Original spinner!

Before I forget, I must mention that Glamorgan CCC are playing their first game of the winter on Sunday! Football that is - at Spytty Park against Warwick-shire. Should be good fun with Glamorgan under the astute management of Roger Skyrme, our dressing room attendant and a man well known in local football circles.

One man who will not be there, of course, is Robert Croft who has at last received the call up to the England squad for which I have long been clamouring.

It is the correct decision because England will need three front-line spinners for the Tests in Sri Lanka. It is likely that they will play two in each game so there is an obvious need for a back-up. What would happen if one of them fell ill on the morning of a game?

You could not then say "oh well, we'll only play one spinner". You need a third there.

But I hope that Croft is not just there as back-up. As I have said many times before, he is a much better bowler - indeed all round cricketer - than Gareth Batty. And I think his presence and experience will help Ashley Giles who is going through a rough time with his left arm spin. Remember that they performed well together the last time England were in Sri Lanka in 2001.

I think the warm up game before the Test will reveal the selectors' thinking. Croft must surely play in that - and with Giles - in order to ready him for the Tests. If he does not, then he will know that he is in for some serious drinks-ferrying, unless injuries occur.

At least England now know that they are in for a much tougher time in Sri Lanka than the cakewalk they had in Bangladesh. Tuesday's first one-dayer in Dambulla proved that.

That was a humbling experience for England. The pitch may not have been the best but England looked nave and fidgety. I know that hindsight is a wonderful thing but I was genuinely surprised when Michael Vaughan elected to bat upon winning the toss.

I stayed in Dambulla in 1998 when on tour with England A and there was not even a cricket field there then. It has since been donated to the Sri Lankan cricket board by the local monks but ever since it was first played upon (incidentally by England in 2001) the scores have been low there - just as you would expect from a newly-laid pitch. Just think of Chester-Le-Street in its early days and the Rose Bowl in Southampton and of how difficult it was to bat on those pitches.

And allied to all this, we had been told all week of how much rain had been falling and how wet everything was. Surely this all added up to wanting to bowl first? But even Marvan Atapattu, Sri Lanka's new one day captain, said he would have batted too.

I reckon that both their theories must have been based upon two things - first, the assumption that the pitch would deteriorate dramatically and, secondly, a fear that batting under lights (the first time they have been used at this ground) would be hazardous.

Whatever, England will have their work cut out to avoid a repeat of the 3-0 drubbing they received in their last one-day series in Sri Lanka.

And lastly, a mention for those couple of Welsh/ Australians (Maher and Kasprowicz) whom I said had been strangely muted so far during the Rugby World Cup. Well, they woke up last weekend, even if they are still in India. I have never received so many text messages. They obviously began on the Saturday in that game which I said the All Blacks could not lose and then continued with the predictable 'boring' jibes during England's victory.

I had also forgotten that I have a little (well, maybe not so little) bet with each of them, involving both the sides who find themselves in the final.

Despite the fact that I know many Welsh people do not feel the same way, you can be rest assured that both my Lydney upbringing and those bets mean I will be shouting for the team in white come this Saturday.