At the dawn of this blog, James Morgan wrote about England’s worst XI, a team comprising players who before, during and since their test career confounded expectations by setting low standards and consistently failing to achieve them. There could have been many more on his list: nearly half of those who have played for England lasted only five tests or fewer. It is a moot point whether any deserved a longer career. A few of them could probably count themselves as victims of selectorial caprice:...
The Wartime XI
Heeding no advantage, asserting no virtue, claiming no righteousness, the August volunteers marched away, the vanguard of a generation doomed to die untimely … There was no estimating the extent to which creative thought was depleted, or the cost to learning, literature and science of the destruction of so many strong and cultivated intelligences. Reginald Pound (Great War veteran and author of The Lost Generation (Constable, 1964)) Sunday November 11 marks the hundredth anniversary of the end...
The New Bothams: The Team That Nearly Was
Today I’d like to introduce a new TFT guest writer. His name is James Wilson. He’s a cricket author and former lawyer. I enjoyed this, and I think you will too … Peter Jackson Eastwood’s entertaining feature on dibbly dobbler medium pacers is a reminder that cricket fans, especially English ones, have always had a soft spot for a decent cricketer who isn’t any more (or less) than that. The sort of chap who is chosen for international duties, but who turns out to be just below...
