India V England ODI Series

It's almost upon us, friday sees the start of the latest ODI series between in-form India and an England side hoping to build upon the end of season improvement shown against South Africa. India have just regained the Border-Gavaskar trophy with a pretty convincing 2-0 series win over the aussies, whilst this was a test series as opposed to an ODI series - there was no ODI series against the aussies - you have to envisage that the indians will take a lot of self belief and confidence into the forthcoming seven games against the english.

Given home conditions and even taking into account England's brief resurgence under Kevin Pietersen it is hard to see past an Indian win, having said that England could pose the indians some problems - their pace attack seems to have found the right balance - the Indian wickets seem a lot more seamer friendly these days as Ishant Sharma has proved - and if they can continue the strong form from the end of last season and can be backed up by some strong batting there could be a bit more of a contest here than we think.

India best priced @ 1/2 with Totesport

England are best priced @ 7/4 with SportingBet and Stan James


There are free bets available with all of these bookmakers.

Boro look good value to continue hammer woes

Todays value bet seems to be at the riverside, while middlesbrough are anything but a home banker you have to think they're good value to beat a struggling west ham side today.

The hammers have lost four in a row now - although to be fair two of them were man utd and arsenal - and while they are attracting lots of friends with their pleasing on the eye brand of football it's not winning them any points. Losing may be starting to become a familiar habit to them, where as middlesbrough without pulling up any trees or looking like world beaters are accumulating points steadily and look like a team that know what they are supposed to be doing. In Alfonso Alves - i can't see man utd or chelsea raiding boro for him in the transfer window - they have a striker who will score enough goals to keep them in the premier league. For this reason i think middlesbrough look good value today.

With the 11/10 on offer from totepsort yesterday now gone the best price is evens with Betfred.

Home win for boro, evens @ Betfred (Betfred has £50.00 available to bet free with).

What now for Pompey?

Where do pompey go from here, was a shock to get up this morning to see the news that Harry Redknapp has again jumped ship, this time to struggling Spurs. I see in the betting that some of the names being mentioned are Tony Adams (2/1 FAV) and Sam Allardyce alongside previous Fratton Park Director of Football Avram Grant. The chances of Tony Adams going with Redknapp to White Hart Lane look to be very slim for obvious reasons, as for Joe Jordan who knows. Surely the key to Pompey having a successful season (which now is surely midtable stability) must be continuity, meaning sticking with Adams and Jordan if possible and maybe bringing in some experienced help alongside them.

Repknapp meanwhile - knowing all to well the situation with Portsmouth's finances having already admitted that the club were trying to off-load a couple of players in the summer transfer window - will surely be back to test their resolve with a bid for a couple of big name players in the january transfer window. The likes of Diarra and possibly Crouch or Defoe would surely jump at the chance to work with Redknapp again - he seems popular amongst players in general - should the chance arise for them.

Pompey at best have had a stuttering shaky start to the season and could well have done without this at this moment in time, the squad looks small and struggling to cope with the demands of playing Premier League and UEFA cup in what seems like almost back-to-back games and coupled with the propect of losing some of their bigger names in the january transfer window you have to wonder what the future has in store for them.

Right now where i a pompey fan i would gladly take a season of mid-table mediocrity.

Sunderland V Newcastle with Betfree247

The sky live game at 12.45 today is Sunderland V Newcastle and historically these games are hard to call. Sunderland seem to be consolidating themselves as a midtable team under Roy Keane accumilating enough points as they go along to retain premiership survival, where as you don't know what to expect from Newcastle.

Sunderland seem to be a win one lose one mid table team who are usually stronger at home but with Newcastle for the majority of the season they have been totally useless but over past couple of games have shown some fight and signs of improvement, therefore i wouldn't like to call a winner in this game as i believe it will be close and could go either way.

My view is that it will be one of those games that could be 2-1 either way or even 2-2, i definately expect goals in this fixture, therefore my bet free for this game will be for over 2.5 goals.

Over 2.5 goals - Evens with Blue Sq Free Bet

Or over 3.5 goals at 4.1 on Betfair Free Bet

Mature Murray improving every day.

How refreshing to see Andy Murray's great form continuing, could it be an improving attitude and dedication to his game that has caused this second half of seasons excellent run? For me it was great to see that after his thrashing by Roger Federer in last months USA open final that instead of whinging about being tired following his two day exertions against Rafael Nadal in his semi he simply just said "That I've got a lot of improving to do if I want to win one of these tournaments", no excuss making just an honest appraisal of where his game was at and that he was simply outplayed by the better man. A great attitude for which he should be applauded, a recognition that he needed to go and train even harder, i don't remember seeing one newspaper article giving him any credit for this.


Free Tennis bets with Bet365



Again this week in the aftermath of his win in the Madrid Masters during which he beat Federer again, when asked about closing the gap on the top three he distanced himself from them claiming he's not fit to be mentioned in the same breath as them, another sign of the growing maturity and positive attitude that he still has to work even harder to get on in the game. He went on further to say "I'm still a long way behind them," with Murray these days there dosen't seem to be any satisfaction with being the Worlds number four, no thinking about how well he's done to get here, there seems to be a determination to be better and to catch and pass the top three, i can only applaud him for showing this great attitude to bettering himself and look forward to the day he wins a Grand Slam and tops the world rankings. I think it is about time the press gave credit where credits due.

Surprise Surprise Stanford T20 gets go-ahead

Am i only person that is thinking the publicity of the recent court case about the T20 match between the West Indies and England is a hassle that Allen Stanford wanted? Maybe i'm a cynic but there is an old saying that any publicity is good publicity. Is Allen Stanford a multi-billionaire really that naive to try to push out Digicel's name from the match and get away with it or was it all an elaborate scheme to generate yet more publicity for the upcoming fixture and more importantly brand Alan Stanford!

This is the man who landed his helicopter on the nursery ground and then announced to the world that test cricket bored him, it didn't take to long for the truth to emerge that the game is merely a vehicle to promote his own name and brand and to turn him into a world wide brand name. I can't help thinking this is just the latest scheme in the bigger overall plan that he is using cricket for.

Cricket should put the games interest in front of the pound signs in it's eyes, it's all well and good the ECB taking the money to keep the big names happy and away from the IPL, buts whats to stop them doing both further down the line. In my view cricket should be wary of Stanford, as i said above he openly admits to finding test cricket boring and from this assumption i have to believe he dosen't have the best interests of cricket at heart, after all test cricket is the pinicle of the game and shouldn't be allowed to be undermined by anyone no matter how much money they are prepared to throw at it.

Newcastle Madness

Unreal, yet again Kevin Keegan is back as the favourite to be next Newcastle manager with the bookies. No more than a few hours after club owner Mike Ashley confirmed his wish to sell the club Keegans odds have now been trimed to 2/1 with the bookies, he is currently trading at just over 2/1 on betfair. When will the madness that is Newcastle United end? If keegan where to return surely it would signal the end of Dennis Wise and mean the club having to stump up the cash to pay up his contract, there seems to be no end to the wastefulness of premier league clubs these days, money just seems to be easy come easy go. If Keegan does come back the clubs potential new owners might not rate him and might want to bring in a top class manager with a proven track record, this will then mean having to pay out another contract.

The fans have made their point and it appears they have been listened too this time, it seems to me though that Ashley badly underestimated the fans power and the status of Keegan. He brought him back to seek popularity with the supporters and then effectively forced him back out the door, there seems to be no logic behind any of the decisions taken at Newcastle at the moment.

I for one won't be backing anyone in this market as with the recent track record of Newcastle you wouldn't put it past them to make Gordon Brown the next manager and i just don't believe that the market offers any real value.