Posted by 
Last time England toured India, Ian Blackwell was in the one-day side. He did all right as well.
As a batsman he’s usually described as ‘rustic’ or somesuch. A variety of adjectives might get used, but they all mean that he’s a fat slogger. He’s a good fat slogger, don’t get us wrong. We’re just filling you in on what the writers REALLY mean.
He never did anything with the bat for England, but he was surprisingly economical with the ball. He was abandoned though, because he didn’t take many wickets and didn’t score many runs.
Mostly though, you get the impression that he was discarded because he was fat. It’s not a crime, but England think it reflects a certain attitude – an attitude where battenburg is there to be inhaled and chewing food’s looked upon as wasting valuable time.
Ian Blackwell, Mike Yardy, Jamie Dalrymple – all showed a bit of promise, batting a bit and bowling some economical spin. Watch out Samit Patel. Watch out Graeme Swann.
He should have replaced Samit Patel in the XI. He is a better bowler than Samit, though his batting form has been on the wane. He could have covered up for Monty’s absence.
Perhaps one day England will select a real spinner for ODIs.
Meanwhile, over on MTWD, some Somerset supporters are likening the loss of Blackwell to Durham up there with Decca rejecting the Beatles in favour of Brian Poole and the Tremeloes.
You think I’m kidding? Go See:
http://www.cricketnetwork.co.uk/boards/read/s66.htm?67,9841338,page=1
From 22:10 on 17th onwards!!
Blacky is a big lad but he was in the top 10 batting averages with 1000 runs this year. Not bad for an allrounder. Never did anything for England with the bat was the comment by some wally – well what about that 80 odd off India. Frankly what do you expect from a number 8, i should think an international batting average of 19 was pretty favourable from as many balls or less. oh yes, the bowling was the tightest and then there were those returns ‘in ‘ the Indian sub-continent of 3 for 24. Langer better be worth his loss for the coming years. Somerset has gone backwards.
Ged, who does the web design work for MTWD?
I’m thinking they’ll be some fighting over the pork pies at teatime if they have Blackwell AND Killer in one team. Could we entice Jesse over too?
MTWD is on Sportnetwork, Ed, so not much room for independent web design there. In our case, that lack of flexibility is probably a blessing.
We’re a content over form sort of place.
Until you criticise the content, in which case I’d mumble “but look at the lovely pictures” or some such.
Ged, when I first saw the website I thought ‘Oh my goodness, this is horrible’. Then I read the content and realised(after browsing through a couple of pages) that you probably didn’t all live in caravans and steal my laptop at Lymm Services.
I especially liked the MTWD Glossary.
By the way; the bloke 2nd from the right in the photo, is he Harvey Keitel?