To Strauss’s mind it is all about high performance, a problem-solving exercise that requires evidence. He doesn’t get itIt’s the design that hits you first. The soft, translucent swatches. Teal for the soothing, explanatory stuff. Bold navy blue for the action points. Coloured boxes with clean, bevelled corners and arrows directing you to the next coloured box, like signs in an airport terminal. The cover design incorporating hundreds of dotted lines, evoking the seam on a cricket ball, but also – eureka! – the road markings on a superhighway to the future.Yes, I read Andrew Strauss’s high-performance review so you didn’t have to. Although as ever, interpreting the gist of these documents is not so much an exercise in reading...
Andrew Strauss reset England’s white-ball team successfully; now he should dismiss Chris Silverwood and find a new Test leaderSeven weeks ago, at the start of the Ashes, Joe Root made a strikingly clear statement. “Of course it will define my captaincy,” he said. “I’m not naive enough to think that it won’t.”He was right and there’s no wriggling out of it now. To lose one Ashes series 4-0 may be regarded as a misfortune, as long as the captain is inexperienced. To lose two that heavily, when you have been in charge for more Tests than any other England captain, looks like a reason to resign. Continue reading...
Rory Burns and Dom Sibley appear to have solved a problem that has blighted the Test team since the playing retirement of the former ECB director of cricketIn the end it took England so long to find a new opening batsman that the man they were trying to replace ended up taking on the job of searching himself. So long, in fact, that he had to quit before he had finished.In the eight years since Andrew Strauss retired in 2012, England have tried 18 different openers in 18 combinations. There was Alastair Cook, obviously, Nick Compton, Joe Root, and Michael Carberry, then Sam Robson, Jonathan Trott, Adam Lyth, and Moeen Ali, Alex Hales, Ben Duckett and Haseeb Hameed, Keaton Jennings...
Joe Root and Trevor Bayliss safe despite Ashes humbling but selectors’ emphasis on character over record and a reluctance to shuffle the pack needs scrutinyIt has been gruelling for England’s players but they should not forget this Ashes tour in a hurry. Every humiliation, every defeat should be stored away.Remember it well: the preposterous head-butt, the missed opportunities such as Australia’s 209 for seven becoming 328 all out in Brisbane and England’s 368 for four becoming 403 all out in Perth, Steve Smith batting, the Marsh brothers reuniting, the bouncer barrage at the tail, Smith batting, left-handers groping against Nathan Lyon, the hashtag “Beat England” everywhere and repeated on our screens by prime minister Malcolm Turnbull one moment, Usain Bolt, even...
The England bowler was refused permission to play for Nottinghamshire this week but with fast bowlers caution is understandableThe 21st-century revival of England’s Test team has much to do with the advent of central contracts. They were introduced in 2000 to the universal relief of the England players and their coaches; there was some grumpiness around the counties but at least they were spared some significant wages. As has been clear this April, the counties have never been averse to what is effectively a handout.But there are occasions when the central contract system is a source of exasperation. And this is one of them. Stuart Broad was very keen to play against Durham on Friday; his county, Nottinghamshire, now a...