< 1 minute readThis is the impression we’re getting. ‘Come up with three ways in which we can improve’ People keep using the word ‘homework’ and it’s because of the way the task was given to the players. It’s the kind of school assignment where the level of difficulty has been carefully gauged
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Our three-point plan for improving Australia’s Test performances in India
< 1 minute readIf Shane, Mitch, James and Usman won’t bother, we will. 1. Bat Michael Clarke down the order We suggest at number six or even at number seven. As well as protecting the captain from India’s dangerous new ball bowlers, this will also help conserve his strength. He needs all the
Continue readingAustralian cricket somehow manages to become even more embarrassing
< 1 minute readAnd you thought something couldn’t be simultaneously depressing and hilarious. Australia have dropped four cricketers for failing to deliver a presentation. The modern world just got worse, but so did Australian cricket. The good news for Australia is that Shane Watson didn’t injure himself attempting to operate a computer keyboard.
Continue readingNick Compton, fridges and freezers
2 minute readOne of the weirdest send-offs of all time was when Steve Kirby, then playing for Yorkshire, sent Mike Atherton on his way with the immortal line: “I’ve seen better batters in my fridge.” This article is nothing to do with that, even though it is about keeping batsmen in the
Continue readingHamish Rutherford turned it round through caffeine and beer
< 1 minute readThere’s a lesson for everyone here. Hamish Rutherford has just middled we don’t know how many deliveries for four through the covers in one of those clean, brutal innings you can’t help but admire. And yet a year ago, he couldn’t even get a game for Otago. How did he
Continue readingBrendon McCullum’s tactics in the field
2 minute readBrendon McCullum’s captaincy was soiled at birth due to having arrived via the feculent womb of Mike Hesson, but just because Hesson’s man management skills are staggeringly inept, doesn’t mean McCullum is a bad captain. Asking questions Commentators always talk about asking questions of a batsman. This is rarely a
Continue readingGossip from day one of New Zealand v England
< 1 minute readAre you a cricket writer working for a national newspaper? Are you struggling to find something to write after day one of the first Test between New Zealand and England was washed out? Have no fear, after spending almost a full minute looking at photos on Cricinfo, we can exclusively
Continue readingTest cricket is a bad experiment
2 minute readWe don’t mean that in the sense that we’ve tried Test cricket and it should now be abandoned. What we’re saying is that Test cricket is essentially a shoddily-designed framework for testing all sorts of hypotheses and the lack of clarity is what makes it so compelling. Take India v
Continue readingPhillip Hughes against India’s spinners
< 1 minute readAround 95 per cent of cricket statistics are 85 per cent meaningless, but here’s a nice one: In his last 39 deliveries against spin, Phillip Hughes has scored zero runs and been dismissed four times. Earlier in the year, Hughes was overlooked for the Tests against South Africa because the
Continue readingAustralia add two spinners and subtract one
< 1 minute readYesterday, we wrote about Australia’s firmly held belief that there’s a better spinner out there despite there being absolutely no evidence whatsoever that that’s the case. Today they dropped Nathan Lyon. But this isn’t exactly the cut-and-dried lack of faith in Lyon that you might think. Instead, it seems that
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