Cricket Betting: England's confidence is misplaced

On a Caribbean Island renowned for its hospitality and beautiful beaches, hundreds of English cricket fans are sweltering in the heat, having to endure Red Stripe, Jerk Chicken and the sand getting stuck between their toes whilst they goggle at bikini-clad babes.

It must be tough, today's temperature is thirty degrees but that will drop to 28 degrees for the start of the first test on Wednesday. Barmy Army members will need to have packed their winter woollies because it is forecast to reach a meagre 21 degrees later on in the week. To be fair, that is at midnight on Friday!

A number of my friends have been on overseas tours following the fortunes of the English cricket team and it never ceases to amaze me how they manage to get a pass from their partners for such a lengthy period of time for what is nothing other than a Boy's Jolly.

There is something sacred about it, as though it is more of a a vocation than a vacation. "Sorry love," they sigh, "but this year's winter tour is to Australia, you know I don't really want to go but I'm just going to have to bite the bullet. Don't worry, I've bought you a nice big can of de-icer and you can use one of my CD cases as a scraper when I'm away!"

A couple of my friends went to the Caribbean in 2007 for the World Cup. I bumped into one of their wives in town and asked how they were getting on. "Not very well," she replied, "he's having a miserable time of it. He was gutted when they lost to Australia and it couldn't have come at a worse time. It was April 8th, the day before our wedding anniversary and he was already really upset that he was missing that." I bet he was!

It's amazing how the Barmy Army's ranks are swollen when the team is playing in the West Indies, Australia, South Africa or even Sri Lanka. They tend to give India, Pakistan and Bangladesh a miss, "not fair on the Missus, can't follow them everywhere." Of course they can't, at least not to locations where the nightlife is not on par with Vegas!

The cricket is important, supporters like to see their team win. There is significant confidence that this tour is going to be a success. Where that confidence has come from is anybody's guess, this England team is as poor as any that we have seen for a long time.

England are currently [1.7] to lay to win the series having been traded as low as [1.6]. Given everything that is wrong in the camp I feel that is ridiculously short as is the [2.36] available on them to win the first test. The value undoubtedly lies in backing the West Indies, [4.4] to win the series and [3.8] to prevail in the first test.

So when the car won't start tonight for the journey home from the office and you are pushing in the freezing cold, spare a thought for our fellow countrymen doing their bit for English cricket on the beaches of Jamaica. A more apt description would be Balmy Army!