Sellsy's Sunday Supplement

Congratulations must first go to Ireland who have qualified for the T20 World Cup. Beating Namibia in the knock out stages secured their spot in Sri Lanka later in the year. Ireland went on to beat Afghanistan in the final of the tournament by five wickets. This propelled them to eighth in the T20 world rankings, higher than the likes of Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, who automatically qualified for the World T20 competition. What next for Ireland, Test match status?

Ireland now go into Group B, where they will play against Australia and the West Indies, somehow I think I may be watching those games. Afghanistan, who have also qualified virtue of reaching the final, go into the group which contains India and England, interesting! Incidentally, before the tournament started the Afghans received a good luck message from the Taliban!

Now then, last nights’ bonding session, wow, that was some session. I knew we would be talking absolute rubbish, but I didn’t expect it that early in the evening. The second team skipper reckons that I should be higher up the pecking order for selection, so 42^nd on the list is a lot better than 52^nd I suppose!

It was great to see a lot of people there last night, a nice friendly game of skittles, great curry after and plenty of cider in the bar. Over Stowey’s main sponsors, The Cottage Inn at Keenthorne, done us proud again. It must have been a good night, looking at the amount of cars in the car park this morning.

The name Ricky Ponting has been bounded about the County Ground quite a lot this week, as according to a well known website Somerset are lining up the former Australia captain as their overseas player for the second half of the 2012 season.

Ponting made a big impact during his spell in Taunton in 2004 and has made no secret of his desire to return. He averaged 99 in three Championship matches (with two centuries) and 99.33 in four List A matches (with a century on debut).

What an addition Ponting would make, but does Brian Rose want / need him? As I think we need a bowler for the second part of the season. Anyway, towards the end of the week Ponting’s agent quashed any hopes that he will be playing County Cricket this season at Taunton, when it was announced that Ponting has no plans in playing in England in 2012. So what about 2013 eh?

On the subject of overseas players, a word of caution about Chris Gayle, he is trying to patch up his differences with the West Indian hierarchy wanting to play Test cricket again, and the West Indians tour here in England right on the middle of the domestic T20 season, hmmm.... food for thought!

Somerset had a couple of pre-season friendlies this past week, against Glamorgan and Worcestershire respectively, in a two day 100 over game. Even though Somerset lost the game against Glamorgan (does it really matter), there were tons for Tres and Compo, plus a century for Kies in the game against Worcester. Also Jos had a good knock, unbeaten on 75, with Pete Trego taking wickets it wasn’t a bad week for Somerset.

One noticeable absentee was Lewis Gregory who has been picked for the MCC to take part in the Emirates Airline T20 competition in Dubai, which involves Durham, Surrey, Lancashire and then they will take on the County Champions, Lancashire, in a four day game. Fully deserved, in my opinion, recognition in what a great 2011 he had.

Compo’s Clips are back in force again this week, in the latest episode some free publicity was given to Somerset County Sports and the guys who run the club shop. Now those bats, they look quite tasty, how things have changed over the years with how bats are made, shame I can’t use one. If you haven’t seen any of Compo’s Clips, or you want to have a look at the latest one, well here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/user/SomersetCricket Enjoy.

On the subject of bats, I do still have my first proper cricket bat, none of these plastic ones which we used to use on beach holidays, I still have my Gray-Nicolls GN100 Scoop Extra Special. It is in absolute pristine condition, the middle has hardly got a scratch on it! Just needs a new grip and it will be perfect for a museum I would expect, as it must be nearly 30 years old by now. Oh happy days using that wand when I was a youngster at Over Stowey.

Anyway a busy week of cricket is ahead, starting on Monday, when England play Sri Lanka in the first Test at Galle, Bopara has a side strain, shame. Early start for me on Monday, watch the start of the first Test before I go to work. I wonder if I will spot former Over Stowey cricketer Nik Kosy in the crowd. Lucky him, but having been to Sri Lanka before I know he will love it, we must compare notes when he gets back.

Plus Somerset have a 40 over game against Surrey on the same day, starting at 12 noon – what time do I finish work on Monday? Then they take on the same opposition on Tuesday in a three day game, oh what a week I’m going to have, not even got to next weekend yet!

Right, 10.57 (ish), time for a cider I think. Back scratcher anyone?