages in Christchurch on holiday, but the interest bills are still mounting up and compounding in a quietly dangerous way for customers and shareholders (and depositors?).

Rebecca Stevenson at Stuff has some useful detail on how much big this lump of compounding debt has become.

ANZ/National Bank alone has deferred payments on residential property worth $240m in Christchurch since February, while Westpac has approved mortgage payment holidays for 1500 customers on mortgages with an average value of $200,000.

Last year turned into a record year for mortgage holidays for BNZ. The bank approved 4055 holidays, including its Christchurch-affected customers, well up on the previous year where 3727 were approved. And already in the first three months of the year, 955 BNZ customers have gone on "holiday".

In 2010, ANZ/ National approved 10,000 loan repayment holidays on a whopping $2.4 billion of lending, but despite this rather large statistic Thompson says the bank is careful to make sure customers understand the implications. She also says the number of repayment holidays has stayed consistent, even since the recession began in 2008.

ASB have taken a slightly different tack from the other banks in that they have promoted reduced interest rates for their ASB, Sovereign and Bank Direct mortgage holders. In three weeks, ASB converted $100m of Christchurch home loans to discounted interest rates of 1 per cent off variable rates or 0.5 cent off fixed for a year.

5. No favours really - Our own Amanda Morrall covered this story last October when she was working for the Press. Here's why such mortgage holidays can be dangerous things.

Take an average loan of $250,000. On a two-year fixed rate of 6.69 per cent, amortised over 30 years, the monthly mortgage repayment would be $1611.54.

According to Mortgage Solutions' Geoff Hill's calculations, a three-month mortgage holiday would have the compounded effect of adding an extra $6389 onto the loan. It also ends up increasing the monthly repayments to $1642.70, assuming that the borrower repays the mortgage within the same 30-year time frame.

"The banks aren't doing you any favours in reality," concludes Hill.

6. Jaws of the Dragon - Ian Fletcher writes at HuffPo about a new book by Tokyo-based Irish journalist Eammon Fingleton about the rise and rise of China. Fletcher makes some interesting points (citing Fingleton) about China's Confucianism and Mercantilism.

It's something we naive New Zealanders should think a lot more about before we sell off our farms and everything else to the Chinese.

America's defense against Chinese mercantilism is further sabotaged by the fact that, despite our using similar policies earlier in our own history, mainstream American economists are largely blind to the fact that mercantilism even works. Trapped in the same "free" market thinking that led to the 2008 financial crisis, they don't believe that China's policies can possibly be a winning move for that country. An economy that has gone from peasant agriculture to superpower in 30 years doesn't seem to persuade them.

Why are China's economic policies so effective? The aggressive pursuit of exports is a game other nations, like Germany and Japan, also play well. But these are both medium-sized high-wage nations that are already developed, not gigantic low-wage nations still on the early stage of their development path.

China is unique because it combines standard-issue (if exceptionally cynical) mercantilism with other policies, like forced savings and systematic technology acquisition, made possible by its despotic ex-Marxist political system. For example, it has, by deliberate state fiat, a savings rateclose to 50%, while America's is close to zero. This gives China a tidal wave of investment capital to put into everything from factories to freeways. (It is also enabling China to accumulate ownership of American government securities and private-sector assets.)

Japan never took over the world, so some people dismiss the Chinese threat as yet another big wolf-cry. But China has ten times Japan's population, nuclear weapons, and a hard-authoritarian rather than soft-authoritarian political system. This time, it's different.

7. Fed murmurs suggest QE III possible - Bloomberg reports one Federal Reserve President (there's a gaggle of them) saying that rates are nowhere near rising.

Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Eric Rosengren said the economy isn’t growing fast enough to achieve the central bank’s goals of full employment and stable prices, and that “nothing’s off the table” if the outlook deteriorates.

“I’d like to see growth that’s strong enough to generate jobs at a faster rate than 200,000” a month, Rosengren said in an interview with Bloomberg Television to air tomorrow. For interest rates to rise, “we’d have to see much more job growth than we’ve seen to date.”

Asked whether a third round of quantitative easing policy was still under consideration, Rosengren said that “nothing’s off the table, it depends on economic conditions, so we have to do whatever makes sense given our outlook for the economy.”

“If we were to see inflation rates going down dramatically and the unemployment rate going up dramatically, we’d have to reexamine what our monetary policy is,” he said. “That’s not something I expect, that’s not something that’s in most people’s forecasts.”

8. The problem with ageing - Leith van Onselen at Macrobusiness.com pulls together the data and charts on the problems of ageing workforces in Australia and New Zealand.

I wonder if property investors have really thought about this.

Both nations will face similar demographic headwinds as their populations age and the proportion of working age people declines, bringing with it lower consumption expenditure and growth, as well as higher taxes.

And the impact of ageing on asset prices are expected to be substantial. For example, according to a recent Bank for International Settlements (BIS) working paper, the ageing of the Baby Boomers is projected to reduce Australia’s (New Zealand’s) real house price growth by around 30% (40%) over the next 40 years compared to neutral demographics. This is because the Baby Boomers will reduce their housing stock as they enter retirement by liquidating their investment property holdings and downsizing, thereby depressing house prices.

9. The world's reserve currency - The economist has charted the US dollar over a long period. Should we put our faith in this reserve currency? Perhaps not.

A weak currency should be good news for a country’s exporters, but that hasn’t stopped America from running a persistent trade deficit. And America’s creditors are having to cope with the unappealing combination of holding low-yielding Treasury bonds in a depreciating currency.

10. Totally Jon Stewart on Pakistani Intelligence.

The prolific Test opener is set to be named as Andrew Strauss's successor in one-day internationals. Big mistake

For much of the day the rumour mill ground its corn. A newspaper exclusive by someone who rarely gets things wrong said that England would have a new captain for one‑day internationals and that it would be the newest Freeman of the City of London – Alastair Cook – who would fill the role.

The announcement of a press conference scheduled for Thursday morning and attended by the managing director of England cricket, Hugh Morris, and the director of cricket, Andy Flower, added further substance. Why call a conference now if there is not something significant to announce?

It would seem that the hand of the England management and selectors has been forced by Andrew Strauss who, despite the modest World Cup enjoyed by the team this spring, Flower would have liked to continue in his dual role in Tests and ODIs until he could settle on a successor to lead the team towards the next World Cup. If Flower tried persuasion, though, it has failed, for unless Strauss had himself decided to walk away from the role and had told Morris and Flower as much, there would seem no reason to make an announcement now. The next series of ODIs, against Sri Lanka, is not until the end of next month.

Now England will have in charge a world‑class Test match batsman but one not considered sufficiently adept to get into the World Cup squad, and who has done nothing in the interim to change that perception. They are hammering a square peg into a round hole for the sake of expedience.

The problem is, they might argue, that if Strauss doesn't do it, who on earth should? You can appreciate the coaches' dilemma. They wanted more time. There might have been a time when Kevin Pietersen would have been an obvious choice and there are some who, recognising that everyone deserves a second chance, would advocate him resuming the role that he had before Strauss. But he has not endeared himself universally and his place in the team is by no means secure. Paul Collingwood would be another answer (his winter form may not yet be terminal) but his knee has yet to recover fully after an operation. It is not certain that he will be able to resume his Twenty20 duties.

It would be a leap of faith to look elsewhere, although that should never be precluded. It is not as if Cook has a wealth of experience, beyond a tour to Bangladesh and his vice‑captain duties in the Test side. The problem, though, is that England have now had to hitch their one-day wagon to the one horse that ought not to be allowed near it.

Presumably, until Strauss or the selectors call time on the captain's Test career (and he is relinquishing his one-day commitment in order to prolong that), England will have a different leader in all three formats, for if playing Cook in ODIs makes little sense, his presence in Twenty20 would be the stuff of fantasy. There is nothing wrong with having a Test captain and one for limited overs, or indeed the arrangement that existed prior to this. But three?

Then there is the consideration of whether Cook actually has the makings of an opening batsman in limited-overs international cricket, with the demands it makes around the world. Next winter, England play away series against all four Asian sides. In this country, where the ball can swing and where the demands of an opener are often more aligned to orthodoxy, Cook will do well enough – certainly as well as would Strauss.

Abroad is different. Strauss cut and pulled the seamers who did not bowl intelligently at him, but became flummoxed by spin on slow turners. Would Cook, whose only lofted shot of note is a slog-sweep, fare any better? Could he dominate in the way that, say, Shane Watson, does? Of course not. Runs for Essex, of which he has scored plenty, are no barometer for international demands. Is it not time that England looked for a different approach at the top of the order?

But what is of overriding concern is the effect that the captaincy could have on Cook's own game, the bread and butter of Test cricket. A year ago he was being tormented outside off stump, his bat edge drawn to the ball as if magnetised. Wicketkeeper and slips dared not waver in concentration for a moment. Then, finally, in Australia, he got his bearings, memorably so, to the tune of 766 Test runs. Fundamental to that was his unwavering capacity to ignore, for hour upon hour, the delivery outside off that so often had been his undoing.

Yet the angled nudge down to third man is a default shot in one-day cricket, an instinctive stroke, productive in the frequent absence of close fielders and one that those grounded in ODIs who then come to Test matches have to fight to expunge from their games.

Think Eoin Morgan. Yet here we shall be, asking Cook to reintroduce that to his weaponry. Maybe he can do it on demand, but many believe it is the abstinence from one-day cricket that has been the making of him. It is a tough call to gamble with that now.

The best of the action from the latest round of the 2011 County Championship. Updates though the day and click here for scores

Lunchtime scoreboard

Division One
Sussex 108-0 v Hants
Nash 53* Joyce 40*

Yorkshire 101-0 v Notts
Lyth 52* Sayers 42*

Somerset 92-3 v Worcs
Andrew 2-41

Lancashire 94-2 v Warks
Moore 45* Chilton 20*

Division Two
Gloucestershire 99-2 v Middlesex
Marshall 55*

Kent 94-2 v Northants

Surrey 123-3 v Leics
de Bruyn 26* Davies 9*

1.02pm: Vic Marks writes:

Gloom has descended upon Taunton via cloud cover and the fall of three wickets: Suppiah, caught at slip; Trescothick played on (one bail dislodged) and Hildreth (run-out without facing and blameless).

It must be in the genes. The fallibility of Denis Compton's running was legendary. Grandson Nick was no more trustworthy here. He called for a ridiculous single having hit the ball firmly to mid-off and Hildreth was always going to be beaten boy the direct hit by James Cameron, a titanic effort by the fieldsman and a terrible sinking feeling for Hildreth and
Somerset. Since then Compton has been a bit becalmed and his running ever more hesitant. Kieswetter has been bellowing instructions wherever the ball has been hit.

Hildreth, captain of the Lions in the winter, has been in reasonable form this season, but has few runs to show for it. This feels like his third run-out of the summer. Aaagh. I would still expect him to captain the Lions against the Sri Lankans at Derby in a couple of weeks. The bowler tormenting Somerset the most is an old boy, Gareth Andrew, from the down the road at Street. Many more wickets from him and the locals will be mumbling.

12.06pm: Mike Selvey writes:

It's a bit different to the last time I was here. Then, Edgbaston somehow managed to secure and play eight days international cricket on a building site. Now the building site is, well, still a building site but one with the huge new stands, boxes, changing rooms, media centre and all that nearing completion. There are likely to be a few games in July of varying types and standards, and it is said that the development will be officially opened by the Duke of Edinburgh on July 25th. Which will be nice. Let's hope it goes as well as the grand opening of the new development at Headingley CARNEGIE.

Those hoping for a face-off between Jimmy Anderson on the one hand and Jonathan Trott and Ian Bell on the other may see that today but probably only if the two batsmen get a bowl at the Lancashire tail. Instead it is Lancashire who are batting, a welcome relief given their seven session toil, to little avail in the end, at Hove last week. Neither Sajid Mahmood nor Farveez Maharoof, both of whom played there, are in the team today, with Lancashire playing a brace of spinners to take advantage of those dry dusty turners that are such a feature of April and early May in this country. Mahmood was forced out of the attack at Hove for over use of the beamer but it is more likely to be a result of niggles than anything more sinister.

In the meantime, Lancashire have just lost their second wicket, with Karl Brown not offering a stroke to Rikki Clarke and having his off pole pegged back, leaving them 36 for two.

12.06pm: Vic Marks writes:

Greetings from Taunton.

The pitch is green, but after their humiliation against Warwickshire here Somerset chose to bat anyway. Ajantha Mendis is not playing (still a slight lower back problem) so will make his last appearance for Somerset on Sunday against Gloucestershire. Lewis Gregory, Eng U 19 captain this winter, makes his first class debut. For Worcestershire Matt Mason is resting - well, he is 37.

Bumped into Peter Trego, who is having a good season, but who has entered the national consciousness as the bloke who hit the ball, which sailed through the potting shed of a commentary box at Taunton when Edward Bevan, the veteran BBC Wales commentator, was describing the action on Monday.

The tinkle of glass, the mild alarm of Bevan and Steve James assuring the nation that Edward was still alive has been played over most of the stations of England and Wales. Edward was shaken and bruised by the experience, but he has always been "the show must go on" type. Everyone at Taunton sends him greetings - and no legal actions, please.
It took Trescothick 24 balls to get off the mark but he's still there.

11.58am: Andy Bull at the Oval writes:

Morning everyone. And a glorious one it is too. The sky is a soft and inviting shade of blue, with whisps of white clouds. Out in the middle Mark Ramprakash is back batting, and Matthew Hoggard is bowling in partnership with young Nathan Buck. What more could a red-blooded English cricket fan want? That must explain the surprisingly good turn out in the press box. I burst through the back door, sweating, panting late, to find it chock-a-block. Well, chock-a-block by current county standards.

Leicestershire have won the toss on a pitch that is as green as a landlubber's gills after a night on the ocean, and Jason Roy is already out, LBW to Hoggard. Something of a shame that, given that he is one of the more exciting young batsmen on the circuit. He's been
replaced at the crease by old faithful himself, Ramps. Just back from the cruciate ligament injury he suffered at the end of the last season. He'll be the perfect tonic for Surrey's skittish batting so far this season. Maybe Rory Hamilton-Brown will learn a thing or two about how to pace an innings as he watches him from the other end. Michael Brown and
Gary Wilson, their two openers from the last match, against Middlesex, have already been taught a lesson. Both dropped.

There's a lot to catch the eye and imagination in this match - a few young bucks, apart from Buck, James Taylor, as well as Roy and Tom Maynard, who has made a brilliant start to his Surrey career. Then there is Chris Tremlett, making his first appearance of the summer ("Hopefully you won't get to see him bowl today" said the Surrey press man, a little mournfully). This time last year I was one of the many people mocking Surrey for their policy of 'resting' Tremlett at the start of the season. Well, more fool me. They've been vindicated by what has happened since. Few careers can have changed so much in the space of 12 months has his has. Together with Yasir Arafat, Jade Dernbach and the supposedly lightning quick Stuart Meaker - who Kevin Shine was raving about at Chelmsford last week - Surrey's seam attack looks very mean indeed. That could all be for another day though, if Ramprakash has his way. And knowing Ramprakash, he will. Time for a turn about the ground, I think.

11.47am: David Hopps writes:

There was a place on the Trent Bridge ground at start of play today, probably a unique place, where thanks to the radios blaring out from the scaffolding of the Trent Bridge Inn it was possible to listen to Abba's Dancing Queen whilst watching Joe Sayers bat through a gap in the stand. Dancing Queen's uplifting, energetic and essentially carefree feel does not immediately strike you as an appropriate soundtrack for Sayers, whose batting would be more suited perhaps to something mournful from Radio 3.

It has to be said that Radio 3 is rarely heard on workmen's scaffolding, but if Sayers bats much past lunch, it could have a strange effect with the foreman suddenly insisting on one of Schubert's lesser symphonies. Stravinsky once joked: "So what if I doze off occasionally when listening to Schubert, as long as I always find myself in paradise when I wake up?" Yorkshire will feel the same way about Sayers today. He is not the most watchable batsman on the circuit, but what Yorkshire need right now is not entertainment but stability. They would be content if the Trent Bridge crowd snoozed through the whole day.

There are opportunities galore for young English professionals this season due to fewer overseas players, a consequence not just of the counties' parlous financial state but also the advent of IPL. That situation could be exacerbated by Sri Lanka's plans to start a new regional Twenty20 league in July/August, run by the Singapore company Somerset Entertainment Ventures. Salaries will not be high, but given the choice between a few Twenty20 matches or a month's slog on the county circuit, there are a few overseas players about who will opt for the former.

11.39am:

Toss and scores update:

County Championship Division One
Sussex 32-0 v Hants
Sussex won the toss and elected to bat

Yorkshire 19-0 v Notts
Yorkshire won the toss and elected to bat

Somerset 20-0 v Worcs
Somerset won the toss and elected to bat

Lancashire 30-1 v Warks
Lancashire won the toss and elected to bat

County Championship Division Two
Gloucestershire 12-0 v Middlesex
Gloucestershire won the toss and elected to bat

Kent 31-0 v Northants
Kent won the toss and elected to bat

Surrey 23-1 v Leics
Leicestershire won the toss and elected to field

Looks like the skippers decided it was a day to win the toss and bat. Except Hoggy.

10.28am: This from Andy Wilson on Twitter: Middlesex spinner Ollie Rayner very frank about his loan move from Sussex. http://tinyurl.com/68uxmxo (see quote in 8th par):

"There's a clause in my contract that says Sussex won't pull me back to Hove unless they are going to play me, so unless that happens I want to play here, and I'd like to think if I don't bat and bowl like a twat before May 12 Middlesex will want to keep me."

The following paragraph in Jon Batham's Staines News story is entertaining too:

There was no sign of batting like a t**t as Rayner shared a stand of 97 with Berg (80) against Derbyshire to get Middlesex off the ropes before finishing the job in the company of Tim Murtagh.

10.19am: The sun is shining around the country and we have the pictures to prove it:
@Yorkshire_ccc tweets:

Good morning from Trent Bridge. Another lovely day! Team news shortly http://lockerz.com/s/98589179

And @LancscricketMEN tweets from Edgbaston:

Hopefully here we go yfrog.com/h8vi9lij

10.00am: David Hopps writes:

Andy Flower has his new contract - and an agreement in principle that he can take an occasional tour off when England's international programme becomes too taxing. Tell us if you think Hugh Morris, England's managing director, is right to allow such licence. And, if he is, are you relaxed about assumptions (and they are still only assumptions) that Richard Halsall, England's fielding coach, would be likely to take charge on a minor tour in Flower's absence?
Halsall, born in Zimbabwe, has certainly improved England's fielding. But his first-class record is very limited - a handful of matches for Mashanoland Country Districts and Cambridge University. Does that not concern you, or should the coach in charge of an England tour, however temporarily, have a more impressive first-class record? Is this something that should be at the centre of discussions during England's debrief next
week. Let us know what you think.
On a lighter note, Somerset all-rounder Peter Trego is the new leader in the Walter Lawrence Trophy, awarded for the fastest hundred of the season. Trego thumped a 58-ball century, which included 8 fours and 6 sixes, in the Clydesdale Bank 40 Group C match, against Glamorgan at Taunton on Monday. But what you may have missed was the impact of one of those sixes, which smashed through the commentary box window and smashed Edward Bevan, the long-standing BBC Wales commentator in the small of the back.
Bevan, who commentates in both English and Welsh, needed 15 minutes off commentary before he recovered. All those chats with his old mate Don Shepherd, a Glamorgan cricket stalwart and one of the finest cricketers never to play for England, and Bevan still proved fallible under the high ball. You can listen to the fun here.

Round 5 of the 2011 County Championship

Good morning. Today's fixtures are:

Division One
Hampshire v Sussex at Southampton
Nottinghamshire v Yorkshire at Nottingham
Somerset v Worcestershire at Taunton
Warwickshire v Lancashire at Birmingham

Division Two
Gloucestershire v Middlesex at Bristol
Kent v Northamptonshire at Canterbury
Surrey v Leicestershire at The Oval

Your top team of writers today is: Mike Selvey at Edgbaston for Jimmy Anderson v Jonathan Trott; Vic Marks will be at Taunton; Andy Bull is at the Oval; and David Hopps will be covering the Yorks v Notts rematch, less than a fortnight after Chris Read's team stunned the Tykes with an incredible comeback.

A preview of all the counties can be found here. You can find full fixture lists for the season here. And you can follow the action throughout the season here. There's also county cricket commentaries on BBC local radio here.

County tables can be found here: Division One and Division Two. You can also follow our cricket team here and on Twitter: David Hopps, Andy Wilson, Andy Bull and Steve Busfield.

If you are viewing this on the web and would prefer to get it as an email every morning, please click here

Top stories on MediaGuardian.co.uk

BBC executives still paid too much: Lord Patten
New BBC chairman says number of highly-paid executives at the corporation is to be cut back

Royal honeymooners will be left alone, tabloids pledgen
UK paparazzi plan to leave Duke and Duchess of Cambridge alone though experts say foreign press may act differently

Simon Cowell unveils £1m gameshow Red or Black
The X Factor mogul's 'high concept' new series to be fronted by Ant and Dec

This week's featured media jobs

Adam Matthew Digital - Editorial Assistant
Marlborough, Wiltshire/permanent/full time

BBC - Reporter, Newsround
Manchester, Salford Quays/contract/full time

Millward Brown - Team Manager (Market Research)
UK/permanent/full time

For more jobs, career advice and workplace news visit guardianjobs.co.uk

Today's headlines

The Guardian

Tabloids pledge not to stalk the royal honeymooners. P7
Next series of the Apprentice launches. P19
Sony UK boss under fire after second hacker attack. P26
Hollywood in turmoil as DVD sales drop and downloads steal the show. P27
News Corporation admits early stage plan to acquire Formula 1. Sport, P7

The Independent

Next series of the Apprentice launches. P16
Sony admits second online security breach. P16
Groupon faces competition. P37

Daily Telegraph

BBC must pay high salaries for some talent. P8
News Corporation admits early stage plan to acquire Formula 1. Business, P1
Ebook sales soar, but print is "still popular". Business, P3
Some FMCGs reducing TV ad spend. Business, P4
Facebook could be worth $100bn by spring 2012 as profits soar. Business, P5

The Times

Lagadere reports 3.1% rise in revenue in the first quarter. P36
EMI sets up data room to prepare for sale. P37

Financial Times

News Corporation admits early stage plan to acquire Formula 1. P15, 20
Sony under fire after new security breach. P20

Wall Street Journal Europe

News Corporation admits it is eyeing Formula 1. P19

Daily Mail

BBC "must spend big on top talent". P2
Cowell to launch new gambling gameshow on ITV. P11
Ebook sales leap by 20% in a year. P32

Daily Express

Next series of the Apprentice launches. P32

The Sun

Simon Cowell planning global Top of the Pops. P3
Spotify takes on Apple with 50p songs. P14
Jinxed TV show could be taken off air after six guests die in two years. P31
Fears of 24m in Sony hack number two. P36
New Simon Cowell show could pay out £7m in a week. TVBiz, P1
Meet the new would-be Apprentices. TVBiz, P2
BBC to continue with Sarah Jane Adventures despite star's death. TVBiz, p4

Daily Mirror

Meet the new wannabe Apprentices. P13
New Coronation Street star Michelle Collins bags biggest plot of the year. P13
Cricket commentator hit in the box. P18
Kids ditch sport for web and TV. P21
25 million hit in PlayStation hack number two. P29
BBC1's Waterloo Road is back at an earlier time. P41

Daily Star

Next series of the Apprentice launches. P32

And finally ...

If any further evidence were needed to prove that Apple has a teflon image it came with the reaction to the Apple Store going offline for several hours yesterday. For any other company this would be the cue for a swathe of negative stories about brand damage and dodgy technical platforms. Not Apple. The blogosphere kicked into a frenzy that the outage, for an upgrade, must be for a flash new product. It was (the new iMac) and so potential negative PR is replaced by the usual Apple fever. Independent, P35

Also on MediaGuardian.co.uk today

Brooks dinner not a problem, says Cameron
Prime minister denies it was inappropriate to dine with News Corp bosses while government was considering BSkyB deal

Ad urges Murdoch to make News Corp changes
US-based liberal media monitor writes an open letter to Rupert Murdoch's son in an International Herald Tribune advert

Fox station gets Osamas and Obamas in a twist
A grimly amusing raft of spelling mistakes in the US media has confused Osama (bin Laden) and Barack (Obama)

UK ebook sales rise 20% to £180m
Figures boosted by Amazon's Kindle and popularity of Stephen Fry and Stieg Larsson titles

'Farmville' project with real animals launched by National Trust
Inspired by popular game, MyFarm will allow up to 10,000 members to vote on all major matters on Wimpole Estate farm

Fairfax staff up in arms as publisher decides to outsource subbing
Sub-editing jobs to vanish at two of Australia's leading newspapers, in Sydney and Melbourne

Spotify launches Apple iTunes 'rival'
New application will synch tracks from computers to iPods, iPhones and Androids and allow users to buy MP3 bundles

Rupert Murdoch and Agnelli family consider joint bid to buy F1
News Corporation and the Italian-owned investment company Exor have said they may bid for Formula One's commercial rights