< 1 minute read Ged writes: The attached photograph is a monk at the Rumtek monastery in Sikkim brandishing a cricket bat. It is my own photo and the monk enthusiastically volunteered to be photographed. Rumtek monastery is a very holy and unusual place. The monks are black hats, which is an unusual strand
Continue readingMonth: March 2009
West Indies’ one-day kit
< 1 minute read “Let’s make the shirt maroon and then match that with scarlet trousers and hats, because maroon and scarlet are complementary colours. “Let’s put some yellow bits here, there and everywhere and then let’s make the collar, ooh, let’s say bright green. “Finally, as the piece de resistance, let’s put a
Continue readingSteve Harmison has one day to bowl his way back
2 minute read If there’s one thing England need more than anything else, it’s a fast bowler. If there’s one thing Steve Harmison isn’t at the moment, it’s a fast bowler. The good news for Harmison is that nobody else is either, so all he really needs to address is that ‘at the
Continue readingA cricket bat on the cover of Vogue
< 1 minute read Warning: The following does feature a photograph of an actual woman. Ankit says: The attached picture is of Preity Zinta, a Bollywood starlet, with a cricket bat, on the cover of Vogue! I thought that was quite an unusual place for a cricket bat to be. Send your pictures of
Continue readingWhat is genuine pace?
< 1 minute read In cricket, ‘genuine pace’ is usually 90mph (144kph) plus. If a bowler has ‘genuine pace’, it means he bowls quickly, even though the words themselves don’t really mean that. We’ve all got to stop talking about ‘genuine pace’. 36mph is a genuine pace, after all. What pace isn’t genuine? One
Continue readingWest Indies v England, Barbados match report
2 minute read Benno writes: Really it all started the night before in Harbour Lights in Bridgetown where we took full advantage of the ‘drink all the sickly rum punch you can for 50 bajan dollars’ offer and invented a game called musical table dancing. My mate, Pikey, tried to rip out his
Continue readingJames Anderson bowls reverse swing
< 1 minute read If you’ve only seen the scorecard, you might not believe us on this one, but James Anderson bowled brilliantly in this match – particularly when you consider that he was suffering from the wild shits for the whole of one day’s play. He’s bowled well all series, in fact, in
Continue readingThird umpire referrals
2 minute read What is the third umpire referral system? Third umpire referrals are a system whereby players from either side can demand a review of the on-field umpire’s decision by the TV umpire. If a batsman’s given out lbw, he can refer it to the third umpire, who then watches the footage
Continue readingDenesh Ramdin’s massive cricket bat
< 1 minute read Can someone get hold of Denesh Ramdin’s bat and measure how wide it is? It can’t possibly be legal. As everyone got nervier and nervier and it became harder and harder for batsmen to hit the ball, Ramdin just kept middling it with his textbook defensive strokes. Whatever was bowled,
Continue readingHow England can win this Test match
< 1 minute read It’s been a strange sort of series where England’s first innings in each Test has largely been irrelevant. Having won the first Test, West Indies seem to have set themselves to bat past England – however monumental the score – and then see what happens. They’ve almost waited for the
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