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English Premier League seems doomed from the start

Last week, the ECB voted unanimously in favour of having a two-tier format involving twenty teams for the inaugural EPL, which has been pencilled in for June 2010.

Making way for this new competition will be the Natwest Pro40 competition; while there will bizarrely still be a place for the current domestic Twenty20 Cup. This means that during the English summer, there will be around 200 Twenty20 matches packed into the space of three months, which is surely far too excessive by any stretch of the imagination.

Furthermore, the ECB actually rejected a proposition to have the competition limited to nine teams, in the franchise-based format which worked so well in the IPL. There should be no pretensions about the financially-driven aspect of the Twenty20 revolution, and we should not lambaste the ECB for being predominantly motivated by milking this cash cow for all its worth. Nonetheless, the ECB bigwigs would have been well-advised to opt for some form of moderation, as there is no way that the sheer volume of Twenty20 matches can be maintained. The public will become increasingly blasé as matches become increasingly formulaic on flat pitches, and interest will soon die out.

Interestingly, it has been decided that twenty teams will be involved in the EPL. With there only being eighteen counties, the likes of Scotland and Ireland will no doubt be disheartened to learn that the ECB is hoping to attract a team from the IPL, as well as an XI representing Sir Allen Stanford, the Texan oil baron who is throwing farcical amounts of money around in the game. With twenty teams in the competition, quality will be of a lower standard as the star overseas players are spread out among the teams. It remains to be seen as to whether the likes of Derbyshire and Leicestershire will be able to compete with relative financial heavyweights such as Lancashire and Surrey, and there is a real threat that the financial disparity in the county system will be widened.

The issue of players' salaries will also be fascinating, as the likes of Bangalore Royal Challengers racked up over $100 million in squad salaries during the IPL. With the rejection of a franchise-based format, it is likely that teams will have to compensate with even more money-making initiatives and advertising. It will be interesting to see whether the likes of Sir Ian Botham will be referring to a spectacular catch as a ‘Virgin Moment of Success' or a ‘Daily Mail Moment of Magic', but I'm sure that we will have no shortage of commentators adding their name to the ever-growing list of well-respected pundits who have sold their souls for a dime.

Overall, instead of trying to re-invent the wheel, the ECB should have been looking to build on the IPL's preposterous successes and aim for a fraction of its revenue. Yet, they have insisted on competing with the IPL in terms of sheer mind-numbing quantity, and the overdrawn competition will no doubt bludgeon English viewers into submission with shameless advertising at every opportunity.

Confusion, desperation as England selectors pick Aussie

This must have been a mistake. Few had heard of Nottinghamshire's Darren Pattinson before England's ongoing second test against South Africa, and eyebrows were raised when the right-arm swing bowler was plucked from obscurity for his international bow.

Remarkably, this selection might have been a case of déja vu for Pattinson. The 29 year old was born in Grimsby , England but raised in Victoria, Australia . He was toiling away in grade cricket in Melbourne when he was called up out of the blue by Victoria, who were suffering a spate of injuries to their pace bowlers. A roofer by trade, Pattinson put in several solid performances as he was rewarded with a contract with his home state for the 2007-08 season. He was then signed by Nottinghamshire on a two-year contract starting in 2008, and having played just six first-class games in England, he was called up into the England squad as cover for James Anderson for the second test. As luck would have it, it was Ryan Sidebottom who made way due to injury, and Pattinson was in the England side after just eleven first-class matches.

This selection would have been strange whatever the circumstances, but it was not as if England are bereft of pace bowlers chomping at the bit to get into the main side. The likes of Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, Simon Jones and Chris Tremlett will no doubt be confused and seething that a bowler who has come from nowhere has usurped them, and they all have a right to feel severely aggrieved.

England's selection policy is fairly baffling to say the least at the moment. Andrew Flintoff was selected for the second test despite not being fully fit by his own admission, yet Simon Jones has yet to receive a look-in this season despite proving his fitness and form for Worcestershire.

Stuart Broad is a player who has flown under the radar amidst the chaos. His performances have been consistently below par in tests and it is a big surprise that Broad is being given so much leeway considering the likes of Matthew Hoggard was dropped after one poor test in New Zealand, after years of being England's most consistent bowler. The intentions of the selectors may well be noble in grooming Broad for the future, but it is all too apparent that he has been thrown in the deep end and failed to even tread water. On current performances, Broad should not even be in contention for a place in the squad, let alone the team. Send him back to county cricket so he can develop his game.


Your new favourite tennis player is…

Ashley Harkleroad. By a mile.

The WTA star has caused a huge stir in the tennis world by posing fully nude in August's edition of Playboy magazine.

The world no. 65 has taken the bold move of baring all, and the world seems too shocked - and pleasantly surprised - to have a firm opinion on whether to denounce this as a flagrant act of self-degradation from a supposed role model, or to quietly admire from a distance. I think it's fair to say that the phrase ‘we're not complaining' is probably most appropriate to sum up the consensus of half of the population.

It must be said that it is actually a fairly bizarre move for a WTA player to make. Anna Kournikova blazed a trail for the WTA in terms of exploiting her good looks and mediocre fame to propel her to C-list celebrity, and although there have been provocative photo shoots from the likes of Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic for Sports Illustrated and FHM respectively, Harkleroad has taken glamour in the WTA to the next level.

The photo shoot has no doubt been launched to deliberately coincide with the US Open late in August. All eyes are bound to be on Harkleroad, but for the wrong reasons. There will be plenty of hecklers in the crowd, and she should be prepared to cop some stick when she has a medical time-out - an obligatory staple of the WTA - and is rubbed down by the physio.

WTA's newest belle has either embarked on a public relations suicide mission or has pulled off a masterstroke which will act as a launching pad for her career. Either way, with Harkleroad leaving little - read: nothing - to the imagination as cover girl for Playboy, the WTA has been shaken to its very core.

NB: Just to confirm, this is not a wind-up, and we promise you won't be bombarded with seedy pop-ups if you click on a link on this page.