How have you coped without live Ashes cricket for nine long days? Did you return to your normal daily routines, watch the endless re-runs of ‘England’s best days’ on Sky, or hibernate for a week – recharging your batteries for another emotional roller coaster? At TFT we’ve been tracking down fresh writing talent; looking for like-minded cricket fans keen to share their musings. As a result we’ve unearthed this fella, who goes by the name Paul Grin Hopi. We...
Round one to England – and Australia’s low blow
England 269-6 (50 overs). Australia 221-9 (50 overs) Boxing isn’t everyone’s cup of Twinings, but the blogosphere would be a much poorer place without boxing analogies. Saturday’s ODI at Edgbaston was round one of the forthcoming heavyweight contest between England and Australia. England didn’t quite secure a knockout blow – they’re far too cautious for that – but they won comfortably on points. George Bailey’s team must have felt like Wladimir Klitschko’s latest opponent: the Aussies just...
Why the third test matters
Normally test matches against New Zealand don’t exactly get the pulse racing. The problem is that we don’t hate them enough. There’s no Shane Watson to snarl at; or Xavier Doherty to laugh at. Matches against the Kiwis have also been short on drama or controversy. Paul Collingwood got into hot water over a disputed run out a few years ago, but he soon apologised and the matter was quickly forgotten. The Barmy Army and the Beige Brigade soon got back to what they love doing best: hating...
Congratulations Jimmy
While the sporting world focuses on football – and celebrates ‘the best ending to a Premier League season ever’ (even though the two richest teams predictably finished first and second) – significant news from the cricket world has largely gone unnoticed. Well we’re not having it. We’re going to concentrate on a proper trophy – one which wasn’t bought, and wasn’t won by a collection of foreign mercenaries representing the highest bidder; I’m referring to all the top clubs here by the way, not...
Honours even? Yeah right – Day one in Colombo
Sri Lanka 238-6 stumps You don’t have to be Columbo to work out that Colombo test matches are usually uphill struggles for English teams. It doesn’t help when you lose the toss on a pitch that is already going through the top. When I turned my TV on at 7.30 this morning, I was praying that we’d be batting. When I saw Jimmy Anderson running into bowl my heart sank. My pessimistic side told me that we were bound to lose already – even though only one session had been completed. As always, the...
