With no international cricket to speak of (sorry women) between now and the WC07, all we have to look forward to is the pre tourny warm ups of some sides playing down their prospects (the favourites) and other sides talking up their chances (the ones with an axe hanging over the coaches head).

It’s all a lot of blowhardedness (made-up word) really. Roll on the games.

It’s a quiet day for cricket today and most of the media are either rehashing tales from the Chappell Hadlee series or putting a spin on the various injuries ahead of the world cup.

And with none of the Test playing nations having any competitive cricket until the world cup starts, I’ve been filling my time making insane bets with pumped up Kiwi’s on how far NZ and England will get in the tournament. So far I stand to lose about $90 if NZ beat England in their first match together, and I’ll be remortgaging my house if the Kiwi’s lift the trophy.

I’ve made a couple of bets with Kiwi’s in the UK and I’m going to get crippled if they win because of the cheap NZ dollar. (Lesson #1, never bet against a team with a strong currency)

I think I’m going to have to do some hedging to balance out the ledger. Anyone want good odds on Zimbabwe??

New Zealand have just completed a 3-0 pasting of a bewildered and - it has to be said - battered Australia. The final game of the Chappell Hadlee series at Hamilton saw New Zealand chase down an even bigger total than the 336 they successfully hunted at Eden Park. The Kiwi’s look hot, full of belief and like a side on a mission.

I can’t remember the last time Australia lost an ODI tournament 3-0 and you have to feel for stand in captain Mike Hussey who looked as though the colour was draining from his face when Brendan McCullum smashed a 6 off the first ball of the last over to level the scores. Mr Cricket looked more like Mr Clueless as his side squandered, for the second time this series, an impressive first innings total.

With injuries amassing alongside the losses Australia have probably had the worst preparation for a World Cup in recent times. New Zealand by contrast are riding along on the crest of a resurgent wave that bodes well for their own World Cup prospects.

The only itch in the crotch for me was listening to an overly defensive Martin Snedden in the post match interviews state that;

Maybe now people will believe that Fleming can captain, Bracewell can coach and maybe even that McMillian can bat

His comments were out of synch with the tone set by the players and out of character for a usually professional CEO.

New Zealand have pulled off a quite sensational win over Australia to lift the 2007 Chappell Hadlee trophy. Australia in the first innings had posted the highest ever one day total at Eden Park by some 32 runs in their tally of 336 making New Zealand’s successful chase with an over and a bit to spare all the more remarkable.

In the same week that has seen a lot of talk in New Zealand about Adam Parore’s disparaging comments about captain Stephen Fleming, the Kiwi skipper painted a pleased and resolute picture as he applauded Peter Fulton and Brendan McCullum off the park. He has managed, with this win, to back up his defiant media response, with a defiant team performance, despite only making 6 with the bat.

Australia look, for the first time since the Ashes of 2005, to be a side unsure of how to halt their slide and in losing the second Chappell Hadlee match have also lost their No 1 spot in the one day international rankings, making way for South Africa. With the world cup only weeks away, it’s not the best time to give a team a psychological advantage, let alone 3 teams. England, New Zealand and to a lesser extent South Africa - by way of the rankings - will all feel a certain degree of confidence over Australia after the results of the last couple of weeks, and it should make for a competition that is genuinely open to any number of teams.

As Stephen Fleming says in his deodorant adverts, “Bring It On”

Football has long held a monopoly on overused hyperbole but with each passing day its position as the preeminent sport of trite under threat from the growing number of stock in trade platitudes permeating the world of cricket.

Whereas once a sheepskin coated football manager would project an aura of “over-the-moonedness”, or utter a half time reminder that the 90 minutes of play is in fact equally divided between two halves, we now have cricket captains, staunch in the face defeat proclaiming that “We can take a lot of positives from the game” and firmly refuting ”claims of a crisis within the camp”

Perhaps it’s a sign of bland media training by fee hungry PR execs, or perhaps it’s simply that in the face of a shock defeat, a captain relies on the relative safety net of positivity , but whatever its cause, the emergence of en masse cliché media twaddle is a sad indictment of cricket in the 21st century.

The forthcoming world cup will no doubt be saturated with “the lads expressing themselves” to the bitter disappointment of all those who would love to hear “we played like turkeys and deserved to lose”.

I’m certain that vociferous debates are raging the cricket world over, as cricket fans, talk back radio hosts, and no doubt bloggers, start getting stuck in to their country’s selectors and rip the nominated world cup squads apart limb from limb.

In New Zealand, it is reaching a frenzy, fuelled by a combination of the team’s unceremoneous dumping from the recent CB series, the surprise selection of Daryl Tuffey and and even more surprising growing antipathy towards Stephen Fleming.

Who’d be a selector eh?

I’m about the same age as Paul Nixon, give or take, yet when I look at him during a game of cricket I feel like I should be polishing the plastic on my OAP buspass. His annoying chatter youthful exuberance belies his age, but it takes some getting used to.

If I was honest, the first time I heard Nixon’s incessant banter I wanted to leap into my television and punch him in the face……..hard. But then Nixon, quite rapidly, stated to endear himself upon me, and I suspect that this happened at pretty much the same rate as he started annoying the bejesus out of the Aussies. He is simply incapable of silence, and considering the woeful state the England team were in prior to his unleashing, he and his mouth proved a marvelous tonic of infectious enthusiasm.

His batting prowess is in my opinion still an uncertain entity, particularly considering that he is most likely to bat when the run rate needs an injection of pace yet he looks decidedly shakey early in his innings. His mouth alone does not deserve to keep his place open, and as England regain some confidence in themselves he may be a casualty, forever to be remembered as the man who lifted English spirits.

Not a bad legacy I guess. He could of course go on to score a century in the World Cup (barring a bad dose of laryngitis)

CB Series Final 11th Feb 2007

The early games of CB series were uncomfortably one sided as England spluttered along like a 1980’s Skoda with grit in the carburetor. By contrast, the fuel injected team that spoiled Glen McGraths SCG leaving party were running on an altogether sweeter engine.

For England to have taken out the Tri Series finals with a 2-0 scoreline is a quite remarkable feat considering the depths to which their form had sunk. With the World Cup around the corner, their reversal of form and fortune is a timely one.

Whilst there will be many positives to come from lifting the trophy, there are signs that some of the England camp - in a somewhat understandable display of defensiveness - have been just a little too sprightly in having us all believe that the snapped axle of English cricket has been replaced with a rod of solid steel.

England need to be realistic in assessing their finals victories and acknowledge that three key people are responsible for their wins. Firstly, Michael Vaughan returned (albeit briefly) as captain and with him came a sense of positive order and patriarchal calm. He is an outstanding leader and whilst absent from the final victories, the influence that his return to the squad brings should never be underestimated. Secondly and most obviously, Paul Collingwood batted like Paul Collingwood can, and provided the essential middle order stability needed to post competitive totals. And thirdly Liam Plunkett found an abundance of pacey swing that always looked capable of getting good players out.

These are great signs for England but one feels they must be tempered with the realisation of how brittle a scaffold this victory sits atop. Vaughan’s legs, Plunkett’s control and Collingwood’s form, are all capable of blowing up at a moment’s notice and with them would go the hope of sustainable recovery.

For England to launch a successful world cup campaign then the thin ice supporting England’s return to form should still be biopsied and examined for the cause of their disastrous Test and early ODI form. Doing so will be hard in light of a positive end to the tour and the need for key management and playing personnel to convince themselves that all is now well.