There's a good cricketer in there but things haven't been going well for Bess. I was very impressed with him when he first appeared for Somerset. As Wikipedia will tell you, his first two CC wickets were Trott and Bell and they weren't caught on the boundary! He then got squeezed out of there as he was behind Jack Leach for a CC slot and Roelof van der Merwe for white ball games. Hence, he ended up at Yorkshire, which can't be the most relaxed of places to develop as a cricketer. He's still only 25 so, with some sympathetic coaching, he can come good again.

That reads like a statement aimed at pleasing the Hundred sponsors and saying nothing to the club members. If you have nothing but management gobbledegook and dubious unverifiable statistics to offer, why make a statement at all?

As seen from the comfort of my settee, Edgbaston has looked a picture this week. Sun shining; full crowds; great cricket; and I'm much happier to enjoy the noise from the Hollies through my television rather than being amongst it! The Edgbaston crowd are a real bonus for England. Good for the city and the club.
Great match even though both sides could play better. Stokes' trickery in the field almost made up for having only two fit bowlers but, now that he's shown his hand, will the Aussies fall for it again? He'll need to channel his inner Dermot Reeve to keep the surprises coming.

Australia 3-0 with two rain affected draws.
England have been wonderfully entertaining in the last year but I think this is where the one-dimensionality of Bazball gets found out. It's all very well packing the side with white-ball hitters (whether they're supposed to be opening batters, wicket-keepers or spinners) and there will certainly be runs. But to win a Test match, you need to take 20 wickets and, with Stokes crocked and Ali having been out of red ball cricket for several years, we won't do it. Fun while it lasted, but the party's about to be over.

The Times hints today that the loveable Colin Graves has threatened to call in his loan to Yorkshire if they don't make him Chairman again. If I were rich, I couldn't think of a much better use for £15 million than giving it to Yorkshire so that they could pay him off. Sadly, I'm not rich but perhaps a well known Yorkshire MP might ask his wife for some loose change in order to resolve the situation. Come on Rishi - there are votes in it!

Vague bells ringing here. I don't think it was all that long ago and, for some reason, I think Sussex were involved. If we have a combination of Sussex and Ireland, it could be Ed Joyce?

Unfortunately, really quick bowlers tend to be as fragile as biscuits. See Olly Stone, Liam Norwell and many others over the years. There aren't many like Allan Donald who could be relied on to stay fit. Now if someone could bottle his secret.....

I'm getting deja vu with this chat about the skipper. I remember a prolonged debate on the old board about Jim Troughton and whether he was worth his place. I think he had more to worry about than Rhodes.
I like the fact that Rhodes bats at 3. He would probably do better if he batted lower down (remember the "safer at seven" campaign for Jimmy T?), but he puts himself in a vulnerable spot thereby taking one for the team. It's not obvious to me that there is anyone in the seconds battering down the door to take a number 3 batting slot, so well done to Rhodes for the time being. It would be nicer if he scored more heavily but I don't see him as a liability yet.
With the arrival of Barnard, Rhodes' bowling is of less value but it's still there. His other plus is that the team look happy, implying that, as captain, he's doing ok. There have been plenty of times in seasons gone by when the team have looked positively grumpy. Unless we are sure that a replacement captain would manage to maintain a good atmosphere, let's not rock the boat just yet.

At least the departure of the numpties that dreamed up The Hundred allows the ECB to admit that they got it wrong. The article, though, suggests that there is still no clear thinking about how to make money (sorry, how to run a cricket season) in future. I wonder if the ECB could be persuaded to work towards a two division County Championship with 9 teams in each division, all-play-all, and just one hit-and-giggle competition. It sounds sensible to me.

If everyone is fit, I don't think Chris will get an Ashes game. Stokes will want Broad and Anderson with Robinson as their back-up, plus one of Archer/Wood/Stone plus a spinner. Fitness is the key, though, particularly Stokes himself. If he's not fit to bowl, there is no other batting all-rounder in sight unless they can persuade Moeen to come back. This leaves the wicket-keeper batting at 6 with a long tail to follow. In that case, they would want either Woakes or Curran to bat at seven. Work on your batting, Chris!

Freakin' awesome. There will be some Counties that are thoroughly scared of us in this form. Bring on Surrey. Championship decider next!

I'd go Woakes for Rushworth; Benjamin for Mousley.
Chris Rushworth's big selling point is reliability. He'll always do a job and he'll always be fit. When the others hit the treatment table, he'll be back.
With the plethora of allrounders we suddenly find ourselves having, we can afford the luxury of trying to develop a middle order batsman. Mousley did himself no favours at Taunton by batting like it was the last over of a T20. Somebody else should have a go. Promoting Bethell is an option but it looks like the management want to take a softly, softly approach with him. I'd like a look at Benjamin in red ball cricket - and you never know when we might need a third wicket-keeper!
6-9 of Barnard, Burgess, Bethell, Woakes is pretty awesome at this level.

It feels like we didn't get what we deserved out of that game. If there hadn't been a missing day, we would have won. When we were batting, it looked like 4 bonus points were nailed on for most of the time and (with a push) perhaps 5, especially given the short boundaries. Nevertheless, it was a solid performance and, whilst Somerset's batting is weak, their bowling is not. All five of the front line bowlers against us have played international cricket, so they're not going to give it away. There are worse squads than ours in Divison One this year: we just have to make sure we take our opportunities when they come.

There's a really negative interview on the Somerset website suggesting that the outfield may be unplayable tomorrow.
Why do we always get Taunton in the winter!!!??

Nice one from the publicity department. Given that we start playing this week, it could almost be appropriate!

The quoted sentence is ambiguous as it could be read to mean that Davies would be VC in the one day cup but not in the CC. That would be a lesser mistake.
Davies is a plausible white ball player but far inferior to Burgess in red ball cricket. I have seen nothing to suggest that he is captaincy material in either.

It's not often I agree with Highveld but he's right this time. Briggs to play. Bethell can't do worse than Davies. I'd also bat Burgess at 5.
We'll stay up. Easily if we see a fair bit of Woakes.

There will always be a downside to the mercenary system. The hired guns are good players (and they don't come much better than Maxwell) but when they are wandering the earth playing handfuls of games with a bunch of guys they barely recognise, they are not going to be at peak intensity all the time. It's not their fault - I'm sure they believe they are trying their best - but you can't always be at 100% so why would you be on a cold evening in Derby for a group match in The Blast?
Maxwell will put bums on seats and sprinkle a little stardust around the dressing room. If he puts in a couple of eye-catching on-field performances, that's about as much as we should expect.

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

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

He'll never last with that attitude!

Quite a Trophy Cabinet for Chris Woakes now, having played in sides that have won the 50-over World Cup, the 20-over World Cup, The Ashes and a Domestic County Championship. I believe that is a unique combination.
Now he's won everything, do you think he might like to retire from International cricket and come back to help out the Bears?