The Champions Trophy 2009

The ICC Champions Trophy kicks off today in South Africa. Weary England barely have time to breathe before their first match - Sri Lanka on Friday.

What is the Champions Trophy?

A mini, less-important World Cup, this year to be contested by the eight highest ranked ODI sides in the world. Contrary to popular opinion, that includes England.

Australia won the last tournament in 2006, and England reached the final in 2004, before losing in improbable fashion to the West Indies. The odds for those two reaching this year's final are not high.

Do England have a chance?

In theory everyone does, which is rare for a major international tournament in any sport. It's the top eight sides in the world, all of whom have been proficient in this format at different times. However, in practice it would appear we can cross England (and the West Indies) off the list of potential winners due to dire form, crass home ODI series scheduling and non-stop cricket for a core group of players. That said, whether they're recovering from defeat to Holland in the World T20, or demolition by Australia at Headingley, England seem intent on styling themselves as comeback kings. This would be their neatest trick yet.

Are they taking the right squad?

Seemingly not, although they were hampered by a squad submission deadline which predated Jonathan Trott's reintroduction to international cricket. The luxury of a post-Australia ODI series decision would have been ideal, but it gives the consistently average performers (Morgan, Bopara, Bresnan) the chance to snuff out a few question marks.

Who will win it?

Take your pick between the top sides in the world. South Africa have the local knowledge and will be fresher than most England players will remember being since their teenage years. Australia have some serious form behind them, and Pakistan are capable of literally anything - which could be good or bad - but I'm going for Sri Lanka.

Strong batting, led by Tillakaratne Dilshan, who's been unstoppable in one-day cricket for the past year, and thrived on the South African pitches during an explosive IPL spell with the Delhi Daredevils, is backed up by the irrepressible four Ms attack: Mathews, Malinga, Mendis and Muralitharan. England have practically no time to consider this prospect before they meet it head on. It's probably just as well.

It's a big tournament for...

Everyone - England are crying out for a new one-day hero - but Paul Collingwood and Owais Shah in particular. Collingwood has been a fine limited-overs player for England, and has usually managed to up his game when required in the past. This is one such time, as the burden of all-year-round cricket, across three formats, is starting to see his form slide.

Shah is in better touch than his scores in the NatWest series suggest, but his Benny Hill impersonation between the wickets and genuinely poor fielding must have put him in somewhere approaching last chance territory.

Who cares?

Well no-one usually, the Champions Trophy having been out-muscled in recent times by its bullish yet disorganised big brother - the World Cup. However, this year it's perilously close to actually meaning something. Recent 50-over World Cups have been woefully administrated, this is the ICC's chance to show lessons have been learned. Interest here - and in Australia - is likely to be fragile and entirely performance-dependent, but this time that's thanks to the ECB's late-summer flogging of both the format and the players, rather than the ICC.

The 50-over game itself has been taking a battering - from fans, commentators and players alike. England have done it no favours over the past few weeks - the rest of the world now have a prime opportunity to rectify that.

England's Contrary Test And ODI Form

It should come as no surprise that - at 3-0 down - England appear to be heading for defeat in the ODI series against Australia. After all, we won the Ashes.

When Test and ODI series have been paired together in recent years, England have an uncanny and near-impeccable record - at winning one and losing the other.

Rarely have England been able to buck this trend; they even triumphed in the Commonwealth Bank series that followed the Ashes mauling of 06-07 - an event no-one could have predicted with any conviction.

In the summer of 2006, a few months before that ill-fated Ashes tour, England had recovered from a comprehensive 5-0 ODI series defeat to Sri Lanka by beating Pakistan 3-0 in a now infamous four match Test series.

The following summer, fresh from a disappointing World Cup showing, England dispatched the West Indies 3-0 in another four match Test series, but couldn't translate that form to the 50-over game as they lost to the same opponents in the accompanying three match ODI series.

Gaining top marks for inconsistency during the second half of that summer, Vaughan's England then lost a Test series to the touring Indians, before Collingwood's 50-over side triumphed 4-3 in an outstanding ODI series - the limited-overs equivalent of the 2005 Ashes.

England's promising ODI form continued in Sri Lanka that winter with a 3-2 series win, which preceded - true to form - a 1-0 Test series defeat.

On to New Zealand, where the pattern continued, this time with defeat in the ODIs (3-1) and victory in the Tests - the last of which saw Panesar spin the side to victory and Andrew Strauss save his career with a Test high-score of 177. That innings has taken on extra significance given his form in the last year.

When England returned the favour and hosted New Zealand a couple of months later, the on-pitch results were almost identical - victory in the Tests (2-0), followed by defeat in the five match 50-over series (3-1).

The outcomes were reversed for the visit of South Africa later that summer, with Test series defeat prompting Michael Vaughan to relinquish captaincy duties and Kevin Pietersen making an excellent start with a win in the dead rubber Test and a resounding ODI series win.

Following defeat in all forms of the game in India in late 2008, a wounded England succumbed to dressing room chaos, misjudged declarations, flat pitches and Test series defeat in the West Indies in the new year. This was however followed up - in now familiar fashion - by ODI series victory, 3-2.

This record highlights that the reign of Peter Moores, though defined by home Test series defeat, did include a number of notable ODI series victories. It also reveals how different these two formats of the game are and how, in England's case, momentum in one counts for little in the other.

Credit England for the examples of recovery, dispair the meek squandering of the upper-hand. Andy Flower has overseen both ODI and Test series victories, his challenge is to combine the two.

What England Could Learn from Marcus North

In terms of talent, not much separates Marcus North, Ravi Bopara and Ian Bell. Indeed, convincing arguments could be made that the Englishmen edge it. But it's the Australian who has worked out how to play a Test innings. While Bopara and Bell offer style over substance, North favours the latter, and in doing so offers both.

A look at the stats reveals North pays almost obsessive consideration to a shot that Bopara probably doesn't consider worthy of the name - the leave. His 125 at Cardiff comprised only 69 scoring shots and included a mammoth 173 dot balls. And why not? This is Test cricket, and not so long ago such stats were the norm.

North has form in this area. His 117 on debut against South Africa included 65 scoring shots and 168 dot balls. That Bopara and Bell take pride in aesthetics is no bad thing, but both must learn to prize their wicket above all else.

Bopara's 18 in the first innings at Lord's was scored at a strike-rate of 94.73, until he got carried away and fell lbw. There is a time and a place for such batting in Tests, but that role rarely falls to a number three batsman.

Clearly Bopara likes to score quickly, which made his two hundreds against the West Indies earlier this summer all the more pleasing - because they were scored at strike-rates of 50.35 and 51.92. The first of those innings included 204 dot balls. So he can do it.

For all the good temperament shown on those occasions, he was dropped a number of times by sloppy West Indian fielders. This is something else he must work on - 50 per cent of his Test dismissals (7/14) have been caught, and only once by the wicket-keeper. This suggests an abundance of unnecessary shots - too risky an approach to Test cricket, especially against quality opposition. Time to rediscover the art of the 'leave'.

England Out After West Indies Defeat

England are out of the World T20 after losing to the West Indies for the first time this summer, in a rain-affected match. A win would have seen England into the semi-finals, but erratic form has been a feature of their efforts in the shortest form of the game.

After the match Collingwood said that he was proud of his players, praising the bowlers in particular. Two valid points: disappointing though their exit was, England have fared better than some of the other big guns, notably Australia and India, and have bowled consistently well. Overall they came up short, but were able to win two out of three must-win games under intense pressure.

Tonight England shot themselves in the foot before the first ball was bowled. When rain and D+L are likely to intervene, winning the toss and batting first is too risky. A side batting second in a D+L affected game has the advantage of a reduced target and ten wickets to play with. England may have beaten the reigning champions, but they will never beat the weather. And so it proved; West Indies were set 80 from nine overs, a total they reached with four balls remaining, despite another good bowling effort. 

In truth, on the strength of their batting, England did not deserve to progress. And, close as they came, for once their bowlers were unable to get them out of jail. 

Match Scorecard   

World T20 Enters Second Phase

Three tough games coming up in the next five days for England; India (Sunday), West Indies (Monday) and today's opponents, South Africa.

Captain Collingwood has called on his players to do something special. He also talked about the need, as a batting side, to capitalise on the fielding restrictions of the first six overs, which is something Wright and Bopara have done well. Stuart Broad also gets a mention, with Collingwood pointing out that he's one of our more experienced players in this format.

Today's game will be tough, with many pundits tipping South Africa for the title. Batting-wise there is no respite - dismiss their prolific top order and you still find yourself facing AB de Villiers followed by some of the game's best finishers. That said, they only managed 128 from their 20 overs against New Zealand.

But the bad news is they chased it down. With Parnell and Steyn (T20 average 13.18 at start of tournament) leading the line, the Proteas can even afford to leave out Morne Morkel. And they possess quality spin this time, in Roelof van der Merwe, who possesses the tournament's best economy rate at 3.87, and Johan Botha (though the latter has been banned from using his potent doosra).

This will be a real examination for England, but, providing the Sunday team turn up, and not the Monday one, the same could be said of South Africa.

England Hammer Windies. Again.

That's more like it! The final warm-up before the fun starts on Friday saw England cruise to another win against the hapless West Indies. This nine wicket victory was notable for tidy bowling from Rashid (1-20) and stunning clean hitting from Bopara (60 off 35) and Wright (75* off 48).

Delighted for Wright, who hasn't enjoyed much time in the middle for England. He's had to wait a long time since those encouraging early displays two summers ago. Always imagined him in the middle order, but we could be onto something with him and Bopara up top. It wont work every game, maybe not even half the time, but it's great when it does because he is a genuine boundary hitter. And when he does get out, KP gets in - could be worse.

The main thing England must do now is stick with him. We've been striving for a settled opening partnership in one-day cricket for too long, and T20 selection in general has been anything but consistent - 14 players used in first 15 T20s, including 11 different opening partnerships. This one is worth giving an extended run.

Scorecard