Not a full post at this stage, but some interesting links out there. Here’s Stuart Broad on Alastair Cook…
http://www.trentbridge.co.uk/news/2015/april/broad-west-indies-a-tough-opposition.html
There’s a lot in there to chew over, especially the contention that Alastair Cook is England’s greatest ever batsman.
Of course, you’ve probably all seen Boycott’s piece:
It’s the usual sort of stuff from Geoffrey but ramped up a little. I can’t help get the feeling that he’s really, especially, pissed off with this team and their attitude. I might do a reverse fisking of that a bit later on, but I have the spare room to deal with today.
http://www.espncricinfo.com/west-indies-v-england-2015/content/story/858327.html
According to this the arch data miner and captain plonker haven’t discussed one of the fundamental positions. I’m with James for TFT:
I’ll add more as the day goes on, so keep checking back if you feel like it, or follow my rants on Twitter.
Being Outside Cricket 
“the contention that Alastair Cook is England’s greatest ever batsman.”
*explodes*
Wouldn’t even get in my top three England openers of the last thirty years, and I’m not sorry.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Broady may have heard whispers that (shock/horror) his place may be at risk as 80mph bowling and batting from square leg will not help Cookie/Mooresy/Shabby/Whitless save their own jobs…so he’s chumming up to Lightning-Rodders…
LikeLike
His batting issues really wind me up. More than most things do. Because he’s been doing this backing away for quite a while, and I don’t know what the hell the coaches are playing at.
At almost any level as soon as you see it you’re in the nets trying to iron it out and keep them in line, simply because it’s incredibly dangerous for the player when they back away. Bowlers will bowl bouncers at them and backing away means you have nowhere to go and WILL get hit.
Sorting it out is in the urgent category. Yet they have let it carry on. For a year now. It’s genuinely unbelievable.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Broad’s batting average in his last 47 innings is 16 with one score of over fifty (that 65 at TB).
The idea that his batting woes started with the blow from Aaron seems already to have become some sort of accepted reality. It is utterly delusional. Broad’s batting has been in decline since UAE in 2012 (he is not alone in that).
LikeLike
Same kind of batting performance level as Finn then…
LikeLike
I had a similar reaction to Broad’s comments – he’s either delusional, ignorant or trying to save his job. I’m not sure whether his recent poor performances with the ball are due to him not being fit or due to lack of bowling. Either way he was bloody luck to be selected for the tour. I do think, however, that he deserves some praise for speaking publically about how he is struggling since being hit in the head. If a batsmen is hit by the ball, it is cricket dogma that it is a sign of weakness to rub the spot so I think it took courage to speak out as he did.
LikeLike
@DLPT
On a personal level, yeh, it was fine that Broad spoke about the psychological effects of getting hit in the head…
…But as a player I would suggest it was unwise to talk about it before having effectively dealt with it. He would have been better off talking to a coach about it than a journalist. And it’s not inconceivable that a coach might even have noticed it too. It’s a mystery to me why he’s even allowed to play while he’s backing away like that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s a very good point. Bowlers around the world were given a massive pointer on how to bowl to him. I’m sure they worked it out for themselves anyway, but it didn’t seem very bright to come out and admit it, no matter how obvious it might be.
But then he doesn’t come across as being anything other than two cans short of a six pack at the best of times.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Something must be done about comments like this!
I’m sure Stuart’s dad will be having a word.
LikeLike
And just looking at the comments in response to the TMS question, I can’t believe the number of people who want Trott to bat at three. Yes, Ballance, probably the biggest success of the last home Test summer, and you want to move him already. Ballance, who made as many hundreds in one summer as Trott did in two and a half years after May 2011 (and none of Trott’s three were in England during that period), and you want nostalgia to triumph over pragmatism. Well done everyone.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I see the old canard is back “why do you want Cook to fail, I don’t understand?”
I quite liked him when he opened the batting and wasn’t “the fall guy” (another load of old tosh as he’s nailed his colours well and truly to the mast) but I now fear WHEN he scores runs for the attitude taken to us. Like that 95.
As for your points, what can you say. Logic left town long ago.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“I now fear WHEN he scores runs for the attitude taken to us. Like that 95.”
Exactly so. Which is a large part of the reason why I said on here a couple of weeks ago that I’d sooner see how Lyth does than watch Cook play Test cricket ever again. The greatest day I’ve had as an England fan since August 2011 is still the morning I woke up to watch Pietersen *and Cook* making hundreds at Mumbai. But their contrasting treatment since is deeply, relentlessly sickening.
LikeLiked by 1 person
These people would be better off asking why Cook wants his team mates to fail.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The ECB have destroyed Cook. He was once a fine opening batsman and happy foot solider, popular with all and sundry. He may return to the ranks and score runs by the bucket load, but he’ll be forever associated with Pietersen and the Ashes cover-up.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I remember saying at the time during the World Cup that I was concerned that Ballance’s woes would lead people to question his position in the Test side, and that to do so would be genuinely idiotic given his start in Test cricket.
Well it seems there are idiots around. Surely even the sectors aren’t that stupid?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Selectors rather! Though sectors works…
LikeLike
There’s a hint of sectarianism in all this too!
LikeLike
I’d so like to see an imaginative, intelligent England (I know, I know) moving forward, investing in the future and growing the next successful team. Hope Lyth settles in and does well. Hope Ballance proves to be our fine number 3 for many years – Trott surely won’t be around for long. Root is progressing well. Vince and/or Taylor should get the chance to grow into the job. Good start Moeen but not finished article yet. I believe Broad peaked 2 or 3 years ago and should be forgiven for not simply shrugging off being smacked in the face by a cricket ball but suspect his time is over. Please ECB go out and find two new quickies and a tricky spinner.
If Cook rediscovers his form immediately, it probably doesn’t matter what I think but I’d like to see his successor at the top identified and ready to start.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Truly atrocious article:
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2015/apr/04/alastair-cook-england-captain-mike-brearley-ian-botham
Does Andrew Anthony even watch cricket? Lumping Atherton, Hussain and Vaughan together as the same type of captain got me swearing in the comments it is so ignorant. And the main problem with Cook’s captaincy is how he looks…..?
The days when I had some respect for Guardian/Observer journalism are starting to feel as distant as the days when I bought Simon Hughes’ first two books.
LikeLike
Couldn’t sleep without having my say on that one…
LikeLike
DDB has appeared, accusing the article of being a dog whistle for Cook-haterz.
He’d still be doing his schtick if Cook was getting out lbw facing the demon bowlers of the Bedfordshire Farmers XI.
LikeLike
No he doesn’t watch cricket. Andrew Anthony is like the Guardian/Observer’s equivalent of the perennial supply teacher.
LikeLike
Even by his own standards, that’s a very pointed article by Boycott.
Interesting debate in the comments about what connections he had to Graves, given the Yorkshire thing. Anyone know? Do they talk at all?
LikeLike
I don’t know what the situation is now, but when Graves first arrived in charge of Yorkshire, Boycott was one of the figures he made a point of consulting regularly.
LikeLike
That would be ‘most powerful batting lineup I’ve ever played with’ Stuart Broad, yes??
LikeLike
Good stuff. Read the Boycott article last night and very much enjoyed and agreed with it. Do you think he has done this to help Graves. Highly unlikely I know and just a guess, but imagine if Graves and Boycott talk, which they might do, nothing wrong with it if they do. Then perhaps Graves tells him about how bad Downturn, Whitless et al are. Maybe it upset Boycs to see his pal having to deal with such plonkers and then getting someone like Newman telling Graves to buck up his ideas (whilst the real culprits carry on unabated) so Boycs took it upon himself to fight back and pen said article of his own back for his regular column…….or maybe he just reads Dimitri and TFT, agrees with them and put his own spin on their views. Whatever the truth is, I am glad he is sticking to his guns and has not been scared off by Downturn asking the press in private to go easy on Cook/England as he did earlier in the year……..
The Broady stuff just reads like more ECB guff to me. With all the stuff in the press about KP recently, whether it is positive or negative, a lot of it says how KP is our greatest ever batsmen/run scorer. Cooky/ECB are probably upset by this, so tasked Broady to say how amazing he is. Cooky will like that! I like Broady as a cricketer but not as a personality off the pitch anymore I am afraid…….
LikeLiked by 1 person
Flawed measure they may be, but here are the current Test batting rankings:
http://www.relianceiccrankings.com/ranking/test/batting/
Cook is 25th. There is an outside possibility he could fall below Pietersen (28th) which would be slightly amusing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The word that sums up this England set up is Entitlement.
There are certain players who have become very secure regardless of their form. They seem to have been encouraged and feather bedded. Their every wish catered for. Coaches, trainers, diet specialists, psychologists, high Salaries that bare no relation to performance.
Cook and Broad are two of the biggest culprits. We have evidence from two sources now, KP and Compton that the bowlers were whinging brats who had a glorified sense of entitlement. Flower seemed to encourage this attitude. Anybody who stood up to this or complained was marginalised and removed.
But the bigges entiltlement brat is Cook. Protected and fawned over by a bunch of Pygmy journalists. Mostly ex county bowlers like Hughes , Selvey, and Agnew who never played more than a handful of test matches between them. Cooks attack on the World Cup team and his ludicrous claim that he would have done better shows a man who is delusional. He has failed for two years.
If now finally there is some accountability beginning to be brought to this cabal so much the better. Hughes and Selvey want accountability for KP. Time for them to hold others to account.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Excellent stuff Mark! It’ll be fascinating to see which of the 4th estate (msp) or 4th rate (ecb) implode first!
LikeLike
I would like to see some of the media go on the record as to whether they think Cook should stay as captain if we lose the Ashes again this summer.
LikeLike
Mark – It’ll be depressing (or a miracle will have happened) if we have to wait that long, I’ll be surprised if he’s ‘in-charge’ at the start of the Ashes…
LikeLike
Trott confirmed the formal apology stuff for dropped catches too.
LikeLike
Good post Mark! It caused me to reflect back to the disappointing Winter..(which one? you may ask) For me, the scenario from then hasn’t changed..Cook probably whining to Flower that KP’s criticisms and attitude towards him was undermining his Captaincy, and by the way Andy, he slags you off all the time too!
Andy tells Cooky not to worry, and that Paul’s just arrived and he’ll have a word and something will be done!
So it followed..we are told that the team will be built around the Captain…Alastair Cook, who proclaimed he will build more Englishness in the dressing room….
Thus we see created the Petard…irrevocable, cast in stone..the farm has been staked…on which they will be hung!!
Lads and lasses.. it’s only a question of time, the sands are shifting against them, the winds of change are starting to blow, there are too many Apaches attacking the circled wagons,and the Establishment forces will surely be banished to their autobiographies…..now some of that will make interesting commenting material eh?
LikeLike
And yet, behind the self-imposed chaos of the ECB, still sits the silent digitalis au Flower-pot… isn’t it about time he spoke?
LikeLike
Yes, yes and yes.
LikeLike
seems like the beer match is on…
LikeLike
Well who’d have thunk it aye? Still if he’s willing to engage with me and my old man it might be interesting. I have a sneaky plan in mind.
LikeLike
Broad’s comment about Cook is going to get all the attention but this shouldn’t get a free pass:
“It would be wrong to go to the Caribbean on a negative because we beat India 3-1 at home, we built some great momentum towards the end of last summer and we should go the Caribbean confident with what we’re doing in the Test Match team”.
It all slides neatly into this narrative they’ve created:
England – a Recent History (The Official Version)
2009 – 22 Nov 2013 A period of unrivaled success under the godlike genius of coach Andy Flower
22 Nov 2013 – Jan 2014 Inexplicable disaster – probably all that toxic personality in the dressing room.
Jan 2014 – May 2014 Awful one-dayers but not proper cricket and we’ve never really been any good at them so doesn’t really count.
May 2014 – 26 July 2014 The dawning of a new era but senior players still traumatised by that winter so results as yet a little disappointing.
27 July 2014 – August 2014 The new era blossoms! Patience is rewarded! Mighty India are sent packing! See there was nothing wrong with the Test team after all!
August 2014 – March 2015 See early 2014.
We have a sort of counter-reality where those three Tests against India supposedly represent some sort of truth and everything else is somehow an aberration. So let’s look at the case that maybe those three Tests were more of the aberration. It could be pointed out –
1) India had just had an all-time great generation of cricketers retire.
2) Their last away series win was in West Indies in 2011.
3) They hadn’t played a five match series in a decade.
4) Their best bowler broke down injured after two matches.
5) They were in the process of falling to 7th in the Test team rankings.
6) They were in the middle of an insane schedule of 13 consecutive away Tests, all outside Asia and against seam-bowling heavy opposition (SA, NZ, E, A). With a WC at the end!
This last point is seldom acknowledged and deserves looking at more closely. India only won one of those matches – against England at Lord’s. Their bowling, fielding and captaincy were so poor that they conceded 450+ runs* in one innings in every match not against England. They only took all twenty wickets in a match once. Opposition batsmen regularly broke or nearly broke records against them (SA nearly chased down 458 to win, McCullum made NZ’s first triple century, McCullum and Watling broke the 6th wicket partnership record, Smith made four centuries in a four match series).
Filling your boots against poor bowling is a skill of sorts I suppose but you’ll pardon me for valuing tough runs more. I’m not just being churlish about England here – I haven’t particularly raved about McCullum’s or Smith’s feats against India either and I rate the runs both scored against Pakistan in UAE much more highly.
* The scores are: 450-7 (SA), 500 (SA), 503 (NZ), 680-8 (NZ), 517-7 (A), 505 (A), 530 (A), 572-7 (A).
LikeLiked by 1 person
Excellent stuff. And, as you’ve said before, most English cricket journalists take so little interest in the world picture that such context was almost completely absent from their analysis of England’s win over India.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’d add in that after India took the lead in the series, they suffered niggling injuries to 2 of the bowlers who had been successful in the previous match. That played a big part in England levelling the series. It wasn’t the miracle comeback it appeared.
(One might also reflect that Cook&Flower’s greatest series Down Under also involved an opposition who’s bowling attack was in disarray.)
LikeLike
I’m sure Boycott does know Graves and has referred to him as a friend or colleague in the past. He’s clearly pissed off about Downton telling journalists to lay off Moores and Cook, Whittaker et al briefing against Colin Graves. He alluded to his frustration with the ECB and embedded journalists in his post-WC interview:
http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/cricket/31795576
As for Downton, Selvey and Hughes closing ranks, well they’re old mates aren’t they? County colleagues.
LikeLike
“We have a sort of counter-reality ”
DING DING DING……..We have a winner.
Excellent point Simon. Counter reality sums them up. The India series or rather the last 3 test matches have taken on a kind of mythical status. Straight out of Alice in Wonderland.
“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked.
“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”
“How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice.
“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”
And a very pertinent one for Cook and his media friends……
“I can’t go back to yesterday because I was a different person then.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
But the WI are so poor I expect this series to be given 2005 status. (Assuming Cook makes lots of runs.) Of course if he fails it will all be blamed on KP for being a distraction.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Alastair In (his own) Wonderland, following the (less than) white rabbit, lunches with the Mad-Hatters, and all is good….
LikeLike
Virtual reality looks for a role in journalism
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-32052296
See if you can spot Newman in the second photo
LikeLike
ECB press conference for the blinkered insiders…?
LikeLike
I’d have said he’s more Humpty Dumpty:
When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’
’The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’
’The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.
LikeLike
Very good vian!
‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’
Sums up the whole England management approach.
ECB……. “cook is a genius.”
Normal people…..” He hasn’t scored a hundred in 2 years.”
ECB……..”cook is a genius.”
Normal people……” He averages less than 30 in 4 out of 5 Ashes”
ECB……..”cook is a genius.”
Normal people….”he is a limited captain.”
ECB……..”cook is a genius.”
LikeLike
I think it will take more than all the kings horses and all the kings men to to save Lightning Rod, Shabby, Whitless and MooresThePityful…..However Bill’n’Ben will still flourish behind the scenes…
LikeLike
Someone give @LordCanisLupis a nudge, “I’ll add more as the day goes on” – I think he may be overdosing on the Easter Sunday cheer… 😉 (leaving the rest of us to rant without beer) hehe
LikeLike
“Ever since he was disposed of by England, I think him and his media team have wiped the floor with the ECB. He has won the media PR battle”. Goochie rather proving his own point here:
https://twitter.com/KP24/status/584747927110815746
LikeLiked by 1 person
Meanwhile, in Selfeyworld
LikeLike
That Selvey tweet can only be trolling.
LikeLike
You can see why some of us Guardian refugees “have a thing” about him, can’t you?
🙂
LikeLike
There is Portland, OR slang for ‘well informed’ that somehow strikes me as fitting here, esp. given Mr. Selvey’s choice of twitter photo.
LikeLike
So where pray tell can we read the pearls of wisdom emanating from the north and south of DP? No! Please don’t answer that one.
Gee whiz Mr Selvey is so deluded. It just looks as though Mr Selvey & Mr Newman have been cut off at the knees. No whispers from the ECB? So let’s all go to Cambridge and have a natter. Lovely jubbly. And stay there hopefully.
LikeLike
I see that conversation with Elaine is continuing.
LikeLike
Ali Martin has tweeted that he doesn’t see what Pietersen is complaining about.
Well, how about this line on talk about a Pietersen recall: “The best thing England can do is to win well in the Windies and all these comments might go away.” So, beat the 8th best team in the world and everyone should shut up?
Also, Gooch was saying this less than three weeks ago so it is pretty obvious where he’s coming from:
http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/cricket/graham-gooch-kevin-pietersen-did-some-great-things-for-england-but-bringing-him-back-would-be-a-mistake-10112660.html
Interesting though that Gooch now says Pietersen is “still good enough” – has that line that his dubious technique and advancing decrepitude meant he would never be able to buy another run been abandoned?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ali Martin and Kevin Pietersen get on quite well by the way.
LikeLike
Two papers have picked up on the Pietersen tweet and both pile into the guilty party – which is of course Pietersen. The Mail is bad. The Guardian is worse.
The Mail says Pietersen “hits out” in its headline and “lashes out” in its first sentence. Gooch is said to have adopted “a broadly supportive stance” when all Gooch has supported is Pietersen’s PR machine while consistently opposing the issue that matters – his possible recall. The article later refers to “a year of bitter recriminations and one dazzlingly indiscreet autobiography”. It is a PA story by Rory Dollard:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-3026699/Kevin-Pietersen-hits-Graham-Gooch-s-role-1982-rebel-tour-following-comments-Batsman-s-attempted-England-comeback.html
The Guardian version by Chris Stocks makes the Mail look like a KP fanzine. Pietersen again “hits out” in the headline and this time has been “laying into” Gooch. However this is just limbering up. Stocks writes, “‘I don’t think I’ve done anything as bad!” Pietersen tweeted, perhaps forgetting his spite-ridden book released last October that was the most spectacular example of bridge burning you are ever likely to see”. Writing a book burns more bridges than a rebel tour to apartheid SA…..? I’m trying hard not to swear here. Then Pietersen’s tweet is dismissed as “an overreaction in anyone’s book”. Anyone’s? Those who might think Pietersen has a point – unimaginable to Stocks obviously – are now not just ‘outside cricket’ but aren’t ‘anyone’. He also goes out of his way to remind readers that Gooch is still England’s highest Test runscorer while Pietersen status as highest runscorer in all formats is not mentioned (is it ever?).
There are no enabled comments at the Guardian of course.
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/apr/05/kevin-pietersen-graham-gooch-rebel-tour-england
LikeLiked by 1 person
1. I thought KP slightly, but only slightly, overreacted.
2. I’m sick and tired of newspapers and press people saying “can’t we move on from KP” and yet indulge in perpetuating non-stories. KP has a social media following – so do many others – and he uses it to the full. Because none others can grasp this is not his problem. But they are quick to use his social media outpourings for clickbait.
3. Stocks’ article is nonsense, and to put a spat in a book above (or being charitable equal) in moral equivalence terms going to an apartheid nation on a rebel tour, and turning your back on your country is staggering. Those players pretty much knew the consequences, and Gooch’s presence as captain in 1988-9 meant a tour to India was cancelled because of it meaning the impacts were felt for a while after.
This has been a bewildering Sunday.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Expect the anti KP people to bring up the fact that KP left South Africa because of the quota system in 5 4 3 2 1………
As Me Lord says it’s always refreshing to see the Pravda media “moving on from KP”. They can’t leave it alone. It’s like a never ending itch they have to scratch.
LikeLike
LCL, I agree Pietersen’s tweet is an overreaction if that one Gooch comment is viewed in isolation. However there was also that Standard interview to Mihir Bose Gooch gave about three weeks ago. I think Pietersen was in Australia for the WC when that happened and don’t recall any response to it at the time – I wonder if he saw it later and has been stewing over it? That was the one where Gooch said Pietersen couldn’t be recalled because he had no county form and when asked if he played in the CC and scored runs should he then be recalled Gooch replied no because he’s too old. Blatantly Gooch wants Pietersen excluded and will endlessly move the goalposts to that end.
I sound like I’m some demented Gooch-hater. I loved him as a player. The century in the 1979 one-day final for Essex was one of my favourite innings as a youngster. I defended him as batting coach on Guardian threads during the Ashes. The problem here is that the media present him as some sort of impartial elder statesman when we all know he is Cook’s long-term mentor. Gooch should STFU on an issue where he has such blatant partiality.
By the way, Gooch was pretty trenchant about Moores’ failings as coach which has hardly got a mention.
LikeLike
Gooch deserves everything Pietersen said to him today. Chris Stocks clearly is a Pietersen hater, like Selvey and Selvey’s so well-informed mate Derek Pringle.
LikeLike
Well I can! Gooch is making a point about KP and KP is giving as good as he gets. People love to forget about the rebel tours where both Gooch & Gatting lead teams. Okay for them to be forgiven for that but not KP for a book. Yay right. Mind, Gooch is right about one thing, KPs PR has won the war, inasmuch as the ECB messed up every time they allowed Paul Downtown get a mic in front of him. Really all KP ever had to do was just let the ECB dig their own grave! Clarke, Downton, Moores and Cook have made themselves look like total idiots. We are laughing stock. With stuff that has come out in the last year from some of the England Players it is not that difficult to see a pretty awful picture emerging: supporting voices — Bairstow, Root, Carberry, Monty, Tremlett, Finn and even Stuart Broad and Joe Root. Not even Anderson hit the hate button! Then of course you get the other side of people who have been badly treated by management and senior players: Tremlett, Trott, Panesar, Carberry. Of course what Nick Compton has said shows the bullying that has gone on and how injured players were forced to continue. The peach for me is still the story told by Broad. At home and phone call comes from Flower and Broad says he is almost :”sh….ng myself”. He asks himself what he did yesterday that could have incurred Flowers wrath and when he realises that he doesn’t think he has done anything wrong he then answers the phone. I see Tredwell is also having a moan about how he has been treated.
Now why can’t the likes of Selvey, Newman and Pringle not see that something is deadly wrong here? It’s an utter shambles.
LikeLike
And then retweeted:
@KP24 yup Goochy decided to lend legitimacy to a racist regime…. buts thats OK.
There’s the news headlines! But it’s an entirely fair point, Gooch has got a cheek saying this stuff.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And yet Gower, a man who rejected the rand and always put his country first was fired by Gooch, a man at the peak of his career when he chose to reject England, because he lacked commitment. Go figure, as our American cousins would say.
LikeLike
I get the feeling that KP is being emboldened by something….or somebody?? Good on him!!
LikeLike
Indeed he has got a cheek. Once again it has backfired on them.
LikeLike
I think it was Rob Bailey at the tail end of the nineties who pointed out that while he and others rejected trips to South Africa in favour of trying to win and England place, those who went had their cake and ate it – they got the money, and England welcomed them back with open arms.
It simply wasn’t fair.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oops. Eighties not nineties.
LikeLike
Fantastic. Gooch has been given way too easy a ride over this.
LikeLike
As well as Gooch, England also had Mushy as a coach, who was banned in a match/spot fixing case. Yet they took the moral high ground over someone whistling…
LikeLike
And last year Mike Gatting was made president of the MCC. Now it is only a one year role and Gatting has now been replaced by another Cricket establishmnet figure in David Morgan.
The truth is that most of the cricket establishment had no problem with the rebel tours of South Africa because they didn’t agree with the ban in the first place. In the light of the recent revelations about the Basil D’Oliveira affair which showed that the cricket authorities were negotiating with the South African govt while pretending they were not, I think we can see which side their bread is buttered.
But if you lookout of the window or ask to go play the IPL or disobey your senior commanding officer there is no way back into the fold.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I suppose it’s a bit like shooting fish in a barrel but great shot, KP.
LikeLike
I am really starting to seriously LIKE Kevin Pietersen. (Words this Aussie never thought he’d utter in 2005.)
LikeLike
Once you discount all the ECB propaganda, and the hate generated against him by their servants in the press, there isn’t that much wrong with Pietersen. He is blunt and has a high opinion of himself. But he is far from being unmanageable and certainly no devil.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well said. Thanks for coming Graham. Your batting record is superb, your record as a person is not as good.
LikeLike
What isn’t much talked about or well known is that Gooch had to be talked out of quitting the 1986 tour of West Indies by the same player who he decided when he was captain wasn’t committed enough to England.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Only last year that Gooch and Gower buried the hatchet! Yes good with the bat, terrible leader and another former player showing how hypocrisy still reigns at heart of Cricket Establishment. We’re so in the Dark Ages.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am either missing something or Stuart Broad’s comment about Alastair Cook being England’s greatest ever batsman has been removed, as I cannot find it in this linked article:
http://www.trentbridge.co.uk/news/2015/april/broad-west-indies-a-tough-opposition.html
I read Geoff Boycott’s article last night and I agree with him completely. He seems to be a bit more pissed off with England than usual but it is to be expected. The likes of Downton, Moores, Whittaker, the invisible Flower, and the severely deluded Cook have been fooling the public repeatedly with the help of sycophants in the press. Boycott is no fool and sees right through their shenanigans just as most posters here and at the TFT do.
LikeLike
That’s a curious thing to happen.
LikeLike
How interesting!
LikeLike
This was the Twitter link that Dmitri meant to post:
LikeLike
Broad(y) = a creep, and incorrect.
LikeLike
Still in the googlecache: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.trentbridge.co.uk/news/2015/april/broad-west-indies-a-tough-opposition.html
LikeLike
Thank you very much Maggie. 🙂
LikeLike
Yes that article is definitely shorter than when I read it this morning. Notts not happy that Broady was speaking ECB platitudes/twaddle/rubbish/replace with any choice word of your own, on their website, so deleted the irrelevant guff? Very strange indeed…….
LikeLike
Newspeak is the fictional language in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, written by George Orwell. It is a controlled language created by the totalitarian state as a tool to limit freedom of thought, and concepts that pose a threat to the regime such as freedom, self-expression, individuality, and peace. Any form of thought alternative to the party’s construct is classified as “thoughtcrime”.
LikeLike
Both Alastair Cook and Stuart Broad talk utter rubbish in public most of the time. Heaven knows what they say in private and to other team members.
Deluded and stupid, both of them. Yet the press lets them get away with it all.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Utterly deluded. Methinks this is background boys pulling strings again.
LikeLike
Does anyone know who does the media training for the England team? Because they seem to just turn out little robots saying the same thing in the same way. Couldn’t believe how Morgan had morphed into a sort of Irish version of Cook during the World Cup.
LikeLike
Surely Cookie is the best batsman in the history of the game? Bradman wouldn’t even lace his boots.
LikeLike
Time for another relatively new and inexperienced player to be shoved into the firing line to protect coach and captain. Particularly nice when it is someone one of them has just grossly mishandled. Step forward Gary Ballance:
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/apr/05/gary-ballance-eager-to-impress-and-help-get-critics-off-peter-moores-back
“Everyone’s behind [Mooresy] and everyone’s behind Cooky”,
LikeLike
Gary Ballance! Gary Ballance! Gary Ballance!
LikeLike
given England’s appalling choice of nicknames for players, do you suppose we now have Bally and Belly?
LikeLike
Ballance should be nicknamed either Jimmy or Nails
LikeLike
I’m surely not alone in realising that our grand plan to revive the awful England batting line-up that hasn’t fired since about 2012 is to continue to pick a misfiring Cook and partner him with a guy who
a) Bats at 4 for his County
b) Left his last tour with burnout
c) Can’t handle short-pitched bowling
d) Has an awful average of his last 20 or so Tests
So, is that it?
LikeLike
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/apr/05/kevin-pietersen-graham-gooch-rebel-tour-england
This is what an article on the Guardian makes of KP’s tweets to Gooch. It is so one-sided and bitter. It calls KP’s tweet an overreaction. What a terrible article, not balanced at all, who is the writer Chris Stocks? One to add to any future dirty dozen I think! Interesting though to read that, apparently,Moores has reassured Graves and Hartison he could work with KP again.
LikeLike
LikeLike
Excellent links. I hadn’t seen the Boycott article. I don’t a;ways like Boycott, I often find him too simplistic about things but for he hits the nail on the head with this one where he says:
“They are not winning, England cricket has been poor, you struggle to find anybody in England who can be sure we will beat New Zealand this summer and nearly everyone is backing Australia to wallop us in the Ashes. Yet these guys carry on as if nothing has happened and they are secure in their jobs. It is unbelievable.”
Unbelievable indeed.
The rest of you have probably already seen this, but I only saw this today- a very interesting interview with Nick Compton in the guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/apr/03/nick-compton-england-cricket-west-indies
Backs up what KP said about Flower and the bowler’s union pretty well. Shows up the latter-day Flower regime as achieving a pretty amazing double whammy: BOTH managing to put team spirit ahead of on-field performance and yet completely destroying said team spirit in the process.
Also, England’s treatment of injured players seems, frankly, insane (see also Rankin, Boyd). I hope it’s got better since Flower stopped being head coach, but I’m honestly not sure.
LikeLike
The handling of injuries in the Flower regime (and the apparent lack of improvement in this area – c.f. Broad looking not at all fit to play the WC games he did) is for me the biggest scandal of the whole situation – and the area where I blame the press the most.
It’s one thing to fail around individuals, but the failure to investigate the handling of injuries is destroying the team…
LikeLike
It seems some of our press favourites are in transit to the West Indies or still in Cambridge hanging around with Derek Pringle so haven’t yet filed copy about the latest evils of Kevin Pietersen.
David Clough in the Mail has an article about Cook but it is just old quotes rehashed. It does says Cook “will be a record-breaker for the foreseeable future as England’s most prolific centurion” – so Pietersen coming back and scoring two centuries or Ian Bell scoring another four while Cook continues on his ton-less way is unforeseeable? I wonder which parts of this Clough considers so improbable – that the others will or Cook won’t make the runs?
Brenkley meanwhile has touched down and rather than going off on one opts for a world-weary tone. “So it goes on”. What are you implying there, Bunkers?
LikeLike
Brenkley also does his bit in talking up West Indies – “while they struggle elsewhere, they are no pushovers at home”.
I’ve already posted on a previous thread WI overall home record in the last decade (W/L 0.6 which places them 8th – and a long way from 7th – on the list of Test-playing nations).
I love a bit of statsguruing in the morning so here are their home series’ results in the last decade:
05 SA 0-2
P 1-1
06 I 0-1
07 SL 1-1
08 A 0-2
E 1-0
09 B 0-2
10 SA 0-2
11 P 1-1
I 0-1
A 0-2
12 NZ 2-0
Z 2-0
13 NZ 1-2
14 B 2-0
So West Indies, apart from beating England in 2008/09 (the only past series Brenkley mentions of course), have managed one series win against a top eight side in the last decade (against NZ in 2012 when Gayle, Narine and Roach were the key players – the first two of course are now unavailable).
Australia and SA have won comfortably, India win, and Pakistan and SL tend to draw (although SL haven’t played there since 2007).
LikeLike
Brenkley said, only a few weeks ago, the gulf between England and West Indies was as wide as the distance between the two.
Furious backtracking.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nothing like a lecture on “good journalism” from Selvey to start the day –
LikeLike
George Dobell’s series’ preview:
http://goo.gl/PyYnXw
Trott over Lyth and “judging by Adil Rashid’s performance in the nets, th[e] spinner will be James Tredwell” don’t exactly herald a brave new dawn. He claims Broad’s place is in some jeopardy but I’ll believe it when his name isn’t on the team sheet.
LikeLike
If you believe the ECB media group think then Lyth must play. Why?
Because they argue that KP can’t play for England because he will only be playing second division cricket for Surrey. Lyth however, plays first division cricket, and not only that but he plays for the current county champions. So under their logic he must walk into the side.
As for the attempt to inflate the WI home record before this tour so that an England win can be sold as a great performance , what a joke? It is guff like this that gives Brenkley and his mates a terrible reputation. They have tarnished their brands for no other reason than their hatred of of KP ,and their weird love affair with Cook.
Very soon both KP and Cook will be gone from English cricket, but the reputations of the current press journalists will be tarnished for ever.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Rashid, to me, represents everything wrong with the England setup around spinners.
I can totally accept that he was never the second coming of Shane Warne, but he’s never once improved as the result of England coaching. He’s quite talented with the bat – there was a role for him as the second spinner. But every time he goes to England he either plateaus or regresses…
LikeLike
I would say Cook is probably one of the worst England captains to manage spinners I have ever seen. It was fine with Swann because he coukd be relied on, with no input needed. Cooks record with spinners he doesn’t trust has been woeful.
He did not really trust Moheem at first last year in the test series. Bringing him on almost as a last resort, and then taking him off again as soon as he got a wicket and handing it back to the tried and tested pace bowlers.
Cook and Moores England is like a giant painting by numbers kit. Every colour has been predefined, and all that is required by the player/painter is to apply the coaches chosen colour.
LikeLike
I’ll rant further – it seems notable to me that the bowler in best fast bowling shape (according to Dobell) is Plunkett, who has been furthest away from the England bowling coaches overall…
LikeLike
How NZ are treating McCullum’s future:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/cricket/news/article.cfm?c_id=29&objectid=11427947
Strange how they don’t seem to be following the ECB template…..
LikeLike
Just looking at the picture of England on cricinfo. The one with them all in a circle waiting to start training yesterday. I can count 25 people. WTF? Why so many people? I think it was Michael Vaughn who said Moores liked to talk but come on.
And they all are forming Peters Moores’s Magic Roundabout? What does he have to tell them? Can’t they work it out for themselves? Looks like the Moores style of management continues..
Boing…..Boing. and the Zedebee appeared!
LikeLike