To cap it all...

Bumble gets to the bottom of his cap mystery and looks forward to a bright future for England.

Bumble on caps, cancellations and costs

I've had a quieter week than expected after Wednesday's Twenty20 International at the Riverside was cancelled. It's unfortunate when a game is called off, but I want to know why there hasn't been much of an effort to rearrange the match for another date. It's a shame for all of the people who bought tickets. Obviously they'll be reimbursed, but that's not the point. People wanted to see a game of cricket and there doesn't seem to have been much urgency to find another date. They obviously couldn't play on Thursday or Friday because of the one-day international, but I'm certain there were other days when it could be played - the following Sunday for example. It's also a shame for the players as it was due to be the last Twenty20 match before the Stanford game. Anybody that wants to get into that Stanford team needs to be playing Twenty20 cricket, so I'd like to see some of the stars of the Twenty20 Cup called up. But from what I've heard, they'll stick with the same old tried and tested failures - the normal faces that keep losing.

A roof over my head

So much for my great idea to stay in a pub instead of a hotel last week. The place we stayed in was very nice, but there was one fundamental problem - it didn't sell beer. It turned out we weren't staying in a pub after all, it was more like a restaurant with rooms. The food was terrific and the people were very nice, but when we wanted a pint we had to go across the road to the nearest pub (which was unfortunately called The Cock). In all seriousness though, myself, Bob Willis and Paul Allott had a very nice few days in Roade, a village just outside Northampton, while we were working on the U19 international. If you'd listened to one of my audio blogs last week you'd have heard me tell you I was off to see England's U19s against India, so I was very confused when I arrived at the ground to find out we were actually playing New Zealand! But despite that mix-up, I'd say it was one of the best England U19 teams that I've seen. There were two really good opening bowlers called James Harris and Ian Saxelby, who was bowling at 86mph. The captain Tom Westley did well, there was an excellent batsman called Liam Dawson and I saw the best wicket keeper I've seen all year in Ben Brown. He plays for Sussex and he looks the part; I'm quite excited about him. We looked a very strong and competitive fielding side, which has traditionally been a poor area in my dealings with the Under 19's. The coaches and the support staff are clearly doing a very good job because they looked exceptional.

Following Pietersen's Leeds

I'll be at Headingley for the first ODI and it'll be very interesting to see what Kevin Pietersen's team is. This will definitely be Kevin's team and having won a Test match as captain, I want to see how he leads the team into one-day cricket. I'm hoping he'll say "up and at them, let's play some shots". My opinion is that they have been playing 'what if' cricket when they should be playing 'no fear' cricket. Pietersen has always approached the game with the right attitude so hopefully the others will follow his lead. One thing has baffled me though. Owais Shah opened the batting in the Lions game against South Africa so I'd assumed he'd be opening at Headlingley. It seems that's not the case and Matt Prior will move back up the order again. It seems quite silly to be swapping the positions around - why not play them where they're going to play on Friday?

Showing some support

Last week I told you how I was gutted to miss out on the internet auction to buy Mark E Smith's Mojo award. Well, I haven't managed to get my hands on it but a fellow Fall fan did give me a picture of Mark E Smith with the award, which I carried around Manchester with me all day on Wednesday. I've been e-mailing this fellow through the Fall's website and it turns out he works for Victim Support in Manchester, so I have given him a miniature bat signed by Andrew Flintoff, which will be auctioned off to the raise money for that very good charity. Andrew doesn't know he's been helping them out, but I'll tell him when I see him at Headingley...

Bumble answers your questions...

Send your questions to Bumble by filling in the feedback form below. Or you can mail them in by clicking HERE A CAPPY ENDING
I hope you cap is returned, you deserve it. Send Beefy in to collect it !! Terry Stewart. We should start a petition for you to get your cap back. Sam B Your cap was in a local pound store but it was given back to the council, nobody knew what it was! I am surprised at you, fancy trusting Accy council with anything -just look at the town. All the best, Sammy (Dave Salmon)
BUMBLE SAYS: How do Sammy? It's great to hear from you. What on earth are you doing on a computer? As it turns out, this story was a real damp squib because they didn't have my England cap after all; it was just a Lancashire cap! The council rang me up and admitted they don't know much about cricket and that the cap they'd found has a red rose on it. I thought it was a little bit odd when they'd rung me the previous week to say they'd found my England cap in a cupboard - I didn't think I'd have given my England cap away. But all's well that end's well and hopefully I'll get the Lancashire cap back off the council, who have been very nice about the whole thing. I still don't know where my England cap is, it must be in a drawer somewhere... Hiya Bumble, to see five days of an Ashes Test next summer is going to cost £375 at Edgbaston. Do you think this is a fair price for us supporters to be paying, on top of travelling/accommodation /food/drink etc? Many of us are being priced out of attending. Wayne Bentley
BUMBLE SAYS: I think the prices are ridiculous because it's exactly the same product as we've seen this year. We've made reference to this during commentary and Sir Ian has been particularly vocal about it. They've obviously realised that the grounds are going to be full, but I'm worried things are getting more and more corporate and the true supporter might be priced out. It cost £33 to go to Old Trafford this year, which was reasonable compared to the £65 they charge at Lord's. But then Lancashire were penalised by the ECB because the revenue was down on other grounds and that's partly why the game has been taken away from Old Trafford. I'll be interested to see how much the tickets will be for Cardiff, where the capacity is only 15,000. But the bottom line is it's a hell of a lot of money for somebody who wants to take three kids to an Ashes Test. Send your questions to Bumble by filling in the feedback form below. Or you can mail them in by clicking HERE