< 1 minute readIf we weren’t actually first off the mark in lauding Tom Smith, we were there or thereabouts. He elicited that laudery by taking 3-29 on the first day of the 2006 season. Fortunately for us, Smith actually made his debut a year before, so we’re still not yet at the
Continue readingCategory: News
Andre Russell might actually find out whether he’s going to be banned from cricket next week
2 minute readIf you’ve a decent memory, you might remember that Andre Russell had a possible two-year ban from cricket hanging over him after being unavailable for three doping tests during a 12-month period back in 2015. ‘Oh yeah,’ you may think. ‘What happened with that in the end?’ Well, the answer
Continue readingEngland will pray for nip or tail at the Champions Trophy
2 minute readThe early stages of England’s one-day cricket revolution saw the team transform from one that scored about 250 on average to one that score about 250 on average. The difference was in the range. They went from making 240-260 and losing every game to making 100-400 and winning half the
Continue readingWhy waste your best bowler in the final over?
< 1 minute readThe idea that England might try and bounce out Virat Kohli proved as wide of the mark as a Devon Malcolm loosener. They decided to pepper him with half-volleys instead. And it worked. They adopted a similar method against Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni, occasionally mixing things up with a
Continue readingAB de Villiers slowly coming to terms with Test retirement
< 1 minute readVery slowly. He’s not yet at a point where he’ll accept that his final Test was in January last year. Earlier this week, de Villiers made himself unavailable for selection for the upcoming Test series in New Zealand in March. Today he ruled himself out of the Test series against
Continue readingShakib al Hasan’s Test double hundred and its perfect ending
< 1 minute readSometimes we forget that you haven’t all been reading this website since day dot. It’s been over a decade since we tipped Shakib al Hasan for greatness so chances are a great many of you won’t know what a big deal it is that he made a Test double hundred
Continue readingVideo: Mitchell Johnson playing tennis right-handed
< 1 minute readWell, looks like we’ve got to the bottom of that whole ‘bowl to the left, bowl to the right’ thing. Turns out Mitchell Johnson is right-handed. Here’s some expert coaching advice, Mitch: bowl with your other hand. Better late than never with these kinds of tips. You may already have
Continue readingHas Alastair Cook stood down as England captain yet?
< 1 minute readOnly we’ll have to get something up about it pretty darn sharpish if he does. Our readers will doubtless have much to say about such a development. Maybe we could publish some sort of ‘holding post’ instead, floating the possibility that Cook might stand down without actually stating that this
Continue readingWhat does Australia’s Test series win over Pakistan actually mean?
2 minute readDoes it amount to a hill of beans? A fell of discarded iPhone covers? A mountain of offcuts of plasterboard? Just before Christmas, we said that Pakistan are, essentially, a swing bowling side, and therefore pretty much always do terribly Down Under. There has been more to the series than
Continue readingVernon Philander is there if you need some seasoning
2 minute readWe’ve spent much of the morning trying to work out what kind of a vehicle Vernon Philander is. After much thought, we’ve concluded that he’s not a vehicle at all – he’s a pepper grinder. South Africa have a lot of whizzy, fancy kitchen gadgets. Dale Steyn is the luxury
Continue reading