Another day, another kick in the teeth for our beleaguered captain. Things could not have gone much worse for Cook yesterday. First, India’s last wicket pair humiliated the hosts with a century stand (thus wiping out the promising position England had established immediately after lunch) and then he failed with the bat yet again – this time bowled behind his legs after getting too far across. Cricket can be unbelievably cruel sometimes. In trying to improve his offside game, and better judge...
A Special Evening at HQ
One half of the TFT enjoyed a rather special evening on Wednesday. It’s the kind of thing that only comes along once in a lifetime … Yours truly had the privilege of attending the MCC’s bicentennial dinner in the Long Room at Lord’s. That’s right folks, they let me, a common pleb and card carrying member of the great unwashed, dine within the most sacred room in world cricket. I spent the entire evening pinching myself. How did I wriggle my way into such a glamorous event? I could say I was...
One in the Eye
When the good Lord invented cricket, he did me no favours whatsoever by making the ball red and grass green. It’s because I’m afflicted by a debilitating cricketing disability that makes it all but impossible to pick the ball up early. I’m talking, of course, about red-green colour-blindness. Because my teammates haven’t always been convinced by the excuse “I couldn’t see the ball” after I’ve been bowled shouldering arms, I’ve always taken an interest in professional cricketers’ eyesight. Did...
Settee: The Search For Extratesttrivial Irreverence. part four of five
Pre 4th Test, the big shock for me was not the selection of Tickly Tummy Jackson Bird over Scattergun Roadrunner Mitchell Starc. No, I was more surprised when Ten-Nil Botham’s pitch-side blah blah was notpunctuated by showers of lead-shot, wrapped in tear-sodden betting slips. Sky Ashes lead-ups also include Master Class insights which are invaluable to dozy barstanders like myself. The contribution from recently house-trained Kevin Pietersen was a lot more thoughtful and hygienic than...
Matt Prior, we salute you
‘Whatever happened to all the heroes?’ The Stanglers once sung. When it comes to the England cricket team, they’ve got a point. Since the retirement of Andrew Flintoff, we haven’t really had any heroes – not proper cult heroes anyway. Whereas we had the swashbuckling Sir Ian in the 1980s, tinkle toes Darren Gough in the 90s, and Freddie himself in 2005, recent England sides have lacked that true inspirational figure. Players like Cook, Trott and Anderson are all very good cricketers, but...
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...
