Hello everyone and welcome the latest edition of my view on cricket events around the world.

I am writing this as the first test between England and South Africa peters towards a draw at Lords – which incidentally will be the sixth consecutive draw at the ground.

South Africa have fought back superbly after conceding a mammoth 593 runs in England's innings, and then being bowled out for just 247 in their first innings. There was a lot of feeling that England would go on to win the test and take a 1-0 lead in the series. However if you look at the history of Lords, it is very, very difficult to bowl a side out twice, indeed Sri Lanka survived a sapping 199 overs two years ago here to secure a draw.

The main disappointment in this test for me was the South African pace attack. They arrived on these shores with a pretty fearsome reputation, but they failed to impress in their first outing, and one can assume that they are simply undercooked and will be back to their best in the next test.

The pace quartet of Steyn, Nitini, Morkel and Kallis collectively bowled too short, and allowed England to cash in on a flat wicket.

Kudos must go to Ian Bell. Coming into this game he was under a bit of pressure for his place, after a few failures in the recent series vs New Zealand . I think he has relieved that pressure with a magnificent 199. His innings was a masterful mix of composure, talent, brute force, timing and stroke play.

On the other side of the coin, we have to feel sorry for Paul Collingwood. Also coming into this test under pressure, even more so than Bell , Collingwood received an absolute horror of a decision from Billy Bowden. It is a true saying that it never rains but it pours. And poor old Collingwood must feel he is in the middle of a monsoon at the moment. With the imminent arrival of Andrew Flintoff, someone will have to surrender their place, and it looks like Collingwood is going to be the one to suffer.

Saying that, Ryan Sidebottom has a bad back at the moment, and it may give Collingwood a stay of execution. More about that later.

The second Test starts on Friday, at Headingley, and I will be previewing this in my next article, so be sure to keep an eye out for that.

Following on nicely from the Lords test, Ricky Ponting has been in the news for declaring that Test Cricket pitches around the world are becoming too docile. It is hard to disagree with him.

In an ideal world, every single test match would have a result late on during day five. Now you can understand the ICC wanting as much revenue as possible, and obviously five days of test match cricket brings in more revenue than three days. But there do seem to be an increasing number of drawn tests than ever. Over the last three years, there have been 36 draws out of 140 tests – or 26%. When you realise that a quarter of all test matches will end in a draw after five days of cricket that is quite surprising. Obviously you have to take into account the weather in some of these tests, but you have to agree with Ricky Ponting, that more sporting pitches would create a greater spectacle. I would much rather see 280 all out vs 280 all out after the first innings than 540/6 declared.

In other news – Mohammed Asif has been a naughty boy again. He has failed a drugs test taken during the recent IPL tournament. Asif, who played for the Delhi Daredevils, has been no stranger to trouble recently, after being sent home by Pakistan during the ICC Championship in 2006 after again testing positive for a banned substance, and most recently he was arrested at Dubai Airport under allegations of possessing a banned narcotic.

The result of this most recent blip on Asif's record is that Pakistan have been forced to delay naming their thirty man squad for the ICC Champions Trophy that starts in November.

Staying in the Sub-continent, England are unhappy with the recent itinerary released for their forthcoming tour of India later in the year, which consists of two Test Matches and seven (yes seven!) One Day Internationals.

They are unhappy that famous grounds such as Eden Gardens, Wankhede Stadium and MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, have been omitted from the list, replaced with less glamorous venues in Jamshedpur and Guwahati in the far east of the country, incidentally these are the same venues where England's previous One Day Internationals had to be abandoned due to rioting in the stands from the home supporters.

England arrive in India on November 6th and leave on the 23rd December.

It's all go on the sub-continent this week, with the spotlight also falling onto Sri Lanka, and their impending tour of England at the start of next summer. Sri Lanka 's cricket board, the SLCA, have agreed to step into the shoes left by Zimbabwe 's cancelation of next summer's tour.

However, the series co-insides with next years IPL, and many of Sri Lanka 's touring party, especially the more senior players consisting of Jayawardene, Sangakarra, Murali, Vaas and Fernando, seem to be keener to play in the IPL than visit England for a series.

There are a couple of options to deal with this, now bear in mind the Ashes follows shortly after, so the ECB can't do too much.

One is for Sri Lanka to play five ODI's and no test matches, which seems a bit of a waste of time. The other option is to rework the dates so Sri Lanka play two tests in late May in England (Zimbabwe were meant to play their first test here on the 7th May) and the three ODI's.

I guess it's just a case of “watch this space” at the moment. I'll be sure to keep you posted as soon as I know. Personally I'd prefer England to play at least two tests before they face Australia for the Ashes.

Coming up in August we have a potentially very interesting quadrangular series involving West Indies , Pakistan , Bangladesh and Canada .

In a typical “lock the stable door after the horse has bolted” type statement, the West Indies coach, John Dyson, has urged his players to show a little less aggression in their shots if they want to become more successful. A typical example of this was the second ODI in the West Indies against Australia earlier this month, Australia battled their way to a fighting score of around 240 – and West Indies threw it away trying to blast the ball out of the park and fell short by a good 60 runs. Now we all know that is the West Indian way of playing cricket, and it can be very exciting to watch. But I've felt for a long time that the West Indies do need to rein their aggression in a little bit if they want to be more successful.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni has come under fire in some quarters for pulling out of India 's forthcoming series with Sri Lanka , claiming he needs a break from cricket, and time to put his feet up. Shame he didn't take a break when earning his millions from the IPL……

And to finish, on a slightly lighter note this week, a contender for the best excuse I have ever heard for a player injuring his back. After Ryan Sidebottom gingerly approached the fifth day at Lords, he complained of stiffness in his back. Cue England bowling coach Otis Gibson to his rescue, with this gem:

“ Sid is the one person that suffers most from sleeping in all these different beds around the country”

A good bowling coach he may be, but I certainly won't be calling him if I'm ever up in front of the judge….

Well that's all for this week folks, I hope you've enjoyed reading this weeks musings, be sure to catch my preview for the 2nd Test between England and South Africa before Friday's game at Headingley.

Look after yourselves, be lucky, and I'll see you back here soon

All the Best

Paul.