I have some momentous news to bring you. I’m delighted to report that the England cricket team has finally won a game against India. It only took eight attempts. Yesterday’s win was brilliant. I don’t care that it was a dead rubber. India were desperate to notch a seventh straight victory against us in all forms – and complete an ODI series whitewash – but our batsmen were just too good for them (and our bowlers were just about good enough not to screw it all up)...
Kumar Sangakkara: Knowing When To Go
Every fan is invested in the career of their favourite players, and I’d rather remember a great legacy like that of Kumar Sangakkara than a grand goodbye like Sachin’s. I loved watching Brian Lara. I was upset when Lara retired, not just because he would be no more, but because I felt he went prematurely. He retired in 2006/7, when he was 36, but when I was just 13. This feeling of being robbed of a few golden years of Lara, was compounded when contemporaries like Ricky Ponting, Rahul Dravid...
Captain Morgan Excels But Ship Still Sinks
Wash, rinse, repeat. Today’s ODI was pretty much the same story as the last one but with two interesting but ultimately inconsequential differences: this time England batted second, and this time the captain made some runs. Unfortunately we still lost the game because, well, our bowling attack is still the same ineffective collection of barely adequate popguns that is was 72 hours ago. And unfortunately this isn’t going to change anytime soon. Unsurprisingly the surprise omission of...
The Ghosts of Cricket Past and Future
Back in those hard hitting and intoxicated days before Christmas and the New Year – a mere stitch back in time when the elastic on my trousers was relaxed and my liver chipper and fighting fit – I wrote a morose piece on Why Red Cards Have No Place In Cricket. I promised or threatened, depending on how you look at it, to write a follow up on why day/night Ashes Test Matches are akin to the anti-christ. Well, with the New Year unwinding and my belly reminiscent of a furiously pumped...
England Get The Kohli Wobbles – The 1st ODI
I don’t need to write this blog anymore. I just need a computer programme that can spell Virat Kohli and then add a list of superlatives after his name. He’s just too bloody good for our quite average bowling attack. We’ve been saying it all effing winter and it’s not going to change any time soon. You can’t really blame our batsmen. They did their part by scoring 350-7. Some might be a bit picky and argue we were twenty runs short, but 350 will win you most games...
Alastair Cook: A Protected Species?
English cricket’s critics have often claimed that the ECB is too cosy. There’s a perception the board is elitist, somewhat insular, and operates a bit like an old boys’ club. Whilst this might be something of an exaggeration, the ECB sure seem to like their favourites. If your face fits, and you don’t rock the boat, you’ll probably go far … just ask James Whitaker. Giles Clarke’s famous remark that Alastair Cook was ‘a very good role model and he and his family are very much the...
