On the cards
Afridi - bitten off more than he can chew?
SkySports pundit David Lloyd blogs on a big day out, ball biting and why he'd like to see red and yellow cards in cricket.
Friday was one of the great days...
A few of us hatched a plan to meet up at the Circus Tavern with the intention of doing a bit of a trip round the city.
Obviously we never left the pub.
Myself, David Knowles from Victim Support, James Quinn (the actor from Early Doors), Jerry, Minty, The Brigadier and the Group Captain all turned up.
I was delighted that we were also joined by Ed Blaney from my favourite band The Fall, who said he fancied a drink - and he certainly did!
Bizarrely, he turned up with four pieces of the flooring from the Hacienda nightclub, which we're going auction to raise money for Victim Support.
They all have letters of authentivication (or whatever the word is) and one of them even has a piece of chewing gum stuck to it. We reckon it probably belongs to Bez (and it'll be full of chemicals if it is...)
A few of us got a taxi back to The Hesketh, by which time we were all a bit shabby. The Brigadier did a runner and is now in Lanzarote and then I headed home. I was very lucky that the Lady of the House was absent for the evening...
Meanwhile, James has invited us all to the Library Theatre in Manchester on Thursday night to see a series of short plays.
John Henshaw (Early Doors, Slumdog Millionaire and the Post Office adverts), Sue Cleaver (Eileen from Coronation Street) and Arthur Bostrom (the policeman from 'Allo 'Allo) will be joining James in this show.
Really looking forward to that!
Not much to talk about in terms of cricket this week, other than that bloke biting the ball.
You may remember Shahid Afridi performing a very passable interpretation of Strictly Come Dancing in the middle of the pitch when England played out in Pakistan a few years ago.
Well now he's started eating the ball... I find it incredible.
His first attempt at an excuse was that he was smelling the ball! Why on earth would you want to do that?
Then he admitted to biting the ball... and I'd love to know why. It's a complete mystery. What are you doing lad?
I do think the cricket authorities pussyfoot around when it comes to banning people. It's not just Afridi, I think if anybody misbehaves they should sort them out.
In this day and age, and especially with the arrival of the review system, I truly believe it's time for football-style red and yellow cards.
The whole ethic of the game of cricket is that the umpire is the man in charge and I don't like the idea of players being stroppy with umpires. I'd love to see umpires able to show players a yellow card for dissent or poor behaviour. Then if they do it again they get sent off.
Just like the football system, you'd get a three-match ban if you got a red card and maybe a one-match ban for accumulating five yellows in a series.
It'd cut dissent out immediately. The cards would hardly ever be used because it'd be the ultimate deterrent. Young cricketers are influenced by what they see on the TV and it's time to start setting them a better example.
I'd love to umpire again. I'd treat the players with respect, I'd even buy them a drink afterwards, but if the captains didn't get hold of their players when they mess around, then I would!