The fifth and final test of The Ashes gets underway today and with the series tied at 1-1 it doesn’t get anymore tense than this in Ashes cricket. England will be looking for more discipline and commitment than they showed in the last test, when they lost heavily to Australia in Leeds.

They’ll (England) be looking for their big players to be confident in this final test – none-more-so than Andrew Flintoff who’ll be looking for a winning end before he retires from International cricket. However, you can be assured that Australia will not be reading from the same script.

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Much has been written about England’s time wasting tactics against Australia in the first test at Cardiff in the bid to regain the Ashes 2009. As Australia chased the final wicket to seal victory with the clock ticking down, England players suddenly needed frequent visits from their physio and then a little affair over changing the English batsmen gloves. If the delays were stalling tactics then they worked effectively as England held on for a draw. However, the Aussie media went into hyperdrive calling the English delays, ‘tasteless gamesmanship’ and belittled the ‘spirit of cricket’.

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According to some, England have a decent chance of regaining The Ashes this summer from Australia. And in all honesty, English cricket needs an Ashes win, badly. Australian cricket, is somewhat going through a transitional period at the moment and it’s anything but smooth. Crashing out of the Twenty20 at the group stages was somewhat embarrassing to Australia, although the capitulation of their crown as the World’s most feared cricketing nation to South Africa and even India, is probably more hurtful than any Twenty20 loss.

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The ICC Twenty20 World Cup is certainly hotting up. Today sees the start of the Super Eight group stages with England taking on South Africa at Trent Bridge. Also in play today is New Zealand v Ireland in the second group of the Super Eights in what possibly could prove to be a 3rd or 4th place group play-off. This latest ICC Twenty20 World Cup has been a spectators joy with Sri-Lanka showing some smart batting play.

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First thoughts about the West Indies v. England result is a blizzard of memories about confusion over bowlers, moaning about pitch conditions, agonising about batting order and wondering if the IPL distractions would scupper the England ship. Cricket betting fans must be fed-up to the back teeth with this shambles. Immediately prior to a visit from the Australians for the Ashes tour this summer, we are treating a less than strong and confident Australian side to the delights of self-inflicted weaknesses born out of an abject failure to get to grips with the issues that matter and get on with winning for once.

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The Sri Lankan cricket team, on their way to play in the Pakistani city of Lahore, have been attacked by Gunmen. It is believed, that at least 5 policemen escorting the team bus where killed while early reports have 5 of the Sri Lankan cricket team as being injured. Officials in the area said there were at least 12 gunmen involved in the attack. As of yet, no group has claimed responsibility, but it chillingly shadows the resemblance of the Mumbai Hotel attacks in India last November. Those attacks were blamed on Pakistan-based Islamic militants.

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While cricket betting fans try to make sense of the erratic performance of the England team in the slightly surreal circumstances of their encounter with the West Indians, at the back of our minds is the forthcoming visit to our shores by the Australians in the summer of this year. Lest we forget the significance of this forthcoming Ashes battle, the redoubtable Shane Warne has entered the arena, even at this early stage, to dispense his wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing advice which, as ever, is cunningly designed to intimidate rather than assist.

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The third Test match in the Caribbean will be much discussed by Lords Taverners and cricket betting fans in future years, not least because of the manner in which the Windies snatched a draw from what looked like certain defeat only a couple of hours before the match ended. West Indies fast bowler, Daren Powell was not shy about praising his own batting ability and his confidence that he could create a draw out of hopelessness. Declaring that he was ‘in his zone’ he tells us ‘I was the master of the situation. It’s nothing new to me.’ While our English reserve brings recoil at such self-regard, we might do better to grasp that this man is merely stating facts as a professional and that this is the kind of attitude that wins cricket matches.

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I’m a patient man. Someone who can wait years for something to sort itself out – to get back on track, realise the error of its ways. Then, one day, it’ll dawn on me that it’s not going to find its way back, it’s a lost cause and it’s time to move on. That happened to me while watching the West Indies obliterate the England team in the second innings of the first Test Match in the current series in the Caribbean. Just to get things clear, the respective scores of our top five batsmen in that innings were 9, 0, 4, 1 and 1. West Indian bowler, Sulieman Benn who, along with the phenomenal Jerome Taylor, inflicted much of the damage, scored 23 runs – eight more than our top men combined. The scores of the top three West Indian batsmen in their first innings were 104, 6 and 107, so there’s no blaming the pitch.

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Australian cricket may be going through a bit of a lean spell at the moment and about to hand over their title as the best cricketing nation on the globe to either India or South Africa but their still smiling. Why’s that then? We’ll, for one thing the England Cricket captain crisis is certainly giving them (Australia) something to laugh about. In just 6 months time, the two nations meet to contest the 2009 Ashes.

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