< 1 minute read If we had to sum up the opinions aired regarding Dhoni’s captaincy yesterday, it basically boils down to something like: “Yes, he could do a bit more to support and encourage his bowlers, but it probably doesn’t matter all that much because they’d still be pretty middling even then –
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Does MS Dhoni make Test cricket interesting?
< 1 minute read Speaking about captaincy in his interview with the Guardian, Ian Chappell said: “I also felt – and I think this is overlooked a bit – that it was your job to make the cricket interesting for the players. In doing that, you get the best out of your best players.
Continue readingOne of Australia’s bowlers can kind of bat
< 1 minute read That’s the big news for the Australians today. Moises Henriques might well turn into the next Jacques Kallis or the next Imran Khan, but at present there’s a vague scent of bits and the distinct whiff of pieces in the air. Henriques is one of the better Test players born
Continue readingGautam Gambhir’s arse senses boot
2 minute read More often than not, an out of form batsman needs to be treated sensitively and given reassurance. If their confidence returns, they tend to discover it was actually all that was ever absent. Then again, sometimes a batsman needs the bracing reality check that comes with having someone’s lace holes
Continue readingWhat would you do if landed with a £275m tax bill?
< 1 minute read Well, on the assumption that you are employing a treasurer, why not do what the BCCI has done. From Cricinfo: “The BCCI has been hit with a Rs 2300 crore (approx $433m) notice from the income tax department and has asked its treasurer Ajay Shirke to suggest how to deal
Continue readingAcquiescence and the art of securing an unremarkable defeat
< 1 minute read England scored not-enough-runs and then India made slightly more. England’s wasn’t so much a one-day innings as an impression of a one-day innings; an approximation involving steady accumulation and later acceleration, only without either segment being quite what it should have been. We get the impression that Alastair Cook had
Continue readingRavindra Jadeja, school cricket and playing for the turn
2 minute read In some parts of England, they talk about ‘schools cricket’ – note the plural. This is a bizarre, alien form of the game in which posh 15-year-olds play on immaculate grounds in exquisite locations having been expertly coached by former internationals. ‘School cricket’ (singular) is rather different. In school cricket,
Continue readingJade Dernbach – where do we all stand on this at the minute?
2 minute read Back when everyone was going mental about Jade Dernbach and his ‘variations’ we pointed out that he was essentially half a bowler. He did the eye-catching things well, but he was fairly useless at the everyday stuff that’s equally important. Shortly after that, we argued that he shouldn’t be dropped,
Continue readingJames Tredwell brings more wonders
< 1 minute read When England won a Test series in India, we felt moved to ask: “Will wonders never cease?” It wasn’t a rhetorical question, so in light of England winning a high-scoring one-day international in India, we now have an answer: WONDERS WILL NEVER CEASE. England don’t do high-scoring one-day matches well.
Continue readingLet’s start as we mean to go on
< 1 minute read By going away, not updating the site properly and then doing a half-arsed round-up post on a Monday morning, even though we don’t really know what happened because we weren’t actually paying any attention. Pakistan won a one-day series against India We did actually watch some of this. And by
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