Bumbleblog

[Holysmoke]

I love Sir Allen Stanford. In fact, I think I want to marry him. 'What attracted you to the multi-millionaire Texas businessman?' they'll ask me. Seeing him at Lord's on Wednesday was like seeing Jed Clampett from the Beverly Hillbillies coming over to visit. I loved watching him landing on the pitch in a helicopter and waving - even though there was nobody there to wave at. I half expected them to give him a child to kiss, rather like they do with Premier League footballers. Whenever I see Manchester United or Arsenal or whoever on Sky Sports, they give all the millionaire footballers a child when they walk on the field. I wonder where they put their child for 90 minutes? What do they do with them afterwards? Who's child is it? I know footballers earn a lot of money and have big houses, so they could probably fit children in all over the place, but they get a different one in every game. Where do they leave them all? It's shocking! But instead of a child when Stanford got off the helicopter, Ian Botham was stood there as an ambassador - even though he's never seen a Twenty20 match in his life and flatly refuses to commentate on them! Fantastic Anyway, Stanford has come up with a fantastic idea because money creates interest and no matter what people say, it will improve the game. While 12 million dollars will go to the players, there's a peripheral seven million that goes to the board and can be spent on cricket at all levels. I hope the grass-roots gets a substantial slice. We're struggling to buy cricket balls at my club and I wonder if Mr Stanford would be able buy me a few? Of course it will need careful management, but his money should be used to support all aspects of cricket. There are obvious issues concerning the future of Test cricket and that is where the administrators need to earn their money. The long version of the game is extremely vulnerable at the moment. I know a Test match cricketer who is also an IPL player and he's told me personally that Test match cricket is secondary to him now. Twenty20 cricket is how players earn money now. Vaughany says he now loves Twenty20 and so do I. In fact, that's why I've made my return to the sport! I'm on the comeback trail and I'm playing my second game for Accrington against Burnley this week. I got 15 off 31 balls in my first game, which is perhaps not what the England selectors will be looking for when they pick their Twenty20 squad for the $20m game but I reckon I can improve. I went in the nets this week with Nasser Hussain's bat. Everything started flying off to third man so that the bat clearly knew where Nasser used to hit it! At a canter England have played New Zealand six times now and overall they've won 4-1 at a canter. They wanted to win the home series in style and they beat them comfortably in the end. The six matches have been friendly affairs, but it wasn't as tough as it should have been and I think we will raise our game for South Africa. In fact, I'd love to play the Ashes next week because we'd hammer them. I reckon we are getting closer to matching the ultimate attack that played in 2005 with Flintoff coming back, Simon Jones coming back and Monty Panesar, Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad playing well. In 2007 Australia beat us 5-0 because of two words - Shane Warne. In 2009 the two words will be "Monty" and "Panesar". As we saw in the West Indies, Australia haven't got a spinner and that will be the difference. But one big question needs to be asked - why are we not playing any Ashes Tests at Old Trafford or Trent Bridge? We won comfortably at Old Trafford last month with Panesar taking 6-37 and Michael Vaughan getting 100. Then we went to Trent Bridge where our potent seam attack did all sorts of damage. Anderson took six for spit, Sidebottom had five for spit - so why are we not playing Australia at either of those grounds? Who has made that decision? Michael Vaughan has admitted they're comfortable and happy on both of those pitches, so why have we ensured we're not playing Australia at either of them. I want to know and I want somebody to put their hand up and explain it to me. Did Peter Moores say he'd rather not play there? Not on your Nelly. They haven't asked for his opinion at all. I'm going to do some digging and I want to find out which bright spark came up with that idea. We can talk about New Zealand and South Africa all we like, but let's be honest, we deal in Ashes cricket. Everybody who corresponds with this blog and who follows English cricket has the Ashes at the top of their priority list. We should be doing everything we can to get them back. Twenty20 vision I was at Kent v Sussex for my first Twenty20 Cup match of the season this week and Kent look like the team to beat. I backed Somerset to win the whole thing, but they got beat in their first game and need to pull their socks up. That always seems to happen when I tip somebody. While I was at Canterbury, I met a friend of the girl who set up the Facebook group campaigning for me to become Prime Minister. I had a chat with her on the phone and hopefully we'll get a thread going between this blog and the Facebook group. I was also pleased to hear that they've started writing about me on fansites for my new favourite band, The Fall. I'm planning to go up to the Forresters this week, which is the pub that Mark E Smith goes in. Mind you I'll just be minding my own business if he's there because he hates it if people go up and speak to him. I'll have to go in cognito. Do you have a question for Bumble? Send us your thoughts using the feedback form below and continue to e-mail him your questions here Bumble answers your questions Bumble, I reckon it's about time you had your own chat show. If you could have your own dream line-up of guests then who would you choose? Steve Cotterill BUMBLE REPLIES: What a great idea. I'd maybe invite George W Bush onto the show - but only if it's going out after the watershed - and I'd also like to interview the bloke who nicked my lawnmower. Maybe I could hire a private investigator of great standing to find the lawnmower thief and then I'd get him on my chat show to give him a grilling. We've had no progress in the search and we're coming round to grass-cutting time again. Hopefully, they won't be after my new lawnmower.... I'd also have Tiger Woods on the show so I could ask him why I'm not as good as him and I suppose Mark E Smith would have to come on as well. I've always liked Lulu and I'd love to ask her if she feels the same attraction towards me as I feel towards her! Lisa Stansfield's husband would be a good guest because I met him in a pub the other week and he was a good guy. I'd also have Phil Collins on - but not that one. I've got a mate called Phil Collins, who's a grocer so I'd have him and Mad George, who's the landlord of the Circus Tavern. So that's this week's line-up - make sure you read my next blog for the next fantasy chat show guest list! http://www.skysports.com/experts/expert_story/0,19793,12933_3682276,00.html

[Sachinism]

bumble is a legend

[Colin]

bumble is a legend

+ 1

[SachDan]

bumble is a legend

Bumble's a legend and a half.

[King Tendulkar]

He is a **** as kept waffling throughout last series against inida along with his ferllow **** Atherton how lucky inida had been with toss and big factor in winning. Mentioned this about 10,000 times in the series. Bumble your boys took one hell of a beating, now deal with it!

[flamy]

lol, gotta love Bumble. Listen to his commentary during the Ind-Aus T20 semifinal. "So strong, India were soooooo STRONG!" :icflove: