Hi all. I have been too busy sun tanning and watching some pretty exciting cricket to write up this blog - apologies and hopefully the anticipation hasn't been too much!! I do need to eat my words as I am sure I cursed mother nature in one of my earlier blogs as she threatened to give us another wet Summer, but she has certainly come good this time as we have enjoyed the best Summer for about 6 years and very few rain effected fixtures. Having spoken to a number of clubs this was certainly very important to their junior development program - many felt that another summer like last year would have decimated numbers and left some clubs in trouble.

On the playing front there is a lot to comment on, firstly England has deservedly retained the Ashes; albeit with a little aid from the rain in the last game at Old Trafford. It has been a fascinating and compelling series for a number of reasons and it was a shame that the rain intervened in Manchester as Australia finally put up a fight with the bat and should have won the game, which would have added a bit of spice to the series at 2-1 and left it wide open.

It is very interesting seeing a side going through a transition period - for years Australia have dominated the cricketing world and had a stable team, a stable selection process and a stable coaching and management team and have smirked at other teams; in particular England who had a lot of instability around selection as they searched for a team to provide success.

Now we see a team making a number of changes to their line-up, sacking a coach mid tour and having a number of off field issues getting in the way of on field success - how the mighty have fallen! What it does prove and Scotland should take note - is that sport is very cyclical and countries go through periods of strength and depth followed by dips and that you can never take the eye off the future if you want to make those dips as small as possible.

The other issue that is obvious to see is the impact that 20 and 50 over cricket is having on test cricket. Whilst you can argue that the game has become a lot more exciting as more runs and wickets fall in a day's play than ever before it is noticeable - particularly in the Australian line up that batters do not have the mentality and one would argue skills to bat for a long time. In 6 innings on good wickets and good batting conditions only 1 hundred has been registered by the Aussies and this is a worrying stat for them.

When you look at their first class records you don't see many players apart from Clarke and Rogers who have the ability to convert starts into big hundreds and I think as they play more 20 over cricket this will only become worse. Hopefully Australia though take some form into the 4th Test Match at Durham which starts on Friday and we don't have a dead rubber for the 5th.

Off the field I can't but help think Sky Sports have done a fantastic job with the coverage and adding Andrew Strauss to the team has added a great dynamic as he has given fresh prospectus and probably broken down the barrier a bit between the press and the current England Team. They have added a light-hearted element to their coverage and once they get rid of Bob Willis it will be a fantastic team.

The review system has also added to the spectacle and has maybe taken the limelight at times for the wrong reasons but I firmly believe it's here to stay and that they might be better engaging high level trained video analysts instead of Umpires to do the review job as there have been some strange mistakes made. It has certainly improved dissent levels in Tennis and when used properly is already doing the same in cricket, let's embrace it and train accordingly.

Enough about the English let's focus on Scottish cricket. July proved a great month for the Scottish National team as they registered a clean sweep against the touring Kenyans and gave themselves and the coach a much needed boost. What is interesting and perhaps slightly worrying is the development of 2 distinct teams - the ‘A' team that has all the current county players and the ‘B' team that is what we select for the I Cup and YB40 Series.

Managed properly this could certainly add much needed depth but managed incorrectly you could end up with a team divide particularly as we won't be involved in the YB40 next year and there won't be many opportunities for the ‘B' players to prove themselves at a high enough level. We are sitting 3rd in The I Cup but along way behind the Afghanistan and Ireland teams so I don't think we could force our way into the final but hopefully they can prove me wrong.

In the WCL Championship again we are handily placed in 3rd - whilst I don't think we will get automatic qualification spot I do think we have done enough to get to the pre-qualifying tournament which I think is a fair reflection of where we are at in terms of just behind Ireland and Afghanistan. I do think 2 automatic spots is a short sighted view by the ICC but to be fair they don't fill with me huge amounts of confidence when it comes to decisions for Associate Cricket.

The Scotland Under 19's are currently in Holland attempting to qualify for the U19 World Cup and have made a magnificent start to the tournament by winning 4 out of 4 and setting up a winner takes all tie against our old rivals the Irish. There were a couple of very strange decisions made by The ICC for this tournament - 1stly they have only allocated 1 spot to Europe - given we have 3 teams in the top 4 of Under 19 cricket seems absurd and unfair and by giving UAE an automatic spot as hosts even more absurd, as they are very poor at this level and have never qualified for a tournament at this level.

The other decision the ICC made was around Ruaidhri Smith - now I have never met the kid or know too much about him but he was born in Scotland and played for Scotland in the last world cup yet the ICC deemed that he couldn't play in this Tournament but weirdly if they qualify can again play at the World Cup - work that one out! Given he has recently played for the Saltires and taken 3 wickets against Surrey he certainly would have been an asset.

Moaning over, so let's talk about the clubs stuff. It been a great summer as I mentioned and it seems the winning teams this year will have played the best cricket over an extended period and not be deemed winners by default and percentages. In the East Premier League it really is proving a tight affair with all the teams capable of beating each other on their day. The much matured Arbroath side are top ahead of my prediction Aberdeenshire but I think mathematically both can be caught by the star studded Carlton Side and Grange - so everything to play for in the last 3 weeks.

Division 1 appears however to be a 2 horse race as my own club Glenrothes have unfortunately dropped out of contention in the last couple of weeks with back-to-back defeats. The lads have certainly exceeded my expectations and with a couple more wins can maybe still steal second which would be a fantastic result. My old muckers at Forfarshire made life difficult on my return and put in a very professional performance against us last weekend and the title is almost in the bag for them. The club have certainly made huge strides since I left on and off the field and look well set to compete in the premier league next year.

I copped a bit of stick on a forum for not giving the Western Division much air time in my blogs but if I am totally honest since the East/West split I am not too familiar with what's happening in the West and have to rely on the Cricket Scotland website to keep me updated. Hopefully the West Coast can forgive me for this, what I can report is that Uddingston look well set to take the Premier title and don't seem to be missing the ‘Hoff' too much! East Kilbride look like they will be joining West Premier League next year as they take a 14% lead over Kelburne going into the last 3 weeks.

Till next time fingers crossed the sunshine continues …