< 1 minute readWe’re not convinced. “He’s doing exactly what it says on the tin. Bowling straight; wicket to wicket.” You can’t use ‘does what it says on the tin’ wherever you like. There are rules. You can’t say: “I’m doing exactly what it says on the tin: I’m stopping in with a
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Rob Key’s sanguine outlook
< 1 minute readRob Key’s greatest strength is his don’t-give-a-toss-ishness. It’s the main reason we originally warmed to him, back in the winter of 2002. It’s also why he makes a great captain. We know what you’re thinking: what about that bat-flinging hissy fit on Twenty20 finals day in 2007? That was a
Continue readingFlimsy headline of the week
< 1 minute readFrom the BBC: “Ramprakash in England contention”. How have they deduced that this is the case? Because when asked about the likelihood of Ramprakash’s selection, England national selector, Geoff Miller, said: “I’m not ruling anybody out.” We’d have gone with “Geoff Capes in England contention” on the grounds that he
Continue readingEngland cricketers’ heads drop
< 1 minute readThe difference between England and Australia so far is that when Australia have been down, they’ve fought like bastards. Even when they lost, they still managed 406 in the fourth innings. England fought in the first Test, but their decline since the middle of the third Test is unstoppable. The
Continue readingRob Key deserves our faith
< 1 minute readPeople thinking second division cricket is just as first-class as first division cricket have bothered us in the past, but now that this view can be exploited, we don’t care quite so much. ‘Not really caring’ is a state we can slip into pretty much at will. Rob Key‘s last
Continue readingHeadline hero of the week
< 1 minute readThe BBC go with: Cool Laxman steers Lancs to win Which is fair enough. Laxman did hit 38 not out off 37 balls to get Lancashire home. However, he was dropped twice and had a relatively easy task as Tom Smith hit 43 off 28 balls. This is what happens
Continue readingJonathan Trott of Warwickshire and England
< 1 minute readEngland’s selectors have sprung a slight surprise in picking Warwickshire’s Jonathan Trott. We’ll say two things: Trott has scored a lorryload of runs on a pretty flat Edgbaston pitch (Jeetan Patel and Rikki Clarke have hit hundreds there this year). Test cricket is played on pretty flat pitches these days.
Continue readingMiddlesex v Sussex Twenty20 match report
2 minute readSam writes: The ICC Twenty20 Bonanza (or whatever it was called) caught the imagination of the entire world, but more importantly of my girlfriend who suddenly expressed an interest in attending a live match. So off we went to Lord’s on a humid Sunday afternoon for her first proper cricket
Continue readingOne Twenty20 competition in county cricket next season
< 1 minute readThe England and Wales Cricket Board have done the right thing. We can stop posting excrement to them now. We’re not going to. But theoretically, we could stop. We could stop phoning them up and screaming ‘TURMOIL’ in a demon voice when someone answers as well, but this is very
Continue readingBring forth the Mongoose
< 1 minute readIf we wanted to build a life-size replica of the Arndale Centre made out of press releases, we could do it at the minute. We’d have to print them all off first, obviously; and then we’d have to actually find a way of building the thing, but we’ve got the
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