Andy Bichel: Still the man for a crisis!

[OTW]

Just took a look at the Hampshire scorecard against Gloucestershire... Hamps were at one point reduced to 81/7, and were rescued by a ton from keeper-batsman Nic Pothas... and 138 off 169 from Andy Bichel (batting down at number 9). Not bloody bad. Amazed at his performance - even a year or so after being dropped from the Aussie national side, he's continued performing absolutely brilliantly - was among the top wickettakers in the Pura Cup last season, then signed with Hampshire as a cover for Warne (while in the tests), and is now using some of his rescue abilities to bail them out of a crisis or two. Ah, if only a few of the subcontinental cricketers could take a page or two from his book and a bit of his work ethic...

[Shoaib Akhtar's Fan]

Well no doubt he is one of the most handy players around. He came up with some quite useful performances for Aus while representing them at the int'l level and i guess the Aussies have sorely missed his presence in recent times , especially in the ODI's as they did at the start of the English tour where they struggled agnst the likes of BD.