Cricket

Since taking up listening to Essex a lot on radio, i think English domestic cricket needs a kick up the backside.
The standard is not very high, and the fielding is appalling. This is important because so many catches are dropped that batmen forget what it's like to only get one chance.

Kevin Pietersen:
"He felt the England board needed to rotate players so that they got adequate rest. "You do want guys playing to the best of their ability and not just thinking: 'Oh, here we go again. Right, I'm going to bat three times this week, I'll try tomorrow, I'll try the next day.'"

Pietersen said there was too much county cricket being played, with the result that the quality of the game drops. "County cricketers coming into the Test environment, they don't face fast bowling and they don't face quality spinners. The reason they don't face fast bowling is that no fast bowler can come to England and play 18 first-class games, plus 18 one-day games, plus nine one-day games, plus Twenty20. People won't bowl 90 miles an hour [in those circumstances].

"It's a struggle from the start whereas in Australia and South Africa you've got guys who face this kind of bowling all the time. They play only eight first-class games.

"I honestly think that cricket in this country needs to be regionalised and you need to play each match like a Test match, instead of up and down the country, playing every day. It's an horrendous grind, especially if you're nowhere near the lead. If it was eight teams fighting it out for something, it's a lot closer." "