Allegations surrounding the lost Test at Christchurch in 1984 saw the expedition dubbed the ‘sex and drugs and rock’n’roll tour’ – and they tell me I was on itCricket seldom makes the front pages with a good news story. That may have happened in 1953, 1981 and 2005 but the bad news finds its way there more frequently, as we have witnessed this week.Being in Christchurch reminds me of another time when cricket found its way to the front pages, at least those of the Mail On Sunday and the Daily Express. In 1984 England toured New Zealand; in fact that is the only series in which New Zealand have defeated England on home soil, although if Joe Root’s side...
The ECB could do much worse than rotate the head coach out of Test cricket and appoint someone such as Nasser Hussain or Alec Stewart to promote the red-ball gameThe real problem, in the end, was how little it seemed to be a problem. As England’s cricketers prodded their way to a strangely immobile 58 all out in Auckland, the Test team’s lowest ever first innings score on a covered pitch, the TV cameras kept flitting around in search of some defining note of crisis, settling with a sense of declining interest on the mild, untroubled face of Trevor Bayliss.There it was again, the Bayliss face, looming beneath that leathery white hat. And still conveying through this historically dark moment...
England’s record-breaking, unbreakable new-ball partnership has held firm for 10 years at the top but they will be under the microscope in New ZealandExactly 10 years ago to the day England started a Test match in New Zealand with what was to prove a lasting and very successful change in personnel. The second Test in Wellington was seen as crucial for England and their captain, Michael Vaughan, coming as it did after seven without a victory and with the team facing the prospect of a series defeat with a game to spare, and some personnel changes were inevitable.Though the batsmen had been misfiring – being bowled out for 81 and 110 in successive Tests – it was the bowlers who...
Smaller ECB panel puts greater onus on the head coach Trevor Bayliss to have a significant input into England’s fortunes in all versions of the gameTraditionally after an emphatic Ashes defeat the captain or the coach is jettisoned. But this time the response from the England and Wales Cricket Board has been more measured and decorous than usual. Two months after the defeat in Sydney Andrew Strauss has announced a modest shake-up of England’s selection process.There are obvious reasons why Joe Root and Trevor Bayliss have survived a 4-0 defeat in Australia. Root is a young captain, still coming to the terms with the job. He could be an excellent leader provided he remembers that his prime function is to...
The England coach wants to keep international cricketers fresh but the decision-makers are more concerned with maximising income than careers – Twenty20 Internationals are here to stayFrom somewhere deep in New Zealand on England’s never-ending tour Trevor Bayliss has been musing about T20 cricket. Taken out of context his comments may seem to lack coherence. On one day he advocated that T20 internationals should be abolished except for a little window before and during the World T20 tournament, the next of which is scheduled for Australia in 2020. He said T20 cricket should be the territory of the various franchises around the globe.A couple of days later Bayliss has suggested England might have a specialist T20 coach – he tosses...