The summer of cricket starts here. After a quiet series against the West Indies last month, England will begin their Twenty20 World Cup campaign later this evening. At long last the country will see the main shows this summer – the Twenty20 World Cup and the Ashes. The Windies were not even a warm-up act – such a description is all too flattering – after players arrived late because of IPL commitments, captain Chris Gayle drew the dagger into Andrew Strauss and test cricket and England comprehensively won both test and one-day series. Add into the mix poor attendances, an injury to big draw Andrew Flintoff and the scandal surrounding Sir Allen Stanford and English cricket is walking around with a hangover. Relief is at hand though – if England can comfortably beat Holland tonight, and Pakistan on Sunday then who knows what might happen. The best thing about the 20 over form of the game is that it brings teams closer together on a performance level – England are rightly long outsiders to win over the next few weeks, but do not rule it out.