More Sports Thoughts

England are out of the Cricket World Cup. The media are already calling for Duncan Fletcher to be sacked but given that the man looking most likely to replace him before the World Cup started was murdered there, I don't really see the point. No point replacing him for the sake of it.

I for one wasn't surprised that we didn't make the semi finals. England had a fantastic run of form in test cricket in 2004 and 2005 but at the same time we were consistantly getting beaten in the accompanying ODIs.

Having said that we did go into the World Cup on the back of a rare ODI series win - in Australia of all places. The reason we couldn't build on that was less to do with the Fredalo debacle and more to do with us dropping the in-form bowler that got most of the wickets (Plunkett), in favour of Mahmood who despite offering some variation of pace, gives far too many loose deliveries to be able to play in a World Cup.

Then there's the issue of the batting order. Todays result will surely mark the end of Michael Vaughans ODI captaincy. I'm a great admirer of Captain Fantastic but he's consistantly failed at one day level and you can't afford to have any slack in the line-up. If you don't perform, you're out. It's that simple.

If banger makes a (much welcomed) return to England this summer then I'd line them up as follows:

Trescothick
Strauss (Cpt)
Pietersen
Collingwood
Flintoff
Bell
Bopara
Nixon (Wkt)
Dalrymple
Plunkett
Anderson

If Trescothick doesn't quite cut the mustard then I'd promote Flintoff to the opening spot (If he's going to get out cheaply then he might as well do it at the start) and have him open with either Mal Loye or Ed Joyce. The best ODI sides attack from the start in the compulsory Power Play. England have to follow suit. I'd put Bell down the order as (until today) he was good at getting in and not giving away his wicket. If England do have the inevitable middle order collapse then he could at least save the sinking ship.

I've left out Panesar as he hasn't quite done it with the white ball yet and he's something of a liability in the field (putting it mildly).

On a seperate sporting note I would like to say a fond farewell to Juan-Pablo Angel.

Thanks for the years of loyalty, effort and all round professionalism. You have a better football-brain than the rest of David O'Learys 05/06 strikeforce combined. Shame about your legs though.

Good luck in New York.

I guess I'll have to find a new hero to worship at Villa Park. The smart money is on Gabby: Local lad, lightning fast, scores goals; what more do you want? Of course he'll be my first sporting idol that's younger than me but I guess that's something of an inevitability as you get older.