< 1 minute readBefore the Champions’ Trophy began, ICC chief executive, Haroon Lorgat, gave it the big sell: “This is short, sharp and exciting. We have also created a winner’s jacket.” He didn’t say he’d created MULTIPLE winners’ jackets. You know you’re good at something when you get given a jacket to wear
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Wanting Shane Watson to reach his hundred
< 1 minute readHow can we possibly have found ourself wanting Shane Watson to get a hundred. He was on 92 and Australia needed eight to win the Champions’ Trophy. Why on earth did we want him to reach three figures? Seriously, why? This isn’t rhetoric. We actually want an explanation. He’s ridiculously
Continue readingKevin Pietersen ready to abandon England so he can get more money elsewhere
< 1 minute readThat’s an exaggerated version of the kind of headline that’s been cropping up after Kevin Pietersen’s interview with the Observer. It’s a shame that’s the angle that’s taken, because actually Pietersen’s got a lot of sense in him and it gets washed away by all the indignant, semi-xenophobic spitting that
Continue readingInconsistency in Australian cricket
< 1 minute readBert writes: A common comment you hear from Australians, is that they lost the 2009 Ashes series because they were “inconsistent”. However, what they have failed to understand is that in cricket, especially Test match cricket, ‘inconsistent’ is a direct synonym for ‘rubbish’. An inconsistent batsman plays a couple of
Continue readingEoin Morgan – keep him at five or six
< 1 minute readEoin Morgan can play mental reverse sweeps and ping shots into someone’s picnic off the weighty part of his bat, but we’re most impressed by the fact that he seems largely unarsed about playing international cricket. He plays straight, he wanders down the pitch, maybe he edges the ball, but
Continue readingA rumour about Rob Key
< 1 minute readWe’ve heard that he might be moving to Surrey. That isn’t official, but we figure that if we aren’t going to publish rumours about Rob Key, we might as well just jack it all in and take up ice skating. Much as we’d love to glide majestically across the rink
Continue readingGary Kirsten’s vision document for the India team
< 1 minute readThe Hindustan Times say they’ve got hold of a ‘vision document’ produced by Indian coach, Gary Kirsten. It advises the players to try and increase their scoring rates (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) on the grounds that this will help create more testosterone that will in turn help the players be
Continue readingThat Tillakaratne Dilshan’s doing stuff of late, innee?
< 1 minute readWe’ll be honest with you. The Champions’ Trophy won’t be getting our full attention. Partly we’re a bit tired with the relentless fixture list, partly it’s because England are likely to be toss, mostly it’s because we’re going on holiday next week. So excuse us if there’s a cursory air
Continue readingHow Joe Denly got to play for England
2 minute readThis isn’t specifically about Joe Denly. He’s just the example. It’s about being a young English cricketer and what you have to do to play for the national side. It’s also about Australia’s wicketkeeper, Tim Paine. Paine and Denly are just starting their careers and have been opening the batting
Continue readingWhy are England so bad at one-day cricket?
2 minute readYou can come up with immediate reasons, like how badly they’ve been batting of late, but take a step back. Why are England so consistently bad at one-day cricket? We’ve been thinking about this a bit and our theory revolves around player rotation. One-day internationals, more than Test cricket, revolve
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