3 minute readThe England Test team run by Joe Root and Chris Silverwood is not big on picking spinners. It is even less big on picking Jack Leach. A rare appearance in the first Ashes Test saw the left-armer get walloped, so how comfortable will the two head honchos be about picking
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2 minute readWhat is the start? Is the first ball the start? (Rory Burns bowled for 0.) Is the first session the start? (England 59-4.) The first innings? The first day? (England 147 all out.) Maybe the whole of the first Test match is the start. (Well at least there’s rain around.)
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2 minute readWe’ve often bemoaned the inflexible, out-of-date way broadcasters sell sport to consumers, but things have definitely improved in recent years. Obviously the ideal is that any given Test series is broadcast on a channel you already have. Failing that, all we ask is that there’s a way to see the action
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2 minute readThe fifth Ashes Test is a very important thing, even when – in fact, especially when it’s a dead rubber. We hereby retract our knee jerk suggestion that they simply abandon the match in light of the two teams’ decision not to travel to Perth because of Western Australia’s 14-day
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< 1 minute readGraham Manou finished his career with a first-class batting average of 25.49. He played one Test for Australia. That Test was the third of the 2009 Ashes series, a heavily rain-affected draw that never really delivered tension at any point. Maybe there was a soupcon when Australia were 52-2 in
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6 minute readFast bowlers aren’t often captains. They’re more likely to get injured. They’re more likely to be tired and bad-tempered in the field. There’s always the temptation to over- or under-bowl themselves. But these things aren’t insurmountable. Whenever a Test captaincy vacancy opens up, the discussion begins. Who are the options?
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< 1 minute readPad Haddin. Brad Paddin. Pad Had-a-Ball-In. There may or may not be a joke in there, but even if there is, there’s one thing we can be sure of: it is not a good one. We refer, of course, to one of the great moments of the 2009 Ashes. One
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< 1 minute readWorld cricket’s longest-serving stand-in captain took heroic and selfless steps to avert a tragedy today. Increasingly concerned that Steve Smith might never again captain Australia, Tim Paine hit upon the idea of sexting someone four years ago – a simple move that has allowed him to immediately resign. Paine was
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2 minute readWe’re doing another series of The Ridiculous Ashes, the podcast we do with Dan Liebke in which we revisit the funnier moments of historic Ashes series and decide which side made the more significant comedy contribution. A few people have previously been put off by the fact that Series 1
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2 minute readIt’s now less than a year until the final of the 2022 T20 World Cup. Let’s take a look at how some of the teams are shaping up with just a handful of matches left for fine-tuning. The world is unanimously agreed that the 2022 edition will be the first
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