Once more into the breach, dear friends. Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood. The game’s afoot: cry ‘God for Harry (Gurney?), England and …. blah, blah, blah.’ Sorry folks. I just can’t summon the enthusiasm today. I’m fearing the worst. We have to win against Sri Lanka tomorrow or we’ll have no credibility whatsoever. If we lose this game, I fear we’ll lose to Afghanistan too. Confidence will be shattered, the Afghans have a few decent...
Cricket, But Not As We Know It: Thoughts on the ECB’s Revolution
addCustomPlayer(‘bx8e519cs8io1nxqdbuhjyo2l’, ‘1fsd6rngrh98e1j4bg5dt0ngtj’, ‘fzsx69x6dpqj1l140djxl4bgp’, 400, 305, ‘perfbx8e519cs8io1nxqdbuhjyo2l-fzsx69x6dpqj1l140djxl4bgp’, ‘eplayer15’, {age:1423655784000}); When I initially saw the changes proposed in the ECB’s Strategy Conversation Summary my eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. English cricket hasn’t been this brave since, well, ever. Furthermore, many of the proposals...
Where Do You Stand On Ten Team World Cups?
First of all a quick apology for not updating the site yesterday. Both Maxie and myself are incredibly busy at the moment and our day jobs have to take priority (boo!). Thanks to everyone for continuing the debate in the comments section. We really appreciate your contributions. So much has happened in the last 48 hours. We had Chris Gayle smashing the first ever World Cup double century (and simultaneously sticking two fingers up to this critics), and now William Porterfield and others have...
Phew: England Finally Win
We won. Thank heavens for that. The relief in the blogosphere is almost tangible. A win is a win, is a win, is a win. Finally some positives to lift the gloom. Positive number one: the mighty Mo. Yes, it was only Scotland, and I have to say I was thoroughly unimpressed by their bowlers, but Mr Ali didn’t get bogged down like many of his teammates and thrived under the pressure. Moeen is such a good player to watch. That high back lift might get him into trouble now and again, but he wouldn’t be...
You reap what you sow
The Daily Telegraph, 3rd February: Of the World Cup, Downton says: “I think people will look at us now and say we’re a bit of a side to be reckoned with.” Saturday 14th February: England lost to Australia by 111 runs. Friday 20th February: England lost to New Zealand by eight wickets with 37.4 [sic] overs to spare. The simple word ‘defeat’ seems barely adequate to describe Friday’s events in Wellington. This was the cricketing version of Dresden: annihilation on an industrial...
England Murdered At World Cup, New Whodunit Mystery Grips Nation
Never mind Lucy bloody Beale, I want to know who killed English cricket. Although the obvious reply would be ‘New Zealand stupid’, I think we all know the real answer is more complex. English cricket was murdered at home too, most likely by those who run the game and their various accomplices. I can’t pretend I stayed up to watch the game. Instead I woke up early to catch the end. It had already finished by the time I tuned in. Sigh. It’s hard to give a measured reaction at the moment as I’ve...
