< 1 minute read And England give their coach the boot. At least that’s the case according to ‘reports’. We’re not actually suggesting that the two events are linked. We’re just struck by the fact that we’ve been sitting around checking the cricket news once every four minutes for the whole of the last
Continue readingMonth: January 2014
Where are we up to with ‘the draft proposal’?
< 1 minute read We ask that not even knowing whether it’s still a draft or not? When does a draft proposal become an official proposal? When they actually come to vote on it? Presumably that’ll only happen once everything’s been thrashed out, in which case official proposal status will be a transient and
Continue readingOf entrenchment and disillusion
< 1 minute read It doesn’t really matter which format gave rise to it, no-one wants to see a headline reading ‘Australia’s mastery entrenched’, which is what we just saw over at Cricinfo. Nothing good is ever entrenched. Tuesday night pub night isn’t entrenched, despite having persisted for over a decade. Nor is our
Continue readingReturn of the bits and pieces cricketer
< 1 minute read India picked Ronnie Irani. Hurray! The Ronnie Irani in question is Stuart Binny. Speaking at the toss, MS Dhoni said that he would give India a lower order batsman and an additional bowling option. Needless to say, Binny bowls a bit of medium-pace. How appropriate that he should make his
Continue readingSpecialism or dilution? Questions for this latest month of Australia v England matches
< 1 minute read On the face of it, there should be plenty to say about the fifth one-day international, but shortly after watching it we didn’t feel moved to write anything. A day later, we’re left with one abiding truth: we should feel a little more strongly than ‘peeved’ when England throw away
Continue readingEngland beat some Australian players
2 minute read Although, admittedly, you could just as easily say that some England players beat some Australian players. England were down a Pietersen and an Anderson, but Australia were down a Clarke, a Warner, a Watson, a Haddin and we can’t actually be bothered working out who else would be in the
Continue readingThe other article about that draft proposal
< 1 minute read We like the way people are talking about ‘the draft proposal’ as if that’s in some way a unique label. The damn thing needs branding. We need some shorthand so that Cricinfo don’t have to invest a paragraph at the start of every article explaining what it is. The other
Continue readingWhy relegation for India would be a good thing
2 minute read A draft proposal regarding the structure of international cricket will be presented to the ICC Executive Board during its quarterly meeting in Dubai on January 28 and 29. One of the elements is a two-tier Test system in which India, England and Australia would be protected from relegation. (So a
Continue readingSo, that Pakistan win, eh?
< 1 minute read Okay, let’s do this. Let’s write a 200-word article in which we somehow find a new way of emphasising how wonderful the third Test match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka was for readers who already know precisely how wonderful it was and who probably followed the match much more closely
Continue readingAn Australian casualty of England’s mighty performances
< 1 minute read Australia have dropped George Bailey from their Test squad. It was always likely that the side would be eviscerated by the selectors after only just about managing to saunter to five massive wins over England. They’re basically in turmoil. The replacement is none other than perennial Test yo-yo, Shaun Marsh,
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