To spice up our coverage of the Ashes this year, we’re going to bring you an Aussie perspective every now and again. When we were growing up, and England were captained by the likes of Chris Cowdrey, we used to see Aussie fans as extremely confident (cocky, one might say) with a penchant for extracting the Michael. These days, as you’ll see below, the confidence is long gone and they mostly take the mickey out of themselves. With thanks to Jeremy Pooley, a Sydney-based writer and co-author of...
What England should learn from New Zealand (but probably won’t)
The dust has settled. The celebrations are over. Magical as our miracle escape against New Zealand was, a few home truths must be digested. We can still be confident about the Ashes – Australia’s humiliation against India leaves their team spirit and confidence in tatters – but things aren’t looking as good as they were two months ago. If you look on the bright side, this could be the wake-up call we needed. New Zealand exposed some serious flaws – and fortunately, they’re relatively easy to...
Flower puts England’s limited overs teams in the Wheelie Bin
‘The King of Spain’ is taking over as England’s ODI and T20 coach From the moment he gave up playing professional cricket, Ashley Giles has wanted to be England’s head coach. He did everything he needed to do. He cuddled up to the right people at the ECB and was almost immediately made a national selector. Now he’s been made England’s permanent ODI and T20 coach. So it’s pats on the back all round then? Well, forgive me if I don’t join the celebrations. Giles’ promotion is a...
Lack of imagination hurting England again – day two from Ahmedabad
“Don’t worry boys, I’ve got a plan. We’re going to do exactly the same things that didn’t work in the UAE” Only a few things in life are certain: death, taxes and England’s management making the same mistakes again and again. When Alastair Cook was made captain, and Andrew Strauss (noble servant that he was) took his conservative behind to the retirement home, I really hoped things would be different. No longer would we have to endure this wrongheaded...
Hit out or get out
England’s tactical think tank has some work to do Windies 179-5. England 164-4 Once upon a time, England ruled the waves in T20 cricket. We had openers that didn’t get out in the first over, an explosive middle order, bowling options coming out of our ears, a captain with tactical nous, and the X factor of Eoin Morgan. These days we’ve got Eoin Morgan and err … that’s about it. Yesterday’s defeat to the West Indies was so depressing because it was completely avoidable. It was a...
Day one from ‘Eadingley
I’ll just go and practice in the nets then, shall I?! South Africa 262-5 stumps When asked about the balance of the team on Wednesday, Andy Flower said that the makeup of the side that got thrashed at the Oval had been the basis of the team’s success in the past, and therefore he saw no point in doing something drastically different (like picking five bowlers). And yet at approximately 10.30 on Thursday, England dropped the man who has done more than anyone else to create the success to...
