England set about chasing New Zealand’s first innings with an abandon not seen from them for several years in TestsTickets for this Test went on sale last September, and so the vast majority of fans at Trent Bridge on Sunday will have reserved their seats months in advance. Really, you have to admire the leap of faith involved there.Batting collapses. Erratic weather. Covid postponements. For much of the last few years, buying a ticket to watch England play Test cricket has been an act of the purest optimism: the sporting equivalent of playing the lottery. Continue reading...
England will benefit from the former New Zealand captain’s experience but improvement will also rely on ECBThere is an old story about a Somerset team meeting sometime in the 1980s, when they were struggling to come up with plans for how to bowl to the other side’s batsmen. “Easy,” Ian Botham said about the first opener, “I’ll bounce him out.” As for the second: “I’ll bounce him too.” It was the same for the No 3. And the No 4. And so on right through the order. “Bounce him”, “bounce him”, “bounce him”. It can be a simple game when you’re that good at it. It reminded me of a conversation I had with Andrew Flintoff last year. “Let’s be...
McCullum concentrating on his side playing one match at a time as England prepare to face New Zealand on ThursdayIt was an accomplished first outing for Brendon McCullum, the new England Test head coach. Decked out in an official training top, skinny trousers and white trainers (no socks, naturally), a little bleary-eyed after the 12,000-mile journey from Dunedin, the former New Zealand captain rocked up at sunny Lord’s on Friday morning looking as relaxed as the team environment he intends to create.Over the course of an hour speaking to various outlets – including a couple of European correspondents from back home – the 40-year-old espoused the philosophy which attracted Rob Key, director of men’s cricket, to hire a head coach...
Key is betting on McCullum to work his magic as he did with New Zealand, but it will need more than that to fix Test teamThere are plenty of people who say they can tell you what makes the All Blacks great. New Zealand’s rugby team support a cottage industry of articles, books, seminars and podcasts explaining their success. Exactly how their cricket side got to be the best in the world, though, when they have a smaller budget and player base than almost any other Test-playing nation, is a harder question to answer.Not least because so many of the people who were involved along the way seem so reluctant to talk about it at any length. So the England...
The ECB’s decision to appoint the New Zealander on a four-year deal is a daring but calculated moveEnglish cricket has had a bit of a crush on New Zealand in recent times. From the buccaneering if ultimately thwarted World Cup campaign in 2015 that inspired Eoin Morgan’s white-ball side to silverware four years later, to last summer’s World Test Championship triumph, admiration has been plentiful. In some ways the move to hire one of its architects, Brendon McCullum, should not be a total shock.Nevertheless, McCullum taking charge of the Test team, with the white-ball vacancy still outstanding, is an eye-catching move by Rob Key. It is in keeping with the wind that has swept through since the lamentable winter too....