3 minute read Either Brendon McCullum’s ahead of the curve on this one, or he’s found a brand new road to a very familiar destination. England have moved quite some way from one of Eoin Morgan’s central principles when it comes to putting together a one-day international (ODI) bowling attack. “Pace just adds that little bit of uncomfortableness for the opposition, and allows the chance to potentially blow teams away
3 minute read “I’ve always enjoyed 50-over cricket,” said Jos Buttler this week. “It’s always been one of my favourite formats.” Really, Jos? You don’t say. One of your favourites? Would it make your top three? Speaking of third-bests, the Champions Trophy looms, well, not large exactly, given its status as very much the bronze medallist out of the three regular international tournaments. It looms medium-sized. It looms ignorably, if
7 minute read Hundreds of millions of pounds are being spent on 49% stakes in tinpot teams that play a niche format of cricket watched by hardly anyone in the host country. Everyone seems to have an opinion on this, but if there’s one group of people we’d like to hear from, it’s those distant, wordless investors themselves. Remember millionaires? Back in our youth, a millionaire was worth remarking on,
3 minute read Did England drop seven chances today because the British idea of beach sport is going down the arcades and spending half an hour on one of those penny pusher games? Probably not, but there must be some reason why they’ve arrived at the wheelless phase of an Ashes tour. Lack of fitness has been the peg off which criticism has been hung during this series, but only
7 minute read Is there a less showy attacking batter than Australia’s Travis Head? Australia picked a new opener not so long ago – a couple of them actually. The second one was Sam Konstas, who quickly concluded that the best way to counter the world’s best fast bowler was by repeatedly attempting reverse scoops until he hit one. After eventually doing so, he hit a few more. He made
3 minute read You’ve seen a rum old Test match when the team that was 38-7 before drinks on the first morning ends up winning easily. That’s what Jomel Warrican helped the West Indies achieve against Pakistan this week though. To recap Warrican’s match, he walked in to bat at 95-9 and promptly contributed 36 not out to what ultimately proved to be the biggest partnership of the match (68).
3 minute read We’re not sure this is the effective rebuttal he thinks it is. England have been criticised for their fitness both before and during this Ashes capitulation, but head coach Jon Lewis says they didn’t lose because of that – there are in fact loads of other reasons why they’ve lost every game, as well as the fitness thing. To quickly bring you up to speed, in October
2 minute read We do this every year now as a means of navigating the heavingly confusing cricket schedule. We draw up a month-by-month guide to the series and tournaments we’ll (most likely) be focusing on in the coming year so that we don’t accidentally piss away some of our enthusiasm on whatever lesser event they’re trying to push on us in the here and now. You’ve got to pace
3 minute read England don’t change captains too often. The previous one, Charlotte Edwards, made her international debut in 1996 and served as captain from 2005 until 2016 when current captain, Heather Knight, took over. Knight has previously said she’s grown more relaxed as a leader over time because she believes that’s what later teams have needed. We’re not too sure what the current team needs, but given Australia have
5 minute read We may or may not have caught up with Mark Wood to talk about his interest in wood. It’s a little known fact that England fast bowler Mark Wood is in fact called Mark Rudd. Team-mates began calling him Wood near the start of his career in mocking acknowledgement of his irrepressible enthusiasm for timber. Everyone gets nicknames, but this one stuck to the extent many people
