< 1 minute readEngland got in an early blow ahead of all those Ashes serieses the day before yesterday when Australia selected Steven Smith to bat at six. However, the Aussies have now struck back through not selecting Steven Smith at all. Undeterred, England reacted swiftly and once again hold the advantage after
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England land early blow ahead of all those Asheses
< 1 minute readEngland today landed a massive blow ahead of all the millions of Asheses that are going to be played over the next few years. This blow will have sent shockwaves through the whole of Australia. The monumentally significant moment came when Australia named their team and revealed that Steven Smith
Continue readingStriking the first Ashes blows
< 1 minute readWith 11 Ashes series in the next three years, this one-day series between England and Australia is the only real hors d’oeuvre. It’s just steak and duck breast after this, albeit with slightly more potatoes than you’d probably want in an ideal world. As everyone knows, hors d’oeuvres aren’t for
Continue readingEngland played – who knew?
< 1 minute readBecause we didn’t. It was a Twenty20 international. Alex Hales scored 99. England won. Does anybody know anything about it? Are we supposed to have opinions about it? Did anything particularly noteworthy happen other than Alex Hales’ innings? If it did, we might read a match report. Otherwise, we’ll just
Continue readingAndrew Flintoff’s world
< 1 minute readIf there’s one thing that’s become clear from Freddie Flintoff’s slurred slights against acerbic Athers, it’s that the duff-kneed purveyor of forced laddish bonhomie cares little for freedom of speech. “How can he talk about a player like Alastair Cook who is 10 times the player he ever was –
Continue readingEngland v Australia will sap our enthusiasm
2 minute readWe’re doing far too much moaning about this kind of crap and frankly we’re sick of reading about it elsewhere as well, even if we agree with much of what’s being said. This post is an attempt to purge some of our ill-feeling, because the negativity is spreading like a
Continue readingEngland v West Indies first XIs
< 1 minute readThere have been a lot of ifs over the course of this West Indies tour. ‘If Sunil Narine, Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard were here…’ Those four players found their way into the team one by one, so that yesterday they all played. What happened? West Indies got
Continue readingIan Bell wants to play one-day cricket
2 minute readIn a parallel universe, players and fans care about one-day internationals – or, more accurately, one-day internationals are worth caring about. In this universe, we’ll have to muddle through, making the best of flukes and serendipity. Kevin Pietersen retired from one-day internationals because on the morning of a game, he
Continue readingEngland’s bowling captain
< 1 minute readMike Selvey made an interesting point in his third Test match report cum series review. “No captain of any consequence does so in isolation. Instead he is a facilitator relying heavily on the sort of input of ideas from his bowlers that cannot come from elsewhere.” When he isn’t scoring
Continue readingEngland once had a player called Jack Crapp
< 1 minute readSeriously. Why did no-one tell us about this? Jack Crapp! Is this common knowledge? How did we miss a name like that? 319 Test runs at an average of 29 seems appropriate. Crapp later became an umpire. There was also a guy called Dick Spooner.
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