< 1 minute readIt’s an absolute statement of fact that no-one remotely cares whether England win rain-reduced one-dayers against Sri Lanka. England fans care whether England have an England fast bowler playing for England though. In Olly Stone, maybe they sort of do. And maybe he’ll play a quarter or a third of
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Shane Warne says Jos Buttler is a Houdini-esque escapologist
< 1 minute readThe very great thing about Shane Warne having a book out (ghosted by Mark Nicholas, of all people) is that he appears here, there and everywhere and talks his nonsense and we all get to marvel at how swiftly the man can form opinions and stick to them. Warne thinks
Continue readingTalkSPORT and Test Match Special | I Don’t Like Cricket, I Hate It
2 minute readI Don’t Like Cricket, I Hate It is a semi-regular feature where we ask a fella called Prince Prefab about cricket – even though he hates cricket. We are in bold. Prince Prefab is not. England tour Sri Lanka and the West Indies this winter and the big news for
Continue readingIs Rory Burns going to have to give a presentation on industrial piping?
3 minute readOur favourite TV series that we’ve no idea whether you’d like and that you won’t see anyway because it’s on Amazon Prime is Patriot. It’s about a somewhat blank-faced intelligence officer, John Tavner, who has to become a mid-level employee at a Midwestern industrial piping firm because they’re the only
Continue reading12 memorable moments from England’s 2018 summer
4 minute readThis is a somewhat ironic headline because as a rule we don’t remember things. Our brain long ago adopted the after-midnight-at-a-popular-nightclub policy towards nuggets of information – one in, one out. So consider this a note to our future self that you’re all invited to read in the present. It’s
Continue readingTwo of those England Test selections are just about weird and surprising enough to talk about
2 minute readEngland have named their Test squad for the tour of Sri Lanka. Rory Burns is in, Olly Stone is in, and – a mere 10 years after we tipped him – so too is Joe “No Pants” Denly. The Burns selection isn’t really worth commenting on, so let’s concentrate on
Continue readingIt might not be entirely fair to judge Adil Rashid on his ability to unfailingly produce magic on demand
2 minute readEngland got to have a go at partnership-breaking when the ball wasn’t doing a right lot today. Everyone had a go and everyone failed and then Joe Root finally gave Adil Rashid a bowl and he got both lads out. That’s a very simplistic way to describe how things went,
Continue readingLet’s strap on Alastair Cook’s pads for a minute so that we can appreciate his streamlined thinking
2 minute readAfter precisely one Test match, we’d seen all the shots (and non-shots) we were ever going to see from Alastair Cook. You know them all, but let’s list them anyway. Maybe in 20 years time you’ll revisit this article having forgotten one of them. The leave The forward defensive The
Continue readingCould India actually be better tourists?
< 1 minute readDepends on your perspective really. They’re a competitive and exciting side who could quite easily be 3-1 up. Their batsmen are better than England’s, their four main bowlers have been brilliant – but they’ve lost the series. From our perspective this is pretty much tourist perfection. We absolutely do not
Continue readingHas anyone ever looked more serious than Sam Curran?
< 1 minute readThis was Sam Curran’s face midway through yesterday’s innings at the Rose Bowl. Has anyone in the history of the world ever looked more serious than this? We’re aware that sometimes people’s facial expressions don’t accurately reflect their state of mind, but this is no fleeting thing. This is what
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