< 1 minute read Our facial hair says ‘couldn’t be bothered shaving’. Shikhar Dhawan’s says ‘I take enormous pride in my moustache’. Hair can build up like limescale or mould or it can be something you cultivate and tend to like a flower. Dhawan’s moustache reminds us of a possibly apocryphal story we heard
Continue readingCategory: England
What to expect from Stuart Broad
< 1 minute read Expectations are a funny thing. A great film trailer guarantees a disappointing film. Far better to keep expectations low. That’s our philosophy. Promise nothing and then deliver half of something to semi-grateful murmurs of: “Oh, it’s not as bad as I expected.” After several years of promise and a number
Continue readingNew Zealand opt to bowl and then bowl
< 1 minute read Some believe that Brendon McCullum’s decision to bowl in Wellington was partly as a result of his decision to bat and then bowl on the first morning of a Test against South Africa at the start of the year. If so, he’s an idiot. The other alternatives are (1) that
Continue readingNick Compton, fridges and freezers
2 minute read One of the weirdest send-offs of all time was when Steve Kirby, then playing for Yorkshire, sent Mike Atherton on his way with the immortal line: “I’ve seen better batters in my fridge.” This article is nothing to do with that, even though it is about keeping batsmen in the
Continue readingGossip from day one of New Zealand v England
< 1 minute read Are you a cricket writer working for a national newspaper? Are you struggling to find something to write after day one of the first Test between New Zealand and England was washed out? Have no fear, after spending almost a full minute looking at photos on Cricinfo, we can exclusively
Continue readingHow will Australia win Tests in India?
< 1 minute read England fans appear to be making the most of Australia’s eight wicket defeat to India, drawing all sorts of conclusions based on this one Test match. This shows a certain lack of awareness when their own team recently lost the first Test in a series in India by nine wickets.
Continue readingJoe Root seems okay
< 1 minute read Most people seem to be saying ‘Joe Root is amazing’ but we’ll take it down a few notches from there. We’re still forming an opinion. There’s no rush. The story so far seems to have followed this course: He looks an excellent stodgy blocker Wait, he can score quick runs
Continue readingCan we talk about Jos Buttler and Twenty20 a bit?
3 minute read We really need to update the saying “throw the baby out with the bath water”. Who ‘throws out’ bath water these days? In the modern world, bath water exits via a plughole and no baby could be lost via one of those. You could argue that a parent might be
Continue readingGautam Gambhir’s arse senses boot
2 minute read More often than not, an out of form batsman needs to be treated sensitively and given reassurance. If their confidence returns, they tend to discover it was actually all that was ever absent. Then again, sometimes a batsman needs the bracing reality check that comes with having someone’s lace holes
Continue readingAcquiescence and the art of securing an unremarkable defeat
< 1 minute read England scored not-enough-runs and then India made slightly more. England’s wasn’t so much a one-day innings as an impression of a one-day innings; an approximation involving steady accumulation and later acceleration, only without either segment being quite what it should have been. We get the impression that Alastair Cook had
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