CategoryAshes 2015

Ashes diary: knocked over by a Gus

Let me pick up on a news-line from the Ashes aftermath which has generally gone under the radar. Forgive me if the guys at Being Outside Cricket have already sunk their teeth into it. I’ve recently written quite extensively on the subject of vindication. There are three key threads in the narrative. One is the backlash aimed at the public by the establishment: the sense that the great unwashed now deserve their comeuppance. We were wrong, we were wrong to question their judgement, and now...

The Ashes: It Really Is So Strange

Ashes series usually mark the end of a cycle. One team is left scratching its head; the other emerges triumphant and plots a course for world domination. This Ashes series is a little different though. The Aussies have endured a Pomageddon of biblical proportions and will need to build an entirely new team. But are England an emerging team ready to take on the world? Let me speak frankly Mr. Shankly. Although the Ashes victory was as sweet as (insert your own simile here or just leave it blank...

Despite, not because

England would not have won the Ashes had Kevin Pietersen not been sacked without explanation. Alastair Cook is the greatest captain in test history. Paul Downton is a national hero of rare prescience and foresight. I need exaggerate only a little to make the point. History is being re-written. Scores are being settled. A sickly river of errant and retaliatory bilge is slithering its way through the media crickosphere. Why does it matter? At the risk of coming over all Ed Smith, allow me to...

Truth and reconciliation

Three times so far today I’ve started a post, then spiked it, dissatisfied, and started again. Each time I was derailed by the same problem – I wasn’t telling the truth. Enough is enough. The only way is to say what I actually think, because otherwise, on a blog, what’s the point? There’s no merit in my dishing up an insipid soup of pusillanimous bilge, padded out with fake magnanimity, just for the sake of it. I would be deceiving you. If you disagree with what...

The Glorious Ashes and the Burning Issues

See the urn in this picture? It’s ours. It’s bloody ours. I’m delighted. For all the arguments that have blighted English cricket over the last eighteen months, it was the sight of the old enemy that finally turned things around. When confronted by the prospect of David Warner downing tinnies and Mitchell Johnson singing ‘Killer Queen’ victoriously on The Oval balcony, the lion’s share of the English public suddenly got behind its team again. This made a huge...

On the brink

The proper analysis can wait for another day. England are about to win the Ashes, something which hasn’t happened for at least, er, two years. Actually, and in fairness, they are three wickets away from regaining the urn, for the first time since 2009. And to celebrate, I’m declaring a national holiday here at The Full Toss. For today at least, there will be no nit-picking, no complaining, no sideswipes, and no picking of holes. Rightly or wrongly, English cricket is defined by the...

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