A word on Andy Bull's coverage of the best story in town, Afghanistan at the World T20. It's been exemplary.
As for the future - well, if you love the game, put your hand in your pocket. A tenner goes a long way towards a cricket pitch.
NB: The Guardian's County Cricket Live blog, in which their old stagers sound off while the cricket goes on in the background, is the summer's cult classic, the journalistic equivalent of nurdling. You can almost hear the thermos flasks hiss...
Friday, 7 May 2010
Wednesday, 5 May 2010
Sidders and England, sitting in a tree...
According to Nick Knight on TV last night, the England management have got 'a soft spot' for Ryan Sidebottom. You don't say.
Sidebottom exerts a mysterious hold upon their imaginations. In the nets, he's the bowling equivalent of Michael Vaughan. On the pitch, he's been creamed by Chris Gayle and Niall O'Brien. He's only bowled a couple of overs. He's keeping Jimmy Anderson out of the side, having recently displaced Graham Onions from the Test team.
What is the secret of Sidders' selection success? Answers on a postcard...
Sidebottom exerts a mysterious hold upon their imaginations. In the nets, he's the bowling equivalent of Michael Vaughan. On the pitch, he's been creamed by Chris Gayle and Niall O'Brien. He's only bowled a couple of overs. He's keeping Jimmy Anderson out of the side, having recently displaced Graham Onions from the Test team.
What is the secret of Sidders' selection success? Answers on a postcard...
Tremwatch: Workload Explosion
This blog may have given the impression that the 'management' of Surrey star signing Chris Tremlett's 'workload' was nothing more than an amusing euphemism. In reality, it's a strategy of genius, and should be adopted immediately by the entire world and everyone in it.
Number of games Surrey have played this season: 6
Number of overs bowled by Chris Tremlett: 26 [18-7-35-4 and 8-2-18-1].
He even got a knock as nightwatchman.
Number of games Surrey have played this season: 6
Number of overs bowled by Chris Tremlett: 26 [18-7-35-4 and 8-2-18-1].
He even got a knock as nightwatchman.
Fixtures They Don't Play Any More... But Could
1886, Lord's
Smokers versus Non-Smokers
Grace, who, despite being a qualified doctor, went through life mistakenly believing he only had one lung, played for the Nons. They won.
Nominations for the current smokers XI welcome...
Smokers versus Non-Smokers
Grace, who, despite being a qualified doctor, went through life mistakenly believing he only had one lung, played for the Nons. They won.
Nominations for the current smokers XI welcome...
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
Tremwatch IV: Selected!
Breaking news of Tremmers and his workload: 'Tremlett set for First XI Bow' yodels the Surrey website.
'Fast bowler Chris Tremlett could be set to make his make his Surrey debut, having been selected in a 12-man squad to play Gloucester in the LV County Championship this week'.
'Tremlett, 28, signed for the club earlier this season, but has yet to make his debut after picking up a minor groin strain pre-season'.
Trem fans and followers of managed workloads shouldn't get too excited yet, though. Tremmers also made the squad for the 40-over game against Worcester at the weekend but er, wasn't selected.
Number of games Surrey have played this season: 5
Number of overs from Tremmers: 0
'Fast bowler Chris Tremlett could be set to make his make his Surrey debut, having been selected in a 12-man squad to play Gloucester in the LV County Championship this week'.
'Tremlett, 28, signed for the club earlier this season, but has yet to make his debut after picking up a minor groin strain pre-season'.
Trem fans and followers of managed workloads shouldn't get too excited yet, though. Tremmers also made the squad for the 40-over game against Worcester at the weekend but er, wasn't selected.
Number of games Surrey have played this season: 5
Number of overs from Tremmers: 0
2 + 2 = 30 off 3.4 overs
Chris Gayle doesn't seem like the kind of bloke who's spent too much of his spare time hunched at the kitchen table chewing on his pencil and trying to calibrate the perfect system for calculating revised targets in cricket matches affected by rain.
Yet he and the rest of the world have worked out that Duckworth Lewis doesn't cut it in T20. The reason for that is because they're still using the 50 over calculations sheet in an entirely different format.
Still, the ICC have only had a year to ask D-L to re-work things, and it's not as if there's much T20 cricket being played around the world, so it's probably something they can leave for a while longer...
Yet he and the rest of the world have worked out that Duckworth Lewis doesn't cut it in T20. The reason for that is because they're still using the 50 over calculations sheet in an entirely different format.
Still, the ICC have only had a year to ask D-L to re-work things, and it's not as if there's much T20 cricket being played around the world, so it's probably something they can leave for a while longer...
Monday, 3 May 2010
Scream until you like it
I was planning a giant screed on the IPL, T20 cricket, the continual carping about it in the English press and the air of barely suppressed celebration at the suspension of Lalit Modi, but then the clouds cleared and I realised - it doesn't matter.
There are only a few sayable things about the IPL: The grounds are full. It's played ferociously, with intensity. It makes lots of money.
As a rapidly expanding, billion-dollar business, there may have been some sharp practice. What a shock. Something like that would be unheard of in a respectable, properly administrated arena like say, English banking.
Here's the truth: Modi and the IPL are a force majeure, a deus ex machina even, on the scale of Kerry Packer. They have repositioned the game, so get used to it.
Another truth: it's not Test cricket that T20 will harm. Test cricket must fight its own separate battle with the future. But it has finished the 50 over game. That's a dead man walking right there.
All the rest is just detail.
NB: I really like Shane Warne's deconstruction [below], bad spelling and all. The ideas on player retention and super rounds are very shrewd. Better than the ECB, isn't he...
There are only a few sayable things about the IPL: The grounds are full. It's played ferociously, with intensity. It makes lots of money.
As a rapidly expanding, billion-dollar business, there may have been some sharp practice. What a shock. Something like that would be unheard of in a respectable, properly administrated arena like say, English banking.
Here's the truth: Modi and the IPL are a force majeure, a deus ex machina even, on the scale of Kerry Packer. They have repositioned the game, so get used to it.
Another truth: it's not Test cricket that T20 will harm. Test cricket must fight its own separate battle with the future. But it has finished the 50 over game. That's a dead man walking right there.
All the rest is just detail.
NB: I really like Shane Warne's deconstruction [below], bad spelling and all. The ideas on player retention and super rounds are very shrewd. Better than the ECB, isn't he...
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