Sports minister Hugh Robertson today announced that the decision on whether to re-list home Ashes tests for free-to-air TV will be deferred to 2013. The government’s official rationale is a preference to wait until the digital TV switchover is complete in 2012. Unless of course they’ve chosen to fudge a politically fraught decision which either way will anger someone – the public, or the ECB. 2013 is itself a home Ashes year – and how today’s news will affect that...
Why the English love Warney
He terrorised us for years. He pushed the laws of the game to the limit (and sometimes overstepped the mark). He was suspended for using a banned diuretic. He gave information to a dodgy Indian bookmaker – a kind of cricketing ‘cash for questions’ scandal – and he badgered match officials into giving dodgy decisions in a way that Christiano Ronaldo would have been proud. Yet, amazingly, the English public absolutely love Shane Warne! The man can do no wrong. It’s like a...
Pakistan’s home from home (but who do you want to win?)
This summer England are hosting a mini test series between Pakistan and Australia – something we should be proud of. It’s good to see us helping out the beleaguered Pakistanis. International cricket can’t afford to lose a colourful team like Pakistan, so well done to the ECB for helping them out whilst the security situation within their country remains dire. If the recent T20 games between Pakistan and Australia are anything to go by, the atmosphere in the forthcoming tests promises to be...
Anybody fancy playing Bangladesh again?
Didn’t think so. Jimmy Anderson doesn’t look too keen either. Perhaps that’s why Kevin Pietersen has got injured again? Maybe his thigh strain is actually a dislocated jaw – from yawning so much. The England squad must be bored senseless at the prospect of yet another pointless series against the whipping boys of international cricket. But who are we to question the wisdom of the ECB? Compared to the Football Association they’re absolute geniuses.
Time to ruffle a few canary yellow feathers
If England beat Australia in the one-day series that starts at the Rose Bowl today, we’ll find ourselves in the delicious position of having beaten the Aussies in our most recent meetings in all three forms of the game. When did that last happen? Not since Scott Robinson first laid eyes on Charlene Mitchell I wager (that’s a Kylie and Jason reference by the way). Therefore, beating the canary yellow army in this curiously scheduled series is actually pretty important. We need to keep the...
How about this for a finish?
From the North Atlantic comes news of a remarkable match in the World Cricket League. Many thanks to Jack Waley-Cohen for sending it in. We’ve not been able to track down who wrote this – so if it’s you, let us know. The best match of the week was not played in Manchester, Port-of-Spain, or Bulawayo, but in Pembroke, Bermuda, at the Western Stars Sports Club. The Bahamas were taking on Argentina in division one of the World Cricket League’s Americas region. Argentina...
