Cricket

In praise of Jimmy

May 17, 2013
JAnderson

What unites Ian Botham, Bob Willis, Fred Truman and now James Anderson? The answer is that these are the four men to take more than 300 test wickets for England in their career, and with only Botham more than a handful ahead of Anderson at this point in time, on 383, it seems inevitable that the man they call Jimmy will pass into the history books as the second-best bowler at the very least. In fact, Botham has backed the Lancastrian to surpass his mark and become the undisputed record-holder for his nation, a great potential achievement for a man [...]

Click here to get the full story…

Think of the stars. . .

March 29, 2013
Ryder (r)

Sometimes it is all too easy to look at a professional sportsman, and the incredible ease with which they perform in their arena of choice, and keep in your thoughts the fact they are still a human being like you or I, with all the faults and foibles away from the game that you should really expect. For every great father who can’t play tennis there is a great tennis player who smokes meth before a match, and this week one of the more colourful characters in sport came into the spotlight for the ugliest of reasons. Jesse Ryder, the [...]

Click here to get the full story…

Sweet Ashes

March 3, 2013
WarneMac

Schadenfreude is generally for losers in modern sport, with most athletes able to keep their expressions of delight a pure and generous thing, always remembering to praise their opponents and recognise the part luck has played in their triumph, but there is a small corner of the cricketing world still more used to revelling in the dismay of one’s opponents. In times gone by you’d find the likes of Glenn McGrath or one of the older legends would regularly predict a whitewash in the Ashes, almost as though to taunt the opposition, and now the tables have turned it seems [...]

Click here to get the full story…

Tony Greig: RIP

December 29, 2012
TGreig

It is not a particularly light thought to begin upon, but when watching the news recently I was struck by the fact you never hear anyone say of a deceased child that they were anything other than an angel, a ray of light and a model student, and that isn’t surprising really. Tragedy sells, and the story is at its most heart-wrenching if the lost party is a magical presence rather than a divisive, or even negative presence, but today the news broke that the world has lost a divisive figure in former England captain Anthony William ‘Tony’ Greig, and [...]

Click here to get the full story…

India v England: 2nd T20

December 21, 2012
EngDrink

It was never going to be easy for the England boys out in India to replicate their form from test match to the T20 contests, and although obviously it was not exactly the same eleven that turned out in those two events the management would have talked about maintaining the overall momentum. As it was the hosts brought home a fairly comfortable win in the first T20 contest to save a bit of face in front of their adoring public, but there are questions waiting to be answered by the Indian players as well as one massive question overshadowing the [...]

Click here to get the full story…

England: India and beyond…

December 14, 2012
Sachin

Typically, an England tour to the subcontinent should produce howls of derision from the press as our inability to play spin, or indeed bowl it offends the sensibilities of the pen-wieldy types currently following the willow ‘round the world, but this recent jaunt to India has been something of a freak occurrence. The tourists have, for the most part, demonstrated levels of skill and maturity well beyond expectations to the point where most of the national rags aren’t even focussing on the shortcomings of the home side, but instead have a twinkle in their eyes for the work of Cook, [...]

Click here to get the full story…

← Previous Entries