Cricket's Coaching Carousel Part 2

Thorpster is back and having questioned a few week's back whether cricket coaches now are under intense scrutiny, now looks at the recent sackings of Mickey Arthur of Australia and Chris Adams at Sussex. Is cricket becoming like football, as Michael Vaughan suggested on Twitter recently? Let us know what you think either below or @themiddlestump on Twitter.

Arthur...a victim of the tin tack

T20 Preview

The Friends Life T20 is underway and the good people of The Middle Stump bring you their preview. For the fourth year of their sponsorship, 18 teams battle it out for a place in finals day at Edgbaston in August. This year sees the competition stick with the format of three groups of six (North, South and Midlands) with the top two from each progressing to the quarter finals along with the two best third placed teams. Who will be celebrating come August 17th?

Hampshire win the 2012 Friends Life T20

England cricketers send their best wishes to the Lions

To Walk or not to Walk?

A sunny summer’s afternoon in June and two sides containing good standard Saturday league players, hungover Saturday league players, ex players and even a taxi driver - selected whilst giving the home team skipper a ride home at 4am – are playing in a Sunday league 40over competition.

On a green top, the bowlers are nipping it about and the openers are dropped in the slips no less than five times until a wicket finally falls. This young Middle Stumper is in at first drop...

Village Cricket

Warner XI

Yesterday we ran a competition on Twitter to find out which cricketers you would put in your David Warner XI. The standard of entries was extremely high and we were pissing ourselves laughing as over 300 entries came in, all trying to win a copy of our book Cricket Banter, currently the number one cricket kindle at present on Amazon. Read on and we have some of the best ones here:

Did you spill my pint?

Another warning for Warner

David Warner was sensationally axed from the Aussies one day side after a  fracas in a Birmingham bar on Sunday night, apparently after glancing a blow to the jaw of an unnamed player, but believed to be Joe Root. I'm sure it won't be the only time he nicks an Englishman this summer, but here guest blogger Michael Fisher has a look at the man who problems seem to be mounting up for, both on and off the pitch.

How we love seeing the Australians self-destruct, and what a pleasure it is, for me anyway, seeing David Warner at the heart of it. I have never been a fan of him and have always thought that he, for an international cricketer, was distinctly average..

Warner...not the first man to visit a nightclub looking for a Root

Win a copy of Cricket Banter

Not got a present yet for Father's Day? Fear not, as you can win the ideal gift here by tweeting us your best cricketers you would put in a Drinks XI. Cricket Banter is the number one best selling cricket kindle on Amazon at present and you get your hands on a hard copy of the book by sending us a simple tweet.

We have kicked you off with Will Beer of Sussex. Remember to add the hashtag #cricketbanter and those nice blokes at our publishers The History Press will get a copy to you. The best one wins, the competition closes at 12.00pm tomorrow lunchtime, and we will judge the winning entry. Bring it on...

Things Jimmy Anderson will NEVER do

Show us your Banter

Our book Cricket Banter is hitting some unusual places. Currently number one in cricket kindles in the UK, it is now number one on cricket books at Amazon on a worldwide level. Unusual for a couple of fuckwits like us it has to be said. Here are a few pics of strange places it has turned up. Send us your copy on twitter @themiddlestump or on our Facebook page. We'll print the strangest and wildest ones...

Champions Trophy Preview

Tomorrow sees the start of the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy with India and South Africa kicking us off at Cardiff. Here we give you a straight talking team by team definition of who is who, what is what and we promise not to DEAL in any cheap puns at our good friend Tulisa! There will be no Dutch, Irish, Scots, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh or Afghanistan, just the top eight sides trading it toe to toe (apart from in Martin Guptill’s case). The format will be three group games with the top two reaching the semi finals from each group. With the final at Edgbaston on June 23^rd this will be a top month cricket wise, and there will be no better place to follow the action than here at www.themiddlestump.co.uk