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May 11, 2008
Posted 15 hours ago in English cricket
When Ryan Sidebottom was 14 he was told to go and find something else to concentrate on as he'd never make it in cricket. This week he will lead England's bowling at Lord's after a memorable year where he has burst back onto the international scene and quickly established himself as his country's key weapon. As he tells the Mail on Sunday he is determined to make the most of his time at the top level.
Ryan's mother Gillian thought something was up as he was unusually quiet in the car on the way home. When she stopped to drop off one of the other Huddersfield-based boys, she found out why — between the sobs and gulps and tears.
'I cried my eyes out,' admitted Sidebottom. 'I was just a schoolboy like any other, wanting to do well for my mum and dad and my grandad, who had been driving me all over the place to play. It was hard enough to be told I had no chance of making it. But to do it in front of all the other lads, that was unnecessary.'
Are we naming the coach in question? 'No. He knows who he is,' is all Sidebottom will say.
Posted 17 hours, 33 minutes ago in English cricket
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Michael Vaughan knows he needs runs but is focussed on leading England through to the next Ashes series
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England are preparing to embark on 14 months of cricket that will lead into next summer's Ashes series. Even though that includes the forthcoming series against New Zealand, a tough series against South Africa then winter assignments in India and West Indies it is difficult not to let the mind drift towards next July.
Michael Vaughan begins this summer under pressure, his form with the bat has not impressed in recent times and early-season hasn't been easy. But as he tells Stephen Brenkley in The Independent on Sunday he has no intention of moving aside yet and is enjoying a period of his career where he is pain-free.
By the time the 2009 Ashes are done, he might conceivably have led England in 65 Test matches. The whole topic is complicated by his long lay-off with a knee injury that still requires careful management. He missed 16 consecutive matches, but the selectors still insisted he was captain. It was an odd period of limbo which led to a 5-0 Ashes reversal and paradoxically reinforced Vaughan's position. Around the team now he exudes easy authority, but you wonder if this might stray into the divine right of kings territory.
There is no question that Vaughan wants to hang on and that he believes he is doing so for the right reasons. "Part of this job is dealing with a lot of the external stuff, and a lot of that is people writing and saying stuff about the captain," he said correctly. "They're possibly not looking at it in the best interests of the England team. There will be a time when there is a right time but I honestly feel this isn't it.
Meanwhile, in his column in the same newspaper, Ian Bell says England can't afford to take the New Zealand team lightly and that it's time he kicked on to the next stage of his career.
I came away with a great deal of respect for them from that tour. They have a lot of players who would get into a lot of teams. They probably aren't as good as many other Test sides, but they have a lot of fighters in there who won't budge easily, and you have to work hard to beat them. So it's important that we start the summer off on a high and take that momentum into the rest of the summer and the Test series beyond that.
May 10, 2008
Posted 1 day, 22 hours ago in English cricket
From the moment he arrived at Middlesex as a precocious 17-year-old in 1987 and won the man-of-the-match award in the 1988 NatWest Trophy final, he has always been English cricket's 'Special One' writes the Daily Telegraph's Simon Hughes of his former county team-mate Mark Ramprakash.
Viv Richards came up to me in 1994 and said: 'You seem to have just about everything, but there's something missing. I feel you don't quite believe you're good enough to play at this level.'
May 8, 2008
Posted 3 days, 19 hours ago in English cricket
Mike Atherton in the Times weighs into the Andrew Flintoff debate and suggests the England selectors should let him find form in county cricket before letting him return to Tests.
And what is the rush? England should beat New Zealand with the most frequently invoked relative in broadcasting - Geoffrey Boycott's mum - at the helm. Why not let Flintoff continue to bowl for Lancashire so he can take time to build confidence in his body and try to find some batting form before the tougher questions that South Africa will ask in the second half of the summer? Flintoff's bowling is rock solid, but his batting is flaky and he needs matches and runs under his belt before he takes Test-match examinations again.
Posted 3 days, 19 hours ago in English cricket
In his Guardian blog, Mike Selvey believes Lord’s needs to be more accessible to the general public.
Test matches, in particular, are fine occasions at Lord's, where decorum reigns over the need to dress up as nuns or whatever, there is the buzz of conversation rather than raucous chanting and applause is polite and wholehearted. This, without being po-faced about it, is refreshing at times. But Lord's is also elitist, and hideously expensive. It caters too much for the corporate market and scarcely at all for the casual spectator, restricted as it is by size: it is too small for the demands of international sport. A day out for a family, say four people, will cost around £250 just for tickets, if you can get them, so well ahead do they tend to sell. You cannot blame them for cashing in, but it hardly goes out of its way to being accessible.
May 7, 2008
Posted 4 days, 19 hours ago in English cricket
In the Daily Telegraph, Simon Hughes meets Stuart Broad, who is hoping to make himself a permanent member of England's Test side.
Discipline is undoubtedly the root of his success. You can see it in the way he prepares to bowl, placing his feet meticulously on his bowling mark, planting his fingers carefully on the ball, standing tall and briefly contemplating his delivery before setting off. He idolises Glenn McGrath, and he seems also to have been born with McGrath's other major attribute - desire. There is a bristling, apparently unshakeable determination which has enabled him to leapfrog more experienced practitioners.
May 6, 2008
Posted 5 days, 20 hours ago in English cricket
It's too early to say for certain, but Simon Jones has shown encouraging early season form (in spite of his stiff neck), writes Steve James in today's Daily Telegraph:
He did, and faced his mates early in the season, as all movers seem to. In truth he didn’t bowl that well, recording so-so figures of 6-0- 43-1 in a shortened game, but the more important pointer was that the venom appeared to be back. A couple of slippery bouncers to Glamorgan skipper David Hemp showed that. The accuracy will come, just as it suddenly appeared in 2004/05 after his wayward early years.
May 5, 2008
Posted 6 days, 23 hours ago in English cricket
David Gower puts forth some candid views on a range of topics, mostly cricket, in an email conversation in the
Independent. A sample of the questions and answers is here:
Does the IPL spell the end of Test cricket and should England's players be allowed a crack at it next year?
What? Six weeks razzle-dazzle enough to consign over a hundred years of Test cricket to the dump? You must be off your rocker. Twenty20 is here to stay and will energise the game around the world, but players, however grateful for IPL and, in the future, EPL cash, still know that they will be judged by their record as Test players. The ECB might well make some concessions to their contracted players re the IPL, but a lot depends on how plans for an EPL develop. Until those are clear we need to hold fire.
Some of your peers have been playing beach cricket Down Under. Would it interest you?
The second word is "off".
How did you feel about Prince William's recent flying antics?
Can't fault him. His equipment is a bit too modern for me – you can't beat the old Tiger Moth for real flying – but I like his spirit!
Michael Atherton, meanwhile, has also been dealing with emails, this time those that have come in to him at the Times Online, having just completed his first full week as chief cricket correspondent for the Times.
May 4, 2008
Posted 1 week ago in English cricket
In the Sunday Times, Richard Rae meets the Barbados-born Surrey fast bowler Chris Jordan, who at 19 is already impressing good judges.
Dennis Lillee, who saw Jordan bowl in Perth last winter, has no doubt he will play Test cricket. The question is, for which country? Like Kevin Pietersen before him, Jordan needs to fulfil the residency qualification, meaning he will not be eligible to play for England until 2010.
If they have any sense, West Indies will come calling long before then. If they do, Jordan faces a difficult decision. “I’m a Barbadian and I would have loved to play my cricket in the West Indies, but England has given me opportunities. This is where I’m playing my cricket, I feel comfortable here. It could be hard to choose.
May 1, 2008
Posted 1 week, 3 days ago in English cricket
Being backward in coming forward with his opinions is one charge you could never level at Geoffrey Boycott. In the Daily Telegraph he pours forth his opinions on life, the universe and everything… almost. First in his sights is Darrell Hair’s return to umpiring for the first time since Ovalgate in 2006:
The best umpires have a rapport with the players, but Hair's bullying tactics were never going to earn him any respect. Without wishing to rake over old coals, I thought Hair was wrong at the Oval. He was too hasty and too inflexible. Now he has had time to sit down and reflect, I hope he will come back as a better umpire and a better communicator. I have no dislike of the man, nor do I want to see him hounded out of the game.
Here is a sample of his thoughts on another comeback, Andrew Flintoff’s potential return for England:
Flintoff can't be Roy of the Rovers all the time. And let's face it, do we really need him in the side to beat these New Zealanders?
And he pours forth on a hot topic - Twenty20:
There has been plenty of cobblers spoken and written about Twenty20 overtaking Test cricket - a format that has been around for 130 years, and survived wars, revolutions and match-fixing scandals. For me, it's not going to happen. Or, at least, it shouldn't, as long as the people who run the game get their act together.
April 30, 2008
Posted 1 week, 4 days ago in English cricket
Christopher Martin-Jenkins writes in the Times that while Twenty20 may be dazzling all, Test cricket will stand the test of time (pun intended). He calls on history to give us a few lessons for the present and says the ECB could restructure its domestic competition to embrace Twenty20, the game it marketed first, even further.
I suggest three competitions: the County Championship, the bedrock; one 50-over tournament, starting as a league, leading to quarter-finals and semi-finals and a Lord's final; and a regular weekend Twenty20 league, allowing each club a home game every fortnight. For television, that would mean a couple of big matches each weekend to rival football's Premier League; for most clubs, it would guarantee mean ample television and gate revenue; for players, a four-day game in most but not all weeks and a high-profile one-day match each weekend.
This is, after all, just the latest shift in a sport that has always mirrored social trends. Packer's cricket in coloured clothes was innovative, it seemed, but they had played in coloured kit, albeit rather more tasteful, in the 18th century. Nor were 20-overs-a-side matches anything new when they were presented in fresh new clothes by the counties five years ago. I played them on summer evenings in the 1960s. It was just as much fun: matches were always vital and competitive.
Even the marketing of the game is old. William Clarke, of Nottingham, was every bit as much an entrepreneur with his touring England XIs in the 1840s as Lalit Modi is in 2008.
Meanwhile, Jon Culley caught up with Nottinghamshire’s new player Stuart Broad for The Independent ahead of his Notts debut. He finds, like many before, that Broad has a calm head on his young shoulders. While Broad realises that he will be forever associated with Yuvraj Singh hitting six sixes from him, he shrugs it off. His chilled-out approach belies his youth and he’s just enjoying playing Test cricket for now, and learning as much as he can.
April 29, 2008
Posted 1 week, 5 days ago in English cricket
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Will Steve Harmison cruise the easy road with Durham or fight back into the England side?
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Steve James in the Daily Telegraph looks at what role Steve Harmison can play in England's future.
Harmison's progress from now on will be intriguing. He has been copping flak from all directions. But I was impressed by an interview he gave before Durham's first Friends Provident Trophy match of the season against Yorkshire. Too often he has not helped himself in such situations, speaking over-emotionally and appearing to rid himself of cricketing responsibility. But here he was upbeat and clear. "I wouldn't be playing for Durham if I did not think I could play for England," he said cheerfully and defiantly.
It was a good comment for two reasons. Firstly there are too many cricketers playing out time in county cricket with no ambition to play for England. There is, of course, a vital balance to be struck between experience and youth in any team, let alone a county side, but that should not be confused with the pointless tending of dead wood. Secondly, such a long-term scenario is a much-discussed worry - albeit mostly in private - about Harmison now. Will he cruise until the end of his central contract in September and then head for the easy road with Durham thereafter?
Posted 1 week, 5 days ago in English cricket
Christopher Martin-Jenkins is leaving The Times and, as a parting gift to his many fans, he lists 25 of his favourite moments covering the sport.
1981
Headingley. This has to be the Dom Perignon 2000. The match that England could not win but did. Ian Botham's wonderfully free-spirited innings and Bob Willis's sensational fast bowling on a horribly tricky pitch on the last day. As in 2005, the matches that followed, at Edgbaston and Old Trafford, were scarcely less inspiring.
1985
Edgbaston in glorious weather and more Aussie bashing. David Gower in supreme form, ten wickets in the match for Richard Ellison, and Edmonds and Emburey in harness.
April 27, 2008
Posted 2 weeks ago in English cricket
England might have a new Troy Cooley on their hands, reckons Steve James in today's Sunday Telegraph, with the appointment of the relatively unknown Richard Halsall as their national fielding coach. Inevitably, thoughts turn to England's weakest fielder and what Halsall can do to help Monty Panesar:
Halsall's ideas are refreshing; his thoughts frankly articulated. Take my question about what to do with Monty Panesar, surely his biggest problem child in the England side.
"I will look to overload his practice and put him under more pressure," he says confidently. "I haven't met the bloke yet - only to say hello - but from all the things I've been told, he's got massive hands and never drops the ball in practice. But he obviously drops them in games. At first I'll probably show him clips of him being poor - to give him a reality check. I wouldn't let any practice situation with Monty become comfortable. I do a lot of sensory deprivation stuff where I actually put a patch on the player's eye. My idea is that if Monty is taking catches with me on a Monday before a Test with his non-dominant hand, and with only one eye, then he should be OK in front of thousands on the Thursday."
April 26, 2008
Posted 2 weeks, 2 days ago in English cricket
Forget the notion that playing for England is the only thing that matters to Michael Vaughan and his side, says the Independent's Angus Fraser. Taking a look at a recent survey by the Professional Cricketers Association, which shows that 35 per cent of those picked to play Test and one-day cricket would consider retiring from the international game prematurely to sign up for the highly lucrative Indian Premier League, Fraser lends a shoulder to "the hundreds of thousands of cricket fans who continue to spend a small fortune supporting the national side both at home and abroad".
April 25, 2008
Posted 2 weeks, 2 days ago in English cricket
Today's Guardian carries an archive obituary of Jim Laker by John Arlott 22 years after the former England spinner died. Arlott, who was cricket correspondent for the Guardian between 1968 and 1980, paid handsome tribute to Laker and carried some short anecdotes, such as the following:
He once asked me how many strides he took in his run-up to the wicket - "Sometimes four, sometimes five, sometimes six." "Well," he said, "you have missed four-and-a-half, five-and-a-half, and the little rock." He had so many arcs of flight - and none of them foreseeable by the batsman - that he took wickets through the air as well as off the pitch. Once that deadly off-spinner landed, though, it tugged at the earth and turned back savagely: or, just when the batsman thought himself used to that, it pitched and skidded and there was a catch to slip - and there was that twisted grin of satisfaction.
April 20, 2008
Posted 3 weeks ago in English cricket
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Duncan Fletcher and Andrew Flintoff during happier times
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| Steve James, in the Telegraph, reveals how Duncan Fletcher, the former England coach, has moved on after the fall-out arising from his controversial autobiography.
Fletcher is at home in Cape Town, "waiting for something interesting to come along", as he puts it. He's in no rush. He is also unusually philosophical. There have been offers of employment, but life has not been without its complications since his resignation from the England job a year ago yesterday.
Not being one to want sympathy, it's not a subject he talks about easily, but his delightful wife, Marina, has been unwell. Cricket has quite rightly been put on the back-burner. For long periods Fletcher has been in charge of domestic duties. For a dedicated family man - a proud grandfather now - it has been a difficult time. Thankfully the worst appears to have passed.
James also says that it was not Fletcher's intention to "humiliate" Andrew Flintoff after disclosing his problems with drinking.
As Fletcher's ghost-writer I know that he did not set out to humiliate Flintoff. Those close to the game know there was much, much more that could have been said. But Fletcher did feel horribly let down. Nobody in his entire life had disappointed him as much as Flintoff had on that last fateful Ashes trip.There were gripes aplenty in the book. Maybe I could have tempered them more. On more than one occasion Fletcher said to me: "I think I'm having too much of a go at people."
April 18, 2008
Posted 3 weeks, 2 days ago in English cricket
The traditional woollen cricket jumper has been cast off with nary a batted eyelid as the winds of change sweep through the clothing at international level. But Patrick Kidd, in The Times, pauses to pay tribute to a garment which has been interwoven in the fabric of the game for decades and decades in a news feature.
Another day, another hallowed cricket tradition falls. After matches that can be completed in three hours, cheerleaders, players auctioned to the highest bidder and pink balls, a further piece of iconoclasm occurred at Lord’s yesterday when the last rites were read for the cable-knit cricket sweater.
The Telegraph is up in arms, but at the same time resigned to the fact that change was inevitable.
April 17, 2008
Posted 3 weeks, 4 days ago in IPL
Many of the county reports in the media made the comparison that the cold start to the Championship is in some ways a metaphor for the shadow cast on the English game by the Indian Premier League. In The Guardian, Paul Kelso observes the knock-on effect of the IPL on the opening day at the Rose Bowl and finds Hampshire chairman Rod Bransgrove in fighting mood.
I think the challenge is to respond to the IPL. We invented this game, it's our game and we should be leading," said Bransgrove. "Hopefully the chairman and the board will found a vibrant, exciting Twenty20 competition in this country that will decide our players to stay, as well as attracting the best players from around the world to come here."
Geoffrey Boycott is typically forthright in The Telegraph and looks to the long term implications on central contracts, among other issues. In a must-read piece he is firstly sceptical about Allen Stanford’s potential Twenty20 match involving England players, calling it “a brilliant publicity stunt”. He calls for England’s two-Test series next year to be scrapped, while demanding the players are allowed in next year’s IPL, but not to play all of it so that they can play the first three county matches ahead of the Ashes:
if the players don't like the idea of missing half the IPL, the ECB have one big ace in the pack. They can come back and say: "You don't have to have a central contract at all. And we don't have to pick you." Once these lads stop getting international exposure, all their endorsement deals are worthless, no matter how many Indians are watching them in the IPL.
Continue reading "'We invented this game, it's our game'"
April 13, 2008
Posted 4 weeks ago in English cricket
While the focus of attention will be on India and the launch of the IPL, back in England the County Championship begins on Wednesday. The domestic game comes in for more than it's fair share of criticism, but the Championship has developed into a keenly fought competition where the quality has improved with two divisions. In The Sunday Telegraph, Steve James welcomes the new season by saying there is plenty of interest in what will happen.
At least the championship has the excuse of being mostly played on working days. So it has a mystifying multitude of hidden fans. They include the scourers of newspaper scorecards on the train to work; the Ceefax addicts ensconced on the sofa at home, and more recently, of course, the internet browsers sneaking a look in the workplace. Cricinfo, the leading cricket website, says that its county cricket site recorded a remarkable 26-million page views during the 2007 season.
April 11, 2008
Posted on 04/11/2008 in English cricket
The famous Wisden Almanack still has its place, says Mike Selvey in the Guardian, and is about more than handing out a few prizes every year. Selvey praises the collection of comments, in particular the appraisals of the careers of the trio of geniuses who retired during 2007, but doesn't quite agree with editor Scyld Berry's idea that "physical violence is threatening to take over the traditional non-contact sport of cricket".
Wisden's real strength lies in the chronicling of the world game and especially in the articles - always imaginatively commissioned, well written and meticulously edited - and the oddments at the end of the book. And yet, in a cricket world increasingly in ferment, this brick of a book still represents something reassuringly steadfast, its spring arrival always a portent of things to come as much as a document of those past, even the primrose cover seeming to offer subliminal hope, forlorn more often than not, of a summer of unrelenting sun.
April 10, 2008
Posted on 04/10/2008 in English cricket
Proof that some people have too much time on their hands. Professor Paul Boyle, from the University of St Andrews in Fife, has delved into the lifespans of England's Test cricketers and found that those who have played more than 25 Tests have a life expectancy of 80 years while those who have played fewer than 25 live on average to be 73.
In the Daily Telegraph, he writes that:
“One suggestion is that they benefited from the kudos they earned and this stayed with them for the rest of their lives, meaning they were less likely to be stressed and suffer ill-health."
In a far-from shattering conclusion, he adds that captains live no longer than non captains.
April 8, 2008
Posted on 04/08/2008 in English cricket
Andrew Strauss writes about the legacy of his former coach Duncan Fletcher in the Wisden Almanack. Read it in the Times
I defy any recent player to stand up and say he didn't learn anything from Duncan Fletcher, whether he played one Test or a hundred ... Prior to the 2005 Ashes series, Fletcher came up to me stating that he thought I needed to work on my method against Shane Warne. Being slightly pig-headed, I replied that rather than change anything before the series started I would prefer to see whether my technique worked first. I was running back for advice and guidance two Tests into the series.
April 6, 2008
Posted on 04/06/2008 in English cricket
The English season kicks off with MCC playing the champion county, Sussex, at Lord's next week to kickoff the English season. However, "the main subject of discussion in both dressing rooms, however, will not be the match, or how splendid Lord's is looking, or the impending domestic season. It will be of the IPL and where it is leading us," says Stephen Brenkley in the Independent.
All hell is being let loose out there. Every cricketer in England – and beyond – is talking about the advent of the Indian Premier League, how they might get a piece of the action and instructing their agent, if they have one, to check if there might be a contract available. There are millions of dollars swilling around the game and cricketers – some of them – will be rich beyond their dreams and perhaps be the objects of adulation not seen since, well, W G.
But MCC are still playing the champion county. Oh to be in England now that April's there. It is a safe bet, given the rapidity of events, that in 2108 the season's curtain-raiser willnot be a first-class match at Lord's between MCC and the champion county. MCC may still exist; not so the champion county. Doubtless Lord's will host some Twenty20 festival match for charity. It may not take a century, but more like a year.
Posted on 04/06/2008 in English cricket
Dimitri Mascarenhas will be England's only representative when the IPL kicks off in two week's time after signing with Shane Warne's Jaipur franchise. Mascarenhas's England team-mates can only watch on enviously. In the Sunday Telegraph, Steve James looks at the man who is the first, but certainly won't be the last, to follow a path to riches and the impact it will have.
Here meetings are being held, statements made and gossip garnered. Shame that caution and compromise are county cricket's time-honoured watchwords. So probably best not to hold your breath about any great structural change. After all, Twenty20's invention was a blip in the conservatism; where marketeers prevailed over the majority of the cricketing fraternity.
Amid this maelstrom Mascarenhas's role appears refreshingly clear. To rake in the cash, you might argue. There is that. But what about experiencing the frisson of a world-class tournament? What about actually being quite good at this super-abbreviated form of the game?
Put simply, Mascarenhas is our best man for this job; the perfect revolutionary. Only a fully fit and available Andrew Flintoff would be better suited.
Posted on 04/06/2008 in English cricket
Simon Jones was facing the prospect of early retirement after losing his ECB central contract and being offered a reduced deal by Glamorgan following long-running injury problems since the 2005 Ashes. Now, though, he is preparing for the new season with Worcestershire and still has ambitions to return to England colours. And the key to his recovery? Troy Cooley, the former England fast-bowling coach who left after the 2005 Ashes and returned to Australia. Jones spoke to Bill Day from the Mail on Sunday.
I've been sending video footage for Troy to inspect my bowling action after recovery from my knee injury...He was building my confidence when, frankly, England were no longer keeping in touch.
I felt really disappointed that someone who had worked so hard for that Ashes win could be forgotten so soon. I wanted someone to believe in me, not kick me in the teeth. Troy did that, and so did Steve Rhodes, Worcestershire's cricket director, who said he wanted me, but only if I still had England ambitions.
April 2, 2008
Posted on 04/02/2008 in English cricket
Matt Pryor meets Mike Gatting who's undertaking his first desk job within the bowels of the ECB: managing director of cricket partnerships.
“That goes through from grassroots to first-class cricket,” Gatting said. “It encompasses MCC, PCA [the Professional Cricketers’ Association], [Lord’s] Taverners and charities, National Playing Fields Association, Sport England, premier leagues, age-group cricket, up to the first-class game. My first job was going round to all the first-class counties and talking to them about everything from issues with their county boards to academies and Kolpaks.”
But he has been at the other end of the scale, too. “I was down at a place called Englefield Green not so long ago, next to Wentworth Golf Club,” he said. “A guy had written to us to say ‘this is outrageous, we’ve got this funfair and it keeps ripping up our outfield.’ It’s one of these nice things; you go down and have a chat with the local council and hopefully there will be a compromise. So you do get out and about a bit.”
Read the full story at the Times
March 29, 2008
Posted on 03/29/2008 in English cricket
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Shane Warne in action for his beloved Hampshire
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Shane Warne, who retired from first-class cricket last week, bids farewell to Hampshire in his latest column for The Times:
After eight years, four of them as captain, I cannot just draw a line under what has been one of the happiest parts of my life. In cricket it is not only the games you play that are important, or even the victories you achieve, but the people you meet along the way. Some of my team-mates will remain friends for life.
Dimi Mascarenhas is one example. He spent a fortnight here in Melbourne recently and I am looking forward to playing alongside him again - and watching his big-hitting - when he comes over to Jaipur. I have also become close to Shaun Udal and John Crawley, guys I knew only as opponents before 2000.
Without getting a lot of silverware, we have become pretty successful on the field. I wanted to help to create a strong environment and to instil the character in the side that would give the young players the best chance of going on to play for England, and then be successful when they take that step upwards.
March 27, 2008
Posted on 03/27/2008 in English cricket
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Ryan Sidebottom was the difference between the two sides
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While applauding the memorable come-from-behind series victory in New Zealand, the English papers point out several weaknesses in the team that should not be overlooked.
Mike Selvey writes in the Guardian:
This has been an indifferent winter, poor team performances outweighing some fine individual ones. Much thought will be needed before England and New Zealand resume round two in early May. Primarily the top-order batting remains in turmoil …
Alastair Cook needs considerable work outside off-stump, Michael Vaughan had a dreadful time … Strauss struggled until the last innings of the series, when his determination wrenched an innings, while Bell's capacity to squander talent will no doubt still infuriate
Continue reading "A short step in the right direction"
March 24, 2008
Posted on 03/24/2008 in English cricket
In The Daily Telegraph Derek Pringle casts a sympathetic eye over Marcus Trescothick’s decision to retire from international cricket.
It will seem unthinkable to most sport lovers how playing cricket for your country can cripple a man so, especially one of the finest batsmen of his generation. But modern cricket entails a life lived on the road, one less acceptable now that families are no longer content to subjugate themselves to the employment needs of the paterfamilias.
Now, he will see out his cricketing dotage playing for Somerset, a modest stage for his exceptional talent but indisputably the right one for a healthier state of mind.
March 23, 2008
Posted on 03/23/2008 in English cricket
Mike Atherton, writing in the Telegraph, looks back the career of Marcus Trescothick.
At his first Test at Old Trafford in 2001, we hurried down the pavilion steps together for the first time as England openers. I had asked him if he wanted to face first ball or not, as I usually did with my new opening partners. He shrugged his shoulders and said he wasn't bothered, as if he had not a care in the world. Things must have seemed so simple for him then.Seven years and a thousand hotel rooms, plane journeys and practice sessions later the world is a more complicated place.
Stephen Brenkley shares his memories of Trescothick in the Independent.
The stress-related illness that was diagnosed has relented but never disappeared. A few days ago, he reached the airport in order to travel on Somerset's pre-season tour to Dubai. The old sensations invaded his thoughts again. He went home.
Posted on 03/23/2008 in English cricket
"Out of position and out of form, Andrew Strauss cuts a forlorn figure at the moment. Batting is a lonely business at the best of times". Read the article by Mike Atherton in the Telegraph. Strauss was unbeaten on 42 at the end of the day 2 in the Napier Test.
Having brought Strauss back, with what to some was unseemly haste, it is unlikely that, if the axe does fall, the selectors will act with the same swift kindness again. A spell in the wilderness awaits. All this adds up to a lot of pressure second time around in Napier. Strauss may not be playing for his career, but he probably feels he is, which amounts to just about the same thing.
March 22, 2008
Posted on 03/22/2008 in English cricket
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Plunkett has a life-altering decision to make
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Liam Plunkett says he would be willing to sacrifice his England career if he meant he could donate one of his kidneys to his father. Alan Plunkett has suffered with polycystic kidney disease since his twenties and Liam is the only member of his family with a suitable kidney.
“So far he’s turned it down because he doesn’t want me to sacrifice my England career for him but if it comes to the crunch, then I will definitely do it. Playing for England is a fantastic honour,” said Liam. “But if I had to give it up tomorrow, it wouldn’t even be a scratch compared to helping out my dad.”
Read the full interview at gazettelive.co.uk
March 21, 2008
Posted on 03/21/2008 in English cricket
The tunnels beneath Lord's, two of which used to carry tube trains, could be converted into indoor nets or used as walkways to cope with pedestrian congestion which is expected to increase dramatically in the next ten years.
David Batts, the MCC deputy chief executive, said: "It would be great to turn them into something useful.One of the main planks of our masterplan for Lord's is to create a cricket academy. We need new indoor nets and there is no reason why they shouldn't be underground like the ones at the Oval.
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"There are alternatives: the tunnels could become a storage facility, a car park, or a health club. We are receiving proposals from architects and we will come up with a shortlist over the next couple of weeks."
The tunnels used to house trains on the Metropolitan and Jubilee lines. A third tunnel still functions, carrying trains from Marylebone to Birmingham.
Read the full story in today's Daily Telegraph.
Posted on 03/21/2008 in English cricket
The dearth of accommodation in the immediate vicinity of Durham's Riverside might be a distant memory in a few years, with the news that Mike Roseberry, the former Middlesex and Durham batsman, is to build a large hotel.
Having secured planning permission for the venture, about 10 minutes’ drive from the Chester-le-Street Riverside ground – home of Durham County Cricket Club – the former Durham captain is in talks with developers.
This is the latest venture for Roseberry Leisure, which boasts a turnover of £8m from its 12 pubs, three workingmen’s clubs, hotel, 3,000-seat event arena, 120-acre equestrian centre and building firm.
“This is an excellent location. It will prove popular with the business traveller, being next to one of the region’s premier business parks. It could also prove to be a popular venue for cricket teams and cricket fans.”
It will be competing with upmarket hotels in Durham and Chester-le-Street. The England team has used Ramside Hall, Durham, when playing at Chester-le-Street in the past.
nebusiness has the full story.
Posted on 03/21/2008 in English cricket
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It is not just the way Stuart Broad bowls that is striking, it is the manner in which he conducts himself both on and off the pitch
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"There are players who put on their England kit for the very first time and, for whatever reason, it just looks right. It is hard to describe why but the sweater, shirt and cap seem to fit. They appear at home. Stuart Broad is one of them," writes Angus Fraser in the Independent.
He [Broad] enjoys goading an opponent and taking them on because he backs himself to get the better of the contest. There have been times when such an approach has not come off, like when he was smacked for six sixes in an over by India's Yuvraj Singh in last year's Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa. Such a mauling would have broken quite a few bowlers but Broad just dusted himself down and went off to the next game. In the one-day series that followed, only two weeks after Singh's fireworks, he showed his character. In five matches Broad took 11 wickets against Sri Lanka at an average of 17.5, conceding just over four runs an over.
March 20, 2008
Posted on 03/20/2008 in English cricket
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Matthew Hoggard claimed a solitary wicket while conceding 151 runs during the Hamilton Test, after which he was dropped
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| Matthew Hoggard, in his column in the Times, says being left out the England team for the Wellington Test came out of the blue, adding that it was a "harsh decision."
The last time I wrote one of these columns I spoke of how much I was looking forward to playing in the second Test in Wellington. A few hours later I was dropped, which goes to show that you can never take anything for granted. So I have got to make sure that I am physically and mentally prepared to step straight back in for the deciding Test, if required. If not, I will have to make sure that I perform my duties as twelfth man and drinks waiter to the best of my abilities.
I was chuffed that the lads squared the series in Wellington, but I will not pretend that it was easy looking on from the sidelines. It is bad enough watching when you are injured, but worse still when you have been left out. You do not know where to put yourself in the dressing-room. It hurt like hell to be dropped. Playing for England is the biggest honour in the game, something I am aware of every time I pull on the shirt, and I will be doing everything I can to get back in the team as soon as possible.
He continues…
The ones I feel really sorry for are my family, who had flown for 26 hours to watch me play in Wellington. I could not help but feel that I had let them down.
Meanwhile the Sun's John Etheridge reveals Owais Shah's frustration at being continually left out of England's playing XI.
March 17, 2008
Posted on 03/17/2008 in English cricket
It's not often that the selectors get it right, but in ruthlessly dropping Harmison and Hoggard, they played a masterstroke, writes Vic Marks in the Guardian.
After the Hamilton debacle it was generally agreed that someone would have to go - and that someone would be Steve Harmison. But the simultaneous dropping of Matthew Hoggard took most by surprise.
A great deal will depend on the result in Napier as to how England's winter will be perceived, writes Simon Wilde in the Times:
It is the men with the new faces, untainted by the catastrophe in Australia last winter, who have enhanced their reputations ... Ryan Sidebottom, Stuart Broad and Tim Ambrose to name but three. Of the famed Ashes winners of 2005, life has been less rich.
There has been little joy for Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Strauss, Matthew Hoggard or Steve Harmison. Hoggard and Harmison are ending the winter outside the XI and have just watched James Anderson and Broad bowl England to victory with control and skill. Hoggy and Harmy may be back, but they may not. Napier may tell us that.
Having spent some time at the Basin Reserve over the weekend I’d have to say many of the memories indelibly etched in my memory come back to one group of people: the English (and occasionally Welsh) fans, writes Paul Holden in his blog on the Stuff website.
The English fans know how to support - their backing of their team is undiminished no matter how hopeless the state of play appears, or how many runs Monty Panesar leaks whilst trying to be hidden at mid-on. Their pain threshold knows levels much higher than any this NZ side can possibly inflict in a three-Test series.
March 16, 2008
Posted on 03/16/2008 in English cricket
In the Guardian Vic Marks describes an edgy and windy day at the Basin Reserve where England made several fielding errors.
Collingwood was insecure at second slip; this time Alastair Cook was unable to cling on to a blinder. And, of course, England donated their usual quota of overthrows. Graeme Swann came on as a sub and needlessly, laughably, threw the ball over Tim Ambrose's head for four. Farcical fielding, except that the bowler, Ryan Sidebottom, wasn't laughing.
All this and having to cope with Brendon McCullum as well. Early on he survived a confident appeal for a bat-pad catch to gully off the increasingly red-faced Sidebottom. It looked a good shout but Umpire Koertzen could hear nothing. How could he with this wind belting down the pitch?
David Gower is impressed by the batting skills of England's new wicketkeeper, Tim Ambrose. He writes in the Times:
What he gave England, especially on Thursday, was fight. He was able to lead a genuine counterattack to the extent that Paul Collingwood at the other end was able to play the less exuberant role without any sense that he, the senior player, had to make the running. The partnership seems to work. Collingwood was also able to show the new man how to play those same problem deliveries, getting himself into line better to allow him to get bat on ball more often.
Michael Atherton believes if England go on to win the Test, it will be because Ambrose's hundred. He writes in the Telegraph:
It was a hundred laced with good shots, mostly in that infuriating arc for bowlers and captains between backward point and third man. His cutting, in particular, was as impressive as anything we have seen since - well, since Andrew Strauss was in his pomp (sadly, a fading memory) - and it was the most important batting contribution by an England wicketkeeper since Geraint Jones joined Andrew Flintoff in a match-winning partnership at Trent Bridge three years ago.
March 14, 2008
Posted on 03/14/2008 in English cricket
In The Times Christopher Martin-Jenkins pulls no punches in putting forward his views on the ECB’s plans for Twenty20 cricket this coming summer, describing them as a “knee-jerk” reaction to the IPL.
Presumably he [ECB chairman] Giles Clarke is motivated by a desperation to generate enough new television money (Sony paid £500million for ten years for the IPL rights) to be able to pay the England team even more to keep them free of the IPL's clutches.
Praising the Twenty20 Cup as “the ECB's greatest marketing success and a boon to all 18 first-class clubs, not least because their supporters, including some new ones attracted by the format, identify closely with the local team”, Martin-Jenkins believes tinkering with the format is “overkill” that will “only confuse”.
Posted on 03/14/2008 in English cricket
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Michael Henderson: Vaughan has proved an outstanding leader and it is important for English cricket that he stays in charge for as long as his bones can bear it
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"By now England were supposed to be the best cricket team in the world," says Angus Fraser in the New Zealand Herald. "Well, that was the view of the tens of thousands of celebrating England supporters who gathered in Trafalgar Square the day after Michael Vaughan's side regained the Ashes in 2005 and the England and Wales Cricket Board who basked in the glory and made bold predictions of world domination. It has not quite worked out like that."
Then came the Ashes, a victory that made every player feel like a superstar. MBEs were handed out as if they were sweets at a primary school and Andrew Flintoff was named as the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year. In the aftermath, the players saw an opportunity to capitalise on their success and make loads of money. Appearances were made here, endorsements signed there and suddenly the focus turned outward. The complete overreaction of the English media and everyone associated with English cricket probably led some players to believe that a lifetime's work had been completed. So the starting point of the slide was the focus of the team.
"[Michael] Vaughan must now rely on younger men, the [Stuart] Broads and [James] Andersons, to get England out of the hole they dug for themselves," writes Michael Henderson in the Telegraph. "If, however, they fail to respond to his leadership, he may be forced to look at his own position, which is not something any captain wants to be doing with another Ashes contest no more than 15 months away."
March 9, 2008
Posted on 03/09/2008 in English cricket
Last summer Allan Donald was the man who had the problem of trying to sort out Steve Harmison as he began his spell as England bowling coach. By all accounts he was making a good impression - hardly surprising for someone with 330 Test wickets - but when it came to taking the job full time he said 'no thanks'. After a brief spell back in the media he returned to coaching with Warwickshire, the county where he made his name as a lightening young quick. George Dobell from the Birmingham Post caught up with him and found a man very content with his decision.
"To be honest with you, I wouldn’t have taken the England job even if this role at Warwickshire hadn’t come up," Donald says. "Working with the England team was fantastic. I thoroughly enjoyed it and feel I made a positive impact. And, I have to say, the ECB were brilliant. They are a highly professional organisation and, in many ways, everything about the job was great.
"But I’ve been on the road for years. At some stage you have to put the family first. I want to see my children grow up.
Posted on 03/09/2008 in English cricket
Rarely have England looked so devoid of energy as they plunged to a miserable defeat in Hamilton, writes Vic Marks in the Guardian.
This line-up was once regarded as aggressive in the modern mould. Occasionally such tigerish aggression might backfire. That happens. But now they bat like poodles.
Read Cricinfo's view by Andrew Miller.
Only two innings have elapsed since they were bundled out for 81 by Chaminda Vaas at Galle, and when they've not been getting out, they've been getting bogged down instead, as their disgracefully slow first innings testifies.
Also check Mike Atherton, in the Sunday Telegraph, trying to address the Harmison question.
Meanwhile in the Sunday Times Simon Wilde salutes Ryan Sidebottom.
His great service to English cricket is that he has reminded everyone of the simple virtue of putting the ball in the right place and asking the batsman to play it. As Steve Harmison has demonstrated, speed alone is not enough.
March 7, 2008
Posted on 03/07/2008 in English cricket
Kevin Pietersen has cut a detached and perturbed figure through campaigns on three different continents and all he has had to show for it is a one-day trophy for beating Sri Lanka and a batting average slumming it in the low thirties, writes Simon Wilde in the Times.
External factors may have contributed to his mood. Tours of Sri Lanka and New Zealand may not be ones to get his creative juices flowing. He prefers the really big stages and the really big needle matches. His record against Australia is outstanding and it is hard to imagine him staying in the shadows come the series against South Africa this summer.
Vic Marks, in the Guardian, writes that England's bowlers have lacked steam at Hamilton, especially Steve Harmison and Matthew Hoggard. The faster they ran in, the slower the ball departed down the sluggish pitch. Ryan Sidebottom, who lacks their pedigree, outbowled them by a disturbing margin.
Arnie, Ryan's father and a one-Test-wonder, popped up to the Test Match Special box yesterday, the right sort of proud dad. He has kept out of the way for most of Ryan's career; this was the first time he had seen him bowl in a Test match. Cheerful as ever he noted how "Mr Fletcher always wanted bowlers who bowled at more than 85mph. What he forgot to tell them was that they had to bowl at the stumps as well".
March 6, 2008
Posted on 03/06/2008 in IPL
John Emburey, the former England and Middlesex offspinner, has been appointed coach by one of the ICL franchises. Patrick Kidd finds out more in today's Times:
Emburey has signed a three-year contract with the Ahmedabad Rockets, who will be captained by Damien Martyn, the former Australia batsman, and include Murray Goodwin, the Sussex and Zimbabwe batsman, Wavell Hinds, of Derbyshire and West Indies, and Jason Gillespie, the former Australia fast bowler, who is due to play for Glamorgan.
Speaking to The Times from Chandigarh yesterday, Emburey said that he was relying on his core of senior players to lift the inexperienced young Indians in his team and added that there was no reason why the league could not coexist with the official Indian Premier League (IPL), which is backed by the Indian board.
“The competition between the two will be good for the game,” Emburey said. “People have been surprised how much financial impact the ICL can have. There are lots of companies out there interested in sponsoring it.”
Posted on 03/06/2008 in English cricket
In the concluding part of the Times' series of extracts from his latest book, Ed Smith asks if sportsmanship is indeed dead. Cheats never prosper, feels Smith, unless they play in the moral maze of modern-day sport.
Smith compares rugby, golf, and cricket, with a word about how conventions are always changing, and says that while some crimes are upgraded in our imagination, others are downgraded.
It is often argued that cheating is getting worse and sportsmanship is declining. But one fact often ignored is not only that rules change, but also that conventions evolve. In cricket, not so long ago, most batsmen (in theory anyway) claimed to “walk” - in other words, if they knew they had nicked a catch to the wicketkeeper, they did not wait for the umpire's decision. Only recently has “standing”, when you know you have edged the ball, become typical behaviour in the first-class game.
March 1, 2008
Posted on 03/01/2008 in English cricket
Peter Moores begins the Test series against New Zealand next week as a coach under pressure. England have lost their last two series - against India and Sri Lanka - and have slipped to No. 5 in the world. But Moores tells Brian Viner, in The Independent, that he isn't thinking about what has gone and is focussed on the challenge ahead.
"There are other things to worry about going into this Test series, key areas we need to improve in." Which are? "Well, the batters need to go on and get big scores, and the bowlers need to find more consistency." Which sounds a bit like a jockey saying he needs to get a lot better at riding, or a footballer admitting that his kicking needs serious work. Moreover, the challenges facing the Test side must have been brought into sharper focus by defeat in the one-dayers, different XI or not. Has that increased the resolve in the camp?
"No, the resolve was there anyway. Obviously, we're disappointed we didn't do better, but if you include the Twenty20 games then we've played them seven times, won three, lost three, with one tie. That's not so bad. And actually, the one-dayers already seem like a long way away."
February 20, 2008
Posted on 02/20/2008 in English cricket
John Inverdale in his excellent Daily Telegraph column ponders some other moments of sporting ignominy in the light of Bermuda women's losing inside four balls on Monday. He highlights the game which every stats-obsessed schoolboy football fanatic should recall – Bon Accord’s record 36-0 defeat by Arbroath in the Scottish FA Cup – and offers a new insight … they were actually a cricket club.
The invitation back then should have been sent to Orion FC in Aberdeen, but in a heartening reminder that misdirected post is not an invention of the recent past, it was sent inadvertently to the Orion Cricket Club. Obviously eyeing a spot as a trivial pursuit question in perpetuity, they decided to accept the offer of an away trip to Arbroath, called themselves Bon Accord FC, and arrived without kit or, as history recounts, much talent.
Reading about the match, an enduring image is of the Arbroath goalkeeper called James Milne, who clearly served as an inspiration for Steve McLaren all those years later, because he borrowed an umbrella from a spectator and sheltered beneath it during the match as the rain lashed down on his penalty area while all the action took place at the other end.
February 17, 2008
Posted on 02/17/2008 in English cricket
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Marcus Trescothick is on tour with Somerset as he rebuilds his life and career
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Marcus Trescothick is about to embark on his first overseas tour since he broke down in Australia with a stress-related condition. Peter Hayter, in the Mail on Sunday, finds out more:
And Trescothick, who last played for England in a one-day international against Pakistan in September 2006, admits: "I won't deny I am a little nervous about the prospect.
"I don't want to pre-empt anything, but I know the beast a bit better than I did when I had my troubles in Australia and India. I know the signs and how to work through them.
"I'm feeling well and things are pretty good, so I'm 95 per cent certain that the trip will be all right for me, but it's a big step and I'm not taking anything for granted."
Posted on 02/17/2008 in English cricket
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When it all went wrong: England let their passion overflow in the first two one-dayers
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England's morale-boosting win in Auckland was testament to a team at last thinking about their game, and not letting their emotions spill over - as happened in the previous two one-dayers. Mike Atherton writes in the Sunday Telegraph:
Paul Collingwood's young England team went through this Fleming-like rite of passage this week at Hamilton and Auckland. At Hamilton, defending a pitiful total, and having been given a last-minute blast by Collingwood in the now-familiar on-field huddle, England came out snarling, looking for a fight. After every delivery of Ryan Sidebottom's first over, Jesse Ryder was surrounded by a phalanx of fielders with plenty to say. James Anderson backed this up at the other end with a barrage of bouncers, and when Owais Shah dropped Ryder at slip, Sidebottom let rip such a howl of anguish it looked like his head would explode.
For a while this was an England team out of control and in schoolyard bully-mode. No one could accuse them of not caring, or not trying, but they were certainly not thinking. Within two overs, it was clear from the sidelines that the bouncer ploy was misguided and that Brendon McCullum and Ryder were happy to feed off the bouncers to the short, square boundaries. Amid all the hoopla, nobody had the wherewithal to step back from the fray, calm things down and demand a different plan of attack. It was as brainless, as witless a passage of play, as it is possible to see. The intention was to rattle New Zealand, but it was England themselves who were rattled.
England's recovery, for want of a better word, wasn't due to extra nets or a physical thrashing by their New Zealand fitness coach. It was, as Stuart Broad tells Atherton, all about talking:
"It was an open floor. It was a case of has anyone got anything to say because that wasn't good enough and we're going to sort it out now. Colly [Paul Collingwood] had some words. KP [Kevin Pietersen] had some words. And we were just open. Then we sat own in Auckland and vowed to sort it out and come out fighting. It proves what honesty can do."
"I'm happy to contribute to those sorts of forums. The way we did it was very good, splitting up into groups and discussing things. It gets the younger lads involved so that you're not just sat in the corner frightened to say anything. You can get your view across without feeling under pressure to say anything and that's what's fantastic about this team. Everyone is good friends with everyone.
Posted on 02/17/2008 in English cricket
13 months have passed since the Schofield Review dissected English cricket’s failings but, says Stephen Brenkley in the |
