How viable a prospect is Steven Finn?
Everyone agrees we need a tall and fast bowler for Australia this winter. Someone who can provide a cutting edge, or at least augment the steadier, skiddier fare of Anderson and Onions. The selectors have decreed, probably correctly, that Steven Finn is the cricketer most likely to fulfil these criteria, the best we have available. He certainly looks the part, physically, and ticks a lot of boxes. This raises the risk, however, of Mark Ealham Syndrome. In other words, the tendency of selectors...
A new experience
As England supporters we experience a rollercoaster of emotions – from the highs of 2005 to the horrors of 2006-7, from the most joyous of victories to the kind of gut-wrenching defeat which almost entirely breaks our spirit. Above all, we expect the worst, whatever the match situation. In the 1980s we assumed defeat in any series against the West Indies. In the 1990s the Ashes meant only despair and embarrassment. Against Pakistan and India we know that a collapse or a bowling meltdown...
The Ashes journey starts here
When we were growing up, the start of first test of the English summer was a moment to cherish. Hearing Richie Benaud’s voice for the first time in nearly nine months was like ‘putting on a pair of old jeans’ to quote our old friend Billy Birmingham. It was the perfect fit: summer days lazing at home, Gower scoring a sublime century, making fun of Gatting’s ever expanding waistline, and good old Richie, ever the master of understatement, smoothing over breaks in play with his intuitive but...
T20 is brilliant, as we always said…
We may have previously given the impression that Twenty 20 is a puerile and meaningless form of cricket, sustained only by the basest commercial motives, and misappropriated by greedy and insolent charlatans from India. We have, perhaps, also inadvertently implied that Twenty 20 is nothing more than a crude and garish piece of exhibitionist nonsense, with no relevance to the game’s true soul or heritage. However, following Sunday’s historic events in Barbados, we now realise that...
We are the champions…of the world!
For the first time ever, we can say – we are the world champions! How impossibly delicious those words sound, whatever you may think of Twenty 20. So nice, indeed, I’m going to say them again: we are the world champions! Say them as often as you can. Say them to everyone in the office – especially your Australian collegues. Tattoo them on your forehead. Tell your aged grandmother, your six month old nephew, and your Lithuanian cleaner. Change your middle names to World and...
