Striking the first Ashes blows

< 1 minute read With 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

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England played – who knew?

< 1 minute read Because 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

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Andrew Flintoff’s world

< 1 minute read If 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 –

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Ian Bell wants to play one-day cricket

2 minute read In 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

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England’s bowling captain

< 1 minute read Mike 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

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