< 1 minute readWe don’t really buy into the concept of the dead rubber when it comes to Test matches. In a long one-day series, a situation can arise where bowlers are running in with a figurative cup of tea in one hand and a biscuit in the other (clasped awkwardly between two
Continue reading< 1 minute readDirk Nannes has written about second XI cricket over at All Out Cricket. He draws attention to Greg Chappell’s decision to limit Australian state second XI teams to just three players over the age of 23 back in 2009. Chappell’s thinking appears to betray a belief that older players who
Continue reading< 1 minute readWell that was – actually, what was that? It’s probably a bit early to be committing to specific words, so let’s not. England have won the Ashes. That’s a functional way of saying it. You can add your own emotions internally. England won every Test in which Ian Bell scored
Continue reading< 1 minute readWe’ve almost certainly written about this 12 times before, but cricket is at its best when the value of a run is greatest. A drop of rain is more gratefully received in the Outback than in the Lake District. It’s hard to judge what would be a decisive lead going
Continue reading< 1 minute readWhen did Ian Bell turn into a big, relentless steamroller? He always used to be a two-seater sports car. He was sleek and flash, but entirely impractical when you came to do the big shop. These days he’s not just practical, he’s reliable as well. His big engine chunters away
Continue reading2 minute readThat sounds like a backhanded compliment, but as a right-hander who bats left-handed, Rogers shouldn’t see backhand as being necessarily inferior. Edges We’re not sure we’ve ever seen a batsman miss and edge the ball quite as much as Chris Rogers did today. It was unreal. You can take it
Continue reading2 minute readOne of our greatest attributes is being annoying. One of the ways in which we achieve this is by inserting words ending in -ation into the Record Breakers theme tune instead of ‘dedication’. You can read the title again now, if you want – although we advise against it. Jonathan
Continue reading< 1 minute readWe’re telling ourself this as much as anyone else. It’s the first thing we think whenever we see his name. Maybe stating the thought in a post title will finally purge it, allowing us to concentrate on other things. We’re guessing that Jackson Bird is going to play the fourth
Continue reading< 1 minute readYou may remember our cat, Monty. Here he is being conspicuously indifferent to cricket a few years back. He’s actually sitting on the cricket pages, the heathen. What you might not know about Monty is that he likes to piss on things. On one memorable occasion, he walked into the
Continue reading2 minute readBritish Cycling’s psychiatrist, Steve Peters, wrote a book called The Chimp Paradox. The basic premise is that the emotional, impulsive parts of your brain can almost be considered a separate being – the inner chimp. We respond to things emotionally, but it’s often better to suppress these reactions and first
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