When the ECB decided to diminish the county championship by moving most games to April, May, and September, what did they think was going to happen? When the ECB appointed Ed Smith, a man whose philosophy is to pack the side with all-rounders and pluck players from white ball cricket (because apparently scoring runs in front of IPL and Big [...]

Sadly I feel this test match is ebbing away. So it's time for a hackneyed boxing analogy. England are on the ropes primarily because we've got a glass jaw. The Windies, on the other hand, have taken the punches and kept advancing forwards. The home team has shown more courage and discipline, they've clearly got a better defence, and they've [...]

I'm feeling a bit rough today so I'll keep this short - a bit like England's innings. I tuned into Sky's The Debate last night expecting Grumpy Bob and Co to lambast what I thought was another really poor batting display from our ragtag batting line-up. But instead of being critical they basically blamed the pitch. Hmmmm. Yes the pitch [...]

You'll see two very different questions in the headline above. The first is what England should do. In other words, what changes they should make to their team for Antigua. This involves looking a problem rationally and objectively. The second question asks what England will do. And this is rather complicated because it involves putting oneself in the shoes of [...]

Those of you with young kids might know a cute / irritating cartoon called Paw Patrol. It’s about a band of puppies who solve crimes and generally frustrate the evil machinations of the feline group 'Cat-astrophe'. One of the puppies is called Chase. And he’s as harmless as wet cotton wool. A bit like Roston Chase’s bowling in fact. The [...]

What can you say when you’ve just been flayed to all parts by a No.8 and No.7 batsman? Two guys who barely average 30 in test cricket. Sure they’re good players - most cricketers are talented at test level - but this wasn’t Adam Gilchrist destroying our ‘attack’. It was the captain and wicket keeper of a team that usually [...]

We've got two different views on yesterday's action for you today. I'll go first and then Alex, the eternal optimist, will have his say ... 77 all out. Sigh. What a stinking pile of donkey crap. If I was James Anderson I'd tell the batsmen to do one and get on the next plane home. He and Ben Stokes deserved [...]

He's pretty good, isn't he. Jimmy Anderson, England's best cricketer for years, proved once again that age is no barrier in professional cricket. I would say it's no barrier in life in general, but judging by the way my hangovers seem to get worse and worse every year, I think that would be stretching things - almost as much as [...]