The trust and persistence placed in Moeen Ali is how England should approach their top-order conundrum. After a decade of success, the demand for instantaneous results has cut off England’s nose to spite their face. Selection policy has become impatient and short sighted. Alastair Cook has gone through 11 opening partners since the retirement of Andrew Strauss in 2012. And England have tried...
Only hardcore England fans who struggle to appreciate the bigger picture will be mourning today. Yesterday’s dramatic finish at Headingley was good for cricket and brilliant for the West Indies in particular. A week ago I almost wrote a piece discussing whether the Windies should be stripped of their test status. I wasn’t going to advocate doing so but I thought it might be time to at...
We all wanted the Windies to put up a fight. I’m not sure we wanted them to actually beat us! But after two days at Headingley that’s exactly where we’re headed. Recent history tells us that whenever England get on top in a game they win big. But when the opposition get on top we lose by a similarly large margin. England haven’t been involved in a close test match for over...
It’s time for another of our midweek roundups. It’s what we do when there’s no single burning issue to discuss but a plethora of smaller talking points instead. I’ll start with Shahid Afridi’s amazing century against Derbyshire in the T20 Blast quarter final. He blitzed 101 off 43 balls. Pretty impressive I think you’ll agree. Normally I’d argue that a...
I feel a little bit sorry for Stuart Broad. So many of the big moments in his career have been overshadowed by something else or someone else. Take his highest test score: that brilliant 169 against Pakistan at Lord’s. He played superbly in tandem with Jonathan Trott and unleashed a plethora of fluent and elegant drives. He was rapidly becoming one of the most attractive players to watch in...
I sometimes wonder what Alastair Cook might have been in another life. What job would have suited him in a world without cricket? Because he scrubs up pretty well, and looks rather dapper in a dinner jacket, some might see him as a James Bond character – making the ladies swoon with his clean cut Englishness. However, he’s probably not quite daring enough to be a secret agent. In fact, sometimes...
Pink balls. Floodlights. Wickets dropping like flies at twilight. It’s time for the traditionalists to spit out their Earl Grey tea and mutter obscenities under their breath. Day-night test cricket has arrived in England. But at least it’s not all bad news for the fuddy-duddies. Thankfully the players won’t be wearing pyjamas. Only the kids too young to stay up and watch will be...
As Ben Stokes continues to rise in stature, his numbers are matching and surpassing another allrounder in Andrew Flintoff. But it’s unfair to compare them on numbers alone. Measuring Ben Stokes against Andrew Flintoff’s success is not an outrageous thing to do, either due to their playing style, or charismatic, occasionally hot-headed, nature. But when you compare their numbers alone, Ben Stokes...
It’s not often that I get guest submissions from people who actually know a thing or two about cricket. Longterm readers of TFT will know that we usually just wing it. As editor I might occasionally seem like I know what I’m talking about, but believe me my articles are usually just a combination of hypothesis and semi-educated guesswork. That’s why today’s article is a...
With the series in the books, and the Basil D’Oliveira trophy in the bag, it’s time for a gentle fireside chat about each individual player ahead of the winter. Think of me as Franklin Roosevelt (not Donald Trump), and TFT as an old fashioned homely wireless. I can almost hear the wood crackling away … and it’s getting far too difficult to resist a ‘you’re fired’ pun...
