Andrew Symonds defines the role of the opener

Australian man, Andrew Symonds of Australia quoted from the ABC website:

"Looking forward, I suppose there is a little bit of opening there," 31-year-old Symonds said of the openers. "A number of players are there."

We've taken that entirely out of context. It's more fun that way. Trust us.

Chris Gayle hits his third hundred of the tournament

He's going okay, Chris Gayle: Three hundreds in seven innings. He's always had the ability to get an innings off to a flyer, but he's not stopping there at the minute. He and Shivnarine Chanderpaul seem to be making a rather handy opening partnership.

He bowls as well. He must be up there with the best one-day players around. He's taken 126 one-day international wickets at 31.89, which is no small amount. His one-day international batting average is 40.13 with 15 hundreds and he's an opener. That compares favourably with anyone.

Yesterday he hit 133 not out off 135 balls as the West Indies booked their place in the final of the Champions' Trophy. They're an increasingly handy outfit the Windies. They've got a couple of maturing bowlers who are taking the pressure off the batsmen. The West Indies have always had a decent batting line-up. They've just had a tendency to fold under pressure. Less pressure - less folding.

Nicky Boje retires

It's a harsh world where Ashley Giles gets vilified for being a middling spinner who can bat a bit. So how come Nicky Boje was never held in such low esteem. Here's a player who managed to play 43 Tests and averaged virtually the same figure with the ball.

The only possible explanation for Nicky Boje's repeated inclusion in South African Test sides was that they were experimenting to see just how many batsmen they could field before anyone noticed. Because Nicky Boje was a batsman, really, wasn't he? He was probably the best number nine batsman there's ever been.

We've nothing against Nicky Boje per se. We just feel that he's emblematic of South Africa's innate conservatism of selection. Much as Ashley Giles is for England, currently.

Nicky Boje was of course implicated in the Hansie Cronje match-fixing scandal. We wouldn’t be the first to question whether it was physically possible for Nicky Boje to underperform.

Australian Man, Andrew Symonds of Australia gets Test nod

Australia have plumped for Australian man, Andrew Symonds of Australia over Adam Voges for the third Test in Perth that starts tonight, UK time.

Symonds has Test experience of course. Plus, he's more in keeping with Australia's new five bowler strategy, which hasn't actually surfaced so far in this Ashes series.

We say that Australian man, Andrew Symonds of Australia fits in with Australia's five bowler strategy, but only barely. The truth is that he's really just a fill-in bowler. He can take the odd wicket. He's respectable. He's Darren Lehmann standard, really.

He's not Darren Lehmann standard with the bat though. Lehmann's a batting emperor. Symonds would be some sort of high-ranking military man. Influential, but at a much lower echelon.

We've a great deal of time for Symonds as a one-day player. He's a six-hitter of the purest form and the kind of indeterminate bowler who seems to prosper in that form of the game. In Test cricket, we're not so sure.

Having said that, Damien Martyn had been a walking wicket, so he hasn't exactly weakened the Australia team.

Is Daniel Vettori an all-rounder yet?

Not that he scored any runs today, but he did have a good game, taking 4-24, so we're justified in talking about him.

Is Daniel Vettori an all-rounder? He bats at nine and he averages more with the ball than he does with the bat, so most people would say he isn't.

On the other hand, he plays for New Zealand, for whom every player's essentially a number six or seven batsman. Somebody's got to be at nine, but they're not necessarily a tail-ender, like they would be for England, for example.

Daniel Vettori's hit two Test hundreds for one thing. Matthew Hoggard is highly unlikely to ever match this feat. Vettori's been playing a hell of a long time as well considering he's only 27. He made his debut at 18. It's no surprise that he's a better batsman now than then. What's his record over the last few years? On current form could he be an all-rounder?

In his last 30 Test matches, which seems a significant number - particularly for New Zealand who only play about two a year - Daniel Vettori has hit 1,378 runs at 38.27 with two hundreds and nine fifties. In the same period, he's taken 90 wickets at 34.93.

The verdict: All-rounder.

Also, he wears glasses, so he gets extra marks. You get extra marks for glasses and facial hair. This points system once led to Bill Bryson's selection for Yorkshire. Fortunately, a quick-thinking Yorkshire member cited his US nationality just in the nick of time. Americans can play for Yorkshire, but the resultant loss of marks meant he fell below Paul Jarvis in the reckoning and the disaster was averted.

Tip: Adil Rashid, England

We tried to stay measured. We tried to hold back. We tried not to get overenthusiastic. We tried not to make ludicrous pronouncements. We failed.

Adil Rashid will take 300 Test wickets for England. Adil Rashid will hit 3,000 Test runs for England. Adil Rashid is officially one of our heroes, even though he's a decade younger than us and we haven't yet seen him play. He's a leg-spinning all-rounder and he's 18. We don't have the resilience to stand up to that.

Last month Adil Rashid made a splash by being a Yorkshire-born player of Asian origin who played a match for Yorkshire. That really shouldn't be news: A Yorkshireman playing for Yorkshire. It's a very sad fact that this was news. However, he took 6-67 in a match-winning performance against Warwickshire and that really was news.

In the current under-19 international between England and India, Rashid hit 114 batting at six (15 fours, three sixes) and followed that up by taking 8-157. The man/lad/boy's above this standard of cricket. He's the next Andrew Flintoff.

We haven't gone overboard, have we?

King Cricket's other tips.