A plum amidst a porridge

ENGLAND will face Warwickshire in a three-day warm-up match for the Ashes at Edgbaston next summer.
When the 2009 fixture-list was at last published today, it contained an unexpected jewel for the Bears supporters.
On July 1, 2 and 3, Warwickshire will face Kevin Pietersen's side to supply England with some match practice in the longer format as thoughts turn from the helter-skelter of the Twenty20 World Cup to the serious business of The Ashes.
It is a major coup for the county. Many times, over the years, they have faced England A or, in the traditional curtain-raiser as county champions, MCC. But a match against the full national side is thought to be unprecedented.
"The game is a very welcome addition to our fixtures," said chief executive Colin Povey. "England are keen to get some match preparation in advance of the Ashes and they wanted to play at one of the Test grounds.
"Two or three of those are knocked out of the equation because the game is in the Twenty20 World Cup window so we got the nod.
"As I understand it, it will be a serious, competitive game with England putting out their full side. It will be a great opportunity for the Bears' players and I wouild like to think we will get good crowds in."
That bonus apart, the 2009 itinerary gives Bears supporters plenty of head-scratching fodder. It is more bizarre, unbalanced and spectator-unfriendly than ever.
Much of the reason is Edgbaston' status as a Test ground. When a stadium hosts a showpiece match, no cricket can be played there for, depending on the type of match, between seven and ten days before it. Edgbaston hosts three such occasions - a Test, a one-day international and Twenty20 finals day - next season so that accounts for more than three weeks when the Bears can't play at home. Hence the home champo games falling in clusters separated by some long gaps.
Warwickshire's home season will also finish early - at their own request. All their matches in the last three weeks will be away so that demolition work can begin in earnest at the Pavilion End of Edgbaston.
It is early in the season, though, that the most ridiculous scheduling lies. Warwickshire, who will start their season with a championship visit to Somerset, will play only one-day cricket between May 10 and June 6.
The reshaped Friends Provident Trophy schedule appears to have been drawn up to include maximum travelling.
May 10, Canterbury. May 12, Birmingham. May 14, Taunton. May 16, Edinburgh. May 18, London. May 20, Birmingham. Wonder what Martin O'Neill would make of Aston Villa playing six matches - in Kent, the Midlands, Somerset, Scotland, London and the Midlands again - in ten days!
Everything is set to change for 2010, of course, when the Pro40 will have ceased to exist and the English Premier League might (might, that is) have sprung into life. Certainly the farrago that is the 2009 fixture-list suggests the schedulers have thought 'let's just get through it any way we can'.
The fixtures were a month late coming out this year. It seems the delay was to allow no stone to remain unturned in the quest to inconvenience county cricket followers.