Wendell Bossenger, JP Duminy, Imran Khan, Claude Henderson and Roelof van der Merwe. Those are the five Mutual and Federal (M&F) cricketers of the year. Of those names, I only predicted two correctly before the announcement: Duminy and Van der Merwe. If I?d thought a little harder about it, Khan would have been on the list as well. He had a superb domestic season last year and was also deserving of his accolade. The awards handed out to Bossenger and Henderson though, were completely unexpected and appeared to be more like service awards.

At some point, it seems most cricketers in the country have a good chance of being named one of the annual cricketers of the year. M&F have a policy of not honouring anyone more than once. It?s a noble idea on face value, especially since Cricket South Africa have their own awards ceremony for players who have excelled at national or franchise level in a particular season. The trouble is that it turns the M&F?s five cricketers of the year into a free for all.

One of the guests at the lunch summed up the problem when he said, ?If they can?t name anyone more than once, then you?re going to get a situation where when you look back at a particular year, you?ll wonder what happened to a player like Jacques Kallis in that year. When you look through the statistics, you may find that Kallis had a phenomenal year but because he?s been named before, he can?t be recognised for it.?

Exactly, and so, everyone and his dog will have their turn at winning the award.

That?s not to say that Bossenger and Henderson are undeserving of recognition. Bossenger has been playing first class cricket for Griqualand West for almost 14 years and had always been a consistent performer. He is one of the casualties of the franchise system, since Morne van Wyk is the first choice wicketkeeper for the Eagles, so Bossenger has never really got a look in at that level. Colin Brydon, who edits the annual, said that had Bossenger may have gone on to much greater things if he?d played for a bigger union. One of the other M&F guests rightly reminded us all that Bossenger played in the SA Schools team ahead of Mark Boucher.

Henderson has a similar record of service. Next year will be his 20th year playing first class cricket, and he has clocked up an astounding 735 wickets at this level. His average is nothing that will make the national selectors sit up and take notice, but like Bossenger, he was acknowledged for his many successful years in cricket. To do that, is heart-warming, but perhaps M&F should rename the award to something along the lines of ?the servants of the game awards.? That way, there?s no mistaking that they are not trying to honour the five best performers every year.

Having said that, the lunch was an entertaining event. The entire national squad was there and the first thing I noticed was that Graeme Smith, Mark Boucher and Jacques Kallis appear to have shaped up quite nicely. Now, I?m not saying they are ready to whip their shirts off and pose as models for ab machine advertisements, but the three looked to be in much better shape than they have in a long time. Each player was allocated a table, so they were spread around the room. Lonwabo Tsotsobe was at my table. He wasn?t overly talkative but the one interesting thing he did do was order the halaal meal. ?They always get the better food,? he explained.

The team left early, since they had to prepare for their match against Zimbabwe. Speaking of which, the performance in the first ODI against our minnow neighbours was far from convincing. Much has been said about the match already, so I won?t repeat it all, but of course the bowlers have a fair bit of work to do. Charl Langeveldt and Johan Botha were the most economical, with the rest all going for over five an over. Albie Morkel was the most expensive, but his performance with the bat probably saved him from getting the chop.

While we?re all focussing on our own team (and understandably so), the fortunes of England have gone unnoticed. They beat both the Eagles and the Warriors in their warm-up for the series. It wasn?t just that they won the matches, but they did so in smashing style.

Against the Eagles, the English put on 294 for seven, with Jonathan Trott, Andrew Strauss and Eoin Morgan all clocking up half centuries. Their bowling was ruthless. Five bowlers made mince meat (should that be eagle mince meat) out of the franchise. Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Saj Mahmood, Graeme Swann and Paul Collingwood all took two sticks apiece as the Eagles were plucked for 109. All the wicket taking bowlers, except Broad went for less than four runs an over. So far, in the battle of the bowlers, England are winning.

Against the Warriors, only Swann took more than one wicket. He claimed three for 26 at an economy of just 2.60 but the other bowlers were expensive. They conceded 254 but their batsmen were up to the task. Andrew Strauss and Joe Denly put on 175 for the first wicket, with Strauss ending on 117. The English won by 8 wickets. That?s two matches and two convincing wins. The touring side have one more warm up, against the South African A side before the two T20s.

Worryingly, the first match at the Wanderers is reportedly not sold out. Have people just had too much cricket? Or is it time the administrators move the T20s to other venues so Durban and Cape Town can also enjoy some of the shortest version? Let?s see how the Proteas fare in the first two matches before we make a call on that one.