So England begin their one-day series in the West Indies and although unusual this is the modern day schedule with everything going on around the world.

All these leagues you have the Big Bash, the IPL – all these leagues, the franchise league the ICC are having to move around and fit schedules around, arguably where the finances are.

England are now going to play these game and I think we are going to see more and more of these types of things coming up, if for no other reason to make sure the one day game does not die.

To get the best product and the players to be at their peak power and be at their best, ideally you want a longer series, that would be better – if it is only the length of three games like this – then sometimes you are coming home after just getting started, but that is just the modern day game, but I don’t see it being too much of an issue for these lads.

And these series have their benefits, like this one will be ideal for Joe Root for instance. He can get the England shirt on for the first time since being made captain of the Test side, and get all those questions out of the way, but this is a good chance to get some good cricket on ahead of the summer, or for those lads who are heading to the Premier League.

Overall I think this should be a good series, England have a few injuries but I don’t see them being too depleted.

I have enjoyed the selection of young Tom Curran

I have enjoyed the selection of young Tom Curran, it is forward thinking and he has been playing over the winter, I hope they don’t just take him to make the numbers up, I hope they will be playing him and get at least one game under his belt before potentially he plays in the ICC Trophy – England have to think about that and if someone like Curran has a cap – he can be involved, so that will do him the world of good.

I think England will win the series – it is a big series for some of the players, but they are strong enough to win this series against the West Indies – which again depends on which West Indies turns up.

We have known for years gone by if the proper West Indies turns up you are in for a real game, but if they turn up at 70% then England will win. Fingers crossed the real West Indies turns up – if both are on top form and we get a great series but I fully expect England to win the series.

Toon delight

And before I head to Dubai for some work with the PCA, I was delighted to be able to get the chance to catch Newcastle United return to the top of the Championship with the win at Brighton.

It was a bizarre game and I was watching thinking how bad we were, but it just shows you that they are a team who are together and they are a good unit with a decent spirit, and they respect their manager which is huge in football.

The players love him and that is clear to see, they were fortunate – Karl Darlow was excellent and then a little bit of quality from Ayoze Perez saw them through, I think Matt Ritchie and Jonjo Shelvey orchestrated it and although they didn’t deserve to win, you can’t argue with how they did it.