So there we have it: the brave new world. Looks rather like the crap old world to me, but beggars can’t be choosers I’m afraid. I suppose the decision to remove Graham Gooch from his position of batting coach is enough change for the next ten years. Or am I just being a cynical? (Yes I am) I feel a little sorry for Gooch to be honest. He was a brilliant batsman and is obviously a very good batting guru. However, all good things must come to an end. With the exception of Ian Bell, all...
Moores is a symptom, Cook is the cause
First of all I want to make both a promise and an apology. Here’s the promise: I will not mention Kevin Pietersen’s name in this piece. I do not think the appointment of Moores has anything to do with sticking two fingers up at KP. If you believe the appointment of Moores was a final act of revenge, you assume the ECB are prepared to put a grudge before their own ambitions – which presumably includes creating a successful team, enhancing their personal reputations, and getting more people...
Anatomy of a failure part 3 – the coaches
Just before I went to bed last night, Ian Bell groped at a ball outside off stuff, got a faint edge and was caught behind. His team were left staring into the abyss at 23-5. Amongst the numerous disasters that have unfolded this tour, the dismissal was innocuous enough. However, for me it was typical, and symptomatic of a broader problem that has cost us the Ashes more than any other single factor. Bell played at the ball with a slightly open face. He’s been doing it all tour. It brought him...
The cracks continue to widen – day two in Durham
There are two ways to write a cricket blog. The first is to sleep on things, compose oneself, then write in a dispassionate objective manner; the other is to sod all that and write when you’re still caught up in the emotion; to write what you’re really feeling at the time. Because you’ll read plenty of level headed stuff in the newspapers, and you probably don’t read cricket blogs for their impartiality and their caution, I’m going to go for the latter option. Why hold back when I’m...
England’s Best Cricket Team (Post 1980)
This XI might have been England’s best cricket team in generations. It’s a compilation of the best players we’ve seen since we started watching in the 1980s. It’s the side that would have beaten Steve Waugh’s Australians (maybe). If only they’d been born at a similar time so they were at the peak of their powers together. Of course, if Keith Fletcher was the coach, and they were still playing for their counties the day before a test, it wouldn’t have made much difference...
What’s happened to New Zealand?
As a child of the 1980s, I grew up in a world in which New Zealand were a very competitive side, and usually stronger than England. In 1980 they beat the mighty West Indies, who wouldn’t lose another test series for the next fifteen years. Mid-decade, they beat us home and away in consecutive series. Martin Crowe was at the peak of his powers, and Richard Hadlee sent a shiver down the spine of test batsmen the world over. Nowadays, it’s a different story. We might be used now to...
