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Dancing to Giles Clarke's materialistic tune

Will Andy Flower be the next England coach? © Getty Images

Why are the ECB wasting money on a head-hunting firm to help find them a new national coach, Simon Wilde wonders in the Times.

There simply aren't that many people out there with the necessary qualifications, as is plain from the job description taking up large amounts of space on the board's website. A prime motivation for bringing in outsiders to draw up the initial shortlist is, of course, to avoid the accusation - levelled when Peter Moores was appointed - that the appointment might in any way be not thorough, or an "inside job".

But I can think of only one scenario in which this becomes an embarrassment, and that is if Andy Flower, who is effectively filling in as coach during the West Indies tour, gets the full-time gig. Were that to happen, with the involvement of an outside agency, Flower would immediately start work in a weakened state, undermined by the charge that he had been chosen on a nod and a wink by people he already knows at the board.

He also pleads for a better balance between ball and bat.

Test cricket's great selling point is supposed to be that it tests participants to the limit, yet in reality any Tom, Dick or Harry can score a Test match century these days. Pitches are routinely like motorways and refuse to break up over five days, genuinely fast bowlers are few and far between, because their shins and spines have been fractured by the demands of bowling on concrete surfaces, and most outfields are smoother than a supermodel's Brazilian.

Should Andrew Flintoff play in the IPL?

Giles Clarke: he sees material things like product, he doesn't see human aspects like soul © Getty Images

In the Daily Telegraph Simon Hughes digests Giles Clarke’s bullish media fightback earlier this week. Referring to Clarke’s prediction five years ago that by 2008 "everyone will have digital TV or get live cricket via their mobiles or computers so the terrestrial versus satellite issue will be irrelevant" Hughes notes:

He has a pathological ability to believe what he says. But it hasn't happened. TV audiences for cricket are at best a third of what they were. No one that I know watches Tests on a computer or a mobile.
He does have drive and he does have ideas. That is to be applauded. But too much of it is whimsical and he has a habit of alienating people.

The conclusion will not go down well within the halls of the ECB.

Like most entrepreneurs, Clarke sees material things like product, he doesn't see human aspects like soul. Deals excite him. English cricket has been tossed about on the waves of financiers' egos. The whole Stanford deal was really Clarke blowing a big raspberry to Lalit Modi, the founder of the IPL, and an attempt to curry favour with his own players. Can he now really expect Andrew Flintoff not to play in the IPL when he is busy selling the game to the highest bidders?
All the while he has been building the (unpaid) chairman's role into something so powerful and consuming that few others would have the time or scope to do it. Getting back in was a fait accompli. So the game will continue to dance to his rhythm. After last week's humiliation, perhaps the beat will be less erratic from now on. But don't bank on it.

But, as Clarke himself said of his critics: “I discard those people”.

Stanford saga is the tip of the iceberg

Andrew Flintoff was bought by the Chennai Super Kings for $1.55 million © Getty Images

In the Guardian read the debate between Paul Nixon and Bob Taylor on whether Andrew Flintoff should play in the IPL.

Nixon: Beyond the Ashes, playing in the IPL will also set Freddie up for the next World Cup. As our performance in the last tournament showed, England still need to improve when it comes to playing in top-level limited overs matches and there is no better practice environment for this than the IPL, where the best players come up against the best players.
Taylor: Andrew more than anyone knows how big the Ashes are. His contribution to England's success in 2005 has defined his career and a similarly crucial display this year would rank Andrew as one of the greatest players England has ever had. He cannot risk missing out on that opportunity. What's more, if Andrew's on-going injury problems are as bad as they appear then this could be his last ever Ashes. Missing out could, therefore, be a disaster.

Oh just face it: you screwed up

Basing deals on a 'capacity to pay' implies a board prepared to sell the national side at any expense, writes Gideon Haigh in the Guardian.

Managing cricket is about preserving value as well as leveraging price. At a time when the ECB is earnestly seeking a replacement for Vodafone, it would be disastrous to give the impression that they will whore their cricket team to anyone with "capacity to pay" – and who would wish to be that sponsor? English cricket has been damaged by association with Stanford; it is now damaged by association with a chairman and chief executive who have such a narrow and technocratic understanding of their duties.

February 25, 2009

Posted on 02/25/2009 in English cricket

The effrontery of ECB's Giles Clarke and David Collier during the Stanford fiasco has been staggering on a number of levels, writes Lawrence Booth in the Guardian.

The effrontery is staggering on so many levels, the consistency of the logic shaky at best. Collier told BBC radio's Garry Richardson that there would have been an outcry if the ECB had looked Stanford's gift-horse in the mouth. Yet Stanford had already been turned away by India and South Africa, and hardly a peep of protest was heard from fans or administrators in those countries concerned about missing out on a giant pay-day. And if Collier really didn't think he had done anything wrong, why did he and Clarke even bother to discuss the issue of resignation?

Also read Nasser Hussain's interview with ECB chairman Giles Clarke in the Daily Mail.

NH: Let’s get into the Stanford affair. Did you do proper due diligence? One of his associates said the ECB were very naive not to raise concerns. It would have been easy to do so.
GC: Our job fundamentally was to see whether he could pay. There would have been nothing more shocking than to play the game and then nobody was paid. We aren’t financial service regulators. If these things were so simple why have the Securities Exchange Commission not taken the action they did considerably earlier? Their job is to protect investors. They didn’t. We are a national sporting body who were paid a sum of money for a match that was sanctioned and approved by the International Cricket Council. The West Indies board have been doing business with Stanford for many years.

February 22, 2009

ECB's imperial attitude has left English cricket in the cold

Posted on 02/22/2009 in English cricket

The Observer's chief sports writer, Kevin Mitchell, believes that the fear of a power shift towards India led the ECB to embrace Sir Allen Stanford. While the controversy surrounding the Texan's fraud charges wages on, Mitchell says that at the heart of the troubles lay the ECB attitude to India. Where other countries embraced the new big noise in the game, England balked.

The Sunday Times' Martin Johnson feels the ECB's disastrous flirtation with Stanford is having repercussions on the pitch.

There is still some way to go before cricket can hope to match football for greed and dishonesty, but it’s getting there. Graver issues are afoot than a fraudulent appeal for a catch, but it’s all part of the wider philosophy – so shamelessly embraced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) – of the end justifying the means. Otherwise, why, on the final day of the gripping Antigua Test match, did the England wicketkeeper triumphantly claim a catch, when the gap between ball and bat would have accommodated an Eddie Stobart lorry?

Simon Wilde, in the same newspaper, writes that the ECB bosses were seduced by Stanford's cash and took their eye off the ball.

Clarke and Collier may have been insufficiently mindful of the image of a game that is peculiarly wrapped up in morals. Football can be mired in as many financial scandals as it likes; cricket cannot. Stanford was simply too risky a venture. That should have been clear from the outset.

In the Independent on Sunday, Stephen Brenkley says it is a disgrace that the ECB is passing the buck.

Nick Cohen writes in the Observer that the on-field drama in Antigua couldn't hope to match the exposure of Stanford's rotten regime.

February 14, 2009

Bosses using 'player power' as cover-up

Posted on 02/14/2009 in English cricket

How many Ayes? How many Nays? © Getty Images

Ed Smith, in the Daily Telegraph, says the recent upheavals in the England cricket team and Chelsea football club indicate how weak bosses are using "player power" as a convenient excuse.

It’s player power, we are told, that is the real problem. Almost any crisis can be blamed on the modern players, with their big egos and eye on the big bucks, the precious stars who only look after number one and don’t leave home without their entourage of agents and hangers-on. Which begs the real question: if players are so untrustworthy and selfish, why are they pandered to by executives, boards and owners?

Player power is nothing unless it is allowed to be. You don’t hear about player power at Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal, or at Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United, or in Warren Gatland’s Wales.

Hugh Morris, the managing director of England cricket, admitted to having a “ring around” of the players before the removal of Kevin Pietersen and Peter Moores. How many successful captains or coaches would have survived a “ring around” at the wrong moment?, Smith asks.

February 11, 2009

England's sporting bodies worse than bankers

Posted on 02/11/2009 in English cricket

England's rugby and cricket teams appear to be bound together on the same spiralling run downwards to ignominy, says Jim White in the Daily Telegraph.

From the highs of winning the Rugby World Cup in 2003 and the Ashes in 2005, both teams are now so bereft of confidence and hope that the coming weekend looks about as appetising as Antony Worrall Thompson’s balance sheet. Never mind dreaming that we might be the match of New Zealand and Australia, we are about to be hammered by Wales and the West Indies.

There are more theories right now for the dual decline than runs posted on the Sabina Park scoreboard. The rush for celebrity, the rush for money, the rush for excuses: all have been blamed. Yet it is hard to see what is going on as anything other than an exhibition of corporate incompetence on a level we had thought was restricted to the boardrooms of city institutions.

Are England better off without Flintoff?

Posted on 02/11/2009 in English cricket

Not the talisman of old? © Getty Images

He might be regarded as England's talisman, but Andrew Flintoff's not been at his best since 2005 and the team's Test record is better without him, Lawrence Booth says in his latest post on the Guardian website.

The facts are these. Since Flintoff made his debut at Headingley in 1998, he has played in 72 of a possible 131 Tests (excluding the game for the World XI). With him, England win less than 39% of their matches and lose 33%. Without him, they win 45% and lose 32%. When you consider that he missed three Ashes trouncings (in 1998-99, 2001 and 2002-03) at a stage of his career when he was still some way off becoming the titan who bestrode the 2005 Ashes, it's fair to say those stats could be even worse. Again, this is not to say England should drop Flintoff. Far from it. It's simply to get a few things in perspective.

Another thing. Flintoff last scored a Test hundred and took five wickets in an innings during that 2005 series - one that marked the end of an 18-month golden spell for England's supposed heir to Ian Botham. Since then, he has averaged under 30 with the bat and not far off 34 with the ball. Even taking injuries into account, these are not the stats of a world-class all-rounder.

In the Guardian, Vic Marks says Monty Panesar should blend patience and parsimony to revive his fortunes. He feels Panesar showed some signs of improvement in Jamaica after a disappointing tour of India.

Panesar should take note of how Benn achieved his success (no West Indian spinner since Lance Gibbs has taken eight wickets in a Test match). This may not be the fashionable response to Panesar's problems (most crave that he magically becomes a modern-day Bishen Bedi) and it is a rather prosaic one: he needs to be more miserly, to bowl more maidens and the wickets will eventually follow.

Nick Hoult throws up a few more numbers in the Daily Telegraph.

3 The number of Tests (out of 20) that England have won since the 2005 Ashes with Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff in the side.

10 The number of Tests (out of 21) that England have won since the 2005 Ashes without Flintoff in the side. Pietersen has played all 41 Tests in that time.

13 The number of Tests (out of 20) that England have lost with Pietersen and Flintoff in the side since the 2005 Ashes.

February 10, 2009

England desperately need a manager

Posted on 02/10/2009 in England in West Indies 2008-09

Andrew Strauss could do with some support © AFP

The events of Saturday afternoon reflected more than just a momentary mental lapse. They suggested not just that a grim month for English cricket, when internecine warfare replaced any sense of team unity, has had a lasting effect, but also that there is a deeper malaise, one that has become increasingly apparent as England have stumbled along these past three years, says Michael Atherton in the Times.

The most fundamental issue of all is the absence of authority at the heart of the England team. We have a new captain and a temporary coach but whose hand is on the tiller, steering the team through a difficult period that poses such awkward challenges as the Indian Premier League (IPL)? For all the backroom staff with the team — masseurs, spin doctors, physiologists, you name it — there is one crucial position missing; that of a manager, a decision-maker who is ultimately responsible and ultimately accountable.

Suresh Menon feels it's not correct to blame the IPL for England's defeat. Read on in Espnstar.com

Usually it is the former players who missed out on the moolah who tend to sound all moralistic. Mr Graham Gooch loved to play for his beloved country so much that he was willing to chuck it all up and captain a rebel tour in South Africa, then banned from international cricket. He was banned for three years for placing money above country.

There's all this camaraderie in front of the cameras, but how genuine is it?, former England coach Duncan Fletcher asks in the Guardian. He feels the need for a head coach is important, since otherwise it leaves Andrew Strauss with a lot to handle.

Sure, not many dressing rooms can say they contain 11 happy chappies, but some get close. I used to talk in terms of a critical mass: if eight of the 11 guys get on well they can outweigh the influence of the three who may feel like they're on the outside. But as soon as that critical mass reaches 7–4 or 6–5 you have problems. I look at this side and wonder where we are at. Team spirit is not something that can be faked. It has to happen naturally.

Fletcher suggests Steve Harmison be dropped in favour of a second spinner and Owais Shah replace Ian Bell.

The one thing England can no longer afford to do is to stick with the status quo, says the Guardian's Mike Selvey.

Something has to give. In 1994 [the year England were bowled out for 46], determined that the selection merry-go-round that had characterised England cricket at that time should cease, Mike Atherton and Keith Fletcher kept faith with the same side and were rewarded. Times have changed. Continuity has been the norm, which is fine up to a point. But it has made some players bomb-proof and complacent. They dare not let things stand.

Kevin Pietersen's brilliant but truncated innings in Kingston will join the ranks of the game's memorable almost-hundreds, writes Michael Henderson on the Guardian website.

If Andy Flower is as tough as everyone says he is, he should demand the selectors recall Robert Key or Michael Vaughan, says David Hopps on the same website.

Stephen Brenkley expresses a similar view in the Independent.

Check out Patrick Kidd's 51 special quiz in his Line and Length blog on the Times website.

February 9, 2009

England locked in a time warp

Posted on 02/09/2009 in England in West Indies 2008-09

Several off-field issues are clouding England's progress. They are not in a rebuilding stage. There is no motivation to improve when they have more than a dozen backroom staff to analyse their techniques, put out the cones at training, and virtually wipe their bottoms for them, writes Geoff Boycott in the Telegraph.

It is time that England started putting the cricket first, not the whole circus that surrounds it. One of the big problems of the last year is that everything we have heard about the national side has been to do with money and politics. Meanwhile the cricket itself has become almost incidental, which I find rather sad.

In the Times, Michael Atherton writes that England's collapse at Sabina Park has brought back bad memories of Trinidad '94.

What was Paul Collingwood doing sprinting for a couple of runs when he had been bowled neck and crop by Jerome Taylor? In that moment, there was the reminder of Mark Ramprakash’s suicidal run-out in Trinidad 15 years before, the surest sign that the situation was about to overpower a group of players who were, mentally, not up to the task.

The post-mortem continues and Mike Selvey in the Guardian calls for immediate changes to the batting order. Time's running out for Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood and it's time to give Owais Shah a chance. Perhaps sending an SOS to Michael Vaughan won't be a bad idea.

Where do England go with this? They have the best part of a week to contemplate, with the second Test starting in Antigua on Friday. Flower has his work cut out. There are denials of disunity of any consequence in the ranks but there remains an impression of the PR shots of a smiling family leaning on the gate after a politician has been caught with his pants down. Something will have to give.

In the Daily Mail, Nasser Hussain writes that the unneccessary off-field distractions and constant backroom changes have contributed to England's heavy defeat.

Pietersen has had to travel around the West Indies with Hugh Morris, who was instrumental in removing him as captain, while Andrew Flintoff has been like a bear with a sore head with the press because they said he knifed his captain. There have to be tensions there. The priority has to be pulling on that England shirt.

James Lawton writes in the Independent:

When you compare his [Gayle's] lot to that of Andrew Strauss, inheritor of a situation that made a mockery of team organisation and any understanding of individual duty to a wider cause, it is enough, surely, to make English cricket lovers groan with a mixture of bitterness and disbelief.

Why? Because if their West Indian counterparts are seeing the miracle of renewal, new gusts of hope, and pride, what do English supporters see? It is something no less depressing than the entrenchment of decay and its agent complacency and – why avoid the reality? – greed.

It's a homecoming for Ottis Gibson, who's back in the West Indies as part of England's coaching staff. He talks to Haydn Gill in the Nation on his transition from being an international player to a coach.

"I am happy to say that I think I've got the respect of all the guys. They listen carefully to what I have to say. They challenge me sometimes. That's what you want as a coach. You don't want your word to be gospel all the time. You want people to have their own views."

February 8, 2009

Atherton all praise for the modern Ws

Posted on 02/08/2009 in English cricket

Shane Warne was the best of the lot, according to Michael Atherton © Getty Images

Speaking to Tony Becca in the Jamaica Gleaner, former England captain Michael Atherton says Shane Warne was "the outstanding cricketer of my generation".

He mastered the very difficult art of leg-spin bowling, right-arm leg-spin that is, and I believe, based on what he did with the ball, he is the greatest spin bowler that ever lived. I remember the Ashes series in 2005, how brilliantly he bowled. As a great player, he rose to the occasion while some others who were regarded as great players, their performances went down a notch. You knew, whenever you scored runs against him, that you had to be at the top of the game. Apart from his skills, he worked batsmen out. He was a master. He was he a clever bowler, he was a great cricketer. On top of that, he knew the game. In fact, I believe he would have made a great captain.

On the best fast bowlers of his generation, Atherton, who played some great bowlers through his career, says:

Curtly and Courtney were fast, they were accurate and they were difficult to bat against; but I believe, generally, that Waqar and Wasim were the best of the lot, the best of my time.

February 6, 2009

Prior's the man to keep

Posted on 02/06/2009 in England in West Indies 2008-09

Has Matt Prior proved his critics wrong? © Digicel

It is time to end the argument about who should be England’s wicketkeeper-batsman, or, to be more precise, batsman-wicketkeeper. Matt Prior showed again yesterday that, if the selectors are intent on fielding a player who can make Test fifties, hundreds even, and not let down the side with the gloves, then he is the man for the job, says Pat Gibson in the Times.

Steve James thinks as much in the Daily Telegraph.

Prior belongs. Every Test innings he has played has demonstrated as much. After 21 of them his average stands at 42. Yesterday was the seventh occasion on which he has passed fifty during that time. What more do you want from your gloveman? Yes, the romantics will carp at the pureness of his glovework.

But is it that bad? He makes mistakes, as he did here in letting a couple of balls slip beneath him, but so do all keepers. And so did all keepers. In England the glasses are spectacularly rose-tinted when looking back upon our former wicketkeepers. None of them dropped a catch, apparently. Indeed it came as a great shock when I watched on ESPN recently and witnessed Alan Knott dropping a dolly in a domestic cup final. Jack Russell shelled his share of catches too, including one on his Test debut. They were wonderful keepers, as, of course, was Bob Taylor, but it is all about perception.

In the Times, Simon Wilde applauds Andrew Strauss' decision not to write a newspaper column, and also looks at the real hero and villain among Pietersen and Flintoff.

It's not so much seize the day as pluck it, pluck it like a ripe apple from the tree and make it yours. So a Latin scholar explained to me, anyway. So, as we turn to the panoply of sport and look to its participants and its great occasions, we can ask: who has the talent for plucking? Kevin Pietersen does, says Simon Barnes in the same paper.

February 3, 2009

Spectre of IPL auction hangs on England dressing room

Posted on 02/03/2009 in English cricket

Andrew Flintoff is one of seven England players in the IPL auction © Getty Images

Comical Ali would find it difficult to argue all is hunky dory in the England dressing room and Friday's IPL auction is unlikely to help matters, says Lawrence Booth in his post on the Guardian website.

The goodish news is that only four members of the squad in the West Indies - Kevin Pietersen (bidding starts at $1.35m), Andrew Flintoff ($950,000), Paul Collingwood ($250,000) and Owais Shah ($150,000) - are on the IPL list. Three others - Ravi Bopara ($150,000), Samit Patel ($100,000) and Luke Wright ($150,000) - are in England. In theory, this limits the scope for jealousy. But then in theory, the Stanford match was a simple enough proposition too, and look how England failed to get their heads round that one.

It's true that other dressing rooms round the world failed to implode with envy when the first auction took place a year ago in Mumbai. But England's circumstances right now are particularly sensitive. Pietersen is putting a brave face on the treatment he received at the hands of his team-mates and the England and Wales Cricket Board; Flintoff has had to admit he backed Peter Moores; and Andrew Strauss is doing his best to hold the whole thing together with the help of Andy Flower, a decent man who isn't even sure whether he wants to be coach. The blue touch paper is waiting to be lit.

Mind games

Posted on 02/03/2009 in English cricket

Is cricket played as much with the head as with bat and ball? Though essentially a physical pastime, David Foot in his blog on the Guardian website tries to reason why the game in particular has appealed so much to men of letters, the poets, those with sensitive, philosophical natures.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle loved the game's swaying statistics with one theory superseding another as entrenched batsmen were ground down and then outwitted. His friends believed that the capture of a wicket was to him as fulfilling as the villain's nadir in the final chapter.

Michael Vaughan is very bad at singing - well music in general really. By his own admission, he's an awful singer but it doesn't stop him from belting them out from time to time. It gets more interesting in The Five Minute Interview with John Matthew Hall in the Independent.

You know me as a cricketer but in truer life I'd have been...
A businessman. I'm always coming up with great ideas that I know would do really well.

For the trivia buffs, the Snow special quiz on the Times website is worth a shot.

January 31, 2009

Test Match Special's Frindall dies at 69

Posted on 01/31/2009 in English cricket

Bill Frindall © Getty Images

Bill Frindall's death after a brief illness comes as a shock to those of us who worked alongside him as well as to the hundreds of thousands of cricket fans who felt they knew him after listening to his interjections and mischievous grunt of a laugh on TMS for more than four decades, writes Vic Marks in the Guardian.

Bill would delight in recalling that he was born (in Epsom, Surrey) on the first day of the famous, timeless Test between England and South Africa in Durban on 3 March 1939, and that he was a "record" 11 days old when the game finished – prematurely – because the England team had to catch their boat ...
... Initially he became famous as Johnston's stooge on air. Bill was soon christened The Bearded Wonder and was a ready butt for Johnston's schoolboy humour. He also had an important role to play for Arlott. Bill would proudly tell of his first encounter with the Guardian's former cricket correspondent. "I hear you like driving," said Arlott. "Well, I like drinking. We're going to get on well." And so they did.

Whatever distractions there might have been (and with his sharp eye he was often the first to spot a pretty girl in the back of the commentary box or, for that matter, in Row H of the Warner Stand), Bill Frindall was also the one who did not miss a ball, writes Christopher Martin-Jenkins in the Times.

Bill linked not just John Arlott, Brian Johnston, Fred Trueman and Trevor Bailey to the present day, but the likes of Norman Yardley, Freddie Brown, Robert Hudson and Alan Gibson, too. It would not be quite true to say that he made himself indispensable, because there are other very competent practitioners of the essential art of cricket scoring, but he was indubitably the most illustrious, indefatigable and industrious of them all. The name Bill Frindall was, quite rightly, a byword for efficiency and reliability.

Bill Frindall had the most mundane and unsung job in cricket but somehow he turned it into an art form, writes Stephen Brenkley in the Independent.

Continue reading "Test Match Special's Frindall dies at 69"

January 28, 2009

The mysterious case of Owais Shah

Posted on 01/28/2009 in England in West Indies 2008-09

Owais Shah is in danger of becoming the most high-profile casualty of England's desperation for Ian Bell to succeed at No. 3, says Lawrence Booth in his latest post on the Guardian website.

Of course, this may all be a very English debate. More ruthless sides would have dispensed with Bell some time ago and ensured their most obviously wristy player was in the side, hitting the ball to parts of the ground the opposition had never even thought of defending. But, as Pietersen has discovered, unorthodoxy takes longer to be accepted in English cricket. Shah's greatest crime may have been to neglect the game that needs playing off the field, as well as the one on it.

On the same website, Toby Radford, Shah's coach at Middlesex since 2007, and Graeme Fowler, the former Lancashire and England batsman, debate the merits of including Shah in the England Test side.

January 25, 2009

Lord Marland on Stanford, Clarke and television

Posted on 01/25/2009 in English cricket

Lord Marland is challenging Giles Clarke for the chairmanship of the ECB and hoping to tap into the split that is forming over Clarke's handle of his dealings with Sir Allen Stanford and the absence of cricket from terrestrial TV. In wide-ranging interview with Peter Hayter from the Mail on Sunday, Marland outlines his plans for English cricket.

'The fact is that we have suffered a terrible period where nothing done by those running the game has been done well. I believed the decision to sell out TV rights to Sky in 2004 was breathtakingly shortsighted and I believe the decision to do so again this time round was just as myopic.
'Sky do a great job televising cricket, but the ECB continues to deny access to the vast majority of the viewing public. We've got to get cricket back on BBC or Channel 4, even if it is through a Match of the Day-type highlights package at the very least.

'People will ask where the money is coming from for my idea to raise £100m. There is already £25m in the ECB coffers lying untouched, but I'd raise an extra £100m on top and I'll do it the way I've always done it, for the Conservatives and for Boris Johnson and for a number of charities.

January 22, 2009

School of hard knocks prepares Andrew Strauss

Posted on 01/22/2009 in English cricket

In this week of fresh starts and renewed hope, has English cricket found, in Andrew Strauss, its Barack Obama? Well, do not expect any soaring rhetoric or inspirational imagery, rather a dollop of perspiration and common sense, writes Mike Atherton in the Times.

Still, unlike Obama at his oath-of-office ceremony, the new England captain has made an error-free start, speaking sensibly to the media, evading nothing and giving his first few days a grand theme - that of player responsibility. Something that would be considered so fundamental to professionalism, even to players of the most recent generation, has been waylaid in the drive to cover all bases. That such a recalibration of priorities is deemed necessary is terribly damning of paths recently taken, but, surely, asking players to take responsibility for their actions is a necessary first step.

January 21, 2009

Do England even need a head coach?

Posted on 01/21/2009 in English cricket

England travel to West Indies with a back-room set-up not seen for two decades. And it might just work, writes Mike Selvey in the Guardian.

The sacking of Peter Moores has derailed plans – well his plans, at any rate – and the timescale coupled with the imperative to get the appointment absolutely right next time means that there is no direct replacement as head coach. Instead, there is an old-fashioned arrangement at the top of the tree, if not further down, with the managing director of England cricket, Hugh Morris, in charge much in the manner of the tour manager of yore, and the operations manager of the team, Phil Neale, to deal with logistical matters over and above his usual duties. It is to Andy Flower that the team will look for guidance, however.

January 20, 2009

ECB unity impossible if Hugh Morris remains

Posted on 01/20/2009 in English cricket

In the Telegraph, Geoff Boycott says Hugh Morris, the managing director of England cricket, should be sacked. Boycott believes Morris must explain why he saw fit to conduct a players' poll and undermine Kevin Pietersen "to the point of no return".

He clearly can't have enough confidence in himself to make his own decisions. You should not be asking staff what they think of management. If you ask the players to choose their captain or coach, then why do you need a managing director? If you ask players each month whom they want as captain you would have to change the captain on a monthly basis because if the skipper criticises a player, shouts at someone, leaves a couple of guys out of the team, or doesn't bowl a guy as much as he thinks he should bowl, you can bet they will not vote for him the next time there is a players' poll.

Mission impossible for England on tour?

Posted on 01/20/2009 in English cricket

When Andrew Strauss leads England to the West Indies, he must prove his side has the unity to perform for its new captain in Ashes year. Stephen Brenkley, in the Independent, considers the prospects for success.

January 18, 2009

What happened to the Schofield Report?

Posted on 01/18/2009 in English cricket

A grand talking shop about the future of Test cricket is to take place in rural Leicestershire. Andrew Strauss and former England captains will be attending. It is a spacious venue, an old country house suitable for an Agatha Christie murder, perhaps in the Orangery. The trouble is that the delegates will have no room for manoeuvre, writes Scyld Berry in the Daily Telegraph.

The conference has been organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board, and it is a good idea. But there would have been much less need for it if only they had heeded the two key recommendations of the Schofield Report, which they themselves commissioned after the last Ashes debacle.

Reduce the amount of cricket which the England team have to play so they can focus on quality instead of quantity; and do the same at domestic county level.

.........................................

England fly off to the West Indies on Wednesday on their first stage of a year so packed and over-loaded that only terrorists can stop it. In the West Indies until early April, a home series against West Indies in May, the Twenty20 World Cup in June, the Ashes in July and August, a seven-match, one-day series against Australia in September, the Champions Trophy running into October, then off to South Africa for three months – only if their tour of Pakistan this time next year is cancelled will England stop. Quality? No, sir! The primary object of the exercise is the England team earning enough to subsidise the counties.

Will England retain the virtue of loyalty?

Posted on 01/18/2009 in English cricket

Will Andrew Strauss implement a players' management committee? © AFP

England's policy of loyalty may have to end under their new leadership, says Stephen Brenkley in the Independent on Sunday. He thinks Ian Bell might be the first to go.

England have rightly made a virtue of loyalty in the past few years. Recently, this has seemed to reach obsessive heights, especially with regard to the batting. The only notable amendment has been the omission of Michael Vaughan and that, originally at least, was of his own doing.

Others have been imbibing more regularly in the Last Chance Saloon than Eddie Grundy in The Bull at Ambridge. This has been born partly out of loyalty, the resistance to easy change, and partly because of the feeling that Test players take time to become accustomed to the rhythms and pressures of international cricket. It was one of the verities trotted out by the erstwhile coach, Peter Moores, that almost all Test batsmen scored far more heavily in the second half of their careers than the first. Moores was to find, of course, that loyalty is not always a two-way street, and it will be fascinating to discover if England retain his philosophy.

Andrew Strauss has much on his plate right now, more than Billy Bunter ever had. But one simple move will ease his troubles considerably. He must implement a players' management committee, says Steve James in the Daily Telegraph.

'We're all fighting to win' - Flintoff

Posted on 01/18/2009 in English cricket

Andrew Flintoff: "Harmy's great for the team. If anyone's got a problem they go straight to Harmy" © Getty Images

In an interview to Paul Hayward of the Observer, Andrew Flintoff gives his thoughts in the aftermath of the captain-coach row, and states he's not interested in captaining England again. The talk of dressing-room divisions came up in the wake of the fallout between Kevin Pietersen and Peter Moores, but Flintoff feels cliques are nothing uncommon.

"I'm in that dressing room. I don't need to read about it. Everyone's going on about cliques and this and that. I suppose there are. You get put together as a group of people. The one thing you've got in common is that you play cricket. Within that, you'll get on better with someone. That's not to the detriment of the side. That's how it is. If you're in an office or any other walk of life you get on better with some than others and that's how the England team works. When you get on the pitch we're all fighting for the same outcome. We want to win games of cricket. I really don't see it being a problem."

.................................................................

"I play darts," Flintoff asserts. Proudly. "Harmy is the instigator of that. He brings a dartboard on tour every time. We have our own little Premier League. There's me, Harmy, Alastair Cook, Jimmy Anderson, Tim Ambrose, Graeme Swann.

"Harmy's great for the team. If anyone's got a problem they go straight to Harmy. He's got his door open every time. He's got his DVDs. It's almost as if Harmy's room has become the team room or the common room for everyone. There's people coming and going all the time. He does still get homesick but he's learned to deal with it. His influence on the side, which isn't seen, is absolutely huge."

January 17, 2009

Pinter's stroke of genius

Posted on 01/17/2009 in English cricket

Ed Smith pays tribute to Harold Pinter in the Daily Telegraph, and writes his love for cricket - a game regarded as being closest to the English establishment - was not inconsistent with his reputation as an anti-establishment writer.

How could such an anti-establishment writer love the sport with which England once hoped to educate its officer class and civilise its empire?
That underestimates both cricket and Pinter. Cricket, despite its passing snobberies, has never naturally suited narrowness. True, the game remains conservative. But cricket is conservative with a very small 'c' – nostalgic, sceptical, independent-minded and slightly pessimistic.

........................

It goes without saying that cricket's sub-plots and dramas appealed to the playwright in Pinter. Even a 'boring' draw can, and often does, host the most thrilling battles and sublime moments. I once turned on the television, watched Brian Lara execute a heavenly late cut, and immediately switched off again, perfectly satisfied.

January 15, 2009

Pietersen outmanoeuvred by English behaviour

Posted on 01/15/2009 in English cricket

Kevin Pietersen might have gone about his business with Peter Moores the wrong way, but over at The Wisden Cricketer, Lawrence Booth argues that it was his misunderstanding of the peculiar behaviour of the English:

In the eyes of the England and Wales Cricket Board, Pietersen committed a couple of tangible crimes: he did not have the full support of the dressing-room (the attempts by certain players in recent days to claim otherwise have exposed another of Fox’s defining English characteristics – hypocrisy); and he was seen to make excessive demands regarding the identity of the coach (according to Dennis Amiss, the vice-chairman of the ECB, this made his position untenable, but for some reason only once it became public: Fox points out that the English like to avoid embarrassment at all costs).
But there was another, tacit crime: Pietersen did not understand the Hidden Rules of English Behaviour – the sub-title of Fox’s work. He was not, in short, English. When people point out that Pietersen’s appointment in August was an accident waiting to happen, they may have been right – but almost certainly for the wrong reasons. After all, other captains have presided over divided dressing rooms: big egos are a fact of life in international sport. No, Pietersen’s unspoken crime was the un-English one of throwing his weight around without due deference to qualities to such as self-deprecation, humour and not taking the whole thing so damn seriously. His directness proved unsettling.

January 13, 2009

England shouldn't disbar outsider Ford

Posted on 01/13/2009 in English cricket

Hugh Morris should ignore the nebulous fear of player power and make sure England's next coaching appointment is the right one, writes David Hopps in the Guardian.

Ford led South Africa to eight Test series wins from 11 between 1999 and 2002. Key, who looks excited by the chance that his coach might get a chance with England, says he is widely admired and can deal with elite players. Ford might have spoken prematurely of his "good relationship for a long time" with Pietersen, but that is no bad thing because Pietersen's return to the ranks will also need to be skilfully managed for years to come.

In the Telegraph, Geoff Boycott feels Hugh Morris and Dave Collier have so far acted like dinosaurs, telling the public nothing. Andrew Strauss is well liked by his team-mates and if the ECB thought he was the best for English cricket then why didn't they appoint him four months ago?

He also shares his opinion on Andy Flower.

Andy Flower, in temporary charge in the West Indies, is exactly the kind of coach I would have demanded if I was captain. He has played Test cricket successfully and has experience of playing abroad. If he does well maybe he could throw his hat in the ring, if the job is advertised. But let's hope it is not Collier and Morris making the permanent appointment.

January 12, 2009

Kevin Pietersen: sacked for being Kevin Pietersen

Posted on 01/12/2009 in English cricket

As the dust settles on a week bizarre even by the standards of English cricket, we must ask ourselves what it is that Kevin Pietersen has done wrong, writes Simon Barnes in the Times.

So what went wrong? It seems that people simply decided that, after all, Pietersen was the wrong sort of chap. Why? He expressed reservations about the coaching staff, but many a captain does that. Not everyone in the team was crazy about him, but show me a captain loved by all and I'll show you the Tewin Irregulars. Pietersen just went about things the wrong way. He complained about the head coach in a manner that wasn't quite right. He was unfamiliar with the local code and, well, I'm afraid we don't do things like that here, old boy. It seems that Pietersen has gone because he doesn't fit in, because he is very keen on his own way and because he is a bit of a maverick.

Naivety was behind the South African's demise as England captain, writes Angus Fraser, who looks at several issues Pietersen faced, in the Independent.

Issue: Pietersen was informed by email and does not fully understand why he is no longer England captain.
What Pietersen said: "I had lots of face-to-face meetings with Hugh Morris, Giles Clarke [ECB chairman] and David Collier [ECB chief executive] in India and they asked me to do a strategy plan on how I wanted to take the English cricket team forward. On New Year's Eve I sent the strategy email and said that I can't lead this team forward and take it to the West Indies if Peter Moores is coach. Hugh Morris phoned [a few days later] to tell me that they had had an emergency board meeting and they had accepted my resignation. I said on what basis had it been accepted? They had no answer. I was not told that Moores had been sacked. To lose a job of that importance over the phone is crushing. But it's done and it's time to move on."

Conclusion: Believing he was in a very strong position and it to be in the best interests of English cricket, Pietersen gave his employers an ultimatum. It did not go down very well with the ECB who, after five months of working closely with Pietersen, may have begun to question whether he was the right man for the job. The ECB realised the problem would not go away if they kept one of Pietersen and Moores in position. The cleanest and possibly best way forward was to remove both. Pietersen's ultimatum gave the ECB a way out with him. Comments made by senior players suggested there were issues surrounding Moores too, so he was sacked. The media maelstrom that erupted on the day Pietersen was returning from South Africa meant the ECB could not inform him face to face. Email or telephone conversation was the only way of informing him before he found out via the media.

Why appoint anyone at all as Peter Moores' successor? asks Richard Hobson in the Times.

The way forward should be bolder. England are actually heading towards it on the forthcoming tour to the West Indies. There will be no head coach and Hugh Morris, the managing director of England cricket, will serve as an old-fashioned manager. Even without Moores, players will be able to draw upon a batting coach in Andy Flower, a fast-bowling coach (Ottis Gibson), fielding coach (Richard Halsall) and, for some of the time, Mushtaq Ahmed as spin coach. Mark Garaway, the analyst, will conjure all the statistics and replays on his laptop, while the medical team will be large enough to service a small town. Any base left uncovered by that lot is hard to spot.

January 11, 2009

'Pietersen lacked the qualities of a Test captain'

Posted on 01/11/2009 in English cricket

Simon Wilde: "It is easy to overlook that Pietersen was not cut out for a job that needs diplomacy and good sense" © AFP

Simon Wilde, writing in the The Sunday Times, feels the captain-coach saga was a consequence of Kevin Pietersen's own misjudgment of the feelings of his team-mates - a reflection of his failure to live up to the skills required of a captain.

His talks with an Indian Premier League franchise aroused suspicions about his motives for returning to India after the terror attacks. And his decision to continue with a holiday in Africa while the captaincy crisis escalated — even after his wife, Jessica Taylor, had returned to Britain to appear in Dancing on Ice — suggested a careless regard for his position.

Pietersen is a brilliant cricketer, but his celebrity, and his love of that celebrity, was always going to be his downfall because it led him to believe that his wants, rather than others' needs, would always be paramount. Rachel Cooke in the Guardian believes that celebrity culture has had such a massive impact on the way we think about work - and cricket is work for those who play it professionally - that even the ECB, so opaque and old-fashionedly cackhanded in its processes, is apt to do its bidding. Don't choose the best person for the job, choose the best known.

Also in the Sunday Times, David Gower, although agreeing with the appointment of Andrew Strauss as captain, feels exceptional players like Kevin Pietersen need to be given more leeway to completely live up to their talent.

Dealing with a Pietersen-type character is never going to be entirely straightforward. There are immense up sides to having such a man in your team; when you have the combination of his enormous talent and a similar determination to succeed you have a genuine superstar and natural match winner, a valuable asset. But the chances are he is going to do things differently to everyone else and that his way of doing things might not gel with the lesser mortals. There have been variations on this theme ever since the game began.

John Stern, writing in the same newspaper, feels that although Andrew Strauss has been appointed captain under adverse circumstances, it provides him a good opportunity to unite an England team affected by poor results and disharmony.

Far from being handed a hospital pass last week, Andrew Strauss, ironically, has the sort of power and influence that Kevin Pietersen apparently craved. Strauss believes that “the captain is ultimately responsible” and “I’m quite strong in my belief of how the team should be run”. But he adds: “In reality I’m a different character to KP in that I back myself to work with most people.” And, according to those who know Strauss well, he is not a man to throw his weight around.

Vic Marks agrees with Stern in his blog in the Observer: He feels Strauss is the right man to lead England and should have been captain after Michael Vaughan announced his resignation. He also thinks Tom Moody would make a good coach but convincing him to take over after Moores' departure may take time.

Ian Chappell thinks Australia will welcome the latest controversy to engulf English cricket as they attempt to get together a winning combination for their series in South Africa and subsequently, the Ashes. Read his article in the Sunday Telegraph.

January 10, 2009

'Strauss can do anything he puts his mind to...'

Posted on 01/10/2009 in English cricket

Andrew Strauss is in charge of both the Test and ODI team on the tour of West Indies © AFP

Andrew Strauss' best friend, Ben Hutton, knows the new England captain will show the self-belief and determination he does in all other areas of life. Read more in the Independent.

I have been lucky enough to see, at first hand, most stages of Andrew's life. Progression from cocky, precocious schoolboy, to shambolic undergraduate, responsible county captain, match-winning international cricketer, and now committed family man. Evident from the start was a competitive nature the like of which many of us at school had never previously witnessed. Whether it was playing stump cricket with a tennis ball in a corridor of the school dormitory, hitting golf balls on a driving range or chipping them at a flag on a green, he wanted to be the best.

As the England captaincy was passed from Kevin Pietersen to Andrew Strauss, the contrast with five months earlier could not have been sharper. Strauss does not have Pietersen's presence or star quality, but there was, as expected, an air of calm reassurance in the Warner Stand at Lord's, writes Mike Atherton in the Times.

Strauss was pointedly introduced yesterday as “England's Test captain” and, when asked about the one-day situation, was forced to concede it was “in flux” (in other words, nobody has a clue what will happen). Had Geoff Miller, the national selector, gone down the route suggested by The Times after Vaughan resigned, and appointed Strauss to the Test captaincy and Pietersen to the one-day job, England would not be faced with a situation in which their only viable candidate has been ignored as a one-day player for the past 18 months.

Kevin Pietersen's self-belief is both a help and a hindrance, writes Ed Smith in the Telegraph.

How many international newcomers have the phenomenal self-belief to return to the homeland they have shunned, with boos ringing around the stadium, and score not just one century, but three hundreds in five innings?
That is what Kevin Pietersen did in South Africa in 2005. This, surely, was a signal not just of an extraordinary talent, but a man made of different stuff from ordinary mortals.

How many of us, having watched the county captain throw your kit bag over the dressing-room balcony, would have the single-mindedness to stay with the side and help secure promotion the following season?

That is what Pietersen did in 2004 at Nottinghamshire after very publicly falling out with Jason Gallian – a strong hint that Pietersen's ability to block out distractions is extraordinary.

There has been far too much made of the meeting with Australia this summer, as though England's fixtures with other teams held no significance. For the tour to the West Indies, which begins later this month, the selectors have a chance to teach Pietersen a lesson in humility. They should drop him, and include Rob Key of Kent, writes Michael Henderson in the Telegraph.

Read Barney Ronay's take on the resignations of England captains in the Guardian.

While Michael Vaughan's captaincy resignation was classical and beautifully orthodox, Pietersen's was something else: a flair resignation, instinctive, full of improvisation, even ugly at times. This was resignation presidential-style. The only regret was that it didn't involve Pietersen standing at a raised dais, perhaps making sweeping hand gestures.

As Hugh Morris begins the search for Peter Moores' successor, what can he learn from the previous incumbents? Paul Coupar has more in the Guardian.

From an academic point of view, what the whole Kevin Pietersen-Peter Moores face-off has brought up, once again, is a debate about the relative authority of captains and coaches in world cricket, writes Kunal Pradhan in the Indian Express.

January 9, 2009

An Aussie as the England coach

Posted on 01/09/2009 in English cricket

England are hunting for a new coach following the sacking of Peter Moores, and Shane Warne believes the team needs somebody from outside their set-up to take an objective view and bring in a few ideas. He writes in the Times:

I'd like to throw in the name of an Australian who would do a really good job: not S. K. Warne, but Darren Lehmann. As a player he did wonders for Yorkshire and had the respect of everyone. Now he has moved into coaching. He would be great at installing confidence right across the board, through the players, the ECB, sponsors, supporters ... everybody.

In the same paper, Patrick Kidd tries to work out what cliques exist in the England dressing room.

The Flintoff Camp Made up of sensitive fast bowlers who don't like batsmen getting all the credit for their hard work.
The Pietersen Camp Made up of batsmen who were acolytes of Duncan Fletcher and less enamoured of Peter Moores.
The Darts Camp Those who spend hours on the oche on tour: Harmison, Cook and Flintoff.

Angus Fraser writes in the Independent that much will depend on how Pietersen reacts to his fall. Will he sit in the corner waiting for the right moment to undermine those that he believes undermined him, or will he put his hands up and say: "Sorry, lads, I got that wrong. Now can we all move forward together?"

It is to be hoped for the sake of the England cricket team that Pietersen, having learnt his lesson, takes the second option, and there is no reason to believe he will not. Yes, Pietersen has a rather large ego and his career to date has not been littered with tolerant acts, but behind the at times thick skin is a man who needs to feel wanted and loved. It is these characteristics that make him the player he is. There is little Pietersen desires more than standing with his arms in the air acknowledging the applause and adoration of a full-house crowd, and it can only be achieved by scoring a hundred for England.

In the Guardian Gideon Haigh writes that England have finally mastered the art of mental disintegration but they seem to be applying it on themselves instead of their opponents.

With the Ashes six months away, the series already looms as a competition between two teams almost so consumed by their own weaknesses that their opposition's weaknesses are a secondary consideration. Yet Australia's challenges are at least identifiable and familiar: they have simply been beaten, in two of their last three series, by better cricket teams. England's problems seem more pervasive, systemic and elusive, arising mainly from a cricketer in Kevin Pietersen whose talents first loomed as a solution for all ills.

January 8, 2009

Strauss deserves his shot

Posted on 01/08/2009 in English cricket

Andrew Strauss takes over the England captaincy during a turbulent time © Getty Images

They have decided not to gamble this time; there has been no waving of magic wands at Lord's. Instead they have reverted to the bleeding obvious, which they were so determined to ignore when Michael Vaughan suddenly resigned last summer, writes Vic Marks in the Guardian.

If Andrew Strauss offers boring dependability then there will be sighs of relief all round. Our pencils will not be so sharpened when the next England captain is hauled in front of the press. Strauss will provide a reservoir of unflappable, forgettable common sense. And there is no harm in that.

What the downfall of Kevin Pietersen and Peter Moores has shown is just how big a job Strauss has on his hands. It is not just that the team are underperforming — there have been victories only against lower-ranked opposition in the 18 months that Moores has been in charge — but that they are hopelessly divided, writes Mike Atherton in the Times.

Even now talk of an Andrew Strauss captaincy brings with it uncertainty, but he should have been given his chance a long time ago, writes David Hopps in the Guardian.

His England teammates have long joked that he has the upbringing — Radley College and Durham University — but his qualifications are more real than that. He is also widely perceived to be the shrewdest tactician in the side. What counted against Strauss last summer was the ECB's reluctance to go down the route of split captaincy after the near-simultaneous resignations of Vaughan from the Test job and Paul Collingwood as leader of the one-day side.

In the era before professional captains, Andrew Strauss would have been an automatic choice to lead England, writes Simon Hughes in the Telegraph.

Strauss is a warm, responsible, hard-working character, always approachable, with absolutely no ego. He readily plays down his own achievements, humorously admonishing himself, for instance, after his twin hundreds in Chennai, for his lack of muscularity and inability to hit the ball infront of square. He's no shrinking violet though. You poke fun at Strauss at your peril. He's a good reader of character and is quick with return fire. It usually scores a direct hit.

The Ashes may be only six months away but Strauss has enough time to forge a healthy working relationship with a new coach and plan a competitive challenge, writes Angus Fraser in the Independent.

Kevin Pietersen: A big gamble that failed

Posted on 01/08/2009 in English cricket

Kevin Pietersen's tenure as England captain lasted only five months © Getty Images

When Kevin Pietersen was appointed England captain, it seemed to be an enormous gamble that was likely to end in tears. Nobody, though, could have predicted the speed with which his captaincy has imploded, nor the scale of the fallout, writes Mike Atherton in the Times.

Once the story gathered pace that Pietersen could not work with Moores, neither went out of his way to deny the rift or reaffirm the promises of co-operation that had accompanied Pietersen’s elevation to the top job. Moores said nothing, while Pietersen merely said that the situation was “unhealthy” and needed resolving quickly. Pietersen had, in effect, flexed his muscles, sure of his own power. Pietersen’s mistake was to stay on holiday in South Africa instead of returning when the rift became public. By not coming home at the first opportunity, his attitude towards the captaincy was revealed as casual.

Kevin Pietersen has learned the hard way that he can't just go through his career taking people on. As England captain, you need savvy, to be streetwise and politically astute. You have to choose the right time to pick your fights and this was not the right time, writes Nasser Hussain in the Daily Mail.

The ECB wouldn't go all the way by giving him the coaching team he wanted. To do so would have made Pietersen the most powerful England skipper there has ever been and they weren't prepared to do that because he didn't understand the political game or how to play it.

With six months until the Ashes, England have no coach, a captain who can't make the one-day side and a general air of chaos, writes Duncan Fletcher in the Guardian.

What a mess. And how sad for English cricket that a year containing a home Ashes series has begun in such chaos. You have to ask why the men in suits couldn't see this situation coming. The moment Kevin Pietersen asked for his so-called clear-the-air meeting with Peter Moores last summer, the penny should have dropped at the England and Wales Cricket Board: the relationship between captain and coach was clearly a situation that needed monitoring, on a game-by-game basis, from the word go. Can they honestly say this has happened?

The feud between the former England captain and coach may have been unseemly but perhaps it was for the best, writes Mike Selvey in the Guardian.

A global view, then, might be that English cricket is a fiasco. The reality, however, which will be seen once the dust has settled and the team are ensconced on St Kitts in the Caribbean, is that out of it all the right things may have happened, at least so far as the Test team are concerned. It is, with a nice sense of timing, precisely six months until the first day of the Ashes series and, no matter how people view the forthcoming six Tests against West Indies, this will be the focus. And from the hiatus, far from having their chances diminished against a vulnerable Australian team, England's prospects have been enhanced.

Kevin Pietersen is not so brash as he looks. He comes over as upfront and in-your-face precisely because he is, underneath, insecure, writes Scyld Berry in the Telegraph.

Pietersen grew up with one younger and two older brothers in Natal. The two older ones are burly individuals or 'big units' too. A telling story about his childhood is that when his parents closed their eyes to say grace at meal times, the older brothers would try to nick the sausages – or whatever – from Kevin's plate. Hence the insecurity, and the pugnacity when he does stand up for himself.

Whatever the official line, it is now clear that the atmosphere in the England dressing room had become toxic. It had gone beyond conflicting personalities. They occur in every dressing room, in every walk of life, but distrust and favouritism were beginning to flourish, writes Stephen Brenkley in the Independent.

At the risk of contradicting my suggestion in yesterday's Times that Hugh Morris, the managing director of England cricket, should have ordered Pietersen and Peter Moores to sort out their relationship, there was no point in continuing a partnership of incompatibles, writes Christopher Martin-Jenkins in the Times.

Pietersen's intention was to undertake a silent revolution against Moores and he might just have pulled it off. But the rift became public on New Year's Eve, two days after the omission of Michael Vaughan from the squad to tour the West Indies. From that point on, Pietersen's chances of one of the most egotistical campaigns ever attempted by an England cricket captain were slim, writes David Hopps in the Guardian.

Pietersen said that it was the media speculation surrounding his public row with Moores that forced him to resign, but the realisation that he did not have the full support of the dressing room must have had a huge influence on his decision, writes Angus Fraser in the Independent.

The non-selection of Michael Vaughan to tour the West Indies was the final straw but the rift [between Pietersen and Moores] had developed long before that, writes Paul Newman in the Daily Mail.

There is an innocence about Pietersen, something he shares with another great batsman and disaster-prone England cricketer, Geoff Boycott. They share a strange bewilderment that other people fail to see the world in the same terms, as a Boycott-centric, or a KP-centric, place, writes Simon Barnes in the Times.

One admires the ECB's thoughtfulness in giving those Aussies a morale boosting chuckle within days of them losing a home series, to Mr Pietersen's native South Africa, for the first time since 1703, writes Mathew Norman in the Independent.

There is a thin line in team sport between bringing that edge, that something extra, and upsetting colleagues. Pietersen has an unhappy knack of crossing it. This time, it seems he overestimated the strength of feeling in the ranks against Peter Moores, writes Richard Hobson in the Times.

A supremely talented batsman, part of his allure to spectators is his unpredictability. He loves taking risks, but while that can be both thrilling and acceptable in the context he understands, on the cricket field, it hastened his downfall when he gambled on unseating Moores, writes Derek Pringle in the Telegraph.

Also in the Telegraph, Steve James looks at the key players in the Pietersen-Moores row. He says Andrew Flintoff is an "overlooked figure lurking in the background of this matter. It is no secret that he and Pietersen are not exactly bosom-buddies."

For most of yesterday there was only one certainty. It was that Pietersen would not be captain when England set off for the West Indies in two weeks' time and then resume the ancient battle with Australia in Cardiff in July. Behind this reality was a conclusion that could not be avoided. It was that whatever the detail, whether he jumped or was pushed, Pietersen had not only reduced himself to a parody of what an international captain should be, writes James Lawton in the Independent.

Kevin Pietersen is a contradiction. A flamboyant batsman with a pop star for a wife and Hollywood actors among his friends, Pietersen was a celebrity cricket captain in the mould of Ian Botham, Andrew Flintoff and Wally Hammond. Yet few tales of bad behaviour have emerged about Pietersen, not even unsubstantiated rumour, writes Patrick Kidd in the Times.

Also read Andrew Miller's comment that Pietersen and England need each other on cricinfo.com.

January 7, 2009

Pietersen and Moores need to eat humble pie

Posted on 01/07/2009 in English cricket

Kevin Pietersen hasn't won many fans by going public about his disagreement with Peter Moores © Getty Images

A bit of humble pie for Kevin Pietersen and Peter Moores is required if the ridiculous mess in the England cricket team is to be cleared up before mud sticks to everyone, writes Christopher Martin-Jenkins in the Times.

Neither should lose his job, given some clear thinking and plain speaking. Neither, in fact, has much of a record: England have won seven Tests out of 22 under Moores's guidance as head coach, only one of these against a top-notch team, and that consolation victory in the last Test against South Africa in August had much to do with Pietersen's batting and captaincy.
The new captain, however, has swiftly had to learn that a flurry of one-day victories over a South Africa team content with the main prize in the bag, was delusory. The Stanford embarrassment and India's excellence in November and December put things into clearer perspective.

If Kevin Pietersen's short and controversial stint as England captain is already over, it will satisfy those who argued that Andrew Strauss was a more sensible choice to replace Michael Vaughan last August, writes Huw Turberville in the Telegraph.

Kevin Pietersen has divided opinions ever since he arrived in England as former team-mates can testify. Stephen Brenkley explores a chequered record in the Independent.

It was like that in Nottinghamshire six years ago and what happened there bears similarity to what is happening now. Pietersen had been taken to the county by Clive Rice, a South African whom he presumably respected and admired. When Rice left the county, however, things started to go wrong. He did not like the new regime and he fell out terminally with Jason Gallian, the county's captain. Gallian, the most un-Australian of Australians, is sedulous in reflecting on his relationship with Pietersen and is clearly not proud of his own part in it, which culminated in Gallian hurling some of Pietersen's kit over the dressing-room balcony at Trent Bridge.

If and when Kevin Pietersen succeeds in driving Peter Moores from office, he may find that the relief of ousting a man he did not rate is replaced by a more profound problem: how to unite a dressing room containing characters who do not necessarily regard their leader as the chosen one, writes Lawrence Booth in the Guardian.

January 6, 2009

Moores set to be the wrong casualty

Posted on 01/06/2009 in English cricket

In a post on the Wisden Cricketer blog, John Stern offers a rather interesting, and different, view on England's captain-coach crisis.

Creative differences make for healthy teams.

Strauss was the common-sense option as captain when Vaughan resigned last August and he looks an even better choice now, and not just because he’s started scoring runs again.

Leadership is not about ego or breast-beating. It is about inclusiveness, inspiration and, inevitably, compromise. The ability to do the latter is not a sign of weakness but strength.

Nuts enough to work with KP?

Posted on 01/06/2009 in English cricket

The England board could replace coach Peter Moores by the end of the week and it's time to look at some of the contenders.

The Daily Telegraph's Nick Hoult feels a foreign coach is the most likely though former England spinner Ashley Giles, who is Warwickshire's director of cricket, could be the caretaker coach for the West Indies tour.

The Guardian looks at it in a different way. Who will be nuts enough to work with KP, asks Andy Bull.

Graham Ford Age 48
Current job Kent coach
Coaching pedigree Strong: he coached South Africa to eight Test series wins out of 11 during between 1999 and 2002 and helped Kent to the Twenty20 Cup in 2007. Rating 8/10
Does his face fit?
Ford has turned down job offers from India and New Zealand in the past two years to stay with Kent. They were relegated in 2008 and he has said he is determined to stay on and lead them back to the first division. He is the outstanding candidate, if only because the hat seems to fit so well. 9/10
Luck or skill?
Having only played seven first-class matches in his life he has had to earn the opportunities that better ex-players are gifted with. He has certainly benefited from the quality of the players he has worked with though, right through from his early days, with Malcolm Marshall at Natal, to the captaincy of Rob Key at Kent. 7/10
Compatibility with KP
Hand in glove. Ford worked with Pietersen at Natal and made an effort to dissuade him from moving to England. In his autobiography Pietersen calls him: "Someone I both respect and admire". Was born in the same town as the captain — Pietermaritzberg. 10/10

Pietersen's rift with Moores has highlighted one of cricket's eternal questions: in the final analysis, who is the boss – the captain of a team or its coach? In the Independent Angus Fraser explains why there is no easy answer.

Cricket would benefit from having a similar structure to football or rugby but it is not that simple. The nature of the game does not allow it, and that is why it is not in place. The influence an all-controlling manager could have on a cricket team is limited because he cannot make substitutions and change the structure of the team. The 11 players named at the toss have to see the game through. The primary role of a cricket coach is to develop the players under his guidance and provide them with all the preparation and information they require for the contest ahead. Historically they have always had a say in team selection and accepted that, when the team leaves the dressing room and crosses the white line, responsiblity for what happens lies with the captain.

January 5, 2009

Fire the boss!

Posted on 01/05/2009 in English cricket

It seems increasingly likely that Peter Moores will face the axe © Getty Images

As the row between Kevin Pietersen, the England cricket captain, and Peter Moores, the head coach, begins to establish some kind of rhythm, it seems increasingly likely that Moores will have to go, writes Simon Barnes in the Times:

Why? Simple: because Pietersen wants him gone. Throughout the history of sport, cricketers, more than most athletes, have been considered inferior to such people as selectors and chairmen and tour managers. A lack of deference to such people used to cost players their places, as Fred Trueman, among many others, learnt the hard way. But now, it seems, the captain is about to sack the coach, much as a writer sacks the editor or the lead violinist sacks the conductor. Fire the boss! What a thrilling concept - how wonderful it would be, whenever our careers seem to be developing along unpleasing lines, to sack the boss.

In the Independent Angus Fraser writes the row and its inevitable fall-out could undermine a huge year for English cricket. Perhaps the bravest and best decision England cricket's managing director Hugh Morris can make is to remove both.

In the next 12 months, England will compete for the Ashes and the Twenty20 world cup, as well as play several important Test and limited-over series. How the Australians must be laughing. Ricky Ponting's side, like Pietersen's, might be losing Test series, but at least their dressing-room does not appear to be imploding. But while Australia are in apparent disarray, England are at civil war ... If Pietersen gets his way, as it appears he will, should the next England coach be rubber-stamped by him? It would be a ridiculous decision because it will be nigh on impossible to find someone who can work with and satisfy Pietersen on a daily basis.

The Guardian's Mike Selvey believes Pietersen is the fulcrum of the team and will be so in the foreseeable future. In such circumstances, while it would be unwise to allow him such autocracy that he can, for example, effectively appoint the next coach so that it fits in with his own agenda, it would be equally unwise to risk alienating Pietersen by antagonising him further with a coach with whom he did not feel he could develop a rapport.

January 4, 2009

England shoot themselves in the foot

Posted on 01/04/2009 in English cricket

Stephen Brenkley wonders in the Independent on Sunday how the Kevin Pietersen-Peter Moores rift will be resolved.

The English game would look foolish if either man were to depart. Moores was appointed to replace Duncan Fletcher 20 months ago without interview. He was deemed to be the sole and logical choice. Pietersen was similarly ushered in when Vaughan resigned last summer. It was as if there was no alternative, but there is always an alternative.

John Stern writes in the Sunday Times that it is likely that neither Pietersen nor Moores will be sacked.

The most likely outcome is a Morris-inspired fragile peace, an agreement between all parties to muddle on through to this summer’s Ashes, the result of which will dictate the career paths of players and coaches alike.

January 2, 2009

Captain-coach rift biggest concern for England

Posted on 01/02/2009 in English cricket

Patrick Kidd writes in the Times that the ECB would rather see a reconciliation than lose either captain or coach so close to the Ashes. Yet, he writes, there is no doubt that if Pietersen pushed the issue, England would be loath to lose the one batsman whom Australia fear.

Before the second Test against South Africa at Headingley last summer, Vaughan is believed to have wanted Simon Jones to be recalled, but Moores and the selectors plumped for the untried Darren Pattinson. It may well have been one of the reasons why Vaughan decided to stand down...

... some have felt that Moores is not suited to coaching an international side, particularly in handling the egos and demands of world-class players.

Simon Hughes, writing in the Daily Telegraph, feels Peter Moores' lack of sophistication is a possible reason for the rift with Kevin Pietersen.

Pietersen cut a forlorn figure as he cast around for alternatives in Madras. As an inexperienced captain, he needed more imaginative input from the coaching staff. Moores is a decent, enthusiastic, hard-working man, and he is certainly not timid, giving a strong lead in the departure of Michael Vaughan as captain. But, as a coach who has spent most of his time around county cricket, he perhaps lacks real sophistication at the highest level. This is probably the source of Pietersen’s lack of respect.

Stephen Brenkley writes in the Independent that it would be in the captain's best interests to come to terms with Moore.

If he is seen to be instrumental in getting rid of him – and he would be if Moores went – building trust with anybody again would be hard for him.

December 30, 2008

Michael Vaughan's career all but over

Posted on 12/30/2008 in English cricket

Calls for Michael Vaughan's return are motivated more by a recognition of his past achievements, writes Michael Atherton © Getty Images

Michael Atherton, writing in the Times, feels Michael Vaughan's desire to return to international cricket appears a far-fetched one as runs have not been forthcoming to merit a selection in the side, and that calls for his comeback are motivated more by past achievements than a realistic assessment of the present. He also thinks some of the England players are fortunate to have kept their place in the side following a disappointing tour of India.

Vaughan has repeatedly stated his desire to return to international cricket and tried to structure his winter plans to that effect. But after his emotional resignation speech in August there has been little evidence that his body has responded to his mind’s desire. Both he and Geoff Miller, the national selector, accepted that a volume of runs was necessary to justify a return, but they have not been forthcoming. Those who argued for Vaughan’s return, most notably the newspaper for which he writes and Duncan Fletcher, his former coach with England, did so out of recognition of past achievements and a belief that, as an Ashes-winning captain, Vaughan would be able to sprinkle some magic Ashes-winning dust on this underachieving squad.

Michael Vaughan, in his own article in the Daily Telegraph, admits he understands the reasons for not being picked for the tour of West Indies, and feels his best way to press claims for a recall is by scoring heavily in the pre-season for Yorkshire.

I am not in the England team and Yorkshire now has to be my main concern. I have to knuckle down with them and start the season as well as I can. If that happens then I will put the guys under pressure and still have the chance to play for England again, something that I dearly would like to do during an Ashes summer.

Derek Pringle, writing in the same newspaper, is not surprised that Vaughan wasn't selected for the tour of West Indies, and feels the future prospects for his selection do not look all too encouraging.

Cricinfo's Andrew McGlashan presents his take on Vaughan's chances of a comeback here.

December 29, 2008

Vaughan for Windies?

Posted on 12/29/2008 in English cricket

England are set to pick their Test squad for West Indies on Monday and Duncan Fletcher feels former captain Michael Vaughan should be brought back because of his experience. He writes in the Guardian:

I don't buy the worries about having a former captain in the side. I had Nasser Hussain captaining Mike Atherton and Alec Stewart, and then Vaughan captaining Hussain. Michael can be very sensitive to what is needed and he will understand that his role is to quietly offer advice when it's asked for. If he is selected for the West Indies and can get his batting right over there, England simply must pick him against Australia.

Angus Fraser believes the decision the selectors take regarding Vaughan's inclusion in the squad will be criticised whatever it is. He writes in the Independent:

If Vaughan is named in the squad the reasons for his return will be questioned. The 34-year-old has done nothing to warrant inclusion since resigning as captain four months ago ... Should Vaughan be overlooked the reasons for him being offered a sought after and lucrative 12-month central contract in September will be quizzed.

December 28, 2008

Who should bat at No. 3 for England?

Posted on 12/28/2008 in English cricket

Few great sides have lacked a top-class No. 3 and few good sides have carried a No. 3 who was not making runs. And yet, today, England are unclear who should be playing there, writes Simon Wilde in the Sunday Times.

Ian Bell has averaged 15 since moving to that position when Kevin Pietersen took over as captain; before him, Michael Vaughan averaged eight there in four matches against South Africa. It is one reason England have rarely won of late.

In the Daily Telegraph, Steve James writes that Kevin Pietersen has been struggling with his technique for the first time in his career and wonders whether it is wise to burden him with captaincy.

... just imagine if Pietersen had been in nick all year. Because he still ended the year as England's leading run scorer in both Tests (with 1,015 runs) and one-dayers (658), their player of the year by some distance. He is the man. As compatriot Gary Kirsten, India's coach and generally a man of understatement, says in their local vernacular: "Jeez, he's dangerous is that oke". He sure is.

December 26, 2008

England must end mood swings

Posted on 12/26/2008 in English cricket

Geoffrey Boycott, writing in the The Daily Telegraph, feels England's batsmen need to rise to the occasion, with the team's bowling options limited by an injury-prone Ryan Sidebottom and the lack of a quality spinner, to entertain any hopes of beating a struggling Australia.

For England to beat Australia, Flintoff has to stay fit, he is the iconic figure, and Harmison needs lots of bowling between now and the Ashes so he can bowl straight and on a length. He has the ammunition but needs plenty of overs so he can train it in the right direction.
And finally we have to improve the inconsistency of the batting. The players have to remember it isn't how many shots you play, or how quickly you make runs, or how long you spend at the wicket. It is how many runs you make. That is the key.

December 25, 2008

Don't gloat about Australia's supposed decline

Posted on 12/25/2008 in English cricket

The Times' Simon Barnes is upset after Australia's defeat to South Africa in Perth.

I am cast down for several reasons. The first is that it was, well, South Africa they lost to. With Australia v South Africa, who the hell are you supposed to cheer for? “Come on, Satan!” Or do you say: “No, no, sock it to 'em, Beelzebub?”

He also believes its too soon to start wondering if Australia are in decline.

Let us simply note the result and nod. Let us refrain from sending off gloating texts and e-mails to the southern hemisphere. Let us remember that every talent Australia possess will be doubled when they are in England. So hear this, Australia: we are not gloating, all right? Just noting.

However Hamish McDouall believes the Baggy Green, which has been a symbol of dominance in cricket for two decades, is now fading and tatty. He writes in his blog Googlies & Grass Stains:

Where had the Australian top order been hiding? Matthew Hayden is now officially over the hill, his return since October reminding me of an economy slipping into recession. Mike Hussey had two failures, Ponting one and a half. Clarke and Katich, neither of them batsmen in the run-accumulating mould of Waugh or Langer, are now the only reliable source of runs. Symonds is patchy, and will always be so. Watson survives in the squad because of his bowling. The highest scorer for Australia at the WACA was Brad Haddin. If that doesn’t send shivers up the selectors spines Ponting’s captaincy should. He was surly, his body language defensive. He did away with slips. He set defensive fields. He opened up after lunch with Krejza and Siddle. He didn’t look at Symonds or Katich, relying on the nude spin of Clarke for variation. There was no paint-striping team talk, little clapping.

Patrick Kidd profiles David Boon in the Times' Ashes Heroes series.

Boon once vomited on the outfield at Adelaide before a TV audience of millions (not necessarily, we stress, because of alcohol), and then went on to make a century and be man of the match. A class act. One other thing in his favour was his lack of athleticism, meaning that he often fielded close in to the wicket in the danger areas given usually to young pups. Yet occasionally he could produce stunning chase-and-throws from the deep. They used to have a saying in England: never risk a fourth run to David Boon.

December 24, 2008

How they rate in 2008

Posted on 12/24/2008 in English cricket

Nasser Hussain feels the time isn't right for England to recall Michael Vaughan © Getty Images

England's cricketing year was the usual blend of triumph and disaster, but how was it for the players? In the Guardian, Lawrence Booth rates the England players according to their performances this year.

Until Ian Bell consistently produces match-winning innings, England's No3 is a luxury the team can ill afford, writes Vic Marks in the Guardian.

Rather than the end, being dropped could be regarded as the trigger needed for a spurt in Bell's Test career whenever he returns. He has obvious talent so a return would almost be guaranteed. But England need him refreshed and more ruthless and a break might help. Currently Strauss, Michael Clarke and Yuvraj Singh provide good examples of the benefits of being left out. For Bell, playing for England is in danger of becoming a routine occupation and compared to his predecessors, like Derek Randall ("I always played every Test as if it was my last"), he has that wonderful safety net of the central contract.

According to latest rumours, England are thinking about recalling Michael Vaughan for the West Indies tour, but that would be a mistake. Bringing him back at this stage cannot be justified and would create more problems than it solves, writes Nasser Hussain in the Daily Mail.

Where would it leave Owais Shah? He did well in the one-day series so if Michael came into the team ahead of him it would be a real kick in the guts. The alternative would be for Shah to play instead of Bell with Michael in reserve. But having an ex-captain carrying the drinks doesn't sit well with me.

A few plusses, too many minuses

Posted on 12/24/2008 in England in India 2008-09

Mahendra Singh Dhoni sent down the last over of the series in Mohali © Getty Images

England's tour of India was a disaster on the pitch, but sometimes results can be excused for the greater good, writes Derek Pringle in the Daily Telegraph.

A new glasnost between the England and Wales Cricket Board and their counterparts at the Board of Control for Cricket in India, was particularly evident. Suddenly, seemingly intractable problems, such as the participation of England players in the Indian Premier League, did not seem so insoluble. What the fearful thought was the sound of gunfire was actually a bout of mutual backslapping from the two boards.
By not winning a single match of significance (their lone success came in their opening warm-up match), England's players could not claim the same sense of achievement after losing both the Test and one-day series. Plaudits were due, mainly to Pietersen and Hugh Morris, but only for the pair's leadership during the Mumbai siege and its immediate aftermath.

Also in the Daily Telegraph, Simon Hughes says, What will be recalled as the Commando and Kalashnikov Test series came to a paradoxically limp end as wicketkeeper MS Dhoni sent down a few harmless deliveries to Andrew Strauss.

If there was one lesson to draw from this two-Test series, it is that chances to win do not come along very often on the sub-continent and when you get one you have to be sure to take it, writes Mike Atherton in the Times.

With the Ashes just seven months away, how is the team developing? Moores will be happy to see Andrew Strauss rehabilitated and back to his best at the top of the order, Andrew Flintoff patently fit again and beginning to find some batting form to go with his rock-solid bowling, and Matt Prior performing well enough with the gloves that the uncertainty over the wicketkeeping position can die down a while. In Graeme Swann, England have found a reliable second spinner for whom Test cricket and big reputations hold no fear.

Amjad Khan and Adil Rashid were passed over in the quest for stability, and Samit Patel misused in the one-dayers, but England must realise the attack is in transition all the same, writes David Hopps in the Guardian.

Of England's Ashes-winning quartet, Matthew Hoggard has been pensioned off and suggestions that Simon Jones might somehow return to fitness for a second Ashes series seem too fanciful by half. At least Andrew Flintoff has survived India unscathed. But what of Steve Harmison, dropped in both one-day and Test series, and whose mood was once again dragged down by life on tour? England, as has already been remarked, can't live with him and they can't live without him.

Also check out David Hopps' England's tour report in order of merit in the Guardian.

Despite hindrances England performed remarkably well, competing hard against a top outfit arguably playing the best cricket in the world. There were several times in each Test when England could have wilted but they continued to fight and they can leave India with their heads held high, writes Angus Fraser in the Independent.

If Monty Panesar was Indian, he would have been nowhere near Mohali. He would have been at one of four venues preparing for the Ranji Trophy quarter-finals, assuming the team he played for had made it that far, writes Dileep Premachandran in the Guardian

December 19, 2008

Where does Giles Clarke go from here?

Posted on 12/19/2008 in English cricket

The latest Stanford bombshell has raised questions over the deal approved by Giles Clarke, but as the ECB elections approach, his ability to bring in money to the coffers may save him, writes Paul Weaver in the Guardian.

When Giles Clarke looks in the mirror he is, like Snow White's stepmother one senses, not displeased with the view. And when a mirror is not at hand there is always Sir Allen Stanford. Clarke, the chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, is first and foremost an entrepreneur, a bright gambler who financed his Oxford education playing backgammon and bridge, a committee member of the Society of Merchant Venturers. And in Stanford he sees a man made in his own enterprising image, a taker of calculated risks.

December 17, 2008

At what cost?

Posted on 12/17/2008 in English cricket

Vodafone's decision to cut its ties with English cricket is unconnected with a desire to save money. The company is anxious to attract more young customers and is thought to be keener on sponsoring music events. It is also keen on sponsorship with international appeal, which is why, for instance, it preferred to sponsor the Champions League rather than just Manchester United. Ian King in the Times says with the UK accounting for only 4% of Vodafone's global business, the cricket tie-up was thought to have run its course.

Cricket sources pointed out the sport in England needs £53 million “just to stand still” and to safeguard investment in grassroots programmes, including the Chance to Shine campaign to bring competitive cricket back to state schools. Ashling O'Connor in the same paper, believes the task may be tough with Sport England announcing a pot of £37.8 million as cricket's central funding for the next four years.

December 14, 2008

Boycott: a legend lampooned

Posted on 12/14/2008 in English cricket

In the Sunday Times, Simon Wilde revisits England's tour of India in 1981-82 when Geoffrey Boycott broke the world batting record but left his England team-mates underwhelmed.

The record came at 4.23pm with a leg-side single off left-arm spinner Dilip Doshi. Asked to describe the reaction in England’s dressing room, Taylor said: “It was moderate. Had it been someone else, we would have been ecstatic, but because it was ‘Sir Geoffrey’ it was somewhat different. He wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, particularly not among the England players.”

December 12, 2008

When they were students

Posted on 12/12/2008 in English cricket

It's almost 20 years since a student team containing Mike Atherton, Nasser Hussain and, er, Treherne Parker made history — and struggled to get into nightclubs, writes Rob Smyth in the Guardian.

It was a very talented squad — all were affiliated to counties at the time — and Atherton and Hussain were called into the Test squad later that summer. The strikingly mature Atherton led the team outstandingly: if not a boy among men, he was at least a postgrad among undergrads. "He was such an impressive figure," says the opening bowler Alan Hansford, who picked up the wickets of Alec Stewart, Graeme Hick, Tim Curtis and, er, Courtney Walsh during the tournament. "Even then, his sense of destiny was apparent."

December 10, 2008

No right answer for England

Posted on 12/10/2008 in English cricket

The reason for Flintoff's yes: Team unity or IPL lure? © AFP

In his post on the Wisden Cricketer blog, Lawrence Booth says the decisions and statements made by the England team in the past few days will provoke different reactions from the media. Here's one of the three examples he provides:

Event 2: Andrew Flintoff sings the praises of team unity

Interpretation A: Flintoff’s contention that “one of the reasons I decided to go was for my team-mates” is a glowing endorsement of England’s team spirit and a sign of the increasing maturity of our sportsmen. After all, seven years ago Andy Caddick and Robert Croft pulled out of the tour to India in the aftermath of 9/11. This time, and without pressure from their bosses, England’s cricketers have embraced the bigger picture.

Interpretation B: Flintoff and his mate Steve Harmison could not afford to miss out on the opportunity to impress in the home of the Indian Premier League. A fortnight’s window in the IPL remains open to England’s players in the spring and runs and wickets in Chennai and – fingers crossed – Mohali could catch the franchise owners’ eyes. Would such unity have been on display in, say, Pakistan?

Beautiful to watch, frustrating to captain

Posted on 12/10/2008 in English cricket

Chris Lewis, the former England allrounder, has been accused of attempting to smuggle cocaine with an estimated street value of £200,000 into the United Kingdom. Mike Atherton, in the Times, says Lewis was the supreme athlete who underachieved; the intelligent man who more than once punctured a hole in his career through sheer stupidity; the warm, friendly face who was also a committed loner, for whom controversy was never far away.

In the Daily Telegraph, Derek Pringle recalls touring with Lewis.

Talented, narcissistic (he once posed naked in a magazine), frustrating, though never anything but unfailingly polite, Lewie, as he was then known, had the anti-social habit of ordering just about everything on the room-service menu, tasting a mouthful of each, and then leaving it to smell out the room. He also owned a hairdryer that gave off electric shocks, but he didn't tell me that until after it had made me and my hair stand to attention one day.

In the Independent, Stephen Brenkley offers another view.

He was one of many cricketers in the decade following Ian Botham's decline who was dubbed the new Botham. Lewis was one of the few who had the all-round gifts to succeed. He could bowl fast and with swing, his batting was swashbuckling, his fielding both in the deep and at gully was almost ahead of its time. But he never came close. Nobody seemed truly to know him in the dressing room. He was hardly aloof but he did not give much of himself; he was not unfriendly but he did not show much inclination to make friends.

December 7, 2008

Highlights of 2008

Posted on 12/07/2008 in English cricket

In the Sunday Telegraph, Scyld Berry looks back at some key cricketing events from 2008 and casts his eye on the year to come. He wonders whether Graeme Smith's 154* in the Edgbaston Test is the finest captain's innings of all time and whether Kevin Pietersen will still be captain if England lose the Ashes next year.

December 3, 2008

The Barnacle turns 85

Posted on 12/03/2008 in English cricket

Trevor Bailey is 85, without a driving license, but with a firm opinion that England should be captained by an Englishman. The Guardian's Frank Keating calls him up to wish him Happy Birthday.

Ring back in an hour, he says - he's in the middle of cooking lunch (lamb chops and all the trimmings) for himself and his beloved Greta, wife of 60 years. English cricket's one-time doughtiest dead-bat seems in fine nick, except they've refused to renew his driving licence - "far too old," they said. So, car-less, he was unable to attend this summer the 90th birthday party of his long-time new-ball partner and England's most venerable surviving Test alumnus, Sir Alec Bedser.
Bailey's barn-door dead bat had led to a tremendous surge of national jubilation when at Lord's in the Coronation month of 1953 he and Willie Watson had clung together on the burning deck for half a day to save the second Test and so, by August of that year, allow the Ashes to be won. Complete strangers still regularly quiz Trevor for full details. No wonder, for as the onliest Neville Cardus all-hailed in these very pages: "Bailey's bat was not made of the stuff of which lost causes are compounded. It was a truly great vigil, a stand of noble martyrdom on an everlasting afternoon of immense strain."

November 27, 2008

Ed Smith's retirement is a loss to professional cricket

Posted on 11/27/2008 in English cricket

Without Ed Smith, the Middlesex dressing room, and by extension the professional game, will be that little bit more uniform, that little less diverse, writes Mike Atherton in the Times.

Smith is too good a batsman to be lost to professional cricket at such a tender age. It is clearly a source of intense irritation to him that the focus is always on the other bits of his life. “When it came to cricket, I was never a dilettante,” he says. His record proves it: he averaged more than 40, scored 34 first-class hundreds and in excess of 12,000 first-class runs. With experience and youth on his side, he ought to be entering his prime years; another crack at international cricket should not be beyond him.

November 26, 2008

Bring back Banger

Posted on 11/26/2008 in English cricket

There would have been pleasure at watching Marcus Trescothick win the £20,000 prize for his autobiography Coming Back To Me. Yet, even as the applause rang round the room, the thought was inescapable: how the current England team could do with him back. Tom Fordyce in his blog on BBC Sport reflects on what a difference a fit, happy Trescothick could make to today's struggling line-up.

Trescothick is still only 32 years old, two years younger than Vaughan and a year younger than Ricky Ponting. By rights he should be at his peak.

Instead, he'll see out the remainder of his playing days at his beloved Somerset, determined to never again be more than a car journey away from wife Hayley and daughters Ellie and Millie. England fans can yearn all they like. He's not coming back.

Ed Smith's new chapter

Posted on 11/26/2008 in English cricket

If I wanted to annoy Ed Smith, I would tell him he is a better writer than he ever was a cricketer. All the same, it's a pretty compliment: Smith played three Tests for England and scored 34 first-class hundreds for Kent and Middlesex, with a top score of 213. You have to write fairly decent books to top that," writes Simon Barnes in the Times.

He has written three well-received books. His 'prentice piece, Playing Hard Ball, compared his experiences in cricket and baseball. He then did a season's diary, one with an awful lot of meat, On And Off The Field. His present book is in many ways remarkable, entitled boldly What Sport Tells Us About Life. The diary deals with 2003, the year he played for England. He made 64 in his first innings; in his last, he was given out leg-before to a ball that would have comfortably cleared the stumps. What sport tells us here is that life is a bitch. He never played for England again.
Thus it was that England lost a player who might have been up for the long haul. He was, in some eyes, a Future England Captain who never made it, a Mike Brearley come again, but better off the back foot. He couldn't break back in; what some call consistency of selection, others call a clique. Smith's was a career that missed its trajectory.

November 23, 2008

Games on the field, and off it

Posted on 11/23/2008 in English cricket

Nothing is going right for England. Defeat on the field is being accompanied by desperate – and, so far, similarly successful – brinkmanship off it, writes Stephen Brenkley in the Independent on Sunday.

At the core of fractious negotiations is Twenty20 cricket: the Indian Premier League and whether England's players appear in it, the so-called England Premier League and Indian involvement, and the future format of the Champions League. Everyone wants a share of the money, but in essence it is up to India whether they get it. England must have Indian players, and many other nationalities, taking part in their Premier League due to start in 2010, otherwise it could face serious trouble under trade description regulations, let alone crowd resistance. But in return India want more involvement by English players in the IPL.

Watching how the Indian players have gone about their skills in the current one-day series it is clear to me that playing in the IPL has helped them improve in vital areas and had a huge benefit on their team, writes Steve Harmison in the Mail on Sunday.

And the danger for England is that if our players are not involved in the IPL in future we could get left far behind in certain areas. Yuvraj Singh has been fantastic, of course, but other less well known batsmen, such as Suresh Raina and Yusuf Pathan, have shown what they've learned from the high-pressure demands and challenges of regular Twenty20 cricket against top opposition in the IPL. Batsmen are no longer content to look for 260-275 as par scores, and are now looking for a minimum of 290-300 every time.

November 20, 2008

Check please!

Posted on 11/20/2008 in English cricket

The career of a sportsman is relatively short and the attitude of most is to grasp what is on offer when it is there. Angus Fraser in the Independent believes though England's top players could earn in excess of £1.5 million over the course of the next 15 months, the workload may take its toll on the players with injuries and more casualties.

Injury is an occupational hazard for a sportsman and, sadly, there will be the occasional player whose body cannot cope with the constant demands that are placed on it. Fast bowlers are the most prone to injury. The physically trying nature of the job means that a pull, strain, tear or stress fracture is never far away.

November 13, 2008

Simon says

Posted on 11/13/2008 in English cricket

There is a chance that Simon Jones' career could be over. The fast bowler has already begun planning for the cricketing afterlife and taken the first tentative steps on his latest comeback trail. He admits international cricket is "something you miss terribly" but the crowning of Pietersen – who is godfather to Harvey, the eldest of Jones' two young sons – will not harm his chances of a recall. Wayne Veysey has more in the Telegraph.

The bowler many judges rate as the most skilful in England has not played international cricket since breaking down during the 2005 Trent Bridge Test even though his form last summer – he took 42 Championship wickets at 18 apiece – was surely good enough for him to be selected ahead of Darren Pattinson for the second Test against South Africa at Headingley.
"I heard I was close," said Jones. "I was told I was close, not officially. I don't know whether the wrong message had gone round because I was rotated by Worcester sometimes but I was fit to play."

November 11, 2008

Why a benefit year hurts

Posted on 11/11/2008 in English cricket

Robin Martin-Jenkins explains in the Wisden Cricketer how the distractions brought about by a benefit year cause a player's form to deteriorate.

Suddenly, having only ever been good at playing cricket, he is thrust into the cut-throat world of the local business community. He has to become an expert networker, party planner and public speaker all at once. He has to buy a laptop and a printer. Most alien of all to him, he has to buy a diary and fill it with appointments to meet sponsors, caterers and tie designers. He has to plan his life and it becomes more complicated than at any time since those long-gone school days.

Sniffing an opportunity

Posted on 11/11/2008 in English cricket

Australia’s 2-0 defeat was their first in a series since 2005 and their biggest since 1988-89, and has perhaps offered England hope of exploiting Australia’s frailties in the Ashes. For that, England will have to build the same momentum this winter that they did when overcoming West Indies and South Africa in 2004 writes Christopher Martin-Jenkins in the Times. He also believes Monty Panesar might prove to be the trump card both in India and against Australia.

Anyone rushing to take yesterday’s shortened odds of 15-8 against England regaining the Ashes next year should remember how Ponting responded to his team’s previous defeat in a series. They won 19 of their next 20 Tests, including five out of five against England.

November 9, 2008

What if...

Posted on 11/09/2008 in English cricket

England left Antigua empty-handed after being thrashed by the Stanford Super Stars, with Kevin Pietersen saying he was happy that the money will make such a difference to the West Indian players. However, surely the England stars would have found some uses for US$1 million. In the Sunday Telegraph, Andrew Baker looks at how the squad could have spent their winnings.

Peter Moores [coach]: I would have invested any such windfall proceedings in the acquisition of a personality. I would also have purchased a quantity of "focus" for the team to take with them to India.
Matt Prior: A full-time bodyguard for my wife.

Ian Bell: Pot noodles. Lots and lots of pot noodles. No disrespect to the people of India, but while their cricketers are tasty, the food there mings.

November 7, 2008

It's all in the name

Posted on 11/07/2008 in English cricket

Nick Compton carries the weight of one of cricket's most famous surnames on his shoulders. After eight years at Middlesex he is looking to start afresh with a new county, but first has headed out to Australia to spend a winter with coach Neil D'Costa, who has played a major part in Michael Clarke's career. The early results are promising after Compton hit a century for his club side and he is keen to make his own name for himself as he tells Ray Gatt in the Australian

I've been at Middlesex for eight seasons now and Compton is obviously a household name in that part of the world. It is something I got used to. Maybe it has been a sub-conscious thing, perhaps it was more pressure than I needed. I'm my own player and people realise that. I think one of the reasons was to get away from that, disconnect with the UK. Come here in relative obscurity.

November 6, 2008

Get your moaning in order, England

Posted on 11/06/2008 in English cricket

Alan Tyers casts his cynical, satirical eye over Peter Moores' would-be diary, reflecting on the Stanford Super Series at The Wisden Cricketer's blog:

As I said, the most important thing about Stanford was not the money but actually getting the players tuned up for India. One of the key skills about an England tour to the sub-continent is having your moaning in really tip-top order, so that when you arrive, you’re ready to hit the ground complaining.
“Bang… The hotel’s not up to scratch… bang… That bloke’s looking at my missus… bang… This foreign muck don’t half play havoc with my guts…”

At the same blog, Miles Jupp questions the excuses England gave for their performance in the Stanford money match:

Peter Moores said it was all about attitude, and that our thinking had all been wrong. He even implied there might have been too much thinking (which sounds dangerously like bollocks). It is hard to imagine anybody being able to use that excuse convincingly anywhere. “Your honour, although my client’s actions may appear thoughtless, the truth is in fact quite the opposite. At the very moment he took the staff of that depot hostage he was, if anything, thinking too much…”
The idea that England allowed themselves to think too much about the nature of the game and the contradictions it threw up seems far-fetched. Moores made it sound as if each and every member of the team went out to bat and immediately suffered an existential crisis. As if someone as happy-go-lucky as Paul Collingwood would suddenly raise an arm during the bowler’s delivery stride and howl plaintively “Oh never mind the cricket - what are any of us actually put on this world for?”

Financial crisis could jolt England's Ashes hopes

Posted on 11/06/2008 in English cricket

In his blog, Line and Length blog on Times Online, Patrick Kidd comes up with a very interesting theory, one which could harm England's prospects in next year's Ashes.

Kidd's Law of Economics part 1a: Australia always do well out of an economic crisis. Plus, Kidd's Law of Economics part 1b: There is nothing like a recession to stimulate the arrival of some all-time great Ozzie cricketer on the world stage. For some reason, they thrive on it. Maybe because there is nothing else to do during a depression than to become really good at cricket. Plus it depresses the English even more. So don't view their troubles in India as the beginning of a decline. Instead, be afraid that some new hero is about to emerge. Here's the evidence.

Here's one of the four example he offers to prove his theory:

1992 As if you needed any more proof for my "Australia flourishes in a recession" theory, I offer up Black Wednesday on September 16, when sterling collapsed and John Major had to pull us out of the ERM, costing Britain £3.4 million. A couple of days beforehand, a young spinner named Warne had just completed his first Test series for Australia in Sri Lanka and had not been all that effective. He was selected for the next summer's Ashes tour, however, and turned out OK in the long run.

So there you are, a theory that can be explained thus: unfulfilled Australian cricketer + economic crisis = All-time Aussie Hero + Demoralised Poms.

Come on, England. It's entertainment

Posted on 11/06/2008 in Stanford 20/20 for 20

Shane Warne: "Stanford is somebody we should want to be involved" © Getty Images

England surely missed a trick during their one-week outing in Antigua for the Stanford Super Series, says Shane Warne in the Times. He says they failed to embrace the entertainment.

Saturday was always going to be a great occasion and I think that England missed a trick. They could have said that they were looking forward to a carnival atmosphere, to an evening of great entertainment for the crowd with a fantastic chance to earn $1million. They could have talked up the whole spectacle - yes, acknowledging the money, but emphasising how it would generate a really exciting game.

.......................................

Let's take the example of Allen Stanford walking into the dressing-room. That wasn't exactly a spying mission in the middle of a tense Ashes decider. Instead of getting uptight, players could have said something like, “Hello, mate, how are you going?” They might have asked him about his love of cricket or his businesses. Who knows - they might even have picked up a tip or two for the longer term.

October 30, 2008

Stanford's game isn't cricket, so what is it?

Posted on 10/30/2008 in Stanford 20/20 for 20

Another day, and the disquiet over the whole Stanford venture rumbles on, with particular attention now being paid to the role of the ECB in the whole affair.

In the Times Michael Atherton cuts to the quick.

With developments this week suggesting that the contract is more about Stanford and his brand than any altruistic concerns about West Indies cricket, it is clear that the ECB has been, at best, naive and at worst outmanoeuvred again.
Briefings were given yesterday by officials from the governing body indicating how uneasy they have become at the sight of the England team being used as a prop for a rich man's ego.

Stephen Brenkley, writing in the Independent, was just as forthright.

The Stanford Twenty20 Super Series has been a public relations disaster. Whatever the complications of the deal and however apparently irresistible the money was, the tournament has become less and less desirable by the day.
From the moment that the ECB and Sir Allen unveiled a case filled with $20m in cash at Lord's last June to be paid for an exhibition match between England and the Stanford Superstars it has been plain that this event has been almost exclusively about the cash and the rich man supplying it.

Paul Newman in the Daily Mail quotes Michael Holding, a former Stanford ambassador: “Allen Stanford is just in it for himself, not West Indian cricket. Everyone will see.” Newman continues:

How could the English game's rulers be so naive in jumping into bed with an American billionaire and expect him to be the answer to their prayers as they find themselves increasingly isolated in a cricket world dominated by India?
This week was only ever going to be about Stanford and the huge amount of money he is throwing at the winners of Saturday's exhibition match between the England cricket team and a group of West Indian cricketers who go by the name of the Stanford Superstars, as everything here has to be prefixed with the name of the man who virtually rules this Caribbean island.

Dean Wilson in the Mirror ponders how the man himself will react to the opprobrium heading his way.

It is not the sort of response Stanford is used to and he will be either completely taken aback by the strength of feeling in the England camp or he will be fuming at the lack of kow-towing from his guests that his money usually affords him. But he should appreciate that a large part of the anger stems from his behaviour that has made a mockery of the game of cricket.

Andy Bull in his blog for the Guardian wonders if Stanford can recoup his investment.

Certainly the 20/20 for 20 has put him in a much better position to grow his business in the City. As for the money to be made directly from the match itself, the ceiling of the potential profits sits far lower than his expenditure on it all. As long as he is in partnership with the ECB rather than the BCCI, then it is going to stay that way. The huge money in cricket comes with a presence in India, not England.
As long as the project to convert Americans to cricket remains a pipedream and Stanford is in cahoots with the English, the tournament is never going to make the kinds of blockbuster sums associated with the future of Twenty20. He invited India, remember, to play this challenge match after they won the World Twenty20, but they turned him down.

Allen Stanford's millions are not a solution for English cricket - the solution lies in India and a deal which will make England's best players available to the IPL, writes Mihir Bose on BBC Sport. The ECB must come to terms with Indian cricket. If it does not, it will be in danger of getting bogged down in matches that may generate publicity and bring some money but will do nothing for its cricket in the long term.

October 29, 2008

England selling soul of the game

Posted on 10/29/2008 in Stanford 20/20 for 20

As the media anger over the sight of Allen Stanford with Emily Prior perched on his knees dies down, there is also a growing tide of thinking that the whole 20/20 for 20 venture is looking increasingly tawdry.

There were more than a few raised eyebrows last June when Stanford’s helicopter landed at Lord’s and he was almost treated as a saviour by fawning ECB executives. The unveiling of US$20 million is hard currency inside the indoor school for many signalled that English cricket had sold out.

Now that the eight-day feast of Stanford’s cash-driven Twenty20 is underway, it has proved too rich for many of those watching it.

In today’s Daily Mail, Paul Newman wrote that “English cricket has clearly jumped into a very uncomfortable bed by so eagerly accepting Stanford's millions and now everyone involved with our game has to lie in it. The ECB may have made sure that their players become very wealthy this week but the price being paid is an expensive one. English cricket is selling its soul.”

According to Newman, those comments have registered with the players, one (unnamed) member of the England squad saying: “If that's what people back home are thinking then we can't get out of here quick enough.”

In the Times on Monday, Simon Barnes described the tournament as “pornography”. He added: “It is not, then, the pursuit of excellence. Nor is it the pursuit of money. Rather, it is the pursuit of squirming. It is a billionaire's malicious joke at the expense of people he never could be, even if he had a billion billion. He will make a group of richly gifted international athletes squirm and grovel before the altars of money.”

In the Sunday Times Simon Wilde also showed he is no fan. “What a vision it is: a toytown stadium, black bats, silver stumps, vulgar amounts of money and a contraction of the game’s skills into the time it takes to consume a jumbo burger, a tub of popcorn and a bucket of Pepsi. Bad taste, just another toxic asset the United States has given the world.”

Steve James in the Guardian would not disagree. “The match is a disgrace at almost every level, and not just because its Texas billionaire backer, Sir Allen Stanford, has spent the past week on a dollar-driven ego trip, parading around his private ground, hogging the limelight and cavorting with the England players' wives. November 1 will be the night cricket is turned into reality TV, where some grisly voyeuristic fare is served up for those of a short attention span. Big Brother has finished: roll up instead to watch the nervous antics of the England cricket team. Who will drop a catch to cost his mates half a million quid?”

Perhaps more surprising, given the vast sums poured into the venture, are the facilities. The pitches have been slow and low, exactly what is not needed for high-scoring, big-hitting matches, and the low-level floodlights, necessary because of the proximity of the ground to the airport, has made catching a lottery, with some of the world’s best fielders left looking like club duffers.

“The cricketing reality is the pitch and outfield mean the games will be dull, dull, dull,” wrote John Ethridge in the Sun. “Certainly the loot available is inversely proportional to the quality of the product, although the ground is pretty.”

It is possible to find those still who are prepared to enthuse. Here’s Nasser Hussain on Emilygate. “It was pretty harmless, to be honest, and the wives must remember that their husbands are potentially earning a fortune by being here and they are in a lovely place having a lovely time in the sunshine. If the man who is putting up all the money wants to give them a quick cuddle for the cameras is that really a big problem?”

It should be remembered, however, that Hussain fronted the ECB/Stanford announcement at Lord’s last summer and is also covering the tournament for Sky … and the broadcasters have invested heavily in their coverage of the event.

October 27, 2008

Matt Prior: 'I wasn't sledging Tendulkar'

Posted on 10/27/2008 in English cricket

Matt Prior speaks to Brian Viner in the Independent on various topics - the move from South Africa to England, his mother's illness, the Stanford 20/20 for 20, the number of South-African born players in the England team, the jellybean incident ... and the infamous Porsche sledge.

"People who do know me know that if I muck up I hold my hand up and admit it," he [Prior] continues, "but I was being accused of stuff I hadn't even done. That Porsche comment ... why would I say that to Tendulkar? He's got aeroplanes.
"What happened was that we'd had a long day in the field the day before, and I said something about keeping our npower energy up, which was picked up by the stump mic, and because npower were the sponsors, there was a bottle of champagne in my kit bag the next day. Well, at the time Alastair Cook wanted a new TV, so next day he's at short leg going 'Bang & Olufsen, Bang & Olufsen, great televisions' and I think Porsche Carreras are great cars, so that's why I mentioned Porsche. It wasn't a sledge but that quote made me look such an average person. I don't mind if people think I'm an average cricketer, but I don't like to be thought an average person."

October 26, 2008

Money shot cheapens the appeal of cricket

Posted on 10/26/2008 in Stanford 20/20 for 20

Simon Barnes writing in The Times makes clear that he has no time for Allen Stanford and his multi-million dollar jamboree in Antigua, voicing the opinion that "sport has become the new pornography".

I won't be watching out of partisanship, loyalty or patriotism, or the pursuit of excellence. If I watch - and I feel no pressing need to - I will do so for reasons that are furtive and shaming. The spectacle may be briefly compelling, but it will soon lose its charm, leaving behind only a kind of embarrassment for the grotesque contortions of the participants. In short, pornography.
This is not, then, the pursuit of excellence. Nor is it the pursuit of money. Rather, it is the pursuit of squirming. It is a billionaire's malicious joke at the expense of people he never could be, even if he had a billion billion. He will make a group of richly gifted international athletes squirm and grovel before the altars of money.

October 16, 2008

Sate my appetite

Posted on 10/16/2008 in English cricket

The actor and comedian, Miles Jupp, is a frustrated man. The lack of cricket might be considered a blessing by some, but not for Jupp in his latest blog at The Wisden Cricketer magazine's site:

In the meantime, my appetite for cricket discussion has to be sated by any means possible. I’m currently trying to drop a cricket reference into nearly every conversation I have in the hope that someone will take the bait. Ideally you do it in such a way that if the person you’re talking to isn’t a cricket fan then they don’t notice what you’re doing, but it’s a hard thing to nail. Twice this week people that I’ve only just met have said, “you talk about cricket a lot, don’t you?”

I’m not deterred by such failures though, because when you can identify them, cricket lovers will stick together. We’re like the Freemasons. Recently I went to an audition for a small part in a film, and once I’d had a go at the script I thought I’d unleash the secret handshake and so dropped in a cricketing reference. While everyone else in Soho panicked about the credit crunch and sent out for sushi, the two of us stood and talked about cricket.

And it worked. I got the part. And so it was that on Sunday morning, I was sitting nervously on the steps of a London gentlemen’s Club waiting to film a scene with Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr. I’d like to think that the reason I was there was because another man and I have exactly the same concerns about Michael Vaughan.

Lucre who's talking

Posted on 10/16/2008 in English cricket

Sri Lanka's decision to accept Lalit Modi's $70m offer is comeuppance for the ECB's reluctance to grant the nation Test matches in England, writes Gideon Haigh in the Guardian.

So, too, is the England and Wales Cricket Board hemmed in that little bit tighter. For which country's cricketers will be content to accept second billing in an English summer when they can see their names up in the razzle-dazzling Indian Premier League lights? The ECB also gets its comeuppance for decades of neglect: Sri Lanka, in their quarter century as a Test nation, have been granted only 10 Tests in England ...
... The multi-million dollar endowment for Sri Lanka Cricket projects the BCCI into a new position: that of cricket's lender of last resort. And Sri Lanka, of course, is far from alone in having rising expenses to meet and restive cricketers to placate: more benefactions are perfectly possible.

Warne is right: Monty has not learnt since day one

Posted on 10/16/2008 in English cricket

Monty Panesar is a commendable bowler, yet his inability to learn from his own mistakes has been to his detriment, writes Mike Selvey in the Guardian.

There is a particular image to be carried from England's last tour of Sri Lanka and it is this: Monty Panesar is bowling to Mahela Jayawardene, off-stumpish and good length. Jayawardene plonks his left leg forward and waits until the ball is under his nose, at which point his left hand rotates the bat blade clockwise an eighth of a turn, his right deftly imparts a little energy and the ball slides away through point in the direction of a distant fielder. The batsmen stroll a single and the scoreboard clicks round. It happened time after time after time ...
He appeared to learn not one single thing from the trip, which rather sums up his international career: he began it as a very good bowler and he remains just that, stuck on the same level at which he started. Shane Warne, who is no Bertrand Russell when it comes to philosophy, nevertheless got it absolutely right with his observation that Panesar, rather than having played 33 Tests, had merely played his first one 33 times.

October 14, 2008

Joining Botham on his walks

Posted on 10/14/2008 in English cricket

In the Daily Mail, Lee Clayton joins Ian Botham during one of his charity walks, and discusses how he [Clayton] fared.

I managed to last nine miles at his shoulder, walking at a pace of 4.5mph, which is around three times normal walking speed.

I'm not sure what hurt first - burning calves, sore shins, aching thighs or screaming feet.

'A man ran with us on Sunday with his two sons,' Beefy reports. 'Fourteen years ago, he was given no chance of survival; that's why I do this. The pain you feel is nothing compared to what these people endure. We're making a difference.'

And he won't be quitting - a 25th anniversary walk is being planned for 2010.

October 9, 2008

Flintoff fights back

Posted on 10/09/2008 in English cricket

The Daily Mail's Paul Newman meets Andrew Flintoff in a frank and open chat about his comeback to international cricket.

'I was sat on the balcony at Lord's after we had gone four up in the one-day series against South Africa,' said relaxed and rejuvenated Flintoff.
'Everybody had gone, I had a beer in my hand and I just sat there and thought about everything I'd gone through over the last 10 months. I couldn't believe how pleased I was. How much I'd enjoyed being part of that, to be back in the England team winning games.

'There were so many low moments, so many times when I wondered if I would ever be sat there again like that.'

The return of a fully-fit and firing Flintoff was the story of the summer.

October 8, 2008

'Who gives a damn? It's not cricket'

Posted on 10/08/2008 in English cricket

Angus Fraser, in the Independent, writes that the rest of the cricketing world, or even the vast majority of England supporters, could not care if the US $20 million match between Stanford All-Star XI and England gets cancelled. Fraser feels the match is nothing more than an exhibition game, as it is just a move by Allen Stanford to promote himself and his company, but provides the ECB an opportunity to have greater control over its players.

Teams play matches to be successful and win trophies for the country they represent and the fans who passionately follow them. For a player, fortune is amassed and fame is gained as a direct result of excelling in these events and winning trophies.
Stanford's match, however, is different. It has been arranged almost as a "Big Brother" experiment, so that a billionaire can promote himself and his company while watching how players react when playing under a huge and falsely created amount of pressure. The game is an irrelevance. No trophy of any value will be won and the performances of the players will not appear in their career records. It is nothing more than an exhibition game.

October 6, 2008

Giles Clarke keen to extend reign

Posted on 10/06/2008 in English cricket

Giles Clarke reflects on his first year in office as chairman of the ECB. Read his interview with Ivo Tennant in the Times.

Clarke, 55, says that much of his job is about networking and socialising for the good of the game. “I am also very proud that we have secured a new broadcasting deal until 2013, particularly given the crisis in the economy, that there has been so much unprecedented investment in amateur and professional facilities, and that we have a much better relationship with Pakistan now,” he said. “In future years I want to see them play in the Midlands and the North in particular, where there are large Asian communities.”

October 5, 2008

'I'm mad to get back into the England team'

Posted on 10/05/2008 in English cricket

'I'm dedicating the next year to getting back into the England team': Vaughan © Getty Images

Michael Vaughan, in the Sunday Telegraph, writes about the reasons that contributed to his resignation as England captain and his determination to get back into the England team.

I’ve given myself until November 10 to decide my best way back. To be the best player I can be, my decision-making has to be spot-on, and I felt recently I was making some wrong decisions as captain and a batsman. The hunger is still there all right – I’m mad to get back into the England team.

Four out of the five England captains in the past 20 years, when every Test match has been televised and media scrutiny has never been greater, have resigned in highly-stressed circumstances, writes Scyld Berry in the Sunday Telegraph.

Part of the reason for Vaughan’s resignation can be traced to the England tour of New Zealand. When he arrived there for the Test series, he found the England one-day players already 'jaded’. Partly this was the consequence of touring: the longer a tour, Vaughan believes, the less effective the players are. But the objective reader, wishing the England captaincy to be a more sustainable job, can also take this as a veiled criticism of the management style of Peter Moores, as it was then, when highly focused on training. After two Twenty20 internationals in New Zealand, and five one-day games, the players should have been livelier, instead of producing flat performances which were only just sufficient to win the Test series 2-1.

England selector Geoff Miller, in an interview with Stephen Brenkley in the Independent on Sunday, talks about Michael Vaughan’s resignation, the surprising selection of Darren Pattinson, and English cricket’s new phase under Kevin Pietersen’s leadership.

About Pattinson's selection

"I was surprised at the reaction because it was unwarranted from Darren's viewpoint," he said. "There was a logical reason behind it. We'd had a special meeting about it and gone through all the contenders, everybody in the frame. He had proved himself at that stage, had created a feeling and was the kind of bowler we wanted. On the morning, circumstances conspired and as the swing bowler he was the choice. Will it be a long time before we make a selection like that again? The natural answer would be yes but I can't really say because a situation can crop up. What I do know is that what Darren had to deal with was unfair and that the buck stops with me."

October 4, 2008

'I felt like a foreigner in the England dressing-room'- Graeme Hick

Posted on 10/04/2008 in English cricket

Simon Hughes speaks to Graeme Hick about his illustrious career, its highs and lows, and reasons for his limited international success. Read his article in the Telegraph.

“I grew up on a tobacco farm in Zimbabwe,” he said. “The first time I walked into the England dressing room was the first time I’d spent a day in the company of all those guys. I didn’t know anyone really. I did feel like a foreigner in the dressing room.
“There were one or two who resented me being there and we were competing for places. There was one guy with a good Test record – Allan Lamb – and he wanted to say something but he didn’t know what to say or how to say it because I already had more first-class runs than him.”

October 3, 2008

Durham's triumphant season

Posted on 10/03/2008 in English cricket

The Third Umpire blog hosts a review of Durham’s triumphant county season. It also includes season reviews for Northamptonshire and Nottighamshire.

After the euphoria of 2007 and the club’s first piece of silverware, it was always going to be hard to live up to the expectations, some of it optimistic, of its supporters in 2008. Yet that is precisely what Durham did, by winning their maiden county championship title, just 16 years after gaining first-class status.

October 2, 2008

Why English spinners are an endangered species

Posted on 10/02/2008 in English cricket

A day after Derek Underwood took over as MCC president and vowed to use his position to promote spin in England, Mike Atherton writes in Times that the influence of home-grown slow bowlers has been waning by the season. Atherton traces the decline of spin bowling in England and feels there has been no recovery. Yet, he says, there are grounds for hope.

A week spent watching the denouement of the LV County Championship at Trent Bridge last week highlighted the issue. There were four spinners on view, bowling on a pitch that, while slow, was bare and dry. There were two left-armers (Samit Patel and Liam Dawson), an off spinner (Graeme Swann) and a leg spinner (Imran Tahir): three home-produced players and one from overseas; three orthodox spinners and one with more “mystery”. Between them, the home-grown spinners took four wickets and Tahir took eight.

October 1, 2008

One-day win highlight of Essex's season

Posted on 10/01/2008 in English cricket

Philip Oliver reviews Essex’s 2008 season in the blog Third Umpire. He lauds them for their one-day performances, and is optimistic about the county’s chances of promotion to Division One in the Championship next season. The blog also has season reviews for Worcestershire and Hampshire.

Essex enjoyed a successful 2008 season, confirming themselves as one of the premier limited overs teams in the country. Unfortunately a similar winning formula continues to evade them in the championship, where they will start 2009 in division two for the eighth time in 10 years of the two division structure.

On the Sky Sports website, Ian Ward, the former England batsman, provides a comprehensive review of the 2008 county season.

When I was at Surrey you'd see Alec Stewart, Mark Butcher, Graham Thorpe and the rest going off and playing for England and that made you realise you had to improve if you wanted to stay in the side. You start thinking like an international cricketer and trying to emulate what they were achieving. Durham have had Harmison, Collingwood and Plunkett going into international cricket and that will have motivated the other players. They've been the stars for the last few seasons and it's all culminated this year.

September 29, 2008

Pattinson wouldn't pick himself

Posted on 09/29/2008 in English cricket

Many cricketers have protested against their omission from Test sides, but precious few have criticised their own inclusion. Darren Pattinson tells Alex Brown in the Age that he had disagreed with the England selectors' decision to play him in the second Test against South Africa at Headingley.

'If I never played another international, I'd be OK with that. As far as the England players were concerned, they were nice and very welcoming. I guess (Michael) Vaughan was coming to the end of his captaincy at the time, so there might have been a few issues there. I didn't get all the stuff he said, but I take it, it was mostly to do with the selection'

Somerset miss out yet again

Posted on 09/29/2008 in English cricket

Justin Langer: "There hasn't been a single game I have been involved in this summer that hasn't felt like a cup final" © Getty Images

Andy Bull, in his blog in the Guardian, laments another loss for Somerset in the County Championship. The anguish is greater this time as the ultimate victory eluded the team despite Justin Langer’s spirited leadership. Somerset have never won the Country Championship in the tournament's long history.

Durham, of course, just won the championship for the first time themselves, but they've only been trying for 16 years. Somerset have been imagining that each new season could be the season for 117.
There isn't another record quite like it in cricket. Northamptonshire are the only other team never to have won the league, but they didn't join until 1905. Gloucestershire have had a miserable time since the championship was founded in 1890, but at least they enjoyed the age of Grace in the 1870s when they won the unofficial version four times. I suppose Bolton Wanderers, who helped found the football league in 1888 but have never won the championship, have a kinship of a kind.

Justin Langer, in his column for the BBC, says "English cricket should be proud of the standards in Division One - and I can see absolutely no need to change anything about it."

There hasn't been a single game I have been involved in this summer that hasn't felt like a cup final and the pressure associated with this is sure to produce better cricket and therefore tougher cricketers.

The best from the County Championship

Posted on 09/29/2008 in English cricket

Hampshire's Imran Tahir was the best overseas signing of the season, according to Angus Fraser © Getty Images

The Guardian's writers pick their best moments, favourite incidents, and heroes from the English season.

David Hopps' highlight of the season: Sitting on the popular bank at Scarborough at Festival time watching Yorkshire v Kent with, I kid you not, the sun shining from a cloudless sky. And KP's first press conference as captain, which was so full of love it gave me an insight into what the 1960s must have been like.
Paul Weaver's lowlight of the season: The greed with which Twenty20 cricket was pursued could be one of sport's great morality tales. Also, giving Michael Vaughan a new central contact when he's not good enough for Yorkshire.

Angus Fraser has also reviewed the season in the Independent.

Best overseas signing Imran Tahir. Hampshire were looking at Second Division cricket when Tahir joined the county. They have not lost a Championship game since.
Worst overseas signing Shoaib Akhtar. The signing of the controversial and unreliable fast bowler highlighted the depth of Surrey's desperation. In two games he took 1 for 117.

September 28, 2008

Reviews of the English season

Posted on 09/28/2008 in English cricket

Shoaib Akhtar swept the "Worst overseas signing" category © Getty Images

After Durham clinched their first county championship, the papers look back at the season’s cricket. The Sunday Telegraph’s Steve James picks his dream-team of the season, gives Mark Ramprakash the nod for “Best Excuse” and “Worst-Directed Tantrum”, and anoints Shoaib Akhtar the “Worst Overseas Player”.

Year's Biggest Illusion
The standard of the county championship. It was not that good … No spinners until Imran Tahir emerged. Great finish, but that's what happens when it rains a lot. And the intermittent presence of quickies like Steve Harmison and Andrew Flintoff altered the landscape too discernibly. Otherwise attacks were rather ordinary.

And if you want to find out what the “Most intemperate answer to a media question”, or what the “Most surprising confession” of the season was, read Simon Wilde in the Sunday Times

Why Durham have done the business

Posted on 09/28/2008 in English cricket

Durham's success has been based on a business model which the other first-class counties, the Test-playing countries and the International Cricket Council would do well to heed, then follow, says Scyld Berry in the Sunday Telegraph.

And in the Sunday Times Simon Wilde looks at Durham's spectacular rise to become county champions a mere 16 years after they first participated in it.

On the BBC Test Match Special blog, Oliver Brett reveals how England football legend Kevin Keegan helped Durham during it's early years in the top flight.

MCC not keeping with the times

Posted on 09/28/2008 in English cricket

The MCC has too few female members, despite ending its men-only rule ten years ago, writes Emily Dugan in the Independent on Sunday.

In the past 10 years, Lords has received millions of pounds in funding from private investment, as well as £200,000 in direct Lottery grants.
But over that same decade the number of women allowed to join its 18,000 members has increased to just 62, 0.3 per cent of the club's membership.

September 25, 2008

Surrey's most miserable season

Posted on 09/25/2008 in English cricket

Surrey have been relegated to the County Championship second division after a grim campaign in which they have so far failed to win a single game. A meeting of the Surrey Cricket Management Board on Monday is now expected to confirm the departure of manager Alan Butcher, assistant Nadeem Shahid and bowling coach Geoff Arnold. The Third Umpire blog has a review of Surrey's season, in which it is written:

It is axiomatic that Surrey are a club in need of big changes, with the appointment of Graham Thorpe as batting coach appearing a shrewd start. But years of muddled thinking and short-termism will not be easy to rectify, especially with so many serial under-performers still contracted.

And the award goes to...

Posted on 09/25/2008 in English cricket

As the County Championship draws to a nailbiting close, the PCA have named a four-man shortlist for the PCA Player of the Year award, encompassing Marcus Trescothick, Ravi Bopara, Steve Harmison and Martin van Jaarsveld. The panel at The Wisden Cricketer draws up its 'hit' list as well from this season and debates the PCA's picks for Player of the Year.

The Dazzler accepts the dying of his light

Posted on 09/25/2008 in English cricket

Darren Gough had an open mind and a desire to change © PA Photos

With the career of one of cricket's colourful characters, Darren Gough, coming to an end, the tributes continue to pour in. In the Times, Michael Atherton hails him as England's most important and influential fast bowler since Ian Botham.

Gough does not stray too far from the classic caricature, the look-at-me-aren't-I-great school of Yorkshire cricket, but in the most important aspect of his game, his bowling, he soaked up information so that he became, within five years, an unrecognisable performer from the one who embarked on a first-class career just as Australia's 16-year domination of the Ashes began.

In the Guardian, Mike Selvey says: "In his going I can see Turner's wonderfully evocative painting of the Fighting Temeraire, battle deeds done, being towed to the breakers' yard in Rotherhithe."

September 24, 2008

English cricket's premier domestic competition

Bloodaxe insists 'it was not my show'

In his column in the Independent, Angus Fraser stresses the significance of the County Championship for the overall development of cricketers.

For all its many faults, with perhaps the biggest two probably being that there are a couple more counties than there ideally should be and that there are too many non-England qualified players, the Championship plays an absolutely crucial role in the development of cricketers. The education system in this country does not make money. It is an investment. And it is on overcast Thursdays in front of meagre crowds at Taunton or Chester-le-Street that the next Pietersen or Andrew Flintoff are to be found learning their trade.

Doubt burst for the Championship

Mark Ramprakash doing what he does best ... scoring runs © Getty Images

Mark Ramprakash uses his column in the Daily Telegraph to speak honestly about Surrey’s dire season … and gets his excuses in early.

We lost Mark Butcher early on and I was asked to stand in as captain. Right from the very beginning I said I was happy to carry out the orders on the field but I was conscious that I was a stand-in captain and that it was not my show. Policy and selection was still down to the coach and Mark Butcher.

He also touches on rumours that he might be heading to India this winter.

Times have changed and the winter now provides other opportunities in the form of Twenty20 cricket in India. I was contacted by the Indian Cricket League at one point and asked if I would be interested in joining an England team they were thinking of setting up.
I’ve heard nothing since and I have not received any offers from the Indian Premier League. There is a lot of competition for places because every overseas cricketer now wants to play in the IPL and would relish the challenge of being involved. But at the moment a trip to Disneyland is my only overseas posting this winter.

ECB plans to have two Twenty20 tournaments from the 2010 season and onwards © Getty Images

Despite being poised for a thrilling finale, the County Championship is under greater threat than ever. But, Angus Fraser in the Independent believes it remains vital to the game.

The Championship may be enjoying one of its more captivating seasons, but life for domestic cricket's premier competition is not going to get any easier, and the number of people who question the worthiness of playing midweek four-day cricket in front of sparse crowds is only set to increase. The rise, rise and rise of Twenty20 cricket, a frantic, consumer friendly and ever more lucrative form of the game has ensured just that.

Goodbye Gough

A cricketing Eden caught in no man's land

Darren Gough was left out of the Yorkshire lineup for the final championship game against Sussex. Oliver Brett in his blog in BBC Sport bids farewell to the model professional.

The subsequent, protracted failure of the team from that point up to the 2007 World Cup tended to prove Gough right. As he said: "You can't buy bowlers like me at a local superstore - it takes years and years."

September 23, 2008

Posted on 09/23/2008 in English cricket

The Guardian's blog says that Harold Pinter's love of the game suggests that the names of his characters are more than mere coincidence.

One day at drama school Pinter skipped classes to go to Lord's, running through the gate at the Nursery End to see Cyril Washbrook late-cutting for four. His abiding memory of that truant day, expressed in six simple words towards the end of that 1969 essay, is of an Eden familiar to all cricket-lovers: "that beautiful evening Compton made 70".
Is there a more evocative sentence in cricket literature? Even those who never saw Compton in his prime may feel, reading those words, that "I have known this before". It is one of those moments frozen in time. So, as the light fails on an autumn afternoon, history is now and England. Here's to a great playwright, to all our summers, and to the players whose deeds coloured them.

September 21, 2008

Hick's 405: The biggest innings in England in 93 years

Posted on 09/21/2008 in English cricket

In 1988, Vic Marks was part of a Somerset attack that Graeme Hick hammered around Taunton. With the help of team-mates and opponents Marks, now cricket correspondent for the Guardian, recalls that famous innings and examines why Hick, who retires this week, never achieved his expected dominance of the international game.

I was there. Twenty years on after a momentous sporting event there are usually enough first-hand witnesses around to fill the relevant stadium five times over. But I was bloody there all right - along with about 1500 others - when Graeme Hick scored 405 not out. I have the bowling figures to prove it (50-6-141-1, since you ask).
And I was grumpy. All that guff about being involved, however peripherally, in a little bit of history, was no consolation for another thrashing around Taunton. No one had scored 400 in the County Championship since 1895, when Archie MacLaren had hit 424 not out for Lancashire, also against Somerset at Taunton. All the other quadruple centurions had scored their runs on distant fields: Karachi, Sydney, Poona and Melbourne. Hick was sparking a new era of mammoth scores.

In the Sunday Times, David Gower pays tribute and offers a little sympathy.

It was not easy for Hick that the qualification period he had to serve to “become English” dealt him a tough hand in that his debut had to be against a rampant West Indies in 1991. Again a sympathetic comparison: I walked out for my first Test at Edgbaston against Pakistan in 1978 to face Sarfraz, Liaqat Ali, Mudassar, Iqbal Qasim, Sikander Bakht and Wasim Raja; Hick had Ambrose, Patterson, Walsh and Marshall. Maybe if Hick had been lucky enough to ease himself into Test cricket it would have given him a better chance of fulfilling all those expectations that the world had of him at the time.

September 20, 2008

What has happened to my cricket?

Posted on 09/20/2008 in English cricket

British comedian and cricket fan, Miles Jupp, reflects on some of the radical changes the England team underwent this summer. Ranging from Michael Vaughan’s resignation to his beloved Matthew Hoggard’s exclusion from the Test series against South Africa, Flintoff’s return to form and Harmison’s comeback, Jupp regrets his absence from an eventful cricketing season in England as he was occupied with other commitments. Click here to read his blog in the Wisden Cricketer.

Some people compare English cricket to a soap opera. Wrong. If you miss a soap for a few weeks you can turn it on again and within minutes you’re up to speed. I have turned my back for the briefest of whiles and I’ve missed Armageddon. No soap scriptwriter would dare to make all these changes at once.
The unflappable Michael Vaughan suddenly flapping. Harmison returning before Hoggard after their Hamilton hiatus - now Hoggard may never return. KP being captain in both forms of the game - I wouldn’t have bet a penny. How could a man who for the last three years has looked as if he is acting in another movie be so capable of bringing people together? He has England playing at a totally different heart-rate.

September 19, 2008

The sun's the limit for Trescothick

Posted on 09/19/2008 in English cricket

It's sometimes easy to forget that Marcus Trescothick is one of the leading run-scorers in the County Championship, despite him being in the news for his off-field troubles. He's enjoying his cricket, no doubt, but nothing can convince him to return to the England fold, not even friendly nudges from Kevin Pietersen to reconsider. Paul Newman of the Daily Mail caught up with him.

'I went to watch the one-dayer at Lord’s a few weeks ago. It was the first game of international cricket I’d ever watched and although it felt a bit strange, I didn’t say to myself “I’ve got to be back doing this”. I enjoyed England while it lasted but I’ve moved on now.’

The giant who lacked fire

Posted on 09/19/2008 in English cricket

Graeme Hick has played his last county match and views and comments on the Worcestershire legend will undoubtedly spill over for some time. In the Guardian Mike Selvey ponders whether there was something just a little too mechanical or formulaic in Hick's approach to an innings, one blurring into another. Selvey recalls a couple contrasting Hick innings, and believes that he was a giant cricketer who needed more ruthlessness.

Hick says he was not ruthless enough, which those many bowlers who have been on the receiving end may find an odd thing, but I think he means that the fire did not rage as it might. He is just too nice a fellow. Maybe there was something just a little too mechanical or formulaic in his approach to an innings, one blurring into another. Few hundreds were memorable in the sense that the mind can distinguish between them. I didn't see his 178 in India — his maiden Test hundred and one of his favourites — but another, 141 at Centurion, I did. Yet apart from a vague recollection of a thunderous pull shot, I can't recall a further thing about it.

September 18, 2008

County contrast with Premier League elite

Posted on 09/18/2008 in English cricket

Comparing the English football scene with its cricket counterparts, Michael Atherton writes in the Times that the most wealthy clubs in the LV County Championship have failed to prosper.

Atherton looks at Leicestershire chairman Neil Davidson's paper of last year which suggested that county cricket was heading down the football route, where the only determining factor to success would be the health of a club's balance sheet, and picks out a glitch in the argument.

Look at the shambolic state of Lancashire, Yorkshire, Surrey and Warwickshire, all of whom are failing to exploit their power and the weakness of others. These are the counties with the most financial muscle, the greatest traditions and the biggest pools of talent to draw from, yet they are failing to deliver silverware and locally produced players in sufficient numbers, surely the twin aims of any self-respecting county.

Ashes Hero No. 43: Andrew Flintoff

Posted on 09/18/2008 in English cricket

In the Times, Patrick Kidd continues his year-long exploration of the men who made the Ashes what they are. The eighth installment features Andrew Flintoff, the only member from the Ashes-winning side of 2005 to make the cut in Kidd's list of 50 players.

Without the runs of Strauss and Trescothick or the bowling of Jones, Hoggard and Harmison, without key performances at crucial moments from various members of the squad (and not to mention without a healthy dose of luck), England would not have won, but the person they could have least afforded to lose was Flintoff.

September 17, 2008

The end of the road for Dazzler

Posted on 09/17/2008 in English cricket

Darren Gough was always determined to enjoy his game © Getty Images

As Darren Gough calls time on a nearly two-decade career, Rob Bagchi pays tribute in the Guardian.

It is difficult to overstate how bad Yorkshire cricket was until Gough came along. In the 1970s and 80s, the club was mired in the Boycott wars and an obsession with past glories. Nostalgics talked about charismatic characters like Fred Trueman and Brian Close and pointed to the obvious shortcomings of the brittle and diffident Chris Old and the enigmatic Jim Love. Every few years there would be a promising discovery, such as Paul Jarvis, whose youthful vigour and talent would be crushed by the weight of expectation.

And in the Wisden Cricketer, Rob Smyth calls him England's best fast bowler in 25 years, better than the much-touted Fab Four which won the 2005 Ashes. "Gough was statistically and actually superior to all of them: Harmison with heart; Hoggard with real nip; Jones with a new-ball threat; Flintoff with variety and a consistent wicket-taking threat."

September 16, 2008

'I never had a cut-throat edge, that's why I fell short'

Posted on 09/16/2008 in English cricket

"I wouldn't change anything because I've always tried to stay true to myself" © Getty Images

In his last season of county cricket, Worcestershire stalwart and former England batsman Graeme Hick looks back on the highs and lows of an eventful career, in an interview with the Guardian's Donald McRae.

Recalling his first season, when he alternated between playing for Worcestershire Seconds and for Kidderminster in the Birmingham League, Hick says that as a wide-eyed 17-year-old he didn't know a soul in England.

"I remember how daunted I was getting from Heathrow to Worcester on my own. I got the train and I was met at the railway station by the club secretary. He dropped me off at the hotel near the cathedral and I spent the whole weekend on my own. It was early April and bitterly cold and all I did that weekend was walk into town, get a burger, walk back to my room, watch TV, and then walk down into town to get another burger in the evening."

Hick cites missing out on a Test century against West Indies in 1994 by four runs, but being reassured by England coach Keith Fletcher that if he could score runs against that attack he could score runs anywhere. He credits that as one of the times he was managed well by England, but also acknowledges his own failings.

I was gutted because those four runs would have meant a lot. It's all speculation but maybe completing those two centuries might have taken away some pressure. I came from a country [Zimbabwe] where we had no professional sport and so I had a naive philosophy. I saw it as a game that should be enjoyed. I never had that cut-throat edge. Maybe that's why I sometimes fell short.

September 15, 2008

It's county cricket v ICL

Posted on 09/15/2008 in Indian Cricket League

With most players on seven-month contracts, Steve James in the Telegraph believes the counties must ditch their efforts to control players all year round. He believes the introduction of year-long contracts might not be enough to hold back cricketers from the lure of tournaments like the unofficial ICL.

The simple reason the counties want their players on twelve-month contracts is control. They do not want them signing up for so-called 'rebel' tournaments like the Indian Cricket League. They're not really sure what they're going to do with them all winter, but they want them only doing things of which they approve. They want them on extended contracts, but they do not want to pay them much more.

September 14, 2008

A reality show of sickening vulgarity

Posted on 09/14/2008 in English cricket

Steve James is appalled about the future of the game as the Stanford 20/20 for 20 draws closer. In the Sunday Telegraph he outlines his fears for the future.

Indeed to call it cricket at all will be difficult. For November 1 will be the night cricket is turned into reality TV, where some grisly voyeuristic fare is served up for those of a short attention span. Big Brother has finished: roll up instead to watch the nervous antics of the England cricket team … this match has immeasurable potential for division and discord. Win bonuses in cricket always do. Always pity the poor county cricketer in charge of the players' kitty. It is an impossible task, forever leaping into a viper's nest of egos and irrational claims.
Already the Stanford selection has raised hackles. Why on earth are 15 players required for a week's work, even if the same squad only touch down for 24 hours afterwards en route to India? How is Alastair Cook included? The omission of so-called domestic Twenty20 experts is correct – where is Chris Schofield now? But why no Dimitri Mascarenhas? He played in England's last Twenty20 match, a win over New Zealand at Old Trafford. "It's a kick in the teeth," he has said publicly. Privately his ire is much stronger.

Redemption song

Posted on 09/14/2008 in English cricket

Stephen Brenkley, in the Independent on Sunday, reveals how county cricket has offered solace to Marcus Trecothick and Steve Harmison after both endured tough times after the highs of the 2005 Ashes triumph.

It might have been that only playing for Somerset, and knowing that was all he [Trescothick] had, would lead to inexorable decline. But he responded with the unmistakable sledgehammer of his bat. His 1,238 runs, making him the leading scorer in the competition, have taken Somerset to the brink of their first title. He is at home again in every sense.
Harmison needed county cricket badly. He had to learn to bowl again and has taken 50 wickets for Durham. It has been the remaking of him. He recognised it by insisting he play in the last round of matches. He is a sensitive man and he knew he owed it to himself and to Durham to play. Both men realised what their counties had done for them.

Meanwhile, Simon Wilde, in the Sunday Times, looks at the decline of Surrey, who, despite being one of the richest clubs in England, are on the verge of being relegated to Division Two of the County Championship.

The contrast between the commercial and cricketing sides is stark. Not long ago, Surrey were the main provider of players to the England team. That river has long since run dry. Figures produced by Leicestershire’s chairman, Neil Davidson, reveal Surrey as among the worst offenders when it comes to giving opportunities to young home-grown players. It is five years since a Surrey player won a first Test cap for England. Even though they own one of the best county academies, there is no sign of that drought ending. Surrey have an unhappy knack of turning stars into black holes. Witness the fates of Rikki Clarke, Scott Newman and James Benning.

September 13, 2008

Britain's best village cricket grounds

Posted on 09/13/2008 in Miscellaneous

Village cricket at West End, Esher in Surrey © Martin Williamson

The Daily Telegraph selected the best ten among readers' entries for cricket grounds that are quintessentially British. David Robson writes:

If the England cricket team were as spoiled for talent as England is spoiled for picturesque cricket grounds, it would never lose another match.

Test cricket is played in some of the most beautiful places on earth, from Barbados to Cape Town, but no Test Match ground can hold a candle to the real thing - the English village green, unchanged in centuries.

Bridgetown Cricket Club in Somerset, located in the Exmoor National Park, was adjudged the winner.

It was the eccentric detail that made this little ground, accessible by a wooden footbridge over a river, sound so heart-warmingly English. "There is a swallows' nest in the dressing-room, a wrens' nest above the front door... showers non-existent, though it is possible to take a dip in the river Exe to cool off after the match...a boiler fired by gas bottles for that most essential cricketing ingredient - tea." You can almost hear the kettle whistling as the players plod off the field.

Click here to read about the other grounds.

September 12, 2008

Why Northants shouldn't retain Klusener

Posted on 09/12/2008 in English cricket

Despite topping the Northamptonshire batting charts this season, Lance Klusener wasn't offered a new contract by the county - a decision that has surprised many. A post on the Tim Walton's bandana blog (self-styled unofficial home of Northants cricket) explains that given Klusener's wages, his poor bowling and lack of match-winning performances, Northamptonshire have made the right decision in letting him go.

In 2008 Northamptonshire have won three matches (to date). Klusener was absent for the first, scored 0 and 10* in the second and despite scoring 65 in the third was overshadowed by a stunning century from [David] Sales that thwarted Leicestershire’s bowlers in distinctly unfriendly conditions for batting.
Klusener may have scored consistently in the Championship but he has not proved to be a difference-maker in leading Northamptonshire to wins against the odds. He may have been the difference between defeat and a draw on occasion, but ultimately he has not been able to swing games in the County’s favours.

Farewell Mushie

Posted on 09/12/2008 in English cricket

With Mushtaq Ahmed calling time on his first-class career, his Sussex team-mate Robin Martin-Jenkins recalls their first encounter on a cricket pitch:

A fizzing legspinner ripped past my forward prod first ball. I can still clearly recall that extraordinary sound as the seam ripped through the air ... I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it (the next ball) was short and wide outside the off stump. I thought they said this guy was a genius? As I shaped to cut and get off the mark with a glorious four past point, the ball dipped and ripped back past my back foot. I think my bat was still at the top of its back-lift, MCC coaching book style, when the googly cannoned into middle stump.

Read the full post in the Wisden Cricketer.

September 11, 2008

The wonder years for Atherton

Posted on 09/11/2008 in English cricket

The celebration match at Lord's for the 60th anniversary of English Schools Cricket Association (ESCA) leads Michael Atherton to believe that the ECB must support young talent. In his column in the Times, he revisits the summer of 1983, where he represented the North of England Under-15s at the ESCA festival, doing battle against Nasser Hussain, Mark Ramprakash.

Despite their reputations, I knew Nasser had the yips and could not bowl and I reckoned that I could score as many runs as Ramps. The possibilities seemed endless.

Swann keeps his feet on the ground

Posted on 09/11/2008 in English cricket

In an interview with Lawrence Booth in the Guardian, offspinner Graeme Swann insists he hasn't been thinking of how he'd spend his million dollars (if he is selected and England win the Stanford match) and that he is looking forward more to visiting the "far-out places" in India during the one-day series than the one-off game in Antigua.

"The whole reason to have a game like this is to get people talking about it, and in that respect it's worked. But some of the questions I've dealt with from the press have had a cynical edge. Whenever there are large sums of money involved it brings out the worst in people."

Hoggard keeps his chin up

Posted on 09/11/2008 in English cricket

The end of the road for Matthew Hoggard? © Getty Images

With Matthew Hoggard missing out on a central contract, his international career appears to be over. Hoggard, though, thinks there's a comeback left in him. "I am only 31, not quite ready to draw my pension or reach for the pipe and slippers just yet, thanks very much," he says as he looks on the bright side, rather unconvincingly, in his column in the Times.

I won't, for example, have to travel to Loughborough quite so often to undergo yet another fitness test or bowl another few hundred balls in the nets. Instead, I can just nip down to Headingley, do my stuff there and be back home for my tea in 20 minutes.
Mercifully, nor will I have to travel to London to sit through long, drawn-out meetings, such as the one that the England players had to attend this year when we were getting our new kit

In the Guardian, Mike Selvey isn't as optimistic about Hoggard returning to the national side.

September 10, 2008

The day captaincy changes forever

Posted on 09/10/2008 in English cricket

A challenge for captain KP © Getty Images

Lawrence Booth writes in the Guardian that captain Kevin Pietersen will face an unprecedented set of problems when the Stanford match takes place. He points out that besides Pietersen's man-management skills being tested to the full due to the massive amount of money at stake, the Stanford series makes it tough for him in another way:

The selectors and Pietersen must now be utterly ruthless because the format leaves them no option. There can be no planning for the future, no experimenting with batting line-ups, no sentiment, no fun - all of which take place even in Test cricket. We will discover which players are considered the big-game cricketers and which the captain regards as flaky.

In the same paper, Andy Bull says the right squads were chosen and that the incremental contracts handed to Tim Ambrose, Ravi Bopara, Samit Patel, Matthew Prior, Owais Shah, Graeme Swann and Luke Wright could be a pointer to the nucleus of the future England side.

And Kevin Eason wonders in the Times whether England will be as much of a team when they fly home after the extravagant one-off contest as when they arrive.

Also read Rob Smyth's take on the England selection on his blog in the Wisden Cricketer.

Stanford stands for ostentatiousness, razzmatazz and affluence, but none of that was on show at Lord’s. There was just an everyday squad announcement, delivered by Geoff Miller with all the zest of a bingo club manager announcing who had made the team for next weekend’s fixture away to the Grimsby Septuagenarians. There was no showbiz: dancing girls, no boxing-style nicknames for the players. And no surprises among the names.

September 9, 2008

All hail the thinking man's swashbuckler

Posted on 09/09/2008 in English cricket

Simon Barnes writes in the Times that the reason behind Kevin Pietersen's success is his ability to adapt, his ambition and his relentless pursuit of success.

Pointless to ask whether Pietersen has achieved these things (establish a college of senior players, instill a culture of shared responsibility, get Flintoff and Harmison back near their best) in spite of or because of his narcissism. Pietersen is aware that what matters in sport is success and he is prepared to do anything it takes to be successful. And if that involves thinking about other people, well, he's even prepared to go to these extreme lengths.

September 7, 2008

Dave English and the next generation of cricketers

Posted on 09/07/2008 in English cricket

"Dave English managed the Bee Gees, handled publicity for Eric Clapton and the Rolling Stones, was involved in the launch of the film Grease and had a (very minor) role in A Bridge Too Far, alongside Robert Redford, right. English used the money and contacts he made in the music industry to set up the Bunbury cricket organisation," writes David Walsh in the Sunday Times.

Where do you begin to tell this man’s story? Perhaps as a boy, a year or so younger than Cowdrey is now, being awoken in the early hours by his father. “Look, Stinker,” his dad said, using the codename that spoke of their closeness. “I’ve got to go. Your mum is a good woman who loves you; look after her and your sister. You’re the boss now.” He understood why his dad left, even empathised with the zest for life that tempted him from their London home. He didn’t hear from him for two years. Though he coped remarkably well, there were times when he needed to work things out and he would head down to nearby Hendon Park with his cricket bat over his shoulder. Tomorrow could wait. Today he would improve his batting. He made it onto the ground staff at Lord’s, played two games for the Middlesex second team, but he didn’t have that touch of greatness. Instead he had a talent for enabling those who did. Eric Clapton and Barry Gibb would soon become two of his favourite people and two of his best mates.

England settle after summer of storms

Posted on 09/07/2008 in English cricket

The defining moments of the international season came in a couple of text messages. Well, it has been a dreadfully wet summer and we are all slaves of the mobile phone now, western Vic Marks in the Observer.

On Sunday 3 August, the day after the Edgbaston Test, this appeared: 'Michael Vaughan will be giving a press conference at Loughborough today at 1pm.' The moment we received that we all knew he was going, but he had taken us by surprise. The text received at 10.15am on Friday 18 July at Headingley seemed even more prosaic. The ECB kindly deliver the final XI to our mobile phones on the morning of a Test match a few minutes before the toss. This particular message seemed routine enough until we alighted upon the name of Darren Pattinson. Both these texts suggested an England regime in disarray, with no idea which direction to take.

In the Independent on Sunday, Stephen Brenkley looks ahead to August 2009 and says that "Kevin Pietersen raising above his head a small urn on the boundary at The Oval" is a possible scenario.

September 6, 2008

A joyless tale

Posted on 09/06/2008 in Books

Marcus Trescothick's ghosted autobiography, Coming Back to Me, belongs to an increasingly popular genre, one that admits to the notion that cricket and the cricketers themselves are not inherently interesting enough to sell, writes Mike Atherton in the Times.

To invest the pages with more bite and, no doubt, more marketability, the player admits to some previously unrevealed trauma, or, in Trescothick's case, a trauma that had been only half-revealed ... Other than moments of dark humour, such as when Peter Gregory, the England team doctor, tried his hand, unsuccessfully, at acupuncture, and when Trescothick was taken in by a fraudster of a hypnotist, this is a joyless book. There is little of the thrill of playing sport at the highest level, none of the humour, nor the fascinating details or character sketches of dressing-room figures that make a sporting life worthwhile.

In its Ashes Heroes countdown, the Times lists Craig McDermott as No. 45.

Meanwhile, the Independent's Brian Viner attends a black-tie dinner at Lord's Taverners to celebrate cricket's 10 surviving centurions – the men who made at least 100 first-class hundreds.

Geoffrey Boycott had other tactics for staying in all day. The scorer of 151 first-class hundreds recalled the advice of his Uncle Algy, that "when two people get involved in a run-out, one of t'buggers is going to be unhappy. Make sure it isn't you." Amid much knowing laughter, he added: "I followed that advice all my life until I met that bastard Amiss." I don't know how Dennis Amiss, another of the centurions, reacted to being called a bastard. And I couldn't quite see whether the mother and grandmother of a young lad at the table next to mine winced at such salty Boycottian language.

September 5, 2008

KP - the odd man out

Posted on 09/05/2008 in English cricket

With the backing of the captain, Flintoff is back to being the nightmare batsman for the opposition © Getty Images

Kevin Pietersen, England's new captain, has evolved in an environment where he has always been the odd man out and without the self-belief he so clearly exudes, he would have been lost, writes Harsha Bhogle in the Indian Express.

By being open about the mediocrity in the English cricket system, often alluded to but rarely taken head-on, he has sent out a message about the kind of players he wants to work with. “I want players who perform day-in-day-out” he said. He is looking for match-winners, not cosy players who do enough to stay in the side. When you apply that condition, it is not difficult to see who he is after ... With the backing of the captain, Flintoff is back to being the nightmare batsman for the opposition ... Next he worked on Harmison, a man of fragile temperament but enormous ability. England, much to everyone’s glee, were ready to give up on him. But sometimes the biggest brutes have soft cores, feel the same need for reassurance as average strugglers.

In the Guardian Duncan Fletcher writes that while England flourished against South Africa, their handling of India's pitches will give us a better idea of their progression.

We will find out about certain individuals' variations after the plane lands in India, where I expect Paul Collingwood and Luke Wright to do more bowling. The key to batting over there is the ability to gauge the pace of the pitch, play the ball late, and manoeuvre it into gaps with flexible wrists. Owais Shah - preferably lower down the order - and Pietersen are key and others will have to learn quickly, because the English tendency is to go hard at the ball. A shot in England that will bring you runs might go straight to a fielder in India because the ball comes off the pitch more slowly. Go too early at the ball on the subcontinent and you don't give yourself time to pick up the variations in pace and bounce.

Despite the losses to New Zealand in one-day cricket and to South Africa in Test cricket and the departures of Michael Vaughan and Paul Collingwood as Test and one-day captain respectively, the England who completed the summer were more settled and confident than the one who began it, writes Mike Atherton in the Times.

Pietersen has been a revelation. Very few people would have expected him to have such a positive and immediate impact, writes Angus Fraser in the Independent.

September 4, 2008

A tribute to Len Hutton

Len Hutton died on September 6, 1990 © Getty Images

The Guardian unearths from their vault a column dedicated to Len Hutton by the Labour politician and Yorkshire native Roy Hattersley following the death of the legendary batsman. He wrote:

Perhaps Hutton was never quite the happy warrior whom every boy in pads would wish him to be. But in 1946 having adjusted to the short left arm and learned how to play with a bat of a size usually only to be found in youth clubs the whole burden of English cricket was piled on his shoulders. He had to open the batting against Lindwall and Miller. He had to hang on whilst more glamorous batsmen got themselves out with flashy shots.

Then he had to take on the England captaincy and win back the Ashes. He did it all with professional dedication. But, since he was not a boisterous man or noted for the wit of his after dinner speeches, we are entitled to ask ourselves how funny he believed his most famous indeed his only publicised joke to be? Whilst resisting one particularly savage spell of pace and lift, he walked down the wicket for what commentators undoubtedly called 'consultations' with Dennis Compton. 'There must,' said Hutton, 'be a better way of earning your living than this.'

One of a fading breed

The jazz musician and cricket lover Benny Green once wrote that he knew he was heading for middle age the day Denis Compton, one of the greatest players of the mid-20th century, retired. The same sense of mortality will tickle thirty-something cricket fans with the retirement of Graeme Hick, who announced this week that this season would be his last, says Huw Richards in the International Herald Tribune.

The international failure and overseas origins have clouded the underlying truth, which is that Hick was a throwback, one of a perhaps dying breed. He has given 25 years of unstinting, exemplary service to a single club, Worcestershire, playing on long after international ambitions had departed, for the sheer enjoyment of the game and because he is still an asset - averaging 46 runs per innings this season. It will not be only Worcestershire fans who wish him well in retirement.

No will to go with grace

Long live Anglo-Australian dissing

Ian Bell is probably the England player who receives the most criticism but behind most of the criticism lies respect for, and frustration with, an abundant natural talent, writes Rob Smyth in his blog on the Wisden Cricketer website.

Not since David Gower has an Englishman so gifted proved so exasperating. Bell will never elicit quite the same level of trust as more mundane, blue-collar batsmen like Paul Collingwood, because the nature of his talent is so unusual to us and more difficult to comprehend, but that does not mean his underachievement is relished. Quite the opposite. It is simply that many feel he does not have the will to go with his grace.

The run machine calls time

Marcus Trescothick's Murray Mints revelations ensured that Australians can still indulge in the atavistic pleasure of sledging the Poms, writes Gideon Haigh in the Guardian.

Rupert Murdoch's Australian, which can always be relied on for sober and dispassionate coverage of cricket issues, laid it out with typical restraint: "The secret behind the devastating swing bowling that took England to its historic 2005 Ashes win has been revealed. They cheated." What a relief for the country to be confirmed in its most deeply embedded prejudices - that any English ascendancy, however brief, must be an outcome of trickery or luck.
You might imagine that a grown-up relationship between England and Australia would result in less puerile point-scoring; but it's precisely because the relationship is so mature that it permits such harmless silliness. In fact, in this era of instant umbrage, it seems an almost unseemly luxury to be able to diss any country, and an act of delicious fun to give it back.

In the same paper Mike Selvey writes that Pietersen and the new England ODI side's real test will come in India:

Here, on sluggish pitches, it is the spinners rather than wrecking balls such as Flintoff and Harmison who boss the middle overs, while the capacity of seamers to take the pace from the ball is also crucial ... Ultimately, success, particularly in one-day cricket, will come in the development of a squad capable of adapting to all conditions and circumstances. One size does not fit all.

September 3, 2008

Posted on 09/03/2008 in English cricket

Graeme Hick: the great enigma © Getty Images

For more than two decades now, Graeme Hick has tormented county attacks all across England. On his retirement, the tributes are led by the Independent's Angus Fraser and the Telegraph's Derek Pringle, two bowlers who have first-hand experience of Hick's batting expertise. And in the Guardian, David Foot recalls one of Hick's totemic innings - the unbeaten 405 in 1988 - and wonders how Hick turned out to be a relative failure on the international stage.

Those of us privileged to watch him in his best years have marvelled at the risible ease with which he has played the game. At country level, he has made so many contemporaries look ordinary. His bat was broader than anyone else's. Nothing seemed to get past it. There was always a respect for orthodoxy; with an hypnotic efficiency he took on the bowlers in rotation. The strokes were always clean. For a big man, he was imposing rather than handsome in execution.

George Dobell writes in the Birmingham Post:

His reputation is impeccable; his record immaculate. He has been a credit to his family, his club and his sport. No cricketer can achieve more.

September 2, 2008

Toast Mushie but raise a glass to the true greats

Posted on 09/02/2008 in English cricket

No sooner had Mushtaq Ahmed announced his retirement from English cricket last week than the tributes poured like vintage hock. "Mushtaq Ahmed, the finest Sussex player ever" it was said, followed by another toast to "the finest of all overseas players". Michael Henderson, in the Guardian, too lauds Mushie for his feats but disagrees that he was finest ever. After sifting through a list of county legends, he lists five of his best.

Procter is one of the five men I submit for consideration. He gets in because English spectators saw him at his best over a decade, and best in his case means being one of the most supremely gifted - and watchable - all-round cricketers the world has known.

In the same paper, Paul Collingwood talks of the circumstances which led him quitting the captaincy and how the decision has changed his life.

"You're always being judged as captain and as hard as you try not to read or listen to what people say, it eventually gets back to you. I tried to laugh everything off but it seeps through and hurts. But that is what being captain of the England cricket team is about. Along with being manager of the England football team it is the most scrutinised job a sportsman in this country can have."

September 1, 2008

Pietersen indebted to Flintoff

The Centurions – the world's greatest run-makers

"Kevin Pietersen is a great England cricket captain." That bold statement comes courtesy of Simon Barnes in The Times, and doubtless others, but Pietersen's golden start to his tenure is owed to one man.

Freddie's back. And when you have Andrew Flintoff at the top of his game, you tend to look good if you are standing anywhere within shouting distance.
Time and again Flintoff has been the difference between England and the opposition. Others have played well, but they cluster around him, they draw inspiration from him, he is their rallying point, their mascot and their go-to guy. As a result of his resurgence, the most remarkable thing has happened - England are giving a fair impersonation of a crash-hot one-day team.

Trescothick on his personal battles

Tom Graveney on the attack against the West Indies in 1966 © Getty Images

Members of the 100-hundreds club are to be honoured in London on Monday. In the Independent, Tom Graveney, the oldest member of that exclusive group, recalls his dangerous hooking instincts, a never-to-be-repeated stint as England wicketkeeper and how he was almost sent home from West Indies.

"South Africa at Old Trafford in 1955," he recalls. "I scored nought and one, and caught three and dropped four at first slip. So when Godfrey Evans broke his finger in two places, Peter May said, 'You might as well keep wicket'. And the first ball I caught, down the leg side off Frank Tyson, that's what happened." Chuckling, Graveney shows me the little finger on his left hand, which he can bend back almost to the horizontal. "Can you see? The middle knuckle doesn't operate any more."

Over in the Telegraph, Bill Frindall pays tribute to the 25 men who have reached the landmark, and dubs Don Bradman the Usain Bolt of the group.

No more sport for sport's sake?

Marcus Trescothick has given an in-depth interview to the BBC's Jonathan Agnew where he talks on everything from his struggles with the long-term illness, to the Indian Premier League and Kevin Pietersen's captaincy. And after the furore over the use of Murray Mints, he says it isn't proven that they help the ball swing more.