After our abject defeat at Headlingley – our second loss in as many tests at Leeds – Alastair Cook claimed England could still win the Ashes as long as the team “makes that step forward as a side”. You can’t blame Cook for trying. What exactly was he going to say? I doubt he really believes England can beat Australia though. Sure, he’ll believe England can win – in the same way it was technically possible for Aston Villa to win the FA Cup final – but everyone knows we only have a slim chance at...
The Gatorade Guzzlers have landed – a view from down under
The irrelevance that was the England versus New Zealand test series has mercifully finished. Now the ICC Champions Trophy is upon us – another sideshow that sits uneasily in the interregnum before the Ashes: the 10 act drama that shall fashion greatness or infamy, where every reputation is wagered and nothing held back. England’s victory over the hapless Kiwis at Headingley told us nothing we do not already know. The two R’s, Root ‘the local County luminary who walks on...
Indians doing England a massive favour
Punter knows where the middle of his bat is now, but what about when he’s edging forty next year? Ok. Who wants to be the first to call India’s much vaunted batting line up ‘flat track bullies’; or should that be ‘slow low dust bowl bullies? There’ll be quite a few takers after their latest debacle – this time at Sydney. However, tempting as it is to overreact to their latest humiliation – this time at the hands of Ben ‘the destroyer’ Hilfenhaus (ha!) – let’s have a bit of...
The ECB’s new friends at Conservative Central Office
Few topics reveal the warped nature of ECB cricketing logic more vividly than their desperation to avoid returning The Ashes to terrestrial TV. And now Lord’s top brass will be pinning their hopes on a Conservative election victory in May. The party’s sports spokesman Hugh Robertson this week implied that a Tory government would not enforce the David Davies review’s recommendations – namely, that home Ashes series be ‘listed’, and available only on free-to-air channels. Robertson’s analysis of...
