Little bit of history this morning in Harare , Zimbabwe .
Zimbabwe beat Pakistan by 24 runs , this was Zimbabwe's first win since 2001 in Test Cricket.
Australia still dont seem to have much luck against England at the moment .
Australia managed to reach 227 .
Australia then made giant inroads almost immediately by having Pieterson , Trott and Root out in sucessive balls (Hat Trick) to have England 8 For 3 at one stage before Morgan and Carberry got England back on to an even footing , England then eventually overcoming some nervous moments to win by 3 Wickets .
At the moment Australia must think that the Cricketing gods are against them they lost in the Test Series 3-0 , they drew the T20 Internationals 1 All and now they are drawing the One Day International series 1 All as well with the possibility of losing that if England win the final match.
Lancashire have signed 23 year old Jos Buttler from Somerset for the 2014 season. Buttler has played T20 International cricket for England as a WK/Batsman. He has left Somerset at the end of his contract citing a lack of opportunities as a wicket keeper with Craig Kieswatter the man in the first XI.
Lancashire have not offered a contract to Gareth Cross who has been WK for the past couple of seasons, but whose performances with the bat have been poor.
Fifteen players have signed new contracts for Lancashire CC f0r the 2014 season. These include James Anderson, Simon Kerrigan and the captain Glen Chappell who will be 40 next year.
I'm off to the Boxing day test match in Melbourne and maybe the T20 to.
By the Boxing day Test Match we should know generally in which direction The Ashes are heading.
Unlike the English Ashes Test Matches , Australian Test Matches seem to be always played at the same venues , dont know when the Ashes in Australia where last played on different venues .
Why would you use different venues... Australias venues far surpass all venues in the world potentially bar lords so why would you.
I have tickets for day one and day two so far will probably get the rest after i get my Wigan Rugby in Sydney tickets.
To be honest i have never understood why we have decided to have so many test match ready grounds in this country , which means there is a mad bidding process for the test matches , its shown its head badly in the one day international scene where Headingley has come out badly two years in a row , with successive wash outs and a major financial loss .
Its highly likely that New Zealand Umpire Tony Hill will stand down from the Elite ICC panel of Umpires to be replaced by fellow New Zealander Billy Bowden , who was himself removed from the ICC Elite panel of Umpires before the Ashes Series in England .
Billy Bowden is famous for his crooked index finger , when giving a player out .
It seems like England have picked a few injuries up in that rain affected match in Hobart .
Matt Prior and Kevin Pieterson picked up knocks .
Matt Prior was replaced behind the stumps when England came out to field by Joe Root , who seems a very versatile player considering he also bowls off spin as well.