Hello everyone and welcome to this weeks edition of Paul Seaborne on Cricket. And what a week it has been, unless you are captain of your country……

First casualty of the week has been Chris Gayle. The King of Cool, the hard hitting, flamboyant, laid back enigmatic Jamaican has this week confirmed that he has handed in his resignation to the WICB (West Indies Cricket Board.) However things aren't quite final at the moment, as the WICB and Chris Gayle have announced they are currently in negotiations to “come to an agreement that is mutually beneficial” Read into this what you will, but one can assume that that Gayle is after a pay rise, and possibly the agreement that he can skip off to the IPL to play there.

This leaves the WICB with a bit of a problem. The most pressing of issues for them is the need to find another captain, and they don't have many options. Ramnaresh Sarwan is probably top of their hit list; however he has his injury problems. Shivnarine Chanderpaul is another option, back for a second stint, but apart from that it is hard to see who they would opt for. Personally I would like to see Darren Ganga given an extended run at the role. He captained the side briefly during the West Indies tour to England in 2007 when Ramnareh Sarwan flew home due to a knee injury, and I thought he captained with dignity, maturity and confidence.

Gayle's reign comes to an end (if indeed, it is the end) after a run of mixed results. He won two tests out of five, including a win away in South Africa, although they ended up losing the series and a win to seal a 1-1 draw at home to Sri Lanka. He won two One Day series, against England and Sri Lanka, but lost 5-0 most recently to Australia.

The other captain who looks likely to lose his position his Michael Vaughan. Now I'm being presumptuous here because he hasn't actually left the post yet, however the ECB have called for a press conference at 13:00 UK time, and one can only think it is an announcement about Michael Vaughan. Regardless of whether he loses his position or not, we can have a look the situation anyway, and argue the toss regardless.

Michael Vaughan started his captaincy in 2003, ironically after Nasser Hussain lost a test series at home against South Africa, and in a bitter twist of fate, Graeme Smith scored 203 not out to ensure South Africa clinched the series. Could it be that Smith ensures yet another man loses his job?

I watched the press conference with interest yesterday, after England 's defeat, and never before have I seen Michael Vaughan look so despondent. One can sympathise with him. We've all been through a bad run of form (mine started in 1996, and I should be back in nick any day now) and however badly England have batted in this match, it's not his fault the top six or seven have failed to produce regular scores.

However his field placing and bowling changes tend to be right on the money, as it was this week as his team roared back into the match and even looked in command of the test on Saturday lunchtime. I was even sensing England were going to go on to win a match they had rarely looked like being in throughout the first three days. Let's go back to the Wednesday, England had cruised to 65/0 and South Africa were trading at 8.0 on the high street and on the exchanges. In the end though England were probably 70 - 100 runs short of making this a decent contest, and would have to had bowled well to keep themselves in the hunt. And bowl well they did. Memories of 2005 came flooding back and Andrew Flintoff roared in with such pace and hostility that I was wincing just watching it. Kallis had his off stump ripped out of the ground and De Villers fell to a quick short delivery in the evening of Thursday to set up a potentially thrilling test match. How South Africa could justify their pre match price of 3.0 I'll never know, they were wobbling, they had the history of failing to win a series over in England since their re-admission to Test Cricket, they had the tag of “chokers” hanging round their neck like a heavy medallion, at a ground where England have a habit of producing remarkable victories.
Suddenly the momentum was with England, and when they shifted my man-of-the-series Ashwell Prince early on Friday morning, one could sense that England had been given a reprieve, but they had to bat well a second time.

Getting of to the worst possible start with Cook getting caught by Boucher to a horrific shot, Strauss and Vaughan set about chipping away at the less than imposing deficit of 86 runs. Vaughan then fell to a splendid catch and when Bell was out to an equally poor shot as Cook. In came Paul Collingwood to join Kevin Pieterson at the crease.

The gulf between the two differing fortunes of the players was wider than the Grand Canyon. Collingwood was playing for his test future, fail here and it was all over him, he couldn't buy a run this season (98 runs all year) and you could visibly see the burden being lifted when he got off the mark with a crunching four through mid wicket.
Pieterson on the other hand, the dashing, ego inflated, and brilliant counter attacker at the other end was under no such pressure. He plays with such ease and confidence we could be forgiven for thinking he has been given a ten year contract no matter what happens (!) and slowly the duo began to build a significant lead. Hopes were dashed as quickly as they were raised when Pieterson, on 94, holed out to long on in an effort to bring up his hundred with a six. The ego, unfortunately for the rest of the team, had well and truly landed.

Now it is hard to be too critical of Pieterson, despite the obscenities I was shouting at my TV Screen at the time. Irresponsible? Yes. Untimely? Certainly. But the fact of the matter is that without his 94 England would have been in a far worse position. On the flip side however, if Pieterson had managed to hang around for a while, England would have been clear favourites to win. As it was, it has to be said, his ego got the better of him, and South Africa were back on top.

Now, if the pressure wasn't on Paul Collingwood before the start of his innings, it certainly was now. Basically, after Flintoff went cheaply, the test series, Vaughan's job, England's hopes and the hopes of 20,000 fans in the ground rested firmly upon his broad shoulders. He didn't disappoint. Still out of touch, he pulled, hooked and droved his way to a magnificent century, ironically brought up with a huge six off Paul Harris over long on. I would have loved to have seen Kevin Pieterson's face at that moment, and once again England were back in with a huge shout. Collingwood finished with 135 on Saturday morning and England had set South Africa a tough looking 280 to win.

At 100/4, England were bang on top. Enter Graeme Smith, South Africa's captain, who led from the front with an excellent 150 not out to guide his side to their first series victory over England, and the noose that was around Paul Collingwood's neck only 48 hours earlier, had well and truly shifted to that of Michael Vaughan.

Vaughan has led the England team to some of it's finest hours in recent history, capped with an emotional win over Australia in 2005 after what many pundits are calling “The greatest series ever”. Since then however he has been plagued with a serious knee injury which ruled him out of the return bout in Australia, and a home series against Sri Lanka. He returned for a comprehensive series victory over the West Indies before losing to India at home 1-0 and Sri Lanka away. He then oversaw victories against New Zealand, both home and away, before losing the current series 2-0 (and counting!) that could just prove too much for either him, or more surprisingly, the selectors, to take.

My guess would be that Kevin Pieterson will take over - at the very least temporarily, as it would combine the ODI captain and the Test Captain, something the ECB have always been in favour of. More about that next week, when all is confirmed.

Meanwhile, in Sri Lanka - India look like levelling the series 1-1 as at the time of writing Sri Lanka still need a further 170 runs with just five wickets remaining, and still around 130 overs in the match to go. Stranger things have happened, but one must assume that India are going to wrap this match up relatively quickly and that will set up a thrilling 3rd test between the two sides.

India set up the chance to level the series thanks to a magnificent 201 not out by Virender Sehwag. It was a truly sensational knock by this talented batsman, and the innings would have graced any world cup final, since it came off just 231 balls, and at lunch India were an incredible 159/0. Our man Mendis then got into the action (and please remember, when considering awards of the Nobel prize variety, that I tipped this guy to be huge, six months ago before anyone had heard of him) and took 6-117 to restrict India to just 329. Sri Lanka then started off comfortably before Harbajan Singh, not to be outdone by the new kid on the block, also took six wickets to give India a slender lead of 37. If you remember, we laid the draw in this game due to the attacking nature of both Mendis and Harbajan (not blowing my own trumpet you understand, well, ok I am, just a little).and it appears that both players will have a say in deciding that his game has a conclusion, one way or the other.

India batted with discipline, a phrase none to common with their performances in general, with Gambhir, Dravid, Sehwag and Tendulker all getting runs, allowing India to set a target of 307 runs on a crumbling pitch. It was always going to be difficult, and with a good start behind them, reducing Sri Lanka to 35/3, it looks like a comprehensive win for Anil Kumble's men, and as I said, sets up a thrilling 3rd Test at Colombo starting on the 8th August.

Following on from last weeks news regarding the ICC Champions trophy, the player's revolt has continued to gain momentum. Leading the assault this week is former New Zealand star Stephen Fleming, who has asked for his country's cricket board, the NZC, to take a stand on deciding whether to tour their for the tournament, and indeed their scheduled three ODI tour there in August, rather than making the players make up their own minds. It is understood that several high profile players from New Zealand are likely to opt out of the tournament owing to security fears.

D-Day for all this is the 14th August, ironically Pakistan's Independence Day, when an ICC appointed security team carries out it's security inspection. The respective cricket boards will announce their intentions after this date. The Champions Trophy is scheduled to begin on September 11th.

Also this week, I'd hate to be Robert Key's cat! The Kent captain and his team mates have missed out on a $1m pay day as they have been excluded from competing in the first ever Champions League, despite finishing runners up in England's 20/20 tournament. It was understood that the two finalists from England 's 20/20 tournament, plus two from South Africa, Australia and India would make up the eight teams to compete for the huge prize, winner takes all event. However, because Kent have several ICL players Justin Kemp, Azhar Mahmood) the Champions League authority's have decided they don't want them involved. A team to replace them is likely to come from Pakistan's domestic tournament. I feel Kent have been very hard done by here, and it seems that the powers that be dislike the ICL so much, they are doing all in their power to stop people playing in it, and participation in that leagues closes the door on so many more riches the IPL and the Champions League offer.

And finally this week, congratulations go to Mark Ramprakash, who became just the 25th player to score a hundred hundreds in his first class career, and the first in ten years since Graham Hick. As he cut the ball from Mark Wainwright through point for four, he joined the elite list of players such as Don Bradman, WG Grace, Dennis Compton and Geoffrey Boycott (although presumably, not Geoffrey's mother) to have achieved this remarkable feat. Congratulations all round.

Well folks, that's all I have for this week. Be sure to check in regularly for the best tips and informative articles right here at www.priceform.com , and I'll be back next week with all the latest news from around the globe.

Be lucky.

Paul.