< 1 minute readIn the name of having at least half a clue what’s going on, we thought we’d investigate the format of the Champions League Twenty20. They’re currently playing the group stages. There are three teams in each group. They all play each other and then the top two go through to
Continue reading< 1 minute readTo further clarify our feelings about the Twenty20 Champions League, it’ll be interesting precisely as long as there’s a chance that the budget sides might make a joke out of the rampant capitalism on which the whole thing is built. Basically, if Somerset beat Deccan Chargers, it’ll be pretty funny
Continue reading< 1 minute readEven beyond our own knee-high standards, our 2009 county cricketers to watch have come good. Liam Plunkett is in England’s winter Test squad and has therefore proven himself an obdurate and pleasing stain on the second-favourite T-shirt that is England cricket – possibly a turmeric-based stain that could be around
Continue reading< 1 minute readThose writing about cricket bandy the word ‘experience’ around until it ceases to have any meaning, but it’s easy to overlook the significant role it plays in terms of how a player performs. Experience isn’t just a statistic. It isn’t how many games someone’s played. It’s different conditions, different environments
Continue reading< 1 minute readWhen we were younger and interested in both cricket and football, we thought that cricket could learn from club football. Now, having pretty much completely forsaken football due to it having become an earth-rattling shodfest that’s part soap opera and part corporate dick-swinging contest, we’re a bit worried that cricket
Continue reading< 1 minute readShoaib Akhtar is going to get himself mended by Andrew Flintoff’s surgeon. “I hear that he is like an artist with knees and that his expertise is second to none.” Don’t most artists have knees? It’s not an occupation specifically reserved for the fixed-legged is it?
Continue reading< 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
Continue reading< 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 reading< 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 reading2 minute readTim writes: Riding on the crest of the Ashes wave and generally high both in spirit and days of annual leave to take before September, my good friend Thomas and I decided to go and enjoy the last days of English summertime in a most traditional way; watching men in
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