Bumble on players' reluctance to play, his colleagues' musical tastes and a radical re-think for mascots.
Bumble's plea to players and co-commentators
Here's a novel idea... let's just play cricket.
The finish at Edgbaston on Wednesday was just farcical. No other word for it.
And the ones you felt sorry for throughout the whole charade were the spectators. They sat through that all day waiting for some cricket and a result one way or the other and having been there, I can tell you it was bloody awful.
It was freezing cold, raining and yet no-one seemed to give two hoots about the poor paying public.
I know a lot of fingers have been pointed in various directions, but it is down to the players at the end of the day. And sorry to say, they showed no regard for the spectators whatsoever. I'm assuming it was the fielding side that were rucking because they couldn't see, but whoever took the decision to come off it was absolutely, mind-bogglingly, the wrong one.
Don't blame the umpires either. The best in the world is Simon Taufel and he will tell you that they have guidelines to go by and they do not take the players off - it's the players that go off.
When they came off, New Zealand needed seven to win off six balls. Now I'm a gambling man and England could've won that because if they had taken a wicket, the score would've gone up. As soon as I got in the pub I asked two blokes I knew what they would've done and they both said "take the gamble". It's a shame no-one shared that view out in the middle.
That half-hour turnaround rule is complete nonsense as well. As Nigel Long, the third umpire, explained to us, the set of rules are there but they have got to be revisited. Common sense has to prevail and that means good old Rule 43. All it needs is a little tweak to the light rulings - "at the discretion of the umpires". It's that simple, I could do it myself!
It takes 10 minutes to get the teams back out there. The 30-minute rule was put in place for places like Kolkata and Adelaide where it might be 40 degrees and 100 per cent humidity. There, it is bloody hard work for the umpires and they need the respite. It does not apply to Birmingham, when it's freezing cold, lashing down and getting dark.
The bottom line is we are in the entertainment business and I can't help but think we've just shot ourselves in the foot.
We all started the week talking about Kevin Pietersen's switch shot and how great it was for the game, how innovative it was - even Michael Holding had to admit that - and here we are talking about rules and regulations and depriving people of what they want to see... cricket.
Popped hamstring
There was no reverse sweeping, slogging, switch shots for me at the weekend when, I was left contemplating my future in the game following an injury.
There I was out in the deep for Accrington, chasing one to the boundary when my hamstring just popped as if I'd been shot. That could be it for me now folks, I'm afraid, and the blessed weather did not help one little bit.
You'd think after 43 years of cricket and a few more living in this country, I'd be used to it by now, but it really got to me on Wednesday. Although I would never kick the dog (he's too nice for that), I came close to kicking the wife when I got back home, I was that gutted. Thought better of it though.
Tone deaf
The one positive thing the breaks at Edgbaston did was give me and my boss, Paul King, the chance to introduce The Fall into the
Sky Sports commentary box.
Kingy stuck a couple of tracks
