Hughes on a warning

SIMON HUGHES, marmite analyst for Channel Five’s Ashes cricket highlights, is on a warning from the ECB for breaching media protocol.

Hughes, using his C5 pitch-access credentials, filmed pre-match material that was later published on his personal website.

An ECB spokesman said the copyright offences had occurred last season and that former Middlesex and Durham bowler Hughes, who still spends as much time as he can on the pitch, had not transgressed the rules so far this summer.

ENGLAND all-rounder Ben Stokes has had sponsors wanting their name on his bat since hitting the fastest–ever Test hundred at Lord’s against New Zealand. The winner is travel currency exchange Centtrip who are understood to be paying £50,000-a-year for the privilege. The deal, initially for the Ashes series, is expected to become a two-year endorsement. AUSSIE irritant Shane Warne is not the only former Test great to change his appearance. His new Sky pundit colleague Ricky Ponting, has not only had hair replacement treatment but dyed the weave black. Meanwhile Sky are in such thrall to mediocre commentator Warne, who keeps repeating the same points, that he’s allowed to miss the Cardiff Test again due to poker commitments in Las Vegas.

TEST MATCH SPECIAL commentator Henry Blofeld made a gaffe-ridden start to the Ashes — getting the bowler and the score wrong in his first over behind the mic. However Blowers is in the fortunate position of his multi-mistakes still being seen as part of his charm by the Beeb. ENGLAND director of cricket Andrew Strauss’s determination that one-day teams catch up on lost time by tapping into the best knowledge, can be seen in the decision that Dermot Reeve will work with the squad before the Edgbaston ODI. Strauss wanted the squad to experience Reeve’s unorthodox approach to limitedover cricket even though the former England international has been an outcast from English cricket since he lost his role as a Channel 4 pundit after admitting a cocaine addiction.