Ashes Talk already!

How exciting is it to hear Ashes talk already? It is only next year that Australia tour England. (I know it's 14 months away, but hey - time will fly!) 14 months ago we were just starting the "never ending World Cup" - doesn't seem that long now does it?

And a new Test Venue to kick things off - England clearly sick of losing the First Test at Lords every four years ;-)

Bridesmaids square series

The two sides battling it out for number two position in the world - India and South Africa, have just crammed a forgettable three test series into 18 days, and wound up all square at 1 win each.

India's "series" included a 319 from Sehwag in a total of 627, promptly followed just 5 days later by a first innings total of 76!

India have just won the third test however in convincing style, albeit on a controversial Harbhajan friendly deck. They posted a comfortable first innings lead, then had their number one spinner (no Anil Kumble) clean up on the dodgy pitch.

The only thing not quite formulaic about it, was that Harbhajan Singh opened the bowling in that final innings.

Credit to MS Dhoni for that move - I wish we could see more of it - even on more conventional pitches.

Longer term though, India look like the most credible threat to Australia's number one position. It'll take along time to whittle away the massive lead Australia have, but you'd have to think, with the current crop of young guys, the money in India cricket and fanaticism, they are the side (if any) to do it.

Augers well for Australia's tour in October.

STUmpcam re-badged

Just over three years ago something inspired me to start a blog. I was toying with the idea of an I.T. blog (coz there aren't many of those!) and thought a cricket blog might be a fun thing to try, you know, for practice, before starting the real thing.

That was just a couple of months before Australia headed off on what was bound to be a token Ashes defence - you know, waltz over there, smash the Poms, keep our name on the Urn...business as usual.

In the English summer that ensued, interest in cricket and cyber-activity in particular went into overdrive. My next door neighbours yappy french poodle could've started a cricket blog that got hits in those days. So it was STUmpcam that survived.

It was supposed to be about Test Cricket, but I never really stayed true to that. STUmpcam quickly filled up with impromptu off the top of my head posts, sledges and rants about whatever I was thinking about at the time.

For me, interest of late has waned a little. Then I sat down one Saturday afternoon and caught a day's play from the first Test (I think it was) between NZ and England. Now, statistically speaking, it wasn't the best two sides in the world playing, but as I soon realised, this was Test Cricket. I continued to watch...and I tuned in again the next day. This, I thought...is what it is all about. With no real allegance to either side, (although it would be "un-Australian" not to love seeing the Poms go down!) I sat fascinated for the next couple of days.

This would be the catalyst for change at STUmpcam. "Change" back to what it was originally supposed to be about.

Then today, a similar thing happened, as I nursed a sick 4 year old, I caught highlights of Sri Lanka versus the West Indies from the Queens Park Oval (Port of Spain, Trinidad). To see the West Indies, stumble to 2 for 24 then chase down about 250 in a match they thoroughly deserved to win, finally forced my hand.

So STUmpcam has had a face lift, In keeping with the Test Cricket theme, I've gone for predominantly white, with a bit of Red and Green.

Ill still watch the one day stuff, and heaven forbid - maybe even a Twenty20 or two, but unless it somehow related to Test cricket, it's not going to hit the "pages" of STUmpcam.

Enjoy...