Lutters Lines (September 24)

Ijaz Butt’s comments about English players have not helped obviously, and the fact that he appears to have not a shred of evidence to back up his claims makes the whole thing farcical. The guy is high up in Pakistan cricket and is clearly feeling the pressure of having some of his top players accused of fixing elements of the game.

If those players are guilty then they should be banned for life – no sport should be subject to any kind of fixing. The problem for cricket is that it’s likely to involve players who play for other nations too. But when the ICC deign to tell the world exactly who they are investigating and for what reason the public and players can do nothing but speculate, which leads to witch hunts and spats between players (I cite Trott and Riaz at this point).

The ICC have done nothing but fan the flames of conspiracy and really need to have a long hard look at themselves and their conduct as well as that of the players.

Cricket-wise, the summer has been a mixed bag. The Bangladesh series’ were forgettable and England duly won those at a canter, despite Tamim Iqbal’s batting efforts. The Pakistan Test match series was also pretty forgettable, despite them winning one game, it will always be remembered for Asif/Amir/Butt and their alleged spot fixing.

The one-day series has been a very good contest, however, with England sneaking over the line to win 3-2. There have been some impressive performances by players from both sides.

On the England front, Michael Yardy has done well, as has Steven Davies (get rid of Kieswetter!) and Strauss has proved that you can’t keep class down in any form of the game. Luke Wright must be a little worried that he was dropped but performed well when he did get a chance, and of course there is Eoin Morgan who has also done well (although I am writing this having witnessed a truly great one-day hundred, which may taint my view somewhat).

Pakistan have also had their stars, without their banned stars too. Umar Gul’s bowling has been unplayable at times, and had he bowled like that during the test series it might have been closer.

Saeed Ajmal is a good bowler, whether he throws it or not (Muralitharan got 800 test wickets with a similar action), and having faced him when he played in the Sussex League, I’m not massively surprised. Dominic Clapp has been keen to let others know that he hit a century against him not knowing which way the ball was turning!

Pakistan’s batting has been fragile all summer but they do have some talent, with the Akmal brothers displaying a fair amount of it.

The trouble with the ODI series was its timing. Everyone in cricket knows that once you get to September, whoever wins the toss (and therefore bats first), wins the game. It’s a real shame that the flip of a coin can be so important in the result of a game.

Let’s face it, this has been a miserable summer in terms of cricket, but roll on the Ashes this winter – it could be the greatest series of all time. And that’s exactly what the sport needs right now.