< 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 readingMonth: October 2008
Michael Hussey loves having the runs
< 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 readingMashrafe Mortaza takes New Zealand to the cleaners
< 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 readingRicky Ponting isn’t a different batsman when he’s in India
< 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 readingWho to support – India or Australia?
< 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 readingWhy Beau Casson fakes injury
< 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
Continue readingNottinghamshire v Durham Pro40 match report
< 1 minute read Jo-Fitz writes: The eagerly awaited official switching-on of our new floodlights. Rain. Bugger. Not enough rain to get rained off (unfortunately, given the eventual result) but enough to turn the match into a mutant spawn ThirtyFive25. I arrived at half time (sorry, came over all 5Live there) and marvelled at
Continue readingSourav Ganguly taking his bat in
< 1 minute read No-one ever slinks out the back door, do they? They give you four Tests’ notice so that they can be lauded to the high heavens for a month. Some players don’t even get four Tests in their careers, but now there are retirement articles about players who’ve still got that
Continue readingVirender Sehwag gives his verdict on Jason Krejza
< 1 minute read “I think we will go after him.” Run, Jason. Run! There’s nothing left for you in India. Grab your passport and enough rupees to get you to the airport and just flee. You’re a marked man. Virender Sehwag doesn’t do milking the spinners. If he wants spin-milk, he’s going right
Continue readingMatthew Hayden finally talks about himself in the third person
< 1 minute read You can tell he’s the kind of person that does that just by looking at his face. It’s okay, we’ve looked at his face to bring you that information, so you don’t need to subject yourself to the same torment. He was saying something about Harbhajan Singh at the time.
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