Perhaps total indifference is an unreasonable response to England finally winning a game on the tour of India, but with the BBC deciding not to broadcast the game on Radio 4 LW, and the pressing matter of a flat tyre to sort out before heading to a meeting, this one couldn’t have passed me by more completely if it had been played on the moon.
Apparently England bowled well. Apparently they batted well too. But like the tree in the forest, if it’s not been witnessed who knows if it really happened. It’s not being dismissive of the game itself or the efforts involved, but cricket is so low key with England these days that I didn’t even remember the game was on until it was referenced in the news as I was driving along. That’s not meant to be a boast, for the implied virtue signalling of pretending ignorance of something only lesser types pay attention to is far too prevalent these days. In fact it’s just the opposite, it’s rather troubling that I didn’t realise.
It’s been said often enough that T20 is something of a McDonalds Value Meal, enjoyable at the time, but not something to live long in the memory, and that’s part of its very appeal in some respects. The World T20 is exactly what a cricket tournament should be, short, sharp, entertaining and with hazard throughout for all the teams. The Big Bash too has been good to watch, and even at the end the Australian coach’s delightfully crass comments made the whole thing grab attention.
But like that Big Mac Meal (free vouchers for the mention from McDonalds UK are welcome) you aren’t worried at all if you’ve gone without (Ah, there go the vouchers), and the same applies to today. Tymal Mills bowled very fast it seems, and Moeen Ali and Ben Stokes bowled very well. Eoin Morgan once again made a few journalists push back their calls for his execution for another day, and England cruised home.
Well played all. What a pity I can’t think of much else to say. No, truly it is. Some will say that’s my problem and no one else’s, and you know what, they are probably right.
Being Outside Cricket 
There was an amusing part when Root was bowled twice in 2 balls by Bumrah – once off a no ball and once off the “free hit” delivery. Jason Roy and Sam Billings got off to a very speedy start (36 in 3 overs)and, although they were pegged back by the leggie Chahal taking both of their wickets in one over, it was too small a target to be defended. It was unfortunate that Bumrah keeps bowling no balls but, by then, it was way too late. England were always cruising.
Didn’t catch much of the Indian innings but they never seemed to come to terms with the pitch. Dhoni looked very subdued.
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Missed it too, but, reading the reports a great game for England and the much malaligned Morgan. How much, I wonder, is the English short form game missing the proper, and experienced, leadership of Alistair Cook right now? Probably not one iota I would posit?
It’s such a shame, that this game, much beloved of the instantly gratified, of which, I am one, from time to time, is hidden away from the average Joe!
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England outplayed India in every department. England have done better on the last two pitches with a bit of life in them – perhaps those draft emails Comma has saved for the CT pitches might need a bit of amending away from the “give us an absolute road or we’ll bankrupt you” that they currently contain (allegedly).
India don’t have a good record in home T20Is. They’ve lost more than they’ve won this decade (W8 L9). In bilateral T20Is, they’re even worse. SA beat them 2-0 in their last series – they chased down 200 in the first game and bowled India out for under a hundred in the second. England won the T20I series on the last India tour – as I’m sure we all, er, remember….
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India I think may be starting to learn the lesson that the English FA really should have learnt: just because you have the world’s most famous Premier League there is no guarantee that it will benefit the national team and may in many respects undermine it.
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France and rugby union as well….
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Which reminds me of something I simply can’t imagine happening here.
Over the weekend I was in Paris, a boys’ weekend away to watch Stade Francais play Harlequins. Despite it being around freezing for several days, they only noticed that one corner of the pitch was frozen at kick off, and got the blowers out to try to defrost it. Shambolic. However….
With the match delayed from 2pm to 3:30pm, the bars in the ground responded by halving the price of all the drinks, so a beer cost €4 rather than €8.
Imagine Lords doing that…..
Nah.
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Nice article as usual. Aside from the flat tyre it pretty much describes my own lack of engagement with the match – although despite everything I still take some satisfaction from the result. I would’ve liked to have seen Tymal Mills’ bowling as that’s always necessarily going to be a very limited commodity. No MacDonald’s vouchers? Quel dommage!
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India have struggled to find big hitters in the middle order that can do the job consistently. With Dhoni not being his old self, and Yuvi, Raina losing mojo, India just aren’t able to get out of jail as often as they could. The short format makes it even harder, which is why Dhoni shouldn’t be in the T20 mix for India.
As far as I am concerned, he eats up too many balls and takes away any momentum. He remains a “must have” for the ODIs but he needs to be replaced in the T20s though I also wish he had stayed around for the tests while giving up T20s on his own.
Bring in someone line Rishabh Pant or Ishant Kishan (both keepers and good strikers).
Rohit Sharma’s sock has risen in absence. That’s some irony!
The rest of the squad can be OK but when the bowers are having an off day, no total is safe, let alone a middling 140s.
Bumrah has had a shocker of a series so far, despite coming off a very good first class season where he was in form.
Nehra too was not effective last night. That he is still a first choice T20 players is all credit to him (he started before Zaheer, who has retired), but this doesn’t show other bowlers in great light. India seem to be too reliant on Shami to get them some wickets. There are just not enough good left arm pacers around even at the domestic level to get that variety.
England cruised to an easy win amidst wickets off no balls though the openers clearly failed the spin test. Morgan was good, but the total wasn’t challenging so difficult to give it any context. He certainly had a better day as a skipper with the changes in bowling taking away any momentum from the Indian innings. Not giving Rashid a ball to bowl was surely cunning. I suspect Indians thought they would try and compensate against him.
Moeen had a good day – wicket off the first ball never hurts and then having 2 left handed batsmen to bowl to was a bonus. Mills looked quite good. Not scary like Mitch J was a few years ago but fast enough to keep players honest. If only his body could handle the stress of longer formats….
Most people in my generation wouldn’t have believed it (laughed at it even) but India are turning into a big tournament team – bilateral series don’t seem to have any impact on their ability to churn out good performances in a big tournament. This squad needs minor tinkering and a bit more fire power, before they can compete with brute force of the WI or the new England.
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Also not virtue signalling but I’ve come to the conclusion that international T20 is a waste of time.
There is masses of T20 out there. There is masses of international cricket out there. It’s clear that Test matches are better than Domestic First Class cricket (unless you are Andrew Gale) and the 50 over international game is interesting, culminating as it does in a WC ever 4 years. But IT20?The IPL, Big Bash and even whatever the ECB put together are better quality tournaments than a wham bam “world” T20 every 2 years.
Scrapping international T20s wouldn’t diminish international cricket and would free up time in the calendar.
I don’t need to riff on why this would never happen.
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The T20 WC is an excellent tournament (apart from the treatment of the associates) and I’m quite happy for it to take place every two years.
Bilateral T20s are the waste of time.
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I, too, was totally indifferent. T20 does nothing for me, it’s just a ‘Swing and a Miss’ game that vaguely resembles cricket.
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I’m genuinely wondering if these good showings by Eoin Morgan’s team, and the marked difference in leadership, is keeping Strauss and Cook tight lipped???
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I’m far more into playing sport than watching it, but as far as watching it goes, my preference goes
Rugby > Test Cricket > baseball > T20 cricket > all other forms of cricket > all other sports
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That changes the older you get! I was always more a player than a watcher too. And then you start being less good than you were.
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Then you get so old you retire. On a freezing cold day, you look at the many programmes available on TV and think “a few hours of Eoin and his chaps – that will do nicely”
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I am organising a t20 team this year through my club after the Last Man Stands side that I played for folded after their funding was cut by one of the lad’s company who organised it. So I suggested that his team (that was struggling for number anyway) merged with my team and we play midweek cricket. I will step aside when we have requisite numbers due to my advancing years!
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These kinds of competitions are good things in themselves, so Iâm not for a second mocking them. But it does amuse me how the ECB decided to promote T20 competitions on the back of its success when it started here â seemingly entirely unaware that clubs had been playing it in evening leagues for decades.
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The ECB have a massive blindspot when it comes to T20 cricket – so much so that their participation figures are effectively meaningless.
I play in 2 different leagues – a Saturday league organised by the official county association, and a second low level T20 league that is completely unofficial and doesn’t even have a website – although a few of the clubs do.
The Saturday league is bigger and stable in numbers. The midweek league is small, but growing steadily. There are probably 200 players or so in it. The county board and the ECB have absolutely no idea that it even exists.
The overlap in players is 10%, that means there are 180 regular cricketers that the ECB are completely unaware of.
Don’t get me started on last man stands. what a pile of exploitative shit.
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Just 160 days to England’s next Test match!
Meanwhile, Australia’s Test series in India starts on Feb 23 and SA’s Test series in NZ starts on March 8th.
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I missed the beginning of the match, saw the last overs from Mills and Jordan and England’s innings. I thought all our guys looked confident and on their game. Morgan, especially, who made batting look easy. There’s something about this team that’s very watchable
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The Guardian has a interesting article today about Bannon, Trump and the USA (it has a Cricket link honest!).
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/27/steve-bannon-white-house-official-media-keep-mouth-shut-threat
What caught my eye was this towards the end;
“Some years ago, I watched a documentary in which a series of reporters told Bill Moyers that they’d hesitated to question the assertion that Saddam Hussein had amassed weapons of mass destruction because they were afraid of “losing access,” worried lest they be denied their places at White House press conferences and on Air Force One.
If that access no longer exists – as Trump and Bannon repeatedly threaten – reporters may lose their reluctance to ask the hard and difficult questions, and may have no choice but to seek out the answers for themselves.”
I thought this was an incredibly interesting parallel to the ECB and reporters (the access part, not the WMD – although…..)
Maybe lack of access is a good thing. Maybe being on the ‘Outside’ is a good thing.
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When, ECB leaks their powder-puff bombs
Sent with ‘Good Journalism’ and guff with aplomb
We can be but thankful not to be drawn
To each and every platitude with hidden aim they spawn
Yet we now still wait for the lingering story
Of Chef’s elevation to Knighthood glory
Which, when Comma comes out from below stair
A cupboard with Costcutter, he’s recently shared
So, the date will be set for the Cook Coronation
Announced, so deliberately and contrary
On the 9th February, the third anniversary
Of the ‘OutsideCricket’ sycophantic sensation
Just to show all you bilious inadequates out there
That the ECB truly do care…
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Genius! 🙂
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One of your best ever Boggy!!
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Hey, I’m just taking the advice of our glorious, yet sadly missing LCL… cutting out the filth! lol (hope all is well Sire?)
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Still here. I don’t get the time or inclination at the moment with the beloved still away but have started a piece on the Downton stuff (LB…. tut tut) and it’s already 1500 words and he’s not been sacked as ODI captain!
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Bravo!
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Lack of FEAR of losing access is a good thing – access is sometimes required to get some details, or information which is crucial to a story. Not that those journalists get the required information, or even if they do get it, are able to piece together the story that needs to be told. Just to give one example, the Big 3 stitch up was leaked to the Guardian, and we all know how Mike Selvey wrote up the story …
One crucial problem is that there are often but few alternatives to corporate media – media which often profit by being bland, unquestioning etc., as they have mastered the art of ignoring massive conflicts of interests. This in turn, affects the perceived meaning of “news”, both undermining the credibility of the media, as well as the message taken away from each and every article.
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Fear not those who set the scribe from inside
Cheer those who ask and delve to divide
For they are the true arbiters of news
Rather than stenographers being used
So sad that names once followed with joy
Now, are but fed the corporate ploy
And bow to the trough of spent spun smiles
So now, each cough only thickens the bile
From lickspittle hypocrisy to lamentable lachrymosity
Yet the ECB belittles us all, sucking each tear that falls
As with profit, without prescience, they plunder and pluck
‘What of it?’ – ‘let the rabble with no sense, go wonder and wander amuck’
‘For as long as the pounds, in short-termism, flow’
‘The future of Cricket, will serve our banked-balance glow’
‘And those, Outside, can but rant and rave’
‘For Sky, not they, have the cash-cow we crave…’
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Very well done. Not rhyming pluck with. ….
Duck.
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I think we need to distinguish “reporters” whose job it is to gain access and break news as it is happening, and “journalists”, whose job it is to remain neutral and speak the truth, even if it means ruffling feathers.
Too many cricket correspondents act like reporters but mistakenly think they’re journalists.
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Vilas another Kolpak, going to Lancashire (where Jarvis is as well). So the ECB sit on reserves of 75 million, and yet several counties cannot be bothered to invest in their own youth.
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Wages are but the waging war
Where kolpak or idylls lack, impure
Personal preferences for players lost
A version of adversion to local called costs
Where the counties seek brief bounties
Of blind and behind paywall excess
Wreaking havoc in evoking almost slavic devotion
Short-termism, no emotion
Paying the way of wage slaves
Under the hidden Costcutter Graves….
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Bloody hell, bogfather, is there a post you CAN’T make in to a poem??
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orange.
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“I’ll tell you the rhyme in a minute.” – Dylan 1964
Still waiting
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A decision had to be made
The ball couldn’t be red or white
The colour must not quickly fade
When playing Tests at night
So they trialled a variety to see
What players and TV did think
Then deciding the ball would be
Not orange, but definitely pink 😉
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Aw, excellent! Merci buckets, Mon’Amie
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Flower’s legacy? The FFEC???
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2017/jan/27/england-keaton-jennings-future-leading-role
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Ali Martin deserves an OBE for writing that up with an apparently straight-face – although he might lose it again for the three paragraphs of gratuitous Chef-love at the end (that’s if one thought they had any choice but to include this nonsense). At least the commenters are on top form….
The other England news has been Whitaker naming an unchanged squad for the WI ODIs. No resting of some key players, no looking at some fringe players in case of injury. Whitaker’s reasoning was “different conditions” and testing the team against a “competitive” WI side. I’d rant about Whitaker but he’s only the front-man for a strategy decided elsewhere. The whole WI tour looks like a junket for travel companies because I can’t see any cricketing justification for it.
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Well, when the cricket isn’t all that diverting, its articles like that one that keep me interested in the game. So it’s not all bad news 😉
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Not sure if this is brilliant satire or the new alternative truth..
“army captain, Gemma Morgan*….Jennings parachuted in”
“A lot of it has been based around the military thinking of TRUST within a team, how they train each other, the lengths they go to to take responsibilities for their own actions and stay away from being a SHEEP” – What did Clive have to do with this article?
“One of the biggest things they said was to try to be proactive in everything that the team does” — Like Headingly day 4?
“Jennings, who claims to have also learned much about pastoral care” – Clive again?
On Cook: “You see people in the media and think how they will be, and he was 10 times better than that.”
* Is Gemma Morgan Mandy Flower’s best friend?
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More counties suffering financial difficulties. It seems unless you have the support of a rich benefactor or the support of your local authority, then the same fate that hit Durham may await you.
http://www.espncricinfo.com/county-cricket-2017/content/story/1079949.html
The article mentions the silver bullet of a new TV rights deal and a new T20 tournament, as if that will magically solve everything, but the thing that caught my eye was:
“The 18 English counties are indebted to a total of £150m-plus and the ECB is sitting on offshore reserves which rose as high as £73m before falling last summer because Test series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan did not attract particularly lucrative TV deals.
Those reserves are jealously guarded. The former ECB chief executive, David Collier, justified the stockpiling as a contingency should the death of the Queen, and a resulting 12 days of mourning, cause heavy financial losses.”
As far as excuses go for not investing in our county game, that is absolutely piss poor, even by the ECB’s standards.
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Those reserves are jealously guarded. The former ECB chief executive, David Collier, justified the stockpiling as a contingency should the death of the Queen, and a resulting 12 days of mourning, cause heavy financial losses.”
Isn’t that what insurance is for? Seems a nonsense to hold a cash balance for that.
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Well, what are the contingency plans of the ECB to make certain that a Donald Trump-like figure is not to become the Prime Minister, and subsequently ban people from Pakistan to travel to England, when a Test series is due? I remember the story of the Pakistani blind cricket team being denied entry to the UK to defend their WC title … Not a money spinner, but it does show, that such a thing could happen. And then what?
Their preferred method is of course to hardly host them to minimize the risk. They have put the same strategy in place for Bangladesh (some terrorist activity there, even the ECB had to admit).
I can’t think of a thing the ECB does to reduce the risk of such a thing happening. I can think of several things they do that increase the risk.
Things like the death of a monarch cannot be planned to the n-th degree.
Would the London Olympics have been cancelled if the Queen had died on the day of the opening ceremony? Of course not. The games would have gone on. The character and mood would have been different, athletes from all over the world would have worn black armbands (including victims of Her Majesty’s government’s actions all over the world, but I am sure that such ironies would be completely lost upon people like Collier). It would be utterly unreal, but the games would have gone on.
Cricket games will be played (unless banned), one way or the other. Maybe a change of dates, or a change of venues. People will want to get on with their lives, and can’t suspend their lives for 12 days or however long – and games of cricket may well offer one of those avenues to get back to “normalcy”. I can foresee that all those potshots at Morgan, for his refusal to sing the English anthem, coming back to haunt a few people who have made them.
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That has to be a joke? But apparently not – https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.businessinsider.com/what-happens-when-queen-elizabeth-ii-dies-2015-3
Oh well, whilst I’ve nothing against Her Madge herself (except perhaps her husband and her offspring ) that’s 12 days of free holidays where I’ll not be mourning.
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