IT’S hard to understand why some people have been overlooked by the England selectors for so long and how someone just pops up and gets the call.

The selection of Darren Pattinson in the current Test squad has been raising eyebrows all over the country.

Chris Tremlett, Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard and Simon Jones have all been overlooked in favour of the former roofer from Grimsby.

Yet one person who isn’t getting a mention is Kabir Ali. He has bowled consistently well, in fact he has the best strike rate in the country.

He doesn’t get mentioned by any commentators or national newspapers and it is hard to understand why.

Kabby is bowling better than at least 99 per cent of people in country, yet he is not in the mix.

I don’t know enough about this Pattinson guy to comment about his bowling, but it bamboozles me how other bowlers have been overlooked.

Kabir bowled beautifully against Glamorgan, but that is what he does all the time. He is not someone who comes on and just knocks over the tail — he gets good batsmen out.

What he did last Saturday, on a slow, low pitch was as good as you’ll see anywhere.

The game against Glamorgan was a great team effort. We batted well and to get 20 wickets on a good pitch was a magnificent effort.

Kabby was backed up by Imran Arif who could not have asked for a better debut.

It is great news that he has signed a two-year contract and if he keeps bowling like he did last week then we can’t ask for anything more.

Make no mistake, the Bradford League is one of the best in the country. It is a good schooling — they suffer no fools and if you are rubbish they are quick to tell you.

I played in that league for a few years, while former New Road favourites Steve Rhodes, David Leatherdale and Richard Illingworth all came through it too.

Imran has fitted in nicely. He has quickly got the nickname Tigger because he is always skipping about and on his toes.

Today we are at Lord’s and we know that it is going to be a tough match. But we have been playing some good stuff in the Championship and we want to keep the momentum going.

The start of our defence of the Pro40 title didn’t go as planned. It was plain to see that we were a few runs short and we were outplayed by a good Nottinghamshire side.

We know that we have to get better.

There has been a lot of talk about the restructuring of the domestic season over the past week and I’m pleased they have kept the 16 first class fixtures, I think that is imperative to the future of cricket.

Twenty-over cricket is a massive draw card and the most exciting thing about it, taking the money out of it, is young kids can relate to it as they play 20-over cricket.

We are very lucky we have four-day cricket, 50-over and Twenty20. What other sport can give you that?

But as along as we keep spreading the word and the kids still want to play cricket — that is the most important thing.