4 minute read In the middle of the Edgbaston Test, we genuinely thought to ourself that cricket had got too good. We actually thought that cricket needed to be worse so that we could appreciate it properly. There was so much brilliant cricket to take in and not enough time to process things.
Continue reading2 minute read Looking back with hindsight, the most bizarre aspect of the first Test in the 2005 Ashes series was the fact that people thought Ian Bell and Graham Thorpe would keep Kevin Pietersen out of the team. In the end, England made the brave decision. England lost this match by some
Continue reading2 minute read People forget about the one-day series that preceded the 2005 Ashes, but they were a key part of it. They were ingeniously scheduled before the Test series, so that tension mounted. In 2009, they’re afterwards, like vegetable soup after a six-course meal. Twenty20 match England won the Ashes because they
Continue reading< 1 minute read Bit of pace, bit of bounce, good control and then there’s what the lazy among us refer to as ‘presence’; or worse, an ‘X-factor’. The concept of an X-factor always pisses us off. It’s not that there’s some mystical, unknowable attribute. It’s just that you haven’t bothered to find out
Continue reading< 1 minute read Because he’s busy scoring tens of runs for Yorkshire and pensively rubbing his knee when in the field. Seven first-class innings, 147 runs at 21 with a top score of 43. County cricket can consider itself safe from combustion. It’s common for people to say that Michael Vaughan has ‘class’,
Continue reading< 1 minute read Tell you what’s boring: people picking fantasy teams and then publishing them on their websites. Who cares? The arrogance of these people to think anyone would be remotely interested. Here’s ours. Chris Gayle – plays forward defensives and sixes with the same facial expression Tillekeratne Dilshan – reliable, effective and
Continue reading< 1 minute read When you’ve already taken five wickets in a nine over match, as England did, you’d hope to have worse batsmen at the crease than Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul. England’s six and seven were James Foster and Graeme Swann, for example. Needing 10 an over is no cause for panic
Continue reading< 1 minute read England got their tactics right against India – brilliantly so. Admittedly, they stole these tactics off the West Indies who bounced India to defeat earlier in the week, but to be honest England probably carried out the plan even better. Indian batsmen are used to low, slow pitches and one-day
Continue reading< 1 minute read We don’t have a great deal to say about England getting beaten. We’ve been writing this website for a few years now and it would do us no good at all to dwell on every underwhelming England loss. So we’re not going to. Not on a Friday. What we did
Continue reading2 minute read You played cricket last weekend and you liked it. You’re suddenly interested in the sport. You want to know what the professionals are doing. Here’s our cut-out-and-throw-away guide to the clean, simple, straightforward cricketing fixture list this summer. First of all the County Championship started. This is in two divisions,
Continue reading