Nine months ago, a proud cricketing nation was in turmoil. Dressing room dissent was ubiquitous and their highly regarded captain under fire. Senior players were disillusioned with the management structure and key members of the squad even refused to do their homework (the horror!). This is the team that recently won the Ashes 5-0. It didn’t take much to sort things out, did it. They drew a line under their disagreements – like good men do – and united in a common cause. The Aussies...
Is being over the hill about age or miles on the clock?
Ian Thorburn, a first time poster on TFT, sent us this interesting piece on England’s Ashes debacle earlier in the week. As you’ll see, he raises some important issues. Is success cyclical? Has this particular England team reached its shelf-life? I have to say, my first instinct was to disagree. The average age of England’s team at Perth was 29. Australia’s was 31. Yet the older team won. But is it that simple? As Ian points out, England’s players might be younger...
The inevitable delayed – day four from Perth
Australia 385 & 369-6 dec. England 250 & 251-5 stumps. As England fans we can’t win when we’re in the doldrums. Had we been bundled out for 47, like this Australian team in the recent past, we would’ve bemoaned our lack of fight and guts. Now that Bell and Stokes have shown a bit of resistance, we’re going to agonise over what could have been. For the first time, England’s middle-order showed that this Australian attack might be a very good one, but it’s essentially the same attack that...
Australia doing enough – day one at Adelaide
Australia 273-5 stumps On the face of it, this test is delicately poised. It probably is. All three results are obviously still possible. What most observers seem to be missing, however, is the broader context. After losing in Brisbane, England really must win this game. Nothing else will do. A draw isn’t enough with Perth – a graveyard for English cricket – just around the corner. Unless we win this match, there’s a strong possibility (or is it more or less a certainty?) that we’ll be heading...
Jimmy versus Clarke. What really happened …
Social media has been full of vitriol over the last few days. Arguments about who sledged who, who started it, and who’s the bigger tart, have strained relations between the English and our Aussies cousins. Whilst we side with Ian Chappell, who heard the live stump mic feed and roundly condemned the Aussie sledging as totally over the top (he said ‘good for Jimmy’ for standing up for himself), this hasn’t stopped the Aussie press from blaming Anderson for the whole...
Hammered – 2nd ODI from Old Trafford
If every match in the 2015 Ashes is played in Manchester, the Aussies might stand a chance. They love Old Trafford – especially Michael Clarke. After dominating England in the third test match a few weeks ago, they clobbered us again yesterday. It’s hard to know what to say really, other than “where was the bloody rain this time?” One of the problems cricket bloggers face is finding new things to say – especially when the team keeps making the same mistakes. I could talk about Josh Buttler’s...
