2 minute read We learnt a lot through Graeme Hick. We learnt that nothing’s preordained. We learnt that heroes can let you down. We learnt that huge talent isn’t the sole ingredient for Test success and we learnt that if you mess about dropping and reselecting players it doesn’t help them one bit.
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What’s Steven Davies been up to?
< 1 minute read He’s been playing in division two, which of course doesn’t count. That’s what Steven Davies has been doing. He has had a good time recently though. Worcestershire are in the first division of the Pro40 league and played two matches last week. Against Somerset, Davies hit a quarter of the
Continue readingMark Davies still doing something right
< 1 minute read It was over two years ago that we first pointed this out. However, exactly what Mark Davies is doing right we don’t know. Cutting the ball both ways to make his bowling unplayable seems to be the gist. It’s on a bit of a juicy club pitch at Basingstoke, but
Continue readingMushy came, Mushy saw, Mushy took a million wickets, Mushy got a bad knee
< 1 minute read Mushtaq Ahmed may not quite have been THE BALLS, but he was most definitely ‘the county balls’. Every match he’d stumble in and take as many wickets as there are atoms in the universe (about nine) and every season he’d decide The County Championship. It is very, very bad that
Continue readingLancashire batsmen who are good
< 1 minute read Paul Horton. That is all. Put it this way, Iain Sutcliffe has been keeping Mark Chilton out of the side and Sutcliffe’s been batting so unbelievably wretchedly that he’s actually gone so far as to retire from cricket. His season average of 14 is superior to Chilton’s 12. However, both
Continue readingMark Ramprakash reverts to type
< 1 minute read Three hundreds in as many innings for Mark Ramprakash now – the middle one a double and he hasn’t been dismissed in any of them. He’s 133 not out overnight against Sussex. Mark Ramprakash must be the only batsman in history who can cause people to mull on his mental
Continue readingKevin Pietersen on Mark Ramprakash
< 1 minute read Not literally. That would be hideous. (No, we’re never going to spurn an opportunity to make that joke.) In this month’s issue of The Wisden Cricketer, Kevin Pietersen is asked whether Mark Ramprakash deserves a place in the England side. “You have a look at his results since the media
Continue readingEssex win Friends Provident Trophy
< 1 minute read Bit disappointing that lots of southern Africans hit runs and pretty much nobody English did. Bit disappointing that Rob Key didn’t get to celebrate. Rob’s had a lot of near-misses this season, what with this, the Twenty20 Cup and his being mentioned regarding the England captaincy. Near misses are still
Continue readingRikki Clarke resigns Derbyshire captaincy
< 1 minute read Even by our knee-high standards Rikki Clarke’s selection as ‘one to watch’ has been ill-judged. He has been worth watching in a faintly soap opera kind of way, we suppose. It’s one thing to play badly (in the second division), it’s another to resign the captaincy, but it’s really going
Continue readingLancashire get shot of Simon Marshall
< 1 minute read This is perhaps a more interesting development than you might think. You might not have heard of Simon Marshall. He’s a leg-spinning all-rounder whose particular brand of non-spinning spin gave him great success in this year’s Twenty20 Cup: 14 wickets at 13.57 at 7.26 an over. He’s a snappy fielder
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