Not Another Cricket Blog

Is this the new Gloucestershire one-day shirt?

2012-02-05T18:13:00.001Z

The return of Murali #GlosCCC

2012-01-31T07:00:00.000Z

More good news from Bristol. Following last week’s signing of Middlesex batsman Dan Housego, Muttiah Muralitharan has confirmed that he will be returning to Gloucestershire for this season’s Friends Life Twenty20.

The Sri Lankan spin bowling legend joined the county last season and played in all 15 Twenty20 matches. He sent down more overs than any other Gloucestershire bowler and finished joint top wicket-taker with 12.

Director of Cricket John Bracewell said: “As a side we are delighted that Murali is returning. His experience was invaluable last year, given the shortness of the t20 game and the amount of rain-affected matches we had, [but] we did not see the best of what he can offer.

“I know our players gained a great deal from having Murali in and around our dressing room. His enthusiasm and love for the game, combined with his exceptional skills, are something that will draw any crowd.”

Gloucestershire’s 2012 Friends Life Twenty20 campaign begins on 14 June against Somerset.

ps There was also a Murali quote in the press release, but it was so obviously made up that I haven’t bothered reproducing it.

#GlosCCC #GloucsCCC sign Dan Housego!

2012-01-25T07:45:00.001Z

After all the departures, finally one has gone the other way.

Gloucestershire County Cricket Club have this morning announced the signing of former Middlesex batsman Dan Housego on a three year contract.

Director of Cricket John Bracewell believes Housego could fill the problem number three spot next season.

He said: “Dan has been one of, if not, the best top-order batsmen in Second XI cricket and we are delighted that he joins us, in particular to fill the difficult number three position where I am confident he is ready for consistent first team cricket.”

23-year-old Housego, who says he is looking for ‘more first team opportunities’, made 15 first class appearances for Middlesex, scoring two centuries with an average of 27.3.

John Bracewell said: “Members will remember that Dan was one of our original Academy players, having been spotted by former Academy Coach and Club Captain Tony Wright.

“Unfortunately, we lost Dan to Middlesex, but he has decided to return to the Club having completed a grounded apprenticeship at Lord’s.”

So some rare good news for Gloucestershire during an otherwise miserable close season.

GCCC - no fixtures at Gloucester in 2012

2011-11-28T22:03:00.001Z

Gloucestershire County Cricket Club have confirmed that there will be no Gloucester Festival in 2012.

Chief Executive Tom Richardson said the club were 'disappointed' at the decision, but explained that it was an inevitable consequence of a cut in the number T20 fixtures from 8 to 5.

He said: "Playing 2 games at Gloucester is not possible and playing 1 is just not viable.

"We campaigned hard to keep the number of t20 fixtures at 8 – which would have allowed us to continue to take the show on the road and we were very disappointed not to succeed.

“GCCC would very much like to be back at Gloucester in the future and we will be looking at ways of realising this ambition. The recently published ECB Morgan Report proposes 7 T20 games from 2014 and this may give us the opportunity."

Gloucestershire CCC contract news

2011-11-13T00:24:00.001Z

Gloucestershire officials have said they are ‘delighted’ that four of the county’s most promising young players have committed themselves to the club after showing immense promise during the 2011 season.

Pace bowler Ian Saxelby has signed a new three-year contract, while batsman Ian Cockbain and seamers David Payne and Liam Norwell have all agreed extensions to their previous agreements.

Payne, Cockbain and Norwell were already under contract for next season. Payne has been awarded two more years on top of that, while Cockbain and Norwell have each had another year added on.

Chief executive Tom Richardson said: “We are fully committed to backing the young players who performed so creditably in the Championship for us this summer, while looking to help them develop their one-day skills.”

The country will be particularly pleased to secure Saxelby’s services – his recovery from serious shoulder surgery was confirmed in 2011 with 49 Championship wickets, and he is regarded as a bowler of immense potential.

Following the departure of Jon Lewis, it is hoped that Saxelby will form a potent attack with Payne in 2012, who impressed in his first season of four-day cricket with 42 wickets at 30.

The third bowler, Liam Norwell, took 6-46 on his debut against Derbyshire in April before missing most of the rest of the season with a stress fracture of the back.

Gloucestershire announce annual profit - of £2000

2011-11-12T15:53:00.001Z

Gloucestershire County Cricket Club has announced its financial results for the year ending 30^th September 2011, which show a surplus of £2,000.

Deficits for the previous two years totalled over £400,000 before tax, so the club says it is delighted to have turned this around and now be able to report a surplus.

Costs were reduced overall by £150,000 compared with the previous year, by operating with a mainly young and inexperienced squad.

Tony Elgood, Hon Treasurer said: “Against the background of the previous two years we had to take a decision to compete this year with a significantly younger squad, backed by a number of older and more experienced players.

“That we were in contention for promotion in the Championship right up to the last game is testament to the performances that some of these younger players put in.”

The club reports that hospitality, advertising and gate receipts were ‘particularly pleasing’ with the club’s Cheltenham Festival posting all time record receipts. The Twenty20 international against Sri Lanka was a sell out.

However, the club also admitted that it had not been successful in every area in tough economic trading conditions.

Nevil Road news

2011-11-12T14:10:00.001Z

#GlosCCC say that they will know on November 23rd whether they have been granted planning consent for the 'vital' redevelopment of Nevil Road.

Tony Elgood, Hon Treasurer said: "

The development is essential if we are to retain international cricket in Bristol and develop and grow as a club."

Banerjee to leave Gloucestershire

2011-09-14T21:29:00.001+01:00

Gloucestershire have announced that left-arm spinner Vikram Banerjee has left the club prior to his contract ending at the end of the season. 27-year-old Banerjee made his debut for Gloucestershire in 2007, and took 97 first-class wickets at an average of 46.29.

Director of Cricket John Bracewell said: "I am sorry to see Vikram leave the club. He has made some important contributions with the ball for us over the years both on and off the field. I am sure he will be successful in his new venture."

Vikram Banerjee said: "I have thoroughly enjoyed the challenges of county cricket and feel proud to have given my all to GCCC. I wish the squad all the best and I am now looking forward to challenges of a different kind in my new role at Footdown."

Will Gidman and the 'minor double'

2011-09-11T12:19:00.001+01:00

In the 1906 first-class season, Yorkshire's George Hirst scored 2385 runs and took 208 wickets. In 1937, Sussex allrounder James Parks scored 3003 runs in first-class matches and took 101 wickets.

These kind of achievements now seem incredible. A maximum of sixteen Championship matches means our expectations of individual feats over the course of the English season have been adjusted significantly downward.

Players must now normally average at least 40 in order to score 1000 runs, and very few modern bowlers can boast of taking 100 wickets in a season. Last season, no bowler even came close - Nottinghamshire's Andre Adams topped the list with just 68.

So we must celebrate less impressive numbers - such as Gloucestershire allrounder Will Gidman's. With one match remaining of his season, Gidman has now scored 977 runs and taken 46 wickets. These figures are particularly remarkable since prior to this season, he had only played one first-class match over a seven-year career.

The minor double he is approaching is surprisingly rare. In fact, no cricketer has achieved it since 1996, when West Indian allrounder Phil Simmons scored 1244 runs and took 56 wickets for Leicestershire.

Dominic Cork, Graeme Welch, Phil DeFreitas, Robert Croft, Dougie Brown - all excellent allrounders who achieved (or continue) to achieve much over long county careers. But none ever achieved this minor double.

If Gidman takes four wickets and scored 23 runs against Northamptonshire next week, his would be an achievement truly worth celebrating.

Gloucestershire go in search of promotion

2011-09-07T13:24:00.001+01:00

Gloucestershire are struggling at lunch on the first day of their penultimate County Championship game of the season, against Leicestershire at Bristol. Having lost the toss, Matthew Hoggard and Nathan Buck have reduced them to 78/4.

However, I'm not too bothered. Gloucestershire have to win in order to sustain their challenge for promotion, and, considering the weather forecast over the next few days, surely only a low-scoring wicket-fest will do.

For once, 78/4 looks like a decent score. As long as the wickets continue to fall when Leicestershire get their turn with the bat later today.

Rob Smyth's The Spirit of Cricket - nice book, shame about the editing

2011-08-28T12:36:00.001+01:00

There are few things in life more annoying than a potentially good book ruined by poor editing.

Take Rob Smyth's The Spirit of Cricket (subtitled 'what makes cricket the greatest game on Earth'). On almost every page, there is something that jars - a mistake, a typo, or something that just seems not quite right.

For example, why is Mike Brearley continually referred to as 'Michael' Brearley? Has he ever been referred to in any other situation as 'Michael' Brearley? Not as far as I know.

Later, we are told that Ian Botham's dismissal by Trevor Hohns in 1989 (you know the one - charging down the pitch before he had even got off the mark, and missing completely) is a good example of the spirit of cricket. Surely most right-minded people would think of it as the egocentric act of an over-the-hill cricketer, failing miserably to recapture the glory days of his past.

Another weird example is Garry Sobers' sporting declaration against England in 1967-68. This is apparently 'infamous', and one of the 'biggest of the few black marks' on Sobers' career. If so, why is it included in a book on the spirit of cricket?

And the structure is strange, too - divided into four apparently random, untitled chapters, with an introduction and conclusion whose content is indistinguishable from the rest of the book, and finishing with a 'Spirit of Cricket XI', in which many of the examples already mentioned are repeated.

To complicate things further, within each chapter are boxed-off contributions from some of the game's greats (including David Gower, Richie Benaud, Nasser Hussain...and Andy Bull). I am still unclear whether these should be read in isolation or as part of the main text, particularly when it is also necessary to contend with further unboxed but subtitled accounts of great matches.

These are just a few examples, but there are many more.

This is all doubly annoying, because the book could be so great. All the classic anecdotes are present and correct (the Dwayne Leverock catch, Johnners and Aggers falling apart on Test Match Special, Gary Pratt). We may have heard them a hundred times before, but when they are this good, who cares?

Michael Vaughan plays for Goldsborough - in disguise

2011-08-24T22:51:00.001+01:00

The end for Hamish Marshall?

2011-08-23T22:33:00.001+01:00

Could this be Hamish Marshall's last season for Gloucestershire? As my brother has just pointed out, he has scored less first-class runs this season than Jon Lewis!

The third man mystery

2011-08-10T12:22:00.001+01:00

The second ball of today's third Test was a good one from James Anderson. It forced Indian opener Gautam Gambhir into an obviously nervy and unconvincing shot.

And yet Gambhir scored four from it to get off the mark. Why? Because the ball went to an unguarded third man boundary.

The modern trend is for fielding captains not to use a third man, but this doesn't make it any more explicable. By denying your bowler a third man, are you not, in effect, punishing him for good bowling?

Presumably Strauss believed that the fielder who would have been third man was better employed in a more obviously 'attacking' position. But if Strauss gave more thought to the pressure exerted on the batsman by the denial of easy runs, perhaps he might see that a third man can be just as attacking as a slip or gully.

The Cambridge Companion to Cricket - isn't 'pastoral' an adjective?

2011-08-09T12:03:00.001+01:00

I must admit that I am struggling to enjoy The Cambridge Companion to Cricket.

Perhaps it's been too long since I left university. Perhaps I've got more used to ghosted autobiographies and tour diaries. Perhaps I'm just a bit thick.

Whatever it is, sentences such as this one cause me serious problems: "village cricket signifies sameness and continuity, not only through history, but across geographical space, a quality that endows this auratic English locale with an imperial dimension."

That comes from the book's opening chapter, 'Cricket pastoral and Englishness' by Anthony Bateman. Even that title ('cricket pastoral'?) seems unnecessarily clever.

But I will persevere - still to come are essays by David Frith, Rob Steen and Mihir Bose amongst others.

Gloucestershire batsmen in six-hitting bonanza - T20 v Middlesex

2011-06-27T23:31:00.002+01:00

It’s a terrible quality video, but stick with it!

Murali arrives in Bristol!

2011-05-31T22:28:00.001+01:00

Worth watching, if you can put up with the most annoying interviewer of all time.

Where are you Kane Williamson?

2011-04-29T20:54:00.001+01:00

This season for Gloucestershire is shaping up in a remarkably similar fashion to the last one.

Just to remind you, in 2010, no Gloucestershire batsman scored 1000 runs, the first century wasn’t scored until August 4th, and (so I have just learnt from the new Wisden) the first batting bonus point wasn’t earned until three matches into the season.

And yet, somehow, the team contrived to win six matches.

This time, after three rounds of the Championship, the team have only made 300 on one occasion, and no batsman has looked remotely like scoring a hundred - the highest individual score is Will Gidman’s 89.

But two of those three games have ended in victory, including a forty-run triumph over Kent this afternoon. Just imagine what Gloucestershire could do with some decent batsman.

Gloucestershire have also made a good start in the CB40. For more photos from their victory over Glamorgan on Sunday go to http://willfinchwriter.posterous.com/photos-from-gloucs-v-glamorgan-last-sunday

Alastair Cook and striking

2011-04-25T17:56:00.001+01:00

Alastair Cook has been taking some stick for an interview he gave to the Times magazine on Saturday, in which he suggested that England’s cricketers may go on strike if the international schedule is not reduced.

However, what the detractors have missed here is that Cook was not complaining about his own workload, but that of his teammates.

He even acknowledged that he is ‘pretty much the only one who’s been able to play and to enjoy the experience of winning.’

I would say he is perfectly justified in his complaints. This is a team game, after all.

I have more of a problem with something he says later, that he wants to ‘retain his low-keyness.’ If he’s serious about this, perhaps it might help to avoid top celeb photographer Rankin and the cover of the Times magazine?

#Gloucs squad v Cardiff Uni

2011-04-19T23:20:00.001+01:00

Gloucestershire begin a three-day (non-first class) fixture tomorrow against Cardiff MCCU at Bristol.

The squad for the match is - Cockbain, Marshall, Batty (capt), C Taylor, W Gidman, Coughtrie (w/k), Fuller, J Taylor, Banerjee, Payne, Wade, McCarter, Miles.

Jon Batty as captain – interesting. And what’s the deal with giving the older Gidman a rest? Couldn’t he do with a bit of batting practice?

The worst debut in history

2011-04-16T18:21:00.001+01:00

From George Dobell’s report of Somerset v Warwickshire at Taunton

It's worth reflecting on Gemaal Hussain's first game for Somerset, too. After conceding more runs than ever before, Hussain was dismissed twice, for a pair, within 89 minutes on the third morning. Might that be the worst debut in history?

Gloucestershire pace attack - as strong as ever

2011-04-16T11:59:00.001+01:00

Despite supporting Gloucestershire, I don’t dislike Somerset. There is no real antipathy between the two West Country rivals, or at least none that I have ever experienced, and I can’t imagine that many Gloucestershire fans didn’t feel at least a tinge of sympathy as Somerset came so close in so many competitions last year.

However, I couldn’t help but laugh when I score the score from Taunton last night, where Warwickshire finished their first innings on 642 all out. The two seamers recruited/snatched/poached* from Gloucestershire, Steve Kirby and Gemaal Hussain, took 1 for 81 and 1 for 154 respectively.

Meanwhile, at Cardiff, Gloucestershire bowled out Glamorgan for just 202, with Ian Saxelby finishing with figures of 14-4-53-5. This, of course, after last week’s opener in which two debutants, Liam Norwell and David Payne, both took five wickets in an innings.

Schadenfreude can, occasionally, be a wonderful thing.

* delete as applicable

Gloucestershire squad announcement

2011-04-13T17:43:00.001+01:00

Gloucestershire begin their second County Championship match tomorrow, away at Glamorgan. The same squad that was victorious against Derbyshire last weekend has been selected:

Cockbain, Dent, Coughtrie, W Gidman, Taylor (pictured below, in action from the Derbyshire match), A Gidman, Batty, Saxelby, Lewis, Norwell, Payne, Banerjee

Gloucestershire get off to a flier

2011-04-11T20:37:00.001+01:00

Fantastic result from Bristol today, where Gloucestershire beat Derbyshire by seven wickets in the County Championship season opener.

But before we all get too excited, can I just remind everyone that Gloucestershire won six games in Division 2 last year, and still only finished fifth?

A great start, but there’s a long way to go.

Jon Batty scores some runs

2011-04-01T09:52:00.001+01:00

Surprise, surprise. Gloucestershire’s opening warm-up match of the season finished yesterday in a draw.

Oxford University closed their first innings after 90 overs on 261 for 7 (although it could be 8 - it was that kind of game).

In reply, Gloucestershire reached 372 for 5. Although it wasn’t really 5, as Alex Gidman retired out for 127, and Chris Taylor retired out for 102.

However, the most encouraging score from the game may have been Jon Batty’s 63. That’s almost as many runs as he scored in the entire 2010 season.

Gloucestershire now prepare for their final warm-up, a three-day match against Somerset at Taunton, starting on Sunday.

New Gloucestershire e-newsletter

2011-03-31T12:29:00.001+01:00

By clicking on the image above, you will be taken to Gloucestershire’s new cricket news email, cunningly called ‘Gloucestershire Cricket News’.

It’s actually not much more than a summary of news stories from www.gloscricket.co.uk, but worth subscribing to nevertheless.

The opening day of the season

2011-03-31T10:14:00.001+01:00

Day 1, Bristol: Oxford University 197/3 v Gloucestershire

The fact that Gloucestershire players Jon Lewis, Ed Young and Richard Coughtrie are all playing for Oxford University in the county’s opening warm-up match of the season should tell you everything you need to know about the competitiveness of the game.

For the record, the students (and assorted ringers) finished day one of the two-day match on 197 for 3 off 77 overs. Stand-out performance of the day came from young seamer Liam Norwell, who finished with 2 for 14 off 11 overs.

A Gloucestershire spokesman told this blog that, weather permitting, the students will bat on for another 13 overs this morning before letting Jon Batty et al have their turn. However, seeing as this is a two innings a side game, it’s difficult to see how any positive result can be reached.

Gloucestershire squad – changes from last season

2011-03-30T13:18:00.001+01:00

For those of you who have lost track of the comings and goings at Nevil Road over the winter, here is a quick recap. Of course, I offer no guarantees that this list is 100% accurate – do let me know of any omissions or mistakes!

Muttiah Muralitharan - T20 only (legend)

Kane Williamson (Kiwi, overseas player, young middle-order batsman)

James Fuller (21-year-old Kiwi seamer, not classed as overseas player)

Will Gidman (Alex’s brother, ‘bowling allrounder who bats left-handed’)

David Wade (ex-Army, seam bowler, 27 years old)

Ian Cockbain (23, top-order batsman)

Richard Coughtrie (young wicketkeeper)

Graeme McCarter (Irish, ‘18 year old opening bowler and aggressive batsman’)

OUT

Gemaal Hussain (to Somerset)

Steve Kirby (to Somerset)

William Porterfield (to Warwickshire)

James Franklin

Steve Snell

Kadeer Ali

Rob Woodman

Antony Ireland (to Middlesex)

So, to sum up, all the best players have gone and have been replaced (excepting Williamson and Murali) by promising youngsters and a 27-year-old former soldier with no experience of first-class cricket.

Good luck boys!

Zaheer Abbas and Gloucestershire’s 1981 season

2011-03-25T16:51:00.001Z

I first went to Nevil Road in, perhaps, 1988. That means I can remember watching Bill Athey, Kevin Curran, David Lawrence, Courtney Walsh and, the greatest of them all, Dean Hodgson.

However, I narrowly missed watching Zaheer Abbas, who made his final appearance for Gloucestershire in 1985. By all accounts, here was a truly great player.

My newly-purchased 1982 Wisden reveals that Zaheer scored 2230 runs in 1981 at an average of 85.76 despite not playing his first game of the season until 3rd June.

By the end of June, he had scored 1000 runs - only Grace and Hammond among Gloucestershire batsmen had previously scored 1000 runs in a calendar month.

He scored eight centuries in fourteen innings over one four-week period, including 215 not out and 150 not out against Somerset at Bath. A Ramprakash-esque season.

It wasn’t enough for the team though - Gloucestershire only won four Championship games out of 19, and finished thirteenth in the table. No other batsman scored 1000 runs or averaged over 38.

The return of the pantomime villain

2011-03-23T11:48:00.001Z

Matches against Somerset are always amongst the highlights of Gloucestershire’s season.

And the first meeting of the sides this year, in the Clydesdale Bank 40 at Taunton on 8 May, may be even spicier than normal, with pantomime villain Steve Kirby returning to Bristol for the first time since his departure from Gloucestershire at the end of last season.

When he said at the time that he still had dreams of playing for England, and that his chances of doing so would be improved by playing first division cricket with Somerset, we all laughed.

But someone thinks highly of him – he’s been included in the MCC team to face Champion County Nottinghamshire in the season’s curtain-raiser in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.

Gloucestershire sign Kane Williamson

2011-03-20T19:14:00.001Z

Gloucestershire’s first game of the season is only 19 days away - a home match against Derbyshire in the Championship – and the excitement is almost palpable.

Well, not really. But amongst the pessimism (the best that the new issue of the Wisden Cricketer can come up with is ‘likely to remain a work in progress in 2011’) there ARE a few rays of hope.

One is the new overseas player, New Zealand batsman Kane Williamson. Despite sounding like the lead character from a US drama about a friendly serial killer, 20-year-old Williamson is (according to the Wisden Guide to International Cricket 2011) ‘probably the most exciting batting talent New Zealand have unearthed since Martin Crowe in the 1980s’.

Perhaps that’s not the greatest compliment of all time, but it’s not Williamson’s fault that the competition isn’t red hot.

In the club’s press release, John Bracewell says: “Kane will be a great example not only to our younger players but also to some of our more senior batsmen, who are yet to fulfil their potential.”

Skate over the fact that JB is admitting that the club has senior players ‘who are yet to fulfil their potential’ (shouldn’t that disqualify them from being senior players?), Williamson sounds like just the kind of player that Gloucestershire need.

He will feature in all competitions over the season, and will join up with a little-known Sri Lankan off-spinner called Muralitharan in the Twenty20 Cup.

Maybe this season might not be so bad after all…

How cricket saved Sri Lanka

2011-03-16T00:01:00.001Z

I'm always on the lookout for articles about cricket in unusual places, and this is a corker – ‘How Cricket Saved Sri Lanka’ by Shehan Karunatilaka from last Sunday's Observer Magazine.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/13/how-cricket-saved-sri-lanka?INTCMP=SRCH

Why the ICC is right to shrink the World Cup

2011-03-13T22:07:00.001Z

The ICC has been savaged by almost the entire cricket-writing fraternity for its decision to make the next World Cup, in Australia and New Zealand in 2015, a ten-team competition.

Instinctively I want to support the Associate nations too, who will now be deprived of a chance to compete at cricket’s top table. I even almost joined this Facebook group.

But then I looked at the facts, and, for perhaps the first time ever, I sided with the ICC. Only one of the lesser teams has actually made any positive impression in this tournament – Ireland. The rest have been mostly hopelessly outclassed.

Match 2 set the tone – New Zealand needing only eight overs to overhaul Kenya’s risible score of 69 - and it hasn’t got much better since. Apart from Ireland, of course.

The presence of Canada at cricket’s premier tournament reminds me of the 2000 Rugby League World Cup, which included a team called New Zealand Maori. Like both codes of rugby, there is no point in cricket trying to pretend that it is a world game - comparisons to the behemoth that is FIFA’s Football World Cup are pointless.

And it should be remembered that while the ICC are removing four slots from the 50-over World Cup, they are adding four to the 20-over version. The shorter the game, the more likely it is that the lesser-skilled team will win.

It pains me to say it, but, for once, the short-sighted, money-grabbing buffoons of the ICC may have done something sensible. The only danger now is that the World Twenty20 might lose its concentrated thrill. But that surely is a risk worth taking.

Daily Telegraph, Steven Davies and anonymous #cricket ‘insiders’

2011-03-06T16:15:00.001Z

So, Surrey wicketkeeper Steven Davies has told the world, via the medium of the Daily Telegraph, that he is gay.

Rereading the original interview this morning, this paragraph caught my eye and surely deserves further exploration:

When Davies, reserve wicketkeeper during the Ashes but a top performer in the Twenty20 games, was dropped from the England squad for the current World Cup – in favour of Matt Prior – some cricket insiders suspected it was related to his coming out.

Is this true? Who are these ‘cricket insiders’? Either the Telegraph is telling a fib here, or cricket isn’t quite as accepting as we have been led to believe.

I go for the former.

What exactly is a ‘good’ pitch? #cwc2011

2011-03-06T13:44:00.001Z

So England, somehow, beat South Africa in Chennai by six runs. At one point, South Africa, chasing just 171 to win, were 124 for 3.

Fantastic, you may think. Yet another tight game at the World Cup. What more could you want from a game of cricket?

Well, quite a lot apparently. Simon Mann on Test Match Special said the pitch was not good enough. Jonathan Agnew went as far as saying that he hoped we wouldn’t see a similar pitch for England’s remaining group games, against Bangladesh and the West Indies.

But surely we must get away from thinking that the best pitches are those that are just good for batting. Aren’t the best pitches those that give an equal opportunity to both bat and ball?

And I think we came closer to that today in Chennai, than we did in the high scoring tie against India in Bangalore.

Dear Sir. Why, oh why…

2011-03-06T12:45:00.001Z

There was a cricket-themed letter in the Daily Telegraph last week. I haven’t found it online, so have reprinted it here in full.

SIR - Why do some of the England cricketers not shave on match days?
Gillian Johnson
Lodsworth, West Sussex

That was it – the entire letter. In a week that saw the World Cup come alive, in a week that Ireland beat England, and England tied with India, in a week of hat-tricks and hundreds, all Gillian Johnson from Lodsworth, West Sussex could think to write about was shaving.

It’s so pathetic, it’s brilliant.

World Cup reading

2011-02-27T19:23:00.001Z

I think it was Andy Bull in the Guardian’s Spin email who recently recommended Mike Marqusee’s War Minus the Shooting as good complimentary reading while this latest World Cup is going on.

War Minus the Shooting tells the story of the 1996 competition, held in Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka and won, of course, by Sri Lanka. For another view of the same tournament, there is also the excellent Hell for Leather: A Modern Cricket Journey by Robert Winder.

Freddie Flintoff 2 Dennis Wise 2

2011-02-27T00:11:00.001Z

Andrew Flintoff’s quest to find something useful to do with himself after retiring from cricket continued tonight in ITV4’s Freddie Flintoff Versus The World.

In this week’s installment, our hero visited Canada to challenge Dennis Wise to a series of sporting challenges of differing dangerousness.

Nothing has quite hit the spot like Darren Gough trying his hand at Mexican lucha libre in the first episode, but watching a team of huskies drag Freddie through thick snow came pretty close.

And the skeleton (or travelling at 60mph over sheet ice on a tea tray) was hair-rising. As always, Freddie rose admirably to meet every challenge. He may say he’s having second thoughts, but you just know he’ll never back down.

Next week, Freddie comes up against Ian Walker (I presume the former Tottenham goalkeeper with the strange hairstyle).

More on the World Cup schedule

2011-02-21T23:54:00.001Z

There’s a very good article on the World Cup in today’s Independent by James Corrigan.

Bored yet? Or, like me, are you refusing to tune in until the quarter-finals, some time after the Cheltenham National Hunt Festival and a little before Easter?

I said something similar in my last post on this blog.

However, Mr Corrigan forgets one important thing in his criticism of the pared-down World Cup proposed for 2015.

Upsets in cricket are few and far between. He says that the ICC should ‘take a leaf out of Fifa’s book’, but there is a huge difference. The weaker side sometimes wins a football match. It almost never wins a cricket match.

World Cup bombshell–Sri Lanka beat Canada #cwc2011

2011-02-20T17:32:00.001Z

I did my best to get excited about the World Cup, I really did.

I enjoyed listening to the tournament’s opener yesterday between India and Bangladesh. I even stayed up to watch the highlights, marvelling at the power hitting of Tamim Iqbal and a one-legged Virender Sehwag.

But the results of games 2 and 3 have quickly knocked on the head any thought that this tournament could be something more than a drawn-out, bloated cash cow, designed purely to ensure that the leading teams don’t get knocked out early.

In case you missed them, this is what happened earlier today:

Kenya 69 v v New Zealand 72/0 (8 ov)
New Zealand won by 10 wickets (with 252 balls remaining)

Sri Lanka 332/7 v Canada 122 (36.5 ov)
Sri Lanka won by 210 runs

And we still must sit through another 39 games spread over more than a month before reaching the quarter-finals. My heart sinks.

England’s inglorious history at the World Cup #cwc2011

2011-02-19T15:03:00.001Z

Some possible reasons why England have never won the World Cup.

12 batsman have scored more than 1000 runs in the tournament’s history. None of them are English. Sachin Tendulkar tops the list, with a total of 1796 runs at 57.93.

10 batsman have scored 150 or more in an innings at the World Cup. None of them are English. Incidentally, only 3 English batsman have ever scored more than 150 in ANY one-dayer – Robin Smith, David Gower and Andrew Strauss.
9 batsman have scored 3 or more World Cup hundreds. None of them are English.
Mark Waugh scored 484 runs in the 1995-96 tournament. Seven batsman have scored more than this in a single tournament, but none are English.
No English batsmen appear in the list of highest partnerships for each wicket.
No English bowler has taken more than 30 World Cup wickets. 12 bowlers from other countries have done so (Glenn McGrath tops the list with 71).
8 bowlers have taken 6 or more wickets in an innings. None of them are English.
No English bowler has ever taken a hat-trick at the World Cup. Five bowlers have performed this feat, including Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga who took four in four balls against South Africa in 2006-07.
No Englishman has taken 20 or more wickets in a single tournament. Nine bowlers have done so.
England have never scored more than 350 in an innings. Six countries have, including India who scored more than 400 against Bermuda in 2006-07.

Apart from that, England have done really well at the World Cup.

Cricketers’ favourite books

2011-02-10T22:08:00.001Z

Although I have recommended many books on this blog over the years, I have never, as far as I can remember, included among those recommendations anything by Lee Child or J.K. Rowling. There is a first time for everything.

In conjunction with charity Room to Read, the ICC asked one player from each team at the World Cup for their favourite book. These were the results:

Shane Watson (Australia) - Open by Andre Agassi
Tamim Iqbal (Bangladesh) - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling
Zubin Sukari (Canada) - Life by Keith Richards
Luke Wright (England) - Goosebump Series by R L Stine
Virat Kohli (India) - Open by Andre Agassi
Ed Joyce (Ireland) - 1984 by George Orwell
Steve Tikolo (Kenya) - Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
Peter Borren (Holland) - Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier
Kane Williamson (New Zealand) - Jack Reacher Series by Lee Child
Shahid Afridi (Pakistan) - Fazail-E-Amaal by Muhammad Zakariya Kandhlawi
Wayne Parnell (South Africa) - The Stand by Stephen King
Sulieman Benn (West Indies) - Supercat: The Authorised Biography of Clive Lloyd by Simon Lister
Graeme Cremer (Zimbabwe) – It’s Not About The Bike by Lance Armstrong

The most startling thing about all this is not that Tamim Iqbal’s favourite read is a children’s book. The most startling thing is that Steve Tikolo is still playing for Kenya.

Wisden 2011’s cover star revealed…

2011-02-07T23:08:00.001Z

After Alastair Cook’s spectacular Ashes series (766 runs at 127.66, in case you’ve forgotten), it surely wasn’t a very difficult decision.

A clip from part 1 of Freddie Flintoff versus the World

2011-02-01T23:05:00.000Z

Freddie Flintoff versus the World, part 2

2011-02-01T23:04:00.001Z

I’m still loving ITV4’s Freddie Flintoff versus the World. In tonight’s episode, our hero travelled to Arizona with former 400m athlete Iwan Thomas for a demolition derby, a spot of white-water rafting, and finally a bowel-chilling high-wire crossing.

One question – if Freddie can compete successfully in a competition during which he repeatedly drives a car into other cars at high speeds, surely he could be putting in a shift for the England one-day side, currently getting thumped down under?

Freddie Flintoff versus Darren Gough

2011-01-30T15:05:00.001Z

Unexpectedly, the first episode of ITV4’s Freddie Flintoff vs the World was rather good. It could have been just another celebrity reality TV vehicle about nothing much at all. Instead, it turned into a study of mortality and the Mexican psyche.

I’m not joking. That was why paintball paragliding, the first of the three extreme sports that Freddie and Darren Gough turned their hands to in Mexico, fell flat on its face, almost literally. It told us nothing about the place.

Freestyle wrestling (lucha libre), on the other hand, tells you almost everything. Flintoff, who sat it out due to a cracked rib, laughed from the sidelines, but Goughie gave it all he had. It wasn’t glamorous (in fact, it looked like it was staged in a primary school gym) but the locals loved it.

Despite taking more punishment from pro-wrestler Horus (‘which in Spanish means … Horus’) in one bout than he did from the Aussies over a nine year Test career, and then escaping from the ring while saying ‘no more, enough’, the former Yorkshire fast bowler was even crowned champion. His arm raised in triumph to the half-empty hall, his voice cracked as he thanked Horus and Mexico. He fitted in perfectly. It all seemed so Mexican.

Both Flintoff and Gough are, of course, completely likeable, and they only had to be themselves to demonstrate how different, and at the same time, how similar, they were to the Mexicans who clapped them from the ring. That was why an earlier Englishman-abroad visit to a taqueria seemed so out-of-place and unnecessary.

The final challenge was the only sport in Mexico more Mexican than lucha libre – cliff-jumping in Acapulco. Flintoff showed his nerves as instructor Angel showed him where divers prayed before jumping (‘I need to get away from this place, it’s freaking me out’), but it was instructive that he paused in the same place for a moment’s reflection before making his final, impressive ten-metre jump.

So we learnt a little about Flintoff and Gough and a lot about Mexico. We even approached something more profound as Freddie reflected that he had ‘never experienced fear, excitement, adrenalin like that in my life before’. If Freddie Flintoff versus the World is all about our hero searching for contentment post-cricket, it may have been successful.

Another list of great #cricket writers

2011-01-22T12:06:00.001Z

According to David Frith in England versus Australia: A Pictorial History of the Test Matches since 1877, these are ‘the authors whose battle dispatches have carried the story through to the present generation’:

Charles Pardon, Ranjitsinhji, P.F.Warner, Frank Laver, Philip Trevor, J.B.Hobbs, E.H.D.Sewell, P.G.H.Fender, Sydney Smith, M.A.Noble, A.E.R.Gilligan, Bruce Harris, D.R.Jardine, Arthur Mailey, William Pollock, Neville Cardus, Denzil Batchelor, Clif Cary, J.H.Fingleton, W.J.O’Reilly, John Arlott, E.W.Swanton, A.G.Moyes, E.M.Wellings, Alan Ross, Rex Alston, Peter West, R.S.Whitington

Some well-known names there, and some less well-known names. Clif Cary anyone?

A Daily Mail-linked admission

2011-01-19T22:15:00.001Z

Earlier this week, I received in the post a copy of The Wisden Guide to International Cricket. It was a prize I won by answering the following question:

How many countries currently have official Test status?

I’m already starting to wonder how I lived without it. Imagine the Cricinfo ‘Players’ section, but in print.

I hate to admit it, but the competition was in Lawrence Booth’s Top Spin email. Not because it’s not excellent (it is), but because of the Daily Mail connection. However, the email is free so who cares? The way I see it is that they have now actually given ME money.

By the way, the answer is nine.

Bats, Balls and Bungs

2011-01-10T23:26:00.001Z

Last week's Report on Radio 4 was an excellent programme on match-fixing in cricket. You can still listen here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00x44m0

Meanwhile, the ICC's anti-corruption tribunal continues in Doha. A final decision regarding the fate of the three Pakistani players accused of spot-fixing, Mohammad Asif, Salman Butt and Mohammad Amir, is expected tomorrow.

Another best #cricket books list

2011-01-09T12:13:00.001Z

The Wisden Cricketer’s books of the year for 2010 are:

Time to Declare by Michael Vaughan

Of Didcot and the Demon: The Cricketing Times of Alan Gibson by Anthony Gibson

Imran Khan: The Cricketer, The Celebrity, The Politician by Christopher Sandford

Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack 2010 edited by Scyld Berry

Start the Car: The World According to Bumble by David Lloyd

Peter Pan’s First XI: The Extraordinary Story of J.M.Barrie’s Cricket Team by Kevin Telfer

A Last English Summer by Duncan Hamilton

Frith on Cricket: Half a Century of Writing by David Frith

Following On: A Year with English Cricket’s Golden Boys by David Tossell

Rubbish #Ashes predictions

2011-01-08T20:16:00.001Z

I have just reminded myself of the Ashes predictions that featured in December’s Wisden Cricketer. They were, to be blunt, truly awful.

Of eighteen assorted journalists and former players, seven actually predicted an Australian victory. Worst prediction of all came from the magazine’s deputy editor Ed Craig, who thought the Aussies would win 2-0.

Special mention must also go to Alan Tyers who went for a 2-1 Australian victory, as he was ‘not convinced by the England seam attack in Aussie conditions.’

A further four pundits went for a drawn series. My favourite writer Lawrence Booth (recently appointed editor of next year’s Wisden) felt that ‘neither side [would be] quite good enough to force an outright win’.

So only seven of eighteen correctly predicted the winners, and only one of those, Ian Botham, got the actual score correct.

I have been saying for ages that I know more about cricket than most of the so-called experts. Now I know I was right.

Keith Andrew RIP

2011-01-06T23:30:00.001Z

I was sad to see that the former Northamptonshire and England wicketkeeper Keith Andrew had died.

Most people seem to remember him for his mastery behind the stumps, and for being kept out of the England team by the flamboyant but less technically correct Godfrey Evans.

I, however, will forever remember him for this:

I bought this brilliant book when I was still at primary school, and it was all I needed to learn the basics of the game. It still reads well today – I’ve just flicked through it for the first time in many years, and I’m learning once more.

In fact, I would say it was my third most-read book growing up, only behind the Adventures of Robin Hood, and a battered copy of The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, featuring a cover photo of Peter Cushing as a demonic Great Detective.

I particularly like the posed photos in The Skills of Cricket with a very young-looking David Gower:

If you can find a copy, I thoroughly recommend it,

The real reason behind England’s #Ashes success?

2010-12-30T12:01:00.001Z

Allan Lamb (pictured below in 1981 Cricketers’ Who’s Who tache-wearing heyday) believes that playing competitive warm-up matches has been the most important factor behind England’s success in Australia.

Speaking yesterday on Stephen Nolan’s programme on Five Live, the former England batsman said:

Their preparation was right because they had warm-up games. Every side that has been to Australia in the last fifteen years wanted to have two warm-up games before you even start – one against the Prime Minister’s XI, a non-contest, then a beer game, fifteen-a-side, in Sydney. You can’t beat Australia that way. You’ve got to play against all the Shield teams and that’s what they did right, and that’s the reason they won.

It’s a subject that this blog touched on back in November.

Cricketers’ Who’s Who from 1981 – surprisingly entertaining

2010-12-28T22:39:00.001Z

#cricket

In between catching up on last night’s events at the MCG, I have spent today reading my newly acquired copy of the 1981 Cricketers’ Who’s Who. You may be surprised to hear that reading the book is almost as entertaining as listening to the Aussies getting walloped.

Here are some of the highlights so far:

Is it just me, or does Yorkshire’s John Whiteley look exactly like Andrew Flintoff after his Mum has given him a side parting?

Mark Nicholas (or should that be Mark Charles Jefford Nicholas?) whose ‘relaxations’ include ‘drama and the theatre’. He has apparently ‘directed four plays, including Ayckbourn’s “Absurd Person Singular”.’

And Fred Titmus, still playing for Middlesex at the age of 49. ‘It is all about attitude of mind’ he says.

How wonderful it is to wake up to this kind of headline...

2010-12-27T11:37:00.000Z

Boxing Day, the #Ashes and a 1981 Cricketers' Who's Who

2010-12-26T17:41:00.001Z

Boxing Days don't come much better than this (if it actually has been Boxing Day today, which is a matter of some debate around our dining table, considering Christmas Day was on a Saturday and both tomorrow and Tuesday are bank holidays. I say no, my brother says yes).

Of course the news from Melbourne was pretty damn amazing. But what about this?

Christmas presents of pure class - David Frith's England versus Australia and a battered Cricketers' Who's Who from 1981 with half its pages missing. Curiously, the only remaining Gloucestershire player in the Who's Who is Stephen Windaybank ('Nickname: Windy').

The WAG myth

2010-12-23T20:56:00.001Z

#Ashes Like many others, I too was worried about the effect of the arrival of wives and girlfriends on the England team in Australia. After all, they had been doing very well without them.

And then Perth happened. Were the WAGs to blame?

Er, no. Jessica Bratich, Lee Furlong et al haven’t been forced to leave the country as far as I know, and the Aussies did pretty well.

Lalit Modi: I'm innocent. All I've done is created the hottest league in the world | Interviews

2010-12-23T20:09:00.000Z

Lalit Modi: I'm innocent. All I've done is created the hottest league in the world

Two things are bugging me from Mihir Bose's interview with Lalit Modi in today's Evening Standard.

1. How come Modi has such long fingernails?

2. And how come he's allowed to stay in the UK? Does he have a British passport, or is a huge amount of money a sufficient substitute?

Broad to join TMS

2010-12-14T22:28:00.001Z

#cricket #ashes So Stuart Broad is joining the Test Match Special team for the third Test in Perth starting on Thursday.

The injured fast bowler, out for the rest of the Ashes series with a torn abdominal muscle, should be an interesting addition to the standard line-up of Agnew, Vaughan, Boycott et al.

The only reservation I have is that I am afraid he will follow Vaughan’s example of referring to England as ‘us’ or ‘we’. This is something that has only recently crept into TMS and I don’t like it.

England should be ‘England’, Australia should be ‘Australia’. Thank you.

Gloucestershire sign Lance Corporal

2010-12-14T21:00:00.001Z

#cricket News on Gloucestershire’s latest signing from the Guardian’s Spin e-newsletter -

HOPE FOR HAS-BEENS EVERYWHERE PART II

Last week it was Abdul Haq, the 27-year-old lorry driver who has been invited to join Pakistan's national cricket academy. This week it is David Wade, a Lance Corporal in the British Army. Wade, also 27, was due to return to Kabul for a second tour of duty with the Royal Signal Corps in January. Instead he has signed a two-year contract with Gloucestershire after being spotted while opening the bowling for Westbury in the West of England league last summer. "In the end, it came down to playing cricket or going back to Afghanistan," Wade explained. "Ultimately, my ambition to become a county cricketer won out."

More good news from Australia

2010-12-12T17:29:00.001Z

It’s all going rather well in Australia at the moment, and not just in the Ashes.

Tour match

Lark Hill, near Perth: Final day of four: Western Australia XI 388 (DR Briggs 4 for 60) and 199; England Performance Programme 340-3 dec (JWA Taylor 137, AW Gale 113 not out, BA Stokes 70) and 248 for 3 (C Kieswetter 113, JC Hildreth 63). England Performance Programme won by seven wickets.

Surely something’s going to go wrong soon.

Speeding wasn’t KP’s most serious crime last week

2010-12-12T15:04:00.001Z

Prior to this #Ashes tour, there was a school of thought that Kevin Pietersen had grown up. His run of poor form, a self-confessed lack of confidence, a settled family life, all suggested that here was a man who had changed.

And then, this happens.

How could he possibly have been so stupid? It’s not the speeding I’m worrying about here, it’s the the crime against fashion. Did he really think that the jeans/flip-flop combination was a good move?

The Times 50 greatest sports book, part 4

2010-12-11T16:40:00.001Z

Four more cricket books appeared in the top 20 in the Times list of the greatest sports books of all time.

19 A Lot of Hard Yakka by Simon Hughes

16 The Art of Captaincy by Mike Brearley

14 Beyond a Boundary by C.L.R. James

5 Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack

Mike Atherton's top three sports books...

2010-12-10T14:01:00.000Z

...as revealed in today's Times.

1. 46 not out by R.C.Robertson-Glasgow
2. A Handful of Summers by Gordon Forbes
3. The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn

The Times list of the 50 best sports books of all time, part 3

2010-12-08T23:26:00.001Z

More cricket books appeared today in the Times countdown of the 50 greatest sports books of all time.

24 Basil D’Oliveira – Cricket and Conspiracy: The Untold Story by Peter Oborne (2004)

22 Bodyline Autopsy by David Frith (2002)

More tomorrow…

Gideon Haigh – don’t give up the day job

2010-12-07T20:32:00.001Z

#ashes #cricket For a man who is consistently named as the World’s Greatest Living Cricket Writer, and who has two books so far in the Times’ list of the 50 greatest sports books of all time, Gideon Haigh is rubbish at predictions.

In December’s Wisden Cricketer, he reckoned Australia would win at Brisbane in the first Test, ‘an underprepared England succumbing to Hilfenhaus’.

He went on to say that the final score would be 2-2. If Australia come back to draw this series, I will eat my England replica sunhat.

The Times' 50 greatest sports books, part 2

2010-12-07T13:53:00.000Z

Just two cricket books today in the Times' countdown of the 50 greatest sports books.

34 Penguins Stopped Play by Harry Thompson

31 Mystery Spinner by Gideon Haigh

The list continues tomorrow...

The Times’ 50 greatest sports books, part 1

2010-12-06T20:50:00.001Z

Three cricket books have made it so far into the Times’ countdown of the 50 greatest sports books.

They are:

50 Hit Hard and Enjoy It by T.C. ‘Dickie’ Dodds (1976)

44 The Cricket War: the Inside Story of Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket by Gideon Haigh (1993)

42 Harold Larwood – the authorised biography of the world’s fastest bowler by Duncan Hamilton

The list continues tomorrow with numbers 40-31. I’m sure more cricket books will feature..

More on 1000 runs on a winter tour

2010-12-04T14:04:00.001Z

#ashes #cricket After extensive research, I think I have uncovered the answer to my own 1000-runs-on-an-overseas-tour question.

The last man was the aforementioned Dennis Amiss, who scored 1120 runs on the MCC tour of the West Indies in 1973-74.

Regarding Ashes tours, the feat was last achieved by two batsman on the 1970-71 tour – Geoff Boycott (1535 runs) and J.H.Edrich (1097 runs).

Alastair Cook could soon be joining that esteemed company – 657 runs and counting.

An interesting #ashes -related statistic from @TMSscorer

2010-12-04T13:30:00.001Z

TMSscorer

No one has managed 1000 runs NOT in England in any calendar year. Closest is WR Hammond in 1933 with 883 runs

13 hours ago

ps Not sure if this Test or first-class runs, but I think Cook has beaten this record either way - 922 Test runs overseas so far this year, 1141 first-class runs overseas so far this year.

Alastair Cook - on course for an unusual achievement?

2010-12-01T21:05:00.001Z

#ashes A statistic I always enjoy appears each year in the First-Class Career Records section of Playfair, where the penultimate column within the batting averages shows the instances of batsman scoring 1000 runs in a season (‘where these have been achieved outside the British Isles they are shown after a plus sign’).

And it’s those numbers after the plus sign that I have always found particularly interesting. Nowadays its all overseas players such as H.D. Ackerman or Phil Jacques, but my 1983 Playfair reports that Geoff Boycott and Dennis Amiss both scored 1000 runs in an overseas season.

How they did this, I’m not sure - apart from England, Amiss only played for Warwickshire, and Boycott had just one season with Northern Transvaal in 1971-72. So an England tour seems the only way they could have reached the landmark.

So my question is - when was the last time an English batsman scored 1000 runs on an overseas tour with England? I ask, of course, because Alastair Cook has currently scored 521 runs in Australia, and still has five matches left to play.

Will the penultimate column of his career record in next year’s Playfair read ‘4+1’?

The PM's message to the England team

2010-11-24T20:11:00.000Z

After watching this, I'm still not completely convinced that David Cameron is a real cricket fan...

Shameless plugging as the Ashes approaches

2010-11-22T23:28:00.001Z

You know the Ashes must be coming close when articles about cricket start appearing in unusual parts of the newspapers. Standing out over the weekend was a half-decent interview with Stuart Broad in the Times magazine (although I wasn’t too sure about the sub-title – ‘the finest, most destructive English player of his generation’).

However, the piece was sullied by an italicized closing to which readers of sporting interviews are becoming more and more accustomed – Stuart Broad wears underpants by Primark, the official sponsors of England cricket underwear. Those weren’t the exact words, but you get my drift.

Even worse, a mention of his sponsors is crowbarred INTO the article –

in five short years…cricket has changed: more professional, more money, more sponsors (indeed, this interview is part of Broad’s contract with…)

Shameless.

And it’s not only the Times. The excellent new Wisden Cricketer has a big interview with Kevin Pietersen. While the main text is fine, the photos grate – the only way for KP to get more visibility for his sponsors would have been if he had painted three stripes on his forehead.

I know from my time at the Guardian that sports editors grapple with this dilemma. Do they give in, or do they hold out? Most give in. How much longer before the interview is conducted by the sponsor, and the journalist does nothing at all?

NACB is sponsored by Bubbles of Honor Oak Park, suppliers of alcohol and bread when Sainsburys is closed.

Swanny's Ashes Diary No.3

2010-11-18T23:16:00.001Z

ECB | VIDEO | TWELFTHMANTV | Twelth Man TV Video | Swanny's Ashes Diary No.3

I particularly like the joke about Mushtaq's sponsored beard.

Does Graeme Swann really need a rest?

2010-11-15T22:26:00.001Z

I feel foolish. Just last week, I wrote of the importance of the first-class matches on this Ashes tour away from the five Tests. And then England announce that they will in fact not be needing the services of their first choice bowling attack for the match against Australia A in Hobart on Wednesday.

Instead, Graeme Swann, James Anderson, Steven Finn and Stuart Broad will heading north to Brisbane, so they can ‘acclimatise’ before the first Test which begins in ten days time.

My initial reaction was to splutter in shock, and curse Andy Flower loudly. But, after further reflection, I understand that the coach is in an impossible position. Let the bowlers go to Brisbane early and a shoddy opening day in the first Test will be put down to ‘undercooking’. Play them in Hobart and one (probably Stuart Broad) is bound to get injured in a really stupid manner, like sliding into an advertising board when the ball has already crossed the boundary.

I can see the argument both ways. It’s one of those situations where we just have to trust the coach. This is Andy Flower after all, and the decisions he's made so far in his short career as England coach have been pretty damn good.

Haider controversy reveals true state of Pakistani cricket

2010-11-09T19:17:00.000Z

The saddest aspect of the Zulqarnain Haider affair is not that a promising young wicketkeeper-batsman has announced his premature retirement from the game. It is not even that Haider felt it necessary to abandon his teammates on the eve of a match because of a death threat, and that his family is currently under armed guard in Lahore.

The most depressing part is actually that the victim has become the culprit. Former player Basit Ali’s tone was typical of a number of notable Pakistanis – ‘this is nothing new for professional players,’ he is reported as saying. ‘Most of us have got threats at some time to do this and that but you just ignore them.'

What kind of a state is Pakistan cricket in, if coping with death threats is all part of the job?

Peter Oborne in Pakistan

2010-11-05T17:07:00.001Z

Tonight’s Unreported World comes from Pakistan, a country still recovering from the effects of cataclysmic flooding. Unreported World is always worth watching, but the cricket link in this episode should make it doubly interesting – Pakistan: After the Floods is presented by Peter Oborne, author of, among other things, Basil D’Oliveira: Cricket and Conspiracy.

The programme is on Channel 4, starting at 7.30pm.

The importance of warm-up matches

2010-11-02T20:04:00.001Z

The Press Association today reports a comment from Stuart Broad. ‘We know what an important week this is,’ Broad says. ‘We’re going to take the WA game [which begins on Friday] very seriously, and try and get some really good preparation in before the first Test.’

The importance of this attitude cannot be overestimated. The scheduling of three first-class games before the Test series begins on November 25th is a departure from recent tours, where the thinking seemed to be that less is best. None of those farcical, two-day, 14-a-side games for these tourists.

Warm-up games must be a good idea. Since England last won in Australia in 1986-87, England have toured Australia five times, and, of course, lost every series. Generally, the biggest margins of defeat occur after the shortest warm-up periods.

1986-1987 First-class matches played before first Test: 3. Won 2-1

1990-1991 Matches: 3. Lost 3-0

1994-1995 Matches: 4. Lost 3-1

1998-1999 Matches: 3. Lost 3-1

2002-2003 Matches: 2. Lost 4-1

2006-2007 Matches: 1. Lost 5-0

By allowing themselves time to prepare and acclimatise, England are surely giving themselves the best possible chance of retaining the Ashes.

The new Crocodile Dundee

2010-11-01T16:11:00.001Z

I finally got round to seeing Out of the Ashes last night, at the ICA in London. For those of you who haven’t heard about it, it’s the story of the Afghanistan cricket team and their almost-unbelievable rise through the world rankings.

It’s wonderful, of course, but perhaps in ways that you wouldn’t imagine. For a start, it’s not really a film about cricket at all. It’s about the personalities involved within the team, it’s about Crocodile Dundee-style culture shock (well, can you think of any two places more different than Kabul and Jersey?), and above all, it’s about Afghanistan.

It’s also about that staple of movies of all genres, triumph over adversity. One of my favourite bits is when batsman Hasti Gul Abed explains how the team’s new coach (who replaced the film’s real star, Taj Malik) has made them more professional. ‘He tells us to drink water and use the swimming pool,’ he says.

Don’t miss it. It’s on at the ICA until 7th November. There’s more information here.

The truth about Boony and the 52 cans

2010-10-29T17:55:00.001+01:00

The award for most entertaining cricket interview of the year has already been decided. Step forward Merv Hughes who spoke to 5 Live Sport last night.

If you missed it, you can listen to it on the i-Player here. It starts at 7 minutes 35 seconds. Do it now - if you miss it, you’ll regret it forever.

ps Was it only a coincidence that Cricket Australia announced today that Big Merv had been dropped from the country’s National Selection Panel?

Another cricket film that looks worth watching

2010-10-28T10:10:00.001+01:00

You wait for years for one, and then two come along at the same time…

England need KP. Or maybe they don’t

2010-10-26T17:43:00.001+01:00

Everyone seems to agree that England need an in-form Kevin Pietersen if they are to hold on to the Ashes this winter. In fact, it’s been said so many times, it’s getting boring. But is it actually true?

Since March 2009, when KP scored his last Test hundred, England haven’t lost a Test series, and have lost just three of nineteen matches. Pietersen missed three matches through injury in the 2009 Ashes, and averages a less-than-great 35 from the others.

During this time, England have played a number of teams significantly stronger than the current Aussies, including the 2009 Aussies and South Africa in South Africa. The absence of KP has allowed the likes of Eion Morgan and Jonathan Trott to break through and hit match-winning hundreds.

So perhaps England’s best chance of success in Australia is not to pick KP first, and then fit ten players in around him. Instead, they would surely do well to pick the best eleven players - it’s revolutionary I know, but it might just work.

By constantly repeating the mantra that KP will come good, as if there must be trouble if he doesn’t, the England management are showing a weakness rather than a strength. And they will need all the strength they can muster if they are to beat their oldest foe once again.

A man who looks like Graham Gooch

2010-10-25T12:28:00.001+01:00

You’ve got to admit, there’s definitely a similarity…

For more people who look like Graham Gooch, have a look at this. Seriously, you must. It’s genius.

The boot camp conspiracy theory

2010-10-21T13:09:00.000+01:00

Everyone loves a conspiracy theory, and NACB has good one for your delectation today concerning Jimmy Anderson and the England boot camp.

According to the ECB, Anderson ‘sustained a cracked rib during England's recent preparation camp in Germany’. Most media outlets went further and suggested his bowling partner Chris Tremlett punched Anderson a little too hard during a sparring session. Where this extra information came from is unclear.

But such is the intelligence and clearsightedness of Andy Flower and Andrew Strauss, that something doesn’t ring true. The England management would never be so stupid as to let the players thump the living daylights out of each other just weeks before the Ashes. Would they?

And why does the media release state that ‘it is anticipated that Anderson will be fit and available for selection for the first Test match against Australia in Brisbane’? Is such a speedy recovery from a cracked rib normal? And how come he has been seen playing golf and weightlifting in the Old Trafford gym since returning to the UK?

Could it be that the whole story is fiction? Perhaps it’s a smokescreen to deflect attention away from a problem somewhere else. Perhaps it’s an elaborate ruse to lull the Aussies into a false sense of security. We may never know, but there are dark forces at work.

So there’s no cracked rib, there were no sparring sessions, and Jimmy A will be roaring in to bowl on the first morning at the Gabba refreshed from a few extra hours in the steamroom. Never have I wanted to believe a conspiracy theory more.

At last! Someone stays

2010-10-14T10:14:00.001+01:00

Gloucestershire have revealed that left-arm spinner Vikram Banerjee (below) has signed a one-year contract extension, which will tie him to the county until the end of 2011.

The left-arm spinner, who took 23 wickets at 34.47 last season, said: "I am delighted to have signed for another year with Gloucestershire and I am looking forward to the challenges of next season. I want to win games for the team and help us win trophies and promotion."

Gloucestershire Director of Cricket John Bracewell said: “Our tactics this summer were primarily formed around our pace attack, but Vikram showed on occasions that he can be a match-winner in his own right.

“Given that some of our seam bowlers have moved on, he will play a more important role next season and becomes one of our more senior players.”

Porterfield joins the exodus

2010-10-13T10:44:00.001+01:00

Another day, another Gloucestershire player announces his departure from the county.

This is the text of an email sent this morning to members:

Will Porterfield has left Gloucestershire and signed a three-year contract with Warwickshire. The 26-year-old Ireland player was out of contract and free to negotiate a move, although he was offered terms to stay. Gloucestershire chief executive Tom Richardson said: “We would like to thank Will for his efforts on behalf of our club and wish him well for the future.”

Kirby, Hussain, Ireland, and now Porterfield. Who will be next?

Cricket and torture

2010-10-13T00:03:00.001+01:00

At first glance it may not look like it, but this painting by Francis Bacon is apparently of a ‘tortured’ cricketer.

It was announced today that the painting, entitled ‘Figure in Movement’, is expected to fetch £4m at auction in New York next month.

Exactly which tortured cricketer is being portrayed is not entirely clear, but many observers believe it could be Kevin Pietersen about to face a slow left-armer.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/8057249/Howzat-Francis-Bacons-cricketing-portrait-to-fetch-6m.html

Confirmation that Gemaal Hussain is leaving Glos

2010-10-11T22:17:00.001+01:00

The Gemaal Hussain story has now gone live on the Gloucestershire website.

http://www.gloscricket.co.uk/news/2091-Gemaal-Opts-To-Leave-Gloucestershire

Remember - you heard it here first.

On another note, it seems that although Hussain ‘is currently weighing up his options’, he hasn’t yet agreed terms with a new club. Wouldn’t it be hilarious if no county actually signs him?

Hussain to leave Glos - official

2010-10-11T20:57:00.001+01:00

WORLD EXCLUSIVE

Gloucestershire are shortly to confirm that Gemaal Hussain will be leaving the club after only two years. Hussain (below) apparently believes that playing first division cricket will help him as he strives for international recognition.

The county failed to persuade the swing bowler to stay despite the offer of a new contract. He follows Antony Ireland and Steve Kirby out of Nevil Road and leaves Gloucestershire desperately short of bowling options for the coming season.

After five years of trying and four different counties, Hussain finally made his breakthrough in 2010 with Gloucestershire, topping the second division wicket-taking table with 67 wickets at 22.34.

A press release will appear on glosccc.co.uk later this evening.

Australia v. India? Pah!

2010-09-28T11:57:00.001+01:00

This week’s Spin suggests that the forthcoming India v. Australia series ‘deserves to be a main course in its own right’.

I disagree. The standard may be as high (or higher), but two Tests will never match the tension, unpredictability and resonance of a five-match Ashes series.

Adil Rashid ‘will be better for the break’

2010-09-27T19:05:00.001+01:00

Some further thoughts on the Ashes and Performance squads announced last week:

Although most news reports led on the inclusion of Chris Tremlett and Monty Panesar, a number also flagged up the omissions of Ravi Bopara and Adil Rashid.

The exclusion of Bopara is actually perfectly understandable – he hasn’t played Test cricket since the fourth Test against Australia last year, and awarding him an incremental contract suggests he will be drafted in for the seven one-dayers and two Twenty20s that follow the Tests.

Both of the Sussex allrounders Michael Yardy and Luke Wright are in a similar position to Bopara.

Rashid’s omission from both squads on the other hand is more difficult to explain. National selector Geoff Miller reckons ‘he will be better for the break.’

One can only presume that Rashid will be a part of the Lions squad that is due to tour the West Indies early next year. If he’s left out of that one as well, we’ll know that something is seriously wrong.

Eion Morgan – the new Michael Bevan?

2010-09-26T18:59:00.001+01:00

After the disaster of England’s last tour to Australia, Duncan Fletcher was brave to write in Friday’s Guardian about his ‘strategy for Ashes victory’.

Andrew Flintoff being made captain, the return of Ashley Giles, the freezing out of Monty Panesar until the third Test - just one of those cock-ups from the 2006-07 Ashes might seem to disqualify Fletcher from this kind of talk.

However, for what it’s worth, he reckons the selectors should drop Alistair Cook in favour of Eion Morgan. This tactic seems to be predicated on the assumption that Morgan is pretty damn good at the one-day stuff, so he must be good at Tests as well.

Surely there is a flaw in this argument – success in one format does not necessarily lead to success in the other. Just look at Michael Bevan (below) – most observers’ choice as the best one-day batsman ever, he finished with a disappointing Test average of 29.07 (compared to 53.58 in ODIs).

Fletcher talks of ‘performing under extreme pressure’, ‘a cool player in a crisis’ and ‘having a steady temperament’. Morgan undoubtedly has all these qualities, but maybe they aren’t quite enough to succeed in Test cricket.

The tension is palpable. Not

2010-09-23T13:17:00.001+01:00

So, not long to go until the Ashes squad is announced, and I am sure you are just as excited as me. Which is to say, not very.

There are two reasons for this lack of tension. First, England selection policy is now just so consistent. Do you remember when Joey Benjamin could make a winter tour? Or when England had four captains in one summer? Ah, those were the days.

The other reason is that the squad is not as important as it used to be anyway. When it needed a two-month voyage by boat to get Down Under, players knew that if they didn’t make the squad, their chance of playing was gone.

Now, it seems that half the professional cricketers in England will be in Australia over the winter, whether they make the squad or not. In particular, the Lions will be there for more or less the same length of time as the main squad.

This means, for example, that although Adil Rashid will probably only be in the Lions squad, his chances of making his Test debut this winter will probably be about the same as James Tredwell making the Test side, even though Tredwell may be in the Test squad.

I’ll still be listening to the announcement though. 2.30 on 5 Live, in case you’re wondering.

The full story of World Series Cricket? Not really

2010-09-17T14:59:00.001+01:00

I found Henry Blofeld’s The Packer Affair on the bargain shelf of a second-hand bookshop a couple of years ago, and had been meaning to read it ever since. But there just never seemed any rush - it was overtaken by David Frith and Simon Hughes and Mike Atherton, and my knowledge of World Series Cricket remained sketchy at best. Until today.

I can now tell you all about the dastardly Tony Greig, I can tell you about Geoffrey Boycott and why Packer didn’t sign him up (it’s not why you think), and I can tell you about drop-in pitches and West Indians arguing over contracts (some things never change). I can even tell you about the Test in Kingston that the Windies drew after spectators rioted as their team was about to lose.

It’s a great story, and very much of its time. The amount of money involved is constantly amazing – in 1977, Blowers reports that Packer bought the exclusive Australian rights for the Ashes series in England ‘for £150,000’.

There’s also lots of talk of ‘crash helmets’, coloured clothing and day-night cricket – apparently ‘one or more of these innovations will stay’. There’s even a prediction of ‘a contest over something like 25 overs for each side’ designed for the American market.

So I can tell you lots of interesting things about WSC and its effect on Test cricket. Unfortunately though, I can’t tell you anything that happened after the first year of WSC, as the events in the book only run from May 1977 to May 1978. Of course, that wasn’t the end of the story – WSC went from strength to strength in its second year and its dissolution was just as interesting as its formation.

The book’s sub-title (‘a full account of the controversy that tore cricket in two) is therefore baloney. For the real ‘full account’ I think you need Gideon Haigh’s Cricket War. If I find that on the bargain shelf of a second-hand bookshop, I’ll buy that too.

Three days to go

2010-09-13T22:29:00.001+01:00

The climax to this year’s County Championship is so exciting that the BBC has live commentary all this week on 5 Live Sports Extra. Three teams, Nottinghamshire, Somerset and Yorkshire, are still in with a chance of securing top spot.

You could almost be fooled into thinking that the Championship is in rude health. In fact, tucked away out of view in April, May and now September, almost without exception played on weekdays, with few outings for centrally-contracted players, in reality the ECB has more or less given up on it. It’s there because it has to be there. Something to be endured, nothing more.

Last week, I went to the first day of the County Championship match between Surrey and Glamorgan at the Oval. There was great deal riding on the match – Glamorgan began the game second in Division 2 and needed points to guarantee promotion.

The cricket was of a high standard, and immensely enjoyable. Two young Surrey batsman, Jason Roy and Rory Hamilton-Brown, had fun smacking the ball all around the ground, and Kevin Pietersen was LBW second ball on his Surrey first-class debut, his first Championship match for over two years.

How many people were present? I’m guessing that less a hundred people, not including members in the pavilion, witnessed Hamilton-Brown’s display of power-hitting. It was a pitiful attendance by any standards. But with a few tweaks and modifications, I believe the situation could have been very different.

I was reminded of this when I glanced at the points tables this evening, one day into the last round of matches, with Nottinghamshire at the top of Division 1, two points ahead of Somerset and Yorkshire a further five points back. What did it all mean? Could all three teams still win the title, and if so, what did they (and their rivals) need to do?

The complicated system for scoring points in the Championship cannot be a good thing. Having to double-check in a book to see how Yorkshire could make up ground on the top two is ridiculous. And that was before I considered bonus points. The whole shebang needs simplifying, so both avid Championship-watchers and part-timers are clear who needs to do what to become champions.

Keeping a similar ratio of points (sixteen for a win, three for a draw), why not award five points for a win and one for a draw? And scrap bonus points – a confusing, meaningless system which only serves to muddy the waters further. Looking at the table under this revised system, Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire would be tied at the top, with Somerset one point behind.

A win for Yorkshire or Nottinghamshire (and a loss for the other) would give that team the title. Somerset would have to win and hope the others didn’t. If both Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire won, then Nottinghamshire would be crowned champions by virtue of having won more games. Simple. Why make things more complicated than they need be? It’s a small change, but it would make the competition far more accessible to people with a passing interest in the game, the very people the competition needs to attract to survive.

The public are interested in the Championship, but, for whatever reason, they are hindered at every step of the way by the people who make the decisions.

Some things never change

2010-09-12T16:05:00.000+01:00

I'm currently reading Henry Blofeld's account of the Kerry Packer/World Series Cricket bombshell, The Packer Affair. It's good stuff and a full review will follow.

In the meantime, I thought this passage may be of interest about the effect of WSC on Pakistan:

After winning the series against New Zealand [in 1976-77] Mushtaq [Mohammad] was sacked from the captaincy, and Intikhab Alam and Zaheer Abbas were named as captain and vice-captain respectively for the tour of Australia and the West Indies. Mushtaq returned to England to organize his benefit with Northamptonshire...five other players said they would not go to Australia unless Mushtaq was reappointed captain...eventually, on the orders of the Prime Minister, Mr Bhutto, the President of the Pakistan Sports Control Board who was the Minister of Educaton intervened and disbanded the selection committee...' etc, etc.

Through all these 'toings and froings', Pakistan cricket was apparently 'not shown in the kindest of lights'. Some things never change.

H-B not KP

2010-09-08T10:43:00.001+01:00

Oval, Day 1. Surrey 324/6 v Glamorgan

Kevin Pietersen had to wait until almost 3 o’clock yesterday for some action on his first–class debut for Surrey, his first County Championship match since May 2008. As he walked back to the pavilion three minutes later, zero to his name, he was probably wishing the rain had continued to fall.

It wasn’t only the weather that delayed Pietersen’s entrance. Young South African opener Jason Roy demonstrated his potential with a series of crunching drives. It was only over-confidence that got the better of him, as he jumped out of the crease and was bowled by Dean Cosker for 69.

KP never looks comfortable before getting off the mark. His first ball was pushed nervously into the gully. He missed his second and was given out LBW. The bowler was Cosker – a slow left-armer strikes again.

Surrey were in danger of imploding at 136/4, but Rory Hamilton-Brown steadied the innings (if steady can ever be applied to the batting of the Surrey skipper). After a few balls to get his eye in, the ball began to disappear to all parts of the ground.

Hamilton-Brown’s method is simple, and a marked contrast to that of Pietersen – foot to the pitch of the ball, and then smack the thing as hard and as far as possible. Just before tea he began to open up with a six over midwicket off the persevering James Harris, and three more sixes came soon after the break.

He had reached 96 off 84 balls when he went for his seventh six, missed and was stumped off Cosker. Schofield and Batty played out the last few overs of the day with few alarms, and it seems that bowlers will need some help from the batsman to take wickets on this pitch.

Spectators came to see the batting of KP, but left remembering the big hitting of H-B. It was a good swap. Chris Adams has talked a lot recently about using KP’s knowledge and experience in the dressing room, but perhaps it is Pietersen who could learn something from his young captain.

Gloucestershire not good enough for Kirby

2010-09-07T21:59:00.001+01:00

I’ve just read that fast bowler Steve Kirby will be looking for another county next season, after Gloucestershire agreed to release him from his contract.

Kirby, the man for whom the adjective ‘fiery’ was invented, apparently wants to play first division cricket so he can keep in the forefront of the England selectors’ minds.

An easier way to stay in the selector’s thoughts might be to take more wickets – surely it’s this year’s measly return of 29 in ten matches which has pushed him away from England selection rather than the fact he plays in Division 2.

Maybe the title of this post should read ‘Kirby not good enough for Gloucestershire’?

Freelance could be the only option for unwanted KP

2010-09-06T14:09:00.001+01:00

I was interested to read today that former Surrey captain Mark Butcher believes KP’s stay at the Oval will be brief.

Butch told TalkSport: ‘It's just a loan. Surrey are essentially doing the ECB a favour in taking him, so where that leaves KP when he is looking for a county next year I don't know.’

KP seems to think that any county would be crazy not to want him. His original statement on leaving Hampshire (‘geographically it just doesn't work...I live in Chelsea’) seemed to presume that the two London-based teams would fight over his signature.

But why should they? Surrey’s apparent refusal to commit long-term to KP makes sense. If KP is playing well, he won’t be playing for them, he’ll be playing for England. If he’s playing badly, why should they drop someone else to make room for an out-of-form player with no real interest in the club?

Surrey are pretty poor at the moment, but even they aren’t so desperate that they are prepared to be used as some kind of KP form-finding testing ground. Surely Surrey need players who are prepared to work for the team, not just themselves.

There is a pattern here. KP’s time in South Africa ended in tears (his view of Graeme Smith - ‘an absolute muppet’), his time at Nottinghamshire ended in tears (Jason Gallian throwing his equipment off the balcony), and now it’s ended in tears at Hampshire too.

Why should we believe that things would end any differently at Surrey or Middlesex?

ICC – spot-fixing crisis ‘as big as Cronje’

2010-09-03T18:35:00.001+01:00

The head of the International Cricket Council said today that this week’s allegations of ‘spot-fixing’ in matches could be the most serious crisis to hit the sport for a decade.

The cricket world has been thrown into turmoil following last Sunday’s allegations in the News of the World that two Pakistan players bowled deliberate no-balls as part of a betting scam in the fourth Test against England. The players, and their captain, were provisionally suspended last night by the ICC.

Speaking at a Lord’s press conference, Haroon Lorgat said: ‘I would think that in terms of corruption within the sport, this is the next worse or as big as Hansie Cronje.’ Cronje (below) was the former South African captain who admitted accepting bribes to fix matches and provide information to bookmakers in 2000.

Although unable to put forward specific details of the charges against the three suspended Pakistani players, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, head of the governing body’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit, did confirm that the charges all relate to the recent Lord’s Test.

There have also been murmurings of suspicion regarding the second Test of Pakistan’s disastrous tour to Australia earlier this year, but Sir Ronnie said that ‘although there were things that went on [in that match] that were not in the spirit of the game, we have no evidence those things were in any way for financial gain.’

Outlandish claims that the players’ suspensions were part of a wider conspiracy against Pakistan were refuted. “We have been working very closely, but in parallel, with the Metropolitan Police,’ said Sir Ronnie. ‘The culmination was last night when we brought disciplinary action against three players, and provisionally suspended them. We have arrived at a position where players have a case to answer - it doesn’t mean we’ve arrived at a finding of guilt.’

There was constant emphasis of the ICC’s tough stance against improbity. ‘We will not tolerate any sort of corruption within the sport,’ said Lorgat. ‘Upholding the integrity of cricket is paramount, and we will do whatever is necessary to ensure that we maintain integrity in the sport.’

Sir Ronnie also confirmed that the ICC’s 24-hour corruption ‘hotline’ receives hundreds of calls each year. ‘We maintain intelligence that we get from the public and players,’ he said. ‘We will go where the evidence takes us.’

However, there was no confirmation of when the ICC themselves would be interviewing the three suspended players, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Amir and Salman Butt. ‘That depends on the police,’ said Sir Ronnie. ‘They are conducting a criminal investigation, we are conducting a separate disciplinary investigation.’