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.

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

6.40pm: A round-up of scores before we close for the day, comments will be open over the weekend if you fancy carrying on discussing the games:

Leics 230 & 4/0 v Derbyshire 439/9d
Glamorgan 202 & 185/3 v Gloucs 188
Middlesex 277 v Essex 115 & 215 (f/o)
Kent 202 v Northants 429/7
Hampshire 218 v Notts 293/9
Warwickshire 642 v Somerset 147/6
Durham 327 & 64/3 v Yorkshire 149

5.08pm: Trent Bridge has brought some food for thought for the England selectors: a Samit Patel hundred, a somewhat slimmed-down Patel, too, yet again reviving hopes that he might address the fitness issues that have stalled his international career, writes David Hopps.
Patel's hundred had a large slice of fortune. He was dropped four times in the slips, three times by Neil McKenzie, the last of them off Friedel de Wet when he was in the 90s. He was not cowed by that in a second fifty that came at almost a run a ball and struck Danny Briggs for a straight six before hooking De Wet for another boundary and celebrating his hundred with a leap in the air that told of his new-found athleticism.
 
Cricket might never have taken root at Trent Bridge if William Clarke, who was later to become the founder of the All England XI, had not taken a shine to the widowed landlady of the Trent Bridge Inn, married her and decided that the spare land at the back of the pub would make a wonderful cricket ground.
 
Trent Bridge has become one of England's best-loved grounds, but in recent years The World Renowned Trent Bridge Inn, as it proclaims itself, had become an eyesore.  But better times lie ahead for one of cricket's most famous hostelries; it has been bought by Wetherspoons and will reopen as a cricket-themed pub in late May.
 
For once, the cries of "waiting" that could be heard on an overcast day came not just from batsmen contending with a difficult early-season pitch but from builders hauling equipment onto scaffolding. Nottinghamshire had toyed with the idea of trying to purchase the inn and demolish it, so removing a piece of history for the sake of another 1,000 on their ground's capacity. As enlightened as their development of Trent Bridge has been, William Clarke, described by John Arlott as "the first man to make a fortune out of cricket" would drink to that.

4.25pm: A (very) small amount of good news for Yorkshire: their total was revised upwards to 149, so Durham's lead was adjusted down to 178.

4.14pm: For the second time in as many Championship matches this season, Durham have earned the right to make their opponents follow on - and decided not to bother, writes Andy Wilson at Headingley. Just as at Hampshire last week, although this time under a different captain (Benkenstein rather than Mustard), they will first try to bat Yorkshire completely out of the game, and then hope to bowl them out for a second time - but this time, Durham regulars suggest, on a pitch that is already offering more help to messrs Blackwell and Borthwick than the Rose Bowl track that flattened into a shirt front.

It's funny to think that the afternoon session began with Yorkshire 93 for two, and apparently well set to make progress towards Durham's 327. But then their captain Andrew Gale played an appalling shot at Graham Onions to spark a collapse, with the last eight wickets falling for 47 - 16 of those from the last pair of Brophy and Ashraf.

Onions ended with five for 51 from 15 overs, an outstanding return after so long out, and was generously applauded to the pavilion by Yorkshire's players and members, as well as his own team-mates.

3.46pm: Warwickshire were finally dismissed for 642, 142 better than they have ever made at Taunton before, writes Mike Averis, and are now making about three appeals an over as their bowlers get the ball to do things Somerset found impossible.

With 10 on the board, Trescothick was still to score having played and missed or "left" either Woakes or Andrew Miller half a dozen times. After 21 balls the former England opener finally got off the mark with elegant boundaries either side of the wicket, before playing and missing again.

After eight overs Somerset are 31-0 with Arul Suppiah surviving a big appeal for caught behind.

2.59pm: Graham Onions has just taken his sweater with figures of four for 40, having seized the advantage for Durham in this absorbing northern battle, writes Andy Wilson at Headingley. Onions, playing his first senior game after 16 months of injury misery - full circumstances explained below, and yesterday, and in various previews over the last couple of weeks - fired out Andrew Gale, Jonathan Bairstow and Joe Root in consecutive overs as Yorkshire slipped from 100 for two to 113 for five.

It was high-class stuff in front of the watching England selector James Whitaker, especially considering Onions was obviously feeling his way back as he has so far bowled seven no-balls in his 11 overs.

He was given a big helping hand by Gale, just as he had been by Adam Lyth for his first wicket with his second ball of the season, as the Yorkshire captain top-edged a misguided pull to Ian Blackwell at mid on. But the next two scalps were earned not gifted, with Bairstow lbw and Root edging a late outswinger which the debutant wicket-keeper Michael Richardson did well to take.

Root had done more than enough to underline his promise by grafting to 45 with a couple of stylish boundaries, but Yorkshire are now looking to Gerard Brophy to rescue them for the second time in consecutive Championship matches.

2.38pm: Only 11 overs after lunch and the records keep coming, writes Mike Averis. A full toss from Mendis not only brought up Warwickshire's 600 – by 100 runs their best score at Taunton – but also the Sri Lankan spinner's worst figures in his first class career – 173 for two in 39 overs.

With Woakes making his third championship century, Trescothick's decision to ask Warwickshire to bat will take some explaining. The only good news for Somerset is that Woakes has gone for 129, mistiming a drive to mid-off.

1.57pm: Adeel Shafique, Notts' academy wicketkeeper, continues to keep wicket for Hampshire at the start of the afternoon session against Notts at Trent Bridge, writes David Hopps. This news goes under the classification of something I should have told you earlier if only I had found the time.

Hampshire's wicketkeeper Nic Pothas plays no further part after injuring a calf on the opening day and after clearance from the ECB Shafique gets a chance to step in until Hampshire's reserve keeper Michael Bates makes it to Nottingham from the south coast. Not the best time for the M1 to be closed and presumably clog up traffic in all directions.

Notts will have to negotiate a post-lunch spell from David Griffiths before they begin to feel settled. Griffiths bowled both Notts openers and had Samit Patel dropped in the slips on 0 and 9, firstly by Dominic Cork and then by Neil McKenzie. Alex Hales was also dropped by Cork, this time probably unnerved by the suggestion that McKenzie might go for the catch. That edge was forced by Freidel de Wet who then gave up the unequal struggle of bowling for slip catches and knocked out Hales's leg stump instead.

12.34pm: David Hopps writes: This is how hants_cricket told the story of the Trent Bridge morning so far on Twitter
 
BREAKING NEWS: David Griffiths has conceded a run, an Alex Hales single, after a succession of unplayable brilliance. (4-3-1-2). Notts 44-2
 
That sums it up really. Griffiths has produced an excellent morning's under thickening Trent Bridge cloud cover, bowling Nottinghamshire's experimental opening pair of Paul Franks and Mark Wagh and repeatedly passing the bat. He has also just had Samit Patel dropped at second slip by Neil McKenzie, a chance that he made look more difficult than it really was. Patel and Alex Hales are digging in for Nottinghamshire in the expectation that conditions will ease this afternoon. Griffiths' spell stands at 8-3-14-2 and Notts are 63-2 in reply to Hants' 218.

12.30pm: Ten overs into the day and Chopra went to his maiden double century, having added 26 to his overnight 174 in rapid time, writes Mike Averis at Taunton. He and Woakes were going along at just under seven an over when the opener, who managed only 409 runs in the entire championship last season, edged Hussain to third man for two.
The 200 took 330 deliveries, starting carefully but going on to add 30 boundaries, three of them sixes. Unfortunately the innings didn't last much longer.
Ajantha Mendis, so expensive and so obviously rusty yesterday, first baffled Woakes with balls that turned away from the right hander, then trapped Chopra lbw with one that came back. The stand had put on 123.

12.20pm: An unusual story from t'other side of the Pennines, in fact the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, about the Surrey opener Michael Brown taking over as chairman of Burnley CC, writes Andy Wilson at Headingley. Brown, who is one of six players in the last 15 years to make it into county cricket from the Turf Moor club - most famously James Anderson - hopes to tap into some of his former colleagues on the Stock Exchange to give the finances a boost.

"We are not talking a lot of money in the general scheme of things," said Brown. "But it is difficult for all clubs, not just cricket clubs. The culture is changing. People don't drink in the clubs any more and even the players' attitudes are changing. When I was coming through the ranks the players used to go into the bar after nets and have a couple of pints - you look now and the club is not even open. There needs to be a change, clubs need to be multi-purpose, not just a bar. You look at the likes of Rawtenstall where they have the clubhouse and the functions. You can't just rely on people to come in."

He has already sent Anderson advance notice that he'll be mithering for some practical support.

Yorkshire 46-2 here, Plunkett has taken over from Onions whose figures of 6-1-25-1 included six no-balls, which cost a total of 16 runs, for reasons explained by the anoraks who lurk below the line. Elsewhere Alastair Cook gone for 19 to Corey Collymore as Essex have slumped to 63-4 against Middlesex at Lord's, with no wickets yet for Steven Finn.

12.17pm: David Hopps has some news on New Zealand's latest appointment:

John Buchanan, a cricket coach variously described in his time as a genius or a charlatan. Buchanan has been confirmed as New Zealand's director of cricket and will take over the role in May. This new post puts him in charge of New Zealand's high-performance programme and he will also oversee the selection panel and implement a new system to identify emerging talent.

This is Buchanan's first major international job since he resigned as Australia's coach following the 2007 World Cup win, although he did have an unsuccessful stint in the IPL with Kolkata Knight Riders where he decided to implement a whole series of captains because of the fast nature of Twenty20. Suggesting to Soarav Ganguly, Lord High Everything in Kolkata, that he might like to limit his captaincy input to, say, setting the field in the first 10 overs, did not go down well. Shane Warne was among those who treated him with derision and that is putting it kindly.

 Despite this, nobody can question his record. He was in charge of a great Australian side that during his eight years that brought them three World Cups and a record 16 consecutive Test victories. He also coached Queensland to their first Sheffield Shield title.
"John's appointment is an exciting one for New Zealand Cricket," NZC's chief executive Justin Vaughan said. "He has a great cricketing pedigree and will provide outstanding leadership as NZC look to move forward."

One thing is certain: the ECB will no longer be calling up Buchanan for a summer brainstorming session.

11.52am: Day two started only 16 minutes late and with Somerset in an obvious hurry, writes Mike Averis at Taunton. Otherwise, how do you explain Marcus Trescothick helping to push the covers from the wicket and Craig Kieswetter driving the ground-staff tractor. Unfortunately Chopra had a similar mind set, taking nine off Charl Willoughby's first over - two off the first ball and a sweet cover-driven four to round things off.

Woakes twice played and missed against the South Africa, then after warming up with a few fours to third man off Gemaal Hussain, belted Willoughby through the covers to go to 50 from 46 balls with eight boundaries. The first seven overs have produced 40.

11.28am:Ten minutes before the start of the second day at Taunton the covers were back on and it's spitting with rain, writes Mike Averis. There was some heavy stuff early on, but we seemed set until the clouds rolled in. However, the umpires and the ground staff are in the middle suggesting that if there is a delay it will be a short and that Varun Chopra and Chris Woakes will soon be adding to the overnight score of 416 for six - 174 of them to Chopra.

11.26am: A dream return for Graham Onions, writes Andy Wilson at Headingley. He was given the new ball from the Kirkstall Lane end by the acting Durham captain, Dale Benkenstein, and after a sight-setter angled harmlessly across Yorkshire's left-handed opener Adam Lyth, the Whitby dasher tried to pull the next ball, got a bit tucked up, and picked out Ben Stokes just in front of square on the leg side. Joy unconfined for Onions and his team-mates. Yorkshire, replaying to Durham's total of 327, were 0-1.

Anthony McGrath has joined Joe Root, Yorkshire's bright batting hope for 2011 - aiming to replicate the impact Lyth made last year, no doubt - and Callum Thorp is sharing the new ball with Onions, leaving Liam Plunkett to come on first change.

10.51am: Another prompt start here, with the clouds a little higher than they were yesterday, writes Andy Wilson at Headingley, and Yorkshire and Durham staging some lengthy pre-match entertainment before Leeds face Huddersfield in the Super League on the other side of the Rugby Stand tonight. Graham Onions will start the day with his pads on, having picked up for Durham where he left off for England as a stubborn No11 as if the last 16 miserable months had never happened, but there will be much more interest in how he bowls. Talking of Durham seamers, and a quick word for Liam Plunkett – the new edition of Wisden provides a handy reminder of how badly his batting form fell away last season, but he's rediscovered his all-round ability with an excellent unbeaten 64 here.

Durham's overnight total of 326 for nine represents a fine recovery after their slipped to 134 for six shortly after lunch, and as well as Plunkett, their debutant wicket-keeper Michael Richardson deserves the lion's share of the credit. Richardson, the 24-year-old son of the former South Africa wicket keeper Dave, has been living in England for the best part of a decade, studying at Stonyhurst College near Blackburn then Nottingham University, and spending a couple of years at Lord's with the MCC Young Cricketers before joining the Durham staff last summer. When grilled last night, he confirmed that he intends to complete his residential qualification to play for England, which has been delayed after he spent one winter playing domestic cricket in South Africa, meaning he is relying on his mother's German heritage to play for the moment. Wonder how Richardson senior would feel about his boy 'keeping for England? And this morning's quiz question, how about fathers and sons who have represented different countries in international cricket?

Another quick quote from Wisden, and David Warner's Yorkshire review. "The more rounded a cricketer Adil Rashid becomes, the less interested England seem to show in him." Always a good read.

10.48am: We've got a press release through from the ECB on Paul Collingwood's fitness:

England and Durham all rounder Paul Collingwood has successfully undergone routine arthroscopic surgery on his left knee to remove 'loose bodies' and correct cartilage damage.

Collingwood will begin his recovery and rehabilitation period with Durham CCC and is expected to be available for Durham ahead of the NatWest International T20 and ODI series against Sri Lanka in June.

10.44am: There is the mouthwatering prospect of watching the new ever-so-slightly slimline Samit Patel have his first bat of the season for Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge today, writes David Hopps. He abounds with talent, was in great nick on Notts' pre-season jaunt to Abu Dhabi, and I'm looking forward to it.

Andy Wilson sounded convinced that Patel has slimmed down in his piece on Wednesday and he certainly does seem to have shed a few pounds. In an effort to find out exactly how much weight he had shed, I buttonholed Notts' chief executive Derek Brewer and media manager Michael Temple. "It's not something we want to quantify in pounds and ounces," said Temple, who has thereby become the early favourite in the Media Manager Quote Of The Year award.

Neither is there much quantifying going on from Notts in kilos, waist-size or indeed in litres of lost body fluids every time somebody utters the word "beep test." Suffice to say that Patel looks as if he has gone from woefully overweight to potentially not far from the range where he might begin to interest England again. But England's interest depends not just on weight but a minimum level of fitness and on that the situation is less clear. They did not call him up for the World Cup when Michael Yardy returned home with clinical depression, but opted for Adil Rashid instead. And Samit only had to make the four-hour hop from Abu Dhabi to Colombo.
 
Patel's weight readings have been a source of much amusement whenever the Cricketers' Who's Who comes round. He was officially recorded as 12st 7lbs in 2008 and then made a quite miraculous drop to 12st a year later when presumably he had one foot on the floor or there was a certain amount of PR involved in the reading. In 2010, I'm told, his weight was not recorded, presumably because by then it had become a source of national debate or because it was ballooning around dramatically depending on whether the ECB was due to make a visit. So if Who's Who records him at, say, 14st 7lbs next season, his slimming-down efforts will have been so successful that the figures available will actually suggest that he has put on two-and-a-half stone. He will then become the first cricketer ever to officially put on weight after a successful diet.
 
I must admit that I am wary of Patel dietary stories. I penned a "I've given up the chocolate for good" story two or three years ago, only for Samit to be discovered a few weeks later by the match umpires before start of play lurking in a dark corner of McDonalds, just across from the ground. He had said nothing about giving up cheeseburgers and milkshakes.
 
But even that did not match the day that I interviewed Freddie Flintoff in Cheshire on how he was going to cut back on the booze. Immediately after I had turned off the recorder, Freddie jumped into his car and roared out of the drive in the general direction of Manchester. He could feel a thirst coming on. At about 3am he was snapped by a News of the World photographer stumbling across a dance floor, somewhat the worst for wear. It was roughly four hours before anybody read his blithe assurances in the Guardian that he would never drink again. The News of the World told a different story 24 hours later.

10.15am: Some early reading for you before play gets under way: a Small Talk with Michael Holding, in which he discusses intimidating opponents, why there are few great fast bowlers these days, and Caribbean Christmases, among other things.

9.20am: The second round of County Championship games continues today:

Andy Wilson is at Headingley, David Hopps is at Trent Bridge and Mike Averis at Taunton.

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.

And there's county cricket commentaries on BBC local radio here.

County tables can be found here: Division One and Division Two

You can follow our cricket team here and on Twitter: David Hopps, Andy Wilson, Andy Bull and Steve Busfield.

• Yardy left World Cup early because of depression
• Uncapped Jade Dernbach named in squad for 2011

Michael Yardy has retained his place in the England performance squad after his early departure from the World Cup squad because of depression. The Sussex captain has an incremental contract with the England and Wales Cricket Board, and his inclusion in the 27-man squad named on Tuesday confirms that he is still in the frame for this summer's one-day and Twenty20 internationals against India and Sri Lanka.

Adil Rashid, the Yorkshire leg-spinner who made a fruitless journey from the England Lions tour in the Caribbean to Sri Lanka to replace Yardy, has also been picked, and the selectors have again shown their faith in Graham Onions, the Durham seamer who has not played for almost a year since leaving last winter's tour of Bangladesh with a back problem.

Onions is in Abu Dhabi, where Durham are preparing for the season, and hopes to make his first-class comeback in their opening match of the county season against Hampshire, which starts at the Rose Bowl on Friday week.

There is also an apparent vote of confidence in his Durham team-mate Paul Collingwood, who retired from Test cricket at the end of the Ashes series but remains keen to continue in the one-day game despite losing his place during the World Cup. The 34-year-old is due to have knee surgery which is likely to affect his availability for Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League, which begins next week.

Jade Dernbach, the South Africa-born Surrey seamer who was called into the World Cup squad shortly before Rashid when Ajmal Shahzad was forced home because of a hamstring injury, is the only uncapped player in the 27. Dernbach was Surrey's leading wicket-taker last summer with 51 at an average of 27.25, and even though he has never played in the First Division of the County Championship, the England selectors have been impressed.

"Jade Dernbach is a player whose progress we have been monitoring closely for some time and he has continued to impress the selectors over the winter with his performances for England Lions and the England Performance Programme," said Geoff Miller, the ECB's national selector. "The England Performance Squad is designed to allow the selectors to monitor the development of international players and better prepare them for the demands of the international game.

"We can name 30 players in the squad but as we did last season have decided to keep three places vacant at this stage and will reserve the right to add additional players to the squad if merited by individual performances during the course of the season."

England performance squad 2011 Andrew Strauss, (Middlesex) captain; James Anderson (Lancashire); Ian Bell (Warwickshire); Ravi Bopara (Essex); Tim Bresnan (Yorkshire); Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire); Paul Collingwood (Durham); Alastair Cook (Essex); Steven Davies (Surrey); Jade Dernbach (Surrey); Steven Finn (Middlesex); Craig Kieswetter (Somerset); Eoin Morgan (Middlesex); Graham Onions (Durham); Monty Panesar (Sussex); Kevin Pietersen (Hampshire); Liam Plunkett (Durham); Matthew Prior (Sussex); Adil Rashid (Yorkshire); Ajmal Shahzad (Yorkshire); Graeme Swann (Nottinghamshire); James Tredwell (Kent); Chris Tremlett (Surrey); Jonathon Trott (Warwickshire); Chris Woakes (Warwickshire); Luke Wright (Sussex); Michael Yardy (Sussex)

• Veteran left-arm bowler struggling with groin injury
• India 'better prepared' by their coach Gary Kirsten

Forget the mid-table skirmish in Perth – world cricket's real heavyweight battle begins a few hours later in Pretoria, where India face South Africa in the first of a three-Test series.

India are guaranteed to retain their No1 Test ranking whatever the outcome, but after drawing a two-match series 1-1 on the subcontinent at the start of this year, the second-ranked Proteas have the chance to make an emphatic point as well as closing the gap in the ICC's world championship – in which England and Australia are currently third and fourth.

India have lost each of the previous four series they have played in South Africa since 1992, managing a single win from 12 Tests. This will be their first Test at Centurion, where locals are predicting a fast, bouncy pitch to suit the home pace attack led by Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel.

But India's captain, MS Dhoni, is confident in his team's ability to handle whatever is thrown at them, after preparing for the series at the Cape Town academy, run by their coach Gary Kirsten, rather than with warm-up matches.

"Gary Kirsten is the best thing that could have happened to Indian cricket," Dhoni said of the former South Africa opener. "He not only knows our players but also understands the mindset of the South Africans and that insight will be important.

"I believe we will be better prepared than before, because the guys have played here in the IPL and in the Champions League and it is not that foreign to them." Sachin Tendulkar, the most experienced of all, will go into his 175th Test aiming for his 50th century.

However the potency of India's own seam attack may be undermined, with the veteran left-armer Zaheer Khan described by Dhoni as "quite doubtful" after suffering a groin injury. Zaheer would be replaced by either Jaidev Unadkat or Umesh Yadav, a pair of young, uncapped seamers.

Ryan McLaren, formerly of Warwickshire and Kent, is battling with the comparatively unknown Lonwabo Tsotsobe to be selected as South Africa's third specialist seamer. The series is completed with Tests in Durban, starting on Boxing Day, and in the new year in Cape Town.

South Africa: Graeme Smith (capt), Alviro Petersen, Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers, Ashwell Prince, Mark Boucher, Ryan McLaren, Dale Steyn, Paul Harris, Morne Morkel, Lonwabo Tsotsobe.

India: MS Dhoni (capt), Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Sree Sreesanth, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Wriddhiman Saha, Umesh Yadav, Jaidev Unadkat, Pragyan Ojha.

Hard-up clubs cannot agree on how many games to play or when to play them, leaving fans and players in the dark

It has been a taxing summer for the England and Wales Cricket Board. Ever since Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif bowled those no-balls at Lord's they have been in crisis mode. Their energies have been spent trying to keep the Pakistan tour going and to keep the England players on the field.

Crisis after crisis has punctuated the season, all of which may have contributed to the mess that engulfs the domestic game. Amid all the headlines of cricket in chaos the ECB have seemed so preoccupied with the international scene that they have been unable to offer a resolution to a less glamorous, but hugely significant problem: the structure and future of county cricket.

There is an unprecedented atmosphere of frustration and fear around the counties. Several of the 18 clubs have felt unable to set a budget for next season or to offer membership packages, which are their lifeblood, because they still have no idea what will be on offer.

There is a fear of financial meltdown, with three clubs said to be in very severe trouble. More players will have to be released as membership numbers decline, as they have done generally for several years. There are not many more than 100,000 across all 18 clubs.

High-profile – and expensive – cricketers such as Owais Shah and Ryan Sidebottom, now without counties, wait to see whether anyone decides that they are worth having in 2011. Less exalted teenagers, unknown to most of us, also wait anxiously to discover whether their clubs can afford that contract.

Most counties, and especially their coaching staff, believe there is too much cricket. The fractured nature of the season, with competitions interweaving, confuses the paying public. Nobody can remember the last time a cricket season replicated the one that preceded it.

There have been arguments over when games should start, a problem highlighted at Lord's last weekend when the decision to play the one-day final between Somerset and Warwickshire under lights led to the smallest turnout, 12,500, since one-day cricket started in the 1960s. Since then, by the way, there have been matches of 65 overs, 60, 55, 50, 45, 40 and 20. The 50-over format played at international level no longer exists in county cricket. No wonder the public cannot keep up with what is happening.

The Test match grounds are weighed down by debts incurred by rebuilding programmes and they fret over how they can acquire enough international cricket to pay the bills. The non-Test grounds are more dependent on Twenty20 income (and are now outnumbered 10-8 counting Hampshire, who have a first Test next summer, and Gloucestershire, who have staged England one-day internationals). They are afraid of becoming marginalised by a reduction in the number of games. The recession is biting, the balance sheets look ominous and not every county can sell off land, as Kent have just done to bring in £6m and alleviate their financial problems.

Last Thursday, 56 representatives from the counties were crammed into one room at Lord's and invited to give their views on next summer's domestic structure. They all had their say – on the Championship, the 40-over competition and Twenty20 – and on Wednesday the ECB management board will meet to decide the structure for 2011. One thing is certain: they will not satisfy everyone.

The Observer canvassed the counties widely and the differences of opinion could not be clearer. The split was neatly summed up by David Harker, chief executive of Durham, who said of last week's meeting: "You could almost sense the room dividing into two in terms of those who rely heavily on Twenty20 matches for income and would like more of it, and those who struggle to fill bigger grounds and would prefer something shorter, sharper and more meaningful. It is obviously difficult to reconcile those two different sets of priorities." Glamorgan's executive chairman, Paul Russell, deems it "nigh on impossible to settle on a structure that suits everyone".

It is simpler to outline the problem than the solution. Paul Sheldon, chief executive at Surrey, expresses a widespread concern at a haphazard structure that leaves supporters confused and unnecessarily inconvenienced. "Regularity and quality is what we want and need and we have neither. The players are tired and the public are confused and we hope we can sort it out sooner rather than later."

How did we get here? In 2009 there was a kneejerk reaction to the abundance of razzmatazz and rupees generated by the Indian Premier League. Hence there was a lurch to an expanded domestic Twenty20 competition for 2010, which most of the counties seemed to support.

Now we are discovering how difficult it can be to turn back the clock. There is a parallel here with the TV rights debate. Once the ECB opted for Sky and the increased millions they brought in, it soon became apparent that it was extremely difficult to revert to terrestrial TV. Likewise it is tough for many counties, especially those without international cricket, to survive without their new income from Twenty20.

Alongside the commercial arguments are the cricketing ones. How much cricket is appropriate for the nurture of future England players and how best to maintain the standard of county cricket? There are counties, lodged in the Second Division, who are none too worried about gaining promotion. Instead they win plaudits for blooding young English players while picking up their rewards from the ECB via the performance-related fee payments scheme. Is that the sort of competition we wish to encourage, one in which winning matches is of less importance than picking the most rewarding line-up?

Martyn Moxon played county cricket for 16 years, and as Yorkshire's director of cricket he adopts a view common among coaches, who crave more time to work with their players. "Our priority is getting the structure of the season right so that we can allow players to prepare, play and recover – rather than play, play, play and then recover a bit, as has been the case this year."

But increasingly the argument is driven by commercial necessities rather than cricketing aspirations. Those who run Test match grounds are not so fearful of a reduction in the number of Twenty20 matches. Colin Povey, chief executive at Edgbaston, mirrors the view at most Test venues. "Traditional cricket is on the decline because everyone is after Twenty20 glory," he says. "I'm hoping Twenty20 is reduced significantly because it does us no favours."

Povey's counterpart at Nottinghamshire, Derek Brewer, wants fewer games to allow those that remain to stand out. "It needs to be something special, whereas by the end of the competition this year in both spectators and players there was an element of fatigue – not forgetting the groundsmen, who were also put under extra pressure as a result of all the extra games."

The most vociferous supporters of the status quo – eight games at home, eight away in the group stages – are Essex, who pulled in more than £500,000 in gate money from Twenty20 this summer and are "very happy with the format as it stands". David East, their chief executive, says: "Any reduction would hit us hardest."

At Somerset, Richard Gould quantifies the losses the club would incur if the number is cut. "We would lose about £80,000 for every home game removed from the schedule," the chief executive says. "In time we may not be able to compete with the Test match grounds if there is a reduction. Our playing staff would have to be cut and we might end up on a vicious downward spiral." For this reason Somerset are considering applying to the ECB for category B status so that they might be able to host one-day internationals to compensate for the loss of income.

Gould struggles to hide his frustration. "We have been constantly told that the ECB do not want the counties to be so reliant on the so-called "hand-outs" from Lord's [roughly £1.5m a year each]. But when we discover a way to be more self-sufficient [via an increased Twenty20 competition], there is talk of it being removed." Those counties such as Essex, Sussex and Somerset, who have been able to make a success of the extended Twenty20 competition, are the ones who could be penalised the most if the format is changed again. For lean, well-run counties such as these, there is only one thing left to cut: the size of the playing staff.

So how will the ECB try to square the circle on Wednesday? The one goal that everyone craves is a stable schedule that is comprehensible to the legions of cricket enthusiasts – and there remains a substantial band of devotees out there. It seems unattainable.

It is unlikely that there will be changes to the Championship format. There is a strong case for an eight-10 split in the divisions since this reduces the number of rounds required to complete the programme. But it is not possible next summer: promotion and relegation has been decided, and it is too late to inform Worcestershire that they have to stay in the Second Division.

The agonising will take place over the one-day competitions. Should they cut the Twenty20 or the CB40? Both or neither? It is possible that any changes will lead to compensation to sponsors and broadcasters. There will also be counties, whose budgets have been disrupted and delayed, seeking recompense.

Stability? No chance.

• Three Pakistan players suspended by ICC
• Leading Pakistani diplomat says ICC action is 'wrong'
• Rob Bagchi on the legacy of entrapment
• The latest from Durham v Notts at Chester-le-Street
• Watch county cricket video highlights

1.05pm Jimmy Adams, whose innings began late on Wednesday, will now bat into a sixth session, having continued to resist Lancashire skilfully this morning, writes Andy Wilson in Aigburth. The left-handed opener is now on 165 having batted for more than 500 minutes, although Lancashire have whittled out four more wickets to leave Hampshire on 351 for nine – with a lead of 114 that still seems unlikely to be enough to avoid defeat (although after this week's events at Bristol, you never know). Tom Smith has been Lancashire's most impressive bowler, taking three more wickets to give him six for 81 in this second innings, and nine in the match for the first time in his career.

12.28pm: Worcestershire's Matt Mason has signed a new one-year contract for the 2011 campaign. The 36-year-old fast bowler will combine his playing role with that of the club's bowling coach.

Worcestershire director of cricket Steve Rhodes said: "Matt is still a top class bowler in both four day and one day cricket. "He plays a very important role in helping our young bowlers develop both in the nets and during matches. His experience is invaluable."

12.23pm: While we were blogging on Lord's Durham declared so it's game on, writes Simon Williams at Chester-le-Street. Nottinghamshire will need 391 to win, unlikely but not impossible with a minimum of 78 overs remaining. Ian Blackwell did not add to his overnight score of 50, but Phil Mustard reached his half century, though Scott Borthwick was left unbeaten on 46. Bit cruel if you ask me given his struggle to hold down his breakfast earlier this morning.

12.23pm: That's it from the ICC press conference for now. Owen Gibson will bring more analysis from Lord's shortly.

12.20pm: Pakistan players generally earn less than their counterparts in most other teams but Flanagan says this is "no excuse" for match-fixing.

12.19pm: Flanagan says the cloud of this potential match-fixing case has a "silver lining" as it has made people more vigilent in regards to corruption within the sport.

12.17pm: Lorgat refutes claim from Michael Atherton that the ICC has "buried evidence" in regards to match-fixing. Flanagan says ICC's anti-corruption unit can only interview players once those involved in the criminal investigation are happy for them to do so.

12.12pm: Flanagan says that if the three Pakistan players are found guilty they could well be banned for life. He declines, however, to say when a verdict will be reached, partly because a criminal case is being conducted simultaneously. "It will certainly not in weeks," he adds.

12.07pm: Flanagan says the three Pakistan players have 14 days to appeal their suspension. He adds that in this case, the charges must be proved "beyond reasonable doubt".

12.04pm: Owen Gibson tweets from Lord's:

The conclusion we have come to is that there is an arguable case to answer, according to Flanagan, but that is a long way from establishing guilt.

12.05pm: Flanagan says the three Pakistan players have 14 days to appeal their suspension. He adds that in this case, the charges must be proved "beyond reasonable doubt".

12.00pm: Lorgat describes the current scandal as the biggest possible case of corruption cricket has faced since the Hansie Cronje affair.

11.58am: Lorgat dismisses a claim from a Pakistani reporter that the ICC is leading an anti-Pakistan conspiracy.

11.52am: Flanagan agrees that spot-fixing is not widespread, but he does express concern with betting in sport in general. He stats the case for "lobbying for better regulation" in regards to sports betting.

11.51am: Lorgat does not believe spot-fixing is "widespread".

11.47am: Lorgat confirms he met with the Pakistan high commissioner, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, yesterday but claims he told him that he would be suspending the three players. Hasan told the BBC this morning that Lorgat told him he would not be suspending the trio.

11.44am: Flanagan refuses to comment on the Daily Mail story which claims money from the NOTW sting was found in Salman Butt's locker and hotel room.

11.42am: Flanagan has described Pakistan's recent tour of Australia as "dysfunctional" but says there is "no evidence" that anything that went on there was motivated by money.

11.37am: Ronnie Flanagan, the chairman of the ICC's anti-corruption unit, has "congratulated" the News of the World for bringing to light the existence of spot-fixing in cricket, should the newspaper's allegations prove to be correct. But he "refutes" claims that the NOTW's sting proves that the ICC's anti-corruption unit is not doing enough themselves to stamp out corruption in cricket.

11.34am: Lorgat insists the ICC will do all they can to "preserve the integrity of cricket".

11.30am: ICC press conference at Lord's has started. Haroon Lorgat, the governing body's chief executive, is first to speak...

11.29am: Nottinghamshire are almost certainly going to succeed Durham as County Champions even if they should collapse and lose here, but there is no doubt they have been given a bloody nose on their trip to the north east, writes Simon Williams in Chester-le-Street. Durham's lead on the final day is already 308 with five wickets left, although their ability to force the win which would end their own lingering fears of relegation is being severely hampered by injuries.

There is a real concern among the coaching staff about their patched up bowling attack. The headline grabbing news yesterday was the announcement Graham Onions will be missing for another nine months as he requires an operation on his back. By the time the 27-year-old returns to action - presuming this operation solves the problem - he will have spent 18 months out of the game.

He has not played this season because of knee surgery, which was only undertaken as he had been told he needed to rest to cure his back ailment. That is a massive blow to player, county and country, but he is only one of a legion of walking wounded. Bowlers Steve Harmison, Callum Thorp, Mark Davies are also out for the rest of the season and the two seamers they will send out to try and bowl Notts out in this match are struggling and may play no part in the game at Essex next week.

Liam Plunkett has been patched up to play in this game and Mitchell Claydon has a side strain which is hampering his bowling action. The news that promising young leg spinner Scott Borthwick has been throwing up all morning is likely to mean Durham will bat until lunchtime and, without saying it out loud, settle for the draw. Nevertheless, they have left their mark on Notts, who have injury problems of their own because of Darren Pattinson's sprained ankle.

Far too inconsistent, far too injury-prone, Durham have had a poor summer by their own high standards but, like a wounded animal, they have played some of their best cricket when they have been backed into a corner. The prospect of second eleven bowlers and Academy prospects playing at Chelmsford on Tuesday will not fill anyone with much confidence, so the points gained here are crucial. The loss of Ian Blackwell in the first over of the morning, dangling his bat away from his body to a ball at least a foot outside off stump, without adding to his overnight score, has not got the home side off to the best of starts. Sickboy Borthwick has strode to the middle, although there are no obvious sign of any stains on his whites.

11.28am: A quick break from news for some words from today's games: One other thing to watch out for later today, writes Andy Wilson, is the Leicestershire board meeting at which the clash between chairman Neil Davidson and coach Tim Boon, who may or may not be allied to former chief executive David Smith, will be resolved. Former captain HD Ackerman has waded into the debate on Davidson's side from his home in South Africa, with a piece on the testmatchextra.com website.

11.21am: The Daily Mail is today reporting that money used in the spot-fixing scandal was found in the hotel room and locker of the Pakistan captain Salman Butt. A police source is quoted as saying: "Early indications suggest the money found in possession of Salman Butt originated from the sting. There are good reasons to believe this was the case."

11.11am: Owen Gibson writes: Last time I was in the Thomas Lord suite for a press conference was for Ronnie Flanagan's first press conference as chairman of the ICC's anti-corruption unit, at which his predecessor Lord Condon warned of the dangers of spot fixing and said they were looking into dubious incidents during the Australia series. There were about half a dozen people here. Bit busier today, obviously. Meanwhile, we hear that the three players were interviewed under caution this morning at an undisclosed north London police station.

11.04am: Shaharyar Khan, the former head of the Pakistan Cricket Board, has said it is unlikely that the three Pakistan cricketers at the centre of an alleged betting scam will face criminal charges. "In most of these sting operations in which newspaper reporters change their identities, it's not easy to prove criminal charges in the court of law," said Khan. He does believe, however, that Amir, Asif and Butt, who have been suspended by the ICC, could face civil charges.

10.50am So Owen Gibson is homing in on Lord's for that 11am press conference, while Mr Hopps is currently taking the M5/M4 combo to get from Taunton to Cardiff. England's Twenty20 squad are training today at Sophia Gardens in association with Swalec - the first of two matches with Pakistan is there on Sunday afternoon.

10.32am: Hello from sunny Aigburth, writes Andy Wilson (who has switched games in readiness for his rugby league commitments later and has left the Chester-le-Street coverage baton with Simon Williams), where the Championship game between Lancashire and Hampshire could bubble into a fascinating finish.

Hampshire, who were apparently down and out after conceding a first innings lead of 238, will resume with a lead of 37 and five second innings wickets remaining - including that of Jimmy Adams, whose unbeaten 109 yesterday has been described by the journalists who were here in the press tent as one of the best knocks they've seen.

Adams was mentioned to me at Durham yesterday by a journo who usually knows these things as a possible bolter for the Ashes tour, although the England selectors' recent record suggests they are more likely to stick with the established pecking order in which he is behind his Hampshire opening partner Michael Carberry.

This ground will stage the majority of Lancashire's home Championship matches next season when Old Trafford is being redeveloped, and it's looking a picture this morning. It's obligatory to mention early in every visit that Don Bradman spoke highly of Aigburth, and specifically its pristine outfield, when he played here, and the green-gabled pavilion is as handsome as ever.

10.30am: Our sports news correspondent Owen Gibson will be tweeting from Lord's this morning:

Action moves from Kensington to Lord's today in ongoing cricket drama - ICC anti corruption chief Sir Ronnie Flanagan to face media at 11...

10.10am: The Pakistan high commissioner, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, has accused the International Cricket Council of "trying to play to the public gallery" by suspending the three players allegedly involved in a spot-fixing scam. Here's our report.

10.00am: Yes, last night the ICC suspended the three Pakistan players alleged to be involved in the operation. Below is an extract from Owen Gibson's piece. For the full story click here.

The three Pakistan cricketers at the centre of an alleged betting scam that has thrown world cricket into crisis were last night charged under the anti-corruption code of the game's governing body and provisionally suspended.

After a day that began with the Pakistan Cricket Board agreeing to omit the players from the team for the rest of the tour, and the Pakistan high commissioner claiming they were "set-up" by the News of the World, the ICC suspended the three pending a tribunal.

Outside the west London hotel in which Test captain Salman Butt, fast bowler Mohammad Asif and brilliant teenage prospect Mohammad Amir are also staying, ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat provided the swift action many in the game had demanded.

"We will not tolerate corruption in cricket – simple as that. We must be decisive with such matters and, if proven, these offences carry serious penalties up to a life ban," he said.

"The ICC will do everything possible to keep such conduct out of the game and we will stop at nothing to protect the sport's integrity. While we believe the problem is not widespread, we must always be vigilant. It is important, however, that we do not pre-judge the guilt of these three players. That is for the independent tribunal alone to decide."

9.30am: Morning. What a week. Tuesday: KP's mis-texted tweet, Derbyshire 44 all out. Wednesday: KP's CB40 Div 2 debut. Gloucestershire 70 all out. Thursday: a whirl of briefings, a touch of pomposity and the day ending with suspensions for the Pakistan Three. And even Warwickshire won a game.

What's today? The climax at Chester-le-Street as Notts push for an unlikely win to all-but seal the title, and - what's this you say? - a hurriedly arranged ICC media conference at Lord's, at 11am, with ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat, ICC anti-corruption and security unit chairman Sir Ronnie Flanagan and ICC general manager ACSU, Ravi Sawani? We'll be there.

Follow the action at Durham v Notts, click here to see the latest scores and here to watch county cricket video highlights

12.08pm: Durham have lost two early wickets here at the Riverside, writes Andy Wilson, but how Derbyshire would envy them such a solid start to the day. The Peakites, who are enduring a miserable season after starting with such optimism, slumped to 19 for seven after being put in by Gloucestershire at Bristol.

James Franklin, the Kiwi left-armer who according to Playfair will turn 50 in November - I'm guessing that's a misprint and he was born in 1980, not 1960 - has taken six of the wickets. One of the men out is Chris Rogers, the Aussie opener who recently stood down as Derbyshire captain, and has today confirmed that he will join Middlesex next season.

Batting hasn't been easy here either. Michael Di Venuto went lbw to Ryan Sidebottom in the opening over, undone by swing as he tried to work the ball to leg - having been dropped at third slip off the previous ball. Gordon Muchall has just gone in similar fashion, although in his case the bowler was Luke Fletcher and the away movement collected the outside edge of his leg-side shot giving Samit Patel a simple catch at gully. Durham are now 41 for two with Mark Stoneman on 12 and Dale Benkenstein on 6.

One other story from north-east cricket that is worth sharing comes from today's Northern Echo, concerning the second team game between Barningham and Eryholme in the Darlington and District League. Apparently Barningham couldn't find an 11th man, so with his team 97 for nine and needing only 10 to win with almost seven overs remaining, the captain Ian Richardson sent in his partner, Wendy Lawson, to join 64-year-old Lawrie Swiers.

"Properly padded, Wendy came to the wicket in green shirt and white trousers, and the skipper left literally holding the baby (Joe) in the pavilion," according to the Echo. "Somehow they held on, Lawrie doing his best to farm the bowling. From the last ball, Wendy on strike, Barningham needed two to win." She got bat on ball to mid wicket, and took a single for the tie. "She did an awful lot better than almost all of us," said Richardson. "She managed the forward defensive perfectly and still has the bruises."

12.02pm: Turns out Derbyshire have sailed through record-low territory. Check out this dismaying list of lows.

11.55am: Goodness, Derbyshire 31 for eight now at Bristol. All down to Robin Peterson to limit the embarrassment. Perhaps somewhere a pitch inspector is reaching for their coat and hitting the road.

11.32am: There are three other Championship games this week: Lancashire v Hampshire at Liverpool, where Lancashire will be spending a lot of time next season, Warwickshire v Kent at Edgbaston and, in the Second Division, Derbyshire are 13 for six - SIX - against Gloucestershire.

11.30am: The Spin has, er, spun, and can be read here. G2 cover-story writer Rob Smyth has penned this week's edition as Andy Bull is on honeymoon.

10.45am: Back to the Emirates Durham ICG to see a game that looks more than ever like the reigning champions taking on the champions elect, writes Andy Wilson. Nottinghamshire's bonus victory over Lancashire last week has given them a 16-point lead at the top of the table over Somerset, and 19 over Yorkshire, neither of whom are playing this week. So another win here in their game in hand would lift Chris Read's team up to 40 points clear, leaving them virtually certain to wrap things up against Yorkshire at Trent Bridge next week.

They have been boosted for this game by the return of Adam Voges, another of the stable of overseas players from whom Notts have received terrific value in recent years. He replaces opener Matthew Wood in one of two changes from the team who capitalised on Lancashire's enterprising/generous/barmy declaration (delete as appropriate) last week. Luke Fletcher also comes in for Darren Pattinson, but he is on stand-by to replace Ryan Sidebottom if he is called away for one-day duty by England. Steven Mullaney retains his place.

There are a couple of notable omissions from the Durham team. Still no Steve Harmison, who hasn't played for a while now with a foot injury, and there is no sign either of Graham Onions, who had originally targeted this game for his long-awaited comeback, but now seems unlikely to play this season. That would end any outside chance of him forcing his way into Ashes contention, although he is still expected to go to Australia as part of the England performance programme. Ben Stokes is also out, replaced by Ben Harmison, and Phil Mustard has chosen to bat on winning the toss on a bright, crisp morning.

10.15am: Today there's a live blog on Pakistan cricket developments, helmed by our colleagues on the newsdesk. You can follow it here.

10am: Morning. It was only Friday when we last met here, but already it feels like a bygone age. There is plenty on the site this morning picking up the pieces of Sunday's bombshell, from Mike Selvey, David Hopps and Dileep Premachandran.

Where were you when you heard the news? Returning home from a Saturday night out? Eating breakfast on Sunday? Imbibing at Andy Bull's wedding reception?

Today our spotlight swings back to the County Championship, where Nottinghamshire get to play their game in hand over their rivals at the top. After Friday's contrived finish against Lancashire they are 16 points ahead of second-placed Somerset. There are 24 points available to them against Durham this week - 16 for the win, five batting bonus points and three bowling bonus points. Andy Wilson is there to see the bonus points accrued and will file his first update shortly.

The day's play from around the grounds. Click here to see the scores and county cricket video highlights can be perused here

11.15am Welcome (belatedly) to Trent Bridge where top plays bottom and Nottinghamshire have already landed the in the first blow by winning the toss and deciding to bat on a day which is meant to be pretty good and predictable weather wise, writes Mike Averis.

According to the met men tomorrow and Wednesday are less certain, but for the moment the sun is out even if the pavilion is populated by the pullover and jacket, rather than shirt sleeves, brigade.

In the fourth over Notts are 19 without loss, although Chris Woakes has just found the end of Matthew Wood's bat.

11am Glorious weather in Cardiff for a change, even if it is not forecast to last, and sunny days for Glamorgan who sit on top of the second division with four games left, writes Paul Rees.

They are seeking a first ever double over Middlesex having won at Lord's last April for the first time, in championship cricket, since 1954. Glamorgan's tally of seven victories is the best in the country and the last time they achieved more was back in 1997, when they won the title.

Glamorgan gave a late fitness test to their opening bowler, James Harris, who injured his heel during the victory over Gloucestershire at Cheltenham earlier this month. The 20-year old was strapped up before he sent down a few deliveries and he was included in place of Huw Waters.

Middlesex are 53 points behind second place Sussex having played a game more. Failure to defeat Glamorgan would leave them contemplating another season in the lower tier and they are without their three current England internationals.

"We are feeling confident in four-day cricket," said the Glamorgan captain, Jamie Dalrymple, who joined the Welsh county three years ago from Middlesex. Dalrymple won the toss and opted to bat first.

10.48am It's a pleasant morning here at Headingley, writes Andy Wilson. Unfortunately Yorkshire are in Chester-le-Street, preparing for one of the big matches of the Championship season so far against revitalised Durham.

This isn't an attempt to replace David Hopps as the butt of the blog jokes by coming to the wrong ground. I've got to see Danny Buderus, the illustrious Australian rugby league hooker who currently plays for Leeds, ahead of the Challenge Cup final on Saturday week, so will be heading up to Durham in time for the end of the morning session.

Not ideal, but presumably the ECB would approve, as they seem perfectly happy for Tim Bresnan to dip in and out of the match as required. In case you've not seen it, Bresnan will start the game today, then head south to join the England squad at the Oval on Wednesday as they prepare for the third Test, but unless any of the senior bowlers are injured, he will then be released for the end of the Yorkshire-Durham game. Oliver Hannon-Dalby will be Bresnan's nominated replacement at the Riverside when Bresnan is away. It's not the first time this has happened, but it feels like another example of the Championship being devalued.

10.45am Morning. Two interesting matches in the First Division begin today. It's fourth v third at Chester-le-Street, where Durham play Yorkshire under the gaze of Andy Wilson. And it's top v bottom at Trent Bridge, where Nottinghamshire take on Warwickshire in front of Mike Averis.

Second-placed Somerset don't start their match against Essex at Chelmsford until Wednesday but in the Second Division Worcestershire do start against Surrey, having lost a captain and a chief executive since their defeat at Colwyn Bay last week. Paul Rees, meanwhile, is at the Swalec Stadium to see the table-toppers Glamorgan against Middlesex.

By the way it was good to see plenty of new whimsy below the line on last Thursday's blog over the weekend. So Hampshire are Twenty20 champions - who'd have thought it?

• Tim Bresnan retains his place in 12-man squad
• 'The challenge is to maintain standards,' says Geoff Miller

England this afternoon announced an unchanged 12-man squad to take on Pakistan at Edgbaston in the second npower Test.

The selectors have decided on a safety-first approach with Ajmal Shahzad's injury, retaining his fellow Yorkshire seamer Tim Bresnan instead. Bresnan was called up to the squad for the first Test at Trent Bridge last week, after the initially selected Shahzad aggravated a twisted ankle. Both bowled their full eight overs for Yorkshire in a Clydesdale Bank 40 League match in Holland yesterday.

In any case, Bresnan did not play in the 354-run win which was completed against Pakistan yesterday – and England can confidently be expected to stick with a winning team on Friday, barring injuries.

The selector Geoff Miller explained: "Tim Bresnan returns to the squad, while Ajmal Shahzad will play for Yorkshire in their County Championship match commencing on Tuesday. We would like to see how Ajmal gets through this four-day match, given the recent ankle injury that saw his withdrawal from the first-Test squad.

"Clearly we were delighted with the performance in the first Test, but the key to consistency is building on that success throughout the rest of the series," added Miller. "We saw a number of outstanding performances at Trent Bridge, not only with bat and ball but also in the field, and the challenge is to maintain those standards over the next three Test matches."

England squad for second npower Test against Pakistan at Edgbaston

AJ Strauss (captain, Middlesex), AN Cook (Essex), IJL Trott (Warwickshire), KP Pietersen (Hampshire), PD Collingwood (Durham), EJG Morgan (Middlesex), MJ Prior (wkt, Sussex), GP Swann (Nottinghamshire), SCJ Broad (Nottinghamshire), JM Anderson (Lancashire), ST Finn (Middlesex), TT Bresnan (Yorkshire).

Archaic attitudes would have made a neutral Test at Headingley inconceivable at one time, which is why it should be supported

Yorkshire County Cricket Club would have made a spankingly good plotline for Life on Mars. Stewart Regan, Yorkshire's chief executive, could be involved in a car accident, awake in 1973, and present to the general committee the entirely enlightened proposal that Headingley should not only host a neutral Test between Pakistan and Australia but also aim to fill the ground by embarking upon an ambitious attempt to win the hearts and minds of Yorkshire's Pakistani communities.

G&ts; would have been dropped in grumbling disbelief, emergency meetings would be called by an unreconstructed coterie of committeemen, who one suspects would soon have won the day, and Yorkshire cricket would be awash with dodgy speeches about the limitations of "our Pakistani brethren." Regan might not have lasted the week. How refreshing it is that times have changed.

But the twist for Regan is this: if a Life On Mars fantasy world would have been unbearable, reality is proving hard enough for entirely the opposite reason. Yorkshire have pressed ahead with enthusiasm, but they are nervous as to whether their efforts will be rewarded.

If Pakistan cricket followers in Yorkshire turn their backs on what has been a stupendous effort by a county that not so long ago was still being accused of institutional racism then they will have done not only Yorkshire cricket but themselves a huge disservice.

Selling the Pakistan vs Australia neutral Test at Headingley next month to Yorkshire's large immigrant community is so far proving a challenging proposition. The marketing campaign has been extended from Yorkshire to the whole of the north of England. Regan spent one morning this week at the Pakistan consulate in Manchester asking for help. Databases of business leaders, politicians, community leaders, Asian media and cricket bodies are growing by the day.

The successful bid for the match was backed by Leeds and Bradford city councils, from Welcome To Yorkshire (the Yorkshire tourist board for those not into rebranding exercises) and other bodies that Regan invariably lists, but which sadly defeated my shorthand.

There is even a Yorkshire Cricket Mela, which once would have been Meal spelt wrongly (meat and two veg, followed by apple pie and custard) and now really does mean the Indian sub-continent word for a festival or gathering. The Spin makes no apology for plugging this website listing the events.

But the clock ticks down towards 21 July – an historic cricketing moment, the first neutral Test ever staged in England outside London – and ticket sales at Headingley are sluggish.

Nobody is sure whether it is because Pakistan supporters traditionally do not buy in advance (which they don't) and will just turn up on the day if the weather (and business) is good, whether they are disillusioned with the perpetual infighting of their team (that has never stopped them before) or whether they are now only obsessed with Tests rather than one-day cricket and that Yorkshire's failure to recognize this could be a fatal error.

Yorkshire's cricket team these days is a shining example of successful multi-racial integration. Adil Rashid, Ajmal Shahzad and Azeem Rafiq are all talented and dedicated members of a young and improving squad; their personalities from both influences, their value as cricketers and role models immense.

At age-group levels, the county's development officers have learned to deal subtly and skillfully with parents of talented young cricketers who place overwhelming emphasis on homework and then weekend jobs to the exclusion of sport.

I remember rushing over the Wolds to Scarborough four years ago to watch Rashid bowl out Warwickshire on his championship debut and being excited by the thought that Yorkshire cricket had finally proclaimed that it was committed to talented players of all races and backgrounds. This was a transitional period when Yorkshire had changed, but some observers operating failed to recognize it. Throughout the 1990s they remained convenient bad guys to appease liberal consciences. Coaches would return from multi-racial coaching sessions to find themselves lectured by journalists from the comfort of their white, middle-class ghettos.

That is another reason why I am desperate to see Headingley pull in the crowds for Pakistan v Australia. Clearly Yorkshire's primary motive is profit, but there is a cultural aspect to this that makes failure unthinkable.

Yorkshire are not about to tell Pakistani communities that it is payback time. But it is.

The end of the road

You may not wish to intrude on private grief, but I fear I may have played my last game of village cricket. It's no bad thing. I can't get a run and my main captaincy decision is where to hide myself in the field, and there must be something else to do with my Saturday afternoons (isn't there?), but Spin readers can have an exclusive sense of my emotional turmoil.

Twenty years ago, I returned to a club where the second X1 was full of old men thinking of retirement and not a junior in sight. Funds were raised, pavilions built, outfields flattened and 20 years on I am captain of a second X1... full of old men thinking only of retirement and not a junior in sight. The only difference is that the old men now include me.

It had to end (if indeed it has ended) in farcical circumstances. Naturally, I normally try to deal in Guardian-style, sensitive words of encouragement (I think it is in my Guardian contract somewhere that I have to do this), but this time I harangued us.

What is it about village cricket, I enquired, that whenever anybody of a certain age sees a 14-year-old batsmen they lose all sense of reality and, irrespective of instructions, all walk to short midwicket licking their hands in expectation of an easy catch, only to see the ball sailing high over their heads to the boundary? Sadly, in posing the question there was rather two much effing and blinding for delicate dispositions.

Haranguing stubborn 50-something Yorkshiremen is probably not to be recommended. Five minutes later, I had to duck a right hook (I was naked and dripping wet at the time having just come out of the shower). An hour later we were bowled out for 49 and lost by 160-odd runs.

It couldn't get worse, but it did. Pushing a wheelbarrow to the square, still steaming with frustration, I had to dodge a 14-year-old on a bike who was cycling madly across the pitch on which we had just played. Another haranguing ensued, in which I suggested he was an arsehole. He took off his sunglasses and turned out to be the son of the most domineering member of the club.

The rest you can probably guess. I was nearly impaled by a sightscreen hook that was used as a javelin and then had to duck two water bottles. I summoned what little presence I could (ehm, none at all really) resigned, threw the keys at the vice captain with a message of good luck and we may be reported to the league. We are now in the phase of Supportive Messages and Frank Exchange of Views.

It makes me smile at the thought that as sports journalists we conclude that there is a major split in the camp if someone looks mildly grumpy at nets.

The side that beat us, incidentally, was packed with juniors playing the game with enthusiasm, spirit and honesty. We were largely a bunch of old blokes in a club where politics has recently been rife. Twenty years and, when it comes to the values of the game, we don't seem to have achieved a thing.

A Broad view

One of the least remarked upon dismissals of the week was this one: SC Broad b Bollinger 0 (M3, B5). It came during England's nervy one-wicket win in the NatWest Series at Old Trafford, a win that gave them an unassailable 3-0 lead against Australia, and following success in last summer's Ashes series and World Twenty20 gave England bragging rights* over Australia in all three forms of the game.

A few clumping blows from Tim Bresnan and Broad's departure in a collapse that saw England lose six wickets for 18 runs in 6.2 overs was entirely forgotten. But what of Broad? This is a player who has been proclaimed by the most optimistic as a Test No6. The most reputable judges have regarded him as a potential No7. And the most grudging, carping, pessimistic souls on the cricket circuit have conceded that here is an England No8 who will regularly add runs to the lower middle order.

The outcome so far in 2010 is strikingly different. Broad the batsman has disappeared from view, entirely forgotten in the rush to deal with more pressing matters, such as the month given to gymnasium work this Spring to build up a stronger, more resilient fast-bowling physique.

Broad has batted seven times for England in the past six months. He has made three ducks, a nought not out and a grand total of 41 runs. To put it another way, in six months his runs for England amount to slightly more than what it was hoped he would average in each Test innings.

He made 25 and 0 in the Cape Town Test early in the New Year, then followed up with 13 and 0 in Jo'burg. There was a brief appearance for 0 not out in World Twenty20 against Ireland on 4 May, three in the Dhaka Test 16 days later and finally his duck when Doug The Rug made light work of him at Old Trafford.

Broad is philosophical about it. He cannot be anything else. There is simply no time in an overcrowded cricket calendar to do much about it, especially if England keep winning matches in a manner that reduces his visits to the crease.

Turning to Nottinghamshire's coach Mick Newell, and asking him to slip Broad a place or two up the order, is also not an option. Notts have barely seen Broad all summer and when they have he has been equally bereft of batting form. He made seven runs in two knocks in his sole championship appearance and a first-ball duck in Friends Provident t20.

That makes 48 runs this year in first-class cricket. He is closing in a half-century so undistinguished that it would not even bring a congratulatory mid-pitch hug from Kevin Pietersen.

[*The Spin notes that Ricky Ponting, Australia's captain, does not much care for the suggestion that England have bragging rights. To avoid the ghosts of Don Bradman, Dennis Lillee and Shane Warne from haunting Guardian towers, we apologize for any offence caused].

• Derbyshire beat Yorkshire by 65 runs
• Hampshire beat Kent by five wickets
• Warwickshire beat Northamptonshire by eight wickets

Yorkshire suffered a crushing 65-run defeat in their opening Friends Provident t20 match against Derbyshire at Headingley. The visitors, who made it two wins out of two, raced to 222 for five batting first – the biggest score conceded in this format by Yorkshire – and they were always well in control after a rousing stand between Loots Bosman and Chesney Hughes put on 141 in 12 overs.

Bosman was in ferocious form, smashing 94 off only 50 deliveries with nine fours and six sixes, while Hughes hit five fours and four sixes in his65 from 41 balls.

Yorkshire's Australian signing, Clint McKay, took a wicket in his first over when Chris Rogers skied a legside catch to Andrew Gale, and he later claimed three wickets in three legitimate balls, with a wide between his first and second victims preventing the hat-trick.

He finished with four for 33 off his four overs, including the wicket of Hughes, but by then the damage had been done with Bosman exacting a heavy toll. Bosman looked certain to score a century but was out when he went for another big hit off Adil Rashid and sliced a catch to Jacques Rudolph at backward point.

Yorkshire only looked like making a realistic challenge at the start of their innings when Rudolph set off at a cracking pace, thrashing Tim Groenewald for three fours and a six in an opening over which cost 20 runs. The South African then smashed two legside sixes off Steffan Jones to take him to an improbable 30 off eight balls but four runs later he drove Wes Durston straight into the hands of Hughes.

Gale, the captain, was bowled by Groenewald for 10, and when Anthony McGrath was caught on the boundary edge off Garry Park Yorkshire were struggling on 53 for three. Herschelle Gibbs, also making his Yorkshire debut, tried to repair some of the damage with Gerard Brophy and they took the score to 96 before Brophy danced down the wicket to Durston and was stumped.

Gibbs reached a careful 36 from 28 balls with four boundaries but when he was bowled by Greg Smith to make it 124 for six, Yorkshire had run out of steam, Smith ending with three for 19 off 2.5 overs.

Nic Pothas and the former South Africa opener Neil McKenzie guided Hampshire to a last-over victory in a low-scoring match against Kent at the Rose Bowl.

Chasing a modest 115 to win, Hampshire scraped home by five wickets with two balls to spare. The home side lost their fifth wicket, the Pakistan all-rounder Abdul Razzaq, at 94 to set up a tense finish. But the Hampshire sixth-wicket pair of Pothas and McKenzie made sure in an unbroken stand of 23 in the final three overs to give their side a winning start to this season's competition.

The Kent captain, Robert Key, must have regretted winning the toss and choosing to bat first, because he was out in the first over without scoring, leg-before to his Hampshire counterpart, Dimitri Mascarenhas. They never really recovered, slumping to 51 for five in the 12th over, and then 90 for eight in the 17th.

There was only one stand of any substance, 23 for the seventh wicket between Darren Stevens and Matt Coles. Stevens was Kent's top scorer with a defiant 36, which included a six off Sean Ervine and a four. But Kent managed only nine boundaries in the innings and struggled to cope with the left-arm pace bowler Chris Wood, who was making his debut. Wood took two for 17 and also ran out Stevens with a direct hit to ease Hampshire towards victory.

But Hampshire suffered a setback when Mascarenhas, who injured an ankle playing in the Indian Premier League and missed the first two months of the season, was able to bowl only three overs before limping off with a recurrence of the injury.

Kent made 114 for nine and made an immediate breakthrough when the Hampshire opener Michael Lumb was caught at backward square leg from the first ball of the innings. Jimmy Adams, Michael Carberry and Ervine each made useful contributions as Hampshire's innings gained momentum, with Ervine striking four fours in his top score of 31. But the Zimbabwean's dismissal to a catch in the deep caused Hampshire to falter, and it needed the steady nerve of Pothas and McKenzie to inflict on Kent their first defeat of the season.

Darren Maddy made a triumphant return to Twenty20 as Warwickshire launched their campaign with an eight-wicket victory over Northamptonshire at Edgbaston.

After missing last year's tournament because of a knee injury, the former Leicestershire all-rounder thrashed 88 – including 11 fours and six sixes – from 42 balls as the Bears charged home with 5.5 overs to spare.

A withering assault on Andrew Hall took Maddy to 50 from only 27 deliveries. Having smashed two sixes and a four when the South African entered the attack, he followed up with 18 in his second over.

Northants' total of 147 for five proved to be well below par. Warwickshire scooted to 50 in the fifth over and reached 100 in the ninth. If anything, the loss of pinch hitter Neil Carter, run out by Nicky Boje, speeded up the victory. Jim Troughton, although outpaced by the inspired Maddy, contributed 39 to a stand of 116 from 53 balls and finished unbeaten with 41 after his partner had holed out to long-off in the 12th over.

Northamptonshire's batting also centred on a player returning to Twenty20 cricket. A calf injury sidelined Mal Loye last year, and now back with his first county after seven seasons with Lancashire, he cracked seven fours and a six from 48 balls. Reaching 50 for the ninth time in this format, he saw his side through to 98 for three in the 14th over before he was deceived in the flight and bowled by Imran Tahir for 54.

The Pakistan-born leg spinner was the one bowler to put the brakes on Northamptonshire and ended with figures of three for 14 without conceding a boundary in his four overs.

Loye and Niall O'Brien, the latter patched up for this competition after breaking his left index finger, made 29 in an opening partnership of 65 before Ant Botha held a one-handed catch at cover in Tahir's first over. Boje, smartly stumped by the young keeper Richard Johnson, was another victim for Tahir and the first four wickets went to spin with Rob White caught at long-on off Botha.

LONDON - England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chairman Giles Clarke says it will not take legal action against Lancashire, Warwickshire and Yorkshire for talking to the suspended Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Lalit Modi for setting up a franchised Twenty20 league in England. The Daily Telegraph reported that in the leaked version of his ... Read : ECB will not sue counties, says chairman Clarke.

• Email from Yorkshire chief executive reveals threat
• Proposal could destroy fabric of English cricket, says ECB

England's star players could be bought up by a rival Indian Premier League competition that could take over English cricket according to an email, seen by the Guardian, circulated to the Test match group – those counties who stage Tests – by the Yorkshire chief executive, Stuart Regan.

Regan, along with representatives from Warwickshire and Lancashire, met Lalit Modi, the then commissioner of the IPL, in Delhi in March. At the meeting, also attended by two senior IMG executives, it was proposed that franchises would be set up in England, paying the Test match group members between $3m and $5m (£2m-£3.3m) as staging rights, while keeping 80% of the gross income themselves.

In his email Regan says: "If the governing bodies try to block the development of IPL20, then the franchises could, if they wished, simply buy up the players and create their own cricket structure. Modi believes that most star players would take the money rather than spend months playing county, state or Test cricket. If he wanted he could launch IPL Tests or ODIs."

Giles Clarke, chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, believes Modi's alleged expansionist ambitions could destroy the fabric of English cricket and reported the facts to the Board of Control for Cricket in India. On Thursday the Yorkshire chairman, Colin Graves, called Clarke's reaction "overblown" saying that "Lalit Modi did not put a proposition on the table. There were no secret proposals, no secret agenda, nothing underhand."

Clarke was insistent yesterday that, contrary to reports, there was no row or discord between him and members of the Test match group who, in making large financial commitments to develop and upgrade their grounds, feel obliged to investigate all avenues for raising revenue. Instead the argument is with Modi, who made the proposal in the first place.

Sources close to Regan say that in his email he was depicting potential worst-case scenarios if English cricket did not work closely with the IPL to explore potential global expansion. They reject suggestions that Modi made threats.

Graves is coordinating the Test match counties' campaign for a high-profile English Twenty20 competition. He has reiterated his belief that Clarke is overstating the case to reinforce his agenda against Modi. "I have already said that the meeting with Modi was simply a fact-finding meeting," he said yesterday, "and will make this point to Giles when we meet. We are seeking a Twenty20 future that is good for every English county."

Since the meeting Modi has been suspended from his post pending inquiry into numerous allegations which include franchise-rigging. He denies wrongdoing.

Clarke's attack also brought a response from IMG.

The statement read: "IMG has not been involved in any plans in the quotes attributed to Mr Clarke. Representatives from ECB member counties requested a meeting with Lalit Modi through IMG. An informal lunch meeting took place in Delhi and was attended by IMG executives.The matters discussed included a general conversation about the challenges currently facing English cricket and the theoretical discussions about the possible modelling and commercial potential of an English Twenty20 tournament.

"As a matter of formality it was stated by IMG and acknowledged by all present prior to this discussion that the sovereignty and processes of ECB must at all times be respected, as must the relevant rules of all other official cricket bodies including the ICC. Any suggestion otherwise is baseless, untrue and defamatory."

• Modi accused by Indian board of trying to set up parallel IPL
• 'We have to find ways of filling grounds outside England team'

The future of Twenty20 cricket in England has reached what could prove to be its final and bloodiest of battles. Lalit Modi, the suspended Indian Premier League commissioner, has been accused by the Indian board of trying to set up a parallel competition in England – and the reverberations could shape the landscape of the game for a generation.

Fresh allegations against Modi have arisen after the England and Wales Cricket Board chairman, Giles Clarke, put his political future on the line by alleging that Modi had made proposals to representatives of the Test-match counties at a meeting in Delhi that were "detrimental to Indian cricket, English cricket and world cricket at large".

Clarke, in Barbados for the World Twenty20, refused last night to divulge the contents of his email to the Indian board. However, it formally told Modi that if the allegations were true they would undermine "the very foundation of the way cricket is administered and played across the world".

The allegations have infuriated the Test-match counties. Yorkshire's chairman Colin Graves, who also chairs a Test-match county pressure group which is pressing for an elite Twenty20 competition in England, last night rejected any implication that Modi and his group had been involved in secret or destructive negotiations and insisted that Clarke had been given notes of the meeting.

Modi met representatives of the Test-match group on 31 March: Colin Povey, the Warwickshire chief executive, Yorkshire's chief executive, Stewart Regan, and the Lancashire committee member David Hodgkiss. Those meetings, according to the Indian board, discussed a parallel IPL in England in which eight existing Indian franchises would bid for English counties. It was alleged that Modi proposed a deal in which IPL would guarantee each county a minimum of $3-5 million (£2-3.3m) per year plus a staging fee of $1.5m.

Acting allegedly on information supplied by Clarke, the BCCI goes on: "You offered inducement to gather the rest of the county members to support your ideas and goad them to overpower their own governing bodies... you have allegedly planted a seed of thought of players' revolt if the governing bodies of respective cricket boards do not allow them to participate in this extended version of IPL."

Graves rejected Indian board accusations that the game could be about to be "hijacked". "This is totally overblown," he said. "It was a fact-finding mission. Lalit Modi did not put a proposition on the table. There were no secret proposals, no secret agenda, nothing underhand.

"IPL has been extraordinarily successful and we can learn a lot from it. There was a proper business discussion about how things might develop in the future, the sort of discussions that can benefit the whole of English cricket. Stewart Regan took notes of the meeting and forwarded them to all the Test grounds. I then passed those notes to Giles Clarke. Lalit Modi invited all representatives of the Test grounds to be his personal guests at the IPL final. We turned the invitation down as we were not in a position to discuss anything in detail.

"We have not been guaranteed anything, but if anybody puts anything on the table we will discuss it. We have nine Test grounds and only seven Tests a year. We have to find ways to fill these grounds outside the England team. The nine Test grounds are united in the belief we cannot allow the status quo to continue. There is no future in us creating another Twenty20 competition for all 18 counties. It is not attractive enough to fill the Test grounds. We have to create something new and exciting, a tournament with the appeal of IPL, a British version. We will continue to put these ideas to Giles."

Modi has been given 15 days to respond to the ECB charges. Clarke, who has always been committed to an equal Twenty20 future for all 18 first-class counties, seems to have identified what he believes is his opportunity to retain control of the county game, but all the signs last night were that he has hardened the resolve of the Test counties to press for a more radical future. The gloves might just have come off.

Featuring England's fortunes so far, the local lingo, Coldplay's benevolence and another reason to appreciate Paul Collingwood

EARLY IMPRESSIONS

An Indian, an Englishman and a Bajan walk into a bar. No, really. The matches are not available on local TV in the Caribbean so the only place the Spin could find that was showing the England v Ireland game was the deserted bar of the monstrous Hilton Hotel across the bay. There were three of us there, watching a feed that flickered, crackled and cut out every minute or so. Every rain break they cut away to some old footage of a local Calypso competition so our only source of information was the second-hand reports from a chubby Englishman in an ancient pair of Speedos who was wandering around the pool listening to the match on radio and moaning about what a "bloody farce" everything was.

There was supposed to be a punchline there somewhere. Oh yes. An Indian, an Englishman and a Bajan walk into a bar. The joke? English cricket. Everywhere the Spin has been so far in the Caribbean, the fans and journalists of rival teams have been quick to chuckle about the number of foreign-educated players in England's top six. And while the Spin is an advocate of England's multi-cultural make-up, there was a certain grim tinge to watching Ireland get knocked out by a player who was nurtured for so long in their own national set-up.

The South African-born top three made the choice to play for England, but Morgan really had no choice at all. This was his only route towards making the most of his talent (and earning potential) as a top player. That is why, a few clubhouse bar-room blowhards aside, the Irish cricket community does not begrudge him his career-move. It also makes it more of a pity that he is playing for the team. He has propped England up in their two matches so far.

"I can't decide who I am supporting," said the Bajan, Michael, "I've had an English woman, and then I've had an Irish woman, and I can't decide who was sweeter." And then, after watching Tim Bresnan swing and miss and swing and miss and then slap a catch to long-off: "I remember now. I liked the Irish girl more."

If there was one defining image of the match it was surely the cutaway to the bikini-clad dancer whose job it is to wiggle and shake in celebration of each boundary. She was sat on the boundary rope hugging her knees and staring out into the middle like a pensioner in the passenger seat of a Vauxhall Cavalier looking out over the Bournemouth sea front. England did not give her a hard afternoon – at one point they went through all of 35 balls without hitting a single boundary.

But they banked enough credit in scoring 191 against West Indies to be spared excessive scorn for their timid performance on a difficult pitch yesterday. Even if they were saved from being knocked out only by the rain. It was cruel on the Irish but will probably be thought fair recompense by the English players, who still seemed to be shell-shocked from being robbed of what they considered a likely win against West Indies. In fact they would probably have won that match anyway had they not given away eight runs in wides in those mere six overs. If they want to cast blame they would be better off looking at their bowlers before Duckworth and Lewis.

It is not the formula that is at fault, as George Duckworth has pointed out. The data it is based on was updated last year to include all the Twenty20 matches since 2005, and now reflects the increase in scoring rates in that time. The ICC has had it independently ratified and still think it is better than the alternatives such as the JVD system used in the Indian Cricket League. The anomalies arise because the cut-off for a match reaching a result is so small. Five overs is too small a number of balls for wickets to have any value. There are three possible solutions: extend matches into the following day; increase the minimum number of overs needed for a result to 10; settle rain-affected matches with Super Overs. Take your pick.

Either way we were robbed of what would have been an absorbing match, and the associate nations lost what was their last good chance to make an impact. For all that the Afghans have been practicing facing fast, short bowling in the nets, the South Africans are not a merciful bunch. After fouling up their selection and strategy against India their appetite for victory will be all the sharper.

The two matches they have played so far suggest that England are in the middle-ranks in this tournament and no more. Their weakness is their seam bowling, which looks to lack either the canniness or the sheer pace to stymie the best batting line-ups.

Interestingly, the three stronger teams from 2009 - Pakistan, Sri Lanka and South Africa - have all struggled so far. On the early evidence they have been overtaken by India and Australia, the two teams with the most conspicuously powerful middle-orders. With Michael Clarke, David Hussey, Cameron White and Steve Smith in the side, Australia have a quartet of spin options. The variety compensates for the lack of quality. And they are complemented by another quartet of seam bowlers, three of them among the fastest men in the tournament. Under Clarke's captaincy there is a keen edge about the team. Maybe this all just the latent fear of an Englishman who lived through the 1990s, but at any rate, now the Spin has tipped them, we can all sit back and watch them get knocked out by Bangladesh today.

OLD CREOLE

"I tell you something," cackled the photographer, "there is a particular phrase we have here at the cricket in St Lucia, yessir, a particular phrase," he rolled his 'r's around his mouth as he spoke. "I shalln't tell you what it is, that would spoil it, but you will hear it, for sure. This is the only place in the world where you will hear it." And with that the thick-set snapper wandered off to resume a row he was having about an invoice he had sent in to an Australian paper that was five times larger than agreed.

So the next day I ventured out into the Canaries Stand at the Beausejour, which was packed with schoolchildren who had been given free tickets and Sunday revellers who had come for a day out at the cricket. I heard a lot of things, cusses and cheers, jokes and conches, horns and drums, but nothing that sounded like a distinctive phrase.

Until, that is, the 15th over of Australia's raucous innings against Pakistan. David Hussey whacked the first ball over long-on, landing it just beneath the first-floor VIP enclosure of the pavilion. He clumped the third ball over mid-wicket for six more. And then came the swell of chant, "heave, heave, heave" the crowd seemed to be crying as Sami started his run up, and as he released the ball "heaves a lot". That delivery vanished over long-off for six more. At this point the crowd released a collective gush of mirth, the schoolkids around me grinning and banging their seats as the beat out the rhythm, "heave, heave, heave a lot". In came Sami again, the entire stand baying him in unison. "Heave, heave, heave," and he released the ball, "heaves a lot." Hussey threw his bat through the line of the ball. Crack. Six more.

Heaves a lot? That can't be it. I turned to ask the man sat behind me, "what is it you guys are all chanting?" He laughed so loudly I recoiled. "It's the kind of thing that you would get slapped for saying," he explained. "He salop. It's old Creole patois."

"So what does it mean?"

"Son of a b1tch. Except it's actually a lot worse than that. More like son of a wh0re." And with that he broke off to join in the gleeful chant as Sami came in for his sixth ball. "He, he, he, he salop!"

SOME GET IT, SOME DON'T

"One day recently I said, 'I'm really going to try this cricket thing' and I sat down with Chris. I was watching and watching and watching and finally I was like, 'I don't think I get it. Is something going to happen?' And he goes, 'Is something going to happen? These are the highlights'" - Gwyneth Paltrow wasn't lying. Coldplay really do like their cricket. In the same week in which she said that in the Scotsman, news broke in Gloucestershire that her husband's band had decided to donate £750 to pay for new kit for Slaughter United, who play in Division 4 of the Gloucestershire County Cricket League. "One of the provisions is we have 'Coldplay' on our tops," said club secretary Paul Hemming, "I think there's probably more closet Coldplay fans than we were aware of since everyone's come out of the woodwork asking if they can get cheap tickets."

REASONS TO APPRECIATE PAUL COLLINGWOOD (part 47 of an ongoing series)

"One dark moment amid the flashing lights, I scaled a table and got into the private zone. Here there's hectic drinking, smoking and dancing. There's Adam Gilchrist, looking his age, haggard, drinking a pint; he and Andrew Symonds are protected by two bodyguards of their own, who bar closer contact and even photography with the Australian has-beens. Test aspirant Rohit Sharma is drinking straight from the bottle, smoking and dancing. Paul Collingwood looks bewildered" - Rohit Mahajan offers an inside peak at life inside the VIP enclosure at an IPL party night.

THE WEEK IN CRICKET

28 April - Worcestershire are routed inside just two days by Glamorgan in the County Championship's second division.

29 April - Sussex's remorseless march towards Moscow promotion continues with a fourth straight win, this time over Leicestershire.

30 April - In Guyana, New Zealand open the World Twenty20 with a surprising two-wicket win over Sri Lanka, sealed with a ball to spare. On the very same day that the Spin publishes a piece on Ireland's grand plans to play Test cricket, the team are bowled out for 68 by West Indies. 4,450 miles away Warwickshire are the only winners in the fourth round of the first division of the Championship matches, beating Hampshire by eight wickets. Yorkshire draw, but still sit top. In the lower league Northants and Derby draw, but Gloucestershire win their wooden-spoon match with Middlesex, who have now played four, lost four.

1 May - Afghanistan make their debut big-time cricket, losing to India by seven wickets. Bangladesh almost upset Pakistan. But don't. They lose by 21 runs.

2 May - India blitz a creaky South Africa by 14 runs, and a formidable looking Australia wallop Pakistan by 34. The second round of the Clydesdale 40 is ruined by the rain as three matches are abandoned and three more settled on D/L.

3 May - Mahela Jayawardene's 100 beats Zimbabwe almost single-handed. Against West Indies, England are nobbled by the deficiencies of the D/L method in Twenty20. Again. The Clydesdale 40 has better luck, as all five matches reach a finish. The pick of them may just be Sussex's 44-run win over the ECB Unicorns, a scratch side of out-of-contract club players captained by the Spin's old idol Keith Parsons.

4 May – England scrape past Ireland, and Zimbabwe are routed by New Zealand.

CONTACT THE SPIN ...

... to cackle when Australia get knocked out by writing to andy.bull@guardian.co.uk.

IN!

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• Fast bowler confident that knee problems are in the past
• Anderson unconcerned by lack of international T20 experience

Pace bowler James Anderson believes England have every chance of lifting the World Twenty20 trophy in the Caribbean after declaring himself fully recovered from a nagging knee injury.

Anderson has played two County Championship games in the build-up to the tournament and has felt no ill-effects from the knee problem that forced him miss England's trip to Bangladesh earlier this year. His appearance in the opening championship game against Warwickshire was his first competitive action since returning from England's tour of South Africa in January - and his first game for Lancashire in almost a year.

"It was good to get back into some cricket," said Anderson. "I've had a bit of break trying to get my knee right. I played a couple of games for Lancashire and it went really well. "It was all about getting some overs under my belt and testing my knee out to make sure it could stand up to bowling again. It has done that. Twenty20 is a non-stop game because you are running around for three hours solid but I am pretty confident the knee will be fine. I got through the two games without any pain.

"The knee was a tricky one to work out because the scans did not show any structural damage, which is a good thing. The knee is in good condition. We think we have got to the bottom of it and the rest has done it good. I bowled over 80 overs in the last two weeks and it feels fine. So I am pretty positive about it."

The England team departed from Gatwick for the Caribbean today and will play warm-up games against Bangladesh and South Africa in the lead-up to the tournament.

England meet Bangladesh - their most recent opponents following their tour in February and March - on 28 April at the Kensington Oval in Barbados, the same venue that will stage their clash with South Africa the following day. The opening day of the tournament proper on 30 April sees matches between New Zealand and Sri Lanka, and West Indies and Ireland - England's group D opponents - in Guyana.

England, who will be led by Paul Collingwood, begin their World Twenty20 campaign against the hosts in Guyana on 3 May and Anderson believes that England's new-look squad has every chance of success.

"We go into every tournament thinking we can win it and wanting to win it," he said. "We have got a great chance. We had a good tour of Dubai and good one-day series in Bangladesh, so if we can gel together early in this tour, I see no reason why we can't go on and win it."

England's lack of experience in Twenty20 cricket was highlighted by coach Andy Flower, who claimed in this morning's newspapers they are "under-cooked" going into the tournament. England have played just four Twenty20 internationals since last year and only five players - Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Eoin Morgan, Michael Lumb and Ravi Bopara - have been playing Twenty 20 cricket in the Indian Premier League (IPL). But Anderson does not agree with Flower's assessment.

"I don't see it that way at all," he said. "We have had guys out in the IPL who have been playing for the last couple of months. "We had a recent tour of Dubai where we played some Twenty20 cricket. We have also got a couple of warm-up games to settle in as a team and work out how we are going to play well enough to win the tournament.

"We don't play as much as anyone else and it does make it that little bit harder. But we have to click when we do come together and play really well from the start."

Anderson believes the inclusion of batsmen like the Somerset wicketkeeper Craig Kieswetter and Hampshire's opening batsman Lumb have given England an edge.

"They are new to the team and I think they can bring a fearless element to the top of the order," said Anderson. "They are exciting players, I have seen a lot of them in Twenty20 cricket. Michael has been out in the IPL so he has a lot of experience and the pair of them bring a lot of excitement to the top of the order."

Do a few extra pounds really affect a cricketer's ability to play the game?

The Spin couldn't sleep last night. Some kind of varmint, a mouse the Spin supposes, had got itself stuck behind the kitchen cupboard. The pitter-patter of its feet on ply-board echoed through the wall. As it often does in such testing times the Spin started to compose a cricketing XI in its mind, trying to fill in the minutes before its waking mind cut out altogether.

Last night it was a Bunter's XI. Opening the batting was Russell Rowe, one of the better batsmen in England's recent past never to play first-class cricket. Rowe played for Wiltshire in the 1990s and 2000s. He was a man of considerable stature, weighing a little under 20 stone. He had wonderfully quick hands and a stinging straight drive, which the Spin saw him unleash to fine effect on Amjad Khan in a C&G; Trophy match against Kent in 2005. Reputedly Rowe had repeated offers of a contract at Hampshire on the condition that he trimmed down. Each time he decided he simply enjoyed his tuck too much, and was happy enough where he was in the Minor Counties.

His partner at the top of the innings was Mark Cosgrove, who the Spin has spent Sunday morning watching field at slip for Glamorgan at Lord's. Cosgrove has just had his contract cut by South Australia after eight years with the state, despite scoring 511 runs at an average of 42 in last year's Sheffield Shield. "The unfortunate reality is," said director of cricket Jamie Cox, "that we were unable to help him fulfil his potential."

Cosgrove has got the hump. He has had offers, he says, from two other states, and is also considering renouncing his international ambitions
– he has played three ODIs – to qualify via his British passport as a resident player for Glamorgan, something he described in typically blunt Australian style as "not even a worst case scenario". What with Jimmy 'Crazy Horses' Ormond being cut from the Surrey staff over the off-season these are tough times for the portly player.

An XI, just like a XV, should be able to accommodate talents of all shapes and sizes, from half-pints to bean-poles, waifs to walruses and everything in between. Rotund rugby players have had to learn to squeeze into skintight tops or be squeezed out of the game, and cricket is starting to go the same way. This doesn't just rob the game of a little of its character, it also reflects the shifting priorities of the sport's coaches.  Stamina built up in the gym is coming to be seen as more important than skills developed on the playing field. As Cosgrove says himself "If you lose a couple of kilos it does help you
a bit in the field, but definitely batting-wise I don't think it helps you a hell of a lot."

He found an unlikely ally last week in the shape of Mark Ramprakash. "I've seen a lot of fitness trainers and physios come and go over the years," he told the Spin, "but the best teams I have played in have just been the most skilful ones. The best teams are the ones where the bowlers can put the ball in the right places regularly and where the slip fielders can hold their catches. I still think skills with the bat and ball are slightly more important than how good you are at rowing in the gym."

Surrey have been on a rigorous fitness programme right through the winter, the management instigating a ritual known inside the club as 'Hell Fridays' in which the players had to earn the right to enjoy their weekend by going through an hour or two of "tortuous fitness routines in the gym." And this at a club where, by the admission of their new captain Rory Hamilton-Brown, some of the players' idea of practice last season was to come in and "face three or four throw downs then stand around in the field."

The one role-model left in English cricket for plump youths across the
country is Ian Blackwell, who, as , must surely have had a strong case for being one of Wisden's Five Cricketers of the Year after taking 43 wickets at 23 runs each and scoring 801 runs in last season's County Championship. Even better for Blackwell, his success was a personal flick of the fingers to Justin Langer, who had all but driven the big man out of Somerset with his insistence on the importance of players being gym fit.

The serious side of this debate was touched on in , who suggested that while the England team "are proper, honed athletes in the way that cricketers of the past were not ... present training methods do not seem to prevent injury, nor do they enable bowlers to bowl the kind of spells taken
for granted in the past." Partly this is because players are more cosseted now. Greater medical attention means that minor injuries are more likely to be treated with a spell on the sidelines. But certainly at Surrey's opening match of the season it was easy to imagine Sir Alec Bedser turning the air blue as he read about the omission from the XI of star-signing Chris Tremlett, who after all that winter training was, and still is, absent having his "workload managed". Progress? Some would say the sport is poorer for it.

At No3? Benjamin Aislabie, the former Custodian of the MCC Snuffbox (really) who was so unfit that by the end of his playing career he had the permanent use of a runner. Not that it helped him much – his career batting average was 3.15 in 56 games, and he never bowled a single ball. At No4? Inzamam, then Arjuna Ranatunga and Mike Gatting of course. And at that point the Spin drifted off into sweet sleep.

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ECCENTRIC? ME?

"I don't see myself as eccentric. Everything I've done is relevant."

Former England 'keeper Jack Russell rebuffs the suggestion that he is at least one bail short of a full set of stumps in a charming interview with Gemma Wright in Spin Magazine. The Spin can't help but feel that Russell's daughter was nearer the mark when she first looked at her father's self-portrait and said only "Dad you look like you've got a madness in your eyes".

"I thought it was such a compliment," said Russell, before going on to claim that he was "the first person to have a banana on the field during the drinks break," and pointing out that "on one tour I had buffalo steak burnt and chips every night for 29 nights because I didn't want to get ill."

In the next paragraph Russell adds "When I die I wouldn't mind a military-style funeral. Maybe with a tank or gun carriage. I want a bugler playing the Last Post, although I'm not sure I deserve it. And I'd like the Match of the Day and BBC cricket themes played. I would also like one of my hands chopped off and preserved in formaldehyde. I'm not sure it's legal; I will have to put special instructions in my will. My initial idea was to cut them off, take all the skin off and have the bones in a case in my gallery."

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BIG HITTER, THE LAMA

Far be it from the Spin's job to suggest that the Indian Premier League is lapsing into self-parody, but for anyone who admires Bill Murray's work in Caddyshack there was a certain wry delight to be taken from last week's news that players from the Deccan Chargers and the Kings XI Punjab had enjoyed a private audience with the Dalai Lama.

The Kings XI have played two of their home matches in this year's IPL in Dharamsala, the home of Tibetan government in exile. The IPL carnival pulled into town on 16 April, accompanied by fanfares, flashing camera bulbs and flurries of excited monks running around asking the players for autographs. The players, among them Andrew Symonds, Sreesanth and Yuvraj Singh, were hustled through the crowds into the Lama's residence at McLeodganj by their police entourage. Inside they listened to a 30-minute-long sermon from the Lama on "the importance of giving up materialistic pleasures for peace of mind."

Lalit Modi, currently fighting for his career as IPL chairman (for more on which see The Week in Cricket below) was also in attendance. What he made of the Lama's advice is not known. One journalist from the Ahmedabad Mirror did his best to find out, using his precious minute-long slot of face time with the Lama to ask he had said to the troubled Modi. "You want to know what I told them?" replied the Lama, that familiar broad smile on his face "Go ask them."

Afterwards there was a question-and-answer session. "Everybody asks him about well-being and how can he get better, so I wanted to ask him what his favourite sport was," Yuvraj told the press. "He said, nothing in particular, but that he played table tennis and even competed against the Chinese prime minister once." The gentle rhythmic pick-pock of ping pong does make it seem a peculiarly apt sport for the Lama to play. More so, at any rate, then Twenty20 cricket. He stopped by the ground on Sunday for Punjab's match against Chennai Super Kings, but only stayed for an hour.

"We get so stressed up because every day we want to perform. Now I am thinking of doing the same, but with a calmer mind," Yuvraj continued, before explaining that the Lama's temple was "very warm, gives a lot of calmness to the mind." He then promptly tweeted his 59,194 Twitter followers to tell them: "Met Dalai Lama today! With the Kings 11 and Deccan. Once in a lifetime opportunity. He's a man of great words and deeds.. learnt a lot". Sadly, Yuvraj says nothing about being promised total consciousness on his deathbed.

"So I got that going for me, which is nice."

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THE WEEK IN CRICKET

15 April – At Sabina Park the West Indies beat Ireland by six wickets in a ODI. Ramnaresh Sarwan's 100 saw the Windies home with six balls to spare, but it was the 51 scored by Ireland's Paul Stirling that aroused the Spin's interest. Stirling, who signed for Middlesex last year, is 19 and already attracting serious praise as a batsman.

16 April – Surrey say they are in talks about signing Brian Lara as an overseas player later in the summer.

17 April – Nottinghamshire thrash Kent by an innings and 53 runs. Northamptonshire also win inside three days, Gloucestershire never recovering from being dismissed for 86 in their first innings. In Bangalore two small bombs go off outside the Chinnaswamy stadium an hour before the start of a game between the Royal Challengers and the Mumbai Indians. Eight people are injured, one seriously. A third device is found and defused. The match goes ahead, reportedly after an informal poll among the players. The IPL semi-finals are moved from Bangalore to Mumbai.

18 April – In the first division of the County Championship Yorkshire beat Somerset by six wickets, Lancashire ease to victory over Warwickshire by 121 runs as debutant Simon Kerrigan takes five-for, but Durham can only draw with Essex. In the second division, Surrey slump to another grim defeat, this time to Sussex. Middlesex fared only a little better as they lost to Glamorgan at Lord's for the first time since 1954. And Matthew Hoggard continues to make the captaincy lark look easy, as Leicestershire beat Derbyshire by 203 runs.

19 April – Indian Premier League commissioner Lalit Modi comes under scrutiny after the IPL's affairs became the subject of a government inquiry amid parliamentary allegations of money-laundering. IPL offices were raided last week by tax officials investigating allegations of money laundering. Modi has denied any wrongdoing.

A simple change to the County Championship would end the farce of starting the season in early April

The England and Wales Cricket Board gathered the great and good in a hotel tucked away in the middle of the Warwickshire countryside last week to discuss various aspects of the game. Among the great and good were county chairmen, cricket directors and chief executives. And the correspondents of the Guardian and Observer were also invited along.

Much good sense came from the expert panellists on the stage – from such people as Andy Flower downwards. But as ever a few issues were politely skirted. No one actually acknowledged that when the time for decision-making comes along commercial interests always seem outstrip cricketing ones in the 21st century.

So it is that we have managed to shed one domestic competition for 2010, yet the average county cricketer will be required to play two more days this year than in 2009. So it is that when the World Cup and every other ODI is played around the globe the duration is 50 overs. But in England the counties will be playing 40-over cricket because the commercial gurus think that they can eke out a bit more money that way.

And, most ludicrously, so it is that we persist in trying to play cricket before the summer arrives. There are some capable men within the ECB but, as far as I know, none of them yet has the power to control the weather. The season starts on 9 April. Invariably, if the rain or snow relents, the cricketers will be wearing three sweaters, there will be two anorak-clad men in the stands and the game will endure its annual dose of ridicule.

There was almost unanimity in Warwickshire – albeit by a show of hands, which is never the most reliable indication of voting intentions – that too much domestic cricket is played in England. There was a pragmatic consensus that the best way to alter the volume is to reduce the number of days devoted to Championship cricket. The ideal is reckoned to be about 12 four-day matches, enough for a credible competition, enough to allow potential Test players to demonstrate their skills. But there has never been a satisfactory way of achieving that balance. I am going to offer one.

Currently we have two divisions of nine teams, who play each other twice in the Championship. If they played each other once there would be just eight games each season – not enough. A more complicated conference system has been suggested in which there are three leagues, with the teams for each conference either randomly or geographically selected.

The winners of each conference and the best runner-up would become the four semi-finalists. Clever, but complicated for the punter and those running the competition. How do you cope with the drawn semi-final/final? Are we convinced that the best side will win the Championship under this system?

My solution at least has the virtue of simplicity. There would still be two divisions. But the first division would comprise 12 teams, who would play each other once, thus providing the optimum number of games per season. The second division would therefore comprise six sides, who play each other twice. Two teams each year would be promoted and relegated.

This twelve/six split mirrors the current strength of the Championship. There would be greater stigma attached to being in the second division, but that may not be a bad thing. It might spur those county sides, which have almost ditched any Championship ambitions, to seek promotion again.

It may be that number of teams could increase if Ireland and Scotland, who both harbour ambitions beyond ODI cricket, joined the second division. In which case the first division might comprise 13 teams, the second seven.

It's simple, it's fair, it retains the integrity of the Championship and it would mean that we do not have to start the season before the leaves have sprouted or end it when they cover the square. When shall we start?

South Africa's non-spinning spinner has made England's batsmen - and his former team-mates - look like complete novices

Of all the players in the England team the Warwickshire boys should know better. They have played with Paul Harris when he appeared for the county as a Kolpak player. They know that one polite description of Harris the bowler is that he is not a prodigious spinner of the ball. Most of his deliveries just keep going.

Yet in the cauldron of Centurion – it has been very hot out there, leaving aside the tension of a Test match – they forgot about that. Jonathan Trott, becalmed by his canny former colleague from Cape Town, scurried down the pitch and swung, missing a straight ball by a disturbing margin.

But at least Trott tried to hit the ball. Ian Bell, to the disappointment of the diminishing band who advocated a sixth batsman for England (I must remain in that camp), declined to play a shot. The ball thudded into the stumps somewhere between the off and the middle - halfway up. Oh dear.

It would be something to be able to report to Bell fans that Harris possesses a devious, fast-swinging arm-ball, the sort that Bishen Bedi or Derek Underwood, could propel to order to startled batsmen. He doesn't. This was another of Harris' stock deliveries that failed to turn. I must also report to supporters of Matthew Prior that the Sussex wicket-keeper was not in receipt of an unplayable delivery either, just another deviously straight ball, which prompted another indiscretion. JF Steele, once of Leicestershire and Glamorgan, used to conjure wickets this way.

What a contrast with Graeme Swann, whom we described taking his wickets in classical style. Swann found the appropriate edges of his opponents' bat with a little turn. Harris was acquiring his scalps from an absence of turn.

This is not to demean the man, who is currently ranked ninth in the list of current Test bowlers in the ICC tables. It is even more of an achievement to be ranked so high without the ability to make the ball fizz, bounce or turn at regular intervals.

What Harris does brilliantly is to exploit the tension of a Test match with his low-slung spinners. He rarely finds much turn, but is an even rarer event for him to bowl a bad ball. He preys on the batsman's patience. And even when he is hit for six, he does not look downcast or flustered. He might look a club cricketer – which is even more evident when he bats – but he is never cowed. A steely, wonderfully combative temperament compensates for any shortage of talent.

This description also fits Paul Collingwood well. As in the first of the Ashes Tests at Cardiff it was Collingwood upon whom England most relied for survival.

Technically Collingwood is well suited to low-bouncing pitches – and this one is getting lower by the hour. And temperamentally he is relishes a scrap. In fact Collingwood was occasionally skittish, having the effrontery to pop down the pitch to hit the devilish Harris over mid-wicket for six.

Collingwood seemed to have the nous to play the ball, not the man or the situation. Until he was betrayed. That Harris finally managed to turn a ball that terminated via Collingwood's outside edge - in classical style- in first slip's hands.

The England batsman faces his homeland 20 years after revealing his talent there

Talent's first bloom, the precocious suggestion of a gift, can be more memorable than its fulfilment. So it was with Jonathan Trott, who makes his overseas Test debut for England in his homeland today.

Trott was eight when his delighted family – South Africans of British descent – realised they might have an exceptional talent among them. The moment is recalled by Kenny Jackson, Trott's half brother, whose first-class record is unexceptional but who was something of a legend in the local leagues of the Western Province.

"I am 17 years older than Jonathan, so we didn't play cricket together," he said. "But I would bowl to him and obviously he had a bit of ball sense from the start. He was eight when it happened, the day something really struck us. I was bowling him long-hops and half-volleys so he could hit the ball. Then I decided to get him out, which would mark the end of the session. So I bowled length to him. But this time, instead of patting the ball back to me, he hit it on the up, and it sailed over my head, time and time again. It was a bit of a shock."

The schoolboy Trott would scamper to watch Jackson, Peter Kirsten and Adrian Kuiper batting for Western Province at Newlands in the 80s. "I used to sit on the benches, which were called the oaks – they're grass banks now," Trott recalled. "There wasn't cricket on TV in those days so everyone would go to a game. I remember Western Province playing Gauteng, which was Transvaal in those days. It was a three-day game over the New Year and it was packed out and baking hot. Provincial cricket was all we had because of apartheid."

Trott, 28, is Kevin Pietersen-lite. He is less outrageously talented, less outspoken and when he walks to the crease under the flag of England, he is not booed like his countryman. But Trott has scored heavily on this tour while Pietersen has floundered. After only one Test, his name is already on today's team-sheet. Ian Bell, who has 49 England caps and scored a vital 72 in England's Ashes-winning Test at The Oval, is the likeliest to be overlooked should they decide to play only five specialist batsmen. Such is the impact Trott has made in his embryonic international career.

He can play for England because his father, Ian, is English. He initially emigrated to South Africa to run a sports shop and married a local, Donna. When the family returned to the UK in 2001, so Ian could take up a job as a cricket coach in Surrey, Jonathan followed them.

Ian was one of those eager, average cricketers who are the mainstay of the club game. Peter Kirsten, his friend and contemporary, said: "Ian bowled very nice off-spinners which didn't turn. But he always pitched up at cricket nets with proper whites. He had this real respect for the game, which he passed on to his son. And Donna was an athlete so there are good genes there."

The young Trott attended Rondebosch School, 500 yards from Newlands. Cricket always held his interest more than anything else. Images of the game filled his wide eyes, and there was little time for schoolwork. His friend Andrew Puttick, a left-handed opening batsman who is now on the fringes of the South Africa team, says Trott broke the record for the highest number of consecutive Friday evening detentions for not doing his homework. "All he wanted to do was play cricket," he said. "Schoolwork was not his forte."

Trott also had trouble controlling his temper. "He was always in trouble," said Puttick. "He was hot-headed, a cheeky little bugger." Jackson says he covered up many stories about the young Jonathan. "He had a temper on him. But only when it came to sport."

At school they watched him bat and forgave him his tantrums. "He was so much more talented than everybody else," Puttick said. "I remember opening the batting and there was an early wicket. He came in No3. He was only about 11 but he absolutely murdered the bowling. After 25 overs I had about 40 and he had 110. He made it look easy. He always had this talent and it's good to see him fulfilling that potential. He took a massive decision [to play for England] and all the best to him. He made the most of his career.

"And though he used to get very upset when he got out, or things didn't go his way, he's matured a hell of a lot. Technically he was always very good and he had this ability to hit the ball into the gaps with sweet timing from an early age. In those days it was only his impatience and temperament that got him out. He used to throw his wicket away. It's that mental side of he game that he has put into place."

Trott and Puttick played for Rondebosch. Then they played age-group cricket together and represented South Africa in the Under-19 World Cup in 1999, along with Graeme Smith and Jacques Rudolph. Trott was coached by Kirsten, his idol, at Western Province. As a 13-year-old he surprised his mentor with his ability to strike the ball with unusual power, though he struggled against the spinners in those days, a weakness Kirsten was well qualified to repair.Kirsten says he was reminded of Allan Lamb when he watched the young Trott clump the ball through the leg side with his strong bottom hand.

Eric Symonds, who coached Trott some years later, also saw the on-side trait. "He was 19-20 when I first saw him but he was not such a dominant leg-side player as he's become," he said. "He needs width to play on the off side. Anything on off-stump or just outside he will play to leg.

"But he's matured an awful lot, the way he deals with people. He's looking very relaxed. It used to be a personal battle when he was at the wicket. That edge has gone. He is more comfortable with himself and in his own skin. Before, he batted as if people were holding him back. He was fighting some inner demons. It was as if people wanted to put him in a box and make him play in a way that he wasn't comfortable with.

"Ten years ago, maybe, he was too aggressive for his time. Cricket has become a more aggressive game and this suits his batting better. But I don't agree with the Lamb comparison. Lamby just loved everbody and didn't want to fight anyone. Trotty was up for fight when he was young and even though he's mellowed and matured he still has more edge than Lamb."

Trott still had a temper when he pitched up at Warwickshire in 2002. His former county colleague Trevor Penney, who went on to become England's fielding coach and is now the assistant coach at Western Australia, recalls the young batsman hurling his bat down on his return to the Warwickshire dressing room and smashing a picture which had been earmarked for a benefit auction.

"I was one of the senior players, so I'd often have to take him under my wing and calm him down when he lost the plot," Penney said. "That is something he appears to have sorted out." From hot to Trott, so to speak.

Trott's mental strength is evident in his determination to make strong first impressions. He scored 245 on his debut for Warwickshire Seconds, 134 on his Championship debut the following year, and famously scored a Test debut century against Australia as England won the Ashes at The Oval last summer.

When he walks out to bat in this match his parents will be there and his half-brother will be watching on TV, though he will be in Cape Town for the third Test. Jackson sounds wistfully envious. "We share the same mother and I wish we shared the same father, but we don't," he said. "But his father and I are very good friends. He's a great man. Ian was the guy who played with him for hours and hours. Ian and Donna have travelled more miles to watch Jonathan play than most astronauts would do on several trips to Mars.

"Jonathan is mentally far stronger than I ever was as a player. I played purely on talent and ability. I got the mental side of the game wrong but Jonathan has got that spot on.

"He wanted to be like me, he aspired to be me. He idolised me. But there are certain things I got horribly wrong as a professional cricketer. And he's got them dead right."