I Don't Like Cricket - I Love it (if it is South African)

Jade Dernbach has replaced the injured Ajmal Shahzad in England's World Cup side.

Dernbach is the latest in a list of South African-born cricketers the ECB have had to turn to - a list that goes back way further than the flurry of imports over the last decade.

The more that list grows, the more the question gets asked: are we ruining the essence of English cricket?

The answer is no. Unfortunately it's only those that really know cricket that can be so sure. Because these are the ones that know what the "essence of English cricket" really means: a commitment to English cricket and a commitment to winning. I've made up that definition, but I hope the cricket-savvy would subscribe to it.

I share my name with the South African captain so I'm hardly impartial on this topic. But that matters little when I say I that I welcomed the Pakistan-born Shahzad into the side even though my name is not Shahid Afridi. After all, Shahzad fits the mould of my definiton - he wants to play for England and he wants to win. As will Dernbach.

Only an idiot would turn down foreign-born cricketers - especially when we're using them to beat the country that sent them!

Far from down and out

The few regular readers of this blog will have noticed a trough of late; it's been over a week since the last post and even that was a tame effort. You can put this down to a nervous disposition that gradually took hold not a day after Arsenal beat Barcelona in February - that sort of temperemant makes hands too shaky to type.

If you're struggling to see the link between a memorable win and a month of apprehension, you're reading the wrong blog. Those that can see it know that the worry was warranted - Arsenal were knocked out of Europe on Tuesday night.

The obvious issue to get at here is the Robin Van Persie red card. Naturally I'm saying it was the wrong decision. But I'm saying that for the same reasons that you're hearing everywhere else. As posts become less frequent, you can't waste time parroting.

Instead I'm taking the moral highground. Rather than ruing what might have been I am looking to what could be. In February, I wrote how Arsenal needed to push on following the  Barcelona victory. The same rule applies here, but this time, it carries much more significance.

Less than a fortnight ago, Arsenal were fighting on four fronts. But two weeks on and it's two down - with nothing to show. Granted, that's more than enough to push Arsenal - players and fans alike - over the edge and into misery. But that doesn't mean you have to let it happen. If you do, you start a domino effect that ends in feck all.  

It just so happens that the surviving half of Arsenal's season comprises the two trophies Wenger loves to win. And more importantly, it's the two that he knows how to win. Both rest on match-ups with another familiarity - Alex Ferguson. It is in these circumstances that experience has to count.

But it can only count with the right attitude. So, get hearty. Try to recognise that Birmingham was a blip and Barcelona bad luck - but take both as a boost for bravado. And it needs to be quick: the first test is on Saturday.

If Arsenal fail it, it will make the view of that right attitude all the more blurry; but if they pass, they'll have proven they can see it.

Cameron Corpsing

David Cameron's corpsing episode at PMQs earlier today was hardly a political disaster. That said, Sure Start closure isn't an issue to be giggling about.

Here's Cameron getting it wrong again, this time on gay equality [1:23 onwards].

Perhaps Dave needs to spend more time in interview preparation - and less doing this...

Forgotten

This one will seem lazy, but given the topic, that's fitting...

Having read about Nick Clegg's forgetfulness in the Metro (forced commute read) this morning, I watched the reaction unfold on Twitter. Some of it was just brilliant...

Andrew Neil...
Cameron in Gulf, Clegg on holiday, Hague presiding over "chaotic" FO. Thank god there's not an international crisis...

David Schneider...
Nick Clegg is still on holiday. He was going to fly home yesterday but William Hague was in charge of the arrangements.

Katie Curtis...
So Clegg forgot he was in charge of the country. Next he'll be forgetting he's a Lib Dem - oh wait...

Jesusjtwatbomb
You utter, utter cunt Clegg. #NickClegg

That last one is probably my favourite.

I should have have included an RT prefix to all of these; and I could have linked in the respective Twitter accounts to the above names. But I forgot.

If anything is worth remembering in all of this, it'll be the hip-hop musical based on Clegg's role in the formation of the Coalition.

Let's hope it goes some way to showing what life is really like behind the big black door.