I didn’t watch all of it because I was hiding behind the sofa. Even though I was alone, and probably several miles from the nearest Irishman, I don’t think I’ve ever felt so embarrassed – and that includes the time my shorts fell down when I jumped into a swimming pool full of girls as a child. First of all, we have to say well done to Kevin O’Brien. He had his luck, but he was sensational. To hit the fastest ever century in the World Cup history (off 50 balls) was special – even though it was...
Steven Davies – and Andy Flower’s finest hour
We are very lucky to have Andy Flower and Andrew Strauss in charge of the England team. If further proof were still needed of their impeccable people-skills, professionalism, and simple humanity, it’s been provided by their peerless handling of Steven Davies. Davies has today become the first ever serving professional cricketer to publicly out himself as gay. But his England team-mates have known of this since October last year, when Davies decided the time had arrived to disclose his...
The World Cup finally begins ….
India 338 (49.5 overs) England 338-8 (50 overs). Match Tied. ‘Boring’, ‘stale’ and ‘dying’ – that’s how some people have been describing fifty over cricket during this World Cup. But today’s contest against India was anything but. It was the proverbial emotional rollercoaster – and the result wasn’t decided until the final ball. In fact, we still weren’t sure of the result after the final ball because (a) I was still in a state of disbelief after Ajmal Shahzad had hit his first ball for...
Why we must beat India (even though we don’t need to)
It has been billed as the match of the tournament thus far. England play India on Sunday for the right to, err, neither qualify for the quarterfinals nor be eliminated from the competition. That’s right, nothing really hinges on the result except perhaps momentum … yet then again, we all know it’s bad for a team to peak too early. Back in 1992, England bowled Pakistan out for less than a hundred in the group stages only for the game to be washed out. The form of Imran Khan’s so called...
Put the World Cup out of its misery
So we’re nearly a week into the World Cup, and so far the only excitement has come from England nearly losing to Holland. Apart from that, it’s been a littany of terrible mis-matches, batting collapses, facile victories, and general dreariness. Thank goodness for England’s ineptitude – otherwise things really would be bleak. Why does this keep happening? The 2011 tournament is set to be the third really boring World Cup in a row. Many will blame the overlong, over...
The most catastrophic collapse in history?
Terrific tale from this week’s excellent Guardian column ‘The Spin’, concerning the extraordinary climax to a recent fixture in New Zealand’s Napier club league, between Napier Old Boys’ Marist and Napier Technical Old Boys. As The Spin explains, NTOB “contrived to lose four wickets to just two legal deliveries, a collapse of such staggering collective ineptitude that is believed to be a first in the history of the game.” “The story begins in the...
