Team spirit key to our latest success

It really was a top win for us over Northamptonshire in the PPP Healthcare County Championship division two.

We bowled very well on the first day, particularly Ricky Anderson who starred again and got career-best figures.

Obviously it's disappointing he has now broken his toe and will be out for three weeks, especially during what is a busy time for us.

We had a steady first innings and managed to get a good lead and then we stuck to our task despite them getting off to a good start in their second innings.

We were disappointed not to get more than 300 in our first innings and then when Northants got off to a good start in their second innings, a few of the members were getting a bit edgy.

But our team spirit is really high at the moment and the guys are really confident, and we never doubted we would win the match.

I managed to grab a couple of important top of the order wickets which was pleasing - I'm very happy with my own personal form at the moment.

And I'm really chuffed for Darren Robinson - the team's newest father has forced his way back into the team and his performance certainly merited his inclusion, scoring a vitally important 93 not out in the second innings.

Let's hope he can go from strength to strength now and start making some really big scores.

I felt that, overall, we outplayed Northamptonshire over the four days and it was a top all-round performance from us - we thoroughly deserved our win.

Nass will do better against the Windies

My mate Nasser Hussain has not been having the best of times with the bat for England against Zimbabwe but I'm backing him all the way to start making runs again against the West Indies.

Nass has not really had a start and has only had four or five innings this season, which is not a lot for him - hence his inclusion in the Essex team to play Gloucestershire this week.

It's disappointing for him but he is a class player, a world class player, and I know he will come good.

I think there's extra pressure on you when you are captain, you have got a lot of weight on your shoulders but you have to live for the decisions you make, the wickets you take and the runs you make.

I have been very happy with my start to the season - my first as captain - and I'm almost in the best form of my career, so the captaincy has certainly upped my game.

England will be disappointed with the way they batted in the second innings against Zimbabwe.

We won the series at the end of the day but Zimbabwe finished off strongly.

It's all about technique but I think with the West Indies we will really see how the England lads can perform when the gas is turned up.

I think we will do well - we've got to take the positive points from the Zimbabwe matches and not the negatives.

Later batsmen let it slip

The loss to Durham in the Norwich Union National League division two was disappointing but I thought we bowled and fielded superbly well and 183 was quite a gettable score.

At one stage we needed just four runs an over and we should have cruised the game but the middle and late order didn't produce the goods.

We need to improve at one-day cricket late in the order and one of the top-order batsmen needs to get a big score.

At the moment our bowling and fielding are exceptional but our batting is letting us down.

We will be working as hard as we can on it - as captain there's not a lot you can do about players' technique but Keith Fletcher, Geoff Arnold and John Childs work very hard with the batsmen to get them in the groove so they are well prepared.

Glory for England

Maybe I'm letting my heart rule my head here but I'm backing England to go all the way in Euro 2000.

Manchester United were champions of Europe last year and our teams did quite well this year, so I believe we can do the business.

We won't be favourites but as an outside bet I think they can do it and I will be backing them.

We've got the second best player in the world in David Beckham and guys like Steve McManaman are doing really well at the moment - he was awesome for Real Madrid in the Champions League final.

Kevin Keegan has been there and done it and all the players play for him.

I also like the look of Spain and the Dutch.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.