I did wonder if they look at his excellent record and county cricket and are still dismissing that competition as shit, which is probably a little outdated. But then again his record in Shield cricket is also excellent isn't it, so that doesn't explain it away. As far as North & D Hussey went in county cricket, no comparison. D Hussey is an absolute run machine for Nottinghamshire, whereas North's had a couple of counties in more short term stints and never pulled up trees really. D Hussey is what, 32? You'd get another 4 top years out of him I'd say, about 40 odd tests. If you're bringing in a few youngsters I'd bring in someone medium term like him to bridge the gap.

Mark Nicholas is well known to us here, you're right he's absolutely diabolical. He's the sort that would get animated about the morning papers arriving.

I'm just off to the corner of the room to rock back and forth for a bit. Back presently.

A test championship can't come soon enough really. I'd really love to see a knockout/playoff type situation between say the top 4 ranked sides every 2 years or so. They announced something recently didn't they? I can't remember exactly how it was going to work or if it had the go ahead. What would they do in the case of a draw in that situation? Maybe a 10 over shoot out (i.e. 10 overs a side)?