2 minute readHello South Africa and welcome to England. This is Alastair Cook. He is fitter than you are. We’re not sure you’re going to get on very well. Thus far, South Africa have had a fairly typical experience of touring England. It has rained and Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott have
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England v South Africa preview
2 minute readThere seem to be a lot of head to head type previews of this series. We never really get much out of them, because cricket doesn’t really work on a points system. There are no judges comparing the two teams’ attributes. You decide which side’s the better by pitting them
Continue readingEngland aren’t the best one-day side but neither are Australia
< 1 minute readA 5-0 win for England in this one-day series would have sent them to the top of the one-day rankings. That would have been as anomalous as “multi-coloured sweets in white sweet pack” to needlessly quote The Fall’s Mark E Smith. That line appears in a song called The Joke,
Continue readingTwo new balls for England
2 minute readThat title refers to the fact that two balls are now used in one-day internationals – one from each end. You could read it as being a reference to the effect this rule change has had on England as well though. It’s often said that using two balls is good
Continue readingAustralia strike back but England strike back back
< 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
Continue readingEngland 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
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