This is what Steven Harmison had to say on the eve of a long-dreaded Fred-less Test for the Englishmen against formidable Pakistan:

‘I can be replaced, everybody else can be replaced. But, at this moment in time, Fred (Flintoff) can’t be replaced because we haven’t got anybody else in the country who can bat at six, bowl at 90 mph and stand at slip. I don’t think you’ll ever replace that.”

Some English bloke had once rephrased Steven’s surname as ‘Harm-u-son’ to create more effect in his entry for a caption contest last year. Guess he must be digging a grave for himself after this awesome gesture.

This post comes on the back of a comment made during the CoU “chat” last night.

I mentioned, at the start of the first session, that regardless of recent form in ODI’s and only managing to draw a test series at home to Sri Lanka, that England are a better than average chance to retain the Ashes this summer.  I watched how Trescothick and Strauss jumped out of the blocks and it reminded me all too much (for my liking) of what we saw last English summer.

Here’s a link for those still in the dark about the Cricket world Cup in its ‘Frankenstein 2007′ avatar (like I was, until Pratik pointed out commenting in a World Cup post). It looks a rather grotesque format if you ask me, straining for foolproof qualities and compromising the essential brevity of a quadrennial showpiece in the process. Mutual isolation of the host countries in the Caribbean only lengthens the DNA strand like structure of the tourney.

I read where Michael Slater says the NSW cricket shouldn’t “flirt with the integrity” of what it stands for. This in relation to the Rugby League player, Andrew Johns, supposedly lining up for NSW in two Twenty20 games this coming season, in an attempt to attrack larger crowds.

Excuse me Slats, but integrity and Twenty20 shouldn’t really appear in the same sentence.. hang on, they just did! Oh well…. seriously, when it comes to Twenty20, there is no integrity. Check out the definition on dictionary.com. Words like “unimpaired”, “completeness”, “whole or undivided” - now think of cricket…mmm… Now think of the last game of Twenty20 you saw anything of……any resemblance? Nope.

The Bangladesh team for the upcoming ODI series’ against Kenya and Zimbabwe was announced yesterday. We heard rumors that there could be a couple of new faces in the squad this time. Those rumors bore fruition as Sakibul Hasan and Farhad Reza were called up for their first international duties. The opportunity to play against more ‘equal’ oppositions is the perfect time to try to build towards the World Cup and test some promising youngsters.