Whoever organised the fixture list for the football World Cup evidently wasn't a cricket fan.

With most of the games kicking off in mid-morning, county cricketers are having to make do with watching the evening highlights programmes.

England's first match coincided with our game at Tunbridge Wells. Even though we were batting that morning and the TV was on in the pavilion, a determined bout of professionalism held our eyes firmly front supporting the men doing battle in the middle (it may also have had something to do with the severe dressing down we had received from the coach for a lacklustre performance the previous day!).

I felt most sorry for the 12th man, Dominic Clapp, who had to have one eye on the batsmen and one on Japan, relaying the score to us with his best football pundit impersonation.

The timing has improved a little since then. We had no fixture last Friday and were generously given the day off to watch one of the great England football performances of recent times.

By the time you read this column, you will know whether England carried their momentum forward into the match against Nigeria and into the second round.

We will have been able to watch the first half, at least, over a room service breakfast at our hotel in Leeds, but our minds will have to swiftly switch back to cricket again when we take on last year's first division county champions, Yorkshire.

They have had a dreadful start to the season, including a few average performances in Grenada where we totally outplayed them in a few one-day games. However, they do possess some extremely talented players and are basically the same side as last year, so there is a danger they will start to come good at some stage during the season.

In the absence of Darren Lehmann, who has joined the Australian one-day team for a series against Pakistan, they have signed Simon Katich and we will be hoping he is not quite as influential as Lehmann.

It will also be our first viewing of the infamous Steve Kirby who made a huge impact when he broke onto the scene last year.

He seemed to make the headlines whenever he played, sometimes for the wickets he took, but as often as not for his on-field histrionics. He will not be shy about having a few words with the batsmen, usually from a very short distance.

It is rumoured that when he first played against Mark Ramprakash last season, he made him play and miss and followed through with the loud remark: "I don't know how you've ever played for England, you're a disgrace to cricket." Quite a comment to to a man who has scored 60 first class hundreds!

Headingley is a much-improved ground since the huge western terrace has been rebuilt with smart new blue seats.

A new stand on the east side of the ground will be finished soon to make it an impressive cricket stadium.

It can be an intimidating place to play but a lot of our team were playing three years ago when we beat Yorkshire in the championship. Monty made a fine hundred in the second innings to help chase a sizeable target.

He has been reminding us all week what a fine innings it was, so we have told him we expect at least another two this week!

Thursday June 13