England's heroes return to home soil
Just 10 days after the team and return to Test action this Thursday with the opening match of the summer at Lord's.
Bangladesh are England's first opponents and they'll be hoping to provide the same stubborn resistance they displayed during It's good news for the series that their exciting "wunderkind" Tamim Iqbal looks like he is going to and open the batting at Lord's even though he's been struggling with a wrist injury.
Meanwhile, their talented captain Shakib Al Hasan will lead his team out despite I suspect few of his team-mates will be volunteering to join him in a pre-match huddle.
Captain Andrew Strauss rejoins England after missing the World Twenty20. Picture: AP
The only thing catching in the England side is confidence. It may be a different form of the game and some of the personnel on Thursday were not on duty in Barbados last week, but when I attended on Monday evening you got a real sense of buoyancy among Team England.
The winner, , turned his acceptance speech into a one-man comedy routine, taking the mickey out of the evening's host - especially for never picking him when he was captain.
Swann and the rest of the winning Twenty20 squad had and had apparently burst into laughter when Prime Minister made a slip of the tongue in congratulating England captain Colin.
Having attended a reception in Bangladesh a few months ago, when was introduced as Mr HUGE Morris, I have a pretty good idea of what a group of England players look like when they burst into laughter at an inappropriate time.
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Paul Collingwood and England's World Twenty20 winners visit Downing Street
Paul "Colly" Collingwood was, of course, not the slightest bit offended at I'm not sure he has stopped smiling since lifting that trophy at the Kensington Oval, although he won't be in action at Lord's this week after Stuart Broad joins him on the sidelines for the first couple of games of the summer.
No rest for - he'll be on duty at Lord's leading the TMS commentary team as normal. He'll be joined by Simon Mann, who was with us in Bangladesh in February/March and by the president-elect Christopher Martin-Jenkins.
We were all thrilled to hear and I have no doubt he will do a splendid job in his year in office. Although when I saw the present incumbent, , on Monday night I did ask if he really knew what he was letting the MCC in for. I warned John that CMJ would clearly be late for most official functions, with the reasonable chance he'd turn up for duty at rather than Lord's!
Our expert summarisers for the Test are Phil Tufnell, fresh from his lycra-wearing exploits on Strictly Come Dancing, Geoff Boycott, who I would pay to see wear lycra (at least I think I would), and England's most successful captain Michael Vaughan, who returns from his paternity leave after becoming a father for the third time just before England's triumph on Sunday.
Stephen Frears is heading from the Cannes Film Festival to the TMS box. Picture: AFP
As well as ball-by-ball commentary, we'll also have plenty more to enjoy during our coverage from Lord's. Our first "View from the Boundary" of the summer will be the acclaimed film and television director Frears directed the Oscar-nominated The Queen, starring Dame Helen Mirren, as well as a string of other successful films, including My Beautiful Laundrette, Dangerous Liaisons and The Grifters.
Whilst England were taming the world out in the Caribbean, there has been and we'll be assessing the state of affairs during Thursday's lunch interval. We'll try to get to the bottom of what exactly is going on with parallel IPLs, conference systems and franchises. We'll hear from county chairman, officials and from players. But as always we want to hear from you. Leave your thoughts on this blog or e-mail tms@bbc.co.uk.
With the and a we'll be looking at the potential for cricket in America and celebrating five years of , asking what has been achieved over that time to improve the standard of cricket played in state schools in the United Kingdom.
As always, Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Radio 5 live will have regular updates every 15 minutes with Pat Murphy and England's most capped cricketer Alec Stewart, plus 5 live Sport on Wednesday night has a special cricket preview show with guests, including former England coach Peter Moores, Angus Fraser, analyst Simon Hughes and Bangladesh coach Jamie Siddons.
The Test Match Special podcast with Aggers and Geoff Boycott will be available after each day of Test cricket - look out at for details of that plus from behind the scenes at TMS, blogs and of course the Test Match Special text commentary. Plus,
Hello I'm Adam Mountford and I'm the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Radio Cricket producer. My main
responsibility is to produce Test Match Special but I also look after our cricket coverage on other Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú outlets. My blog attempts to give you a flavour of life behind the scenes of the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Cricket team. .
Comment number 1.
At 26th May 2010, DrCajetanCoelho wrote:It's always a joy to listen to Jonathan Agnew and Team TMS.
Best wishes to the cricketers of England and Bangladesh.
Dr. Cajetan Coelho
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Comment number 2.
At 26th May 2010, thereversesweep wrote:It'll be interesting to see how England fare over the summer hors d'oeuvre before the main course of the Ashes.
For us there are still things to ponder for Messrs Flower and Strauss ahead of the Ashes: England's questions to answer before Ashes test
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Comment number 3.
At 26th May 2010, Pam wrote:Looking forward immensely to the cricket - a great commentary team and I hope, Adam, that Vic and Henry will be back for the later Tests? Henry and Tuffers were an inspired pairing last summer!
Aggers, TMS and Test cricket in England (not least for the GMT times)- perfect!
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Comment number 4.
At 26th May 2010, saintlymark wrote:Of course Aggers had his rest when the team where in Bangladesh (not that I begrudge him his restat all! Just saying!!) Should be a good summer, for those of us using the footy World Cup as a respite from the cricket and not the other way around, and starting with a strong TMS line up as well!
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Comment number 5.
At 26th May 2010, David Shield wrote:Can't wait for tomorrow - the first day of summer is alwasy the first day of the Lords test on TMS!
Can you give us a bit more details for coverage over the season Adam? Which other voices will we hear? I hope Graham Gooch and Angus Fraser will still play a part (I've seen in the Radio Times that Henry and Vic are part of the team for the second test).
And will you be doing any commentary on the Pakistan vs Australia test series? I hope so and that Geoff Lawson will be involved, he is a top summeirser and ideal having a foot in both camps.
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