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West Indies v England
With the Tests done and dusted, thoughts now turn to the seven match one-day Series. With Brian Lara likely to miss the first three matches while he recovers from his broken finger, England are given a great opportunity to steal a march in the Series. Three of the stars of Vaughan's valiant Test team (Butcher, Hussain and Thorpe) have headed home and the performance of incoming replacement Strauss, Collingwood and Clarke will be crucial in determining the outcome. The visitors also have old warhorse, Darren Gough, back to lead the bowling assault.

To help with your betting decisions, we grabbed a couple of minutes with the senior cricket trader at BetHiLo, to see how he thinks things will pan out:

"Although heavily beaten in the Test series, the West Indies side is a lot more suited to the one day game. Stroke players like Gayle, Powell, Sarwan and Dwayne Smith will appreciate the opportunity to flash their blades, while the bowlers won't need to take 20 wickets to win a match".... He also added that "...we will be betting all seven LIVE matches in-running, and as an added treat for our punters we are now offering over by over markets throughout the match".

County Championship - Division One
It's the start of the new season, and Sussex head into it full of the joys of spring. After so many near misses on the county championship circuit, they finally broke their duck in style when capturing the Division One crown last season. As well as retaining the services of the overseas pairing of Mushtaq Ahmed and Murray Goodwin, who gave such compelling performances last season, they have also bolstered their ranks with the signings of former Pakistan quickie, Mohammad Akram, and the big hitting opener, Ian Ward, from local rivals Surrey.

Sussex may look to have an outstanding chance of recapturing their title, but they aren't the bookies favourites. Last year's runners-up, Lancashire, who were left cursing the weather (the rain cost them forty odd points last year).

When asked about the Series, BetHiLo's Senior Cricket Trader said that "While Sussex will be there or thereabouts this season, Lancashire, who were unfortunate to finish second last year, look to be worthy jollies and have all the credentials to take the Division One title this season. If you're looking for a team to bet against, Surrey, who have lost the services of Stewart and Ward and will be missing a plethora of players to the England cause, could struggle to find their feet".

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Hopefully the above has given you something to think about and will help with your punting decisions over the next couple of days. Spread betting allows you to bet on a wide range of markets, and to look at games from a different angle - this gives you the potential to win a lot more by backing a team, batman, bowler or allrounder to do well or badly! So what are you waiting for?