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England lost the One Day Series with New Zealand on Saturday morning in a soggy Christchurch where they were defeated on the Duckworth-Lewis method; I think this actually saved some blushing as we had been clearly out played for most of the day.

England’s total of 242 was only really made respectable by a late flurry from Luke Wright and Dimitri Mascarenhas who scored 47 and 29 respectively, hitting the team’s six sixes in the process. England were then blown away by Brendan McCullum, who no doubt playing with more freedom having gained a lucrative contract to play in the Indian Premier League, smashed England’s bowlers to all parts scoring a fantastic 77 off 43 balls which included six sixes and five fours. The game was beyond England after 15 overs, something that has happened all too often in recent times. Once again our top order looked pedestrian in comparison to how the Kiwi openers came out and dominated England’s bowling.

I for one thought England were odds on to win this series and think it is a pretty big step back to our one day plans. At some stage soon we are going to have to stop saying we are a young side or we are in a transitional period when it is plain from time to time we are not up to the mark.

I know all the lads have been very upset about the way things have gone and hopefully now with Michael Vaughan at the helm again we can re-group and find some form and confidence in time to play good cricket and score a win in these three Test Match Series.

Over in India it has been an incredible week with the auctions taking place for the international and domestic players in the Indian Premier League. M S Dhoni commanded the biggest figure at US$ 1.5 million per year to play for Chennai. The biggest contract to an overseas player went to Andrew Symonds who commanded a figure of US$1.35 million. These figures are going to take some serious looking at from players all around the world, not least the England lads, none of whom have signed as they are on central contracts with England and also England’s international commitments do not allow participation in to the Indian venture. It will be fascinating to see how much change this brings to the international game. Already English counties are feeling the pinch of overseas players wanting to fulfil IPL commitments first before coming out to play county cricket.