I never thought I’d tire of those three letters so quickly. Bloody hell, what’s so wrong with English cricket anyway?! Many of the leading players flock to play it and have done since the seventies and they’ll continue to do so. However, the IPL has sent seismic tremors through the sport and there is a clear sense of reactionary panic. IPL? Oh hell, we’d better do one of those then…

Well, with international commitments, tangled scheduling and the like, the ECB has reacted by trying to thrash out its own version of this new-fangled version (except it’s actually been going on for years and years at grassroots). By 2010. Perhaps…The BBC report today that the ECB are close to a revamp. God, if that’s close then I guess we were close to winning the last Ashes series down under.

By then, the IPL will be part of the cricketing furniture, England players will be playing in it and we’ll all be talking about something else. England planning towards the 2062 Ashes perhaps. The IPL is a great idea, not exactly revolutionary, but all good for the game. I fail to believe it spells the end of county cricket or that the crowds that have flocked to the 50-over and five-day versions will all demand the 20-20 bit-sized version instead. There is surely room for both? And as for Twenty20 cricket being bigger than the Premier League in football?? Errr…..no, I don’t think so. More spin than a cross between Tony Blair and Murali methinks.

I digress of course. It is raining siamese cats and yorkshire terriers up north so no further progress at Old Trafford. The Somerset lads are probably calmly awaiting the chance to wrap things up then rachet up a decent score. Something over 230 again will test the gobby claims of Horton that Somerset have no hope in hell. We’ll see….