Before the inquest into the death of Bob Woolmer began, his widow Gill predicted it would be 鈥渟ame old, same old.鈥 She turned out to be right, as even after more than 50 witness statements, the jury in Jamaica could not give a definitive answer as to how or why the Pakistan coach died so suddenly during the 2007 World Cup. He was found lying unconscious in grim circumstances in his hotel room the morning after , and shortly afterwards.
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There鈥檚 never enough time for preparation these days.
England would love to have had another week 鈥 one more three-day game 鈥 in which to settle on their best available team for the
As it is, there will be an element of crossed fingers about it when Michael Vaughan walks out with to toss the coin on Saturday morning.
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Welcome to Ask Bearders, where statistician Bill "" Frindall answers your questions on all things cricket.
Below are Bill's responses to some of your questions posed at the end of his last column and if you have a question for Bill, leave it at the end of this blog entry. Please do include your country of residence - Bill loves to hear where all his correspondents are posting from.
Bill isn鈥檛 able to answer all of your questions, however. 大象传媒 Sport staff will choose a selection of them and send them to Bearders for him to answer.
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England are on the road to Kandy today.
They secured an important win in the final warm-up and when captain Michael Vaughan says he's pleased with the way things are going three days before the first Test he probably means it.
The opposition provided in the two matches was ideal and left the players knowing a lot more about what was required out here. Even the batting collapse would have sharpened them up.
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And so after an eventful, but very enjoyable fortnight in Colombo we are off to Kandy to prepare for the first Test of the series between England and Sri Lanka.
At one point on Monday all the old "the wheels are coming off this tour" and "England in crisis" clich茅s were being dusted off as to the bare bones.
Yet 24 hours later we can reflect on a with most of the batsman showing form, plus far more promising news on the fitness of the bowlers.
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When you cover an cricket tour you sometimes stay in the same hotels as the England team itself. We are fortunate in our sport that this is still allowed to happen. Not many reporters are allowed to mix with the England football team for example.
However staying with the players can be both positive and negative - normally depending on how the team has performed!
It's great to be amongst players who have enjoyed a good day, but after a heavy defeat reporters and cricketers will tend to avoid making eye contact in the hotel lobby and conversations in the lift can be a bit of a struggle.
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In Colombo on Thursday, we attended the official launch of the Test series, which gets underway in Kandy next week.
One of the main talking points was whether the newly rebuilt Galle International Stadium was going to be ready in time to stage the third and final Test on 18 December.
And Sri Lanka Cricket's chief executive, the former Test player Duleep Mendis, was in no doubt.
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Welcome to Ask Bearders, where statistician Bill Frindall answers your questions on all things cricket.
Below are Bill's responses to some of your questions posed at the end of his last column and if you have a question for Bill, leave it at the end of this blog entry. Please do include your country of residence - Bill loves to hear where all his correspondents are posting from.
Bill isn鈥檛 able to answer all of your questions, however. 大象传媒 Sport staff will choose a selection of them and send them to Bearders for him to answer.
Read the rest of this entry
The main talking point on the wasn't how their pace attack adapted to the heat and humidity.
It wasn't even about which of their spinners performed the best. Oh no, the big question was just how big were the snakes discovered on the boundary edge?
We were all busy watching the Sri Lanka Cricket Board President's XI rack up the runs at the Colombo Cricket Club when just before the lunch interval we became aware of a commotion by the side of the field.
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With India having clinched the series in Gwalior, perhaps a little bit of the edge had gone out of the .
A total of seven changes - four for Pakistan, three for India 鈥 were indicative of the thinking in both camps.
That said the tourists would have been desperate to salvage some lost pride, while the Indians would have been looking to turn the psychological screws ahead of the Test series.
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There are many ways of getting what you want in life but is the perfect example of hard work and a large amount of patience paying off.
He takes his place in this England Test squad here in Sri Lanka almost as likely to picked in the team as anyone else.
It's been a sharp turn around in fortunes, but about time too.
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England's tour of Sri Lanka got under way this morning with a practice session at what is called the here in Colombo.
Nondescript is not a word you normally associate with this amazing pearl shaped island cast adrift in the Indian ocean. This is my second visit to Sri Lanka, having first come here in 2003 to produce Test Match Special's coverage of the series and I immediately fell in love with the place.
The palm-fringed beaches, dramatic monuments and widely different landscapes make this a fantastic place to come to and I consider myself very fortunate to be working in such marvellous surroundings.
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What is it about ? That was a question asked by many as yet again he fell short of a century as India defeated Pakistan at Gwalior.
It must be deeply frustrating for the 'Little Master' but in the context of a match, how different is a contribution of 97 as opposed to 100? It's only three runs, so let's not get too bogged down by the stats, and instead focus on what was yet another magnificent innings.
Chasing 256, India were 48-2 at one stage. However, once Tendulkar took command, India rarely looked like slipping up. He and Sehwag put on 107 for the third wicket, and with Tendulkar in full flow, Sehwag enjoyed valuable time at the crease to get set.
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It was interesting that both teams wanted to bowl first at the toss in the third one-day international in Kanpur.
Pakistan got to do so, but were , and perhaps Shoaib Malik will hope to lose the toss for the last two matches.
So far the toss winner has lost every game of the series.
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The series is now wonderfully set up after a superb century from Man of the Match Younus Khan's masterly 117 off 110 balls formed the backbone of in Mohali.
But despite the victory, there will be one big worry in the minds of Shoaib Malik and Geoff Lawson.
Pakistan's new-ball pair, Shoaib Akhtar and Umar Gul, bowled with real fire on a wicket providing pace and bounce, but for the second match running, none of the other bowlers provided able support.
How they could have done with an in-form Sami, Razzaq or Naved because it looked at one stage as though they would be chasing a target of 350-plus.
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By Kamlesh Purohit - 大象传媒 Asian Network
Whether or not the Pakistani players were distracted by the goings on back home is difficult to say, though with family still there they鈥檇 be forgiven for having one eye on the .
That said, they must have been disappointed by their score of 239-7 in the at Guwahati.
Their innings was an odd one, making it difficult to judge just how the wicket was playing - 11 runs came off the first over, and 21 off the first three, but then just one run came off the next three, and that was pretty much the pattern for the first 30 overs.
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Our next action on will be commentary on England's Test tour to Sri Lanka. Although this is traditionally one of the toughest of all trips, England go into the tour in good spirits after the over the same opponents in October.
It was particularly good to see how well Graeme Swann performed in his return to the England side. has been a good friend to 大象传媒 Radio over the last few years - summarising at this year鈥檚 Twenty20 Finals day and offering his quirky observations on the game during Gabby Logan's Saturday morning Five Live programme. It will be fascinating to see how well Swann will do if he can win selection in the Test side.
I thought you may be interested in our selection for the TMS team touring Sri Lanka.
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| 18:00 UK time, Friday, 30 November 2007
