A league of their own

Bumble blogs on why England can win in the Windies - and why the IPL is getting no interest over here.

Bumble looks at the IPL - and his mother-in-law's garden...

As long as we get no more clouds of hashish over the country, I'll be flying to the West Indies on Sunday for the ICC World Twenty20. There was a plan in place to travel with the England team via Madrid, but hopefully we'll now be able to get on a plane. It just shows how much we take air travel for granted. Suddenly something happens in Iceland and everything goes out of the window. Here was me thinking all that happened in Iceland was fridges and frozen food... Virender Sehwag will be missing from the tournament and Sachin Tendulkar doesn't play Twenty20 cricket, but I'd still put India down as favourites. In my opinion the four best teams are India, Australia, South Africa and England, although New Zealand are dark horses. I won't be having a bet because it's all about who plays well on the day. However, if somebody was to put me in a darkened room and force me to have a punt, I'd have a little twitch on England. I like Eoin Morgan and having played in the IPL I think Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood will know a bit more about the game. We have a bit of firepower, a decent attack, the lads are fit and they field very, very well. You need the potential to take blinding catches and run people out in Twenty20 cricket and England have got all the bases covered. But have they got the belief? I'm not saying England are the best team, but if they've got enough belief they can pull out a performance on the day. Forget tactics. This is about firepower, fielding like demons and bowling with your eyes wide open.

IPL issues

I get a lot of stick on Twitter from people in India, accusing me of not liking the IPL. I would like to make it clear that, viewed in isolation, I love it. The quality of the matches and the quality of the players is very high. But it would appear the competition has been designed solely for India. There's no interest elsewhere. You can scan all the newspapers in England and you won't find a thing about it. From an English perspective, we're more interested in the climax to the football season at this time of year. Somebody asked me on Twitter the other night if I was watching the IPL and I pointed out I was watching a brilliant Champions League match. When you can watch Inter Milan v Barcelona, why on Earth would you want to watch Chennai Chunderers v Delhi Dipsticks? The way it's covered lets it down as well; the cricket seems to get in the way of the adverts. The coverage looks a bit disjointed on ITV because they're always having to go back to the studio for a quick comment every time there's an ad break in India. From a technical point of view, I actually think ITV have done a good job of it. And on top of it all, the IPL is continuously surrounded by controversy, investigation and rumour. They're being investigated by the government and the players are up in arms about security after a bomb went off in Bangalore. Harsha Bhogle, a well-respected commentator and senior Indian figure, has written of the need for 'transparency' from the IPL. I don't know about you, but whenever I hear the word 'transparency' it arouses suspicion. The alarm bells go off straight away. In this country, we'd do things ram-rod straight and I hope the formation of an EPL is still on the table. It would need to be city-based, like football, with teams representing Manchester, Birmingham etc rather than the traditional counties. That would really get the interest going. The ECB have resisted up until now, but I reckon it's the way forward.

The grass is greener...

Once again I have proved that if I'm good at anything, it's getting a lawn in tip-top shape. I successfully Scarified my mother-in-law's grass using my Scarifier. People might ask if I'm available for hire and perhaps at the right price I would be - though you need to pay well for premium service. Some of you may remember that I had a few lawnmower problems a couple of years ago... let me assure you that the Scarifier is chained to the shed. This one's not going anywhere.

Bumble answers your questions...

Send your questions to Bumble by filling in the feedback form below. Or you can mail them in by e-mailing skysportsclub@bskyb.com ON YOUR BIKE
Hi Bumble, as to the bike you want to buy: They say that if you buy a Harley, you should learn to push it before you learn to ride it, because that's what you'll be doing a lot of the time. Look into a reliable one first. David. BUMBLE SAYS: I won't be getting a Harley, they're too big for me. I'm 99% sure I'll get a BMW R800ST, which is much lighter. If I was flush I'd get a Harley as well to pose with, but I'll stick with the BMW for now. I'm looking into getting some nice leathers as well, but I've got to pass my test first. The test's on Friday morning. Wish me luck.