Well, it’s almost Ashes time again and despite both teams showing a remarkable ability of late to lose for no reason, this could end up being a fairly close contest (in the same sort of way that Afghanistan vs Bermuda is close). It’s been commonly agreed that Australia are touring with too few batsmen, which they may end up regretting, but by the same token, England have as many batsmen as they need available to them, yet can’t seem to shake the brittleness that’s been plaguing them for the past year or so.

With all this in mind, we’ve decided to offer up a few of our own predictions regarding the series. Please note that we at Kiefpant bear absolutely no ill will towards bitchy, whiny, arrogant, attention-whoring ex-pats with identity crises.

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Is that even a word? Im not quite sure, but it certainly is fitting. Without a doubt one of the fastest bowlers the game has ever produced, Lee managed to set the world alight when he first hit the scene. Averaging in excess of 150km an hour his express pace unsettled even the best batsmen who were unfortunate enough to be scheduled to play Australia that summer. The only man to have ever bowled faster  has been Pakistan’s Shoaib Akthar (recorded, many still regard Jeff Thompson as the fastest that ever played). Lee’s first year of test cricket produced some incredible results too. In his first 8 matches he averaged less then 20 with the ball at a strike rate of 32. He looked like the real deal and he was set to conquer the world.

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…and its been one hell of a summer. I do not think that many expected to see the results the ODI and Test series produced. Where does this leave South Africa and Australia though?

Firm favourites leading into the series in Australia, few imagined that South Africa would be able to deliver on their own pre series hype. A massive victory over England in England had the South African side confident. It was not the first time a South African side was going into a series against Australia confident and most could be forgiven for having been a little skeptical of their chances. After all, if a pace attack with Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock could not do the damage upfront, why would Steyn, Morkel and Ntini fare any better?

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Yes, I know the title seems obscure, but bear with me for a few minutes. Today cricket was played, but once again it was underwhelming and failed to generate any real excitement. The tournament has only just started but already I can’t help but get that feeling of overkill.

I’m sure we can all appreciate the enormous business venture that is the IPL T20, but one can’t help but wonder what the long term cost might be to the game of cricket. In a country as cricket mad as India, where even the lowest paid blue-collar labourer will gladly save up for a year to see one live match, the long term effects would be minimal – fair enough. But for the rest of us, how long can we take this barrage of cricket before it becomes too much and cricket itself begins to lose its appeal?

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