Welcome to Day 1 of probably 3 or 4 of the 5th Ashes test for 2015. I will be up in the North West of England today on business, so won’t, as usual, get to see much of the game, although I’ll give SkyGo an effort on the train back from Preston.
I could say a huge amount about what has gone on in the interim period between the Trent Bridge test and this one, but that’s for another time. I’ve not let it just pass by. I’ve taken a few insults from people who are no friends of what this blog is trying to achieve, or even bothered to understand where I come from and what I do. It’s been a very disheartening couple of weeks. But unlike our wonderful captain, there’s no “I almost quit” talk. That’s not how I operate.
So to Day 1. TLG has had his say in the preview. I’m not about to add too much to that, except I fear for Mark Wood if he’s playing on a duff ankle, that needs surgery and that he’s having cortisone shots for. If that’s true, will we never learn?
This will be the repository for comments, so fire away BTL and I’m not sure if there will be a review or not, because TLG is away, and I’m on the road, and then when I return to London, at a do.
If any of you are in the vicinity of the Oval, do support the #ChangeCricket demo. TLG’s piece says it all, and Sam and Jarrod deserve backing up for all the work they’ve done. Also, I am around The Oval on Friday evening, if anyone of our readers are, and I’d love to bump into some as I did with KeyserChris at Lord’s back in July. I’ve also got a couple of days at county games planned, including one at Surrey and one at Middlesex.
I’ll see you all later – comments away…
Being Outside Cricket 
Congratulations to Alastair Cook and James Anderson on their key contributions to this series.
Bedford School alumnus Cook’s 223 runs at 31.86 (no 100, one 50, HS 96) compares favourably to that Yorkshire lad (whose name escapes me) with his 443 runs at 73.83 (two 100s, two 50s, HS 134). Surely had it not been for tiredness, the general unfairness of mathematics and some bog-awful shot selection, our remarkable captain would have topped the averages as he did in 2010/11. He scored 766 runs then, you know, and assuredly deserved as many in every other series he played, in spite of never making more than 300 in any of them.
Meanwhile Genius Genius Genius’s 10 wickets at 27.5 turned the series in England’s favour. His three wickets in the first innings at Cardiff included David Warner, and also numbers 8 and 10, but because he’s not Mitchell Johnson we don’t talk about that. He then tormented Australia for three consecutive wicketless innings in which his bowling was a thing of sublime beauty, before actually turning up and doing his job once and then picking up an undeserved side strain that tragically ruled him out on his favourite ground in the world. The nation demanded that his junior new ball partner, who always outbowls him in Ashes series when fit, who had the only English four-for prior to Edgbaston (on a flat pitch) and the best match figures at Cardiff, stepped up to disprove accusations of inconsistency. Thankfully he did so.
My name is Arron Wright. I was born in 1972 and I am nearly 100 years old.
#Cyclopsmaths
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As we enter the final test of the summer I never believed for one tiny moment that Cook would resign after this series. If England lost badly I suspect he knew he would be sacked. The ODI captaincy had already gone, and he had watched Strauss ruthlessly get shot of Moores.There was some talk in the crony media about an honerable resignation in victory. (Go out on a high) his chums suggested. Who knows, he still might? If his interview with The. Mail is to be believed , it ain’t going to happen. No surprise, as he has clung on like a limpet to the rotten hull of English cricket for the last 2 years. Apparantly he has thought about it many times. Only to be talked out of it in about 30 seconds of persuasion. What a man of Steel?
So this match is his celebration. A chance for England fans to celebrate the ashes (because the ashes is all there is in modern cricket) and to worship their captain. No doubt there are a lot of genuine England fans there today who just want to enjoy the moment. Gook luck to them. But be careful, you are being used by some truly despicable people. This is likely going to be a orgy of back slapping and self congratulation by the usual suspects.
As for the cricket, does it really matter? You better believe it does. They want 4-1 as another something to ram down our throats. And the fact they are willing to put at risk Mark Wood for the sole purpose of honouring the boy king captian just shows how warped English cricket has become. What about your famous trust Mr Strauss? I thought everyone had to trust everyone. How can any player trust Englands medical staff and the managments motives? In addition the boy kings party is not to be a time to test out the leg spinmer for the winter. Good preparation. No, this is about vengeance and screw the winter. Who knows if there is any life left in the Aussie players for one last hurrah? I very much doubt it. They look shot to pieces, and many of them know they are finished after this match. Pride is all they have to play for. And if they were to pull it off and win, it will be dismissed as not important from the peanut gallery. But don’t believe it. This is a sporting version of a public execution. The elites want and expect blood. They will not be happy if the condemned Man was to jump off the scafold and make a run for it.
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I thought about writing a lot of curse words.
However, I think that would fail to begin to convey how angry I am at the idea that they are playing Wood when he needs an operation.
We have Foottit, Plunkett, Willey or even Rashid who could step up.
We’d gain from learning about any of them.
It’s a dead rubber.
We’re putting Wood’s entire career in jeopardy.
Words – even curse words – fail me.
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You should talk to Pam Nash. She is very worried about England players getting injuries, unless they are sacrificing themselves in the name of Captain Cook her hero.
Then a career ending injury is just super, and warranted, even if the test match is meaningless..
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Where did I say that, Mark? Ah, nowhere…..but it suits your fictitious narrative to quotes. Sorry I can’t include your surname as, for some reason, you seem keen to remain anonymous.
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Pam Nash. 20.08.2015…”You cannot be genuinely surprised, Neil, that someone on here wishes ‘career-ending injury’ on England players?”
So this morning you were ever so concerned about career ending injuries Yet your side of the cricket divide defend the actions and motives of the England management despite their appalling record on players injuries over the last few years. I wonder why that is? Your side of the cricket divide ridiculed the contents of KPs book when he remarked the way he was treated when he suffered a serious injury and the bizarre treatment he was handed.
Pam Nash ….20.08.2015. “It’s worth noting that all the venom on this blog, both from bloggers & commenters, comes from behind cloaks of anonymity…..so not only venomous but cowardly, too.”
Not this old chestnut again. I take it you have called the various England players who were operating the KP genius Twitter account “venomous and cowardly?” And if not why not?….. I also take it you have called the various people who leaked anonymously to journalists like Mr Newman about KP ….”venomous and cowardly?” I take it you have called the person who leaked to Jonathan Agnew the details of a private meeting between KP and Strauss …..”cowardly and venomous?” If not please spare me any more lectures about anonymity.
I do wish you people would make up your mind on those of us outside cricket. Either we are a small minority of people of no importance……In which case why are you wasting your time on here? Or alternatively we represent many more people than you wish to admit. Whatever the reason you seem to be obsessed by us.
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Please note. I didn’t block anyone. It’s quite interesting.
Any comment back is going to include KP obsessives or some slagging off. This should be interesting. Keep it clean though, please.
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I see Sky have a replay running up till 10.00, no doubt it’ll be followed by 3 minutes of extra-loud commercials. Protest, what protest?
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I have no idea what a neo-liberal is and, I suspect, nor does anyone, because it is just used as a term of abuse agiainst people of different viewpoints. However, as a nuanced-laissez-faire capitalist, I would like to see cricket in the Olympics. I would like to try to get the USA and China to play cricket in whatever way suited them. I think the USA would love 2020, for example. It has the same timesapn as baseball, for example, with the same permutations of play.
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I notice it’s 10.03 UK time. I hope it went well.
I think if England win 4 tests in a home Ashes series for the first time ever, then they’re essentially trolling history.
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Fifty minutes in and nothing on ECB-TV about the protest. What we have had are new versions of the promo song and the Ashes’ victory “through the eyes of the captain”.
England won toss and bowl. The amount of grass on the pitch has attracted plenty of comment and nobody thought the team winning the toss should bat. Humid, overcast (which is forecast to last all day) and a lush outfield to preserve the shine as well. Carnage potential this morning high.
England unchanged; Australia recall Mitch Marsh and Siddle. Nobody had a good word to say about the latter decision (not getting at Siddle but more that the change is too late and now in a dead rubber they should be looking at Cummins).
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TMS have tweeted a photo; not sure if they’ve given it any airtime though. Perhaps the photo allows them an elegant escape narrative if people accuse them of ignoring it.
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Their line-up includes Mike and Bernie Winters. That’s my escape narrative sorted. It’ll be coarse Anglo-Saxon rather than elegant though.
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no wsing? Stokes was makingm the ball turn corners! What match were you watching?
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Sky might have covered it from their news department but I can’t face having Sky News on all day just in case.
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“Nobody had a good word to say about the latter decision (not getting at Siddle but more that the change is too late and now in a dead rubber they should be looking at Cummins).”
Did anyone criticise England for not looking at Plunkett or Rashid? I’m guessing not.
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You’d be guessing right!
The Rashid issue got a sentence to the effect that the grassy pitch had made the decision for them. As it’s turned out, the pitch has been so slow any movement – and there’s been virtually no swing – has been negated (plus Australia have batted better, England have bowled too short and such luck as there’s been has favoured Australia).
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OBO 24th over: Australia 72-0 (Rogers 24, Warner 46).
Ali finds some proper turn away from the left-hander, which finds Rogers’ edge and squirts out beyond slip for a single
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Run rate 1.28 off 7 overs.
Let’s stop men from playing Test cricket!
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FICJAM on TMS – time for a loo break
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Well, 14/0 after ten overs. Slightly better than their last “effort” in the first innings (35/7).
This time, after 18.3 overs, the score reads 47/0.
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Warner 45*.
#worthahundred
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Lunch after 27 overs at 82/0, with the runs being scored at a healthy 3.03 / over now after a careful start (14/0 after 10 overs for instance). Stokes in particular leaking runs (6-2-32-0). 6 of the ten boundaries came also of Stokes’ bowling.
Good effort from the Australian openers, but we all know that the Australian middle order has been absent throughout the series. Two wickets and Australia could still crumble to 150 all out.
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I heard a little earlier on TMS that cooks justification for putting Aus into bat was the fact they collapsed/struggled/etc.
I’ve not heard the toss interviews and can’t find anything online ATM – does anyone have info?
It seems like an odd choice to say “you played crap before, therefore I think you will play crap again” as a reason for choosing to either bat or bowl.
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oooo TMS just mentioned the demonstration to Tom Harrison in the lunch interview
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hhhmmmm, Harrison, just said he hadn’t seen the film….. You would think he would make it a priority.
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They’re all the effing same. And what happened to Colin Graves anyway?
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He sold his soul to the demon. The demon tricked him. So now he is spending the rest of his life in Giles Clarke’s snuff box.
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D’Arthez: have you checked whether he still has both little fingers?
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He is being interviewed by Agnew and is talking neo liberal clap trap. According to him he really believed that India was going to break away and go it alone……. “Imagine a world where there is no India playing Test cricket.?” He said.
Yea, I can imagine. And after a few years their players would want to come back. Because they would be fed up playing 20/20 and nothing else. But spineless people like the ECB were too afraid to stand up to them. These people are so steeped in conventional wisdom of business practice they don’t see the wider picture. They have no courage. Money is all they care about. It’s all that drives them.
Now he is boasting about getting into America. About markets, and viewing figures. Fuck Ireland, and the associates,they are obviously not commercial enough. These people are only interested in the money. Harrison should be working for Tesco or HSBC.
I have not heard him before. He sounds like just a corporate empty suit.
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But he said ‘everyone will make more money’ you believe him don’t you, he wouldn’t lie would he?
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Imagine a world in which India play more Tests in England over a twelve-year period (three typical FTP cycles) than New Zealand, South Africa and Bangaldesh put together.
Imagine a world in which India and Australia play just under half of *all* Tests in England over the same 12-year period.
Oh, that’s right. I don’t need to imagine it. I live in it.
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Even if Harrison believed it, what compelled the ECB to effectively steal 80-odd million from the Minor 7 Full Members and the Associates over the next cycle? They did not have to take that money after all. It seems that CA did not take the “free money” on offer.
But, I forgot: taking money, from sources no matter how heinous is moral. See Gatting. See Gooch. See Clarke and Morris (Stanford). Criticising clueless betters is a crime worse than treason. See Greig. See Pietersen.
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Yea ,I heard that. And it typifies their approach. MONEY IS EVERYTHING.
Nothing else matters, just money. The soul purpose of cricket is to produce money. That’s it. This is the world we live in Iam afraid.
And if that means endless matches against just India and Australia and playing less against better sides, that’s fine because, er……money. screwing the customers for every last penny, and putting on sub standard entertainment is fine becuase it produces money.
The notion of a sporting contest is not important. Sports sole purpose is to sell crap. Its the crapification of everything.
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Strongly recommend TFT’s Twitter feed re Tom Harrison interview.
Be warned though; it’s a bit like watching Clarke in DOAG.
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And just putting Harrison’s name into Twitter makes it worse.
Appalling stuff.
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In the dictionary under “naïve”, there’s a picture of all those people who thought Clarke no longer being ECB chairman would change a blind thing.
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Harrison also did a brief interview on Sky in which he referred to England’s national team as ‘a commercial animal’.
He’s all about selling rights. That’s what he does. Seems quite pleasant but there’s, shall we say, a certain worldview there.
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neo liberal clap trap
a corporate empty suit
taking money from sources no matter how heinous is moral
a commercial animal
>>>>>>> Its the crapification of everything
I love you, men. Keep sticking it to these a~holes.
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He doesn’t enter dialogues –
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There’s a belter about Bedford School as well!
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I thought his bollocks reply was so Bedford school!
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Harrison claiming that current broadcast contracts ‘delivering in spades’ to drive interest and follwoing of cricket!
If you count an order of magnitude viewers lower than 10 years ago delivering yes…
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Lawrence Booth report on the protest:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-3204554/England-vs-Australia-fifth-Ashes-Test-targeted-protesters-hold-three-minute-silence-bid-change-cricket.html
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Strong support from Nick Hoult:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/theashes/11814082/Ashes-2015-Giles-Clarke-may-have-to-give-evidence-to-parliament-over-the-governance-of-international-cricket.html
Bland PA article with no comments in the Guardian and nothing at all in the Independent.
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Stat tweeted on cricinfo:
S Rajesh @rajeshstats
Average opening stand for Aus in this series: 67.12 (incl. the unbroken stand at The Oval); average opening stand for Eng: 14
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Rogers gone after chasing a wide one. That ends a 200 ball-opening stand. England’s longest opening stand this series was 68 balls.
110/1
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warner just gone for 85 (Ct lyth from Ali)
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Clarke getting a clapped on from whole ground. Eng giving guard of honour
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At some point in the last twenty four hours, I’ve just noticed, Mike Selvey has blocked TFT on Twitter. I’m not exactly sure why.
A badge of honour?
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Why the question mark?
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I am astounded he has not blocked all outside cricket people to be honest.
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Welcome to the club…
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Congratulations definitely in order.
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184/2 at tea, with both openers gone. Smith on 29*, Clarke on 14*. Somehow I have the impression that the ECB XI did not make most of the conditions.
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I see Clarke is just out. The innings in the balance. I hope they get 350, then, finally, we’ll have a good match set up for us.
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287/3 at stumps. Bad light, and some rain cutting the day to just 79.4 overs. Australia won’t be unhappy with their efforts, but new ball due tomorrow morning. Anything can happen.
Smith on 78*, Voges on 47*. We might finally have a competitive Ashes Test on hand. Pity it is a dead rubber.
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100 runs on and Aus win the day. Glad I didn’t have to watch, as Aus batting well is my least favourite spectator sport.
I wonder if that light reading at the end will come back to bite the game on the arse, à la 2013.
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Hopefully not – the weather forecast is excellent for the next two days and although Monday currently looks a bit iffy a lot can change before then.
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Didn’t get to see any play today.
Heard snatches of commentary – sounded like:
a) England didn’t bowl that well overall.
b) Aus had a bit of luck with edges in the first 20 overs.
c) Aus dug in and took advantage.
d) Pitch is a decent batting surface overall.
e) Bit of spin for Ali, maybe suggests that Rashid could have played?
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http://travelshop.telegraph.co.uk/collection/cricket-in-south-africa-with-graham-gooch-3e89156f689ffdbdebafdba088a9a124/?utm_source=TMG&utm_medium=website_editorial&utm_campaign=Gooch%20cricket
Still taking the Rand Goochie?
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Anyone (like me) who missed Tom Harrison on TMS at lunchtime it’s here starting at 02:40 –
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0668xcc
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https://twitter.com/fwildecricket/status/634382811819077632
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From DOAG’s Youtube channel:
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That’s great. Thanks for posting
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“We are trying to strive towards a situation where we are delivering a performance-based schedule which is not compromising on the product.”.
Well, I’m glad that’s cleared that up then.
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a solid performance from Australia in English conditions. I think Rogers and Warner will be castigating themselves for not kicking on but they blunted the world-class and world-feared new ball attack. Stokes looked threatening at times but he lost his control of length. Wood, by the end of the day, looked shot. Injury management is key here. Two cortisones at his early age suggests he will not have an ankle joint intact by the time he is 30, a fate I would not wish on even a socialist.
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