Mervyn Westfield, the former Essex bowler, is due to be sentenced this week after being prosecuted for spot-fixing. Last month, 23 year old Westfield pleaded guilty to receiving £6,000 per bowl to make sure that the correct amount of runs were scored over the first half of an Essex and Durham match that took place in September of 2009. He was originally supposed to be sentenced last week but got a one week reprieve after administrative matters forced it to be delayed.

On January 12^th of this year, he admitted to obtaining a corrupt payment in order to bowl in a certain manner so that the betting run numbers would be spot on. Also on file was a charge that he assisted another person with the intent of committing gambling fraud.

After he was prosecuted, the England and Wales Cricket Board opened their own window of investigation, asking all officials and players to come forward if they had any information about other betting corruption scams within the league. Temporary amnesty was employed so that players could approach the board without punishment, as reporting alleged corruption is usually against the regulations of the ECB.

It seems that he is a quick learner though because he has very quickly adapted his play to suit the one-day style. Many commentators of the sport have said that they have rarely seen a player learn how to change their style so quickly

Mr Cook seems to be able to rise to any challenge that he faces and nothing seems too much of a problem for him. He is capable of putting past performances that have not gone so well behind him and he does not worry about performances in the past and only learns from them so he can improve his game.

His career is consistently expanding and while he is no Virender Sehwag, he is capable of getting through over 50 overs, even when in subcontinental conditions. The England team still looks as if it is going to be vulnerable to spin but if they managed to deflect these attacks they should be able to get a competitive score.

The bowlers will take a large amount of responsibility for this to ensure that the opposition don’t score too many runs. Many people are going to be watching Cook’s performance in the near future.

Team Pakistan is celebrating and Team England is regrouping for the remainder of the series. This is the first time Pakistan has made a clean sweep over England in a 3 match test, though they have done it to Australia, New Zealand, West Indies and Bangladesh.  They lost the last two series to England, in 2006 and 2010, and there has been lots of “So who’s the greatest now?” chants from Pakistan fans.

In this last match of the series it looked like England had a chance to make up for a disappointing show and team captain Graeme Swann said, after the second defeat, that he thought the England batsmen would rise to the occasion and mow down the opposition after all.  He told reporters that it was partly a matter of not feeling sorry for themselves and never slacking off, that it would be a great challenge but doable.

The miracle didn’t happen for England; Pakistan made a tremendous effort and reaped the rewards. Ironically, the last time a team won a match after posting less than 100 in the first innings was in 1907 at Leeds, when England beat South Africa by 53 runs. In more recent years, England has had some humiliating losses in test series with Australia, West Indies and India, but prior to the Pakistan debacle they won six successive Test series between 2009-10 and 2011.

In this Test series, England recorded its second lowest batting average in a series of three or more tests – 19.06.  The lowest was in the three-Test series 1988 against Australia, when they recorded an average of 15.10.  This is also the eighth time in a three-Test series than not a single English player recorded 100.

All this means, according to the players, is that Pakistan is producing some really fine cricketers, and England will just have to gear up and knuckle down, so to speak. Certainly, the win has brought on a wave of enthusiasm from Pakistani players and fans alike, so England fans, you need to get out there and show your support.  As Swann noted, it’s harder playing to an almost-empty fan section, which was the case in Dubai.

Vaughaninsisted that the team should be given one more chance againstPakistan, seeing as there is nothing to lose, knowing that this is their last chance to impress before the upcoming tour ofSri Lankain March.

He added that the batsmen were undoubtedly to blame for the latest humiliation defeat, afterEngland’s bowlers had managed to get the team into a position where victory looked a certainty. However, both top and middle order batsmen failed woefully to deal withPakistan’s spin trip of  Abdur Rahman, Saeed Ajmal and Mohammad Hafeez, with only Alistair Cook and Jonathan Trott able to hold their heads up high, according to the ex-skipper.

Vaughanpicked out Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen as having had a particular poor series so far, though he stopped short of calling for the duo to be dropped as other commentators have done in recent days. Even captain Andrew Strauss has been under-fire for his performances at the crease, butVaughandefended the current skipper, saying that calls for him to step down as captain are premature and all the Middlesex man needs is a boost to his confidence.

The reaction to the recent results in Abu Dhabi couldn’t have been more different in Pakistan, with their former captain Shoab Malik expressing his delight that so much work had been done on the pitch to make the venue as much of a “home” game as possible for the team. Pakistan have bean unable to play home fixtures in their own country since the terrorist attack which saw the Sri Lanka team coach attacked by gunmen, but have started to feel more comfortable in the United Arab Emirates in recent fixtures.

Malik may have put a large part of the recent impressive victory down to the preparation of the pitch, but for another ex-captain it was all thanks to the confidence that current skipper Misbah ul-Haq and the Pakistan Cricket Board have managed to instil in the team.  Moin Khan added thatPakistancricket has been working hard to create a positive atmosphere in the wake of the terrorist attacks and match-fixing allegations, and that now seems to be paying dividends.

Meanwhile,Vaughanis hoping that the third Test, which starts later this week, will be an opportunity for some of the strugglingEnglandteam to play without any pressure and to rediscover their form ahead of the move toSri Lanka. Otherwise he fears that some big names in English cricket may not be making it onto the plane and the number one Test status could easily become a thing of the past.

The shake-up is coming after the cricket team failed to perform in South Africa where they lost the one-day international series and the Test series. The government of Sri Lanka ordered that there be a review into the state of the country’s cricket after the significant losses. The Minister for sport stated, “This is a crisis for cricket in Sri Lanka and I want an investigation to take place in order to see how we can make things better.”

Sri Lanka’s government has been regularly accused of meddling in cricket and there are often accusations of interference with elections in the sport. In last year’s World Cup Sri Lanka did manage to reach the final against India but since July of the previous year they have not been able to win regularly and have only had one single Test match victory.

Andrew Strauss played a real captain’s innings, leading from the front and setting what should have been a fine example for the batsmen who followed, posting a comfortable 78 before he was caught off the fine bowling of Majid Haq. Strauss was the second wicket of the day to fall after Alastair Cook was dismissed in the 12^th over, also by Scotsman Haq.

The dismissal of Strauss should have been the catalyst for the rest of England’s batting line-up to get in some much-needed batting practice ahead of the upcoming test matches with Pakistan, also to be held in the United Arab Emirates because of security concerns. Unfortunately for the likes of Kevin Pietersen and Eoin Morgan, the ICC Combined XI’s bowling line-up were in no mood to go easy on them.

Pietersen lasted only one ball before he was caught by Dockrell off the bowling of Boyd Rankin while Morgan fared little better; ironically he too was dismissed by fellow Irishman Rankin. In between, Jonathan Trott and Ian Bell had managed to steady the ship and add some vital runs to the England total.

Bell in particular will have reason to be disappointed with the manner of his dismissal, deflecting his own shot into the hands of Nabi in the slips and leaving England somewhat stranded on 199-6, still over 50 runs short of their target.

Luckily for Strauss and England, Stuart Broad and Steve Davies, both looking more and more like genuine all-rounders with every innings, stepped in to ease the team home. A stand of 60 between the two youngsters was enough to take England over the finishing line and secure a victory that the more established members of the team had almost contrived to throw away.

England’s bowlers had performed only slightly better earlier in day, with Afghanistan’s Mohammad Shahzad again showing up the more experienced batsmen with another 50 to follow the one he notched up in his first innings.

Shahzad was ably supported by Christi Viljoen of the Netherlands, who was eventually smartly run out by an excellent throw from substitute fielder Monty Panesar. Panesar was on the field for Graeme Swann who was unable to bowl because of problems with a tight leg muscle and only made a brief batting appearance at the end of the innings when England needed only one run for victory.

England have one more warm-up match, a three-day contest against a PCB XI, before they play their first match against the Pakistan team proper on January 17. Swann is expected to be back in action in time for the warm-up game, while Tim Bresnan, who missed the entire match against the  ICC Combined XI with an injury, should return to the side for the Pakistan opener.

He’s recently commented about that time in his life saying, “At the time I had no idea what was wrong with me, I went to the doctors several times for many tests to see why I was suddenly so depressed, but unfortunately no medical answer was forthcoming.”

Flintoff became a hero after his victory in 2005 and he was awarded with the MBE and given the Sports Personality of the Year award. In 2006 and 2007 however, England suffered a humiliating defeat to Australia and the ashes returned there. Mr Flintoff is now in his mid-30s and there is a BBC documentary covering the time of his life when he was most in despair.

This documentary is called The Hidden Side of Sport and in it he details how he broke down in 2006 and said that he could no longer go on playing cricket. He quickly plastered over this despair and continued playing cricket but he was never quite the same.

Mr Flintoff says, “It was very strange because by this point I had become financially successful and I was the captain of one of the best cricket teams in the world. When I went out to face Australia for those next Ashes matches I was not filled with confidence however and I simply did not want to play.”

Flintoff was born in Lancashire and in his years playing cricket he became known for his ability to drink heavily but it was never seen as a major health concern for him. However, when he became more depressed alcohol became a large part of the problem and led to an embarrassing incident occurred in 2007 when he had to be rescued at sea after he fell off a pedalo because he was drunk.

“I found it impossible to shut off my mind after a game,” the player continued, “therefore I started drinking to block out how I felt and I quickly reached the point where I realised I should be drinking less. I went to the doctor but they did not think it was depression. I remember very clearly a win we had in the West Indies during this time and despite the celebrations of the rest of the team all I wanted was to be alone.”

Flintoff retired from the sport in 2010 and he is married with three children, and all of his work these days consists of broadcasting. When he looks back on his career he comments that one of the greatest problems is that the public have no idea how you actually feel. He says, “You develop a persona that people come to know you by and mine was a fun loving guy, but in reality I was not having so much fun.”