Nannes the nomad joins Nottinghamshire

Dirk Nannes is the latest overseas star to sign up for next season’s Twenty20 Cup (following Adam Gilchrist’s move to Middlesex and the various other county comings and goings), having been snapped up by Nottinghamshire. The Dutch-Australian fluent Japanese speaker and skiing enthusiast is widely regarded as a Twenty20 specialist, and given his success with [...]

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Monty’s Mission

Monty Panesar may have been cut adrift by England despite winning the Ashes for them with the bat, but he’s on a new mission now – trying to bring success to the Highveld Lions. Monty looks set to make his debut in tomorrow’s match against the Chevrolet Warriors, and it will be interesting to see [...]

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The Dossier

The so-called ‘Langer dossier‘ detailing all of England’s failings (which, incidentally, Justin Langer almost certainly didn’t write) is getting a lot of coverage today – but it’s hardly full of revelations. In the words of Michael Vaughan, “If I had been asked to write a dossier on English cricket, I would have come up with [...]

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England’s Ashes Attack

Much has been made in the build-up to the Ashes about the supposed weakness of Australia’s bowling attack, but it is quickly becoming apparent that England’s isn’t quite as good as some people would have you believe. Flintoff has bowled plenty of overs without looking particularly menacing; Panesar‘s only wicket was more or less self-inflicted [...]

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England vs Australia: Test Series Preview

Unless you’ve been hiding away in a University tower for the last couple of months, it can hardly have escaped your notice that the Ashes starts tomorrow with the First Test in Cardiff. England’s fans (and some sections of the media) seem to have suffered a bout of collective amnesia (or perhaps repression), with the [...]

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England’s Squad for the First Ashes Test

England’s selectors have announced their 13-man squad for the First Ashes Test at Cardiff, and there’s good news and bad news. The good news is mainly for Graham Onions – his performance against the West Indies (as well as a strong start to the season for Durham) has seen him included, and also for Monty [...]

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England cast Vaughan (and Harmison) adrift

Despite their central contracts, neither Steve Harmison nor Michael Vaughan were included in the England ‘pre-Ashes’ squad of 16 (not 17 as was reported at the weekend – does anyone know what went on there?) that was announced today. Although Geoff Miller has said that “[t]he door has not been closed on any player at [...]

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With apologies to Graham Onions…

The ‘Onion’ puns will be all over tomorrow’s papers following Graham’s five-for (an impressive 5-38 on debut that even the man himself was, ahem, ‘bowled over‘ by) – ‘Do you know your Onions?‘; ‘Onions makes Windies weep‘; ‘Onions minces Windies tail‘; ‘First Test in the Onions bag‘; ‘Graham Onions has West Indies in tears‘, and [...]

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England’s World Twenty20 Squad

England have announced their squad for the summer’s World Twenty20, having trimmed their initial 30 down to a more manageable 15: Paul Collingwood captains the side, somewhat suprisingly given his previous reluctance to do so, and the fact that he stood down as One-Day captain a mere nine months ago. Cynics may also suggest that [...]

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Flintoff out

Andrew Flintoff is out of the Fourth Test against the West Indies, which could precipitate a considerable restructure in England’s middle order as they attempt to fight their way back into the series. With Graeme Swann also a doubt through injury, England have already flown out cover in the form of Amjad Khan and Ravi [...]

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Things finally back to normal

Few could accuse the Test series between the West Indies and England of being predictable – a second-innings total of 51 and less than two overs bowled before abandonment in the other were both rather unexpected developments. Yet the Third Test is (so far) panning out in exactly the way I would have expected the [...]

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England’s response to 51 all out

Now that the dust has settled on England’s god-awful performance with the bat against the West Indies, it’s time to start thinking about what England need. The answer, it seems to me, is change. What do I mean by change? Not a radical throwing out of the baby with the bathwater, but a reasoned reassessment [...]

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