We continue our look back at a tumultuous year, as reported and discussed in our posts and comment boards. You can see part one here. April 10th. We ask – who are the eleven cricketers you wish you’d been able to watch? 15th. Sam Robson, Chris Jordan, James Vince and Moeen Ali are the players whose early-season form catches our eye. 18th. The focus switches to the impending appointment of Andy Flower’s replacement as England Team Director. What does the new man need to do? It...
David Collier awarded OBE in New Year Honours
I’m not making this up. David Collier, who retired this year as ECB chief executive, has been made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen’s New Year Honours. How did this come to pass? According the government’s website: The honours system recognises people who have: made achievements in public life committed themselves to serving and helping Britain They’ll usually have made life better for other people or be outstanding at what they do. Let’s take a...
That was the year that was – part one
2014. The annus maximus horribilis of English cricket, as my colleague James Morgan dubbed it earlier this week. This has been an extraordinary twelve months for our game – a year of unprecedented turbulence, conflict and division. We witnessed English cricket’s civil war, and in many eyes, the end is still far from sight. We thought it would be interesting, alongside James’s review of the year, to recall how events unfolded through the lens of what we wrote, at the time, on...
Angus, Charles, and Bob too
Hope everyone had a very merry Christmas. I’m grateful to TFT reader ArushaTZ for drawing our attention to a rather interesting little discussion on Sky Sports during a rain-break in the South Africa v West Indies test. Host Charles Colville and sidekick Bob Willis were joined in the studio by Angus Fraser – who’s not only a former England seamer but now director of cricket at Middlesex, and, crucially, an England selector. Precisely who attends selection meetings, and which...
Annus Maximus Horribilis – 2014 Reviewed
When England flew to Australia at the backend of 2013, I wasn’t sure what to think. We’d just won the Ashes 3-0 at home without playing particularly well and most people assumed we’d retain the urn with relative ease. Like drinking five pints on a Friday night, beating the canary yellows had become something of a habit – and a rather enjoyable one it was too. Looking back it all seemed too easy. Andy Flower’s team won the 2013 summer Ashes in their sleep. A wake up call was long overdue, but...
Reasons to be cheerful
2014 was the worst year for England cricket followers anyone can remember. The one consolation? It’s nearly over. Thing is, it wasn’t always like this. At some point in each of our lives, we all fell in love with the game of cricket. Its beguiling but maddening properties inveigled their way into our emotional consciousness and refused to ever let go. Around the same time, the England team took a grip on our imaginations. Like your parents splitting up, we had no choice in the...
