< 1 minute readRichie Benaud is going to be on British TV this summer. He is going to be working as Channel 5’s analyst during the Ashes. We’ve heard that Richie’s recent commentating has gone downhill a bit, but this role must surely be perfect for him and it must be perfect for
Continue readingCategory: Australia
What can Australia do with their fortnight off?
< 1 minute readHaving had a couple of turd matches, Australia find themselves knocked out of the World Twenty20. Before playing Sri Lanka, Ricky Ponting joked about how they weren’t considering failure because the alternative, a fortnight in Leicester, was too horrific to contemplate. Quite apart from the fact that Sri Lanka are
Continue readingChris Gayle is awesome at Twenty20
< 1 minute readAmid all the furore when Chris Gayle said he wouldn’t be all that sad if Test cricket died, one key fact slipped into the background: Chris Gayle is phenomenally good at this form of the game. Why wouldn’t he prefer it? Gayle is an exceptional Twenty20 batsman. Arguably the best
Continue readingThe big news about Andrew Symonds being sent home from the Australia squad
< 1 minute readThe big news is that during the press conference, Ricky Ponting went a little bit boss-eyed. Look:
Continue readingA reason and a half why England have already won the Ashes
< 1 minute readSwing bowling Give an Australian bowler the solidified lump of blancmange known as a Kookaburra cricket ball (which is used in Australia) and he’ll pound in and bowl at off stump until the batsman deliberately misses one to save himself from the boredom. Give an Australian bowler an English Duke
Continue readingAndrew McDonald instead of Andrew Symonds
< 1 minute readIf you don’t know who Andrew McDonald is, imagine a side’s seventh batsman and their fifth bowler. Now imagine he bowls medium-pace. Now wake up again. If it weren’t for having hair that’s such a bright shade of red that it clashes with life itself, Andrew ‘Ronald’ McDonald wouldn’t be
Continue readingGlamorgan’s pitch for the first Ashes Test
< 1 minute readSome of you might have seen that Glamorgan were docked two points for producing a duff pitch. This is at the beautifully monikered Swalec Stadium, where the first Ashes Test is due to take place. ‘Oh no,’ people have said. ‘What if the pitch for the Ashes is sub-standard?’ These
Continue readingDeteriorating batting performances late in a career
< 1 minute readMatthew Hayden’s been interviewed. You don’t know how much we’ve missed this. He was asked about his deteriorating batting toward the end of his Test career and, as ever, he’s crystal clear about what happened. “Suddenly questions are asked about your ability and performance, which is absolutely rubbish because your
Continue readingPhillip Hughes in England
< 1 minute readAfter scores of 118, 65 not out and 74 last week, today’s 99 not out marks the moment when we move away from admiring an exceptional young Antipodean talent and towards being sick to the back teeth, the front teeth and tonsils of a winnetty-faced, cork-hatted bastard. Phillip Hughes is
Continue readingMark Cosgrove flobs back into county cricket
< 1 minute readSometimes it’s okay to make use of the verb ‘to flob’. This usage is entirely justified. While the world trains its gaze on Fake IPL Player or the IPL itself – or Ian Bell or Michael Vaughan or Philip Hughes – while the world trains its gaze on those events,
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