“Five more pies please” – is it just us, or has Shane Watson put on six stone? It’s obviously still early days in the ODI series against the Canary Yellows, but we’ve seen enough to make some sweeping and probably inaccurate generalisations. So here goes … First of all, it appears that we’ve still got the wood over them. There’s something about our swagger. In the 1990s you just knew from the way Matthew Hayden ate his gum that the Aussies were going to win. With every...
Trott and Cook earn ICC player of the year gongs
Ten years ago the ICC awards evenings were depressing occasions for England fans. They usually involved gritting one’s teeth as Ricky Ponting, Glenn McGrath, or somebody equally offensive (and Australian) took to the stage and gave a cringe worthy speech about how they couldn’t have done it without Haydo, Gilly, and Dizzy. Yuk. Thankfully these days the boot is on the other foot. Last night Jonathan Trott was named the ICC player of the year, whilst platinum-balls himself, Alastair Cook, was...
England choose the slow road to recovery
There are no quick fixes in international cricket; or so the saying goes. In England’s case, the selectors have taken this cliché quite literally. As soon as Alastair Cook was made our ODI skipper, in what can only be described as a desperate move to give him some experience before he becomes test skipper, the selectors made our strategy clear: we weren’t going to blitz the opposition with a flurry of boundaries, we were going to build innings steadily, put a respectable score on the board, and...
Is Jonathan Trott boring?
An ‘interesting’ comparison One of the above is a sporting hero loved by the nation despite his penchant for the dull and predictable. The other is Jonathan Trott. It doesn’t seem fair really. Trott is statistically the best batsman we’ve had since, I don’t know, WG Grace? However, whereas the bearded wonder from yesteryear famously refused to return to the pavilion after being dismissed, arguing that ‘the public have come to see me bat’, the chances of Trott being able to say...
4th ODI – Trott gets the runs as England win at last
In what was surely the only relevant and meaningful game of the protracted CB series thus far ;-) England beat the Parrott Greens by 21 runs in Adelaide today. It was a much better performance all round – hell, it couldn’t have been any worse than the last three. Jonathan Trott was the hero with a typically stodgy but effective knock of 102 from 126 balls. Surprisingly he also chipped in with the ball, taking 2-31 in seven priceless overs of medium-slow trundle. He’s a funny bowler Trott. He...
Does it matter if half our side are from South Africa?
We can’t complain that the waters of nationality have been muddied by the very vehicle – empire – which created cricket in the first place.
