2 minute read There’ll be a bit of Twenty20 next year, but basically this is it. This is as close to a definitive goodbye as he’ll give us. The very reason why Darren Gough didn’t go out in a blaze of glory is the very reason why he deserved to do so. He
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Botham flouts health and safety regulations
< 1 minute read Is that suitable footwear? No. Should he be removing his hard hat? No. Also, it’s generally accepted that a high-visibility tabard be worn over the top of ordinary clothing so that you can easily be seen. Botham is wearing high-visibility clothing, but has concealed its garish, eye-catching qualities beneath a
Continue readingEngland’s Stanford Twenty20 squad
< 1 minute read We’ve been waiting for the announcement of England’s Stanford squad with the strange notion that we’d have something to say about it. Other than bemoaning the absence of Ian Austin, Chris Tavaré and Alan Igglesden, we’ve nothing. The squad’s who you think it is and the same players make up
Continue readingThat’s a win
< 1 minute read 6-1 off three overs? That’s a win. We need to be more decisive about things like this. We can’t just say that there was ‘no result’ because there wasn’t much cricket. That’s just laziness. There was plenty of cricket. Three overs is plenty and what we saw was clearly an
Continue readingGraeme Hick retires
2 minute read We learnt a lot through Graeme Hick. We learnt that nothing’s preordained. We learnt that heroes can let you down. We learnt that huge talent isn’t the sole ingredient for Test success and we learnt that if you mess about dropping and reselecting players it doesn’t help them one bit.
Continue readingPeter Moores talks balls
< 1 minute read We mean that how you think we mean it. He’s not been going on about Kookaburras or whatever. Talking about Andrew Flintoff Peter Moores said: “When it gets tight he takes a deep breath and delivers his skills.” Maybe that doesn’t bother you, but all sorts of alarm bells started
Continue readingEngland continue to combat pessimism
< 1 minute read All is not right with the world. England are dominating another side at one-day cricket. Wins are expected and are being delivered. We are in equal parts delighted and utterly horrified that some fundamental element of existence has been reversed. It’s as if gravity were making objects roar skyward or
Continue readingStuart Broad wins a match
< 1 minute read Stuart Broad hasn’t really been taking wickets in Tests, but in one-day internationals he’s been increasingly incisive. Even so, 5-23 against South Africa is a Will Jefferson step for him. He hasn’t got any more talent than he had this time last week, but hopefully this kind of domination of
Continue readingKevin Pietersen’s captaincy secret
< 1 minute read First there was the win, then there was the other win and then there was the cold, dead-eyed, relentless slaughter. England have murdered a top order before, but they rarely follow it by sweeping up the tail and leaving everywhere really nice and tidy. South Africa 85 all out and
Continue readingMike Selvey leaves TMS
< 1 minute read Or rather, Mike Selvey is asked to leave TMS. We’ve had a few goes at writing this where we’ve tried to compare Selvey to his likely replacements, but that’s not the point. The point is simple. Mike Selvey has spent a lifetime thinking about cricket. He has interesting thoughts on
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