Happy new year. I hope your bellies are bursting and your liver languishing somewhere on the lavatory floor. Mine certainly is. Which is usually a sign that a good time was had by all … or at least by me. I can’t comment on those who had to endure my drunken festive rants about political correctness, the Left, the Right, Brexit, the ECB, my kids, too much immigration, too little immigration, why there’s no brandy left, and who put cassis in my fifteen quid per bottle prosecco...
Want To Join The New City T20 Board? Here’s How To Apply
Christmas might be over but here at TFT we just keep giving. In fact, we’re giving you ordinary plebs the opportunity to join (well, apply for) a position on the ECB’s shiny new T20 Board as independent directors. Here’s the Job Description which was passed to me by one of our many rebel spies inside cricket. His identity will remain anonymous lest he get lynched by the cricketing stormtroopers. The ECB’s new T20 Board will consist of two representatives from the...
Stalemate: Steve Smith And That Bloody Pitch
I don’t know what depresses me more. Steve Smith or this bloody MCG pitch. Both made for a very disappointing, and at times unwatchable, final day. First we’ll talk about Smith … and only because we have to. The guy might be the new Shiv Chanderpaul in terms of style, but you have to admire his mental strength. The guy just doesn’t make many (if any) errors. He’s like Alastair Cook but better. And on surfaces like this, when the bowlers have no assistance...
Looking Ahead
Have you seen the fixture list? With the MCG test in the books, England only have one more first class international game (the fifth Ashes test at Sydney) this winter. I suggest you enjoy the red ball cricket while it lasts, because the next three months are going to be one giant white ball love-in. Traditionalists who like things old school are not going to be impressed. England are set to play five ODIs against Australia, then at least four T20’s in a triangular series against Australia and...
Ball-Tampering Or Fake News?
Strewth. What a bunch of drongos. Show some Australians a photo of an English cricketer wearing a white sheet on halloween and they’ll claim our dressing room has been infiltrated by the ku klux klan. Sod the evidence. Sod context. Why bother gathering all the facts when there are professional reputations to tarnish? The Jimmy Anderson ball tampering row that emerged on day four at the MCG says a lot more about the nature of the Aussie media, it’s pundits, and the ignorance of some...
Alastair Cook We Salute You
I’ve never been Alastair Cook’s biggest fan. I doubt anyone has spent longer discussing his technical frailties against top class bowlers than me. At the end of the day, I just don’t like watching him bat. But I’ve loved and cherished every single second of his whitewash-avoiding double century in this match. My vocabulary doesn’t possess the superlatives to describe it. In many ways Cook has been a punchbag for English cricket’s dissidents over the years...
