The squad has arrived in South Africa

The England squad has arrived in South Africa ahead of their winter tour and the days are now counting down before the first clash on the 13th November and with England taking 2 players that were born in South Africa along with them we could be in for a feisty series with all eyes on how Kevin Pietersen and Jonathan Trott will handle themselves.

The talk has already started with former England Captain Michael Vaughan stating that he saw Jonathan Trott celebrating the South Africans win in their Test Series against England just last year despite the fact that the week before up at Headingley Trott had been the England 12th man, of course this prompted Mr Trott to come out and defend himself by saying that he only said well played to Paul Harris as they were old friends and at no point did he celebrate with the South African players but merely congratulated Paul Harris on his performance as he was leaving England after that game and Trott knew that he wouldn't see him again in a long time.

So with South Africa being the number 1 test side in the world (although they don't want to try to ram that down our throat too much, apart from all the advertisments on sky) and at home it seems that it will be a tough test for England but I believe that they do have a good chance and with odds of 7/2 at some bookmakers (for an England Test Series win) something that i've already put a £10 bet on because England are a good side and I think that we have the talent to go there and do well.

Elsewhere in the world of cricket a good One Day International Series is currently taking place in India between them and Australia and is currently deadlocked 2-2 after the first 4 games (a far cry from a few months ago when Australia were 4-0 up against England). The series has also produced one of the best Batting performances in a long time when Mahendra Singh Dhoni scored a brilliant 124 off just 107 balls as India posted a record total of 354 against Australia in the 3rd game of the series. So with all to play for in the last 3 games of the series i'm very much looking forward to the cricket still to be played in that one.

Finally, news just in that Zimbabwe have been bowled out for just 44 in their game vs Bangladesh and then proceeeded to take 4 wickets themselves before Bangladesh limped over the line to win by 6 wickets. With games of this magnitude going on you have to wonder why there aren't more games for the likes of The Netherlands, Ireland and Scotland who could certainly perform well enough against the likes of Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.