I remember not being the first to know about my axing from the office action cricket team, so entirely relate to Owais Shah's hurt at being dumped by Middlesex.

While my ineffective left-arm seam and hackneyed lower-order hitting was unfairly deemed surplus to The Cricket365 Crushers' requirements, Shah's exit from the Panthers posse comes as no surprise.

One can only live on past glories for so long, a reality I quickly found out when my match-winning five-for against the Microsoft Hardies of yesteryear no longer guaranteed me selection for the corporate league.

A superb innings of 98 from Shah to all but boot South Africa from the 2009 Champions Trophy, and one or two other fleeting contributions, have since taken a back seat to England rejection and a string of average performances across this year's county season. As poorly handled as it was, the right-hander's departure is the correct decision.

Unfortunately for Shah that knock at Centurion was by no means a standalone effort. The middle-order all weighed in against the Proteas. A victim of his compatriots' success, particularly that of Eoin Morgan, more than a lack of consistency, one-hit wonder Shah failed to book a return to South Africa at the end of the year. He has since begged for a national recall via the county circuit, but at 31 years old and a product of the old, pre-Andy Flower regime, Shah's international goose has long been cooked.

As England made a concerted effort to turn a corner in their leadership overhaul and redo of the ranks - where Shah's demise set a precedent to those tagging along rather than plugging in - and have since gone on to Ashes and World Twenty20 glory, Middlesex seem keen to take example.

After proving a bit of a non-feature in the Friends Provident 20, the Lord's-based crew are languishing toward the bottom of the Clydesdale Bank 40 log and won't come anywhere near to County Championship promotion at the end of their dour Division One campaign.

By all accounts, there is a serious need for change. As is often the case, personnel is the first thing tweaked in the hope of more positive on-field results. This was surely the case when my colleague, who will go unnamed, sniped in ahead of me only on to fail in The Crushers' final defeat of the corporate league action cricket season.

Whereas 'Graham Swan's' handy off-breaks were ultimately all too unhandy in a gruelling fixture against The Apple MacDaddies, I reckon the decision to give Neil Dexter the captaincy ahead of old-timer Shaun Udal coupled with Chris Rogers' move from Derbyshire - the deal that pretty much sealed Shah's goodbye - and the securing of Morgan for a bit longer will see Middlesex replicate England's recent successes in seasons to come.

As for The Cricket365 Crushers, well they're putting in for the loan of Kevin Pietersen when he's done at Surrey...