Somewhere, on the other side of the world, there was an important cricket match in a very important tournament being played. However, as England’s interest in this tournament ended prematurely in humiliating circumstances, we’re left to discuss off-field shenanigans and the usual political crap. So what’s happened in the last 48 hours? We know Paul Downton was summoned to Lord’s for a meeting with the ECB top brass on Tuesday. George Dobell suggested the dark lord’s job was on the line – it...
England Bring In the New … and an Old Face
I’ve got a little game for you. England will play a whopping seventeen test matches in the next ten months. How many of the players named in the squad to tour the Windies today will play in the final test against South Africa in January 2016? My guess is half at best. Of course, the return of Moeen Ali and Chris Woakes might shake things up a bit, but there’s no guarantee these two will be in England’s first choice team in ten months either. 2015 and the winter of 2015/16...
Other Perspectives: A Defence of Peter Moores
As our regular readers know, we’re big critics of Peter Moores here at TFT. We didn’t think he was the right appointment last year, and judging by England’s difficult 2014 and disastrous World Cup, we believe our fears were justified. However, there is another side to all this. Perhaps we’re being unkind and looking for scapegoats? New TFT writer Philip Lewis thinks this might be the case. His article below is a thoughtful defence of Moores that acknowledges some of his...
Too Much To Take – Fatigue and English Cricket
As the dust settles on yet another World Cup catastrophe, thoughts are now turning to broader problems with the English game. We’ve had a right old go at Paul Downton and Peter Moores – and every word of it was justified – but not all the problems are their fault. Having digested the thoughts of prominent pundits over the last few days, the phrase that stands out to me is “don’t panic”. This was very much Michael Atherton’s mantra last week. While the English system clearly has flaws, it has...
Rain Averts Another Kabuls-Up, But England Remain An Absolute Shower
So all is rosy in English cricket’s garden after all. Give us overcast conditions that suit our medium-fast bowlers, shortened games that remove those tricky middle-overs, and we’ll win every time … as long as we’re playing Afghanistan. Make no mistake about it. Today’s game was utterly irrelevant. The only thing we learned is that the Afghanistan’s bowlers are faster than ours. It’s a bit worrying, isn’t it. No doubt this result will relieve the pressure on Downton and Moores somewhat –...
Déjà vu All Over Again: a Newbie’s guide to England
We’ve had quite a few submissions from readers over the last few weeks. We’ve chosen to publish this one by Ayelet Haimson Lushkov, an assistant professor of classics at the University of Texas in Austin, because it’s the assessment of someone who has only been following cricket for a while. It’s amazing how quickly Ayelet recognises the recurring themes of English cricket: disappointment, frustration and finally disillusionment. Welcome to our world mate … another...
