Blame Game

Monty is doing his best to set the record straight about his move from Northants to Sussex.

That's fair enough - you never want to burn too many bridges and leave any employer under a cloud.

One thing that doesn't ever get raised though - apart from on 'scratched record' sites like this one and by Duncan Fletcher, is how on earth Monty managed to reach the England set up without being able to field. You can blame Monty himself for that, but I'd suggest that Northants are equally culpable.

When I first started this blog, back in August 2006, I seriously thought of Monty as being the linchpin of the England attack for years to come. He seemed to have the potential to become the English Anil Kumble - able to bowl long spells, tie up an end for long spells giving the quicker bowlers the chance to work in bursts at the other end, and just generally provide an invaluable level of control - whatever the conditions.

The failure of that to come to pass could probably easily be blamed on my over-inflated sense of wishful thinking, but more knowledgeable cricket commentators than me were having similar thoughts, you do wonder where it all went wrong.

If the move to Sussex, and first division championship cricket, puts Panesar back on track, than it has to be seen as a good thing.