Sri Lanka cricket are profiteering again for the test series in November. Locals will be charged £1.50 and England fans £50 per day providing purchase all 5 days with seemingly no refunds for days lost to weather or even an early finish. In Galle in 2012 locals then paid £1 and we were charged £25 when only a few months earlier the Australians were charged £5. Travelling watching cricket abroad you get used to an “English tax” and being viewed as cash cows but must admit this one rankles. Suppose someone has to pay for the Sri Lankan players 30% pay rise. But I suspect there’ll be more people watching for free from the fort in Galle than in the ground this time round. Too late for those of us who have already booked flights/accommodation but I wonder if its a bit shortsighted by putting off folk from going.

Good start by lancs. I do like this opening partnership. One tall one tiny. One lefty one righty. One aggressive one more considered. Can make it torrid for the bowler if constantly changing line and length

Lancs chucked that away other day. Have to win games from good positions. The question I asked is about the make up of the team. We had at least one too many bowlers. Why did we need 3 specialist spinners plus livi and Croft. Theoretically 50 overs of spin possible. Between them Parry and Lilley bowled 6 overs for 0 wickets and got 16 runs between them. The former coming in at 10 the latter 7. An extra batsman like brown could have taken either ones place. Or even 2 batsmen might have got lancs over the line with no real loss to the bowling attack No idea why but annually in this tournament it’s as though we’ve been given a few hours notice that there’s a game on and frantically assemble a side of players who we can locate.

I’d be astonished if he’s not in the lancs 2nd xi for the next cc game vs Essex let alone England. Think lancs will bring in Jones for a top 3 of Jennings, Davies and jones. Even Karl brown notched 150 ish for the 2nds. Hameed hasn’t been the same since he broke his finger. But I reckon it could be a mental thing. Sadly being to tough out dips in form is what makes average players good players and good players great ones. For now at least he doesn’t seem to have that in his locker and has been awful for over a year now.

Before I start I’ll add the caveat England are capable of losing to anyone (eg Iceland). But I would like to think England will beat both Tunisia and Panama. In which case in my opinion the game vs Belgium becomes a dead rubber because we will face either Columbia or Poland (or worse) in the next round much of amuchness. Won’t be putting my house on it but would like to think we beat either of those. But after that it’s Germany or Brazil and goodnight. If even get that far. Let’s hope better get out of the group this time.

Livermore!! Jesus wept hope that’s wrong. How deep is this barrel we’re scraping. He could be a sizeable nail in the coffin of my interest in this World Cup.

I appreciate Leach broke his thumb yesterday but this Bess has only taken 1 wicket this season. Ed Smith is scraping a deep barrel here. I’m not a fan of England taking Lancashire’s players before they’re ready but if the logic is he bats a bit Livi has taken 7 or so wickets and he’s a very part time spinner. As for Buttler he’s clearly a talent but can you go from exclusively playing t20 cricket to test cricket with no red ball game time. We shall see...

I know that porcine face enough to put anyone off their breakfast. I know the lad who wrote it. As he’s leaving for pastures new his boss let him write a purely rovers article even though it’s a London pape aimed at Londoners. He said his opinions were edited down to avoid potentially being sued by Jerome Anderson. And think they removed mrs d reference of “the bitch is back”. Perhaps understandably he was getting digs from colleagues that no one would read it. The nos aren’t huge obviously but he said it was 4th on the most read list and definitely winding a few up. They were struggling to comprehend why their business stories hasn’t done as well as a Lancastrian football team in a paper centred on London business.

Very good win for Lancs and out of the relegation zone. Big win psychologically as wont play again in the cc until mid June. Until today the last division one away win was April 2014 and first away win in either division for 3 years.

I’d go much the same with 23 of: Pickford, butland, pope Stones, maguire, Jones, tarkowski, Gomez Bertrand, Rose, trippier, Walker Ox, alli, llalana, Henderson, dier, lingard, wilshire, Sterling, rashford, Kane, Vardy. Few of those wouldn’t be disappointed to see miss out to be fair. In general I’ve never known such an apathy towards a World Cup. Might change as gets closer but seems as though your average fan would much rather watch premier league drudgery over international drudgery. Not sure why the prem is all conquering considering once got through the small elite the teams on regular display are the likes of Burnley, Bournemouth, palace, wba, Huddersfield, Southampton, Stoke, Brighton, Leicester, Swansea, West Ham. Yawn.

http://www.cityam.com/285601/their-way-back-blackburn-rovers-championship-bound-but-have

Probably gone grey watching us batting vs Notts and Essex.

94CB428D-C44C-42C0-B0EA-2272F989D04B.MP4 This might be beyond my limited internet skills but saw this video of Sol Campbell, he comes across unhinged these days. Predicatably that didn’t work. He basically gives a speech about the fa cup. Reminded me of full metal jacket and private Pyles final scene.

Well it’s been a pretty awful start to the county championship for Lancs. After our efforts in the first game vs Notts we somehow managed to walk away with less point than Yorkshire and Essex who didn’t bowl a ball. Today chasing 320. But so far this season we’ve scored a total of 375 runs for 30 wickets so chances are slim to none. Could be a long old season...

I think generally aj’s very managed and media savvy. But I do really like him after a fight because adrenaline is pumping and he’s quite terse and not as careful with his comments. Are you interested in conquering America? NO. Brits have always had to go out there I’m the unified champion they can come here. ??

Ref killed that as a spectacle for me.

Must be a unanimous points win for aj.

Fairly even fight this.

As a pretty unknowledgeable fan of boxing how is Joshua going to get on tonight? The bookies and pundits seem to have it as a relatively routine win through 7-9 rounds so is this Parker fella to be written off so easily. He is a world champion, wbo I recall but there’s so many, so is he worthy of the belt or another bum that’s blagged one like that Browne from last week. I noticed from the press conference he reckons he’s got the best chin in the business but has he ever been hit by the likes of a Joshua or a wilder. He’s also confident (but then again all boxers are).

Not forgetting he also came out with a metal bat when England had them on the ropes. This Australian demise has been 50+ years in the making. I hope people enjoy it for the next 50+ years.

In smiths post match press confrence where he said he: “Actions were planned by a core group the payers during the lunch break we thought it would give us an advantage.” That’s the meeting I’m referring to. But I take your point with the word enforce. They were probably all willing participants. Cheating holier than thou convicts and all.

It will be interesting to see how South Africa get on today the Australians might find this game is tougher than they thought playing within the rules. SA 131/1...

Yeah I think the big difference with this latest chapter in ball tampering is the top to bottom collusion and premeditated nature of it. Yes Atherton rubbing dirt into the ball in the heat of the moment was a poor show but he didn’t have to go to b&q to make it happen then hold a team meeting to enforce it. For years and year unfathomably the Australians have held themselves up as moral bastions of the sport. Despite continually going against the spirit of the game if not until now the rules. They invented not walking and pretty much invented sledging as we know it. Across various eras they had infamous sledgers Rod marsh, merv Hughes, Dennis lillee, Shane warne, waugh bros, McGrath, Ian Healy, the list is endless. Obviously none of those overstepped their definition of the line just the players who gave it back. In hindsight with their win at all costs, gamesmanship it wasn’t too much of a stretch to full blown cheating. That said, perhaps naively, I never suspected they cheated in this ashes but I did wonder why jimmy, one of the games finest swing bowlers, couldn’t get the ball to move whereas Starc was making it dance. I put it down to the different ball, home conditions, jimmy on the wane but now I’m questioning every result they’ve had under Lehmann and smith. Arguably the best thing to come out of this is the Australians will never live it down, they will never put themselves on a moral pedestal or chip in their two penny’s worth on every issue under the sun that doesn’t suit their agenda. At least I bloody hope they won’t.