I have a Christmas present for you. Tomorrow I will put away my moans and groans and try to spread a little festive cricketing joy. No more doom and gloom till the New Year. I promise. But before then, a quick recap of the talking points from the last couple of days, many of which you’ve already flagged up and discussed on the comments boards. Dmitri has been all over it – especially here and here. It was a lively weekend. Seven shades of ordure rained down on the ECB’s head. Some from...
Viewpoints: when Anglo-Irish eyes are smiling
‘Viewpoints’ is the TFT strand in which we hand the keyboard to a new writer. Simon Begley grew up in Ulster before moving to Kent in his teens. As England appoint an Irish captain, he reflects on the overlapping emotions of his countrymen. “The Irish play cricket?” I get that a lot. Yeah, when people hear I’m Irish and that I love cricket, I get that a lot. A lot of us play cricket. And a lot of us love the game. When I was growing up in Bangor – no, not the Welsh one – I loved...
I’m Telling You We’ve Got A Chance – England’s World Cup Squad
Now that Alastair Cook’s fate has been determined, and the hordes of insatiable demonic plebs on social media have had their way, the England squad for the World Cup can finally be picked on merit. Shame it took the forces of darkness – those heinous orcish keyboard warriors – to restore a meritocracy. Anyway, enough of the smugness, now we’ve had our pound of flesh (you can read Maxie’s thoughts here) it’s time to chew the fat and digest the rest of the squad. How’s it looking? Well, it...
I hate to say I told you so
Ashes series in Australia currently are scheduled in the same year as the Cricket World Cup. ECB and Cricket Australia agreed in 2007 that this must be addressed when the new Future Tours Programme is considered and we are pleased to say that this has now been agreed. In order to break the cycle we shall play back-to-back home and away Ashes series in 2013 ECB Annual Report, 2010. They’ve had four years to prepare for this World Cup. A tournament for the sake of which the board cleared...
Cook sacked as ODI captain
Alastair Cook has been dropped as captain of the England one-day team ahead of next year's World Cup.More follows pic.twitter.com/3WuOCXdPtH — BBC Sport (@BBCSport) December 19, 2014 I’ll be updating this post over the course of the evening to follow reaction, so hit the ‘refresh’ key. Update, 5.20pm: Nick Hoult is reporting that: Eoin Morgan is now set to lead the side for the tri-series in Australia after Christmas and then the World Cup in February. Cook will now...
Outside the turtle tank
It used to be said that the Church of England was the Conservative party at prayer. There is a case for saying that the ECB is the Conservative party at play. While David Cameron feigns one-nation paternalism with his ‘all in this together’ mantra, in my view the food banks and bedroom tax tell you that the disaffected and disadvantaged are rather more outside than in. There is a vast disconnect between the rhetoric and what we see around us. So it is with the ECB. Margaret Thatcher’s radical...
