And that was that. Sigh. I suppose we all knew, deep down, that we stood a minimilk’s chance in hell of winning the T20 World Cup, but it doesn’t make it any easier to swallow. Although we batted well in three of the games, the bowling was poor and the fielding embarrassing. What’s more, it must not be forgotten that we won two crucial tosses against Sri Lanka and South Africa. It could have been a lot worse. So where do we go from here? I think we all know the answer to that. Despite his...
Hales Storm Leaves Sri Lanka Battered & Bruised
Well, well, well. Maybe we won’t completely ignore the World T20 after all. England actually won a game. I repeat. We actually won a T20 international, against a good side, under pressure. I can hardly believe it. I’m not going to beat around the proverbial bush here. Alex Hales’ 116 yesterday was absolutely magical. It’s one of the best efforts I’ve witnessed. His hitting was clean, calculated and brutal. He didn’t resort to unsightly slogs when the run rate seemed unmanageable. He simply took...
Tremlett Keeps the KP Saga Alive
It’s the story that just keeps giving …. the ECB a headache. Here’s our new guest writer, Tregaskis’ views on the latest twist in the tale. On a day when England’s beleaguered team did themselves a massive favour by the simple expedient of not being the Netherlands, the Kevin Pietersen saga continued its epic Nordic narrative. The skirmishing between the uncontrollable berserkers at the ECB and the banished hero shows no sign of abating. There will be no moving on or piping...
When Saturday never comes
There are an awful lot of reasons why cricket should never try to ape football. But there’s also one extremely good reason why it should. Whatever you think about football’s commercial and aesthetic sensibilities, the plain fact is that compared to cricket, it just has more common sense. Take for example the way football is run as a spectator sport (and it just happens to be the most popular one in the country). The officials in charge of its fixture lists have made a rather...
Trott’s Biggest Test
While England’s best T20 specialists, and Jade Dernbach, toil in Bangladesh, we’ll look ahead to the summer when we might actually win a game. As Jonathan Trott is the only decent number 3 we’ve had in recent years, his recovery is vital to the test team. That’s why Nick Allbury, our new guest writer, focuses on his recovery here. Thanks for your thoughts, Nick. It’s the 25th November 2013. Just hours after England’s first Test defeat in Brisbane, Jonathan Trott is...
The Mystery of Jade Dernbach
My old Mum used to tell me ‘if you can’t say anything nice about someone, don’t say anything at all’. Unfortunately, if we adhered to this particular sentiment today, the following article wouldn’t be very long. That’s why we’ve given our new guest writer, Edward Higgs, free rein to tell us how he really feels about the only man in cricket with worse tattoos than Mitchell Johnson. Over to you Ed … Years from now, Jade Dernbach will settle down in...
