2 minute readD Charlton writes: Because I was on holiday in Italy, I couldn’t go to the game. And, despite Michael Di Venuto scoring lots of runs for Durham this season, the Italians aren’t very good at giving the score. But there are lots of cathedrals and big churches, so I thought
Continue reading< 1 minute readRicky Ponting’s been fined again because Australia have been dithering about not bowling their overs. Why it’s happening is such a mystery that Cricket Australia even began a study at the Gabba to monitor every minute of time lost during New Zealands’ innings. During the match, Australia made some efforts
Continue reading< 1 minute readHe was in ‘an altercation’ with some guy in a pub. Apparently the other guy, an official in the Aussie armed forces, asked for a picture with Symonds and when the hulking all-rounder said no, threw a couple of punches at him. That’s not the shocking part though. If truth
Continue reading< 1 minute readStuart Broad appears to have been to a barber’s in India. We’ve deduced this by the fact that he’s now got a nice, sensible side-parting, where before he had an effete, highlighted mullet. If you go to a barber’s in India, you can ask for what you like, but more
Continue reading< 1 minute readPeople who decide man of the match awards are stupid. If there are loads of runs in the match, man of the match adjudicators think the batsmen have all batted really well and pick the guy who scored the most. If it’s a really low-scoring game, they think the bowlers
Continue reading< 1 minute readAnd then we realised that we didn’t have to write about England one-day internationals if we didn’t want to. We could just publish pictures like the one on the right instead. It’s a new dance craze. We’re calling it ‘the Pietersen’. It’s like normal dancing, only quite miraculously it’s even
Continue reading< 1 minute readJust close your eyes, stick your arse out, wobble your bat at a funny angle and hope. It’ll be fine. This is the technique for dealing with the moving ball. There is absolutely no way that this is the wrong approach. Three people out? Just stick with it. It’ll reap
Continue reading< 1 minute readThe kid who sits next to you at that match will have been waiting for a tenth of his life. He’ll find out that his hero isn’t playing and he’ll cry. “Players know their body best and in future more and more players would come out and say that they
Continue reading< 1 minute readAnd an arse falls out. Someone should tell Matthew Hayden to try and blend into the scenery if he ever sees a tape recorder or a microphone in the vicinity. “When you get to my age, you get to a point where the next 12 months is a long, long
Continue reading< 1 minute readLast time England toured India, Ian Blackwell was in the one-day side. He did all right as well. As a batsman he’s usually described as ‘rustic’ or somesuch. A variety of adjectives might get used, but they all mean that he’s a fat slogger. He’s a good fat slogger, don’t
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