Mick Jagger was dead right when he sang “you can’t always get what you want”. England have been stuck between a rock and a hard place in recent times (which is what made me think of rolling stones) and I severely doubt that a top coach like Gary Kirsten is going to ride to our rescue. Who would want to work for the ECB anyway? They dictate (a) who the captain is going to be, (b) the precise type of team ethic and philosophy required, and (c) which star players should or should not be playing...
The ECB and selecting the wrong selectors
I’m not a negative person by nature. I’m actually getting pretty fed up with all the negative things we’ve had to write about recently. With the notable exception of Ben Stokes, there was absolutely nothing positive to write about this winter. Then we had the fallout from Andy Flower’s departure – all good things must come to an end – and the sordid Kevin Pietersen debacle. It almost went unnoticed that during the KP affair, in which the ECB quite rightly became public enemy number one, they...
Is it the end of the line for Brigadier Block?
Only in England could we sack a World Cup winning captain just twelve months after his finest hour. But then again, has any batsman lost form as alarmingly as Paul Collingwood – pioneer of the spectacular one-handed diving catch, and the less than spectacular bottom-handed nurdle into the legside? Just like nobody ever thinks of the families of Dr Evil’s henchmen, nobody spared a thought for poor old Colly after Stuart Broad’s eyebrow-raising appointment as England’s T20 captain. I think we all...
Brigadier Block, We Salute You!
Top bloke Paul Collingwood. A team man to the last. When it came to saving test matches, Colly was the immovable object. But with the Ashes in the bag, and a crop of young batsmen lining up to take his place, Paul Collingwood instinctively knew when to stand aside. Colly’s decision to retire from test cricket yesterday was typical of the man. He doesn’t have a selfish bone in his body. Rather than hanging on for a last hurrah, in the vain hope that his form might return and enable him to go out...
