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September 22, 2009
Finally, time for Ponting to reflect
Posted on 09/22/2009 in Ashes
Ricky Ponting has had a tough tour of England and in the Sydney Morning Herald he reflects with Jamie Pandaram on the trip.
You'll be remembered as one of the greatest batsmen to have played the game, Ricky, but will you be remembered as a bad captain?
After a pause, the Australian skipper says: ''I don't think I could ever afford to worry about that. At the end of the day, my actual record as captain still stacks up pretty well. I will be remembered as the guy that lost the Ashes twice in a row in England, but if you look at other things I've been able to achieve as captain, a lot of it hasn't been achieved in the game before.''
September 15, 2009
A fire alarm, and some football
Posted on 09/15/2009 in Ashes
Andrew Strauss relives the victorious Ashes series in his autobiography Testing Time. In this extract published in the Daily Telegraph, Strauss talks about being woken up at 4.45am by the fire alarm on the day of the Headingley Test, the problems of playing football as part of training and missing Flintoff.
There has been a lot of talk about why we play football, but most cricket teams around the world play a game that gets their legs moving and switches the players on, and football has always been the most popular. After a couple of injuries we implemented a no-tackling rule, and we will obviously have to look at the subject again if there are further injuries. In any event Matt Prior’s back went into spasm as he went down the wing in our game. About 15 minutes before the toss was due to be made England’s wicketkeeper was barely able to move.
September 8, 2009
Broad getting used to fame game
Posted on 09/08/2009 in Ashes
In the Times, Patrick Kidd looks at how life has changed for Stuart Broad since his Ashes heroics.
Four years ago, he was in his first season of county cricket and was playing a championship game at Grace Road as the final Ashes Test began at the Oval. Last week, he was a guest on Jonathan Ross’s TV show, alongside Ricky Gervais — “He’s always been my hero” — and Jamie Oliver — “Such a lovely man” — and fame has other perks.
Earlier this summer, he complained that he was being asked for ID in pubs because he looks younger than his 23 years. “Bouncers still check my ID, but now it’s so they can say, ‘I thought it was you’,” Broad said.
September 2, 2009
Where to now for England?
Posted on 09/02/2009 in Ashes
In his Guardian blog, Lawrence Booth considers the "where to now?" question for England and decides that due to the lack of Ashes celebration time with a one-day series starting shortly, and the likelihood of a largely consistent Test XI in the foreseeable future, they are better placed than after their 2005 triumph.
Just as important is the stability radiated by Andrew Strauss. There ought to be no debates over the captaincy in 2010-11 as there were in 2006-07. And this time there will be firm leadership - Strauss would never have boozed until the small hours with the Australians after one of English cricket's most harrowing defeats at Adelaide. You may not think it after the absurd fuss made over Flintoff's contribution to England's 2-1 win this summer, but the dressing room is relishing the challenge of moving on without him.
The Ashes hangover continues with BBC's quiz, Ten to Tackle, on the decisive Test at The Oval.
August 30, 2009
England can rule the world
Posted on 08/30/2009 in Ashes
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Andrew Strauss's England have their sights clearly set on the job ahead
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England's subdued celebrations after their Ashes success, their focus on the job ahead and the willingness to learn from their mistakes in the aftermath of the Ashes victory in 2005 bodes well for their preparation to take on the current No.1 Test side, South Africa, later in the year, writes Stephen Brenkley in the Independent on Sunday.
England have the makings of something here, having won from despair. The post-Flintoff era will bring challenges of balance and tone, it may also be the opportunity for restructuring elsewhere (Paul Collingwood and, despite his three late joyful wickets, Stephen Harmison). It is rapt with possibilities. Smashing.
In the Sunday Times, Martin Johnson says England were right in not going over the top in their post-Ashes celebrations because this victory was quite unlike the triumph of 2005.
So not only is it appropriate to celebrate the return of the Ashes in the context of one average team beating another average team, it is also incumbent on the powers that be to make sure that this time England’s defence of the urn is treated more like a serious sporting mission than a family outing to Mablethorpe.
Andrew Strauss led by example, and his leadership, calmness, reliability at the top of the order and the equation he shared with Andy Flower proved critical in the outcome of the Ashes, writes Michael Atherton in the Times.
He [Strauss] is essentially a cautious captain, prone to thinking primarily about saving runs, not taking wickets, and about getting into a position from which defeat is impossible before thinking of victory. Those quibbles aside, it is clear that he is enormously respected by his team, as leader, player and human being — even if they think him a trifle posh. His greatest attribute was his calmness, his ability not to get sidetracked by every crisis that came his way. His was a reassuring presence at the top of the order and at the head of the unit.
Vic Marks is already looking ahead to the next Ashes series Down Under. In the Observer, he writes that Australia have more problems to sort out. They need to deal with their aging guard, he says, and also draft in some extra batsmen along with a specialist spinner. England, he feels, could well be without Paul Collingwood.
England played their best against Australia but they need to get better (and luckier) as they face a tough international schedule with series lined up against stiff opposition, writes Simon Wilde, also in the Sunday Times.
Kevin Pietersen must bat at No 3; Jonathan Trott at 5; Adil Rashid must be given a chance as a bowler and No 8 batsman. The former England captain, Michael Vaughan, tells Scyld Berry how England can build on Ashes success in the Telegraph.
Piers Morgan can't tolerate what according to him is a "weird campaign" to deny Andrew Flintoff the mantle of 'greatness'. He sets the record straight in the Daily Mail.
Greatness is a strange thing to quantify. Churchill was not a particularly good Prime Minister if you study the 'stats'. The normal humdrum business of government didn't really get his juices flowing. But for courage, fortitude and an ability to inspire the nation when it really mattered, he was our greatest.
Matt Prior takes Simon Wilde through each Test of the Ashes leading to the inevitable "biggest day" when the urn returned to England. Read it out in the Sunday Times.
August 27, 2009
Where the evidence for 'designer' pitches?
Posted on 08/27/2009 in Indian cricket
There has been much debate over whether the pitch at The Oval was designed to help the home side win, a charge long levelled at Indian tracks. Dileep Premachandran writes in the Guardian that there was nothing wrong with The Oval surface, and also points out that Indian pitches aren't the dustbowls they once were. It might help to work with facts, rather than Ashes-inspired emotion. England finished the opening day on 307 for eight from 85.3 overs. Both sides scored more than 347 in their second innings. The innings of the match was played on the third day by a man making his Test debut. The best spell of the game came from a young pace bowler, but there were wickets too for the spinners, one of them a part-timer. And, most importantly, there was a result, not five days of mind-numbing tedium as seen in the Caribbean earlier this year, with every man jack seemingly capable of scoring a century.
August 26, 2009
Time for free-to-air cricket?
Posted on 08/26/2009 in Ashes
David Conn reopens the debate on whether cricket should be made free-to-air on TV, especially with respect to the recently concluded Ashes. In the Guardian, Conn feels that the England victory should have been watched by everyone in the country, as it would have served as a tool to bring the nation together.
A committee chaired by David Davies, formerly of the FA, is currently considering whether the "crown jewels" list of sporting events, which are required to be available on free-to-air TV, should be changed, with cricket always the prime candidate for restoration to the live list. And here it was on cue, a Test victory inescapably presenting itself as a national unity, "watercooler" moment, the stuff of newspaper front pages, TV news headlines and a letter to Andrew Strauss from a leader yet to overcome his own back foot struggles quite as happily, Gordon Brown.
England opt for subdued celebrations
Posted on 08/26/2009 in Ashes
After their Ashes victory in 2005, England celebrated in style with open-top bus parades, only to be soundly beaten by the Australians in the 2007 Ashes. This time, there are no wild parties or parades, as England focus purely on the cricket which lies ahead. Gideon Haigh writes on this refreshing change of attitude in the Wisden Cricketer.
At the time, it soon became clear that England had geared themselves to beating Australia and…errrr….that’s it. After going on their bus-riding bender, they learned there was a little more to cricket than a single series, and looked as confused as Kevin Pietersen on meeting Cherie Blair.
Gideon Haigh, once again in the Wisden Cricketer, writes on the Australian team, and the issue of Ricky Ponting's captaincy.
Ponting accentuates the positives
Posted on 08/26/2009 in Ashes
In summing up the loss of the Ashes, Ricky Ponting in his column in the Australian acknowledges the disappointment but tries to look on the bright side.
And after a frustrating few years battling injuries, Shane Watson has looked every bit an international player. He was completely at home opening the batting and performed consistently under pressure. I don't think Watto's cricket or his body have ever been in better shape.
He is the all-rounder we need to add balance to our side. His bowling is also coming along well after having to remodel his action a little following the back stress fractures he sustained on the tour of India late last year. I can eventually see Watto moving into our middle order to play a true all-rounder's role because I believe that Phil Hughes has a lot to offer at the top of the order.
Shane Warne in his Herald Sun column writes of the hurt that the Australians will be feeling, particularly after losing to an England outfit that he considered not much better then Australia.
There is no disgrace in losing if you are outplayed by a better team, as was the case in 2005. This time around, though, I don't think England was much better. That's why it hurt even more and why questions have to be asked.
Australia could not win the big moments.Contrary to reports I do not blame the selectors for losing the Ashes, but I do believe someone has to be accountable for not picking Nathan Hauritz at The Oval.
August 25, 2009
Forget Broad: Rashid is Flintoff's successor
Posted on 08/25/2009 in Ashes
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Rashid: the new Flintoff?
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Shane Warne may have retired, but he will never stop championing the spinner's cause. Forget Stuart Broad as Flintoff's replacement: Adil Rashid, Yorkshire's prodigiously talented young legspinning allrounder, is just as likely to fill his boots, he writes in his Times column.
My alternative, though, is Adil Rashid. Yes, he’s a spin bowler rather than a seamer, but there is no reason why England can’t go with three pacemen and two spinners. That’s a balanced attack, to me. Rashid has scored hundreds and taken five wickets in an innings in his past two matches for Yorkshire. He’s a real all-rounder.
A seven-eight-nine of Rashid, Broad and Graeme Swann would be pretty effective in Test cricket. Perhaps in time Broad and Rashid would switch positions. At present, though, I would have them in that order. Rashid just looks ready to come into the fold and should be picked for the South Africa tour.
I spent some time with him a couple of years ago when Hampshire played Yorkshire. Michael Vaughan asked me to have a few words. Rashid seemed confident and knew what he was talking about. At the time he was only 19 or 20, but he had a good understanding of bowling. Most important, he liked to spin the ball
Over at The Guardian, England's 2005 coach, Duncan Fletcher, hopes that the hype surrounding Broad doesn't overwhelm him.
I just hope to goodness he is given room to breathe and develop. Some sections of the media in the UK like to build them up, then knock them down, but England need to realise they have a real talent on their hands and encourage him to make the most of it.
Geoff Boycott (Daily Telegraph), though, reminds everyone that despite England now holding the Ashes, they are far from the finished article. Their real test will lie in South Africa this winter, and a number of their middle-order need to up their game.
The return of Kevin Pietersen will give the middle-order a more imposing look, but the people around him are not convincing. Bell isn't the only man struggling against the short ball. Speaking on the radio, Phil Tufnell compared Paul Collingwood's dismissal on Friday night to himself batting at No 11. Collingwood may be alright in the comfort zone at No 5, where England have plenty of options now that Jonathan Trott has emerged as a potential star of the future. But you always need solid people at the top of the order. Ravi Bopara is a talented young player, but he has been found wanting up front as well.
Where will England go from here?
Posted on 08/25/2009 in Ashes
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Andrew Strauss may have a real chance of retaining the Ashes in 2010-11
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Four years is a long time in sport and in the four years between England's Ashes win a lot has changed - in cricket and the rest of the world, writes Mike Atherton in the Times.
Four years ago we were living in the middle of a debt-fuelled orgy of consumerism, the kind of age in which an open-top bus parade and drink-fuelled party at Trafalgar Square were fitting conclusions to a wonderfully topsy-turvy series. Now we are a little wiser, a little more sober. Credit-crunched, a lap of honour will have to do.
In the same paper Christopher Martin-Jenkins wonders how England will move forward from this win for they have a real chance of retaining the Ashes in 2010-11 if the selectors take decisions now that temper the need to remain on an upward path while keeping that series as the next focal point.
In the Independent James Lawton thanks Ricky Ponting for his sporting behaviour in defeat and admires how the Australian captain kept a check on his emotions and maintained a sound head while all the time fighting with every legitimate device at his disposal.
In the Telegraph Mike Norrish writes that the television viewership for this Ashes was so low - because it was on a subscription channel - that despite all the excitement of the decider it failed to pass the mum test.
If I get an SMS from my mum, and it’s about sport, then you can be sure that something big has happened. I have received two this year - when Usain Bolt broke the 100m world record and when Andy Murray lost at Wimbledon - but, tellingly, not one about the Ashes. “Where were you when Freddie ran out Ricky Ponting” asked my colleague Kevin Garside this morning. And it would be lovely to think that future generations will remember the exact details of that wonderful moment. But unfortunately, I fear the most common reply will be less romantic. Because depressingly, when Flintoff threw down Ponting’s stumps, the nation that worships him was watching Poirot, waiting for the highlights.
In the Daily Mail Nasser Hussain assesses the defining Ashes 2009 performances.
Marcus North: The find of the series. In the warm-up game at Worcester, he just looked like an organised pro, but he proved to be better than that. Played spin well, accumulated runs and formed an excellent partnership with Clarke which was crucial at Edgbaston. He said to England, 'You'll have to do something special to get me out,' which is just what a skipper wants.
Time for best teams to fight it out
Posted on 08/25/2009 in Ashes
Australia have slipped to No. 4 in the Test rankings and that may be good for the game which is struggling to sustain spectator interest in many parts of the world, writes Gideon Haigh in the Australian.
This summer in England has been a cricket crossroads. The Ashes of 2009 followed closely two of cricket's hottest versions of its new variant: the Indian Premier League in South Africa, and the Twenty20 World Championship in England. In fact, to so soon after be plunged into a five-Test series, cricket's most traditional and now almost obsolete format, felt a little like dressing in period costume for an activity of the society for creative anachronism. What ensued was not a vintage Ashes series. The teams were too weak, and the Tests generally too one-sided. The advantage did not fluctuate; it swung back and forth like a wrecking ball, indicative of two teams at war with their frailties as much as each other.
Yet they were genuine tests, of ability, adaptability, character, endurance. One saw cricketers in extremis: indulging in mass man-love one week, fit for trauma counselling the next, performing tasks requiring extraordinary patience and self-denial, such as Ricky Ponting's superfine 150 at Cardiff and Michael Clarke's sublime 136 at Lord's, then exhibiting blink-of-an-eye brilliance like the run-outs executed from close to the bat by Andrew Strauss and Simon Katich at the Oval. Some games have one or the other: no game apart from Test cricket has both to such extent.
In the same paper Peter Lalor talks to some former Australian players and coaches who believe Ponting should remain captain despite having twice lost the Ashes in England.
In the Age Greg Baum calls for some calm and perspective following the defeat.
For two decades, Australia's winning needed little explanation. Now, seemingly, its defeat has no alibi. The fact is that this was a contest between two pretty plain old cricket teams, neither of which was able to sustain its efforts.
Reporters at the Sydney Morning Herald try to find out why the Australian team, unlike English and South African ones, is still predominantly white.
August 24, 2009
Strauss must focus on the future
Posted on 08/24/2009 in Ashes
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Andrew Strauss holds the Ashes aloft
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England were deserved winners of the Ashes and will come in for plenty of praise, but instead of resting on their laurels they must target further improvement, writes Angus Fraser in the Independent.
As a result of England's triumph, there will be millions of people and hundreds of companies who will be prepared to pay a significant sum of money to hear how the pair and their players planned and executed a remarkable, unexpected yet thoroughly-deserved triumph. For the players who have taken part in the series there is the potential to cash in. For Strauss and Flower, the management of this situation potentially provides an even bigger challenge than defeating Ricky Ponting's side in the first place.
In the Daily Telegraph, Michael Henderson writes that Strauss should celebrate his own Waterloo because he had more to do with the outcome than anybody else.
Nasser Hussain says in the Daily Mail that Andrew Strauss's bond with coach Andy Flower was one of reasons for the success. In the same paper, Martin Samuel says England fans were a worried lot till Flintoff threw down the stumps to dismiss Ponting.
This Ashes will be remembered as Strauss's Ashes to sit alongside those of Botham and Flintoff, writes Mike Selvey in the Guardian.
If Michael Vaughan and his band of Ashes heroes were awarded MBEs after the 2005 series, then Andrew Strauss should be knighted after Sunday's monumental victory, writes Justin Langer in BBC.
Simon Barnes writes in the Times on a similar theme - how “in what way are we going to make a mess of this?” was the overwhelming feeling at the ground despite England starting the day in a dominant position.
Ricky Ponting may have lost the Ashes for the second time, but the captaincy is his for as long as he deigns it, says Gideon Haigh in the Times. For Ponting the individual, the series will also have been formative. One suspects that, as it did Warne, McGrath and Gilchrist in 2005, defeat will probably prolong his career. It was surprising to hear Ponting speak so emphatically about his desire to play on, without obfuscating or pleading for time to reflect, into the Ashes of 2010-11, and perhaps even farther. To make such a statement so unequivocally in the shadow of defeat bespeaks considerable determination.
In the Sydney Morning Herald Peter Roebuck believes despite the Ashes loss, it is unlikely Ricky Ponting will be evicted or that he will step aside as captain.
While the first Ashes Ponting lost was purely because of England's talent, this time around Australia's mediocrity has a large role to play, says Paul Hayward in the Guardian.
An Ashes victory is a great way to exit Tests, and Flintoff capped his last day with the crucial run-out of Ponting. Vic Marks remarks in the same paper how Flintoff's contribution was typically crucial and flamboyant.
August 23, 2009
Flintoff's farewell
Posted on 08/23/2009 in Ashes
Andrew Flintoff played his final Test innings on Saturday at the Oval. The allrounder scored a quickfire 22 in an effort to get the England score moving. Stephen Fay, in the Independent on Sunday, describes the farewell innings and comments that Flintoff means much more to the game than his career statistics suggest.
As he approached the dressing room steps, he swivelled to the left and raised his bat to the crowd and then turned and repeated the gesture to the members in the Pavilion. It was a modest gesture by a remarkable cricketer whose Test performances have only rarely reached the peaks of which he was capable, but who never lost the affection of his large and loyal audience. So great is the interest still that Fred's Knee has sometimes seemed to be the biggest sports story of the summer.
In the Observer, David Hopps describes Flintoff as a Saturday afternoon batsman, an uncomplicated man naturally committed to simple fun. Hopps goes on to wonder what a sociable man like Flintoff would do, now that he will have plenty of free time after retiring from Tests.
This had the makings of Flintoff's perfect Saturday afternoon: an England lead of 340, Australia under the cosh and an expectant Oval crowd humming with the belief that the Ashes were almost won. He had the licence to swing the blade, not that permission really mattered. A Flintoff batting farewell should not be legislated for. It had to be unlicensed, untaxed, uninsurable.
In the same paper, Will Buckley pays tribute to Flintoff, the 'most glorious of amateurs'.
Ponting a better captain than Waugh
Posted on 08/23/2009 in Ashes
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For Strauss leadership is an inspiration, not a burden
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Despite results suggesting otherwise, Ricky Ponting is a superior captain to his predecessor, Steve Waugh, writes Ian Chappell in the Sunday Telegraph.
Ponting never runs out of ideas in the field, whereas Waugh, even with a more experienced and varied attack, was often devoid of inspiration on the few occasions when his captaincy was really tested.
If England take the Ashes, Andrew Strauss will be the overwhelming choice for Man of the Series for his sound captaincy and pivotal batting, writes Mike Brearley in the Observer.
Strauss's assurance at the crease has so often been what has held Australia up; once they have got rid of him, the door has looked open, the barriers thin. Over the past year his play has developed strikingly. Whereas before he could be restricted by full-length bowling, now he deals with it more positively by transferring his weight confidently on to the front foot and punching the ball back down the ground. The bowler cannot any longer afford to err by overpitching.
Opinions on the two captains in this Ashes series have oscillated with the results. The pluses for Ponting in that match were that he looked to have made better plans for his bowlers and battled beautifully in Cardiff but Strauss is one of those for whom the leadership is an inspiration, not a burden, writes David Gower in the Sunday Times.
Victory will presumably result in the traditional award of MBEs to everybody who’s done his bit for England this summer, in which case nothing less than a knighthood will suffice for The Oval groundsman, writes Martin Johnson in the same paper.
With Australia requiring only a draw on a ground that usually offers bowlers a similar working environment to a Skegness donkey, whatever items came out of the groundsman’s shed to prepare the playing surface, we can safely say a watering can was not among them. In which case, arise Sir Bill Gordon.
In the Sunday Telegraph Michael Vaughan hopes England can go on to build a team that can beat Australia in two years and become the best side in the world.
In the same paper Scyld Berry says England have made the worst possible start to their quest for excellence.
England's commanding position at The Oval is the work of the supporting cast, not the marquee name. Australia's collapse was inspired by Broad and Graeme Swann, with a little help from umpire Asad Rauf, writes Martin Samuel in the Daily Mail.
August 22, 2009
The bumfluff Botham
Posted on 08/22/2009 in Ashes
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Broad bowled like an Australian
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A tall, fair allrounder seized the day by the throat, redefined the possibilities of the match and may have had a decisive impact on the entire series. But it was not the big, broad, macho one; the willowy one with the pretty face, writes Simon Barnes in the Times.
Broad took over the match just after lunch and a shower of rain. He bowled with accuracy and purpose and complete dominance. He moved the ball both ways, late and subtle. He ran in like a sprinter, hurled the ball like a javelin thrower and finessed his opponents like a chess grandmaster.
In the same paper, Gideon Haigh writes that the key weakness of the Australians is their deep and abiding dependence on their captain.
Ponting is the most distinguished Australian batsman of his era, and an improving captain — it was pleasing to hear a suitable tribute from the crowd as he came to bat today, in what might be his last Test in England. But his physique has absorbed a lot of punishment in the accumulation of his splendid record. A disc in his spine occasionally catches on a spur on one of his vertebrae, part of the trouble being that he spends so much of his time crouched, in the field and at the crease. Last June in a one-day international in Grenada, he tore ligaments and damaged the sheath that keeps the main tendon in place in his right wrist, a tennis injury less common in cricketers that impairs him in playing the pull shot. They are not, strictly speaking, injuries: more infirmities that he lives with. But they are signs of an impinging sporting mortality that Australia will have to deal with.
In the Courier Mail, Malcolm Conn takes a gloomy view of Australia chances of taking the series.
Broad picked up the wickets on day two, when Flintoff, Anderson and Harmison failed, because he bowled like an Australian, according to Richard Williams in the Guardian.
The Oval was meant to mark the departure of a much-cherished all-rounder. Instead, it has celebrated the coming of age of the golden child, writes David Hopps in the same paper.
In the Independent Angus Fraser writes that Broad bowled beautifully but the the Australian batting was insipid.
... because no deliveries reared sharply off a good length and flew at a batsman's throat. Yes, the odd ball stopped slightly but the change in pace was no greater than a well disguised slower ball.
Broad has the mental strength, and subtlety, as well as the other attributes to be Flintoff's successor, and maybe more, writes Scyld Berry in the Telegraph.
Over this summer Broad has been struggling with an identity crisis over his role in the team. Should he use the steep bounce he gains from his height, vary his grip trajectory to take wickets on flat surfaces, or settle for a steady line and length and let his lofty physique and the pitch do the rest? With his height and pace and natural accuracy his best tactic is to emulate his idol Glenn McGrath and settle for the repetitive approach, writes Simon Hughes in the Telegraph.
August 21, 2009
The Wimbledon middle order
Posted on 08/21/2009 in Ashes
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Time for Swann to become the KP of 2009
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Everybody has been trying to pinpoint what has been amiss with the England middle order in this series. The Times' Simon Barnes believes it is too apologetic like the crowd in Wimbledon.
The problem with Nos 3, 4 and 5 is diffidence. In fact, the trouble with the England cricket team has almost always been diffidence, at least when they play Australia. Every now and then, diffidence is set aside, but in the three centuries in which the two nations have played each other at cricket, more often than not, when Australia have bumped into England, England have said sorry.
In the same paper, Richard Hobson believes that Australia's decision to go into the final Test without a frontline spinner was a mistake that England must capitalise on.
Swann needs to produce. Every piece written about him, every interview conducted, dwells on his apparent confidence. He is a showman. Well, this is his showtime. We are about to find out whether his cheeky front masks insecurity, or whether he really does have the temperament to deliver.
If Australia are "dudded" on a disintegrating pitch, like their predecessors in Jim Laker's great match of 1956, there will be no end of repercussions, writes Simon Briggs in the Telegraph.
Ian Bell showed the gumption to camouflage his internal doubts and bat through almost two complete sessions, hardly a negligible achievement on a day when every other member of England's top order could be said to have sold his wicket cheaply, writes Richard Williams in the Guardian.
In the same paper Mikey Stafford watches the Test live but not quite from The Oval.
Umpire Billy Bowden is something of a fan of the Good Lord. Another day or two like the first day at The Oval and followers of the England cricket team may be driven to move Bowden closer to Him. England are in trouble after day one of the fifth Ashes Test and while it is not all Bowden’s fault, some of it just might be, says Martin Samuel in the Daily Mail.
Once on a bad trot there cannot be too may tougher ways of earning a living in professional sport than facing a ball that is hard, red and determined to make a mug of you. David Lloyd, writing in the Independent believes Alastair Cook is in danger of becoming the subject of a stewards', or at least a selectors', inquiry.
As Andrew Flintoff plays his final Test, the Wisden Cricketer digs up its archives on the allrounder.
It's also a thumbs up from Vic Marks in the Guardian for Jonathan Trott, whose patient approach on his Test debut shows he has the right stuff to cement an England place.
Flintoff fairytale gone awry?
Posted on 08/21/2009 in Ashes
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A short and unconvincing stay at the wicket for Andrew Flintoff on the first day at The Oval
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The problem with trying to manufacture fairytales is that they can become scary stories. With Andrew Flintoff disappointing on the first day at The Oval, Malcolm Conn in the Courier Mail believes with plenty of bowling and probably some second-innings batting left for the allrounder in the match, he has ample opportunity to put his farewell back on track.
Whatever happens, Andrew Strauss will no doubt try to give himself time to take the wickets on the final day. The Oval has the reputation of providing a solid pitch, but things can happen quickly towards the end. Both Sri Lanka and South Africa have lost after passing 450 in their opening effort. Peter Roebuck, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, believes England can dictate the course of the contest.
Apart from anything else, the scoring is usually quick because the match is played at the end of summer, and by then the field is a little parched. Moreover, the regular and steepish bounce of the ball encourages shots off both feet and on both sides of the wicket. In short, England or Australia could score heavily and still find themselves under the pump. Draws are not inevitable until the bails have been collected for the final time.
If ever a team was going to play a spinner, it was on the surface prepared for the fifth and final Test. And Australia's decision to ignore spinner Nathan Hauritz despite a dry and dusty pitch at The Oval again highlights Australia's spinning conundrum. Malcolm Conn has more in the Australian.
If England win the Ashes after scoring just one century in five Tests they will have got one of sport’s most cherished prizes at a bargain basement price. Which is why Robert Craddock in his blog on the Herald Sun website is hoping the Australians win.
August 20, 2009
Flintoff comes up short in great debate
Posted on 08/20/2009 in Ashes
The Times' Mike Atherton continues on one of his favourite topics, Andrew Flintoff, saying the allrounder comes up short in the debate of great England players. It cannot be be doubted that Flintoff is capable of great moments, great series and a great period even, says Atherton, but there are a few buts.
The biggest - and our chief sports writer will stop reading now if he hasn't already - is his record. Those damn statistics. Without exception in the modern game, greatness has been conferred on those with outstanding records in international cricket. The conferring of greatness must adhere to these strict guidelines out of respect for past heroes. Flintoff has a very good record, but not a great one. His bowling average is marginally higher than his batting average, and three five-wicket hauls and five Test hundreds speak of a cricketer whose performances have fallen short of the very highest standards that great all-rounders should aim for.
Steve Harmison must be swapped for Flintoff at The Oval, writes former England coach Duncan Fletcher in his Guardian blog. Yes, Harmison bounced a couple of players out in the fourth Test, but that doesn't win you games. Five-wicket hauls are the key to success. Look at Flintoff: when he finally managed to take a five-for at Lord's, England won the match, reminds Fletcher.
As for the batting, I would have made one change only: swap Ravi Bopara and Ian Bell. It was clear Bopara needed moving away from the frontline, and Bell bats at No3 for Warwickshire. I don't care that his Test record there is not what it might be: he should be comfortable at first drop. Instead the selectors have taken a huge gamble by handing a Test debut to Jonathan Trott in the most high-pressure situation imaginable. I just hope they weren't swayed by all the crazy talk leading up to this Test.
In the same paper Mike Selvey notes how the build-up to the final Test has been blighted by a depressing feeling of inevitability following the rout at Headingley. Fear rather than fervour marks England's final push for glory, he says.
Shane Warne in the Times writes that with Ravi Bopara struggling all series, Paul Collingwood should have been putting his hand up to bat at Nos 3 and 4 especially with Kevin Pietersen injured.
Twenty wickets on an Oval pitch? It could happen, says David Lloyd in the Independent.
In his column in the same paper Matthew Hayden writes that this is a time to be bold – so England should drop Stuart Broad for Ryan Sidebottom.
August 19, 2009
Determination against desperation
Posted on 08/19/2009 in Ashes
The Oval is anybody's game. Can England recreate the scenes of 2005, lining up at Buckingham Palace or stopping the traffic at Trafalgar Square in a few days' time? Unlikely, writes Peter Roebuck, in the Sydney Morning Herald. For five days, Australian determination will be pitted against English desperation, with the winner to take all.
Ricky Ponting's team has improved as the series has gone along and now needs to hold its nerve for five more days. As much can be told from the form of the pacemen. Four years ago the speedsters were comprehensively out-bowled by a hostile quartet that moved the ball all day, every day, and hardly gave the batsmen a moment's peace - they took 75 wickets at an average cost of 27 runs (their Australian counterparts claimed 51 at 40 apiece).
Andrew Flintoff may have finally ended the search for the 'new Botham' but his imminent retirement has already prompted the search for the 'new Flintoff'. In the Times, Simon Wilde singles out two candidates to fill Flintoff's shoes in the Test side - Luke Wright and Adil Rashid.
Cricket's strange beauty and uncertainty
Posted on 08/19/2009 in Ashes
Some people would rather watch paint dry than five days of a Test match. But even if you don't know your silly mid-off from deep extra cover there is much to admire about this sometimes baffling game, writes Suzy Freeman-Greene in the Age.
Ricky Ponting looked worried. It was early in the Ashes series; it had rained overnight and the ball appeared to be damp. Ponting and his team-mates stood in a huddle examining the suspect item, then someone gave it a good, long rub on his pants. More scrutiny followed. After another rub, and further inspection, play finally resumed. Test cricket is full of such arrested moments.
Botham not Beckham
Posted on 08/19/2009 in Ashes
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For the love of Fred
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As Andrew Flintoff, England's talisman, gets ready for his valedictory Test, it is time for a bit more Botham and a little less Beckham in his approach, writes Richard Williams in the Guardian.
Flintoff's proclamation was premature and self-centred, doing nothing for team spirit at a crucial time and, like his disastrous captaincy in the 2006-07 Ashes, marginally depleting the vast stock of public goodwill built up since his England debut in 1998. And it was mirrored in the way he celebrated his wickets during the victory at Lord's, with a Beckhamesque awareness of the gaze of a hundred lenses.
In the same paper, Donald McRae interviews Australian coach Tim Nielsen on his first Ashes tour.
Nielsen speaks with parental concern about a team who seemed uncertain just a few weeks ago. After defeat at Lord's and being outplayed initially at Edgbaston, Australia were reeling. As a warm and compassionate coach, who is far smarter than his "ordinary bloke" persona implies, Nielsen needed all his intelligence and generosity of spirit to inspire a sustained fightback.
The Independent's Stephen Brenkley believes Flintoff is at The Oval this week purely for the business of beating Australia and recapturing the Ashes. Not for Flintoff a hobble down memory lane with a sepia-tinted DVD, a lump in the throat and a dodgy knee.
Former captain Michael Vaughan hadn't realised just how much Flintoff's presence in the side could lift the supporters till he sat in the crowd this summer. He writes in the Telegraph:
Fred likes to be loved and he is quite soft at heart. He needs an arm around his shoulder because he does not respond to be ranted and raved at ... Fred was sometimes difficult to deal with behind the scenes and I wouldn't agree with the theory that he was the heartbeat of the dressing room. He can be jovial and light hearted. He liked the dressing room to be a fun environment and maybe that is why his results under me were pretty good.
In the same paper Derek Pringle writes that Flintoff will leave the Test arena much as he entered it - a man with an identity crisis.
In a thoughtful blog in the Wisden Cricketer, Gideon Haigh wonders who the national team represents: s it representative of the nation, of the nation’s government, of all the nation’s cricketers, of the nation’s duly elected cricket board, of the first-class teams that participate in its domestic competition?
August 17, 2009
Time for Bell to step up
Posted on 08/17/2009 in Ashes
After Ian Bell was restored to the No. 3 spot, Stephen Brenkley writes in the Independent that Bell's progress hasn't been as smooth as it was expected to be. Is an abundance of talent not enough to succeed at the top level? He has become maddening to supporters of his obvious talent and makes it too easy for those who question his character to succeed. Sometimes he has tried too hard to be hard when he should just be himself. As a batsman, Bell was not meant to be one of life's nightclub bouncers but one of its computer nerds and he has never seemed quite able to come to terms with it. Hence the confused approach.
In the Times, Michael Atherton looks at Ravi Bopara's decline, starting the Ashes looking to be the first batsman to make four consecutive Test centuries and ending it out of the squad. He wonders whether the selection of the untested Jonathan Trott for a high-pressure Ashes decider hints at bad planning.
August 16, 2009
Freddie's fairytale finish
Posted on 08/16/2009 in Ashes
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Can he bow out as an Ashes hero?
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The stage is all set for Andrew Flintoff to bow out of Test cricket as an Ashes hero in the fifth and final Test. Can he bow out with a fairytale finish, unlike many before him, asks Vic Marks in the Observer. He also writes that Flintoff's career has been the reverse of Botham's.
The old country is in disarray in pursuit of those coveted Ashes. Their hero is injured but he is going to play anyway. The team are falling apart and our man has just one last game against the dastardly Australians, who have finally found their form. Limping from the physio's couch comes our beloved gentle giant from Preston, the one who likes nothing more than to "share a few pints with me mates". You know the rest: a century, five wickets, Ashes won, hobbling hero carried from Oval outfield by his team-mates. Tears all round. Beers all round. Knighthood.
This Ashes duel has lacked the melodrama and individual star quality of 2005. Its motif has been a kind of grim intensity, writes Paul Weaver in the same paper.
It has been a trial of who might dissolve first. And in that respect it has cast a light on one of the funniest myths in team sports, which is that intimidation is achieved by flexing one's pecs, squeezing the enemy's airspace and boring into his eyes with a gaze that says: "You are entering a world of pain." "Not tonight, my man," says a character in Richard Price's Lush Life as a New York mugger instructs him to hand it over. Bam goes the gun, down goes our hero. This is what Stuart Broad was saying to Johnson, and others, as Australia's superiority with ball and bat at Leeds began to hurt. Not tonight, my man. But England, and Broad, will have to do a lot better than that, because this is not a staring competition. It is one in which five Australia batsmen have struck seven hundreds compared with England's one.
In the Sunday Telegraph Stephen Brenkley writes that there will doubtless be a guard of honour for Flintoff’s departure, deserved ovations, appreciative waves and even some tears. It will be emotional. But, on the flip side, the truth is that Flintoff and his concomitant cacophony are often a distraction, and have been for some time.
In the Sunday Times Martin Johnson interviews Merv Hughes, who led the earborne assault troops during his playing career but now supports Cricket Australia's 'tone down the verbals' instructions to its current players.
There was a time when Matt Prior could not stay out of the headlines. But now he is the England sleeper. The player nobody notices. And he loves it. The Telegraph's Nick Hoult interviews him.
"It is quite funny, because when you first break into international cricket you think it is all quite sexy and nice being in the papers," Prior said. "But you very quickly realise you are playing your best cricket when no-one mentions you. My goal is to be not spoken about. That shows I am playing my best. Hopefully that will continue for a while."
August 15, 2009
Trott, the likely choice
Posted on 08/15/2009 in Ashes
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Johnathon Trott looks set to replace Ravi Bopara in the England middle-order
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Johnathon Trott, the Warwickshire batsman who has scored at an average of 89 in the County Championships this season, looks set to replace Ravi Bopara in the England middle-order, feels Derek Pringle in the Daily Telegraph. Pringle thinks Trott has a touch of Kevin Pietersen in him, a quality badly missed by the hosts.
A squat right-hander, he is aggressive with a penchant for big shots. For that reason, he is likely to bat at four or five depending on Paul Collingwood, the senior batsman in the middle order.
He also has a temper, though this is said to have ameliorated in the past year. His resolve will be tested and not just by the ball as the Aussies ramp up the bluster in the belief that the Ashes could be settled should England have another calamitous session like the one that befell them at Headingley, where they lurched to 72 for six on the first morning.
In the Independent, Stephen Brenkley thinks that though the call for Mark Ramprakash's return has gripped the nation, his runs scored for Surrey in the second division is no preparation for an Ashes Test. Brenkley, while stating that Trott is the likely choice for the selectors, feels that Robert Key might be best available choice.
Mike Atherton, in the Times, writes that there might be some merit in giving Ravi Bopara another shot. He even discusses the positives of Robert Key as an experienced batsman, but finally falls in line with most British newspapers in agreeing that Trott is the likely choice.
Either way, his (Ramprakash) return would present a problem for them: if he plays, and does well, then legitimate questions would be asked of a selection panel that has ignored England’s best-oiled run machine for years; if he does badly, they will be accused of caving in to media pressure. Picking the best XI to win a match is the requirement, of course, but a bit of back-covering is likely. It may be that Ramprakash has matured mentally — who doesn’t? — while retaining a remarkable fitness and appetite for runs. Just don’t expect the selectors to want to find out.
August 14, 2009
Strauss could use a Langer of his own
Posted on 08/14/2009 in Ashes
Justin Langer's dossier about the shortcomings of the England team is accurate, says Jim White in the Telegraph. But Andrew Strauss could use a Langer style dossier of his own and has plenty of people to get advice from - right from Ian Botham and Mike Atherton to Nasser Hussain. But, the question is, will Strauss seek the help of his predecessors?
When captain Andrew Strauss is looking for input from someone whose experience has been honed in the white heat of Ashes competition, there is no one he can turn to. Not even head coach Andy Flower has participated in an England-Australia series. How could he have done? He is from Zimbabwe.
Tune in to the Sky Sports Ashes coverage, however, and Strauss will quickly be overwhelmed with advice from those who have done the job before him. Jostling for space in the commentary box, Ian Botham, David Gower, Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain span the last 20 years of leading the country against Australia.
Media hype on Ramprakash
Posted on 08/14/2009 in Ashes
The ayes and no's for Mark Ramprakash's selection to the squad for the final Test continue to increase. The Times' John Woodcock hopes the Surrey batsman will be recalled for not only would it add a romantic element to an already tantalising prospect, but history also points to it being a gamble worth taking.
I do not believe that Ramprakash’s age should count against him, nor his reputation as a victim of Test-match vertigo. There has been much talk recently about aura, and Ramprakash has acquired one. He is 39, very fit and has a hundred for England against Australia at the Oval to his name. When Denis Compton was brought back for the last Test against Australia in 1956 he was still recovering from the removal of a kneecap (now preserved in the archive at Lord’s) and was no fitness fanatic or avowed teetotaller. England, it is true, had already retained the Ashes, but, even then, Compton confessed to being as nervous as at any time in his career.
In the Guardian Mike Selvey kills the romance by saying Ramprakash's comeback is media-driven and it won't happen.
Yesterday, even the Guardian leader page had a go. That is more than it would do for Ian Bell. Geoff Miller, the national selector, refused to rule out Ramprakash on the grounds that he has never retired from Test cricket. He probably did so to stop being pestered, but it was not an endorsement. Ramprakash's own PR machine has cranked into action – he would "cherish" the opportunity.
In the Wisden Cricketer Gideon Haigh, who supported Ramprakash's selection for the third Test at Edgbaston, is not so sure any more.
August 13, 2009
Warne still has centre stage
Posted on 08/13/2009 in Ashes
Shane Warne the commentator is proving just as captivating as Shane Warne the legspinner, writes AAP's John Coomber.
It's the first Ashes battle in 18 years without Warne as a player, but much that we've lost in on-field spectacle is being made up for in commentary. His delivery from behind the microphone is proving to be almost as compelling as with the six-stitcher.
And just like his bowling, he does it with apparent ease. His fellow commentators marvel at how Warne can be lounging in the back of the box eating pizza and playing computer card games, then when it's his turn to go on air he strolls over, picks up the microphone and immediately knows exactly what's been going on, and what's likely to happen next. No wonder he's such a good poker player.
Bell's Twitter outrage, sort of
Posted on 08/13/2009 in Ashes
What happened when Ian Bell found out someone was impersonating him on social networking site Twitter? The Wisden Cricketer's Alan Tyers has the batsman's thoughts:
“What the bloody hell are you on Twitter for, making an arse of yourself?” asks this Gibson. I says I don’t bother with the Twitter because frankly Ian Bell has more important things to do than spend his whole life telling people every last little thing he’s doing no matter how fascinating that would be to some fans and instead would rather concentrate on being the man to fill the problematic number three berth in England’s fragile middle-order, getting Nuneaton Borough promoted to the Premiership on Championship Manager, learning Esperanto, designing his range of volumising hair mousses for the recently deceased and generally being a decent bloke to have around the place.
Last dance for Ramps?
Posted on 08/13/2009 in Ashes
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Mark Ramprakash: unmatched at county level, under-performer in Tests
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Since England's defeat at Headingley, the clamour for Mark Ramprakash's selection for final Ashes Test at The Oval - his county ground - has been growing. The Guardian editorial advises some caution at picking a batsman who, while being unmatched at the county level, has been an under-performer in Tests but says the story of Ramprakash being given one last dance at The Oval would be truly romantic.
Historically aware advocates of Ramprakash point out that, 53 years ago, and with the Ashes also at stake, the selectors brought back the 38-year-old Compton at the Oval for "a wonderful return to Test cricket". Why not gamble again, romantics argue, and give the vital job of stiffening England's batting to a player who has scored 29 centuries in the past four seasons, many of them at the Oval, and who is averaging over 100 again this season?
Also read Mike Holmans' post on Different Strokes on why picking Ramprakash would be a disaster.
Tough talk no match for tough tradition
Posted on 08/13/2009 in Ashes
The gulf between Australia and England is nothing to do with talent or aura, says Mike Atherton in the Times. Both teams are equally matched in the former, especially when Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen are available to England, and, no, this Australia team do not carry the same aura as previous visitors to these shores. But one thing this Australia team have in common with their predecessors is toughness, a soul-deep toughness that, at the critical moment, befriended them again while deserting their opponents.
Toughness has nothing to do with staring, sledging or ganging up on the opposition. It has everything to do with an ability to execute hard-won skills under maximum pressure. The Ashes were won in 2005 because England held their nerve and because a group of wonderfully skilled bowlers showcased their talents at crucial times. Australia were not outfought, they rarely are, but they were outplayed.
August 12, 2009
The Ashes has something for everyone
Posted on 08/12/2009 in Ashes
Jonathan Freedland is not much of a cricket fan. But the thrill of the Ashes has him furiously browsing his Blackberry to check on the latest score while on holiday in France. In the Guardian, Freedland writes about what got him hooked on to the game.
It is a thoroughly absorbing, long-haul clash. While a Manchester United encounter with Chelsea might be all over in 90 minutes, England's business with Australia takes all summer, in what should be 25 full days of combat (fewer if it rains or if the home side collapses).
That leaves enough time for frequent and compelling reverses of fortune. Australia might dominate in one session, racking up the runs before lunch, only to give way to England in the next, conceding a clutch of wickets before tea. The rhythms of the game are like life itself, only more so: the gods smile on you one moment, only to frown the next.
Marcus Trescothick may be in excellent domestic form and even played a vital part in the 2005 Ashes victory. But Michael Henderson, in the Daily Telegraph, thinks that Trescothick's health is more important than an Ashes victory.
August 11, 2009
It's all things Fred Flintoff
Posted on 08/11/2009 in Ashes
Flintoff is reportedly 'devastated' that England chose to rest him for the fourth Test despite him claiming full fitness. But James Lawton, in the Independent, asks questions about the reasoning behind Flintoff's possible selection for the fifth and final test. Is it right to rest all hopes on a half-fit Flintoff just because this is his final stint in Tests?
Yes, fine, but did this assume that England, so grateful to have his at times Herculean services, would suspend all the normal rules of selection, not to mention the obligation of care that normally attends the training and preparation of both human and equine sports stars? One racing insider was aghast yesterday at some of the comments from the Flintoff camp. "In any decent yard," he said, "what was being proposed for Freddie Flintoff just wouldn't, couldn't happen to a horse."
In the short break between Edgbaston and Headingley it was reasonable to take for granted Flintoff and his people's understanding of the basic point that no one, not even Andrew Flintoff or his injured team-mate and fellow superstar Kevin Pietersen, could ride indefinitely over the laws of nature. Indeed, many of Maradona's post-game agonies are attributed to years of being filled with painkillers, and then taking the hits to a body stripped of its ability to make proper reports to the brain.
Martin Samuel echoes those sentiments in the Daily Mail, saying that Flintoff doesn't seem to realise that the Ashes is about the team, and not only about him.
Is Rob Key the answer?
Posted on 08/11/2009 in Ashes
While there has been plenty of speculation about a shock recall for Mark Ramprakash, Duncan Fletcher writes in the Guardian that Kent batsman Rob Key could solve England's middle-order troubles in case they decide to leave out the struggling Ravi Bopara.
Nasser Hussain disagrees in the Daily Mail saying that Key should come into contention only if there is more than one change. He doesn't think Ramprakash should be recalled either.
And in the Independent, Stephen Brenkley says the expectations on Ramprakash, if picked, would be so great as to be unsustainable.
New Ponting rises out of the Ashes
Posted on 08/11/2009 in Ashes
Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald notes the humour and discretion that Ricky Ponting has displayed during the Ashes and argues that 2009 has been Ponting's best year.
Ponting has come a long way in a few months. He has emerged as a fine leader, though not yet an astute tactician. Clearly he has the respect of his players and is relishing the opportunity to captain a bright young side. If 2008 was his worst year, 2009 has been the best. Now he stands on the edge of a substantial achievement. Holding the Ashes might not seem much of a feat. Not so long ago Australia beat this mob 5-0. Moreover the opposing side has lost its two best players. But Australia have endured numerous setbacks and still heads have not dropped. Nor has conduct deteriorated.
In the Age, Greg Baum notes a not-so-subtle gap between the attitudes of the two Ashes teams this year.
August 10, 2009
Australia's no-names strike a blow for team ethic
Posted on 08/10/2009 in Ashes
Australia have a willingness to subsume individual identity for the greater good, and the point is made by fixing a light on Marcus North or Ben Hilfenhaus, two comparative no-name graduates to a team deprived of its celebrity sheen. Writes Paul Hayward on his Guardian blog:
The yard-dog ethic and the need to stick to the masterplan were both known to North and Hilfenhaus as they seized another chance to gild their Test careers. Modesty and intensity were their offerings as well as previously underrated skill. Badge-kissing is not to everyone's taste, but when North removed his helmet and planted lips on crest after swiping a six to bring up his second hundred of the series, there was no hint of contrivance.
Justin Langer's dossier detailing England's Ashes weaknesses is not the first attempt by cricketers to pigeon-hole their opponents, writes Vic Marks in the Guardian.
Writing in the Times, Shane Warne says all the fuss over leaks, dossiers, Ashes files sounds very dramatic, but before MI5 gets on the case, let’s look at it from another angle. Warne would have been amazed if Langer hadn’t been asked to pass on a few tips to the boys. He’s been in England for long enough now to be a pretty good source of information.
Faith, hope and Freddie
Posted on 08/10/2009 in Ashes
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Andrew Flintoff remains the focus
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Despite such an emphatic defeat, England should not panic. All they need is a result pitch, a returning hero, and a miracle, says Mike Atherton in the Times. In Atherton's view the must-pick players for an Oval shoot-out are faith, hope and Andrew Flintoff.
In his post-match press conference yesterday, Strauss said that Flintoff had to be able to fulfil his duties as a bowler to be considered. In other words, he has to be able to bowl three spells in the day, which Strauss, presumably under medical advice, felt he would not be able to do at Headingley. Even so, Flintoff’s presence at No 7 would have stiffened a flimsy-looking line-up and the player himself is surely the best judge of whether he can get through a match or not. If he says he is fit at the Oval, he must play.
The Independent's James Lawton says that in the absence of their crippled talisman Flintoff and their most talented batsman Kevin Pietersen, England haplessly shed all semblance of being a team.
They were a rabble, an ill-tempered bunch of no-hopers and the decline was so steep, so unbroken in every phase of the match that mattered, it was impossible not to conclude that it will take a lot more than a miraculous flight to Lourdes by Flintoff and Pietersen to restore the damage – and any competitive balance to an Ashes series which some of the more romantically inclined believed was within England's grasp on Friday morning.
In his column for the Daily Mail, Nasser Hussain feels this is no time to judge Flintoff.
In the Australian, Malcomn Conn says Flintoff is on course to find out what Steve Waugh often preached; there are no fairly tales in sport.
August 9, 2009
Pup is becoming Australia's heartbeat
Posted on 08/09/2009 in Ashes
Michael Clarke was at his most sparkling and creative on the second day's play at Headingley, writes Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald. Australia's position required consolidation and the vice-captain served with distinction with an important innings.
In the Sunday Times Simon Wilde writes that Clarke's chances of becoming captain have been enhanced by his gritty displays, especially at Headingley.
An obviously class act as a batsman, intelligent and without the skeletons in the cupboard that put paid to Shane Warne’s captaincy ambitions, he has merely had to sit at the right hand of the man at the helm and listen and learn. When the time comes, though, Clarke’s elevation to the captaincy may be seen as a departure as he lacks the spit-and-sawdust style of Ponting, Waugh and Border.
There is no mystery about Clarke, writes Stephen Fay in the Independent, but who is this Marcus North who has partnered Clarke in fifth-wicket stands of 149 in Cardiff, 185 at Edgbaston and 152 yesterday? In the space of a week this odd couple have been the principals in saving one Test and propelled Australia into a comfort zone from which they have become favourites to retain the Ashes.
Time to recall Ramprakash
Posted on 08/09/2009 in Ashes
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Mark Ramprakash? At 39? At The Oval?
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In the Daily Telegraph Scyld Berry argues that it is time for Mark Ramprakash to be recalled for the Oval Test. It might be a desperate one-off measure but England should select the veteran batsman for the final fixture of the Ashes, he says. The nearest that England will come to any ashes at the end of this Test is the charred remains of their ambitions, hopes and vanities which the Australians have put to the torch.
All other England batsmen have underperformed against Australia in that their averages in the Ashes have been lower than for the rest of their Test careers — with another exception in a couple of players from Middlesex who have done pretty well: Denis Compton and Andrew Strauss. And Ramprakash, as a Middlesex player, averaged 42 against Australia — before moving to Surrey. A desperate one-off measure, as Ramprakash is 39, but who else?
England must axe Ian Bell and Ravi Bopara, says David Gower in the Sunday Times. With England's confidence shattered in Leeds, fresh faces are needed to restore momentum at The Oval, believes the former England captain.
Normally I would not be one for desperate changes for the last match of a series such as this but I cannot see any other solution to the paucity of runs in the upper order. Without them England are hamstrung so I would have to make two adjustments. Given that Warwickshire’s Jonathan Trott is the next cab on the rank, he has to make his debut and bat at four (he proved his form by scoring 79 against Somerset yesterday), while I would love to see Robert Key back in the number three slot. I like the way he plays and believe he would respond well to the chance to play a part, even if there might be a feeling that it could be a one-off situation.
The Sunday Times' Martin Johnson believes Andrew Flintoff's fitness fears have turned into a national crisis.Flintoff didn’t take a single wicket at Edgbaston, but he visibly lifted the others with his energy and presence. At Headingley on the other hand, England’s combined electricity would barely have illuminated a 40-watt bulb.
Which is why, if Flintoff is fit for the final Test, the minimum requirement for the announcement would be the ringing of church bells, a public holiday and a papal puff of white smoke. We can’t be 100% certain just how badly Flintoff’s late withdrawal affected England mentally, but rarely can Headingley have witnessed any team playing with their heads so far up their backsides since the arrest of a pantomime horse here several years ago.
David Hopps fears it could take England as long to replace their current talismanic allrounder Andrew Flintoff as it did to find a successor to Ian Botham. How do you solve a problem like Flintoff? Not very quickly, says Hopps in the Observer.
Paul Hayward in his blog for the same paper simply says Australia have made a mockery of Andrew Strauss's men, who now need a miracle if they are to win back the Ashes.
David Lloyd, in the Independent, looks at poor Andrew Strauss and isn't envious of his task at hand.
'Soft' cricket let England down
Posted on 08/09/2009 in Ashes
The Daily Telegraph has printed a dossier from Justin Langer giving the Australians advice on England players and conditions.
English cricketers are witheringly described as “lazy”, “shallow” and “flat”, and as players who “love being comfortable”. Fast bowler James Anderson can be “a bit of a pussy” if things do not go his way and skipper Andrew Strauss can be too “conservative”. And there are barbs at the egos of Matt Prior and Graeme Swann, as well as the annoying strut of Ravi Bopara.
In an era when people are fascinated by plans that are devised for bowlers on the cricket field, Ian Chappell is not surprised at the interest in Langer's dossier. Any Australian captain who needs an outsider to point out England's repeated failings - Alastair Cook’s weakness outside off stump, Ian Bell getting his pad in the way of in-swingers and batting Ravi Bopara at No. 3 - is actually the master impostor Karl Power in a baggy green cap, writes Chappell in the Daily Telegraph.
Anyone with a decent knowledge of the game can draw up a few foolscap pages of plans to dismiss batsmen and unsettle opponents but unless the author is accountable for the end result, they’re mostly window dressing. A captain has to make the decision who to bowl and where to place the field, and if all goes astray, as it did for Andrew Strauss at Headingley, he better be able to change tack quickly and inspire confidence in his team.
The former England captain Michael Vaughan says the first point to make about Langer's dossier is that it is very easy for him to criticise and to question the attitude of English cricketers. Vaughan would like to have seen how he would have coped growing up in the English system and playing for a team that did not include Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne.
The most worrying aspect flicking through the three pages is that I found myself agreeing with much of it. There are one or two mistakes. I think describing James Anderson as a "pussy" is very harsh but it goes to show that there are no secrets in international cricket.
August 8, 2009
Booing not a part of English sporting culture
Posted on 08/08/2009 in Ashes
Ricky Ponting showed no sings of being affected by all the hoopla surrounding the heckling of the Australian captain at Edgbaston, single-handedly making nearly as much as the entire England team on Friday. In the Daily Telegraph, Ed Smith writes that the boo-boys failed to achieve whatever they were hoping to. First, by increasing the pressure on Ponting, they hoped to help England win. Secondly, after listening to raucous Australian crowds dishing out stick to losing England teams over the last 20 years, they wanted to balance the ledger – to out-vulgarise Australia. The first is self-evidently idiotic, the second more subtly so. Ponting's batting showed no sign of wilting under the strain. Nor was it ever going to. He is a scrapper to the core. Booing him is about as likely to help the English cause as sledging Steve Waugh.
James Lawton is not a fan of the Barmy Army, and he lets us know in no uncertain terms in the Independent, calling them a "bunch of mind-numbing exhibitionists" who take over "some old cricket ground and filling it with a banality so extreme, so seamless that most victims down the years have at least briefly questioned their will to live".
And Giles Smith is unhappy about talk of of a blanket ban of booze at Test matches. He writes in the Times: Large numbers of people, at present rendered docile and pliable by alcohol, would be obliged to endure a day’s cricket, with its inevitable longeurs and periods where next to nothing is happening, while stony-faced sober. And then they might really get up to some mischief.
Normal transmission resumes
Posted on 08/08/2009 in Ashes
Australia or the weather will have to do an awful lot wrong for them not to win and level the series, putting the pressure back on England to win the last Test at the Oval to reclaim the Ashes, writes Malcolm Conn in Australia's Daily Telegraph.
Without their larger than life superstars Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen, England has looked less than mortal in the fourth Test at Headingley. Very similar in fact to the performance of the side that was flogged 5-0 in Australia a few years ago, when Flintoff was there as captain and Pietersen the best performed England batsman.
Australia's demolition job on the opening day at Headingley was due to the ability of their bowlers to attack in pairs, refusing to dish up easy boundaries. Australia's attack looked more dangerous than previously and the home side's top-order batting seemed more threadbare, writes Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Happily Australia had been able to choose a strong side. Seldom have team announce-ments been as eagerly awaited. From the Australian viewpoint, attention focused on Clarke's stint in the nets, Haddin's work with the gloves and the sight of Clark limbering up.
Lawrence Booth writes in the Guardian that Ricky Ponting, world-class batsman and captain of the No. 1 side, can't be suppressed for long, as he showed at Headingley on Friday.
In the same paper, Vic Marks analyses Steve Harmison's performance on comeback, and says the fast bowler needs to show more control than anger. Michael Henderson in the Daily Telegraph is harsher on Harmison, calling his bowling "unspeakable filth".
And in the Independent, Angus Fraser praises the intelligent bowling of Australia's fast bowlers.
August 7, 2009
On the Trott
Posted on 08/07/2009 in Ashes
In the Sydney Morning Herald, Peter Roebuck believes English cricket might as well close down its numerous academies and replace its large collection of coaches and assorted cream-lickers and start over again. He bases his article on the latest soft option for England, Jonathan Trott.
Jonathon Trott is the fourth South African to appear this summer - an extraordinary statistic calculated to give coaches, educators and even pseudo-intellectuals pause for thought. Success has many fathers but the facts suggest that Trott's emergence was due in no small part to his background.
Meanwhile, Ryan Sidebottom's return shows that cricketing families can survive even the weakest systems.
A year ago Graham Onions could not get a start for Durham. Today he stands on the verge of swinging England towards Ashes glory, with a nation willing him on and the flattering attention from a global pop starlet to deal with. In a wildly oscillating career, this English paceman is having the time of his life, writes Jamie Pandaram in the same paper.
Allan Border doubts there is a cricket ground in the world that has more bitter-sweet memories for him than Headingley, the venue for the 2009 fourth Ashes Test. Writing in the Courier Mail, he confesses he still wakes up in cold sweats about what happened there in 1981, when Australia were so far in front and forced England to follow on, then lost. He believes the way to go for the visitors in the current series is by finding a way of getting 20 wickets.
Will Flintoff answer the higher call?
Posted on 08/07/2009 in Ashes
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Will England risk Andrew Flintoff?
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The decision to play the fourth Test at Headingley is ultimately Andrew Flintoff's but it's among the toughest he's had to face in his career and is central to the fate of the game, writes James Lawton in the Independent.
If Flintoff pushes back the odds, as he did at Lord's, and makes a match-winning contribution it will be an achievement of a dazzling order, something to put alongside the feats of the man with whom he has been compared for so much of his career, Sir Ian Botham. That is the tantalising prospect as the time of today's action draws near. But of course there is the other one, not tantalising but nightmarish – the possibility of Flintoff the hero becoming the passenger, the man whose dreams eventually, and perhaps inevitably, went beyond any reasonable prospect of further support from an overstretched body.
Flintoff, in an interview with John Westerby in the Times, says an Ashes win this year would mean far more for England than the one in 2005 and adds he is unlikely to take any risks with regards to playing the fourth Test if it threatens to prove detrimental in the long term.
“It crept up on us in 2005. We were on a roll, but looking back I think we were quite naive and didn’t really know what to expect. This time we’ve been preparing for it and it’s something I’ve been working towards. With all the injuries and having been hammered in Australia in the meantime, it would mean far more this time.”
Matthew Hayden, writing in the Independent, says Australia hold the momentum after their effort in Edgbaston and that the Ashes, if Flintoff doesn't play the fourth Test, are as good as gone from England's grasp.
This series is so close in terms of sessions, as I have written here before, but the indications are that Australia, because of their efforts towards the end at Edgbaston, still have the edge. Do not forget that in the shortened game the margins for error were heightened for both sides.
The truth is that the Aussies got out pretty easily with a draw. And the Anderson-Panesar effect may now come into play. Look what happened to England after they managed to deny Australia in Cardiff and now it is Australia who will gather momentum and confidence.
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It is perfectly simple for me: no Flintoff, no Ashes.
Michael Atherton, in the Times, writes that Flintoff's inclusion for the fourth Test, given the nature of his injury, would prove a gamble too far and the best option would be for him to make a farewell appearance at The Oval and be replaced by Steve Harmison at Headingley.
In the Daily Telegraph, Geoffrey Boycott is of the view that Flintoff's decision to play or opt out will affect the fortunes of Stuart Broad, who, he believes, is not up to the job.
Mike Selvey, in the Guardian, makes a case for the selection of all three newcomers to the squad - Ryan Sidebottom, Steve Harmison and Jonathan Trott - into the final XI for the fourth Test.
Also in the Guardian, Duncan Fletcher, while agreeing that Flintoff's best replacement remains Harmison, adds that the reputation Headingley as has acquired as a swing bowler's paradise can be misleading.
August 6, 2009
Who's Manou?
Posted on 08/06/2009 in Ashes
In the Australian, Ben Dorries and Malcolm Conn chart the course of Australia's newest Test player, Graham Manou, who was so unknown that during the tour match in Northampton the ground announcer called him "Garry Manou".
Manou, who has probably been more anonymous in England than the team bus driver, didn't have time to be presented with a baggy green cap. Which was just as well because both of the spare baggy greens on tour were back at the team hotel.
Also in the Australian, Ricky Ponting writes that he is pleased the fourth Test is at Headingley, where there hasn't been a draw since 1996. Ponting was also happy with the performance of the team's new opener Shane Watson at Edgbaston.
I don't think anyone has ever doubted his batting ability, but because he has been that all-rounder type he has probably been looked on as a five, six or seven batter. His technique will stand up against anyone's and when fast bowlers deliver some ordinary balls he jumps on them pretty quickly and puts them away.
Crowd trouble is almost as old as the game itself. Yet even in this long historical context there is something deeply unpleasant, unsettling and sadly inevitable about the abuse being directed at Ricky Ponting and his Australia team through the Ashes series, writes Richard Hobson in the Times.
Ponting expects more abuse over the coming week. Wouldn't it be nice if he left Headingley disappointed?
However, Ponting's not complaining. Not in the least. In his column for the Telegraph, he calls the Barmy Army "the best sporting crowd in the world."
Towards the end on Monday, it was nice to see the Barmy Army and the Fanatics from Australia coming together and building beer snakes. Earlier on those two groups had been going back and forward at each other, but once they could see that there wasn't going to be a result, they started to enjoy themselves together.
August 5, 2009
Anderson the unsung 'allrounder'
Posted on 08/05/2009 in Ashes
James Anderson's stubborn displays with the bat are not just helping England's cause but also helping him grow in confidence as a bowler, and it has also taken him one step beyond understanding a batter's mind, writes Duncan Fletcher in the Guardian.
Now that he's learned how to hang around at the crease and even play a few shots, he's showing a greater awareness of how to out-think the batters when he has the ball in his hand. That process can take time but the signs are he's getting right. And the exciting thing is, he can get even better.
In the Times, Michael Atherton feels England will be loath to tinker and will play the same team, despite Andrew Flintoff's fitness worries.
If he is not fit, a suspect pitch would improve Trott’s chances, cloud cover would improve Sidebottom’s and neither of the above would represent Harmison’s best chance of one last crack at Australia before he, too, heads into the sunset.
Nasser Hussain believes Flintoff must be included for the fourth Test, as much for his presence and the effect he has on the crowd, particularly in the absence of England’s other box-office player in Kevin Pietersen, as his performances. In his column for the Daily Mail, Hussain believes it is a difficult situation and one that will have to be handled with care by England.
So who is Jonathan Trott? For the uninitiated, Patrick Kidd has the lowdown on England's newest Ashes recruit. Read on in the Times.
Trott may be a South African by birth, but don't start calling him the new Kevin Pietersen, warns David Lloyd in the Independent.
For the fourth Test at Headingley, where the West Stand has a long-standing reputation for rowdiness, organisers are putting in place a range of measures to strike a happy medium between the two camps. Owen Gibson finds out more in the Guardian.
"Spotters" will be employed to roam the public bars, taking over-refreshed fans to one side and offering them a glass of water or something to eat. It will be quietly suggested that they leave the bar and come back later.
Is the Barmy Army an entertainment or a nuisance? More the latter, writes Dominic Lawson in the Independent. When they're in full lager-lubricated flow, it is impossible to pick up an edge to the wicketkeeper, and it is even difficult to hear the defining sound – between a thunk and a crack – of willow striking leather when the batsman drives the ball to the boundary.
The Barmy Army's mission statement – every organisation has one, it seems – is: "To make watching cricket more fun and more popular". What it seems not to understand is the "fun" in watching cricket, is ... watching cricket. For the great majority of real cricket-lovers, there is no fun in being within several counties of the Barmy Army and I know of a number of people who no longer attend Test matches because of their incessant din.
Pace the key to Australia's fortunes
Posted on 08/05/2009 in Ashes
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Australia have to go for broke
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Australia must consider an all-pace attack for the fourth Test at Headingley in what could be their best shot at a series-levelling win, for the track at The Oval - the venue for the final Test - can be expected to be placid, writes Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald.
The Oval can be the flattest pitch in the country. It’s long been the case. In 1938, Bill O’Reilly considered seeking out the curator with a rifle as England collected 7-903. On the other hand, if the teams go to London all square a local outbreak of fusarium can be expected.
In short Australia have to go for broke. Moreover, Headingley tends to favour seam bowling and frown upon spin. And it presents various challenges that can undo the unwary visitor. When it is cloudy, which is most of the time, the ball whoops around like seven-year-olds at a birthday party but when the sun emerges, the track becomes as lifeless as a government backbencher. It’s an odd shape, too, with a slope straight down the ground so that bowlers find themselves running up or down hill. The boundaries are fast and short in some directions.
Just as a low-scoring contest in any sport can be as absorbing as a shoot-out, so the 2009 Ashes series, in its own muddle-headed way, is proving just as fascinating as the 2005 epic. Greg Baum, writing in the Age, calls it the virtue of mediocrity.
It means they’re as bad as each other, which means they’re as good as each other, which means it is impossible to know yet how it all might end.
Yet now, as then, crowds are agog, ratings high, tickets at a premium and all eyes glued. The series has in common sport’s most fundamental appeal, that — for diametrically different reasons — no one knew or knows what to expect next. Except rain.
August 4, 2009
Not so rosy on the England bowling front
Posted on 08/04/2009 in Ashes
As the third Test wound down like an old clock, it became worryingly clear that England are too easily defanged when conditions do not give their bowlers an edge. The quandary for the selectors, who announce the team for Headingley is whether or not to take final-day form into account, writes Kevin Mitchell in the Guardian.
It was dispiriting to witness a potentially dramatic day peter out like this. The well-watered gathering expected more and they stirred from their late-afternoon slumber to acknowledge the obvious: England are still not killers. They are opportunistic muggers, maybe. They need things going their way.
In the Independent, James Lawton worries if Andrew Flintoff has enough steam to pound through the next two Tests.
Yesterday, though, on the ground where he riveted the crowd four years ago in one of the most unforgettable of all Ashes Tests, and on Sunday wielded his bat as though it was a broadsword, there was disturbing evidence that with the fourth Test at Headingley just three days away Flintoff might not be far from the point of physical breakdown.
Shane Warne feels that Graham Onions would be better off moving from Durham to a place where pitches are flatter so that his game develops. Warne also analyses the bowling attacks of both teams in his column for the Times.
Of all the grounds in England, Headingley is the place where conditions can most help the bowlers. I sometimes found it a horrible place to bat, with the ball swinging and jagging and bouncing. The new ball is crucial and I still believe that if Australia can get to the England middle order early they have a great chance.
In the same paper, Christopher Martin-Jenkins feels it may be sensible to rest Flintoff for Headingley, but it's obviously a big gamble.
Tim Bresnan or Adil Rashid would love a chance of playing an Ashes Test on their home ground but Ryan Sidebottom, a bowler in ripe form and Stephen Harmison, even with blisters, are the only serious candidates if strengthening the attack is the main criterion. Lose Freddie, however, and you lose that precious balance.
Stuart Broad's figures in the last three Tests may not be flattering enough for him to be retained for Headingley, but the selectors should persist with him because he finds ways to get into games and never shirks when he is down on luck, writes Patrick Kidd in the Times.
In the Telegraph, Simon Hughes writes that Strauss missed a trick by under-bowling James Anderson.
With a 40-minute break for lunch, Anderson would have been the canny choice to begin the afternoon session. Instead, Onions and Broad were called up – presumably a committee decision, as there was scope in the interval to discuss it.
Australia may still be trailing 0-1 in this Ashes series but it can take an intangible advantage into the next Test - momentum. Just like England did when it hung on grimly to save the first Test at Cardiff and then bounded away to win at Lord's, Australia hung on easily at Edgbaston and should be buoyed by its improvement, writes Malcolm Conn in the Australian.
It’s often been Shane Warne producing a ripper that turns a series but Graeme Swann’s scorching off break that shattered Ricky Ponting’s stumps on day four at Edgbaston has taken pole position for ‘that ball’ of the 2009 Ashes campaign. Jamie Pandaram has more in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Writing in the same paper, Peter Roebuck says England have been stronger and better balanced and he believes the hosts will win the Ashes. He admits though, it is never wise to underestimate any Australian team, but the gap between the sides is widening, not shrinking.
The Australian top order looks settled, now the focus should be on their bowling attack for Headingley. Australia must be tempted to tinker with their attack even if their options for change are limited, writes Vic Marks in the Guardian.
"It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing." What a perceptive analysis of Australia's batting by Duke Ellington (albeit in 1931). Unless the ball is changing direction in mid-air the tourists look all too comfortable against England's attack on the benign pitches prepared for this series. They are vulnerable, it seems, only when the ball is swinging.
August 3, 2009
Johnson alternatives begin to form a queue
Posted on 08/03/2009 in Ashes
The sight of Mitchell Johnson clutching his hamstring near the end of England’s innings yesterday and apparently taking some painkillers was met with concern by a portion of the Edgbaston crowd, although not the portion wearing yellow shirts. While Australian fans remain perplexed at the toothlessness of a fast bowler who was meant to be the new Terry Alderman, Patrick Kidd in the Times believes the visitors must consider changing their attack for the fourth Test at Headingley
It is like one of the Road Runner cartoons when Wile E. Coyote unpacks an elaborate bird-catching contraption only for it to backfire. This Acme device is a dud; “beep beep” say the England fans, blowing a raspberry.
The batting of Andrew Flintoff and Matt Prior on Sunday showed how important England's middle order has been in the Ashes, says Christopher Martin-Jenkins in the same paper.
England may not yet have an aura, but they have started to develop the knack of pulling something dramatic out of the bag. Patrick Kidd says it is the pace at which the likes of Andrew Flintoff, Matt Prior, Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann have scored that has tilted games this summer.
Richard Hobson thinks that umpire Rudi Koertzen's struggles in the third Ashes Test beg the question why is the world's best, Simon Taufel, not one of the umpires.
Not too late for Ponting’s team to start believing
Posted on 08/03/2009 in Ashes
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Juggling Act: Ricky Ponting
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The Australians need to put away frowns and attack. Fear is corrosive and it’s not too late for the Australians to fight back. According to Peter Roebuck, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, a captain cannot be held responsible for everything. He is not a puppeteer, though by Leeds, Ricky Ponting might finally have a full deck of cards to play.
In any case, Australia need to stop contemplating their navels. Touring reporters have become frustrated at the way the team has gone to ground. Repeated requests for interviews with bowling coaches and players have been turned down. It is a bad sign. Apart from anything else, the game needs all the publicity it can get. This circling of wagons indicates a fragile state of mind. That needs to change.
Darren Lockyer and Ricky Ponting play different sports - rugby and cricket respectively - but are golden children from golden eras. At a time when the game is getting really tough for both men, can they maintain their zest for the game in teams which are a ghost of what they were? Robert Craddock draws up an analogy in the Courier Mail.
One of the most painful sights in sport is that of a champion struggling, which is why no one wants to really talk about Lockyer's form problems this year.
Like Ponting, he is such a gifted talent and a modest, unpretentious fellow that you feel like you are shooting Bambi when you mention the words "Lockyer" and "form slide" in the one sentence.
In his blog on the Herald Sun website, Craddock believes Australia should find room for Stuart Clark. If the Ashes are lost and given the pressure and penetration he can cause, he didn’t get a game, it would be a crying shame.
There are few more magical sights in cricket than high-class seam and swing bowling of the sort that James Anderson and Graham Onions produced at Edgbaston. When such mayhem unfolds, the game appears to be played under different physical laws. Modern Test cricket is all too often a batsman's game but when the ball starts to swing, it does not matter how flat the pitch, how big the bat or how great the reputation, the bowlers are turned into conjurers and batsmen clowns, writes Simon Wilde in the Australian.
August 2, 2009
Who cares about umpiring standards?
Posted on 08/02/2009 in Ashes
Malcolm Conn in the Australian is scathing of the ICC's lack of interest in umpiring standards. He writes that while Rudi Koertzen's mistakes are not the reason for Australia being 1-0 down in the Ashes, it is an indictment on the game that umpiring is treated as such a low priority.
Cricket has many problems which are made worse by the political maze which is the International Cricket Council. Nothing matters more than a good backroom chat to stitch up a vote. Just ask all those who continue to support Zimbabwe. So when fundamental aspects of the game, like umpiring, come to the fore they get shunted off to a committee to deal with. And why would anyone listen to a committee when there are tournaments to be hosted and millions to be made.
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The more money that is poured into the encouragement and development of umpires around the world the better. Perhaps the millions Zimbabwe was paid to stay away from the World Twenty20 in England earlier this year could have been spent on umpires. And perhaps just a fraction of the billions India makes from television rights and the player-destroying Indian Premier League could be spent on developing a few decent umpires of its own.
Strauss is no saint
Posted on 08/02/2009 in Ashes
Let’s not heap too many plaudits on Andrew Strauss for granting his permission for Graham Manou to replace Brad Haddin when the Australian wicketkeeper broke a finger shortly before the start of the game at Edgbaston, writes Martin Johnson in the Sunday Times.
Lord Brocket, as he is known on the circuit, is a chivalrous man (apart perhaps from when he’s instructing overweight physios to waddle onto the field in the hope that someone would take the hint and fall down injured) but to have said: “Sorry Ricky, I’d like to help you out, but a few of our chaps haven’t got an MBE yet” would not have been within the spirit of even the modern game.
In the same paper, David Gower writes that England No. 3 Ravi Bopara must be given time to develop his understanding of the job, encouragement to believe in himself that he is good enough to make it work and a reminder that, while those strokes that make him an attractive player to watch should not be inhibited, every time he defends it must be with as much purpose as he can muster.
In the Observer, Kevin Mitchell asks whether Australia coming to the end of an awesome era.
The cracks in the mask of confidence that is an essential accoutrement in elite sport have appeared on this tour, and widened alarmingly in this match. Without dismissing their individual talents, or their potential, Marcus North, Shane Watson, Peter Siddle, Ben Hilfenhaus, Nathan Hauritz and Graham Manou no longer provide the consistently high pressure with which Australia have crushed opponents in the past.
To Michael Henderson in the Sunday Telegraph England remains the home of cricket because it is the only place (other than Australia on a good day) where Test cricket is valued by the public.
August 1, 2009
No looseners from Onions
Posted on 08/01/2009 in Ashes
Graham Onions, who took four wickets on the second day in Edgbaston, wastes no time in turning the Test on its head. He underlines the virtue of getting the looseners out of the way before play and rewards the gamble to open with him, writes Vic Marks in the Guardian.
For his first delivery his strides to the crease were long and purposeful. He was at full pace and that first ball had that wonderful, mysterious property: it was straight. Shane Watson had looked the part, to the bewilderment of many on Thursday night, but not today. His feet did not move; nor did his bat and before he could look up Aleem Dar's finger was raised. Onions was at his peak at 11am; Watson had not quite got there.
In the Daily Mail, Nasser Hussain writes that Onions is the sort of bowler he would have loved to captain.
Also in the Guardian, Paul Weaver describes Ian Bell's 47th debut.
He always looks strangely new, fresh-faced and nervous, even though he should be a gnarled old sweat by now. Even his flannels – if we can describe England's awful, whiter-than-white decorators' uniforms as such – looked slightly whiter than the others as he strode, perkily, boyishly to the crease on his home ground today, trying to calm the nerves that jangled within him.
Peter Roebuck, in the Independent, backs Ravi Bopara as England's No. 3 and writes that despite his latest failure, England should persist with him.
July 31, 2009
Strauss right to let Manou play
Posted on 07/31/2009 in Ashes
Scyld Berry writes in the Daily Telegraph that Andrew Strauss's decision to let Australia field Graham Manou in place of the injured Brad Haddin, who was originally in the XI, was the right one, both on moral and pragmatic grounds. Strauss’s assent was also consistent with the modern adage that you want to test yourself against the best 11 that your opponents can raise. It would have been inconsistent to have blocked Manou’s selection after Haddin was injured just before the start, when all the players have been saying they want to face a fully fit Andrew Flintoff and Brett Lee and Kevin Pietersen in this series.
'We are so not happy with ur bodyline thing, innit'
Posted on 07/31/2009 in Ashes
After all the fuss about Phillip Hughes revealing that he was dropped from the Australian team on Twitter, Patrick Kidd has a hilarious piece in the Times imagining how iconic cricketing events would have been recorded if social-networking sites had been invented earlier. A sample: “500-1? I like those odds. Let's give it sum umpty. Mind the confectionery stall. Everyone back to mine afterwards for big piss-up” @Beefy.
July 30, 2009
Robbing Phil to save Mitch
Posted on 07/30/2009 in Ashes
Malcolm Conn writes in the Australian that the decision to install Shane Watson as Australia's new Test opener smacks of panic from the selectors.
The selection panel of chairman Andrew Hilditch, David Boon, Merv Hughes and Jamie Cox is robbing Phil Hughes to save Mitchell Johnson. There is no question that while Hughes has not looked convincing during this series, it is not his form that has cost him his place so soon in the series. It is spearhead Mitchell Johnson's complete radar meltdown.
It is Johnson's inability to build pressure, witnessed by England scooting to 0-196 in little more than three hours on day one of the Lord's Test, which forced the selectors' hand. Tampering with the top of the order and installing a player who averaged less than five during his brief stint opening the batting for Queensland in the Sheffield Shield smacks of panic.
Robert Craddock writes in his Courier-Mail blog that he doesn't blame Australia for sacking Hughes but he does blame them for having no specialist opener in the squad to replace him.
Hughes announced his axing via Twitter several hours before the announcement was official. But as Chloe Saltau and Jamie Pandaram explain in the Sydney Morning Herald, the message was posted by Hughes' manager without the player's knowledge.
Can Flintoff carry the weight of expectations?
Posted on 07/30/2009 in Ashes
With Kevin Pietersen out of the Ashes, Andrew Flintoff now carries England on his shoulders. Australia will look to work on Flintoff's fitness, trying to get him tired and test his stamina. James Lawton, in the Independent, asks if Flintoff will be able to deliver once again or if he will fade away like the 2007 Ashes series.
The question is a big one, however. Can he really carry the freight? Can he do what he did so memorably four years ago, when his body was much less assailed, and wage the fight right up to the moment the Ashes are regained? Or will he lapse into the mode of 2006-07, when the highest expectations foundered amid some of the worst neglect of competitive responsibilities ever seen in a major sportsman?
That might sound like a mean appraisal of Flintoff's situation after his spectacular performance at Lord's but we can be sure it is one the Australians, however highly they rate the recent evidence of their most celebrated opponent's match-winning potential, will be entertaining today.
Ricky Ponting is just 25 runs short of becoming Australia's highest Test run-getter. David Lloyd, also in the Independent, wonders if it is now time to call Ponting is the best ever Australian batsman, barring Donald Badman.
But apart from Bradman, then, where does Ponting stand? Well, like beauty, batting is in the eye of the beholder, and there are some real belters all the way down to The Don, who is in 36th place with his 6,996 runs. For sheer elegance, you could not do much better than either Mark Waugh (8,029 runs from 128 Tests) or Greg Chappell (7,110 from 87), who were from different generations but broke bowlers' hearts in the same way through their purity of stroke.
July 29, 2009
Operation Fix Mitch
Posted on 07/29/2009 in Ashes
Chloe Saltau writes in the Age that Troy Cooley’s reputation as the world’s premier fast-bowling coach depends on whether he can rehabilitate Mitchell Johnson in time to save the Ashes.
Cooley’s coaching credentials are impeccable and his mystique as a pace guru was enhanced when he armed England’s bowlers with destructive reverse swing in 2005. However, it was generally acknowledged that Australia missed a trick in India last year when Zaheer Khan used it better than the Australian bowlers by scuffing up the ball early, a technique they have tried to emulate in England.
In the Courier-Mail, Allan Border argues the case for dropping Johnson and including Stuart Clark, but Ricky Ponting in his column in the Australian says fans shouldn't expect too many team changes for Edgbaston.
Mike Selvey writes in the Guardian that the simplest way for Johnson to get back to his best is to focus on bowling fast and across right-hand batsmen and forget about bringing the ball back in.
July 28, 2009
A nasty edge to the Ashes
Posted on 07/28/2009 in Ashes
A serious but friendly rivalry between England and Australia has been the cornerstone for the popularity of the Ashes over the years. But Peter Hanlon writes in the Age that things are becoming less friendly by the day - and the media is as much to blame as anyone.
Australians and English have always enjoyed a peculiar love-hate relationship, yet the emphasis has been on 'enjoyed'. A month-long visit to Britain has embedded a worrying thought: for as long as England has played Australia at sport we've joked how much one hates losing to the other. Now, it seems de rigeur to simply hate each other.
That the cricketers have not been on their best behaviour has been well documented, but the action in the stands, commentary boxes and newspaper columns has been revealing. To a degree we've had it coming; Australians have not always been the most humble winners and England was justifiably jubilant at finally pulling the thorn from its foot four years ago. But this time, it feels different. There is a nastier edge to the goading.
Kevin Mitchell in the Guardian notes that even Australia's coach Tim Nielsen is getting seriously testy.
His response to legitimate inquiries about Johnson revealed more than he was trying to hide. The gist of it was, if we wanted to write the bowler off, fine; what did we know? If they did not believe in Johnson, they might as well just open the newspapers the next morning and pick the team from that. It was a poor response.
One man who doesn't do 'nasty' is Ben Hilfenhaus, who Chloe Saltau describes in the Sydney Morning Herald as "too young to remember Terry Alderman and too bashful to indulge in comparisons with him".
July 27, 2009
Judgment day for the Shermanator
Posted on 07/27/2009 in Ashes
Ian Bell has replaced the injured Kevin Pietersen for the third Ashes Test in Edgbaston and that will give Australia the edge, according to Shane Warne in the Times.
Bell’s return will hopefully be greeted with “welcome back, Shermanator”, the nickname I gave him in 2006. I remember watching American Pie in the team hotel with Michael Clarke on the fourth evening of the Adelaide Test and when the dorky ginger kid appeared we both started laughing because it reminded us of Bell.
At Test match time Edgbaston it is transformed into one of the most vibrant stadiums in the world, a cockpit of emotion, even jingoism, which may explain why England have a better home record there than anywhere else, with 22 victories and only eight defeats in 43 Tests, writes Pat Gibson in the same paper.
In going back to Bell so soon after patience ran out with him the selectors are effectively saying that the substrata of batting in this country is not deemed to be of international quality, writes Mike Selvey in the Guardian.
July 26, 2009
Bell exposes England's lack of depth
Posted on 07/26/2009 in Ashes
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Should Ian Bell bat at No.4 or No. 5?
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England's selectors will be forced to pick Ian Bell, who they had discarded five months ago, as a replacement for the injured Kevin Pietersen because the other contenders lack the credentials for a Test berth, says Steve James in the Sunday Telegraph. Omission from the recent Lions team against Australia would appear to preclude Rob Key and Owais Shah. After a long period of barrenness, Key might have run into some form recently with a double century against glum Glamorgan, but, in truth, it was an innings with more lives than Kitty and, as such, a Christmas card should later this year be on its way to the over-generous umpire Vanburn Holder. And Shah's time in the game's longest format has, quite simply, passed. So too, long ago, Mark Ramprakash's. Joe Denly's – and maybe Stephen Moore's – will come, but not yet, and certainly not out of position in the middle-order. Michael Vaughan's retirement premature? Let's not go there.
While many think Bell will slot in at No. 4, taking Pietersen's place in the order, Simon Wilde writes in the Sunday Times that Bell should be at No. 5 with Paul Collingwood being pushed up.
In the same paper, Martin Johnson ponders Australia's options ahead of the third Test, and writes that it's most likely that the visitors will go in with an unchanged XI.
Vic Marks writes in the Observer that though the spotlight is on Mitchell Johnson's failings (eight wickets at 41) in the series, Peter Siddle's numbers (seven wickets at 44) are just as poor.
In his column in the Sunday Telegraph, Ricky Ponting backs another member of his side who is under a lot of pressure, Phil Hughes, saying: "I feel that he only needs half an hour in the middle and everything will click back into place."
And in the Sunday Independent Stephen Benkley lists some reasons for England to be cautious with three Tests to go - Ravi Bopara's lack of form, the absence of KP, and the fragility of Flintoff - but also points out that the current Australian team isn't a patch on the world-beating ones of the past.
July 25, 2009
Defending Ricky
Posted on 07/25/2009 in Ashes
Ricky Ponting has had a a lot of bad press on the Ashes tour so far, and was even jeered during the Lord's Test. Gideon Haigh defends the Australian captain in the Times and says that Ponting remarks at the end of the Cardiff Test were the "acme of restraint" and terms his comments after the umpiring controversy in Lord's as "mild irritation on the spur of the moment, neither complaints nor excuses in the aftermath". Lord's, meanwhile, which preens itself as the locus classicus of the spirit of cricket, actually boos the best Australia Test batsman since Bradman. The irony is that if a single player in the world could be regarded as a cricket traditionalist, even a bit of a reactionary, it is Ponting. He is a Test cricketer to the marrow, obsessed enough with the Ashes to have forgone the riches of the Indian Premier League before this series, so dedicated to its symbolism that he attends Test press conferences in his whites and wearing his baggy green - unlike England players, who are studies in sponsor-friendly casual wear
Can Bell make the most of his lifeline?
Posted on 07/25/2009 in Ashes
In many Test innings Ian Bell has looked in great touch before throwing away his wicket. Barney Ronay wonders in the Guardian whether the man expected to take the place of the injured Kevin Pietersen will show he's made of sterner stuff during the rest of the Ashes. Ian Bell – who, according to everybody capable of having opinions about England's middle order, will be back in the team for Edgbaston – appears to be made of something infuriatingly insubstantial: fleece, nylon, margarine, cobweb... For a rather meek person Bell is a surprisingly divisive figure. He seems sure to be in tomorrow's squad as Kevin Pietersen's stand-in. But you can bet lots of people will feel cross about it.
And in the Daily Telegraph Derek Pringle looks at whether there's a place for Steve Harmison in the Edgbaston starting XI.
July 24, 2009
Australia are just not hairy enough
Posted on 07/24/2009 in Ashes
This clean-cut look is doing the Australians no favours in the battle for the Ashes – and they must swear more, says Harry Pearson on his Guardian blog.
Don't get me wrong, Lee seems a nice and amiable lad and is doubtless popular with mums, it's just I'm not sure if that's what you really want from a strike bowler. Fast bowlers need to be crazed and angry. Bob Willis steamed in with such a wild and psychotic look that the fact the embodiment of evil in Twin Peaks shared the same first name was surely no coincidence. I bet David Lynch saw the highlights from Headingley and yelled: "Screw Dennis Hopper! That's the madness I'm looking for!"
Nearby, Mike Selvey says Ravi Bopara must learn there is a time and place for embellishment. When it comes to Test batting, 'how many' is generally a better guide to ability than 'how'.
Bopara's Test career has been brief but no cricketer in the history of the game has so troughed and peaked in his first few innings, with three successive noughts against Sri Lanka followed by a trio of centuries against West Indies. Somewhere in between lies the truth.
Writing in the Times, John Woodcock says Andrew Flintoff deserves plaudits for his feats at Lord's. Like Michael Holding in 1976 and Bob Willis in 1981, the England allrounder has taken this place in a pantheon of match-winners.
In Chennai looking to set up a cricket academy, Matthew Hayden tells the Times of India that watching Australia trailing 0-1 in the Ashes series wasn’t easy for him, especially after being in complete control over the first Test in Cardiff. But the former Australian opener doesn’t believe that there is anything wrong in the Australian side and that they can fight back in the series.
July 23, 2009
Losing KP an enormous blow, but not fatal
Posted on 07/23/2009 in Ashes
England's most memorable success of the last four years, in the CB Series of 2006-07, came without Pietersen, and they might be secretly glad that they finally know where they stand, writes Rob Smyth in the Guardian.
Flintoff's injury is, however, obviously manageable, whereas Pietersen's was so bad that he could manage only a shockingly muted 100-ball 44 on Saturday, an innings that was as depressing as seeing a child prodigy who has gone to seed. That you would rather have a fit Pietersen in your team is so obvious as to make the first part of this sentence vaguely idiotic, and you know that were he fully fit he would have bent at least one of the five Tests to his will as Flintoff did on Monday.
In the same paper, Mike Selvey writes that KP's replacement in the series, Ian Bell, is his antithesis. Bell has seemed reluctant to lead from the front, and the Australians will look to exploit that weakness.
Flower and Andrew Strauss, the England captain, are realists and will quietly get on and play the hand they have been dealt. They more than anyone appreciate that they have lost a champion, but also know that adversity can unite. This is going to be a mighty scrap from here on in
In the Times, Michael Atherton writes that England can certainly win the Ashes without Pietersen. His form has been affected by his lack of mobility. Pietersen's running at Lord's, always eccentric, verged on the schizophrenic, his body unable to do his mind's bidding.
Watching Pietersen is usually a pleasure; at Lord's it was almost purgatory. This would have been partly down to the physical effects of his injury, the inability perhaps fully to push forward, but also the mental challenge needed to overcome the knowledge that something out of your control is inhibiting top-class performance.
In the same paper, Patrick Kidd offers nine possible replacements for Pietersen, from Mark Ramprakash to Eoin Morgan.
Ian Botham feels Pietersen is better off treating his injury sooner rather than later because it will prolong his career, and if he has to miss three Ashes Tests so that he can play in another three Ashes series then that's a fair swap. Read on in the Mirror.
Clearly losing a player of Kevin's calibre is a real blow for England and someone else will have to step up and score his runs. But I've got every confidence that someone will do just that. If we're honest Kevin has not really had much of an impact on this series and England have done pretty well with him hobbling around.
In the Independent, David Lloyd feels it's time for Ravi Bopara to drop down the order and hand his No.3 spot to Bell.
Australia have more on their plate than England
Posted on 07/23/2009 in Ashes
In the Times, Michael Atherton writes that Australia actually have more headaches than England. Two of their leading performers - Johnson and Hughes - are still struggling. He analyses Hughes' predicament.
His back foot splays to the leg side on delivery, an involuntary twitch that is fiendishly difficult to shake off, so that the angle of his hips, shoulders and body face mid-off, not the bowler. It means that he has a blind spot for anything on ribcage or armpit line. Nor does he find it easy to score on the leg side because his hips are “closed” and in the way, and his bat cannot get at the ball.
In the same paper, John Westerby wonders whether Cricket Australia's restrictions on sledging have made the Australians too nice for their own good.
The problem with asking a leopard to change its spots is that it will lose the camouflage that has enabled it to survive for centuries. In recent years, one of the prime reasons that Australia have become the most feared beast in the cricketing jungle has been their ultra-aggressive nature, a trait that has often revealed itself in sledging, the verbal intimidation of opponents.
July 22, 2009
Calmer captain will take side to Ashes glory
Posted on 07/22/2009 in Ashes
Stephen Brenkley writes in the Independent that the Ashes will probably be won by the captain who stands tallest in the face of the coming ordeal. In England, Ricky Ponting received a round of applause only when his team had lost. In Australia, Andrew Strauss is being vilified for claiming a catch that never was ... In the days and weeks ahead, their teams will come increasingly to rely on them, on the calls they make, on the leadership they offer and on the comfort they give. For the men at the centre of the storm, it is the most severe test of their sporting careers
With Kevin Pietersen's availability for the third Test still uncertain, Mike Selvey says in the Guardian that England will struggle to retain the Ashes lead if their premier batsman isn't fit.
Simon Hughes has seen plenty of stirring performances at his home ground Lord's, but none as good as Andrew Flintoff's spell that sank Australia. Read about it in the Daily Telegraph.
And in the Times Matthew Syed says the oldest rivalry in cricket, the Ashes, has shown once again why it retains it vitality and relevance.
July 21, 2009
Super Fred sinks Australia
Posted on 07/21/2009 in Ashes
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Andrew Flintoff got on the honour's board at Lord's. Not bad for a lame lad
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The papers are falling over themselves to praise Andrew Flintoff after his fierce spell ended England's 75-year wait for an Ashes victory at Lord's, besides handing the home side a 1-0 lead in the series. Simon Barnes, a long-time fan of Flintoff, writes in the Times that Monday's show confirms Freddie's greatness, though the career numbers may not say so. Flintoff’s may not go down in history as the greatest of great careers. But Flintoff can do greatness — genuine greatness — on a seasonal basis, as he did four years ago, and on a daily basis, as he did yesterday. His thundering spell of mesmeric hostility first snuffed out the candle flame of Australian hope and then plunged them into the darkness of defeat. He bowled for an hour and a half in excess of 90mph, and every ball was a drama. Not bad for a lame lad.
Scyld Berry ranks Flintoff's bowling as one of the great spells in Ashes history, and writes in the Daily Telegraph that Flintoff will continue to intimidate Australia right through the series. With the exception of the 1956 series which was won by Jim Laker taking 46 wickets, every Ashes series that England have won since 1930 – starting with Harold Larwood and Bodyline – has been won by pace. And Flintoff’s spell was up there with his own bowling in 2005, and Ian Botham’s in 1985 and 1981, and Bob Willis’s at Headingley in the latter year, and John Snow’s, and Frank Tyson’s and Brian Statham’s, and so on
Paul Hayward writes in the Guardian that after Brad Haddin's wicket, the final day of the second Test became "a study in one man's quest to leave an audience not just wanting but slavering for more."
And in the Times, Michael Atherton says the Lord's Test will be remembered as Flintoff's Test: he began by announcing his retirement, and ended by showing how much he will be missed.
Flintoff showed just why he has won the heart and soul of every cricket fan in England over the past decade despite the modest career figures, says Angus Fraser in the Independent.
Whither spirit of cricket in Lord's?
Posted on 07/21/2009 in Ashes
In the Age Greg Baum says that England's attitude has been unexpectedly cynical so far in the series. Early in Michael Clarke's commendable innings at Lord's, he was forced to jerk his head out of the way of a searing Andrew Flintoff bouncer. The ball clipped Clarke's helmet on its way through to wicketkeeper Matthew Prior... from the slips cordon, England captain Andrew Strauss appealed. For what? A man who had made nearly 200 runs himself in the match assuredly has better eyes than to believe it was a catch and no other form of dismissal was possible. It can only be that Strauss was trying one on. Already, officiating was a burning issue. Already, there was consternation. If the umpires already had made one bad decision, might they not make another, especially if rattled?
After a match in which Strauss was involved in a catching controversy, and Ponting vehemently questioned umpiring decisions, Kevin Mitchell writes in the Guardian that neither captain has shown much regard for the spirit of the game.
Nasser Hussain is hugely impressed with Andrew Strauss' captaincy in the Lord's Test, calling it a "spotless display of leadership" which was "a demonstration of the man's character, tactical acumen and his leadership of men". Read more in the Daily Mail
And a week after being dubbed a 'hypocrite' and 'irrelevant' by Ponting, Duncan Fletcher writes in the Guardian that Strauss' assured leadership leaves us wondering which of the two captains have been in charge of their side for five years.
In the Independent, Peter Roebuck spares a thought for the other hero of the second innings, Michael Clarke, whose sparkling century wasn't enough to prevent an Australian defeat.
July 20, 2009
Australia keep Strauss's nerves jangling
Posted on 07/20/2009 in Ashes
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Michael Clarke's unbeaten 125 ensured the match remained in balance
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In the Guardian, Vic Marks argues that a fancy declaration from Andrew Strauss has jeopardised England's chances of a victory. Once the option of the follow-on had been rejected on Saturday, presumably on the basis that England could lose the Test by having to bat last, the logical step for Andrew Strauss was to allow his side to continue batting until the game was absolutely safe: to score so many runs that, even if the Australians, on an excellent surface, were still there at the close of play on Monday, they would not have enough runs to win, to leave them batting without hope of victory
Another Strauss decision being debated is whether England should have enforced the follow-on. In the Daily Telegraph Scyld Berry, the editor of Wisden, backs Strauss' move to bat again. Supposing – just supposing – Australia had scored 313 for five off the first 86 overs of their second innings, as they did in the fourth innings of this match, and then ploughed on. It is likely they would have posted 400 and England would have faced a target of 200, at least, to chase on the last day... England would have had a run-chase under real pressure – saddled with the extra thought that they had beaten Australia only once on this ground since 1896.
Continue reading "Australia keep Strauss's nerves jangling"
July 19, 2009
Strauss betrays caution by failing to enforce follow-on
Posted on 07/19/2009 in Ashes
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Andrew Strauss: Not bullish enough?
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Mike Brearley knows a thing or two about calling the shots on the field. Looking at Andrew Strauss captaining England on day three at Lord's, and not enforcing the follow-on, Brearley calls it a 'pusillanimous' decision. Fantasies of a quick win for England were dispelled by Australia's stubborn tail-end reaction and some puzzling tactics by the home side, he writes in the Observer.
I disagree with Andrew Strauss's decision. He has at his disposal four front-line quick bowlers, plus a spinner. By the end of Australia's innings, Andrew Fintoff had bowled only 12 overs, Graham Onions 11, and Graeme Swann one, so most of his bowlers should have been fresh. It was a pleasant day, not too hot or debilitating. The pitch was likely to be at its quickest yesterday. Batting again meant that, unless England unaccountably collapsed, they were bound to use up time that they might need later – as happened in Antigua last winter, when England failed to enforce the follow-on and West Indies' last pair survived. One would expect Australia to bat much better second time round, whether following on or not.
David Gower agrees, saying Strauss needs to take a bolder approach. The fact that Australia got within touching distance of saving the follow-on might also have affected his thinking. Only time will tell now whether the choice to bat again is the correct one, he writes in the Sunday Times.
So for me, it would have been better to put the pressure straight back on to the Australian batsmen, not necessarily expecting them to fold again as they had in the first innings but knowing that they would have to bat exceptionally well — and for a very long time — to have even half a chance of saving the game. Even the prospect of having to score more than just a few runs at the end of the game to finish off the win should not have been a daunting one.
Alex Massie, writing in Spectator magazine, says events may yet prove Strauss's decision correct. Despite just three occasions when a side has followed-on and won - in Test cricket's 132-year history - enforcing the follow-on has become almost as unfashionable in the modern game as stationing a fielder at third man.
Ravi Bopara is becoming a worry. He may be a young man making his way in Test cricket, but Ashes series are no place to be allowing a novice the leeway of education, writes Steve James in the Daily Telegraph.
What lies behind the jitters of Mitchell Johnson? Every time Ricky Ponting hands him a new ball, he must feel like an antique collector entrusting a Ming vase to someone with a bad case of the DTs, says Martin Johnson in the Sunday Times. He has another piece in the same paper where he says Ricky Ponting's finding that captaining Australia isn't the cushy job it once was.
In the same paper Simon Wilde says that while Andrew Flintoff's retirement was inevitable, the timing was questionable.
Whereas England seem in control, two of the Australians are in a tizzy, says Peter Roebuck in the Independent.
July 18, 2009
Technically out, but reason wrong
Posted on 07/18/2009 in Ashes
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Ricky Ponting's terrible record at Lord's continued
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Television replays on day two at Lord's showed there had been an umpiring error from Rudi Koertzen as Ricky Ponting's bat had jammed into his foot rather than going anywhere near the ball. Vic Marks in the Guardian says the episode did little to enhance confidence in Koertzen. He had three options in response to the appeal: not out, out lbw, out caught at slip. He chose the last, which the TV replays suggested was the least likely to be correct. A sort of justice had been reached but for all the wrong reasons.
It appears players are more inclined to believe television ahead of the umpires, writes Malcolm Conn in the Australian.
In the hospitality boxes at Lord's, Lawrence Booth spoke to two survivors from Australia's 1948 'Invincibles' side who expressed their distaste for sledging and questioned Ponting's captaincy. Neil Harvey and Sam Loxton have a couple things to say. Read on in the Guardian.
In the Times Gideon Haigh says that a jittery Mitchell Johnson is testing Ponting’s patience. Johnson is becoming Australia’s greatest potential headache, awkward to carry, but just as problematic to exclude. If Brett Lee were to recover in time for the Edgbaston Test that starts in a week, who would make way?
Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald says Johnson and Phillip Hughes need to find their path forwards.
In the Guardian Paul Weaver salutes England's hero of the day, James Anderson, saying he arrived with a cloudburst to stun Australia.
Former England bowler Angus Fraser believes Anderson showed a struggling Stuart Broad how to make the very best of what he's got. Anderson is the leader of England's pack, possibly the best fielder his captain can call on, and his new positive style of batting highlights the confident frame of mind he is in. Read on in the Independent.
The Times' Simon Barnes believes this may just be the summer Anderson was made for.
July 17, 2009
Australians relieved at Harmison omission
Posted on 07/17/2009 in Ashes
Steve Harmison bowled a fiery spell against Australia in the practice game, but failed to find a place in the England team. Christopher Martin-Jenkins, in the Times, feels that Harmison would have been a better option than Stuart Broad, and that Broad only got the nod based on his better batting skills.
Harmison is a confidence player. When he is hot, he is very hot indeed and he is bowling with self-belief. Ask any batsman in professional cricket, whatever his nationality, and he will tell you that no one looks forward to facing him on song, even on pitches as comfortable as, predictably, this one at Lord’s was yesterday.
It was, before the end of day one at Lord's, not just the England team against Australia. It was Andrew Strauss's team. He was king before, but now he had been crowned following his with a brilliant hundred. Scyld Berry in the Daily Telegraph believes the rest of the series will be much easier for Strauss with his own game proven to be in good order.
The talk about England's time delaying strategy at Cardiff refuses to die, with Harry Pearson commenting in the Guardian that if you must bend the rules a bit, do it with some tact and guile.
Back in 1963 at Wembley Stadium British heavyweight Henry Cooper knocked Muhammad Ali (then still known as Cassius Clay) on to the seat of pants with a left hook straight to what Damon Runyon would have called "the old kazoo". When the bell for the end of the round sounded seconds later the future Greatest staggered back to his stool markedly groggy. In his corner celebrated trainer and bucket man Angelo Dundee went to work and – lo and behold – discovered a rip in his fighter's glove. A trip to the dressing room to get another pair bought Ali precious extra time to recover.
Why maverick Mitch lost the plot
Posted on 07/17/2009 in Ashes
Something was not right with Mitchell Johnson on the first day at Lord's but Robert Craddock in his blog on the Daily Telegraph website, the Australian daily, says the fans need not despair and that the bowler will improve quickly when he gets his head right. Craddock presents his top five reasons why Johnson is blowing hot and cold.
A Lord's Test tells of continuity and Andrew Flintoff's withdrawal indicates change is not merely on the way, it has come. Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald reasons why Flintoff's farewell to Tests is bad, and sad news for game's long form.
Scyld Berry, in the Daily Telegraph, writes about how Andrew Strauss seems to play better when given the responsibility of captaincy.
July 16, 2009
The need to feel positive
Posted on 07/16/2009 in Ashes
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Allan Border doesn't set much store on Australia's successful run at Lord's
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Allan Border feels that Lord's has a special atmosphere, and that is why visiting teams have an advantage. The Australians regard it as their Mecca. It has that special, intangible quality which is difficult to put into words. In his column in the Courier Mail, he believes the visitors need to feel positive after the drawn first Ashes Test at Cardiff.
You might get one chance in your life to actually visit the place and play cricket there. It's a ground where, as a kid, you dream of playing.
I believe there is a percentage lift across the board with Australian players at Lord's, If you're all playing at your best plus 5 per cent it makes you pretty hard to beat.
Writing in the same paper, Shane Warne believes Australia are no longer in transition. They really gelled on the way to winning in South Africa, and if the team was underestimated this time last week, it won't be any more.
If England are to be competitive, they must axe Monty Panesar and bring Steve Harmison back in, regardless of Andrew Flintoff's fitness, says Darren Lehmann in the Herald Sun.
Steve Waugh feels Phillip Hughes is twice as tough as he was at the same age, as the young Australian continues his gruelling Ashes examination on cricket's most prestigious stage. Waugh overcame a weakness against short-pitched bowling early in his career and Hughes faces a similar challenge, especially if England include Steve Harmison in their attack for the second Test. Chloe Saltau has more in the Sydney Morning Herald.
On the Line and Length blog on the Times website, JRod, who runs the popular blog Cricket with Balls looks at the lighter side of the time-wasting controversy surrounding England in the first Ashes Test.
I can see the beauty in the way England wasted time. England didn’t just stop play, they sent out a physio doing the best impersonation of Bo Derek, from the film 10, that I have ever seen.
In 2013 I can’t wait to see slow motion shots of the physio running out there. It will hypnotise people into watching the Ashes.
July 15, 2009
Nothing worse than a poor draw
Posted on 07/15/2009 in Ashes
Patrick Smith takes up the opposite position to his fellow Australian journalist Malcolm Conn in defending England's tactics in the dying stages in Cardiff. Smith argues that it was perfectly understandable for England to want to face the minimum amount of overs required.
That they did it so shamelessly and without a skerrick of panache took it from scheming to the bleeding obvious. Ham-fisted yes, but hardly cheating or in poor spirit. That is what worried the England commentators - not the motive but the method. To be critical of England for not playing in the spirit of the game is to be precious.
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As time becomes more precious, wickets imperative, it is just as important to hold your nerve as your catches. To look to accuse England of bad sportsmanship when more than enough time existed for Australia to get rid of the rabbit end of the home side's batting line-up is to whinge and sound mean-spirited. And there's nothing worse than a poor drawer.
Mike Selvey, in the Guardian, isn't so comfortable with England's shenanigans.
That was not gamesmanship or bending the rules to your advantage; it was taking the piss, unbecoming of the England management and team or any side who perpetrated it. What next? Orchestrated pitch invasions at appropriate moments? The umpires should have kicked them off.
Matthew Syed in the Times argues that Ricky Ponting's questioning of England's tactics smacks off crass hypocrisy from a man "who has turned slow play into an art form".
Peter Roebuck in the Age points out that England cannot let their escape in Wales paper over the obvious deficiencies in their side.
Ricky Ponting, in his column in the Australian, is looking forward to the assistance his fast bowlers should get at Lord's, but Christopher Martin-Jenkins in the Times thinks bowling will be tough work in the second Test.
Ponting may have complained about England's time wasting tactics, but Simon Hughes, in the Telegraph, asks the Australian captain to take a look at his own behavior, which he feels is hardly in the 'spirit of the game'.
Time for England to do some serious thinking
Posted on 07/15/2009 in Ashes
England may have hung on to a draw at Cardiff but they will need to do some serious thinking about their game if they are to challenge Australia in the remaining Tests. Both the batting and the bowling needs some work, feels Lawrence Booth in the Guardian.
Each bowler let England down in his own way. Jimmy Anderson forgot that he is at his best pitching the ball up. Stuart Broad unaccountably spoon-fed Phillip Hughes. Andrew Flintoff briefly rode a wave of popular raucousness, then reverted to unpenetrative type and is now injured once more. Graeme Swann overpitched; Monty Panesar lacked verve - and both spinners bowled too fast. They probably didn't go into this game thinking they would learn anything off Hauritz, but Ashes cricket evidently retains its capacity to surprise.
Kevin Mitchell, in the same paper, doesn't think too much of Andrew Strauss's captaincy, and feels that the draw cannot hide his inadequacies as captain. He compares Strauss and Michael Vaughan, calling the retired batsman the 'near perfect captain of recent times'.
Strauss's field placings, meanwhile, ranged between unimaginative and puzzling and his bowling changes asked few hard questions. He was not helped by some ordinary bowling and idiot batting, but there was none the less a palpable sense of drift. Occasionally Strauss looked to the skies for the promised rain, the equivalent of a beaten boxer going to the ropes with his gloves around his head hoping the referee will rescue him from his torment. Muhammad Ali, as fine a boxer as he was, won many a bout with what might best be described as the power of his intellect, an intangible magic that drained his opponents of rational response. Vaughan did it to Ponting in 2005. If Strauss is to have even a chance of emulating him, he has to find sorcery from somewhere.
July 14, 2009
England can do without Flintoff
Posted on 07/14/2009 in Ashes
Michael Atherton, in the Times, feels that Flintoff will not be missed by England too much if the allrounder is declared unfit for the second Test. Atherton thinks that Steve Harmison could be a good replacement, and it isn't blasphemy anymore to argue that England can do without Flintoff.
Like a second-hand car with plenty of miles on the clock, Flintoff's body has become unreliable. You can give it as many MOTs as you like - and an MOT for Flintoff is another bout of rehabilitation with his physiotherapist and great friend, Dave Roberts - but it is a truism that when you set off on a long journey, you are just not quite sure whether you will reach the destination.
July 13, 2009
Cynical Strauss deserves contempt
Posted on 07/13/2009 in Ashes
Andrew Strauss is either a weak leader or he has no idea about the spirit of cricket, writes Malcolm Conn in the Australian. Conn is scathing in his criticism of England's decision to send an acting 12th man and physiotherapist on to the field in the dying minutes of the tensely drawn first Test, terming it "disgraceful".
As captain, Strauss is responsible for the fundamental fabric of the game, which has been tarnished as a result of his appalling cynicism. While players do not make reading the Laws of Cricket a high priority, Strauss should be well aware of the preamble that reinforces the spirit of the game.
In the Sydney Morning Herald Peter Roebuck says Australia looked united and solid, and the captain himself had a splendid match, both with the bat and as the side's driving force. In Roebuck's view Ponting deserves credit for choosing Ben Hilfenhaus and Nathan Hauritz, the two best bowlers in the match. That is not to say he is a master tactician, however.
The two places you never want your opponent to get to are, in your head and under your skin. And England, with their stunning Test match salvage operation, have done both to Ricky Ponting, writes Robert Craddock in his blog on the Courier-Mail website.
Cricket has only itself to blame for the deeply cynical English tactic that so got up Ricky Ponting's nose in the tense final moments of a ripping Test.The rot set in years ago, when the 12th man carrying the traditional tray of fizzy drinks (real glasses, real ice) was replaced by a motorised advertising cart with sundry support staff. Patrick Smithers in the Age is of the opinion that there are too many people on the field, too often.
The time wasting tactics employed by England has prompted Suresh Menon to ask in the dreamcricket.com website if it is time for cricket to follow the ways of basketball, where the clock is stopped when there is no action on the field.
In the Daily Mail, Nasser Hussain says that while some amount of time wasting is part of the game, the England team will have to do it in a more subtle manner. But the bottom line is that the two teams go into the second Test with the scores level, Nasser says.
What Ponting objected to is the way England went about their time-wasting and in that sense I would have to agree with him. For 99.9 per cent of that gripping day, they did as much as possible within the laws and spirit of the game to save the first Test - but right at the end they crossed the line.
Duncan Fletcher, in the Guardian, isn't too pleased to receive 'play in the right spirit' lectures from Ricky Ponting.The former England coach remembers the 2005 Ashes tour where Ponting turned overly aggressive on the umpires when a decision didn't go his way.
The way he objected after Aleem Dar rightly turned down a catch at silly point off Paul Collingwood was typical. Back in 2005 Ponting and his team were over-aggressive towards the umpires on a regular basis, and he was at it again here. Ponting has to be careful. Someone needs to sit down and ask him what he understands by the spirit of the game. The way he plays is definitely not in the spirit. And if the Australians would have you think that they'd have done things differently on Sunday evening, then pigs might soon be spotted in the skies above St John's Wood.
In the Independent, James Lawton agrees with Ricky Ponting's frustration with the time wasting tactics, adding that gamesmanship has no place in cricket
Don't gloat, England
Posted on 07/13/2009 in Ashes
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Paul Collingwood showed the England top order how important it is to have that street-fighting capability
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Having saved the first Test, England can now go to Lord's for the second Test in better heart than might have been, although they would be wise not to gloat, writes Mike Selvey in the Guardian.
Here, on a pitch that emasculated pace bowlers and spinners alike once the ball had lost its hardness, England were given a batting lesson by Australia's four centurions, one absorbed only by Paul Collingwood among the top order. They need to think long and hard about the disciplines required, the selection of shots according to the conditions and the bowling.
Pietersen has run into real trouble in this Test. Ritual defiance will not protect him from the suspicion that his lone wolf tendencies are now hurting the team, writes Paul Hayward in the same paper.
For Australian cricketers tradition is an ever-replenishing resource, like water, but Michael Henderson believes to an interloper like Kevin Pietersen, whose overriding ambition is to be rich and famous, the word may have no resonance at all. Read his piece in the Telegraph.
In the Times, Shane Warne writes that Pietersen reminds him of Mark Waugh, who found batting so easy that he sometimes got out in ways that looked horrible, like reverse-sweeping Phil Tufnell.
You have to be careful not to overcriticise. Cricket isn't played by robots. Any batsman can get out. What matters is the way they get out, because that reveals their thought processes about batting. It seemed that Pietersen just wanted to keep playing sweep shots against Nathan Hauritz. To me, that is an ego shot.
Paul Collingwood's 74 was vital to England, but more important was the attitude and example he showed, to the dressing room full of batsmen who had made gifts of their wickets earlier in the day and to James Anderson and Monty Panesar, who had to make sure that his good work was not wasted as they batted for the draw, writes Mike Atherton in the same paper.
To the Independent's James Lawton, Collingwood showed a bloody-minded refusal to accept a rather cruel categorisation of him by the Aussies.
Warne sneered that Collingwood's MBE was an extravagant reward for a fleeting contribution to England's Ashes triumph of 2005. But since then the man from County Durham has shown that whatever he lacks in natural brilliance, he has certain heavyweight compensations. We saw the best of them yesterday, a determination to play from ball to ball, over to over England crept towards salvation.
Batting is about mental toughness and it really doesn't matter about flair, shot-making or anything else if you haven't got that. Collingwood showed the top order how important it is to have that street fighting capability and we need to see more of it.
Nasser Hussain echoes the same thoughts in the Daily Mail.
In his column in the same paper, Monty Panesar writes about those nerve-wracking final moments that he and Anderson batted through to clinch the draw.
Paul Collingwood is my batting ‘buddy’ and he’s done so much to help me improve ... All the things we’ve worked on together — like my back-lift and playing straight down the line of the ball — definitely helped me.
Nick Hoult, writing in the Telegraph, outlines 10 areas England must address ahead of Lord's Test.
July 12, 2009
Mature North ensures Symonds quickly forgotten
Posted on 07/12/2009 in Ashes
Marcus North's resolute and unbeaten century on Ashes debut showed that he is made of the right stuff for a battle of that magnitude, and confidently shut out any notions that Andrew Symonds deserved to be there. As explosive as Symonds was as a batsman who could bowl useful medium pace and spin when fit, Australia is far better off with North in the team than the troubled Queenslander, writes Malcolm Conn in the Australian.
North's quiet maturity and wealth of first-class experience is a stabilising influence on a young and developing team largely devoid of the stars who carried Australia for a decade or more. The importance of North, the captain of Western Australia, is far more significant than his modest international profile.
And it's difficult to imagine him arguing with Michael Clarke, let along throwing wine in his national vice-captain's face, as Symonds did on last year's tour of the West Indies. Increasingly, Symonds was a distraction who was bad for a young side building its own culture and identity.
In the Sydney Morning Herald Peter Roebuck says all the hype about 2005 has led England astray.
Take their hairy-chested batting on the opening day. Here was an attempt to recapture the epic spirit. To that end, the batsmen played a wider range of shots than the pitch permitted. Sophia Gardens had provided an all-too familiar pitch, slow and low and hardly changing as the days went by. It was a time for application, even attrition. Yet the locals batted in a gung-ho style, with vivid drives, edges onto the stumps and so forth. The focus on Kevin Pietersen's dismissal was overdone. Was his ill-advised sweep the only poor shot of the innings?
All eyes on 'Hauricane'
Posted on 07/12/2009 in Ashes
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A short leg may have meant an early departure for Ricky Ponting
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England trail by 219 on the final day in the first Ashes Test of 2009 in Cardiff and this is the chance for offspinner Nathan Hauritz, who has never taken a five-wicket haul in any form of top-flight cricket, to not only to win a Test for Australia, but also to lay claim to a permanent place in the side, writes John Stern in the Sunday Times.
... an Australian wag in the press box joked under his breath: “The Hauricane will be licking his lips — he might even get two second-innings wickets.” Hauritz is self-aware enough to understand his unflattering image. “I would be shocked if they didn’t have a go at me,” he said before the Test. “If they can get on top of me early, it will be very hard to come back from that.” It was hardly the sort of declaration of intent that we have come to expect from Australian spinners, but times and personnel have changed. Hauritz is simply the latest man standing in a game of musical chairs that the Australian selectors have been playing with their spinners over the past 2.5 years since Shane Warne retired. They have tried seven specialist spinners since then; their combined efforts have yielded 51 wickets at an average of 54.
In the Sun-Herald, Peter Roebuck wonders if Nathan Hauritz might have the last laugh, which could be the sweetest of ironies.
Back in the Sunday Times Simon Barnes suffers as England's bowlers are outplayed by Australia's batsmen.
Panesar is a man diminished. He was powered for a time by the belief that everything would be made all right, but now that has gone from him. Nor does he seem to have much else. Meanwhile, Graeme Swann, now England’s first choice as spinner, simply couldn’t get it right, and that made for suffering all round. It is not a moral failing to be outplayed . . . but it is even more painful than just messing it up. The real cause of this suffering wasn’t that England could have done better, it was the fact that they probably couldn’t.
In the Observer Mike Brearley wonders why there wasn't a short leg in place for Ricky Ponting who gave a chance at that position early in his innings before going on to score 150.
... to someone who lunges so far this is just where he is vulnerable; if the ball comes back off the seam, or if the batsman looks for marginal swing away and gets too far over to the off side, he is liable to get an inside edge on to front pad. Secondly, having the short leg in place might well make him play differently, might make him less keen to get forward, and this opens up greater possibilities of getting an lbw decision.
In the same paper, Simon Jones, Ashes hero of 2005, talks about how it feels to be reduced a spectator for this series as he continues to struggle with injuries.
England's toothless attack in this Test may prompt the selectors to recall Steve Harmison, writes David Lloyd in the Independent on Sunday.
However Simon Hughes writes in the Sunday Telegraph, the calls for changes in the XI is to miss the point.
It was the decisive footwork, straight bat and appetite of the Australian batsmen that in the end secured them a position of such dominance. The England bowlers need to match their discipline. Same bowlers, different bowling.
Scyld Berry is already looking ahead to the second Test at Lord's, where England last won a Test in 1934.
Malcolm Conn in the Australian writes that the Test has been a major embarrassment for England and has raised questions over the strength of Andrew Strauss as a leader.
And there are a couple of Ashes diaries to keep track of in the Sunday papers in Australia. Here's Mike Hussey's first installment for the Sunday Telegraph, while in the same paper Kerry O'Keeffe says that his Ashes-watching trip began with him feeling so ill on the plane that "pet pigs in the hold have requested masks".
July 11, 2009
Chastened England search for wickets
Posted on 07/11/2009 in Ashes
With Australia piling on a big total on day three, Vic Marks writes in the Guardian that Andrew Staruss' attack looked increasingly bedraggled as the day progressed and says this is a good match for an aspiring England bowler to miss. We were back in Caribbean mode, where the dead, grassless surfaces eventually sapped their energy. There Broad expressed the view that he was pining for England and the green, green grass of home. The attack found some of that at Lord's and Chester-le-Street and they smiled. But here they have been emasculated once again and they have been reminded that Australians are more ruthless, more disciplined than Test cricketers in the Caribbean
With the England attack made to look toothless by the efficient Australian batting, Simon Barnes writes in the Times that the third day was one of real suffering for the home side. Andrew Strauss, the England captain, looked like Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter books, trying the spell to open doors, but finding them for ever locked, no matter how he waved his wand or uttered the magic word: “Alohomora!” He tried with all his bowlers in turn, but hardly a door did he open all day.
Michael Henderson writes in the Daily Telegraph that though much of the talk ahead of the Ashes was of England's superior slow bowling, neither Monty Panesar nor Graeme Swann have made a strong case for a place in the XI for the second Test. And if one man has to go it will be Panesar, who can just about hold a bat, and whose fielding is barely junior house-match standard. Three years after his Test debut, his general lack of competence, which some find endearing, remains shocking.
And in the Independent Peter Roebuck writes that Ben Hilfenhaus has been the best fast bowler on display in the match so far.In the same paper, Angus Fraser suggests that asking England's new-ball bowlers to concentrate on bowling short has cost England.
Authoritative Ponting has England worried
Posted on 07/11/2009 in Ashes
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Ricky Ponting remains England's walking nightmare
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After watching Ricky Ponting's 150, Gideon Haigh writes in the Times that the innings was a perfect batting tutorial. He also reflects on how Ponting has grown as a captain over the years. The members of that dressing room have returned Ponting’s gaze with something approaching awe. Like the later Allan Border, he has become captain to a circle of cricketers who grew up watching him play. They look to him for the kind of craftsman’s runs he has provided at Cardiff and for the talismanic link he represents to past success.
In the Guardian Paul Hayward writes that the "the look of thunder on his [Ponting's] mug" shows just how determined the Australian captain is to avenge the defeat in 2005. Booed on to the field and then clapped back off 150 runs later, Ricky Ponting wore his most demonic game face. A smile may not crack the captain's features until he has avenged the 2005 outrage. "Punter" Ponting's tight, resentful countenance is a study in the uses of adversity.
And in the Independent James Lawton writes that Ponting's innings set the tone for a day of utter dominance.
You've gotta love Peter Siddle
Posted on 07/11/2009 in Ashes
Barney Ronay gets candid about his affection for Peter Siddle, how Siddle could be the perfect friend. There are many qualities that are appealing about Siddle, writes Ronay in the Guardian.
With Siddle you'd get the kind of friend who wouldn't ever just stay for a half because he's got an early one the next day, or, alternatively, stick around and talk for hours about how he isn't entirely sure his current job is effectively extending his marketable skill set. Or have food allergies, or even know what food allergies are, or ride around on one of those irritating fold-up bicycles, or affect a highly vocal and pedantically well-informed liking for dub reggae.
July 10, 2009
Freddie the talisman
Posted on 07/10/2009 in Ashes
Andrew Flintoff is still the talisman for England he was in 2005 but he is no longer the heart of the team, only a very handy bonus when fit, writes Simon Barnes in the Times.
He got the upstart Hughes, befuddling him and inducing an inside edge, and a rather good catch from Matt Prior. Cue the next Rodin statue — legs once more straddled, chest inflated like a bellows, arms wide, hands high, no smile, gaze level: Freddie Rex. The entire team were ignited with hope and belief. Nothing to do but watch the next wicket fall. The snag was that it didn’t. Flintoff gave us a blazing six overs then took a break. Ricky Ponting and Katich set about digging in. It was as if a light had gone out. It was as if Australia and England had given themselves over to a ritual, a routine in which the England bowlers toiled without reward while the Australia batsmen moved gradually from safe to ominous, and Flintoff watched.
According to James Lawton in the Independent, England's attack, when it came right down to it, was Andrew Flintoff.
Meanwhile Flintoff's victim, Phillip Hughes makes for compelling viewing, writes Vic Marks in the Guardian.
Hughes disobeys most of the openers' rules. They are supposed to minimise risk at the start of an innings. The most common way to be dismissed against a new, hard ball is from an outside edge. So the received wisdom is to be wary outside the off stump, to make the bowlers come to you and then to clip them away on the leg-side. An inside edge usually goes nowhere; the outside edge is perilous. But Hughes does it the other way round. His back foot stays on leg stump and his eye is so good that he can hit anything slightly wide of off stump in an arc between extra cover and third man. It is tough for fielding captains to defend those areas square of the wicket.
In the same paper, Barney Ronay writes that being their first home Ashes series, Sky Sports have shaped their summer around hopes of another subscription-shifting grand bouffe of high-cholesterol Big Moments that 2005 was full of. But it's not like that any more.
"I. Don't. Think. They. Have bowled. To Hughes. That well," muttered Michael Holding, almost managing to convince you he really was cross. And as Andrew Flintoff finally beat Hughes' flailing bat David Lloyd erupted with: "Well bowled! That's a reminder of 2005!" Bumble, you felt like saying, it's OK. We understand. Times change.
July 9, 2009
Goodbye to Lee and Clark?
Posted on 07/09/2009 in Ashes
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Waiting for a brain explosion
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The first day of the Ashes 2009 is over and the analysis is pouring in. In his blog in Sydney's Daily Telegraph Robert Craddock hopes Australia stick with Ben Hilfenhaus, Mitchell Johnson and Peter Siddle even it means the end of Brett Lee and Stuart Clark.
None of the young trio have reached their full potential but they skittled South Africa and will test England to the point where Clark and Lee could be squeezed out for good if the frontliners remain uninjured. The only member of the attack who was vulnerable entering the Test was surprise selection Hilfenhaus and he was Australia’s best bowler, a man born to bowl in England with his natural swing. Johnson’s position is non-negotiable and Siddle’s close to it.
Hilfenhaus will get better the more he plays. He is the future as much as the present. I hope Australia gives him a decent run. Unfortunately there is no Shane Warne around to trim totals of 400 back to 310.
In the Independent Peter Roebuck writes that the limitations of Ricky Ponting's captaincy were increasingly exposed in the last two sessions of the day.
Far from seeking a fourth wicket, though, the tourists went into their shell after the break, relying for an eternity upon presentable spinners sent down by a specialist and a part-timer. Accordingly Pietersen and Paul Collingwood were able without any particular difficulty to rebuild the innings with sweeps and dabs to cover, shots indicating a reluctance to drive on a grudging deck. Inexplicably, Nathan Hauritz was retained for 14 overs. Presumably Ponting felt obliged to support him and the tactic was overdone. No wickets fell, or looked like falling, for two hours and still he did not intervene. Hilfenhaus was not called upon all afternoon. Upon his reappearance he produced the spell of the day, and was unjustly denied Pietersen's wicket.
In the Guardian, David Hopps declares Cardiff's debut as a Test venue a success.
Somehow this stadium works. It is intimate without being overly cramped, the atmosphere was lively without being crass, the crowd appreciative and knowledgeable. Never before have so many Welsh men and women gathered in one place to support England. They did so with no sense of shame.
Kevin Pietersen looked set for a big score when he tried to play a reverse-sweep to a delivery pitched outside off and top-edged an easy catch to short leg. In the Times Richard Neale asks whether KP is a cricketing genius who should be allowed a free rein or a selfish cricketer who puts himself above the team.
In the Courier Mail, Malcolm Conn writes that Pietersen's brain, or rather when it explodes, will prove the axis on which the series turns.
July 8, 2009
England should start the Ashes as favourites
Posted on 07/08/2009 in Ashes
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Is Graham Onions ready for the Ashes?
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Geoffrey Boycott believes England go into the much-anticipated summer series as the form side. Break this Ashes series down into five categories - captaincy, seam bowling, spin bowling, batting and fielding - Boycott says England have the advantage in at least two and can compete on level terms in the rest. Which is a big change from recent series when, on paper at least, it has been Australia all the way. Read on in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Former England coach Duncan Fletcher posts on his blog in the Guardian that Graham Onions should play ahead of Monty Panesar. Fletcher believes Kevin Pietersen's batting can lead England to success if the selectors pick the right bowling attack.
It is good to see, though, that England resisted the trap of picking Steve Harmison just because of the way he bowled to Phillip Hughes. You can't pick a bloke just to dismiss one batsman, and in any case I believe the seamers who were selected have the ability to keep him quiet. The crucial thing is to make sure Hughes plays with a vertical bat: if you give him width to free his arms he can be dangerous.
In the same paper Mike Selvey says England must be prepared to grind it out in the Ashes and that Cardiff's secrets add to the uncertainties of a series that shows every sign of being attritional.
The Wisden Cricketer magazine have both Gideon Haigh and Peter Siddle writing for their blog, which should make for entertaining and insightful reading during the series.
Vic Marks wonders if England's bowlers, who combined brilliantly four years ago to spearhead an Ashes victory, can conjure up a repeat. He looks at England's bowling options for Cardiff.
David Hopps caught up with former Australian batsman and English county veteran Stuart Law, who bluntly says people should get off Andrew Flintoff's back. Law explains why we should cherish England's talismanic all-rounder for his commitment to the cause.
In the Independent James Lawton suggests that maybe 2005 should be wrapped in mothballs and brought out only when the heat of current Ashes action has passed, such is the standard it set for those who followed.
Marcus Berkmann, author of noted books on cricket such as Zimmer Men and Rain Men, is enslaved for the next seven weeks and says England cricket fans have learned nothing from their past sufferings.
As a fresh generation of stars prepare to make their own moments of history, Will Hawkes tracks down the heroes from series past to ask which contests and controversies have remained with them, and what they have been doing since drawing stumps on their careers.
The Times' Mike Atherton wonders if England's cricketers remember that beautiful but bleak day in Sydney two-and-a-half years ago, and if so, the wave upon wave of Australian triumphalism crashing over them? Do they remember the humiliation they felt on becoming part of only the second England team to be whitewashed on Australian soil?
Allan Border is concerned about Australia's attack, he writes in the Herald Sun, while Peter Lalor in the Australian looks back at the 2005 series.
July 7, 2009
Poms smell the blood of the Australians
Posted on 07/07/2009 in Ashes
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Can Andrew Strauss do a Michael Vaughan?
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England have enjoyed a better preparation and start as favourites for The Ashes. Australia have some superb players but appear disjointed. It's been a long time since an Australian team has relied so much on ifs and buts. But things can change, an inspired moment, a great innings and suddenly the bubble is back. Peter Roebuck writing in the Sydney Morning Herald hopes cricket will surpass its humdrum setting.
Over the years Englishmen have rarely gone to cold, damp Wales with any high expectations but this time their optimism is evident. They come in search not of coal or five-pointers but in pursuit of a disrupted Australian cricket team. They come seeking the Ashes...
Although lacking the messianic zeal to regain the Ashes that gripped the population last time around, the hosts are desperate to put the supposedly gum-chewing, unyielding, leathery visitors in their place. More than is sensible and much more than their opponents, English cricket measures itself by results in Ashes series. It is an odd obsession that tells of respect, fear and regret.
Freddie owes us, big time
Posted on 07/07/2009 in Ashes
Paul Weaver writes in his Guardian blog that Andrew Flintoff has borrowed freely from the goodwill of the English public and now he owes them - big time.
There are two images of Andrew Flintoff and they flicker like holograms, struggling for primacy in the mind's eye. One is of his heroic deeds, with both bat and ball, in the Ashes of 2005, when he was truly immense; in the other he reels, like a stage drunk, as he celebrates that famous triumph in Trafalgar Square.
Today, on the eve of another Ashes series, the first picture has faded a little and it is the second that is illuminated by the stronger beam of light. Flintoff has much to do. What he achieves this year against a beatable Australia will help define him. Whether he plays like a match-winning all-rounder or galumphs around like an overgrown mascot will shape our memories of him and, perhaps, even his own.
Weaver also speaks to Stuart Clark, who is ready to take his chance despite a lack of preparation. Surprised by all the fuss over his visa issues and prospect of Gloucester giving Australia a helping hand, Clark says he had no control over matters.
Also in the Guardian, James Anderson tells Donald McRae he wants to be the man who stands up in the key moments during this series, while David Hopps says the concerns about Cardiff hosting the first Test will be forgotten if the Welsh fans "rush down from the valleys as supportively as the Welsh weather".
In the Daily Telegraph, Ricky Ponting recalls each of the five Tests that led to Australia losing the urn in 2005.
In his Guardian blog Andy Bull speaks to John Buchanan, who is revelling in his role reversal as England's adviser.
"You've had a number of Australian coaches come over into the English sporting system to provide some expertise. I'm just one of those pieces that can be imported and hopefully provide some knowledge and assistance."
Mike Selvey is going so say sorry on his next trip to Trent Bridge, because a failure to recognise an unfairly derided fast bowling legend more than 40 years ago still haunts him to this day.
Cricket culture or celebrity culture?
Posted on 07/07/2009 in Ashes
Nick Bryant, the BBC's Sydney correspondent, writing in the Australian, wonders if the winning culture of the Australian cricket team has been overtaken by celebrity culture.
The emergent face of Australian cricket, at once dazzling and disorientating, stares out this month from the glossy front covers of two glamorous magazines. The first features the Australian vice-captain, Michael Clarke, resplendent in a pair of metallic denim jeans that look so ball-crushingly tight they would struggle to accommodate a stray Murray mint, let alone his protective equipment. The second shows Mitchell Johnson's girlfriend, Jessica Bratich, wearing significantly less apparel; a green and gold bikini emblazoned with the Southern Cross.
Both are reminders that the changes overtaking Aussie cricket are not limited to the exodus of playing legends but extend to its off-field philosophy and dressing-room culture. In pondering the relative decline of a team in transition, the focus naturally has been on the absence of Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist, Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden. But something else is missing, as well: the sheer bloody-mindedness of the Border years, and the austerity and discipline of the Waugh era. Has not a winning Australian cricket culture been contaminated by the fripperies of Australia's celebrity culture, as the fear factor has come to vie with the celebrity X factor?
July 6, 2009
Flintoff not dicking around
Posted on 07/06/2009 in Ashes
"I've had a dicky ankle and a dicky knee, but that's behind me now, so I can concentrate on playing some cricket instead of being a professional rehabber." Thats Andrew Flintoff keeping it simple ahead of the Ashes. He spoke to the Guardian's Laura Barton.
If there is anything anyone does have on Flintoff, he would prefer not to know. "I don't read the paper every day or worry about what anyone's saying," he says. It is a tactic he has developed over the years, initially as a way of dealing with the constant speculation over his weight and his injuries, and then as a method of blocking out the commotion over the Ashes win.
In the Times Shane Warne writes that Graeme Swann is about to learn if he can live with great expectations.
Swann’s character could really get under the skin of the Australians and if I was the England captain, I would give him full licence to be himself. He isn’t to everyone’s taste. If he is dictating terms, he will have a strut about him and that arrogance and cockiness will be obvious. In that state, he could disrupt Australia’s rhythm.
Graham Onions has featured in selectorial thoughts for years, writes Stephen Brenkley in the Independent, but only recently has he lived up to his evident potential. Onions has enjoyed a fine season, the highlight of which came with his five-wicket bag on Test debut, and he is the man of the moment. But is he a certainty for Cardiff?
And the last of the summer whine blog has a hilarious 'moving tribute' to the recently retired Michael Vaughan.
The Red Bull run
Posted on 07/06/2009 in Ashes
In the Courier-Mail, Robert Craddock looks at the many sides of Kevin Pietersen, the man with the greatest potential to unsettle Australia during the Ashes.
Kevin Pietersen is hyperactive at the best of times but he becomes even more so when he throws down a can of caffeine-infused Red Bull just before he bats. He does it to give an electric edge to his senses and, as a consequence, often has a slightly manic appearance about him when he arrives at the crease. That, in turn, can prompt him to set off for death or glory singles to get off the mark - the Red Bull run as it has been dubbed in England. The Australian side is aware of this little foible, and so they should be.
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The reason he currently has an Achilles heel injury is that on the recent tour of the West Indies he repeatedly jogged up a mountain in St Kitts. He may seem like a maverick but there is a disciplined side as well. He has a fetish for promptness and his biographer Paul Newman said in every interview session he had with Pietersen for their book, Newman never once arrived first.
July 5, 2009
A phlegmatic captain
Posted on 07/05/2009 in Ashes
Disastrous Ashes tours usually end in the demise of an England captain. Andrew Strauss, of course, shrugs off such a hypothetical suggestion. He seems capable of shrugging off just about anything. He comes over as the most phlegmatic England captain in living memory, writes Vic Marks in the Observer.
"One of the things that is fundamental to my captaincy and that I have talked a lot about is player responsibility and not encouraging them but making them make decisions for themselves. Vaughan did that and so did Duncan Fletcher. When the England team were playing well under him the environment was the best I have experienced in any cricket." So Strauss recognises that it is crucial to recapture the mood of 2005. "There's no doubt that if you want to play well against Australia you have got to take them on and be prepared to scrap. Anybody who goes in there and just thinks 'Oh no, we'll just stick to our own game' is going to come unstuck. Our players are absolutely certain that they will go out there and go blow for blow.
An Ashes feud that lasted for life
Posted on 07/05/2009 in Ashes
The Observer is running extracts from a new biography on 'Bodyline' bowler Harold Larwood and the animosity between him and the greatest ever batsman, Don Bradman. Have a read:
He had taken his wicket just once, after Bradman had scored a double century. His track record against him was so meagre that he scarcely seemed, at least to Larwood himself, to be the bowler to interrupt Bradman's imperious progress. "He was cruel in the way he flogged you," said Larwood. "He made me very, very tired." But Bradman also made him "very, very angry". For there were professional and personal scores to be settled.
Speaking of feuds and rivalries, in his blog in the Observer Paul Hayward writes that despite his fitness problems and boozy indiscretions, Andrew Flintoff is still England's most important player.
The most compelling individual sub-plot to the coming marathon is whether Flintoff still has it in him to be the wrecker of Aussie hopes. After four ankle operations, and one in his knee following an ill-starred cameo in the Indian Premier League, the imagination's dark parts see him carted out of this series on a stretcher. If he survives through to The Oval, he will haunt Australia's batsmen and bowlers through sheer force of personality as well as the brutish power of his physique.
David Gower believes the outcome of this summer's series will hinge on the England captain’s handling of his biggest stars. If Andrew Strauss can achieve the same with the likes of Kevin Pietersen and Flintoff, he will be in clover, says Gower. He writes in the Sunday Times:
Strauss is good and also has that cool exterior. What he has yet to prove is that he possesses more of those Vaughan-, Brearley- or Illingworth-like traits. To win this Ashes series he will have to be braver than he was in the Caribbean, where caution in Antigua and, with trickier equations involved, in Trinidad cost him the series. He did at least show us in that series that he can raise his own game in response to the demands of captaincy and if he can do that again over the next couple of months, a lot more will fall into place. It has long been a pet theory of mine - not exactly a mind-blowing one, I admit - that if your own game is in order all the decision-making becomes a lot easier.
Staying with the Ashes but on a lighter note, the Observer catches up with two Irish pop mavericks who are giving England's cricketers an unexpected pre-Ashes boost in song. Neil Hannon (of the Divine Comedy) and Thomas Walsh (of Pugwash) discuss growing up as cricket fans in Ireland, the game's quirky appeal, and England's chances this summer.
July 4, 2009
Panesar provokes more questions for selectors
Posted on 07/04/2009 in Ashes
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Oh Monty, Monty ...
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The Guardian's Mike Selvey believes Monty Panesar looks a better option than Adil Rashid for the Ashes. Australia have been troubled by orthodox left-arm spin, moreover, most recently from South Africa's Paul Harris, and should a second spinner be required then Panesar would provide the best option.
He picked up three tail-end wickets on Thursdayand has suggested that he will return to his default pace with little attempt at variation, which is right in some respects as he is an attritional bowler. This is right in some respects – he is best as an attritional bowler – but naive in others: the main variation he has failed to exploit, which has cost games, is to go round the wicket to left-handers when the ball turns, concentrating too much on the rough.
Paul Weaver, in the same paper, says Ravi Bopara, England's new No 3, has spent his short lifetime surprising all and sundry with his natural ability. His defining moment has arrived.
Kevin Pietersen cannot wait for the Ashes to begin. He tells the Daily Telegraph's Jim White that the first day of the second Test at Edgbaston in 2005 was the day that changed everything.
There is no modesty about KP, false or otherwise. And when you look back at that Edgbaston day, and remember him slogging Shane Warne and making a dashing 71, it was all laid out before us: that was our batting future, the soon to be indisputable crux of the England side, the man on whom all fortunes hang. And didn't he know it. Yet, incredible as it seems when you recall his assurance, his self-possession that day, it was only his second Test match. He had emerged seemingly fully formed, as if he was made for the moment.
Have England got a good 'thing' going, asks Barney Ronay in his Guardian blog. It turns out England's cricketers will be 'reconnecting' with their natural game in order to win the Ashes.
England are not exactly on the rise, Australia are not in total disarray, while both sides have strengths and weaknesses that could be identified from Pluto. Thats Peter Roebuck looking at the Ashes in the Sydney Morning Herald.
James Lawton, in the Independent, looks at what makes Australia such a successful team on the world stage.
Also in the Independent, Chris McGrath relives the history of verbal duels without which an Ashes summer really wouldn't be cricket. Wives, mothers, children – when a war of words breaks out, nothing is off-limits.
Gideon Haigh, in the Times, says Ricky Ponting's touring team may not match the 2005 crew for star quality, but their team spirit compares favourably.
July 3, 2009
Ashes grounds rated
Posted on 07/03/2009 in Ashes
Lord's unsurprisingly ranks as the top ground for an Ashes Test while Sophia Gardens is one of the least preferred among 45 county cricketers surveyed in the London-based magazine Property Week.
3.) Headingley – 42.8%
The home of Yorkshire County Cricket Club scraped into third place by 0.4%. Only one of the 45 cricketers polled said it was his Ashes ground of choice. Five said it was second favorite, 20 said it was third favorite, 18 said it was fourth and 1 said it was least favorite. Headingley is also embarking on redevelopment of part of the site. In March it was granted planning consent for the £21m, 45,000 sq ft Carnegie Pavilion. The pavilion, being built by Bam Construction, is expected to complete in May 2010.
4.) Oval – 42.2%
The Oval could do with some improvement, so it is just as well that the Kennington ground was granted planning consent by the Secretary of State earlier this month for a £35m redevelopment which will increase capacity to 25,000 and will include a four-star 168 bed hotel. Surrey County Cricket Club and Arora International Hotels developing the plans. In the survey, only one cricketer said the Oval was his favorite ground to host an Ashes test match. Eleven put it as second choice, eleven at third, 17 at fourth and five in fifth.
The ultimate showdown
Posted on 07/03/2009 in Ashes
Nothing compares to the Ashes, says Mike Selvey in the Guardian. The Border-Gavaskar trophy between India and Australia may come close, but it has to settle for second best in the battle for the ultimate contest. What makes the Ashes special is the memories it evokes, be it Merv Hughes' mustache or 90,000 fans at the MCG.
The build up. Glenn McGrath's predictions, Shane Warne's mischievous teasing, the mental disintegration that was Steve Waugh's watchword, batsmen "targeted", the war of words, England keeping their counsel. Then the expectation of the opening day, all-too-often the tone set for the series in the first exchanges: Michael Slater's withering square cut at the Gabba, the twin English groans of disbelief there as Nasser Hussain blundered with the toss and Steve Harmison tried to knee cap his own mate at second slip in the following series. But there was Harmison four years ago hitting Justin Langer. "These blokes mean business," said the batsman as he received treatment for his bruised arm.
The way we did it in 2005
Posted on 07/03/2009 in Ashes
An attacking Simon Jones, good form as a team and plenty of preparation. These are just a few things that worked for England the last time Australia toured, helping them regain the Ashes. Winning coach Duncan Fletcher writes in the Guardian on the details of England's famous triumph, in yet another rewind to 2005.
The key player for me was Simon Jones, who was even ahead of Kevin Pietersen in his importance to the side. We needed an attacking bowler who could get five wickets on a consistent basis, because Andrew Flintoff tended to hold up an end rather than rip through the opposition, Steve Harmison blew hot and cold and Matthew Hoggard was better against the left-handers than the right-handers.
Conveniently ignoring the truth
Posted on 07/03/2009 in Ashes
Simon Wilde, in the Times, reminds readers of a certain 5-0 whitewash which has been forgotten by the British media in the run up to the Ashes. The 'series in between' has been conveniently airbrushed from memory, Wilde says.
The whole country seems determined to hark back to 2005. Maybe it's in our genes, the same genes that encouraged Lord Nelson to put the telescope to his blind eye so that he could ignore an order to retreat at the Battle of Copenhagen. Except Nelson had a strategy. This is just ignoring inconvenient truths.
Sitting in one of his favourite pubs, The Victoria near Richmond Park in south-west London, Bob Willis tells Brian Viner of the Independent why he feels England cannot win the Ashes this summer - because the Australian batting is too strong. Willis also reminisces his favourite Ashes memories, including 'that' match at Headingley in 1981.
We all know what happened on the pitch, of course, but what about afterwards? "Oh, Brears, Beefy and myself were dragged off to a press conference, and by the time we got back to the dressing-room everyone else had gone. They were going all over the country for Natwest Trophy second-round fixtures the next day. So Beefy and I had a pint together, and that was it. It wasn't until I was driving home and it was the lead story on [the Radio 4 news programme] PM, that the penny dropped as to what we had actually achieved."
Genuine swing bowling has always been instrumental in Ashes success through the years, with Bob Massie and Terry Alderman being just a few examples. Can it be the turn of England's James Anderson this time around? Simon Hughes has the answer in the Telegraph.
July 2, 2009
Don't bury the past, England
Posted on 07/02/2009 in Ashes
If England are really set on learning from history, of course, they don't need to look quite as far back as 90 years. A couple would do. It was a little series called The Ashes, and it took place in 2006-07 in Australia, where they were walloped 5-0. It's no use pretending that the whitewash never happened. England will have to look back at that series and seek revenge, much like Australia did when they lost in 2005, writes Emma John in the Guardian.
People who suffer traumatic experiences are frequently known to repress them, bury them so deep inside their psyche that they can't consciously remember them. Personally, I am convinced that in December 2006 I spent a glorious time with my Australian relatives; that my stay in Perth was marked by a five-day period of festivals, feasting and spa treatments before moving on to Melbourne on Boxing Day for a magical three days hanging out with Kylie. I just need an explanation for the involuntary spasms whenever I hear the words "Mike Hussey".
I've looked at the teams that each may like to send out on to the park (for example, I've assumed that Shane Watson will be fit). How do the Ashes class of '09 stack up? asks Mike Atherton in the Times.
Kevin Pietersen v Michael Clarke
I expect Pietersen to rise to the occasion and cement his position as one of the great batsmen of the moment. Like all captains, Ponting hates the feeling of not being in control of events in the field and Pietersen is the player who can change the course of a game in a session. Clarke, though, has questions to answer: he has never been that successful in England, either for Hampshire as an overseas player or in the 2005 series, and technically he has looked suspect against the moving ball. Verdict: Pietersen
In the Times, Rick Broadbent chats with former England captain Mike Gatting, who speaks on varied matters such as the importance of Flintoff, the perils of success in England and dwindling crowds at games.
July 1, 2009
For old times' sake
Posted on 07/01/2009 in Ashes
Next week's Ashes will once witness proper cricket again, with a past that embraces a bit of chicanery and mutual loathing as well as great deeds and more affection, if you look for it, than there used to be. David Foot in his blog on the Guardian website remembers how, for two days in 1948, how the Australian 'Invincibles' masterfully lit up Taunton with unceremonious brilliance.
All of us were caught up in a crescendo of excitement. The country at that time might be weighed down by shortages, war-weary demeanours and all the signs of the demob-suit aura. But, come on, we were here to see the Australians. Not quite the Ashes, but the next best thing.
There was no time for prolonged English celebrations after the desperately tense win at Edgbaston in the second Test in 2005. The next match at Old Trafford started four days later. John Westerby in the Times relives the moments with a few cricketers and fans.
Matthew Hoggard
After such an intense experience as the Edgbaston game, it was crucial to be able to switch off from cricket for a couple of days. I went home and cut the grass, played with the dogs and had a couple of barbecues.
Ken Grime Old Trafford match manager
At 5am, our overnight security people had alerted us that there were people camping outside the ground, so some of our stewards were at work by 6am. I set off to drive in from Bury about 6.50am and I was surprised when I saw a couple of lads wearing England shirts at our local bus stop. Then there were a few more at the next stop. And the stop after that. When I got to the ground at 7.40am, I wondered whether there might be a bit of a crowd gathering. A bit of a crowd? The ground was already surrounded.
June 28, 2009
How to beat the Aussies
Posted on 06/28/2009 in Ashes
Australia have only one specialist spinner, Nathan Hauritz, but have two batsmen, Michael Clarke and Marcus North, who can bowl decent spin, so I expect them to pick a four-man pace attack and bat very deep, writes South Africa coach Mickey Arthur in the Sunday Times.
I guarantee I will be glued to my TV back home in South Africa watching the Ashes for two reasons: first, this is going to be a competitive, exciting series; second, England are coming out to South Africa in December, so I want to see how they are shaping up.
Australia are in a building phase but proved when they came to South Africa after Christmas just what quality and depth they have. We had recently beaten them 2-1 in Australia but I was impressed with the way they came back hard at us to win the return series 2-1. It just shows they will never lie down.
On the fast track
Posted on 06/28/2009 in Ashes
It's time to rewind back to the Ashes of old. Jim White catches up with Dennis Lillee in Sydney Morning Herald as the fast bowler goes on to talk about his will to win, white-line fever and Mitchell Johnson.
"Right from a young kid, it was always Australia versus England, the only thing that counted. I grew up by that. I guess obsessed is too strong a word, but it played a huge part in my cricket life.
"To me, it was battle. Australia versus England was a war. You wanna try to smash them into the ground … One of my teammates told me I had white-line fever. Soon as I stepped over that line on the field my personality changed."
First, send the Australians to quaint Sussex by the sea, which is so genteel even the seagulls wear blazers. Then, when the Ashes start, the baggy greens, soaked in Pimm's and politeness, will be totally unprepared for a war, phoney or otherwise. Rupert Bates in the Sunday Age soaks up the atmosphere, but believes it's all part of the English master plan.
June 27, 2009
The Ponting and Hughes show
Posted on 06/27/2009 in Ashes
The Australian line-up playing Sussex at Hove is not the most enchanting one, writes Mike Selvey in the Guardian. Unlike their predecessors, they don't swagger or dazzle, but they work damn hard. And they have two specialist batsmen at opposite ends of their careers who will take the breath away at some point in the series.
Ricky Ponting and Phillip Hughes. The only questions with these two are: is there any visible sign that age is beginning to diminish the powers of the greatest Australian batsman of this era (Ponting)? Can he continue to bat like that and get away with it at the highest level (Hughes)? Don't blink when this pair is at the crease.
In the Age Brendan McArdle writes that anything less than a series victory will be a disaster for Ricky Ponting, the coach and his support staff, and the selectors.
Australia should win because it is more talented than England and the four players who will open the batting and bowling — Katich, Hughes, Johnson and Siddle — are stars. But if the events of the last nine months are anything to go by there is cause for concern. It hasn't been a good start in England: our swift banishment from the Twenty20 world championship was no less than we deserved. The selection and tactics for this unique form of the game were atrocious, yet in many ways it's been swept under the carpet as the focus switched to the Ashes.
In the Sydney Morning Herald Valkerie Baynes writes that Mitchell Johnson would probably be serving his country on the field of battle rather than the cricket pitch if it wasn't for a chance meeting with Dennis Lillee.
In the Times Kate Muir and Ben Macintyre interview the creators of the Duckworth and Lewis Method album, Neil Hannon and Thomas Walsh.
June 26, 2009
Lauding of Hughes should be put into perspective
Posted on 06/26/2009 in Ashes
Has Phillip Hughes scored three successive Test hundreds like Ravi Bopara? The answer is no, and Richard Hobson in the Times says that what we need is a little perspective. Because, he says, sometimes we are good at talking up opponents.
In a perverse way, Hughes should feel more happy about a relatively scratchy effort today than some of his more fluent innings. The ability to keep scoring runs when the balls does not always fly off the middle of the bat is invaluable. If you cannot play like Victor Trumper - who scored a triple-hundred for Australia in this same fixture in 1899 - then it doesn't hurt to be Justin Langer or Katich instead.
The business of after-dinner speeches
Posted on 06/26/2009 in Ashes
For cricketers while there is the important task of playing the Ashes, there is also the gruelling work of after-dinner speaking which is now big business, writes Simon Wilde in the Times.
The Ponting Foundation is also in action during the Ashes, with a dinner at a swanky restaurant on London's South Bank on July 13, the day after the scheduled finish of the first Test and three days before the second Test at Lord's. "The very Australian Ricky Ponting leads a star-studded dinner," the foundation's website states, and Ponting is clearly confident enough of relations still being amicable with the Poms that he lists seven current England players among the invitees (though perhaps he has invited seven because he's not sure which ones will still be talking to him by then). A platinum table is yours for £2,650.
The Sun's Charlie Wyett interviews Ashes 2005's most unlikely hero Gary Pratt, a substitute fielder who ran out Ricky Ponting in the Trent Bridge Test after which the Australian captain exchanged angry words with then England coach Duncan Fletcher on the use of subs.
"The Aussies were getting annoyed about everything. I came on for a legitimate reason but they were getting even more angry.
"Clearly they were not thinking about the job in hand and, when I ran out Ponting, he totally lost the plot. He walked back to the pavilion and was shouting up at England coach Duncan Fletcher. The thing was, Ponting was playing really well. He could have got 150. Yet his reaction had an effect on the entire Aussie team and, maybe, the 2005 Ashes series. After the final Test at The Oval, though, Ponting was an absolute gent. He gave me a pair of signed boots and a signed picture. He is a fantastic captain and a fantastic cricketer. But it was a great few weeks for English cricket and the players then had a real party."
June 23, 2009
Strauss ready and relaxed for Ashes
Posted on 06/23/2009 in Ashes
Two weeks tomorrow, as the expectation becomes nerve-shredding for the start of the first Ashes Test, all the tension and uncertainty can be offset by a safe prediction that Andrew Strauss will remain the calmest man both on and off the field, writes Donald McRae in the Guardian.
"If you ask me for my gut reaction about this series my feelings are very different to what they would've been six months ago," Strauss says pointedly. "Six months ago I was very concerned about how things were looking. But, now, we're in a very good place.
Mihir Bose interviewed Shane Warne, who says England might just have the edge in the spin department in the upcoming Ashes. Watch his interview on the BBC Sport website.
No guarantees for out-of-sorts Hussey
Posted on 06/23/2009 in Ashes
In his column in the Times, Shane Warne argues that England have made a mistake by leaving Michael Vaughan out of their Ashes training squad and he believes Michael Hussey's position in Australia's side should no longer be guaranteed.
Mike Hussey has been a really good player, but he didn't have a great winter and may be under pressure. To me, there are places for two of Hussey, Shane Watson and Marcus North. People in England don't realise how good Watson can be. He is like Brad Haddin - if the two of them didn't bowl and keep wicket they would be frontline batsmen. Watson would be good enough for No 3, if it came to it.
What I am saying is that Hussey needs a score over the next fortnight to cement his place. The onus is on the others to push him out, yes, but if Watson and North get runs it will be an interesting decision. As with the bowlers, you have to pick on form rather than reputation. I don't think Hussey's place should be guaranteed.
In the same paper, Michael Atherton looks at Vaughan's omission as a major crossroads in the career of the former England captain.
June 21, 2009
Adil Rashid's rapid rise provides Test debate
Posted on 06/21/2009 in Ashes
The World Twenty20 is nearing its end and Scyld Berry is eager to look ahead to the Ashes and the promising 21-year old legspinner Adil Rashid who could become England's second spinner against Australia, behind Graeme Swann and ahead of Monty Panesar, who makes England's tail too long. He writes in the Sunday Telegraph:
For a 21-year-old leg-spinner born and brought up in England, Rashid has come on exceptionally quickly: not since Ian Peebles bamboozled Don Bradman with his googly in 1930 have England, or in the latter case Scotland, had such a promising wrist-spinner at so tender an age. Rashid's first-class figures stack up for a Test career sooner or later: 150 wickets already at 33 runs each, a bit expensive but largely offset by a first-class batting average of 32.
June 18, 2009
The case for the specialist stumper
Posted on 06/18/2009 in Ashes
In just over a week, England will name their squad for the first Test and in the Guardian Mike Selvey looks at the success of James Foster in the ICC World Twenty20 and wonders why the superior batsman but inferior gloveman Matt Prior should be the automatic selection in Tests.
Prior, of course, can bat, well enough indeed to score two Test centuries with the promise of more. He may be required to bat at No. 6 in the forthcoming series, particularly if at any stage England choose two spinners. Thus we will have a modest gloveman but a pretty good batsman taking precedent over a craftsman behind the wicket who is not necessarily more than an adequate batsman. Trading runs scored against chances missed is rather like Fabio Capello selecting an inferior goalkeeper because he can score from free-kicks.
In the Times, Ivo Tennant chats to Keith Exton, the man who has the high-pressure job of preparing the pitch for the first Ashes Test in Cardiff.
He is well aware that he would not have his job had not Len Smith, his predecessor, disappeared along with the eventual clearance of the rainwater after the abandoned one-day international against South Africa last summer. “Yes, I know I am under pressure,” Exton said as he gazed pragmatically at the square.
He reckons he knows already the kind of pitch the England selectors are anticipating. “I feel they will play two spinners — those are the signals that are being given out. So it would not surprise me if the Australians come down here to have a look at the surface and send for Shane Warne.”
June 15, 2009
The Ashes bring a summer of larrikins
Posted on 06/15/2009 in Ashes
Martin Kelner, in his Guardian blog, says he always feels bereft when the football season ends. The Ashes are this summer, but Kelner just cannot summon up the enthusiasm for cricket that he has for football. What he won't mind seeing, after catching BBC2's Empire of Cricket, is swashbuckling, devil-may-care cricket from the Australians, like in the 70s.
Fast bowlers Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson were competitive kind of guys, too, and while Chappell intimidated England's bowlers with his hook shot, they struck terror into our batsman. "At the Sydney Cricket Ground in the 74–75 series, there was a banner reading, 'Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, if Lillee don't get you, Thommo must'," Chappell recalled. The fans who flocked to that series were described as "fellow larrikins, well acquainted with Mr Booze".
June 14, 2009
Johnson takes over as Australia's spearhead
Posted on 06/14/2009 in Ashes
Australia have been wounded by their early exit from the ICC World Twenty20, but they are certain to come back fighting in the Ashes, led by the best bowler on the planet: the fast left-armer Mitchell Johnson. In the Daily Telegraph, Scyld Berry looks at Johnson's rise and just how big a threat he is going to be with the Duke ball this summer.
Deliveries do not come more difficult than one from a left-hander over the wicket which swings in at over 90mph: if it is straight and full, the right-handed batsman has two choices, to be bowled or leg-before. England have to thank Troy Cooley, the Tasmanian who was their own bowling coach in the 2005 series, for teaching this trick to Johnson on the tour of South Africa earlier this year. He made Johnson stand taller in delivery and get his wrist behind the ball; and the result was several new-ball spells that were unplayable.
June 13, 2009
No red Leicester for cheesed off Australians
Posted on 06/13/2009 in Ashes
They didn’t want to go to Leicester, but life there hasn’t been all bad for the Australians, Chloe Saltau writes in the Age.
Ricky Ponting was less than enthusiastic about the prospect of an unplanned stopover in Leicester if the Australians were knocked out of the Twenty20 world championship in the group stage, but rather than hold a grudge when Ponting's worst fears eventuated, the locals have gone out of their way to help the Australians. Everyone from Leicestershire's county side to the Loughborough Town Cricket Club have offered them a game, perhaps fancying themselves in a casual hit against the vanquished Australians.
Back in Australia, the Sun-Herald’s David Sygall goes to Phillip Hughes’ last training session before he heads to England.
June 12, 2009
England trip gives Hughes clues
Posted on 06/12/2009 in Ashes
In the Australian, Peter Lalor chats to Phillip Hughes about his recent stint with Middlesex and how it has helped prepare him for the Ashes.
"I got to play at Edgbaston, the Oval and Lord's. That's a good thing, you know, we've got five Tests over there and now I have played on three of the grounds. It just gives you a feel for it and it's boosted my confidence a bit."
County cricket makes for some strange bedfellows and stranger encounters. Hughes didn't get to face South Africa's enfant irritable, Andre Nel, during his first Test series, but he clashed with the erratic bowler during one match between Middlesex and Surrey. Nel bounced him repeatedly; Hughes responded by slashing the South African for three fours in a row before copping a full toss at the throat for his trouble.
The Australian was a little taken aback, but loved the contest. Nel was clearly impressed and noted that it will be England's bowlers dealing with the young opener and not the other way around. "It is easy to see why he gets so many runs, because he has so many different areas he can score in," the South African said. "He has been by far the most difficult opponent I have faced this year.
Christian Nicolussi in the Daily Telegraph discovers just how deep Hughes' love of his baggy green cap runs.
"I keep it locked away in a pouch in the top left-hand corner of my wardrobe," Hughes said yesterday. "Every day I make sure it's there. I'll have a peek. It might be in the morning, at night, or even if I'm having a coffee, I'll walk upstairs and look at it. I'll smell it sometimes. It smells like alcohol because of the couple of wins we had in the first Tests in South Africa."
June 11, 2009
The origin of the Ashes and the right to burn
Posted on 06/11/2009 in Ashes
In the Guardian, Mike Selvey delivers a history lesson on the origin of the Ashes.
The obituary was attributed to a Victorian buck, Reginald Shirley Brooks (can you see that name without thinking of Leslie Nielsen, Airplane and "don't call me Shirley"?), and put down to a journalist's twee joke consistent with the age of music hall. He would have been blogging or tweeting these days.
The Independent continues its countdown to the Ashes, now with the most memorable quotes - words that put an extra bit of pace on the ball and a little extra bite in the batting.
"I think I was saying 3-0 or 4-0 about 12 months ago, thinking there might be a bit of rain around. But with the weather as it is at the moment, I have to say 5-0."
June 10, 2009
Times turn for Katich
Posted on 06/10/2009 in Ashes
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Simon Katich will have more duties in England
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First Bob Simpson, the former Australia captain and coach, helped Simon Katich revive his batting. Now he’s assisting him with his bowling, writes the Australian’s Peter Lalor.
If Simpson can do the same thing for the opener's tweak as he did for his batting, England's batsmen need be warned. Katich, Marcus North and Michael Clarke have all been told to work on their part-time spin in preparation for England, an indication the only frontline spinner on the tour, Nathan Hauritz, may not be first choice. Captain Ricky Ponting has been reluctant to use Katich in the past, but a couple of key cameos by the left-hander during the South African tour converted the captain, who has now vowed to use him more often.
Things to do in Leicester when you're dead
Posted on 06/10/2009 in Ashes
There are differing opinions over whether Australia's early exit from the ICC World Twenty20 will help or hinder their Ashes preparations. Shane Warne, in his column in the Times, argues that it could be a positive.
Although Australia will still be hurting, this could be a blessing in disguise for the Ashes. They will be able to have a short break to get this out of their systems and then tick along with their practice out of the spotlight before the warm-ups. They have one focus now, no distractions before July 8 in Cardiff.
But the Guardian's David Hopps disagrees.
The fact is that Ponting, Lee and Co will now have too much dead time on their hands. And the continuation of World Twenty20 will be a constant reminder of their failure. It's just a shame that Andrew Symonds isn't around to tempt them to drink their way through it.
In the Age, Chloe Saltau looks at Australia's mystifying selections and strange preparation for the World Twenty20 - and notes that the only Australians left in the tournament are playing for Ireland or England.
And back at the Times, Patrick Kidd imagines Ricky Ponting's diary for the week ahead; otherwise known as, things to do in Leicester when you're dead.
The Symonds controversy refuses to die, as Darren Berry of the Age blames the troubled batsman for Australia's exit in the World Twenty20.
Ponting asks Younis Khan a question on wellpitched.com.
June 9, 2009
Only a full-strength England can win Ashes
Posted on 06/09/2009 in Ashes
With England's big guns Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen are recovering from injuries. Kevin Garside writes in the Daily Telegraph that with England lacking the depth that Australia's squad possesses, both Flintoff and Pietersen need to be at peak fitness if England are to regain the Ashes. We don't have a Phillip Hughes coming through, or a Mitchell Johnson to step up with ball and bat when Brett Lee goes down. We have an improving team replete with superior triers who are able to compete in the highest class only when its front-line warriors are tooled to the hilt and ready to go. At this point Flintoff and Pietersen are not. Flintoff is inching towards recovery. Each outing is followed by a wait to see if the impaired knee joint can tolerate the next test. Pietersen does not have that luxury. Two days before the knock that nailed Pakistan to the floor at the Oval he could barely negotiate a set of steps
Peter Bill makes a similar point on his blog in the Independent after watching Pietersen's half-century, which revived England's chances in the World Twenty20.
June 7, 2009
Reliving the glory days
Posted on 06/07/2009 in Ashes
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How many times did Ian Botham play and miss in the Headingley Test of 1981?
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In the countdown to the Ashes, former England captain Mike Brearley looks back at the 1981 series without some element of rosy tint to the glasses. He writes in the Observer:
Through lenses of nostalgia and historical determinism, we easily feel that things could not have been different. Yet how many times did Botham play and miss on what was a horrible pitch for batting, or carve the ball over the slips? What if Rod Marsh had got an eighth of an inch more bat on the hook that Graham Dilley caught a yard inside the fine-leg boundary on that last afternoon, or Mike Gatting and Botham himself not held excellent catches an inch or two off the ground in the over before lunch on the same day? Yet in retrospect it is tempting to see the chain of events as not only inevitable but morally appropriate. We were bound to win; we won because we deserved to, and we deserved to because of some ineffable quality or spirit lacking in other teams at other times.
In the same paper, Barney Ronay looks at the ten best moments from Ashes series.
1983, DRAMA IN THE SLIPS
One of the great dramatic finishes. Chasing 292 to win in the fourth Test at Melbourne in the 1982-83 series Australia were 255 for nine overnight. On the final morning 10,000 people came in for free as the last-wicket pair, Jeff Thomson and Allan Border, nurdled them ever closer. With just three runs required the younger‑model Ian Botham returned to the attack. Botham's away swing drew an edge from Thomson. Chris Tavare at slip parried it. And Geoff Miller grabbed it sensationally on the rebound. England had kept the series alive, but Aussie TV was on a commercial break.
In the Sunday Times former Australian opener Justin Langer talks to Martin Johnson about facing the first ball of the previous two series and his predictions on the upcoming one.
“That first ball flew past me and when Geraint Jones took it above his head, I looked around to see the England players all over us, in our faces, like bees to a honeypot,” said Langer. Harmison’s next delivery hit Langer on the elbow and, after initially giving the bowler an “is that all you’ve got, sonny?” stare, Langer couldn’t bluff it out and had to call for the painkilling spray.
“The England boys were buzzing even more,” said Langer. “It felt more like the rugby World Cup than a cricket match and when I was getting treatment from the physio I said to Matty Hayden, ‘Jeez, mate, it looks like these guys really mean business’.
June 4, 2009
Five-nil England, unless it rains
Posted on 06/04/2009 in ICC World Twenty20
Tomorrow at Lord's Paul Collingwood will lead England into the first match of the World Twenty20, a second coming for him in the role and one regained perhaps reluctantly and probably by default. This time around, he, if not his team, might just thrive, writes Mike Selvey in the Guardian.
It is almost certainly that brief time spent with the IPL in South Africa – rather than any overwhelming ambition or belief that, as he is over the trauma that affected his Test career, it is fine to resume the role that contributed to the trauma – which has convinced him that there would be no harm in leading the side again for what is a very limited period of time in any case. This will be more a working holiday than an encumbrance.
In the same paper Kevin Mitchell daydreams about how it would be if an England player gave as his prediction of the upcoming series with Australia, "Five-nil England – unless it rains".
It was Glenn McGrath's serial wind-up – with his own team replacing England of course – and it came painfully true in Australia in 2007, but I would back Ravi Bopara some time soon to mouth those cheeky words. Three Test centuries in a row did much for the Essex batsman's confidence, but they did even more for that of the selectors. They now believe in Bopara as much as he does himself. If he gets in the face of Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson – the only language they understand – anything is possible.
To Mike Atherton in the Times Dirk Nannes, who will spearhead Netherlands' attack in the World Twenty20, is something of a throwback to a time when sport could accommodate men with a varied hinterland, who were not prepared to be suffocated by the blinkered demands of professionalism.
Now it would be impossible for a precociously talented schoolboy to play two leading sports at the highest level because they are funnelled down a specialist path sooner than ever before. Football academies suck in the most talented at 9 years old and spit most out at 16. Cricket is a 12-month option for the brightest and best schoolboys. Eating, drinking and sleeping cricket is the order of the day at academies, which excludes those who would rather dabble at other things for a while, or indeed the late developers.
May 31, 2009
Suit up
Posted on 05/31/2009 in Ashes
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England players attend a Hugo Boss pre-Ashes party
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Before the Ashes can begin, there is the major task of getting the England squad kitted and fitted in the Hugo Boss suits. Adrian Deevoy of the Observer attends the fitting where KP asks for better suits than last time, Cook reveals Anderson is dressed by his wife and Swann fails to get a date.
Nothing can prepare a person for the sheer loftiness of SCJ Broad. His head all but grazes the door frame as he lollops in from the hotel restaurant end. Before Broad's arrival, Cook had already warned us that the 6ft 6in son of Ashes legend Chris Broad was no stranger to the mirror. "Vain," Cook insisted. "Absolutely loves himself."
This opinion is later confirmed by an anonymous off-spinner. "The blond, floppy hair. The height. The boy-band good looks that all the 16-year-old girls go for. And he's lovely with it. I've often said to him if he had a pair of breasts, I'd fancy him too. But generally, I just want to punch him in the face. But you can't reach."
After a horror start to his Test career, Ravi Bopara is reeling off centuries for fun. He could be England's star of the world T20 but he already has one eye on the Ashes, writes Richard Rae in the Independent on Sunday.
"My approach nowadays is more, if it's your day it's your day, and if it's not, it's not. Even in a Test match, if you've done all the work and prepared yourself as well as possible. So if I'm facing Mitchell Johnson, I've faced left-armers in the nets, round the wicket, over the wicket, I've done everything I can to prepare. Then if it's my day, great, and if it's not, then maybe it will be next time."
May 29, 2009
Twenty20 ‘nonsense’ raises Test profile
Posted on 05/29/2009 in Ashes
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Magic moment: Brett Lee and Andrew Flintoff at Edgbaston in 2005
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Will Swanton, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, says Twenty20 was supposed to kill Test cricket, but it is playing saviour instead.
So much nonsense - T20, one-dayers - is clogging world cricket that no one can keep track of, or cares too much about, the results. A few exceptions exist. The IPL final was a hoot like New Year's Eve and suggested Andrew Symonds still knows one end of the bat from the other. The rest? Nonsense ...
Ricky Ponting pulled out of the nonsense in the UAE citing mental fatigue. A rhetorical question for Cricket Australia. If the national captain cannot get fired up for a one-day series, why should anyone else show the faintest interest? Nonsense, nonsense, nonsense. Which means Tests have become important again. For the players, the fans, everyone.
Swanton also talks to Brett Lee about that 2005 photograph with Andrew Flintoff.
In the Age Dean Jones remembers what Ashes life was like for the players and their partners during the 1980s.
Older, wiser but will Ponting be stronger?
Posted on 05/29/2009 in Ashes
Ricky Ponting faces some stiff challenges as he tours England four years after losing the Ashes. The current England team is shaping up well, while Ponting is without the big names and leads an inexperienced bowling attack, lacking a quality spinner, writes Simon Barnes in the Times.
True, Ricky does have a few people we have heard of in his team: Brett Lee, Stuart Clark, Simon Katich, Michael Hussey (although I would be wary of including anyone nicknamed “Mr Cricket”). The trouble is that these players have spent all their lives as No 2s, expecting others to carry the weight. The new reality of becoming alpha males will test these aged understudies.
Though how you understudy Warne is something nobody has worked out. Australia have decided that there is no point in even trying, and so they will contest the Ashes without any serious attempt at building an attack around spin. England have two spinners who can give the ball a decent rip.
Despite the absence of Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen, the rest of the England team appears to be coping well in the lead-up to the Ashes. Moreover, the 'big two' have a tendency to monopolise attention, which may sometimes prove unhealthy. Have England learnt to deal with their absence, and are the two players really indispensable, asks Stephen Brenkley in the Independent.
To conclude that it was only an insipid West Indies on helpful pitches in familiar conditions in a one-day series about which so few cared – all true – is to misinterpret the nature of the achievement. The pair are dominant figures in and out of the England dressing room.
They know their place and they recognise their worth. If they did not, they would be half the players. But it has been noticeable, and perhaps it has not been coincidental, that the other players to a man say how lovely it is in the England dressing room at present .
May 28, 2009
Clark signing shows county self-interest
Posted on 05/28/2009 in Ashes
Mike Selvey in the Guardian discusses why Gloucestershire’s signing of Stuart Clark in the lead-up to the Ashes is more selfish than Middlesex’s recruitment of Phillip Hughes.
Hughes was approached at the back-end of last year as a promising domestic player who had yet to play international cricket. Actually it was Middlesex's bad luck that his profile went through the roof in South Africa and with it his share value. Hughes was a brilliant signing who would have played a full season but became too successful at the wrong time.
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The Gloucestershire agreement, though, is just a cynical demonstration that while sentiments are expressed about understanding the pre-eminence of the England team and acknowledgements given that their survival is financially linked to the success or otherwise of the national team, self-interest still overrules such considerations.
May 24, 2009
Grown-up Clarke likely to be a handful
Posted on 05/24/2009 in Ashes
Michael Clarke may have had a forgettable Ashes when he came to England in 2005, but this time he will be a far more formidable opponent for the home side's bowlers, writes Steve James in the Sunday Telegraph. Much has happened to Clarke since 2005, when he performed only moderately. Not least that he has spent time out of the side. It did him good. The batsman, once dashing and instinctive, reassessed his game. A craving for early boundaries was curbed, a game more suited to the longer haul established. The return Ashes series in 2006/07 confirmed his reinvention. There were centuries in Adelaide and Perth, and 389 runs in total, at 77.80.
Ponting kicks off the Ashes banter
Posted on 05/24/2009 in Ashes
After Ricky Ponting announced that the one thing missing in his CV is being captain of a winning Ashes side in England, Paul Hayward writes in the Observer that the Australian skipper is a man England will have to be wary of. Most of all the gaze catches on the 34-year-old whose career is defined by his pathological urge to plonk England on an eternal barbecue. It's as if Punter was sent along from central casting. It's all there: the boozy, brawling youth, the earnest clean-up phase, the fearless clubbing of quick bowlers, the less than Corinthian leadership, the abiding obsession with Poms. He is Allan Border and Steve Waugh by other means.
May 22, 2009
The best of times in ’89
Posted on 05/22/2009 in Ashes
There was plenty of record breaking on the 1989 Ashes tour, Dean Jones writes in the Age. Tom Moody threw haggis 71 metres at the Highland Games, David Boon downed more beer than anyone on the flight over and the urn was returned after a 4-0 success.
Gee, things are different today. We were told emphatically that wives and partners were not allowed to join the touring party until the last two weeks of the four-month tour. We needed to prepare properly for this important tour and boy, did we. Boonie started the tour off beautifully by breaking Doug Walters' and Rod Marsh's record by downing 52 cans from Sydney to London. Perfect start!
In the Australian Shaun Tait has a go at toning down his comments after he missed a national contract last week.
May 21, 2009
Banana man Hughes heads back to the farm
Posted on 05/21/2009 in Ashes
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Will it hit the clothes line?
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Phillip Hughes is back in Australia but there was no holiday when he returned home ahead of the Ashes. He spent a day helping his dad on the banana farm, according to James Phelps in the Daily Telegraph. He also reveals how his backyard games helped him hone his cover drives.
"If you hit the clothes line it was 25 runs automatic," Hughes said. "If you hit it on the full, it was 50 ... the side fence here was two runs on the bounce or roll, on the full was four, the back fence was four, on the full on the back fence was six, the chook pen was six."
In the Australian Peter Wilson writes about Hughes’ time with Middlesex.
When Hughes began ripping apart county bowling attacks five weeks ago, he knew he might end up causing headaches for the English administrators who had allowed him to get used to conditions just before his first Ashes tour. What he didn't know was that he was also risking heart attacks for some of the crusty old cricket buffs watching him play.
An Australian all-time XI
Posted on 05/21/2009 in Ashes
As part of their build-up to the Ashes, the Independent has published their all-time Australian XI. Ricky Ponting, Shane Warne and Adam Gilchrist are the three players to make the cut from the team that blanked England to win the 2006-07 Ashes series.
May 20, 2009
Australia’s new all-round direction
Posted on 05/20/2009 in Ashes
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Bound for glory?
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Australia’s Ashes squad is locked in and Chloe Saltau, writing in the Age, says it reflects the modern infatuation with allrounders.
It may not be an adventurous touring party, but the decision to stick with the core of the team that did the job in South Africa two months ago is a commendable one given the need to build on that success after a period of intense upheaval. There are still some tough decisions to be made before the first ball is bowled in Cardiff on July 8, not least which of the quicks will bowl it, but the selectors have made some clear statements about their priorities.
In the Herald Sun Ron Reed writes Ricky Ponting has plenty of reasons to be nervous.
Not the least is that he is in danger of becoming the first captain not once but twice to arrive in England in possession of the famous little urn, and then surrender it. That alone puts him under plenty of pressure and he is acutely aware of it.
On FoxSports Allan Border says the side can get the job done in England and in the Age Greg Baum talks to Dean Jones about making and missing an Ashes tour. Christian Ryan's comment on the squad is here.
Over in England, Mike Selvey says in the Guardian Ponting's team looks to be a good one but it carries no aura.
Be honest about it for a second: cut away the hype and there is little physical or technical beyond the normal with which England, on their game, should not be able to cope. Which leaves the mind games. Steve Waugh's "mental disintegration" was part of his process, if not to everyone's taste, but there were exceptional players to back it up. This team will be feisty – that is their nature – but they will have to tread more warily.
In the Times Patrick Kidd writes there are few terrors in this line-up while the Independent’s Stephen Brenkley says the Australians of 2009 are not the Australians of 1993, 1997, 2001 or even of 2005. “They will probably win but they can be beaten. They know it.”
May 14, 2009
Spin could be key for England in the Ashes
Posted on 05/14/2009 in Ashes
It's been a long time since English spin bowlers have had an impact on an Ashes series, but it looks as though that could change this summer, writes Shane Warne in the Times.
Swann has the added advantage that he turns the ball away from left-handers, and Australia will be bringing a few of those in their top order for the Ashes. From the way he's done against the West Indies' lefties, it seems as though he enjoys bowling at them and people such as Phillip Hughes, Simon Katich and Mike Hussey will be key wickets for England to take. Australia's batsmen have struggled against off spin before.
Andy Flower and Andrew Strauss have been given the chance to shape the side for the Ashes with a free hand, writes Mike Selvey in the Guardian.
It is Flintoff's absence that is most intriguing. Not only are Flower and Strauss attempting to balance the books in his absence. They are also wondering how to do so when he is fit once more or, perish the thought, whether he is indeed indispensable. Yet again England won without him. He is no longer the talisman he was. One bowler who replaced him, Graham Onions, took seven wickets at Lord's on his debut, which Flintoff has achieved only four times in 75 matches. Bopara, who batted at six in his stead in Bridgetown, made a hundred there, which Flintoff has not done for four years. It is instructive. Two people cannot replace one but as much as anything, Flower and Strauss are planning for life after Fred.
May 13, 2009
In-form Hughes makes England sweat
Posted on 05/13/2009 in Ashes
After watching Phillip Hughes make 195 out of 317 for Middlesex at The Oval last week, Lawrence Booth is very worried about England's chances of regaining the Ashes. Read what he has to say in the Wisden Cricketer. Hughes is enough to make a God-fearing Englishman think the world is against him. When Matthew Hayden quit, he created a small chasm at the top of Australia’s order. Here was another weakness to add to a list already including “no spinner”, “temperamental all-rounder”, “fading Hussey” and “journeymen seamers”. But Hughes appears set to make Hayden look like an old frump. Where do they get them from?
May 10, 2009
Fighting fire with fire
Posted on 05/10/2009 in Ashes
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Party of five: Graeme Swann is a key part of the attack England should take into the Ashes
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With a few spare days after England's three-day demolition job on West Indies, thoughts inevitably turn towards the Ashes. In the Sunday Telegraph, Scyld Berry picks his eleven to face the Australians and says that a five-man attack is the way to go, but England need a Plan B for when things don't go to plan.
The trouble is that, as a result of being given only a couple of months to implement their Ashes plans, England will have no tried and tested Plan B in reserve. England's strategy for this summer is similar to 2005, with more emphasis on spin this time as Australia have none of their own. But, before then, England have always regained the Ashes at home in one of two distinct ways.
Firstly, when England have had the outstanding bowler in the series: Ian Botham in 1985 and 1981, Bob Willis in 1977, Jim Laker in 1956. On those occasions England won with relative ease. But they do not, as the teams stand, possess the outstanding bowler: if anyone merits the term in advance, it is Australia's fast, left-arm bowler who now swings the new ball and reverse-swings the old ball, Mitchell Johnson.
A few months ago the feeling was that Ricky Ponting was struggling to rebuild the Australia side, but recently results have shown a marked improvement and Ian Chappell, also in the Sunday Telegraph, says he has grown as a leader.
Ponting is able to experience a reversal, evaluate what needs to be done to fix the problem and very quickly turn it into a positive. He did it again in this past southern summer when a home series lost to the Proteas was followed by a surprising victory a month later in South Africa. The Australian side under Ponting have received sharp criticism at times for being abrasive, but no one can ever accuse them of not being highly competitive and making the opposition fight for every inch of ground.
Meanwhile, in the Sunday Times, David Gower believes Ravi Bopara could be the long-term solution at No. 3, but firm judgement will have to wait until he has performed consistently against tougher opposition.
There were a lot of good things about the innings and what it told us of Bopara. He showed a calm confidence throughout and for the most part kept control of his natural ambition to dominate and entertain. He lapsed soon after he had reached three figures and played some loose shots, one of which should have brought his dismissal with a catch at slip.
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Bopara has it in him to play the swashbuckler, as his fans at Essex know all too well, and there will be times when he will be given full rein to do so. When the day comes that both he and Kevin Pietersen are in full flow together, that will be a fine sight for all but the bowlers. However, Test cricket demands more and rewards those with the nous and skill to remain at the crease for a long time.
Swann's continuing rise may surprise the Australians
Posted on 05/10/2009 in Ashes
Graeme Swann's impressive performance in the first Test against West Indies has got the Daily Telegraph's Steve James thinking the offspinner may give Australia a bit of trouble. Swann's stock is rising by the day and he could now become the key to England's Ashes bowling strategy. And an alliance with Monty Panesar is becoming ever more likely.
Swann has always differed from conventional English off-spinners in his instinct to attack, unafraid to probe outside the right-hander's off-stump and give the ball a good rip. Not for Swann the rolling of the ball from the ends of his fingers and dour run-prevention. Not unusual is a painful blister beside the middle joint of his middle finger. All the old favourites – surgical spirit, Friar's Balsam and even, however disgustingly, urine in a bucket – have been experimented with to harden the skin.
In the Observer Steve Smart reckons Philip Hughes could be the key to the Ashes and bowlers should scrutinise his unorthodox batting technique.
The Independent's Stephen Brenkley feels that due to the ECB's scheduling of summer 2009, by the time the Ashes is over the players will be tired if not injured and most observers may well have ceased to care.
May 8, 2009
In-form Hughes shows no flaws
Posted on 05/08/2009 in Ashes
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Driven: Phillip Hughes
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Phillip Hughes has three hundreds in his opening three County Championship games for Middlesex, but despite his long stays at the crease, England haven’t found any areas to exploit. In the Sydney Morning Herald Will Swanton looks at Hughes’ amazing form ahead of the Ashes.
Hughes' debut innings at the home of cricket was a century. Next match, batting with England captain Andrew Strauss, he cracked another ton. Angus Fraser and Shaun Udal admit Strauss was studying Hughes' unorthodox technique for signs of weaknesses to exploit during the Ashes. Strauss has been left with a blank page.
Chloe Saltau writes in the Age about Hughes and chats to Justin Langer about his stunning progress.
“We talk a lot and we'll catch up for dinner when we play them again,” Langer said. “When you talk to him it's like he's got little antennas on his ears. He's really hungry to take in information. Mentally, he just seems to be well in advance of his years."
May 2, 2009
Selectors sit back and think of England
Posted on 05/02/2009 in Ashes
The clock is ticking on when Australia’s Ashes squad will be named and the selectors currently have lots to look at all over the world. In the Sydney Morning Herald Andrew Stevenson and Chloe Saltau analyse the must-haves and the maybes.
The batting, which is thin, picks itself. Simon Katich and Phillip Hughes to open, Ricky Ponting, Michael Hussey and Michael Clarke to follow, with Haddin a certainty behind the stumps. Beyond that the picture is more muddled. While Marcus North is the frontrunner for the No.6 spot, he could find himself in the mix with Watson, Symonds and Andrew McDonald for three spots in the touring party and later, perhaps, jostling for one or two places in the Test sides.
Ever wondered what Shane Warne would say on Twitter? Jessica Halloran thinks about it in the Herald.
April 28, 2009
Future opponents open together
Posted on 04/28/2009 in Ashes
All debutants provoke curiosity but Hughes does doubly so. Partly because he is so successful, but primarily because of the way he plays, writes Andy Bull in the Guardian.
Andrew Strauss will get his first close-up look at Hughes at Southgate this week. At some point, possibly this morning, the two future opponents will find themselves in the curious position of opening the batting together for Middlesex against Leicestershire. Strauss, like the spectators, pundits and pressmen at Lord's, will be running a few thoughts through his head as he watches Hughes bat. The big difference is, his theories will be tested on the pitch, and the success of their execution will help decide the Ashes.
Australia's new batting sensation is from farming stock that produces hectares of the bendy yellow fruit outside the small New South Wales town of Macksville. He has made an extraordinarily quick journey from there to the brink of cricket's greatest series, writes Mike Dickson in the Daily Mail.
There is only one way to find out whether Michael Vaughan can help England regain the Ashes, and that's by recalling him at Lord's next week, writes Ian Botham in the Mirror.
First of all, he has scored a few runs for Yorkshire in their early-season games. Admittedly he hasn't set the world alight, but in his last two innings he batted for 90-odd balls to help salvage a draw and scored 82 off 116 balls when his county were in trouble at 31-3.
Don't forget: form is temporary, but class is permanent. Vaughan has shown enough form to justify bringing him back, and his class is beyond dispute - we are talking about a bloke who was the world's No.1 batsman a few years ago.
April 13, 2009
The Ashes brought in the money
Posted on 04/13/2009 in Ashes
However great the 2005 Ashes may have been, the cricket world four years later is transformed not by Pietersen and Flintoff's heroics, but by Twenty20 and the Indian Premier League, writes Owen Slot in the Times.
No, the long-term success stories of the 2005 Ashes are the likes of Caitlin Byrne and Lisvane CC, recipients of an infrastructure at the ECB that had seen what might be coming and planned to make the most of it. Which leaves cricket in this country in an unanswerable situation. Cricket was cool in 2005 because the Ashes were electric and because the electricity was there for all to see on terrestrial television. And the ECB has been able to reap the fruits of that summer in large part because it then shut down the terrestrial feed on Channel 4 and raised its income by dealing instead with Sky. Yet that harvest could never have been so rich if, as now, those five Tests had been available only to 30 per cent of the nation's sofas.
April 8, 2009
Vaughan, a risk worth taking
Posted on 04/08/2009 in Ashes
Though Michael Vaughan's recent record does not merit him a place in the England team, Australia would rather see a struggling Ian Bell or Owais Shah at No.3 instead of him in the upcoming Ashes, writes Lawrence Booth in his blog in the Guardian.
England tend not to beat Australia by playing it safe. They do it by going for broke, essentially by being un-English, by making the selections the opposition would least like to see. Four years ago this column was banging the drum for Pietersen for this very reason. Now it would like to get behind Vaughan. Because Australia would love it, just love it, if England's No3 this summer is either Ian Bell (who will surely come again in Test cricket) or Owais Shah (who may well not).
In for a chaotic summer
Posted on 04/08/2009 in Ashes
There used to be a rhythm to the cricketing summer in England which has now been disrupted by the chaotic schedule for this year's Ashes, writes Matthew Engel in the Times.
There are three separate elements to the unholy trinity that will mark the start of the Ashes: Cardiff-Wednesday-July
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However, starting Tests on Thursdays was an unbroken tradition in England for half a century from 1955 to 2005. The Thursday start maximises revenue because it offers two strong weekdays to the corporate hospitality classes while still retaining an excellent probability of a full weekend. And the tradition became ingrained in the minds of all English cricket followers. Whatever other association Thursday might have in their lives — pay day, dustbin day, double maths, meet the lads at the pub night — they also knew that in summer it would very likely mean the start of a Test match: take the radio; check the web; switch on the telly. Only four of this summer’s seven Tests have Thursday starts. There will be utter confusion.
March 31, 2009
England must beware resurgent Australia
Posted on 03/31/2009 in Ashes
A couple of months ago we might have thought that Australia were going to be vulnerable this summer. But that was before events in South Africa, where Ricky Ponting and company beat the world's No 2 side in their own backyard. The Aussies are reminding us all what a resilient outfit they really are, writes Geoffrey Boycott in the Telegraph.
The Ashes are a huge deal for the Australians, as we can see from the fact that Ponting and Michael Clarke pulled out of the Indian Premier League weeks ago. Both men were prepared to sacrifice a hefty paycheck just to make sure that they will be in the best physical and mental condition. After some soul-searching during the winter, Ponting can now be confident of bringing a quality side to England, even if some of the players will be unfamiliar to our fans.
March 29, 2009
England's Ashes hopes are fading fast
Posted on 03/29/2009 in Ashes
After this latest humiliation, the concept that England will regain the Ashes appears to be beyond rational hope, writes Scyld Berry in the Sunday Telegraph.
England have no momentum, no head coach, no crackerjack bowler, no consistency – and, to be brutal, such moderateness has prevailed throughout the last generation, since other Test-playing countries became full-time professional, except when Duncan Fletcher defied the English system.
March 19, 2009
Should England be helping the Aussies?
Posted on 03/19/2009 in Ashes
County cricket clubs are falling over themselves to get Australians ready for the Ashes. Good for the game, or a sure way of derailing a return to the glory days of 2005? Former England bowler, Angus Fraser, and Independent cricket correspondent, Stephen Brenkley, join the debate.
Angus Fraser: I want the series to leave a similar mark on the game as the 2005 encounter, and if that is to be the case we need two well prepared and evenly matched sides lining up against each other in Cardiff on 8 July. Indeed, if the ECB were so worried about the first Test why is it being played in Cardiff, a virgin Test arena and therefore a ground where Strauss' side will feel as unfamiliar as the opposition? There is the small matter of the Twenty20 World Cup, too. The Indian board did not seem too worried about England's top players gaining valuable experience in the IPL before the tournament.
Stephen Brenkley: All the trouble started in 1988. All the present row confirms is the inability to learn from history. That year, the captain of Australia, Allan Border, returned to Essex. Part of the reason may have been that he was pining for the architecture of Harlow and was desperate to win the Refuge Assurance League. But he had other business. Border spent the summer not only scoring runs, but gathering information, on pitches, on players, on the thought processes in English cricket.
It was sporting espionage of the highest order. The following summer, with Border leading, hard-nosed and uncompromising, Australia regained the Ashes in a series they had been confidently tipped to lose. Things were never the same again.
March 15, 2009
Australia rising for the Ashes
Posted on 03/15/2009 in Ashes
Ricky Ponting has plenty of reasons to set his sights high in defence of the Ashes, believes the Sunday Times' Simon Wilde. While he savours his team’s triumphs in Johannesburg and Durban, and watches the South African selectors panic, Ponting can say to his players: Look at the poor old Poms. They appear more confused than ever.
March 13, 2009
Australia's secret Ashes selection strategy
Posted on 03/13/2009 in Ashes
Read Mike Ticher's satirical take on the thinking behind Australia's squad selection in the Guardian.
Why choose only Mike Hussey when you can get his brother David as a matching pair? Is Nathan Hauritz really the best spinner in the country? Who exactly are Ryan Harris and Moises Henriques? This season Australia have picked 10 players whose names start with H. Who could be behind such a policy? Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I suggest the chairman of selectors, Andrew Hilditch, and his offsider Merv Hughes. Even when Matthew Hayden's retirement left a big H-shaped hole at the top of the order, Phil Hughes filled it. If Brad Hodge makes the squad, we'll know why.
March 1, 2009
Warne continues to spin
Posted on 03/01/2009 in Ashes
Kevin Pietersen is "one weird cat" whose best is yet to come. If it were not for coaches and their "absolute crap" computers and training regimes, he would still be playing. Allen Stanford was "good for the game". And, no, he never contemplated making a comeback for Australia in the Ashes this summer. Shane Warne chats about cricket and commentary with the Observer's Kevin Mitchell.
"If they don't have Andrew Flintoff, I think Australia win easily. At the moment Australia are in fractionally better shape than England. Australia got in a position to win all three Tests against South Africa, but they lacked experience at how to win. They might play the odd bad innings here or there, but the batting will be fine. Both sides have the same concern, that is the ability to take 20 wickets, and who's the spinner in the side."
In the same paper, Ed Smith writes that Pietersen's brief tenure as England captain tells us essential truths about British society today.
February 11, 2009
Tubby was a breath of fresh air
Posted on 02/11/2009 in Ashes
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Mark Taylor was a breath of fresh air compared with grumpy old Border and the ruthless Steve Waugh.
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In his Line and Length blog on the Times website, Patrick Kidd resumes the Ashes Heroes series. This week he takes at look at former Australia captain Mark Taylor.
He was a breath of fresh air compared with grumpy old Border and the ruthless Steve Waugh. Even now, when I listen to Taylor's commentary, he always sounds as if he has a smile on his face, a man who genuinely loves cricket and sees it as a game, rather than warfare. Yet when he was on form (and it came and went) he was one of the world's best batsmen. Not a bad slip catcher, either.
The memory I most associate with Taylor is his very public battle with bad form in 1997 and how he came through it. He had been in the Test side for eight years and become Australia's most reliable Test opener since Bill Lawry, but he was on the verge of losing his place in the one-day side because of a lack of runs (he dropped himself for the last match of the ODI series in England) and was similarly struggling in Test cricket.
October 3, 2008
Matthew Hayden's long wait
Posted on 10/03/2008 in Ashes
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Matthew Hayden will be keen to better his Test record in England
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Line and Length, the Times’ cricket blog, lists Matthew Hayden at No.41 in its weekly countdown of Ashes heroes. Hayden was a part of Australia’s touring party to England in 1993, but had to wait for eight years for his first Ashes Test. Patrick Kidd writes of Hayden’s struggles to cement his place in the Australian team and his relatively modest record in England.
In 1993, the 21-year-old Hayden was picked for Australia's tour party to England on the back of a couple of excellent Sheffield Shield seasons. He was travelling for the experience but on that tour he played 13 first-class county matches (ah, those were the days...), scored 1,150 runs at an average of 57.55 and yet DID NOT PLAY AN ASHES TEST FOR ANOTHER EIGHT YEARS
September 15, 2008
Ashes coincidence
Posted on 09/15/2008 in Ashes
Australia's decision to drop Andrew Symonds, something they did just before the defeat in the 2005 Ashes, is one of the coincidences ahead of next year's greatly-anticipated series between England and Australia, writes Derek Pringle in the Daily Telegraph. Australia's dominance in cricket has come at a price, their win-at-all-price ambition making them unpopular champions and Symonds is the common denominator behind their recent bad press.
An improving England will be the crucial factor when it comes to contesting next summer's Ashes, but the censure of Symonds should not be underestimated, and not just because he has averaged 77 in Test cricket over the last year. It suggests a return to the prissy correctness the Aussies tried before in 2005 but jettisoned once the opprobrium hit home.
September 13, 2008
Catch them weary
Posted on 09/13/2008 in Ashes
Come summer 2009 and England will have their best chance of reclaiming the Ashes when a jaded bunch of Australians land in the country, writes Scyld Berry in the Sunday Telegraph. He writes that Australia are already showing signs of cracking at the seams, after they were reduced to 18 for 5 against West Indies at Sabina Park some months back.
Their first masters, the Australian board, have drawn up a schedule which is as crazy as anything that England's board have ever conceived – and this is saying something. Thanks partly to another accident, the postponement of the Champions Trophy, England are now enjoying a nice break before late October, and have another month off before going to the West Indies in late January: the right sort of place to tune up for an Ashes series which is sure to be dominated by pace.
September 10, 2008
Ashes hero No. 44 - Bill O'Reilly
Posted on 09/10/2008 in Ashes
The Times is counting down the top 50 Ashes heroes. Former Australian legspinner, Bill O'Reilly, is at No. 44.
Don Bradman said that O'Reilly was the best bowler he ever faced, which is all the testimony you need about his quality. They first played each other in 1925 when the 20-year-old O'Reilly, training to be a teacher in Sydney, was suddenly called up (yanked off a train, O'Reilly said) to play for Wingello against Bowral. As was the custom, the match was played for a day and resumed a week later. After Day 1, the 17-year-old Bradman was 234 not out but when the match continued seven days on, O'Reilly bowled him first ball with a leg break that turned from leg stump to hit off. "Suddenly cricket was the best game in the whole wide world," O'Reilly would write years later.
August 22, 2008
What a shemozzle
Posted on 08/22/2008 in Ashes
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Richie Benaud - an Ashes hero
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The Times has started a weekly series of essays on 50 Ashes heroes and this week Patrick Kidd writes of Hero No. 47 Richie Benaud.
In the days before Neighbours, Richie was our main contact with Australia and we loved some of his Aussie-isms. For some reason, the word "shemozzle" sticks in the mind, mainly because the England team always seemed to be in one. "What a shemozzle," Richie would say as both batsmen ended up at the same end or as two fielders collided going for a catch. There was also the holy grail of hearing Richie say "Two-twenty-two for two" in that clipped Australian way.
February 19, 2008
From Kolkata to the Ashes
Posted on 02/19/2008 in Ashes
Having helped England's women side retain the Ashes, Kolkata-born Isa Guha speaks to the Telegraph's Amit Roy about her Indian connection.
Asked whether Isa was English or Bengali, her father Barun thought for a moment before replying: “She is 75 per cent English, 25 per cent Bengali. She cannot speak Bengali but she understands Bengali. She loves to come to Calcutta, and meet all her relations. May be the next trip will be at Christmas.”
July 21, 2007
Langer tells England to learn from Ashes defeat
Posted on 07/21/2007 in Ashes
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Shane Warne and Ricky Ponting have a bad day in the field during the 2005 Ashes
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| In a freewheeling interview with Brian Viner of The Independent, Justin Langer talks about his love for the game's history, life after retirement, what England could do to regain the Ashes, and also has time to talk about Ricky Ponting's oratory skills.
Speaking of lessons, what can England learn from Australia, not as winners but as losers? Can the 2006-07 Ashes series generate English renewal as the 2005 series did for Australia? "Mate, it depends how badly it hurt. I remember 12 September 2005, very clearly, sitting up there on the balcony at The Oval, next to Haydos [Mathew Hayden], Gilly [Adam Gilchrist], McGrath, and Punter [Ricky Ponting], watching those streamers everywhere, and Vaughan jumping around with champagne. That's when a little piece of kindling was lit.
"We got on the plane and that's when we started talking: where we went wrong, how we could do better, how we could get our disciplines back. There's a book by Scott Peck called The Road Less Travelled. During Steve Waugh's tenure that was our theme: do things a little bit different, things other teams wouldn't do. In 2005 we lost sight of that a little bit.
April 7, 2007
What happened to the man who ran out Ponting?
Posted on 04/07/2007 in Ashes
It’s good to see the Aussies aren’t engaging in any kind of schadenfreude where Gary Pratt - destined to be known as the man who ran out Ricky Ponting - is concerned. The Australian has traced his career path post-Ashes 2005 and found him released by Durham and now playing lower league football. But cricket remains his true love and he has been given a contract with the minor county Cumbria.
For Pratt’s part, it’s good to see that he’s not bitter about being released by Durham, blaming a lack of opportunities on the captain Mike Hussey who is, of course, Australian.
Make your own mind up.
February 15, 2007
Aussies are now the bigger whingers
Posted on 02/15/2007 in Ashes
Ted Corbett lets rip in Sportstar. Click here to read the tour diary.
I hear a claim that the old cry about "whinging Poms" — who are supposedly always complaining about some slight, mishap or wrong — no longer comes readily to Australian lips. Perhaps the Aussies are now the bigger whingers. They spent most of this warm summer telling us that they want to see more fight from the England side but when the Poms not only put up a fight but win a match there is a complaint that Aussie fans did not pay $50 a ticket to see their side lose, particularly when their favourite player Brett Lee is left out of the team. Now that is whinging; and in my opinion no-one whinges better than a defeated Australian.
February 7, 2007
Winners, losers, it's all one and the same
Posted on 02/07/2007 in Ashes
"The England cricket team," writes Simon Barnes in The Times, "are in the position of a person who charges back into a burning house to rescue the baby and comes out with the cat."
It’s a nice cat, and you are fond of it, but it’s not exactly what you went in for. Still, there’s not much you can do except stroke it.
All the same, in the aftermath of their momentous two wins in a row in the CB Series - not to mention the England rugby team's victory over Scotland - the question has to be asked: "Is England suddenly a nation of winners again?"
February 6, 2007
England's flawed policy gave us head start, claims Ponting
Posted on 02/06/2007 in Ashes
In a interview Ponting admitted that he could not understand why England selected Geraint Jones and Ashley Giles ahead of Chris Read and Monty Panesar for the first Test in Brisbane. Click here to read Angus Fraser's piece in the Independent.
"Harmison's first ball said a bit about how nervous he and England were," said Ponting. "The first ball of the first Test and the last day of the second Test were pretty significant. They were unbelievably good moments for the Australian team. They were the defining moments of the whole series. When a big moment came along, it was the Australian team that stood up.
January 29, 2007
Bell tolls for Fletcher as the wheels fall off
Posted on 01/29/2007 in Ashes
Simon Barnes identifies a familiar pattern as the pressure mounts on Duncan Fletcher. Writing in The Times, Barnes notes how, as in politics, even the most successful coaches are doomed to ultimate failure.
Less than 18 months ago, Fletcher could do no wrong. He was a national hero, the man who masterminded England’s Ashes-winning summer against Australia. Perhaps he should have gone then — stepped off the open-top bus and handed in the dinner-pail. But a coach almost never goes at the right time
Not-so-splendid isolation
Posted on 01/29/2007 in Ashes
Writing in The Guardian, David Hopps points the finger at the joyless hangers-oners in a "bloated" England squad, in particular the security personnel who, he believes, are cramping the style of the younger, more impressionable players - in particular those like Liam Plunkett, on the fringe of the team.
The talk is of a bloated and cowed group who have toured joylessly. Nothing illustrates England's suspicious and insular approach more than the four security guards employed by the England and Wales Cricket Board to protect the players on their travels around Australia. It is a disproportionate measure which suppresses England's players mentally as much as it seeks to protect them physically, proof only of English cricket's pompous self-regard
January 15, 2007
Captain Australia stands up to the spoilsports
Posted on 01/15/2007 in Ashes
With Warney retiring, the Australian public are in need of a new super-hero. But wait... who's this, swooping out of the sky in a peculiarly effeminate red, white and blue costume? Step forward Captain Australia, aka Brendan Lichtendonk, a 25-year-old car salesman from Launceston in his spare time, who has hit out at what he calls the "fun police"- the Australian authorities who are stopping fans from doing mexican waves in grounds this summer:
I always look at it as being in Australia's biggest loungeroom. If you don't want to be hassled with a bit of noise and a few weird characters, and the chance of having a little bit of beer spilt over you, then watch the game at home in front of your own TV in your own loungeroom.
There you have it. And you don't want to mess with a super-hero do you?
January 14, 2007
Stark images of Ashes failure
Posted on 01/14/2007 in Ashes
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Was it really Freddie out there?
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Mike Brearley, in The Observer, picks out four images of the Ashes humiliation, starting with Andrew Flintoff's batting and captaincy. Brearley feels that the captaincy was a constraint, an oppression for an immensely gifted and likeable cricketer.
An Australia fast bowler bowled to him just short of a length and just outside off stump. Flintoff carved at the ball, it caught the outside edge and flew first bounce to the fielder placed for just this, perhaps 20 yards in from the third-man boundary. Flintoff stood stock still, looked back and suddenly jerked as if to run. My guess was that he hadn't noticed the fielder there, otherwise there would have been an easy single. He seemed in a dream. How could he not have noticed?
Read the full piece here.
January 11, 2007
Poet in residence not quite so fine
Posted on 01/11/2007 in Ashes
This entry’s a slightly left-field one for a Thursday, but hey ho. It concerns the Ashes poet-in-residence, David Fine, who you may recall received thousands of pounds of Arts Council funding to describe England’s disasters Down Under. The book section of The Guardian questions what the point was of having him on tour, particularly as the Times Literary Supplement was moved to describe his work as "more than mildly distressing".
January 7, 2007
Freddie Flintoff Enterprises Ltd nets £1m
Posted on 01/07/2007 in English cricket
Maurice Chittenden reveals Andrew Flintoff, despite leading England to a 5-0 thumping, has netted over £1m this winter, through his company Freddie Flintoff Enterprises Ltd. Read more on his moolah at The Sunday Times.
Stamping out the rot
Posted on 01/07/2007 in Ashes
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Is Harmison sad to be leaving Australia? Is he heck...
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Michael Atherton dissects his revealing, and worrying, interview with Steve Harmison - which he conducted during the Sydney Test - in today’s Sunday Telegraph and concludes that something is rotten in the England team.
This England team is not bereft of talent, but there is a fug of complacency that needs to be stamped out. All the talk at the end of the series from the captain and players was that this is a young England team, the vast majority of whom will still be in place the next time the Ashes are up for grabs. If I was in an England team that had just been wiped out 5-0, I don't think I'd be taking my place for granted.
In the same paper he urges England’s bowlers to learn how to bat.
Meanwhile Andrew Strauss insists that he, and England, “will be better for the experience” in his tour diary. He adds that the defeat “will give us more than enough motivation to take our game to another level”.
Scyld Berry laments the ECB’s so-called “special review” and calls for a complete reform. But he also highlights Simon Jones, the injured and forgotten fast bowler who was so instrumental to England’s success in 2005
Since then England have been unable to re-create that constant pressure on opposing batsmen, thanks primarily to the injuries to Jones. He, indisputably, was the difference between England winning the first Test in Multan and losing it by 22 runs; and England have gone downhill since. They have continued to use the new ball effectively, but from overs 40 to 80, when the second new ball is due, England have failed to pressurise, except when Monty Panesar has found turn or bounce.
Jones was more than a master of reverse-swing, he was also the one intimidator in a pace attack of otherwise gentle souls. But there is no point lamenting Jones's absence because injuries are a given norm in the international schedule that the ECB commit England to playing, well in excess of the amount dictated by the International Cricket Council. The point is that nothing was done, or could have been done, to make good his absence.
Guests barely seen or heard
Posted on 01/07/2007 in Ashes
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For England to win the Ashes in 2009 they must feel the hurt of the 5-0 defeat this season
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The true relevance of England's memorable victory in 2005 will be gauged when the teams next meet on English soil in two and a half years, writes Andrew Ramsey in The Australian
As far as visitors go, England's Test cricketers have proved the perfect guests. Apart from a few moments in Brisbane and Adelaide, the side has proved no trouble at all to its host. And at many times it was so unobtrusive it was easy to forget it was in town at all.
Ricky Ponting and his team have made no secret of the fact it was the feeling of hollowness and hurt when the Ashes changed hands at The Oval in 2005 that drove this summer's relentless five-nil redemption.
Perhaps it was due to the vastly different scoreline - Australia held hopes of levelling the 2005 series until the final session, while England was a beaten team with two Tests remaining - but there did not appear to be the same steeliness in the England players' eyes yesterday
January 6, 2007
Australia up with the very best...ever
Posted on 01/06/2007 in Ashes
The plaudits continue to come Australia's way after their 5-0 whitewash with comparisons with the greatest teams of all time. The debate will never be settled as to which era - Australia of '48, West Indies of the '80s and a few others - was the best ever, but this Australian team is making a strong claim. Matthew Engel, editor of Wisden spoke to the Courier Mail and says they are a match for the great West Indian era.
"They are the two dynasties – there is no one else in history who has lasted as long as they have and beaten everybody they have been matched against," said Engel after witnessing Australia's 5-0 triumph yesterday.
In The Age Peter Roebuck gives his assessment of Australia's performance.
Ponting devoted himself to the task. His first step was to admit that England had deserved to win and that his side had been off its game. Australia worked hard in preparation. Ponting took his side to a boot camp, urged senior men to keep playing, developed plans with John Buchanan, his underestimated coach. No stone was left unturned.
Martyn comes out of hiding
Posted on 01/06/2007 in Ashes
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Damien Martyn joins his fellow retirees at the SCG
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He has been the forgotten man of Australia’s Ashes campaign and retirement celebrations, but Damien Martyn made a shock reappearance in the SCG dressing rooms after Australia wrapped up their 5-0 win. Alex Brown writes in The Age that Martyn surprised his team-mates by turning up an hour after stumps.
Wearing jeans and a T-shirt, the reclusive West Australian walked into the rooms to a roaring reception and was immediately embraced by Australia's opener Matthew Hayden. Martyn later sat in front of Hayden's locker, and had his first face-to-face conversation with Ricky Ponting, the Australian captain and best man at Martyn's wedding, since his shock retirement after the Adelaide Test. "It was emotional," said one team source. "As emotional as anything you saw out on the field yesterday."
Just as emotional would have been Justin Langer’s rendition of the Australian victory anthem, Beneath the Southern Cross. As Andrew Stevenson writes in The Age, the tradition has an interesting history.
Southern Cross passed, first from Rod Marsh to Allan Border and then to David Boon. But where did it come from? Talk to Ian Chappell, Marsh advised. Chappell, the former Australian captain, was happy to put his hand up for bringing it into the Australian dressing room. But, poet he is not.
Such dressing-room customs are hard for us outsiders to understand, explains John Harms, also in The Age. The inner sanctum of Australian cricket, Harms says, remains a mystery.
One of the only things we mortal outsiders can observe with any confidence is that the inner sanctum is very, very inner. So inner that, in recent times, I reckon the Australian team has become a cult. Not everyone is accepted. I once asked Rod Marsh whether some cricketers were the victims of circumstance: had things gone their way they'd have had long and successful Test careers. I mentioned Martin Love, Stuart Law and Jamie Cox. "There's no luck," he assured me. "If you're good enough, you'll play 80 Tests." Such self-congratulatory logic dismisses anyone outside those who have done it.
January 4, 2007
Keep the urn, but they can have Branson
Posted on 01/04/2007 in Ashes
Richard Branson, a man who has never knowingly missed an opportunity to self-publicise, stepped up and announced that the Ashes should stay in Australia. Sadly, in relying on Ian Botham to brief him, he picked someone whose knowledge of the game’s history might be best described as sketchy. The end result was that Branson was there to be picked off, and as David Hopps reports in his Guardian blog, Gideon Haigh did just that in response to Branson’s own version of events:
“The Ashes were burned when Britain, ehm when England, lost the 1882 game and it was turned into a trophy which the Australians took back to Australia and I think, and I may be wrong, but I think the MCC may be rewriting history."
He might as well have added that the Russians put the first men on the moon and that Alexander Graham Bell was the father of the railways. It brought an impassioned rebuke from Gideon Haigh, a renowned cricket writer and historian who has written for the Guardian on Ashes series for the past five years. It was time for a historically accurate version to take precedence.
January 3, 2007
An old wives' tale
Posted on 01/03/2007 in Ashes
There have been some suggestions that England’s poor form this series is somehow related to having the WAGs on tour. In a column in The Daily Telegraph, Australia’s captain Ricky Ponting scoffs at such notions.
I remember we had to answer all the same questions when we got back from our Ashes defeat in 2005. To be honest, I just dismiss all that talk as a load of rubbish.
There are certain times, yes, you do have to devote yourself to the team and it's important to steer clear of all distractions. But at the same time, to be all the way over here and not see your wife or family for two or three months would be very difficult.
Tests killed by marketing's clamour
Posted on 01/03/2007 in Australian cricket
John Coomber in The New Zealand Herald notes that Australian cricket’s marketing men risk destroying Test cricket because of their ignorance of the basic product. He bemoans the “relentless clamour of advertising, silly competitions and mega-decibel announcements that have swamped the grand old game in recent years.” And he continues:
In places like Adelaide they still have the good sense to leave the cricket as the cricket, with a minimum of music and advertising noise. In this series the Gabba and Sydney Cricket Ground have been by far the worst offenders. Presumably it happens at the instigation of marketing types who rely on research that tells them this is what people want. Test cricket needs nothing of the sort. The people who pay their money to be at the SCG do so to enjoy a loved summer ritual.
December 29, 2006
Warne continues to fill the pages
Posted on 12/29/2006 in Ashes
The Australian press is revelling in the team's Ashes dominance and plenty of space is being devoted to Shane Warne, who signed off his final MCG Test with a man-of-the-match award for his seven wickets. In The Age Greg Baum writes about how he exploited a demoralised England team allowing himself and Glenn McGrath and fine send-off.
On what became his final day at the MCG, Warne made more runs than any of England's XI, which was bowled out for 161. It is doubtful that it would have fared better even if Australia had published its bowling plans in advance, with diagrams and explanatory notes. Few teams in history can have raised expectations and disappointed them on the scale of England this summer.
Meanwhile, Peter Roebuck says the reasons behind England's thumping can be traced back to the huge celebrations that followed the 2005 victory while Australia quickly went back to the drawing board.
In truth, the seeds of England's defeat were planted amid the celebrations that followed victory. Gongs were dished out to every player, a gesture resented by their opponents, books were written, players were wrapped in paeans of praise and an entire nation went into a state of rapture.
And he also saved a few words for Warne…
In 1992-93, Richie Richardson had fallen foul of the delivery. Now a lesser soul, Sajid Mahmood, was equally baffled. Warne had struck again with his flipper. It was not a bad way to say goodbye.
Over in the Indian paper, Mid Day, Terry Jenner gets a lump in his throat as he talks about the retirement of his star pupil and witnessing his 700th Test wicket.
“It (quitting) is sad because we’ve been together for 16 years. Everyday when you wake up, the guy is in your mind for one reason or the other. Today for example, I woke up thinking how he is going to bat.” Wicket No 700 was witnessed by Jenner behind the bowler’s arm at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Whitewash looms
Posted on 12/29/2006 in Ashes
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Unwanted history looms for England after crashing to their fourth defeat of the Ashes series at Melbourne
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After a fourth consecutive hammering, the English press are gearing up for an Ashes whitewash and talk as one about how the tour continues to lurch from one disaster to another. In The Guardian Mike Selvey dissects the innings and 99-run defeat and struggles to find anything that England can be proud of.
Now Sydney looms, and if there is an echo of the situation from four years ago, when England went on to win the final Test in grand style, then at least they had given Australia a scare in the penultimate match. They would have rattled them more this time if they had hidden round the corner from the dressing room and gone "Boo!" as Ricky Ponting took his side on to the field.
In The Times Christopher Martin-Jenkins says that although Andrew Flintoff is likely to pay for England's failures with his captaincy role, the other players also need to share the blame and, after Melbourne, especially Kevin Pietersen.
The home team have made a point, in print and in press conferences, of praising Pietersen’s skill whenever possible. Perhaps they believe that it will go to his head. It would certainly not be beyond the plans of John Buchanan, the Australia coach, to see him as a means of dividing the England dressing-room and thereby of ruling them.
Continue reading "Whitewash looms"
December 27, 2006
Frindall queries Warne's 700th
Posted on 12/27/2006 in Ashes
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Shane Warne's 700th Test wicket was something special ...but was it really No. 694?
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| While Shane Warne has been showered with accolades after taking his 700th Test wicket, the respected statistician Bill Frindall has bucked the trend and suggested that Warne is not quite there yet.
Martin Johnson in The Daily Telegraph flagged the issue:
When the electronic scoreboard flashed up "Congratulations Shane Warne: 700 Wickets" yesterday, the coughing and spluttering emanating from the commentary booth were the sounds of an indignant man choking on chocolate sponge. You could strap Bill Frindall into a barber's chair and threaten him with a fate worse than death, which would be a stick of shaving foam, a razor and a bottle of aftershave.
Continue reading " Frindall queries Warne's 700th"
Warne's magic Melbourne moment
Posted on 12/27/2006 in Ashes
Shane Warne’s 700th wicket really was memorable stuff – he did it on his home ground, on Boxing Day, with a typical legbreak and went on to take four more. And Australia’s newspapers – rightly – lavished praise on one of the greatest bowlers in history. One of his home-town dailies, The Age, led its front page with the headline “89,155 salute the ’G Wiz”. Greg Baum writes that once England decided to bat first, Warne was always going to be the Boxing Day star.
Throughout Warne's incomparable career, it usually has been a matter of when, not if. This was even more so on the big stage and occasion, which he has always relished. This was Boxing Day, his last - an all-star crowd, including Brian Lara, an Ashes Test and an obdurate opponent; Warne could no more resist this moment than he could be resisted.
Ron Reed writes in the other Melbourne daily, the Herald Sun, that it was not just the achievement but the way Warne did it that made yesterday special.
Shane Warne's 700th Test wicket belongs not only at the very front of the cricket history books but should be placed prominently in a textbook too. Fittingly, it was a classic example of the exquisite and difficult art of legbreak bowling, the revival of which is the priceless legacy he will leave the game when he bows out next week. The master craftsman pitched his stock delivery on a full length just outside left-hander Andrew Strauss's off stump and watched in glee and satisfaction as it spun challengingly but not extravagantly past the bat to strike middle stump.
Continue reading "Warne's magic Melbourne moment"
December 21, 2006
A fond farewell
Posted on 12/21/2006 in Ashes
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Shane Warne's retirement has provoked an avalanche of tributes in the English press
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| The English press is predictably full of Shane Warne's retirement and most seem to have the tone spot on, focusing on the fact that the game is losing a legend rather than the fact that England might have a better chance against a Warne-free Australia....
CMJ gets the ball rolling in The Times paying tribute to Warne's influence on friend and foe and pointing out that he is the one member of their retiring old-guard that they will find impossible to replace.
It had to happen one day, but the news that Shane Warne will announce in his home city today that he is to retire from Test cricket at the end of the Ashes series will be as much a matter for regret as for rejoicing among the batsmen he has tormented for 14 years.
Continue reading "A fond farewell"
December 19, 2006
Press slam "Perthetic" England
Posted on 12/19/2006 in Ashes
The Ashes series was all but decided after the Adelaide Test, so the British press had plenty of time to come up with their back-page headlines when the urn was finally lost. In typically tabloid fashion, The Sun called it a “Perthetic” effort.
Sorry England surrendered The Ashes in record time yesterday. Freddie Flintoff’s Perth flops handed back the urn to Australia after just 15 days of Test cricket Down Under - the shortest defence in history.
Continue reading "Press slam "Perthetic" England"
Australia's success bad for Test cricket
Posted on 12/19/2006 in Australian cricket
While most Australians celebrate the return of the Ashes, Chloe Saltau in the Age sounds a warning that Australia’s renewed dominance is a bad thing for the long-term future of Test cricket. And the paper is clear that the blame for that can be laid at the feet of the ICC and the incompetent way it continues to handle world cricket.
Hold the champagne, if only for a moment. As the frail Ashes urn is escorted across the country to Melbourne, and Australia's cricketers wake rather dustily from their richly deserved series victory celebrations, it is worth considering what it means for world cricket if the second-best team in the world can be so comprehensively slaughtered by the best, as England have been by Australia in 15 days of cricket.
Australia wanted the Ashes more
Posted on 12/19/2006 in Ashes
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Geraint Jones was asleep to the possibility of a run-out
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Australia’s newspapers have no doubt why the Ashes series has been such a one-sided affair. As Robert Craddock explains in the Herald Sun, the perception is that Australia were more desperate to win.
Justice has been done ... the Ashes have gone to the team that wanted them the most. Winning the Ashes means everything to this Australian team. They've been saying it for a while but it's not until you see Matthew Hayden shedding a tear or other players simply delirious in celebration that you realise it had become their life's obsession.
Greg Baum, writing in The Age, said Australia was simply harder and tougher than England.
Australia's harder edge was apparent yesterday when Ponting ran out Geraint Jones who, while waiting the outcome of an (unsuccessful) lbw appeal, forgot to put his foot back in his crease. Australia has been alert to every half-chance. Jones was not alert even to the danger. It was daft cricket.
And in the Sydney Morning Herald, Peter Roebuck lauded the man he saw as the driving force in Australia’s win.
Ponting deserved the acclaim that came upon him. He has been the campaign's outstanding figure. Sooner or later his achievements as captain will be acknowledged. A superb cricketer, he presided over an incisive performance from a hungry team. He has stood glint-eyed at the crease, alert at slip or poised at silly point, unblinking and composed. He began with a masterful hundred in Brisbane and ended with a sharp run-out in Perth.
December 18, 2006
Marsh picks it
Posted on 12/18/2006 in Ashes
Rod Marsh has come out with some interesting comments about English cricket over the last few weeks, but his ability to spot a talented player has never been in doubt. This piece in The Observer was written the day before Alastair Cook made 116 at Perth.
Cook will probably captain England before he is 30 and will probably average over 50 in Test cricket. I'm not concerned that he is not yet in the England one-day set-up. As he matures he will find his way into that team and he will work hard enough on his athleticism and general fielding to do a more than adequate job in the field.
Stranded away from the Ashes
Posted on 12/18/2006 in Ashes
The attendance for the Perth Test has broken WACA records, but the crowd is missing one man who'd hope to make it via a slightly different mode of transport. Sir Robin Knox-Johnston set sail from Bilbao in late October and aimed to reach Fremantle in time to collect tickets to the third Test. Alas, a lack of wind in the has left him stranded in the ocean. Read an interview he did with The Observer.
Tragedy it is, then. While the first two boats in the race have been in Australia for several days - their Swiss and Japanese skippers oblivious to the fact that there is a cricket match going on - Sir Robin is in the middle of nowhere and does not expect to reach Australia until 27 December. Alone, alone, all all alone, alone on a wide, wide sea, as someone once wrote.
December 17, 2006
Who picks the England team?
Posted on 12/17/2006 in Ashes
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Sajid Mahmood: Where was he?
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Duncan Fletcher faced the media yesterday evening after England had been flayed around Perth by Adam Gilchrist. Selections issues were high on the agenda for the press and he continued to defend his treatment of Monty Panesar. But that isn't the only decision that has left people scratching their heads, with Michael Atherton in The Daily Telegraph asking why Sajid Mahmood was used so little by Andrew Flintoff.
Not that Mahmood was the only one who was puzzled. Rumours in the press box abounded. Maybe Flintoff was making a point of his very own. Maybe familiarity breeds contempt, and Flintoff, a fellow Lancastrian, was not particularly enamoured with Mahmood's selection in the first place. Lots of maybes and lots of rumours, which has been the case with England's selections ever since Duncan Fletcher let it be known that he and the captain did not necessarily agree on the team who took the field for the second Test.
In The Guardian, Vic Marks says that Flintoff's problems on this tour have been increased by his lack of cricket leading into the series and the England selectors have some tough decisions to make.
Inevitably, Flintoff's lack of form is now being highlighted. Last night Duncan Fletcher was asked whether he thought the captaincy was affecting Flintoff. 'I don't think so,' he said, 'at this stage'. Which prompted many to focus more on the second element of his answer: 'at this stage'. Fletcher stayed loyal on his captain's batting as well, though his observation that 'he has played some good shots' is faint praise indeed. Great batsmen play great innings. They are not interested in great shots.
Selection has also been a hot issue for the Australians and Mark Waugh says the decision to name Adam Voges in the Perth squad was the right move, while Peter Roebuck discusses Mike Hussey, who had to wait an eternity for his Test chance and is now making the most if it.
Indeed, versatility counts amongst the left-hander's attributes. He seems equally happy against pace or spin, up or down the order, defending or attacking, on hard or soft pitches, in five-day or 50-over matches. He adjusts his game without fuss, puts his head down and goes about the business of putting runs on the board. Long apprenticeships need not be harmful. Provided hope does not die, they can be instructive. In his years of relative obscurity, Hussey learnt a lot about cricket, most especially about batting.
December 16, 2006
Knives sharpen against Fletcher
Posted on 12/16/2006 in Ashes
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The English media are scathing in their remarks about Panesar's omission from the first two Tests. Panesar took 5 for 92 in the first innings at Perth
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As Australia move closer to regaining the Ashes the knives are being sharpened against Duncan Fletcher, the man many in the media feel is to blame for England's problems. The earlier omission of Monty Panesar is still fuelling the criticism and James Lawton, in The Independent says Fletcher has out-thought and out-planned.
Panesar didn't only represent the possibility of a striking new weapon in England's attack. He also promised a fresh state of mind, optimistic, attacking, filled with a belief in his own ability to make a difference.
In the Guardian, Richard Williams writes pessimistically about Flintoff's chances of playing the next Ashes. The bowler, Williams feels, has been hurried into service with an ankle yet to heal fully.
For a fast bowler, particularly one of Flintoff's heft, to feel pain in his landing foot is to be condemned to a very distinctive kind of agony. In order to deliver the ball properly, that foot must mash down hard on the compressed earth, acting as the load-bearing pivot for the entire effort. Any mental reservation created by the hurt will tend to remove the desire to add the final ounce of weight that creates the edge of hostility
December 15, 2006
Monty's moment
Posted on 12/15/2006 in Ashes
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Monty Panesar leads his team-mates off the field after taking 5 for 92
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The papers, both in England and Australia, are paying tribute to the efforts of Monty Panesar for breathing life back into the Ashes series with his five-wicket haul on the opening day at the WACA.
In The Age Peter Roebuck talks about the efforts Panesar has put in to make the most of his talents.
Perhaps the sight of a familiar figure standing at the opposite end had helped to settle such butterflies as must have been fluttering in the slowie's stomach. Panesar and Michael Hussey had spent a season together in Northampton and spent every spare moment wrapped in mutually advantageous duels in the nets, thereby impressing comrades prepared to consider a wider range of activities.
In the same paper, Alex Brown takes the popular line that Panesar's success has fuelled the debate about where he'd been hiding for the first two matches.
The "team balance" defence used to justify the selection of Giles in Brisbane and Adelaide now seems more preposterous than ever after Panesar yesterday became the first Test spinner to claim five wickets on a first-day Perth wicket. A cricket team must pick its best bowlers, irrespective of their skills in other facets of the game.
Richard Williams, in The Guardian, suggests if the BBC Sports Personality had been announced a week later, Monty would have been a shoe-in.
Meanwhile, Simon Barnes raises a glass to Panesar and says he should always have been the first choice.
Two iron rules of selection. The first is that you never pick a player for his secondary accomplishment, unless there is nothing to choose between two players for their primary skill. You don’t pick a bowler because he can bat. The second rule is that defensive selections almost always go wrong.
December 14, 2006
Measuring Monty's monster hands
Posted on 12/14/2006 in Ashes
The Australian media has been obsessed with Monty Panesar in the lead-up to the third Test and after the way he bowled when finally given an opportunity, that is unlikely to change. But what grabbed reporters’ attention the day before the Test was the size of Panesar’s hands, as Robert Craddock explains in The Courier Mail.
Panesar's hands are so big he can comfortably fit three cricket balls into the palms and fingers of each. The middle finger of his left hand, which controls his deliveries and imparts some turn, is an extraordinary 11cm from base to tip.
Chloe Saltau wrote in The Age that Monty’s big hands give him a natural advantage.
John Emburey, the former England off spinner who was coach of Northamptonshire when a 16-year-old Panesar arrived for a trial with the county in 1998, said the young Sikh's fingers were the longest he had seen on a finger spinner, and provide a prodigious natural advantage.
Which pitch is which?
Posted on 12/14/2006 in Ashes
The supposed lack of character in Australia's Test pitches has kept all sorts of "experts" talking during the Ashes series. A common theme is players harking back to the good old days of raging turners at Sydney and hard, fast Perth strips. Peter Roebuck, writing in The Age, made his opinion clear.
As a matter of the highest urgency, Australian pitches need to recover their pip. Curators around the world are under pressure to prepare featherbeds so that matches go the distance and television revenues are paid in full. Australian surfaces used to be lively on the first morning, and winning the toss could be a mixed blessing. Now most of them are duds. Presumably, some clown will presently blame the ICC.
December 13, 2006
Harmison harmony hangs in balance
Posted on 12/13/2006 in Ashes
Steve Harmison is a rhythm bowler. And, although Ponting was polite enough not to say so, when the rhythm disappears, the melody and the harmony tend to go with it. Harmison began this Test series with a ball so disastrous that it has already gone down in Ashes history; last week the sheer ordinariness of his final spell in Adelaide, at a time when England needed an all-out effort, appeared to exhaust the patience of Andrew Flintoff, his captain and friend.
In The Guardian, Richard Williams looks back to Harmison's last Test outing at Perth when he again lost it.
Harmison himself is unlikely to need reminding that it was here in Perth, in his first Ashes series four years ago, that he lost his rhythm in the biggest possible way. There were nine runs off his first over, four byes in his second, Matthew Hayden pulled the last ball of the third into the hands of Alex Tudor, Ponting hooked him for six in the fourth and at the close of the opening day Harmison had bowled eight overs and taken one for 27. It had been an eventful spell but gave no hint of what would follow the next morning ...
December 12, 2006
Marsh calls Fletcher to account
Posted on 12/12/2006 in English cricket
Rod Marsh, the former Australia wicketkeeper who headed the ECB’s Academy from 2001 to 2005, has slammed the England board, accusing it of virtually losing the Ashes when it decided to allow Troy Cooley to return to Australia. In an interview with the Guardian newspaper, Marsh pulled no punches.
I've been really saddened by what's happened to England since then … I've just thought, 'What's going on here?' How can you beat Australia last summer and then perform so dismally in the winter against Pakistan and India - and even more abysmally in one-day cricket?
England, instead, have gone in only one direction - and that's backwards. So that's why it doesn't surprise me in the least that they're already 2-0 down. The only thing that will surprise me about England is if they don't lose 5-0. If we get rain and a flat pitch they might escape with one draw - but otherwise it's 5-0.
December 11, 2006
Martyn waits on $200,000 answer
Posted on 12/11/2006 in Ashes
Jon Pierik writes in the Herald Sun about Damien Martyn’s possible retirement bonus of $200,000.
Martyn, who shocked the cricket world by retiring last Friday and fleeing to the United States, had around five months left to run on a contract believed to be worth around $460,000 per year.
The Australian Cricketers’ Association was hopeful the remaining $200,000 for the unfulfilled months of his contract would be paid to Martyn and several prominent CA board members saw merit in this. Its logic was that it wanted to send a message to the side's ageing generation of senior players not to let money keep them in the game longer than they wanted to.
Chloe Saltau writes in the Sydney Morning Herald about the England team’s trip to see Elton John in Perth. Andrew Ramsey reports in The Australian about Alastair Cook’s claim pitches are bouncier in England than in Australia.
Paul Daffey, a Melbourne freelance writer, talks to Andy Gemmell, a blind England cricket fan who is enjoying his third Ashes tour to Australia, for the online publication Eureka Street.
December 10, 2006
Flintoff’s Ashes tears
Posted on 12/10/2006 in Ashes
Jon Pierik writes in the Daily Telegraph about the upset of Andrew Flintoff after Adelaide.
"I have never experienced such a sense of loss after a cricket match and I hope I never feel that bad ever again. I wasn't boo-hooing or anything like that but the tears were there. We've taken huge stick and I can't argue with that but don't accuse this England team of not caring ... I was in shock for hours after the game. It wasn't until I woke up the next morning that the real horror began to sink in.
Robert Craddock also focusses on Flintoff in the Herald Sun, as does Chloe Saltau in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Andrew Ramsey looks at the exit of Damien Martyn and how it has hurt Australia’s World Cup plans.
A London bobby is coming to sit with the Barmy Army in Sydney, according to the Daily Telegraph.
The weekend after the Test before
Posted on 12/10/2006 in English cricket
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Monty Panesar: is his time nigh?
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The Sunday newspapers are bursting with analysis of England’s capitulation at Adelaide last week, beginning with a roundtable at The Sunday Telegraph. The usual lot are there: Mike Atherton, Ian Chappell and Andrew Strauss are chaired by Scyld Berry – and the quartet discuss England’s negativity on the final morning
Chappell: I didn't understand the lack of urgency, like in the running between wickets. I'd have sent Pietersen in at two-down on the fifth morning to let Australia know we still wanted to win the game. To me, that was the difference on the last day – one team were thinking they could win it. A lot of Test cricket is about the message you are sending to the opposition. For instance, when Gilchrist started whacking a few he was sending the message 'we can still win this game'. I don't mean whacking them in the air but you've got to attack Warne. He got one for 167 in the first innings because you guys attacked him thoughtfully. Collingwood [who made 206] doesn't go belting balls in the air but he played attackingly the whole time.
And Atherton sounds a warning to those who believe, or hope, that Monty Panesar will turn England’s fortunes around
Atherton: Monty's not going to be the panacea that the public think he is – finger-spinners are rarely match-winners here – but he is a more attacking option than Giles and therefore should be in the team.
Chappell: What is your back-up plan if the ball's not swinging in Australia? Unless you can bowl really fast or wrist-spin, you've got to have somebody who can beat batsmen in the flight because it's bloody difficult to get wickets, especially if you're up against good players. Even though Giles is bowling slower there's just nothing on it. If you're reverse-sweeping him on the fifth day [as Mike Hussey did], that tells you something about what's going on.
Atherton: Giles hasn't played any cricket for the best part of a year.
Strauss: In Ashley's defence it became like a one-day game, when fields have to be different and you can't create that pressure with men around the bat. All credit to Mike Hussey who made it harder for Gilo to build up any pressure.
In the same paper Berry senses that Panesar knows his time is nigh
It was the first time England's left-arm spinners had gone head-to-head. Ashley Giles and Monty Panesar had bowled a couple of overs each in tandem during the tour-opener in Canberra against the Prime Minister's XI, but yesterday was the first time that they could be fairly compared and contrasted. The comparison ended up all in the younger man's favour, and is sure to lead to Panesar's reinstatement in England's team for the third Test starting on Thursday.
The difference in quality was as wide as the gap between their ages. Panesar, 24, bowled heavily over-spun balls which dipped and gripped and were yet so accurate that he usually had three men around the bat. Giles, 33, rolled his index finger and floated up balls which were as neat and respectable as a dowager on her way to Sunday church, and about as seductive.
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Brett Lee the man for celebrations
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Over at the Sunday Times, Brett Lee gives a behind-the-scenes view of Australia’s win – and celebrations
I had been charged with providing the entertainment for the evening and kept the party swinging with an iPod until 30 seconds to midnight, when I pressed the pause button and stood on a chair. At first everyone thought I was going to make a speech and I had to endure some pretty crude heckling before order was restored.
“Okay, boys,” I announced, “we’re going to have a toast. I want everyone to hold up their beers because . . . (I glanced at my watch for dramatic effect) . . . in exactly five seconds time Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff will be 29 years old!” The room erupted with a massive cheer, and after we had sung Happy Birthday and some hip-hoorays, the party resumed with a dedication that I thought he might appreciate: My Way by Frank Sinatra.
“Happy birthday, Freddie, you old bugger!” I said.
“Thanks, mate,” he grinned.
In the same paper Andrew Longmore talks to another left-arm spinner, Phil Tufnell.
December 9, 2006
Gilo drinks to forget
Posted on 12/09/2006 in Ashes
Ashley Giles is once again fighting for his England future after two poor Tests against Australia, which included dropping Ricky Ponting on 35 at Adelaide and then leaking runs as the home side marched to victory. In his tour diary for The Independent Giles reveals that missed chance will continue to haunt him, but all he can do is keeping trying.
You can't bring it back - it's gone. I will just spend the next 20 years worrying about it...I am two first-class games in to my comeback and I know there will be a push for Monty to play but if I am called to do a job I will, as always, do it the best I can.
December 8, 2006
Is there a rift in the England camp?
Posted on 12/08/2006 in Ashes
Robert Craddock writes in the Courier-Mail about a “major rift” forming in the England camp.
Duncan Fletcher is privately fuming at being held accountable for omitting Panesar from the Adelaide Test, a match where England's No. 1 spinner Ashley Giles took just 2-149 to leave his career hanging by a thread.
The Courier-Mail has learned that at team selection meetings in Adelaide, Fletcher leaned toward Panesar to play in the Test but captain Andrew Flintoff went for his Lancashire team-mate, swing bowler Jimmy Anderson.
In The Australian Malcolm Conn re-visits Kevin Pietersen and his decision to leave South Africa.
December 7, 2006
'Let's prove we can win this Test'
Posted on 12/07/2006 in Ashes
Brett Lee reveals in his News Ltd column how Ricky Ponting inspired the team to victory at Adelaide, which was the “greatest Test win of our careers”.
"Look, there are a lot of people who have written us off in this Test match," Ricky said during Australia’s first innings. "Not just winning but even getting a draw. Let's go out and prove to them we can win this Test match."
In the Sydney Morning Herald Trevor Marshallsea speaks to Terry Jenner about Shane Warne’s wickets at Adelaide while the paper also tells how Michael Hussey changed to bat left-handed after watching Allan Border.
Malcolm Conn writes in The Australian about the cutting of Shoaib Akhtar’s ban.
December 6, 2006
Where did it all go wrong?
Posted on 12/06/2006 in Ashes
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Andrew Flintoff has a huge task to lift England after their demise on the final day at Adelaide
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The post-mortem into how England managed to lose the Adelaide Test is in full swing throughout the British press. The universal theme is that their final-day performance will go down as one of the worst and will haunt the team for a long time to come. In The Guardian Gideon Haigh says it has undone all the good work that Edgbaston in 2005 achieved.
For their part, England have found a way of cancelling out their chief good recent memory of Ashes cricket. They will always have Edgbaston '05, but they will now also always have Adelaide '06.
In the same paper, Lawrence Booth picks out 10 reasons why it all went wrong for England and Richard Williams says that Andrew Flintoff's personality alone is not enough to make him a successful captain.
It was distressing to watch him in that final session, sending down ball after ball of immaculate length and focused aggression at who knows what personal cost, while at the other end his team-mates failed to produce anything that might seriously inconvenience the opposition. But leading by example is not enough in a game as sophisticated as Test cricket, and Flintoff was able to match neither the guile with which Ponting managed the game nor his skill at identifying the right moment to fire up his players.
In The Times Simon Barnes follows the line that England fell to new depths by managing to lurch to defeat from the apparent comfort of a draw.
It was a marshmallow-hearted performance from the batsmen, who failed spectacularly and en masse. It seemed impossible that any team could be in any kind of trouble - still less lose a match - after declaring the first innings closed on 551 for six. Perhaps they should have batted on. No England team had lost a Test match after such a towering first-innings performance. England have, once again, set a benchmark for ineptitude.
For a slightly different take on the result, The Independent has a piece by David Este, a Brit who has lived in Australia for 19 years, on what it's like taking the flak after such a defeat
I have reached the point where I can shrug off the comments of my next-door neighbour Don, who is convinced I keep my money under the soap and is always kind enough to offer me a warm beer on a hot day. But everyone has a weak spot, and mine is cricket, or more accurately the Ashes. Each successive series brings hope followed by the inevitable disappointment.
But just to bring a more positive spin to events, back at The Times Patrick Kidd gives England fans 11 reasons not to give up hope just yet. They certainly need them all.
Warne's bunnies
Posted on 12/06/2006 in Ashes
Warne's contribution must count amongst the mightiest of his career, writes Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald
Greg Baum, writing in the The Age, describes the historic scenes at the Adelaide Oval:
Pie stalls re-opened. The authorities threw open the gates. The stands and terraces filled, the crowd's voice became a force. The tide had turned.
Holders of urn exposed as impostors in ultimate arena, says Mike Coward in The Australian
Robert Craddock passes his verdict in The Courier-Mail: Magnificent Shane Warne made an entire England cricket team freeze on a hot summer's day in Adelaide yesterday to all but guarantee Australia will snatch back the Ashes.
December 4, 2006
Aussie TV goes English
Posted on 12/04/2006 in Ashes
For those watching the Ashes through the dark winter days in England and don't have access to Sky (or just fancy hearing a different set of commentators) there has been the chance to sample Channel 9's coverage through the BBC's highlights. During England's first-Test mauling there was much predictable bemoaning of the performance, but at Adelaide the Australian commentators have seemed to have gained as much enjoyment out of England's improved show as the Barmy Army. David Hopps assess Lawry, Greig, Chappell at Co in The Guardian.
The real surprises remained with Lawry. He anointed Pietersen as "a great cricketer" by the end of the first day, and on the second he even turned on Warne, his fellow Victorian, as he retreated into leg-stump line. "We've had enough of this round-the-wicket rubbish," Lawry barked. O'Donnell added of Pietersen: "This guy is stunning; he has only played 20 Tests and he has taken one of the world's greats and made him look skill-less."
Warne to be interviewed by Parky
Posted on 12/04/2006 in
Cricket Australia announced today that Michael Parkinson, the renowned television interviewer and fervent cricket fan, will interview Shane Warne. The show will air early next year.
Parkinson: The Shane Warne Interview will be recorded before a live studio audience and
will air in early January, 2007, exclusively on UKTV.
The interview will have no boundaries and will cover Warne’s stellar career on the cricket field, as
well as his personal mishaps and controversies on and off the field.
“It will be a real pleasure to interview Shane Warne,” said Parkinson. “He is a man who evokes
different emotions from people depending on the subject in question. He is in my view the greatest bowler of them all, certainly in my lifetime.
“Warne is a charismatic, complex and fascinating man. I am greatly looking forward to sitting down with him to find out what makes him tick.”
Shane Warne said: “I respect Michael, he is passionate about cricket and I have only the highest regard for him as a journalist and interviewer. I am looking forward to our chat.”
December 3, 2006
Who was the most boring?
Posted on 12/03/2006 in Ashes
Accusations of negativity and boring play were coming thick and fast after day two at Adelaide Oval, but the Australian media couldn’t decide which team was at fault. Writing in The Sunday Age, Peter Roebuck was in no doubt.
Australia has played its most negative cricket for 20 years. A nation that relishes adventure on the field has been forced to twiddle its thumbs as its highly paid cricketing representatives resorted to the most persistent form of leg theory seen since Trevor "Barnacle" Bailey dumped his bags in the attic. A side proud to the point of boastfulness about its unceasing aggression put up the shutters in the most craven manner. Far from entertaining a crowd agog for a stoush, the home side pursued tactics calculated to kill the game.
Continue reading "Who was the most boring?"
December 1, 2006
Writing off old man Langer
Posted on 12/01/2006 in Ashes
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Some sections of the media are turning their backs on Justin Langer
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It seems a batsman scoring 182 runs in a Test match is not enough for some critics. Ben Dorries in The Courier Mail writes that Justin Langer must retire at the end of the Ashes series for the greater good of the Australia team.
If Langer won't willingly walk the plank, chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch must have the courage to push him. Ask yourself a simple question: do we really want a 37-year-old opening batsman taking block against Sri Lanka and India next summer? He's not going to get any better and he's keeping out a bold new wave of openers like Phil Jaques and the underrated Chris Rogers from Western Australia. If Langer keeps taking block, the extraordinary talents of the generation-next openers could be lost completely.
Continue reading "Writing off old man Langer"
November 29, 2006
Wild night for the Aussies? Hardly
Posted on 11/29/2006 in Ashes
Brett Lee lifts the lid on Australia’s subdued celebrations after the first Test in his News Ltd column.
Had our first Test celebrations been shown to the world, you might have been surprised by what you saw. Sure, there were a few cold beers being swilled in the dressing room but there were also players drinking Gatorade. Others were drinking water. Others interrupted their celebrations to get ice treatment on their sore spots.
Martin Johnson, appearing in The Age, says there’s a hint of Allan Border’s 1989 team in the current outfit.
When Border brought the 1989 Australians to England, Ian Chappell had told him to stop being matey with the opposition, and Border soon demonstrated that he'd digested this advice when Robin Smith was incapacitated by a blow to the midriff.
Michael Clarke tells the Sydney Morning Herald’s Trevor Marshallsea he’s happy with his batting, but would have liked more than his 56 in Brisbane.
November 28, 2006
You vill obey ze laws of cricket
Posted on 11/28/2006 in Ashes
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And that's certainly not allowed
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| The policing of the first Test at Brisbane was widely condemned by many of those who attended as being overzealous and petty – Cricinfo received many complaints from spectators. A scathing column in the Gold Coast Bulletin pulls no punches.
The Gabba resembled Stalag 13, complete with bumbling, over-zealous officials who have turned a day at the cricket for many into a survival test. More than 200 spectators were ejected from the ground and there were nine arrests over the first four days of the Test.
People were thrown out for a whole range of sins, including blowing their own trumpet, waving the Aussie flag, trying to start a Mexican wave and even, dare we say it, inciting an 'Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi' chant. A Gold Coast cricket fan was told by police to leave his seat because he was sneezing too much. True story.
In this new world order of terrorism, police and security have a difficult job to do at major sporting events. But Cricket Australia's heavy-handed approach will turn fans away. The Gabba needs to be more spectator-friendly. Right now, it's just not cricket.
Possibly conscious of the deep sense of ill feeling caused by the Queensland authorities, the South Australia authorities today issued a statement asking fans to act responsibly, while having fun at this year’s Test.
Mahmood's abuse
Posted on 11/28/2006 in Ashes
Nearly all the players in the England squad have columns (or blogs, or video diaries) with various media outlets. Occasionally they are worth reading, often they are not, but in his latest entry with The Guardian Sajid Mahmood was revealed he was subjected to abuse during the Brisbane Test despite not even being in the team.
It was just a shame that one member of the crowd took the verbals too far. I was carrying a drink round the boundary to Harmy when the first thing I heard was a voice from the crowd saying: "You can't be English." You're going to get stuff like that out here and you've just got to learn to ignore it.
November 27, 2006
Australia's cause for concern
Posted on 11/27/2006 in Ashes
Peter Roebuck says in the Sydney Morning Herald Australia, who won the first Test in Brisbane easily, have some problems too.
Churlish as it might seem to find flaws with a team that romped home by 277 runs, and 10 wickets, Australia periodically frayed at the edges. Certainly the batting was superb ... Australia's bowling was less convincing. Admittedly, the Gabba surface was slower than usual and Australia had a few hundred runs to spare.
Greg Baum writes in The Age about Kevin Pietersen’s Monday at the Gabba and in The Australian Andrew Ramsey looks at how Kevin Shine, the England bowling coach, has a tough couple of days with Stephen Harmison.
November 26, 2006
Practice makes perfect...if only
Posted on 11/26/2006 in Ashes
A common theory to explain England's poor showing at Brisbane has been their lack of meaningful preparation ahead of the first Test and the English Sunday papers reflect this in a number of pieces. In the The Sunday Times, Simon Wilde says that Michael Vaughan's absence has also been crucial and he would have handled Steve Harmison's situation differently.
If Vaughan had been captain here, things would have been done rather differently. Harmison, who was given a rocket by Vaughan during last year’s Oval Test when he needed fire-and-brimstone from his fast bowler on the third afternoon, would not have enjoyed the licence he has.
In The Observer, Rod Marsh takes a swipe at Duncan Fletcher's tactics and selection for the first Test. Marsh is a known fan of Chris Read and also says that Monty Panesar's exclusion sent out poor signals.
At present there is a crazy situation since it is obvious that the England selectors disagree fundamentally. There are players chosen by those selectors who know that once they get on the plane they will be dropped. No prizes for guessing who that refers to on this England tour.
As usual, Michael Atherton has been busy in The Sunday Telegraph and has also followed the theme of England been under-cooked alongside a piece on Shane Warne
November 25, 2006
On and off is not on, it's a bit off
Posted on 11/25/2006 in Ashes
Australia’s newspapers have been less than complimentary about England’s
playing style but what goes on off the field has come in for criticism as
well. Or rather, who goes on and off the field, as Andrew Ramsey explained
in The Australian.
"The regularity with which Flintoff's team shuttles players on and off the
field has reached an even more farcical level than when it first came to
Australia's attention during last year's Ashes series in England. On that
occasion, Australia captain Ricky Ponting accused England of acting
outside the spirit of the game by rotating their bowlers to rest, freshen
up and be treated to a quick rub down. England countered by claiming the
dizzying regularity with which players appeared and disappeared into the
dressing rooms was to grant them toilet breaks. If that's the same case
over the first two days of this series, then incontinence looms as a far
greater issue for Flintoff than the fact his fellow seamers and top-order
batsmen are not up to it."
Continue reading "On and off is not on, it's a bit off"
Sky off to a lousy start
Posted on 11/25/2006 in Television
Despite all the hype generated by Rupert Murdoch’s Sky TV before the start of the Ashes, they managed a spectacular cock-up before the series had started. As Chris Maume in the Independent points out, it all went wrong from the toss:
It was purportedly transmitted live - though that pretence was punctured by David Gower's revelation beforehand that Australia had won it.
It transpired that Mark Nicholas, working for the Aussie TV station Channel 9, was in shot, and because he also fronts Five's coverage over here it was considered necessary to edit him out. Pathetic, really. Except it seems to me that it almost certainly had nothing to do with rival channels. I mean, we are talking Mark Nicholas here. Wouldn't you edit him out of your shot if it was humanly possible?
November 24, 2006
No need for age concern
Posted on 11/24/2006 in Ashes
The Australian newspapers were – understandably – delighted with the second day at Brisbane, and it was Glenn McGrath who attracted the most column inches. Written off by many, he bounced back with two wickets in the final hour to leave England on the ropes.
In the Sydney Morning Herald, Peter Roebuck reckoned McGrath's wickets were down to England as much as his own bowling.
Almost as much as his batsmen, McGrath was helped by the profligacy of his opponents. His opening overs had been undistinguished. Probably he was trying too hard to make things happen, searching for swing and cut, anything to take a reassuring wicket.
Continue reading "No need for age concern"
Inside Harmison's struggles
Posted on 11/24/2006 in Ashes
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McGrath: Planning England's downfall
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| Now we're through day two of the Gabba Test there's a lot more material to work with, and top of the pile is a typically insightful piece from Simon Barnes in The Times. Barnes approaches the malaise of Steve Harmison from a pleasingly different angle and leaves one feeling a degree of empathy for the bowler who remains England's best chance of overturning Australia.
In The Independent, James Lawton examines the performance of Ricky Ponting on the first day, and the contrasts with the fortunes of Andrew Flintoff as England struggled.
Lawrence Booth in The Guardian admires the efficiency of Glenn McGrath after his perfectly executed plans accounted for Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook, while Richard Williams feels that England's Ashes defence is in deep trouble.
Elton don't stop there anymore
Posted on 11/24/2006 in Ashes
England's poor start to the Brisbane Test has prompted Sir Elton John to ditch plans to watch the action at the Gabba, according to ninemsn.
Elton starts his 12th Australian tour at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Sunday night and was expected to attend some of the opening Test of England's Ashes defence. Sources close to the tour said any interest Sir Elton had in going to the Gabba had been "diluted" by Australia's first innings batting dominance.
November 23, 2006
Ponting receives the plaudits
Posted on 11/23/2006 in Ashes
Not surprisingly the Australia press are full of praise for Ricky Ponting after his century on the opening day at the Gabba. After taking a lot of criticism for the Ashes defeat in England, Ponting made a clear statement as he imposed himself on England's struggling attack. And Greg Baum, in The Age, says Ponting is now entering his prime as a batsman and there is more to come.
They were overtures to a century as telling as any he has made, as flawless as anyone has made. He played and missed twice, hit one ball uppishly through point, might have been leg before once when sweeping, but was master of every other delivery he faced.
In the same paper, John Huxley talks about the contrasting starts made by the two teams
As early as the drinks break, with Australia 0-57, even grizzled English commentators were preparing to unfurl the white flag. As former captain Waugh explained, the first day sets the tone for the series.
And in the Sydney Morning Herald Peter Roebuck looks at the tussle between the two captains and concludes Andrew Flintoff is going to find it very hard to come out on top.
Flintoff did everything in his power to stem the tide. Put in charge of a team shorn of two senior batsmen and burdened with a lacklustre attack, he took the ball in his beefy hands and unleashed several confronting bursts.
England fluff their lines
Posted on 11/23/2006 in Ashes
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Has Steve Harmison's wayward opening delivery set the tone for the Ashes?
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| Unsurprisingly following the anti-climactic performance in the field from England the newspapers’ theories as to where it all went wrong are gradually rolling in...
Richard Williams kicks off the debate in The Guardian with his piece on Steve Harmison. Harmison’s limp performance was embryonic of the whole day for England, and Williams points out that if they go on to lose the Ashes, then Harmison’s disastrous first ball will be seen to have set the tone. He believes that at 28 Harmison is now too old to acquire the mental toughness that brings consistency of performance, and concludes that the best England can now hope from their principle weapon is that he has more good days than bad.
Steve Harmison's opening delivery, the first of an over that brought Australia nine runs, exposed England's insecurities. At these moments it would take some kind of encephalogram to expose the thoughts that pass through the Durham bowler's mind in his delivery stride. What image does he see?
Also in the Guardian, Lawrence Booth compares the opening day of the current series unfavourably with that of 2005, while David Hopps talks us through his underwhelming Ashes all-nighter.
In the Independent Angus Fraser shares his experiences of touring Australia and speculates as to what Andrew Flintoff and company can expect in coming weeks.
The waiting is over
Posted on 11/23/2006 in Ashes
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Boycott: Flintoff will know that he has to be fully fit, bowling flat out, being fast, aggressive and nasty. Can he get to that level in time to make an impact? '
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Deep in the bowels of the Gabba, the cricketers of England and Australia quietly completed their final preparations. Their waiting was nearly over, the hour of battle was at hand. Surely they felt mixed emotions. What might the next day hold? Triumph or despair?, asks Peter Roebuck in in The Sydney Morning Herald.
Also in The Sydney Morning Herald, Geoffrey Boycott writes that there is no pressure on Andrew Flintoff. He just needs to "needs to bowl well, bat brilliantly and lead superbly".
Continue reading "The waiting is over"
November 22, 2006
'I won't watch a single ball'
Posted on 11/22/2006 in Ashes
There has been almost as much written about the England players who won't be at the Ashes as those who will. Michael Vaughan and Marcus Trescothick won't play any part in the series but perhaps the biggest loss to England is Simon Jones who tormented Australia with reverse swing in 2005. He is finding it difficult to accept that he won't have a role Down Under and in an interview with the Western Mail says he can't bring himself to watch the first Test.
It's not the same when you're not involved in the squad, it really hurts. I haven't played a full Ashes series out there, obviously I started the last one but didn't finish it. And I felt sick when I knew I wouldn't be playing a part in it. I had visions of playing this winter and going through the same emotions I did last summer.
Enough of the hype
Posted on 11/22/2006 in Ashes
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There won't be many smiles went the action starts for real
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No more practice sessions and no more build-up press conferences, the Ashes are almost upon us. The newspapers are filled with the final round of hype-building talk but all agree that what has been said over the last year will count for nothing come the first morning at Brisbane. Martin Johnson, in the Daily Telegraph says that Australia's bullish mood is only to be expected but and the most important factor is how England manage to ignore it.
Magnificent bowler though he's been, it's a legitimate query as to how many of his Test wickets Warne has taken through advance publicity alone. If he's not talking about the flipper it's the zooter, the slider, or the wrong 'un. He'll shortly start working on a ball that loops the loop, disappears down his trouser leg, and whistles Waltzing Matilda before rattling into the stumps.
The last Ashes introduced a whole new breed of cricket fans to the game and the hope is that this series will do the same. Lawrence Booth, in The Guardian, gives a guide to some of the phrases you'll be hearing plenty of over the coming weeks.
November 20, 2006
Good as green and gold, mate
Posted on 11/20/2006 in Ashes
Are the Aussies running scared? Their latest idea would indicate perhaps – they have commissioned a series of giant photos featuring eleven members of the Australian team alongside Australian supporters in a sea of green and gold.
“They are essentially the thirteenth man out there every time we take the field,” said Ricky Ponting, with no trace of media-massaging in his message. “These team photos will be a great opportunity for the players to acknowledge the important role that the fans play in our success.”
A statement from Cricket Australia said the campaign was aimed at “getting Aussie fans to ‘go off in green and gold’ this summer and create an intimidating sea of green and gold at every match to combat the invading Barmy Army.” It smacks more of a marketing wheeze to shift more shirts – but the picture could still make a nice souvenir. And the images taken at the event will be available free to participants on-line after the event.
Anyone who owns a replica of the new 2006-2007 Aussie one-dayer shirt can be captured in the photo. But don’t worry if you’ve not pre-registered; if you arrive at the Gabba by 1.30pm in your shirt you can still get in the frame. And if you’ve not even got a shirt, you can buy one on the day. Registration starts at 12.30pm.
The money spinner
Posted on 11/20/2006 in Ashes
Thanks to their Ashes success in 2005, England's cricketers are now more attractive to sponsors than ever before and with that comes new-found wealth. At the top of the list are Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen, but coming up on the blindside is Monty Panesar who has huge untapped potential. In The Times, Kevin Eason takes a look at what another Ashes victory could mean to the bank balances of England's leading players.
Another Ashes victory Down Under will only add to the astonishing new financial drawing power of England’s cricketing elite. Sponsors are queueing to put millions more into the England pot so that they can grab their slice of players who, for the first time in a generation, have become household names.
Flintoff's men in good shape for their ultimate test
Posted on 11/20/2006 in Ashes
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Shane Watson's injury has forced Australia to rethink their combination for Brisbane
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After a lamentable start in Canberra, where Andrew Flintoff's side were thrashed by the Prime Minister's XI, England supporters would have feared the worst, but the team has performed admirably in its final two warm-up matches, against New South Wales and South Australia, and fans can now look forward to the Ashes with optimism, writes Angus Fraser in The Independent.
After all the selectorial upheavals on both sides over the past 14 months, it is amazing to see players such as Damien Martyn, Michael Clarke and Ashley Giles all back in the running for Brisbane. The first Test of 2006-7 is in danger of turning into a 2005 reunion, says Simon Briggs in The Daily Telegraph.
Given the choice, Australia's selectors would have preferred to steal England's clothes by deploying Shane Watson as a sort of mini-Flintoff at No 6. That, in turn, would have cleared a place for Shaun Tait, who works best as a shock weapon, hurling down his 95mph yorkers and bouncers in short, furious bursts. But all these plans have been redrawn since Watson picked up a hamstring strain on Friday. While the Australians are still claiming that Watson has a chance of recovering in time, the truth is that no one outside the X-Men movies heals that fast.
November 19, 2006
Keeping up with Jones
Posted on 11/19/2006 in Ashes
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Strauss: 'We have got better with each game we have played, with batsmen and bowlers both beginning to adapt to the differing conditions'
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It has been a traumatic opening week or so: humiliated in Canberra; savaged in the local media, and even before a first-class ball has been bowled there is an England career lying in tatters, writes Mike Atherton in The Sunday Telegraph. However, he means Chris Read and not Marcus Trescothick.
Also in The Sunday Telegraph, Andrew Strauss says that overcoming the jitters could give England a crucial advantage.
The onset of this Ashes series can't come quickly enough. The past two weeks have been the phoney war. Spectators, journalists and players have been searching for every imaginable clue as to how the series is going to play out. Of course, most of it means very little. We have got better with each game we have played, with batsmen and bowlers both beginning to adapt to the differing conditions, but the key lies with recreating that form in the cauldron of that opening Test match, and that is why we cannot wait to get going.
The verbal battle
Posted on 11/19/2006 in Ashes
Much has been made of how 'matey' the England and Australia players became during the last Ashes series, especially Kevin Pietersen, Shane Warne, Andrew Flintoff and Brett Lee. Former Australian players have told the team to stop being so friendly so listening to the stump microphones could be an interesting part of the next six weeks. Stephen Brenkley, in The Independent on Sunday takes a look at the possible sledging battles and picks out some classic lines from the past.
The cordial relations between the sides in the previous Ashes have been cited as a contributory factor in Australia's defeat. "We didn't have an edge to our game," said Allan Border, under whose stewardship Australia were zealous in trying to undermine opponents with a verbal volley.
English blood, Australian heart
Posted on 11/19/2006 in Ashes
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Phil Jaques had a chance to play for England, but he'd rather wait his turn in Australia
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Phil Jaques will hope that he doesn't have to do a Mike Hussey and wait till he turns 30 to be a regular in the Australian Test side. Meanwhile he could have opened against Australia in this Ashes... cept for that Australian heart of his.
Jaques, who travels on a British passport, scored 1409 runs for Northants in his debut season that year, more than enough you might imagine for the English selectors to sound him out. "It was pointed out to me I could become a part of the English system because of my British passport and because I was playing over there...
"Had I decided to go for it, I would've needed to sit out a four-year qualifying period to be allowed to play for them. That period would have lapsed at the end of last (season)."
Read The Sunday Age for more
November 18, 2006
The Ashes bonanza
Posted on 11/18/2006 in Ashes
It isn't only the players and supporters who are eagerly awaiting the Ashes re-match, those in charge of the corporate side are in line for a huge windfall with unprecedented interest in the series leading to a big pay day for the host venues. Lachlan Begg, the sales manager for Queensland Cricket, has been working flat out for more than a year as the Gabba prepares to host the opening clash. Read the piece from the Courier Mail.
Already, without a ball yet bowled, Queensland Cricket is guaranteed a cash bonanza. For Begg and other employees at QC's Albion headquarters, crossing the t's and dotting the i's before Thursday's series opener, it is like filling out a Lotto form knowing the winning numbers.
Why Watson is finally meeting the wait of expectation
Posted on 11/18/2006 in Ashes
After his early promise, Australia believe Shane Watson's Test career is ready to bloom, writes Trevor Marshallsea in The Age.
When I won the Bradman young-cricketer-of-the-year award [in 2002], Richie Benaud said, 'People should give this kid some time to develop', because it does take a while to develop all aspects of an all-rounder's game," Watson said. "I didn't think too much of it but now I see he was dead right. I've just read Keith Miller's biography, and he took a while to develop, as well."
The taming of the shrewd
Posted on 11/18/2006 in Ashes
Ricky Ponting has overcome his immaturity to steadily grow into the Australian captaincy, writes Peter Roebuck in The Sydney Morning Herald.
November 17, 2006
Tait bolts into view
Posted on 11/17/2006 in Ashes
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Shaun Tait: international bowler of mystery
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Malcolm Conn writes in The Australian how Shaun Tait is keeping both batsmen and selectors guessing.
The broad South Australian speedster was not in the frame for a Test recall until he demolished England with an inspired spell of fast bowling for the Prime Minister's XI a week ago at Manuka Oval. Now the selectors have taken the unusual step of choosing a 13-man squad for next week's first Test in Brisbane, in case Tait skittles England when he lines up for South Australia in a three-day match, beginning today in Adelaide.
It would have been profoundly embarrassing if the selection panel, chaired by former Australia opener Andrew Hilditch, had chosen a 12-man squad and then watched Tait fire out England's finest.
Tait is also the subject of a piece by Robert Craddock in The Courier Mail.
Is he the new Jeff Thomson, a super slinger capable of carving a destructive path around the cricket world? Or will he be a player who burns brightly but briefly between injury setbacks, his body unable to handle the freakish stress applied by his whipcord action? No one seems certain, which only adds to his mystique.
In the Sydney Morning Herald Alex Brown profiles Shane Watson’s rise from the outer to first-choice allrounder. Peter Roebuck runs his eye over the first-Test squad in the same paper.
In off-field events Mitchell Johnson shows off his new girlfriend in The Courier-Mail and Wally Lewis, the rugby league great, hops on the Ashes train.
November 16, 2006
Hoggy's video diaries
Posted on 11/16/2006 in Ashes
Matthew Hoggard is doing a video tour diary from Australia for The Times. He's sent over three so far, all well worth a look, and available on YouTube.
Ashes poetry
Posted on 11/16/2006 in Ashes
Touring sides are increasingly bloated with personnel these days. For all the coaches, trainers – masseurs, even – that litter the dressing rooms, England can now add a resident poet, David Fine, from Bakewell in Derbyshire. Come January, batsmen's concerns might revolve around their stanzas, not their stance...
He will write 25 poems, one for each day’s play of the Ashes, following funding from Arts Council England.
"Wordsworth, Tennyson, Betjeman, Housman, Chesterton and Hughes have all gone out to bat for cricket, in verse.
"A line is a ball, a rhyme perhaps a wicket.
"In the stands, this is reflected by the 41 chants and songs in the Barmy Army's Barmy Harmonies for last year's Ashes Tour," he said.
The BBC have the full story.
Thorpe supports ‘incredibly brave’ Trescothick
Posted on 11/16/2006 in Ashes
Graham Thorpe probably knows more than anyone about what Marcus Trescothick is going through. In his Sydney Morning Herald column he says Trescothick is an incredibly brave man.
In this sport we play, in which being macho is mandatory and admitting to any kind of fragility is akin to defeat, to make his problems known is incredibly courageous, and people should give him all the sympathy and support he needs.
Continue reading "Thorpe supports ‘incredibly brave’ Trescothick"
November 15, 2006
The first victim of this greedy game
Posted on 11/15/2006 in Ashes
The reaction to Marcus Trescothick's sudden departure from Australia has been huge, and perhaps the most worrying article comes from Geoff Boycott , a man who played more than a hundred Tests for England. In his Daily Telegraph column he warns that what happened to Trescothick is the tip of the iceberg.
It is just the beginning – more players will crack up in the future. There is a quick and easy way of stopping this happening but it would involve the game's administrators taking the one step that they dread – cutting back on the amount of international cricket.
Sadly the game is led by people with one thing on their minds – making lots of money. They are no doubt well-meaning people who love the game, but they lack one quality – the experience of playing at the top level.
International cricket brings in millions of pounds and there is no way the game's administrators will stop their money-grabbing ways. It means players are being worked into the ground and the burden of playing non-stop cricket is taking its toll.
Continue reading "The first victim of this greedy game"
Shane Warne the role model
Posted on 11/15/2006 in Ashes
Jon Pierik interviews Shane Warne for The Courier-Mail and discovers the legspinner feels he’s an ideal mentor for young players.
"If you take a 'who cares?' attitude towards it, they can actually say what they want," Warne says. "I have been burnt enough times, nailed ... what haven't I been nailed about? I know I've brought a lot of it on myself, but I also think some of the press has been uncalled for and unfair at certain times.
"That's where I could be a good mentor for younger players because there's not one thing I haven't been through – sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, everything, whether it be divorce, banned for a year, the lot."
Elton John is a man who has really done rock ’n’ roll and he’s expected at the Gabba for the first Test. Sir Richard Branson, Robbie Williams, John Major and Prince William are also rumoured to be considering visits, according to The Courier-Mail.
In the same paper Robert Craddock sees something different in this England team.
Australia will do well not to confuse this England outfit with its flaky predecessors who looked beaten from the time they landed on these fatal shores. Worldbeaters these England players are not, but there is something different and more substantial about this team than the ramshackle outfits led by Nasser Hussain, Mike Atherton and Graham Gooch. They are close knit and seem to care for each other, which was never evident in many previous English tour parties.
November 14, 2006
Richie and his bikini babe
Posted on 11/14/2006 in Ashes
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Morning Lara, morning everyone
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Richie Benaud will be joined by a bikini-clad model, Lara Bingle, to front the advertising of Channel 9's Ashes coverage this season. Shuper effort, that. More at the Daily Telegraph in Sydney.
The doyen of cricket is joined by bikini babe Lara Bingle - clad in parochial green and gold togs and cricket pads - in Channel 9's new Ashes campaign.
"So, where the bloody hell are you?'' Bingle says in the promo, coining her Tourism Australia catchcry to attract viewers to the series.
Benaud's thoughts are simple.
"Marvellous,'' he says.
Langer ready to settle one last score
Posted on 11/14/2006 in Ashes
Images of Vaughan lifting the urn at The Oval are etched on Justin Langer's mind. But rather than becoming embittered by the experience, the battle-hardened batsman, along with the rest of the side, has used the setback as an opportunity for reflection and introspection, writes Alex Brown in The Guardian.
"I hate the word complacent, but maybe we just lost the sharp edge of our game in England. That loss was the greatest thing to happen to this team. England put us back in our place. It was the jolt we needed."
November 13, 2006
Waugh wants MacGill for Gabba
Posted on 11/13/2006 in Ashes
Steve Waugh suggests in his Daily Telegraph column something he did only twice as captain - picking Stuart MacGill for the first Test at the Gabba.
Legspin is England's achilles heel and it's our great fortune to have the two best exponents of this craft residing in Australia. For that reason, I believe Stuart MacGill should join Shane Warne in the first Test line-up at the Gabba.
The single most important set of statistics in deciding Australia's first Test team belong to Pakistan reject Mushtaq Ahmed. During the English county cricket season he claimed a monumental 102 wickets - 41 more than the next best, including 11 five-wicket hauls at an average of under 20 at a strike rate of one wicket every six overs.
Robert Craddock, writing on the FoxSports website, worries about Michael Clarke.
Brett Lee was in the next net as Kevin Pietersen faced a series of short balls from the bowling machine in Sydney, reports Alex Brown in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Kevin Pietersen exhaled, smiled and turned. "Anybody want to come in here," he asked of the two dozen onlookers behind his net at the SCG, none of whom answered in the affirmative. Moments earlier, those spectators had watched England's batting coach, Matthew Maynard, manning a bowling machine that was firing 150kmh-plus balls in the direction of Pietersen's groin, torso and head.
In the same paper Greg Baum takes a long look at Andrew Strauss.
November 12, 2006
Barmy Army on alert to upset Ponting
Posted on 11/12/2006 in Ashes
England’s tour rolled into Sydney for the first day of the game against New South Wales and the tourists had plenty of support. Brian Brownstein writes in the Sydney Morning Herald about the Barmy Army, who are hoping to fly over Gary Pratt to annoy Ricky Ponting.
In the same paper Peter Roebuck targets England’s decision to ask for a 14-man-a-side warm-up.
A nation that recently dismissed an accredited international tournament as an irrelevance dared to treat a state team with a proud tradition as a mere plaything. England wanted a glorified net. In the traditions of hospitality, and through gritted teeth, Cricket Australia bowed to their wishes. The result was a bogus match played before a bemused crowd. From the start, it was a rotten idea.
One of the peripheral players in the Ashes has slapped himself with a media ban. Things are getting serious for Billy Bowden.
Pommie-bashers revert to type and write off tourists
Posted on 11/12/2006 in Ashes
If the Australian newspapers are to be believed, Andrew Flintoff’s men may as well pack their bags and head for home, says Simon Wilde:
The mockery of the headlines was as predictable as it was scathing. Steve Harmison, who was due to make his first appearance of the tour against New South Wales today, said the derision would only motivate the team come the first Test match in Brisbane on November 23.
Brett Lee speak
Posted on 11/12/2006 in Ashes
He may be the fastest bowler in the world, but Brett Lee does not fit the recognised model of the modern paceman. Read his interview in the Sunday Times:
The slate will be clean at 11 o’clock in Brisbane when that first ball is bowled. It doesn’t matter what’s happened recently with England; it doesn’t matter what’s happened recently with Australia, there’s going to be a lot of nerves on both sides on November 23. It’s a love/hate thing. England hate to lose to Australia; we hate to lose to England, but there’s respect on both sides. And there will be some great cricket played.
Also read Robin Scott-Elliot's piece in the same paper. England expect a barrage of bouncers in Australia, he writes, but it will not match up to the assault suffered on the 1974-75 tour.
No one spared a thought for Kasprowicz at the time
Posted on 11/12/2006 in Ashes
For many, the enduring image of the 2005 Ashes is of Andrew Flintoff consoling Brett Lee after the Edgbaston Test but it is wrong, writes Steve James in the Sunday Telegraph.
Wrong, because Flintoff was consoling the wrong man. It wasn't Lee who had just been dismissed so that Australia could no longer reach their target. It wasn't Lee who, if you were being hypercritical, could be said to have cost Australia the Ashes. No, that was Michael Kasprowicz. He was the one who needed an arm around his shoulder.
November 9, 2006
Hayden prepared and ready to go
Posted on 11/09/2006 in Ashes
Matthew Hayden writes in the Daily Telegraph about his bonding experiences at boot camp, and also he describes how his preparations these Ashes have differed from previous campaigns. To find out how and indeed why, read the article here.
November 7, 2006
Panesar not worried by Aussie crowds
Posted on 11/07/2006 in Ashes
Iain Payten writes in the Daily Telegraph about how Monty Panesar is going to deal with the local crowds during the Ashes.
"When I was here with the England Academy three or four years ago, and last year in Adelaide grade cricket, you could see the passion Australia has for cricket and it is nice to come to a country where there is passion for the game," Panesar said.
In The Australian Andrew Ramsey writes about Ricky Ponting’s thoughts on the third fast-bowling spot for the Ashes.
Ponting, while reiterating he was not a selector, said yesterday he had no issue with McGrath and Clark playing alongside fellow right-arm New South Welshman Lee in the series opener, even if that lent his attack a certain sameness. "You always want variety, but at the end of the day you have to pick your best bowlers, the bowlers you think are capable of taking 20 wickets in a Test match for you," Ponting said.
November 6, 2006
Flintoff's choices for Ashes success
Posted on 11/06/2006 in Ashes
The role of Andrew Flintoff is a popular topic in the Sydney Morning Herald. Peter Roebuck writes Flintoff has two strategies to consider as England attempt to defend the Ashes.
They can be divided into two schools of thought, the cerebral and the warlike. Although a fighter on the field, Flintoff is a genial fellow and might not care to provoke the locals. Nor is he content to serve as a master puppeteer.
He yearns to be in the thick of the action, feels he belongs where the battle is at its hottest. In short, he wants to lead from the front. The solution is to blend these tactics without suffering a crisis of identity or losing momentum.
Alex Brown interviews Bill Brown, Australia’s oldest Test cricketer, who believes Flintoff is the right choice as captain.
November 4, 2006
Warming to the task not always easy for England
Posted on 11/04/2006 in Ashes
England will spend the next three weeks playing warm-up matches. These ought to be boring — international sportsmen limbering up against lesser mortals in front of small crowds, all part of the phoney war, will be swiftly forgotten when the real thing begins, writes Tim de Lisle in The Times. Somehow it seldom turns out that way. There are just too many possibilities for drama, intrigue and comedy. Here are the seven types of warm-up, as experienced by England teams over the years.
Derek Pringle in The Daily Telegraph says that for England's cricket teams, Australia can be the greatest tour or the worst.
Once you have arrived and been deloused at customs (contamination is a major fear and they scrub your cricket boots and shave the bottom off cricket bats that have picked up dirt), it isn't long before the banter starts. The only trouble is, it never stops. "How do you like our sunshine? How do you like our beer – better than your warm rubbish, isn't it? Where do you keep your savings – under the soap?" (The last is a jibe about our apparent reticence to wash.) And on it goes.
In the Guardian Paul Weaver takes a trip down memory lane to a time when England tour parties sailed through Suez to Bombay and stopped off in Ceylon for a warm-up. Also in The Guardian, Barney Ronay asks whether the new tough Monty is too tough?
November 1, 2006
How NSW will batter the Poms
Posted on 11/01/2006 in Ashes
Stuart MacGill has set the stage for a heated showdown with the English, suggesting that NSW could attempt to bat for all three days of the tour game against Andrew Flintoff's squad and thereby force a "change [of] their preparations significantly", writes Alex Brown in The Sydney Morning Herald.
I'm not going to be playing this game for them," said MacGill. "It's not my role to help them practise. Our batsmen and our bowlers will be used as we choose to use them. If we win the toss and decide our guys need a bat, we'll bat for three days. It's a practice match.
October 30, 2006
Pompous prats and England coaches
Posted on 10/30/2006 in English cricket
Geoffrey Boycott's comments last week on Duncan Fletcher's shelf life as England coach having expired, drew flak from many pundits and readers. In Monday's Daily Telegraph, Boycott stands by what he said, and what’s more he returns fire on some of his critics.
I always try to give credit where it's due, and in the Test arena Fletcher deserves it. But what is important is that the excitement and euphoria of last year's Ashes series should not be allowed to cloud anyone's reasoning or judgment for the future. Watching the team, you often get the impression that some of the players don't want to be there, and that they have no passion for the one-day game. If that is so, then the coach must take responsibility.
And as for those who took a pop at him, Boycott makes clear that he has no time for the views of one man in particular :
I resent the fact that my argument has been misrepresented by a pompous prat who obviously has his own personal issues regarding my cricketing record as it compares to his own public school and club career.
The jury is out on who he means, but the public school and club career comment narrows the field. The press box in Brisbane next month could have some added spice.
A hearty English breakfast among other things
Posted on 10/30/2006 in Ashes
It's now my last few days at home before we fly to Australia on Friday, so now’s the time to make the most of home comforts, writes Matthew Hoggard in The Times.
Only when the plane lands in Australia this weekend will I tuck my novel away in my bag and start thinking about why we’ve flown to the other side of the world. We have a couple of warm-up games to get into the spirit of things and then, I believe, there’s a pretty big game in Brisbane beginning on November 23, so I’d better make sure I’m in decent fettle for that one.
October 29, 2006
Pietersen rips up form book
Posted on 10/29/2006 in English cricket
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Out of form? Out of sight.
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Following Kevin Pietersen’s match-winning 90 yesterday, which handed England a consolation win over the West Indies, Simon Wilde in the Sunday Times says form matters not-a-jot for him:
When he has got his eye in, and there is a match to win on a good batting pitch, the form book gets shredded along with the bowling. Tell-tale averages, hard-won reputations, both are scattered to the winds. He knows that once the ground work is done, he can score at around two runs per ball against the seamers.
In the same paper Wilde interviews Ian Bell; as Iain Duncan-Smith, the former Conservative leader once said, “never underestimate the determination of a quiet man”. Pleasingly for England, Bell is rather more popular and a far greater success than Duncan-Smith.”He has left the chrysalis and started to spread the most handsome butterfly wings”:
Bell still barely looks old enough to cross a road unsupervised, let alone the boundary rope of an international arena, but he has, at 24, assumed a stature worthy of the predictions made for him by many good judges while he was still in his teens. Don’t bet against him being England’s leading run scorer in the Ashes this winter.
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Harmison insists he will be ready for the Ashes
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Over at the Daily Mail, Steve Harmison says the management didn’t reveal their reasons for dropping him in England’s final Champions Trophy match yesterday against the West Indies. He does, however, insist he will be ready to roll come the Ashes:
I know things haven’t quite worked out as I planned here in India at the ICC Trophy. I don’t quite know why I was dropped yesterday because the management didn’t tell me, but I can only assume it was because I didn’t bowl particularly well in the first two games. I feel a little hard done by because on both occasions we were defending a low score, but it’s not the end of the world.
What I do know is that everything’s going well in the nets, my fitness is good and Kevin Shine, the bowling coach, is very happy with my progress. I know how I am best of all, both physically and mentally, and I can categorically state that my confidence is good and I expect fully to be ready, fast and taking wickets in the Ashes series.
Video of Vaughan on the Ashes
Posted on 10/29/2006 in English cricket
There’s a video of Simon Hughes interviewing Michael Vaughan at The Telegraph today. After waxing lyrical about him (“he’s an impressive person”) to the audience, the talk moves onto the rise in popularity of cricket in England. It’s a corporate schmooze-fest for Hugo Boss, who now sponsor England, but Hughes’s (and Vaughan’s) dry humour still make it worth watching.
October 26, 2006
Living Doll, pasty poms
Posted on 10/26/2006 in Ashes
So Australia’s throng of fans, cheerily known as the Fanatics, have a songbook for the Ashes to combat England’s notoriously boisterous and equally cheery Barmy Army. The Courier Mail have a list of songs England can expect to “enjoy”, including:
Monty Panesar's Useless
Tune: My old mans a dustman
Monty Panesar useless, a poor old English chap
& when he's not spin bowling, he's visiting the quack.
He's useless in the covers, he's useless in the slips
And when he straps the pads on, he'll pass out with the yips
And...
Ode to a British girlfriend
Tune: Living Doll, Cliff Richard
Got myself a yawning, boring, pasty, nagging, whinging pom
Got to do your best to leave her just cause she's a whinging pom
She's got a lazy eye & big fat thighs from all those chips & pies
She's not the only boring, pasty, nagging, whinging pom
Oh dear. No word yet from the Barmy Army and what their song list might be…
October 25, 2006
Sledging...cartoon-style
Posted on 10/25/2006 in Ashes
Over at The Corridor there's a sneak preview of a collection of cartoon-postcards called Postcards from the Sledge, based on famous sledges in cricket. Beach, the artist, has kindly donated a copy to Cricinfo and we'll have a review of the cards for you very soon.
October 23, 2006
We have failed on all counts
Posted on 10/23/2006 in English cricket
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Andrew Strauss on his way to 56 against Australia
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| Andrew Strauss, in his column for The Daily Telegraph, admitted that England’s defeat by Australia was disappointing but insisted they were in good spirits ahead of the Ashes.
I still maintain, however, that this trip has been very beneficial. The training and fitness work we have done will set us up for the Ashes and World Cup, and the feeling of togetherness which a bit of hardship brings will stand us in good stead later this winter.
Although he was not blaming the conditions for England’s problems, he did say that they had caught a number of sides on the hop:
One thing which hasn't helped us is that the pitches haven't been anything like the ones we played on earlier this year, so touring here in March and April might not have been an advantage. A late monsoon apparently hasn't given the groundstaff the chance to prepare the hard tracks we were expecting, and I don't think we are the only side in the tournament to have been duped into thinking this would be a high-scoring event. No batsman has so far scored a hundred in this Champions Trophy. In fact it wouldn't be going too far to say that every run to date has been worth two.
October 19, 2006
Where is the other Ashes bail?
Posted on 10/19/2006 in Ashes
John Huxley has a go at answering the question in the Sydney Morning Herald.
While the cricketing world continues to debate whether the Ashes urn contains the remains of a burned bail, the National Museum of Australia believes it can answer the question of what happened to the "other" bail.
It was made into a paper knife that has belatedly been put on display in Canberra alongside other national sporting treasures, such as Don Bradman's batting gloves, Evonne Goolagong Cawley's Wimbledon trophies and Phar Lap's heart. For several decades the knife lay in the desk drawer of Michael Clarke, grandson of Lady Clarke, the woman who famously presented visiting English captain Ivo Bligh with the Ashes urn when the team stayed at the family's Victorian estate.
October 14, 2006
Australia get the excuses ready
Posted on 10/14/2006 in Ashes
Glenn McGrath's injuries...England's use of sub fielders...sold out grounds of English fans...they have all be used as excuses why the Ashes slipped away from Australia last year. Well, in case they can't wrestle them back in the series that starts next month Richard Hinds, in the Sydney Morning Herald, is getting his excuses ready early this time around.
Excuse 7: John Buchanan's lap top meltdown. Let's just say Buchanan had been devising a groundbreaking PowerPoint presentation that would have seen the Australian bowlers reason their way through England's top order. But, just as he was about to back up the program, a power failure in the sheds at the Gabba wiped out all his good work. At least that's what we are going to claim.
Will McGrath make the ball talk or whisper?
Posted on 10/14/2006 in Ashes
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Unhappy with any delivery that does not land on a postage stamp before trimming the off-bail
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Australia's mainstay for the Ashes, Glen McGrath is part of their Champions Trophy squad. But Peter Roebuck feels that he would have done better playing domestic cricket ahead of Brisbane, November 23. Read on in The Independent.
McGrath is easily underestimated. From a distance he does seem disconcertingly simple. Yet he has been the cleverest, most subtle and analytical of leather-flingers. For most sportsmen the journey from natural ability through the minefield of experience and on to maturity takes years.
Over the years he has taken Australian cricket on a wonderful journey, into the past, into the bush, back to the basics. He has been the most disciplined of bowlers, a professional determined to cook 'em quickly but prepared to cook 'em slowly just so long as they don't get away.
October 13, 2006
England to win in 2009
Posted on 10/13/2006 in Ashes
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Forget 2006, it's 2009 that is definetely on
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The Ashes are more than two years away... the 2009 Ashes that is. But The Times writer Richard Hobson is predicting an England win based on the Emerging Players category for this year's ICC Awards.
Whatever happens in the coming Ashes series, England should be strong favourites for 2009. It is just a question of whether they retain or regain the urn. This, at least, is one possible conclusion from the long list of eight candidates for the ICC Emerging Player of the Year award, which includes three Englishmen and no Australians
There appears to be little to choose between Panesar, Cook and Bell, arguably the three strongest contenders in their section. Panesar would be the most popular choice in England. He has struck a rare chord with the public who like an underdog, especially one who is a bit different. But any cult appeal that Panesar attracted through his doziness in the field has been replaced by respect for his hard work and admiration for his skill as a spin bowler.
October 10, 2006
Australia stronger than 2005, but so are England
Posted on 10/10/2006 in Ashes
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Warne in The Times: ' I don’t know what the atmosphere will be like in Brisbane for the first Test, but it is buzzing here already'
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We will definitely be stronger than we were in 2005 but, as I’ve said before, I think the same applies to England, writes Shane Warne in The Times.
The idea that Glenn’s 5-0 prediction has put more pressure on us is rubbish. We just think of it as Pigeon Talk, from his nickname, roll our eyes and smile. He is a very positive thinker and he can’t imagine Australia losing a game. He expects us to win them one by one, and at the end of the series that adds up to five. There’s nothing deep about it.
It will occupy a £6,000 business-class seat and spend the journey hand-cuffed to a museum curator. The metal container that it will be packed in took a whopping 18 months to make. It isn't the crown jewels we're talking about but the ceramic urn that contains the Ashes. Andrew Culf tells us more about the journey.
"The Ashes urn is so delicate and irreplaceable that you need a cast of dozens to take it out of its case, repair it, insure it, and then guard it against accident, fire or theft," writes Simon Briggs in The Daily Telegraph.
Meanwhile Ashley Giles is with England's Champions Trophy squad in India for the final part of his rehabilitation from surgery as he strives to be fit for the Ashes. Richard Ashley of The Guardian caught up with Giles in Delhi.
"This time last year some people didn't even think I was good enough for county cricket," Sajid Mahmood tells Donald McRae in The Guardian.
Such honesty is an example of Mahmood's ability to overcome disappointment - and he relishes explaining how he rediscovered himself in the wilds of second-team cricket.
October 9, 2006
Playing show must go on
Posted on 10/09/2006 in Ashes
Peter Roebuck writes in the Sydney Morning Herald the plans of a terror attack during the last series were not a surprise.
The walls came down long ago, the battlelines were blurred, the general population became fair game, the rules went out of the window. Nor is the enemy easily pinned down. Nowadays battles are waged by nationalists, religious extremists and other unsavoury types. No one is sitting in trenches. Hit-and-run tactics, and the fear they create, are the chosen weapon of the ecstatic killers.
Of course the most public representatives of the Western hegemony are in the firing line. No point having an attack unless it spreads alarm, provokes fury. Either you are with us or against us. The more celebrated the figure, the more significant the victim, the better the message is driven home.
McGrath's whitewash spin all too predictable
Posted on 10/09/2006 in Ashes
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McGrath fearlessly runs the risk of another prediction going wrong
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Another Ashes, another 5-0 prediction in Australia's favour. The fact that his 4-0 forecast - Glenn McGrath felt the weather would claim one Test - for the 2005 Ashes backfired horribly hasn't stopped him from talking up Australia's chances again. Read Patrick Kidd's view on it in The Times.
Beware the man who talks up his side — it suggests he is nervous. Remember Sven- Göran Eriksson’s prediction before the World Cup finals this summer that his England football team were going to come back from Germany with the trophy?
Meanwhile Chloe Saltau went to practise with the Bushrangers. Read her account of an eventful session in The Age
You can imagine my horror when I see Fitzy limbering up at the nets. There are a couple of other women around the world who bowl just as fast these days, but when she charges in and strikes former Melbourne footballer David Schwarz high on the body, I know she's still dangerous.
October 8, 2006
Australia's Flintoff?
Posted on 10/08/2006 in Ashes
One allrounder has so far dominated the build-up to the Ashes with the regular medical updates on Andrew Flintoff's ankle and the effect of handing him the England captaincy. It is the one area where England are, without doubt, currently ahead of Australia - a matchwinning allrounder. However, that has just made the Aussies more keen to find one of their own. In terms of sheer power with the bat Andrew Symonds is the closest match, but the man earmarked for the No. 6 role is Shane Watson, the Queensland allrounder who has just enjoyed an impressive tournament in Kuala Lumpur. Will Buckley, in The Observer, profiles the cricketer whose stats are currently the wrong way round, but may not stay that way for long.
The thinking behind picking Watson (Test batting average 20.25, bowling average 61.50) would be in the hope of giving the Australia team the balance that Andrew Flintoff provides for England. For two decades the English have striven to emulate the Australians; now the position may be about to be reversed.
Here's my recipe to stir up England
Posted on 10/08/2006 in Ashes
Mark Waugh plays selector and picks his Australian XI to stir up the Old Enemy in a bid to reclaim the Ashes.
I was asked to be an Australian selector a few months ago. Although it would have been a great challenge, I decided to turn it down. I have a few commitments these days that take up a fair bit of my time and the thought of travelling around the world watching cricket every day would've driven me mad.
Read the full piece in The Sydney Morning Herald.
October 7, 2006
Keepers of the flame rekindle Ashes yarns
Posted on 10/07/2006 in Ashes
It was a night to remember at the MCG as old Victorian cricketers from Ashes series spanning 60 years turned back the clock.
Cricketers have longer careers than most sportsfolk, and so its generations are more closely linked. Colin McDonald, 77, remembered a brave century made by his opening partner, the youthful Bill Lawry, on a Lord's pitch made treacherous by a ridge in 1961.
Read the full piece in The Age.
October 4, 2006
Hope abounds through fearless Flintoff
Posted on 10/04/2006 in Ashes
I feel distinctly uneasy, writes Simon Barnes in The Times. The Aussies are getting cocky: they are still beating everyone, the last Ashes series was just a blip, the Poms got lucky but when they come to Oz we all know they’ll curl up and die.
In other words, the Australians are strong and ever-so-slightly smug, the English are stronger than they have been but ever-so-slightly anxious. Exactly as it was 16 months ago, when Australia came to England.
Too many what-ifs
Posted on 10/04/2006 in Ashes
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Adnrew Flintoff consoles Lee after the Edgbaston epic
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Brett Lee has never watched the replay. Too painful. Too many what-ifs, writes Alex Brown in The Sydney Morning Herald. What if, for example, the third-last ball of the Edgbaston Test last year had breached the boundary rope and not been cut off by the off-side sweeper?
"It's too painful," Lee said. "You want to take yourself back in time and think the one that I hit to cover point, if I had hit it a metre to his left or right it could have been a different story. So I have never sat down and watched it."
October 2, 2006
Bulletproof Fred
Posted on 10/02/2006 in Ashes
November 23 can't be too far off for Andrew Flintoff who is training with Dave Roberts, the former England physio, in the West Pennine Moors in Lancashire. Simon Hughes caught up with Flintoff and they talked of the year gone by.
This is sporting life in the raw, a newly shaven-headed Freddie and Rooster ready to plough the shale-strewn, mud-spattered tracks.
We stop at the foot of a steep incline and Flintoff and Wyatt race each other up it three times. The lack of an obvious spring in his step belies Flintoff's power: he wins each time.
October 1, 2006
Go on, fire away ...
Posted on 10/01/2006 in Ashes
As they prepare for an encounter that could leave fans bleary-eyed for weeks after late nights on the edge of their seats, the Observer Sports Monthly meets both Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen - and find out why darts could be vital to the tour.
Read Jamie Jackson's interview with Andrew Flintoff where he says, "We'll go out there confident. And I have every intention of enjoying the whole experience."
Also read Rachel Cooke's interview with Kevin Pietersen, one that caught him totally unawares.
'I've been up since six,' says Pietersen, seizing the opportunity for a good moan. 'I only got to bed at midnight. I've got to go all day this afternoon and the launch party tonight, so I'll be up till four, then I've got to get up in the early hours to go to Milton Keynes.' Poor lamb. He is, he tells me, in need of a holiday - which is why he and Jess are about to head out to his parents' place in South Africa. 'I can just cruise there. There's a swimming pool. I don't have to leave the house. In England, I cruise. But Jess and I are all over the place. She's singing. I'm playing and shopping.' Playing and shopping. What a life.
September 28, 2006
Ponting the inflatable
Posted on 09/28/2006 in Ashes
Ricky Ponting has enough on his own plate without worrying about Andrew Flintoff, writes Mike Selvey.
Aside from his batting, we shouldn't worry too much about Ponting, whom one eminent Test cricketer of recent vintage, who is familiar with him, described to me as a panicker.
Following pedigree leaders such as Allan Border, Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh would always be a tough call but these words of wisdom come from someone who relinquished the hold on the Ashes that his predecessors had established, got in such a lather over substitute fielders that even Duncan Fletcher cracked a smile and who in Malaysia recently was forced to hand over his match fee following a rant over a wide delivery in a no-account game in a competition to match.
Is 'Pom' a term of abuse?
Posted on 09/28/2006 in Ashes
Is the word 'Pom' is an abusive term, asks Andrew Mueller:
The view of Australia's human rights and equal opportunities commission is that Pom, while hardly a compliment, isn't quite an insult: it has ruled that Australian fans may utter it, though it wearily acknowledges that Pom might stray into the realm of racism when deployed in conjunction with words commonly associated with the term.
September 25, 2006
Nothing to declare but little urn
Posted on 09/25/2006 in Ashes
The Sydney Morning Herald reports how the precious Ashes urn is set to make only its second visit to Australia since it was handed to the Hon Ivo Bligh, the England captain, by a group of ladies in 1882.
The case containing them will have its own separate business class seat on the flight from London. It will not leave the wrist of Mr Chadwick, the MCC museum curator, who will be the only person to handle the urn during its four-month stay in Australia. Arrangements are being made to clear it through customs, including paperwork covering materials, value and provenance, a 24 hour acclimatisation period at the museum and a detailed examination. Every scratch, stain and mark is noted and photographed.
The urn’s only previous visit was for Australia’s bicentenary celebrations in 1988. It was due to return in 2002 but x-rays detected cracks in the ancient terracotta pot and cricket’s most symbolic trophy had to undergo major renovation.
September 24, 2006
Barmy Army beware the Aussie Posse
Posted on 09/24/2006 in Ashes
The Barmy Army have been entertaining supporting England for a number of years, through the dark depression of the nineties and out into the altogether brighter 2000s. But with the Ashes a mere 59 days, 13 hours, and 28 minutes (ish) away comes the news that Australia are urging their public not only to turn up at the cricket, but beat the Barmies at their own game. Further proof in video format here and here - two commercials airing on Australian TV at the moment.
Never mind the cricket; this winter's real contest could be in the stands.
September 20, 2006
Hadlee gives Monty advice on Australian crowds
Posted on 09/20/2006 in Ashes
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Richard Hadlee suffered Down Under
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| Richard Hadlee was the favourite target of Australian supporters in the 1980s and he tells Robert Craddock, of The Courier-Mail, Monty Panesar has done the right thing by seeing a psychologist to deal with potential problems. However, Hadlee says his best advice came from Greg Chappell.
"Greg took me aside and said I was over-reacting to the crowds and if you antagonise them or show them they are getting to you it will only get worse," Hadlee said. "In the early days as a young puppy I overreacted.
"Greg said forget about the distractions and do your talking with the ball – and at the end of the day there were more Test wickets for me against Australia than any other nation. I think it worked out pretty well.”
In The Australian Malcolm Conn writes about Kerry Packer, another high-profile figure during the 1980s.
Australia's players will today honour the late Kerry Packer as the most influential man in the history of the sport by naming a life membership award after him. Shunning the opportunity to highlight a great player of the game, the Australian Cricketers' Association instead decided to recognise Packer for making the game professional with the introduction of World Series Cricket in 1977, and the ongoing multi-million-dollar support of the Nine network.
September 18, 2006
A gamble ... or the best available?
Posted on 09/18/2006 in Ashes
In today’s Daily Telegraph, two views on the Ashes selections from either side of the divide. TV anchor Mark Nicholas bemoans the fact that England have picked a side full of walking wounded.
The damaging effect half-fit players had on the tour four years ago was quite a shock. These are the Aussies we are talking about, and wounded ones too. Now we have exposed ourselves again. It is unbelievable. Why are the doubtful starters not to be in Perth with the Academy, having a run-out in the leagues? That way they could be added to the party when proven fit, rather than subtracted if found unfit, which is so debilitating.
Ian Chappell, meanwhile, is hardly complimentary, while acknowledging that the selectors did about as well as could be expected.
When I first read the England Ashes squad my reaction was that of the ubiquitous fearsome rugby league forward, who when smashed in the jaw by an opponent in the opening scrum, grins and says: "Is that the best you've got?" However, not wanting to be a smart aleck and also mindful of a couple of atrocious 2005 Ashes predictions the thought didn't linger. It could also have been that, apart from one or two contentious issues, this was the best the England selectors could muster under trying circumstances.
September 17, 2006
Beefy the doll
Posted on 09/17/2006 in Australian cricket
Move over Boonie, Beefy's in town.
Foster's is believed to have chosen English cricket legend Ian "Beefy" Botham as the new face of its popular talking doll.
The little Beefy will appear alongside a new talking David Boon doll for the coming Ashes Tests in Australia.
In a new take on the old talking Boonie, the dolls will argue and respond to one another's wry comments.
Foster's gave away about 200,000 talking Boonie dolls with Victoria Bitter slabs during the 2005-06 one-day series.
Via The Herald Sun
Bell wants hundreds against Australia
Posted on 09/17/2006 in Ashes
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'I will be flying out there thinking about hitting hundreds'
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Ian Bell has issued a warning to Australia not to underestimate him, or England, in this winter’s Ashes.
"It will be an aggressive and very good series. We played aggressively against Pakistan and we need to keep doing that, while also staying in our game plan and not getting too carried away.
"We have just beaten a good Pakistan side with no Michael Vaughan, Andrew Flintoff, Ashley Giles or Simon Jones. To do that with so many big players missing has given everyone a lift.
"As for me, I'm a tougher, harder cricketer now. Last summer I was still questioning myself. I wasn't sure going into the first Test at Lord's whether I was good enough to play at that level.
"But this time I will be much more positive - I will be flying out there thinking about hitting hundreds."
Full story at the Sunday Mirror
Nitpick on the Ashes squad
Posted on 09/17/2006 in Ashes
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For some cricket now: See you in Brisbane on November 23
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England's Ashes squad was announced on September 12 and experts have a lot to say about the selections.
Vic Marks writes in The Guardian -
If anyone is under pressure after the selection of this winter's squads it is the ECB's medical staff, who have presumably delivered the assurances about the crocks.
Meanwhile Michael Atherton has received a text message from Ashley Giles...
"Christ, Ath," said the text message in the middle of last week, "I've not had my legs amputated, you know. Any jobs going then this winter?"
Read The Sunday Telegraph for more.
September 16, 2006
Aussies warm to Fred
Posted on 09/16/2006 in Ashes
The debate over who should lead England in Australia raged on until the final moment, when Andrew Flintoff claimed the honour. David Graveney, the chairman of selectors, said it was the tightest of calls before it eventually fell to the man who was central to England's success last summer. Ricky Ponting has said it doesn't matter to him who leads England but Thornton McCamish, in The Age, says it is great news for Australian fans.
I'm delighted. As captain, Flintoff will be in the game from coin-toss to post-match debriefing. Australian cricket fans now face a thrilling prospect: a summer dominated by players we can warm to.
September 15, 2006
No bull from 'china' Pietersen, life is sweet and sour
Posted on 09/15/2006 in Ashes
Kevin Pietersen understands better than anyone that Australia provides the greatest of all opportunities to seal both his cricketing reputation and growing celebrity, writes Donald McRae in The Guardian
"It's September 12 today," said Pietersen as he passed the magazine to Jessica, who had stretched out on the hotel bed. "Exactly this time last year, at 10 past three, I was still at the crease, batting with George Clooney [Pietersen's nickname for the greying if not so dashing Ashley Giles]. It was everything I dreamed of as a kid, china."
September 14, 2006
Giles's fitness worries remain just that
Posted on 09/14/2006 in Ashes
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Ashley Giles: England's best 90% fit net bowler
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| One of the most contentious selections by England for the Ashes was that of Ashley Giles, who last bowled a ball in anger in November 2005 … almost a year to the day before the first Test at Brisbane is due to get underway. In The Daily Telegraph, Giles looks to put a positive spin (ho ho) on his rehabilitation:
The fact that I have not played any cricket since last November doesn't really concern me. I am a strong believer that if I am bowling well in the nets then I can carry that into a game.
If that was not worrying enough, he then reveals that he’s not exactly at 100% even in the nets:
I'm bowling in the nets again but not quite off my full run-up. I'm probably at about 90 per cent fitness at the moment and I'm confident of being fully fit by the end of this month. Obviously that will come too late for me to play any cricket this season. But I'm going to India with the Champions Trophy squad and that will give me the chance to bowl in the nets and in the middle.
So come November, England will have a choice between someone who looks good in the nets and possibly in a few club matches in India, and Monty Panesar, who has taken 32 wickets in 10 Tests while Giles has been sidelined. What is really worrying is that it is even being discussed …
Realisation of a boyhood dream
Posted on 09/14/2006 in Ashes
Alastair Cook reveals to The Daily Telegraph the feeling when he heard his name announced by David Graveney as being one of the England squad for this winter’s Ashes series. Although he had been told earlier in the day by Graveney in a telephone call, watching the press conference from The Oval was still surreal:
I was standing on a cross-trainer in the gym when the team was announced on TV. I couldn't hear what they were saying – I just watched the pictures, but it was still a pretty amazing feeling to see my name up there. Over the next few minutes, I'm sure I set a personal best on the machine.
England are setting up Super Fred for a crash landing
Posted on 09/14/2006 in Ashes
Alex Brown, of the Age, the Melbourne-based daily, is not convinced about the potency of the English squad for the Ashes.
A closer look at the England squad reveals that Flintoff, himself returning from injury and preparing for his first Test in Australia without a "super" prefix, has little in the way of reliable, experienced campaigners with him. Only three other players have more than 50 Tests to their name, and of those, Marcus Trescothick's emotional issues and Ashley Giles's dodgy hip must surely be cause for concern. Nine members of the "senior" squad of 16, meanwhile, have played fewer than 20 Tests - including Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell and Monty Panesar, of whom much is expected this summer.
The Age's Greg Baum concurred:
England might also have outsmarted itself by making Flintoff captain. Certainly, he proved himself last year as the long-awaited and much-mythologised next Botham. But it should not be forgotten that the last Botham, the original, not only was a conspicuous failure as captain, but while in office was reduced to a mere mortal as a cricketer, too.
Bob Woolmer, writing in the Australian, reckons England have recovered this summer from their post-Ashes celebratory state of mind but still believes Australia will win back the Ashes.
. If I was a betting man, I would say — sadly, for I remain an Englishman — that England will not retain the Ashes.
September 13, 2006
England gamble on injured contingent
Posted on 09/13/2006 in Ashes
The response to England's Ashes squad announcement exactly a year after the Ashes were won back after 16 years and eight barren series has drawn critical acclaim from the British media. The final squad was no real surprise, but the decision to appoint Andrew Flintoff as captain has been seen as the bravest decision by the selectors.
A strong, imposing captain is essential in Australia, which is why the selectors chose Flintoff, writes Derek Pringle in The Daily Telegraph.
Continue reading "England gamble on injured contingent"
September 12, 2006
A year to the day
Posted on 09/12/2006 in Ashes
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England's Ashes
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As the Ashes squad is named, Patrick Kidd recalls in The Times, with the help of others, the moment Australia were beaten a year ago.
“On Monday morning I saw a newspaper headline which read: ‘One hero wanted at The Oval, report in at 10.30 in the morning’,” Pietersen said. “I wanted to be that hero.” The hero rode his luck. The hat-trick ball was deflected off his shoulder to slip. Then, he edged Warne behind but Adam Gilchrist knocked the ball out of the path of Matthew Hayden. Pietersen was then dropped on 15 by Warne.
September 8, 2006
Warne's England mood change
Posted on 09/08/2006 in Ashes
Shane Warne yesterday told Cricinfo England could be the best team in the world, but today in The Age he mocks their progress.
"It's incredible that everyone is still talking about the last Ashes — it was one series and England have got to move on. What happened last summer will not matter one bit when we start the first Test in Brisbane and we are very confident. England might say they are the best team in the world because they beat us last year, but they lost to Pakistan straight afterwards. Does that mean Pakistan become the best in the world?"
September 3, 2006
Fraser gives Flintoff some advice
Posted on 09/03/2006 in Ashes
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Andrew Flintoff was near "boiling point" after two weeks in Australia with the World XI
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| Jon Pierik writes in The Courier-Mail about Angus Fraser’s warning to Andrew Flintoff ahead of the Ashes.
"Flintoff's fitness will not have been confirmed when the England selectors sit down to make their decision [on September 12], but Flintoff is desperate to captain the side in Australia, and depriving him of that honour may be risky," Fraser says. "Whether Flintoff can handle all the attention that comes his way is another matter. The Australian public and media will make it their business to agitate and distract the allrounder and it will be interesting to see how he copes.
"Flintoff was given a glimpse of what might lie ahead when he played against Australia for the Rest of the World. He spent little more than a fortnight in Melbourne and Sydney but the constant attention he received nearly brought him to boiling point."
September 2, 2006
Lee's labour pains
Posted on 09/02/2006 in Australian cricket
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Brett Lee and his wife Liz
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| Brett Lee's wife, Liz, is due to give birth to their first child a day before the first Test of this November's Ashes series. While the pair are both commited to him playing, he is nevertheless anxious to be at the birth:
If it comes during the Test, Lee has reluctantly resigned himself to missing the birth. The decision followed ``marathon'' discussions between Lee and his wife.
"Obviously the family is the most important thing and hopefully there is a way to work around both things because I would love to be there,'' Lee said.
"You have to make sure that when the Test match starts you are totally focused ... which I will be,'' he said.
"I am hoping (the baby) might come a few days early. It will be a totally new experience for both of us. Just the thought that we have created something makes it special. It is obviously going to be a very exciting time.''
Exciting or not, Lee wasted no time in plugging his sponsors Three who, he joked, might set-up a video link from the hospital to Sydney…read the full story at Sunday’s Sydney Telegraph
August 31, 2006
Damp Cardiff passes its first test
Posted on 08/31/2006 in English cricket
Cardiff was very much under the spotlight last night as it hosted its first one-day international since the somewhat controversial decision to award it an Ashes Test in 2009. While the rain was out of the authorities control, several papers reported on things that were.
In The Times, Christopher Martin-Jenkins gave the venue a warm(ish) pass mark, while noting:
“It may be safely said that it will have the shortest straight boundary for any Test match on the river side. Sixty yards is barely over the internationally prescribed minimum and it will be no more than a forward push for six when the likes of Andrew Flintoff start to put bat to ball against Australia in 2009.”
Charles Randall in The Daily Telegraph was a bit more upbeat:
“Sophia Gardens has the advantage of close proximity to the city centre and a variety of transport options – not least the feet – allowing much easier access than, say, the isolated Rose Bowl at Southampton, where traffic jams and congestion have marred major occasions.”
August 29, 2006
Warne copes with the stun-bombs (just)
Posted on 08/29/2006 in Australian cricket
Shane Warne has revealed what he and his team-mates have been up to at the boot camp - a John Buchanan concept - in the past week, including some tasks more associated with the military than sportsmen:
I was shattered. But just as the night went silent, voices screamed: "Go, go, go!". What on earth was going on? A stun-bomb had gone off, and we were told the area wasn't safe. We had to move. Now. There were no torches or directions.
All we had been given for dinner was half a can of chunky soup, so our energy reserves were low after pulling vans and carrying litres of water. But we had to go. It was time to prove our mental resolve and move to a different location.
Welcome to the Australian cricket squad's boot camp in regional Queensland, a time where we had only been referred to as numbers, not names, and weren't allowed to communicate with the outside world.
Despite voicing his indifference to the idea beforehand, Warne said "there's no doubt it brought the group closer together."
Read more at the Sydney Daily Telegraph
Alex Brown also writes about the camp in the Sydney Morning Herald while Warne is the focus of Malcolm Conn’s story in The Australian.
The Courier-Mail runs a strange piece about Jason Gillespie worrying about being accused of ball tampering if he wears zinc to protect his nose and lips.
In the Herald Chloe Saltau speaks to Glenn McGrath about ball tampering rules and her story about Michael Hussey appears in The Age.
Cricinfo’s coverage starts here.
August 26, 2006
Vintage Australia showing age
Posted on 08/26/2006 in Ashes
Tim de Lisle, writing in The Times, sees the current England and Australian teams on extreme ends of the age spectrum:
It used to be England whose players went on forever, while the Australians picked them young and sent them packing at about 32. Not any more.
August 20, 2006
Australia's early blows fail to connect
Posted on 08/20/2006 in Ashes
Kevin Mitchell, writing in The Observer, believes that the Australians are worried. And as an Anglo-Australian himself, he is better placed than most to judge. The training camps, the barrage of bombastic statements, the average age of the side, it all adds up to a picture of insecurity.
What England will provide this winter will be a side considerably more able and confident than the one Hussain took there to be barbecued four years ago. It is not yet firing consistently, but the signs are mildly encouraging. They will take comfort from their elevation to number two in the world after securing the current series 2-0 at Headingley, although will be disappointed they have not been able to consolidate that supremacy here in the fourth Test
August 14, 2006
The Ashes...but not as you know it
Posted on 08/14/2006 in Ashes
There is a bush cricket tournament on this weekend: the Reedybrook Ashes:
The Reedybrook Ashes, the bush cricket tournament to end all bush cricket tournaments, is on this weekend and should be a beauty. Greenvale's Tropical Cowboys, led by James and Tim Atkinson, have been in training and our spies tell us they are in top form and going all out to topple premiers the Gum Flat team led by cricketing legend George 'Killer' Harriman. They reckon George has been getting in shape by belting basalt rocks around the flat with an ironbark stick. This is a camp-out weekend and it's been down to three degrees up there in the basalt. It'll be cold, so take the windbreak. She'll enjoy the outing.
More at the Townsville Bulletin
August 8, 2006
Butcher still in the frame?
Posted on 08/08/2006 in Ashes
Surrey have been doing a good line in England's forgotten men recently - with Rikki Clarke overlooked for the one-dayers and Mark Ramprakash still busting his guts at county level (OK, OK, he's had his chances...) But the man who's got the most claims for a recall to the international arena is Mark Butcher. And, he tells Donald McRae in The Guardian, he's not given up hope of being on the Ashes plane.
August 4, 2006
Monty can prove a wizard in Oz
Posted on 08/04/2006 in Ashes
Monty Panesar has a real chance of being successful in international cricket, and by that I mean consistently over a long period, not just in the odd game here and there, writes Shane Warne.
August 1, 2006
Monty's key role in the Ashes
Posted on 08/01/2006 in Ashes
Only one achievement stands between Monty Panesar and the status of bona fide, gilt-edged English Test star: a long-term injury, writes Gideon Haigh
July 31, 2006
A timely reminder of who holds the Ashes
Posted on 07/31/2006 in Ashes
Martin Johnson, writing in The Daily Telegraph, says that England's win at Old Trafford was just what was needed to remind the Australians that, injuries permitting, this winter's Ashes might not be entirely one-sided:
"The Australians, in that endearingly smug way of theirs, have been so busy airbrushing history since last summer that half the population still think they hold the Ashes. Their opening batsman, Justin Langer, was recently floating the suggestion that his team had become so bored and complacent with constantly sticking it up the Poms that getting beaten was actually a brilliant idea."
Not content with only upsetting one country, Johnson then turns on Pakistan's batsmen, whose bravery he questions:
"Their coach's plan to get them ready for Harmison by pinging a cricket ball at a marble slab would have been better served by cutting a hole in the practice net in the general area of square leg in order to provide them with an escape route ...
"This is a team who congregate for five prayer meetings a day, and Harmison at full throttle on a bouncy pitch is certainly no impediment to acquiring religion."
July 25, 2006
Australian clubs want Flintoff
Posted on 07/25/2006 in Ashes
“Get Freddie,” writes Mark Fuller in The Age.
"That was the catchcry within Australian cricket yesterday as state associations and their clubs salivated at the prospect of injured England all-rounder and captain Andrew Flintoff using a stint in Australian grade competition to improve his chances of playing in this summer's Ashes series."
The Sydney Morning Herald runs an AAP report with Ricky Ponting warning his side about wanting the Ashes too badly.
Benaud on England's Ashes hopes
Posted on 07/25/2006 in Ashes
Frist, the good news. One of the most respected Australian cricket commentators thinks that England have a good chance of retaining the Ashes. Now the bad news. Richie Benaud is taking the credit for encouraging Shane Warne to play one more series in England, in 2009, writes Patrick Kidd in The Times.
Benaud may have said his last “Morning everyone” on British television, but his task of lifting England fans out of despondency is not over. “I hold exactly the same position that I held 18 months ago, before the last series,” he said. “I said that if England had a fast-bowling attack that was fit and bowling well, they would win the Ashes.
July 18, 2006
Exposed Ashes scalper loses tickets
Posted on 07/18/2006 in Ashes
The Herald Sun has tracked down a serial scalper who used at least three addresses to grab Test seats to sell at massive mark-ups on ebay.
“The batch of Ashes tickets Craig Jones was waiting for will be cancelled,” the paper reported. “But most have already been sold to English fans, who face huge financial losses having already booked airfares and accommodation.”
June 15, 2006
Fan's Barmy ticket plan
Posted on 06/15/2006 in Ashes
A Barmy Army Australian representative has his secret plan for more Ashes tickets exposed in The Age.
"Due to the appalling lack of tickets they have given the lads, we have decided to help them. This way more England lads and a lot fewer dingoes ... It's just one more way of keeping out your loud-mouth Aussie workmate, who you know you really hate so you can give him or her the finger when they say, 'I wish I had a ticket'."
June 2, 2006
The Australian Cricket Flop
Posted on 06/02/2006 in Ashes
The morning after the first day of Ashes ticket-selling and the papers are full of sob stories from Cricket Australia’s "family". In The Age there is a cartoon about how to prove you're a member and an interview with an English supporter who put his tickets on EBay.
Under the headline Barmy Army's guerilla ticket raid, Peter Lalor analyses the situation for The Australian while Queensland’s The Courier-Mail covered the fiasco in its editorial C’mon CA, c’mon.
In Melbourne the tabloid Herald Sun looks at why the series was not protected by scalping laws and Adelaide’s Advertiser reports of more disappointed fans. The West Australian focused on the the speed of the ticket sales and online scalping.
May 31, 2006
Aussies ready to go the full Monty
Posted on 05/31/2006 in Ashes
Monty Panesar will become a target for Australian crowds if he makes the Ashes tour, according to a report in The Age by Geoff McClure.
The tour is still five months away but already the pundits are fearing the worst for Turbanator II because of his atrocious fielding, which is so bad that he is already being compared to two of the worst the game has known — Phil Tufnell and Bishan Bedi.
However, according to The Times, Panesar's problems could soon be at an end, thanks to a trip to the optician ...
May 26, 2006
Statuesque Warne
Posted on 05/26/2006 in Ashes
In London yesterday, a curious sight was snapped by a passer by: Shane Warne being transported on top of a lorry. As bizarre as it sounds, it gets better for today he has been placed in all his glory slap bang in the middle of Piccadilly Circus to promote the Ashes in Australia later this year.
Will wonders never cease? Click here to see an enlarged photo.
May 11, 2006
Aussies have had results but England are the winners
Posted on 05/11/2006 in Ashes
Eight months have passed since England won the Ashes. Mark Nicholas sizes up the progress England and Australia have made since then.
And yet, for all the contrast of Australia's glorious season at home and England's patchy winter away, it may just be England who have made the most progress. Had the team who returned the Ashes continued together in Pakistan and India we would be none the wiser as to the quality of the resources in reserve.
May 7, 2006
Benaud's Ashes top 10 is a list for the ages
Posted on 05/07/2006 in Ashes
Richie Benaud tells Will Swanton what his 10 favourite moments in the history of the Ashes have been. Read The Age for Benaud's choice moments in chronological order.
April 23, 2006
The Waugh path is a rosy one
Posted on 04/23/2006 in Ashes
Kevin Mitchell meets Steve Waugh and almost, almost gets him to admit England are going to retain the Ashes when the teams resume battle in Australia in December.
'They've a chance,' he says. I look at him as if he has defected. The Southern Cross will surely fall from the sky on his bronzed head.
April 22, 2006
Redemption, one last hurrah for old guard
Posted on 04/22/2006 in Ashes
"The most successful era in Australian cricket can end in stunning fashion, with one of the oldest teams assembled reclaiming the Ashes and creating history with a third successive World Cup," Malcomm Conn asserts in the Australian.
Ricky Ponting believes that the campaign to regain Ashes is running perfectly to plan. Click here to read the skipper's view.
April 21, 2006
Ashes at Glamorgan testing many already
Posted on 04/21/2006 in Ashes
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The Ashes ... in Wales?!
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The decision to award an Ashes Test to Glamorgan has provoked a range of reactions from delight to outrage – not to mention much disbelief. But Stephen Brenkley, in The Independent, wonders if it’s really such a surprise afterall.
England and the English could not say that they were not warned. Those with a true sense of history might have realised that in 1905, Glamorgan applied to stage a Test against Australia and lost out to Trent Bridge by one vote.
He adds drily, "Nobody would suggest that staging an Ashes Test is remotely like acquiring a peerage … but Glamorgan offered the most cash."
Continue reading "Ashes at Glamorgan testing many already"
March 23, 2006
Australia respect for England 'high as ever'
Posted on 03/23/2006 in Ashes
Justin Langer has extended his congratulations to England on beating India in the third Test to level the series, while adding that Australia's respect for England is as "high as ever". In his diary at the BBC, Langer said:
Talking of tough opposition, it would be remiss of me not to mention England's outstanding victory in Mumbai.
Since the Ashes, we have kept a closer than usual eye on England's progress and had been quietly smug about their efforts in Pakistan and India.
But after yesterday's triumph the respect factor is as high as ever.
To defeat India in a Test match at home, particularly in Mumbai, is a colossal effort and hats must go off again to Freddie Flintoff, who led his team against many odds to a historic win.
February 24, 2006
Army still searching for ticket salvation
Posted on 02/24/2006 in Ashes
Difficulties over ticket allocations will not stop the Barmy Army travelling en masse to this year’s Ashes in Australia. But they won’t all be able to sit together. Find out why by reading this piece in the Melbourne newspaper, The Age.
January 20, 2006
Cooley carries his expertise to Oz
Posted on 01/20/2006 in Ashes
The turncoat turns for home. Troy Cooley, whose porn-star name belies his schoolmasterly appearance, talks to Brian Viner about his decision to part company with the England squad, and head back Down Under to help Australia prepare for the 2006-07 Ashes.
January 11, 2006
Roll up for your Ashes tickets
Posted on 01/11/2006 in Ashes
If you can't wait to get your hands on a ticket or two for the Ashes in Australia, The Times newspaper has come up with a handy guide on how to obtain them.
English fans face Ashes rip-off
Posted on 01/11/2006 in Ashes
The Ashes might be 11 months away, but Cricket Australia already seems to be getting itself in a mess over ticketing. In The Times, Geoffrey Dean says that Australia are worried that too many English fans will buy tickets:
Officials here still have nightmares about the sea of red jerseys that made up the majority of the crowd for the Brisbane and Melbourne internationals during the Lions’ rugby union tour in 2001. The feeling is that there is enough demand from home supporters to fill the smaller grounds, such as in Adelaide and Perth.
The Daily Telegraph's Paul Bolton goes one step further, warning that England fans face being ripped-off. He quotes Paul Burnham of the Barmy Army:
What you are going to get is a lot of Australians who are not particularly interested in cricket, buying tickets and then selling them on the black market. The same thing happened in Barbados when the West Indies authorities said that only 40 per cent of tickets would be sold to English fans, but it ended up more like 95 per cent. The touts made a killing.
December 3, 2005
Ashes cover drive
Posted on 12/03/2005 in Ashes
Matthew Ricketson writes on the various books released on the epic Ashes series:
It is interesting to see how various authors deal with what many thought the defining moment of the Ashes series — the thrilling finish to the second Test, at Edgbaston, that Australia lost by two runs.
November 23, 2005
Ashes ardour will come and go with a rush
Posted on 11/23/2005 in Ashes
Charles Happell writes on the crammed schedule for the 2006-07 Ashes series:
No foreplay, little titillation. Just wham, bam, thank you ma'am and not even time for a post-coital cigarette.
November 22, 2005
Gilo ... the strongest link
Posted on 11/22/2005 in Ashes
Ashley Giles showed that he is also the King of Brains by winning an Ashes special of the Weakest Link. The Times' television critic, Giles Smith, tunes in.
[via Zainub]
October 31, 2005
The real reason Australia lost the Ashes
Posted on 10/31/2005 in Ashes
Reverse swing, mints, Freddie, KP, dodgy substitute fielders? If you, as many others, thought any of the above factors decided the Ashes then, well, you'd be wrong. For, as (unsurprisingly perhaps), reports from New Zealand gleefully suggest, Ricky Ponting thinks Billy Bowden had a part to play as well.
October 20, 2005
Fletcher smiles as Ponting spits
Posted on 10/20/2005 in Ashes
Ricky Ponting's wild outburst at Trent Bridge created something rare - a Duncan Fletcher smile. "He didn't smile back," Fletcher writes in The Guardian. "He was in a terrible temper for some reason."
October 5, 2005
'We knew the Aussies could be beaten'
Posted on 10/05/2005 in Ashes
More interesting than the usual "over the moon" guff, Marcus Trescothick explains to the Daily Telegraph when England realised that they had the better of Australia.
October 2, 2005
Streaked hair and close shaves
Posted on 10/02/2005 in Ashes
The haircuts were new age and the attacking play was revolutionary but, writes Poet Laureate Andrew Motion, it was cricket ancient as much as modern that made the summer so compelling.
Also check out the Observer Sport Monthly's recap of the Ashes.
September 27, 2005
From King of Spain to King of Spa
Posted on 09/27/2005 in Ashes
As if being King of Spain wasn’t regal enough, Ashley Giles has now been made an Honorary Citizen of Droitwich. Wowsers. Gilo must be pretty excited about this, you’d expect, what with all the freedoms it must convey and all that.
Afterall, his England team-mate Andrew Flintoff can now drink bars dry in his home town, having been given the freedom of Preston – where he can also drive a flock of sheep through the streets. But closer inspection of Giles’s new rights reveal that, er, nothing much will change for him on his jaunts in Droitwich, as he’s to be made a citizen rather than freeman.
"He really didn't fit into the criteria for an honorary freeman," said a spokesperson. "He hasn't carried out any community service.” Still, it’s all pretty glamorous … although not as glitzy as the new world which is opening up to KP.
Pietersen is living the highlife out in LA at the moment, partying with Mickey Rourke and, as the London-based People newspaper revealed, schmoozing with Paris Hilton.
Where were you when ... ?
Posted on 09/27/2005 in Ashes
Now that the excitement is just about dying down, The Guardian asked
a swathe of professionals - including Shaun Udal and Mark Ramprakash to
rake over the Ashes by recording their personal highs and lows, and
picking out who, for them, had been the key players. Finally, they were
asked to note where they were the moment the Ashes were won.
Peter Moores, the head of the national academy, remembers that at the end of
the Oval Test, he was left to celebrate alone: "I was sadly on my own at
home at the time England won the Ashes. The family had gone out. But I had a
beer for company."
Nottinghamshire's coach Mick Newell also celebrated with a bit of pop. "I
had just finished a committee meeting at Trent Bridge, and we cracked open
the champagne [.] We all had a bit of a slip, but nothing like Freddie
Flintoff."
One of the reporters for this piece, Lawrence Booth, has also been busily
writing his humorous cricket email for The Guardian, called The Spin.
It is published weekly and you can read his latest piece here. This week, Booth considers the five stages of an Englishman and sums up the latest comings and goings in
cricket.
September 22, 2005
Freddie watch
Posted on 09/22/2005 in English cricket
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Freddie Flintoff - master of candid cameos © Getty Images
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Freddie won the Ashes on a Monday; his book was serialised on a Tuesday; there were further revelations on Wednesday and Thursday – and no doubt there will be more on Friday and Saturday and Sunday, too.
Andrew Flintoff’s revelations, like that irritating Craig David song, look set to run and run.
Today’s startling news is that he (Freddie, not Craig) fears his career may be precariously positioned.
"Every day I bowl I wonder how much longer it is going to last," Flintoff writes in The Times, "because I am never quite sure what is going to happen with my back." Read that article here. The newspaper does say that today's extract is the last - but just wait until the book itself comes out.
And if you want to know what Cricinfo make it of it all, then click here for Andrew Miller's comment on fantastic Freddie's candid cameos.
September 21, 2005
No "thanks, for the memories"
Posted on 09/21/2005 in Ashes
Rohan Connolly of The Age is not joining the England’s-win-was-great-for-cricket tribe. He loves the Australian team and can’t wait for 2006-07.
September 19, 2005
Baseball on valium
Posted on 09/19/2005 in Ashes
In a piece in the Times, Aki Riihilati talks us through a heady period in English sport through a foreigner's lens:
Excitement, big personalities, drama, sportsmanship, skill and a highly competitive mentality — the series offered everything that is good in sport. Most of all it made so many people happy and enthusiastic. From my car window I could see these people didn’t think of their mortgages or were worried what their bosses were going to say the next day at work. It was pure joy.
But Michael Parkinson, in The Daily Telegraph, warns that the future is not all hunky-dory. "[The ECB] exist to support a county system which is as wasteful of money as it is inadequate in providing cricketers of Test calibre ... Which is why it will take Australia considerably less time to find a team capable of winning back the Ashes than it took us."
Out with the old
Posted on 09/19/2005 in Ashes
The unsure future of Australia’s previously dominant line-up has been a hot topic over the weekend. Mark Waugh knows the workings of the Australian dressing room as well as anybody over the past decade and his main area of concern in The Sun-Herald is the fast bowling.
Robert Craddock, the News Ltd. journalist, says England did more than steal the Ashes – they destroyed the current side’s hopes of a group farewell at the 2007 World Cup. He tips as few as three players who won the prize in South Africa to defend the trophy.
September 18, 2005
Then and now
Posted on 09/18/2005 in Ashes
Michael Atherton takes us through the eight Ashes defeats he was present at, and contrasts them with this series. Memorably, he describes his presentation of the Ashes to Michael Vaughan as "the perfect exorcism".
September 17, 2005
Time to send the urn down under
Posted on 09/17/2005 in Ashes
What do you do when an entire nation is collectively mourning the loss of the Ashes? Giles Smith, writing in The Times, offers an innovative solution:
Get the urn down there right now and start parading it around as soon as possible. Embed it in a huge, glass block in the middle of Melbourne, with a plaque on it: “The Ashes: Holders — England.
Now that thought makes the Barmy Army's bus ride through Sydney look like a birthday gift.
Read also the thoughts of his fellow columnist in The Times, Tim De Lisle, who guesses what might actually change once everyone has gotten over their mighty hangovers.
But is this the mightiest hangover in history? Greg Baum, writing in The Age, casts a look back at some epic Ashes encounters while Martin Flanagan, in the same newspaper, celebrates a series that was a reminder of what makes cricket thrilling.
September 15, 2005
Just can't get enough
Posted on 09/15/2005 in Ashes
England hadn't won the Ashes in 16 years. England haven't won the World Cup ever. Mike Selvey writes in The Guardian about how England need carry on the momentum and aim for the biggest one-day prize. After all, he writes, Australia's dominance of world cricket was kickstarted on that memorable day at Calcutta in 1987, when Allan Border lifted the glittering trophy.
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