Taking a little break over the weekend, to recharge batteries, and to contrast it with last Bank Holiday weekend (the day of 14k hits)!
Anyhow, if the weather is good enough, there are two T20 games on today in Cardiff. Comments here.
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Being Outside Cricket 
England women win. Must be so gutting for them that if they had got that total on Friday they would still have the Ashes. Equally best team won overall so no real complaints.
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All-rounder Nat Sciver played well again, but it seems there aren’t so many batters coming through. Missing recently retired Arran Brindle, and can’t afford to lose Lottie for a couple more years yet.
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Agree, Sarah Taylor must have been watching too many Alastair Cook videos – she’s scored do few runs she doesn’t have an average!
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but loved the comment by Meg Lanning whilst being showered with champers – “I’m gonna have to have a shower after this”
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Topley leaving Essex seems a done-deal. Newman reckons he’s going to Hampshire whereas others reckon anything up to nine counties are interested.
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Only worth joining Hampshire if we stay up.
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Is that such a big issue if he’s mainly a one-day specialist?
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Annoyed Vince isn’t playing. 710 runs this year in T20, Jason Roy has only made 298. Vince also has to travel up to Chester Le Street tonight.
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Coming to this late, but seems you were right, Roy didn’t do much.
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Roy’s still trying to leather everything. Very much like early-days Hales.
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I was discussing it on twitter with people and Roy does have the benefit of decent runs in the recent 50 over stuff. Billings though hasn’t done a great deal in either format and think Vince should be tried instead.
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I’m not a T20 fan
But can’t understand the plan
Of only one match per touring team
A squad chosen, but players left to dream?
So Vince in all his elegance of play
Has to wait another year, lest he carries the drinks tray
Why pick him in the squad, such a waste of skill
Selectors, my arse, not a clue, nor any will
So my sole thought, that I you fragrantly anoint
What is the bloody T20 point?
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Coming late. 13th over. Looks like Aus will win this.
Seems like Eng played ok & the Aussies played a little bit better…
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Ali puts in a good over to pull England back into it slightly.
Aus need 56 from 6 overs.
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Nasser bemoaning the lack of yorkers…
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Good work from Willey and Topley. Aus need 12 from 6 balls.
Stokes to bowl last.
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2 wickets for Stokes in the final over so far.
Aus need 9 from 2 balls.
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3 wickets in the over (for accuracy, 2 were run outs).
Aus need 9 from 1 ball.
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I was wrong. Morgan is the Ice Captain and brought some real calm to the bowlers.
Nice close game. Good result.
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Some Morgan facts:
1. Today he went past KP to become England’s highest run scorer in international T20s.
2. He again used the IPL as his batting university, working with Tom Moody and VVS Laxman to sort out his technique after his form slump and his mind after the World Cup.
3. Taking a rest for a month to be fresh for the Aus matches worked – who’da guessed, eh?
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Yes, Morgan goes top of the 20/20 batting stats replacing KP.
Both the top 2 players Newman wanted dropped. Suggest people go elsewhere than the Mail for their cricket opinion. Because trust , and obedience is so much more important than runs in Newman land.
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Where do you recommend that people go for their cricket opinion? Not the “G” surely?
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With Andrew Miller back at the helm at Cricinfo, I think the answer might be staring us in the face.
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They showed the stats, KP averages about 10 more runs per innings than everyone else, and at a higher rate.
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in fact, of the top 50, only Kohli, Finch and Faff du Plessis have higher averages, and only Finch, Afridi, Watson(!), Yuvraj and Gayle have a higher strike rate.
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http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/282827.html
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If you want comedy gold listen back to the BBC radio 5 live show with Michael Vaughn and Phil Tufnell. It starts at 9pm but the bit after 10pm is priceless as Tuffers lectures the modem players on why on earth they want to play less cricket. This from the man who is now used as an example by the ECB on how not to hang out of dressing room windows smoking cigarettes. As Mark Chapman points out.
Tuffers has turned into a combination of Fred Trueman and G Gooch. ” in my day, we got up half an hour before we went to bed, played 8 days a week, and we were lucky.”
A spin bowler meanders down memory lane………….
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Two wickets (Silva and Thirimanne) down in the first session in Colombo. Outside chance of a SL win now gone so can they hold out?
Weather looks clear at the moment. Mathews had one slice of luck when Ishant Sharma dismissed him off a no-ball (Sharma has been pushing his luck with that all match and should have lost one of his first innings’ wickets in the same way). India strong favourites but Mathews has a great record in the fourth innings and the SL lower order batted well first time around.
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Interesting to note that there have been several rather heated altercations between the players. WWE cricket, here we come …
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Mathews and Perera survive the first hour after lunch without many alarms. Mathews immense; Perera winning the battle against his brainfart tendency.
Lovely old-fashioned Test cricket – batsmen in caps, lots of spin, time as important as runs (jumpers for goalposts) etc.
Second new ball in about an hour going to be crucial.
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Mathews reprieved by Llong – seemed like a plumb lbw in the 70th over.
Mind you Sri Lanka seemed to have had 3 bad decisions in their first innings alone.
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Llong’s hand gesture seemed to indicate he thought there was an inside edge – but it looked on the replay as if the bat hit the ground and not the ball. The ball looked to be heading for the middle of middle although he was a long way forward.
Mathews has his century and with a sudden flurry of runs a SL win doesn’t seem quite so impossible (although with the second new ball and not much batting to come it should be).
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Match seems to be swinging Sri Lanka’s way. The Indian spinners seem to have no impact at all
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New ball is due in 7 overs. Target less than 150 away, and Mathews and Perera at the crease. A minimum of 43 overs to be bowled in the day, so it is possible that Sri Lanka chase this down, provided they survive the new ball.
A lot will depend on Yadav and Ishant (and the umpires. They have had a shocking series.)
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Three overs to the second new ball and Kusal Perera reverse sweeps one straight to backward point. The thought that the runs might be on did for him.
Bit of an altercation as he left with someone appearing to have said something.
Mathews and Herath? Set the field back for Mathews to bowl at Herath – what could go wrong……
#cookbookofcaptaincy
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Mathews LBW in first over with second new ball. Hit on back leg and plumb.
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200th Test wicket for Ishant Sharma as well. 8th Indian bowler (4th seamer) to achieve the feat.
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Mathews goes against the third ball after tea (new ball). That leaves the Sri Lanka tail to survive at least 213 deliveries, with just 3 wickets left. Probably too much to ask.
Contrast this fightback by Sri Lanka from a difficult position to the meek surrenders we have seen in the Ashes …
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Job done from India. Re Ishant S, he still has a rather mediocre bowling record, but that is not reflected what he’s done in the last couple of years. He’s actually led them to victory with the ball this game. Oh and what D’arthez says about the match being far more competetive than the Ashes. The only slight thing being that it is the power “Inside Cricket” that has won……..
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SL tail crumbled – Herath was possibly unlucky with his LBW but Prasad played a beserk innings slogging at everything.
A poor shot by Perera triggered the collapse but more fault lies with the SL top order who collapsed repeatedly during the series. There have to be some younger batsmen worth trying in SL cricket rather than going back to the likes of Mubarak and Tharanga. The post Mahela/Sanga era for SL looks worrying with two consecutive home series defeats and they are starting to fall away from the group of middle-ranking nations. They play West Indies next.
India look a better side under Kohli (some charmless behaviour excepted). Their fielding is much improved (Rahul is an excellent slipper – and we already knew about Rahane), playing five bowlers is a better balance for them and the bizarre idea that Jadeja is a better spinner than Ashwin has been thoroughly binned. As PKTroll says, Ishant Sharma has been excellent and they need him to stay fit. They won the series (their first away since 2011 and first in SL for 22 years) despite losing the first Test and having both first choice openers and the keeper injured. Whichever way you slice it, that’s a fine achievement.
Looking forward to their series against the Saffers greatly.
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Sri Lanka have now lost their most recent series at home to India (2015), Pakistan (2015), South Africa (2014) , and Australia (2011). They have managed draws with England (2012) and New Zealand (2012). And they drew West Indies in the monsoon season of 2010 (and rain really ruined that series). Mathews is an excellent batsman, but a few others need to step up.
The results for West Indies at home are just as bad: draws against England, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, losses against the other major cricketing teams (excluding Zimbabwe and Bangladesh).
Even though the results for Bangladesh have been more promising in the recent past, that is mainly achieved at home (and with a fair bit of help from the weather gods). It remains to be seen if they can translate their home form in decent performances abroad.
Let’s hope the problems for Sri Lanka are just temporary, and that a few batsmen will stand up to fill the massive hole that is left by Sanga’s retirement. And I am really not sure if West Indies can ever get themselves out of the doldrums. The rot seems to run very deep there. Else Test cricket may end up being confined to just six nations (with South Africa, Sri Lanka and Pakistan increasingly forced to play each other ad infinitum).
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The new rankings:
http://www.espncricinfo.com/rankings/content/page/211271.html
SL are now closer to WI below them than the next team above them (NZ). Three points separate 3rd from 6th so there is very little to choose between England, Pakistan, India and NZ right now. Australia are only just above them and may well fall back into the pack as they rebuild.
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This writer is not exactly the sort of chap you’d expect to take against Giles Clarke, or criticise the MCC. But he does…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/11835269/The-enemy-within-cricket-is-killing-the-game.html
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Old school Tories like Heffer and Oborne are increasingly repelled by contemporary capitalism. There was always an anti-materialist strain in the Tory Party, let’s call it the Matthew Arnold/Roger Scruton strain. It’s all very nice, but creates a false binary between inherited or ‘proper’ wealth and arrivistes. Clarke clearly falls in the latter camp for Heffer et al.
This made me giggle:
Clarke gives a bravura display of the arrogant, patronising, utter lack of self-awareness one normally associates with the unpleasantly stupid: yet he is a an Oxford man and a successful businessman, so has clearly had to work at cultivating this persona.
I normally associate just such behaviour with a certain type of Oxford and Cambridge man.
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Schools, it’s the schools that do it. By the time they get to Oxbridge they’re set in the mould. Clarke went to Rugby School.
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Couldn’t agree more Zephirine. Having moved to Finland a few years ago you really notice the difference (not that you don’t in the UK), it’s like an informal apartheid. Off topic, and more historical than political Dmtiri, but Labour missed a huge opportunity to change British society for good in 1945. Churchill and Butler had resigned themselves to the end of private schools but Labour, led by an old Harovian after all, didn’t follow through.
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Very interesting. I’m not normally a reader of Simon Heffer, as my politics are more his hair colour than his party’s colour, but I thought he said two interesting things. Not necessarily correct, but worthy of comment.
One, he calls on the MCC to defend cricket from the dumbing down tactics of the ECB. Surely these are 19th century tactics to a 21st century problem, like standing up to a fleet of drones with a shotgun. However, as a call to arms, it would be fascinating to follow. Insiders rebelling is a delicious thought.
Two, his closing thought that a limited future for Tests can only be guaranteed if we accept that the boards aren’t interested, hive it off, with some ring-fenced funding, and allow it to live on as a genteel, quasi-amateur pastime for those he calls “serious cricket lovers”, in an even more limited number of countries. I’d not heard this stated so transparently before.
I think, a priori, I dislike this idea. I’d rather fight for the continued pre-eminence of Tests and lose than sit back and allow it – and therefore myself – to become part of a segregated, non-sustainable elite.
The article is a worthy addition to the distressingly meagre canon of articles criticizing cricket’s authorities though, and could be debated further.
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Sadly, I have also thought that the future for Test cricket will be as a sporting equivalent of ballet and opera. Heavily subsidised and passionately loved by relatively few.
Though there are companies for both all over the world and nobody forbids them from performing, so ballet and opera are doing better at the moment.
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It’s a terrific article, well played Simon Heffer.
The issue of whether or not Clarke is paid – the Chairmanship must have been worth a considerable amount in contacts and opportunities for his other business interests, and the Presidency no doubt continues to be so.
Also – and I will phrase this carefully – I find it hard to believe that people like Allen Stanford and N Srinivasan do business without brown envelopes changing hands. Obviously Mr Clarke would never be party to such things.
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http://www.espncricinfo.com/blogs/content/story/915887.html
Arron, I saw that article and it seems that there are a number of cricket journalists in England who notice and take notice of these things.
Related to this I have linked to an article re the relevance of cricket amongst a large section of their population thus damaging the long term prosperity of the game overall there.
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The problems in South Africa run deep. Sure CSA made mistakes – many, but the legacy of apartheid cannot be undone by a bunch of cricketing bodies. Government and civil society have (had) roles to play, and to a very large extent they could not even be bothered to really try.
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Very good article not boding well for CSA.
I sitting am right now somewhare in Central francophone Africa, (predicted to become the biggest language group in Africa in about 30 years time). There is an acute need here even to give grass root support to the game of footbal, that is struggling. No infrastructure, kit, training skills etc.. Yet the guys on the street all know their european and English footbal and wear the shirts.
Cricket has remained a sport that is not accesable to many, and in SA (and all of Africa) it is very much the case. (In the 80s me and my team mates had to go and dig up a lorry load of turf to help our school build a pitch between the sandy rugby fields).
But the identification with the teams and the players is also key. But the make up of the top SA cricket and rugby sports teams have sadly not changed much, and the lack of identification and the lack of enthusiasm is dwindling. Sad for SA and sad for the world.
I had a dream in the 80s seeing Silvester Clarke bowling in SA that one day a group of black SA fast bowlers would terrorise world cricket. 2015 looked an long way away then, and sadly that dream still does now. In the mean time even the the WIs are in a crisis, and many other Boards are not well.
This should be a wake up call for the ICC.
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I can’t help feeling that outside the so called “Big 3” the only places that cricket isn’t struggling are Bangladesh and NZ but that is more of a hunch. The money issues are well documented in SL, WI, Pak (and their issues of not playing at home), and Zim.
If there is no incentive to play test cricket the game ain’t gonna survive. What Death of a Gentleman did so well was to highlight how acute it is that there is such a drive to nigh on strangle the sport in some ways.
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There’s also an interesting article that states:
The message to young black cricketers is that they’re not wanted unless they can get to a good school in one of the leafy suburbs. Cricket, a sport that was courageous enough to actively change its politics when Bacher realised the error of inviting Mike Gatting’s England “rebels” to South Africa in 1990, has become stuck in an upper middle-class cul-de-sac
he’s talking about South Africa but you’d think this was England as well….
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All quiet here so I thought I would just say that nobody came ‘in for me’ before the transfer deadline – Chelsea thought I was too cantankerous and Brenda, well, who would want to sign for him??? Still, the season’s nearly over and Rob Key scores a hundred against Lancashire yet was commentating for Sky last week whilst Lancashire were playing erm Kent – how can that happen??? Only transfer happening here is Sky going out of the window, sick to death of the terrible editorial and biased reporting and the total ‘ECB was here’ approach to things – to say nothing of ‘deadline day’ – even Nasser is now saying the ICC trio is a good thing – this is appalling.
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How many references can Strauss[y] can Lawrence Booth shoehorn in here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-3218466/Eoin-Morgan-England-reckless-reserved-captain-prepares-one-day-series-against-Australia.html
One? Not even close. Two? We’ll be so lucky. Three? Nope. Four? Now we’re talking. How many mentions of any of the, you know, actual players? Apart from Morgan, none.
I wouldn’t mind so much if:
1) If England lose there is as much mention of Strauss.
2) There was any acknowledgement that the retention of Morgan as ODI captain was against the clamouring of virtually the entire press corps.
3) There was any real insight into why Morgan was retained as captain (still not seen any convincing analysis of this).
I’m looking forward to next summer when SL and Pakistan tour and the captaincy of Mathews and Misbah is constantly linked to the genius governance of the PCB and SLCB.
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Grrr, first line should have read “references to Strauss” of course.
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Pakistan-India matches in jeopardy:
http://www.espncricinfo.com/pakistan/content/story/916817.html
WACA’a days as an Ashes’ venue look numbered:
http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/content/story/916883.html
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“All about putting fans first.” Whenever I hear that little gem my wallet becomes a little lighter.
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but, but, they are putting the fans first – in future all test matches and games between England, Australia and India will be played at Lords – the ‘true’ home of cricket- to enable all celebrities and politicos from all over the world to watch their beloved game plus It also enables Giles Clarke to have a lie in – they only want the world’s elites to watch cricket – read the details at http://www.beano.com
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also – just read this, sobering and puts the whole of the ICC/ECB etc cabal into perspective
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silly me, forgot link
http://www.thecricketmonthly.com/story/910909/the-death-of-ankit-keshri
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No wonder Lillie has resigned, does heritage mean nothing anymore? Especially that of fast bowling. I have only been to Trent Bridge once but spent half the day wondering what it would have been like to see Larwood in his prime there. The WACA is one of those grounds I always wanted to go and see.
Drop in wickets too. The death of a ground’s characteristic. Every ground will end up the same bland old track.
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