England in ‘good at ODIs’ shocker

Could England be getting good at One Day cricket? The batting line-up actually seems to be reasonably balanced, with openers who are neither ridiculously cautious, overly aggressive, or Ian Bell. Meanwhile, Eoin Morgan has found a useful niche, and Matt Prior and Luke Wright at six and seven are actually quite good. The bowling was [...]

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England back to being rubbish after Ashes anomaly

England’s batsmen have failed for the second match in a row, failing for the second time in three days to knock off the required runs after their bowlers had restricted Australia to an unexceptional total. With a large Pietersen-shaped hole gaping in the top order (Matt Prior batting at number three? Seriously?), the home side [...]

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Twenty20 Cup Finals Day Preview

The Twenty20 reaches its conclusion this weekend with the now traditional Finals Day. This year will be the last season of the current format, and will also see the first qualifiers decided for the Champions League after last year’s cancellation. As well as the exciting prospect of the mascot race being commentated on by Phil [...]

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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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The First Day of the Ashes

The first day of the 2009 Ashes was quite a day. It had a spectacular catch from Mike Hussey, Mitchell Johnson scaring the horses, Pietersen and Collingwood losing their heads (and their wickets), Prior and Flintoff going ballistic, a wholly unnecessary nightwatchman being employed to protect Stuart Broad, who ended up batting anyway, and Katherine [...]

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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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Stanford arrested

Sir Allen Stanford has been arrested by the FBI and will face charges in a US federal court this morning. The allegedly fraudulent cricket-loving Texan billionaire and admirer of Matt Prior’s wife has denied any wrongdoing. If any aggreived West Indian cricket fans want to see the man who was briefly touted as the WICB’s [...]

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Bopara does well, others not so much

Ravi Bopara grasped his chance at number three with both hands whilst all others fell about him. Strauss (who was crowned England’s best player of last year before the start of the match) made just 16; Cook did his usual of getting in and getting out; Pietersen was out first ball as his disappointing IPL [...]

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England’s Twenty20 openers

Andrew Strauss hasn’t played a limited overs international since April 2007, but tonight he leads England in a Twenty20 international against a West Indies side superficially similar to the Stanford Superstars team that beat England by 10 wickets back when Allen Stanford was more likely to be asked ‘is it fun being a millionaire?‘ than [...]

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England take desperate measures

Matt Prior has flown home to be with his wife after she gave birth to his son on Monday. All well and good, but lurking at the bottom of the Cricinfo report of this occurence, in a discussion of Tim Ambrose (Prior’s replacement as wicketkeeper) are four words that will strike terror into the hearts [...]

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Sulieman Benn arrives

There aren’t many 6’7” spin bowlers out there, so Sulieman Benn (one of my ones to watch way back in March) stands out regardless of his performance. He stood out in another way during England’s first innings of the First Test at Sabina Park, though, namely the quality of his bowling. For a spin bowler [...]

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Stanford – pulling out?

Texan billionaire, helicopter enthusiast and possible evil genius Allen Stanford is, according to reports, considering pulling out of the Stanford 20/20 for $20m tournament following massive losses in the event’s inaugural run (obviously, with his financial nous, he had expected that an event which mainly consisted of him giving away money would turn out to [...]

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