There is a game tonight, if we have the stomach for it, as the European Champions, Ireland, take on the World Champions, India.
Comments below.
Here is a nice pic. An Aussie, who conducted a classy interview, with a glint of a smile, and our hero, down in the mouth….
Being Outside Cricket 
Missed the game but it looks like another dominant performance from India. Mohammad Shami again led the way and he is by far the leading ODI bowler since the start of 2014:
http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?class=2;filter=advanced;orderby=wickets;spanmin1=01+jan+2014;spanval1=span;template=results;type=bowling
The sneering way he was dismissed in the first Guardian WC podcast still rankles with me. His wickets are all a giant con trick? If all anyone needed was a bounding run-up, I suspect everyone would find a bowler or two who could match him. He is a quality white ball bowler. His wickets aren’t just because India play lots of matches – the only bowlers to better his average are Boult, Philander, Josh Davey and Matt Henry (who couldn’t even get in the NZ squad).
So unless UAE can pull off an upset against WI, it comes down to a straight shoot-out between Pakistan and Ireland. Booo! I’d like them both to go through – Pakistan for their bowling and for Misbah (wouldn’t like him to end on the note of an early exit) and Ireland for their batting and for the associate cause.
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If there’s one thing that has driven me crazy about the majority of the British cricket press it has been their weird assessments about bowling and the pitches in this WC.
You couldn’t find a good word to be said about the Bangladesh bowling ahead of time.
Endless dismissals of even trying out Tredwell – “spinners are no good for this.”
And of course, endless bigging up of Broad and Anderson…
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On the subject of pathetic, insular, ignorant, bullshit from the English media this from Agnew is scary/hilarious:
“If you showed me a silhouette of a batsman, with no distinguishing features other than the way he plays, I think I could work out where he is from in about an over”.
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Bloody hells bells, he is so damn arrogant. Stupid man.
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Whatever the problems with our cricket press, they haven’t quite sunk this low:
http://www.donotlink.com/framed?654386
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Yikes.
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Plenty of follow-up to the article linked by Arron on Peter Miller’s Twitter page.
There’s also the latest Geek&Friend podcast (Vithushan the Friend).
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Oh lord…
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Not yet.
At least, not the sports journalists. You’ll see the tabloids writing stuff like that about all the supposed “undesirables” in our society day after day. Unemployed? Born abroad? Eat too much? Smoke? Fair game according to the tabloids….
But still….. nice to see all the comments under the article taking the author to task. He clearly represents nobody but himself in this one . . .
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Admittedly, if you go to the actual news story, it becomes clear it is not about Whatmore but Mooney.
The language used in the article is highly offensive, and highly biased but having spent some time in the developing world, with a professional interest in media, I am not too sure if it is malice on the part of the reporter, or simply incompetence, with the juniorisation of newsrooms.
I have witnessed a number of cases where a woman suddenly finds her name and sex changed in newspaper reports – this even after face to face interviews. References to non-existent dates, effects occuring before causes (when not discussing theoretical physics), etc.
The loss margin reported suggests sheer incompetence. Since it is quite an achievement to lose by 5 wickets when you get bowled out chasing a target.
As for bias in Zimbabwean newspapers – sadly it seems to be required by the powers that be over there.
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Cricket Ireland’s response to the story about John Mooney:
http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/other-sports/cricket-ireland-condemns-zimbabwe-herald-article-on-john-mooney-1.2133424
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I thought they had withdrawn that?
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Off topic I suppose. But I’m so fed up with no-one ATL tackling this, I just couldn’t keep it in any longer now we’ve quite literally reached the endgame:
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2015/mar/10/world-cup-calamity-five-ways-forward-england-odi#comment-48664146
I think I’ve hinted at this many times, but I haven’t said it very often.
I do not believe the ECB and CA’s ostensible rationale behind the scheduling changes for the World Cup. And the price we’ve paid for their meddling is truly obscene.
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I think you make some very important points.
A lot of the scheduling business seems to rely on the inability of cricket journos to add up…
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Errrrrr, can anyone de-code Selvey’s latest?
“Of course, in collectively playing like that, the consequences of which England were so afraid have duly started to arrive. First, there will be management repercussions, although quite who is accountable to whom is intriguing. Thus it would be Moores who agreed his coaching staff but Paul Downton who employed Moores. Who, though, employed Downton?
If Moores decides that he needs to change his coaching staff (which will happen anyway, as David Saker had already handed in his statutory six months’ notice to terminate his contract) but Downton then decides to terminate Moores’ contract, what then? And what if Downton sacked Moores (despite his stated backing) but was himself sacked? It is all quite fun actually, but the answer has to be that first and foremost the man at the very top is accountable for all that happens below. Everything that happens is contingent on Downton’s position, so there is unlikely to be any action on anything of that nature until this tournament is over”.
I’ve read it several times and still can’t fathom what the hell is going on here. If he throws up enough targets and keeps them moving then we won’t hit any of them? And we’ll develop amnesia about his previous writing? I’m angry at “it is all quite fun actually” and I’m sure I’d be angry about the rest of it if I understood it.
Of course I’m probably not missing much. A bit I could understand was his hilarious idea earlier in the piece that England would have been brilliant if defeat had had no consequences. Isn’t that kind of missing the point about cup competitions? Anyway we’ll soon see (weather permitting) how that theory looks against Afghanistan…..
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Northern Lights – I see you’ve been modded in the comments. What did you say?
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I can’t remember exactly, but I think it was along the lines of “If only some of those who are paid to watch and analyse and write about the England team performances had managed to notice the problems at the top of the ECB say,14 months ago instead of right now, we wouldn’t have wasted the last year watching an awful and miserable team and giving some of our future stars a lesson in fear and failure.”
Funny, some of my less oblique ones have been left up. But on the plus side, I just got out of my “pre-moderation” phase so they won’t ban me just yet….
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Well I will have a stab at it Simon. Selvey is saying the man at the top takes the descions. And although he doesn’t name him, that means Graves. But Graves has not officialy taken office yet so nothing is going to happen straight way. I think that’s what he means. In essence to fans keep cool.
Interesting that he sees it all as a great joke. A bit like his reporting. i wonder how long he has know that Saker has given his notice. Nice of him to fail to share that titbit with his readers.
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He’s certainly covering all his bases. What does he mean by the man at the top? Well man at the top at the moment is Clarke! As he loves Clarke and Downton not sure what to think. Then of course he says all this is funny? I wonder if he thought he was going to be for the chop – if only – he would say that was funny. By heck, he is very peculiar! He’s lost the plot surely? He really has finally lost it.
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As I read it, he ditches Moores (or has been reassured about him), deems Flower safe at Loughborough (no mention), with Saker out of the firing-line that leaves Downton as the possible target, so he is divorcing him BTL in the “humiliation” thread where he asks people to point him to where he “lobbied” for Downton. Classic deflection tactics. Maybe he does fear for his own job. Or he thinks it is safe to write all this because his mates are all taken care of (whether their time is done or not).
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the undertakers are measuring up ….
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Excellent, and some great canoes in the background as a bonus…..
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Who wants to look at canoes when this old gal can feel very happy ogling George! No contest!!!!
Twas good interview. Pleased with some of the questions. Corkers. His appraisal of Giles Clarke was a corker. Love that Dobell man.
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I don’t agree with George about the IPL or Moores – but all is forgiven for that killer line about Giles Clarke!
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I don’t either but I understand the reasoning. On the one hand IPL will interfere with county games – but only with the top players. On the other hand, the IPL puts our top players with the best in the world. A learning curve much needed I should say. Love that George Dobell for his character assassination of Giles Clarke. Just a beauty. I expect that is why Mr Clarke is noticeable for his current silence! Love the bit at the end where he says they all will go because KP being given a chance basically upends the agenda this lot have been carrying all this time. Love it, love it, love it.
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That tobyisgreat post that I copied in the other day that criticised Selvey has been moderated out of existence I see.
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What’s all this then?
https://twitter.com/KP24/status/575231638424195072
http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/cricket/kevin-pietersen-in-talks-to-make-shock-england-return-10097746.html
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One reason to hope it might be true is that it would make this sour piece of fuckwittery look like the load of old bollocks it is:
http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/dan-jones-mourinho-needs-a-reality-cech-and-its-time-the-idea-of-kevin-pietersen-returning-for-england-is-finally-dismissed-10087050.html
Professional rent-a-gob Dominic Cork had this to say:
“There was a clash of personalities, so this is about getting back at Flower. Pietersen has left a trail of destruction wherever he has been.”
So that’s another good reason…..
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Ah, the traditional counter-briefing to the Daily Mail:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-2988382/Kevin-Pietersen-NOT-contacted-ECB-England-return.html
(If my first post here is currently invisible because of wordpress moderation go to the Evening Standard sports page and/or KP on Twitter and you’ll see what I’m going on about).
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But the Evening Standard also has this Simon:
“Kevin Pietersen is increasingly confident he can make a return to the England team following the side’s shambolic exit from the World Cup.
Standard Sport understands Pietersen has had conversations with intermediaries acting for the ECB, leading him to believe there may be a way back for him, after he was effectively sacked in February 2014.
Colin Graves, the incoming ECB chairman, is thought to be open to a possible return to the side for Pietersen — even though it has the potential to cause considerable internal conflict at Lord’s.
Pietersen is thought to be confident of holding a meeting with the ECB, possibly as early as this month. He is due to travel to Australia and New Zealand this week, where he will work as a pundit for BBC Test Match Special at the World Cup, which ends on March 29.
Were such a meeting to take place, it is logical to assume Graves would be present, as would Tom Harrison, the board’s new chief executive, and Paul Downton, the managing director of England cricket who played a key role in casting Pietersen aside.
Pietersen appeared to hint at the possibility today, when he tweeted: “I really do think changes are going to be made & positive things going to start to happen for the good of English cricket.”
More here:
http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/cricket/kevin-pietersen-in-talks-to-make-shock-england-return-10097746.html
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Yes ZB I’ve posted a link to that story and KP’s Tweet but I suspect you can’t see it at the moment because wordpress’s automatic moderation has kicked in.
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Oh dear!
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He is such a disappointment really. Dominic Cork really is awful and such a bully. Nasty person. I don’t think anyone should waste their breath on this miserable old git. So I wont!!!
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This seems to be the earliest mention (and if the subsequent conversation doesn’t show it is well worth visiting):
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I’m imagining some journos waking up down under about now and choking on their cornflakes!
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And some quebecer hilarity at wctt’s expense:
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/mar/10/the-spin-cricket-england-world-cup-peter-moores-ecb#comment-48688923
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That just became even more hilarious, by the way…
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The latest riposte is well worth it.
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Excellent debate on 5 live tonight. Mark Butcher talking great sense. Gooch as well talking about players thinking for themselves and how he hates it when he sees a player who has just got out returns to dressing room and first think he does is switch on there laptop.
Worth a listen on the IPlayer
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/england/11461973/England-managing-director-Paul-Downton-confident-of-keeping-job-and-backs-under-pressure-coach-Peter-Moores.html
Holy shit:
“Downton offered his backing to Moores again on Tuesday and believes they are both the targets of those looking for scapegoats for England’s poor World Cup.”
Scapegoats.
…..
No, it hasn’t sunk in yet.
Can you even begin to imagine what Martin Johnson would have made of this utter drivelwit?
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The DT are unusually behind the story today Arron – look at the Standard and then the Mail.
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Downton announces ‘major review’ into WC campaign. Would he care to guarantee the future of the coach?
“‘All I have said is that we’re still within the first year of his appointment”.
Well that’s a ‘the manager has my full backing’ moment. Was Downton a football club chairman in a past life? Tectonic plates are shifting…..
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-2988683/England-set-major-review-World-Cup-shambles-coach-Peter-Moores-role-safe-says-Paul-Downton.html
A quick check round the main papers shows only the Indy carrying the Pietersen story at the moment. Where’s Nick Hoult? The Mirror has a scathing piece by Dean Wilson about Downton’s response yesterday and another report about tears in the dressing room after the defeat. Mirror polls show 91% think Moores should resign and – more surprisingly and perhaps significantly – 74% would accept an Australian coach.
There’s also injury news that Ali and Woakes both are going for scans and are likely to miss the Afghanistan game (at least)
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Check out the conversation following that tweet for some vitriol and bile. Comparing Pietersen to an insect or Margaret Thatcher look tasteful compared to some of the stuff there.
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Her reply is completely correct. Don’t follow me if you don’t like KP, as she is pro KP and she is just reporting facts, which is her job. Why are some people so stupid. Even after she has said this, that same bloke keeps coming at her, give it a rest pal. It’s like the quebecer BTL above, the other guy he is talking to completely misses the point, so quebecer offers him a diagram of it in black and white, priceless.
On a broader scale, the complete inability of many people to grasp simple facts amazes me. No more so than over this past year, with the whole ECB shambles. Why have so many top journalists, respected ex-pros and members of the general public been unable to understand the simple fact that the KP sacking was the tip of the iceberg, the clear indication that the ECB was rotten to the core, that the issues were far bigger than the possibility of a KP return. Suddenly the many seem to be grasping the facts and absolute truths which have so well written about on here, the full toss, HDWLIA and ESPN by George Dobell, but why has it taken over a year!? Why am I still amazed and astounded by this……..
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“Why have so many top journalists, respected ex-pros and members of the general public been unable to understand the simple fact that the KP sacking was the tip of the iceberg, the clear indication that the ECB was rotten to the core, that the issues were far bigger than the possibility of a KP return.”
Because, sadly, most people are not rational. We may want to believe it, and it is an assumption that is the cornerstone of modern democratic states, but that does not necessarily make such an assumption true. Far from it.
Most people want their prejudices confirmed. Anything that does not fit such narratives will be dismissed or reconfigured in their memories.
Hence you’ll have people claiming Flower was fired after the last Ashes, that Kevin Pietersen caused trouble everywhere. That KP told the South Africans how they could get Strauss out, even after the ECB has denied that that was the case.
That *that* 95 really turned a corner for England, not the fact that India after the second Test hardly could be bothered, and were certainly not helped by an injury to Ishant Sharma.
That Flower’s era was an era of unprecedented success. As Arron has pointed out, Fletcher had a similar record, but with better achievements, since the quality of the opposition team(s) was higher in Fletcher’s case.
These people are also likely to downplay the impact of Monty in the UAE and India series of 2012. Or do not want to realize that Australia had really the poorest team in about 25-30 years in 2010/11. Are desperate to believe that Johnson’s Ashes performance in the last series was a freak occurrence, rather than the norm. Believe me, anyone who had watched Johnson in the 2008/2009 series (in Australia and South Africa) would have known better than to dismiss Johnson out of hand.
Of course there is more to life than cricket. Humans are political animals. And of course cultural beliefs and such can further colour our perceptions of events, and thus how we remember them.
But all these beliefs, that are patently factually false, tell us more about the holder of said beliefs, than they (often) do want to admit.
At some point, the disconnect between what they want to believe to be true, and what they actually see happening in front of their eyes becomes too big, and only then will they start questioning their long held beliefs.
This does not just apply to cricket. It applies to our political convictions and beliefs as well.
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The DT is waking up:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/kevinpietersen/11461748/Kevin-Pietersens-England-return-should-not-be-barred-by-the-management-not-after-their-World-Cup-debacle.html
“The central issue here is not Kevin Pietersen’s return to the England cricket side – which is simpler than it looks. If he qualifies on merit, Pietersen should be back in, and those who were bruised by his autobiography should be brave enough to have it out with him”. Wow – can you imagine that being written two days ago!
“To return, Pietersen needed Giles Clarke (the outgoing chairman), Moores and Downton to fall or to be marginalised. It looked a tall order then. But not now”. Double wow!
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Mike Walters take a bow:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/cricket/cricket-world-cup-england-humiliation-5299532
(Another Mirror poll at the end – 14% reckon this isn’t England’s lowest cricketing point. A real “I’m not having that, there’s this place in Eastbourne” moment).
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The regular journos – Newman, Brenkley, Hoult etc – seem to have conducted a telephone interview with Downton and that is what they are reporting. Most haven’t twigged that the story may have moved on.
Prize comment from those articles goes to Brenkley:
“Downton backed Moores continuing in his role. It would be easy to say that he had to do so considering he was instrumental in his reappointment 10 months ago. But there was something oddly reassuring in his comforting words. This was not a man who would be easily swayed from his course, whatever the accusations of misguidedness”. That trumps “aplomb” for me…..
Meanwhile, congratulations to Iain Herbert for winning one of the Sports Journo Awards (Matt Lawton won the main one). The Guardian won no sports’ reporting awards and not much overall that I could see – generally I loathe awards but maybe that’ll read to a few questions being asked at the paper about the direction it has taken.
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What was meant to be a ten minute check through Twitter became a four hour marathon.
I think something possibly shifted today. The cricket journos in Australia are interviewing Downton and reporting his words like they matter. They don’t realise they are interviewing a dead man sitting.
The real story has come from London based journos like Tom Collomosse, Lizzy Ammon and Paul Hayward. Serious contacts have been made with KP. Care to comment Mr. Downton? “He hasn’t asked me for a meeting”. He doesn’t need to, you fool.
Or maybe not? Nobody else seems to be picking up on it. To sleep and let’s see if I look silly in the morning (it wouldn’t be the first time).
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Excuse my tin foil hat, but every time Downtons job is on the line a “KP could return” story seems to appear. This in turn gets all the usual suspects fired up to say “Downton must stay”. For no other reason than keeping KP out.
I really do believe the only thing keeping Downton and Moores in a Job is the hatred of KP. If they go he will be seen to have been right all along. And there are too many people who would rather die than ever accept that.
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Mark, your skepticism does you credit and I’m concerned I’m going to look a horse’s arse very shortly. I’ve thought about it overnight and, while what you’re saying is possible, I don’t think it is the most likely situation.
I’m not sure about Collomosse (although I generally loathe the Standard) but Lizzy Ammon is pro-KP and wouldn’t have tweeted what she did to rally the anti-KP forces. She has both asked Collomosse that he heard this directly from a source (which he says he did) and she has confirmed it from her own sources (which are good – she got Hales in for Ballance right which not many were anticipating).
I’m not fully convinced until Nick Hoult or George Dobell report it – although Dobell has mentioned Whitaker is meeting KP which was unthinkable a couple of days ago.
My most-likely scenario is that there are two regimes in the ECB. The old regime fronted by Downton has one policy that most of the media still are acting as if it is the one that matters. The incoming regime have a different policy and that is where the real action is. Moores used the phrase ‘hollow man’ but that applies more to Downton. Whether Downton is shunted quietly into a siding to twiddle his thumbs or is sacked/resigns/his position is abolished remains to be seen but the result is the same. The timescale for the West Indies tour is so tight that Downton still controls that process but I’m talking about the summer. Graves takes over two months tomorrow!
When you think about the arguments KP can’t come back they crumble so quickly it is bizarre they have been so widely accepted. Downton, Whitaker and Moores would have to go? Your top player or three hopeless administrators? It’s not that difficult! The dressing room would be riven? Most of the problems have gone (if Prior was still there it would be massive). Most who are still there need to worry more about their places than KP. As Paul Hayward says, have it out with KP or shut up. It’s that simple!
Re-re-integration? Expect to hear that word a lot shortly…..
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To add to that, Graeme Swann was not exactly ousted from the dressing room after he had some reputedly nasty things to say in his biography. No one in the media even pretended it ought to be an issue then.
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Mark, I also saw a Tweet yesterday from Collomosse saying that county cricket is no problem – Pietersen will play in it and he’ll have offers if the ECB are serious.
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