While the rest of the IPL was focused on the auction and paying a fortune for the likes of Kieron Pollard, the Royals have been looking around for bargains. They appear to have found one in Hampshire’s Michael Lumb. As those of you who played in Paul Cornell’s fantasy cricket league last year will know, Lumb was one of the stand-out batsmen in the 2009 English season. He’ll be well known to Royals captain, Shane Warne, who used to captain Hampshire, and to his fellow Royal and current Hampshire captain, Dimitri Mascarenhas. He should be an excellent addition to the Royals batting line-up.

In case you are wondering, Lumb did not have to go through the auction because he is not an international player. And of you want to know why such a good batsman isn’t an international – well he was born in Johannesburg and South Africa is already fielding two international batting line-ups (one of them under the cunning pseudonym of “England”).