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Test Cricket Betting: You've got to accentuate the positives...

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Eliminate the negatives. Betting.Betfair's very own crooner Frank Gregan analyses England's defeat in the third test against South Africa. How can they possibly stay positive going into a final match with the series already lost?

Modern day thinking determines that coaches and players must always take the positives from defeat. It's basic psychology: keep telling players that they are rubbish and they will believe it. Keep focussing on the positives and the chances are you will be able to keep their confidence reasonably high even if they are enduring a poor string of results.

There is no need for the England management team to have to look too hard to find positives from the third test. One was the sight of Andrew Flintoff bowling at his best and producing that glorious spell during the changing light conditions in South Africa's first innings. The other was the sheer guts and determination displayed by Paul Collingwood as he dragged himself off the floor to make 135 having taken his place out in the middle looking like a 'dead man walking.'

Collingwood had been dropped for the second test, had made less than 100 runs in first class cricket all season and was walking into bat having scored only four runs in the first innings. He says that he received some inspirational advice from the outgoing captain, Michael Vaughan telling the Durham man to be "aggressive, not reckless." Ironically, both he and Kevin Pietersen hit similar shots in an effort to bring up their hundreds and the thin dividing line between success and failure deemed Collingwood's shot aggressive and Pietersen's reckless.

It was a glorious effort and he thoroughly deserved the ovation that he was given. He applied himself superbly and showed tremendous mental strength to fight his way back into form. A weight of despondency seemed to lift from his shoulders as the ball sailed over the boundary rope and his test cricket exit was put on hold. He's not out of the woods yet and he needs to kick on from this but the most important component in any sporting brain, confidence, has hopefully been restored.

The only way Collingwood's place in the test side can be justified is through the three facets of the game, batting, bowling and fielding. In the test arena he is very much a bit part bowler and no player, not even the great Jonty Rhodes, could expect selection solely on the basis of fielding skills. He knows he has to maintain a healthy batting average to ensure inclusion and must have been embarrassed when the management team cited the fact that he is "good in the dressing room" as a reason for his selection. Players have to be good on the pitch not in the dressing room otherwise Peter Kay should be the new England captain!

I've never had to pick a cricket team but I have envied those who have. I have had hundreds of heated debates with footballers who are convinced that their form is holding up whilst I have been of the opposite opinion. How I would love to be able to sit a player down and give him indisputable targets to achieve. Cricket coaches have that in their locker, if Collingwood was facing last chance saloon in the third test he could have been told, "you've got two innings, you need to average 40 or you're out of the squad for the next test.'

The England management team can continue to highlight the positives as much as they like but the negative remains that they have completed three tests against the Proteas and find themselves 2-0 down. The fourth test is a dead rubber and these matches can throw up strange results. I'm hoping that is not the case having recommended a 3-0 series win to the South Africans at [7.6] but with two days of dodgy weather in the forecast I think a lay at [2.82] and some profit taking may prove prudent.

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