My favourite cricketer - Graeme Swann

I'd forgotten I'd written this. It was for Test Match Sofa, where they invited everyone to send in 100 words on their favourite cricketer, and why he was their favourite. I went over the 100 words, but it still feels rather short. It doesn't come anywhere near explaining the love for GP Swann.

Graeme Swann first came to my attention as a happy-go-lucky county pro who got on the radio just for being funny. He’d also played once for England, but overslept and missed the team bus. With blonde highlights in his hair and a spring in his step, he was a breath of fresh air when recalled to the England ODI team in 2007, and two wickets in his first over of test cricket also helped. Swann’s off-spin currently rivals anyone in world cricket, and he’s taken crucial wickets at crucial times (including an Ashes winning one). Now rated as the number three bowler in the world, Swanny is my ideal teammate; he’d win the game single-handedly on the pitch before having a great time in the bar afterwards. Which makes him my favourite cricketer in the world.



So now you know why.

SMN: The Short Midwicket in "deliberate overstepping" claims

Esteemed blogger PinkyWill, who blogs and podcasts for the world's foremost cricket site The Short Midwicket, is subject of an ICC investigation after revealing that he "deliberately overstepped the mark" in his earlier blog about Alastair Cook joining Twitter.

In "Alastair Cook joins Twitter, banned from it within 20 minutes", Will swore a surprising four times, especially considering it was the first profanity in the previous 100 blogs posted on the site.

At the time, critics saw it as a simple misjudgement from Will, claiming that he was young and inexperienced, but after a sting operation, Will has admitted that there were ulterior motives for his smut.

Thanks to secret filming from a tabloid newspaper, Will boasted of how he was "paid to overstep the mark" by an unnamed fixer, who was working for an Indian betting ring. "I was the longest running cricket blog who hadn't sworn, and a large book had been made as to when I was going to break my duck. After numerous phonecalls, it was arranged for me to swear on the 4th of August at 19.47".

Asked for his payment for the overstepping, Will replied that he was paid "2 bags of Skittles, a Mars bar, and a voucher for 10% off in Cineworld". However, he denied that his podcast Obviously Matthew Spriegel was another deliberate overstep; claiming that he was "just taking the piss". The investigation continues.

The Shop Midwicket

I have a shop. It's not much of a shop, you can't buy many nice things, but a shop is a shop. You can buy humourous tshirts, babygros or bags.

So go and buy stuff. If you do, it means I can buy a new laptop, and as such do more blogging and podcasting. So it's win win.

Here's a babygro I made earlier.

I've moved!

Due to a reshuffle in the field from the captain, I'm now called The Short Mid Wicket. (Don't worry, I checked, and there's definately nobody called that). Everything will still be the same, my fantastic punditry will not change, nor will my witty repartees. But you'll have to type theshortmidwicket.blogspot.com rather than theshortthirdman.blogspot.com. I'm sure in time, we'll get used to it. I'm used to it already.

Will (the new Short Mid Wicket)