Phil Hughes and county cricket

I wasn't planning to mention an Australian cricketer for the next few months if I could help it, but I was reading Ian's post on The Baggy Green about Phil Hughes and it suddenly got me thinking - "Where the hell was this guy for the ODI series?!"

In all honesty, with Ponting, Clarke and Mike Hussey looking dead on their feet I would have thought that giving Hughes a run with the ODI squad would have been good for him - even if you were planning to mould him as a Test batter.

Apparently Hughes has been cleaning up on the local scene scoring a few runs and has now taken a six-week stint with Middlesex .... errrrr ok.

County Cricket
A few years back it was regarded as beneficial for cricketers to move over to the UK for the English season and get a couple of seasons and a few pound in their pockets.

These days, I'm not totally sure what the point of county cricket is - there is so much international cricket on the go, that the real pros don't really need to go and play a bit of village cricket to get some experience.

The standard of county cricket appears to have deteriorated faster than the standard of English cricket (when one strips out the South African contribution to the team).

Dunno - anyone else think that county cricket isn't all that big a deal?

I'm back...

Somebody mailed me this photo and I thought it summed up my feelings as an SA cricket supporter today...

Can anyone remember which movie this is from? Its been bugging me!

After a great tour of Oz WE now seem to be on the back foot at home and it hurts dammit!

The Aussies have benefitted from the bold selection of Hughes at the top of the order and he seems to be justifying all the hype around him - he looks like an awesome talent.

Katich (108) and Hughes (115) got the Aussies off to a great start on Day 1 of the Kingsmead test and they ended the day 303/4

Ponting (9) and Clarke (3) fell cheaply to Paul Harris. Now Hussey and North have the chance to bury the match by racking up big scores here. But we all know how this series has gone over the last few months and nobody is down and out.

I think the lack of a decent spinner may prove to be a problem for the Australians on Days 4 and 5 but we'll see.

Can't help but look at the selection of Hughes and the persistence with Mckenzie upfront for South Africa - could we perhaps have enjoyed a bolder selection or a swap of Prince for Mckenzie on current form?

Will have to see how day 2 goes....