< 1 minute read Some of you might have seen that Glamorgan were docked two points for producing a duff pitch. This is at the beautifully monikered Swalec Stadium, where the first Ashes Test is due to take place. ‘Oh no,’ people have said. ‘What if the pitch for the Ashes is sub-standard?’ These
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Phillip Hughes in England
< 1 minute read After scores of 118, 65 not out and 74 last week, today’s 99 not out marks the moment when we move away from admiring an exceptional young Antipodean talent and towards being sick to the back teeth, the front teeth and tonsils of a winnetty-faced, cork-hatted bastard. Phillip Hughes is
Continue readingAndrew Strauss loses the Ashes
< 1 minute read Why, Andrew? Why? Why do you say these things? Have you never watched a film? You’ve just turned yourself into the character who overlooks a minor detail in the first scene, unaware of the DIRE CONSEQUENCES your seemingly minor oversight will have. Strauss was speaking about how Australia’s Phillip Hughes
Continue readingKent want Stuart Clark fit and firing for the Ashes
< 1 minute read Why else would Kent sign Stuart Clark other than to help him recover from injury and to help him get a few overs under his belt in English conditions? It’s perfect. How delightfully accommodating of them. In the unlikely event that Kent come up against an England batsman in those
Continue readingMitchell Johnson takes England back to the Nineties
< 1 minute read At one stage South Africa were 6-3, effectively 6-4, as Graeme Smith had been hospitalised. The man who did this was Mitchell Johnson and he forced Jacques Kallis to retire hurt shortly afterwards. Johnson provided bounce, swing and crucially, pace. Mitchell Johnson is a fast bowler. We’d say a ‘genuine’
Continue readingAre Australia the worst team in the world?
2 minute read You’d be forgiven for thinking so with some of the things you read. The fact is Australia are still a feisty outfit and England in particular shouldn’t be fancying their chances against them too much. Australia may have slid a bit, but they’ll never implode. It’s not the Aussie way.
Continue readingIan Botham says England will win the Ashes
< 1 minute read Ian Botham’s been doing his bluff overconfidence thing again: “What I’ve seen so far, I don’t see as too much of a threat and if England’s bowlers stay fit then they’ll win the series.” This is why Ian Botham was a brilliant cricketer. He lets a few facts seep in,
Continue readingTop ten Ashes players of all time
< 1 minute read Patrick Kidd’s already started his fiendishly exhaustive build-up to next year’s Ashes series at The Times’ Line and Length blog. He asked us to supply a top ten of influential Ashes characters, so we did. Our top ten is a personal one really. We didn’t want to produce a boring
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