I dislike football analogies, but I’m going to make one anyway. Before the summer’s World Cup people inevitably got caught up in the hype. The press got behind Capello’s boys and thousands of people bought little red and white flags to attach to their cars. 2010 was going to be our year. Football was coming home. However, all the pre-tournament optimism evaporated after 45 minutes of turgid rubbish against the USA. Suddenly people realised that despite the hype, Emile Heskey was still Emile...
Day one at the Gabba
Stumps: Australia 25-0. England 260. Before the start of any overseas Ashes series, buy yourself a cat. It will give you something to kick when you wake up in the morning and see the score. Most disappointing about our first innings total was the relative innocuousness of the Australian bowling. They are essentially the same team as in 2009, and we ought to be able to play this stuff. Overall it was another very English day of batsmen making decent starts but no one able to knuckle down and...
Unbearable hope
It feels a bit like Christmas Eve today. We know that something very important and exciting begins late tonight. It makes us anxious, uneasy, but exhilarated. The clock ticks down towards midnight (or 10am in Brisbane) – slowly but inexorably, each elapsed hour pregnant with significance. Our minds race at the possibilities which await. Tomorrow – or rather, the next seven weeks – could bring us unconfined joy…or terrible disappointment. For an England supporter, this...
Serena Botham – and why Australia will be so hard to beat
I bet you a thousand pounds that Ian Botham’s Sky contract includes the stipulation that he must be referred to, at all times, as ‘Sir’ Ian. How else to explain the extraordinary, forelock-tugging obsequiousness of his Sky Sports colleagues, who are now compelled to defer to him as some kind of feudal overlord. He’s not just ‘Sir Ian’ for formal links and handovers. – but every single reference, no matter how throwaway, jokey, or informal. It must feel...
The Commentators’ Ashes
At 11pm GMT tomorrow, England and Australia’s cricketers will be stretching their limbs, applying their war paint, and counting their jelly beans in preparation for the first Ashes test. But what about the battle of the commentators? The rivalry inside the Gabba media centre will be equally intense as the likes of David Lloyd and Richie Benaud dust off their microphones, clear their throats, and practice their pronouncement of Usman Khawaja. Since Channel Four died long ago and ITV have only...
Just to get you in the mood…
With less than three days to go, and the nerves starting to jangle, we’ve decided to adopt a twin-pronged policy here at The Full Toss.
1. Unabashed patriotism.
2. Reminiscing about great Ashes moments of the past, just in case it all goes pear shaped from midnight on Thursday morning.
And what better way to start than with this…
