James Anderson collects another wicket, but England need a tough workout before the Ashes © Getty Images

As a preparation for the series against Australia, this Test match has been as much use as a polar expedition ahead of desert warfare. England’s team bonding has been worthwhile, but the terrain and the enemy have been too alien to make it a proper rehearsal, writes Scyld Berry in the Sunday Telegraph.

For England’s batsmen there has been no similarity at all between playing West Indies and Australia, except when Edwards has been steaming in, and in this second Test he has only done so at Anderson as the two have wound each other up. A celebration featuring a pelvic thrust was Edwards’s reaction to dismissing England’s nightwatchman, but thereafter the tourists’ strike bowler dedicated himself to chastity, and it was Anderson who had the final words with his three evening wickets.

Cook played really well for his ninth Test century in only his 43rd match. No doubt one of the most important aspects of his innings was simply its length, writes Mike Brearley in the Observer.

Cook is an interesting batsman. He is assured at the crease. His balance, physical and mental, is excellent, and he is exceptionally strong off the back foot for so tall a batsman; he is a fine puller, hooker and cutter. He scores with equal fluency on either side of the wicket. He rarely misses out when the ball is on his legs. He has the left-hander's facility, at his best, of making the bowler feel he has very little licence in line. If the ball is straight, Cook will score through mid-wicket; if a bit wide of off-stump then his range of off-side strokes comes into play. His one area of weakness is the full-ish ball just outside off stump, which he can at times poke at without conviction or proper footwork. In his 160 he played some fluent cover drives, but here he gives the bowling side some chance.

Having previously dispatched Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and West Indies at the ground, they assembled a huge total quickly on the third day and then Jimmy Anderson exposed West Indies' frailties against the swinging ball. How Anderson must have despaired of ever seeing a surface like this again as he flogged himself round the subcontinent and the Caribbean last winter. How the game needs to give bowlers something to work with, writes Stephen Brenkley in the Independent on Sunday.

England, or so we thought, was the one country in which Test cricket would continue to thrive in the Twenty20 era, but while yesterday’s attendance was not great, it at least allowed the Sky cameramen to make their customary trawl around the ground for crowd shots. The search is usually concentrated on cleavage, but all they got on Thursday were rows of empty seats and a couple of old boys in duffle coats, writes Martin Johnson in the Sunday Times.

There have been Test matches in May since 2000, when the seven-Test summer was instigated in England. The Future Tours Programme, the increase in the number of Test-playing nations and the desire, legitimate enough, to make more money were the justification for the extra match. Now we should grab the chance of a rethink, writes Vic Marks in the Observer.

This summer – the Great Exhibition – pans out, the follies of May should not be submerged in the Riverside outfield. The events of the past week have provided an important lesson. It is a lesson about scheduling, about marketing and about how to leave 'em wanting more. It is about the survival of Test cricket. This was brought into stark focus by Chris Gayle, the captain of West Indies, who said he would not be sad if Test cricket died, writes Stephen Brenkley in the Independent on Sunday.

Doubtless he will jump soon enough, but Chris Gayle should be pushed this week. He should be sacked as captain of the West Indies Test team, writes Steve James in the Sunday Telegraph.

Gayle has finally revealed he is no leader. Sometimes young rascals can unexpectedly be transformed into reliable leaders – Shakespeare told us of Hal, Henry V, doing as much – but clearly not in this instance. We have been duped. Benefit of the doubt can no longer be given. We should have known when Gayle sat impassively and insouciantly behind John Dyson in Guyana last winter as the coach misread the Duckworth/Lewis chart and cost the West Indies the match. Any captain worth his salt would have wanted to check. Not Gayle.

May 16, 2009

Does Andrew Strauss see Chris Gayle in his sleep?

Posted on 05/16/2009 in West Indies in England 2009

Chris Gayle's comment about Andrew Strauss was the single most menacing thing any sportsperson has ever said, writes Barney Ronay in the Guardian.

It seemed inevitable that Strauss would be dismissed by Gayle's bowling on the first morning of the current Test. And, as the England captain slouched off, he did look like someone who sleeps with Chris on his mind, a man who turns on the light in the wee hours and sees Chris staring back at him in the bathroom mirror, who pours his Shreddies at daybreak and glances down to find he's raising a spoonful of tiny sugar-frosted Chris's to his mouth.

If Test cricket is to retain its position at the pinnacle of the sport, series like the one between England and the West Indies must become a thing of the past, writes Angus Fraser in the Independent.

Cricket is the summer game and the best exposure it gets is when it is being played in short-sleeved shirts under a cloudless sky. We all know the weather in the United Kingdom can never be guaranteed, but there are times when there is a greater chance of the sun shining and the temperature reaching 20 degrees, and early May is not one of them. Those who have recently tripped over cricket whilst flicking through the channels at home must sit there and wonder what pleasure these supporters get from such an experience. Looking at the body language of an apathetic West Indies team it is clear they are not enjoying it either.

May 15, 2009

England punish West Indies' indifference

Posted on 05/15/2009 in West Indies in England 2009

If it was a good day for England, who have the Wisden Trophy in their grasp, it was a good one, too, for Graham Gooch, who was watching from the press box. The men responsible for England's commanding position, Ravi Bopara and Alastair Cook, are Gooch acolytes, part products of his expertise and devotion to producing top-class batsmen for Essex and England, writes Mike Atherton in the Times.

Whatever the future holds for Test cricket two men will unquestionably be part of it. They are both from Essex, they are separated by only three months in age, they first began playing cricket with each other when they were 12 and yesterday Alastair Cook and Ravi Bopara shared a partnership of 213 for England, writes Stephen Brenkley in the Independent.

It would have been neat if the Riverside produced something gobsmackingly wonderful that had hordes heading north-east for the weekend. Instead there was another century from Alastair Cook, a worthy innings from an exceptional young man but not the sort of fare that causes mass movements of population, writes Vic Marks in the Guardian.

The Riverside Ground is not always the desolate wind tunnel we saw on Thursday. The last time the West Indies passed through Chester-le-Street, just two summers ago, the first-day attendance reached five figures, writes Simon Briggs in the Telegraph.

What has changed? Durham point to the late confirmation of the West Indies as the opponents for this match, together with the early-season scheduling. Alastair Cook took a more direct line. “It’s pretty cold out there,” he said. An alternative explanation might be that the recession has made people much pickier about which matches they are prepared to attend. And cricket is not the only sport to suffer from this syndrome. If tickets for this year’s Calcutta Cup match were slow to sell, it is because Scotland’s rugby team are a declining force. And the same goes for the West Indies, only more so.

England's seven-Test summer looks increasingly redundant because the public, not the players, have finally given up the ghost. For years the ECB has sought to move county cricket closer to Test cricket and yesterday it achieved it. Yesterday, Test cricket felt like the County Championship, writes David Hopps in the Guardian.

If the longer form of the sport is to thrive, it may need a shake-up. Stephen Brenkley has a plan in the Independent.

1. Avoid familiarity

Do not stage games between the same two teams in such rapid succession. England played the West Indies in a home series two years ago, again last winter and now again at home. Familiarity can breed contempt which is why the Ashes, held once every four years in both England and Australia, remains special.

2. Kick out the weaklings

The game has been diminished by chronically weak teams like Zimbabwe (thankfully now no longer a Test nation) and Bangladesh. Test cricket should continue to seek new teams and horizons but they must be ready to compete because in modern professional sport there is no place for the outclassed.

May 14, 2009

Time to make Test cricket more accessible

Posted on 05/14/2009 in West Indies in England 2009

The West Indies captain Chris Gayle's lax attitude highlights the crucial issue of keeping Test cricket alive and relevant, writes Duncan Fletcher in the Guardian.

But it's a problem that should concern everyone, not just Gayle. The reality is that Test cricket has been under threat for some time, despite the administrators' assurances that everything is hunky-dory. When we used to tour India, where they say cricket is a religion, we'd play Tests in front of grounds that were barely half full – and a third of the spectators were from the Barmy Army. Now we hear ticket sales for this game have gone badly, and England is supposed to be one of Test cricket's last bastions. Maybe the harsh truth is that Twenty20 has kept cricket alive more than we like to admit.

Gayle on the defensive is a rare sight in cricket, but by lunchtime yesterday, hours after the interview appeared in a national newspaper, he was in full-scale retreat, writes Mike Atherton in the Times.

He is not the only cricketer to prefer one-day cricket and he certainly will not be alone in future in choosing Twenty20 cricket over Tests. It is an open secret that he would not choose to be captain and if Gayle was irritated by Strauss's criticism of his late arrival before last week's first Test at Lord's, he is far too laid-back to bear a grudge.

Gayle's admission that he would not be sad if Test cricket died out sounds heretical to cricketers of my era, who regard the Test format as the holy grail. It also sends warning signals that we should not ignore, writes Vic Marks in the Guardian.

Gayle's comments should make us think about how we go about putting together out cricketing schedules. There are two options:

1) Assess from a cricketing perspective what might excite players and public alike and then, but only then, try to work out how to make as much money as possible.

2) Determine how to make as much money as possible and then cobble together a cricketing calendar around that.

Too often the latter course is the one chosen by modern administrators and results in Test matches at the beginning of May before the weather or the fan base are ready.

Chris Gayle would have no more considered moderating his provocative views on Test and Twenty20 cricket, and the West Indies captaincy, than he would toning down his belligerent batting, writes Tony Cozier in the Independent.

When asked about the 'sanctity' of Test cricket, Gayle became the first cricketer to break cover; the first modern-day player not afraid to admit modern-day realities. But Gayle's interview was only shocking for its candour, not its content, writes Mike Norrish in the Telegraph.

May 13, 2009

England need Bopara's hunger and arrogance

Posted on 05/13/2009 in West Indies in England 2009

This new selection panel are picking on character and hunger and that is a development I welcome. I can certainly never see someone like Flower selecting a player on the back of their reputation and that has been evident in the first two Test squads of the summer. Crucially, he is of the same mind as his captain and the national selector, writes Nasser Hussain in the Daily Mail.

I always liked to have players of character in my England side and I can see plenty of it in the likes of Ravi Bopara, Graeme Swann and Graham Onions. When you speak to Bopara, he will talk you through all his shots but you come away thinking, ‘what a lovely lad’, rather than ‘what a prat’. He has confidence and even arrogance but it manifests itself in an infectious, thoroughly likeable way. His was a match-winning contribution in his first taste of a Lord’s Test but what I would be saying to him now is go out at the Riverside and make it three hundreds in successive Tests — that would be staking a pretty decent claim for an Ashes place!

May 11, 2009

Now, after an England victory, is the time for assessment

Posted on 05/11/2009 in West Indies in England 2009

Former England coach Duncan Fletcher believes the win over West Indies at Lords offers the right perspective to look at areas that England can improve. Defeat should bring a certain degree of analysis, of course, but not to the extent that the criticism turns into nitpicking. That can be counterproductive, says Fletcher. Read on in the Guardian.

A victory allows a bit of breathing space to look at the areas that can be improved on, even in a three-day win, and I'm sure the top order will be looking at their contribution.
The exception was Ravi Bopara, who was outstanding in bowler-friendly conditions and showed real composure with wickets falling around him. He played each ball on its merits and never looked flustered, which is one of the things I like about him.

In the Times, Michael Atherton casts his eye over the England squad for the second Test.

It would take a Roald Dahl-like imagination to think that conditions in Durham this week could get any more inhospitable for West Indies than they were at Lord’s. Clearly, though, the selectors believe that to be a possibility, given that they have responded to the utterly one-sided nature of the first Test by tinkering with the squad for the second, which starts on Thursday. Out goes Monty Panesar and in come Ryan Sidebottom and Ian Bell.

May 9, 2009

Australians will not be quaking in their boots

Posted on 05/09/2009 in West Indies in England 2009

	It’s been heart-breaking to see a West Indies team so inept © Getty Images

Beating this West Indies side doesn’t mean very much at all when you put it into that context, writes Simon Barnes in the Times. England have beaten a West Indies side that doesn’t even count as a shadow of the team that ruled the world. Soon England must play Australia. It will be an entirely different proposition.

It’s been heart-breaking to see a West Indies team so inept: a team ragged-arsed and half-baked, who didn’t want to be here. England beat them in three days and by ten wickets, and so they bloody well should have done. West Indies were a team without heart, as woeful a sight as I have seen in sport.

England's selectors rarely receive plaudits but they should be congratulated for the team they picked for the first Test against West Indies, writes Angus Fraser in the Independent. The presence of Ravi Bopara, Graham Onions, Tim Bresnan and Graeme Swann has given the England team a more vibrant, energetic and youthful appearance. The enthusiasm and excitement of these players, says Fraser, have rubbed off on the team's more seasoned campaigners.

Vic Marks believes that whole a show of grit from men outside West Indies' big three of Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul held up England, that longed-for West Indian renaissance is still a way off. Read on in the Guardian.

In his Guardian blog Richard Williams looks at how Test debutant Tim Bresnan waited almost three days to be noticed yet wasn't the first Yorkshireman to make his mark slowly for England.

Watching Graeme Swann bowl and pick up the Man-of-the-Match award at Lord's, Simon Hughes reckons he is a showman in the mould of Shane Warne. Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Hughes says that Swann showed how important it is to bowl with your personality, as well as with the ball.

May 8, 2009

Journeymen put England on brink of victory

Posted on 05/08/2009 in West Indies in England 2009

The first day at Lord’s witnessed the arrival of a special talent; now it was the turn of the journeymen, writes Mike Atherton in the Times.

For Ravi Bopara, the possibilities are endless, but we know, as much as we can know anything in sport, that Graeme Swann and Graham Onions will not finish their international careers as greats of the game. Yesterday, though, they rose above the largely humdrum nature of this contest, Swann biffing his way merrily to his highest Test score, then sharing eight wickets with Onions, who picked up five on a debut that he will not forget in a hurry.

He sings, he strums, he bats, he catches and now he even opens the bowling. But the best thing, by far, about Graeme Swann in this Ashes year is that he is an England twirler who takes wickets and has emerged as a real threat to batsmen everywhere, writes David Lloyd in the Independent.

While Panesar appears to be stuck on a plateau, Swann just keeps soaring and there was no doubt which of the two spinners would start this summer. But even a 30-year-old with a perpetually rosy outlook on life might not have expect a chilly May day in London to go quite so well. Having hit a bright and breezy 63, he was given two overs with the new ball as captain Andrew Strauss explored a theory and then held a couple of fine slip catches after doing sizeable damage during his second spell. Panesar, famously, has been accused by Shane Warne of playing the same Test 30-odd times, the allegation being that he has not learned a lot along the way. Whatever the future – and, especially, this summer's Ashes series – holds for Swann it is unlikely he will be accused by anyone of being predictable.

Gone were the resilience and the combativeness of recent series that prompted optimism of an overdue revival. There was, instead, the sense of defeatism so prevalent for so long. An innings loss before the weekend seems certain, says Tony Cozier in the Trinidad Express.

Onions came into the England team as part of the new-broom tactics of the recently appointed team director, Andy Flower (Fresh Flower and Onions! Flower picks Onions!) and he underwent one of those miracles that sometimes happen in sport. It was as if sport had suddenly taken leave of its senses and decided to write fairytales: Little Graham and his Five Magic Onions, writes Simon Barnes in the Times.

For two hot months last winter England trekked round the Caribbean and could hardly buy a wicket. On a fresh spring afternoon at Lord's yesterday they found them as cheap as chips, writes Stephen Brenkley in the Independent.

It wasn't so much a collapse as an avalanche, with four wickets falling in the space of seven deliveries to generate chilling reminders of the two-day annihilation at Headingley nine years earlier in the fourth Test of the series where England regained hold of the Wisden Trophy after 27 years in West Indian hands, writes Fazeer Mohammed in the Trinidad Express.

With a lead of 225, three and a half days still to play, conditions remaining inhospitable and bowlers relatively fresh – Tim Bresnan, the fourth seamer, had yet to get the ball in his hand – there was no option but for Strauss to enforce the follow-on. Edwards, who had f­inished bowling with 6 for 92, will not be ­batting out this match. Instead, if the weather holds, West Indies face defeat today, writes Mike Selvey in the Guardian.

Nothing humbles in sport so much as the witty aside gone wrong. In the build-up to this Test, Chris Gayle, the West Indies captain, said he had “never tasted Onions”, a claim that backfired spectacularly on his middle order on Thursday as the Durham pace bowler sliced and diced them with five wickets in 27 balls, writes Derek Pringle in the Telegraph.

May 7, 2009

Cool, calm Bopara has arrived

Posted on 05/07/2009 in West Indies in England 2009

Ravi Bopara's century in the opening day at Lord's overcame the shortcomings of those who competed for the No.3 spot with him, writes Vic Marks in the Guardian. Bopara is demonstrating that in the modern world Twenty20 cricket can be the ideal preparation for a Test match. Well, at least, it worked for him.

Owais Shah in the Caribbean looked so intense, banging his bat into the turf with a vice-like grip that led to cramp and often running with the harum-scarum horror of a deer caught on a motorway. If Bopara was nervous at Lord's it did not show. He ambled around the crease casually and in between deliveries he could be spotted at the non-striker's end wandering over to mid-on for a little chat with Shivnarine Chanderpaul.

However, Simon Wilde strikes a cautious note at the tactic of establishing Bopara as a No.3 batsman, saying he has the technique and temperament of a counter-attacking No.5 or 6. He also gives examples of noted predecessors. Read on in the Times.

Nor has Bopara batted as often for Essex at number three as his supporters would claim. He batted there in only four of his 12 championship appearances last year, scoring one century. His experience of the job is distinctly limited.

In the Telegraph, Simon Hughes writes that Bopara exhibited a slight vulnerability to the moving ball outside off stump initially in his innings, but what some of the previous incumbents have lacked is a presence at the crease that declares an intention, even a right, to be out there all day.

An engaging, absorbent individual who studies the game carefully and exudes calm at the crease, he handled with poise the mini-crisis in the early afternoon, when three wickets fell for 17 runs. Moving smoothly about the crease, he picked up neat singles and stroked the ball elegantly through the covers. His cutting was classy. He was equally comfortable against pace or spin and rode the movement dexterously.

In the Independent, Stephen Brenkley writes that Bopara talks the talk because he is passionate about batting and batsmen but sound judges have said for years that he can also walk the walk.

He goes out every day expecting a hundred and when he got there he made defined a rectangular shape with his arms and then made to write something. This was the dressing room honours board and his name that will now go on it.