< 1 minute read So much of what’s wrong with English cricket can be seen in the never-ending debate about wicketkeepers. First-class cricket’s too weak to show who’s best and because there are so many counties and therefore so many candidates, no player gets much of a run. We are no better informed than
Continue readingTag: Ones to watch
Paul Horton: first-class batsman to watch in 2010
< 1 minute read Like Will Smith, Paul Horton’s another who had a 2009 season of less than unbridled success. He did hit 173 in one match, but didn’t do much else. However, if there’s one thing we’ve learnt with these Ones To Watch, it’s that they’re devious bastards and always slip in a
Continue readingWill Smith, Durham: first-class batsman to watch in 2010
< 1 minute read Will Smith was the one batsman who didn’t score runs for Durham last year, which might not immediately mark him out as being worth watching, but the year before that he was arguably their best batsman. We’re putting the mediocre batting down to his being made captain in 2009. It’s
Continue readingAdil Rashid, Yorkshire: first-class bowler to watch in 2010
< 1 minute read The general feeling about Adil Rashid is that maybe everyone should just let him play a bit of cricket. England helped his development no end last season by keeping him out of the majority of Yorkshire’s matches so that he could not play for them instead. Occasionally they let him
Continue readingMark Davies, Durham: first-class bowler to watch in 2010
< 1 minute read Mark Davies’ 19 wickets at 29.57 last year was a woeful return by his standards, but an overall first-class record that reads 251 wickets at 21.68 is as good as it gets. Mark’s 30 this year, so this will be his fourth and final appearance in our Ones To Watch.
Continue readingLiam Plunkett, Durham: a first-class bowler for 2010
< 1 minute read Liam Plunkett’s a bit of a batsman as well, but his bowling is what matters. Of Durham’s many fine bowlers, Onions, Harmison and Blackwell all averaged less than Plunkett last season, but only Harmison took more wickets. Plunkett’s average of 24.83 was hardly shameful either. Although Plunkett’s age seems to
Continue readingEngland players to watch
< 1 minute read Even 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 readingAdil Rashid makes a case to be England’s new number seven
< 1 minute read A week or so ago, Adil Rashid hit two hundreds in successive innings. In Yorkshire’s two innings in the field adjacent to those hundreds, Rashid took five wickets in each of them. England will naturally be looking for a seam bowling all-rounder to replace Andrew Flintoff – perhaps Rashid’s team
Continue readingPaul Horton masters one-day cricket
< 1 minute read In his first 23 one-day innings, Paul Horton passed 50 once. Now he’s got the format cracked. Take that The Friends Provident Trophy! Consider yourself and any other 50-over competitions CRACKED. It seems like only last week we were writing about Paul Horton’s first one-day hundred and now here we
Continue readingTim Bresnan being in the England squad
< 1 minute read Rumours that we kidnapped Geoff Miller’s family and told him we were going to force them to watch Eastenders constantly until he picked Tim Bresnan for England are well wide of the mark. Clearly we told him to pick Rob Key and clearly he ignored us. We released the Miller
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