Right, enough of slagging off "experts" and back to betting. 2 more outrights. I was going to do a few more, I like Prior for top keeper but I've read he's thinking of giving the gloves up. Whilst that's clearly a good idea as he can't catch a cold internationally he's not bad at this level so that's a few points we might not get so I'll leave that. Was going to back Shah and Dippenaar ew to top score in Division 2 but Shah will miss games when the 1 dayers are on and could still get a test call up while Dippenaar misses this 1st match and if he starts to fill his boots and Ashwell Prince for example starts off badly over here then Dippy may still get called into that SA squad as he's over here already.
2 more to add to those I've already given though.
2pts ew M.Di Venuto Top Division 1 Season Runscorer 7/1 Ladbrokes (1/5 1,2,3) Ladbrokes only have a select group of players which count towards this bet. They are: Mark Ramprakash, Marcus Trescothick, Di Venuto, Robert Key, Murray Goodwin, Stuart Law, John Crawley, Jacques Rudolph and Mark Wagh.
Michael Di Venuto is a top class batsman and he's here on an Italian passport so he can't play for Australia even if they want him too. He was going great guns with the bat last season before a broken hand ended his season prematurely. Di Venuto has always scored runs over here though, even in a pisspoor Derby side he still collected a sack load of runs and now he's back to full fitness I expect him to do so again this season. He's a solid opener and I always like openers when I do long term top batsmen because they are guaranteed innings all the time and with
Ladbrokes paying 1st 3 in this 9 runner field, di Venuto looks an ew bet to nothing.
2pts ew J.Lawson Top Division 2 Season Wicket-taker 7/1 Ladbrokes (1/5 1,2,3) Ladbrokes have a select group of bowlers for this bet too so only these players count in this market: Danish Kaneria, Kabir Ali, Tom Lungley, Lawson, Jon Lewis, Johann Louw, Robert Croft, Alan Richadson and James Anyon.
Jermaine Lawson has plenty of international experience, he's played 13 tests and 13 ODI's and has 51 test wickets and 17 ODI wickets to his name. His test best was a 7/78 against Australia and he also took a test match hat trick against them too. Believe me this guy can bowl and he could well turn out to be the best signing of the summer. He's up against a pretty select choice here but the market leader, Danish Kaneria doesn't arrive for a month so he's playing catch up immediately while Richardson and Anyon, as I write are both injured so it's fair to say this is a 6 runner field in which
Ladbrokes pay top 3 ew. Lawson is 26 now so he should be in his prime and he's another who looks an ew bet to nothing here with Croft, Louw and Lungley possibly flattering to deceive.