< 1 minute readMike Selvey made an interesting point in his third Test match report cum series review. “No captain of any consequence does so in isolation. Instead he is a facilitator relying heavily on the sort of input of ideas from his bowlers that cannot come from elsewhere.” When he isn’t scoring
Continue reading2 minute readIt’s very difficult to be both arrogant and likeable, but Tino Best manages it. It’s something to do with having just the faintest awareness of how absurd you are – and make no mistake, Tino best is ludicrous. He’s like a cartoon character. His answer phone message proclaims him the
Continue reading< 1 minute readSeriously. Why did no-one tell us about this? Jack Crapp! Is this common knowledge? How did we miss a name like that? 319 Test runs at an average of 29 seems appropriate. Crapp later became an umpire. There was also a guy called Dick Spooner.
Continue reading< 1 minute readIt’s very easy to blank out the finer details of sportsmen’s injuries. Getting knee-knack and gammy-hammy are occupational hazards, so we tend to only really take in the word ‘injured’ before wondering who’ll replace the player in question. But Graham Onions had spinal surgery. Think about that. Someone tore a
Continue reading< 1 minute readGood day to you all. Last week, I, Count Cricket, attended Durham v Lancashire at Chester-le-Street. Lancashire won and lifted themselves to mid-table respectability. Some damp weather caused me to seek shelter in the toilets for a time. While there, I met a pleasant woman who informed me that King
Continue reading< 1 minute readWith his finishing school posture and his languid prancing, Kevin Pietersen always looks fine when he’s ambling around the outfield. But who knows what’s going on inside those 30-something limbs? Maybe he’s got age-related shitty knee. You need to rest your stupid, failing joints for longer as you get older.
Continue reading< 1 minute readThere’s plenty of talk about resting England’s bowlers now that the series is won. We predicted squad rotation years ago and while we don’t disagree with the practice, we do disagree with the world that necessitates it. If the first XI were exactly that in every international cricket match, the
Continue reading< 1 minute readGood day to you all. Last week, I, Count Cricket, attended Sussex v Nottinghamshire. Nottinghamshire won and so went to the top of the table. The weather was good, so I protected my pallid skin by withdrawing to Hove’s toilets where I quaffed brandy from my thermos. Very pleasant it
Continue reading< 1 minute readWhen asked about the make-up of England’s bowling attack for the second Test at Trent Bridge, Andrew Strauss said it was a ground where the ball tended to swing, so they’d selected the three best swing bowlers. This begs the question, just what is the optimum number of eggs to
Continue reading2 minute readWe’ve really warmed to Marlon Samuels a short way into a short series. There are three main reasons for this. Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, his favourite cricketer is Nasser Hussain. Anyone with such an inexplicably unlikely role model is someone to be admired. Secondly, he’s funny. Jimmy Anderson is
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