Shorter series and the introduction of a multi-format contest would help prevent the increasing frequency of dead rubbers between mismatched sides which tarnish cricket’s showpieceEven with the Ashes gone, the inquests under way and his future under the spotlight, Joe Root was talking a good game ahead of the Sydney Test. “For us it’s a must-win game,” he said. “I know the series isn’t winnable, but it’s a good opportunity.” On the Australian side, meanwhile, Steve Smith was urging his team to turn the screw by making it 4-0. “We’ve wrapped up the series which is great, and we want to continue winning,” he said. “That’s important.”So far so routine, although in the spirit of transparency it seems fair to...
England’s sorry Ashes series means scapegoats will be sought and while Root has made mistakes he gets plenty of things rightThree matches and three heavy defeats into the series, the Ashes already lost, seven defeats and no wins in eight Tests in Australia as captain, and after a poor year for England’s red-ball team there are several obvious reasons for removing Joe Root from the England captaincy – but I would like him to stick around.In his book The Captain Class, the Wall Street Journal’s Sam Walker identifies the key characteristics of elite captains which include: extreme doggedness and focus in competition; a low-key, practical and democratic communication style; motivating others with passionate non-verbal displays; strong convictions and the courage...
Fastest bowler in Ashes series has been let down by bad luck and worse batting, but should still be savouredGood news has been in short supply for England’s cricketers during this Ashes series but some arrived for Mark Wood in the shape of the new year honours list: his father was awarded an OBE for services to pensioners for his work at the Department for Work and Pensions in the north-east.Derek Wood was also among the first to sample his son’s speeds in the back garden at home in Ashington. “We had to stop when I was about 13,” the younger Wood told me six years ago, shortly after winning his first Test call-up. “We had a long thin garden...
It is possible to arrest the decline in English Test cricket, starting with bringing those overseeing it to accountChris Silverwood is taking the positives. Chris Silverwood was expecting this. Chris Silverwood has found, squinting through his Victorian eyeglass, something to build on here.Watching Silverwood’s deeply weird performance in front of the cameras at the end of the third Ashes Test in Melbourne – batting away concerns, wincing in the sun, and wearing throughout the pitying smile of a man who knows that all of this is simply another stage in the vast, unknowable masterplan of Chris Silverwood – it was hard not to worry a little about England’s head coach; to search in vain for the line between nightmarishly bad...
This one-sided series will not be remembered as a classic but Australia’s threatening bowling in Melbourne stands outIt is safe to say that the current Ashes series will not be remembered as a classic of the genre. We follow sport for the contest, and the total lack of one is the reason there is so much consternation from wider English cricket quarters, even as the team tries to apply blinkers to get through two more Tests. There have been plenty of one-sided Ashes series, and most teams struggle away from home, but this has been another level.When the tiny trophy has been played for in England in modern times, the contests have been closer. There is 2005, of course, the...