The Full Toss

Joseph Edward Root. Born 30 December 1990, Sheffield, Yorkshire. If he were to be forced to retire tomorrow, he can look back at his career with an immense amount of pride. 23 test centuries, 2 Ashes victories, a World Cup to his name and the record number of wins as England test captain. Pretty impressive. However, if there were to be criticism levelled at Root’s career, it’d be his record down under. English and Australian players are defined by the Ashes. What began in 1882 has now developed...

Afternoon all. It’s been a long time so I thought that I’d better check in. So much has been going on in the cricket world in recent weeks that I feel obliged to comment. Having said that, I fear this will be a temporary resurfacing. Regular readers of this blog will know that I’ve temporarily misplaced my enthusiasm for the game. And an all-too-depressing racism scandal isn’t exactly going to help anyone, let alone a disillusioned fan, warm to English cricket again. Sadly, the last few weeks...

“Climb for it, you f***ing monkey”. Those words should send a chill down the spine of anyone who loves our game. They were uttered by an as yet unnamed Essex cricketer as he threw a banana down the stairs at Maurice Chambers, a man of Caribbean decent who played for the county between 2005-2013. Chambers alleges he was routinely offered bananas and subjected to racist abuse during his time at Essex. He added that he would go home at night and cry in his room. Azeem...

Today Harry Turnbull comments on the dire situation at Headingley. Please be careful what you say in the comments. Ta. As a Lancastrian, you won’t expect me to be weeping into meThwaites beer over events int badlands… There has been a nasty taste in me piehole ever since a senior Tyke was heard calling Ashwell Prince a fkn kolpak. It was said with such wicked malice you couldn’t help wonder what other vicious thoughts lay hidden and unsaid. There has been a collective chip on...

It’s an all too familiar sight when England are playing a test match these days: stumps wrenched from the ground, bails spinning prettily in the air, and fielders out for a stroll taking catches as they go. English batsmen are crossing at the pavilion gates with alarming frequency and our top scorer seems to be called ‘Extras’. Yes, it’s one of those times when England have been rolled over for less than a hundred runs, again. Failure is so much more interesting than success as the post mortem...

Are you enjoying the T20 World Cup? I know it’s not for everyone but I’ve been keeping an eye on the scores. England have obviously started well, really well, with two decisive wins against the West Indies and Bangladesh. I’m beginning to think that we could go far. What’s encouraging has been the performance of our bowlers. I really thought that our seam bowlers would be our Achilles heel but they’ve done brilliantly thus far. Opening up with Moeen Ali was a good...