The best thing about Alistair Cook captaining England is that the press can use all of their Captain Cook headlines with gay abandon.  That’s not to say Cook might not make a good captain some day, but they have been waiting three years to use those headlines.

Anyway, Cook was captain in the 2nd T20 against South Africa, and had the opportunity to feed his bowlers one-by-one like lambs to the slaughter of Smith and Bosman.  England had no chance of chasing down a total of 241, yet for some reason it is the batsmen who are being grilled over the defeat.

Micky Arthur, South Africa’s coach, thought Cook should have changed the batting order:

I thought they would certainly have used Eoin Morgan and Jonathan Trott at the top of the order with KP batting three.

Cook had his own, highly intelligent, thoughts on England’s batting:

Unfortunately the big hits, we didn’t hit them as cleanly as they did.

Indeed.  But, having managed only 89 against South Africa A in the warmup match, they might be satisfied with 202-6 and 157-8 had their bowling not been so exposed in the 2nd match.  Of course, the attack was missing Broad and Swann so they can be given a little leeway.

Michael Vaughan’s recent comments on the state of the County game have stirred up the debate. Here are some ideas for an organised protest movement.

If you’ve heard of the recent Tweet-off between Graeme Swann and Jimmy Anderson that took place in Covent Garden, but are not sure what it’s all about, check out this video

South Africa are just about the best team in the world right now. England are hopeful, but in reality they have got their work cut out. Here’s what they have to do to overcome the odds.

Jonathan Trott has played for England, but he is a South African. So why is so much fuss being made of Michael Vaughan’s comments about him celebrating a South African victory?

Nowadays the umpire is viewed not as the gate-keeper of the integrity of the sport but, it seems, as an anachronistic, error-prone technophobe. David Shepherd is undoubtedly held as the former, well respected both by those within the game and those watching from their armchairs. So his death at the age of 68 will be mourned by all those who remember him so fondly.

James Anderson has ambitions. One of them is to captain England someday. Those of you in the know, and some of you who aren’t are by now rolling around on the floor. That’s right, a fast bowler couldn’t possibly be the Captain of England.

It seems that Kevin Pietersen wasn’t the only one who found working as captain with Peter Moores to be difficult. Michael Vaughan’s new autobiography is currently being serialised by the Times, and in it he reveals the problems that he and the team were having with Moores’ style.

Here is a list of things that Brett Lee likes to do in his spare time, in no particular order

If Twenty20 is too sedate for you, try the upcoming Hong Kong Sixes. A Six-a-side, 5 over tournament played over two days at the Kowloon Cricket Club on the 31st October/1st November.