Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all my readers on Line & Length. I hope 2009 is a happy and prosperous year for you, although given the global economic crisis maybe I should just say "good luck".

As ever, I appreciate your continued custom as this blog enters its fourth year and would be grateful to know what you think I'm doing right or wrong, what you would like to see more of or less of, via the comments button or by emailing patrick.kidd@thetimes.co.uk. Try to be polite, though, and a reminder of the policy that no comments will be published if you don't include an email address.

There is some fascinating cricket in prospect this year and with no World Cup or European Championships in football, cricket is given a showcase it rarely gets, with the World Twenty20 and the Ashes being played in England. I hope the standard of play lives up to it. For me, though, the most intriguing series will be Australia's tour to South Africa in February/March and Sri Lanka's tour to India at the end of the year. Both will reveal much about the new world order in the aftermath of Australia's supposed destruction. This could be the most open year for ages.

Here are a few wishes I have for 2009:

1) England to win the Ashes, obviously, but even if they lose I hope that the selectors give them the best chance by selecting a team based on form rather than hope. If Adil Rashid is bowling better than Monty Panesar, play him. If Ian Bell struggles again in the West Indies, there are other options. Don't pick Michael Vaughan unless he is making runs for Yorkshire first.

2) Shivnarine Chanderpaul to continue to be harder to shift than a sackload of Zimbabwean dollars. Chanderpaul's achievement of averaging 101 in 2008, coming on the back of an average of 111 in 2007, is surely one of the great unacknowledged feats. He is single-handedly keeping West Indies in Test matches and England should not over-estimate their chances. Chanderpaul gets extra marks in my estimation for that unorthodox batting stance.

3) I'd like to see the next generation of spin bowlers step forward and stake their claim as the heirs to Murali and Warne this year. Ajantha Mendis, Amit Mishra, Piyush Chawla, Sulieman Benn, maybe even Jason Krejza: your time has come.

4) Afghanistan to continue their development. Having progressed from the ICC World Cricket League Division 5 and Division 4 this year, they will compete in Division 3 at the end of this month and by April could be playing against the likes of Kenya, Scotland and Ireland for a place at the next World Cup. What a fairytale it would be if they could go the whole way.

5) Essex to be more than just a good one-day and Twenty20 side, even if that is where the money is. Time for a proper challenge for promotion in the County Championship. Get Goochie to grow back his moustache, too.

6) The IPL franchises - or even the players - to donate a proportion of their profits this year to the victims of the Mumbai terrorist atrocities and a rebuilding of the city. Ideally, I would like to see an all-star Twenty20 match played in Mumbai and citizens given free tickets as a symbol of cricket's solidarity with the state. I'd also like India to offer an olive branch to Pakistan by agreeing to play their postponed Test series later in the year. I'm a hopeless idealist, but I think cricket should be above politics.

7) Given my own lamentably poor ability at playing cricket, last year was almost a golden summer. In batting, I had a highest score of 26 (run out, exhausted), which gave me a batting average of 10 and I returned career-best bowling figures of three for nine in four overs in my annual charity match (would have been four for nine, but we have a rule that you can't be out first ball). Here's to my continued moderate success in 2009!

8) And finally, if you excuse the first of several gratuitous plugs, that some people think it is worth buying this book when it is released in May and that most of them enjoy it.

Comments

[Innocent Abroad]

And wish number 9...

England's tail to be world-class. In the seven completed innings (so far) in the current Australia-South Africa the last four wickets have added on average 150 runs. In their last seven completed innings England's last four wickets have averaged 80 runs. Not quite a "six out, all out" side, but clearly not up to the mark, either.

[Som]

Happy New Year. May your wishes comes true and "Best of Enemies" flies off the shelves faster than a Sehwag ton. Happy blogging.

[Brian Carpenter]

Happy New Year, Patrick. Glad to see someone agrees with me re Gooch. If ever someone doesn't look right without a moustache it's him.

2 and 6 are good calls too. I've always loved Chanderpaul's combination of unorthodoxy and class, and just where would the Windies be without him?

[The Jacket]

"Time for a proper challenge for promotion in the County Championship." Yes

"Get Goochie to grow back his moustace, too." No