2 minute readThere are two ways of looking upon the England captaincy. You can see it as an important position where the incumbent can have a major positive influence on how the side performs, or you can see it as one more thing that could go horribly wrong. Rated according to the
Continue reading< 1 minute readFinally! It’s the video for the latest version of Dwayne Bravo’s Champion song, in which our man lists everyone and everything he’s ever encountered and brands them all champions. Toast is a champion, plate is a champion, floor is a champion, wall is a champion… If you don’t immediately comprehend
Continue reading2 minute readEngland haven’t stagnated. They’re just worse at bowling and facing spin than India. And playing Test cricket in India involves bowling and facing an awful lot of spin. So rather than howling about normality, now might instead be the perfect time to revisit the monumental achievement that was England’s 2012
Continue reading1 minute readA pitch’s flatness extends beyond its physical characteristics. No matter what its actual nature, the fielding side is going to struggle to accept that there’s anything there to be exploited when it’s 600-5 and this mentality only smooths the surface further. By 700-6, a captain will be yearning for a
Continue reading< 1 minute readApparently. A forthcoming study on the biomechanics of elite finger spin bowling has found “very strong positive relationships between the orientation of the bowler’s pelvis and the rate at which the ball spins during flight.” The boffins (for that is what you are obliged to call academics when writing about
Continue reading< 1 minute readWhen Joe Root made 254 against Pakistan earlier this year, there was much talk of how he’d cracked it; how he’d responded to the move to number three by adopting a newfound merciless approach. The responsibility of batting at three had firmed Root’s desire to eradicate errors and from now
Continue reading< 1 minute readOkay, first up, our Twitter round-up. Yep, still doing it, so have a read. Nasser Hussain’s in it and there are two absolutely blinding selfies from opposite ends of the selfie-taking spectrum. We still can’t decide which of the two is our favourite. Second on the order of business, Cricket
Continue reading2 minute read“If a lion could talk, we could not understand him,” wrote Ludwig Wittgenstein. The point being our feline friend would probably be rambling on about how he’d happened across some other lion’s urine earlier in the day and his specific concerns about this patch of piss would mean nothing to
Continue reading< 1 minute readAB de Villiers has stood down as South Africa Test captain. Faf du Plessis has filled the void, much as he has been doing for quite a while now. This decision makes sense to us for two reasons. Firstly, de Villiers hardly ever plays cricket for South Africa at the
Continue reading2 minute readOh for a captain who knows what it’s like to win a Test series in India. England have had just one such leader since David Gower triumphed way back in 1984-85. It was, er, Alastair Cook. This probably goes to show that ‘knowing how to win in India’ is just
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