< 1 minute read The four Test series between the West Indies and England will feature the umpire challenging system, whereby batsmen can remove one of their gloves, slap the umpire across the face with it and call for lbw shouts to be decided by a duel. Either that or you get a few
Continue reading< 1 minute read Stuart Law’s contract has not been renewed. Partly because he’s associated with the ICL, partly because he called Lancashire’s members gin-swilling know-nothings, but mostly because he’s 40 this week. The gin outburst came when Lancashire decided to do away with Dominic Cork and we always suspected that it was as
Continue reading< 1 minute read Here’s a quote from raving metrosexual, Shane Watson: “It’s a good way to challenge them [the Indians], physically and mentally. Not sledging but having an aggressive persona about you – and that’s the way I play my cricket.” Watson’s always saying things like this about how he plays aggressive cricket.
Continue reading< 1 minute read ‘I’m gangly, awkward-looking and appear to be halfway through swallowing a Rubik’s cube – how could I make myself look worse?’ This, presumably, is the thinking behind Ishant Sharma’s strange, effeminate mane. Good bowler, great slower ball, but it’s a dire situation indeed when going back to a mullet would
Continue reading< 1 minute read There are two articles. One says Twenty20’s clearly going to kill Test cricket. One says that probably, on balance, that won’t happen. Newspaper editors will tend to publish the first one. The former’s punchier and it provokes debate, so we get to read a disproportionate number of articles about how
Continue reading< 1 minute read ‘Give me the runs’, he says. Michael Hussey feasts on dodgy bowling and then he has the runs. At the end of the day, he’s exhausted with it all, but he can still muster a weak smile, because that’s how much he likes having the runs. You’ve got to make
Continue reading< 1 minute read “Daniel Vettori, Brendon McCullum, Jacob Oram – this is the cleaners. The washing powder’s over there. It’s a quid for a full cycle and 20p for the dryers.” “Thanks Mashrafe.” Mashrafe Mortaza’s 4-44 today set up Bangladesh’s win. Mashrafe now has 116 ODI (one-day international) wickets at 31.78. He’s very
Continue reading< 1 minute read The thing people often fail to understand about batting averages is that they only describe what’s already happened. Ricky Ponting’s average in India was famously bad, but yet he hit a hundred. That’s the thing about historical precedents – they only tell you about the past. The Australians came up
Continue reading< 1 minute read We know that there are a number of English readers out there who are having trouble picking sides for this series, so we thought we’d help you out. Normally this would be an easy one. You never want to support Australia, whoever they’re playing, because they’re the best. You usually
Continue reading< 1 minute read “I’ve had [physio] Pat Farhart weave some of his magic and the groin has responded really well.” We move that from now on Pat Farhart should be crow-barred into any conversation about Australia – whether it’s justified or not. As far as Australian physiotherapists who take advantage of young spin
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