chris jordan

I wonder what is the logic in continuing to include CJ in the T20 squad England v India: Uncapped Jason Roy in T20 squad. He seems to have had some dreadful games in the one-day internationals so far, culminating in 12 wides at Cardiff, and whether it is a fault in his runup, his delivery grip, his mental preparation, or the kind of breakfast cereal he has, the one thing that is certain is that he doesn't seem to be able to target consistently. In one-day cricket, and particularly T20, that's a hanging offence; there is no question of have another over, or try changing ends, or have a blow and come back for another spell in an hour or so - the game will have moved on too far by then. Surely it would be in his best interests for him to spend the balance of the season playing 4-day cricket (and yes, of course its special pleading) working with a coach known and trusted by Moores, finding out what the problem is and putting it right in the middle. The alternative is for him to sopend time kicking around with the squad, not quite trusted after his recent problems and probably not quite trusting himself, and either missing out completely on play or being pitchforked in at the last minute on a gamble or because someone else has a strain. Quite a bit of pressure on him to perform in those circumstances, and not a lot gained if the gamble succeeds. If it doesn't then it might put a dampener on his World Cup ambitions.

Perhaps the whole thing is just a dastardly ploy to set him up for a fall and bring back Dernbach: now there's a lad we could be proud of!

Congratulations to Chris on being awarded a central contract - a fine achievement.

Riley has now signed a new contract with Kent, who have made it clear to Tredwell that they will not permit him to depart before his contract expires in Sept 2015.

So come next April poor Tredders will be back on the loan market, a horrible and invidious position for a current England player to be placed in. By then Sussex will  have lost interest, as Zaidi continues to improve and there will be no need to  loan an off-spinner to play on April green-tops. England  - who have made it clear they want him playing f/c county cricket - will be left frustrated  and the player even more so.

Unfortunately, Tredwell's England duties mean Kent get sufficient compensation for his absences to ensure he's very low maintenance on their pay roll, otherwise the county's treasurer - a man who is the living epitome of Lord Darlington's famous defintion of a cynic in Lady Windermere's Fan - would have happily bounced him down to the south coast in a flash. The combination of England and Sussex payments to Kent for Tredwell's services in 2014 probably mean that his employer  has made a real-time profit on having him on their books as a registered player.  In Kent's  destitute state, you can see why they would refuse to release a player who is listed  in the credit rather than the debit column, even though he is not a regular in their first team.

It's sad when what is clearly in a player's best interests is blocked by a Victorian-style employer demanding  his pound of flesh. But Kent have done it before, when they selfishly delayed the start of  Ryan MacLaren's international career by 12 months.

When Tredwell eventually becomes a free agent in September 2015, my bet is that Surrey will sign him as the successor to Gareth Batty. The Surrey coach Graham Ford used to be at Kent and is credited as the man whose ministrations and encouragement  turned Tredders from a workaday county twirler into a bowler of international calibre.

I understand the potential of Beer, Tredwell & Yardy in 1 day cricket, where I struggle is why is Beer so important in this format yet doesn't get a look in in the 4 day side? especially now when the game seems to be crying out for some flight and spin. Ideal I would say?
That said Zaidi has improved. Perhaps he's better suited to 7/8 rather than 5/6?

However, next year, I think a seamer, but from where and who? And a batter for the 1 day side? Sorry but Machan and Brown have not got enough good, meaningful runs the side needs someone at 3, 4, 5 to get good runs. Perhaps MP will solve this?

Again the issue is the make up of our attack. We go with the fashionable 6-4 and a keeper, and that means it's always gonna be difficult for Will Beer. If the other three bowlers were all as good as Magoffin, we could give Will a gig. The problem is, as a leggie he's an attacking bowler, or he should be to get the best out of him. Other than Steve Magoffin, the other seamers all leak runs. We simply cannot use Beer in such circumstances. What's the answer? Well, for him to get games in the championship, we will have to switch to a five man attack, or improve our seam bowling battery. Zaidi probably just shades it at the moment because of his batting and we sacrifice his lesser wicket taking capabilities for his greater control. However, it's far from ideal, most counties, even playing the same system as us, have better fifth bowling option than our fourth, Zaidi.

CJ dropped from England XI. 

Will he be available for the CC match starting on Sunday? We sure could use him.