< 1 minute read Well, they’re not great, but that’s largely due to the fact that there are a whole bunch of teams in the tournament rather than because of any massive shortcomings on England’s part. If there were only one team in the tournament, England’s chances would be far better. If there were
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Monty Panesar plays lower standard of cricket to improve confidence
< 1 minute read Surely this won’t help. If Panesar’s in the slips then this is beneath back garden standard.
Continue readingAndy Caddick’s Test career – awkward bounce from an awkward bowling action from an awkward bloke
2 minute read We never wrote about Andy Caddick when he retired. We should have done. Say what you like about Andy Caddick. Say that he was mad as pies; say that he got picked for England because people wanted him there to fix stuff while they were on tour; say he was
Continue readingRavi Bopara, Essex: first-class batsman to watch in 2010
< 1 minute read The plight of Ravi Bopara makes an interesting case study. He’s trying to establish himself as a Test cricketer and only Test runs will really persuade anyone that he’s ready. He gets a series of ducks in Tests in Sri Lanka and gets dropped. He promptly makes a one-day double
Continue readingAdil Rashid, Yorkshire: first-class bowler to watch in 2010
< 1 minute read The general feeling about Adil Rashid is that maybe everyone should just let him play a bit of cricket. England helped his development no end last season by keeping him out of the majority of Yorkshire’s matches so that he could not play for them instead. Occasionally they let him
Continue readingArtballing – we love the use of the word “accurately”
< 1 minute read Remember Michael Vaughan’s paint thing? He was commissioned to produce a painting of the Chevrolet Cruze. “The painting took eight hours to create with Vaughan calling on his cricketing expertise to accurately recreate the bodywork, tyres and alloys on canvas using five different coloured cricket balls and over 20 litres
Continue readingBangladesh v England – no protagonist, no narrative, no cephalopods
< 1 minute read Good films come in two forms: The writers are smarter than you and have constructed an ingenious plot where the story slowly unfolds, keeping you rapt The writers are far stupider than you and haven’t a clue about plot structure, so just to keep things moving, every now and again
Continue readingAshes on free TV could mean four counties going bankrupt
< 1 minute read Sounds good to us. Can we choose which ones? The ECB have felt it necessary to spend half a million pounds on some research that shows how badly off they’d be if the Ashes were put on free TV rather than Sky. We can’t help but think that an organisation
Continue readingSteven Finn brings height and speed to the England bowling attack
< 1 minute read Earlier this week, we wrote about England’s back-up bowlers for The Wisden Cricketer, saying they were all a bit samey. The one guy we didn’t mention was our former One To Watch, Steven Finn. Finn actually got picked to make his Test debut against Bangladesh and it’s the fact that
Continue readingMichael Vaughan wants South Africans DEAD
< 1 minute read There’s a beautifully hazy piece in The Independent today on Michael Vaughan’s comments about South African born cricketers representing England. Essentially, his thoughts about how some South African players come to England for money have been presented as if he’s saying that Kevin Pietersen should be dropped because he was
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