< 1 minute read Never judge a pitch until both teams have batted, but if a side’s bowled out for 127 and they’ve chosen to bat, you can take a good long look at the captain and maybe laugh at him a bit. Ricky Ponting should have been wary of Mohammad Asif, who’s probably
Continue reading< 1 minute read Yesterday, we were presented with the following two headlines via our RSS feeds: Taylor delighted by ‘special’ MBE and Taylor charged after bar scuffle Slightly disappointingly, Claire Taylor didn’t celebrate her MBE by going on an all-dayer that culminated in a drunken argument with bar staff because they wouldn’t give
Continue reading2 minute read You may not realise this, but the title of Lord Megachief of Gold is only granted for a one-year term. Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Lord Megachief of Gold 2007 and Grand Lord Megachief of Gold 2008, stands down. MS Dhoni steps up. Why MS Dhoni? Cricket is about winning. It’s not about
Continue reading2 minute read It’s got to be done. Brace yourself for some links. Maybe bookmark the page for later but never actually read it. That’s what we’d do. January Peter Moores said Liberty X were derivative and Kevin Pietersen said that Moores was an inbred Maxonian obsessed with wheelie bin collections. England lost
Continue reading< 1 minute read Hopefully no-one’s told him yet and hopefully he never realises, but England’s performance hinges on how well Graeme Swann plays. Obviously, taking nine wickets for not a lot had a huge impact on how England won this Test, but nowadays Swann HAS to perform. That’s not because England’s other bowlers
Continue reading< 1 minute read We wrote about Shane Watson and Ian Bell over at The Wisden Cricketer. We said that they weren’t hugely popular in their respective countries, perhaps because they were overly serious. We also said that Shane Watson couldn’t bowl. Shortly after the post went up, both Bell and Watson scored hundreds
Continue reading< 1 minute read Basically, through ambush. They plod along, being solid and unspectacular and then in one innings in the field, they completely steamroller the opposition. Think of England’s wins since Andy Flower and Andrew Strauss took over. West Indies were rolled for 152 at Lord’s; the same opponents were dispatched for 176
Continue reading< 1 minute read Let’s examine the Ian Bell fact. You know the one: he only scores hundreds when someone else in the England batting line-up has already made one. This has just happened against South Africa. Alastair Cook was first and then Ian Bell outstripped him with 141. Let’s just say that the
Continue reading< 1 minute read Kevin Pietersen doesn’t have a weakness against left-arm spin. Not directly anyway. Kevin Pietersen’s weakness is that sometimes he thinks he could travel to the moon without a vehicle or oxygen. All players have a confidence range. Sometimes they’re up, sometimes they’re down, but the extremes aren’t the same for
Continue reading< 1 minute read Opening batsmen always talk about developing ‘an understanding’ with their opening partner. Shane Watson and Simon Katich should try and understand that batsmen should end up at opposite ends when running between the wickets. We hope Australia never drop Shane Watson. He blends haplessness, incompetence, misfortune and childish petulance. It’s
Continue reading