The Aussies and New Zealand played out a competitive one day series. Whilst it is great to see the Aussies get beaten, for New Zealand to beat them would not make South Africa’s series win as special. So a drawn series was the ideal result for me as again Australia didn’t win at home, but then New Zealand can’t claim to have beaten them either.

The series for me was marred by the Brad Haddin cheating affair. I am sure it will not be spoken about very often, as the Aussies have a habit of sweeping dirty issues under the carpet. eg the Shane Warne/Mark Waugh “weather reports”, Shane Warnes drug cheating, Brett Lee’s use of the beamer when under pressure etc etc
This tour will use the “video referral” system too, which will stop the Aussies cheating again. I am looking forward to see how it goes.

The Aussies can be assured that when they arrive in South Africa for their tour of South Africa, there is only going to be more pressure and more pain. It will be interesting to see what they are made of, as South Africa and its fans play damn hard, but fair. I suspect the Aussies could struggle with their squad, and things could get ugly for them. I am not sure they will leave with any dignity either, as I don’t think they have any

Around the same time, India go to New Zealand. Dhoni has had a fairytale run, but now he will experience just how hard international cricket is when you have to go do climates and conditions which are foreign to you. The Indians have always struggled with a ball that seams around and I think they may even lose the series. It will be interesting to see what the critics think then, will they still see India as the best team in the world (which clearly they are not because South Africa are!)?

Meanwhile in the West Indies we have an interesting tussle. The Windies won the first game and played well. But to see England skittled out for 51 was a joke. That is the problem when you rely so heavily on 1-2 individuals. I still expect them to show a bit more fight than that however.

Then they went to Antigua for the farcial test match at the Sir Viv Richards ground. Someone’s head should roll for that (but of course it never does). Surely someone should inspect the ground prior to play, and why did the players not say anything prior to play, after all they do their warm ups on the ground. I feel sorry for Viv Richards, having his name associated with such shenanigans. Until cricket in the West Indies gets more professional I don’t see their national team getting back to the top of world cricket.

And so we moved on to the St Johns oval. Obviously because of the late notice it was never going to be fully prepared. but what were they thinking staging a test match with the soccer halfway line going down the middle of the pitch? Regardless of whether it influenced the pitch or not, it has to be extremely disconcerting and off-putting for the batsmen. Full credit to the Windies for managing to squeeze out a draw when England had the game in the bag to still lead the series 1-0.