Might as well start this since the England squads have been announced. The big news is that Matt Prior has been dropped from both forms of the game with David Graveney announcing that his keeping needs to improve. And to think this guy gets paid to be so knowledgeable. Tim Ambrose comes in almost out of the blue - James Foster must be sleeping with Graveney's wife or something to be so consistently overlooked.

In other news Andrew Strauss also makes a return to the Test squad, leaving a potentially tricky decision down the road for the selectors in relation to the batting order.

The squads;

England Test squad Michael Vaughan (capt), Tim Ambrose (wk), James Anderson, Ian Bell, Stuart Broad, Paul Collingwood, Alastair Cook, Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, Phil Mustard, Monty Panesar, Kevin Pietersen, Owais Shah, Ryan Sidebottom, Andrew Strauss, Graeme Swann.

England ODI squad Paul Collingwood (capt), Tim Ambrose (wk), James Anderson, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Stuart Broad, Alastair Cook, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Phil Mustard, Kevin Pietersen, Owais Shah, Ryan Sidebottom, Graeme Swann, James Tredwell, Chris Tremlett, Luke Wright.

England Lions squad Michael Yardy (capt), Kabir Ali, Michael Carberry, Steven Davies, Joe Denly, James Hildreth, Ed Joyce, Graham Onions, Monty Panesar, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Alan Richardson, Jonathan Trott.

And the fixtures

Sat 2 12:00 local, 23:00 GMT	Canterbury v England XI Village Green, Christchurch
Sun 3 12:00 local, 23:00 GMT	Canterbury v England XI Village Green, Christchurch
Tue 5 19:00 local, 06:00 GMT	1st T20I - New Zealand v England Eden Park, Auckland
Thu 7 19:00 local, 06:00 GMT	2nd T20I - New Zealand v England AMI Stadium, Christchurch
Sat 9 14:00 local, 01:00 GMT	1st ODI - New Zealand v England Westpac Stadium, Wellington
Tue 12 14:00 local, 01:00 GMT	2nd ODI - New Zealand v England Seddon Park, Hamilton
Fri 15 14:00 local, 01:00 GMT	3rd ODI - New Zealand v England Eden Park, Auckland
Wed 20 11:00 local, 22:00 GMT	4th ODI - New Zealand v England McLean Park, Napier
Sat 23 14:00 local, 01:00 GMT	5th ODI - New Zealand v England AMI Stadium, Christchurch
Mon 25 - Tue 26 12:00 local, 23:00 GMT	Otago v England XI University Oval, Dunedin
Thu 28 - Sat 1 12:00 local, 23:00 GMT	Otago v England XI University Oval, Dunedin
March 2008
Wed 5 - Sun 9 10:30 local, 21:30 GMT	1st Test - New Zealand v England Seddon Park, Hamilton
Thu 13 - Mon 17 10:30 local, 21:30 GMT	2nd Test - New Zealand v England Basin Reserve, Wellington
Sat 22 - Wed 26 10:30 local, 21:30 GMT	3rd Test - New Zealand v England McLean Park, Napier

Surely Ambrose is just the stand in for Mustard?

Ambrose was named in England Lions squads last year, so he hasn't really come from nowhere. Of course, he played under Moores at Sussex...

...the latest news is that Flintoff is supposedly 99% sure to go to India as a batsman. My money is on the 1%.

Duleep Trophy fixtures:

Arrive Jan 24

25 – 28 Jan 3 day practice match at CCI, Mumbai

3^rd Feb – 6^th Feb Duleep Trophy vs Central Zone in Baroda

11^th – 14^th Feb Duleep Trophy vs West Zone in Baroda

19^th – 23^rd Feb Duleep Trophy Finals  in Mumbai (or three One-Day fixtures v opposition tbc)

Edited by -JP- - 04 January 2008 at 4:17pm

Just thought I'd quote this here for 143:

Originally posted by BBC And Ambrose, who was born in Australia, revealed his "pride" at the call-up, saying: "I've lived all my adult life here and it is my home. It's where all my friends are and I haven't actually been to Australia for a few years.

Edited by Max Power - 04 January 2008 at 4:53pm

Ahhh ok, makes more sense.

Originally posted by Max Power Originally posted by 143no Flintoff couldn't be in the top 8 english batsmen could he?  Surley. Its the England Lions (performance squad or presidents XI in other countries), so wont include the top 8 batsman but up and coming players etc.

Correction: the England Lions is the rebranded 'A' side so (hopefully) slightly better than a performance or President's XI.

Good to see Strauss getting the call up.

We'll just have to see...anything could happen. 

Edited by samhache - 05 January 2008 at 3:45am

ed joyce?? He's inconsistent and hopeless to say the least, I'm afraid he never looked comfortable opening the batting at international level.

Mal Loye was worse, he only had one shot.

Haha you got it, then there was Paul Nixon...the most annoying man on the planet.

McMillan's done it. 

In the ODI's NZ should have the wood over England, though the test series is likely to go England's way without the fearless Bond.

McMillan was the first NZ player I saw to use the shot and he used it well, however, he often threw his wicket away with the shot and that's why I've never been a big fan of it. He was a rash player when he was young, trying every shot in the book and had some success with it too!

It's not seven, Sledge, it's five ODIs and two Twenty20s.

At least I hope not, else I'll be doing some frantic reworking of our radio schedule...

NZ will be slightly underdone for the tests one feels. Only two tests against Bangladesh isn't enough to find two decent openers, even though Bell made a convincing century against the struggling nation.